I recently started playing this game with Cameron when I realized he’ll say “I love you” back to me and in general repeat after me. It’s the best game ever and an instant pick-me-upper! 🙂
Also, I should remember this trick when he grows older and tries to annoy me by repeating whatever I say!
The whole family went to San Francisco Zoo today for one of Darren’s best friends Julia’s birthday party. We’d taken Darren to the zoo many times—he loves the little puffer train there, which we got to ride today after the party too—but I think it’s Cameron’s first time at the zoo and boy was he in for a treat! When we arrived, the zoo staff brought all these little animals into the party room for the kids to pet. Darren and Cameron rushed to pet a tiny turtle immediately. Then they spotted the face painter. We stayed in line for a while and finally it was Cameron’s turn. Cameron wanted to be a lion—he came up with this all by himself. I’d seen many face paintings before but this one was the best! Roar!
A fellow mom in Cameron’s swim class clued me in a couple weeks ago that the swim school is offering free swim times on Monday mornings. It just so happens that Cameron’s music classes are on summer break for 3 weeks and Ah Ma is visiting! So I signed up Cameron and Ah Ma for last Monday’s swim time and videoed lots. But then when I reviewed the videos later at home, I realized I had used the wrong camera mode so everything was sped up! 🙁 Luckily Ah Ma could go swimming with my little goofball again this morning.
Cameron could swim quite far with his fins on, so unfortunately he doesn’t bother to paddle!
Having had enough goofing around, Ah Ma managed to convince Cameron to practice his up-faces! Kudos!
Unlike Darren, Cameron is happy playing by himself for extended periods of time. Starting a few weeks ago, he started putting puzzles together all by himself. Today I decided to video him. Please be forewarned that the movie takes a while to load, but I hope you’ll agree after you watch it that it’s worth the wait! 🙂
Despite having gone to Gymboree since he was 6 months old, Cameron still has so much fun there like it’s his first time! Today with a simple small car toy, his endearing laughter filled me with joy. How I love watching him play and enjoy life!
Godbrothers Ryan and Roydon are going to a nearby school for summer camp, so they came over after camp for a playdate. Cameron loves balls and really wanted to play with little godbrother Roydon. I’m so proud of Cameron following godmother Yolanda’s instructions to ask Roydon nicely to play with him!
Roydon prefers speaking in English, so Yolanda was encouraging him to speak to Cameron in his mother tongue Cantonese. Little did we know just 1.5 years later, Cameron would follow in Roydon’s footsteps, forgetting all his Cantonese and speaking in English only!
When I first received the book Baby Beluga as a gift, I didn’t know it was a song, so I’d read the book to Darren and it’s one of his favorite bedtime stories. Then one day I noticed on the bottom of the book’s front cover that it’s a song by Raffi, so I downloaded it on iTunes. Ever since then I’d always “sing” the book—no more reading it. Darren and Cameron both love the song and today Cameron started singing it at his favorite restaurant Tea Plus Noodle. But then I don’t know if he was messing around on purpose or if he forgot the lyrics and messed up—either way he thought it was really funny!
I still remember the day that Old MacDonald became our Lo household’s signature lullaby. Darren had just tried out a morning gym class and we were on our way home. He had just turned one and his nap schedule was changing. He was getting pretty fussy as I was driving, so I started singing Old MacDonald as an attempt to soothe him. Within a few minutes, it was quiet in the back and I realized Darren had fallen asleep! Since that day, Old MacDonald has worked magic for both Darren and Cameron.
Unlike Darren, Cameron loves sleeping on his tummy. Today at lunch he decided to put one of his stuffed animals down just like I do to him. I don’t pat him quite as hard as he did to the poor lion or sing as loudly, but you get the idea! 😉
By the way, Cameron doesn’t usually speak or sing with food in his mouth unlike Darren who was notorious for storing and not swallowing food when he was younger and this video of Cameron reminds me of this other video of Darren who managed to go through the alphabet with his mouth full!
Darren used to take gymnastics classes at The Little Gym, so of course Cameron is not going to miss out and started going 3 months ago. Cameron might not appear to be as good or natural a gymnast as Darren, but I think a lot has to do with the language barrier. Actually Darren started at The Little Gym a bit later—when he was 2 years and 8 months old—whereas Cameron started 6 months younger than Darren. I usually try not to jump in and translate everything for Cameron, but that means outsiders might think Cameron isn’t following instructions. Oh well—I might as well have the language thing as an excuse! 😉
After Darren performed his Mother’s Day song, Cameron wanted to sing his favorite song—“Twinkle Twinkle LIttle Star” in Mandarin. Of course Darren messed with Cameron as soon as he started singing, which explains why Cameron was pushing Darren away at the top of this video. Darren didn’t let up, even interfering with my filming and accusing me of being naughty when I fended him off. Too bad Darren marred Cameron’s performance, but fortunately this is Cameron’s favorite song, so chances are I’ll be able to catch Cameron singing this again before long!
