Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

The last time I wrote about how messy his mealtimes were was back in April, when he was eight months old.

And it’s all happening again. Since some ten days ago actually.

He’d look away and make sudden moves when the spoon comes near. He’d push it away. He’d make really loud shrieks (which basically means that he wants something to be given to him). And once in a while he puts his index finger into his mouth and by the time it comes out, so is the rest of the food!

[Occasionally, he’d put stuff on his face, like what he’s doing in the photo, and it serves as a ‘natural barrier’]

And the mess. Oh my.

Food goes all over his bib, shirt, hair, earlobes, face, baby chair and of course the floor. Bits and pieces land on my shirt too at times.

[It goes without saying that his pram is also ‘decorated’ with dried-up foods]

To distract him, I entertain him with stuff like silly songs and moves, and whatever ‘new’ things that can double up as toys (plastic bowls, cards, keys, paper and crayons, books, etc).

And oh, these toys often need to be ‘changed’ every sixty seconds or so, because otherwise their ‘distracting effectiveness’ sort of … fades away

(on good days, a particular something can keep him entertained during mealtimes for more than five minutes!)

*takes a deep breath*

Oh well.

Kids do somehow manage to keep your life constantly ‘interesting’.

Especially when you have a little one like Vai.

*smile*

[added]
When he’s given toys that can be stacked or need to be inserted into something else (eg. cards and its box), he can be kept occupied for a bit longer.

Mommy. Big sister. Little brother.

Ah. I know I should’ve made something like this much much earlier. Like when they were newborns or something.

But then again I told myself it’s still not too late to make one now. To ‘freeze’ their hands’ sizes, especially while theirs are STILL smaller than mine. Heh.

And so I prepared the watercolour and made the prints just before they had their shower (yes, in the bathroom too) so that I can wash their hands soon after (read: before Vai went and made more green prints all over our tiles, bed, sofa, walls…)

Anyway. I like what we made.

Simple, rather messy, yet quite a nice keepsake.

Instead of using her crayons, she experimented with her ink stamp today.

Anya will start school next year and she’s so excited about it. We’ve been talking about school buses and she asked if we can make one today.

And so we did!

What we used:

> Used milk carton
> A4-sized coloured paper
> Styrofoam (for the wheels)
> Cutter, glue, scotch tape, crayons

We wrapped the coloured paper around the milk carton and taped both ends (as for the top bit – where you pour the milk out – we pushed it in so that it didn’t stick out too much)

I then drew the ‘windows’ and ‘doors’. I cut out four styrofoam circles and Anya coloured them all black.

She then stick the styrofoam wheels on the bus, coloured the door and wrote the bus number (somehow she chose to write the numbers ON the bus top! A really long bus number too!)

And, VOILA! We got ourselves a big yellow school bus! Hehe.

Anya sure was happy with the bus she made today!

So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right,
but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.

I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t.
I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong;
it is sin living in me that does it.

Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me
from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is:
In my mind I really want to obey God’s law,
but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Romans 7:14-20,25

Vai’s been really into crawling, cruising and climbing so far. But somehow he’s not that interested in walking. Not quite too sure why.

He’d usually take a few steps forward and:
> squat, then crawl
> fall, then crawl
> throw himself forward towards me

These past fews days Vai’s been more into walking though. When we hold him by the hand, he’s willing to walk (in the past, after taking ten steps or so, he’d want to squat and crawl again).

When Wilson and I ask him to walk back and forth between us, he’s more willing to do that too.

[His walk is still very wobbly and unstable though … with both hands up in the air. Heh.]

Anyway.

We often encourage him to try out his walking steps, and when he shows he wants to crawl again, we cheer and ask him to continue with his walk. If he does go back to crawling, we let him.

Frankly we’re not worried about it. Every kid is unique and Vai’s going to walk when he’s developmentally ready.

And I believe there’s a time for everything and we can’t (and shouldn’t) push something forward before its intended time.

And so right now we keep on encouraging him and enjoy his crawling moments while we still can, for we know soon he’d be walking everywhere and getting himself lost in the crowd!

No one is without faults. Our mistakes are countless.

But what’s most important is when we know we’re wrong, we have the humility to accept the reality and the heart and willingness to change.

Really. Kids can laugh at the simplest thing in life.

Which actually makes it somewhat easier for us parents to spend time with them and just have fun!