Sunday 14 November 2010

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J Summary (20M10D) - Out-smarting mommy at her training teddy bear game

J brought toys for a baby at the church nursery

Today there were too many children and too few helpers at the church nursery. So I decided to stayed on to help out. I had my hands full holding a baby about 7 months old. I thought that she needed some toys for stimulation. I didn't think that J would be able to help me, but just wanted to try to ask him anyway. So I casually asked J to bring me some baby toys for the baby. He was too busy playing with his toys. A minute later, he stopped, went to fetch a toy and gave it to me for the baby. I was so pleasantly surprised! And coincidentally, it was the toy that I was thinking of getting for the baby. I didn't tell J that, and he thought of the same toy!!! I know it was just pure coincidence, but nevertheless I was really pleased.

A few minutes later, I thought that the baby should have a new toy to provide her with something interesting to look at. So I asked J again. J was near to a toy which you could press a button, and an animal would pop out - I think it was called Jack-in-a-box. He ignored me for a while. Then he turned to that toy, played with it for a while, and when he was satisfied with playing with it, he took it to me for the baby! Wow, this was the second time J brought me good toys for the baby. I was really happy.

I think that the last couple of days of training with the training teddy bear to teach J how to care for other children had helped a lot with his understanding of caring for the baby at the nursery today.

J asking training teddy bear to help him with his chores

This evening during dinner, J was trying to give his milk to the training teddy bear, and accidentally spilled it on the floor. I used a lot of paper kitchen towel to swipe dry the plastic sheet on the floor. After dinner, I asked J to bring his bowl to the sink, which he obliged. I then asked him to bring those used kitchen towel and throw them into the rubbish bin, and he did it for 2 rounds.

Then J refused to continue. I brought out the training teddy bear and pretended that it was picking up the kitchen towel and throw them into the bin. J then followed suit once again. Thereafter, he stopped, but there were still used kitchen towel left. He outsmarted me by turning to the training teddy bear and bringing it to the kitchen towel - meaning that he wanted the training teddy bear pick up and throw away the kitchen towel instead. I was dumb-founded, not knowing whether to laugh or to be firm. I didn't expect him to use my game and turn it against me! He is barely 2 months over 1.5 year old! I didn't send him off for a Time-Out. I guess it is game over for me, but I haven't quite figure out how to handle this new situation.

(27.11.10 - I have found a solution to this problem: I will use this opportunity to teach team work. For example, when J asked Training Teddy Bear to throw away the used kitchen towel, I will ask bring the Training Teddy Bear to walk half-way to J , and asked J to bring the used kitchen towel to the teddy bear. Then the teddy bear would complete the chores by throwing it in the rubbish bin. It had worked for the last few days :-) For the last few days, The training teddy bear would stand near the rubbish bin, and J would walked to the teddy bear with the kitchen towels. Then I will praise both of them for the good cooperation and good team work :-)

It's time for me to put away the training teddy bear, now that it has out-lived its usefulness. But after taking care of the teddy bear for 2 days, J has grown attached to it. This evening, he remembered the training teddy bear at bed time, and wanted me to put on the sleeping bag for the training teddy bear and put it to bed with him.

I am really tired now, but these 2 incidents are special memories that I wanted to remember, so I took the time to jot it down in my blog.

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