Gen Leung Piano Studio, Oakville Ontario

Signing update

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

As per my post last week, I managed to snap a few more pictures of Ellis signing away.

Here he is after a nap, signing milk. (look at his right hand, we caught it right as his hand was closing!)

This one, he's signing More while eating rice crackers.

I love this picture: here is Ellis signing Daddy because his dad came up and surprised him after lunch!

I will try to get some more pictures of my little guy signing! :)

Sign Language

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:35:00 +0000

For those of you who have hung out with Andy, myself and Ellis know that we have been teaching Ellis sign language since he was about three months old.

"Baby" Sign Language has attracted a lot of attention lately, having been in the paper, apps and videos. That's not why Andy and I decided to teach and do sign language with Ellis. One of my main teaching philosophies is that children are more capable that adults realize. I've seen time and time again who often kids, no matter how young, get told that they are too young to do something or know something. I've never agreed with that, and it is one of my driving forces which makes me the kind of teacher I am. So after having Ellis, I knew that he would be able to do all sorts of things that would blow people's minds. And since Andy is very logical in thinking and scientific, he needs to have things a certain way. So signing was a natural fit for our family.

We started signing simple signs like Milk, Mommy, Daddy and More since Ellis was three months. We had a lot of nay-sayers tell us that he was too young to understand. I didn't listen, nor did I care because I knew he was paying attention to me.

Well when Ellis was four months old, he signed Milk.

The signing stalled for awhile, but he continued to sign Milk whenever he wanted his milk. But when he was around nine months, he started to sign More when he wanted more food. He nows signs more, when he wants more of anything... more stories, more food, more toys :)

Every so often, he would pick up a sign here and there. And now he knows about thirteen signs. He knows: milk, Daddy, more, eat, Thank-you, bye-bye, cat, sleep, fish, cow, cold, all done and car. He knows some better than others, but he will sign them, we just have to catch them and cheer him on when he does. The funny thing is, he signs Daddy for both Andy and myself.

Here's Ellis signing Bye-Bye:

There are many mornings when I go to Ellis' room to get him, and he rubs his eyes to adjust to the light from the hall. When he is used to the new light; he looks up at me, smiles and signs milk.

The cutest and sweetest thing happened yesterday, Andy had to work the early shift and he normally leaves while Ellis is having breakfast. So when Andy had to leave, I said to Ellis "Bye-Bye Daddy!" And he signed Bye-bye, followed by Daddy!! Imagine that: a ten month old is able to form two word sentences!!

He really has taken off with the signing as he is realizing that when he signs for something, he gets what he wants rather than crying and getting frustrated. And I don't worry that it will delay his speech because when we sign together, I'm constantly talking to him and telling him what the sign is and we work on sounding out words (I also believe that kids have the ability to learn phonics at an early age).

Yesterday, I took him out to a local toy store because I wanted to get him some fabric books (he likes putting his books into his mouth and his board books are all ruined!) So we walk in, and it's filled with lights and colours! Ellis' little eyes just light up like it's Christmas morning all over again! I push him around in his stroller and he takes in all the sights, and he spots the puppets (We play with puppets at home so he is very comfortable around them and loves them!) He starts fussing because he wants to come out and feel the puppets, so I take him out of the stroller and carry him in my arms. Once I take him out, he signs thank you (I also believe kids can learn manners very early on!! lol!) and a lady walks by at just that time. She looks at both of us amazed that he just signed Thank-you and she and I started talking. She asked me all sorts of things about his signing, and pretty soon, Ellis had attracted the entire store around him.

Being the little Monkey Boy he is, he did all his signs and everyone was so amazed that this little ten month old was able to communicate with people about what he wanted. They all kept emphasizing that they had seen kids sign before, but didn't think it actually was real. I laughed at that, because it's clear that signing works.

So anyone who is thinking of starting signing with their kids, I would say; do it. Babies are able to communicate with their parents and caregivers at an early age, and it saves you and your little baby so much frustration.

I'll post some links to websites that I have found incredibly useful when I started signing with Elis.

The Beauty Love Left Behind

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:40:00 +0000

I found this on a website and it was truly one of the most beautiful things I've read since becoming a mother that I had to share.

