Poop in Pool

He pooped in the pool today. Not one pool but in two pools. Enough said. 

8ight years old

Dear Jaden,

Today, you turn 8. Watching you grow and learn is one of the best things that can ever happen in mummy's and daddy's life.

As usual, we always celebrate your birthday with a bang, just that this year, we had to tone it down a little because your paternal grandfather just passed away about a month before your birthday.

This year, we held your birthday on a Saturday, 26th September at home. Daddy planned a Satay birthday party dinner for your guests and he even cooked a few more meals to put on the table for your party. Daddy made mash potatoes, creamy mushroom sauce while rest of the food were tapao-ed such as fried rice, roasted duck and pork and the main star meal of the party, which you absolutely love -Satay!

Mummy, just like the previous years, is in charge of your party decor and this year for your birthday party theme, is in honour of Captain Gerrard from Liverpool Football Club.

We had your cake commissioned to look nearly exactly like the one Stevie G got for his farewell party. It was just awesome that you turn 8 and Stevie G's jersey number was 8. 

Mummy DIY the decor all by herself, with printing help from your kai-yeh for your 'Birthday Instagram wall' which mummy posted up all your past birthdays' celebrations and all the cakes that you had.

Your kong kong and poh poh came down from Penang to celebrate your birthday with you too, two days in a row. First your party day, and when the clock strikes 12, indicating it is 28th September. You love how we sang you your Birthday songs and of course, the cakes. You always look forward to eat your birthday cakes! 

Didi sure did enjoy himself during your weekend birthday celebration. 

I hoped you had like the party mummy and daddy held for you. Next year, should you still like the food from that place, mummy and daddy are going to hold it there for you ok, our dearest baby boy?

Yes, it is true. No matter how old you get, you will always be our baby boy! 

Happy Birthday sweet child of ours and mummy wishes you nothing but happiness, good health and that you will grow up to be a good person. Mummy and Daddy and Didi loves you way beyond the moon and back!!! <3 font="" nbsp="">

My fears

Yesterday, was when I noticed it. 

I froze.

Was it a one time? Will it be recurring? Why is it happening? How did he even get into such a state? Where did he learn it? Who has he been imitating? When did it all really start? Did I missed the start of all these????

As usual, during the weekends, I am busy in the kitchen cooking and cleaning, while the boys do their things, homework, play with toys...

So as I took a break from cooking and walked out to the living room, there was Mason spinning his car wheels. Quickly, I distracted him with another toy and took away the car. 

Then he came hopping into the kitchen and as he heard some music playing, he went spinning around.. just like how Jaden used to spin. OM freaking G! I told him to stop spinning as it will make him dizzy and send him on to do some task for me..

AND THEN.. I caught him tiptoeing around the house instead of walking on both feet on the ground..

My heart sank even faster than any anchor can into the ocean. 

So here, I shall be really even be more paranoid. Actually that is an understatement. I am already paranoid, now a billionth time more.. just because I need to stop him from doing so before he falls into his own world like how Jaden used to be.. 

I am really feeling very very scared.. nothing is taken for granted and will be taken for granted until he passes the age of 5.. That is his benchmark line for me to breathe a little easy.. 

For now, I will be a hawk towards every single movement he makes.. 

In fierce mom mode..

Jaden is a growing boy. In fact, he is going to be 8 in a few weeks time.

I feel as if I am running out of time with him, especially when it comes to behavioral and independence skills training with him.

This boy, now, realizes that he has the ability to rebel back and also fight back. He is in fact getting stronger each day and even all his therapists commented that this boy is a very strong muscular boy. Alas, he uses it for the wrong purpose. When it comes to having to use it appropriately, he is very jelly like. Weak fingers, weak wrist, weak holding.. no interest in correcting himself despite various pleas and correction prompts by us. 

I do admit that I am not patient when it comes to teaching him proper behavior as it really gets on my nerves. The way he rebels back without a cause or breaks down in tears even before we are stern with him. So, for me, my style, there is no soft approach to approaching his unacceptable behaviors. 

This is in fact very wrong in terms of teaching and guiding an autistic boy but each child is different and this child of mine, the moment he knows he can manipulate his way or get his way, there is no way he is going to change for you. So it is better to nip him at the bud of his bad behavior before he assumes that he is allowed to do so.

