J surprises me with new sentences everyday. For example, he said, "爸爸在楼上，慨恩在楼下" meaning daddy is upstairs and J is downstairs. "要去火车站" meaning wanting to go to the train station. "要去坐火车" meaning wanting to go and take the train. "要下楼吃早餐" meaning wanting to go downstairs to eat breakfast. "榨汁器榨橙汁" meaning using the juicer to make orange juice. And in his speech, he revealed to me the concepts that he now understands, which I also stand in awe. And to know that there are many other toddlers who are more advanced than J fills me with even greater awe. Who could have created human beings, than the Intelligent Designer behind all this? To me, this Intelligent Designer is God. Seeing the birth of J to his development, just simply increases my faith and belief in God. For birth itself is a miracle, and the brain development that is on-going is another miracle.
J (2Y1M11D) clearly differentiates Danish and Chinese now. For example, he would ask Daddy for "appelsin" in Danish and then turn to me and ask for "橙" in Mandarin, both meaning orange in English.
Many books and Montessori believe that the age between 2-3 years'd old is the sensitive period for language development, and some even say that it is peak of language development where language seems to be learned much by intuition, and I am clearly seeing it in J. At this age, the child learns language effortlessly. And again I am clearly seeing it in J.
I want to make sure that I don't waste this special year, but I feel that I am falling behind. I wish that I could spend all his waking moments with him, having more conversations with him, introducing more vocabulary to him, reading more story-books to him , interacting with him every moment.
But J is limited only by mommy's own physical strength, stamina and energy. I need to seize the day, cos' when this special year is past, I can never turn back the clock, and would only live with regrets of not having spent enough time with him, during the periods when he was most sensitive to languages.
Yet, I also need to balance the other demands of life with the amount of time devoted to J. In this area, I truly need God's wisdom - God's wisdom to choose what to do, what to drop, when to stop and when to rest.
In the journey of parenting and motherhood, I am so glad and comforted that I am not walking alone, but that God is walking with me, forgiving every mis-step that I make; speaking peace into my heart, when I feel insecure; encouraging me, when I feel down; boosting my confidence, when I feel lousy; assuring me of His adequacy, when I feel inadequate; giving me another chance to correct my attitude, when I feel fed-up and grace, instead of judgement, when I leave behind dirty dishes to be washed (Daddy washed them today) and emails to be replied. And I hope others will be equally forgiving towards me, for the tough balancing act that I am trying so hard to balance.
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