~The Beauty Love Left Behind. ~

A mark for every breath you took, every blink, every sleepy yawn.

One for every time you sucked your thumb, waved hello, closed your eyes and slept in the most perfect darkness.

One for every time you had the hiccups.

One for every dream you dreamed within me.

It isn't very pretty anymore. Some may even think it ugly.

That's OK. It was your home.

It's where I first grew to love you, where I lay my hand as I dreamed about who you were and who you would be.

It held you until my arms could, and for that, I will always find something beautiful in it.

To all my Mom friends: Enjoy and embrace the new you. Our lives has changed since having a baby... so why should our bodies be the way they were?

Happy New Year, Happy New Changes

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:40:00 +0000

Welcome 2012!

2011 was such a wonderful year for myself and my family that it's hard say goodbye to it. But one thing that is easy to say goodbye to: Ellis' third nap!

We've been fighting this third nap for months now and trying so many different ways to get Ellis to drop this nap. The sleep training method that we've been practicing stresses the importance of no third nap by the time the baby turns 9 months. Well, Ellis is 10 months old today and it has been a mission almost to get rid of that nap.

Over the holidays, with family get togethers, new toys to play with and having Andy at home, not letting Ellis nap for a third time was easy. And miraculously, he dropped the nap himself!! Hooray! And because he has a much longer wakeful period, he goes to bed happily and stays asleep very soundly until 7:00 the next morning.

Now, because he sleeps so soundly throughout the entire night, his morning nap has been pushed back half an hour but he sleeps VERY soundly for two straight hours during that nap.

And because his morning nap is so good... I'm having trouble with his afternoon nap now, again. :(

Right now, my little guy is rolling around his crib having a great time when he should be sleeping. I put him down at 1:15 and now it's just past 2:00 and still not asleep. And the time he was awake, we did A LOT! We had lunch, played with toys, did some exercise, read a story, played some more and I thought for sure he'd be tired as he was sucking his thumb (used to be a tell-tale sign that he was tired... now I don't know!!) So I got him ready for his nap, and put him down and he seemed very happy to sleep. But when I came back down and looked at our monitor, he was just rolling around and playing with his hands.

Ooh!! I think he just fell asleep!!! Hooray!

But back to my train of thought before I forget!! It is taking him much longer to fall asleep for this second and very important afternoon nap! He likes changing things up on me each month on the 4th (he was born on the 4th and somehow I think he knows!)

Now, if he can continue this new nap schedule (9:30 morning nap for two hours and 2:00 afternoon nap for hopefully 2 hours... WOW! I'd be a very happy mom! Of course, I'm already a very happy mom... hmm, need to think of a new analogy here!)

More new changes, my little guy learned how to "High Five" over the holidays! One of our friends does fist bumps with their little guy and it's insanely cute seeing a 16 month old give his mom a fist bump. And after Andy saw that, he thought it'd be cute to teach Ellis how to High Five, and amazingly, he learned it in about five minutes!! Lol! So now, not only does he wave "bye-bye" he gives complete strangers "high fives"!!

I'm so looking forward to the next couple of months before my little guy turns one year old!! What an exciting time it is for everyone!

Happy New Year everyone!

The power of NO.

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 02:15:00 +0000

No.

It's such a powerful word. Perhaps the most powerful two letter word we have in the English language.

First a little background on why I've been thinking about the word no lately.

Ellis has a check up today, and our doctor likes telling us stories while we're there. Today he was telling us about a study that proves that children start manipulating their parents as early as nine months old... Well Ellis is nine months old. So we laughed about it. But it's very true, Ellis lately has taken to blowing raspberries all the time. He laughs when he does it, and he thinks it's hilarious. It actually is very cute when he does it, but it's messy especially when it's dinner time! My mom knows I don't like it when he does it, and she keeps telling him "no". Andy also knows I don't like it when he does it, and tell Ellis to stop as well.

I've never been a fan of the word no. Think about it, kid hear it all the time... So much so that so many of them say it constantly as toddlers. As students in elementary school, all they hear about is rules cobtaining the word no: No running in the halls, no chewing gum, no bullying... And I'm sure the list goes on and on.