He sits like a seal balancing a ball. He sits with both his feet up in the air and takes whatever that is near him to balance on his feet. Mason picked up that behavior.

He keeps jumping. I understand it is part of his stim but I guess it is not that appropriate when he is in public and doing that. He has no awareness of people around him and his scrawny elbow would just hit anyone that is beside him. Mason has been elbowed a few times on the head by Jaden because of this stimming behavior. 

The way he keeps clapping, it is annoying to me. Maybe for that I can keep an eye close but still, he can't be doing that forever??? Yes.. and as you can guess it.. Mason had also picked up that inappropriate behaviour. 

Mason is now jumping more than he is walking, just because he imitates his brother and I really find this frustrating. 

Jaden has no fear when he is out with me these days. He knows that I will not be able to discipline him in a crowd of people but I do not think I will hold back anymore these days. It is my child that I have to deal with when he grows up. Not those that sees him that fleeting moment to judge what an abusive mom I can be. I am a tough believer of the rod. This boy really needs to learn that he needs to respect my instructions in and out of the room.

I can't fathom if he disobey my instructions when he is out of the house and gets into an accident. Who am I to blame? Who will blame who for the accident? Who will be the one taking the responsibility? The guilt that will live with who for a lifetime? Not you, not him, not her, not the judgemental people.. it is me, me and me. Therefore, I believe I do have every right in how I want to teach my son how to listen to instructions. It keeps him safe and alive, at least..

Mason is growing up quite well, for me, for now.. I am still very much paranoid about his milestones development. I am also very scared each time he shows signs of catching a flu from his brother. 

Most of my friends, are pro-vaccine parents and hey, I am all for that if my child has no autism. Because of autism, I have to crawl and tiptop around, trying to avoid my baby boy from getting sick because of what I have seen had happen to his big brother. 

I never said I will hold back from vaccinating my child. I will give in time when he shows signs that he is really neurotypical.. so I can give him his first vaccine and monitor closely. No one will admit that certain effects are the adverse effects of vaccines.. not even my husband. Therefore, it is only up to me to protect my child from ending up like his big brother. I really really cannot handle the heartbreak and worry. 

When Mason is running up and down, and finding things to play with, I am very happy. I do not understand why some would comment that he is hyperactive and would not sit still. Trust me when I say I prefer my son to be running about, finding things to play instead of being immersed in his own world, sitting still and not making a sound. This came from someone that I do not see for years.. how could that one person judge me and tell it to another relative about how hyper and naughty my child is? Have you seen your own daughter and son?????

Anyway, I am typing out this blogpost with a cane beside me, aiming it at both the boys so they would sit proper, or keep their toys/books back properly from where they took them, instead of throwing them aside after playing/reading with them.. Mommy mean business today! Fierce mom mode on...

Rest In Peace, Mr Yap BT

‎270815-290815

So, today, my father-in-law was laid to rest at the Hokkien Cemetery in KL. 

He passed away at around 245am, on an early morning, exactly a month before he would have turned 80 years old. Hubby got to meet his father at the hospital at around 1030pm, a few hours before father-in-law's last breath.

It was unfortunate that my two sons never got to know the grandfather that shares the same surname as them.

It was actually Mason's first time meeting that side of the family, at his grandfather Yap's wake last Thursday. I am not even sure if my father-in-law even knew about Mason's existence...

Anyway, since my father-in-law had passed away, I would only like to mention about the fairly good memories of how and when I knew him back then..

He actually bought an extra pao for me as breakfast when I first sleptover with Hubby, who was then my bf, when he saw an extra pair of shoes at his door. 

How I called him 'lou yeh' (old man) during the tea ceremony because my Cantonese pronounciation were really horrendous. Still am. 

Jaden's first ride home was fetched by his grandfather Yap in the Mercedes c-200... Jaden, his first grandson.. 

And that was it.. how I knew him.. 

Hoped my father-in-law found peace before he left.

Rest In Peace, father-in-law.

An appointment with the speech therapist

So, I decided to drop Jaden's speech therapist a message asking for some help as I was really worried about Mason's speech development.

I did not want to play the waiting game. I needed some help in observing the right milestones a 1.5year old boy must meet as I no longer knows what else to do other.

Some parents are commenting online that it is pretty normal for boys to be late talkers, some dont hit it at 3 or 4 years old but in my case, that is not acceptable. No.. not after what I have been through. 

