Coming into 8th year of my blogging years...

Kayla's 2012 (March)

• 3 Mar 2012: 1st time using the toilet bowl in the shopping mall to pee. Luckily the Leapschool house provides a potty seat in the cubicle and she can sit more steadily on the toilet bowl. No more afraid of the heights Le. So we bought a portable potty seat for her in the same day such that she can continue to be diaper-free whenever we r outside! It's a smooth progressive transition for her & am so happy with her achievement!

• 8 Mar 2012: Kayla's first time poo poo in the toilet bowl!
  

• 2 March 2012: Our first Parent-Teacher Meeting session

Her form teacher, Teacher Shirley, a very dedicated & friendly teacher, shared many of the stories in class & Kayla's progress in school. She even prepared a portfolio of some of her art work & photos of her in class for us to see her few activities in class. Didn't expect to have a portfolio of her but it's good so that we can see her developments over time. 

Overall she is deemed to be a more matured kid who is quiet in class but can speak pretty well when she wants to. She will raise questions to the teacher but will seldom interact with her classmates (apparently kids at this age dun really talk to each other) However she can be very strong willed in character & once she refused to listen to teacher's instructions to lie down her head on the table while waiting for her classmates to finish eating. The teacher "punished" her by not letting her play together with her classmates, and had to wait. In the end she understood the implications of her not listening to instructions after the teacher explained to her & promised to listen from next day onwards, which she really did!

On the crafts work side, I thought she would be scared to touch glue, paint, sand etc which she didn't! Glad that she is not a "scary cat" in school!

Kayla's art pieces in Term 1 of school:

Finger skills:

- Kayla wants to learn how to show the number with her fingers. If she doesn't know how to do it, she will ask us to show her on her fingers itself. 

• 15 Mar 2012: Kayla learnt to wear her shorts by herself! 

• 17 Mar 2012: Barney's Magical Castle live show @ Expo!, with Eiman

• 18 Mar 2012: 1st music trial class at Magic Fiddler. 

• 24-25 Mar 2012: Parent-child weekend involvement: Making of Caterpillar!

Term 2 of school's topic is: Caterpillar. The students will see how the caterpillar grows and evolves into a butterfly.

Kayla's checking out the real caterpillar

So the 1st parent-child weekend project is Making of caterpillar! Got so excited upon hearing the "project" that we can do together! Here's the process over 2 days during the weekend..

My lil' budding artist in her craft robe! (actually it's a raincoat from Daiso haha)

Top: The materials to make the caterpillar
Bottom: The colored results

Getting Kayla hands on for her project - Painting starts!

Cutting the straws with the help of her daddy

The end results - Our Rainbow Caterpillar!

• 25 Mar 2012: 1st Visit to Science Centre

Make Believe event

Synopsis:

In collaboration with Science Centre Singapore, Make*Believe LLP has designed a specialised series of themed programmes to engage children's imagination and creative thinking, while incorporating holistic learning or mathematics, science and the arts.

4 Learning Stations:

1. Central Fire Station - Kayla learns to match and paste the different shapes on the Central Fire Station picture 2. Fire Engine - Kayla pretends to be a fire(girl) and also learns about the different weight of the ball affecting the distance and speed of travel. 3. Signs in the City 4. Playground for your Mind - Kayla likes this station the best as she builds, crawls, sits and rides on her creations made from life-foam blocks in this big playground

: Library visit @ Compass Point

- Seldom bring Kayla to libraries (which we should have) and happened to be at Compass Point for dinner so decided to pop by the library at the mall. Kayla started to pick her own books and find a table to read her books! She even choose books for us to read, and not interfere with her own reading.

Kayla's 2012 (Feb)

- First art piece that she brought home from school:

• 1st Singapore Flyer trip

11 Feb 2012: To also celebrate my mother's birthday, we took the whole family up to the Singapore Flyer! And it's also Kayla's 1st time on it! She passed by it whenever we are on ECP, and knew what is the Singapore Flyer.

Before we went up...

Kayla's modeling portfolio (on the Flyer!)
The Yammies in Action!

With the extended family....
Happy Birthday to Ah-Ma!

• Achievements:

Feb 2012: Started to teach her how to spit out the water after brushing & gargling. After the first time, she got the hang of it n loves brushing teeth ever since! (so that she can spit out the water far like a merlion!)

19 Feb 2012: Following the example of her eldest cousin, Dawn, Kayla initiated that she wants to pee in the toilet bowl too! Her very first initiative cuz she used to resisted against the idea of pee-ing in the toilet bowl. And it's a successful attempt! Yipee for Kayla! Hope she will be successfully transited to toilet-training soon.

At 31 mths old, Kayla is more used to using toilet bowl for her pee pee now, and is able to wipe herself after she's done. I hope she can also stop wearing diapers when outdoors if she gotten used to using toilet bowl! Good improvement, Kayla!

