CD player

Abi has learnt to use our mini hi-fi, esp the CD function. She turns on the machine, opens the unit and puts the old CD back into its case, then puts a new CD inside before closing the unit. Then she waits for the machine "reading" and sometimes has to press CD again to start the music.

After she became confident with this, Abi would say that she didn't like a CD that was playing and proceed to climb up and change the music, usually to the Wiggles.

Lego

When Priscilla went to pick up Abi from Blackfriars childcare, she noticed a change. Abi usually sits with a teacher at the table with other children, working on her own craft project. Today Abi was sitting by herself away from other children, working on lego. She was making a tower from a slender piece of adults lego (not duplo etc) and they would break apart whenever she exceeded a certain height or pressed in a certain way. Abi showed patience in persisting, but after many failures she expressed some frustration. Priscilla tried to help by holding and suggesting she build another support under the tower but it didn't work. Abi was able to revise her work and continued to add on to the base structure. She wanted the teacher to put a name tag on and save it for next time she was at Blackfriars.

During her play with lego other children would com and talk to her. One made a rocket ship (4 stacked yellow blocks) and showed Abi, who asked where is the fire? The girl then modified her lego. Another boy came and just scopped the lego pieces up and onto the floor. Abi was not disturbed but continued with her work.

Calendar

Siem had given Abi an invitation to an enchanted birthday party. Abi asked when it would be, and Priscilla showed her the calendar with numbers for the days. It was day 10, and Siem's party was on day 19. Abi looked carefully.

We discussed the months (why are there other numbers?) and the names and numbers of the months. Abi counted down each day, but the day before fell sick with flu. She was brave in agreeing to stay home.

A present was wrapped an left in Siem's parents' communications box at childcare the next week. Siem had left a party bag with lollies and trinkets for Abi in her parents' box. Abi was excited and her mother reluctantly let her eat one of the lollies before dinner. However Abi was quite tired from not napping and the long day at childcare, so descended into a tantrum to ask for another lolly after dinner. The one lolly a day rule was maintained by parental agreement.

High temperature

One Friday (18th July) Abi was very tired and limp in the morning, not her usual self. By lunchtime she was too tired to eat and had to be fed. A temperature above 39 deg C alarmed her mother, Panadol administered and observation commenced. Abi went to bed. We cancelled going to dinner at Belfield to see Chris' cousin Cecilia from ACT.

The next day was Siem's birthday party, and Abi was looking forward to going as a fairy. But her temperature was still high, even with panadol and nurofen, and even Abi agreed that she was too sick to go and didn't want to spread germs to the others there. She accepted this without fuss.

On Sunday when Abi's temperature hit 40.5 degrees with one of the 2 drugs in her system led to parental decision to take her to a doctor at Balmain Hospital GP clinic. After waiting 2 hours the doctor saw Abi and diagnosed tonsillitis. Chris drove around a 5pm looking for a pharmacy that carried liquid phenoxypenicillin untile Priscilla found it at Annandale Pharmacy.

However despite taking 2 days' worth Abi's temperature had not fallen. A visit to our regular GPs at Leichhardt General Practice (Dr Heron) led to a revised diagnosis: influenza or if it doesn't clear within 5 days, pneumonia. There was no angry red throat and the presence of a phlegmy cough should have ruled out tonsillitis. The penicillin would have initial effect on the virus but would not kill it off. A pre-emptive referral was written for a chest x-ray, and in the morning parental decision was made to get this done as Abi was still quite hot. despite drugs and sleeping in a singlet.

Abi was very brave travelling while sick. She was in good spirits when not too hot. Waiting room TV was given the flick by mum (trashy american daytime movie) and Abi played with the toy box. However when it was her turn to go into the x-ray area she became frightened. Having had it explained to her meant little when faced with a big machine she had to stand in front of. The operator gave Priscilla a lead apron so that she could hold Abi's hand during the x-ray process (very quick). Longer time spent still unclothed for the radiologist to check his film was not blurry, then we received the film to take with us. Report to be faxed to doctor.

Next was lunch at a cafe, but Abi was quite tired by then. She didn't eat anything and got quite hot. Not time yet for another Nurofen so went to the GP appointment to review the x-ray.

Thankfully the report did not say pneumonia. Only a slight infection was visible. But Dr Lajoie wanted Abi to see a doctor for daily review until she was better.

That night Nurofen was administered 6 hourly by Chris who continued his week long sleeping by Abi's bedside. Thankfully her temperature stayed below 39 deg C and even made it below 38 deg C. Good sign for recovery (in 7 days). Dr Heron pronounced Abi on the way to recovery and despite clearing phlegm from throat and nose would be okay for normal routine next week.

