Fire Engine

En seems to be into be a few things at this stage. Soldiers marching is the constant, so is mushroom and when it comes to drawing, he is always drawing fish. Actually, his fish look pretty realistic and I should post one of his fish drawings one day.

I gave him a fire engine sticker last night and this morning. We watched the UK children's animation series, Fireman Sam, which he enjoys. I then drew a fire engine for him for En to paint. This is the first time En is painting with a paintbrush. Previously, I gave him a rollerbrush or he would use his fingers with the fingerpaint. He seems to enjoy painting with the paintbrush much more than the finger painting or the rollerbrush. I think it has something to do with the fact that he holds it more like a pen. He is so into drawing these days that there is not a day that passes by without him holding the pen or pencil and drawing circles or fishes on paper. Maybe he is the scholar and not the soldier type huh?

Toddlerhood

En is growing up very fast. He is going to be two years old in July. He is much taller, he can break into a little run, walk fast and sometimes slowly. He is full of antics and mischief, and also a cheeky boy. He knows how to enjoy funny moments; frowns and tells me "sad" when we read stories and I mention that a certain character is sad. He can speak a fair bit, sometimes in sentences, things like "May I have honey water please?". He also certainly knows how to talk back now, like saying or shouting "no" or "I dun want" when he does not want to be compelled to do something we have asked him to.

I must say its really fun to play with him now and yet I sometimes run out of ideas on what we can play. On the other hand, it is really challenging for us as parents to know how to deal with his rebelliousness and disobedience. Of course, we want him to obey us at the very command of our voice. However, as every parent knows, a kid is rarely that compliant. Sometimes, I have to cajole, persuade, give incentives or threaten a punishment. Sometimes I punish as the warning had already been given way in advance. It really requires God's wisdom to balance loving the child and discplining the child (because we love him and do not want him to suffer for disobedience next time).

May God continue to give me and my husband wisdom to bring En up in the ways of the Lord. And may we be good stewards of the child God has given us, that he may be raised up to glorify God everyday.

Fried chicken hunger

Having the internet is quite educational at times. 

I just watched a short film posted on a friend's blog. Its titled: Chicken a la Carte, by director Ferdinand Dimadura. I recognise it as being filmed in the Philippines cos of the food chain Jollibee. 

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a%20la%20Carte

Did you notice the joy on the poor children's faces as they peered into the food bin, full of leftovers collected by the man? They were estatic at having real meat pieces to bite into. Nevermind that these were once eaten by someone who then abandoned the food cos they were too full or maybe the food did not taste delicious enough or maybe cos they had over-ordered.  

I have not known what it is like to be so poor and hungry. The Lord has blessed me materially cos I am born a Singaporean. I have never suffered to the extent of having to eat someone's leftover food. The video really left a sore spot in my heart. The Lord has always exhorted his children to care for the widows, the fatherless, the homeless. How can I follow the Lord's commands and do this? How can I be a channel of God's compassion and love for the poor and hungry? May the Lord show me. 

Jonah

One of En's favourite and memorable bible stories is on Jonah. Its really the big fish that swallowed Jonah that first caught his attention. En is crazy about fish: feeding fish, fish poo poo, fish swimming, drawing fish, big fish, small fish, "A" fish, "ball" fish etc. Along the way, we have invented various types of fish to whet his fishy appetite.

Yesterday, I decided to do a Jonah story board with him using playdough as he would always request to make fish when playing Playdough. Thought I may as well expand his fish world! So, I made the fishes asking him for the colour and how big or small he wanted the fish to be. En helped with putting black eyes on the fish. He also made some clouds for the sky (see the blue pieces of shapeless dough floating at the top). In case you are wondering, that is Jonah's face sans body, hands and legs (heh.. was a bit too lazy to create the whole man!). Jonah was in a boat and you know the story, the boat capsized cos Jonah was disobedient to God and went in a direction opposite to Nineveh where he was supposed to preach repentance to the Ninevites.

I like to use this story to remind En En that God wants us to be obedient. I do not recall, however, preaching the consequence of being swallowed by a b ig fish if one was not! En has been quite a challenge lately, with his (at least) thirty "no"'s or "I dun want"'s a day. So, sometimes, its good to teach him from the bible that God wants us to be obedient to him, including being obedient to Daddy and Mummy who are God's agents of authority over En En.

The Soldier's Uniform

Daddy tried to deck En En out in the soldier uniform. En was really quite pleased with his broomstick rifle, M&M soldier pack and helmet (made of his sandpail and secured with muslin cloth!). As you can see, he really held his head up high. What an honour to be a young soldier!

Feeding Fish

One of En's favourite outing activity is to go "feed fish" at the park. Two weeks ago, his grandma and myself brought En to feed fish at Botanic Gardens. We really have to restrain him for straining too far out into the pond as he throws the bread in as he is just so excited about feeding fish. I think its a wonderful activity for parents to take part in with their kids. You can get rid of stale bread, teach your child to feed animals, identify the different type of creatures you are feeding as well as different concepts on sizes, speed etc. For example, big fish, small fish, many fish, turtle, swan, catfish, how fast or slow the animals are to get your bread etc.

Unfortunately when we were there, the plastic bag containing the bread fell into the pond and I was quite woried that the fish or swans would choke on them and die! We tried very hard to pick up the plastic bag but our efforts proved futile. After attempting to rescue the bag for 15 min, we decided to proceed with our morning stroll and revisit the pond later to see if the bag would have drifted somewhere to a corner for us to pick up. A good thing it did! and thank God for answering my prayers. My mum bravely picked it up at some "ulu" corner of the pond and we fitted the drippy bag onto a short stick for En En to carry to the dustin to dispose. As you can see, he was quite pleased to do something environmentally friendly and important!

Soldiers March!

En's latest obsession is marching. Yes, it does seem he is in a bit of a hurry to go do his National Service even though he is barely even two years old! We have this nursery rhyme VCD from the Wheels on the Bus series. Its pretty good and I highly recommend it as En En learnt most of his nursery rhymes from this series of VCDs.

The nursery rhymes are weaved into a story in an innovative manner. For example, in the "Humpty Dumpty" story, Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and the Duke and his soldiers were requested to assist in getting him up the wall again (they failed, in case you are interested to know). So, there is this soldier song and the soldiers are marching along the road, on their way to rescue Humpty Dumpty. The other nursery ryhme "The Grand Old Duke of York" also has soldiers marching all over the place and trouble arises when the Duke falls asleep. The soldiers are unable to stop marching any nearly march into the sea until the Duke awoke in time to give the command for the soldiers to do an "about turn!".

Whenever these two episodes are played, En En will hop off the sofa and start marching on the spot, marching around the living room area and marching all over the dining room. He can now march with two hands swinging and is pretty decent in lifting his knees high enough for each march! It is however an "obsession" since he almost demands to watch "soldiers march" every single day! Not only that, he would want to hear the soldiers marching song before he takes his afternoon nap and before his bedtime every day. Can you imagine, papa and mama had to learn the lyrics of the soldiers marching song so that we could sing it to En every day!

Its fascinating what toddlers get excited about. I must mention that his other food love now is "mushrooms". Whenever he is queried about what he is eating, he would solemnly nod his head and say "mushrooms" even when there is no mushroom in his food! I think he wishes there was mushroom in every meal! Today, he even asked his aunty or "xiao gu" to "please find mushrooms" for him in his food! (yes, there were mushrooms today in his dinner!)