Where is Daddy?

On our way out earlier today, Hubby had to rush back to our house to get something. The lift came and Rayyan and I went in.

While in the lift...
Rayyan : Where is Daddy?
Me: Daddy went back into the house to take something. Why don't you shout for Daddy?
Rayyan : (shouting, although it wasn't very loud) Daddy, where are you????

It is very, very rare that Rayyan asks questions and the conversation in the lift just makes me realise how much he has improved. It is a slow process but with each little improvement, each statement that he makes, each question that he asks, I am truly thankful to God.

I also realised that he was able to use IS and ARE correctly. Yup, we have used those questions before and I think he was just repeating what we said before. But still, I was really happy that he remembered!

Thank you, God for every little achievement he makes. Alhamdulillah :)

Q&A

Yesterday when Hubby sent Rayyan for his Brain Gym class, Hubby told two of the mummies that we are close to that we will be watching a movie after his class.

One of the mummies approached Rayyan.
The Mummy : Rayyan, where are you going after Brain Gym?
Rayyan : Watch movie.

The Mummy : What show?
Rayyan: The Amazing Spiderman!

Just that. Two questions. Two answers. And we were beaming with pride! =)

Movies

We are going to watch the Amazing Spiderman today and Rayyan is super, duper excited!!  He has his Brain Gym class in the morning and we have promised him that we will bring him to watch a movie after his class.

I still remember how afraid he was when he watched movie for the first time.  He was afraid of the dark cinema, he was afraid of the loud sound system and we had to reassure him time and again that everything is going to be just fine.  Nowadays, he enjoy movies so much that he will pull us towards the cinema!

Not too long ago, we watched The Avengers and he was very excited because he likes Captain America!  After that day, he knew all the other super heroes!  And nowadays, whenever we bring him to 7-11, he will go to the magazines section to look for the comics.  The comics are not cheap ok! :P

And recently, we watched Madagascar.  Before we watched the movie, we talked to him about the animals and taught him the song.  He was so excited to see the animals come alive in the movie that he shouted a couple of times in the cinema!  Luckily the other children were shouting in excitement in the cinema too!  Phew!

Btw, some tips to those who want to bring their children to the cinema for the first time...

1)  We love going to the FilmGarde Cinema at Leisure Park Kallang because there are not many people there.  Sometimes there will only be a few people in the cinema!  This is good because Rayyan don't get too overwhelmed by the crowd and even if he shouts or throw tantrums, we wouldn't feel too bad for disturbing the other people :)

2)  Bring lots of snacks!!!  Sometimes when Rayyan is super excited, can't sit still and is too noisy, we feed him with his favourite snacks to keep him busy! Hehehe

3)  It is best to tell the kids what is going to happen inside so that they can anticipate and not be too scared.  For Rayyan, when we were in the cinema for the first time, I held on to his hand, hugged him and kept on reassuring him.  Loads of praises help a lot too ;)

We are looking forward to another great movie session!  No shouting or tantrums, we hope!  

Picture Description

We bought a set of pictures from ARC (Pathlight Mall) that can be used to help Rayyan in his speech.

The pictures show children and adults doing different kind of activities and behind each card is a set of questions that can be used to ask the children.

Rayyan is still at the beginning stage. He can basically answer simple questions like..

What is the baby doing?

Answer: Crying

Where is the girl?

Answer: Swimming Pool

He still has difficulty forming full sentences and has difficulty answering the WHY, WHO, WHEN questions.

We believe he will improve with time. We just need to be more diligent in guiding him and find more pictures for him to talk about.

Patience is the only way to go!!

The picure cards we got from ARC (Pathlight Mall)

One of the pictures inside.  I like the fact that the pictures are big!

Guiding questions behind each picture :)

Next Idol?

Rayyan loves to sing and sings all the time!! Sometimes he doesn't quite know the lyrics of a song and will just sing anyhow and it is really quite hilarious I tell you ;)

Recently, Hubby resorted to writing down the lyrics of songs on the whiteboard to encourage him to sing properly and it worked really well!

Here's our idol singing one of our favourite songs, 'I believe I can fly' by R Kelly. It's our favourite because it's really meaningful and yes baby, we believe you can fly one day!! We love you!

Conversation with the Animal Expert

Here's our latest conversation with our animal expert.  Now, he not only knows the names of the animals but where they live, what they eat, etc...  And he gets all these information by reading the many animal books we bought for him :)

Guilt

It has been ages since I updated this blog.  So much has happened and I went through a cycle of emotions these past few months or so.  In fact, I don't even know how to explain what I went through and how I want to start this post...  I will try my best, sorry if everything seems confusing and jumbled up..

