Sunday, October 30, 2011

BOOTS!!

Yesterday, we brought Rayyan for a walk around Orchard and I must say that he was very well-behaved :)

When I asked him to salam (show respect by kissing the hands) of my friends, he did without complaining, he even hugged my friend's son when I asked him to ;))  He listened to my instructions, did not run around and even helped me to throw a used plastic cup in the bin.  I was so proud of him!

But the most amusing part was when we brought him to H&M.  We went to the kid's section and the first thing he saw were BOOTS!  And he became super, super excited!  I knew that it was because he loves Boots in Dora the Explorer!

He was holding and hugging the boots and shouting, "My Boots!  My Boots!  I want Boots!"  It was so funny and really, really cute!  My friends were all laughing!  Hubby then let him try the boots and he was really excited, walked around and kept touching the boots, still exclaiming, "I want Boots!  My Boots!  My Boots!" Hahahahaha!


BOOTS!!!

Friday, October 28, 2011

KL

Two weeks ago, we decided to drive up to KL to celebrate our anniversary.  Me and Hubby, we have been together 18 loooong years!  

Anyway, even though it was our anniversary, the trip was more for Rayyan than for us.. hehe.. Oh well, it doesn't matter, if he is happy, we are happy!!  It was an unforgettable trip for us because it was our maiden drive up all on our own, usually we are accompanied by friends or family members.

So, armed with GPS, snacks, books, CDs and toys for Rayyan, we made our way...


One thing I am thankful of is the fact that Rayyan can survive long journeys in the car, provided of coz that he has his books and that we play his favourite CDs... so thank God for portable CD/DVD player!

Another thing, this is our first long journey without him wearing his diapers so that was another concern but luckily, it all went well... Phew!!  On the way to KL, he didn't request to go to the toilet at all and on the way back, he relieved himself during our stop :))
  


We stayed at Maya Hotel and Rayyan simply loved the hotel room!!  Why? Because the room is huge and he has loads of space to run!!  I was so afraid that the guest below would complain!!


He is always the first to try the bed! :D


See what I mean about running around the room????


Anyway, we love the room too coz we had a gorgeous view of the Twin Towers :)


Walking around KL at night... I would definitely blow this picture up if he had looked at the camera.  Very difficult to make him look at the camera.  Any tips??


Don't you just love buffet breakfast in Malaysia?  We do!  But dear Rayyan wanted to only eat Koko Krunch!!  So much food and he still asked for Koko Krunch!


Another reason why he loved the room was because of this intriguing art piece.  
Kept playing with the strings... 


We managed to visit the Aquaria while we were there.  The place is something like Underwater World but better because it's bigger and there are many more exhibits.  Plus, the place is pretty new :)


There were piranhas!!  Rayyan wasn't too interested though coz he doesn't know much about them.


But he loves the otter!!  One of his fav animals :)


This place is like an air-conditioned mini zoo!!


Very much similar to Underwater World indeed..


Rayyan loves to see stingrays and sharks but after a few minutes here, he seemed to be tired and sleepy!!  Hubby said that maybe the water has a calming effect on him.  I think that maybe Hubby is right...  Now I'm thinking of putting up an aquarium in the room.  Maybe that will help him sleep :)


My little explorer..... One of my fav pics :))


Donuts!!  Rayyan loves donuts!!  2 for each of us and he finished his share first!!  Which of the donuts are his????  The plain and chocolate!  Nothing fanciful like the nuts or the tiny pieces of Oreo for him!  I think he finds them too messy! lol

We bought a couple of toys for him while we were there.  Rayyan is not the sort who asks for toys.   When we go to Toys R Us, he would get excited and look at many different toys but whenever we ask him if he wants any toy, he would always say NO!  Aren't we the luckiest parents??!!

But seriously, we don't see that as something positive.  Rayyan has limited play skills, he wouldn't play with any toy for long.  He just loves to look at toys and touch them a bit and off he goes!

So we are always trying to build on his play skills.  Whenever we see him showing an extra interest in a certain toy, we buy the toy for him.  Then we will encourage him to play with us.  Never mind if most times, we end up playing the toy ourselves!  Patience!  Never give up! :)


Anyway, we noticed that Rayyan has begun to show interest in Legos so we decided to buy the small, cute figurines for him.  We talk to him about the figurines that we bought for him.



