LITTLE R has been sick with a fever, running nose, and coughs for a couple of days.
Here are our Sick Day activities.
Day 1: A tram ride to Dr C’s office; Watched the Swan Lake Ballet there
Day 2: Visited Dr C again in Central; Walked up Pottinger Street; Got a flag of PRC from a street store; Walked to Kumon Learning Center; Did a round of math homework there
Day 3: A “fleet of ships” for breakfast; Some painting time
What a lot of fun on sick days!
(at 4 years 5 months 27 days)
Posted in ~ art and crafts, ~ being 4, ~ eating
LITTLE R has been sick for a few days with coughing and sneezing.
At four years of age, he had a new observation after he has sneezed.
Little R: “I close my eyes when I sneeze!”
Mama: “What a clever observation! Yes, every human being closes their eyes whenever they sneeze.”
(at 4 years 5 months 27 days)
Posted in ~ being 4, ~ new observations
THIS WAS before Little R started to paint in his yesterday’s painting class. Ms R was getting ready some real props for the first time for Little R to draw upon.
Ms R: “It’s time for you to draw from real objects.”
She took out some plastic grapes, apple, and pear and put them on the table, as Little R was ready at the table with his apron on.
Little R: “I need a plate for the fruits.”
So, Ms R searched her box of props to look for a plate or something that she could use as a plate. She found a clear plastic bowl.
Ha ha … I didn’t even take a picture of the “fruits in that clear plastic bowl” before I left the studio.
And, here is the end painting of the “fruits in a bowl.”
Little R was so eager to tell me about his painting as I stepped into the studio to pick him up.
Little R: “These are the LED lights,” pointing to the background. “They change color.”
Mama: “Woah! They change colors.”
(at 4 years 5 months 23 days)
ONCE I wanted to get some feedback from Little R on how much he liked a certain type of dish that I’d made for dinner. He would give me the perfect answer. To help him indicate his degree of liking, I gave him three options.
Mama: “How does dinner taste? Does it taste SO good, SO-SO good, or SO-SO-SO good?”
Little R: “SO-SO-SO good.”
Then, I am pleased. That’s a perfect answer.
—
Sometimes, a mother just can’t help but ask this question while tucking her lovely baby in. I did that a couple nights ago. Honestly, that’s something I really wanted to know. He gave me a surprising answer.
Mama: “Sweetie, how much do you love me?”
Little R: “SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so …”
Mama: “Wooaah!”
And, I was really pleased with his answer of his infinite love for me.
Then, I kept this interesting conversation up and talked about God’s love.
Mama: “You know what? Do you know … How much God, our Creator, loves us? He loves us SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … SO-SO-SO … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … so so so … … …”
And on and on and on until my SO-SO-SO’s were longer than his for me.
(at 4 years 5 months 19 days)
LITTLE R struggled with me at piano practicing last night. I couldn’t make him practice JUST one line of the simplest page on his piano book that his teacher has assigned.
He won. With the power of tears. I finally threatened to call up his piano teacher and I did and had him tell his teacher himself: “I don’t want to play the piano.”
Mama: “Well, I didn’t mean that he’s not gonna learn the piano with you in the class…I mean…I really want him to learn how to play the piano because that is the joyous thing to do in the whole world.”
Thanked God that Ms F does understand quite well my struggle with a bouncy four-year-old boy on piano practicing.
So, as I let Little R off the digital piano and do whatever he wanted to do (he drew a couple of drawings while Daddy did the laundry), I sat at my digital piano to play my favorite tune, piano sonata k332 by Mozart. OK, I will play the piano myself!
Since I had a successful experience during the day in encouraging him to sing the school song in school using chocolate candies as reward, I wanted to lure him to see what it takes to get him practice the piano.
Later, after my reward ceremony of the two special chocolate eggs and a special sticker (see photograph), I put him in my arm while he was celebrating his Easter eggs which were saved for the next day because he had already brushed his teeth.
Mama: “What do you want as a reward each time after you have practiced the piano?”
Little R: “Star.” [That is, a sticker that which I often refer to as 'star' (because they used to be all 'stars' that I gave to him on the chart--now I gave him other types of stickers as well which I called 'special stickers') to be put on his reward chart.]
Mama: “OK.”
Mama thinks: “O, that’s so simple? All he wanted was a ‘star’?”
Then I know that all Little R had wanted was my acceptance of him and my praising of him of his effort and hard work. Not just chocolate candies or toys. (Because the more stickers he gets, the better the chance that he gets to go to Disneyland.)
(at 4 years 5 months 2 days)
PREVIOUSLY, IN “How do you solve the problem like M…R,” I posted this challenge to Little R, in order to solve his problem of not singing the school song together with his classmates and teachers at the beginning of everyday’s class. The reason that he gave me was that he thinks “the song doesn’t sound good.”
Mama: “If you would sing the school song every day, I will give you two chocolate candies. Is that good?”
Little R: “I want a star [i.e., a sticker to be placed on his reward chart].”
