After numerous experiences of mock fishing with Grand-dad’s fishing rod at his house, K could not wait to do real fishing at the pond. It was tough to convince him that he will not be able to catch any fish, as he kept reeling the line in…which is his favorite part of the activity.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4678476&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1

Fishing from Rachel T on Vimeo.

“Not yet,” is one of the many words K has recently learn to use.

He had so much fun at his playdate with Seth yesterday, until he was not willing to go home.
“Time to go home.”
“Not yet,” K said.
“10 more minutes and we will go home for lunch.”
After 5 minutes, I said,
“5 more minutes, we have to go.”

I was lucky that he was in one of his well-behaved, “willing to listen” moods, as he willingly took his toys and followed me to the door.

This afternoon, was a totally different story…

“Time to take your nap.”
“Not yet, counting bears.”

He kept himself busy for the next 10 minutes sorting the coloured bear counters that I recently got him .

“We can play again after you wake up from your nap.” “Not yet,” he repeated.

He gave me a grin and then said, “How much,” then ran over and grabbed his the cash register toy and shopping trolley. He probably assumed that nap time could be postponed if he distracted mummy with another toy.

“10 more minutes, we finish ‘scanning’ the groceries, you have to go and sleep. After 5 minutes passed, “5 more minutes then we have to take your nap.” “Not yet,” he answered. After the 5 minutes ended, he took the toy register, put it into the trolley and push out to the hall. “Play here.”

“Ok, time to stop now,” was my reply, then for the next 5 minutes he sprawled himself on the ground and threw a tantrum. After a while, when he realised that his tantrum was not working, he stood up, walked towards his room and climbed into his bed.

Time is an abstract concept for K, and he seems to be finding ways to get around it. Maybe it is time to get a timer to help him understand the concept of time, especially when he does get a tendency to get angry/frustrated when I tell him that it’s time to stop playing.

“Last book for tonight,” I said to K when we were reading his bedtime stories.
When I finished the book, he scrambled to the shelf to pick 2 books.
He picked up the first book, flashed me a dazzling smile and nodded his head.
“No more K, time to sleep.” Although I have to admit that his proposition was rather hard to resist.
K tried again with the other book, this time, his smile was more charming than the previous one, and nodded with head with more insistence.
Of course, I did not fall prey to my toddler’s persuasive ‘tactics’.

Darn…where did he learn to do that?

Posing with ‘Easter cookies+flowers’, made by Nana

I thought we should take a break from “child-initiated activities” and give “Mummy directed activity’ another try today.

We did an alphabet activity with the letter M, with some pasting of marcaroni pieces and paper on the letter. I tried to demonstrate how to use the glue and my stubborn tot just went “me do!”, grabbed the glue tube from my hands and insisted that he did it himself.

From how things were going for the next 15 minutes, epiphany hit me that Vygotsky’s social development theory is only applicable to docile kids and not strong-willed ones in this instance.

After battling with the marcaroni pieces, glue and paper. We jointly completed the ‘M’ activity for the day.

At least at the end of it, he knows the letter and its phonetic sound. Despite being an ‘active learning’ activity, it is not exciting nor fun enough to get him interested. K sure gives a new spin to the words ‘active learner’.

We will just have to re-visit ‘M’ for another day and maybe, ‘mosquito masks’ will be much more exciting for a tot. I am keeping my fingers crossed that school next year will have enough interesting activities to keep this tot interested.

This is just one of those days, that K just wants to do what he wants. And pretend play is all he wanted this morning.

Somehow, he equates going to the zoo = wearing a hat. So he told me he wanted to “go zoo” today, wore his hat and did his usual stuff around the house.

Wore the hat while waiting for his lunch

not the clothes!

That was certainly what K wanted to say when he posed for the camera, while I was busy taking pics of the clothes…

The terrific 2 is back once more,
when K spent the morning yesterday drawing with sidewalk chalk.
The highlight of the morning was surely clean up time.

Child-friendly ‘floor cleaner’; Dettol hand wash was used.
I may be an advocate for my child’s labour around the house,
but never so careless to expose him to toxic household cleaners
However, the fun had to end once he started giving himself a scrub down.

We started ‘homeschool’ again this morning,
since lately K has shown some interest in alphabet phonics.
It was a good 20 minutes of pasting truck stickers
dabbling with paint, making train tracks with thomas
and pasting the tape on T.

Until he fell backwards on his stool.
Seemingly, he forgot that he was sitting on a stool without a backing.
He bit his tongue, started bleeding from his mouth.
Being a brave boy as he usually is,
he only cried for a brief moment.
Grimaced when he moved his tongue around the mouth.
He then asked for ice cubes to suck.
I told him to stick out his tongue,
and saw two nicks on both sides of his tongue.
No panic, as my little warrior seemed unfazed by the injury.
He went back to his T activity,
until he fell on his backside and cried once again.
So much for the alphabet activity for today.

Dh was woken up by the commotion.
Went into a panic,
exclaimed that the biting of his tongue is not a small injury.
Showed me his tongue scars from a childhood injury,
and told me to call the p.d.

Found out from p.d. that bonjela will do fine,
But there will be a bit of stinging.
And also take note of fever that may develop during healing.

Had to go to a pharmacy to get bonjela
On the way stop by at McDs for lunch.
Dh and I figured K needed a treat,
afterall he needed a little respite,
from the trauma he experienced this morning.

At lunch, the terrific 2s prove he was back again,
charming the socks off 2 elderly ladies sitting nearby.
All he did was to make constant eye contact,
flashed his toothy grin and offered his fries.

First came the mini mentos,
Afterwards 2 pieces of preserved plums,
and the finale came in a big piece of coffee-cheese flavoured bread.

Without a doubt, I rejoice to the return of the terrific two.