Whirlwind of a Time at almost 17 Months!

A little positive post here in my previous rant :o).

Erik is turning out to be just an amazing boy and he brightens up our days a lot. We can't wait to rush home and be a family of 3 at the end of the day! Of course, this does not mean Erik can't be a little whiny toddler, either! Hee Hee!

Update
We've been receiving compliments from Erik's teachers at day care that can carry out "conversations" with them and speak a lot (and they meant A LOT) of words. They did an informal "test" on an animal book for Erik and were amazed that he could name all the animals in the book and do all the sounds, as if it was too easy. This is a pure kudos to Daddy here who has been doing a lot of bedtime stories with Erik.

So an additional list of words Erik can say (since Daddy has been hounding on Mummy that she keeps forgetting) but at this rate, Mummy can't keep up.

Moon - English, Mummy is trying to teach him the Sign it

Sun - English

Thank You - Chinese: Mandarin

Good Bye - Chinese: Mandarin, thanks to the Big Bird in China DVD that Mummy borrowed from the local library

Jump - English, Erik loves to practice his "jumping" and on the bed too

Ice Cream - Chinese: Cantonese, eh, well, sometimes Mummy fools Erik with Baby Yogurt in an ice cream cone, thus, Erik knows that one a lot! Hahaha

Apple - English

Grape - Chinese: Cantonese, he learned that over a few weekends ago when Mummy first offered him grapes on our way to the city

Watermelon - Chinese: Cantonese, don't know if this one is a repeat or not but at this rate, it's hard to keep track :o) hahaha

Fries - English (not proud on this...but Erik loves fries!) Daddy made baked sweet potato fries for him as better healthier alternative, and so far, he does like them!

Bun - English, and as in Hamburger Bun, Erik somehow loves munching the burger bun?!

Kangaroo - English and Sign, well, it really comes out as 'Angaroo'

Shark - English

Octopus - Chinese: Cantonese and Sign, this one comes out as "jaoyu" missing one more word in front but still, excellent work!

Snake - English and Sign

Bat - English

Wombat - English, well this one comes out as "O Bat", but still, good work in progress

Blocks - English, this one, even Mummy has to say it in English since I'm not sure how you would say wooden blocks in Cantonese!

Literature and Math
Erik is now having advance lessons in math and literature (aka alphabets LOL). Here's a little glimpse.

Ten- English, well, this one, it was thanks to Barney and Friends. They were singing a song on counting and Erik loves singing, so he participated by gleefully shouting out "TEN!" after hearing it. Now when asked how many fingers do you have (in English or Chinese: Cantonese), Erik will say TEN

Daddy has also been trying to teach Erik, One, Two, Three...but so far, Erik loves TEN and giving High Ten's as well LOL!

Then, some time back, when Mummy was doing bathtime with Erik, she started introducing alphabet lessons into the bath with our foam letters. Erik learned to repeat it pretty easily and would remember it! Absolutely crazy! So now...he can...ahem ..."read" some of the alphabets and only (if he concentrates)!

Letter A: Daddy just did this one in the morning and Erik picked it up.

Letter C: its easy to pronounce and he sometimes thinks its the same sound as a snake "hissing" but he doesn't sign snake on this one

Letter E: well, we wanted him to know how his name was spelled!

Letter I

Letter M

Letter R: Mummy tried to teach Erik a couple nights ago...and ended up doing a pirats "ARGH!" instead...hahahah!

Letter S: since it sounds like a snake so he likes the "hissing" sound and it looks like a snake...thus sometimes he'll sign snake

Of course, our little Erik sometimes forget too! He's a toddler for goodness-sake so this is all in good fun for him. Now mummy just have to think of a way to start introducing Chinese Writing into the game plan...now that's a bit harder and I may have to leverage off Grandpa Tik and Grandma Wai to think of some easy lesson plans! Ack!

