This morning Kien pointed at something in the kitchen and did the erh-erh-erh noise - you know the noise I'm talking about. I carried him there, asked him to show me what he wanted. He said "naa-naa-na", so I cut the banana in two, peeled it and gave one half to him. He took it, then gave it back to me and pointed at the other half (whilst making The Noise). I gave him the other half, he took it and said "more?" (with an up tone like he is asking a question). I gave him the first half again which he immediately threw on the floor and continued with the "more" exclamations. I asked him to show me what more he wanted, and he said "more, please?". Yeah, like that's going to help! He does this often, and even though it sounds awfully cute it is also highly frustrating for all parties involved. He doesn't have the necessary tools to communicate his wants, and we try as best we can to interpret his pointing and grunts - but never the twain shall meet. The gulf of communicating and understanding between a 19 month old and his parents is vast!
He has been sick with some sort of viral thing since Saturday afternoon. He was pretty much fine all day (he did ask to take his nap at 10am and only slept 45 minutes) and he enjoyed running around the Wynyard Quarter on Saturday. But come 3pm it was all-over-Rover and he crashed out in Jef's arms. Since then we've had a child vacillating between clinging to either Jef or myself for hours on end dozing on and off, or sleeping through the night from 6:30pm to 6:30am. I took him to the doctors on Tuesday; they told me there was nothing we can do except ride this one out. And they said I was to keep giving him liquids - 5mls per minute. Who comes up with that (practical?) stuff, and why do health professionals regurgitate that sort of advice like it's a doable thing? As if we can force 5mls (or any ml for that matter) into a small human who doesn't want anything forced into his mouth or down his throat. We can't even get any yummy paracetamol that tastes like strawberry syrup into him - either he spits it out or throws it up. Yeah, good times!
It was his Daddy's turn to take a day off yesterday to tend to a not-well-enough-for-daycare Kien. When Jef couldn't deal with The Noise coupled with constant pointing any longer they went to Mission Bay. As if playing on swings and in the sand wasn't enough fun they then went to Kelly Tarltons Underwater World. Even though Kien was ill he apparently enjoyed seeing the fish swimming around, but didn't like the Antarctic Encounters part.
Speaking of good times and Wynyard Quarter - we went to the opening and it was awesome! As live music bellowed from the makeshift stage we enjoyed the view from the overhead walkway.
We wandered around the docks where the fishing boats are, and Kien kept wanting to go dangerously close to the edge. Jef assured me that he would dive in after Kien if he were to fall in, and even though I know it will all work out OK if that were to happen I still was jumpy and uncomfortable.
We monitored him while he threw stones into the water for a bit, satisfying his curiosity of being close to the edge.Walking the plank - oh what fun that was! Walking, running, jumping off. He did that for the entire stretch of the docking locale.
There was a giant tent brimming with lantern making activities. We participated in such behaviour, although my hidden crafty talents were somewhat overshadowed by my enthusiastic toddler who wanted to do it himself and grabbed everything off me.
Jef had to patch up some holes in the panel where Kien thought it was a lot more fun to stick things inside the lantern, then pull them out again vigorously.
He did a splendid job, and in the end we did produce a presentable lantern to release at dusk at the official lantern releasing ceremony (which we didn't make it to but I'm sure Kien's lantern saw us proud).
There was certainly some creativity flowing - check out some of those detailed decorations!At this age anything and everything is a playground as far as Kien is concerned, including actual playgrounds.
But he also has this strange habit of throwing things that are inside of defined parameters outside the boundaries. He does it all the time; the bark on the ground of jungle gyms, the mulch in our carpark garden, sand inside sandboxes, and pebbles freshly laid in brand new planting features.
When he was playing in another planting feature a street performer saw him and started entertaining Kien with his routines.
We were hanging around this vicinity so we could get on one of these:
He will always point out a "hey ta ta" flying around overhead. If you haven't guessed that's Kien speak for helicopter.Although the trams only go around a 1.5km block loop I think it is a great beginning to bringing them back to the city.