Kayla's 2012 (Jan)

• January 2012

- Kayla started her nursery school at Foochow Methodist Church School on 3 January 2012. Initially we were quite worried that she may cry/could not bear to leave us etc (all kinds of stories that we have heard from others) but her performance surprised us! She was excited and happy to go to school, and there were no teary goodbyes. We were very relieved of that results, and proud of our girl! She even went to kpo-ed about other kid who was crying. She never fail to leave up to her "Ms KPO" name. haha.

Activities in school

We are happy that she seems to like the teacher, & going to the school! But only 4th day in school she already caught the common flu bug from school. Haiz.. We hope she will get stronger amidst the common school bug infection...

*Happy Dragon Lunar New Year!*

This year's Lunar New Year is earlier than past years and happens in January. Kayla had lotsa fun going around visiting with her cousins and collecting ang pows.

Achievements @ 30 months!

Potty-training

- When it started?: Bought her the potty at 18 months old, but procrastinated and started aimlessly around when she was 2 years old (My own targeted training for her) but she wasn't really ready then as she didn't know how to tell us, and many times reluctantly sit on the potty.

Re-started potty training for her when at 30 months old when she is able to articulate better and understand us better. Initially she sat very long on the potty while engaging in other activities such as reading, watching tv, without any results. Felt so stressed up worrying she will leak without telling us to go pass urine, worrying that she might have problems after not passing urine for 3-4 hours.

-Method deployed: I let her wear Bum wear the training pants during the day time, then every half an hour ask if she wans to pass urine/bring her to sit potty. So every morning very Bo eng & stressed. Eventually when she knows when to tell us that she wants to pass urine, then I loosen up and so long I keep reminding her, I need not keep bringing her to potty since she dun urine tt frequent.

- Support training in school & caregiver's plc: Upon advice by an experienced colleague who is a mother herself, I have roped in both the school teacher & my in laws to help me potty train her. Both sides have been very supportive & the school side shows more positive results. Kayla is able to tell teacher if she wants to pass urine (teacher asked her to remove diaper in school) and able to use the children's toilet. In comparison, Kayla refused to use the baby toilet seat in my in laws' place & can don't pass urine for 5 hours & kept resisting to go into toilet! She can even stay dry till she reaches home to pass urine in the potty. That's when we realized that she prefers to use the potty to using the toilet!

- 1st successful wee-wee in the potty: Happened on 30 Jan 2012. She did not pass urine for almost 3 hours that day & when the urge came, she ran out from her room jumping up & down! Then she says she wants ssh ssh. Sat her down on the potty, nothing.  Wore the training pants on her & she went back to thr room. Next minute she's out again. Sat her down again & she started to exert a bit, shaked her body, that Hola! Her urine started to come out! After she has finished, she looked at her urine & exclaimed," why my ssh ssh looks like orange juice?" Lol!!! (ever since then whenever she pass urine in her potty, she refers that to orange juice!) That important day marks a very major milestone that both she & I have achieved so far! To me, potty training seems to be the hardest training that I have to carry out! I have trained her on self-feeding, self-drinking etc, all not as tough as this! So naturally I was very excited at her first successful attempt! She was also elated & happy when we kept praising her! Subsequently she has a few more successful times on the potty, but sometimes yet refusing to cooperate.

- Next steps: Once she has familiarized and settle down on passing urine in potty/toilet bowl, then have train her to poo poo in potty/toilet bowl. Extremely hard as she likes to poo in her diapers while standing up, and forbids anyone to go near her! See how la, one step at a time. Then lastly would be Night time training...

Drinking from cup
Finally able to hold her cup steadily as she drinks from the cup! Another achievement!

Her Likes

Jigsaw puzzling Time!

I Love my Girl!

My pretty girl

Looking back...My 2011

My 2011, has been really accomplishing, I should say!

• Took up a 1.5 years gym membership with California Fitness in July 2010, and it's expiring soon in Jan 2012! I've gradually increased my gym attendance from once a week (sometimes grudgingly and trying to pyscho myself out from going gym) till twice a week (and loving every moments of going to gym, and feeling out of odds and fat whenever I skipped a week!) The exercising makes me feels good! And I especially like the body combat class! Really shiok! But I will not be renewing my gym membership yet. Shall focus my priorities elsewhere next year.. But hope I won't grow fat once I stop exercising!
• Took part in JP Morgan Chase Corporate Run with my office buddy!
• Re-freshed my driving lessons under the personal coaching of the husb. Not too bad. But gradually I have stopped being enthu and started getting lazy... Opps! I wonder when can my resolution of "Be a confident and regular driver" will be realised?
• Our mother-and-daughter bond has become stronger this year when Kayla started to grow more attached to me. I feel more sense of "mother-satisfaction" as this bond grows stronger My efforts have finally started to pay off!

Other than feeling more accomplished, my life is 2011 was also pretty enjoyable!

• Caught 3 musicals/theatre shows in a year!
  

(Lion King was for my birthday treat, and Wicked was a couple date with husb. Beauty King was a "ogling-at-stripping-muscle-men" date with friends from office Heehee...)

• Went Japan and Gold Coast for the first time!