Trying to raise a bi-lingual child is a bit hard here thus Mummy went to the local library for their Chinese Express Kit, even though the material was aimed at 3-6 year olds...its never too early LOL! Mummy is trying hard to read Chinese to Erik but man, even Mummy has trouble at times, since conversational Cantonese is not the same as reading in proper Chinese. It may be easier to teach Erik, Mandarin instead LOL.

Logic
This one befuddles Mummy and Daddy a bit. Does a toddler this age (one week shy of being 17 months) handle logical thinking?

When I ask Erik simple questions like "What is the elephant playing with?" in Cantonese, and after Erik sees the picture "An elephant playing with blocks", he'll answer "Blocks" (in English).

Then go to another picture book and asks "What is the Bear eating?" and Erik'll answer "Watermelon" (in Cantonese).

In the car, when Daddy is driving, I'll ask Erik, "What is Daddy doing?" and Erik'll answer "Car" (in Cantonese), as in driving a car.

This evening, when Daddy flipped on a college basketball game for a short while, Mummy asked Erik, "What are the people throwing on TV?", he answered "Ball" (in English) after looking at the basketball being thrown around.

Is it common for a child to comprehend so much at this age? Mummy hasn't finished her reading on the child's developing mind yet. However, this one aspect truly fascinates us and of course, scares us as well...we better watch what we say and do in front of this little guy! Eek!

If this sounded like a brag-blog, maybe it is, but its also our way to keep track of Erik's milestones along the way of his childhood. Hopefully he can read it later on and just laugh at it and to know his parents were proud of him, at any stage of his life. To our defense, we don't do the whole "bragging parents" whenever we are with our friends kids since we know kids are different and they grow and learn at different stages and its ok. However, we definitely do compare on who's eating what these days...cuz our little Erik is a little "Foodie" as in he likes to choose what he eats and frowns upon what he doesn't know or like! SIGH!

A Parent's Mad Rant

To our blog readers: We did not disappear from the face of the earth, nor did we go on an extravagant vacation, nor do we have plans to close down this blog (at least not in the near future).

We simply had way too much things to do and too little time to do them. Thus our blog had been ignored. An individual suggested recently "What do you mean too little time? You have an 8-5 job just like I do." Ah, the ignorance..eh, innocence of a simpleton, eh... single-ton [what's wrong with the keyboard these days? ;o)] who is blistfully unaware of the daily grind of raising a family with a young child.

So I'll open this question to our working parents, do you find yourself ample with time and leisure on every day? Do you really feel like you have an 8-5 job like the individual suggested above? Okay, I'll even go further, for those work-at-home parents (or stay-at-home, whichever term you prefer), do you feel yourself lounging around all-day long since you don't have an 8-5 and you have so much time you don't know what to do with?

Here I am waking up on a 3:30am basis trying to get some office work done before my ...ahem, 8-5 job begins.

Daddy's Influence

Erik has been doing so well lately and is just really beginning to become a "copy-cat"! Thus, Daddy began to teach Erik a few new "guy" concepts.

Exhibit 1: The knucle greeting
You've seen it before, where one guy would walk up to another guy and instead of shaking hands, they'll put fist to fist, knuckles to knucles. For some bizarre reason, guys find this "cool". Well, our darling little boy is now doing this greeting with Daddy! If daddy holds out his knuckes, Erik proclaims "Knuckes!" and places his fist with Daddy. He'll also attempt to do "Knuckles!" with any object he finds, like a book in the page with a bear on it...its Knuckle Time! Or his favorite dining buddy, Baby Leap Frog...its Knuckle Time! Quite cute! However, we do have to remind our little guy to be gentle at times...or else it could be a bit rough.

Exhibit 2: Secret Handshake
Can't describe it...or else it wouldn't be a "secret" handshake now, would it?! Basically, Daddy and Erik would extend their hands in a shake and then after a few more "guy" moves, the handshake is over. So from a regular handshake with a few more funky grips, this some how makes it more "manly", Mummy guesses?! However, Erik does like it when Daddy does it. He'll look at it in amazement and focusing on what Daddy is doing to try to do it. When he can't copy, Erik will revert back to the regular handshake "shake! shake!"

