September 2021 Artwork

 The robots along the side are from I Know It.

"Look, Mom, I finished a math worksheet, I earned a stamp!"

(Note that he also made the worksheet himself).

This has a Good Boy --- Naughty chart at the bottom. 

... supposed to be a boxing ring. I think the photo is upside-down.

Grapes & Laundry

Swe-cha has been doing his own laundry for the 2nd week now. Still supervising him with how much soap to put in and the dryer settings, but so far so good.

Meanwhile, he's also been washing his own grapes now before he eats them. Today, he rinsed his grapes and asked for salt (we soak it in salt water), he asked:

Sean: "how long do I soak it for ?"

I told him 10 minutes and he took a timer and set it for 10 minutes.

Was pleasantly surprised that he asked. I expected him to not say anything and just wait for me to give him the signal.

Ant

 Last night, I was laying in bed on my stomach, watching my drama on the tablet.

Swe-cha, meanwhile, was sort of laying on top of me and kept fiddling with my ponytail, moving it back and forth. 

Curious, I asked him what he was doing with my hair.

Swe-cha: "What to do when there is an ant on your mother's shirt ?"

Haha.  So that was it.

I asked him to catch it and squish it but he refused. He eventually got a tissue and swiped at it.

Eating milestones

So tonight, I made fried shrimp and Swe-cha paid me the ultimate compliment.

First, as I was cutting up his shrimp and scooping rice / shrimp onto the spoon for him (note: he only started eating rice recently so he's still not used to eating by himself), he points me to my chair and says, "Mom, sit there, I will eat by myself".  

I watched him finish the food on his plate all by himself. Afterwards, he asked, "can I have more rice and shrimp please ?" Both daddy and I had to eat less shrimp,... but it's okay :) Buti na rin, nagsaing ako. We still had leftover rice from earlier and my initial plan was pagkasyahin na lang, thankfully I had second thoughts.

It took us a little bit longer but we're getting there. 

Consistency

Q: What’s your favorite holiday ?
Swe-cha: my favorite holiday is Good Friday
Swe-cha: because class is canceled. On Good Friday, there is no school.

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Q: What’s your favorite season?
Swe-cha: my favorite season is winter
Swe-cha:  because it’s a snow day. Classes is cancelled for snow day. On snow day, there is no school.

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Last night, he rummaged in the drawers and finds his old elastic bandage from when he sprained his ankle. He asked me to put it on his foot.

Suspicious, I asked him where it hurts and he just keeps saying "there" without really pointing to a specific spot.

So I put it on him and when done, he covers his face with his hands .....

Swe-cha: Huhuhu! My foot is hurt, school is cancelled. I stay at home with Mommy.

I wonder if it's fake ?

March Art

February Art

Conversations

I was sitting on the floor when an insect - a huge silverfish - came out. I chased it and flattened it with my slipper.


S: Don't bang, Mommy.

Me: It was an insect. It's scary.

S: Don't scare the insect, Mom.

Me: (under my breath) ... Sorry po.

Milestones

Hubby / S dropped me off to pick up a takeout order and Hubby drove the car around. I picked up the order and then met them in the other street...

Swe-cha: Daddy, you found Mommy, yay!

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Taps me on the shoulder....

Swe-cha: Tap, tap, tap.... mommy, can you play with me ?

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We lost power around 5pm last Friday,... at some point, I found S shining his flashlight all over the house and I asked him what he was looking for, ...

Swe-cha: The internet...

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Dressing up after a bath,...

Swe-cha: I need socks, Mommy

I rummage around in the basket of clean laundry which I haven't sorted/folded yet and found 1.

Swe-cha: Thanks Mom, I need another sock!

I rummage around some more and found the pair...

Swe-cha: Thanks for the socks, Mom.

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Observations & Artwork

These days, S blurts out things that tell me that all these years where he's been non-verbal unable to communicate, he's been absorbing things all along.

For example, he brings out a Dr Seuss Green Eggs & Ham book and asks "who gave this book ?"

"Tita Me-----", I said.

and then he follows up with "Who is Ma----'s Mom ?" Ma---- is Me-----'s daughter. We meet them once a year on average.

Then later, he says to me "A, A and R are girls. They are sisters".
Actually, they're not. A and A are sisters, R is not their sister but they're always together whenever we see them so I can see why S would be confused.

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I'm also taking the chance to post today's artwork.

Can you guess what it is ?

Parang last year lang, all I could teach him to draw was a balloon, a lollipop or a kite.

Conversations

I've been hearing suspicious sounds from my car and had switched vehicles with the husband so he can observe.

When I picked up Swe-cha from school that afternoon, he sees his Dad's car instead of mine....

     S: What's that ?
   
     Me: It's..

