Copying a book

A new book is always welcomed by Abi. Today she took "Whose Belly?" and decided to "photocopy" it herself. She took some sheets of paper and copied with texta the words on each page (Whose belly? Gorilla's belly, polar bear's belly, koala's belly, cow's belly etc.) Abi also got her mother to copy the animal drawings for gorilla and bear.

Do-Re-Mi open music class

Went to Abigail's last music class for the term, finally revealing what they get up to with no parents there. Welcome song and all of the other kids chose "jumping" as their mode of welcome. Abi chose to twirl, the teacher chose to wiggle. Clapping and jumping to different sounds / pitches, teddy bears being high/low on a see saw depending on pitch. Crocodile puppet capturing birdie was fun for all, esp Pascale, and Arabella Miller with finger caterpillar was fun.

Little Arabella Miller
Found a hairy caterpillar
First it crawled upon her mother
Then upon her baby brother
All said: Arabella Miller
Take away that caterpiller

Puff the sock puppet allowed each child to sing at the end of class.

Pictures of frog and monkey were used to get the children reciting a rhythm to the beat, blow the words into your hands and clap the beats:
Frog frog frog frog
frog monkey frog frog etc

After the running around at Mort Bay Park Abi was ravenous and ate lots of mince and pasta (fed to her by Por Por). She also finished a box of rockmelon slices (about one third of a small rockmelon). Then a 1.5 hour nap and biscuits afterwards due to hunger, stuffed up the dinner appetite until 7pm when she was fed by her father. Then after some writing she had a bath and ate the second half of her dinner in order to qualify for dessert.

Suitcases

Gung Gung was packing his suitcase for a holiday. Abi tested out the suitcase by lying inside as if being a stowaway, great fun. She asked for the zips to be closed but called a halt as it got a bit too dark. There was a smaller suitcase and Abi helped Pascale into it for testing. Pascale immediately started to rock and sing "Row Row".

Pyjama party

Abi and Pascale were being looked after by Por Por on Saturday night while their parents went to a 60th birthday party (Bernard Doyle from UTS). To distract Abi from wanting to go too, Por Por suggested the idea of a pyjama party, and it snowballed into a major event for Abi. She made a wool string of dried leaves across the driveway of 35 South St as decoration. Then she got marshmallows (for some reason they became party food) and Pascale got mini marshmallows. Priscilla made apple crumble for dessert. Edith and Owen arrived 2 hours after dinner time (Packing for holiday to HK) as Priscilla was leaving for the party. Kids were bathed and fairly lively after late naps.

When parents checked in at 2215 Pascale was asleep (2000) but Abi was still awake and chatting to hapless Owen. Turns out they ended up being scolded by Por Por and went to sleep on mattresses in the living room at 2245 or so. The next day Abi was a bit tired but continued to play in a maniacal fashion with Owen and sometimes Pascale. After watching Dora DVD, playing tennis and trampolining outside, they strung up lots of toys and bits on the woollen string in the living room which delineated the sleeping area from the corridor. She resisted the afternoon nap until the car-ride home. Typical tears before dinnertime as she was woken up at 1630, then couldn't / didn't sleep until 2120 (put into bed befor 2000).

Swim star

Abi is a bit of a star pupil in her Turtles swim class. While her classmate was crying and running away, Abi willingly and confidently dog paddled with face into the water, jumped into the pool from the edge, did back float in star position without the swim bubble etc. (She also practised these in her free swim time.) Her teacher Susan was so impressed that she called another admin staffer to watch Abi, then this person told Priscilla that Abi can progress up 2 levels next term instead of one, to the Tadpoles instead of Jellyfish. Parents and grandparents were excited, child unaffected. Child keeps asking to jump off the one metre diving board as she did with Susan at the end of last term! Next week she may be able to.

Maths

Abi was helping her mother to put out muffin cases into the trays. She said that she was making a square pattern in laying them out.

Another time, out of nowhere at dinner time, Abi said "two lots of five is ten". Why? She counted five fingers on one hand, then five on the other and said "that makes ten". Owen was so excited to hear of this story that he immediately drew out circles with dots on a piece of paper and started to teach Abi 2 lots of 2, 2 lots of 3, 2 lots of 4 etc. up to 6.

Letting Pascale into her craft area

We have been careful to maintain the barrier to prevent Pascale from getting into the craft area. One day Abi showed Pascale how to get over and around the barrier. When asked why, Abi said "I want Pascale in the craft area because I love her."

Hiding Wowo

Abi started to take Pascale's security toy away from her just for a reaction. Then one day she said that she had hidden it (in a box of blocks).

