At 2 years and 4 months

At 2 years and 4 months, Oliver is a happy, funny, animated, pre-preschooler. He's been going for about a month. The first day he was not happy about it at all, but since then he's learned that it's a place that he gets to play with fun things and have more teachers who'll play with him than just me. So now he really enjoys school, and we often talk about the things we learned there. Since we started school, it's been much easier to get him to wash his hands, sit down to eat a meal, and understand the 5-minute rule before moving on to another activity. He's also learned to play next to other children, and how to handle situations when 2 of them wants the same toy.

Here's a picture of Oliver taken by the teachers at his preschool. Every Tuesday there's a music teacher, teacher William, who comes with little drums and shakers to teach the children to sing and play music. One thing teacher William likes to do is to have the children sing a color instead of just saying it. So we often play that game during non-school days and sing "Bluuuuue....Yeeeellllooooow!"

These are his classmates (We try not to use the word "friends" because at this age, children can play with you one day and ignore you the next. So not to confuse them the meaning of friendship, we say "the children in your class". That's another thing, the teachers say "children" and not "kids" which feels like you should take them more seriously.)

The boy in the red shirt is Koji, and the girl in pink is Mable. The blue square on the rug behind Mable is where I ask Oliver to sit when it's circle time. It's his favorite color, and from day one I told him go to "your" blue square. He now runs and lays down on his blue square.

Oliver playing with bubbles next to classmate Frisco. They actually used to hang out at the Coffeebean and Tea Leaf on Sunset when we used to walk there in the morning. We didn't know Frisco or his sister Lila, but saw them often. I recognized them in their Family Book at the school. So turns out these 2 goes way back when they were still babies...if only they knew.

Oliver still loves to play the drum, but he also enjoys pretending to play the trumpet and and the piano. (among lots of other pretend games and imaginary friends FaFa and Bubu) He loves to sing, and the list of songs he knows is growing:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in English and Chinese
The Hello Song (from school)
The Good Bye Song (from school)
ABCs
A song about 2 Tigers in Chinese in the melodies of Frere Jacques
Wheels on the Bus
Head Shoulders Knees and Toes
Toe Knee Chestnut (similar to Head Shoulder Knees and Toes)
A Bushel and a Peck (Chris grew up listening to his song, we only sang it to Oliver when he was a baby, and one day last week he just started to sing it!)
The Barney theme song
The Mickey Mouse Club House theme song
And he can hear a song and try to follow it, or make up his own song about anything by repeating the word to his own melody.

Oliver has really developed quickly his speech and even correct grammer. Yesterday he explained to Chris when he found a goldfish cracker on his car seat that "Daddy, I can't eat it. It's been in the car. We need to throw it away." He uses past and present tenses such as "It's stopped" or "I'm still playing." And although he responds in English 99% of the time, he knows when to use Chinese. One time he said "holes" but I didn't understand it. He "repeated" the word in Chinese...he basically translated for me. And he remembers all of our Chinese names, my cell phone number (my dad told me to teach him that the day before he passed away, Oliver learned it within a week) His ability to memorize is so amazing, he now can read along at least 2 books. The 2 favorites are: Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss and I'm Dirty (a book about a backhoe loader), and Rainbow Fish. We read them at bedtime, then open to his favorite page to be tucked between the bed frame and mattress so he can look at them. And Oliver tells us that he dreams about milk, and milk in a funny car coming out of the closet.

Everything is funny now. He likes the funny car, eat funny crackers. He loves his toy Lion "She-Tze" which is lion in Chinese. He will hold anything close and say "I love it! it's so cute!" and everything is pretty. His favorite food is still mostly fruits. He does love something called Gogi berry, which is used in many chinese herbal teas and medicine. Recently WholeFoods started to sell it as a snack that he tried it at school during snack time. Since then I've been putting them on his plate during meal time. He also likes savory flavored tofu that I cut into little sticks. He calls them train tracks. And he loves black olives, which are sliced and looks like wheels.

Oliver still helps to clean and sweep whenever "he can". He cleans up a lot at school which really impresses the teachers. At home, it's a little bit more work. I'm trying to have less toys out and before taking out another one, he should put an unused one away. He's also very well mannered. When he coughs, he will cover his mouth with his upper sleeve. He'll say excuse me, although he will say it with his face inches away from mine so I can't ignore him. He also likes to ask "Mommy, are you sad?" when he's done something wrong or when I'm upset. He'll always offer me a hug with a very sympathetic look on his face, followed by asking "Mommy, are you happy?" He also loves to say "by myself" when he does something by himself, and will hold the kitchen childproof gate open for me. What a gentle man. An ongoing joke he has is to tell me not to sing in the car, then I'll keep singing and he asks me to stop in a very serious tone. Then at bedtime, he'll ask me to sing Hop on Pop and switch back to reading when he feels like it.

Other than trying to figure out how to handle him waking up at 4:30 am, he continues to be great company and an amazing child.

Message from the President: September

Diapers! Check. Oliver‘s favorite toys! Check. Back up diapers and toys! Check and check. I haven‘t even packed my clothes yet and the luggage is already half full. (At least I am feeling optimistic.) This was the first Dooley family vacation by air. For months I was feeling excited and stressed over the details of this trip. The one thing I hadn‘t planned for was arriving late at the airport with our over-weight luggage, and had to tell Oliver in my most cheerful voice ―We are going to race and see who gets to the gate first!

