The Parenting Thread

As mentioned in the October Acquisition thread I got the Transformers Animated Collection book... for my daughter. :p

It's one of those books entirely printed on thick cardboard pages (similar to other books for infants like the Hungry Caterpillar) which not only makes it easier for infants with more limited dexterity to turn the pages, but also lets them do so without wrinkling or tearing the book apart. My daughter's already torn one of my comic books apart (don't worry, it wasn't a TF comic ;)). I know those of you with older children and are old hats at the parenting game must be thinking, "well duh," but I thought I'd share this with my fellow parenting noobs. :D

That and I just wanted an excuse to talk about this book. Heh. It's basically a big advert for the toys - there's pics of each figure with a profile explaining who they are etc. Of course, I have every mould in the book 'cept Blackout. The book isn't persuading me to rush out and buy him... yet. ;)

Something entirely unexpected happened tonight... while changing my daughter and getting her ready for bed, I started singing "Sakura Sakura" (Cherry Blossoms) to her as a lullaby and as I was doing this with my hands putting on her pants, she started signing "Sakura" in Nihon-Shuwa (Japanese Sign Language)! The funny thing is, she's NEVER been explicitly taught any sign language.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22..._20110121c.jpg Making the sign for "Cherry Blossom"

On a few occasions when I sing Sakura Sakura to her, I might sign the song just to make it fun, but I've never taught the signs to her as I would when teaching her spoken language (e.g. repetition, association, acknowledgement, praise, correction etc.) - at best she would've learnt this from just the occasional observation... and it's not something I've shown her too often, and it's also been ages since I've done it (I'd nearly forgotten about it until tonight). I know the more experienced parents here won't think much of this, but as a first timer I'm just astounded at how much children can learn by osmosis -- just by observing and absorbing everything around them, even without being instructed.

:)

Possibly Lugnut's youngest fangirl (his only fangirl??)...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ki_lugnut2.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ki_lugnut1.jpg <---working on her evil Decepticon grin :cool:

Looks like she's moved on from Lugnut and found a new flame... chopper flame!

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ptimuskiss.jpg

2 months ago Yukikaze started saying "Bumblebee" (which she says as "Bum boo dee!" -- she now refers to all Transformers (and Voltron) as Bumblebee. :p She also now tries to sing along whenever she hears this song :)

Earlier this week she picked up a new expression: "Beast Wars" (she says it as "Bee Whoa!") ;)

Good to see her learning all the important words. :cool:

Kids sure grow up fast Gok - I still remember when you had her in the pram that time some Sydney TF fans had a meet in the city...

We're expecting our first child (a girl) next March....

Congratulations Sam! :) So good that you already know the gender. We wanted to know but whenever we did the ultra sound, her legs were crossed!! I remember my wife getting frustrated and asked the radiologist, "How are we gonna find out now?" and he replied, "The same way your grandparents did... when the baby's born!" :D :p

It was kinda annoying for us not knowing though. Having to buy gender-neutral colours, and when people kindly offered hand-me-down baby stuff, we accepted it all - so my daughter still has various baby blue clothes :p

But the most arduous part was picking the name!! :eek: I recommend getting that sorted if you haven't already... it's amazing how much you can argue over a kid's name! Especially for us because we wanted to choose a single name that was trilingually compatible - and of course, we had to choose a boy and girl's name! :rolleyes: Before we did this I used to wonder why some Asian parents choose completely different Anglophone and Asian names for their kids, and I thought that it was cool how some parents chose ones that were compatible across languages -- like one of my students, her name is technically Korean, but it's spelt and pronounced the same as an Anglophone name too; although I think it was a happy coincidence, don't think her parents had that in mind when they chose the name. But now I understand why most don't bother doing it -- it's a pain the bum!! :p

Here's my daughter watching G1 this morning:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXTk8S6L2Sk

Earlier this evening she was tapping me on the leg going, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Bumboodee! Bumboodee! Bumboodee!" -- I turned around to see that Target Xmas commercial that shows like a split second of a MISB Leader Class Bumblebee toy. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sam

Kids sure grow up fast Gok - I still remember when you had her in the pram that time some Sydney TF fans had a meet in the city...

We're expecting our first child (a girl) next March....

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Congrats Sam :)

My youngest will be 2 in January the time really does go quick. I find it such a conflict. I kinda want them to be more independent as I am already completely exhausted but I also dont want them to grow out of that cute phase around that age.

Yeah, it's great having them so cute and cuddly, but then it's exhausting cos they're so entirely dependent on you for everything. Then when they get older they can do stuff for themselves, but are too "cool" to play with the olds. ;) :p

Although I think it's great how Saintly still plays Transformers with his boys. I hope his boys never grow out of that. :)