Seeing my friend's 5 year old triplets confidently scribble away turtles, dinosaurs, fruits, etc, I am reminded that each kid is different. Not only do they have varied interests and talents, but they also develop the same talents and interests at different paces. I put it down not only to genetics but, perhaps more importantly, also conditioning. On both sides, the kids have aunts and uncles and grandfathers who can draw and/or paint quite well. So they must have it in them to churn out awe-inspiring artwork from time to time. But since Raffy and I don't really draw, or paint, or sculpt... I can't really expect a masterpiece, can I?
Here are the kids drawings:
Hadrien actually had several of these lined up to form a mat (so he says!). When I asked him to choose only 1 that I would post on Tootay, he said "There's many artwork. Choose as many as you want!" It's hard to believe how much air of authority he can muster - and he's only 3!
As for Baz, he's not into drawings and artwork. For a while, he was quite fascinated with calendars. Lately, he's been pouring over floor plans and renderings so I wasn't surprised to find him drawing his versions of our hopefully future house :)
He hasn't changed his mind about being an astronaut yet but Baz is sure into building. Whenever he sees models of buildings/condos on display in malls, he doesn't miss running towards it to ask what the different parts are made of.
Yesterday, "Architect Denise" lent us a model based on a preliminary schematic design we were exploring. Baz called it "very well made" and went about looking at each room of the house. He wanted to learn how to make one. He chose his bedroom, put the model next to the floor plans and I think began to understand how to read the plans.
A couple of pictures of mostly Baz's structures -
Baz usually works with the natural-colored wood blocks while Hadrien prefers the plastic and colored blocks. They both know to respect each other's creations :) Although countless fights and building toppling have erupted if one was not careful.
As the kids develop their varied interests, I realize that some interests wane while others stay awhile longer. I don't want to forget the phases the boys go through so bear with me as I immortalize them here.
1. cooking - Early on, Baz developed a love for cooking shows (blame it on the thousands of hours I spent watching the Lifestyle Network while I was pregnant and even after Baz was born). He has a huge crush on Rachael Ray and her 30 Minute GET REAL Meals is one of the first few books he asked his Daddy to buy. To show his appreciation for good food, he would say "mmm.... perfect" with his eyes closed ala Ina Garten of The Barefoot Contessa. At age 4, he read the whole recipe of Swedish Meatballs with Noodles except for the fractions. He has a play-kitchen at home and would spend long stretches of time playing there. This interest has mellowed recently as he became interested in more things.
2. reading/spelling - Baz learned to read all letters at 18 months. He would constantly ask me how to spell Baz, baby, daddy, mommy, car, van, yaya, etc. He had memorized so many words at 18 months that out of curiousity, I asked him to spell "bed" and he did! We tried other 3-letter words and he was indeed able to spell them. When he was 2 years old, he liked playing with the typewriter in my office and would type his name. At 2.9, Yaya Andora found him reading 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle to Hadrien. Now, at age 4, he is a sight reader and has no trouble reading "thousands", "mini-beasts", "dusk", "termites", "locusts". And it's not just reading, he understands most everything he reads and when he doesn't, he makes sure to ask us.
3. calendars - Baz remembers birthdays and certain events. He knows that I left for a trip to the US on May 7, 2007 and that Daddy followed on May 11. He even remembers what day of the week it was. Early this year, Auntie April gave Baz a cat calendar. For quite a long time, the first thing he would do in the morning is tear off a page from it. He doesn't do that anymore. He prefers to draw the calendar instead, which is good as he gets to practice writing as well as drawing lines. The perfectionist that he is, one time, Raffy found him sobbing as he made a mistake while drawing his calendar.
4. Cinderella - The very first play the boys got to watch was Cinderella. Since then, he would ask to read the book or watch the cartoon. He would also draw Cinderella's castle, complete with a washing machine with the letter "C". He even directs Hadrien and Gramma Cholly in role-playing. Gramma is Cinderella, he's Prince Charming, and guess who's the fairy godmother? Who else but Hadrien. Sometimes, we'd tease Hadrien that he's Gus to which he responds "no, I'm Lutifer (Lucifer)!".
5. the human body - Baz's curriculum included an introduction to the nervous system, digestive system, circulatory system. While at a book fair, I showed Baz a human torso model and he immediately jumped with a big smile on his face. For a couple of weeks after that, he would spent hours playing with it and reading a book on anatomy which his Gramma Cholly got for him in DC. He also enjoying surfing the net to read about neurons and explore the virtual body. Every now and then, he'd ask about whether his food is now in his intestines - whether it's in the small or large intestines!
7. music - When Baz was around 1 year old, he started to make up songs. Ok, maybe they were as simple as "mommy, mommy", "daddy, daddy", "tabo, tabo, tabo-bo-bo-bo, tabo, tabo, tabo-bobobo", "fly, fly, fly, the black hanger, come back soon, the black hanger". But they were consistent. He'd assign different tunes for each of his compositions and would not interchange them. Before he turned 2, we'd play the "Name That Tune" game and he'd usually guess the song in as little as 3-4 notes. He also learned to play the first 7 notes of "Do, Re, Mi" before he turned 2! If you read this blog regularly, you will also remember the many casual discussions we've had about which type of music to listen to on the way to school. Here's Baz performing his Tabo song (age: before he turned 2).
(video from Auntie Genni)
8. languages - Baz learned to count in 4 languages - English (up to 100), Chinese (up to 30), Spanish (up to 10) and Tagalog (up to 10). We didn't realize that Baz understood Tagalog until recently when we asked him "kumain ka na ba?" and he answered correctly. Since then, we'd occasionally talk to him in Tagalog and he'd answer in Tagalog. He likes to play what he calls the "Tagalog Game" and can sing "Lupang Hinirang" all the way up to "di ka pasi-siil".
Recent interests: seasons (questions include "is there day and night in spring, summer, autumn?"), rainbows, planets, weather, the globe and the countries, flags, making different structures with blocks and his pyramid.
I'm sure that in a couple of weeks' time, we'll be able to add to this cool list. For now though, I have to brush up on rainbows and seasons.