Anyway, first of all, I lost one of the most important people in my life recently.  My mum.  She passed away in March and till now, I am trying my best to cope with her death, with losing her.  She was one of my pillars of strength (the other one is my Hubby) and without her, I felt, well, literally unstable.  She has always been the one who kept me grounded, who was willing to give me a slap in the face (not literally of course) whenever I did anything wrong.  I just miss her so, so much...   

Then, there's work.  I'm taking more graduating classes this year and I have more projects and duties to handle.  I have been spending a lot of time at work and it was very difficult to maintain the work-life balance.  It has been very, very difficult for me to cope with the demands of my job and my family..

Then of course, there is my one my only prince, my son, Rayyan.  I must admit that I haven't done much for him these past few months.  And that made me feel really, really horrible... With the heavy workload, I left everything to my husband.. from his meals, to his school stuffs, to teaching him.. almost everything.  It was like I passed the entire baggage to Hubby.  You know sometimes you hear stories from Mummies complaining about their hubbies who just work and not involved in their children's lives..  well, I was just like one of those men.  Of course, I brought Rayyan out, had fun with him, yes, I did spend time with him.  But I didn't really make the effort to teach him or build resources for him.  I'm just so busy and tired that when I'm at home, all I want to do is relax and not think about anything else...  Yes, I am feeling really, really horrible and guilty thinking about this now.

And basically these are the reasons why I have not been updating my blog... In fact, a few weeks ago, I wanted to close down this blog.. I know that many Mummies read my blog and find some sort of inspiration through this blog..  But I was thinking..... Who am I to inspire other mummies when I myself don't do much?  I definitely don't have the right to advise other mummies when these few months or so, all I did was to let my emotions control me and only thought of myself...  I was just so, so selfish!

But I have realised my mistakes now... there's no point in thinking about the past and regretting what I did.  It's time to learn from my mistakes.  I know some Mummies e-mailed me and wanted to seek my advice.  I am sorry Mummies for not replying to those e-mails.  Like I said, I just felt I don't deserve to give advice in the situation I was in.  I will try my best to get back to you when I am feeling much better ya.  Please accept my sincerest apologies...

And before I end this post, I would like to thank my ever-patient Hubby for everything.  Even though I sometimes refuse to get involved and just want to do nothing but vegetate at home, he stood by me.  He never once complained and told me he understood totally how tired I was and he didn't blame me at all.  Sometimes I feel God is too kind to me for giving me such a patient and kind husband.  Thank you, thank you so much God!!!

It is time for me to switch off my 'denial' mode and start to think of my family, especially my son.  Please forgive Mummy, Rayyan.  I promise that I will try my best to do more for you from this day onward.  I love you and your Daddy with all my heart...

Puppy

I was at my staff meeting yesterday and before the meeting started, we were given this small notebook for reflection.  We were told to reflect on anything and something came to my mind.  This is what I wrote..

A puppy walks past...

Kid : Mummy, look at the puppy!  So cute!

Rayyan : A puppy is a baby dog.  It has four legs and a tail.  Its body is covered with fur.

Baby

You are different

You are just being you

Mummy don't want you to be any different

But please help Mummy understand you.

I love you for who you are, baby.  Always.

God

In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Can we teach our children the concept of God?  As it is, our children already face difficulties grasping concepts that are concrete, what more understanding something as abstract as God?  We know that it is very, very difficult for our boy to understand the concept of something that he can't see but Hubby and I thought that we should introduce God to Rayyan.  We believe in Allah, we believe in divine intervention and we want Rayyan to share the same belief.

That is why we decided to get him to do simple things like saying thanks before he eats, asking for God's protection before he goes out and before he goes to sleep.

I prepared a short and simple prayer that he can say before he goes out and before he sleeps.  To help him understand, I put it down in English.  One is stuck to the wall near the door and the other is near the bed and we make him recite these simple prayers daily.

Rayyan has memorised these simple prayers and everytime he recites them, my heart will swell with pride and joy.

Thank you, Allah!

Work Time

We finally started 'Work Time' last December and Rayyan is doing pretty well at it.  'Work Time' is where Rayyan does work on his own, not on a one-on-one basis.  It teaches him to be independent.

For a start, we have to make sure the tasks given are easy, something that he already knows so that he doesn't give up halfway or feel too frustrated.  We also follow the structure at his EIPIC centre, AAS so that he is familiar with the routine.

 The prompters/cue cards

The tasks placed on the racks