Exhibit 3: Monkey's Jumping On The Bed
Erik is also becoming a little actor of his own league. Daddy has been doing a lot of storytime at night after bath with Erik and he's loving it. Daddy does singing and a bit of acting himself. So when it was time to read "5 Little Monkey's Jumping On the Bed"....Daddy acted it out with a BOING! on the floor and touching his head as if in pain and dailing out on the telephone (for the Doctor) and then waving the index finger as in "no more monkey's jumping on the bed". For Erik all those gestures was just awesome and when he reads that particular book now, he demands to be off of the bed so he can act out the scenes of "BOING!" bonked his head and loves pointing his finger to say No No No...Erik even said it in his dream the first couple of nights! You know he loves that book when he's dreaming about it too LOL!

Exhibit 4: Iron Chef - "Ala Cuisine" - Daddy
Well Erik is still on the boob every night - and has been playing 'Bakah boo' (Peek-a-Boo) with Mommy's boob while feeding. To make it interesting Daddy decided to teach him "Ala Cuisine" which is a scream of "begin battle" of sorts uttered by the chairman on the show Iron Chef. Our little darling thought it was the most amusing thing much to Mom's disdain and tried to say "Ala Cuisine" before feeding. (This was funny for about a minute or so for Mummy).

Erik Update #3

Mummy just wanted to report out to all our readers that Erik is now walking and running in full speed. Erik is not showing any signs of injury any more, at least its not visible. He has begun to climb all over the place, on top of the sofa, on top of the tables, etc. He even began to dance! Erik has recovered and he even tattle-taled on the incident with Grandma Wai!

Grandma Wai and Grandpa Tik came over last Friday evening with a 3 entree meal prepared plus soup for Erik. It was the last thing Mummy and Daddy were expecting since...um...we actually wanted to go out to celebrate our anniversary...but how could we say "no" to Erik's loving grandparents?!

After dinner, Erik was playing with Grandma Wai while Grandpa just smiles from a little further away (observing mostly). Grandma Wai asks Erik "where did you fall?" and Grandma prompts, "did you fall on the stairs?" pointing to the stairs. "Did you go BOOM! at the bottom of the stairs?".

Well, that was all the encouragement Erik needed! "BOOM!" was his favorite expression for the remainder of that evening (and the entire weekend)! He'd run to the bottom of the stairs and point at it then telling Grandma Wai and Grandpa Tik "Boom! Boom!". This repeats for 5 times...and his maternal grandparents just giggled on this "tattle-tale" side and further prompts "Was Mummy not careful with you...so you went BOOM! BOOM!", thus Erik further points and says "Boom! Boom!" ACK!

They think its funny while Mummy and Daddy's expressions were pretty stoic at this point! As in "Come On Now, don't give our son any more ideas" Thus the entire weekend, we heard Erik saying it to everything. He was "half-running" into the wall and then he pronounced "Boom! Boom!" and looks at us. Cute! When his grandparents were leaving, he had a tough time and didn't want them to leave. He gave kisses and hugs to Grandma Wai and then walked over to Grandpa Tik and gave him an extra squeeze as well as hugs and kisses too. SIGH!

Of course, Mummy jeered the grandparents in baby-sitting Erik through the night so Daddy and Mummy could go out for their anniversary. However, Grandpa Tik immediately responded with a Chinese-similar expression to "yea right!" Sheesh! Thanks Dad! (See?! Another Grumpy Asian Dad response that irks Mummy). They are ever-ready to be the visiting Grandparents but they get quite nervous when we leave them alone with Erik! Hahaha!

A Nice Little Surprise

Last Friday was Mummy and Daddy's wedding anniversary and Daddy gave such a lovely surprise! Mummy was busy on Friday trying to do everything before our weekend stay out of town so had to bring the car in for oil change, clean out the car, etc. Thus Mummy was later than usual on picking up Erik.

