Our baby is growing up

Ever since our trip to HK (which I haven't blogged about!), K has been waking up in the night several times and crying for me. We made the mistake of having King sized beds where all three of us slept during the trip. Have been trying to get her to sleep through the night. Finally, she has been doing so for the last week.

Our daily conversation before she sleeps.
Me: If you wake up in the middle of the night and it is still dark outside...
K: Sun sleeping
Me: Uh...yes, if My Sun is still sleeping, what must K do?
K: Sleep!
Me: Yes, you just close your eyes and go back to sleep, ok? Ok? Ok?
K nods. Well, she has to. Otherwise the questioning would continue until she does.

And just after she drifts off to sleep, I would repeat it to her again. To tell her to go back to sleep if she woke up in the middle of the night. I am told that this is the period where you can speak into their subconscious whatever you want them to pick up or do. Hmmm...

Well, it seems to be working. Fingers crossed. When she gets up each morning, I would ask her if she woke up in the middle of the night. She would nod her head shyly and smile. Then I would ask if she simply closed her eyes and went back to sleep. She would again smile and nod. Hmmm....I wonder if she understands. But I would tell her that she allowed me to sleep through the night and praise her for it.

The other development is that in school.

She has been fretting about going to school. When I try to get her to wear her shoes for school or when I am packing her school bag, she would look up at me sadly and say, "No wan school." After repeating it several times and with no reaction from me, she would troop off and look for her dad and tell him, "No wan school." Poor girl. P doesn't react either. Then she would get all clingy and whiny all the way to school. She always has to be carried or she would walk in the opposite direction of school, with the "reason" of buying food. Sneaky.

The teachers think it's because she has got FIVE new friends in her class who are always crying. And that triggers her off. Her old friends whom she is so fond of have been promoted to Playgroup. She is still in the Toddlers class. Maybe she feels a little lost in school. She is now the big sister of her class. Imagine a tiny little thing - the big sister! Well, apparently size doesn't quite matter here.

Since last week, she has stopped crying upon separation and just this week, as I'm getting her ready for school, she would say, "School....go school." At first, I would pretend I didn't hear her, in case the next line would be "No wan school". But it hasn't. So I would say, "Yes, we are going to school." As of yesterday, she walked to school on her own. I'm next to her of course. But she didn't make any excuses to walk in a different direction. I am so pleased!

During a teacher-parent conference last week (my first!!! As a parent I mean), I was told that she has been playing big sister. When her friends quarrel, she would usually be there (presumably to stop it) or she would ensure that a teacher is aware. Hmmm... I am thinking "Miss Kaypo"! Haha.

Every morning, there would be water parade just before going outdoor. Miss Kaypo would be looking around to ensure all her friends were drinking. If they weren't, she would pass them their bottles and tell them to drink. She is so busy doing this that she herself forgets to drink. Ahhh...maybe it's her way to get out of drinking. Tsk tsk. Anyway, her teacher tells me that she would make K stand in front of her and makes sure she finishes at least half the bottle before she can leave her sight. And K actually does it! Amazing. The things the teachers can make them do which we never can at home.

K apparently likes hands-on activities and according to her teacher, she is able to sit down for a whole five minutes to finish a task, like threading beads. A whole five minutes! I am impressed. Well, at least I know that watching TV hasn't affected her attention span.

In her file, there are several art pieces that she did which were rather nice. I shall have to scan them when I get the complete set and post them later.

I am told she enjoys singing and following the teacher's actions for the songs. She has been singing more frequently by herself at home of late. But her repertoire is getting wider and sometimes I have no idea what she is singing. There used to be a time when I would know exactly which song she was singing and sing along with her. She was so thrilled to be singing together. Nowadays, I can sense her frustration when she wants me to sing along but I just don't know the song. I have tried to get her to teach me the song but of course, I never know what she is saying, much less make out the tune.

She has been using "Kay?" very often these days. She would say things like, "Later. Read story book kay?" or "Watch Panda kay?" It's her way of getting us to agree to something she wants to do to ensure it does happen.

She refers to presents as "Happy birthday to you". She seen the pressies under the tree and has been telling us she wants to "Open happy birthday to you". :) Later tonight perhaps.

K is 2!

For K's birthday this year, we decided to have a really simple one. We had two celebrations. One in school and one with family.

For the one in school, I bought a larger cake. I realise that I'm really bad at estimating the size of cakes. It has all turned out way too big. Anyway, I decided we would go with Pooh bear this year. Of course, there had to be Lumpy (the elephant) in it.

Kim was really shy and was even crying when she suddenly realised that all the attention was on her.

Her little friends gather to look at the cake.

Busy enjoying the cake.

This is her table of even littler ones. She is the big sister of this table.

We found a piece of work done by K being displayed.

Her second celebration with family. This time it was a smaller cake with just Lumpy.

She was less uncomfortable but still didn't like the attention when we sand "Happy birthday" to her. She much preferred hanging out with Grand Aunt Sin Jee from Toronto to look (and take) Christmas decorations. Incidentally, I did relent and make her a dress for her birthday. I had decided I was too lazy to make one but upon realising that she had no new dress to wear on her birthday, I decided to make one instead of purchasing. So yes, that simple dress she is wearing below was made.

This is her favourite present (and only one at that point in time actually) from Grandparents. She loves the microphone and would press the buttons to have demo songs being played. Then she would hold the mic and dance around. When she is done with her "performance", she would speak into the mic and say, "Thank you much!" Haha.

This is a video of her.

She had a fishy treat that night in bed. Yums.

And on her actual birthday, she got two giant (compared to her puny self) balloons.

Feeding the rabbit

What I've been up to lately

Well, nothing much. :) Resting mostly.

Realised that my last blog was a whole month ago! No wonder I've been constantly nagged at to blog something by P.

The latest news is that our almost-two-year-old has FINALLY reached 10kg! Finally. Her peers are way ahead of course. But as long as she's growing healthily, I've no complaints. At least we are saving our arms and backs!

The whole family and my parents took a 6-day trip to HK. It was rather cold but we were ok when we were warmly clothed. Peen was unwell on a few days of the trip. It was so bad that he had to sit out a night tour that we had booked.

I'm not going to talk about the trip since the pics are up on fb. But just wanted to journal about K since the trip. She really got used to sleeping on the same bed as us in HK, so much so that whenever she woke up these days and didn't find me next to her, she would cry and start calling for me. Oh sigh. There were nights when it happened 3 to 4 times. Double sigh.

K has also gotten alot more talkative since the trip. She was especially fascinated with the different modes of transport that we took. Even this morning, she recalled her experiences on the plane, boat and bus.

"Sit there airplane," she said. "Boat - woah.....bus - woah woah," she continued.

Last week, she initiated a phone conversation with Ah Foh (P's mum). She said, "Phone...Ah Foh." We asked her if she wanted to speak with Ah Foh and she nodded. Needless to say, the grandma was thrilled and thought her granddaughter was a genius. She listened intensely and nodded in response and sometimes replied, "uh." We were amused cos it really looked like she was having a conversation with mum. Then mum asked her what she did in HK. To which she replied, "Boat - woah, bus - woah woah." So she actually did respond to the question!

It's Friday and we are leading up to the celebrations of K's 2nd birthday. But we decided this year to really tone it down. So we will just have a celebration in school for her and a small family gathering.

I've been lazy (and tired) so we are not doing anything major this year. Will blog about her birthday celebrations next week perhaps.