10 Years of Us...

It was our 10th year anniversary on Apr 24, 2011, and we decided to leave Renzo at home with Ayeaye for a couple of hours, while both of us sneaked out of the house to have some personal time together. Win and I started our courtship exactly 10 years back, when I was 21 and he was only 17. We do not have any romantic story to share but being a very rational couple, the best gift we could give to Renzo is, to be able to maintain a harmonious family atmosphere, with absolutely no quarreling in the past 10 years, I am pretty confident that Renzo will be brought up with respect and patience.

We went for a simple lunch at Ma Masion followed by drinks at Billy Bombers along Clarke Quay. We wanted to try out the champagne brunch buffet at Ritz Carlton (yes our favorite Ritz again since that's where we held our wedding), only to find out that they were almost fully booked and the cost is about 168++ per pax. So Win made a last minute decision on where to go and indeed we really enjoyed it. We headed home right after that to play with our little boy, and heard from Ayeaye that Renzo cried for daddy and mummy after he woke up from his nap.

Well yes Renzo still cries often, it's the same at his childcare center. He refused to wear his school uniform for a week, and till now after being there for a good 3 weeks, he still cries on and off. But we do see some improvements after he started school. Finally he learned how to self-feed, not that we didn't teach him at home, but I can see that he is more willing to do it nowadays, and see the way he holds the bowl with his left hand, that's what school teachers always remind them to do.


Also he's been talking non-stop at home nowadays (indeed he's always been a little chatterbox), although teacher commented that he is quiet in school. He likes to repeat whatever we say be it a complicated word or a long sentence. He often gives comments like: "Daddy prepare for you (he meant 'me') milk milk", "Mummy blow hair... stop.. Mummy finished", "Renzo wear socks, shoes, walk walk".. (Excuse his grammar please).. And I can see a tremendous improvement on his articulation. Here's a record of him saying months of the year, it's so much clearer as compared to 3 months ago. He could recite "January" to "December" in perfect sequence on his own indeed, but for no apparent reason he will skip "July" every time.. LOL..


After my previous "emo post", we deliberately put in more efforts in handling Renzo, and keep him away from Ayeaye during weekends. We do see pretty good result but my next worry is, for my upcoming 10 days trip to the States, will Renzo still recognize me after I come back?!!

I wish he could "love" us a bit more..

Renzo started school on April 01, 2011 and it is a half day childcare at the moment, as we still have our maid Ayeaye with us till Sept, we are not in a rush to leave him there for a full day care, and indeed because he is too young (only less than 20 months when he started), teachers at the childcare center also encourage us to let him try out half day for a few months.

How is he doing at school?
Teacher's feedback: "Pretty good, getting better, on and off cries for his auntie Ayeaye, but plays well with his friends and enjoys music & dance time to the fullest. Learning to eat on his own at the same table with other kids but very quiet and do not speak much."

Auntie Ayeaye's feedback: "Cries badly, hard to leave him there, cries even when being picked up after lunch."

Daddy's feedback: "Renzo has grown up after a few days at childcare, he is able to self-feed and became more talkative at home."

Mummy's feedback: "Super clinging to his auntie Ayeaye!"
Yes that's the only impression I got after he entered school. Indeed he's not the only one having a tough time coping with new changes, me too! Just a month ago, he was longing for my company and even told us "Auntie ayeaye go home (Myanmar) already, no more, byebye". But now, he does not even want to look into my eyes or let me touch him, all he needs and wants is just his Auntie Ayeaye. He must be thinking that mummy is so cruel to send me to school and leave me there alone, only Auntie Ayeaye can save me and bring me home..

Anyway being a very rational person, I allowed myself to feel gloomy and depressed for one day, and I have to get over it and move on with a positive mindset that Renzo will understand eventually that we are already trying out very best. And from now till Ayeaye goes back to Myanmar in Sept, I told Daddy Chan that we have to spend every possible minute of ours with Renzo, establish a healthy attachment with him and become his safe harbor.. Well we definitely thought we are since day one, but apparently Renzo's sees Ayeaye as his safe harbor, at least for now =(

Renzo's 4th language... Quadlingual?

I have always been a person who believed that communication is one of the more important aspect of almost everything one does in life, ranging from social life to love life to career life... And when one mentions communication, language is probably the first thing that comes to mind. So early in Renzo's life, Feli and I agree that focusing on Renzo's linguistic skills would be an appropriate step toward achieving the ultimate aim of having Renzo properly expressing himself.

So it was just another usual weekday evening when we showered Renzo, only this time it was slightly earlier, in hopes that he will sleep earlier as we were trying to change his routine slightly to allow him to sleep earlier and wake up earlier in preparation for his upcoming days in childcare, where we estimate that he'll have to wake up at approximately 7:30am (for the longest time this boy has been sleeping around 10-11pm and waking up around 8-9). After his shower we played with him on our bed in an attempt wear off the seemingly infinite energy Renzo possesses. To our amazement, he began humming a song that neither Feli nor myself recognised.

We knew that Renzo understood a little Cantonese, afterall he recognizes his ears as "Yit Zai" instead of their English reference. But this song, it was undoubtedly neither English, Mandarin, nor Cantonese. It was then we turned our eyes to Aye Aye, who stopped mopping our room, to find her in similar awe.

Unknowingly, Renzo had picked up a Burmese song from Aye Aye. Aye Aye explained that she sings to Renzo her songs from Myanmar to entertain and sometimes to pacify a cranky Renzo. It must have been from these repeating lullabies that Renzo picked up a few words of the Burmese language. Further prompting reveal that Renzo can say 1 to 5 in Burmese too (OMG ~! Cooool...).

So while he was still active and chatty, we quickly took a quick video of him


Now all that is left is to have my bro or sis-in-law to teach Renzo some middle-eastern language, and Renzo will be Pentalingual... and maybe Feli's cousin can teach Renzo Japanese... Hexalingual?