Upon walking in, Erik's toddler teacher, Miss Ashley announced that "Erik made something very special for you today during craft time". A bit perplexed, Mummy walked over to Erik's cubby and to find a dozen beautiful red roses sticking out!! Seriously, Mummy still hadn't caught on...even tho there were no cards or messages on it. Mummy just figured that Daddy must've somehow got somebody to deliver it or something.

Then, again, Miss Ashley said "Tabitha come over here, Erik made you something even more special.". Eh...okay, seriously confused now. Then out pops Daddy from behind the nap-time cots with a "Happy Anniversary, Honey!". Awwwwww! Daddy basically drove up in traffic in order to give a surprise to Mummy! Such a sweetheart!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is Mummy and Daddy's wedding anniversary! What a long way we've come. When we knew each other, we were literally just crazy kids and now we're a couple of old folgies! Hahaha! Like all couples we've had good times and bad times but thank goodness to our "forgetfulness" or selective memories, we tend to focus on the good times as much as we can.

As we reminisced on our days of togetherness, we really wonder "How the #$!% did we stay this long together?" plus we had expressions of "Holy #$!@", "Unbelievable", "Can't imagine it this long!", "Gotta Be Kidding Me!" etc etc. Basically we were just as amazed as anybody that we're still together. LOL! One response that Mummy came up with was because Daddy and Mummy were determined and committed to each other and making it work. Even though everybody have flaws and we can irritate the heck out of each other at times, but at the end of the day, the love out shines everything else. (**This is the part where our readers verbally go...AWWWWWW**)

So, how are we going to celebrate our anniversary?! With the theme of Committment, we're going to be committed as a family and celebrate it as a family. Well, we're putting it a day late since Friday nights is when Daddy goes off to his photography class and Mummy will go out with Erik instead. So it will be a Wedding Anniversary weekend instead. We're heading out to the city so Erik can enjoy himself in a late afternoon rendevouz on the beach and the icy cold Pacific water. Eek!

Then, we plan on going to the city zoo and letting Erik see some crazy insect show. Thanks Daddy for researching this! Mainly, we're just going to enjoy the scenery and relax together.

Diversity Day

Yesterday at Mummy's work, it was Diversity Day, where the intent was to celebrate and share insights about different background, culture, and history. At the same time, Erik's school decided to also do their own Diversity Day also! The parents were invited to participate and to bring an "ethnic" potluck dish to share during the kids' afternoon snack time.

Daddy and Mummy participated, we brought in some very yummy Chow Fun (its Chinese take-out) plus some very healthy Fruit Salad (hey, it's intercontinental). Teachers even participated and brought in Adobo Chicken (Thanks Miss Tara!). Other parents brought in delicious Chinese Pork Bow's, Korean Kim Bap (sushi rolls), Spinach Dip, Polenta, ...and somebody bought Donuts! Mmmm! Of course, by the time we got there, the kids had already finished their "tour of the world" snacks. Hee Hee.

Parents held light conversations of their background and heritage. It was great sharing and a small insight into different families' culture and background. Some parents had ideas of their background and family roots like Irish, Polish, German, English, etc. Other parents had concrete identification like Korean, Chinese, Filipino, etc. We talked about traditional dishes that one would make to represent their culture. Of course, one mom jeered on Mummy and inquires "so with fruit...what culture is that?" Hee Hee!

As Mummy thinks back, while growing up, there really wasn't a "highlight" of diversity that she recalls from schools. Heck, Mummy didn't even know that there were Indians (again, this was in the 4th grade). Grandpa Tik & Grandma Wai, unfortunately, have old-world views of various races and doesn't offer a whole lot of window of opportunity to explore and discuss. Not that they were racists by any means but they did have prejudice in certain cultures they do not understand a whole lot about.

As a result of Diversity Day, it made Mummy to stop and ponder on how does this affects Erik. Would he be in a similar situation like Mummy that even though she is Chinese but because she was born in the U.S., she also has the American culture and at the same time, the Hong Kong influence from her parents and friends when growing up. We think with Erik, he will be influenced by many cultures including American, Bhutanese, Chinese, and Indian. That may be his background and cultural heritage and we definitely hope he will appreciate the unique opportunity.

