Tobey's Vocab at 2YO

Tobey is not the fastest in speech development. He's the slow and steady type in this department, but we love him just as much :)

Words he's still working on

Eway-Away
Tar/ "pon-pon"-Car
Pees-Please
Tetar-Guitar
Tenma-Grandma
Wewic-Music
Taptop-Laptop
Targe-Charge
Klat-klat-Chocolate
Toooool-Stool
Knock-knock-Hammer
Scoo-Screw
Bloon-Balloon
Told-Cold
Matoes-Tomatoes
Cavot-Carrot
Lin-Lin-Muslin
Pecs-Specs
Poon-Spoon
Tic-tic (said with cutting motion with his hands)- His plastic Knife
Voo-Voo-Vacumn
Chiak-Chiak-Camera
Glape-Grape
Toish-Fish
Ane-One
Tee-Three
Quare-Square
Tangle-Rectangle
Fawa-Flower
Tactor-Tractor
Pay-gup-Playgroup
Wawerfly-Butterfly
No-nore- No-More
Ta-Done-All Done
Nee-No-Ambulance

Other words he uses to communicate, along with alot of signing with his hands

Thanks, Pot, Wash (When he says WASH, that means the next thing he'll be doing is running to the sink to wash whatever he's holding), Wipe, Stand, Sit, Jump, Room, Push, TV,Toys,Poo-poo, Wee-wee,Book, No, Yes,Yeh-yeh(Grandpa), run,walk,mum-mum(eat), Drink, Leave, Go, Run, Light, Wind, Sun, Trousers, Jacket, Bag, Work, Hair, Tea, Hold, Tree,Stairs, get-up, Hot, Baby , Daddy/Dee-dee/Da-da/My Da (this is so sweet), Mama/Mommy/Me-me/ ("Mama big nen-nen" (that means he wants a full bottle of milk, rather than half a bottle, the way he say it sounds as if he's ordering a big "Milo Ice" from mamak stalls) Boat, peas, Pot, Kick, Hand,Nose, Eyes, Ears, leg, Toes, Head, Bum-bum, Teeth, Brush, Mine, Lift, Blue, Red, Yellow, Black, White, Green, Mint, Big, Small, Bubbles, Bye-Bye, More, Swim, Hat, Dark, Room, Shoes, Socks, Write, Sleep, Nen-nen/Milk, Dark (He doesn't go out when it's dark), Man, Door, Chair, Juice, Bed, Shake, Nice, Stone, Wait, Draw, Spray, Phone, Dance, Clean, Fan, Look, Bike, Clock, Sun, Moon, Star, Bird, Cat (Occasionally it's "Mau", cantonese for Cat I guess), Dog, Mouse,Duck, Sheep, Two, Nine,Ten, Round, There, Help,Glass, Disc, Drive, Buy (He will flip through the Argos shopping catalogue, point to a toy he wants and ask hi daddy to "buy"), Money,Wheel, Cook, Die, Comb, Climb, Bath, Bus, Wow, Loud, Bar (his fruit bar), House, Fly, Mist, Egg, Half, Boiled (his fav breakfast is half-boiled eggs with buttered bread), Toast, beans, Bug, bees, SNOT (I know, and he makes sure I get hold of his every snot to throw it away), Throw, Rock, Type, Dirty,Close, ...

Probably missed several words out, but more or less they are here. He is willing to try to pronounce new words after us, when he's in the mood. Else, he'll scoot off to play......which is really what 2YOs ought to be doing now ;)

Ending of a good Summer

Tobey enjoying a nice big mug of homemade iced mint tea on a hot day..."aaaaahhh..nice" he said.

The weather has been rather unsettled lately. Amidst the sunshine that we are so used to now, we have very windy and rainy days. Autumn is fast approaching. Sigh! Before you know it, it would be grey, cold and miserable again. I can bear the run up to Christmas, but January and February has always been difficult. Chinese New Year season and away from family back home. Anyhoo, here's another post on the joy of Summer this year. I think Tobey really enjoyed this one. Hopefully, he will have equally much fun (or more) next Summer.

