Parent-Teacher Meet Up

Met up with T’s teachers today for the once-a-term Parent Teacher Session today!

And here's some bits of what we've got..

:) I find the comments so endearing and cute.

S.R.I.P.

Alphabets for the week..

Animals from all over the World..

Love this floor puzzle. T decided to play with it one fine morning and this has been lying on the playroom this week. Not really teaching her geography at this stage but we're just having fun looking at the different types of animals ie.koalas, giraffe, whale, polar bears, penguins and pandas.



(Seeing thaleia trying to piece a picture of polar bear's head to the body of a seal)
Mummy: Thaleia, to piece puzzles together, you must see the pictures as a whole. The head of the polar bear belongs to the body of a polar bear.

Thaleia: No. I don't want.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TODDLERS

The Value of 10 Minutes

I SOOOOO need to blog about this.

Daddy and Mummy missed Thaleia's first performance in school concert by 10minutes!!

We (plus lil J) arrived at the school at 5pm, took a while to find the school auditorium and missed her first performance!

Ended up watching her play "mak sak" (toys) with friends instead!

Well she did re-enter the stage for a finale where all the performers gathered and sing a final song..

and..She was happy to see Daddy, Mummy and Lil J , all here to pick her up from school though. Check out her smile..

But..remind me ..remind me..some moments gone are lost forever.

Who could underestimate the value of 10 minutes ..or even a second?

Finger Painting

At 6.30am : Literally PAINTING HER FINGERS!

Pretend Play - Doctor & Patient

collection of:

..a takeaway box from Kenny Rogers....emptied medicine bottles of 3 different sizes...

...plastic measuring spoon....a soft thermometer from one of the toys..

AND we're ready to play Doctor & Patient!

The Dew of Heaven

Have been asked a few times this week by various friends. "The name - Thaleia, what does it mean?

So here's a short and brief one:
The original Hebrew name is spelled as Talia actually and Talia means Heaven's Dew. Papa and Mama made it Thaleia, a variation from the original. When Isaac blessed his son, he said in Genesis 27:28.. "May God give you the dew of heaven, and the good things of the earth, and grain and wine in full measure". Heaven's Dew signifies God's blessings and favor.
When dew falls upon the land, it allows vegetation to flourish and gain a good harvest.

My little gal, you really are true with your name, arriving at a time where you brought such comfort to our souls, refreshing our lives, bringing so much laughter and joy. You do not have to worry that your little brother will make you less special.

Nothing can replace you, our precious little dew from God!

O is for Olivia

Yes..I braved the crowd and went to the Borders MASSIVE Book SALE and I'm glad I did! .Got my hands on 2 Natalie Shaw's Olivia's series. I think Thaleia likes it! Cos She's seems very tickled that Olivia wears a TUTU.

Daddy: Thaleia..what does Olivia wear?

Thaleia: TuTu ..(followed by a hahahah)...

Precious Previous August Weekends

It's the last few weekends before her little brother arrives! And August has been filled with family events, kids's birthday parties and one long weekend, thanks to Hari Raya Puasa festival.
Nonetheless, we tried to load in even more extra fun for these weekends...before we hit September!

20th August at the Singapore Flyer


29th August - Happy Birthday to PAPA!!!!
Lunch at Vivocity....



Followed by a car ride on a red mini Mini-Cooper! This little Cooper is sooo cute..



30th August - Hi tea at Raffles Hotel
She loves the fountain...


and all the yummy pastries and sugar loaded in the Hi tea menu!

If you have no daughter..

No more crying in the morning…Hurray!! Hurray!! Hurray!!
After a good 2 months, Thaleia has finally stopped crying when we drop her off in school. Now she waves goodbye and joins her friends in play once we bring her to her classrooms. We can see she’s really starting to ease in now, smiling at her teachers and responding to her friends. So glad for this progress!!

Learning to sing along
I started playing children songs in her playroom every mornings since last week. And on the way to school..she started singing, “lalala..dotter..lalalala dotter..” . Then I realized she was singing a part of Hot Cross Buns song!! which goes “if you have no daughter..if you have no daughter..if you have no daughter.., you can give them to your son”..so Hot Cross Buns has definitely taken over Head Shoulders Knees & Toes as her favourite song now.

