Following some extended research on the Internet, I jotted down a few places around the city that I can take Declan (and Petra) to on the weekdays that will hopefully put more distance between him and the ever-entertaining TV. Today, it was to a small independent bookstore that's really a residential two-storied apartment converted into the first floor being the shop part that supports local artists/illustrators/children's book authors and the second floor being an open space to read and hold storytelling hours.
One of the best parts of having very young children is the renewed (and very relevant) interest I get to foster in children's books, especially the ones with fantastic illustrations. This little store that we went to today had so many great children's books. This is not always the case, as some people seem to think--judging from books I've stumbled across--that any bounded papers with scribbles or simply dumbed-down letters put together equals children's lit. Declan's childhood is too short and I am too elitist to linger over these, even though the international moves up to now have made quality English (and Chinese) books difficult to acquire without spending a fortune.
So today was a real treat, when after the crowded (the storekeeper said today was the most well-attended reading she's ever witnessed in her three years of working there) storytelling hour, the reader left her box of books there for parents and their respective kids to partake. Declan sat on my lap and listened attentively as I read out loud by his ear (it was really loud with all the kids). He only suspended his focus at the end of each storybook to run to the book box, returning the already-read book, and flipping through several more before picking out another book and running back to sit on my lap. Every single book he picked out was a winner--enjoyed by him, fun for me. I was so thankful that Petra could be held by my mom for a time to make that possible. With enough good books (and someone else to hold Petra), I could be content with reading books to Declan all day long.
There was one child who kept coming over to try to sit down by us and listen in on the story. I would have been fine with that; sadly, Declan wasn't. He grabbed the book away from the child and yelled, "No, mine! My book!" the two or three times the boy attempted to join us, shortly before the poor boy's mother yanked him away and hissed for him to stop misbehaving. (I felt so bad about that. I wanted to say something to the mom, but she seemed angry enough as it was. A part of me hoped she wasn't so harsh with her son due to embarrassment at having "troubled" us. Another part of me hoped that's the case so that it wasn't the usual way she treats her son. But then that would mean Declan and I were responsible for the boy being manhandled. Oy.)
I think I'm finally getting the hang of how to expose Declan to more Chinese while keeping his interest with his inherent love of reading. The key is to choose not-so-wordy Chinese children's books--read the words and quickly repeat the story behind the words in English, switching back and forth between the two languages depending on Declan's receptiveness. When he's more rested and willing to stay still, I would push my luck with going all Chinese. As his fidgeting increases, I increase my on-the-spot English translations so that sometimes we end up reading together for 20 minutes with pure English. Oh well, any kind of reading is good anyways. Detailed and beautiful illustrations help to prolong his patience, as I suspect he keeps himself occupied in examining the drawings while humoring his mother's at-times incoherent recitations.
There was this one book called "I really want to eat durian" (my translation) by a local author. I was doing a lot of on-the-spot Chinese-to-English translation while reading through it, and then at the end of the story, I discovered an English version in more compact layout at the back of the book. This version was almost word-for-word how I translated the story as Declan and I read along! It made me feel an affinity with the book...and I'm probably going to buy it the next time we visit the bookstore.
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