Not ready for school

Lele tells me he is not ready for school.

On the way to the library, I chatted with a fellow passenger. Having a kid is such a great converstion starter I tell you. We would not have chatted with each other had Lele not pointed at her watch and say "wo" kekeke...
This passenger is on her way to fetch her 2 1/2 year old grandson. After we parted, I asked Lele,

"The auntie is on her way to fetch her grandson, a gorgor, from school. This gorgor has gone to school and now wants to come home. So auntie will go to school to bring him home."

I went on to ask him if he would like to go to school like gorgor. I told him that he will stay in school till it's time for me to bring him home. Immediately, he shook his head with a signature "Ahhh..."

I asked him again and the response was the same.

Some months back during the morning walk when we passed by a preschool, I asked Lele if he would like to be in school and he replied "yao". I said to him that he will stay in school to play with other gorgor, jiejie and teachers while I will be home and he shook his head and said,

"mama."

So I asked him,

"So do you prefer to stay home and play with mama?"

and he replied,

"Yao!"

Actually, I have no intention to send Lele to school just yet because I believe tht he is simply too young, that he is not ready for it yet. I believe a secure relationship with loved ones are to be built now and will go a long way, hence there is no need to send him off to school so soon. My ideal age to send him would be 2plus or 3 years old. Of course, he might not have as many chances to socialise with other children but since he'll be attending enrichment classes and have a pretty sociable personality, I'm not that worried about developing that aspect.

Understanding Lele

Yesterday I left Lele in the care of his shushu and nainai for the whole day from naptime. I needed to run some errands with Daniel and we decided to return after dinner.

With Lele being so sticky to me, I wasn't sure whether he would be "ok". The last thing I wanted was for him to wake up from nap missing me and crying frantically for me. I took care to explain to him that mama n papa will be away to tend to very important things, and he will have to stay home with nainai and shushu. He took it very positively and I was taken aback. Did he really understand that I will be away? After his bath, I told him the same thing again. This time, he said, "Mama" after I said that he will stay home with nainai and shushu. So I explained that mama and papa will be away for awhile, and when we get back we will play with him. He seemed happy with this explanation.

I was pleasantly surprised when MIL told me that he did not cry for me the whole day and had lots of fun playing with his shushu. At that point, I knew that Lele must have understood my explanation and trusted me when I said that I will be back................................................................

Mother's instinct?

A few more pleasant surprises awaited me this morning. Eversince his SA, he has been blowing hotcold with other members of the family and always want to hang around me. But this morning, he actually hung around the kitchen with yeye the moment he saw him go in. When he saw his nainai, he actually ran into her arms and gave her a bear hug. Moments after waking up from his nap, he actually took a few playthings and went to shushu's bedroom to play with him.

Overall, Lele was still sticky to me but not THAT sticky. He seemed more at ease with other members of the family and if I had to be out of sight, he seemed comfortable with that too, unlike the past.

I'm glad for this change in Lele! He will always be mama's baby but there is nothing that pleases me more than seeing this little baby growing up confidently, socially and healthily...

Sticky Chewy Choco-LELE

I wonder when Lele's separation anxiety will fade (is it even that?)...
At home he mostly wants me even though his yeye, nainai and shushu (uncle) are always there. It's sweet to be wanted by my dearest babe, but can be a tad irritating esp when I wanted to get some chores done. I hate to do chores at night esp my most hated (hand)washing n ironing. Thankfully, these 2 aren't daily chores! Whenever there is some (hand)washing or ironing that simply needs to be done, I always try to squeeze in some daytime to finish them. Now with such a stickychewychocolele who will fuss even if I'm out of sight for a while, it is so difficult to accomplish even abit of chores time. Even me-time seems out of the question...

SIGH....

But when we are at other places, he seemed perfectly fine. He'll gladly interact with gorgor or jiejie and other people. I know part of the reason could be because he knew I was nearby hence felt safe to socialise.

BUT shouldn't he feel even SAFER at home? Since I am in the house and he knows it. Surely the company of yeye, nainai and shushu beats that of total strangers... right?

Hmmm...

Categorizing

Papa says that being able to categorize is a very importamt skill to acquire, hence I try to create simple toys to help Lele dev this skill while honing his fine motor skills @ the same time. I created 2 animals, cat and rabbit, with different sized mouths (one big the other small). I prepared big and small animal "feed" for Lele to feed the animals. Lele quickly discovered that the small food bits are for the cat and the big food bits are for the rabbit. When he tried to put the big food bits into the cat's mouth and couldn't, I'll explain to him that the food is too big for the cat's mouth.

Much to my pleasure, Lele appreciates this game very much and requested to feed the cat and the rabbit several times. Due to the small size of materials, I could not leave him to play alone. Each time after he had finished feeding, I will tell him that the animals need to sleep.　And he will return the animals without protest.... aw...

Notice a green thing in Lele's hand in the last pic below? That's the green scoop I was talking about. It almost never leaves his hands!

Storytelling time

Lele used to be and still is (I guess?) an early sleeper. it used to be 8p.m.. Nowadays his bedtime is around 8.30 to 9pm, thanks to storytelling sessions.

Lele enjoys the sessions soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much that each session lasts up to 30mins, hence his bedtime became later.

Reasons for such long sessions were:

1) Lele likes to participate by enthusiastically pointing out details and communicating with me about them. In this manner, a book which would take 3 mins to read would take 5 to 1o (yes) mins.

2) When we reach the last page, he never fails to request for the book to be read again. Usually, we would read the book 3 times before I would (buay tahan) tell him,

"Okay, last time. No more."

When we finish reading the book for the last time, he would put the book on his bed so that he may enjoy it the following morning.

When Lele is sound asleep, I would put a few more books on his bed so that he will have fun reading the following morning.