More geography
Thanks to Auntie Lee Ping. My collection of postcards now includes Mexico and New Jersey! When she grows older, she will have a wide collection of pictures of many places in Europe and US…I found a nice floor puzzle of the map of the world in Kiddy Palace on Saturday. Can’t wait for another year to show her the beautiful countries and the animals unique to each continent that God has created in seven days!

All over the Moon Over Honey Stars

This Thursday was Racial Harmony Day so we dressed Thaleia up in a cute little Indian costume for school. Was a gift from one colleague when I visited the Chennai office last year. Glad the lovely costume still fit her. She simply refused to pose for me until I bribe her with Honey Stars.Once she got her hands on them, she's all OVER THE MOON!!!!!!!!!!

Hello..don't I just look like the perfect Honey Star Ambassador for Nestle?

Sugar High at 7am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ten Apples Up on Top

Here's a wonderdul book for car rides..and one with a very catchy tune!

Since Thaleia had high fever yesterday, we stayed indoors most of the tme and to keep her still for 15mins, I decided to just do some activity with her based on this book which counts apples from 1-10. Credits for the idea goes to http://www.makinglearningfun.com/, a great website for art and craft ideas.

Found a duplicate photo which came in handy. Well....Ended up..Thaleia was just interested in pressing the white glue out of the bottle and applying them on Daddy's nose on the photo..so and Mummy was the one counting the apples!

Tell the Time with Busy Spider

A nice Eric Carle book that talks about a spider who focused on building her web from morning to night despite distractions from friends like the pig, cow, dog and cat who invited her to play with them. A decent book to teach about focus and persistence, though I think the book was designed to teach the concept of time. David is usually the one who picks this book and read to Thaleia.
On Saturday morning, we actually spotted a spider in the room and it looks exactly like the one on the book!







Eight legs in full view!

Spelling T-H-A-L-E-I-A

Thought Little T should recognize all the alphabets that form her name! Inspired by ideas from the creative mummy at her blog Counting Coconuts, I decided to do a “I Spy” bottle for that purpose. Collected some nice plastic bottles from the hotel ..nice size, has a blueish tint to it and a nice pink cap! Bought the beads from Gift-A-Name, filled the bottle with red beans and…we got a nice little ' I Spy" bottle cum shaker!


Gonna put this in the car for short ride entertainment..

Ring around a Row-sy

This Educo "Ring around the Row-sy" Bead Maze is one of the toy which outlast the rests. Made of solid wood and sturdy wires, Thaleia has been playing with it since she was 8 months old. It's nice to see how she works her little fingers and adjust the position of the maze to suit her vision of focus.

She can handle the "n" curves for now. The "S" curves are a little tricky and need more practise. Apparently this maze teaches the concept of inside and outside and well, the concept of "around". Was very very tempted to buy a bigger version at one stage but resisted in view of space & storage constraints.

The Hour Before School

Finally she is smiling in the mornings before school....

Starting Childcare..

Thaleia started childcare on 1 June, a wednesday. That week was considerably the most difficult periods of transition we've faced so far.

I remembered a year ago in April when we experienced a first change of routine where we started to place her with Anna in the mornings (where previously she was placed with her granny in the morning). As a 13th month old baby then, she could already sense the shakeup in her routine and would cry very loudly when we hand her over to Anna.

This time round, at 26th month old, not only does she cry, she articulates her anxiety clearer, which makes it very tough for mummy to play the baddie. She will put her hands to her chest and say "scared go"the moment when we dress her up in the uniform, cling-ed tightly to us when the car reaches the school and then burst into tears when we hand her over her teacher.

But well...it is a transition Thaleia and us will have to face some point in time. In future, there will be more schooling moments where Granny, Mummy and Daddy and Auntie Anna will not be around her but she'll have the pleasure of learning from her teachers and playing with her friends. For now, I'm just praying this transition period will not last too long and hopefully she can start looking forward to school.

Lovely Picture of Thaleia

So Nice! complete with her dimples..:) Thanks Laura!

Starting Childcare in June!

I got a call from the childcare centre yesterday.
Hurray!!Thaleia can start school in June this year. Thank God for open doors.
We're going down to buy her school uniforms next Monday. Had always wanted to settle her down before September. Will be another big transition again. But once she makes this through, it will be a breeze till she goes to Primary One since she'll likely to stay in this childcare and kindergarten all the way.

