The Power of Suggestion

Jonathan is beginning to sit still and listen to me read a short book from cover to cover. His favorite in the last few days are Disel 10 Means Trouble and We Are Going on a Bear Hunt. Disel 10 is a mean disel engine in the Thomas and Friends series. In the book he is very mean and attempts to destroy all the steam engines. However, Jonathan loves Disel 10. He likes to talk to Disel 10. He tells him, "Disel 10, you are mean. Don't eat my blanket. Don't eat Thomas. Don't eat the bear." But then he tells me"I love Disel 10. He is my friend." He will kiss Disel 10 on the book. He loves to get excited when we get to the page of the bear. One time he told the bear:"You are mean, like Disel 10."

Tonight I asked him why he wanted to be a friend with someone so mean like Disel 10. Of course he didn't know, but he still wanted to be his friend. He did ask Disel 10, "Why are you mean?" Well, Disel 10 replied (through me)," I am not a Christian. I am just mean."

At one point, Jonathan asked him, don't eat my blanket. Disel 10 replied (through me of course), "I'm hungry." Jonathan prompted got an imaginary carrot,"I give you a carrot." To this Disel 10 hissed:"I eat fuel. I don't eat carrot." Jonathan had no idea what fuel was but he got a fuel and gave it to him:"Here Disel 10. I got you one fuel. Don't eat my blanket."

We read the story of Disel 10 book again. This time when Lady, the beautiful purple gold engine from the Magic Railroad came to rescue the steam engines. Lady spoke very softly (through me) to Jonathan:"Hi Jonathan! Nice to see you. You know Disel 10 tries to hurt me. Why are you friends with him? He is so mean. You shouldn't be friends with someone so mean." After that, Jonathan didn't want to be Disel 10's friend anymore because he was mean.

After a short while, Jonathan was friend with Disel 10 again. I asked him why he was a friend again. He replied:"He is not mean anymore. He give me a chance. He talks to me." He couldn't explain what the chance was. Maybe he was giving Disel 10 a second chance. I did tell him once that Disel 10 was mean in the book because he wasn't a Christian then. But he changed and became a Christian and became nice. He even helped Thomas and the other engines to complete the airport on the Island of Sodor (the last part was true from one of the Thomas engine episodes).

The young mind is so easily influenced by what we tell him. I have to be very careful with my words.

Another funny event. Yesterday I accidentally slammed the car door on my mom's fingers. I said sorry profusely to my mom. I thought to make it a point to teach Jonathan that we needed to apologize when we did something wrong. So as I drove off, I told him that I was wrong and was sorry. To my surprise, Jonathan told me,"我打你屁股. (I spank you)." We  all laughed. I told him that he could not spank me but grandma could. I told him that grandma could do that when we got out of the car. Then we all forgot about it when we got to our destination.

The toddler's mind is amazing.

Milestone

At dinner, Jonathan yelled really loud for his flamingo. Albert hushed him a bit on the harsh side. Albert then realized and spoke softly to him that it was not nice to yell. After a brief moment, Jonathan said:”Sorry Dad.” I was so proud of him for saying sorry. This is a milestone.

Every night as we read stories, he tells every animal and train about his blanket and his friends. A few nights ago it was his blanket and James. He tells every one James is engine #5. Yesterday it was his blanket, Fergus and sticker. The sticker’s name is Tiger.

Two nights ago he was overstimulated and didn't want to sleep so he cried a lot. Last night, he told his animal friends from the book, " Hi Owl, I'm not crying today. I'm not afraid you." and "Hi Shark, I'm not crying today. I'm not afraid of you." I pretend to be the animal in the book. He really believes the animals are talking to him. Sometimes the conversation we carry out, me being the animals/trains, and he being himself, are quite funny. He also believes what the animals/trains tell him.

At lunch yesterday he ate carrots, broccoli, tofu, fish and rice. After counting up to 5 things he ate, he raised his thumb and praised himself “顶呱呱.” I wished I could have been there to hear it.
This evening we worked on a hard puzzle. He praised me multiple times with 顶呱呱 or “good job.”

