The Botanic Boys

The boys went to the Penang Botanic Gardens on 5 November 2011 with Ah Kong & Poh Poh.


[The Giant Water Lilies]


[Julian: Oops! Wet patch on my T-shirt...]


[Justin: Can I touch these?!]


[The boys on the tram]

The Sarong Party!

Here are some recent photos of the boys.


[The boys baking... supervised of course!]


[The boys on the wall of Ayer Itam Dam]


[Mummy and the boys at Ayer Itam Dam]


[The Sarong Party Boys]

Julian at 53 Months

Julian turned 53 months (4 years 5 months) on 28 October 2011.

Here are his updates:

• Lately he has not been willing to compromise on things. For instance when he wants something which we can't give him (e.g. a biscuit which has finished) he would not accept alternatives. He would exclaim "mai!" (don't want) to almost every offer.
  
• He is getting 'friendly' with the other residents we meet especially in the lift. He would always ask them, "What number are you?" (going up) or "Where are you going?" (going down).
  
• He loves to answer "Sure!" or "Of course!" instead of "yes" to questions like "Can [person] come in your car?" or "Can I have some of your biscuits?"
  
• When he is not sure of an answer or if he wants to avoid answering a question, especially one in which he has been asked to choose between two options, he would say, "I'm thinking about it/I'll think about it." or "I don't know."
  
• He has moved to the questioning stage. His favourite questions are "What?", "What is that?" and "Where are we going?". With the last question, he can continue asking non-stop. For instance:
  Julian: Where are we going?
  Us: Dinner.
  Julian: After dinner, where are we going?
  Us: After dinner, we go home.
  Julian: After go home, where are we going?
  Us: After we go home, we go to sleep.
  Julian: After sleep, where are we going?
  Us: After sleep, we get up.
  Julian: After get up, where are we going?
  And this would go on and on until he is satisfied or we think of a distraction to end his line of questioning!
  

[Julian inspecting the grass: What's that?!?]

Justin at 27 Months

Justin turned 27 months on 25 October 2011.

Here are his updates:

• His speech continues to improve and he is becoming more conversant. On our way to see aeroplanes, he asked Julian, "Ko-ko, airplane" (Ko-ko you want to see aeroplanes?). He would even ask us to ask him a question so he could answer. He would say to us, "Tin doing!" to which we are expected to say, "Justin, what are you doing?" He would then answer, "teeth" (brushing teeth) or any other response depending on what he is doing at that time.
  
• He has a rather cute way of saying "oh-kay!", and he is able to say "sorry" and "thank you" in the correct contexts.
  
• He can recognise most of the the letters of the alphabet, both capital and small letters, but not in order.
  
• He can count till 19.
  
• If Julian prevents him from getting what he wants, he would hit and/or bite Julian (whichever suits him) *roll eyes* Yes, we reprimand and punish him for it. This behaviour has been going on for some time...don't know when it will end...

[Justin at the Ayer Itam Dam]


[Justin getting messy again with chocolates]

New Room for the Boys

Julian and Justin moved to their own bedroom on 14 October 2011. We mentally prepared Julian for it several days before by telling him that he would move to a new room on Friday night. Since we couldn't tell how well they would sleep in the new room, we decided that the move would be done over the weekend - just in case we ended up like zombies the next day.

The first night, Justin slept pretty well. Julian got up crying. When we asked him why he was crying, he said he thought we were 'lost'. He managed to sleep the whole night in his room but waking up on and off.

The first week was the most difficult as the boys were adjusting to the new environment, waking and calling for us off and on throughout the night. We, too, had to adjust to the new routine of having to literally get out of bed to attend to the boys. When we were co-sleeping, we just had to turn or stretch out our hand to reach them!

The boys have more or less settled down in their room now. Justin wakes up for his night feed as usual and sometimes wants me to accompany him on his bed towards the morning. Julian can generally sleep through the night now.

Our challenge now is actually getting the two of them to sleep at the same time. Justin thinks it's play time when he gets to the room and sees Julian still awake. He would climb onto Julian's bed to play or play peekaboo at the bedrail. Currently, we have to let Julian sleep first, then let Jusin in. This, of course, means that Justin ends up sleeping quite late - about 11pm. Hopefully things will improve soon...

All this in preparation for a new addition... :-)