Just realised my last blog was 2 weeks ago. Last weekend I agreed to replace a colleague who could not go to the company's 5km run/walk at W Coast Park & I planned to bring Dylan along to walk. But his temperature was quite high so I went alone since I've committed to it. Surprisingly despite my lack of practice & walking the 4th km, our team of 4 won 3rd place for HarbourFront with 117mins (the top team from the Refinery took only 82 mins!). Still it's an unexpected victory for us! But my legs (esp. left knee with old injury) ached for days.
Anyway, thankfully, Dylan though warm, was still active, but I decided to go easy on him. Of course no weekly swim too! By Sunday 23 Sep, he seemed well & I brought him to church, then to my mom's place via MRT- he was so active throughout the journey (tough as it was quite crowded), then on arrival was following his 8year old cousin's lead to climb repeatedly on a spring mattress which is leaning against the wall. Although he's mostly concentrating on just getting up /down /staying there, I noticed occasionally he would pause and look at his cousin.
At the playground, he also did not respond to his cousin's games which require him to freeze & play catch etc. But he was keen to follow his cousin to climb up the exercise bars etc. After lots of exertion, he finally slept while I pushed him around the small park. After he woke from his nap and it's dinnertime, unfortunately he saw mooncakes and ate very little rice but kept going for the sweet stuff. He also didn't initiate going to my Dad (which he usually does) when he came home.
Throughout last week, the teacher reported him to sit & attend well, and one day even self-fed a bowl of fried rice with spoon! I'm so pleased!
Friday evening there was lantern festival party at St Gerard's but he didn't want to finish climbing the flight of stairs (130+steps) that leads up to the school but cried wanting to be carried, but I didn't agree to do so or let Mel carry him. He cried for more than 30 mins, even after we arrived. Though he calmed down earlier & looked at the sparklers & swung his lantern, he only became a happy camper after we went to have some food & he went for the coloured snow-skinned mooncakes which he & other children made. Thankfully, he ate other food too. But as we took a ride home in someone's car & it was quite crammed, he fussed quite a bit & pushed his schoolmate's elder brother.
29 Sep Saturday School Outing to the Zoo
Dylan slept late (past midnight) & woke really early (5am) so he slept less than 5 hours in the night leading up to the zoo outing. We're not sure but believe he was too excited about it. By the time he ate breakfast & we were about to set off, he almost snoozed but was kept awake. At the zoo, it was clear he might not be able to walk all that distance, so after starting out, I decided to turn back to rent one of those 2 seater wagons. But before we got it, he tried to climb the railing overlooking the "crocodile river" where he was fascinated by the waterfall & lo & behold, he dropped his chewy tube. I was not expecting that it could be retrieved but reported it so as to avoid any issues for the croc. But surprisingly, the park rangers managed to use a net to fish it out before any crocodile choked on it.
Anyway, he was very happy to get to travel (in style) in the wagon, but he took out the bags I put in it as he wanted the wagon all by himself, so he could move from the forward-facing seat to the opposite side & he also moved the seat cover up & down to experiment. Interestingly, on the return journey, when a former classmate (who used to have OT with him) joined in, he had no issues with it & appeared very keen with the company of his little friend & kept looking at the kid. They were both tired but figured out someway to both place their feet across the other's side, without problems. I'm happy to see this.
But there were also things I wasn't so pleased with - while I have no issues with his enjoyment at the waterplay area, he again did his nudist stint again & removed his swimming costume various times. Later, I watched him much more closely & whenever I saw him trying to unzip, I called his name sternly, then I would see him zipping back up. But he still tries. Later, after he's changed & I brought him into the ballroom, he really enjoyed himself climbing on to the side, and jumping right in repeatedly. At one time, a woman leant over and was in his way & to my shock, he simply reached for the woman's hair & pulled her back to clear his path. The woman was furious & told him he's rude etc. but he was oblivious & merrily went on his jumping game. I had to apologise profusely. Really wonder when he'll have the awareness, even in times of great excitement, to be mindful of how others feel?