My baby is growing so fast. I wish I could record everything.

Potty training - done

Is it this easy? Four weeks ago, I started using "Potty Trainin 1-2-3" principles to train him. We did underwear during the day and diaper at night. He had two accidents at daycare the first week, one the following week and that was it. The first two weeks he didn't know to ask when he needed to go but by the third week he knew to ask and knew how to hold for a short time. The whole week we were in Hawaii, he had no accident despite all the travel, plane rides, car rides etc.  I thought night time training would take longer but then he didn't have any wet diaper in the morning during the third week. So I just switched him to underwear at night. No accident at all. We didn't have any use for training pants.

Language development

In the last 2 weeks Jonathan's language skill improved drastically, particularly Chinese. He now communicates very well. Some of the things he says are quite funny. I wish I can remember them all. I'm amazed every day at how he uses words in the correct context and in complicated sentence structures. He can tell the difference between "pull" and "push." He knows the word "spooky" (Albert didn't know this word.)

My mom is most bothered by his thumb sucking and asks him frequently to stop. So every time he sees my mom, he puts his thumb in his mouth and smiles:"又吃手了." (sucking my thumb again). He doesn't do this to others. Although now he often asks me if he can suck his thumb before he does it. Most of the time, I will say yes. If his hands are dirty, I tell him no and give him the reason. He will not do it with a good reason, such as hands are dirty and he will get tummy ache from this.

Hawai'i 4

By providence, our tour schedule was changed so that we have a free day today, Sunday. We took the chance to visit the Chinese church where General Zhang Xueliang attended during his last years in Hawaii. Because of this rich history, my parents came to worship with us. They are not believers and have been quite resistent to the gospel for many years. Resistent in the sense that they are open to listen but holds the belief that they will never believe. Regardless the reason they came, the sermon spelled out clearly the gosepl message and our need for a Savior. I hope the Word of God will continue to work in their hearts. I pray one day, they too will come to the Almight God and acknowledge their need while they still have breath on this earth.

The last two days were the Big Island (the Hawaii Island) and Maui Island. We saw only a small portion with the bus tour. Nothing is too impressive in a way. Jonathan had a great time on the beach letting the waves wash over his feet. Albert would have wished for more time and preparedness for the few precious minutes on the worlds best beach. For me the sun was too strong and the sand too hot for my feet.

Hawai'i 3

We visited the Polynesian Culture Center yesterday afternoon and evening. Came back around 10:30 pm. This morning we left the hotel at 6:00 am to fly to Hilo. We visited the volcano nation park in Hilo. This is major tour site but not very impressive. Perhaps I expected too much.

I'm too tired to write much more. 

Hawaii 2

I'm probably the only one who enjoys the overcast sky in Hawaii. As much as I enjoy the sunshine, I prefer to enjoy it indoors. I've lived in the midwest too long. I've developed sun sensitivity where I get an itchy rash on my arms if I forget sunscreen even for a brief period of time, like 10 or 15 minutes.
It suits me perfectly to play on the beach with Jonathan in calm water with the sun visiting periodically. Albert on the other hand wished for more sun and stronger waves. We had chosen a section of the beach with a dam creating gentler waves and safer for young children.
Jonathan had a fabulous time. Timid at first, but he quickly adapted to the cool water. Before long he was asking to go deeper and "far away."

Hawaii 1

The journey began with Jonathan's excitement over going on "mycation in Hallelujah". The flight was long and Jonathan had trouble falling asleep on the airplane. By the time we arrived in Honolulu, he wanted to "go toy own home."

With the time zone difference, we all woke up around 3 AM and then couldn't fall asleep. We started the tour to Pearl Harbor at 6:40 AM.

The history at Pearl Harbor was rich. Wish I could learn a bit more but had to chase Jonathan around.

We had a short city tour, visited the city hall and then lunch. After one hour break we went to Little Circle Island tour. We saw beautiful mountains, blue sea and white sand. We saw the "dragon bay" and the blowhole. We slap got to stand on the beach for A short time.

Jonathan crashed at 8 PM. I'm not too tired but should go to bed now.