Saying "No"

Whenever we ask Matt if he wants something, he will either shake or nod his head. When we asked him to verbalise with "No" or "Yes", no words will come out from his "golden mouth". Instead he will just shake or nod his head more vigorously.

We picked him up after work today. Can't remember what we asked him, but instead of his usual shaking of head, he actually replied with a "No". To make sure I did not hear wrongly, I tested him again and once again, he replied, "No". While this might seem a small feat for many, to me, it's a big achivement for Matt and I was a happy mummy that night. :)

Almost Private Lesson at Shichida

Matt almost had a private lesson at shichida today. "Almost" cos one of his classmates joined him midway after the class started.

We started the class with the usual activities - welcome song, energy ball, blowing exercise (which Matt has much difficulty). Then it was time for ESP. Honestly, I think this activity is crap. I mean, how can a 2 year old kid be able to "guess" what the teacher is thinking. Even if he did manage to get the answer correct, I always think it's pure luck. Anyways, the ESP exercise today is to guess how many fingers the clown is holding up. Two or four. The teacher posed the question to the little one and he chose two. Answer revealed and he got it right.

Teacher: I noticed he is pretty good with ESP.
Me: No lah, it's just pure luck.
Teacher: No, I noticed that he has been getting the answers right consecutively for a few weeks. It's the same for Chris (Matt's classmate). He is also very good with this.
Me: O...K .. (honestly, I have my doubts).

We moved on to another ESP related exercise. This one is something new. We are given two cardboards with three pictures on the cardboard. Mummy is supposed to arrange the three pictures on the second cardboard, placed the empty first cardboard on top and little one is supposed to arrange the three pictures on the first cardboard, based on what he "feels" the arrangement is on the second cardboard.

I went ahead to arrange the three pictures on the second cardboard. Honestly, the minute I finished doing that, I have totally no recollections of what I had arranged! Passed the cardboards to the little one. He went ahead to arrange the three pictures. I revealed the second cardboard when he's done and to my utmost surprise, he actually got the arrangement all correct!

Teacher: See, he's good. Full marks for ESP today!
Me: Well done, boy! (This could again be due to pure luck but I must say I was pretty impressed. I think I shall monitor more in the coming lessons.)

Next up was the magic camera - the little one will be shown some pictures for a few seconds and he's supposed to "take a picture" of that image and then arrange the pictures based on what he remembers. First on the list was an image with four pictures. After the teacher flashed the image for a few seconds, the little one was given five pictures, out of which he is supposed to pick the four he saw and arrange them in the order he remembered. He did just that and he got them all correct. "Not bad", I thought. The next picture was to arrange three strawberries of different sizes. Little one got one out of the three correct. "Good try." The last picture was to arrange four colour strips. The little one took the strips and arranged them one by one. As he arranged, I asked, "Are you sure?" Cos I thought I remembered the colours were in a different order. My question was totally ignored and the little one just continued arranging the strips on his own. To my surprise, when the teacher revealed the answer, he actually got the colur arrangments right! I was the one who remembered wrongly! :p "Good job, boy!"

We continued on with the other activities - flashcards, songs, finger training, etc. Not sure if it was due to the undivided attention given by the teacher when he was alone, but I must say, he definitely was a very good boy today!

Pa & Pei

Matt's speech development is on the slow side. He hardly ever calls us. On rare occasions, he will call us "pa" and "mi". These days, we have been encouraging and bribing him to call us more frequently. Whenever he wants us to do something, we will get him to call us first. And he seems to be getting the hang of calling "pa". Decided to "test" him out again today. Got him to call me before I attend to his request. But instead of calling me "mi" like what he used to do, he started to call me "pei". Told him that it's "mi", not "pei". But this little one just insisted that it's "pei" and no matter how I coax him to say "mi", he will just call me "pei". I gave up! Wonder where the word "pei" comes from!

Szechuan Noodles ... Spicy!

Was tucking into my suzchuan instant noodles. Matt, seeing the noodles, decided that he wanted a share as well. He ditched his toy train, came to me, climbed up onto the chair and gestured that he want a bite too. Told him the noodles is spicy and he cannot have it. But ever the stubborn one, he insisted that he want a bite. Alrighto, I did warn him. Gave him a small bit. He ate and wanted more. Hmm, seems like that small bit was too little for him to taste the spicy bit. Gave him a bigger mouthful this time round. This time, the spiciness "hit" him and he tried to scratch his tongue to get rid of the taste. That was quite a sight. Got him to drink some water. He did just that and I thought that marked the end of his szechuan noodles experience. How wrong I was. He came back to me again, still wanting to eat the noodles! He will eat the noodles, run to his water, drink tons of water and come back to me again for another mouthful of noodles. And this continues till my bowl is totally cleaned out! And this little one even insist that I show him the bowl before he is convinced that the noodles is really "no more".