On Sunday, as Juergen has just moved office to the new campus in River Valley, after Dylan's nap, he brought us to the place to show us around. The place still had work in progress + boxes & doors/partitions all over so Dylan couldn't run on his own. While he tries to explore (eg. pulling me into a room or another), he was fine with my keeping him closely in tow, and cooperated on going to the toilet & even though he was interested to explore the long grass, he accepted the limits I imposed not to do so due to concerns for snakes etc. but kept to the concrete path. He also walked nicely with us to the Great World City for dinner.
At the Japanese restaurant however, as my food order for Dylan was missed and it took very long to arrive, Dylan was standing up on the bench looking over the next table, and he was really fast, got down from the bench, went over & grabbed some cold noodles right off a lady's plate. She was taken by surprise and let out "Ah!" and again I had to apologise profusely. I held his hand very angrily and told him "No! You cannot steal food & cannot eat stolen food! Mommy is angry with what you do!" Then aside, I removed the noodles from his fists & told him I have to punish him. Then I held out his hand & hit his palm twice, the first time he was still smiling, but later he looked more unsure. I kept a very stern face. He didn't try to eat the strands of noodles I placed in a plate on our table. Hope this has a positive impact on him.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Crying, Tree-Planting, Birthday Party, Pool Session
On Friday, after Dylan had dinner, I was planning to bring him for a walk but he saw milk being prepared, and he didn't want to go with me. But as it was not yet 9pm (& we were not ready to send him to bed), I insisted we go for a short walk. He started crying and was very upset as we left home, in the lift and downstairs. He just wanted to cling on to me & cried quite inconsolably. I told him I cannot calm him and that he had to calm himself. I would like to go for a walk, I hope he will go with me, and I will wait. I released his grasp of me, and walked slowly to sit down at a bench. After more than 1/2 hour loud cry + sobbing, he did eventually calm down momentarily. (Much later, he even broke out into a nice smile). Even before he stopped crying, as I walked away, I was quite impressed that he followed me where I went, up stairs & even up a playground structure which he usually likes, just to get close to me, even though I wouldn't give in and carry him home. Anyway, I took the chance to praise him & telling him how proud I was of him, that he calmed himself, and came with mommy although he was tired and upset! He looked proud and pleased with himself too! And after we went home and he brushed his teeth, he pulled me towards him to say goodnite prayer with him (no resentment at all!).
TREE-PLANTING
Saturday was a tiring but exciting day attending 2 events - tree-planting in the morning at Labrador Park and a rather rowdy 7 year old birthday party where Dylan swam an hour in the evening! He enjoyed himself at both events.
At the tree-planting, he didn't try to dash out of aunty's hand-holding, and even assisted with the watering of the plant after my mum & I had dug a hole & put the plant in the ground. Though he wasn't looking at the magic show at all, he's also not bothered by the noise & excitement & happily looked at people watching the show. He also gladly participated in the nature walk (getting himself distracted at times by the leaves and plants), which is slow-paced and a shorter route than Mt Faber climbs which he's quite used to (so it's no problem to him, notwithstanding that there are many more people).
BIRTHDAY PARTY
At the party which is indoors in NTU Alumni club lounge, he got quite excited about the heaps of balloons on the ground but didn't really play with them much. Later, there were kids batting the balloons with badminton & tennis rackets, and he didn't seem aware of the danger and still ran around - had to extract him (we were almost hit).
Anyway, these days, it's possible to get him to do RDI at any pool - but the one at the club was particularly distracting with an interesting water structure with slide, plus it was getting cold as the sun had set, so he made several escape attempts midway before I announce "break". Nonetheless, he did join me for jumps.
POOL SESSION
On Sunday, Dylan initially removed his swimming costume twice & was splashing water naked. I acted angry and he readily cooperated to put it back on. My suspicion is that he was uncomfortable as he had to put it on when it's still wet so he'd rather swim naked. Anyway, it's interesting to note how when later I noticed him unzipping himself, & I shouted "Dylan" sternly, he'd stop, look at me & zip up again!
In fact, I notice this with shoes that are uncomfortable too. As we go for our walk, and he feels uncomfortable & tries to remove the shoes & I tell him, "mommy got it that you find the shoe uncomfortable, so once we've climbed the flight of the stairs, we'll go home to change", then he'll slip his feet back in. A colleague also noticed his response when he had slipped out of his shoes and I said "no" that he tried to feel his way to slip back into the shoes. Or when this happens just shortly before we got off a cab & I say "not now, but once we reach home" and he also understands.