"Brand Conscious"

“Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.”

When Tabitha was pregnant with Erik – we used to talk about how we would raise Erik – and what would be would do and what would not be right when we were raising Erik. One of the things we bought up during our discussions was fast food and how we would avoid it. (Especially the fact of how unhealthy daddy was) but sadly one of the fast foods though I don’t consider it being as bad as say “pork rinds” (PS: we do not feed Erik stuff like that).

Erik loves and I mean “LOVES” Jamba Juice. He learnt to use his sippy cup/straw because of Jamba Juice and Daddy only gets him the All Fruit Smoothie (Peach Perfection, Strawberry Whirl, and Pomegranate Passion) So much that when Mommy said it’s too expensive to drink Jamba Juice say more than 4 times a week that when Daddy makes him Jamba Juice (with Jamba Recipe as close as he can get) – he doesn’t want it and looks for the nice cool Jamba Juice symbol – so each time Daddy gets to do a Jamba run – he begs for extra tiny Jamba cups (8 oz) I cant believe that our little guy is already brand conscious. He loves running his finger on the cup and say "Nanana" for Banana.

*Update - Both Mommy and Erik loved my version of the Jamba Stawberry Whirl

Mummy's Complaint: My Own Dad Irks Me At Times

Note to Erik, if you're reading this some time in the future, you are not allow to feel this way about Mummy and Daddy! Hee Hee!

This posting is just a reflection from Mummy on her parents, Grandpa Tik and Grandma Wai, well mainly on Grandpa. They are loving grandparents in their own way but sometimes it makes me wonder what they are thinking of?! It is just small comments that irks Mummy.

For example, during our past Saturday's dim sum brunch, while Erik was behaving quite well for an active toddler who's facing lots of frustration from the fact that he can't walk fully, was tired of sitting. Thus he signed for Mummy to pick him up and hold him well Mummy kindly said no but told Erik to see if Grandma Wai would hold him instead. Erik turned and signed "Up Up" to Grandma and of course being the indulgent Grandma that she is, she picked him up and went downstairs to look at the live seafood tanks down in the lobby.

Well, after about a good 10 minutes, Grandma Wai came back to the table and Erik still didnt' want to sit so we jeered Grandpa Tik to hold Erik for a bit. Okay, Mummy does admit, Grandpa Tik is in his early-mid 70's already. Anyways, after a few minutes of nuzzling and cuddling, Grandpa was done and then he commented in Cantonese "Sheesh, Erik never stops moving?!" as if a good toddler should be able to sit still?! What normal toddler would sit still through a boring adult meal of blah blah blah?! NONE! Mummy truly rather have a non-stop toddler than a toddler who would just sit for hours at end (**NOTE, I may be regretting this confession later**). Active toddlers are normal and that's how they like to explore their environment.

Maybe its a bit sensative on Mummy's part but Mummy truly believes its a reflection of our childhood. There were very seldom occassions where Grandpa Tik spends quality family time with his own children. Thus, Mummy doesn't think Grandpa Tik really knows how to bond with small children, he always relied upon Grandpa Wai to do the child rearing. However, with the "limited" experience he has had, Grandpa Tik never fails to offer his own unfiltered opinions. SIGH! Guess this is Mummy's own version of "Grumpy Asian Dad" as our dear friend, Emily, has coined it.

However, Mummy must admit that Grandpa Tik does show his affection in strange but weird ways. We commented that we really like one of the Cantonese animations and wanted to show Erik, well, Grandpa Tik immediately rented one and dropped it off late night on Monday night (when we're sleeping) and calls Tuesday morning at 8:00am to see if we have OPENED our front door and got the DVD. As Mummy says, strange but guess this is Grandpa Tik's own version of showing affection.

We just hope we're doing a better job bonding with you, Erik! We may get frustrated at ya at times but we still like spending time with ya.

