About 2 weeks ago, C told us that she did a cut-out of herself during art class and then she commented that she had already started working on it. 

We were expecting to see her art work this week...

Nice! :)

I still say, C's handwriting leaves much to be desired.

On the one hand, I feel I should be doing more writing exercises with her, yet on the other, I don't want to scare her off and make her fearful of writing.

Dilemma, dilemma!

This was a "birthday weekend"! In total, we celebrated 3 toddlers' birthdays.

Aunt Sandy and Uncle Elvin invited us to their children, Leroy and Lelia's birthdays and C was all excited about going for yet another party!

Ahh... C was thrilled to see not one, but two cakes! And Daddy and I met some friends whom we have not been in contact for many years. Aunt Sandra has quite a neck for finding friends from long ago.

Then... Precious had a great time getting herself all wet.

C has to give Josiah a recent picture of herself and this time, we took many shots.

 

All on different days of course, because we just couldn't get the "right" picture.

In the end, we settled for this:

It wasn't that long ago when the little princess was born and it really seemed like it was only yesterday when Uncle Tommy and Aunt Mei invited us for her 1st month celebration and then in a twinkle of an eye, this little princess has turned 1.

C was thrilled when we told her that this weekend was all about birthday parties! And she couldn't get enough of Daralynn herself. Most of the pictures taken today were by our Precious.

Daralynn with Mummy Mei.

 

More pictures from Cheryl.

We took these though. You saw right, Dora and Ben 10 came made their appearance at the party too!

Well, thank you for the invitation, Uncle Tommy and Aunt Mei and Happy Birthday, Daralynn!

I got back a little earlier than usual and C and I worked on a little handicraft.

As C used wet glue this time, we had to wait for it to be dried before we continued.

Then we turned on our PC and I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was C who changed it and I was going to ask her how she knew to change the wall paper on the display screen. C proudly announced to me that it was Daddy who changed it.

I just smiled and my heart warmed up immediately. Well, there was no doubt that Daddy loves Cheryl but if you knew where we were coming from, you would appreciate this little gesture. You see, Daddy had always used pictures that were close to his heart. For as long as I could remember, the wall paper on our computer screen was a picture of our old ride, Toyota Corolla and then when we got a change, our Honda.

But what greeted me this evening was this:

Yes, Charlie and Lola!

And they are Cheryl's loves. :) Daddy doesn't have to shout out loud that he loves his little girl but this seemingly insignificant, frivolous gesture of changing the wall paper shows a lot, really. I then turned and asked C, "How much does Daddy love you?" C's reply was "A lot! Mummy!"

I guess a shorter traveling time does make a lot of difference. :) For one, I am not dead tired by the time I got back and we can start working on C's homework and nightly activities earlier.

This evening, C said she wanted to do her craft so we sat ourselves down and did this.

After that, we packed her snack for school.

This very pretty lunch box is from Aunt Margaret. Inside, we prepared her ham and wholemeal sandwich along with some fresh strawberries. 

This came in an email

"Dear Parents,

I hope your children have been enjoying choir practices so far. We have learnt a piece of new song called Christ is Risen. We will be sharing this song with the congregation on Easter Sunday. We will be learning more new pieces in the coming weeks.

The Choir will be dedicated during the 11am service this coming sunday (24 Jan) together with the other music ministry groups. 

 

Thank you. See you on Sunday!

Blessings,

Sze Chen "

Well, to date, Daddy and I are pleased that the activities that C are attending are giving her much joy and enjoyment. :)

Daddy and I will be eagerly awaiting your short performance come Easter.

Finally, I made the call to the school to make an arrangement for C to come down for a swimming assessment. Yeva and Zinnia were keen so our families went together after service. We were rather apprehensive initially because the several times I spoke to C about enrolling her into swimming classes were met with reservations and protests. She insisted on having Daddy, and no one else teach her. But Daddy wasn't keen because he felt that C wasn't serious and didn't listen to his instructions. She was more into play than wanting to learn swimming skills.

But I must say, our trip today wasn't wasted at all. Yeva and Cheryl were given the green light to go ahead for the swimming class after a short session with their coach, Uncle Chong. He is a very warm and gentle man and worked tremendously well with toddlers. Yeva and C took to him in no time at all, much to our relief.

Our girls before their dip in the pool.

Zinnia was the first to go as Uncle Chong had to assess her swimming ability.

Then it was C's and Yeva's turn. He made them feel so comfortable and the girls had an enjoyable time with him, playing in the water as well as learning some basic skills.

Yes, we signed them up for classes! Daddy and I were pleased with what we saw and children can never be too young to pick up a skill as important as swimming.

Last Saturday marked the start of C's official art class. I had to work that day so I wasn't able to take her there. However, I later learned that C had a wonderful time and drew flowers. She said that she would be working on the painting again this week.

When we picked her up today after her session, she showed us what she had done in class. Teacher Kelly, my ex-student was there today and she was the one who tended to C. Kelly updated us that C would be working on a life portrait: it was a cut out of her figure, complete with arms and fingers. We couldn't wait to see it, especially after this first piece of work.

Daddy's been drooling over this little gadget for a long time and several days ago, he finally purchased it online. And since then, patiently waiting for it's arrival.

This morning, the package finally came!

:) Daddy's new Nexus One. 

C will be getting more in touch with her emotions and feelings this year as this is one of the topics Josiah is exploring with the children of K1.

It looks like she has definitely been busy in school because she has returned with her first piece of art work.

 Nice!

And one of the exciting programmes lined up for her:

an outing to a play at Alliance Franchise

C's homework from school. In addition to the reading of passages, C's teachers have made English a little more interesting.

She needs to read through simple clues and then, draw and write the name of the animal down.

Okay, her drawing of the elephant doesn't really resemble one but I would give her an A for effort. :)

This video clip is so long overdue. It's Cheryl's dance routine for Josiah's Graduation Concert 2009 and it took me so long to upload the video because we only just received it 2 days ago.

Nevertheless, we are just glad her performance was captured on film. :)

The 4 seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter were grandly and elaborately transformed into various dance routines. C's was all dressed in orange and doing a fitness dance for Summer. Yeah, we remember her commenting that like Lola, her favourite character, she also danced for Autumn. :)

This is week 2 of the school term and I was beginning to wonder when will C's homework start streaming in. In the past, I would dread to see the homework because I would be extremely tired in the evenings and to still have to sit her down to complete her homework, although fulfilling, could prove quite a chore at times.

But when I saw that she had progressed to reading more lengthy passages was rather comforting because we know that she is improving.

Nice and encouraging words from her teacher.

C was happy to be doing work again in the evenings as well, although she did make request for her all time favourite, Charlie and Lola. :) She did watch an episode or two because we told her it was a treat for getting her work done.

This is a gift from Aunt Sonali, Radikah's Mummy. She is so sweet and she never fails to get something for our Precious every time she returns to India.

Our Princess has a new dress for this year's Racial Harmony Day! :)

Grand Daddy's birthday falls on a weekday this year and so we decided to bring forward and give him a little celebration at Grand Daddy's favourite restaurant, Crystal Jade.

What made this event even more special was, this year, we had Asher and Fong with us. Our family has grown. :)

 

 

C was elated and she made sure she greeted Grand Daddy immediately after she saw him and sent him her well wishes.

 

We got Grand Daddy a cheese cake this year and he loved it! :)

:)