However, when I was a preschool teacher, we always used positive words rather than negative ones. For example, instead of saying; no shouting (which in a preschool class happens a lot! Happy shouting of course) we would always say to the kids: Use your inside voice.

So now that I have Ellis and he is testing our limits and trying to get away with stuff, I've become very aware of the words I use with him. I am very conscious of not using the word no. Instead when he does something I would prefer he doesn't do, like throwing his towels onto the floor or grabbing his spoon and banging it on the table, I try to tell him gently that I don't like what he's doing and that there's better behavior. And when he does something I like, I praise him for it. And he's getting it, he doesn't blow raspberries with me at dinner time anymore, and he's so happy to do things that make me happy.

I remember when I was at OISE (Ontario Institute of Studies in Education) we were told once to "ignore minor infractions". So whenever Ellis does something that I don't very much care for, I just ignore him and he responds the way I want him to.... He stops doing it. But when he gets praise for something I like, he does it more frequently.

Also, I'm one of these people who has trouble saying no. Even if I'm adamant about something, I have a vey hard time saying no. Maybe it's because I've heard it so much in my life, and I really quite dislike the word. Saying no to me, has always been difficult. Maybe the word has a strange power over me...

The word no holds so much power over us though, when we see it; we all seem to have this signal in our heads go off. Sow people rebel against it, but others do what they're told. So my question is, why is a simple two letter word controlling our lives so much?

Separation Anxiety

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:15:00 +0000

So it begins.... separation anxiety. Ellis has recently been showing signs of great separation anxiety particularly with me. Not so much with his dad, because he's used to Daddy going to work and not being at home with him during the day. But with me... I can't leave the room now without him crying for me to come back and pick him up. And it's so much worse when he's tired!!

Oddly enough though, he doesn't do this when it's nap or bedtime. He will happily lie down in his crib and get ready to sleep. I can leave the room and close the door, and not a peep out of the little boy. But when it's playtime, or even after I finish changing his diaper and set him down so I can wash my hands, get ready for the tears, kicking, and of course the loud, piercing scream that would make anyone's skin crawl.

And now, he has a cry that you can clearly tell is one of those cries that's not really a cry, but enough to produce big, fat tears streaming down his cute little face. And he gets so worked up when I leave him in his playpen and don't tell him that I'm going to wash my hands... but when I return to him, mere seconds later, he smiles and he's fine. :P

And when I try to leave the house while he's napping (and there's someone else at home, of course), when he wakes up, he keeps looking for me. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely heart warming to know someone loves and relies on me that much... but I don't want to be causing him any stress if it's not needed. So I've gotten very good at running out very quickly and getting all my grocery shopping done fast! The ladies at the grocery store know, when they see me, they check me out quickly!!! Lol! :D (I love small, independent stores!)

I have noticed that if I need to leave the room for a minute, if I tell him exactly where I'm going, he's fine. And if he can hear my voice, he's fine. So I've taken to wearing him in the baby sling again and taking him everywhere I go just so he doesn't get himself more worked up.... maybe I'm making things worse by keeping him too close to me. Hmmm... I'm sure I'll get some parents emailing me and saying that I can't spoil him by wearing him, and then I'll get others that say I should keep him with me ALL the time! But hey, centuries worth of women wearing their babies must have done something right. Luckily my little guy likes being in the sling! Comfort, warmth and easy access to pulling Mommy's hair!

Oh, I just remembered, the hardest now is getting out of the car!! He is completely calm and happy-go-lucky when we're moving in the car and even when the car is stopped. But the minute the car is turned off and I get out of the car so I can get him out of the car, he crying and screaming starts. And his sweet little face is so innocent when he sees me, as if to say "Mommy, don't leave me!!" So I'm constantly telling my little Monkey Boy that I'll never leave him and that seems to reassure him, then I get a baby hug which may be my favourite thing in the whole world (and baby smiles, laughs... anything he does really is my favourite!!)

If anyone out there has any tips or suggestions so I can help my little guy ease into this new phase, I'd love to hear it!