Mama: “OK. I will give you a star and two chocolate candies every day, if you sing the school song every day in school.”
…
Yesterday, at GREAT supermarket, I reminded him this deal and allowed him to pick a few chocolate candies shaped and wrapped into BEAUTIFUL race car, bus, or airplane. Thanks to the Easter marketing gimmicks!
…
Today, at breakfast time and dressing up time, I reminded him of this deal again, to make sure that he understood my expectation of him.
…
Today, at school, he sang the school song the loudest, looking the proudest. As he sang, he looked into my eyes while I was standing at the classroom’s window, peeking in and ad lipping it with him to encourage him further.
I was surely proud of him: Of his knowing what I have expected of him and having wisdom to choose to do what is good and wise (that will lead to being rewarded with lots of candies and honors) than to do what is bad taste and foolish (that will lead to no rewards of candies and honors).
Posted in ~ being 4, ~ connecting, ~ school
LITTLE R has a faint concept about death and heaven. Daddy has gone on a few days of business trip, and I had to drop him off at granny’s because I had to attend a revival meeting at church yesterday. So, as I picked him up and rode with him on the train going back home, he asked me this daunting question.
Little R: “Mama, when are you going to die and go to heaven?”
Mama: “In average, people live up to 80 years old. Mommy is 40, going to be 41, so I will have 40 more years to live. I am going to celebrate your graduation from the university, your practice, your wedding, and become your son’s grandmother. … You see, grand aunt is 80 something. She is old, right? Granny is 67-8. Daddy is about 40, so Daddy will also see you graduate, get a job, get married, and become a father, together with mommy.”
Little R: “How about Hally and Ginger?”
Mama: “Dogs have a life expectancy of 10-12 years. That’s why they will die sooner than we do.”
I think my answer settled his young soul.
(at 4 years 4 months 30 days)
P.S. Little R often heard me talking about the doggies’ age to others and how little time they will have on the earth. I have wanted to prepare our hearts when the days of their departure will come. And, maybe my anxiety about the sudden lost of a loved one has sipped into my interaction with Little R. God is good. He let me overcome this anxiety, so that I do not continue to live in fear and transfer this fear to R, but to live in hope.
Posted in ~ being 4, ~ connecting, ~ future, ~ growing, ~ talking
WHEN YOU feel like vacuuming your home in the morning and your four-year-old boy has tried all his method to get your attention by pooping in his pants, and then you still think you need to water your lovely blue bell hyacinths that sit in the sun in your balcony (while you are still cleaning up the floor), here is what you can do.
Mama: “Who wants to water my plants?”
Little R: “Me!”
Mama: “OK. Fill this bottle up with water!”
Little R excitedly grabbed the big bottle. He first stopped by the kitchen but said to himself: “no no no … that’s not big enough….” Looking mischievously, he quickly skipped to the bathroom.
Okay. This is good. I have gotten him something that he likes to do to preoccupy him. Would he end up making a mess or….
Little R: “Mama….look! I use the small cup to pour water into the bottle!”
O boy! That’s the cleverest thing to do! I knew that the big bottle was too tall to fit under the faucet in the sink and I left it to him to solve this problem, and he did! (Actually, I thought he would use the faucet in the bathtub, but the way he solved this problem was brilliant.) I can’t help but grab my cell phone camera and take a picture for my lovely husband to see.
After a little while…
Little R: “Mama, the bottle’s full!”
I went to the bathroom and looked and it was!
Little R: “It’s too heavy.”
So, I carried it out to the balcony for him, and he happily twisted open the lid and poured water on the plants. And we took some funny pictures together afterwards.
(at 4 years 4 days 28 days)
[Daddy,] THAT’S JUST because, instead of teaching regularly as in a full-time position or “preaching” as I would be in the ministry, I have become your wife and a mother. You and Little R have become my only Students and Audience to my ideas.
And, that is why I do not need my TIME magazine and CALIFORNIA magazine back issues anymore, because now my target audience does not appeal to the raw statistics and up-to-date facts. They need a tender mom who can do whatever Proverbs 31 has said about what a good woman should do.
But I did keep my CHINESE CHRISTIAN magazine back issues just in case I will have free time to read them in the future.
(February 18, 2012)
UPON MOVING, Daddy asked if I really needed to subscribe the TIME magazine and if I would read it online. I gave him a 15-minute lecture on the value of printed paper, how studies have shown that people cannot remember what they have read online, how the things that you have read on non-perishable printed matters would stay in your memory much longer than the things that you would have read on their electronic versions, and why we want to hang photographs on the wall because you can see them every day, which makes a whole lot of difference than viewing digital photos, and on and on.
Daddy, I have to say: You are a good student. You just listened to me, or you were too sleepy to respond to my lecture. And, here I go again, I took my career a little bit too seriously at home.
And, I AM contemplating of getting rid of my collection of the TIME magazine and CALIFORNIA magazine back issues, as I am preparing the move.
(at 4 years 3 months 17 days)
rockamama