I had never been through this neurotypical milestones' situation before because as you all would have known by now, how different these two boys of mine are.

Today, we met up with the speech therapist and she helped me observe Mason and gave me some tips for me to work with Mason until he reaches two years old.

Thankfully, her observation came back saying he is hitting all the milestones he should be hitting and that he seems to be playing in a bigger boy's manner due to his exposure of a big 8 year old brother.

His imitation skills are spot on, he is quite fast to catch on to things, he initiates play through good eye contact and his attentive acknowledgement to his name is good. 

So, yea.. for now, I can sit back and relax just a little before I start again on trying to do more with Mason, and of course Jaden, hoping he can at least develop together with Mason the milestones he, Jaden, had missed out while growing up. 

The next step for me is to put Mason into a playgroup to mix with peers his age. Wish me luck in finding a good one for him since he is still an unvaccinated child.. I need somewhere that meets my criteria of a safe and healthy environment. *wink*

and of course to start working on two words speech with Mason... I guess I can really only breathe easy when Mason is 5 years old. 

Mason's speech development

Finally, some time to myself. Some time to blog again while Frozen is playing on TV, the small one napping while the big one is having his ABA therapy upstairs.

I contacted Jaden's speech therapist and asked for some tips on how to kickstart Mason to talk. Not that he is not picking up words but if compared to peers, he seems to be slow. 

She has asked me not to compare to the girls but it is hard not to when I am being so desperate for the second born to grow up as neurotypical as he can. 

So, I have compiled some of the words that he can say thus far and hope it will add on as he grows.. and for the love of him, I hope he will soon talk in sentences. 

·         Papa

·         Daddy

·         Mama

·         Kor Kor

·         Poh Poh

·         Hi (used to say ello for a short while before he stops)

·         Bye

·         See you

·         Buh (Milk)

·         Wou Wou (Dog)

·         Na Na Na (Cat for Meow Meow /  sometimes he uses it for Bird)

·         Moooo (Cow)

·         Mam mam mam (eat)

·         Up

·         Car (Vroom vroom)

·         Twain (train)

·         Xia (Down in Mandarin)

·         Shoe

·         Socks

·         Mei Mei

·         Thank you

·         Go (short for mango –his favourite fruit)

·         Nana (Banana / sometimes he will say it in full, sometimes just nana)

·         Wow! (wows appropriately at things he is fascinated with)

·         Uh oh (when things fall down)

What do you think? Mason is doing ok so far? To me, I am still feeling very scared. I see how other boys, maybe a month or two older than him, seems to be more verbal and also 

academically a little more interested although I feel Mason is a visual learner. 

Therefore, I am also now searching around for affordable playschools to enrol him in. To let him mix around with peers, to let him observe how talking will get him things. He needs to be expose to more children his age. 

Speaking about health wise, I think I mentioned that Mason probably had fever about twice or three times since birth. 19 months, three fevers that lasted not more than three days. That I should feel at ease but somehow I am also feeling worried if I am doing the right or wrong thing for him when I decide not to vaccinate him. Friends and family have asked me to but somehow I feel that I might start to lose him if I do.. and that is one risk that I would not want to take. I know if I ever do lose him because I gave in to that pressure, there is no one to blame but myself. OF course there will people I will hate for the rest of my life and probably shut myself off from them but in the end, there will only be me myself to blame for taking that step. For now, until he talks and turns 5 maybe.. maybe.. I will consider one or two shots especially tetanus. 

Parents out there that keeps accusing us parents that do not vaccinate our children are selfish but if one walks my path, you will feel the fear too. Maybe there are others that their children are normal and chooses not to vaccinate, then there could be a debate but in my case, I pray you leave me alone in this matter as it is not one that I wish to talk about. Until you have been in my shoes of dealing and worrying about how my child is going to grow up, when he is an adult, when I am gone and no one is around to see to him, you might see why.. you might just see why I choose to leave the second one unvaccinated. 

Jaden has always been a child with lots of health problems. He has had really terrible ezcema, cradle cap that smells like rotten egg and did not go away until we gave him steroid meds, and steroid meds for his ezcema flare-ups, constant night wakings, leaky gut that will not absorb nutrients and of course, autism.... Maybe if I did not go religiously on time to vaccinate him, maybe, just maybe he could have been slightly better than what he went through as a baby. 

