5y - Lucas the voracious reader

Hi Lucas,

It always astounds me when I read with you at night for bedtime. You're now reading quite advanced books and have been able to phonetically sound out words since you were 3 years old. You taught yourself to read and we're amazed at how effortlessly you do it.

Here are some videos of you reading at 3yo

3 years 2 months

3 years 6 months

At first we thought you memorised the words in the books but Daddy tested you by asking you to read backwards, which you did very well. You also make sure we read every single page, if we miss a page, you let us know right away!

You're also very good with your numbers. You were able to count to 100 at 3, you're now adding and substracting in your head. You learnt all the months and days of the week at 3 as well, so we couldn't trick you on your routine.

A funny video of you at 4y 5m counting when you were pumped full of sugar and needed to sleep. This was at Aunty Mandy's birthday I think.

21 & 22 months: videos galore!

I recently got a new iPhone with plenty of storage, which explains why I have so many videos of you now! I've also been obsessed with making iMovies, which are so easy and so much fun.

This was the very first iMovie I made, a compilation of your dance moves whenever the Thomas theme song comes on.


This was a video I made of you playing at our local park. You make so many funny expressions!



A video taken during bed time of you counting 1 to 10. Aunty Mandy says you sound like Gollum! haha


Singing Twinkle Twinkle

21 months: little smarty pants

You have picked up on so many new words this month! It's amazing how quickly you can repeat back new words to us. You're also very good at memorising the Thomas & Friends characters and able to associate them with their numbers. Here's a video of you pointing to the different characters underneath the numbers as part of your bedtime routine:

You're also learning to count:

You absolutely love singing the Thomas theme song:

You have really random vocabulary and have picked up the words: oval and flower

This is a funny video of you being upset because Daddy took your iPad and wouldn't let you play with it anymore:

19 months: smarty pants

We have an entire box of alphabet books that I bought a while ago. We play with it on and off though not consistently. So imagine my surprise when I randomly tested to see if you knew your alphabet and you correctly pointed to the right letters! You don't know all your letters but you remember 'T' because there is a picture of a train in the book, you also know A, B, K and sometimes M.

Here are some videos when I was trying to prove to Daddy that you knew some of the letters.

You also know some of your colours too. I was changing your nappy, which is a real challenge these days as you always try to wriggle away. So I grabbed the closest book which was one of colours. In a bid to distract you, I asked if you knew where blue was. You flipped to the right page! I then asked for red and yellow and you got them both right. We've been testing you more and you also know green and orange. I'm quite impressed at how you've picked these up. I haven't been able to get videos of you with the colour book because each time you see my phone, you try to grab it to watch Thomas youtube videos on.

Here's a video of your 3rd haircut. I've got a Thomas video on my phone to distract you from the hairdresser.

And yet another video of you with your new Thomas remote control toy. You are so obsessed with Thomas!

16 months: photos from my phone this month

So many photos that I haven't had a chance to upload! Here are a few memorable moments.

Our morning routine: doodling and green smoothies.

We celebrated Aunty Mandy's graduation at Cafe Sydney - there was a cool floor model of the city that you walked over with Grandma and Grandpa:

Playing with Aunty Mandy during Sunday brunch:

 You're outgrowing your baby chair. Look how much taller you've grown in 6 months (above). And look at how you sit in your chair now....so cheeky.

I wonder if you still love books as you grow older? You love flipping through books at every opportunity. It's a great way to keep you occupied.

Week 46: Goodnight moon

It's fascinating to see how much you've developed these last few months. Your comprehension has improved so much! You love to turn the pages, lift flaps and point to pictures on a page. When I ask you where something is, you can point to it. Here you are reading your bedtime story with Daddy. It's so interesting to compare it to how you interacted with the book when you were 4 months old in this post.

You hair looks quite wild because we just gave you a bath. I think you're overdue for a haircut!

Week 33 milestone: Standing up

I dressed you in jeans on Tuesday and you looked so much like a toddler! I can't believe how fast you are growing up. You'll be 8 months at the end of next week. Where did the time go?

I put you up against the couch and you were able to stand up holding on to the couch for a few seconds.

You're growing more hair and your little bald spot is filling in!

 

Here is a video of you giggling and laughing with Grandma.

I captured these expressions on your face when you saw Daddy come home from work and walk into the bedroom. You were so happy to see Daddy!

Week 29: Apple - taste sensation

I fed you pureed apples last night. Your reaction to tasting apples for the first time was so funny! I think the flavours were too intense for you though I think you still liked it as you kept reaching for more.

I mixed the apple with pears today so that the flavours were less intense. Aunty Mandy tasted it and loved it. You really loved it too.

Here are some photos of Daddy reading you your bedtime story last night.

Week 29: You can turn the page!

You've always loved looking at books. Ever since you were a few months old, you loved to sit still while we read books to you. You would look at each page with such interest, it really looked like you were reading! Today, your Grandparents were reading a book to you and noticed you moving your hands as if to turn the page yourself. So I took a video of it. I love this video, it's so adorably cute especially the satisfied smile you gave me at the end of the video.

Here you are with the same book:

Week 21 video: Storytime!

This is a video of Daddy reading a bedtime story to me last night. I was more interested in eating Daddy's hand.

Grandma came over and read a story to me in Chinese today. Thank you, Grandma. It took a lot of effort to concentrate for so long, especially for a not-quite-5-month old baby!

Week 20 video: Chatterbox and reading with Grandpa

Grandma & Grandpa Tran are in America right now on holiday and have been regularly checking the blog for photos of you. I'm sure they are missing you a lot, so here is a video taken this morning so they can see how much you've grown and how much you are talking now.

Grandma & Grandpa Banh came by the other day with lots of Chinese books and CDs for you. You've got new reading material and look like you're really enjoying looking at the pictures

Week 16: Daddy goes to Paris

We had 3 momentous occasions today:

1. It's your Auntie Katrina's bday today (see previous post)
2. Daddy finally got on his flight to Paris after a delay yesterday. He'll be gone for a whole week and you looked quite upset to see him get on his flight.

Here you are at the airport waiting for Daddy to check in:

Week 16: Reading with Daddy

You were unsettled and whinge-y today from your vaccinations, so we napped and cuddled with you all day and checked your temperature whenever you woke up. Finally in the afternoon, we had some play and I asked Daddy to read you a story.

You looked so happy and excited as Daddy settled on the couch with the short story book.

Week 15 and learning Chinese

I was taking your usual daily photo earlier this week and thought I'd change it up a bit by putting you on the nursing chair and getting you to hold a book. Your Grandparents gave you a series of Chinese books that were the perfect size and weight for you to "hold" while I took photos. Of course, at 15 weeks old, you still can't hold anything so Mummy had to be creative and be very quick to get the shots.

Surprisingly, you did manage to hold on to the books just long enough for me to get some cute photos! Your Grandma and Aunties loved the photos so much, I decided to take a photo of you with a different Chinese book every day this week. It was really fun to do and you really look like you're "reading"! You're obviously a genius in the making :)

Week 13 video: My smiley boy

You're always smiling, my little boy! It's such a joy to see your face brightening into a wide, gummy grin. It just melts Mummy's heart.