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!).

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.