Kai and N boarded the bus first and walked in to two seats at the bench area while Yang who got in with me climbed onto the adult+child seat right behind the door. I had Yu in a stroller so I must get to the stroller area, so I asked N to go get Yang.
Yu was looking nonchalant the whole time in the stroller
I parked the stroller, and Kai started crying. Something about wanting to sit with N. I turned around and saw N sitting with Yang. Ok, so my instructions were not clear - I had wanted N to get Yang down so she could be with both kids. I guess I didn't expect she would leave either alone??!
But it was too late - for Yang to be willing to get off his seat and for Kai to stop crying. He stood crying next to me and even told a passenger off for looking at him! I told Kai to stop crying if he didn't want people to look at him but he kept going on and on. I said he couldn't go out the next day if he kept crying. He kept crying so yup, he got grounded.
Of course he asked what being grounded meant. Of course he wanted to go out. So there was a second bout of crying. Later, he pled to go out without crying, and of course I didn't - couldn't - give in. But by the next morning, he got it. He woke earlier than me and told N that he couldn't go out for dinner that day, that he would stay at home with N. And by evening, he got all tough - he would stay at home, hmph!
So for the first time, Sito and I brought only Yang and Yu out. Usually, Kai has very strong preferences, be in it food or toys, and though they like different things, Yang may follow his GeGe sometimes. On Saturday, however, it was purely Yang's preference - yummy chicken pork and brown noodles!
The former refers to sweet and sour pork in the Clan Sito lexicon. We had introduced all kinds of meat as "chicken" at first. When we introduced pork, it unfortunately got preceded by a "chicken"! The latter took some sleuthing - turned out that he wanted yee mee like what he had last week at Sito's birthday dinner. So off to Canton Paradise we went. The parents would love some dim sum! :)
Happy with his chicken pork!
Monopolising Papa in this golden opportunity!
It turned out to be quite a quiet and pleasant dinner. Yang is very loud when he talks. But very often at this dinner, he was just looking around, observing things. We realised that Kai is really the noisy one! And group dynamics probably play a part in noise level too when both Kai and Yang are together. Now, Yang was sitting quietly most of the time. He didn't get off his chair at all! Even Yu was spared an overly affectionate brother's rough handling.
Yu was enjoying himself too!
The difference was quite stark at the barber too. Sito was having a haircut. Yang was sitting or standing around mostly. And in the supermarket, he was happy to look at stuff without running around.
The Christmas display wasn't too interesting. Yang was playing with a xylophone thingy but the sounds were terribly nice.
But he looked like he was having fun!
I was happy that we managed to put our attention on only Yang, even if it was just this once. Even Yu was heard when he saw the bears in Cold Storage and went "bear" - Sito was so pleased :)
But I felt guilty enjoying myself without Kai :( If Kai could be less rowdy! Our every Saturday dinner would be peaceful! How to psycho him....
When we got home, Kai said he was glad to be grounded coz he caught Battle Disc Go Fire on TV! But he was still concerned with whether we had dessert - we didn't, but if we had, he would deem it unfair!!! Fairness, to this boy, is about fairness TO HIM *.* How to teach him...
Earlier in the day, he refused to do the activities I prepared for him on the unused sides of his activity book from school. Only Yang traced his name on his book before we went out. But at night, he decided to do them.
Spelling the numbers 1 to 10
His completed work
Glad to have ended the day on a good note. Hopefully, he will remember this incident and learn to control his emotions.
