What Gibran Learned in School

The teacher told me a few times already that Gib's veryy responsive during Mandarin lessons and today he was actually the only kid that answered all the questions correctly. So when we got in the car..

Me: "Gibran belajar apa kat skolah tadi, Ban?"

Gibran: "Kenapa parking ticket ni tak boleh lipat...?" (ahh.. he's very good at changing the subject by bringing up an entirely different topic)

Me: "Kalau lipat nanti we cannot masukkan dia into the parking machine. Then we cannot go home."

Gibran: "Kenapa machine tu taknak ticket ni..?"

Me: "Sebab ada magnetic strip tu.. bila lipat dia tak boleh read the strip correctly."

Gibran: "Kenapa.."

Me: (Jumping in quickly before he could ask another question!) "Alahhh Gibran.. cerita la kat Mummy what you learned in school today."

Gibran: "Ini rumah Adida tau!" (pointing to OneWorld Hotel and claiming that his imaginary friend stays there)

Me: "Ye, ye, Mummy tau. So tadi teacher ajar apa kat sekolah tadi?"

Gibran: "A, B, C.. Belajar ABC, Mummy."

Me: "Ohh okay. What letter did you learn today? A ke... B ke... M ke... Z ke..."

Gibran: "A, B, C lah Mummy.... Mummy, Ban nak gi beach."

Me: "Yes we'll go there really soon for a holiday. So did you learn any Mandarin today? Teacher said you know the colours in Mandarin. Ajar la Mummy.... boleh tak?"

Gibran: "Kenapa kita ikut jalan ni, Mummy?"

Me: "Because this is the road to go home, Ban. So what do you call 'red' in Mandarin, Ban?"

Gibran: "Pong pengggggg pong penggggggggggggggggg!"

Me: "Come on Ban, I don't think that's Mandarin!"

Gibran: "Pengggggggggg ponggggggggggg pengggg ponggggggg!!!!"....

And on and on he went and refused to stop all the way home.

Urghhh.


The normal routine of burying his head under the pillow every morning when I wake him up for school.

A Li'l of Everything

Tomorrow (Friday the 5th) Gibran will turn 38 months and I will turn 31 years of age. Unlike when we were younger, birthdays now aren't exciting, or anticipated, simply ... well, because.. a birthday means you're a year older. And everyone reaches a point where getting older is just not very fun.

The thing about having the same birth date as your son is that as little as it is, it does provide a certain amount of comfort because despite getting old.. the fifth is also a reminder of a date when something tremendously great came into my life.

So this is an attempt of an update on Gibran while Mummy pretends not to feel older and grumpier at the thought of turning well into her third decade ;)

What's new?

The teacher says that Gibran recognises and knows colours in Mandarin from the Mandarin lessons. Really...?! Hee. Wow then!

Gibran now knows his teacher's and friends names (unlike the first two weeks!) and likes to tell stories about "Teacher Vale-yie" or "Yeese" (Reese!) or "Monkey Boy" (That's poor Aidan... I'm constantly trying to tell Gib to stop this name calling!). But most of his stories still start with "Adida" (that's his imaginary friend's name).

He eats more than he used to eat last year. He's more willing to try new things (more like everything that we eat he'd want to try!). After more than a year of picky eating (not that he's a small eater, he just has very clear preferences), he's now eating all sorts of fish and seafoods, pizzas, and so on. He's eating salmon again after a year of boycott! I am a happy momma. We're hoping he'd be an easy eater like the both of us.

He is VERY vocal, now he's even learned to be very vocal about his displeasures as well. He'd tell me that he's unhappy and he'd say stuff like "Mummy ni orang jahat sebab Mummy buat Ban sedih." .. and "Karang Ban taknak friend Mummy, baru tau!". And a whole lot of worse statements too which I don't bother to remember and won't record here because according to my Mom, I was exactly the same way too when I was little.

So that's a little of everything for now. Till I find the time to sit down and write some more.....

Don't bother wishing me for my birthday will you, folks.

;p

Founded!

Yes yes that's broken English.. hehh.

The power of the Internet has done it again. I came in to Little Bambinos on Monday and the first thing Valerie (Gibran's teacher) said to me was that she'd found this blog!

Hee.

Now I cannot wash our dirty laundry here any longer :p My mask has been unveiled!

Memories of Friends

With (from left) Shamel, Aidan and Reese at Little Bambinos, 28 January 2010.


One day these faces will be mere memories. But for now I'm happy that he's enjoying every second of it.

