Planting Seeds

I always think planting is a great toddler activity as it teach toddler about growing, about faith, and patience, and waiting. Daniel plant some sunflower seeds and strawberry seeds with his daddy last weekend.

The sunflowers seeds grew just over a week. I think Daniel was very excited to see the seeds he palnted growing.

The Sun Got His Hat On

We took Daniel to see The Sun Got His Hat On, a puppy show in the new Civic Center. The Theatre Room locates in a newly-refurbished 19 century stone building with a modern interior. The show is about the comical tales and colourful animal puppets from land, sea and sky in a sway-along, bounce-along, sing-along romp of musical storytelling. All inspired by tales and rhythms of the Caribbean. Aimed at the twos to fives. We walked to the Civic Center and Daniel fell asleep in the buggy. Daniel wanted to go playground last minute before we went, I took him to the local playground, and we ended up arriving theatre a bit late, the show was just about to start. While I was worrying that Daniel would wake up screaming in the theatre, it turned out he was OK. He sat there watching the show and other children, enjoying and participating when people sang along, sway along and pat hands along. It was a bit experience for him..

Daniel's Fashion Sense

Tuesday morning, having had his breakfast in the kitchen Daniel rushed into lounge, Terry just turned on Telly to watch Breakfast news. The lady presenter on Telly that morning was wearing a white Chiffon blouse with a black jumper outside. The blouse has some beautiful bold frills at collar, with the contrast of the black jumper, it looks very exaggerating. Daniel gave a glimpse on the Telly, uttered a sentence like this ' people silly... got bib on...' then ran away, I can't help bursting into laugh. That presenter had been criticised for bad dress sense before, as for her outfit that morning, Daniel said exactly what i felt that moment. Haha...

I don't know where Daniel got all these fashion ideas from, I certainly never talk about fashion in front of him.

Daniel was sitting in the bed watching nursery rhythms on my laptop while i was doing my make-up in front of mirror. I tried on a red shirt and a mini skirt, both are very skinny type, which I don't normally wear as they hug my body tight. Daniel raised his head from laptop giving me a quick glimpse, said 'Mummy pretty!', which is a bit unusual and fresh. I had never asked him this sort of question like 'is mummy pretty?'. It was a bit surprise to hear Daniel make such a comment. Hearing this, Terry didn't want be left out, he dive into the conversation and asked Daniel: 'Is Daddy pretty then?' Daniel said loudly and firmly 'No!' .... we can't help to laugh...

More Easter Photos

Wentworth Garden Center and Farm was fully packed today. People everywhere, kids everywhere. We didn't bother the tea and coffee as there was a long queue in the coffee house. The scene is pretty much similar the ones in China during the major public holidays. We went there trying to buy a cherry tree and also let Daniel to play in the farm and playground. Daniel just too busy with all the toys on offer in the farm to look the animals.

Easter Update

Daniel's Easter Friday spent at Jolly Tots, a local soft play place. Jolly Tots is a bit better than Jelly Bean in terms of interior design and toys. Daniel enjoyed playing Jolly Tots, I played with him on Slides for a bit, he was giggling and laughing with a little girls. Then he got on play on his own, leaving us relaxing with coffees and magazines. That's why I like to take Daniel to soft play.

Saturday I went down gym and Daniel went to shopping with Daddy in the morning. Afternoon I took him to the local Playground. Daniel hunted Easter eggs at home after playground. Chocolates certainly made his day.

More Chocolate eggs today. And we went to Lord Nelson, a pub the other side of town for lunch. I shared vegetable lasagna with Daniel, which he enjoyed very much. Terry had Lord Nelson pie. Afternoon, playground again at Daniel's request.

I had so much fun with mummy...

