Shower cap

Mama bought Katy a new shower cap. But Katy still likes wearing Mama's the best.
And she likes Mama to wear Katy's!
(It's bright green because it is a frog.)

Naughtiest Girl in School

I loved these Enid Blyton books when I was little and watching Katy at "school" brings the book titles to mind! A little girl with a heart of gold who is very loving, curious, can't sit still, and always wanting to push the boundaries!

Let me explain - "school" for Katy is a Mother and Toddler Mandarin playgroup at Discovery Mind Kindergarten on Monday and Wednesday afternoon 3pm to 4.30pm. It's for 15-24 months and Katy has been going since last September, when she was 15.5 months. It was very patchy attendance at first because she still had two naps and would sometimes sleep through most of the class. She's such a reluctant napper that we didn't like to wake her and if she skipped the afternoon nap, then it was hard to reinstate it on her non school days. She was also quite volatile at school - more interested in doing her own thing than taking part in scheduled activities.

But starting from January this year, she really started to get into the swing of school and enjoy it. Here's what Katy does at school.

2.50pm Hire Car picks us up from home.
2.55pm Arrive at school and take a leisurely stroll past the boats at the Marina Club (Dada's boats as Katy calls them).
3pm Class starts - this is meant to be free time, but Katy usually will just chill out on the sofa. She loves that little sofa and gets very possessive about it. She kicks off her shoes and rolls all over it.
3.10pm Circle Time - no pictures of this as this is Katy's least favourite segment. She usually tries to run away. On this afternoon, Katy decided to run up and down the corridor instead of do circle time. Then we go sit on the little chairs in the corridor and watch the older kids in their classrooms. This is why they instal a little lock on the door - so the kids like Katy don't open the door and rush out!

3.20pm Then, we went back to the classroom to join in the singing and dancing, which Katy LOVES. Here she is doing "Little Teapot" (Cha Hu).
Chong cha lai!

And here is Twinkle Twinkle.
3.35pm Then it is time for crafts, which Katy used to dislike.
She now likes it better but gets freaked out if her hands get too messy.
3.45pm She's always the first to go wash her hands.
She loves to use the soap and watch the bubbles.
She's also become fascinated with the little toilets as she watches the big girls use the potty. Nothing happens on there though except she says "shhh shhh" and then hops off again.
Katy has a love hate relationship with the hand blower. She was afraid of it like the other little kids. But now since she has seen the big kids use it, she wants to try to use it, but not without some trepidation.
3.55pm Then comes Katy's favourite school activity - bing gan time! This is when she speaks the most Mandarin, with biscuits as her bribe, er incentive.

Here she is with her classmates - L to R Harrison (Junxi), Joshua (Youran), Karen (Koren), Tai Tai, and Maddy.


4.05pm Then comes reading time on the mat. Katy loves to help roll the mat out.

And practice yoga on it...
But usually she is not really into reading the teacher's book with her. She prefers to fight for the books other kids have. In this case, it is Maddy. But Katy is really getting very good at letting other kids grab her toys without fighting or screaming and also at refraining from grabbing other kids' toys. At least when Mama is watching. I've caught her grabbing and grabbing things back quietly when I don't take an active part in adjudicating sharing practice!

This was a rare occasion when Katy was into reading her own book for a quiet minute or two.
4.15pm Then it's on to Katy's 2nd favourite activity - playroom (you xi shi).


Even here, her favourite activity often involves escaping the confines of the room and trundling down the hall on her tricycle...




or with her shopping trolley...

She also loves climbing on things and jumping off them.



4.30pm The bell rings and Katy goes nuts screaming "bus bus bus" as it is always a mad dash for the bus with Katy's artwork flapping in the wind as we run. Now when Katy hears bells, she always says "bus bus" and the best way to get her moving when she dawdles is to tell her the bus is coming!

What an exhausting afternoon for Katy...and Mama!! We love it and relish every minute of it though - in September, she will go to school unaccompanied and we'll miss these afternoons with Katy at school.

I am Tiger Hear me ROAR!

Actually, Katy's favourite animal is now the Lion rather than Mao (cat). She still loves maos, but she has moved onto a fascination with Lions (because of various books) and also Mice (because of her Goodnight Moon book). She didn't really understand what Tigers were, even though we have been singing a song in Mandarin about Tigers for a long time.

On Saturday, we were invited to Isobel Snape's 2nd birthday party, which had a jungle theme. So we decided to go as a Tiger. Regular readers will recall that Jo Jo borrowed this costume for Halloween last year. Katy has never really worn it. She was kind of afraid of it a while ago but she was very keen to wear it on Saturday!

Mama did Katy's face up with whiskers and a nose - so of course, Katy had to reciprocate. Then Katy wanted to paint her own face but she wanted to use the red crayon, so at one point, she looked like a tiger who had recently been fed!

Katy loved the food of course - the popcorn, goldfish and, surprisingly, the cream cheese sandwiches! When it came time for Pass the Parcel, she thought everyone was gathered around to watch her dance!

Issy won a giraffe for Pass the Parcel.
Katy won a rhino, although Mama had to open her parcel as her hands (and mouth) were full of elephant shaped sandwich.
Issy's Mummy is very talented! She made the most adorable lion cake ever!


Mama was so proud of Katy. She was so helpful, happy and co-operative during the whole party. She even made it her mission to tidy up and throw things away. (Actually, she loves to throw things in the bin. We sometimes have trouble as she is constantly throwing away boxes, packaging and containers we want to keep - or she is more interested in opening something for the sake of emptying out the container and throwing it away!)
Jo Jo didn't get jealous but Katy made friends with another boy there called Ethan. Katy is definitely a very friendly kid, happy to make friends and cuddle. She still isn't great with sharing her own toys, but for the most part, she no longer hits, she doesn't get upset if another kid lashes out at her, she doesn't snatch much and she doesn't cry if she is very strongly pushed to share (ie Mama takes the toy from her and gives it back to the other kid).
Katy loved this adorable bouncy yellow pony.

And of course the bubbles were a great hit.
But even so, for some reason, Katy is always wanting to escape from whatever room we are in. Doesn't matter if it is a 30 minute ballet class or 2 hour birthday party - still, her mission is to escape. Of course, Jonah was conscripted in The Great Escape. Look at that tail though!
Here's an example of Katy happily letting Dominique play with her. In the past, she would have been very possessive of anyone touching the pony. She's quite sharp with her "Don't Touch" commands!
When we got home, Katy was quite excited to tell Tia and Dada all about her adventures. And she totally hammed it up when Mama was telling everyone how proud I was of her because she was so polite, helpful and co-operative at the party!
She really understands everything! When I was saying how good her behaviour was, she started saying "bang bang bang" and giving the thumbs up sign. This means excellent in Mandarin and is what we say to the kids with a thumbs up to tell them how great they are being. We haven't said that for a while though so it was surprising that Katy remembered it in this context.





Katy's quite the conversationalist now as you can see above!