Preparing for kindergarten : Outdoor uniform

It's August already! Time surely flies.. but usually time feels like it's flying faster during summer because there are just so much to do everyday. In a month's time, Shean Wenn will be starting her first day in Kindergarten. I've been psychologically preparing her for the big day and she seems very excited.

I remind her constantly :

- If any of her friends hit or scold her, she needs to inform the teacher ("Which teacher, mummy?", she asks) and also she should tell me about it at the end of the day. I know kids sometimes play rough but I'm trying to prepare her so that she does not get bullied in school. Of course, she isn't too "siu cheh" that anyone who touches her will spark her off... (so far, she isn't like that.)

- Potty training has been going well so far with her but sometimes accidents happen. So I told her if she has pee-ed or poo-ed in her pants, she should ask for help to change into new ones. I kept reminding her to wash her hands after she goes to the toilet too!

- Outdoor play : From experience, I know she likes playing with water outside so I remind her that if during play time, she has wet her clothes, she should ask to be changed into dry clothes.

The kindergarten that we enrolled her is based on the Steiner-Waldorf philosophy and they put alot of emphasis on learning through play and also stress that kids need to have ample time outdoor with nature. So come rain or shine (except during thunderstorm, i think but UK seldom have thunderstorms), summer or winter, they will spend their mornings outside playing in the garden. Shean Wenn knows the set-up of this kindergarten pretty well because I bring her there for playgroup since she was about 9 months old, so she will not be having culture shock when she goes there next month.

For a start, we will be putting her for 3 half-day sessions. However, as she has outgrown the red Ferrari outdoor attire I bought for her 2 years ago, I was looking around to buy her another suitable one. My friend Jessica who has a daughter in this kindergarten pointed me to the right direction and I bought a "bib & brace" type of waterproof attire for her - she chose the colour & pattern! She chose a PINK one, naturally!

When the attire arrived, I taught her how to put it on so that on her first day of class, she will know what to expect.

These are some of the photos of her wearing her outdoor attire. She'll be having loads of fun outdoor! :)


The only regret I have is having to miss her 1st day at school! Daddy will be sending her off and my friend's nanny will collect her and take care of her until Meng picks her up.

Whiskey

Whiskey, originally uploaded by decapix2008.

Ballet Class : End of Term Parents' Day

I meant to blog this earlier before my memory becomes hazy but it has taken me almost a month after that to do so! Anyway, her 1st term of ballet classes from Apr-Jul 2010 went pretty well.

Her term started in April and at that time, she was 2 years 10 months old. The first day of class was pretty chaotic with parents scrambling to get the uniforms, get the feet measured for their ballet shoes and settling the kids. Shean Wenn was pretty clingy the 1st two classes and wanted me to be next to her throughout the class. However, by the 3rd class, she has settled on herself and allow me to be away from her but still in the room. By the 4th class, the teacher has requested that I leave the class :( (There were about 2 other kids who still needed their moms next to them. Infact, one of my friend's daughter refused to join the class and will sit & watch from the floor). Different kids, different strokes, eh.

Anyway both Meng & I can tell that she enjoys her ballet classes very much and she is very enthusiastic about her lessons. The only qualms I have is that I have to wake up at 7am every Saturday morning to prepare her for the class, and I'm not exactly a morning person! I do make sure that she gets her milk & some breakfast before her class so that she isn't hungry during her dances. I know how it feels having to attend classes on an empty stomach and it isn't a ncie feeling.

10 July 2010 : Last day of term and Parent's Day.
This is the day the parents are invited into the class to witness what the kids do during their ballet classes. The class is also conducted in a different hall from her usual class (a much better place with mirrors on the wall and laminated flooring instead of cement floor!). Also, Ms Lydie the ballet teacher has decided to hire a pianist accompanying the class (this is for next term). I think it makes so much more sense.