Daytime Sleeps

Abi has been in need of a nap but resists as a matter of course. One day she was whining about it then said that she wanted to sleep in Pascale's bed. As her sister had already had her second nap of the day it was okay. Abi lay down and was tucked in, then her mother left the room. No sound was heard from the baby monitor - Abi was fast asleep in about a minute.

Another time Abi was full of bounce, looking out the curtains etc. Her mother gave her a 3 count to get into bed, then went back to rocking Pascale to sleep. Minutes later when she peeped in, Abi was fast asleep.

Footpath drawings

During a rare and welcomed fine winter day this week, Abi and Pascale did chalk drawings on the pavement outside our house, in order to get some sunshine. They drew people and squiggles on the path, fences, sandstone under trees and on our steps and path to the house. Then they poured water from watering cans onto the ground, initially to wash the pictures but this turned into a wonderful exercise in itself and the sisters walked up and down the step to refill their watering cans many times until Por Por and mother were quite tired. The children were fairly dirty by the end.

Garbage Bin

While her mother was feeding her her dinner, Abi said that she was Garbage Bin Abi. Why?
Cos you keep putting food into me.

Swimming

Increasingly confident Abi can jump into the water into the teacher's arms from the pool edge while wearing a 2 piece swim bubble. She can also paddle (with bubble) the width of the learners pool unassisted, sometimes putting her face into the water. Frequently there is a joyous laugh.

Contrast with Felicity, her fellow Turtle, who is happy before the class begins but then becomes hysterical with fear once she has to enter the water. This week Felicity managed to vomit with hysteria, and the pool attendant had to douse the area in disinfectant. She didn't even want to watch Abi doing swimming stuff. Her mum was quite embarrassed.

Abi was unaffected (?) and after the lesson wanted Priscilla to take her to the deep end to jump off the diving board(!). Went but just swam (Abi barely holding onto the noodle she was so sure of herself) cos Abi was getting tired. Did one circumnavigation of the deep pool then went in to the showers without protest. Ice cream treat this week: triple berry Billabong (pink and yellow).

Chinese name for clothes

As a game Priscilla read in Cantonese the board book Things to Wear. Abi was amused and curious, she mimicked the words eagerly. Better than her speaking gibberish and saying that it's chinese.

Watching at Rhythm Factory Dance class

Serendipitously Abi and her mother came across a dance class at the lilyfield community centre after buying a newspaper from the corner shop. (At least Abi forgot about the shortbread biscuits with decorations that she was eying hungrily)

One class had just finished and another was starting. Abi abandoned her initial aim of playing on the slide (too many strange children anyway) and stepped inside the hall to watch the class.

3 precocious girls 5-6 years old were sitting on a parachute with their teacher. They were wearing dance leotards and skirts, one had a sleeping beauty dress on. Lots of chatter, some stretching. Abi asked Priscilla when they were going to start dancing.

Then the music was played and the girls did some ballet with ribbon on a stick, some jazz with pom poms, some tap with plastic hats and a free dance where the person with a wand says Abracadabra fairies and they all pretend to be fairies. The teacher saw Abi sitting and starting to dance with her mum, and offered her a hat to use. She took it shyly but danced with it while holding on to mum. At the end of the lesson was a parachute session and Abi wanted to sit on it but Priscilla explained that we had to ask for permission from the teacher, and we can't interrupt the lesson so we had to wait. Abi was patient.

At the end of the lesson we approached the teacher Kirby (!) and found out about the class. Apparently the class before the one we watched is for Abi's age group. We may attend the last 2 lessons for the term at 1105am on Saturday...

I-pod

While playing in the bath, Abi and Pascale used some giant pea pods as boats. Abi gave her boat a name: i-pod. Where did she hear this from?

Allergy

Abi is aware of her allergy status and has started to express this when we are eating. She will say that she has a tomato allergy and and egg allergy, and that Pascale has a cow's milk allergy. Mummy doesn't have any of those allergies, but Papa has also a tomato allergy.

Turtle jigsaw

This puzzle from the library is the first for a while that Abi managed to complete. It didn't have any picture for her to copy, and she managed to work it out despite asking for help after 4 pieces (out of about 16). She looked satisfied and immediately tipped it out for another attempt. It is still unfinished.

Kiss and Hug for Pascale

As Pascale leaves the bathroom for her bedtime she says goodnight to all. Abi participates in this ritual and frequently kisses Pascale on the forehead, sometimes with a hug too. Touching.

Apple Crumble and tantrum

Abi really likes to eat crumble for dessert. She recently helped to cut the canned peaches and apples for one, and tried to rub butter into the crumble mix but ended up spooning it on prior to the crumble being put into the oven.