Improvement Update on Erik

For all those waiting for an update on Erik's leg, there is a slight improvement over the weekend and on Monday. Over the weekend, we took Erik to Gabriel's house since we had to go do some plant watering (we're semi-looking after the house) and so he could also swim and get those joints moving again. He thoroughly enjoyed swimming a lot and lasted a whole 45 minutes in the pool! Pretty cool! Erik even "jumped in" and "dived" all by himself. Daddy would sit him on the edge of the pool and all of a sudden, without Daddy's prompt, Erik dived in and laughing away as he came back up, with Daddy's help of course! Hahahaha

Monday
His toddler teachers at the day care are trying to encourage him to walk so they do little activities such as have Erik walk to them in a very short distance and as Erik comes closer, they'll scoot back to encourage him a little more walking. He did pretty well on Monday morning.

Also, it was reported that our little fella, the ultimate dancer that he is, got up from the dining table after his afternoon snack and WALKED over to the classroom's "dance hall". He even said excitedly "Dance! Dance!" Its a great improvement! However, as Erik was walking over to the toddler basin to wash his hands after food, he fell...so he reverted back to crawling instead :o(. WAH! Our poor thing!

Tuesday Morning
Erik is really into shaking hands right now. He'll walk to anything and everything that he likes and he'll extend his right arm and says "Shake, Shake". When he's reading and see's a cute little character, he'll want to shake hands with it. LOL!

Well, this morning after his breakfast of homemade smoothie (THANKS DADDY for making it since Mummy says Jamba Juice is way too expensive to visit 3 x a week! LOL). Erik only takes about a few sips of it but hey, that's still better than nothing! He ate a couple bites of bananas and then one bite of quesadilla with veggies.

After that, he was done and Mummy stood him on the kitchen floor and he saw our Watermelon (yep, it was on the floor). Erik WALKED over the few steps (about 5-6 steps) and bent down to "shake hands" with the Watermelon. SO CUTE! So good progress!

However, even with that progress, Mummy still made a follow-up appointment with his pediatrician on Thursday morning as a JUST IN CASE.

"Single" Parent Night Out

From Mummy's previous posts, Mummy is a "single" mom on Friday nights since Daddy is taking a photography class. So Mummy and Erik went out on Friday night for dinner with another "single" ""Mom"". Notice the double quotes in ""Mom"" because it was with Mr. Mom, Oliver, and his son Austin, his wife had been out of town all week and was flying in that night thus, we were a couple of "single" parents.

We headed out to Austin's favorite local hang out, a burger joint featuring a red bird and their endless fries. Erik had a blast hanging out with his buddy since Austin transferred school, Erik doesn't get to see him on a daily basis anymore. When Mummy ask Erik who's that sitting across from him, he'd say "stin" as in Austin LOL! Too Cute!

Erik behaved quite well at the restaurant. He did a round of "shaking hands". He did his round of throwing food on the floor (oh yeah, he does that but Erik stopped when Mummy asks him to...at least temporarily). Erik threw his color paper on the floor and another restaurant patron picked it for us and said "no worries, we have one ourselves" and indicated to their child LOL! Whew! Thank goodness for family friendly places!

After dinner, Mummy contemplated on going shopping with Erik but decided Nah!Shopping would be a treat for Mummy but not so much for Erik to wait for Mummy to decide "forever" on what to buy LOL! So we drove home and went to our neighborhood park instead. Now, Erik associates the sound "Weeeeee!" with park (i.e. slide/swing) because whenever he sits in one of those, Mummy would make that sound LOL! There Erik got to sit on slide and say "Weeee!" as he went down. He sat in the swing and said "Weeeee!" as Mummy push him.

Erik even got to do some imaginative play. We'd be underneath the play structure and Erik would gather up the wood chips and put them on the bench in piles. Mummy asks what he was making and he'd sign and say "Cookie/Cracker" in Cantonese. Mummy would then ask "Are you sure you're not making bread instead? (Mummy signs bread)" Erik replies adamantly "No no!" and sign "Cookie/Cracker" again. LOL! Sweet boy, making dessert for Mummy after our dinner date :o) Hahahaha!