Just amazed that an event that appears so distressing can be so helpful! I really do believe that all children really like to be competent! In this case, competent to handle his emotions too! Wow!
Aunty told me she could hear the loud cries from our 21st floor apartment!
TREE-PLANTING
Saturday was a tiring but exciting day attending 2 events - tree-planting in the morning at Labrador Park and a rather rowdy 7 year old birthday party where Dylan swam an hour in the evening! He enjoyed himself at both events.
At the tree-planting, he didn't try to dash out of aunty's hand-holding, and even assisted with the watering of the plant after my mum & I had dug a hole & put the plant in the ground. Though he wasn't looking at the magic show at all, he's also not bothered by the noise & excitement & happily looked at people watching the show. He also gladly participated in the nature walk (getting himself distracted at times by the leaves and plants), which is slow-paced and a shorter route than Mt Faber climbs which he's quite used to (so it's no problem to him, notwithstanding that there are many more people).
BIRTHDAY PARTY
At the party which is indoors in NTU Alumni club lounge, he got quite excited about the heaps of balloons on the ground but didn't really play with them much. Later, there were kids batting the balloons with badminton & tennis rackets, and he didn't seem aware of the danger and still ran around - had to extract him (we were almost hit).
Anyway, these days, it's possible to get him to do RDI at any pool - but the one at the club was particularly distracting with an interesting water structure with slide, plus it was getting cold as the sun had set, so he made several escape attempts midway before I announce "break". Nonetheless, he did join me for jumps.
POOL SESSION
On Sunday, Dylan initially removed his swimming costume twice & was splashing water naked. I acted angry and he readily cooperated to put it back on. My suspicion is that he was uncomfortable as he had to put it on when it's still wet so he'd rather swim naked. Anyway, it's interesting to note how when later I noticed him unzipping himself, & I shouted "Dylan" sternly, he'd stop, look at me & zip up again!
In fact, I notice this with shoes that are uncomfortable too. As we go for our walk, and he feels uncomfortable & tries to remove the shoes & I tell him, "mommy got it that you find the shoe uncomfortable, so once we've climbed the flight of the stairs, we'll go home to change", then he'll slip his feet back in. A colleague also noticed his response when he had slipped out of his shoes and I said "no" that he tried to feel his way to slip back into the shoes. Or when this happens just shortly before we got off a cab & I say "not now, but once we reach home" and he also understands.
We had quite a good session, jumping in towards me / together with me. I experimented on being purposely slightly to one side to see if he would shift and jump right towards me, but he didn't, so I reverted back. Used swimming noodles again. He took quite a while to adjust to it, and started enjoying the regulatory pattern of my moving backward & he moving forwards towards me.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Toileting, Affection, Pool session
After that day's slapping on the thigh for Dylan's 4 accidents in a row (which on hindsight, I thought I over-reacted), Dylan's had 3 straight accident-free days (even through nap times). Wow & Yeah!
2 days ago, he also did something that melted my heart! The 3 of us (me, Dylan & Dad) were returning home after quite a long evening walk to a neighbourhood exercise corner at T Blangah Rise, and I could see that Dylan was very tired, so in the lift, I squatted & offered to let Dylan sit on my thigh. He tilted my head and leaned over to sniff & kiss my neck with audible smacking sounds twice! Something I often do with him! I was so thrilled as he's not really kissed me before! Rather he'd just lean over with his cheek, waiting to be kissed or alternatively lean over & let his lips land on mine, despite my many attempts to teach him by showing.
Anyway, this kept me floating for a couple of days! Really wonderful!
Regarding toileting, his most reliable way to communicate his need to go is still to touch his crotch or bringing my hand between his legs! Not so desirable & I'm not sure if my comment that "I got it, you need to wee wee! Mommy will bring you." is helpful? Perhaps I should shorten to just say "Oh! Wee wee. Dylan needs to wee wee?" Even then, there are times say he's seated at dinner & he struggles to get off his seat (no particular gesture associated with wee wee) & I'll assume perhaps he needs to wee wee (rather than that he simply wants to mess around), then bring him to release. Often he does want to clear.