Tonight she didn't eat much for dinner, just half a chicken sausage and picked out shreds of tasty cheese from the veg bake. After her bath she smiled expectantly and declared she was ready for dessert which she had seen cooking in the oven. Priscilla served a small amount commensurate with the amount of dinner she had eaten and Abi gobbled it up. She asked for more, and was told she needed to eat more dinner to deserve more dessert. She ate 3 pieces of sausage very slowly and was given a small serving of dessert. Another request for more, but Abi didn't manage to eat any more main meal, only picking at the meal for 10 minutes. It was apparent that she had had enough food. After Priscilla ended the dinner session, Abi burst into tears. She rushed to hit her mother (but didn't make contact), then sidled up to her father who distracted her and stopped the tantrum. She then brushed her teeth and went willingly to storytime before bed.

Helping Pascale with Ventolin

Pascale started wheezing at dinner time. After the bath and before bed, Abi was asked to show Pascale how to use the ventolin puffer and spacer, which she readily demonstrated. However Pascale didn't understand and was afraid when the mask came over her. Abi showed her again. Abi also knew where the ear thermometer was and fetched it immediately when her mother asked her to. She was an old hand at this being sick thing.

Later Abi was shown the First Aid book, and she pored over each page asking Priscilla Why? of each photo and pose. Recovery position, resuscitation, cutting the clothes, bandaging, washing out with water etc.

At blackfriars

Abi was at the table with about 8 other children, seated next to Teacher Sonal who was writing the journal. Abi didn't see Pascale and Priscilla until one of the other kids told her. She ran to open the door for us, and Pascale was curious to see so many children and THINGS all around. Abi was rolling playdough into a pizza which turned into a burrito wrap, then she used the heart shaped pin board to make a heart in the pizza. Then she rolled that up and made another blank sheet of play dough, cut 2 heart shapes and added dots with a toothpick. The dynamic at blackfriars is very casual and eclectic, and friendly despite the chaos of kids being indoors all day. 2 kids came up and showed Priscilla their lego robots, one child told her his leg hurt. Some kids were making bead patterns that Teacher Sonal will heat up with an iron and make a disk of the pattern. Sebastian was playing with the water in the handwashing trough: Pascale thought that was a good thing to try too. Abi left happily and helped to carry her umbrella while mum carried Pascale, school bag, stroller, and handbag.

Caterpillar craft

Abi took the prepared egg carton and asked to use paints. As it had been raining for some days it wasn't nice to go outside to paint, so the painting tray was used (first time for a while). Anyway Abi kept things pretty clean and neat, completing the caterpillar quickly and smiling all the time. She then made spiders with pipe cleaners and egg carton cups and a sharp wooden skewer. The next progression was an antenna with star on it: a wand! This was stuck into a hole in an egg carton cup.

The washing

Today Abi noticed that the door of the washing machine was ajar, and that there was washing inside to be taken out. She quickly grabbed the washing basket and hauled out the wet clothes. She then dragged the basket to the bathroom door, up and over the threshold step and baby gate, across the living room carpet, down the step to the dining area. She left it there for Priscilla to complete the hanging up process.

Bathtime with Bubble (the doll)

Yesterday Abi was cuddling the doll and put it to her nipple to give it a breast feed. Today she wrapped Bubble in the wash cloths as she was sick. Abi chats to Bubble during the bath like a friend. She races with Pascale to play with it during bath time, and frequently grabs it off Pascale. Lately Pascale has been saying Stop! and using her hand action too.

Married

A while ago Abi said that she was going to be a wife with Owen. Priscilla explained that she should find a nice man to get married when she was an adult. Another day and Abi said it out of the blue, that she was going to have a wedding and find a nice man to get married.

Climb aboard, said Abi, as Priscilla walked to the sea life carousel ride at Broadway Shopping Centre. Pascale had already tried the boat, seahorse and dolphin and was walking elsewhere but Abi was still imagining she was the captain and ordering people around.

A toilet

Abi reported that she made a toilet today at Blackfriars childcare. Mateo and another boy were also there.

Earlier she helped to stick dried autumn leaves onto a string with Teacher Lisa, Lisette and Jess.

Apple Peach Crumble

After dinner, Abi helped to make dessert. She rubbed butter onto the base and sides of the baking dish. Then she held the measuring cups for flour, sugar and oats, and emptied them into a big bowl. She cut some peach slices with scissors, added them with sultanas and brown sugar. Priscilla rubbed the butter in to make crumble and Abi helped to assemble all before it was put into the oven. She had a quick bath with Pascale then emerged to eat a warm crumble covered with her favourite: thick custard!

Wildlife World

Journey to Darling Harbour via light rail, with Por Por and Gung Gung coming along with our little family. Drizzle didn't deter us, and Chris led the charge across Pyrmont Bridge that was decked out in flags. Abi saw the monorail and a tall ship at the maritime museum.