Every parent will love their children.. almost every parent, except for monsters. So please do not judge as each parent will only want to do the best for their children.. do not judge me. I am also trying to do the best I can and struggling with dealing with two boys of mine with different needs all on my own. 

Paranoia at 18months old

Some people may call me crazy.

Some people may say I am being just too paranoid.

BUT I am having this at the back of my head that I may just need to seek early intervention to kickstart something in Mason...

Somehow, I don't feel the progress coming along that well anymore.

Something has changed.. what is it, I do not know but I need to do something about it while I can.

Going to be seeking various ways to kick this nudgy feeling away while he is still young and lots of help would be good to make my worries stay away.

*sigh*

I will always be paranoid until the day he speaks to me like how a neurotypical child does.

:(

Rare moments

Rare moments like these are hard to come by.

Weather is perfect. Thunderstorm, aircon blowing, both boy snuggled up on the couch with their comforter and me, here, sipping my HOT coffee and trying to blog. :)

How long would this moment last? Hmm.. let us see.

Last Wednesday, I took Mason to the paed's clinic to do a little weigh-in just to make sure he is growing up fine.

So as of, 27th May 2015, Mason is 8.95kg and 82cm in height. 

I have checked his growth chart and it seems that he is in the normal range so yay! He has been eating more solids now, almost two-three meals with snacks occasionally. He would come to us with his mouth open whenever we are eating and it is so hard not to give in to him. :)

Mason has now 12 teeth. 2top back teeth, 4 upper front teeth, 2 bottom back teeth and 4 bottom front teeth, which the 2 is just popping out so it is really cute to see those whites, although I do really miss those gummy smiles. Now that he has more teeth, he is chewing his food much more properly with occasional gags here and there which reminds me to get a pair of food cutting scissors to keep in my bag. 

o.Oh, the small one just stirred.. he is going to be waking up real soon. Both boys have been napping for almost 2 hours now. Neighbors' kids are making helluva noise but that is expected at evening playtime. Dogs are barking at one another that gets to go for walks.. *sigh* Things that never really annoys me when I was not a mother easily annoys me now.. especially when those noises wake your tiny terrors up. Hate it most when you have just put them down to bed, and they were just going to doze off or just dozed off, and you think that you can creep out of the room, the doorbell goes ding dong ding dong ding dong. Nope, they do not press the doorbell once but like forever until you open that damn gate for them. 

Jaden, is having his mid-term break from today onwards. TWO WEEKS. I certainly have to manage my time well to spend time doing work with him. If not, he will be just planting his ass on the couch, wanting to watch TV all the time. 

He has just lost his third teeth today. One of his top front teeth has come loose, and the teacher had helped him pulled it out. One more loose teeth to go and soon he will have a two front toothless smile. He is growing up too fast for me. 

In just over a year of not being able to carry him when I was pregnant, right after I gave birth, I realized that I could no longer carry him due to his weight. He was just too heavy for me, which I had not felt before when he was 5 years old. Not only his weight, his limbs are all spilling out of me. Can't believe that this was the little boy that came out of me about 7.5 years ago. 

Wokay, the little one is up and that means blogging time is up too. Shall continue tonight.

Every day is a long day for mama

Finally, some time to myself after both the little ones have gone to bed and I don't feel like sleeping just yet.

In a blink of an eye, it is almost half of 2015 and I do not think Jaden has progressed much compared to last year. 

The only thing I considered that he has successfully achieved, that can be said, another milestone hit is going to toilet to poo. He would still poo in the diapers if given a choice. He will not take the initiative to want to remove the diapers to go to toilet. That is why he is diaper-free at home now, except nap or bedtime or when we are going out for long hours, especially when time is mostly spent in the car. I can't see myself rushing to find him a toilet with Mason in hand all by myself just yet.

School is also teaching him how to verbalise sounds, such as bye bye, which he can actually verbalised it but he will not say it unless you ask him to. He rather signed bye bye instead. 

I am becoming more impatient with him, as he grows older. Not because he is slow but because of his refusal to listen and look. This boy of mine, if he looks at what he is supposed to do, he always gets it right, at least 95% right BUT he rather not look. Not sure if it has something to do with his strabismus and 3D vision and that is also worrying me out. I have already contacted the vision therapist, yet to get a reply from him. Too many clients, maybe? I did not really had a good experience the first time round, especially with his team of helpers. Hopefully after two/three years, they have learnt how to handle non-verbal autistic children. I really hope vision therapy can help Jaden because surgery is the last thing I would want for him. Surgery, afterall is just cosmetics but it is the 3D vision that I want Jaden to have, so that he can view his surroundings normally like us. I don't even know what his vision is like right now as he is clumsy and *sigh* off balance in everything.