Luckily, we did make our flight and had little drama on the plane. (Our luggage made it too.) Installing the car seat in the heat was a drag. And although we arrived too early for check in, we were just happy that we could finally start this vacation. It was a wonderful week of enjoying the sea breeze and warm waters of Kauai. And we all returned a bit more tanned, and much more relaxed.

Sometime during the trip, I thought about how different traveling was like before the baby. Not only the preparation has changed, but what activities you choose, how the day is scheduled, and how you experience your surroundings. It‘s a big production that can feel scary and overwhelming. Actually, it‘s not much different from those early days trying to go anywhere with my newborn. I was a nervous wreck, concerned about where to feed and change him, and how to keep myself together when he cries in public. And either I stuff the diaper bag until the zipper won‘t close, or be ready to stop by the drug store because I‘m one diaper short.

After two years of practice, I still find it a hassle to go out. To add to the dreaded exit procedures, Oliver now informs me that he‘s ―done sitting‖ after 10 minutes of driving time. Yet, we go out sometimes twice a day, and I‘ve learned to keep some extra diapers and clothes in the car. What I have found was that if I just get out of my comfort zone and leave the house, I get a huge pay off in the end. The world outside of our 1100 sq ft house can provide way more stimulation and entertainment than I can ever come up with (or have the energy for). And it‘s such a treat to see your child being fascinated by all the things that grown ups can no longer see. I always notice changes in Oliver after visiting a new place. It‘s feels like his brain has made new connections from the experience, and fast-forwards to the next milestone.

Maybe it‘s because of my sheltered childhood that I didn‘t develop an adventurous spirit until I was in college. I think I missed out on a lot of opportunities because of it, and that‘s probably what motivates me to go out nowadays. By not focusing so much on my own stress, I‘ve allowed myself to enjoy our outings. I feel rejuvenated when there are other grown ups that I can socialize with. And I feel therapeutic when I can use my imagination and play pretend, or be intrigued by the mundane. I never would have imagined having a good time while sitting in the middle of the sidewalk to watch street construction with Oliver.

Lately, I remind myself often that Oliver is not the only person who needs to be out more. I‘m also making efforts to have more ―me time‖, to catching up with old friends, and pamper myself whenever I can. It makes a huge difference in my energy and my emotional wellbeing when I break the routine. It‘s all about finding more balance in life as a stay at home mom. With that in mind, I invite you all to the great outdoors with your children. And will continue to plan club activities that will invigorate your spirit.

Oliver's first bee (wasp) sting

I took Oliver to a new park the other day. He was so excited when he saw the playground from the parking lot. Right away he spotted the train in the middle of the playground and said "I want to go on the train!" Even though there was plenty of other things to climb on and run through, we'd always return to the train. While he stays in the engine, I was asked to sit in the caboose.

This park had a lot of great features. It has a sand area which backhoes you can sit on and scoop sand. A play area that looked like a castle, a ship, and an airplane. Then there's another area that had roads with stop signs and a little gas station. There was also many slides, swings, see-saw (which he's never been on before).

Oliver loved this park and would run around and want to show me his discoveries. He also found the perfect bench for us to stop and have a snack: a box of raisins.

Another boy there had left his motorcycle toy in the road area of the park. So we borrowed it and Oliver rode it around like the coolest 2 year old boy. Especially with the jacket he wore that day, he looked like a real biker.

So we spent quit a bit of time at this park and it was almost time to go. Oliver returned to his favorite spot, the engine. For a minute, he had his back turned to me and hanging his body out the window. All of the sudden I heard him scream. The first time I actually thought he was just playing, then the second scream I ran over there. I saw there was a wasp stuck to his finger. Normally even if nothing was on him he'd get very upset, it must have hurt a lot. I remembered a while back looking up what to do when you get bee sting, so I quickly scraped off the wasp. As it was flying away, I saw a string of sticky venom coming out. Luckily there was no stinger left in Oliver's skin. He was crying and wanted to go home, but moments later he was fine and wanted to play more. It didn't look like he was getting any allergic reaction, but I was looking up on my phone/internet to see if I needed to do anything else. After washing his hands, we left the park and I saw a park ranger. So we made a detour and the ranger was able to tell me that Oliver seems ok, and gave us an ice pack. I think because the wasp was removed so quickly that Oliver only got poked, but didn't get any venom. He was totally fine and even the red mark disappeared by bath time.

Tough kid!

Another interesting interaction that day was a lesson in sharing toys and making friends. We were playing with someone else's sand toys. Another boy was nearby so I asked if Oliver wanted to play with him. So I taught him to say "Play together?", the boy didn't respond. Then later Oliver divided up the toys between the 3 of us. The boy still didn't respond. So I told Oliver that it's ok, he's not ready to play with us. So after a while, Oliver took the "assigned" toy right to the boy and left it in front of him. The boy didn't respond, but Oliver didn't push after that. When we were all done playing, I asked Oliver to collect all the toys and return to the mom who let us play with them. He did pick up each one and put it on their blanket. And later said thank you to her. I was so proud of him for doing that. And I hope he'll remember this lesson and do it on his own sometime.