And we noticed too that he loves to see the spinning Ninja Gos on TV so we bought for him two different Ninja Gos.  Here, he couldn't wait for Daddy to open the package! hehe


Fixing the Ninja Gos! So full of concentration! :))))


All set!!!  Time to have a spinning good time!!

Overall, the 3 of us had a blast!!!  In fact, we had so much fun that we are planning another trip to KL in Dec ;) Maybe this time round, we should get a much smaller room because our dear boy loved the room so much that he didn't want to leave.  Cried all the way down when we wanted to check out of the hotel!!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Animal Expert :)

Today we brought Rayyan to his most favourite place in the world for the umpteenth time... the Zoo! hehe..  Our dear boy was all excited when we told him that we would be bringing him to the zoo.  Unluckily, the zoo ground was wet due to the rain and Rayyan refused to walk!  He would tiptoe when we forced him to walk and requested that we carry him.  Luckily we brought his stroller along!

Nevertheless, this little avid animal lover knows his animals!  He was able to name most of the animals and when we were at the Fragile Forest and we saw a little animal hiding behind the bushes.. he said, "MOUSEDEER!" and it was indeed a mousedeer :)

Then while we were walking, we saw this animal..


Hubby and I weren''t really sure what the animal was.  I thought it was a llama but we were not so sure so we decided to ask our little animal expert... 

He took one look at it and said, "LLAMA!"


And he was right!  Rayyan has so many animal books at home and knows many different types of animals.  Maybe he can work in the zoo or safari one day :))

Here are two videos of him naming the animals in his book....




Monday, October 24, 2011

Bamboooo!

Rayyan talks a lot now... unfortunately, due to his weak pronunciation, it is always very difficult to understand what he says. Also, most times, he talks to himself and not to us.. he just likes to blabber on and on. I really wish that he will communicate with us rather than blabber to himself but I keep telling myself that this is so much better than him not speaking or him just saying.. ke ke ke or ge ge ge (something that he used to do) or just shouting away. At least now he is saying proper words! So now, when he starts blabbering, we try to understand what he says and try to get into a conversation with him. We definitely need lots of patience!

Anyway, Rayyan woke up at about 4+ in the morning last few days... When this happens, we usually let him be on his own because we are usually too tired and also, we don't want to 'entertain' or play with him because we don't want him to think that this can be done on a daily basis! So, there he was tossing and turning on his bed and as usual, he was blabbering... I listened hard and realised that all the blabbering was actually him recalling or reciting his alphabets, numbers, story books that he read or shows that he watched! Bits and pieces here and there all mashed up together! There must be 1001 things in his mind!

Nevertheless, I am glad that he can generalise what he sees or read.  Just the other day, we were walking around Airport Terminal 2 and he saw this in front of a restaurant...



And he suddenly said... BAMBOOOO!!  Hubby and I didn't even realise there were bamboos there!  Hahaha..  I then asked him, "Rayyan, what animal eats bamboos?"

His reply, "PANDA-DA!!"

This must come from the books that he read and I am really happy that he was able to apply what he read or learnt :)


Well done, darling!!

Monday, October 3, 2011

DADDY!

Rayyan can say daddy with da 'D' sound!!!! hahaha!!!

This is the exact text message I received from Hubby this morning.  What can I say... thank you, God!!!!!  I can imagine Hubby's happiness when he first heard Rayyan calling him so beautifully.  Before this, he would call his Daddy.. 'Ae-i'... without the 'd' as he can't make that sound yet.

And when I called just now and heard him say DADDY, I was so happy and proud! May you continue to show improvement darling, no matter how small.  Mummy and Daddy are so, so proud of you and we love you so much!!!! And to my boys, may the beautiful bond between both of you last forever. 

Btw, this is how they are every morning... Even though Rayyan has his own bed, he will make his way next to his Daddy every morning :)))

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Reading

Rayyan's reading skill has improved. Before, we would read most of the words in a sentence for him and made him read certain words. Now, we would encourage him to read the whole sentence on his own. My sister just gave me a whole collection of books by Scroll Inc. It comes in a box which also acts as a display shelf. Cool! Thank you, sis!



What I like about the books is that there are different types of levels and since Rayyan is at the very first stage, which is the 'Emergent' stage, the books are simple and the words are repeated so that it is easier for him to identify the words.

Here is Rayyan reading the book 'My Puppy'. Pronunciation still not very clear but great attempt! Way to go my boy!


PS: My voice in the video is very loud because the phone is near me, not because I was shouting! Sorry about that folks!