Anyway, yesterday we went to Keppel Club for a swim. As usual, upon seeing the pool, he already wanted to take off his shoes, but as the pool was closed for a swimming competition, we couldn't swim there. We're quite surprised and impressed that he didn't struggle but followed us to go over to the main lobby to take a cab out of the place. Well, good behaviour doesn't get unrewarded. We proceeded to Safra Club to swim instead & he really enjoyed himself, and he was generally ready to jump in the pool with me, while Dad films. At one point, we had to wait almost half a minute as Dad was fiddling with the camera, and although he was letting out some sounds of frustration, he stayed by my side, held on to my hands & jerked them to indicate "Come on! Don't take forever!" Then we jumped in together.
We also tried out sliding down together. This proved to be more difficult to coordinate. But out of the 2 times he slid down ahead, the second time when I stopped him & tried to bring him back up, I could see he used quite a bit of effort to bring himself back up to the top, before going down with me. Nice!
2 days ago, he also did something that melted my heart! The 3 of us (me, Dylan & Dad) were returning home after quite a long evening walk to a neighbourhood exercise corner at T Blangah Rise, and I could see that Dylan was very tired, so in the lift, I squatted & offered to let Dylan sit on my thigh. He tilted my head and leaned over to sniff & kiss my neck with audible smacking sounds twice! Something I often do with him! I was so thrilled as he's not really kissed me before! Rather he'd just lean over with his cheek, waiting to be kissed or alternatively lean over & let his lips land on mine, despite my many attempts to teach him by showing.
Anyway, this kept me floating for a couple of days! Really wonderful!
Regarding toileting, his most reliable way to communicate his need to go is still to touch his crotch or bringing my hand between his legs! Not so desirable & I'm not sure if my comment that "I got it, you need to wee wee! Mommy will bring you." is helpful? Perhaps I should shorten to just say "Oh! Wee wee. Dylan needs to wee wee?" Even then, there are times say he's seated at dinner & he struggles to get off his seat (no particular gesture associated with wee wee) & I'll assume perhaps he needs to wee wee (rather than that he simply wants to mess around), then bring him to release. Often he does want to clear.
Anyway, yesterday we went to Keppel Club for a swim. As usual, upon seeing the pool, he already wanted to take off his shoes, but as the pool was closed for a swimming competition, we couldn't swim there. We're quite surprised and impressed that he didn't struggle but followed us to go over to the main lobby to take a cab out of the place. Well, good behaviour doesn't get unrewarded. We proceeded to Safra Club to swim instead & he really enjoyed himself, and he was generally ready to jump in the pool with me, while Dad films. At one point, we had to wait almost half a minute as Dad was fiddling with the camera, and although he was letting out some sounds of frustration, he stayed by my side, held on to my hands & jerked them to indicate "Come on! Don't take forever!" Then we jumped in together.
We also tried out sliding down together. This proved to be more difficult to coordinate. But out of the 2 times he slid down ahead, the second time when I stopped him & tried to bring him back up, I could see he used quite a bit of effort to bring himself back up to the top, before going down with me. Nice!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Teacher feedback, "Pony" & Tricycle-riding etc.
Lately, I'm hearing nice feedback from Dylan's teachers, eg.:
- Last week, Ethan from AAS mentioned that Dylan was able to get the message, when Ethan looked at the chair and then Dylan, that he was to push the chair in under the table.
- Francis from St Gerard shared that Dylan has been showing increased ability to stay seated through circle time, even yesterday when there was a combined class & hence much bigger than the usual, he only stood up a couple of times & with the teacher looking at him, he sat down.
- He's very affectionate in school, and likes to hug. (Oh yes, he's consistently running towards me to hug when I go to pick him up from school, or return home from work, or open his bedroom door when he's about to sleep - to pull me by my hand to go inside the room.)
Nice going!