He is a smart boy. Too smart for his own good. Smart in a bad way, that he act-smart in trying to do short-cuts when those short-cuts are not meant to be taken. That is why, those things pisses me off. Things that he knows how to do, he refuses to do them. He rather close his eyes and cry. *double sigh* 

He gets distracted so easily but that, every child does. The fact that he cannot be independent enough to complete a task drives me up the wall. Lately, his school has been giving him homework during the weekend to take home to occupy his time and because of him being up to no good if he were to do his homework in the living room, I had to bring his table and chairs into the kitchen, sit him there to do his work while I try to clean the dishes, do my laundry and cook. HOWEVER, I will always end up at least, for two hours, with my blood pressure rising, trying to prompt him the right way to do his task, which he ALWAYS, ALWAYS try to take short-cuts and end up screwing the whole task. Once he masters it, after the two hours of continuously doing the same task, and I thought I could use a breather and backaway and go do my dishes, just a few feet away from him, he starts daydreaming. HOW LAH NOT TO PUKE BLOOD? 

It is really mentally and physically draining for me, and it is not only due to Jaden zapping all my energy but because of Mason too. In amidst all the tension in between his brother and I, the small one suddenly comes in between and wants to run off with his brother's homework, he wants me to go and play with him, he wants to breastfeed, he wants to climb onto the table... and I had to be stern and tell him to go play by himself as I am teaching Jaden. I really feel so bad because I can't seem to spread my time out for both boys equally as they deserve. 

I always want to bring them out at 6-630pm to the park and play but I can't.. because I have to prepare dinner, or drive out to buy dinner for the hubs. Because I had to clean up the mess the boys made earlier during the day. Because I have not bathed yet the whole day. Because I need to do the dishes. Because I have not hung the laundry yet. 

I have got piles of clean laundry that needs to be kept away, old/small clothes that needs to be stored away since weeks ago and I, still, have not gotten down to that. Each time I see those clothes around, I get frustrated and I am just waiting for that one day, the man to sound me for being such a lazy ass.

Jaden has been getting alot of mosquito bites, and now, even more rashes due to the food he eats and it makes him itchy and that triggers him to scratch until he bleeds. He can't stop scratching the wound until it scars and now he looks like a kucing kurap and it depresses me a lot because I feel very sakit hati to see him looking like that. He, is not aware of how he looks with those marks around him but I don't want others to say him in future and hurt his feelings. All I can do is now, work with his school team and ask them to help me curb this scratching behavior. I do apply cream on him, but how lah the cream work when he tends to rub them off when my head turns?

Mason is not 1 year 5 months 18 days old. 

He has just lift off his two feet today successfully. He has finally mastered the jump. 

Super cute.

What can I say about Mason? He eats whatever we eats and he seems pretty much ok with food that has black pepper too. He seem to tolerate spicy food better than Jaden when Jaden was his age.

He is verbalising more now but I am still pretty paranoid because they do not sound like proper words to me. 

Words that we have taught him and he seems to know are:-

Bird

Poo

Shee Shee

Soup

Shoe

Socks

Cat Meow Meow

Bus

Flower

I

Milk (Buh)

Mango (Go)

Kor Kor

Car

Open (O)

Words that he verbalises properly is Car, Kor Kor, Go for Mango, Buh, O.

He says O quite frequently to me because he needs to me to help him open his toy storage zips or bottle caps. Buh is the most frequent word as he says that everytime he sees me sitting down. In fact, I am so scared of sitting down in mere sight of him as he would come running up to me, pull up my shirt, says Buh and helps himself to his milk. I always, always teach him how to say I want milk but he only says Buh. I remembered just last year, he says Please when he wants milk.. at least there was a please.. now, its straight to self-service with no question asked if possible.

I have also taught him how to sign thank you and make him sign while I say it each time I helped him with something. Hopefully one day, he will say thank you to me.

He also dances to high-5 songs, trying to imitate different movements the children makes. Loves Chuggington! He can sit quietly on the sofa and watch the whole 30 minutes of Chuggington. 

