Let's introduce - The Leapfrog learning DVD set, again!!

We just discovered Renzo's recent progress which he likes to "show off" a bit only when he is in good mood.

Here is a video clip of Renzo reciting the Chinese poem 《悯农》 that I've been reading this to him a few times every night for a month and my hard work got paid off, just last night (Jan 27), he could finally recite this whole poem all on his own, and praise himself "GOOD BOY" when he's done.
锄禾日当午，汗滴禾下土。

chu2 he2 ri4 dang1 wu3, han4 di1 he2 xia4 tu3

谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦。

shui2 zhi1 pan2 zhong1 can1, li4 li4 jie1 xin1 ku3

Besides the "睡吧睡吧, 我亲爱的小宝贝" song he used to sing along with me, he learned a new one from Ayeaye.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!"
Those words highlighted in red are the ones he could remember and sing on his own, and I am sure he will remember the entire lyrics in no time!

Some of my mummy friends asked me why is Renzo able to start talking so early. Well, like I always said every kid is special so I don't think there's a concern about being able to do something earlier or later than other kids. Even siblings also have very different progressions. Just like many kids started walking at 9 - 10 months but Renzo only started at 15 months. We don't have to compare them, they will be able to do the same eventually and it is just a matter of time.

But of course I have to say that it is most fun to see how your kid learn to talk, as there's so much communication and interaction. So I've been recommending this set of Leapfrog DVD (yup it's leapfrog again) to many of my friends, as I truly believe it helped to stimulate Renzo's brain and accelerate his language learning capabilities.

For those of you who are interested to get it, i got mine from this seller on SMH:
http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/581296/4804261.html?1293583890

For young kids around Renzo's age, I would highly recommend this set:
Leapfrog Learning DVD Set BP Price: S$45
(i) Leapfrog Letter Factory - Renzo learned A - Z from this, although he only knows the phonic sounds of a few alphabets as of now, it's a perfect start for babies around 6 - 12 months of age
(ii) Leapfrog Talking Words Factory - pretty short but boring clip, we played this for a few times only. [Added on July 20, 2011] We recently took this piece out and started playing for Renzo since he's too familiar and maybe in a way, bored with other 2 discs. We realized it's better to play this disc only after your child has mastered all his phonics sounds. It's much easier to catch the little one's attention as simple and complicated words are introduced in this disc.
(iii) Leapfrog Let's Go to School - Renzo's favorite as it comes with so many songs, he learned Sunday to Saturday, 1 - 20 and many animals all from this disc
(iv) 26 pieces flashcards - We have not opened this yet, just playing normal flash cards with Renzo as we want to keep the whole set intact

i'll leave you with an audio clip of Renzo (taken in dark just before Renzo's bedtime). In this clip, he names the days in order and there's another recitation of 《悯农》.

Have fun mummies and babies!!




_{(Subtitles courtesy of Daddy Chan)}

Summary of Renzo on Facebook

And no when i say "Renzo on Facebook" i didn't mean him having a Facebook account but more on the mentions of him on Facebook on my wife's FB status.

Just a few days ago, I was still chatting with Feli on her recent increased frequency of updating her FB status with Renzo's latest updates. I guess certain achievements of little Renzo are easier to put down into a simple sentence than to write a full blog post here.

Well... I figured that since Facebook might not keep her updates for eternity, might as well record what I can salvage from the depths of her FB wall...=P

So without further ado, let us see Renzo on Facebook... from before he even has his Facebook account...=P