1) Start of the class : Teacher ensuring the kids do some warm-up by asking them to sit up straight & tall and doing their "pointy toes"/"bunny ears".
2) Forming a circle
3) Everyone in a circle sitting down during one of their various activities.
4) Ms Lydie guiding Shean Wenn to sit up straight & tall.
5 & 6) Listening and following instructions from the teacher.
7) Ms Lydie guiding the class.

Here're some videos I took of the class :
1 : One of their activities (alot of imagination involved)

2) Shean Wenn doing the Pony Trot : When I watched it again, i went "Awwww!" - my heart skipped a beat as I watch my not-so-little daughter progress in class.



Proud parents with Shean Wenn. She's actually a real morning person just like her dad! Mommy is the night-owl (see, I'm still editing & blogging this at 1am).

June travels : BANGKOK

(Patreeya & Shean Wenn cycling at the park. Bangkok 8 June 2010)

June was a particularly eventful, and busy month. It was also the month of Shean Wenn's birthday. Early June, Shean Wenn and I boarded the dutch airlines KLM to Malaysia. Two days later, still very jetlagged, we took another flight out of KL (Malaysia) into Bangkok, Thailand. Many people were saying this is a little brave/risky move but we were going there to meet family (Meng's family). The flight form KL to Bkk is approximately 2 hours and we flew via MAS this time, because it was comparatively cheaper than Air Asia's promotion of "free tickets to Bangkok to support the Thai people", so much for being a budget airline, eh?

(Enjoying in-flight food : Haagen Dazs. MAS 7 June 2010)

I'm pretty impressed that in this afternoon flight, MAS actually provided lunch of Satay + Rice and desserts and not to mention freeflow of juices (Sorry my darling Shean Wenn, orange juice for you because MAS doesn't serve apple juice for cattle class). The Pièce de résistance is of course their ice-cream : Haagen Dazs (Ex-boss Jason Fong did a good job negotiating for his brand of ice-cream to MAS). Shean Wenn had already chomped down the satay and was still going strong, when she saw the ice-cream, her face lit up & she couldn't wait to eat the ice-cream. The air-steward actually gave us one tub each and SW managed to singularly finish her portion! Even I was feeling full after the satay meal (which was pretty good, even for plane food). Needless to say, we didn't have much for dinner that evening after landing in Bkk and arriving at SIL Daphne's home around 8pm.

Our main purpose visiting Bkk is actually for Shean Wenn to be re-acquainted to her cousins, grandparents & aunty & uncle. So I don't have an itinery to shop nor visit any of the tourist places (I've done that many years ago anyway). I thought I could have a relaxing time and just sit & chill out. INSTEAD, I was in for a surprise.

5 days flew by so fast... everyday there is somewhere to be gone : We'd be out of the house by 930am and be back at 4pm, rest and if we're not eating at home, we'd be heading out for dinner.

DAY 2 (8 Jun) : Daphne suggested that we could bring the kids to a park nearby (I forgot the name) and rent bikes for them to cycle. I thought it would be a good idea! But what I did not anticipate was the heat. By the time we came out of the taxi and pushing the rented-bikes, I had sweat buckets. Bkk heat is really different from KL-heat (KL is in a valley, hence more cooling at this time of the year). Anyway, I persevered. The kids, esp SW seemed to not notice the heat and she was gleefully cycling along with Patreeya. SW hasn't cycled much before this so it was not surprising that she is still learning the ropes of cycling. She picked up pretty fast although still needs practice maneuvering the bike.

(With the family. Bangkok 8 June 2010)

After what seemed like an eternity (for me), we came to the kid's playground and there is when the kids get to "rest". I think the eternity was probably only 25mins or less but I welcomed this break! Patreeya & Shean Wenn explored the playground and went on many rides, slides & swings. Ok, SW does not like swings so she just looked on. They also had a break drinking water. Then it was time to go back.

Shean Wenn cycled for abit and decided she doesn't want to cycle anymore so mommy (ME) had to pull her bike all the way back!! (Along with my new camera which I was trying not to scratch or get any sweat on it). Shean Wenn had fun exploring the park and its flora with her grandparents and cousin. After that, we walked out to get a taxi to the nearest shopping mall! Like Malaysia, we like going to malls, where else can you go at 37c? Once we hit the mall, with air-cond blasting, I felt more comfortable. SW by this time was of course pretty tired out by her adventure today and fell asleep.

(Patreeya & Shean Wenn's antics in the "BURBERRY" cab we took. Bangkok 8 June 2010)

We spent the rest of the day shopping here.

During the evening, Marwin (SW's older cousin) came up to me and said something very cheeky which caught me off-guard. He said, as a matter of fact : "Ah Kam, how come you didn't buy alot of presents for me and baby Patreeya? Why only 2 presents?".

:-/ Kids say the darndest thing!!


Day 3 (9 Jun): More shopping! In the evening, we had a small birthday celebration for Shean Wenn. I bought a chocolate cake for her in the afternoon and she gets to blow out the candles surrounded by her cousins and grandparents. Then, FIL, SIL & I went out for a massage. It was after the massage that I started experiencing mild gastric pain/food poisoning.

Day 4 : Daphne has been planning to go for an expo selling designer goods. Unfortunately this year's event wasn't as interesting so the only purchases made that day were food, in particular the Tao Kae Noi Seaweed ! Yes, Thailand has a good brand of seaweed. I regret not buying more because SW loves eating seaweed. Day 5 : Somehow during one of the days while chatting with SIL Daphne, we discovered that we both knew Lilian from Wrong Side of 30 (WSo30) - What a coincidence! I have been reading WSo30 for a good few years now and have became "friends" with Lilian but have never met her in person. Daphne on the other hand, met her once at a function at the embassy. So the only reasonable thing to do was to arrange to meet up! We managed to squeeze a meeting amidst both of our busy schedules... Lilian came with gifts for SW. A red bag filled with goodies any girls will want! Thanks alot Lilian. Unfortunately, Lilian forbade me to post up photos of her. So you probably won't believe me if I'd say she's tall, gorgeous & very cheeky!
So that concludes our trip to Bangkok. It's really too short a trip and I hope we will return to visit again, but this time for a longer period of time. :) Thanks to Daphne & Ekk for being wonderful & obliging hosts. Next time I must remember to bring more gifts for the kids ;)

PS : I just noticed none of the photos have me in it! :P

Potty Training success : So sudden?!

Strangely, two days after I wrote & lament about how I would never be able to potty train my darling daughter, she decided to just prove me wrong. (A good thing, it is).

**-- Alot of info ahead, if you are squirmish, stop reading. You have been warned --**

What happened was, on 30 Apr, I decided to continue my efforts of potty training. I left her diaperless for 6 hours that day. In that duration, she prob rushed to the loo about 8 times but had 1 accident which I patiently wiped away. During tea time that day as she & I were sitting on the sofa having "sa-ke-mah" (沙琪瑪 or Sachima), she suddenly rushed off shouting "I need to go to the toilet!!" (yes, she really did say that in a very "urgent manner"). After about what seemed like a long time, I decided to check on her. I asked if she has finished? She said no. I would've left her at that except I smelt something. I did a second glance in the toilet bowl and confirmed she did a #2. Wow. REAL RESULTS! I was so happy that if I felt like doing a little dance.

I praised her immensely & gave her TWO stickers as reward (I made a half-hearted Reward Chart which we paste behind the toilet door). She was very proud that I was so proud.

The next day, I continued to let her go diaperless & she had one or two accidents during the day. I continue to notice she is very aware when she needs to go to the toilet. These few days, I put her on diaper because I am just too tired to clean up the mess but on one day, her diaper was totally DRY. Of course, some days are drier than others. Today she had 2 wet diapers which I constantly remind & nag her about. I also figured she was too preoccupied with her tv shows - I am going to cut down these sessions, MISSY!

("Don't bug me, I'm watching my fav TV show!")

Anyway, I'm just thinking about this subject of potty training : To each its own method but I'm grateful Shean Wenn's experience has been really pleasant. I'm glad I did not stress both of us up by following conventional methods which can be really tiring & time consuming. I'm glad she decided in her own terms that she is ready. I'm proud of you, little darling. You constantly amaze me with your understanding of how things should work.

Attempt #92385 at potty-training : FAIL!

(Her smile here really looks like Meng's, doesn't it?)

Many parents have been blogging about their potty-training success/progress as early as when their kids turn 1YO. Me, I never! Why? I tell friends I didn't find it crucial for her to be stressed out going diaperless. And then,.. I add "It's also because I am lazy". Most moms can understand that even as a stay-at-home-mom, there are other more pressing issues or higher priority errands to complete in our day-to-day management of the house & the kiddo.

Anyway, I think I properly started in summer of last year. She was 2YO and could understand simple instructions so I thought it would be a good idea. It didn't work, so now I am trying again.
Why I failed :

1. Inconsistent
Some days diaper off, some days on. Usually I find it too tiring the next day after a full day of diaperless having to wipe, disinfect, clean her & changing her to new trousers. So the next day I just left her diaper on. Recipe for failure!

2. No follow-through
Sometimes after a minor-accident, I rush her to the toilet & tell her to "shuu shuu" there. I stand there for a minute & then left her to do her stuff. I'd be cleaning up the accident-site. I asked her "Did you shuu shuu?", "YES MOMMY! I also wash my hands already!". I will accept her answer & that's it. I never knew or have actually seen her peeing, to be honest. She could be taking me for a ride all this while.

It also didn't help that the pre-school that I want to enrol her in this Sep says not to force them to go diaperless. "Let them naturally get used to it & master it". Hey, I love this motto.

But enrolling her into Ballet last week, I was instructed that they need to be diaperless. So here I am, TRYING my hardest to make this work. She just had 1 accident so far & now she is sleeping with a diaper. Tomorrow, we will not be continuing this again because we will be going out. Maybe when we come back I can let her roam free without her diaper. We'll see. **Big sigh**

Puzzles

Continuing from her fascination with puzzles, she has been trying to tackle more "complicated" pieces. Since last week, she will sit down quietly & patiently piecing this 48-piece puzzle that my brother and his girlfriend got for Shean Wenn.

That day she came running to me displaying proudly her finished work! Well done. This, is definitely not from my genes because I never liked playing with puzzles, I have no patience for it & will give up before I even start the job. Nevertheless, I am so glad she isn't like me in this case!

"Look mom, I did it!", I heard her little voice say as the pitter-patter of footsteps came running over.

48-piece puzzle

"Now you do it!" - she seemed to be saying (not that she really said it out)
Lest you think this is amazing, I have heard my friend telling me that her daughter (who is now almost 5YO) when at around SW's age, finished a 100-piece puzzle all on her own.

Wordless Wednesday 04/10

Oh, what a week!

The past week has been "eventful".

The hub flew off on Tue to somewhere in North Africa. The same day, I had invited my friend Laura over for lunch. Five minutes before she arrived, there was a small accident in the kitchen - something fell on something and causing everything to come crashing down, and my pyrex with the wat tan hor in it crashed to the ground & smashed into a hundred pieces. Needless to say, we did not have lunch at home that day. After cleaning up, Laura suggested we go out for lunch. We ended up in Nandos.

(The extent of the volcanic ash. Image from BBC News)

Thur morning I read reports of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano ash disrupting flight services in the UK. When I first read it, the grounded rule should only apply to 1800 that evening. Meng was due to fly back the day after. However by Thur afternoon, flights were cancelled until early Sat morning. He rescheduled for a Sat PM flight but that had to be cancelled too. More disruptions ensued. On BBC website today, a grim message reads "The UK is enduring a fourth day as a virtual no-fly zone, as the travel chaos caused by volcanic ash drifting from Iceland shows no sign of ending."

Shean Wenn misses her dad alot. Her mornings, when he will the the one cheerfully greeting her & picking her up from her cot, has being replaced with a grumpy & very sleepy mommy. First few days of Meng's absence, I had to leave her in her cot for a few minutes to give her some "time-out sessions" because she simply didn't want MOMMY! After she has gathered her thoughts (usually by singing to herself or just playing), she will call out for me again.

The volcanic ashes travel chaos continues...... Meanwhile, on twitter-land, volcanic jokes are making the rounds, one chuckles "Last time you Poms (read : Brits) got the Ashes you were over the moon. There's no pleasing some people." Another witty one "Heard on the radio "Britain to Iceland : "We said send cash, not ash!""

To top off the eventful-ness, our dear daughter last night decided to play with the curtains despite me warning her few minutes before that not to do so, she must have tugged and pulled on it really hard because the curtain & the rods came tumbling down. It scared her. Luckily she is fine. But she still deserved a few smacks on the bottom for misbehaving.

Kind friends have been nice enough to go out lunches with me, or bring me to the shops to do my grocery shopping. :)

On more positive notes : This week, weather-wise it has been fabulous! Average of 15c (but felt like 19c) and highs of 19c (which would mean if you stand in the sun, it may feel like 24c. VERY WARM!). Just too bad Meng isn't here to enjoy the glorious sunshine with us. Hopefully he will come back as scheduled in the next few days & 3 of us will be a happy family again. Yayy!



The Chip-Peas bought a trunki for Shean Wenn as early birthday present & she gets to choose it. Trunki is a luggage/ride-on/pull-along. She chose a ladybird design. It arrived within 2 days & she is so ecstatic! She was riding it at home telling me "Ok, bye bye mommy, I'm going to the supermarket." "Hi mommy, I am back! I bought some vegetables" - when asked what vegetables? "Carrots & tomatoes".

A really ingenious product for the kids, especially to while away their time at the airport!

The REALLY NOISY fishing game!

4 April 2010 : Shean Wenn @ 33 Months Old

This weekend being Easter Long weekend (Good Friday is a Bank Holiday* & Monday is a replacement holiday for Easter Sunday), saw us spending our Friday in a shopping mall. Meng went "mad" shopping for Shean Wenn at the toy dept.

Toy 1 : This "create & play" toy from ELC.

(Request of the day 5 Apr 2010 : A dog!)

It consists of chunky shapes, nuts & bolts and you can assemble & create various designs with it - the box gave many different ideas such as a robot, trucks, a car, shopping trolley & a wheelbarrow!

When we got home, SW excitedly told us she wants to build a car. Meng taught her what is a screwdriver & a spanner. And she helped out Meng with the whole project and was very very enthusiastic with it too. The next day, she asks daddy to make a truck for her. After seeing that there is a shopping trolley that she can also build with it, she requested us to help her build one. So, this time MUMMY dearest - the "engineer", had to help her out. I sat down with her & taught her the nuts & bolts too. The good thing is, daddy also taught her a system to arrange the nut & bolt together so she was very good at it. We build ourselves a nice looking trolley, but obviously not nice enough for her because she then "demanded" that I should put flowers on it. She looked for the flower petals in the box - and found it (I told her they didn't give it to us, but not satisfied with my answer, she rummaged until she found it!).

(Shean Wenn's very own shopping trolley - created with help from mummy!)

Toy 2 : THE VERY NOISY FISHING GAME!

Oh boy, the title says it all. Actually I have been telling Meng that Shean Wenn will sometimes swing her scribbler board by holding to its pen. When asked in horror what is she doing : she replies she is FISHING! Where did she get the idea from? I really don't know. But I was SO afraid she might swing it and it accidentally fly off from her grasp & hit herself, or the tv, or me! So Meng says let's just buy her a fishing game if we can find it. We managed to find one in Smyths and bought it straightaway . Meng also bought a Hello Kitty DVD, and 2 Wiggles DVD for her.

This is a video of her "fishing" - this was taken this morning, her first morning playing with it! She is very excited because everytime she comes home from outside, she will run to find it and sit down & fish!



NOTE : * Bank Holiday = Public Holiday