Just today, I walked around the house with my hands at the back and he, too, followed me from behind doing exactly the same action. 

He knows all our routine. 

When Hubs go to the keys area, he runs to the balcony door, waiting for Hubs as he knows Hubs is going to unlock the balcony door and go outside. When Hubs comes in, he runs to the kitchen sink and wait for Hubs because he knows Hubs is going to wash his hands.

When Jaden runs to the toilet, he will follow and try to hold Jaden's pants for him and hands it over to the brother when the brother comes out of the toilet. 

When Jaden washes his hands, he observes. When Jaden wipes his hands, he observes. When Jaden shakes his hands dry, he observes and he imitates all these actions when I asked him to do it. 

Today, he looked at me in the eye and said something that sounded like Poo! and he started to make that poo face. I thought I misheard him and that he was just pulling my legs as usual. He tends to be really cheeky too, you see because right after he made that poo face, he smiled at me and I did check his diapers, it was clean. Then I said, if you want to poo, let us go to the toilet and immediately he ran towards the safety gate at the staircase. He wants to go up to the toilet to poo. Then he started his poo face again and this time, it was for real. After he was done pooing, he pulled me to the plastic bags area, pointed to the plastic bag, and after I took the plastic bag, he pulled me towards the staircase again, indicating he needs to go up to bathe. I was pretty impressed!

When Jaden threw the diaper into the dirty laundry pile, Mason will take the diaper and put it at the sampahbag side instead. 

Oh dear, I am starting to feel sleepy now and it is already coming to nearly 2am. Time to call it a night for me as I forsee a loooong day for me tomorrow. Actually it is always a looooooong day for me no matter what day, just because I am a mother. *wink*

Good night peeps! 

Staying alive

Life is very fragile. One minute you are here, the other minute, you might no longer cease to exist.

An acquaintance I got to know a few years back, had passed away due to Denggi fever on Monday. It was just over the weekend, or a few days before the weekend, he has been updating his status on facebook rather often, stating his blood platelets are dropping and it just kept dropping and how he felt so cold. 

Both him and his son has caught the Denggi fever and had been admitted to the hospital. Luckily, his son recovered soon enough and got discharged. However, it was a total opposite fate written for him.

This got me in tears. In fact, I am not even that close of an aquaintance, but the virtue by just knowing him, and that his newsfeed kept popping up on my timeline, and it is always funny as he is a very jovial man with a good sense of humor. The news was really unexpected and most of his friends really thought he was trying to pull an April Fool's joke on everybody.. which for once, we would have hope it was all a joke despite being a bad tasting one. 

I hope he rest in peace and that the family will find peace with his passing in time to come. I am very sure, although he might have wished his life did not have to end that way, he would have rather it him than his son. 

Anyway, to cut the story short, please count your blessings everyday. For every day we are above ground, we should make the best of each day God gives to us. You never know what may happen the next minute. Life is that fragile. 

I try, my very best, to be grateful to be alive. I am, despite situations I get myself in does not stand in my favor. 

2015 First post

Hello!

I am back! Yes, after a whole year away from blogging.

I missed blogging so much as it is one of my only tools to help me remember things that goes on in my life.

Like most of you all would have known, we had a new addition to the family and that little boy, had my hands tied up, leaving me little time to myself, therefore with a few minutes spare of me time, I had used it to nap or shoving food down my throat to keep my sanity.

Mason is 15months old and here are some of his milestones. Let me jot them down before I forget again.. 

Started sitting up by himself at about 6-7 months old.

8-9 months, he has been pulling himself up and cruising around.

9-10 months, he started playing with his alligator push walker.

10.5months, he let go and started walking his first steps.. and walked ever since.

11 months old, he is now toddling around everywhere.

He naps about twice a day now, sometimes 3 if he is really tired. 

Once in the morning around 9/10am - 11.30/12pm and then maybe around 3/4pm or 6-7pm.

He still needs to direct latch to sleep at night or for naps. 

Sometimes he still gets up 2 to 3 times in a night for his feed.

Mason can point at things he wants, or things he want to show us.. he will also pull us towards it and then point at it.

Words

Daddy (sometimes it is used for calling me as his mother)

Mama

Mam mam

Jaaaaaayyy

Mmm / Buh (milk)

He can sign for more.