1) Cambourne 10th Anniversary...

was held on the 15th August. It started off with march of the school band. As soon as we heard it from our garden, we quickly walked out to the centre to show our support. It was celebrated in the usual English Fete style, with reenactments of medieval war times (they actually used swear words in this one, and the head of the war troop actually hit one of his soldier's steel hat with something that looked like an axe), fun fair, face painting, stalls selling food and such. The only twist was the Chinese Lion Dance. Strange. They probably found it to be loud and amusing for the kids.

This "Man-On -Sticks" kept talking to Tobey. The boy just froze and stared at him each time.

As usual, he insisted on going on the ride. £1 a ride. What a rip-off.

2) Chives-Tomatoes-Pumpkin-Pear

I've been distributing lettuces to my friends around the village. As we found it hard to finish these garden crops even though we eat them almost (more like every single meal) everyday. Some of my friends also have vege patches in their gardens. One of them gave me bags of Chinese Chives. I love them. I used them in wonton, fried with eggs and also with coriander in a savoury pancake mix of flour, egg, salt and water.

These three wontons are the only few dainty ones I made for this pic. After that they were all "rushed-for-time" sized. During dinner SK said " This is not wonton, this is a ping-pong ball staring at me!" You get the idea..hehe

My Chinese pancakes :P

The Tomatoes are beginning to ripen. I've stopped buying tomatoes from the supermarket for 2 weeks already. We've planted tomatoes in our old place before so we know from now on, they will keep on coming...aaarghhh help! Tomatoes soup anyone?

We planted our fruit trees this year without expecting any harvest until at least next Spring obviously. But this Pear tree seems quite enthusiastic to show us a preview of what it can bear.

Don't think this will grow to be a proper sized pear before winter sets in.Again, this is the first time I saw a pear growing. I was expecting them to grow like Rambutans, but not bulging from the bottom of a flower. SK was the one that pointed it out to me. Can't wait for next year's harvest :)

We are now seeing some form of Pumpkin growing. Unfortunately, these would not grow into a pumpkin big enough to carve for Halloween. More like those for a lovely pumpkin soup.

3) Injury

I don't really like to blog about Tobey's sickness or injury in this blog. I find it too painful to reread/remember it. But this has to be recorded as it is officially his full fledged toddler play injury. We were invited for a weekday lunch by a mommy friend. Tobey was having fun playing with the other toddler boys. Whilst playing hugging with one of them, that boy probably lost his balance and fell on Tobey, or maybe he just decided to push out of over-excitement. My darling baby fell backwards and hit the back of his head on a corner of a table. There was blood. My heart was ripped out. I concentrated in staying focus and stopped his bleeding. Checked for any other anomaly. By then he was back on his feet and wanted to continue playing. Brought him to the surgery to be looked at. Nurse told us that it's a superficial shallow cut. The reason why it bled so much was because the scalp is full of capillaries. She just cleaned it with salt water, put band aids on and told us to keep his hair dry for 3 days. I took him there for another check-up after that. After a week, on his second check-up, we were instructed to wash his band aids off as the cut has closed. He still has a small swell around the wound which I am keeping an eye on. If only I can rewind time. Then I can take the fall for him. I think only mommies out there can understand this.

4) Best friend?

Hong-Hong is now officially the boy's "best -friend" . Even though at a picnic today, Hong-Hong fell down, Tobey tried to help him up but instead of a thanks, Hong-Hong gave him a slap, Tobey still smile and asked to play with him whenever possible...Hmmmmm....

All-in-one

Nowadays, so much have been happening. I find it easier to just jumble them all up in a single post :)

1) Water Play

After watering the plants on a muggy evening, this is how he cools himself down.

2) £5 Unlimited ride funfair
There were like 4 'ridable' rides for toddlers in thefair, but Tobey didn't mind going on the same ride over and over again. His favourite was the bike. But the operator of the bike carousel let the rides went on for too long! There's once he actually let a ride went on for as long as it took him to finish his plate of chips!!!

3)Hands-in-pocket training

He loves all things electronic (like daddy). He also loves browsing them in the departmental stores. Especially televisions and cameras.To ensure he doesn't break anything, we told him to place his hands in his pockets whilst browsing, else he'll go back into the stroller or we'll leave the place.

