Toddlerhood: The 'What's This?' Stage

Rafa is getting to the stage where he frequently asks me 這個什麼來 (What's this)? I guess it's the stage before the neverending 'Why?' questions come in. He asked that quite often today while playing outside and looking at his book inside, and I managed to record some of it during the book session.



That Hide and Seek First Words book is one of his favourite two 'books' at the moment. The other is our 'photobook' album lol. Common themes between the two? They are picture books. He is not really into story books so I rarely read to him anymore these days. We speak to him regularly though and try to engage in conversations with him.

As you could see from the video, we speak mostly Mandarin with him with English words, Hokkien and Indonesian thrown in here and there. Poor little fella is gonna be really frustrated initially when he starts kinder as he will struggle to understand what's being said and get confused why others don't understand him. May be we should speak to him mostly in English instead? Or just let him be and let the children's early age sponge brain pick it up naturally when he starts school.

I just love kids and their inquisitive little (but not small) minds. You'll be surprised at how much they actually absorb. I am constantly surprised. Take today for example, was walking with the little fella to the local playground and he suddenly blurted out 'Wiggle', and I looked around and saw a van parked nearby with a small sticker of the Wiggles logo on it.

Btw he likes the Wiggles (which toddlers don't?), so Wenty is thinking of bringing him to their concert next time (apparently there was one at Flemington Showground today, missed it!). Anyone interested? Just whatsapp her.

He also has a habit of saying '要到家了' (nearly home) whenever we are driving on the main road at the intersection a few turns away from home, he actually recognises the landmark and know whenever we see that, we are nearly home. He also has a habit of saying '要到了' (nearly there) if he sees us turning into parking lots (or very small streets with many parked cars) after a long drive on the main roads.

Anyway, it's midnight now, better call it a night.