Another rant about sleep

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:15:00 +0000

Ok, I know I've gone on and on about Ellis' sleep and his ability to sleep, but this blog is different. It's not about Ellis' sleep I'm writing about.

First of all, Ellis' sleep has become my obsession and has basically taken over every aspect of my life! :) If he doesn't nap well, I obsess about it. If he wakes up too late, I obsess about it. If he rolls onto his belly to sleep (which he LOVES doing now) I obsess about it. But I would like to say that I have a little boy who sleeps and is generally very well rested. There are days of course where he doesn't sleep as well as I'd like him to, but since he is a baby who is well rested, he recovers quickly and is always a happy little boy.

Lately I've been thinking about babies whose parents do "sleep training" but think that it only applies to night time sleep rather than their sleep overall. I've heard of babies whose parents keep them up all day in hopes of getting them to sleep at night. Then these parents are baffled when that poor baby wakes up in the middle of the night. I actually met a little two year old recently who does not nap at all. He was so upset and grumpy, and his mom was giving him anything he wanted to keep him happy. And the funny thing to me was that a simple afternoon nap would make him happy and it would probably make his mom very happy.

Then I got thinking about babies whose parents are fortunate enough to be able to take their babies on trips with them. I think that's great, but what about the baby's sleep? If I could take Ellis on a trip to see the world... I don't know if I would. He wouldn't remember it and I would be so stressed out by the fact of travelling with an infant. Ellis loves his bed... he doesn't even like napping in another crib that's exactly like his own (at Grandma's house). I can't even begin to imagine how his sleep would be during a trip!! My parents are talking about a family trip next summer to England to see my brother; and I'm already worried about Ellis' sleep. I don't even want to think about the time difference!

I also know another little baby who has never slept well, and I don't have the heart to tell the parents that my little boy has been sleeping straight through the night since he was four months old. And when I say through the night, I mean from usually 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. I could only imagine what this little baby would be like if they was sleeping.

I must say this: I made a lot of mistakes with Ellis' naps. My timing was off for a long time and it wasn't until recently that I got the timing down perfectly. He now takes two long naps a day, and still needs a third short cat-nap. But I've learned to watch Ellis and recognize his "I'm getting sleepy" signs. This all results in a baby boy who willingly goes down for a nap without crying or protesting. That all results in a baby boy who falls asleep quickly at night and stays asleep until the next morning.

So I am definitely not an expert on sleep, but rather a mother who obsesses about it on a daily basis.

Silence... do we really need it?

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:15:00 +0000

We've had some renovations happening in our house lately, so it's been busier than usual. But what has gotten me thinking is all the noise that is happening. Anyone who has gone through renovations, knows exactly what I'm talking about: hammering, banging and the occasional crashing. And with an infant who loves his sleep, I was more than concerned that sleep would be something that none of us would get for awhile.

I should make one thing clear, when I was pregnant; I read a book that was about having your second child first... so meaning things that second time parents wish they had done the first time around. The thing that stuck with me after reading that book was that second babies know how to sleep through their older siblings noise. So when Ellis was born, we kept the house with our usual busy action and Ellis slept "like a baby". But then once I started sleep training, we started to quiet things down... no real reason why, we just did. I think that the hype of being quiet around a sleeping baby was getting to me and I had forgotten what I learned from the book.

Now that Ellis has been sleeping so well for such a long time, we've gotten used to being quiet during certain times of the day. So when we decided to start renovations, I was just very worried that Ellis wouldn't be getting the rest that he so desperately needs.

As I'm typing this, there's clanging, banging, hammering and loud voices happening all around. Of course the guys doing the work are incredible considerate and they've closed doors to block out as much sound as possible, but it's still loud. And then there's my little boy. He's fast asleep in his crib, sucking his thumb, completely unaware of all that's going on.

So it got me wondering, if a baby is able to sleep through the noise in his home setting (I'm sure all parents know that babies will sleep almost anywhere in their carseats while out with their parents), do we all really need those quiet places to rest our heads? Being a second child myself, I've always been able to sleep through almost anything (but becoming a mother has gotten me used to waking to the slightest noise now) but Andy who is an only child, needs the silence to sleep.

