Shan Le First Stage Performance at Urban Toddlers' Christmas Concert

Shan Le gave his first stage performance during his pre-school, Urban Toddlers', Christmas Concert, on 16 Dec 09, just two days before the long winter break.  Sadly, I was not there as I was down with a very bad cold.  Irene managed to take a few video clips of Shan Le's segment but you will probably have a hard time looking out for him.  While he did not really sing, he certainly demonstrated his skill in "taking cover".  All the kids  were probably stunned by the huge turnout.  Not only the parents turned up, but also the grandparents and probably uncles and aunties...

Short Trip to Alexandria

I almost decided to brave the long 8-hour drive to Dahab during the long Eid Al-Adha holidays.  After taking a good look at the map of Egypt, I thought it would not be such a good idea afterall.  I am not used to driving long distances and perhaps I should try somewhere nearer first.  So we went to Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city by the Mediterranean Sea.  It was an easy drive up and my boy had a good time.

My friend Boon Keng helped booked a room night at the newly opened Radisson Blu in Alex West and we also had a short tour of the garment factory Boon Keng was managing in the Alex free zone.  However, the hotel was quite a distance from the downtown and I had to drive for about 30 minutes to get there, including the time taken to trace back my route after missing an important turn.  So on the following day, I got a minibus with a driver to bring us on the half day tour of Alexandria.  We visited the tourist sites - Alexandria Museum, Roman Theatre, Pompey Pillar, Qaitbey Citadel and Bibiliotheca, which was closed during the holidays unfortunately.

But all in all, it was a short but relaxing trip and the drive back to Cairo was a breeze.  I think I will be able to take on the drive to Dahab next and perhaps break the long drive with a night in Sharm El-Sheikh.  I have uploaded the photos taken on the Alexandria trip in my MSN photo album.  Enjoy!

Hi Daddy!

Today is a memorable day of my life.  It is Friday weekend, but I went to work this morning to trim down my to-do list.  I returned home at about 1pm.  As I walked up the stairs to the upper floor of my apartment, I flashed a big smile at Shan Le who was sitting on the sofa of the living area with his mother.  Unexpectedly, he said 'Hi Daddy' to me!  This is the first time ever, since his birth three years ago, that he called me Daddy in a spontaneous and directed manner.  My heart was breaming with joy!

Yesterday, we brought Shan Le back to the Learning Resource Centre in Maadi for the development skills assessment.  Unfortunately, as he was still recovering from his cold and taking anti-biotics, Dr Eman decided to perform the assessment next week after he has fully recovered.  Not to make a wasted trip, we sat down with Dr Eman for 1.5 hours to go through the ADOS results in detail.  The outcome of the assessment puts Shan Le on the Autistic Spectrum but Dr Eman said that the results should not be taken as conclusive.  She commented that she observed quite a lot of improvement in Shan Le's language and social abilities as he played with his mother yesterday.  So, Shan Le will be going for the developmental skills assessment and followed by therapy sessions to help him overcome his developmental difficulties, in particular language and speech.  The eventual diagnosis will depend how Shan Le reacts to the intervention programme.  Personally, after doing a fair bit of research and reading on the subject, I think Shan Le is not autistic but he is displaying some symptoms of the condition, which could be due to other developmental issues.  As his father, I will want to give him all the help he can get to overcome his difficulties so that he can grown up well and go to normal schools.

Shan Le is doing well at Urban Toddlers and also attending some activities at Dados in Zamalek.  The teacher said that Shan Le has been good and he was able to sit with others in a group listening to stories and singing songs.  But he has been missing school quite often for the past two weeks as he fell sick with acute tonsillitis and cold, almost consecutively.  His nose is still dripping today and the anti-biotic is giving him loose stools.  I hope he can adjust quickly to the weather here and rejoin school next week.