Dear Sweet Pea,
Your room has been filling up fast with claw machines toys. You and Daddy were on a roll and he firmly believed that you were his lucky charm. He has never won on a claw machine before not until a couple of weeks ago and since then, he was unstoppable. There was no sign of halting to his winning streak. Each attempt on a claw machine would end with a shout of glee and a toy in one arm for you. Our grocery routine now involved claw machine and sitting on the Choo Choo train every weekend!
On 10 May, you threw your worst tantrum ever. You refused to eat your food and request to watch YouTube videos. Out of sheer exhaustion, we started letting you watch some YouTube videos and it has proven to be more detrimental than ever. I could never understand why kids love lava videos so much. I wondered how was I going to correct this habit. In fact I was shocked how fast you took to it as we have only offered it to you at meal times so we could both eat in peace and during specific pockets of time when we were travelling.
The tantrum continued on the next day as you did not want to go to school. After much coaxing and finally getting you to school, you noticed that Logan was crying so you quickly forgot about your unhappiness and helped to comfort him by offering him a tissue to dry his tears. I guessed that was the end of your outburst that lasted more than a day. I was secretly proud of you for being a kind kid despite being upset with you for your flare-up.
On 12 May at 7:15pm, we almost died laughing hence I was quick to jot down the time. Daddy was mentioning that he needed to sort out a few things and you quickly asked if he could "sort out a teddy bear". That weekend, Daddy won you a Teddy Bear from the claw machine. At this rate, he might need therapy soon.
On 17 May while I was rocking you to sleep in my arms, you squeezed my cheeks and expressed the desire to "throw my face" as you followed up with a tossing action and laughed at your own proposition. Sometimes we did feel tired having to rock you to bed for extended period of time each night. However, these night conversations with you brought me a lot of amusement and joy!
You were now able to identify all numbers, alphabets, most colour and shapes. We did a review with your school teachers and here were some of their observations.
Overall, you were interacting well with the children in school. You liked to do things neatly and we also discovered this during activity time at home. You have your own ideas on how to pack up your toys and it has to be done in a specific way.
You still need quite a bit of practice on your tripod grip in order to hold on to pencils and paint brushes well. Without guidance, you were still not able to draw lines.
You could not sit still at school. The same could be said at home as you were constantly moving around and walking up and down the house finding new things to play with. You would always be looking for your friends and your current play mates in school were Elijah, Ethan and Elsa. No prizes for guessing why that was so as they all sat next to you with all your names starting with the letter "E". We have to start monitoring the length of your attention span.
One area for improvement would be the ability to eat independently during meal times. You ate slow and especially if it was pasta or green bean dishes, it would take a really long time. I was guessing maybe the strands of the noddles were too long or the vegetables could be tough and stringy. If you were left to eat on your own, the teachers would end up feeding you as you often held the class up. We were going to have to train you to chew your food faster.
You really enjoyed story telling time and would take the time to listen carefully to the teachers' questions before answering. You often liked to step forward during story telling time to point out something on the book to the teacher. While we applauded you for effort, we need to start guiding you on doing the right things at the appropriate time. You have a very curious mind and have started asking a lot of questions in school. For example, why do we need a pencil to write things and why do I need to write on paper.
You have a keen interest for dance and finger play. You were able to follow the instructions of the teachers and often offered your help to assist them. Your teacher thought you were pretty brave and confident in your dance moves! Your Mandarin speaking abilities were improving and your pronunciation was also getting better. You were also able to comprehend instructions in Mandarin. At home, Mummy bought you the entire series of "No, David" books translated into Chinese and since then we have been reading them everyday. You would point out to me where David could behave better and the things he should not have done.
Friday 27 May was the first of the many times that you would ask if I was carrying a lot of things on the way to school and back. If I replied no to your question, you would ask me to carry you. I found this little act of yours endearing and sweet.
We loved going to the playground. As a thrill seeker, you now loved your swing to go as high as possible! With so many children at the playground, friction between kids during playtime was bound to happen.
On 29 May, we ran into some trouble at the playground. As usual, Mummy would always bring along a bubbles maker machine to the play area. This time, I ran out of bubble solution and was not able to refill the machine in the midst of all the fun the children were having. The children crowded around me and there was a kid who started grabbing your hair and refused to let go. I could see that you were visibly shaken, close to tears and stood frozen to the ground. If I reacted sharply to the kid, it was obvious that he would grab your hair and pulled it tighter. Hence, despite seeing you in pain, I rationalised with him to let you go.
I held you close with one arm and put the other arm on him to coax him into releasing his hands. After what seemed like a really long talk, he let go and you sprung into my arms and told me to bring you away immediately. You whispered to me on the way home that you did not want to go to the playground anymore. I understood and also praised you for being brave and calm as you waited for Mummy to resolve the crisis. I felt so angry and heartbroken later when I realised quite a bit of your hair had been yanked out.
Since you started taking regular swimming lesson, I felt it was now safe to fill up the bathtub for a bubble bath for you. You were over the moon! You sprawled out in the tub to pretend to swim and play with the bubbles.
You were gradually developing your unique fashion sense. You loved to wear your sunglasses, slipped your tiny feet into Mummy's high heels and posed for the camera. At night, you changed into beautiful dresses to sleep because they made you feel "pretty" in your own words. Simple pyjamas no longer cut it for you, you would select your own dress each night before bed time.
We could not wait to start a new month of growth with you!
So much love,
Mummy