'Daddy, daddy, I had so much much fun with mummy...' Daniel shouted towards upstairs to Terry. Terry was working upstairs. We've been playing the-dragon-come-to-get-you for ages, Basically Mummy played the dragon and the dragon come to get Daniel and tickle him then snatch the jigsaw numbers from his little hands, Daniel then come to get the numbers back by recognizing them. Daniel was laughing and giggling and rolled head over heels. He really loved this game and he can't contain his excitement by shouting to his favorite parent Daddy.

This morning when i parked car at the nursery park and got Daniel out of the car, Daniel said 'Mummy goes to work... she still love me so much...'

We took Daniel to Manchester last Sunday to meet up some other Chinese children in a Chinese restaurant.There were 8 children there. Daniel seemed to get along, he was among the youngest ones there, he was running around after the old kids and enjoyed the whole event. Yesterday, i asked him 'Now you got lots of Chinese friends, you should speak Chinese, right?' Guess what Daniel said. Daniel responded to me 'I got English friends at nursery, i say English' he made me laugh (frustrated as well)...

Daniel is very sunny and sociable lately despite of his tantrums. He rarely display his tantrum outside house for a while. At Manchester's Chinese gathering, people kept telling me how well Daniel has behaved, he knows taking-turns and returning things. It seems that his don't-like-sharing phase is over. He might still doesn't like sharing but he does share.

The weekend before last one, we took Daniel down south to see his grandparents and girls. Daniel's cousins were there as well. Daniel chatted away and played ball with Mathew and Charlotte in the garden, who are over 12/15 years senior than him. Nanny thinks Daniel is really sociable

Wouldn't mind to be the second favourite

We are still on Daddy phase! It wasn't actually that bad once I got used to it. I had a lot more ME time while Daniel hanging on Terry's ankle. Now I have a lot more time going down gym, doing more exercises / reading /looking Internet etc.

Daniel didn't reject me that much as he used to do, but he still prefer his Daddy over me on lots of occasions. He still prefer his daddy to read story to him though he wouldn't mind I read to him if I tell him that Daddy hasn't got time. He still prefer his daddy to cuddle him to sleep most time though he would let me cuddle him if he has no choice or in good mood. He is still lighten up million times when he saw Terry comes home than he would do when i come back from work, he would normally just give me a glimpse, on a good day he would give me a cuddle, but normally he would just go straight back to his daddy and order me 'Mummy cooking'. (we must have already modelled the gender stereotype for Daniel: Mummy get to do all the chores and daddy is the 'fun guy', daddy do all the fun things with baby, rough and tumbles!) . The most used sentence for Daniel lately is 'where's daddy gone?' though he ask 'where is Mummy gone ' as well but not as often as ask his daddy. The upside for me is , he threw a lot more tantrum to his daddy instead of me now. Terry actually said he wouldn't mind to be the second favorite to Daniel! Well, I might just take this chance to have some break. Lucky Terry is more patient to Daniel than I do, I rarely see him snap though sometime I saw him feeling like smacking Daniel.

Having said all these, Daniel is still very sweet boy. I have read him a picture book titled My Mummy Goes to Work, which is about a little boy whose mum goes to work but he knows that his mum still loves him so much. Daniel quite like this book and always want me to read this book to him, when I read this book he would touch my hand and say ' Mummy comes back...'. When we read him another story about a little boy who'd lost his parents in the desert, he would say' Sad! boy has no mummy...' then point me and say ' Daniel got mummy'. So he does start to emphasize. Sometimes Daniel is very funny and made us laugh. There was a day when Daniel really wind his Dad up, at the bed time Terry just want to get Daniel sleep quick, but Daniel just didn't want to cooperate by jumping up and down on bed. Terry threatened him 'if you don't calm down, daddy would go', we anticipated that Daniel would sit down as he normally does, however Daniel said ' Yep! ' loudly without hesitation, 'I want daddy go cause Daddy grumpy!' It was true that daddy was grumpy, this made us laugh, how come Daniel can read emotion at such young age? There are the occasions when Daniel was told off by Terry he would come to me for cuddle and say 'I've been told off by daddy'