My Big, Sweet, Not-So-Baby Boy

So what is going on in the life of almost-three-year old Jonathan, one might ask.

Well, right now, Jonathan has just gotten up from a nap and is screaming at me because his iPad app isn't working the way he wants it to.  It wants him to match the red balloon with the red balloon -- a concept totally within his grasp -- but he's being an ornery little guy and getting upset that it won't accept the green balloon.  What has caused this crisis?  Waking up.  Both in the morning and after naps it takes him a while to reconcile himself to being awake, though at other times, he's usually a happy kid.  His sister, on the other hand, usually gets over the trauma of waking up quickly and is her cheery self within minutes.  I definitely am looking forward to getting her up for school more than I am getting him up down the line.  (It reminds me of when my bosses' oldest daughter was young.  They used to tell me that they would take turns waking her up because she would get angry with whichever parent woke her up and would want to cuddle with the other one.)  On the up side, even if I am the parent that wakes him up, what he really wants when he's sad is snuggle with mommy.  It's nice to be needed, and I enjoy the cuddling, too, most of the time (as in, when he's not screaming.)  Tonight, however, even mommy is not enough.  He needs to disagree with something.  I'm just glad that it's his iPad app and not his sister.

As I wrote a little bit ago, we started sending Jonathan and Vivienne to a local nursery school/day care for a few hours every day.  It helps break up their day and gives them lots of exposure to Chinese.  It's a little odd sending children that young to school because they aren't quite at the linguistic developmental stage where they are able to tell you what they did there.  Additionally, I can't really communicate with the teachers/directors because it's limited by my Chinese, and the nanny is usually the one to pick them up and hear about their day.  Sometimes she tells me stories that they passed on to her -- like how neither of them really eat the school snacks (no surprise there -- I'm not actually sure what my kids DO eat, but they keep growing).  The other week, Vivienne came home from school with this tiny ponytail in her hair.

It's not much of a pony tail yet, I have to
say, but it's cute!

The teachers/aunties at her school put it in her hair and kept saying "Swee, swee," which is the Taiwanese (not Chinese) word for "pretty."  (I'm pretty sure she's the baby doll of the school.)  Now, in this house at least, all ponytails and rubber bands holding them and bows and flowers added to them are called "swee"'s, much to Stephen's chagrin since he's trying to get us to use "proper English" with them.  The first day, it was just Vivienne who came home with a "swee" in her hair, but the next day, Jonathan came home sporting one, too.  Apparently, he wanted one and cried until they put his hair up, too.  At home, he refused to let daddy take it out until bedtime.  So yes.  My son's been walking around Kaohsiung with his hair in a ponytail.

Why should girls get all the fun of getting
their hair done?

I guess it was our fault, really, for not getting around to that
much-needed haircut.

Mommy took this boy to get a haircut this week.
Let's see them try to ponytail that!

Jonathan is beginning to figure out the difference between English and Chinese, sometimes with hilarious results.  Today he insisted on "reading" me a book in "Chinese."  It went something like, "Sha fa sh fa she pa..."  Nope.  For those wondering it was neither real Chinese nor real reading, but it sure was real cute.  (The English teacher in me is cringing at the grammar of that last sentence.)

Ever since he started going to school, he has become more polite -- in English, mostly, so I'm not sure how they are related.  He is always saying "Thank you" for things, and if you say "You're welcome," he'll often repeat that back to you, too.  He also says "Sorry" at times -- like right after he's accidentally soaked you with water from the shower hose.

He loves to count things in English.  I'm pretty sure he can get up to about 14 or so.  He used to refuse to count in Chinese, but he's doing it more and more these days -- at least up to 10.  He also marches around saying "yi-er-yi-er," Chinese for "1-2-1-2."  I've heard his nanny do it with him, but I am guessing they do it at school, too.

Recently, I have begun to brave taking all three kids out and about on occasion by myself since some days I'm the only one around to get the older kids from nursery school.  Last Tuesday we made it all the way to the MRT (Underground/Subway/Metro/etc.) near the department store that's about a ten minute walk from the house since they have a cheap haircut place.  While there, Jonathan learned another important lesson: While mommy is feeding didi (little brother) and not paying attention, it's not a good idea to push the red button in the handicap restroom.  And I learned that, thankfully, the $50,000 NT (over $1,500 US) fine for pushing the button is not applied to almost-three-year olds.  The sounds of the alarm reverberated throughout the station and the speaker went on and on in Chinese, but no one seemed phased by it, except my kids who were all crying in the hallway by the time to workers got around to checking it out.  (I'm pretty sure didi - a.k.a. David - was just crying because his nursing session was cut short and he was still hungry.)

Last Saturday, I convinced Stephen to take the kids and I to Kaohsiung Harbor to see the giant, yellow rubber ducky (as seen in my last post) since a parent to baby ration of 2:3 is really nicer than 1:3 for trips afield -- especially in a land without cars.  I really wanted to get some good pictures with the giant duck, but we didn't get there for the best light, and the kids were really more interested in looking at the duck and the boats than turning around and looking at mommy.  When I finally did get Jonathan up on a box in front of the ducks (and the girls behind him to sit down), all the pictures I managed to get were like this:

He tells his didi (little brother) "Don't eat
hands," but he is incapable of following his
own advice.

The rest of the photos were all along this line,
accompanied by a soundtrack of "Cam-a, cam-a,"
by my budding little photographer/technophile.

Thankfully, I managed to get at least one or two decent shots of his sister with it.  After braving the crowds at the stalls set up nearby to get dinner, we ended the evening with a merry-go-round ride at the request (read "insistence") of his sister.  Although perfectly fine with it at first, Jonathan was not too sure about the horses once they got going.

There's a face that says, "Um, I'm not too
sure about this up/down thing..."

... so this is how he finished out the ride.

He's my cautious one, just like his Uncle Jonathan was as a child.  It must run in the family -- or go with the name.  But what a joy that little boy is, and we wouldn't trade him for the world.  God knew exactly what he was doing by blessing us with him.

As for tonight, a batch of churros definitely helped cheer up our little blessing, and though the nap threw off bedtime (again), at least he's happy (until tomorrow when I have to get him up for school, at least!)

Churros=happy.
(Though this is borrowed from an earlier churros evening,
evidenced by the long pre-haircut bangs/fringe)

And now, some bonus pictures from our day of the duck, just because I can't leave these two out entirely:

Vivienne chose this cookie herself, and
boy did she enjoy it. 

This little one has none of her brother's caution.
It wasn't easy getting her off after her ride.

Even though David slept through the actual giant duck part,
he still ended up with a souvenir of the evening.