Matty's Fear of Rejection

If you ask Matty who his girlfriend is, he would say without any hesitation --"Eugenia!"  But after going to a few of his school outings, I realised that Matty doesn't even talk to this girl in class that he claims to be his girlfriend. No, not even one word! We asked Matty one day after picking him up from school why he doesn't talk to her:


MATTY:                   "I'm shy!"





ME:                           "But if you don't talk to her how can you be friends?"





DADA:                     "You should ask her if you can play together."





ME:                           "And maybe later you can hold hands together."





MATTY:                   "What if she says no?"





ME:                           "Thats okay, you can try another time."


So did he talk to her? According to Dada, Matty kind of tried while they were putting on their outdoor shoes at the end of school,  although all he said was her name. But at least thats a start.

Sometimes I wonder where he got this fear of rejection from. I don't remember Dada ever having that problem.

The "Beep-ing" Red Car

If you know my hubby, you'd know that he's very relaxed around Matty. He never even tries to control the language he uses around him, or think twice about the kind of music he plays in the car. I don't remember how many times I've told him to stop using certain words around Matty because sooner or later he'd pick it up. But what do I know right? Why would my hubby listen to someone who has the same parenting experience as him? I guess my hubby prefers to learn from real life experience.

The other day just as we were about to watch a Lightning Mcqueen DVD with Matty for the first time, Matty all of a sudden said "the fxxking red car". Not entirely sure what we heard,  we asked Matty to repeat what he said again, and it was then that the "F" word flowed out of his little innocent mouth. My hubby who was trying to stop himself from cracking up asked Matty one final time. After Matty repeated "the fxxcking red car"  again, Matty started laughing. Yes, I must admit it was a funny moment. But as parents we all know that if we laughed with Matty, we would only  encourage him to use the word again and again. So to limit the damage caused by my hubby, we put on a serious a face and told him that it was a naughty word, and he cannot use it again.

Don't know if Matty will listen. I just hope my hubby has learned his lesson.

Hello Baby Number Two

If you read my earlier post you'd know that Matty is not particularly keen on having a baby brother or
sister. In fact, he made it very clear he didn't want either. But what does a toddler know, right?  Having someone to grow up with will be great fun! Anyway we told him last month that he was going to have a
sister or brother soon... and yes, he wasn't happy.

He was in a bad mood for a while everytime we talked about baby number two. It was
until we told him that he can still sleep with us after the baby is born that he cheered up a little. But even then he'd still show his hostility towards the baby.

ME:                  "Will you love baby?"



MATTY:         "No! Matty hit baby!"



ME:                  "If Matty sleep with Da Da and Ma Ma, can baby sleep in Matty's room?



MATTY:         "No! Baby sleep in Pa Pa's (helper's) room.



ME:                 "But you don't use your room, why can't baby use it?"



MATTY:         "But I play inside all the time."


Over the past few weeks things have improved slightly. I'd make Matty kiss my belly goodnight...and he'd make me kiss his belly goodnight too. Yes, Matty pretends to have a baby in his belly. He's already had his sixth baby now I think. The first one was called Maya. But he later changed it to "Zywa". Maybe thats his way of accepting the the news.

Yesterday, we took him with us for my ultrasound. And there he saw and heard baby for the first
time. He didn't really respond too much until he heard baby's heartbeat. He was actually more focused on what the doctor was doing to my belly. While sitting on Da Da's lap, Matty looked at me and asked me "Do you feel pain?" Matty also said "yay" when the doctor told us baby was a boy! Although he denied saying that when we got home.

Hopefully, over the next few months Matty will look forward to seeing his little
brother as much as we do.