     S: (interrupts me) NOT DADDY'S CAR!! (and he starts laughing)

He then runs to the car and takes a peek through the windows

     S: That's not right! (while laughing hysterically)

and then, as we're buckling ourselves into our seats...

     S: Where's Daddy ?

     Me: Daddy's at the office, he is driving Mommy's car.

-----

I cannot imagine how far he's come since last year. I remember that the last time hubby and I switched cars, perhaps half a year ago, I knew that S wanted to ask and/or make a comment but he didn't know how and what to say.

Conversations

Swe-cha and Mr R call Ms B on Facetime...

Ms B: Hi S! I like your shirt
S: Thank you.
Ms B: What color is it ?
S: (looks down at his colorful, tie-dyed shirt) rainbow!

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While practicing conversations w/ Mr R...

Mr R: Tell me something about Ms B.
S: I talked to Ms B on the phone
Mr R: Good.
S: I'll call 201-xxx-xxxx (Mr R's phone number)
Mr R: That's amazing S, how do you still remember that ?
S: I don't know.

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On the phone with A-i...

A-i: Hi S, what's your favorite toy ?

S: Jenga

A-i: can you teach me how to play Jenga ?

S: First you put in, then you stack it and then you crash it, yay!

Counting to 100

Last night, we found out / realized / proved that Swe-cha knows his numbers all the way to 100, at the very least. We weren't quite sure before because his school reports only say "Can count from 1-20" and there's a check mark in the column beside it which says he does this well. It doesn't really tell us that he can count beyond that.

These days, whenever he wants to use the "Mommy's iPad" instead of his own, his Dad (Yes, Daddy is the main user of "Mommy's iPad", the name is a misnomer) would say "5 minutes" and they'd start counting 1 to 300.

Last night, Swe-cha counted to 1-100 with minimal coaching. He got stuck at 69, 70, 69,  ...
Daddy had to step in and coach him with "seventy....?" and he got right on track with 71, 72 and so on. We never did count to 300 last night because there was a lot of fanfare when he got to 100 - screaming, clapping and jumping may have been involved.

Ta-hoe

The little boy just asked for Ta-Hoe.

Specifically, he said, "Ta-Hoe ? Mommy get Ta-Hoe. Thank you."

Had to think about it before I realized what he wanted, eto pala:

image from: http://rasamalaysia.com/chinese-sweet-tofu-pudding-doufu-hua/

We usually get our Ta-Hoe fix as part of our Sunday dimsum. Monday pa lang. It's gonna be a loooong week.

Q & A

These days, I like to play question & answer with Swe-cha during the drive home from daycare. First and foremost, this is such a happy activity because he's getting to be more and more verbal lately and I am now able to hold his attention. Secondly, it's also interesting to find out what he recalls and associates with certain things. Note, his answers are his and not taught/scripted.

Mommy: Where do gloves go ?
Swe-cha: On the hands

Mommy: Where do socks go ?
Swe-cha: On the feet

Mommy: Where do shoes go ?
Swe-cha: On the socks  (tama rin naman).

Mommy: What do you do with a bike ?
Swe-cha: Wear a helmet. On the head.

Sometimes, he'd also go off on tangents on his own...

Mommy: Where are the solar panels ?
Swe-cha: on the roof! Ladder, climbing the ladder!
Background: he was watching while the solar panels were getting installed, he saw the crew using ladders to climb to the roof.

And there are times when his answer doesn't really make sense, yung akala mo walang connection pero meron talaga ...

Mommy: What do you do in a restaurant ?
Swe-cha: (pauses and thinks) It's the Angkong
Background: we mostly do takeouts and very seldom dine in a restaurant so it wasn't a surprise that he didn't instinctively say "eat in a restaurant". As for the Angkong (grandpa) part, when my parents are visiting, Dad and I would drive to daycare together to pick up Swe-cha and we'd then drop by a local restaurant to pick up dinner. The first time that Dad went down to the restaurant, Swe-cha asked "where's the angkong?" and I said, "Angkong went to the restaurant to get our food".

How many boo-boos ?

Swe-Cha is very fascinated with band aids lately, he keeps pointing out the smallest boo-boos and would want me to cover them with a band aid.

We've been using these colored ones that I got from the dollar store a while ago in anticipation of this, medyo na excite ako in preparing band-aids, got them long before Swe-cha wanted them.

This evening, after his bath, Swe-cha asked for band-aids for his boo-boo, I asked him what color he wanted and he answered "red". E wala palang red, so I asked him if he wanted yellow instead and he confirmed "yellow please".

Afterwards, he would recite, "how many boo-boos ? one, two!" as he pointed to each boo-boo in turn.

This makes a mommy's heart full. For a 5.5 yr old child who was non-verbal until 3, he's come a long way :)