A Little Drummer?

Nature Study? - Grasshopper

Almost forgot about these 2 pics. 2 Sundays ago, a grasshopper came into our flat(for the 2nd time). This time, daddy decided to 'capture' it so that Renee could have a closer look at the insect. However, failing to find a clear container, he decided to go for a plastic bag and of cos, releasing it after a short while.

Violin Lesson Resumed

Renee's violin teacher is back and she finally gets her lesson after a long break of 3 weeks!

As mentioned in 1 earlier post, I've asked Renee to practice on the speed/styles of playing(loud/medium loud, etc) but apparently, what the teacher has told us earlier, that 'Crescendo' = gradually getting soft, was wrong! Although I had my doubts initially('cos I remembered watching the little einsteins with Renee before and their 'ship' went up when they commanded 'crescendo'), I did not raise it up and that was a mistake, 'cos I was briefly mentioning these codes to Renee 1 day and daddy heard her deciphering them, he said that the part on 'crescendo' was wrong. So, I decided to take this up with the teacher today... I asked her what does 'crescendo' means actually and she said "oh it means gradually getting louder". With that, I told her "then u've told us the wrong thing. u have said that it meant getting softer" and I showed her the notes she's jotted on the music scores. She quickly re-wrote it and apologised. I didn't want to put too much focus on this mistake 'cos she might have been very much pre-occupied by her earlier holiday trips and also the recent instruments buying trip that she made such an oversight...

But this 'mistake' has indirectly caused Renee unable to get her star today 'cos although I've pre-informed her that perhaps what we were told were wrong and if so, she would have to play 'that part' louder instead of 'getting softer & softer' and she had nodded. And though due to this, the teacher had also given her some 'allowance' for her to re-correct her playing, it's still not easy for a young child to correct it just by verbal correction for the very first time, but she tried her best and for that, I still gave her 1 lollipop(she had been eyeing that 2 boxes of organic lollipops and was sad when she cldn't get her star u see...)

Her teacher has helped us purchased a bigger sized violin for Renee but as she's hand-carried the adult sized ones plus a new Cello, she has to get the merchant to ship the smaller sized ones over. So, we were not able to get ours today and was told it'd take about 25 days to arrive(by sea, 'cos it's too costly to air them over) and thus, I also do not know the exact cost yet. However, I got the new rosin today(bought locally) and though this one cost more at S$16, it's said to be hypo-allergenic and better, especially for children with sensitive skin/nose.

Current Rosin

The new 'professional rosin'

I had a sudden tummy cramp today and not sure how well I can tolerate it, I decided to just take Renee home for her already prepared home-cooked lunch, without buying mine. Back home, she ate up her lunch alone at the dining table and left me to rest on bed. Decided to skip our trip to the DFS due to the cramp but feeling better after the short rest and the lunch daddy's bought for me, we went over to Li's for mahjong session after daddy's nap.

Renee's requested to dress in her princess dress(the one she put-on on her birthday) today and she really enjoyed herself, with her aunty Li and wayne gor gor taking turns to play with her, plus a pack of her favourite bear vanilla cream biscuits, lolz.

*she must have played too much/wild liao, 'cos as I'm typing this post, she just had another 'ham meng'...

A Good Night Sleep

Obviously the header of this post doesn't apply to moi! hahaha.

It's only the beginning of mid year term holiday and Renee's already having a good night sleep(she went to bed with her daddy at ard 10:30pm) and had only woken up at around 10:30 this morning! Had it been that stressful for her at school this year, even without any academic curriculum? 'Cos I've noticed that it's been only these few months that she had been waking up early even though she's gone to bed not too early, hmmm, food for thought...

She had a good time at our family gathering playing with her cousin JX again today and she even counted the total number of times she's sayang her new cousin Jia Yi, hahaha(she asked if she's been a good jie jie since she's sayang the baby 4x in total, including the 1st one last Sat, lolz).

To get the momentum going, I told her that I'll read to her(also, to get her to bed) just now. As usual, she wasn't satisfied with just one story, so I finished up the whole book by reading her the last one(last 2 stories of this book). However, the neck ache that I've gotten from reading her the stories wasn't also not enough for her to stop her request for her daddy to sleep in again, so I tried another way to reason with her:

Me : "Renee, next time I'll only read you one story ok"

Renee : "Ok"

Me : " and if you still don't go to sleep after I've read you the story and kept asking for your daddy to come sleep with you, I'll give all the books away to other children"

Renee : "Ok"

Me : "are you sure it's ok? I'll give ALLL the books away you know, old and new and also your toys"

Renee : "also the 'I'll always come back' book?"

Me : "Yes"

Renee : "huhhh, I don't want"

Me : "so, do you still want to ask your daddy to come sleep with you?"

Renee : *shaking head and pouting*

Me : "listen, if I read you story and you say to me "thank you mommy, for reading me the story", give me a kiss, say good night to me, presss press your bolster and go to sleep, I'll be very happy that u're such a good girl and I'll buy more and more books to read to you, isn't that nice?" - yes, this is how precise I have to speak to her at times, lolz

Renee : "thank you mommmy, good night" and pouted her lips for me to kiss...

Well, we'll see...

A Long Friday

The school's confirmed a slot in the morning session for Renee for the next term but I'm still working on some considerations and I'm to inform them at least a week in advance, before the school re-opens. Meantime, I hope I could put this matter aside and enjoy her school holidays with her, :).

