Special Person Book

The hubby did not think I should be be spending this much time on a kindergarten project - but I knew if I didn't take the time to make a meaningful photo book when there's an "excuse" to do it, I'd never make one. Having always wanted to make a time capsule/keepsake box/baby milestone book but never did, this was my opportunity to make up.

The book stays at school till the end of the school year so having an electronic version is nice so she can enjoy it at home too.

Click on the mid-page arrows on the side to flip and click on the middle to view in full screen mode:

Little Picasso

Katrina came into my office with this picture and asked me what I thought it was (the original version didn't have eyes and was presented to me horizontally - I was deep in thought trying to solve a work problem and was about to tell her good job on a really nice colorful set of triangles). She then drew on the eyes but didn't really wait for me to speak before telling me her answer - take a guess before clicking the button to see what she said:

A walking dinosaur holding a flower

Kindergarten schedule

It's official - Katrina is assigned to AM kindergarten. Even though it's 2 months away, I'm already worried about switching our night owl schedules. Even though we got what we asked for (we did sign up for AM), I did at times secretly hope she'd get assigned to PM (due to high AM demand) and we'd be "forced" to do the strange PM schedule. PM'ers need to finish lunch by ~11:20am and still need to follow the AM schedule every Wed - so it really isn't a great option, but at least we'd be on time.....

On a typical day, all 4 members of our household are usually still sleeping at 8:10am (which is when school will start). I'm not sure if it's easier to move our terribly late schedule up 5-10 minutes at a time or to go cold turkey. I'm inclined to enforce an mock daylight saving time change by adjusting all the clocks up an hour - think that'd work ?

Katrina's Blog

One day Katrina ran out of things to play with so I drew a box with some lines below and asked her to draw a picture and describe it with words. She attempted drawing and writing but she rambled on about unrelated topics - so I thought she could use some practice with focused narration. Remembering how she loved holding up books and pretending to storytell to an imaginary audience, I thought she might enjoy starting her own blog and talk about little anecdotes in her life.

I showed her some choices for her blog layout and she actually was very specific about the exact colors and patterns she wanted. She does author 99% of it (I don't have the patience to wait for her to type so she dictates and I type). I do provide suggestions for topics and also help with diction - like correcting 'graduationing' or suggesting replacing '2 covers on top and bottom' with the word envelope. She seems to catch on fairly quickly so maybe one day soon she'll be blogging all on her own ?

www.katrinawlee.blogspot.com

採花賊

To my dismay, our 24 newly planted snapdragons were ALL EATEN within a couple days (do they know how hard it's to plant something with a 3 yr old who'd do the darndest thing ?) At first the nanny thought snails were to blame, but Jonathan figured they can't possibly eat that fast. Sure enough, a mouse was caught the morning after he placed a trap nearby. No relief though - we then discovered blooms were gone from most of the new jasmine plant too. Later that day, we discovered another dead mouse a few yards away. This time the cause of death was unknown as we didn't set up another trap. Did it eat too much too fast ? Or was it allergic to the fragrant jasmine oils ? Who knows - it's all very unsettling - as pesky and these critters were, it's not the nicest thing to have to end their lives. The only comforting thing that came out of all this is the kids seemed to sense how bummed I was and were very empathetic and kept comforting me. Katrina even made me flowers to "replace the ones outside" - how can these not cheer me up !

Class of 2009

For 15 minutes, an auditorium full of family and friends waited patiently for the processional of their beloved graduates. Jonathan joked that it felt like a wedding ceremony. Maybe it was the grandeur of the music - emotions welled up when Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March came on and the adorable kids started pouring in. Don't laugh, but I gained a tiny understanding of what my parents must have felt when they attended my graduation ceremonies.

Katrina was actually one of the "original 12" students that started with this new school last May so they are the very first graduating class of the school that now has has over 100 students. Thinking back on how she had a tough time adjusting in the beginning, she has indeed come a long way in her emotional, spiritual, mental, social, and physical development - so yes, I'm indeed very proud of her !

We were also all very impressed when she immediately hung her treasured medal around her brother's neck as soon as she came off the stage - it's awesome watching a preschooler share.

Walking in my heart

Katrina is pretty quick at making a comeback sometimes: One night during her bedtime routine, she exclaimed: "Jesus is in my heart !", pointing happily to the right side of her chest. Daddy gently pointed out that hearts are on the left side. Immediately she went, "well that's 'cause Jesus walks back and forth from here to here inside of me ! (moving her hand back and forth from one side to another). As usual, she thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing at her own wittiness :)

咁我同邊個結婚好呀

Katrina's been noticing that her friends' parents are always together and are "married". Being the curious girl she is, she asked about married people and marriage. I told her when she grows up, she oughta find someone whom she loves very much and who's very nice to her because it's 'forever' and she'd have to be with him till she dies (yes, we've had the death talk a while back)

A little after our talk, she was a little worried and asked, "咁我同邊個結婚好呀 ?" [so who should I marry ?"]I told her it's something that she needn't worry about at this age, it won't be until after she's gone through lots of school

Daddy overheard our conversation and suggested, "咁最好同日日畀山渣餅你食嘅結婚人嘞" [you should marry someone who would give you your favorite Chinese snack everyday !] (then he winked and whispered to hint that he's sowing seeds in her heart to marry someone with at least some Chinese affiliation. After thinking for a sec, Katrina said to Daddy, "咁我咪應該同你結婚囉 ?" [Then I should marry you !] Daddy smiled and said "咁又唔得,因為已經我同mommy 結咗婚喇嘛." ["Oh, can't do that because I'm already married to mommy"]. As always, K likes to laugh at her own jokes and giggled non-stop for a while...