04/08/2009	is counting down for a 4 months paid leave in another 4 days time~~
16/11/2009	feels great seeing Renzo lifting up his head, turning left and right..
01/12/2009	@ 3 months 2 weeks and 4 days, Renzo can sit on his own for a while, wondering when can he flip and hold his own bottle..
04/12/2009	I shall never rely on anyone else to help with looking after Renzo, I know I can, and I must handle this myself..
09/12/2009	first day back to work, and my poor boy just cried non-stop for 30 minutes while I was having conf call with my boss, there's just nothing i can do though I am only one door away.. should I ask my boss to wait if it happens again next time?!
14/01/2010	Renzo's sleeping pattern is getting from bad to worse.. Wakes up once for Milk but 5-7 times for water.. haiz when can I change his bad habit…
25/01/2010	No more online shopping for myself, only for Renzo..
10/03/2010	Yeah! Renzo passed motion 5 times in 3 days, ALL in his POTTY!!! wahahahahha..
06/05/2010	bought 17 pieces of clothes for Renzo, 1 bag, 1 pair of shoes, 1 eye shadow and 5 pieces of clothes for self, after starting the new job, but.. before getting the first pay cheque....gosh!!
12/05/2010	Ayeaye told us she found the doubleA battery used for Renzo's musical playmat inside his playpen, and guess who did it? Yes that's Renzo who took them out, I really wonder how he did it sia?!
12/08/2010	Happy birthday my dear little Renzo! Thanks for bringing so much joy and happiness to us, daddy and mummy love you!!
12/10/2010	Renzo just started to make sounds like "biscuit", "sweet potato" and yes it is all about FOOD!!
14/10/2010	Evil mango, stay away from me and my precious boy!
21/10/2010	Poor Renzo has turned to a fruitarian for the past few days, refuse to eat his normal meal and 80% of his food intake is just fruit, make me wonder is that because I was eating 8-10 servings of fruits daily during my pregnancy? =( Hope he will be back to the usual self soon..
25/10/2010	Renzo just learned his first few Chinese words: "小宝宝",“鸡蛋” and "小胖", haha so funny but guess he doesn't really know that's chinese anyway…
26/10/2010	Finally, i confirmed the reason why Renzo can't sleep through the night. I cut his midnight feeding since he was about 4 months+, and he has this habit of waking up a few times at night, taking a sip of water and sleep back. Last night he woke up about 3 times to drink his water as usual, and out of that 3 times, there were twice he woke up and shout "biscuit!!!". That's the power of COMMUNICATION, LOL..
05/11/2010	Renzo tried ice lemon tea for the first time today, and shouted "NICE"!!! of course lah so sweet... =(
11/11/2010	Thank you all my dear friends for your well wishes... Enjoyed my day with my sweet hubby and lovely boy.. Renzo said "happy", "birthday" to me although he doesn't understand the meaning yet.. feeling so heartwarming =)
19/11/2010	little Renzo pulled my ear and shouted "耳仔, 耳仔" in cantonese, haha the only word in dialect taught by his grandma…
21/11/2010	Finally, Renzo starts to tell us "pee pee" when he wants to pass urine.. Life should be much easier for us isn't it? Nope not true, there's never enough time to bring him to the potty =(
07/12/2010	Got to be extremely cautious with our choice of words from now.. Last night Win was commenting that Renzo has big buttocks and looks very cute when he was flipping around on our bed, and the little boy repeated after his daddy "大屁股，大屁股".. OMG..
10/12/2010	When ayeaye poured water on Renzo's head to wash his hair, he said "RAINING!", ergh boy, shower shower only lah where got raining?!
15/12/2010	Renzo kept crying out for "Ayeaye" before he fell asleep last few nights despite me looking after him every single night since he's born. When I offered to hug him he said "不要不要". So I asked, "you don't want mummy carry?" He replied firmly, "Don't want". Heartpain! But what to do, I can't afford to be a SAHM just because he is more clingy to our maid. As long as he is healthy and happy, I should be contented.
19/12/2010	Renzo knocked his head onto dining table, he rubbed his head and looked into my eyes innocently and said "pain pain", then continue spinning, dancing and laughing around.. ergh so not painful or not bothered?!
21/12/2010	kindergarten vs. full day childcare, why so hard to decided??!!
26/12/2010	Renzo boy keeps repeating his words till we can understand him, and the latest word I figured out is "Christmas Tree".. Haha
26/12/2010	Just asked hubby to guess who's Renzo's favorite actress in that TVB show "宫心计"， and he got it right, that's 米雪.. he knows his son so well, LOL Why? Because when he sees other women, Renzo goes "auntie" or "nainai (ah mah)", but whenever he sees 米雪, he goes "JIEJIE"!!!
30/12/2010	Renzo counts from 1 to 10, although most of the time he stops at 7 since our flat is on 7th floor, haha..
03/01/2011	Renzo was sitting right in front of the fridge and shouting "yakult, yakult".. LOL..
06/01/2011	Today, Ayeaye told us that Renzo pulled his potty out and when she thought he's trying to play with it and wanted to stop him, he sat on it and passed motion! Our boy did it right all on his own for the first time, happy~
08/01/2011	Just a few month ago, when we played "high five", "shake hand" with Renzo, he responded accordingly.. Now? He gives us his small hand and says "high five". "shake hand" and wait for us to respond, how time flies!
10/01/2011	OMG i feel like crying.. First time i heard Ayeaye singing "ABCDEFG", Renzo went "HIJKLMN", and Ayeaye continued with "OPQRSTU" and Renzo followed by "UVWXYZ".. I love BOTH OF THEM!!!!
11/01/2011	Renzo boy amazed us with 3 things last night.. 1. count from 1 to 10 in sequence on his own, then count from 11 to 20 with us.. 2. say Sunday to Saturday in sequence on his own, although his "friday" is not really clear.. 3. sing "睡吧，睡吧，我亲爱的小宝贝" suddenly when i started with "睡吧".. hope he is always in such good mood!!!