I Love My Cousins

We roar like dinosaurs...



Act like Ducks, Dogs and Cats..




And make funny poses around the house..










See..my cousins are so creative and spontaneous!

Good Mood

Thaleia's mood over this weekend was exceptionally good. Laughing over the smallest things, playing on her own, singing and talking on her own. Apart from the fact that she kept asking us to bring her out, she was a darling over this weekend.

We did bring her out..just to the nearby supermarket..where she finds a bit of thrill in stacking up the canned products.

Thaleia turns 2!

C

Celebrating Charity's Birthday

Celebrated Charity's birthday on this thursday (her actual birthday is 9th Apr). Has the same birthday as her dad. She turns 4! Actually she has a birthday celebration in school on Friday but she wanted one with all her cousins.

Here's the clip of the birthday song...had to urge Charity to quickly blow the candle before Thaleia huffs and puffs!

Thaleia also had a rare good treat eating up the chocolate hazelnut cake.

Don't be Selfish, Be a Rainbow Fish

This is Thaleia's flavor of the week. A story about a beautiful fish with special shiny scales. Proud and protective of his own beauty, he was avoided by all the other fishes. Lonely, he approached an starfish who asked him to consult an octopus. The octopus advised him to give away his shiny scales to make friends. He did so. And in the end, though he was not as beautiful anymore, he was the happiest fish in the sea he won many friends to play with. Many argue that the book is not about learing to share.. but more about not letting your posessions define you.., and that being pretty does not help you in any way. I think I'm fine with the book..well...it has a happy ending and Thaleia loves to look at those shiny scales on the fishes.

The One-Woman Band

A shaker, a xylophone, a piano and a drum..that's all you need to form a band! Tasked with too many roles to play, Thaleia decided, in the end, to play the xylophone piano with her leg and use the shaker as a microphone. What's a band without a lead singer!

Oranges..Oranges

I first introduced the word Orange to Thaleia by giving her a bowl of small oranges and she loves it. Since then, when she sees anything in the color of orange she would say excitedly.. "Orange!". It's been a long time since she had them so we got some prepared for her last night, to her surprise! Here's a short clip of her eating oranges..only when she's eating oranges will she cooperate with my instructions..pardon Mummy's irritating voice...

And saying "no more".....

Bye!

My Weekend Comprises of..

Morning Breakfast at a hawker centre..

Bouncing off sofas at a furniture shop..

Watching Daddy break eggs..

While I eat my little piece of bread..

Of course..weekend is never complete without a ride with Barney!

Giggles Giggles

Somehow this bubble fan-gun just cracks her up...especially when it's playing with Daddy.

Practising Hand-Eye Coordination

Months ago, Thaleia used to enjoy playing with this fishing boat. Kept the toy back in the box for a while when she got bored of it. This week I took out the fishing boat again. But we realised the little one has long forgotten how to perform her fishing. And she got frustrated trying, she screamed and had Daddy coming out of the bathroom wondering what has happened.
Well, it took a few tries before she got the hang of it again.

Here's a clip of Thaleia hooking up 8 fishes..

Going to keep the fishing boat again and test her 1 week later. It's quite fun to see her grappling with the fact that she lost a skill she used to have and try again. Hehe..

Her First Sentence .." I like this"

Last night, we read 2 storyboooks.
One was "Ten Little Toddlers" and the other was "Dr Seuss's Mr Brown can Moo, can you?". I held the 2 books in front of her and asked, "Which book do you like better?" She pointed to Ten Little Toddlers and said her first sentence.." I like this".
I asked her to repeat it and she said it again. For the past weeks, we hear just 2-word sentences from her, mostly "I want" or "Give me" . It's such a delight to hear her say 3 words at a go.
This morning, Thaleia said another sentence, "I want Zoo"..asking us to play one of her favourite dvd which shows the world famous San Diego Zoo.
We're trying our best not to let her stay in front of the TV but it is tough!

Heart Review tomorrow

Tomorrow, we'll be going for another round of heart review for Thaleia. According to the doctor, if things are improving as it was seen the last time, we can stop going back to KKH Hospital Cardiac Centre. Lord, please grant Thaleia a good wholesome heart with no murmur. In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.