Sometimes he will imitate us word by word such as:-

Pau Pau (Pau) 

More

Dog (sounds like duck though)

Buh Bye

Mason can imitate quite a bit too now. He will make the vroom vroom sound when he is playing with toy vehicles, wave bye bye when asked.. and when he hears "see you later or good night", he will give a flying kiss, he will give kisses on the lips, pat his brother if asked to sayang his brother.

Mason understands quite a lot of things. For example, if he was to sit down in the W position and I ask him to sit nicely, he will correct his own sitting position. He will clean up if I say to clean up or pick up his toys. He will try to be cheeky and run away when I ask him to come here but eventually he will come towards me. Lie down, sit down, hands nice, quiet, pom-pom, take off pants, wear pants, drink water..

Mason is still very much a velcro baby but now, he is starting to accept others to carry him or play with him. He can now stay with his father much longer compared to him when he was just a newborn. He could not last more than 2 minutes then in his father's arms. As long as I am not in sight, his father is the one he will go to. Then there is either Kelly or my mother, whom he will velcro to if I am not there.

Mason loves Kelly so much that he will even not want me to carry him when he is in Kelly's arms, which is something that has never happen before. He will always run to Kelly when Jaden comes down from his room for a break from ABA.

Mason do look for Jaden to play catch or run into their 'clubhouse' to hide, he will pull Jaden to go with him, and if Jaden does not give two hoots, he will scream at his brother and try to catch my eye contact, and have me ask Jaden to follow him into their clubhouse. 

Jaden loves Mason a lot. He is always ever-ready to pull Mason to him and hug him and shower him with kisses. He lets his brother do whatever to him, except for sharing some books that he really likes. Then there will be some scuffles and shrieking and of course, the smaller one will end up crying.

We visited Dr Rajini just last week to check up on the development of both boys and it seems, Mason is developing his milestones like a neurotypical child (*fingers crossed!!!!*) 

His weight though was just 9.26kg which is on the low side. At his age, he is supposed to be weighing in at about 10kg so Dr suggested that i give him a little more fatty food to his diet. 

He is about 76cm tall for now.. still my little shorty but that is ok. 

He has 7 teeth now as we speak. :)

Health wise, he has been down with fever twice last year. Once was when his teeth was cutting out from the top, and that fever went away in a day's time. The second time he had fever was on a Saturday night, and when it was Monday, he was still hovering around 38.4. So I took him to his hospital paed and the paed said it was most probably viral fever and the only thing I can give him to control his fever from spiking was the panadol and to give him another day or so, which means a total of 3 days for the fever to go away on its own as that is what the duration of a viral fever would be like. True enough, the fever started going off by the third day and he was back being a strong little boy. 

I will always be the paranoid mother when it comes to everything concerning Mason's milestones until he can talk like any other neurotypical children. As long as there is no proper speech from Mason, I will always be paranoid. I have yet to vaccinate him, if that is what you all are wondering, that is why I am always trying to avoid crowded places or bringing him out so much. If those outings can be avoided, I would. 

*touch wood* Mason loves his food. He is not picky and he goes aaaahhhh everytime he spots us with food. He wants a taste of everything, which is good. 

Enough of Mason for now, Jaden's turn now.

Jaden now attends school on the other side of town, which is about half hour away from home if we do not get caught up in morning or rain traffic. If not, it will turn into a 45 min / one hour journey one way. He now goes to school for 6 hours, and everyday, he has an activity lined up after school hours as well. It is either ABA therapy for 3 hours after school, swimming or gymnastic classes. Now, before you go all whaaaat? gymnastic for boys? The class is more for him to be more disciplin, learn to take instructions and also building his motor strength which he is still very weak.

Swimming? because he loves swimming and that is one sport I can forsee him excelling in IF he does not keep wanting to drink the pool dry. *sigh* Jaden has got a very nice swimming instructor who is very patient with him and it seems that Jaden and her has now clicked! I used to think that she was not really the right one to guide Jaden, in terms of experience but after giving her a chance to prove herself, she proved me wrong. She seems great with him and now that she has caught Jaden's drift of learning, things are starting to look good at swimming classes.

