It's been a long time since I wrote about Anran, so I've forgotten many things. That day, a friend criticized me for not being a qualified mother, and I could only accept it. Today, I'll try to write something down anyway, recalling whatever comes to mind.
1. Give a reason
The first thing that comes to mind is an incident from when Anran was less than two years old. For a while, he would make requests of us, and his father would say, "Why should we do that? You need to give a reason!"
Anran would then say, "Reason~ reason~ give me XXX!"
His father thought he didn't understand and explained, "Giving a reason means explaining why. Can you give a reason?"
Anran: "Reason~ reason~"
...
Turns out, he was doing it on purpose because his request was unreasonable, so he couldn't come up with a proper explanation and resorted to being stubborn.
2. Mommy and the Toad
This happened recently after looking at a picture book with toad illustrations. Every time I came home, he would shout, "Has the toad come back?"
My response to his nonsense talk was to deliberately ignore him.
He would then grin sheepishly at me and say, "Mommy's back!"
I'd reply, "Hmm!"
Anran would continue looking at me and say, "Mommy looks like a mommy, how can she turn into a toad?"
I continued ignoring him!
He kept talking to himself in a funny tone, shouting, "If she turns into a toad, she'll be ugly!"
I remained expressionless, changing shoes, clothes, hanging my bag...
Anran followed behind me saying, "Toads are poisonous!"
Finally, the whole family couldn't help but laugh; he succeeded.
3. Crying
Even though Anran seems quite sensible normally, sometimes his crying can go on endlessly. While crying, if someone asks him a question, he will still politely answer before continuing to cry.
For example, one time at church, Anran was crying outside the nursery room due to some matter.
A sister came over and said, "Oh! Isn't this Anran? What's wrong, Anran?"
Anran, with tears streaming down his face, told her, "Crying!"
After answering, he continued crying.
This morning, Anran again suffered from Monday syndrome (because he doesn't want us to leave every Monday morning). He woke up and cried when he saw I wasn't in bed, insisting I help him with everything. His father angrily said, "Stop crying!"
Anran cried while replying, "I'm going to keep crying wuwuwu... I want to continue crying wuwuwu..."
4. I want to hang the orange in the sky
During the New Year holiday, one evening we went to my uncle's house to play. My uncle gave Anran a few small oranges, and Anran happily played with them in the yard. The clear night sky was beautiful, with a bright moon and sparkling stars.
Suddenly, Anran held up a piece of orange and said, "I want to hang this piece of orange in the sky to become a little moon!"
Then he held up the entire orange and said, "I want to hang this orange in the sky to become a little sun!"
5. Is Mommy ugly?
One day, Anran was playing in my arms when he suddenly pointed at the scar on my face and asked, "What's on Mommy's face?"
I replied, "A scar!"
Anran said, "I want a scar too."
I said, "Scars aren't good, they'll make you look ugly."
Anran said, "Anran wants to be ugly, wants to look like Mommy!"
I said, "That won't do. Do you think Mommy is ugly?"
Upon asking this question, I suddenly realized that Anran had never actually said Mommy was ugly. In fact, whenever I wore new clothes, he would generously praise me as beautiful. But this time he had just said Anran wanted to be ugly and look like Mommy, which was undoubtedly a challenge. So I waited curiously for his answer.
Anran suddenly grinned, "Hehe~ you (me) don't know! Let Mommy tell you!"
6. Definitely and surely
Anran took a hippo-shaped finger puppet and came to ask me, "Mommy, Mommy, is this a hippo?"
I said, "It seems so!"
Anran said, "Yes, definitely!"
I said, "Oh, definitely?"
Anran quickly corrected himself, "Surely!"
7. Why in Anran's mind
Anran, like other children his age, likes pressing switches. Sometimes, if he encounters English labels, he reads them letter by letter: "O, N" "O, F, F". Because it might not be safe, we usually stop him.
Once, Anran took a flashlight and started fiddling with it again. We tried to stop him, but just as we were about to get angry, we heard him say, "It can open and close, so it's called a switch!"
8. Anran counting
Before turning two, Anran already knew how to recognize and count three-digit numbers, thanks to our time projection little sprite (a device that projects onto the wall, a digital alarm clock won in a company Spring Festival lottery draw, which initially seemed useless but turned out to be very beneficial for Anran).
Before bedtime, Anran often looked at the clock and counted each number as it changed.
Saying, "It's 21:27, almost 21:28."
Then, "It's really 21:28!"
A minute later, "21:28 has passed..."
This often made my husband and me exhausted, so we eventually forcibly turned off the little sprite, and Anran would cry over it.
After a while, Anran suddenly asked me, "Does Mommy have 60?"
I was startled for a moment but immediately understood and told him that time doesn't have 60.
Anran continued, "The microwave doesn't have 60 either!"
I finally understood why he always ran to check the microwave as soon as it beeped—he had observed carefully. Counting backwards, Anran learned from the microwave.
One day when Anran was over two years old, we were running around on the sports field in front of our building. Ranran, who is a year older than Anran, and her mom were also there. There were ten track numbers painted on the sports field. Anran often ran from 1 to 10, then from 10 back to 1, loudly counting as he ran. Ranran also came to run, and her mom guided her to count in English, "one, two, three, four..." Anran was very surprised, so I told him Ranran was counting in English.
This was the first time Anran heard the word "English." When we got home, he asked his dad, "What is 1?" His dad was confused, "What is 1?"
Anran said, "What is the English for 1?" After his dad answered, he then asked, "What is 2?" After we told him, a while later, he forgot and said, "1 is one, 2 is do (du)!" Then realizing he was wrong, he would intentionally say it incorrectly and laugh it off. This way, Anran quickly learned to fluently count in English up to 20.
We were amazed and happy, but Anran seemed unsatisfied. One day, he asked his dad, "What is 21?" "What is 22?" After his dad told him, he continued, "23 is twenty-three, 24 is twenty-four... 30 is twenty-ten." His dad corrected him, and he then asked, "What is 40?" "What is 50?"...
In no time, he mastered the pattern of English numbers up to 100. His dad was delighted and quickly called me to report it.
Recently, Anran has become obsessed with English finger songs, often listening to the songs while stretching his little fingers. He sings the songs fluently, but extending his fingers is clumsy—he needs to use one hand to pry the other hand open.
By the way, if you play rock-paper-scissors with Anran, he will certainly show you a unique pair of scissors—made with his thumb and index finger—and then laughingly imitate your tone saying, "What is this?" If you insist that Anran use his index and middle fingers, he will run away and refuse to play with you, haha.