Abi went home and slept for 3 hours. The next few days she willingly took a nap and slept for 2-3 hours each time. Her temperature fell to below 38 deg C, then stayed at 37 deg with no medication. Por Por could take a well earned break from coming to our house to help look after the children.

Union childcare and houses for animals

Abi doesn't cry anymore when her parent(s) leave in the morning. A little play in the nursery playground with the sandpit, chalkboard and cubby house, with Pascale of course. She goes back to the big playground with her father says that its time.

Today Abi made a collage that Teacher Yuki wanted to keep at the school. It was of little houses that Abi put onto a sheet, then little animals inside the houses. She has done this theme before, using blocks to make an enclosure for play animals. Maybe this is from her visit to Wildlife World last month.

Addendum 30 July
Abi made another enclosure today. The carers observed her using symmetry and pairing the animals (except for some whose partner had been lost). Abi said that the animals are plastic dollies, not real.

Sticky tape

Abi has started to use masking tape sometimes instead of sticky tape, copying blackfriars practice. Last week at Por Por's she folded a piece of tape and used it as double sided tape for her craft cutouts.

Pascale wanted to copy her sister, so Por Por held some tape and she stuck some paddle pop sticks onto a sheet of paper.

Dance mania

Por Por was putting Pascale down for her nap, and Abi was to be left alone in the play area so music was put on for Abi. She started to dance. After 20 minutes Por Por emerged to find Abi still dancing to the music.

Sometimes Abi will dance with no music, if there is wiggles etc she definitely will dance. Sometimes her dance moves will prompt her mother to ask Abi if she wanted to use the toilet. Abi will say "no, just dancing".

An artist's figure was bought during one of the parents' visits to Ikea. Abi drew a smiley face on it and learnt to move the figure into a dance pose (arabesque or similar).

Fairies in the jungle

Priscilla was singing "The lion sleeps tonight", a song that Abi likes and can sing. Abi asked her mother to keep quiet as it was now her turn to sing.

Abi made up some words about a fairy but she was still in the jungle.

Shopping list

Abi remarked that her toothbrush at Por Por's bathroom was yukky (fuzzy) and that she needed a new one. Por Por said that she will buy one the next time she went shopping. Abi went to her craft area and tore a piece of paper from a notepad and took it to Por Por for her to write a shopping list. She has observed Priscilla writing such lists at home.

Later Abi saw that the dried pawpaw pieces were almost finished. She got the shopping list and asked Por Por to spell pawpaw and wrote it neatly onto the list.

She also wrote "fortune cookie" on the list. Pascale added some colourful marks to the list.

Mirror writing

Abi has been doing lots of writing, sometimes she writes her name in a mirror fashion: right to left as well as mirrored letters. Pascale's name too, now that she knows how to spell it.

On and No

At the dinner table, Abi said out of the blue "on and no are the same but different."

Priscilla articulated that they have the same letters in a different order.

Aunty Jenny Burn

Abi was playing in the sandpit when she asked :Why is Aunty Jenny Burn? (She had said Aunty Jenny Wong a while ago and was corrected).

Priscilla replied that it was because she had gotten married. Abi smiled and said "yes, to Uncle Dan", and continued a familiar discussion that she will be married one day and then she will have a baby in her tummy.

Buying a book

Visted Berkelouw's bookshop on Norton St. Abi and Chris went upstairs to the second hand books section and were found seated on a couch reading. Abi wanted to buy the book which was like a junior novel (not many pictures). She took her dad's money with the book to the cashier, then waited for the change and receipt. She nearly forgot to take her purchase. Took a free bookmark on the way out.

Crawl tunnel

Abi seized this new toy with manic glee. After crawling around it with Pacale inside, and turning the corner with the tunnel, she found another way to use the tunnel. She stood up while inside, then walked around bending at the waist sometimes. Priscilla had to intervene when the giggling and squealing became manic. Not bad for a cold morning inside the house.

Birthday party invitation

Siem had given out birthday party invitations with Disney princesses on the paper. Abi was excited - mainly cos it would be an opportunity to dress as a fairy. She asked Priscilla when the party would be, and read the date, then counted on the calendar to work out: 10 days until the party!

New Ikea bookcase

Abi was the helper for unwrapping and assembling the Billy bookcase. She also cut the plastic tape from one of the other packages lying in the lounge room which contained another bookcase. Offered comment on assembly and Chris let her help to push in some dowels and to lift the finished product. Ate dessert while watching Chris fix the bookcase to the wall. Finally agreed to brush teeth and go to bed after her 830pm bedtime. Tiredness from childcare was resisted until storytime which was done with Abi in her bed.