After the park, it was for our wind down activity of bath, story, and finally bedtime. Erik was in the middle of dosing off when in comes Daddy after his class and that totally excited Erik all over again. Seeing Daddy after a long day was the best thing ever, seriously! Thus our little baby went to bed quite late instead. All in good fun....and thank goodness for weekends!

Peek-A-Boo In A Different Way

Okay, before you read this blog, Mummy must confess that yes, she is still indeed nursing Erik. Erik who is a whopping 16 months (in about 6 days) is still nursing whenever he wants.

Peek-A-Boo
So now, on with the "Peek-A-Boo" story. Erik was nursing and Mummy was just sitting on the sofa bonding with him after coming home from work. Don't know what triggered our darling son to want to play one of his favorite games. He unlatch from the boob, and then proceeded to cover Mummy's boob with her shirt and then looks up oh-so-innocently and signs "Where is it?" with his palms faced upward and his shoulders hunched up. Mummy gave Erik quite a inquisitive look and signed back "Where?". Then Erik lifts Mummy's shirt and says "Peek-A-Boo!". Hee hee! This proceeded to last for another 5 rounds, which at first was quite cute and funny....but let Mummy tell you it wasn't funny during bed time in the middle of the night when Mummy is groggy and Erik all of a sudden says "Peek-A-Boo!". Our little son is so incorrigible!

Ever Expanding Volcabulary @ Almost 16 Months!
Our little Erik is expanding his volcabulary like crazy. He can say so much when he wants to that its hard for Mummy and Daddy to keep up nowadays! This is just one-way for us to keep track of Erik's accomplishments since Mummy and Daddy are so bad with writing without a keyboard! hee hee! So here's the latest list of what Erik can Say:

There It Is! (English) - especially when playing "Peek-A-Boo!"

Iguana (English) - this is thanks to 'Go Diego Go' and it comes out as "ana" instead

More (English) - he's been signing this for a long time but now he says it!

Sit (Cantonese) - Erik will indicate a spot the he wants Mummy or Daddy to sit upon and he'll command it LOL

Tree (Cantonese) - He was signing this as well but now he actually says it!

Shoes (English & Cantonese) - Again, he's been signing this but now he can say it in both languages and they do not sound the same at all!

Nose (English & Cantonese)

Eyes (English & Cantonese

Hat (English) - Mummy thinks Erik knows this one in Chinese as well but wasn't quite sure and haven't seen him repeat it yet

Mummy still continues to teach Erik on sign language and he seemed to be picking it up faster and faster. Mummy just have to show him one or two times the sign and he'll remember it! However, he does have trouble distinguishing between a Tiger versus a Lion (esp when its a Mommy Lion).

Social Updates
Erik has now learned how to give High 5's, Low 5's and Shake Hands. Our little guy is so "professional" when he shake hands. Erik would extend his right hand very straight and his face becomes very serious and he'll say to you (looking into your eyes!) "Shake! Shake!". It is so cute! Plus, once he starts, he'll go around the room thoroughly to make sure he did not forget anybody! Hahahah! Hmmm...does Erik have a future career in politics?! President Erik Ma does have a nice tone to it?! Again, America, vote for Erik Ma now :o) hahahaha!

High 5's and Low 5's, is a pretty cool thing! Mummy and Daddy encourage our Erik whenever he did something well by doing 5's all around. It's so cute of Erik. This morning at school, Erik gave his little buddy, Zach, a high 5 during his morning breakfast snack. Too darn cute!

Erik Update #2

Wednesday Evening
Mummy picked Erik up at school and the teachers said that he behaved exceptionally well. He was a bit frustrated that he couldn't go to all his friends but he actually crawled and attempted to stand as well. But all in good terms! So that's a small relief...at least Erik is trying to.

When we were home, Daddy put Erik on his favorite rocking horse and Erik must've forgotten that he was hurt or sore, because he stood on the rocking horse rocking back and forth! Only for a few seconds and then he sat back down. It was our silver lining there!!! We were very happy and excited!