PONY & TRICYCLE RIDING
Today, as it's the September school holidays, at St Gerard's they have a theme week (shopping in wet market, supermarket & tomorrow even flea market etc.), and today they visited Vivo city. Met up with his teachers there to fetch him, since it's right next to my office. After lunch at the herbal restaurant where he ate mostly non-nutritious food like buns, little rice, 1 mushroom, and a couple of herbal crackers, almost a whole glass of hawthorn drink, we went strolling along the third level outdoor area, with its wading pools. Impressive that even though initially he was ready to jump right in, after being restrained twice, he got the message I wasn't about to compromise. Then we headed downstairs to the partially indoor playground where there are false ponies of varying sizes that would move (glide along) when the rider moves the butt up & down, and use hands to push the handle forward and backwards.
Considering that not too long ago, Dylan could cause battery-operated car to topple when riding on one, I'm so impressed that I only helped him hand-over-hand a little while & he got the hang of it and was competent to ride it straight and independently to the other end and back twice! Melba & I were both thrilled!
Then at home, after dinner, Mel decided to try putting Dylan on the tricycle which has been around since he was 1, and for the first time, he was able to peddle on his own, after a slight push to start the motion. Now, all of us, including Daddy were really excited that he can manage this motor activity!
KIDDY PARTY AND SWIMMING
Yesterday, I took the afternoon off & we attended Dylan's AAS classmate's (Cassandra) 4th birthday party, and since it's a poolside tea party, I decided we'll have an RDI pool session while we're there! Indeed Dylan was exhilarated when he woke from his nap to find he's by a pool. He was so keen to participate in the jumping in the pool together with mommy there were many instances he practically pulled me up to jump with him. It's really nice! Too bad by the time we started filming, he was getting tired and there was somewhat less initiative from him, and some disengagements. He also kept going to get warmth by leaning on the stone turtle as it was windy and he probably felt cold. He also didn't seem to notice I let him skip the birthday cake as I left his digestive enzymes in the car.
When I see other Moms /aunties trying hard to restrain their little ones from plonking in to the pool, I thank God Dylan doesn't have health issues holding him back from fun in the pool!
Another thing to sing hallelujah is that Dylan seem to have developed a healthy fear/respect of deep waters - before I was ready to join him & he was alone in the pool, even though he had his armbands on, he walked down the stairs and pushed off, but when he realised he couldn't touch the bottom, he swam back very soon. (Even over the weekend when Juergen & I brought him to Keppel Club, we also noticed that whereas we used to get heart attack trying to out-run & stop him from jumping in the deep pool without us, now he has some safety awareness to jump in but hold on to the side of the pool and climb back out almost right away. Yeah!)
Now I'm able to jump in with him without armbands without fear that he'd just struggle. In fact, we have many wow moments of sharing! Nice!
TRAMPOLINE JUMPING AND STAIRS CLIMBING
Tonite he was very good engaging with me jumping on the trampoline -he's able to take longer pauses before resumption and obviously had a lot of fun in the joint participation. In fact, he actually looked at my face and didn't jump when I shook my head and jumped when I nodded, followed by movement.
But he was quite disengaged climbing stairs. He also peed twice on the stairs, and twice at home. Despite my saying "stop", he didn't/ couldn't but continued & afterwards he was happily playing in the puddle, gliding around, seated. I was quite upset, and seeing him so clueless about my upset & merrily splashing his urine, I slapped his thigh. But on hindsight, it's no big deal, and I'm not entirely sure if he was unable to understand it cognitively or it was simply a matter of lack of bladder control. One connection I can really see is that when he wears pull-up for an extended time (as he did since they had a school outing earlier today), it really affects his gesturing (by touching his crotch or bring my hand to it) to indicate a need to go. (He had verbalised "wee wee" a couple of times before but has not developed this verbal communication for this purpose reliably before.)
Well, agreed with Mel on a tough strategy to reduce pull-up as much as possible....
- Last week, Ethan from AAS mentioned that Dylan was able to get the message, when Ethan looked at the chair and then Dylan, that he was to push the chair in under the table.
- Francis from St Gerard shared that Dylan has been showing increased ability to stay seated through circle time, even yesterday when there was a combined class & hence much bigger than the usual, he only stood up a couple of times & with the teacher looking at him, he sat down.