4) Hair cut

A friend of mine recently commented how long Tobey hair is and must be uncomfortable for him in Summer months. She was right, and Tobey is quite a 'sweater'. Today I braven myself and gave him a much shorter haircut. In the pic above, he's holding his crotch because he's bursting for the loo and wanted to get this shot done as over with ASAP!

Last but not least...

5) The Lilies

They've at last bloomed gloriously in the garden. Planted by my greenfinger FIL, they refused to bloom before they flew back to Malaysia. So here are the pics

Pics update

I love these two pics. Will frame them up one of these days.
Gum-gum face after the initial thrill of handling a hand whisk all by himself and realising mommy wants him to kept whisking till it's pale and fluffy......hahaha

Nowadays he's doing his daily chore of watering the plants via a hose, instead of a watering can. SK would set it to 'mist' mode and spray it upward, he would then run under it and says "naining, naining!" (raining, raining!)

Wysing up the kiddos

Wysing Art centre held a 'Den building event' in the communal green area right opposite our house. Excerpt from their website;

"Wysing Arts Centre is a research and development centre for artists set in 11acres of rural Cambridgeshire. At Wysing we support artists to practically test out new ways of thinking in contemporary visual art. Artists working from studios or undertaking international residencies are encouraged, alongside visitors, to take creative risks in a supportive environment in which the exploration of process and collaborative ways of working are paramount..."

Kids from around participated to build tents/dens together and had a picnic under it right after. Parents can help too. I didn't call to book a place for Tobey, thinking that he's still too young to help erect tents and such. But since it was held right outside us, FIL just too him there and they allowed him to join in. He was the youngest participant. The older kids kept an eye out for him too. I don't know whether he acquired the skill of "working in a team" or anything artistic, but he sure had lots of fun!

Here are several pics taken by FIL;

The wee-wee story

A few months back, we tried taking the diaper off Tobey whilst he was running around the back garden. He wee-ed on his shorts whenever he felt like it. I don't blame him really. Our theory is, because he's always been on disposable diapers, he seldom felt wetness (unless it's overfilled), hence he seldom felt the discomfort that deters cloth-diaper users to wee so often. This is a disadvantage, simple because he will not be motivated to learn to "hold" his wee in.

Anyways, we knew he wasn't ready then, but at least he experienced the consequences of wee-ing on himself and how uncomfortable it felt. Following that, when the weather was good, we took his nappy off once in a while for the same purpose. I put him on the cushioned seat on the toilet whenever I can and asked him to wee. He always co-operated and tried his best to wee. More often than not, he always managed to produce some. I've also tried asking him to do a poo, but I got a feeling that he's almost afraid to poo into the toilet bowl. He asked to squat on the seat to poo, but he still wasn't comfortable doing his big business there. Anyways, I decided to leave that till a later time and just concentrate on the wee-ing.

Two weeks ago, I've decided he's ready to be trained seriously, as he's already 2 and the weather was sunny enough to wash and dry 10 shorts in a day . Also whilst my in-laws are here to help motivate him. I got my gloves, cleaning rag, carpet stain remover spray and handwash powder all lined up by the utility sink. I was ready. I took it off after his morning bath until after his evening bath. Only put it on during his afternoon nap. He also wears diapers when we are out and about, which was quite alot for the past two weeks. This time we use the potty. We placed it in the only tiled area in the house, which is the kitchen (yup, my whole house including the bathrooms are carpetted). How it works is that we will ask him whether he wants to do a wee every 30 mins or so and he would answer "yes" or "no". If yes, we'll ask him to go to his potty, take off his shorts/trousers and sit on the potty to do a wee. After a few days, he insist that everyone within his sight has to go "shhhhh" before he will start to wee. He's quite good at that. In the beginning, he would only wet his shorts once or twice a day (especially near nap time when he was too tired to "hold" it in). It also happened when he as over excited or engrossed over a toy/game/show. He would only poo in the evenings, when he has his diaper on. Only once he poo-ed on the carpet and oh boy, he was so grossed out by it and froze on scene.

He got better each day.

