Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Hurry Christmas! Hurry Fast!

Christmas, Christmas time is near
Time for joy and time for cheer
We've been good but we can't wait
Hurry Christmas, hurry fast...

This is the song Charlotte picked up from watching "Alvin and The Chipmunks" and it seems very appropriate now as Christmas is just a few weeks away. The Christmas tree at home has been set up last week and so as those Christmas decorations at the malls and streets.

We love Christmas very much and I probably love Christmas more than Chinese New Year (oops!). I think we are going to have a lot more fun this year simple because Charlotte is older now and she feels the Christmas spirit a little stronger then the year before. It is also time for me to explain to her what Christmas is really about.

This year, we probably going to save a little on Charlotte's Christmas dress as Brenda has made her one! Remember the crochet that Brenda brought from home when she went back in Sept? It was too big for Charlotte and Brenda decided to make another one for her. She wants to custom make it to Charlotte's preference, can "fly" one! She finally completed her work after about 3-4 weeks of late nights (I saw her room light was on till almost midnight every night) and also while Charlotte was taking her nap in the afternoon.


I think it is very sweet and the color is just right for Christmas (what more can you ask from your maid, right?)! Charlotte absolutely loves it because it flies!!! She just can't stop dancing and turning around when she tried it on.

Oh and the Christmas tree is up too! I really need to start Christmas shopping soon!

Merry Christmas to all!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Fun Time!

Last weekend was one of those extraordinary busy weekend for us, not because of any special occasion but just with extra activities. We usually try to have a slow and easy weekend simply because our weekdays are always so hectic and tiring. We did more last week but was spontaneous.

One of those were daddy's idea of bring Charlotte to the park. Usually it turned out to be a disappointment when we announced it earlier. It's either rained, or one of us fell sick or some other unexpected agenda happened. So we decided to keep it to ourselves until the day comes.

Charlotte woke up pretty late Sunday morning and we got the very important task (feed milk) done before announcing the plan to Charlotte. She was very excited when we told her that we are taking her to the park but I guess she didn't know where or what exactly a park is (it's been a very long time since we last took her there). Half way through the journey, she asked "mommy, where we go?" and I told her we are going to the park for her to ride her bicycle and play at the playground. She then replied "oh! far far away?". Yup, the park is quite far from where we stay.

It was her first time riding on her new bicycle since she got it. I mean she was previously riding it IN the house or at the front porch but was never on the road. She struggled with the initial paddling coordination but soon she was on the move!


She spent maybe a good 30-45min on her new bike, cycling round after round on that track. Both Pat and I were walking beside her and after a few rounds she actually asked us to go sit down and she wanted to adventure on her own. I went outside of the track and took the opportunity to snap a few more pictures while her daddy was watching her from far.

Can you spot this little girl among the crowd?


When she finally had enough of her bicycle, she wanted the slides, swings, seesaws and etc. Very soon, her daddy ran out of patience coping with her ever changing demand, but Charlotte had the biggest smile that morning.

avatars myspace with Gickr

After all the fun at the park, we grabbed a quick brunch nearby while Charlotte's having the Hello Kitty bread that I prepared with the newly edible writing pen that I bought (no picture, I told you it was a spontaneous decision, didn't I?). She finished all 6 pieces of it (which is equivalent to 2 slices of bread)! I'm not sure if she was really interested in the colorful kitty face drawing or because she was hungry after all that exercise. What matters to me most is, she ate!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Charlotte's First Movie


We've been waiting to bring Charlotte to Cinema for her 1st movie for a long long time. We were not sure when Horton was played and a few other later on but when we saw Madagascar 2 we kind of decided that this is it!

Charlotte has been watching Madagascar at home and she is familiar with those characters like Alex (the lion), Marty (the zebra), Melman (the giraffe) and Gloria (the hippo). Bringing her to watch part 2 at the cinema would have lower risk compared to introducing something totally new (movie + environment) to her for the 1st time.

It's been a few weeks now since the movie released and we finally made it there last Saturday. I made ticket reservation for 7.40pm show, it was the best time for us because I will have enough time to feed Charlotte dinner before we leave for the movie and it won't be too late when the show finished.

We bought pop corn and soda just before we enter the theater. Pat warned me not to let Charlotte have too much pop corn because it's near Christmas now and we don't want Charlotte to fall sick because of that. But I know I don't have to worry much because Charlotte would willingly it give up, just like ice-cream when she had enough. True enough, Charlotte wasn't very keen with the pop corn, she only took 1 and that's it!

Charlotte and I shared a seat as we decided that she is too tiny won't have a good view from her own seat. We chose 2 center corner seats for easy movement in case Charlotte needs to move about. She was behaved very well and was engrossed into the movie for maybe the first 45min. Then she started to wonder around. Good thing that we were seating at the isle, I offered her to sit by the staircase instead and she could still have a good view from there. She sat there and not too long after another boy also came from the next row and sat beside her :)

The movie was rather short, it ended around 9.00pm. Honestly, I think the story line was not as interesting as part 1. No wonder Charlotte was not interested in it after awhile. When we asked her how's watching movie at the cinema, she was all smiling! Obviously, she was very happy with that experience.

