The Pride of Us

Ahhhh...Its been a while since I last updated this column. It's been so busy around here that I haven't been able to call my time my own. Off to work at 10a.m, back home at 10p.m. There's lesser time to be with the kid nowadays. The purpose why I created this blog is mainly to track the improvements of Muhammad Fahyim Syakir, the kid who is slowly turning into a joker without neglecting his intelligence.

He is fast approaching 2 years old now. (1.9 years to be exact). For us,every Saturday is the day for little Fahyim to go to Gymboree and visit his grandparents. When he wakes up on Saturday morning, he will run to the front door and grab his shoes while mumbling the word "shhssst" (shoes) for numerous time. He knows it is and outing day for him after spending most of the time at home during weekdays. It reminds me on how Diyanah used to go out a lot during her pregnancy days. So that basically justifies my inference on this behavior.

Last week I sat in front of the TV with my son watching the never ever changed channel ( Disney Junior 613 which was airing Let's Go Pocoyo as usual), suddenly the boy got up and started moving in circles. It was these guys who thought him that.

The Martian Brothers!

What happens in this show is, an object such as keys or scissors will appear in the middle of this group of aliens. A background voice will pronounce the name of the object and out of the sudden this aliens will move around it in circles like the Red Indians while pronouncing the name of the object continuously. Amazingly, the kid learns from it and it stays in his head.

At home, we normally speak Malay to him but he is more influenced with the English speaking TV shows and starts picking up words from these shows instead of the Malay words conversed by us. It is quite an intriguing method  I must say. I hope by learning English from the TV and Malay from us, it will somehow create a fine balance in his comprehension of the two languages.

He grows so fast and remarkably got some valuable skills under his belt. He can count 1 to 10 while going up and down the stairs. He can differentiate between up and down by literally lifting his hand up and down respectively while pronouncing the gestures cheekily. For a 2 year kid, to be able to memorize alphabets up to the letter H is by far an outstanding achievement thanks to playschool and Youtube. 

I hate to admit that the media nowadays plays a paramount advantage to the kids education. The only challenge is to control the number of hours spent by the lad infront of the TV. 

Contractor in progress?

The Ultimate Power of Pocoyo!

I have never experienced this much cartoon since Aladdin and the Lion King. Everyday my TV set at home was fixed to the 613 channel which is the Disney Channel. It was one after the other, I went through various types of cartoons from Jake and the Neverland Pirates to Timmy Time and from Higglytown Heroes (it should be called Higglytown Hideous..hahaha ) to Elmo's World. But  I have never once in my life came across a cartoon series that has this much superpower to effect and influence the mind of young Fahyim. It is ultimately "The" frickin show and it is distinctly pronounced as " LET'S GO POCOYO"!!

There's another red squid called Fred and he is not in the picture

This blue dude wearing a blue suit with an ear flapping cap really really is something different. I must call its creator a sheer genius because he managed to design the show in a funny way for the purpose of education to these toddlers. 

Fahyim picked up a few words from the show including the names of the characters in it.  Pato the yellow duck is his favorite. He will pronounce Pato's name whenever that duck appears on screen. He can now say umbrella in his baby accent which is so cute which he picked up from the show. 

The only drawbacks of this show to me is the impishness of Pocoyo, his power of influencing the kid is shocking. The kid tends to imitate any and every move Pocoyo does. Be it facial expression, gestures and even its laughing style. 

Last two days, there's an episode where Pocoyo carries a red ball and started hopping around. My son ran across the living hall to pick up my Manchester United football and started hopping around imitating that stubborn Pocoyo. 

Because of the love and affection that my son has for this blue dude and his friends, I decided to find him some Pocoyo stuffs and I came to the knowledge that there's not much baby outlets that sells its products. There is one in Robinsons@Gardens and another one at Manjaku in Bandar Baru Bangi. 

Surprisingly, a t-shirt cost me MYR70 bucks and a sweat pants costs around MYR50. That's hell of a price tag for a kid's attire. Cekik darah punya Pocoyo. When we saw the price tag, I looked at my wife and she stares back at me. A mutual understanding was formed without any verbal interactions. We glanced at little Fahyim to seek alibi for spending our hard earned money. 

That lad was already on the floor hugging a Pato shirt and overjoyingly smiling at the shirt. At that point, another mutual understanding between a husband and wife was formed and finally we bought our boy his first Pocoyo merchandise. 

As long as you're happy me boy.