1. The Little Fireman
Hubby to me: Take the air purifier to the room.
Immediately, Gareth came running to the room with his fireman’s helmut. He heard ‘Fire’.
2. The Big Issue
Auntie: Ah Ma
Gar: Big!
Auntie: Ah Gong?
Gar: Small
Auntie: Auntie?
Gar: Small
Auntie: Yeye?
Gar: Small
Auntie: Mama?
Gar: Small
Auntie: Gar?
Gar: Small
Auntie: Ah ma, small?
Gar: Big!
3. Going Out
I was taking El out to a play. Gar heard the word ‘out’ and immediately went to the shoe rack to show he was getting ready to go out.
4. Wet T-shirts
The moment Gar’s shirt or pants is wet, he will take them off immediately. That usually happens when water splashes onto him while he is brushing his teeth, or someone with wet hands tries to carry him. He will say, “Wet, wet!”
He was very upset when his favourite pillow case with lions was in the wash. To calm him down, I had to say “wet, wet” before he reluctantly accepted it.
5. Gar’s Very Efficient Speech I
Gar has trouble catching every word we say, so sometimes he will say the first word and the last word, or sometimes the first syllable and the last syllable.
We were putting stickers of baby animals on a book, and he had placed a sticker upside down.
Me: It’s upside down.
Gar: Up – Down
Me: No, it’s up-side-down.
Gar: Up – Down… Side!
6. Gar’s Very Efficient Speech II
Me: Elephant
Gar: El -phant
7. Gar wants to watch Qiaohu
Qiaohu is a Taiwanese children’s show to teach Mandarin and other growing up tips, a little like Sesame Street and Barney. Qiaohu is a tiger who is in preschool. Gar likes to watch it after we introduced to him recently. We watch it on our Smart TV usually, so when he wants to watch, he will take the remote control to me, and do the weight lifting hand signal, which stands for Timothy Tiger. He also tries to say Qiaohu, but it usually comes out as Xiaohu, which means little tiger.
One of the songs is ‘Wei Xian (Danger), Wei Xian, Stop!’, accompanied by hand actions – X for Wei Xian, and two hands reaching forward with palms at right angles up. He has also done that action to tell me to switch on the TV.
Now we just keep singing that song when he tries to do something dangerous.