1. Japan-Tokyo: I always dreamed of going to Japan, and our wish came true in March 2011! We took a 10 Days 9 Nights F&E tour in Tokyo and had luckily escaped from a massive tsunami and earthquake that happened on the day we returned to Singapore. It's a nanrrow escape for us, and fortunate blessings for the 3 of us. We had enjoyed ourselves during this trip in Tokyo & Disneyland too.
   
2. Gold Coast: It's our second time to Australia, but our first in Gold Coast, and our first full self-drive trip. Still prefer Japan. haha.
   

• Couple dates!

Our husb-and-wife relationship has gradually improved towards the lower half of the year as we grow more loving, established more communication, maintained more patience with each other. And of cuz' the couple dates help! Regardless lunch/dinner dates, movie/musical dates, it's all about spending time with each other. There are more hugs and kisses, more TLC given. I realise the underlying rule is "The more you give to each other, the more it gets returned" I look forward to a more harmonious and loving relationship with the husb in the many more years to come!

Oh! Next year is our 十年 together-ness! My goodness! How fast time can pass... Feel so old with each other... But I've glad that with this 10 years, he is now my family, someone who will always stand by me with no strings attached.

To a brand new Year 2012 whereby I will be turning 30 years old, I hope I will:

• Spend more quality time with my own family, and my close friends
• Continue giving TLC and patience to my husb and daughter, and be a dutiful and good wife and mother to them.
  
• Staying healthy and FIT (if possible!)
• Bring Kayla more for outdoor and healthy activities instead of always going gai-gai in shopping centres
• 成功做人！
  

Kayla: After 2 years old...

My talkative girl whose language skills have developed leaps and bounds after turning 2 years old, have become so much fun to chat with! She can imitate to us what interesting words her cousins have said, she can reiterate what we have said to her. Her mandarin has also improved greatly and can speak complete sentences in Mandarin. Well, she even know how to switch between English and Mandarin when she speaks to the maid vs us! haha.

Amazingly I came to know that she actually has quite good memory of past happenings! One fine day she suddenly brought up Klaske and what she did - something that happened about 2 months back! Haha!

Happenings after 2 years old!:

• Visit to Singapore Art Museum

• Visit Walter the Rabbit @ Marina Bay
  

• Wanting to do more activities by herself (e.g. taking off shoes, socks, switching on/off the TV)
  

• Activity time @ playground

• New games! 

         - Matching a pair
                            - Memory game

          - Able to identify a few alphabets such as A, M, Q, S, T and numbers such as 1, 5, 6, 0

         - Grasp the concept of difference in size, e.g Papa bigger

         - Engage in empathizing role-play (she being the doc after having a jab to us, will     hug & comfort us when we "cry")

        - Express her emotions in words (I m unhappy, it's fun! etc)

• Talk about "dollars" and "cents'!
• Funny self-conversations:
  

         Kayla: "Papa says - What do you want?"
         Kayla: "Mama says - Stop it!"
         Kayla: " Yeye says - zo man ye?"
         Kayla: "Nai nai says - mei nu" (i.e. pretty girl)
         Kayla: "Ah ma says - you mei you?"

         (Hahahaha....)

• Her own created (funny) way of saying Good-byes!:

         1. "Bye Little Tomato!" & her reply is "Bye Bye Little Carrot!"

         2. "Bye Little Yakult!" & her reply is "Bye Bye little Yogurt!"

         3. "Bye Bye car!" & her reply is "Bye bye motorbike!"

         4. "Bye little Dora!" & her reply is "Bye bye Monkey!" 

         5. "Bye little Kai Lan!" & her reply is "Bye bye Ye Ye!"

• More Toddler tantrums (as she wants to exert more independence and individualism)

      - Refused to do what we wanted her to do yet she doesn't wish to do, by
      (1) ignoring us,
      (2) put up a big struggle when we try to carry her
      (3) Cry and run away!

     - Talking back in a tone similar to ours when we scold her

• New enrichment classes!

1. Kinderdance: Kindertots

- Initially she seemed a bit keen on learning new dance steps from Kindertots, but gradually I realised that during the 30 min class, she is only focused on the first 10-15 mins then she got distracted and tired. She also didn't follow the dance steps earnestly. Luckily this is a trial class that I have signed up for her, mainly for her exposure purpose. So I didn't continue her with the dance class after that.
 
     2.  Leapschool House: Whiz Creators
- In comparison, Kayla adjusted to Leapschool House class faster and better! She likes the dancing and singing, and towards the end of the 8 lessons, she started to participate more and even joined in the dancing and shaking! As a clumsy inactive girl, she was finding a bit difficult to climb up and down as easily as the other toddlers. She started to like the gym play session more and more, and got more confident during all the climbing and active play. Thumbs up for the improvement! She also got exposed to art and craft sessions whereby she can learn to use the scissors, the glue, the paint brush. Kayla also enjoyed both the English and Chinese storytelling sessions. I think this Leapschool House class is really beneficial to her learning development.

• Live shows!

1. Elmo Green Thumb

     2.  Mickey Mouse Live Show
- She enjoyed both the shows more or less, but just tend to get tired toward the later half of the shows. In comparison she knows more characters from the Mickey Mouse live show than the Elmo Green Thumb live show, so can relate better to the latter.