Little Scholar

I've always heard that foreign language acquisition is so much easier at a young age. Combine that with WeiJ being an absolute sponge (sometimes for good, sometimes not so much) and you can imagine what he might be capable of.

Clearly, he's picking up English like nobody's business.

But he also speaks a little Mandarin. He says "good morning" - zao shang hao - complete with the sing-song tones....so what if it really sounds like wahwahWAH. It's still cute as can be! :) He also mimics some of the words on Ni Hao KaiLan, which is kind of fun to watch. It's just not so much fun when he laughs out loud at my attempts too.

He also apparently speaks a little Spanish. He was watching Dora the other day, and I heard them ask if the "cocodrilo" (crocodile) was "arriba or abajo" (up or down)....and without hesitation WeiJ said abajo! I was floored that he copied it so well, but then I looked and holy cow he was right, too! At this point I wouldn't be surprised if he's saying other things in Spanish all the time and I've just not watched enough Dora to have learned them yet.

So - English, check. Mandarin, check. Spanish, check. As of this weekend, he's added a 4th language. After umpteen viewings of Finding Nemo, he has picked up the ability to speak...WHALE! It was so hard not to crack up uncontrollably but it was so darn cute!

OK lest anyone think all he does is watch tv, I also bought him a new shapes/puzzle game. Basically there's a plastic mold with indentions for the shapes to be put together to form pictures, and cards for him to match up shapes with the pictures on the cards. Then the card also shows how the shapes can be rearranged to form other shapes. I know, he's only 2 - but I thought it would be right up his alley and I was right. He can sit completely engrossed in that activity for quite a while, and the first time he tried he almost got the whole puzzle finished with very little help. Brainiac!

Life's Pretty Good

A lake, a bubble machine and a life jacket -- what more does a boy need?

OK, the doting audience and good food were icing on the very fun cake.

Some Kid

Watching the daily changes in this child is really something else. Sometimes all I can do is shake my head, and sometimes all I can do is try not to fall over laughing.

At our visit to the doctor's office a couple of weeks ago, she asked if WeiJ was dressing or undressing himself yet. At that point other than pulling socks and shoes off, the answer was pretty much no across the board. Well that was sooo last month. It's June now so of course he's almost ready to cross another developmental milestone off his list. WeiJ's been practicing taking his own clothes off, sheer delight on his face when he finishes each new accomplishment. The shorts are easy of course, but oh so much effort goes into getting those shirts off! And every night now he's doing most of the work putting his pj's on - I just start the shirt coming down in the right direction and get the shorts pointed the right way, and he yanks everything into place. He just works so intently at it! I was right though - as soon as he figured out how to get clothes off, the diaper wouldn't be far behind. It's definitely one way to make me jump up wide awake when he comes in my room bare-bottomed...wide awake and hoping, hoping, hoping he hasn't been that way for too long!

His vocabulary seems to have vaulted to the next level all of a sudden. He's been picking up new words right and left, so many that I can't keep up with a count anymore. He's stringing words together in 3 word sentences, and his pronunciation is getting better and better. It's a little bittersweet to hear his pronunciation become more like ShuShu and less like FooFoo or Foof or WooShu...but it just goes hand in hand with the rest of the progress. The other day I couldn't believe my ears when he said a perfect sheep - with a hard p at the end and everything. I think my squealing fuss over that has convinced him to try for that reaction now with every word that ends in p -- now he's throwing extra emphasis into other words like cup or chip. He's such a sponge lately for new words and pronunciation that I keep finding myself doing doubletakes, wondering if he really just said what I think he said. Just imagine if he hadn't had a 15 month delay on learning English!

And the sense of humor on this kid! *Daily* he does something that has us both laughing hard. Whether it's silly faces or wild games of chase or whatever cheeseball antics he's up to for the day, there is no shortage of laughter in this house. In fact I'm pretty sure he feeds on it and amps up the ham factor as soon as he has a willing audience (which is oh, always). One of our newer books - the one we call The Oops Book - has a silly turkey that puts his clothes on wrong, and each time it's his turn the book just says, oops. Last week I was getting WeiJ dressed and he pulled his shorts onto his head and said...yep...oops! He caught me off guard with that one and we both pretty much dissolved into giggles. Silly boy!



Best of all, the tantrums are much better now than we were having last month. It's so good to have my sweet boy back! Monday he was getting ready to go leave with ShuShu and came to give me a squeeze first. That's always good for a smile of course. But this time he kept walking away a bit and then come running right back to give me another one! Those 4 more unsolicited hugs and smooches were priceless. I missed my little snugglebug and am loving having him back!!

Road Trip!

Today was one of those days that made me sit back and say wow, I can't believe we're finally here. And I can't believe it's even better than I pictured it would be.