Had arranged to meet Janice for munchies, and so we went(even went to check out a music school for her son and a arts school for both our kids). And after school, she and Jerome joined us for a story telling session at the Compass Point library and afterwhich, we went walking around some shops whilst our kids enjoyed each other's company. Oh my gosh, when with the company of her friends, my little girl is more 'out of hand' than they are! She's sooo much into play! :}

However, having been out since morning, well even though it's the later part of it, I was already tired by the time we were done with snacks at Mac after the story telling session. I had gone to bed after my reading @ around 2:15am, but I wasn't given a chance to really fall asleep 'cos our darling was 'fussing' in her sleep. When I went to sleep next to her, she was still fussing every now and then and when I told her that it's ok and that I'm with her, guess what, she murmurred "wayne gor gor played with me" - arrrh, that's the light to her fussing! I remembered when I went to pick her up from Eileen's last night, they were both perspiring all over from the play. That must have explained her 'ham meng'... However, this wasn't just that, we didn't have the air-condition on last night and she was perspiring when daddy had stopped the fan from 'turning' and she must have been grouchy from the heat and caused me to wake up every now and then the whole night, the last straw came at about an hour after she woke up for a drink of water and going to the toilet, I told her that I'm going back to my bed. When she finally realised that I wasn't sleeping next to her, she got up, went to daddy and made him go sleep with her, hahaha.

This is the playdoh cake her wayne gor gor had done for her(she made the candle, hahaha)

Ok, enough for the digress/'explanation' hahaha, Renee was again, reluctant to part with aunty Janice and Jerome and threw a tanthrum even after Janice had promised to invite her over for some art&craft and a swim thereafter during the holidays. She wanted them to go to our place, then and there! Geez... Finally, Janice gave her a pack of bear gummies - which Jerome had promised earlier to give to her but was stopped by their teacher(I guess, was due to the incident of 'expired candies' case). That however, managed to soothe her and we parted...

Mid year school holiday has finally began, and although I've got some art/craft supplies in stored and many books in preparation, I'm now alittle clueless as to where/how to begin. Maybe it's because my mind's now clouded by thoughts of the session change, which will affect her routine. I think I must really learn to 'relax' myself over such matters, lolz...

Child Talent, again?

When I went to pick Renee up this afternoon, I was informed and handed by her host teacher a letter from KLC, that Renee's been selected as a child talent for their coming commercial photo shoot. However, daddy's said no to the earlier talent search by the media people, so it's not surprising that he'd say no again this time, lolz...

Back from 'work'...

Have briefly discussed with daddy about changing Renee to morning session school next term - 8am to 11am, and he agreed. So now it's just waiting for the school's response on whether they could find a slot for her in Nicole's class(if she's still attending that is).

Out of habit, I was searching for the SCV remote controller when I was reminded that we no longer have its service - yes, we've finally unplugged it and returned it to Starhub this evening(due to not much 'usage' but I can' say for sure how long it'll be 'gone' cos daddy might decide to apply for it again when the soccer season is back) 'cos it's near to the place where our seminar was, heee. And also because we were there, I even managed to grab some boxes of the pot cleaning substance from Daiso and some heart-shaped handle carrying boxes for Renee(seldom get to go to Daiso, so each time go there will grab many things, but today, just lack of time...hopefully the new branch at R/mall will open soon!), :).

When I was giving Renee a shower, she mentioned about a 'party' in school tomorrow and that she's to bring her favourite food there. I had read her message to that they would be having a end-term class party but Janice just informed me that she had heard it was a classmate's birthday party. Oh man! Geez, whichever case it is, I think I must remember to pack some bread into her bag, 'cos this girl might go hungry if there's nothing which she'd go for from the 'party food', lolz.

An Old Friend

We were alittle late to school(by 5mins) today and I saw 1 of Renee's ex pre-n classmates, Nicole! This lovely girl has been quite well-liked by her other peers last year as she's a friendly girl. However, she appeared quieter today(she used to smile alot, even at me, when I went to pick Renee up in the past), sitting in the office waiting for her mom to collect her, I can still see recognition on her face when she saw Renee and me! I called her name and asked if she remembers Renee and she nodded! Renee was alittle shy instead, when she was the one whom had been asking about this friend.

Saw the mommy at the gate as I was leaving and as they also came out very soon, I took the opportunity to ask the mommy if Nicole wld be going to the same school in the morning session for next year and her answer's Yes. Janice and myself had thought that Nicole has already changed school so when I saw her just now, I must say that I'm very happy, heee, 'cos that means Renee would finally have a friend when we really decided to change her to morning session next year, hurray! Oh wait, perhaps we could even change her next term! Hmmm...

No Assistance?

Yes, No? Actually, I would prefer she does it under my watch though, for the time being at least...

Oops, sorry, I've forgotten to let known what this is all about, hahaha. Well, our Renee is finally able to 'lift' herself up to the toilet seat! Our toilet bowl seats, after some comparisons(not all of cos) are alittle higher, and with her not being very tall(still hasn't reached the 100cm mark yet :>) and the seat being raised up further by the foam padded child seat, she used to have difficulty getting herself up on it. However, yesterday, without waiting for me to help her up, she did it, smoothly, yes, finally! lolz...

Though I wouldn't say that she is now fully toilet independant at home(since she'd still need someone to wash her up after passing motion), this is a very good start 'cos she can now really start to wipe herself up after each toilet use.