Don't get me wrong, I love being in a quiet room and just enjoying the peace and quiet I can get. But I think a lot can be learned from my little guy: just go with the flow :)

Six months of being a Mom

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:00:00 +0000

Ellis will be turning 26 weeks tomorrow. Half a year. Six months old.

It still seems like yesterday that Andy and I were driving to the hospital unsure about whether or not Ellis was actually coming and having the doctors tell me that I was there to stay. And it's incredible to think that entering the hospital, it was just me and Andy, and leaving we instantly became a family of three.

So much has happened in the past six months, and it's been a whirlwind of emotions, learning, crying (on both Ellis' part and mine!) but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Six months ago, I was incredibly pregnant and starting to think I would be pregnant forever. I could never get comfortable enough to actually rest and was just fed up with people coming up and feeling my belly. (why do people do that anyways?!) And in the past 26 weeks, not only have I become a mother, but I've learned what it is to love unconditionally.

I've always been very lucky in my life, I found Andy at a young age, and pretty much everything I've wanted in my life, I've gotten. And when Ellis was born, I knew exactly how lucky I've been. But I never knew really what it meant to love something so much that there was nothing that could get in the way of it.

Ellis has changed my life in so many aspects, but all for the better. He has taught me more than I could ever believe, and I'm sure I will continuing learning from him everyday. I smile a little more since he has been a part of my life, and I tell him all the time not only how much I love him, but how blessed I am that he has come into my life.

I'm a strong believer that everything happens for a reason. Now I also believe that we are a part of people's lives for a reason. If nothing else, I was meant to be Ellis' mother. I was meant to love him.

Thank you to all those who have helped me learn how to be a mother, and to all those who send me encouraging words, and those who just read my blog. I hope that I can bring a smile to someone's face like Ellis has brought many smiles to mine.

The Importance of being Asleep

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:30:00 +0000

Can you tell I'm an Oscar Wilde fan? :)

Sleep has become my obsession for almost the past year. When I was pregnant, sleep was not always my friend and I spent many nights awake anticipating the arrival of Ellis (who at that point was always referred to as Baby) and staring at my very swollen ankles wondering if they would ever go back to their regular size! And once Ellis was born, I spent many nights awake feeding this amazing little being who had come into my life and turned my whole life upside down.

Now, that I'm sleeping and Ellis is sleeping, I'm still obsessed with sleep and the amount of sleep Ellis gets. Thanks to Andy's cousin, Angie who has four kids of her own, she told me about a wonderful book that teaches parents to teach their babies to sleep. I know there are opposing views on the book, but I think it's the best book written for parents about the way babies and children sleep. Healthy Sleep Habit, Happy Child is right now on the top of my list of recommended books for all parents and parents to be.

I'm so lucky to say that my little man sleeps through the night and has since he was four months old, and he takes three good solid naps a day. I miss him terribly while he's sleeping and I am proud to admit that I sneak into his room to watch him sleep constantly throughout the day. And my favourite thing to see is when I go into Ellis' room to get him from his naps, or in the morning, he greets me with a huge, gummy smile! (no teeth have come through yet!)

There was a time before we started sleep training Ellis that he started getting dark circles under his eyes! I was actually shocked to see an infant with dark circles and thought that they would fade once he slept through the night... and at that point, I thought he would be sleeping through the night at about 8-9 months. When I finally got my hands on a copy of Dr. Weissbluth's book, and started getting Ellis on a sleep schedule, the circles faded and I had such a happy baby on my hands.

We were out to dinner last night with my parents and my previous piano teacher and her husband and we saw a family there with a baby girl just slightly younger than Ellis. She seemed to be suffering from the dark circles under her eyes and was just so cranky (which I have learned from Ellis that she was clearly needing her bed.... Ellis was cranky too and wanted to get home to his bed). And having seen this little girl just wanting so much to be in bed, like Ellis, I just wanted so much to say something... but didn't want to be one of those people :D So I'm happy that even though it was a VERY HARD three weeks of sleep training, Ellis loves his schedule, he loves his bed, and he knows that once he is in his bed, he is there to sleep.