Putting on a CD

Yesterday Abi was shown how to operate our CD/radio unit, and she immediately repeated it correctly. This morning she was having breakfast with CD playing and changed the music by herself halfway through her eating (!) Wanted to play it loud as well.

Standing with hands on hips

Over the past few days this has been a regular pose for Abi when talking to us adults. She also puts her hands out to add expression to her words.

Geometry puzzle

This puzzle had been sitting around in its box for a while. Priscilla attempted to put all the shapes (circles, squares, equilateral triangles, parallelogram) onto the square backing board but has not been successful. Today Abi asked to play with this toy. Tonight Priscilla saw that she had fitted all but 3 pieces onto the backing board. After some team work (about half an hour) trying to fit the pieces again, Abi went to do something else. Priscilla managed to get the last pieces in and both were very happy. Abi went to show Chris but didn't want her photo taken with the completed puzzle (just separate photos of her and puzzle).

Maybe this brain spurt period explains why Abi has been so tired in the afternoons, ready for a 45min - 1.5 hour nap almost everyday.

More sounding out letters into words

When reading new library books tonight, Abi surprised her father by reading "Help" and "no". During the borrowing phase at the library Priscilla heard Abi read "ooowwwooo". She was interested in some words in an advertisement "her doll", "her wand" etc. Perhaps the pictures next to the words gave Abi clues too but it was definitely reading by sounding out letters.

Pre-reading underway

A new book caught Abi's eye. What is it? she asked. Priscilla asked her to sound out the title and Abi did this without hesistation. Then the words were sounded out individually, noting when a capital letter is that means a new word. Taking into consideration the vagaries of English Abi managed to work out the name of the book, "Big Book of Things to Make and Do". She read through the projects eagerly and we started to make icicles / snowflakes from folded circles.

Learning a new song

Has Abi heard "It's a small world" sung before? We have the music playing on a wind up box but no words. Today during the drive from Strathfield to Gymbaroo, Priscilla sang the song 3-4 times with Pascale, Abi and Por Por in the car listening. During bath time Abi started to sing this song. She was hesitant at a few places so Priscilla sang with her. After a couple of repeats Abi was singing louder and repeated some phrases as she was dressed (eg. the opposites of world of laughter / tears; hope / fears; mountain / ocean.

The Sound of Music

Abi has learnt a few songs by ear, seen a few of those songs on DVD song list, but today she got up off the couch and started to dance to the music. Do-Re-Mi; The Lonely Goatherd (with marionettes); My Favourite Things; all repeated about 6 times each during the dinner cooking period. At one stage Abi ran to get a tambourine and drumsticks so that she could play along with the music. She laughed a lot at the marionettes and imitated the goat mama butting the girl goat (with Priscilla being shoved a few times). That night Abi was heard singing Do-Re-Mi as she lay waiting for sleep to descend.

In the morning Chris was minding the kids for breakfast and afterwards he put on the DVD again, this time playing all songs. Abi was fascinated by the other songs and asked where they came from. She and Pascale sat on their father's lap to watch for a while (when Priscilla emerged from her sleep-in). She now refers to Maria and the children and the papa when discussing the DVD. After bath time Abi got a veil from the dressing up box and pretended to be a bride after watching the wedding march scene with Julie Andrews walking up the very long aisle of Salzburg Cathedral.

Parent carer interview at Union childcare

Yuki was running late for her afternoon interviews. Parents had arrived and were waiting in the rooms/foyer, then all kids moved into the nursery to await centre's closing time where the noise level was quite impressive and exciting. Abi and her friends the sisters Abbey and Sophie went to home corner and did dress ups (fairy of course) while Sophie patted dolls to sleep.

Yuki had positive comments about Abi, she was fitting in and participated in group activities. She initiated conversations and was moving towards pre-reading. The parental feedback form discussed getting Abi to be able to read by the end of the year... Home concerns were classified as "normal" eg. fragile emotions, babbling sounds for words, not wanting to eat at regular times, and needing to be fed at meals when Abi knows how to look after herself. Suggests we be firm and consistent in handling these issues, and be prepared for some nights when Abi doesn't eat before bed (past the eating time).

Later Priscilla suggested to Abi that she had not done a painting for a while. Abi agreed, saying that it was Union that she hadn't done one for. Why not arrive at Union earlier so she has free time before group time, to try out their painting equipment and do a painting? Yes said Abi.