Today (23rd July 2009):

He was out at the front of the house building tents with other children on the little field opposite my house (It's another eco-hippie-ish program they often have for kids around here, will blog about it later). He was out with FIL. According to FIL, midway he went to him and said "WEE WEE"...He quickly took him in and he did a wee in the potty. I am overjoyed. I am so proud of my little boy. I know it's still a looong way to go before he can do that more often, but at least he got the idea now.

Updates

SK was on leave for a week. The first few days were spent painting the garden fence with FIL. Myself, MIL and Tobey also helped.

The painted fence brightened up the garden alot.

Before:

This is the first pic we took of the garden

After:

Picture taken just a few hours ago

The vege patch has grown! We've been having fresh salad and lettuce straight from the garden. We literally walk out, select and pull. Really can't get any fresher than ;P
We've added another apple tree to the garden (So now we have cherries, pear, plum and apple trees) Plus two bushes of blueberries.

Tobey kept plucking them and popping them into his mouth, when we were not looking, even before it has a chance to ripen.He stopped doing it lately...maybe because they are still too sour to be eaten.

Hopefully by next season we won't have to buy much fruits from the supermarket anymore..hehehe(fingers crossed).

In terms of vege addition, this pumpkin plant has the spotlight at the moment. Its facinating how fast it crawls along the ground.

the yellow bit is it's first flower...I think it will eventually grow into a pumpkin

Flower wise, these are the newbies..my favourites!

Roses and Lilies

What else..oh

Several nights ago, Tobey "made" his own lemon drizzle muffins. Actually, it was a premixed from a box. We just needed to cracked an egg in, add water, stir, spoon into the casings given and bake. I let him cut the packaging, pour the flour mixture, cracked the egg, pour the water and stir. He really enjoyed himself very much. He kept asking me to carry him to look into the oven whilst they are rising in the oven.

concentrating and following instructions given to him...if only he obeys me so willingly at other times

so proud of his own creation. The muffins are placed not in neat rows simply because Tobey insisted the muffin casings to be placed that way.

That's all for now folks ;)

Visit to Colchester Zoo

This would be Tobey's first visit to the Zoo. We figured he's old enough to appreciate a zoo outing since he quite enjoyed petting animals during our Mudchute farm visit the previous weekend. Colchester Zoo has a good child-friendliness rating and nearest to us. So we just packed a picnic (actually SK spend an hour playing gourmet sandwich chef that morning, making his version of the perfect sandwiches..kekeke) and went off, even on a raining morning (once again the weather forecast failed us). As we reach nearer, it was raining even heavier. SIGH! But once we parked the car, it STOPPED. Literally stopped for the next 5 hours. Thank God again.

Anyways, we were quite impressed by the size of the zoo and how well-planned the layout was! It was so well kept,leafy and peaceful, with several water featurus along the paths. The zoo is segregated into the Beginner's area, Aquatic area, Lakeland area, South America Area and lastly the African Safari area. There were many picnic tables and sheltered areas for families with packed lunches. Playgrounds/areas dotted along the routes and many child-friendly restaurants. Antibacterial foam wash dispensers were easily available as well.

Here are some ofthe pics taken;

Feeding the elephants

Feeding the goats

Watching the feeding of Penguins

Petting the horses

Lunch break!!!YAY!!

This is the first time Tobey had a sandwich for lunch. Nowadys, he rather drink his water from cups and plastic bottles!

Train ride with daddy

Wallabies (the white one is the one with Albino)

I can't remember what this animal is called, but huiyo, they really fought!

African Safari section..There were Giraffes, Zebras and Rhinos, Ostriches...we spent the longest time there, watching in awe...

Beautiful Tiger

resting before going home..we couldn't feel our feet anymore

At that point in time, SK rate this as a "Definite-venue-to-revisit" UNTIL he discovered his whole shirt was enveloped with some kind of black tiny bugs with wings. We spent the next 30 minutes trying to get rid of them. I even changed Tobey's clothing, but the bugs came back. Luckily they don't bite. When in the carpark, we saw other visitors busy brushing off bugs from their bodies and clothes...My guess is that the smell of the Zoo penetrated into the grain of our clothing, making us smell like the rest of the exhibit, hence attracted those bugs... :P So this zoo is now marked as a "No-wayI-am- going-back-to-this-place" venue.