Love is....

Katrina started saying "I love you" to us a lot recently. Jonathan wasn't exceptionally excited because he thought it's not very meaningful when they say it at this age thinking she probably didn't know what she's saying or was just saying it for fun. One day I asked her if she knew what "I love you" meant, she said "即係好鍾意你囉 !" I went "係嘞 !" and felt it validated my mommy instinct that knew she meant what she said even before she answered.

A few days later, Katrina said "I love you" while she and Nathan were having breakfast together. Nathan the copycat then went "I LUB YOU" loudly too. I turned from packing lunch and noticed a big pool of milk on the floor right in front of his seat (he had intentionally "spooned" milk from his cup to the floor, a favorite stunt performed often whenever I turned my back for just a moment) With a sigh, I commented while I was wiping off the spill, "如果你知道'I love you"點解, 你就唔會特登倒啲奶落地下啦, 咁你知唔知道 'I love you' 點解呀?" While Nathan just looked at me with his big round eyes, Katrina answered wisely "即係唔叫你做辛苦嘅嘢 !"

31 in 17

I took this video to show my sister how much Katrina loves the Bible she got her (thanks sis !)

In this video, Katrina named 31 major Biblical characters in 17 seconds. (She's done it faster but I don't always have a camera around.) Katrina's one of those who likes to flip to the end of a book before reading the first page. She quickly found this page and made me name 'em them all for her. She memorized all of it flawlessly after reading through them maybe 3-4 times.

She even has all the faces matched up to the names so well that she would happily announce the name of the new character ("yay, Solomon !") as soon as she sees a picture as we flip to a new page.

I'm sure her love of this Bible has a lot to do with the extremely well done artwork (it's really very cute), but this girl still amazes me all the time. (I'll be very happy if my memory is half as good as hers nowadays)

Speed Reading

Words of wisdom

When Katrina was learning to speak in Chinese, she picked up everything so fast that we never had to teach her anything word by word. With Nathan, (the experts are right when they say boys's language skills emerge a little slower), we had to teach him '唔' and '該' separately.

In hearing us teach Nathan, Katrina realizes that some of the 'compound' Chinese words she's been using forever as 'one word' can actually be 'broken apart' and each character can have its only meaning.

Here are her words of wisdom to Nathan: 淨係講個唔字就曳喇,如果加埋個該字,咁就唔曳喇. (即係唔著襪, 唔食嘢, 唔瞓覺 就曳, 但係講唔該就乖喇)

Miss Responsible

Katrina has been carrying her baby doll David around and tucking him in every night lately. Out of the blue, she did a really long monologue in the car. I was impressed not only by her ability to speak such a long and complex sentence, but mainly astounded by her sense of responsibility:

係噃,我要記住擤鼻涕嗰陣時要擤完左邊先至擤右邊, 咁就唔會病到咩嘢咁喇 (ear infection), 如果唔係如果我病得好厲害, 咁邊個湊David 喎. 因為爸爸又病, 又要揸車, 媽咪又要返工, 爺爺又忙, 嫲嫲又有嘢做, 佢(points to Nathan)又細個唔識嘢, 姑姐又要瞓覺, 咁無人湊David點算呀! 咁唔得咖嘛,係咪 ?

Eat at school

Since we want Katrina to stay proficient in Cantonese, we haven't really taught her how to speak in English athough she does know single words like numbers, colors, animals, etc. We just assumed she'll one day magically learn to speak perfectly all on her own. She did pick up a few phrases here and there from preschool but I guess all bilingual students need a little help every now and then:

Out of the blue, Katrina proclaimed: Saturday and Sunday, I don't go to school eat,

then added prouldy: 即係 Saturday and Sunday 唔喺學校食嘢啦 !

Jonathan smiled and said: 唔係咁講, 應該講 I don't eat at school.

Katrina repeated: I don't eat at school...

then went: 喔,咁咪即係食咗學校囉?

大大後日

Katrina usually starts her day with: 爸爸 (or 媽咪),我瞓醒覺啦 ! After hearing the knock on her door, she would ask 邊個呀？Upon hearing the answer, she would then say 爸爸(or 媽咪) , 你入嚟啦 ! Then she would usually asks "今日星期幾呀 ?" - so she can tell if it's a school day or the weekend when Mom & Dad won't have to 返工 and can hang out with her.

She had learned her days of the week in both English and Chinese quite a while ago but hasn't quite learned the concept of past and future quite yet, so one day we started by asking 今日星期幾呀 ? To which she replied: Monday. 咁聽日呢 ? After thinking for a bit, she answered cautiously, Tuesday ? I was thrilled she caught on so quickly, so I asked again, 咁後日呢 ? She wasn't quite sure but still ventured: Wednesday ? I clapped and said yes ! 咁大後日呢 ? She must have picked up the sequence and said confidently: Thursday ! I clapped again and said 咁大大後日呢 ? She was now sure she was on the right track and answered: Friday ! After soaking in her new knowledge, she thought it's her turn to pose a question, so she asked, 咁細細後日呢 ?