This was how she told her auntie Brenda the next morning:

Charlotte: Auntie, I go watch Alex the lion!
Aunite: Wah! Nice or not?

Charlotte: Nice! The cinema got big big television one, and so loud!
Auntie: So loud ah? You scared or not?

Charlotte: No! Cinema dark dark one
Aunite: You not scared ah? So clever hor

Charlotte: Hmm, I clever. I didn't cry. Cinema no monster one, no snake one!
(LOL!)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Another Birthday Cake

Yup, the second one, just for the family. It was again very nicely done and Charlotte was again thrilled to see her favorite Pooh Bear on it. I asked her if she likes the Mermaid cake or Pooh cake, she said "ah....2!" (both). Isn't she an angel?



Sunday, November 16, 2008

Bicycle

A few weeks before Charlotte's birthday, my parents showed up one Sunday evening and asked Charlotte what she wanted for her birthday. This girl, kept no secret and shouted out loud "I want bicycle!".

The same every year, she gets her 1st birthday present not from us, but from her grandparents :)


When Mommy Was Asleep

I had a very mad migraine last Saturday and I had to take a pill and closed my eyes for a couple of hours. I asked Pat to look after Charlotte and told Brenda to prepare lunch accordingly.

I woke up and remembered Charlotte was telling me that daddy let Simba out. I didn't have a second thought of that statement until today when I clean up my camera's memory stick.

There are sooooooo many pictures taken of Charlotte and Simba, being so closed together! I know our Simba is children friendly but I still haven't let Charlotte been to this close to him before. See what daddy has done...

End of Academic Year

Last Friday marked the last day of school for most of the school going kids and at Charlotte's school they celebrated this day with special events. The school sent out notice a couple of days before and asking parents to prepare swim suits and towels for the kids as they are going to have a small pool play.

Charlotte, of course gotten very excited when I told her about swimming on Friday morning. I let her changed into her swim suit directly since hers is a swim shirt and pantie. I just put on a shorts for her and she was all ready for school!

Align Center

I forgot to bring along my camera and I have no picture to share this time. I have to admit that I was worried that Charlotte would catch a cold if left unattended, even for a short while. Call me paranoid, but I rather want to be sure than having to manage a sick kid later on. I wanted to go to pick her up earlier that day, just to see how the teachers manage all those children, getting them off the pool, wet and cold. Too bad, I was very busy at work and she was all showered and ready to go home when I reached the school a few hours later. But I saw several kids were still playing while 2 other teachers were bathing and changing other kids. I was told that Charlotte was one of those in the 1st batch to leave the pool and get changed. I guess they managed it well and I am crossing my fingers...

I was also presented by her class teacher several test sheets that they had conducted in Oct together with the monthly progress report. I was surprised to see that Charlotte actually did very well in those tests (I didn't even know that they had tests for these young kids). I was also told that her writing skill is also considered advance at her age.

In the monthly progress report, they keep track of both academy and social emotional progress. I am glad to see that Charlotte is developing very good social emotional skill considering she's only joined the school 2 months after the second half of the year. Her strength now shows in Art and Music/Movement, she got all As (Always) in these categories (other markings are N for Not Yet and S for Sometimes). Her academy knowledge also has improved. One very obvious learning I observed is that I only taught her upper case alphabets at home, that includes writing it but she is able to recognize all lower case alphabets and writing some of it too. That is from school! :)



I need to make conscious note to myself that I have to spend more time with development activities instead of offering her movies (oops, but movie can keep her occupied for at least an hour!)

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Train From Young?

We had dinner with some friends last Wednesday night and it was the 2nd time Charlotte met with these folks in a week. She had gotten herself very comfortable with them around and that also means that her true color shows when she gets comfortable.

As usual, daddy is a big fan of beer and they ordered several rounds of Tiger beer and slowly it had gotten Charlotte very curious about that drink. She started by just asking "what's that?" and we told her that the drink is hot and it's not for children. Her reply was "oh!". Slowly, from politely asked what that is she reached out her hand to "check out" those empty cans. She said "see only!" like this...



The next thing we knew...
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Luckily it's only an empty can.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

This Is THE Day!!!

Exactly 3 years ago, I woke up at 4.30am and with my pregnant tummy I stepped into the washroom and sat on the toilet seat half dreaming. The strangest thing happened, I wondered why my bladder could kept so much urine and it felt like out of control! I then gotten a little bit more awake and thought could it be my water bag has broke? As I was trying to call my husband I felt another warm water gushed out. I was just 1 day before the estimated due date!

Yes, it's Charlotte's birthday and she woke up this morning feeling extremely happy when I greeted her with a big birthday kiss. She knew she is going to celebrate her 3rd birthday today at school. I brought home a cake last night and told her that she will be bringing it to school tomorrow morning. She took a look at it and her only expression was "Wah! It's mermaid!" with a big grin!


I am very pleased to see the cake myself as the cake house has been very flexible to design just the way I wanted. Isn't it nice? It's orange and vanilla sponge and it tastes great too!

We celebrated her birthday at school this morning. She is a happy girl I tell ya! The pictures say a thousand words of what happened in school :)





She is 12kg in weight and 91cm in height (I measured this morning, ha!). Little chili padi!

We are going to have a small family celebration for her this Sunday and hopefully another nice birthday cake :)