An update

Dominic is approaching 2 years old soon, he's almost 23 months now. In the previous post I noted that he knows the phonetic sounds of about 50% of the letters, now I think he knows at least 80% of them. Ah ma and Ah gong are teaching him letter-word association, they're up to letter G!

Dominic is really picking up words and sounds very quickly. Often he would repeat the last one or two words that we say or read. He learns new words very quicly too. His sense of humour is more sophisticated and independent. No longer are we the ones that tease him, he'd be the one who baits and teases us now!

The wider range of vocab and better command of language works well for all of us. Sometimes D would be frustrated and throw a tantrum. I'd tell him to speak properly or repeat himself, mummy can't hear or understand him. It seems he does understand this and he'd quiet down. He also respods better to reasoning and logic. This morning I told him he can't use the computer because he's not wearing any clothes. He immediately responded by pointing to his pants and happily allowed me to put them on him. Hopefully this paves the way for greater understanding and less crying.

We've introduced the car seat to him, he sits on it when we make the very short trip from our carpark to ah ma's house's car park.

Last weekend we went for a late Chinese New Year photoshoot. This was requested by ah ma, who insisted that it must be done every year till boy turns twelve! Haha how indulgent and loving of her! But I suspect D will be not as adorable at around seven, so we can shave a few years off haha. We went to a studio that had an indoor studio CNY promotion. The shoot was successful in the sense that D got comfortable quite quickly with the place and the photographer. He ran around and played with the toys and props. He even went up to her and pinched her nose a few times to get her reaction. On the other hand the shoot wasn't that big a success because it was in a small, confined area - D kept running out of the shooting area and refused to stay still at his mark, not to mention pose or smile or look at the camera. The photographer also had a set idea of how she wanted to present the images, but D did not cooperate with her, he didn't want to sit on her stool. There weren't many toys that engaged him that could keep him in one spot. Finally I told the photographer to take down the backdrop and just take the shots casually. She commented that D was the most active toddler she's worked with. I think there are plenty worse that she hasn't met yet haha! I hope we do get some nice, usable shots, we shall see in a week's time.

We've gotten used to the weekday routine at home. Daddy is great at putting D to bed, no noise, no fuss, no singing, just quiet settling down and sleeping. Usually done in about 20 minutes time. Amazing! He should have done this a long time ago. My schedule is work-home-boy-dinner-shower-housework-boy-sleep. No time for tv or anything else. Can't wait for the helper to arrive.

I am finally quite comfortable with sleeping in D's room. I'm usually out by 11.30am. D is also used to our routine, he sleeps peacefully till around 4-5am when he wants his milk. The milkfeed is also quite fuss-free and peaceful by now, minus his usual mid-tone complaining. I love being greeted by D when we wake in the morning. When he wakes earlier, which is usually the case, he'd stomp over and sleep with me on my pillow. Sometimes he'll fall asleep again, or he'll just cuddle and roll around and burrow, till he's bored, then he'll start talking to me. His first word of the day is usually "vacuum" - the vacuum cleaner, with which he has a fascination/fearful obsession. Then he'll go through a few of his favourite words like "MRT train", "bus", "bird park", and burrow some more. If I'm awake I'll reply, or if I'm too sleepy I'll just hug his warm little body and try to lie comfortably. After a while he is bored and wants out, and we both get up officially and start the day. There are rare mornings when he'd sleep till 7+am. Those "late" mornings are a treat for me!