Inside Abi was interested in all the displays of butterflies, invertebrates, native animals and birds. She liked the nocturnal area with its ceiling lights, the bird enclosure and butterfly enclosure where one butterfly landed on her head as she was leaving after waiting for ages. She climbed the fibreglass rocks to get a better view of the rock wallabies on the roof top display, but the koalas were sleeping and disappointingly not available for cuddling (illegal in NSW). She patted a snake held by a keeper and was quite interested in the bull ant nest underground cutaway view, with pupae etc.

We had early dinner / late lunch at 430pm, Blackbird Cafe, instead of the soulless cafe outside the wildlife world gift shop challenge. Abi ate a kids meal of (fish and) chips with dessert of 2 scoops of ice cream and chocolate sauce. She danced to the music in the background and was very happy despite tiredness. She resisted falling asleep until we reached home via light rail.

Excuse me, don't walk in front of the tv

Colouring in - copying the colours

Hairclips on the fence line, hay

Drawing on the pavement

The Sound of Music

For about a week or two, Priscilla has been singing Doe, a deer a female deer from "The Sound of Music" while Abi has been bathing, in anticipation of watching the dvd that Por Por recently bought. Abi had learnt the tune after about a week when we actually came to see the dvd. Afterwards she became more confident in joining in the singing esp the words. My Favourite Things was also a half learnt song that Abi was able to enjoy that day.

She really enjoyed the different songs that we watched, Do-re-mi, My Favourite Things, The Sound of Music, How do you solve a problem like Maria, Edelweiss, So Long Farewell. She beamed.

Early signs of Reading

Inside Mary Elizabeth's House by Pamela Allen is an unlikely ally in Abi's progress towards being able to read independently. The monster's grunts "Huh! Ugh!" have been read gleefully to Abi as part of her bedtime story, and yesterday Chris pointed to the page and asked Abi what these words were. Abi gave the correct sounds. He then isolated the word "we" and asked Abi what that word was: she sounded the letters and said the correct word. Same with the word "she".

Later Abi was playing with a backpack that had a logo on it. She didn't know the logo but immediately tried to sound out the word "Wiggles". Priscilla helped Abi to get to the full word by repeating the sounds.

Swimming promotion

During today's swim class, an assessment was made of her progress. By way of demonstration, Abi's teacher Susan got Abi to do a back float without her flotation bubble - easy! Abi was then given a card saying that she can enrol in the next level up for next term's swim class. She was happy as was Por Por and Priscilla. Abi can dog paddle swim now, putting her head into the water easily. She wears goggles and swim cap without complaint. After the swim class Gung Gung treated Abi to an ice cream - 250ml of frozen Milo that took about 15 minutes to eat (with others helping too). Pascale toddled around the foyer while this was going on: she was to tired to want to swim.

Stubborn

At breakfast, Abi wanted to sit on the high chair that Pascale was already seated in (and had started eating). She refused to choose another favourite chair, saying that the white chair was her only favourite. Priscilla said that if that was so, Abi would have to wait until Pascale had finished eating before she could use that chair. Abi was quite hungry and her cereal and milk were sitting on the table, but she refused to eat and instead pouted and whined for a few minutes while Pascale continued to eat. Finally Priscilla suggested that the sisters sit at the low Ikea table using the child's rattan chairs. This was acceptable to Abi and Pascale didn't mind.

Blackfriars on a rainy day

Chaos greeted Priscilla on picking up Abi at 430pm. A lot of play equipment and craft stuff scattered, but there was no crying or raised voices. Some kids were playing with the overhead projector(!) but Abi had green hands from play dough - she probably used it the whole day cos her sleeves were plastered too. She had 2 straws with green tips to take home. No fuss leaving the place. Abi and Pascale touched the goldfish pond on the way out - Pascale was startled to find it was water. The fish hid in the far corner of the tray. Good spirits in the car - probably due to apple slices shared between the sisters.

At home, dinner was eaten without protest and in virtual silence. Minor kerfuffle with Abi dishing out more than she could eat but she finally ate that rice before being given rockmelon (her favourite over watermelon). Pascale munched watermelon happily.

After the bath and Pascale was asleep, Abi ate the usual yoghurt and oat flakes dessert. She went out of the dining area (asked by Priscilla to brush teeth) but when Priscilla had finished her last bit of dinner she found Abi in her room - fast asleep in the reading area with head on the floor cushion!! No protest as Abi was lifted into bed and tucked into her blankets. Weird.

Treasures

Abi was delighted with her new box of craft stuff: feathers, dried pasta of various shapes, painted rocks, cotton wool etc. She took a few items out and put them into an empty egg carton and carried that around for a while. Then she transferred the treasures into an empty transparent cup.