There we have it... quite a mouthful of Renzo....=P

So Renzo, when the day comes that you want to know a brief summary of the first 17 months of your life... this might be just the post for you~ ^_^

(Photo courtesy of Renzo's Godpa,Mike, of 4stillangles)

Renzo and all his funny patterns

These are all the patterns (I could remember), from our cute little boy before he turns 17 months old on Jan 12, 2011. I am blogging about it because I believe he will laugh out loud one day when he reads this.

Pattern # 1: Ask for FOOD
- He runs to the fridge and says: "open door, open door".
- If we refuse to open the fridge door, he will sit right in front of the fridge and shout: "yakult, yakult".
- Then he pulls his baby chair and says "baby chair, sit down, eat, spoon, fork".
- About one hour later, he plays the same trick and ask for orange, or yogurt.
- He's always eyeing on our neighbour's orange outside their door, ergh, but that's for praying my boy! (the ones on the altar for praying to "ti gong")
Pattern # 2: See car car
- Something he requests everyday, so we have to bring him to the window that has a clear view of the multistory car park.
- Then he starts to name the vehicles he could see one by one: "Car Car", "bicycle", "Van", "Taxi", "Motor cycle", and not forgetting the "dust bin" nearby.
- He also says "train", "bus" when we bring him out, and he could differentiate all these vehicles and pronounce the names pretty clearly. *proud*

Pattern # 3: Jiejie Nice
- When he watches TV or reads magazine, he points at the girls and boys and says "Jiejie, Nice", "Korkor, Nice".
- There's one time he pointed at a baby girl's picture on motherhood magazine and said "Jiejie, Nice", then he kissed that picture and gave me a cheeky smile.
- He calls all actress in the TVB show "宫心计" either "auntie" or "nainai", but whenever he sees 米雪，he calls her "Jiejie".

Pattern # 4: Ayeaye coming
- He knows when he needs our maid and he often goes "Auntie Ayeaye! Auntie Ayeaye!", the pronunciation is extremely clear.
- When Ayeaye told him "coming coming", he will say "Ayeaye coming, Ayeaye coming"

Pattern # 5+6: Q&A + Talking to himself
- I was opening my letters in the envelop and he asked: "What's that?".
- I told him "That's a letter, Renzo".
- He then repeated "letter, letter".
- He walks around the house and goes like "What's that?" "Fan Fan".
- Then he walks to the other side of the room, points at the light and says "What's that?" "Light".

Pattern # 7: Counting
- Renzo counts from ONE to TEN in sequence and he loves to do that almost everyday, sometimes he will randomly add on Fourteen and Eighteen. (Not count to... e.g ...7,8,9,10,18)
- There was once he picked 2 biscuits from his bowl and put on the sofa and said "TWO".

Pattern # 8: Ant
- He points at the ants on the floor and goes "Ant, Ant".
- He points at the mole on my thigh and goes "Ant, Ant".
- He points at the dirt in his bathtub and goes "Ant, Ant", well that's all the dirt washed off from your body lor boy!!

Of course not all of us can see his patterns as most of the time we are at work and he is at home alone with Ayeaye. I am lucky enough to experience all these while I was having my holiday during office shutdown last week. So I had to inform Win immediately after I noticed his new pattern.

No wonder our neighbor auntie once feedback to us that it seems that our boy is scolding our maid (She often heard Renzo calling Ayeaye very loudly, but since she doesn't understand English, she has no clue about their conversation). Well how can a 16 months old boy "scold" a maid?! What I found out after one week is that Renzo knows how to "give instructions" to Ayeaye and get things done his way.