Daniel starts walking

Since we came back from France, Daniel started to take one or two steps at his nanny's. Daniel isn't an early developer on many aspects,He always want to be carried especially with me. We bought him a sturdy walker long time ago in the hope of assisting his physical development, he could walk with the aid of walker, but he has never been keen on that toy. Then we bought him another walker, a classic wooden trolley for Christmas, he didn't show much an interest either. He just continuously acts like a little boss, whenever I put the walker in front of him, with both his hands up and bout of scream, he always gets his way. last Wednesday he started to move several steps in a row to catch Terry's greeting hands after nursery. We were so surprised and delighted. Since Wednesday Daniel has became really interested in walking. He would stand up in the middle of the floor without holding onto anything for a minute and giggle, he probably realised he wasn't holding onto anything ( normally he would hold walker or adults' hand when he walks), then he would shuffle and giggle until he reach some furniture. I only captured his walking photo today before we set off to supermarket, so here we are Daniel's walking, we are proud of you.

Daniel's 'School Report'

I got Daniel's progress report for last 3 month on Thursday when I picked him up from nursery. Finally i got a glimpse of what my son was doing all day in the nursery. It contains so many pages (9 pages for a 14 month old! ;)) The report recorded Daniel's progress on 4 headings: 1) A strong child; 2) A skillful communicator; 3) a competent Learner; 4) A healthy child under an Individual learning Plan itemised into different action plan and they produced every 3 months.

On the summary page, I read that Daniel has made excellent progress with settling in after weeks of being upset. Daniel got all good comments under the four headings, e.g. 1) a strong child, i read Daniel has sense of belonging and being able to snuggle in; 2) A skillful communicator; Daniel sat well and used crayons well to make the marks; 3)A competent learner: being imaginative, mirroring movement;4) healthy child: growing,being well nourished. All evaluations are backed by individual Observation Sheet with photos attached. I particularly like one Observation Sheet dated 31/10/07, which read:

Daniel sat with a small group for singing, he had a tambourine in his hand. Daniel climbed up on a practitioner's knee, facing the other children. When the singing started, his peers play their instruments, Daniel put tambourine on his knee and pat it using his RH palm(open) smiling at the sound. Daniel sat well throughout Singing, tapped his tambourine using both hands while it still rested on his knee. he watched his peers and joined in most of the songs today, 'well done Daniel!'

Daniel enjoys songs and musical. I noticed that recently he would wave ans shout( his way of showing great joy) and move his body up and down or tap his leg once his familiar music was on. Nursery Singing session must contribute to this. I was quite delight to receive a report like this, but Terry think it's silly to do a detail report like this for a 14-month-old and categorize everything. 'that's what the money paid for' I said.

The Beginning of 2008

Just took a look on what I wrote on my blog in the Year 2007, I found it was quite interesting to me as it brought the mood up for me to go through what I has experienced in the last year. I don't normally do this sort of exercises, now all these photos and text remind me of what happened in our life in the past year, Daniel grows so fast and he is looking so different from when he did when he was little. I looked lots of our photos in Kunming with my parents and other relatives, then I can't help the feeling of missing them. This mood probably started by Terry's email about Flights to China this morning when we were both at work. We exchanged quite a few emails about this topic throughout the morning (my work was so quiet at the moment, half of people are still on holidays), then it looks we are going do the same again this year. My plan is to go back kunming in April with Daniel, that's for sure. Other things we haven't decided are wheather Terry go with us or not; which airline to fly with, namely where to transfer; then what we are going to do with our summer holiday etc. When I read some of my old postings this time of year, it looks that we are doing exactly the same thing same time of the year, ;) the only thing different is that Daniel is one year older...