Thursday
Well, it was a small step backwards. At school, Miss Ashley (Erik's Toddler Teacher) called in the middle of the day that Erik woke up screaming during naptime. He was very frustrated that he can't do stuff like the other toddlers. She had to place Erik in the infant room for the remainder of the nap time instead because he no longer wanted to nap. SIGH! Our poor little guy must be having it rough to see all his friends running and jumping and playing and the teachers reported that he would just point at stuff, not even attempting to crawl. WAH!

Daddy took off work early to pick him up since its so emotional for all of us not seeing Erik walking and running like he used to do. The house seems so much more quiet! :o( We don't like it one bit! So after dinner, we took Erik to the big park where he crawled up on the play structure and went down the slide 5 times saying "Weeeeeee!" each time with a big grin on his face. That brighten us up a little bit. He enjoyed sitting in the swing for a good 20 minutes and looking at all the other kids running around playing. His still chirpy though!

Friday
Mummy will see how Erik is in the afternoon. So far, no phone calls from Toddler teachers (knock on wood!) Will update more over the weekend. Thanks for all the instant messages, emails, comments, on well wishes for our little boy! It's so good to know that Erik is loved by so many!

Erik Update

Our little Erik is still refusing to put any weight on his left ankle. He have started to crawl to whereever he wants to go but he's not running or jumping :o(. Mummy feels pretty crappy overall to see our fun active little guy behaving like this. Erik is pretty good though he's a strong kid and always have a silver-lining.

Monday
Mummy took off for Monday & Tuesday to help Erik rest and heal as much as possible. Erik watched lots of TVs (basically Dora Dora, Diego, Dragontales, Sagwa) on the first day. He refused to move from his Spiderman sofa or even scoot anywhere. He'd point to toys he wanted to play and Mummy would move it in front of him so he can play with them. When he's done sitting and watching, he'd signed for Mummy to hold him instead. Or he'd want something to eat. Pretty much a No to Low activities day for our boy.

Tuesday
On Tuesday, Mummy took Erik into school but stayed with him during the morning. We didn't want Erik to just "mope" around home and stare at the 4 walls or the tube all day long. Erik's mood lit up at school outside in the playground. He still wouldn't walk or crawl but at least Erik attempted to play "Peek-A-Boo" with his little buddies: Nick, Karalyn, and Miss Ashley. Erik would pull himself to stand on his one good leg and the left leg would be pulled up not touching the ground. He'd smiled and shout out "Boo" to all his little buddies.

We also enjoyed a lovely music circle time with the infamous Miss Nancy. Erik loves music and man, seeing my little boy shaking his head to the rythym and tune is awesome! Puts both of us in a much better mood. Erik did great with those musical egg shakers and loved it so much that he was quite hurt when it was time to put them away. Even though he couldn't stand to do one of the dances, Erik still showed that he got the beat and swayed to the music. :o) Puts a tiny smile on Mummy's face.

Afterwards, Erik got to color strawberries with rice and colored glue. Our little Erik does not want to get messy...which is complete opposite when he's at home! Our home is a disaster! For the strawberry painting, Erik would just daintily touch the least of the paint with his index finger...and that's it. He would grab ONE...really just ONE grain of rice and then place it on the stawberry. It wasn't until Miss Ashley gave him a paintbrush did he really start enjoying painting LOL! I guess an artist needs appropriate tools to begin his masterpiece ;o)

Wednesday
Today, our little guy is in day care all alone but the school was very accommodating. The Director spoke with both Miss Ashley (Toddler Head Teacher) and Miss Carmelita (Infant Head Teacher) that if Erik is not thriving in his regular toddler class, he will be moved to the infant room for more TLC and not risk getting injured by other toddlers. They are not to let him crawl on the concrete patio but if Erik attempts to crawl in the classroom or grass, that's fine. If Erik seems to be in such discomfort, then they are to call us immediately. SIGH! We'll see how Erik does...we really sure hope that our Erik would attempt to walk again!