Sweet Miracles

This morning, upon waking, little boy discovered the metal ruler that we just bought the previous evening. He came into the room waving his new toy and came up with a few uses for it, including:

• the wooden stick for examining the mouth – i was reluctant to be the patient but he was so insistent in asking me to open my mouth, and i had to make sure i open and close my mouth just in time before the ruler actually makes any contact, eeks!
• the bridge for playing London Bridge is falling down – i’m thrilled that he knows this game, and guess he probably learnt it in school
• a saw
• knife for chopping fish, and guess who was the fish?
• the spoon for frying the fish with – by this time, the fish was a microphone, not yours truly. Whew!
• the pepper bottle, and then the sauce bottle, for seasoning the fish with
• a diving board (my idea, which he happily adopted)
• a see-saw (also my idea), balanced on the microphone. He actually sat on one end and wanted me to sit on the other end. I told him Mummy too heavy and he made do with my hand pressing down on the other end, which he had to coordinate the see-sawing motion with.  
• last but not least, a sword. He must have learnt some moves from TV or Mr Gua Gua, cos he did a incredibly realistic sword-fighting gesture, and i was literally cringing away in fear of getting hit.

Later in the morning, he attempted to fight Mr Gua Gua with his sword too, and from Mr Gua Gua’s descriptions, it appeared that little boy was a lot more violent with him! Mr Gua Gua suggested buying a plastic sword for him which i was adamantly against, for the same reason that homeschooling experts and educationists would give for all those commercial themed toys. With a plastic sword, how else could you use it except as a sword? I was actually very proud that little boy came up with so many uses for a metal ruler. While year 3 is the year of fantasy and creativity, i believe that he wouldn’t be maximising his potential if he wasn’t in Whole Child Nurture Centre, where they do have some structured activities, but also include some time where the children just mess around with the wooden toys, and get to make up their own games and stories. If he was still at home, he would prob be spending most of the day watching tv, where stories and activities are all planned out for the viewer.

I know that i’m constantly amazed by little boy’s ingenuity. He holds up a running pipe perpendicular to the floor, and calls it a fountain. He doodles criss-crossing loops on paper and calls it fireworks (btw, we got a grand view of the fireworks at the Marina Mall cineplex, and little boy sure had a blast of a time watchhing them!).

Today when we were out, little boy was getting really tired (which is really one of our main objectives to fulfill on outings!) and wanted me to carry him. I was lazy and wanted to make sure he gets really tired so that he could fall asleep without a prob, so i gave the excuse that Mummy was carrying something (just a plastic bag of food and my wallet) and hence could not carry him. Surprisingly, he stopped asking, even though i expected him to continue whining. Moments later, he said, Papa carry. His brilliant idea was that Mr Gua Gua take over the plastic bag and wallet, so my hands are free to carry him. Oh well… what else could i do? Without any further excuse, i had to follow his suggestion (instruction rather!), and the smart fella got what he wanted.

Earlier in the day, he said he wanted to go to Disneyland to see Mickey Mouse, a request he has been making often recently. The conversation went something like this:

LB: Go Disneyland, see Mickey Mouse!

Me: You want to sit aeroplane go to Disneyland?

LB: YES!

Me: To sit aeroplane, we need to buy plane tickets. Do you have money?

LB: No.

Me: If no money, cannot buy plane tickets, cannot sit aeroplane go Disneyland. How?

LB: Papa money.

Me: Wah… you always say don’t want Papa (which is true!), but now you want Papa’s money?!

LB: *look away and pretended he didn’t hear me*

Later, we had a similar conversation with Mr Gua Gua joining in, and when we got to the point of, no money, how, little boy didn’t reply with, Papa money. Perhaps he was afraid I would give the same reply, which would embarrass him in front of Mr Gua Gua. Haha… he can be quite a proud little boy who likes to save face too!

Talking about little boy’s ingenuity, on one occasion he was at my mum’s place playing with my sis’ wooden toys. One of them was this ladder with a man whom when released from the top rung, would go somersaulting all the way down to the floor. My mum watched him release the man, and when it reached the floor, she challenged him, how? Expecting him to get off the bed and pick the floor from the man, she was both amused and impressed when he lifted the ladder and brought it to his level so he could take the man and restart the game.

Oh geez… a whole bunch of this entry was lost when the computer was hanged. Ah well, let’s see if i can blog that another night.