We had planned a short road trip to get together with another family we met in China, but unfortunately that had to be rescheduled. But since we'd all been looking so forward to it we decided to hit the road anyway. The idea of Korean food and a great park were just too tempting, and the chance for a mini-escape was a much needed bonus. It was also sort of a test run to see how WeiJ would handle being cooped up for a couple hours of travel. I'd say he passed with flying colors! (Apparently the key will be to wear him out during layovers.)

I clearly remember the last few times we ate at that Korean place, I sat there wistfully daydreaming about bringing my child-do-be with us someday and planning outings to the park. Today that day finally arrived! WeiJ sat through the drive pretty well and then through lunch. He even successfully ate a few things with chopsticks - well, chopsticks that I didn't break apart so they were still attached at the top. He was pretty pleased! I think the biggest hit (and I've also mentally filed it away as a ploy to pull from the bag of tricks when I need to distract him in restaurants) was a "lemon pop" - aka a lemon wedge on the chopsticks.

As soon as we got to the park I remembered just how much I liked it and all the reasons I couldn't wait to share it with him. Right now I think the fact that it had water, rocks, and a playground are all he really cares about...but there's so much more for us to explore. I definitely see return trips in our future! We headed for the playground first, and once we dragged his attention away from the little rocks on the ground he was ALL ABOUT the playscape and slides. He's gotten so big and independent that now all I had to do was help him up the first part of the steps and then he was off across bridges to whichever slide destination he wanted. Well, that's all *I* had to do. ShuShu may have been put to work pulling him up a slide or two as well. :)

He had a great time and I was just happy watching him be so happy. It was only interrupted once...right about when I discovered that Mama Bear doesn't ask my permission first, she just acts. I/She *may* have yelled at some kids to stop throwing rocks after WeiJ and I got hit at the bottom of the slide. In hindsight yes they were groundcover pebbles and yes they were more nuisance than real danger...but like I said, Mama Bear didn't ask what I thought before she opened her mouth. She just knew that her cub was in the line of fire and she snapped. Seriously, it was like someone else was speaking. And then inside I groaned, oh no, am I *that* mom on the playground?? Oh well. At least no more big kids were throwing rocks in the little kids' area anymore and we got to play in peace.

Anyway, we walked along the springs for a while and watched kids and dogs and boats and birds before heading back out. We did stop for snow cones that tasted extra wonderful on such a hot day. WeiJ was definitely a fan. He was so wiped out by that point that he actually sat still on my lap while we all ate them. Does it get better than sitting in the shade at the park, eating snow cones?

A Special Note for LaoLao

For the past few weeks we've been trying to use any opportunity to help WeiJ understand that he's going to be going on a big trip to visit LaoLao. Any chance to talk about airplanes, beaches, water...everything is about going to see LaoLao this summer. If we see something about a beach, it's "oooh, we're going to see a beach when we see LaoLao!" His new book from ZaZa has photos of an airplane, so it was "hey we're going to get on an airplane when we go see LaoLao!" So now whenever he sees a plane, he says "NaNao" (his attempt at LaoLao)...and for that matter, he says NaNao at the picture of the helicopter and hot air balloon too. I suppose we're building it up sufficiently because the last couple of weeks anytime we go anywhere he thinks that's where we're going. I think if he had the words to put together he'd be shouting, "enough with the build-up already, lets get on a plane and go!" :)

So this afternoon WeiJ brought me his little wooden boat (that he got to paint yesterday at the park with the other families with kiddos from China) and said, "NaNao boat." I asked,"are we going to see boats when we see LaoLao?" and he *shouted* "UH HUH!!" When I said yes I'm sure we'll see boats, he said "NaNao squeeeeeeee" and wrapped his arms in a hug. So NaNao, I think there's a hug coming your way....

Miss Us?

Eeks! Two weeks! I didn't realize it had been that long since I wrote an update. It's partly because it's been a stressful month, and partly because I woke up one day to find I'm a mama to a full-fledged 2 year old with attitude who is into everything. His recent growth spurt means he can reach up to grab things on countertops or the top of my dresser. I've been waking up to find my glasses missing, my Kindle being banged repeatedly on the side of the bed, or a snacktrap's worth of Cheerios dumped in my bed...and best of all, I've been locked out of the house while he gleefully mimed my gestures on the other side of the glass door.

On the bright side, it is still mind-boggling how smart he is. As of a few weeks ago he'd been saying his numbers out loud from 1 to 5. I had no idea he knew his numbers past 5 until I bought some fridge number magnets. I also didn't know he knew the word "magnet" until he was jumping up and down shouting "new magnet! new magnet!" when I pulled them out of the bag. Lo and behold, when I put the numbers in line, he listed them off one by one all the way up to 9. He gets a little stuck on 6 and 9 sometimes, but that seems understandable to get those mixed up. I guess since he's all of two and two weeks, I'll cut him a little slack.

