Vai : 30 months
Vai turns two-and-a-half years old today.
He talks quite a lot now (in Indonesian) and he likes to describe what he sees. If we walk past a cat, he can say things like, ‘Mommy! Mommy! Look! There’s a cat! The cat’s not sleeping. The cat’s just sitting there. The cat is not with a friend right now. Vai just stay here and watch the cat. Vai cannot pat the cat. The cat can scratch Vai. And later Vai’s hand will get hurt’. He does learn a lot from talking and playing with his sister, I guess.
He’s a friendly little guy. He generally has no problems saying ‘Thanks!’, ‘Sorry’, or ‘Hi!’ to strangers. He can mingle with a group of new friends relatively fast.
He’s cheerful, playful and likes to clown around. He likes to make silly faces, sound effects and body moves.
[‘Look, Mommy! No hands!’]
He is an expressive little guy. And this means, if he doesn’t like something, or if he doesn’t get what he wants, he can let out a good scream.
Lately, he somehow adopts the art of whining. And so these days I too learn how to ‘swallow’ my impatience, keep my cool and teach him how to communicate in a ‘normal’ voice.
He loves his toy cars and he can play with them for a very long time. He’d usually insist on packing his toys inside his backpack when we go out and about too.
He is now okay when it comes to getting his hair cut. He’d sit by himself and cringe a little when the hair shaver gets close to his ears. This btw is a great improvement, knowing how he’s always badly rejected the idea of getting his haircut by someone else since he’s little.
He likes his sister. And although they of course have their moments of ‘disagreements’, somehow I think he’s going to grow up being the kind of brother who’ll take care of his sister. You know, the kind who’ll ‘protect’ his sister from getting bullied *smile*
He’s still very clingy when it comes to being left alone at Sunday School. It’s been close to a year, but until today he would still INSIST for one of us to stay in the Sunday School class with him. I really hope his separation anxiety goes away real soon.
He’s partly toilet-trained (YAY!). He tells me when he needs to pee. He only wears his diapers when he sleeps (afternoon nap and night time).
BUT. He STILL refuses to poo in the toilet! He’d wait till he has his diapers on (ie. before sleeptime), and he’d poo! Sigh. I’ve gone from feeling mad at him to feeling relaxed about it, to feeling annoyed about it again. And right now, I choose to not be mad (because it really is pointless) and just tell him how he should do it in the toilet because I know he can.
He falls asleep by himself now! If we’re at home, I’d kiss him goodnight, close the bedroom door, and he’d fall asleep within a few minutes. It’s been like that for the past two months or so, and I’m very very happy with the progress.
He drinks about 270ml each time, still spoon-fed, three times a day.
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There are too many things that I can share when it comes to the development of our little Vai. I do feel very blessed to have had the chance to be a fulltime mom who can be actively involved in Vai’s life.
My moments spent with him may not always be sweet and tantrum-free, but I guess that’s the beauty of being a fulltime parent.
You get the see the good, bad and ugly. You get to be a part of that little person’s life. You get to see the change and experience the ups and downs together. You get to continually learn how to be a better parent. You get to be involved in his character-building. You get to pass down your own values and perspective on life. And most important of all, you get to share your life and your faith in Christ with the child.
It’s a bitter-sweet burden I know I will willingly carry. With God’s help and strength. Everyday.
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Madhuri:
Hi, sounds like your son is very similar to Vai (and hey, even his name is ‘similar’! 🙂 )
It was super difficult to get him to drink milk (other than direct breastfeeding). I shared about his encouraging progress here
http://www.oureverydaythings.com/2008/06/vai-and-his-encouraging-progress/
It was so bad (read: spills everywhere) that I used to let him sit by our kitchen sink only in his diapers, and I’d spoonfeed him the milk. This way, the spills went to the sink and I could easily lift him off and go straight to the bathroom for a quick wash after he had his milk.
My two kids are used to ‘big soup spoons’. The ones you find in chinese restaurants. I used to use these when spoonfeeding them their milk.
I actually have a metal spoon that’s bigger (and ‘deeper’) than the normal spoon (in Indonesia they’d use it as a ‘dish spoon’), and I used to rely on THAT spoon heavily because of the amount it can hold (approx. 15ml) and the rather narrow shape (compared to those chinese restaurant’s soup spoon). It worked well with Vai last time.
I totally know what you mean when you say you’re drained by the end of it. It WAS frustrating.
But one thing I could say now is, it does get better. For our case, Vai now drinks his milk from the glass all by himself.
There’s light at the end of the tunnel … 😀
Hi…My little one is 16 months old..and everything you say about Vai reminds me of my baby. His name is Jai. He never took to any bottle since I breastfed him for a long time. I also spoon feed milk…QUestion: Is there any sprecial spoon you use to feed him? it takes me 25 min to feed him 150-180ml of milk…..and I get totally drained by the end of it…
Your son has a set of nice teeth.
That was my first attraction.. LOL
have a good week.
Siska :
I guess Vai speaks ‘more’ words because he’s the 2nd kid in the family, as so he picks up a lot from his sis? Hmm.
JL jg hobi ngobrol kan tuh dia hehehe … Vai tuh ngobrol yang beneran dlm bhs indo tuh gini :
“Mommy! Mommy! Ada cat! Cat-nya ga bobo. Duduk aja. Cat-nya ga ada temennya. Vai disini aja liat cat. Vai ga boleh sayang-sayang cat. nanti vai bisa kena kuku cat, Vai bisa sakit. Sayang-sayang ga boleh …. ‘ ya gitu2 lah 🙂
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Sze Yi :
Thanks for sharing! Hope your son’s bronchitis condition gets cured and never recur.
Ya … I never quite understand why he’s so insecure about us not being there in the same room. He doesn’t even let us stay just outside the glass window.
One day I know he’ll get over it, and though I somehow want him to be over it sooner than later, deep down I tell myself I should treasure these moments too … because there’ll be a day when my son will prefer to have no mommy around at all.
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Cakey :
Hey … your son’s pretty similar to mine!! Not bad ya he no longer rejects milk! I’m sure it’s a relief for you all!
By now Vai can be asked to drink from a straw, but it takes a long time to finish, and I need to keep persuading and encouraging him to continue drinking from the straw till it’s finished.
It only takes less than 2mins for Vai to finish up 250 – 270ml of formula … so I guess that’s why somehow unconsciously I just go with spoonfeeding and not yet started training him to drink from a glass by himself.
Hm. I think I should slowly start training him to drink from a cup by himself.
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Grace Koay :
Hi hi … so you guys are coming to SG at the end of March?? Yup, sure … hope we have time to meet! That’ll be fun!
Drop me an email when you have your dates of the SG trip confirmed ya 🙂
PS: Vai ever did it in the underwear too a few times. Yikes!
Hi Leonny,
Vai looks like such a lively and vivacious little man, his happiness just oozing out of the pictures. I can’t help but notice the similarities in our two boys, Lachie and Vai. Bet with you if we put them together they can be best mates! hahaha…
Anyhow, thanks for dropping the note about the toilet training. Just like Vai, Lach is peeing but not pooing and how it ANNOYS me when he does it in his underwear!! gross! Anyways, I choose not to be mad too (because you say so *smile*) Thanks for instilling that patience in me, and I enjoy every single parenting tip you write about…
Looking forward to our little trip to Singapore end of March. Hopefully we get to meet you and your family.
Take care,
Grace
just to add on, Im FTWM, so u can imagine the trouble my mom has to go thru to cup feed my son BM when im at work for so many mths.
we use the small little pastic cup. only when he’s older, then we spoon feed. we use the smaller type of chinese soup spoon.
he’s only taking abt 150ml for supper. but to me tts gd enough coz there was one period (few mths) he rejected milk totally. we had to give him plenty of cheese, yoghurt instead.
hi my 29mths old son is oso the same as vai in toilet training. pee – no problem. poo – only when diapers on. it’s funny how they can control the urge until diapers on which is only during sleeping time.
and i read tt u’re spoon feeding vai milk. same here. i breastfed my son till 13mths. then i intro partial FM while i direct latch on at night. stopped breastfeeding totally at 19mths. other than direct latch on, we just cant get him to drink from bottle (irregardless BM or FM) no matter how hard we tried. so now we’re spoon feeding him the FM. luckily it’s only once a day matter coz he doesnt seems to hv stomach for so much milk – milk is the supper before sleep. he doesnt snack in betw meals.
ya, same goes for my son as well… they sahre the same bday!
but other than his improved vocabulary, he still REFUSED to be toilet trained.
and i am looking fwd to be fulltime mummy in few months time, especially when he is so prone to the bronchitis attack over the 3mths… i hope to be able to take fully control of their daily needs and care!
as for vai’s anxiety separation, it will soon just goes off, this proves on my son who is so clinging to me as well, but we were thinking to drop him from sch until his condition is more stabilised.
lets just hope for the better for us!
vai udah pinter ngomong bgt yah… deskripsinya itu loh… bisa satu paragraf gitu. biasanya anak2 paling ngomong 1 ato 2 kalimat doang.
baguslah klu dia bisa jadi brother yg protective. biarpun dia lbh kecil dari anya, kayanya kadang dia yg jadi big brother-nya yah. hehehe
knp yah msh ga bs ditinggal di skul mg? pdhl dia anak yg supel bgt dan ga kliatan klu dia itu bakal jadi anak yg ogah ditinggal di skul mg, apalagi udah 1 taon gt saban mg prg ke sono. hmm… it remains a mystery yah, Le…