School and home ABA has been training him more with oral mouth exercises, as they think he has shown some readiness to want to learn how to communicate effectively. It would really be a miracle, a dream come true for both Jaden and me if he can really communicate effectively. It is so frustrating as a human being, not being able to communicate. You can try, by not talking and then try to get the other person to understand your wants and needs, yet you are not able to draw, or write out what you want or even sign appropriately to get your message across. Therefore, this is really a very important thing for Jaden to learn. I am just grateful that he has quite a team of caring therapists to help him out.

School has helped me teach Jaden to go sit on the toiletbowl to poo. Dr Rajini has always said that this is the most difficult hurdle for autistic children, especially pooing. Once they pass this stage successfully, other things will come easy. This is because these children do not understand where their poo is going, how their body is reacting and they are confused and scared if it is a part of their body that they are losing and etc. Therefore, now that Jaden has learn to overcome this fear and finally poos in the toiletbowl, I have to buck up and step over my next fear. The fear of him going out without diapers and using public toilets whenever he needs to tinkle.

Since last year, from Jaden's 7th birthday, I have relax his GFCFEF diet and now, it seems he is eating almost everything except really sugary and msg-laden food but I am still keeping a tight watch on how he behaves and react to the food he eats daily. 

It seems that he suddenly discovered a whole new world, being allowed to eat almost the same thing as we are and he has his favourite, just like any other normal children; ice-cream, burgers, roti canai, noodles, cheesy pizzas, bread and cakes. *sigh* What have we been hiding from him all these while, he must have thought.

He does show reaction from time to time with some food he eats. Sometimes, it could be rashes propping up, most probably from eggs as these rashes appear within the first 48 hours of his food intake 

His favourite healthy food is still green vegetables and fish. He can finish off a whole fillet of salmon and more if he is allowed to. There is once when he finished off a whole fish, except for its head and tail, during a dinner. Luckily it was a family dinner with my parents, who understood Jaden and his behaviour very well. If it was others, they would have thought him to be a selfish greedy little boy.

He can now shake his head for no and nod his head for yes, quite appropriately unless he is being kancheong about something. Then every signing would appear just to want what he wants. Usually, he does not get it because he is just simply signing and we do not want to entertain that sort of nonsense. We will make him calm down, and let him think long and proper before conveying the right message across to us. 

There is quite a lot of things that Jaden can do, taught in school such as cleaning up his own food bowl after lunch, bathing himself, wiping himself dry after shower, washing his own butt after doing number 2, peeling his own fruit to eat, pouring out water to drink from cup yet he hardly does them at home. I need to change. I need to challenge him to self help himself more at home, now that he is growing bigger everyday, I stress out everyday and worry about his future, on how he can self help himself successfully especially when it comes to dealing with good hygiene. I am starting, slow but at least I am starting. Now, it is off diapers at home though at times, it is a crazy sight to see me dart between the two boys when both of them needs to use the toilet. 

I get very angry at myself for exposing him to tv since young and this is one mistake I do not want to make with Mason. Therefore when Jaden is not home, tv is mostly off and Mason plays around with his toys and pretend play with me using kitchen utensils or things he finds around the house. I am slowly trying to cut down Jaden's tv time too as he is really obsessed with TV. He will start whining, and then crying and lying around the house like a heroin addict that does not get his fix. Sometimes I tend to lose my patience and will punish him to stand at the naughty corner, until he calms down and stop crying. It is really really frustrating to hear him whine and whine and whine. *sigh* I kind of stop caning him now that he is a big boy and I do want to change my parenting ways towards both the boys. Mason is really observing what I do now and I do not want him to imitate me caning his brother. Just sometimes, Jaden can really drive me up the wall as he now knows what he wants, what he does not want, what he can do by himself, and well, sometimes just want to challenge me to see if I give in to him. Usually I win the fight. :)

School has given Jaden some homework to do at home during their first term break and so far, it seems to go on fine. I am going to add on more from my side but FIRST, I need to manage my time much more effectively, in terms of taking care of both their basic needs; 3 daily meals, shower, naptime for Mason, then housework such as laundry and dishes, then quality playtime with both of them. It is just so hard, so hard to do all these by myself sometimes but there is just no other way, so I will just have to bite my lip and persevere. I can do it! 

Jaden is still weighing in at 23kg and only 126cm tall. Dr Rajini said he is at the right percentile for his age, so I need not worry. I just have to try to increase Mason's weight for now. 

Guess these are what I can remember about my boys' development.. for now. 

Till I update again, hopefully now on a daily mode instead of just monthly or once a year. *wink*