No More TV

As of the evening of 11 February 2011, Julian and Justin have been completely off the TV at home.

The official story:

The TV is broken. When Justin presses the remote controls (TV or DVD player), they don't work. Julian asked mummy to 'on switch', but the switch is spoiled. Another day we will repair it. No need to 'buy new one' (which was Julian's immediate solution to the situation).

The truth behind the myth:

At one time, Justin used to hold two CDs to sleep. Then the nightmare started - for us. For two nights in a row, Justin woke up in the middle of the night (due to a cough) and when he saw the CDs in his hands, he insisted that he wanted to watch TV. At first we refused, naturally. But then he started wailing. We couldn't risk Julian being woken up so we gave in. This was about 3am the first time and 1.30am the second time! Each TV session lasted about 2 hours. The second time, he woke up again at about 6.45am for more TV!

Enough was enough. We decided there would not be a third night of such nonsense. That evening itself, we dished out the 'cold turkey' treatment. No TV after coming home from the babysitter's. The official story is told at this point :-) All the discs and anything that would remind them of watching TV has since been hidden.

Review of decision:

The TV has remained 'broken' until now :-) Initially Justin cried and fussed. Julian fussed a little too. This would happen as soon as they got home. Thankfully it would only last for a short while. But when they realised that the TV is really 'broken', and mummy and daddy can't do anything about it even if they cried, they just turned their attention to other things. I think we were lucky that they didn't put up much resistence in this 'battle'.

The decision to cut off the TV at home has been good, especially for Justin. He is finally 'touching' his books and enjoys sitting on our lap to look at his books :-)

Julian goes on the computer almost every day for a limited time. He only surfs starfall.com which is educational so that's ok with us. Justin would watch as well, as a passive learner.

The boys still watch TV at the babysitter's or at their grandparents', which is fine with us. At home, they occupy their time with other things like drawing, colouring and playing with their toys. Yay! :-)

Julian at 45 Months

Julian turned 45 months (3 years 9 months) on 28 February 2011.

Here are his updates:

• When he says his prayers (which we say with/for him), he'll add "Lord Jesus, another day I want to go swimming!"
  
• He still has peculiar pre-sleep habits like wanting us to scratch/squeeze his foot or hand, and pat his back. He sometimes even specifies how it should be done!
  
• He's hooked on reading two bedtime stories - "Bedtime" and "Lili's Tooth". These must be told exactly the same way each time or else he'll correct us.
  
• He can recognise some sight words (words that cannot be taught with pictures) such as "to", "in", and "the".
  
• He likes to read story books. He appears to be reading correctly but we think he may have memorised the words. But it's cute to see him flip the pages and reading to himself.
  
• He insists on being right sometimes, e.g. when he sees cars placed on a slanted ramp on a trailer, he'll insist that the cars are "upside down" although we tell him they are not.
  
• When we're on the way home after an outing, he'll sometimes say that the doesn't want to go home. So, we'll say that we're not going home but going to Island Glades (that's where home is) and he doesn't object :o).
  
• When we try to reprimand him, he sometimes retaliates by saying "police to catch you!" or "(Julian) go office!" When we ask him whose office, he'll say "Daddy's office" or "Julian's office".
  

[Julian plays badminton]


[Julian in or out?]


[Julian telling Mummy a bedtime story]


[Julian colours a chocolate, an apple, and an orange]

Justin at 19 Months

Justin turned 19 months on 25 February 2011. No visit to the clinic this month.

Here are his updates:

• His lower left canine has erupted. He now has a total of 15 teeth.
  
• He has a jealous streak, especially when he sees Julian getting more attention than him.
  
• He is finally sitting in the car seat without much fuss. Yay!
  
• He has now switched from holding CDs to holding a pacifier to bed... just holding only, mind you :o).
  
• He has learned to "fight" with Julian. Once, when Julian attacked his feet, he retaliated by swatting Julian on the head!
  
• He can say "tay" (train).
  
• He can now identify the colour orange.
  

[Justin plays tennis]


[Tau Foo Fah tragedy: Justin gets messy, again]


[Playing with papaya: His matted hair is the result of him "gelling" his hair... he thinks it'll help him grow more hair]