WeiJ is also reading more and more. For his birthday, one of the books I got him is now called "the Oops book" and he gets a kick out of reading it himself. I tried to get video Monday but he was too amped up to sit still long enough to finish. Guess I shouldn't have told him about going to Sea World before that. He also likes reading the 2 alphabet books. H and J are still a little tentative but he's so confident now of the rest of the letters that he barely hesitates anymore. For just about every book we read now, he's filling in more and words by himself.

WeiJ's also getting more specific when he asks to eat. It used to be just "eat" - and sometimes still is - but now he will tell me more specifically what he wants. The other morning it was "eat...nee baba" which translates to "eat green apple," and for lunch it was "chss...breh" which is cheese and bread, aka a toasted cheese sandwich.


Little toot is also a funny little guy. Since he got here I've been telling him that the outlet covers on the wall were a no-no to touch, that they'd give him a bad booboo. I figured that would be easy enough for him to understand. Well, he came running up to me one day saying, "ohhhh, booboo" and offering me his finger to kiss better. Then he'd say "ohhhh, booboo" and give me the same finger on the other hand. Then he'd run off giggling, and come back in the room saying "ohhh, booboo" again and repeat the process over and over and over. He thought it was hysterical. So finally I followed him to the other room...and there he was, squatting in front of an unused cable outlet - touching it with each hand to give himself "booboos" to have me kiss better. Just a hunch, but methinks this one will be testing everything for himself instead of taking my word for it. Stinker! ;)

And finally, today was his 2 year old checkup with the doctor. He only had to get one shot (bad enough but better than the multiples we were doing when we started playing catch up last Fall) and the doctor still says she couldn't be happier with his progress. He's just a fraction below the 90% mark for both height and weight! I'm assuming his growth chart will start leveling off at some point but he hasn't been showing any signs of slowing down just yet. 36" and 32 pounds -- a far cry from the little one who I once worried might be tagged with a "failure to thrive" label if he slipped any further down the charts. HA. At least that's one worry I can cross off my list once and for all!

Woohoo, WeiJ's TWO!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, WEI J!!

So...I'm not quite sure if I'm going to find all the words I want to find today. I'm a little jumbled and overflowing with so much that I can't really describe it. I'll start with the easy stuff, recapping our weekend and see where it goes from there.

On Saturday, WeiJ and I went to Ayi's graduation - I was hoping I could start planting some of those summa cum laude seeds but he only held out through the Masters' degree announcements before he crashed sound asleep on my lap. But boy, did he cheer those first dozen or so with gusto! He clapped and cheered for each one, silly boy! Even when he was asleep, at one point he managed to jerk upright and clap -- without waking up! He slept right on through to the end of the ceremony and woke in time to wave at Ayi as she filed out. We headed to eat afterwards, and all told he was fairly confined for about 6 hours or so but held up like a trooper. Makes me think we might survive a long flight we're going to take in July...knock wood!

The Brainiac Pose

I didn't plan anything big for his birthday today, just a series of things I knew he'd love. I blew up balloons last night so he could wake up to a bunch of them on the floor in his room. (Lesson learned: leave a path for him in case he wakes up crying in the middle of the night so he doesn't fall with a THUNK when he gets out of bed. Sorry, kiddo!) He did love throwing the balloons around this morning though! I made him a breakfast of mini blueberry muffins and blackberries on the side. It was a pretty plate, that's for sure! I think the swinging legs and mmmmmm meant that he enjoyed them a little bit. :) Then after breakfast I gave him his gifts - the coolest trike I've ever seen, and a set of new books. He's pretty obsessed with both, so I think I chose well. He helped me put sprinkles on the cupcakes, then we went to go read his new books - twice each. I went to get dressed, leaving him on the couch flipping through the books. It was such an eventful morning that he fell asleep sitting right there, at 11:30. Once we were ready to go an hour later, I was afraid I'd wake a cranky boy. But all I had to do was softly say,"Are you ready to go see some ducks?" and he was wide awake and ready to go! We went to lunch first, at WeiJ's favorite bbq place (ok, so I haven't taken him to THAT many, but still) and he was pretty much beside himself with giddy joy. Seven adults, all attention on him - he was in his element and clearly a happy boy!

Basking in Happiness

We made it to the park and he finally got to see that "duck wawa" that he's been asking for every single time we get in the car. We fed the ducks a couple loaves of bread, and he managed to not fall in the wawa. Oh, and yes he actually gave ALL the bread to the ducks this time instead of hording it for himself. After we finished the bread, it was time to open presents. Such thoughtful gifts & he loved them all!

Big boy with his first backpack!

And no doubt about it, I can't imagine anything better than seeing this face for Mother's Day: