Notes from the teacher

'Dear parents,
Today Kaelyn was better. She joined in the class activities like singing along, listening to story and playing parachute in the music room.
She also spoke to me about her 'Nai nai' and a few other things. As Kaelyn is warming up, I can see that she is rather active. She turns the stools in the class upside down and pushes them around. In the music room, she also pushes the stools around!
Today, she did not eat the lunch served (kway tiao). When I fed her, she spit it out (into her bowl). Importantly, she did not cry or look for grandma. However whenever she saw grandma, she would smile at grandma and resume what she was doing.'

So what do i think of the above?
- I'm glad that she is finally joining her class in the class activities.
- She's stop acting dumb in class
- She's stop crying finally!
- She's starting to show her true colours! - the hyperactive, defiant, disobedient girl..
- Not surprising that she spit out her food - she's very very fussy over food. I heard that she told the teacher she doesnt want to eat the kway tiao and wanted to eat the bread that we packed for her instead. At least she knows how to communicate this to the teacher..
- Overall, a good beginning.

Kaelyn goes to Child care - Part 2

As the week went by, the concept of being left in a strange place without her Papa and Mama seems too scary for Kaelyn. So much so that she started crying at home when we changed her into her school jumper. She would also cling on to me and asked me not to go to work. Usually, she would happily bid us goodbye as we leave for work.

At the centre, as David leaves for work after dropping her there, she started wailing again. The teachers took turns to carry her around to pacify her. If I were there, I probably will be crying with her as well! The poor thing. Hope she doesnt grow to hate school after this 'traumatic' experience.

Kaelyn goes to Child care - Part 1

When I first started nursery many many years back, I was one of those kids who screamed and cried non stop for the first few weeks of school. I remember my mum told me that the principal had to carry me around to pacify me, but I just kept kicking and screaming. And the principal was actually pregnant at that time! I dont remember all these myself but I can imagine the pains that the principal, teachers, my grandma and parents went through trying to settle me in nursery.

Now, almost thirty years later, it's my turn to experience placing my daughter through child care for the first time. We had enrolled her for full day but only starting her on half day only to slowly settle her in. I took leave on the first day to accompany her. As usual, she didnt join the other kids in the activities and either wandered around the compounds on her own, or stayed by my side. There was once when she actually joined them for an activity, and I thought 'ok, that's a good start'. She didnt cry at all on the first day since I am there the whole time with her. But I realise that most of the kids in her class are much more independent and 'easier' to look after than our princess Kaelyn.

For 1, she is a very very slow and fussy eater. Breakfast was cereal and milk. While the other kids fed themselves and finished rather quickly, she was still slowly picking out the 'honey stars' one by one. I could actually count the number of honey stars she ate, and she refused to eat the cornflakes. Lunch was bee hoon soup, with some chicken, carrot, vege and fishcake. Most of the kids fed themselves and finished their food rather quickly, while the rest needed help from the teacher to help them finish their portion. One girl even asked for seconds. Our dear Kaelyn was scooping her bee hoon and eating them almost strand by strand. Even with my help, she barely finished half of the portion, and that took twice as long as the rest!


Secondly, she's not toilet trained. We tried at home but she just refused to use the toilet or potty. Some of the other kids could just inform the teacher that they needed the toilet and just went off on their own. I'm impressed!

Well, I guess each child is different. Hope she picks up all the good things from school!

An addition to the family

I remember I started this blog when I was pregnant with Kaelyn. I was at 31 weeks then. Each gynae visit was documented, together with my weight gain as well as the foetus' weight. At 35 weeks now with Kaelyn's sister, I have yet to introduce her in this blog.

So now, officially introducing Kaelyn's little sister....
- No name yet as Daddy and Mummy cant decide yet
- Currently at 35 weeks, still comfortably relaxing in her mummy's womb
- Last weight check 2 weeks ago was 2kg
- A very active baby, constantly kicking around, sometimes so hard that it woke mummy from sleep at night
- Have been introduced to Daddy, Mummy and her elder sister Kaelyn. Kaelyn speaks to her once every few days - 'Hello, mei mei, I am Yixuan (Kaelyn's chinese name) jie jie. When you come out, I will play with you..'
- Official estimated birthdate is 2 Febraury 2010 (will be in confinement over CNY... sigh...)

Since we are having a girl again, there wasnt much that we needed to buy / prepare - almost everything can be recycled from her elder sis. We didnt seem to put as much effort or attention to this pregnancy - no singing / reading to the baby (she gets to pick those up when we sing/read to Kaelyn); no playing classical music at night before going to bed (we can do that when she gets out, meanwhile, too busy putting Kaelyn to bed every night); no shopping endlessly for clothes, toiletries, stroller, bed etc etc (she can inherit from Kaelyn most of these things).....

I actually feel a little guilty for 'neglecting' the little one. She doesnt even have a name yet! But I think this will all change when she gets out. All attention will be on her, and Kaelyn will be the one who will feel more 'left out' when we fuss over her little sister. Hope we are able to cope with this 'sibling jealousy' thing when the time comes!

Family cruise trip back in August

Helper went back on home leave for 2 weeks back in August (yes, this is a long overdue entry). I also took 2 weeks leave to help take care of the little angel. But not alone, with lots of help from parents and in-laws.

Over 1 of the weekends over this 2 week period, went on a cruise on Superstar Virgo with my parents. Kaelyn enjoyed herself very much but over this period, she didnt eat much as we just gave her whatever was on our plates. She didnt fancy any of the food at all - she's a fussy eater. Nevertheless, it was a good trip and I hope to be able to bring her on short trips like this in future, together with her little sister (more about this next time).

Photos of our happy weekend trip:

Kaelyn turns 2

We celebrated Kaelyn's second birthday a few weeks back. It was a simple affair just within our immediate families. Just to sum where she is at 2 years old:
- she is talkative and a busybody at home, always asking people what they are doing, why are they doing what they are doing, passing comments on what she observes like 'Papa hui lai le' (papa's home), 'Mama bu jian le' (mama's missing), 'Gonggong qu mai mian bao' (gongong's gone to buy bread) etc.
- outside, she is shy and afraid of crowds. She takes some time to warm up to people she seldom meets.
- she knows and can identify all 26 of the alphabets (capital letters), and that P is for papa, M is for mama, G is for gonggong, K is for Kaelyn etc.
- she is conversant in both Mandarin and English
- sometimes she talks like an adult. When asked if she is full after her dinner one day, instead of replying a simple yes or no, she said 'hai ke yi' (just about right).
- she likes music, and likes to dance to certain songs especially the songs from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
- she tends to use her left hand more often, so she could be a left hander.
- she likes to draw and will describe to us what her artistic piece is about, sometimes it's an apple, or a butterfly, or a letter. At other times, we dont quite understand what she is saying.
- she is generally a cheerful girl, happy and smiling most of the time. But she has a short temper and gets angry easily if she is unhappy.

Here are some photos of her birthday celebration

Practising for her 2nd birthday

Since a few months before Kaelyn's second birthday, we started teaching her to flash the victory sign so she could do it on her second birthday. So at every photo taking opportunity, we'll ask her to show us the number 2.

Did I get it right?

Posing with Mama
Practising even while drinking juice
Am I getting better?
And yet on the BIG day, her 2nd birthday - this was the best she could manage.....