Monday, June 28, 2010

Insensitivity

When somebody asks me about Rayyan, for instance, which school he goes to or about his development, I am at a dilemma if I should inform them of Rayyan's condition. I am sure that other mothers who are in similar position will constantly face this dilemma too.

People who are close to me of course know about him, my close colleagues too. And they have all been very supportive and are very sensitive to my feelings. They ask about Rayyan constantly and give me a pat on the back to spur me on or just to tell me that they're there for me if I need someone to talk to. And I am very thankful for having such wonderful friends.

But oh wait, let me just take back some of my words... not ALL, but ALMOST ALL. In fact, so far, I have only come across one person who I feel is really insensitive.. She constantly compares my kid to hers, they are of the same age... keeps asking me about what Rayyan is capable of doing and constantly bragging about her son's development. And all this time, she knows about Rayyan's condition. Even when other concerned friends ask me about Rayyan, she will butt in and talk about how clever her children are instead!! Gosh! Just how insensitive can one get!! I am actually a very tolerant person but it has come to a point where I will really try my best to avoid her because I am just afraid that I will blow my top one day!

And I know that she will not be the first one... Rayyan is still a kid now and even though he babbles a lot and is super active, people don't give him a second look. It is still ok to act that way at his age. But as he grows older, I'm sure people will not only give him a second look but will give us a second look and even stare at him if he continues to behave this way...

So how will we act then? I am not ashamed of my son, I actually don't mind telling people about him. His presence in my life has made my life more meaningful and I love him more than anything else. Which is why I will protect him in any way I can. So I must really gear up for this. I must be strong. They don't understand Rayyan, they don't know what he's going through. They are just shallow-minded people and I refuse to let these kind of people bring me down!!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Spelling

Even though Rayyan has no speech yet, he is good with alphabets and words.. this I think is where his strength is and I want to continue to work on it.

The other day, I brought out his magnetic alphabets and taught him to spell. I was so very happy that he was able to grasp this skill pretty fast. At first, we were spelling 3-letter words and what better words to start with if not animals since he is crazy about them! He knows how to spell cow, bee, dog, cat, ant. Then we moved on to other things like car, fan, van... Next, I asked him to spell duck. I have not taught him to spell this word before but he was able to do it! And he even knows how to spell zebra now, which I think is pretty hard.. Mummy is so very proud of you dear boy :)

Also, just the other day, he was with his ipod and he was at this game where he was supposed to identify a specific word out of four words shown... For example, there's jet, bike, book and test. He will then be asked to identify one of the words. I was so happy when I realised that he got the correct words 90% of the time!

Thank you God for all these improvements that I see in him. He is indeed a very, very special boy.. Mummy loves you Rayyan..



Saturday, June 26, 2010

Hiatus

It has been more than a month since I updated this blog... sheesh... Been really busy this hols, I was involved in the planning and executing of a school overseas trip and many other stuffs. Managed to spend 1.5 week with my boy though. And that was really great and fruitful. I basically have two objectives this hols..

1) To kickstart his toilet-training. Rayyan is 3.5 years now so it's really high time that we get started. I've also been wanting to do this since I went for the workshop but I want to do it during the hols when I can be with him the whole time and teach my helper properly. What can I say, toilet-training is a messy affair!! More updates later..

2) I want to do up his playroom. Currently Rayyan has his own play room and it is full of toys! But well, he only plays with a selected few so after consulting his AAS teacher, we decided to rearrange his playroom to look like his teaching room in AAS so that everything is more structured and in the end, to make it a more productive place. This has been done! ;)

So I am glad that even though I didn't get to spend as much time with my boy as I want to, I still managed to get these two things done. We still have a long way to go with the toilet-training but it has been a good start. Hope my boy conquers this major milestone soon!

Here's us goofing around during the hols :)