- He's very affectionate in school, and likes to hug. (Oh yes, he's consistently running towards me to hug when I go to pick him up from school, or return home from work, or open his bedroom door when he's about to sleep - to pull me by my hand to go inside the room.)
Nice going!
PONY & TRICYCLE RIDING
Today, as it's the September school holidays, at St Gerard's they have a theme week (shopping in wet market, supermarket & tomorrow even flea market etc.), and today they visited Vivo city. Met up with his teachers there to fetch him, since it's right next to my office. After lunch at the herbal restaurant where he ate mostly non-nutritious food like buns, little rice, 1 mushroom, and a couple of herbal crackers, almost a whole glass of hawthorn drink, we went strolling along the third level outdoor area, with its wading pools. Impressive that even though initially he was ready to jump right in, after being restrained twice, he got the message I wasn't about to compromise. Then we headed downstairs to the partially indoor playground where there are false ponies of varying sizes that would move (glide along) when the rider moves the butt up & down, and use hands to push the handle forward and backwards.
Considering that not too long ago, Dylan could cause battery-operated car to topple when riding on one, I'm so impressed that I only helped him hand-over-hand a little while & he got the hang of it and was competent to ride it straight and independently to the other end and back twice! Melba & I were both thrilled!
Then at home, after dinner, Mel decided to try putting Dylan on the tricycle which has been around since he was 1, and for the first time, he was able to peddle on his own, after a slight push to start the motion. Now, all of us, including Daddy were really excited that he can manage this motor activity!
KIDDY PARTY AND SWIMMING
Yesterday, I took the afternoon off & we attended Dylan's AAS classmate's (Cassandra) 4th birthday party, and since it's a poolside tea party, I decided we'll have an RDI pool session while we're there! Indeed Dylan was exhilarated when he woke from his nap to find he's by a pool. He was so keen to participate in the jumping in the pool together with mommy there were many instances he practically pulled me up to jump with him. It's really nice! Too bad by the time we started filming, he was getting tired and there was somewhat less initiative from him, and some disengagements. He also kept going to get warmth by leaning on the stone turtle as it was windy and he probably felt cold. He also didn't seem to notice I let him skip the birthday cake as I left his digestive enzymes in the car.
When I see other Moms /aunties trying hard to restrain their little ones from plonking in to the pool, I thank God Dylan doesn't have health issues holding him back from fun in the pool!
Another thing to sing hallelujah is that Dylan seem to have developed a healthy fear/respect of deep waters - before I was ready to join him & he was alone in the pool, even though he had his armbands on, he walked down the stairs and pushed off, but when he realised he couldn't touch the bottom, he swam back very soon. (Even over the weekend when Juergen & I brought him to Keppel Club, we also noticed that whereas we used to get heart attack trying to out-run & stop him from jumping in the deep pool without us, now he has some safety awareness to jump in but hold on to the side of the pool and climb back out almost right away. Yeah!)
Now I'm able to jump in with him without armbands without fear that he'd just struggle. In fact, we have many wow moments of sharing! Nice!
TRAMPOLINE JUMPING AND STAIRS CLIMBING
Tonite he was very good engaging with me jumping on the trampoline -he's able to take longer pauses before resumption and obviously had a lot of fun in the joint participation. In fact, he actually looked at my face and didn't jump when I shook my head and jumped when I nodded, followed by movement.
But he was quite disengaged climbing stairs. He also peed twice on the stairs, and twice at home. Despite my saying "stop", he didn't/ couldn't but continued & afterwards he was happily playing in the puddle, gliding around, seated. I was quite upset, and seeing him so clueless about my upset & merrily splashing his urine, I slapped his thigh. But on hindsight, it's no big deal, and I'm not entirely sure if he was unable to understand it cognitively or it was simply a matter of lack of bladder control. One connection I can really see is that when he wears pull-up for an extended time (as he did since they had a school outing earlier today), it really affects his gesturing (by touching his crotch or bring my hand to it) to indicate a need to go. (He had verbalised "wee wee" a couple of times before but has not developed this verbal communication for this purpose reliably before.)
Well, agreed with Mel on a tough strategy to reduce pull-up as much as possible....
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