Meddling Hands

Yesterday Gibran didn't have school so it was the usual marathon of getting up, feeding the both of us breakfast, doing laundry, cooking lunch, cleaning up, hanging laundry, bathing him, feeding the both of us lunch, cleaning up, and getting the laundry in before putting him down for evening nap.

Yesterday was a bit different though. I'd finished cooking and cleaning up when I realised that the washing machine still has not stopped. Aiks...? Usually the washing would be done within 40 minutes (coz I use the quick-wash cycle). I looked at the clock and eeks...! It then dawned on me that the machine had been going on and on for about an hour and a half with no signs of stopping!

I rushed over to the machine to discover (lo and behold!) that the little fella must've fiddled around with the dials and the wash setting had been set on intensive stains PLUS additional 60 minutes of rinsing. Eeek! indeed.

So in the end it took nearly two hours for the machine to stop and I only hung the washing at nearly 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

Lesson of the day; never switch on electrical gadgets without checking the settings if you have a gatal-tangan kid in the house.

Like Baba, Like Gibran

Back when Gibran was a year old I'd mentioned that Gibran sleeps just like his Dad. I stand by that argument still today.

Tonight I found my two boys sleeping, both with heads tilted back and mouths wide opened. If it wasn't so dark I'd take a picture. And as I was putting on socks on the li'l fella's not-so-little feet, he'd started moving around against his Baba's tummy (he had his head parked on his Baba's tummy, actually).

Then they both gave some "chewing" motions (you know when you feel a little dry-mouthed when you're sleeping, and you're sorta like trying to wet the insides of your mouth by doing that motion so similar to chewing..?), stretched their long torsos, threw up their arms and legs and gave identical, longgg noisy stretches while muttering in their sleep, much like Gollum of LOTR.

I put on the socks, and Gib muttered loudly in his sleep...

"Dahhhh... dahhh... dah minum dah tadi Mummyyyy..."

So I said; "Ok doke baby."

Then I poked H's legs and said; "Yang, can you move him onto his bed please?"

And H said..

"Dahhh... dahhh.. dah buat dah tadi lahhh..."

Hmmmmm.

Sometimes the similarities are spooky.


At 4 weeks old. Gibran, not the Baba.


At 20 months old.

Mister Independent

It was week three of playschool and I'm so happy to report that Gibran seems to have settled in nicely.

He wakes in the mornings without fuss and it doesn't seem to matter what time he slept the night before (he still sleeps near midnight!).

He's cooperative and understanding about Mummy's limitations, which makes me eternally grateful to Allah for this blessing. Some mornings he was a little tired and asked to be carried, but even before I could answer, he answered his own question by saying; "Mana boleh.. Mummy kan sakit belakang...". Goodness. Sometimes I wonder if I did something good in my youth to deserve this wonderful child.

He doesn't whine in the mornings, only in the afternoons if he's hungry. So I gotta make sure his lunch is ready and waiting for him the minute we walk into the house. So whatever "leisurely" time I have in the mornings aren't that leisurely after all because I spend that time doing laundry, cooking and cleaning up! Heh.

Once we get to school, he'd get really excited and start running here and there. Thankfully the teachers are so understanding and they're getting used to his activeness and curiousity. They don't even mind him running here and there, it seems. Phew.

He doesn't seem to have problems having me leave him there alone with his teachers. The first two weeks he'd insisted on waiting for Shamel to arrive before walking into his class, but all three days this week he voluntarily salam and kissed my hand, gave me a smooch and ran right away into his class with no trouble! Praise Allah!

He's made friends with other kids there. Basically, he'd ventured beyond Shamel ;p The first two weeks when I asked; "What are your school friends' names, Gibran?".. He'd say; "Shamel!" and that's that. I told him he ought to make friends with the other kids too and I can see that he's making more effort this week. He seems to get along really well with one boy named Reese (what a handsome and active kid this boy is!). Reese and Gibran would run around the play area as if they were constantly on a sugar high. There're also two other boys Gibran talks about, but he doesn't seem interested at all in getting to know the girls in the class. Heh. Yeah... I'll enjoy these girl-free years as much as I can, thank you very much.

I am so happy that he seems to like this playschool! It seems to me that we've made the right decision in choosing this particular school and program. Alhamdulillah.

Sometimes we worry too much about our kids and our kids surprise us by proving us wrong. Kids are more resilient and flexible than we credit them for.

In my case perhaps it's harder for me to let go than it is for him. Sometimes I wish he was still a baby so that I could cuddle him forever! But.... come on....

Reality check.

I should be one happy momma :)