My Little Tristan

I have shifted to Shanghai 2months+ ago, and currently has been away from home for a while, and did not really get to spend time with Tristan/Jeanne for the past months. I did make a trip back to Singapore 3 weeks ago, and the day Tristan saw me, he was not really sure if it was me.

As I went into the room at 6am, he was asleep. And he somehow came over and touched my face when he woke up, and when he realised its me, he was pretty excited and just keep going around the room, but he seems a bit shy, to come close to me. It was good that this time, he does remember me, compared to the last time we were 1month apart when he went back to Jeanne’s hometown.

Tristan has landed in Haikou and will be back to Jeanne’s hometown in Jiangxi, Nanchang late tonight. And they will be here to join me in Shanghai, coming Monday on 29th August.

I would say it feels great that I can go back to my family life again, with Tristan coming to me when I reach home, and its something which I really miss when I was alone here in Shanghai.

Tristan will join the local school here, in the international class where there is a foreign english teacher and a local chinese teacher on 1st September with new friends/new culture. I hope he will be as happy as he was during his time in the school in Singapore.

Its been a while i blogged, as work has caught up with me.

Maybe thats why my time with Tristan is also limited, to the nights I come back home and weekends. Its my fault as well, as weekends, i would have some personal activities like soccer, and catching up with friends, so the time really bonding together is not as much as before.

But Sunday mornings where my wife goes to class, and Tristan will be with me alone, thats good for me to catch up. Without mummy, Tristan turns into a good boy with me somehow, holding my hand while we walk, sit down to eat with me, and is less likely to be running around without control. Kids I guess know who they can bully and when they can throw tantrums.

I just feel sometimes, when I watch him still sleeping in the morning, or when we take a afternoon nap, he is so adorable, and he has really grown up so much, when I really forgotten the days he was still really a small baby drinking milk and sleeping. He is now more than 90+ cm, past the limit for free rides, free movies, but we so far were still able to sneak him into the trains/cinemas. I know one of these days we will probably get called by the ticketing staff, to purchase one for him which i will duly do so. It sort of just makes me feel that he has grown to a big boy now, and a happy one. Every morning, he will wake up with a smile, and also so bubbly running here and there, waiting for me to chase him and laughing to happily if I just try to catch him, saying “Papa is coming”. He just hides, slam the door on me, and try to hide in the rooms, or funnily put a pillow on his face, and think when he cannot see me, i cannot see him (like a ostrich). Of course, I can now see his full body length, but I would so say, “Where are you Tristan?”, and you can hear him chuckling, and thinking i cannot see him. I would then catch hold of his leg, and he will be so excited that I found him.

Tristan, has started to try to talk a lot, and still babbling a lot. At his age, probably his vocabulary is very limited, but I think he has shown good improvement, in terms of that, when he now starts to try to count, in english and chinese, and he can do it quite well. Maybe I have not really hear him speak a lot, so when he did that with me after his bath, i was quite “excited” even though he just counted 1 to 5 with his fingers for me to see.

Tristan has exceptional music inclination, and ability to remember directions very well. He can follow songs/and rhythm quite impeccably, without missing a note, even though he has yet to be able to sing every word. His ability to follow the dance moves also quite impressed me. Thats probably his strength and i think we will have to cultivate that.

Every kid has their “phases”, there will be a time they do something for a period of time, and then doing something else again, and then for a period of time, do another thing. Its really growing out of it, and periods of time where a kid seems so active and running around, he might become more reserved in the next phase, hopefully .

I am just glad that I see these phases, and I am grateful for that and I hope I will be there for him always during these phases.

For a while, I was concerned about Tristan’s speech development, but as always, I am reminded that each kids has his/her own development progress, and not to be compared. He has been in school now for around 2-3months now, and it has some some benefits, as he sometimes tries to sing, as well as count from 1 to 10 by himself. And he now says the cutest hello.

He is still extremely active, and pulls me to play with him whenever he is bored, and I am at the computer. At this moment he just pulled me, hahaha.

Recently I came across a friend who was very concerned about the english standard for her kids in school when they are 2 and another 5. I do agree that teachers must maintain a good standard of English, and pass this on to the kids. My friend kids’ teacher has made mistakes in letters sent to her, as well as simple careless mistakes like “Please tick on the box”. which she says should be “Please tick in the box”. Its may sound the same, but the mistake is a glaring one for her.

I have my own view, that this might be important, but I do not think a kid at this age remembers that, he must use in or out, or used, was, is…etc. Its good to start right young, but maybe for me, I started only really learning English, when I was in primary 3, when I really sort of got started to understanding what past/present tense is, what grammar is.

But I do not mean my friend is wrong, just that we should sometimes just let kids not be pressured at a young age about making mistake, fear about a language. Once the kid uses more, and is not afraid to make mistakes, sooner or later he is going to get better for the subject. But I do agree that school should always check their work before sending out to parents, as its parents reading the letters, and its really sad to see the teacher of your son making juvenile mistakes. Hopefully we can see less of this.

Tristan started schooling in playgroup. Its a new milestone, and great to see him in school uniform carrying his bag, carrying his water bottle, and saying goodbye to me/Jeanne, when we send him off now.

This is a video of him, dancing in his music “lesson” which the teacher feel Tristan was very good, as he can follow movements, and dance a lot. The teacher say Tristan is sometimes naughty, but when music comes out, he just go very happy and dance. I think the days we sent him for Gymboree Music class when he was 1.5yrs old paid off.

But of course, he is hyperactive in class. The teacher has complained, he gets on the table, he gets on the chair, refusal to eat the cookie during tea break. Seriously, i think that is normal. He is new to a place, he will tend to do that, but once he get used to it, he will not even bother climbing. As for the cookie, he dun like to eat cookies! Jeanne prepared apples now, and Tristan now sit down eat his apple, while the others continue eating cookies . Well done Jeanne.

As for the standing on table/chairs, it has stopped since. And our time with him colouring the paper drawings, helped … he nows draw  more in class, rather than just excelling in dancing/music . Lets hope as time progresses, Tristan will improve on every aspect and be ready for Nursery next year.