What Did Eeanne Do In Daycare?

So during mommy's 2 days off, mommy spent time on and off visiting Eeanne in daycare and here are what mommy found....

After the class at 12noon, all kids took their turn to be bathed. Later only mommy realised from Eeanne that 3-4 kids went into the bathroom waiting for their turn to be bathed inside the shower screen, and the bathroom door is left open all the time. This really makes Eeanne not comfortable and she has been crying and demanding don't want to take shower at school, now mommy understand the reason behind.

Then all kids went for their lunch on their own, again our all time long pampered Eeanne are not used to eat by her own is always the last to finish her meal, and all the time showing her bad habit "vomit" sound which scared all the teachers. And then Eeanne has always been very picky on her food which now she has to eat everything that teacher provided.

After the lunch, all kids will rush to play with the school edu materials except Eeanne, she has no interest on those games boards and will stayed alone at the library corner to read books on her own...so 可怜...

Then all will go for their short nap. With mommy around, Eeanne insisted mommy to bring her upstair to sleep with her, so mommy stayed back a while to observe how all the kids able to sleep in such a big group.

So all have around 12 kids in the master bedroom, while sitting beside Eeanne, seeing all the kids feeding on their milk, suddenly mommy's heart ached. Seeing all those kids sleeping in the group together (some vertically and some horizontally placed their beds), mommy really felt a sense of depress and mommy really can't control to perceive the scene as like "abandoned" kids, wah....it was really heart sickening to see Eeanne as one of them, immediately when Eeanne fell asleep, mommy slipped out of the room. On the way back home, mommy can't hold anymore and shed my tears, how I wish that Eeanne doesn't need to be in daycare. (but all are for her good, to train her to be more discipline, more independent and fully utilize her free time rather than become the potato couch at home)

Then after they wake up from nap, all kids will have their light snack again. Then again it is the free time for all kids. When mommy reach around 5.30pm to observe Eeanne, she was wandering around, no interest on the edu materials and a bit of wasting time.

Then mommy had a talk with the principal, all teachers observe and realize Eeanne likes to read book rather than playing with all the edu materials. And among her class students, most of the kids are more like baby while Eeanne is quite mature and can't find someone she really can interact. Teacher mentioned that she need to mix around with those 5yo class kids but unfortunately those 5 yo kids have many revision to do during the daycare, that is why Eeanne looked so lonely and not happy in daycare.

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With all the unhappiness that Eeanne gone through, mommy addressed the pain of shower time where mommy compromise not to have bath in school. Since this agreement made, Eeanne is slowly adapt and feel happier in her school. Luckily all teachers are very understanding and compromise with Eeanne's needs. Now they are able to persuade Eeanne to take her bath in school with all kids at downstair and Eeanne be the last to bath with the door closed...:-) When ask about shower time, Eeanne is absolutely happy with this arrangement now.

About the lunch, it is really has obvious improvement..although Eeanne reluctantly to eat certain food and on her own, now she is more acceptable to all food provided and really eat on her own without the "vomit" sound anymore...hooray!!

How about the nap time?

Eeanne always argued that she didn't want to sleep in the school. So mommy taught Eeanne that maybe she may just close her eye, pretending as sleeping and then do "meditation" by observing her cool breathe in and warm breathe out. Mommy wonder how much Eeanne understand this but after 1 or 2 days, she didn't complaint anymore about the nap time, think she was too exhausted to practise the breathing, once lay down, immediately fell into deep sleep.

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Then slowly mommy arranged Eeanne 2 days in daycare and 3 days mommy took half day off to fetch Eeanne back. By 2nd week, Eeanne behaves happier and more willing to accept the school and daycare too, no more complaint, no more crying in the morning and no more crankiness.

Mommy is glad on Eeanne's gradual adaptation. Eeanne just needs more time to adapt to her new environment. The idea of just throwing her into kindy and let her adapt by herself is really unacceptable by mommy. With the effort and time that mommy put in, it is really satisfy now to see Eeanne can be happily going to school and sometimes even say "mommy...I want to go daycare" when mommy told that we are going to have a 10days CNY break..:-/

Kids are really a wonderful unpredictable little tiny creature..:-)

Burst Out In 2nd Week

All the while we were thinking that Eeanne was a very tough girl and enjoys her new school. Until last Monday when Eeanne started her first day in daycare, suddenly she cried in the morning. Initially she was totally alright as usual, so mommy and mama thought just stayed a little longer to observe their assembly singing. Then with a glance, mommy waved happily to Eeanne from afar, then suddenly Eeanne burst out.....!

Oh...suddenly mommy had no idea what was happening, Eeanne really cried aloud and ran to mommy...

We had underestimated Eeanne's emotion, she was not happy being understood that she need to be in daycare (while during the first week she was really happy as she realise that she will be back home after school). Kids really can think more than we expected!

The same incident happened the next day, so mommy thought Eeanne doesn't like school, but after a few attempt of quiry, finally Eeanne said sadly "I want to go to school but I don't want daycare" (so kesian...) After that day, the next following day Eeanne fell sick already with high fever, thus no daycare on last Wednesday, then Eeanne was on MC on Thursday and Friday due to her high fever.

So, what had happened to Eeanne?

- She really doesn't like daycare? OR
- She cried due to unwell, maybe her sickness already started to reveal on last Monday which affected her mood? OR

- her usual friendly and sociable character has shifted to a quiet and timid girl when she was in daycare? then why? OR

- Eeanne was really not happy and suppressed her depress emotion until she get sick?

Oh...dear...all mommy's friends are telling me this is a normal reaction for all kids, just let them cry for a period of time and they will adapt to it. Is crying the only solution???? Mommy really doesn't believe so....Luckily auntie Pang has shared some insights and agrees that there are other alternative besides just letting the kids cry to adapt, mommy needs to be more sensitive and understand Eeanne's needs and target to resolve her obstacle and whatever her fear.

Thus mommy decided to take 2 days leaves on coming week to observe Eeanne in daycare. And along the past weekend, mommy kept brain washing Eeanne with positive and happy events that she may enjoy in daycare, explained patiently to her on the reason why she need to be there and what she may learn from her mini society in daycare. Eeanne seems quite reluctantly to grasp the idea and kept saying:

"mommy is my friend"

"I can do homework at home"

"I don't like to sleep there, it doesn't smell nice like my bed"

"Mommy doesn't want me anymore"

"Mommy will come very late"

"I cannot "te te"(manja) mommy"

Hai...it feels good to have a princess to 'te te" but mommy knows it has to be let go to train Eeanne to be more independent, it is really a mixture of complicated and confused feelings of mommy.

In the end, mommy's objective is clear, I want Eeanne to be happy and everyday looking forward to her school and daycare to mix around with her little friends. The strategies need to be planned, a very challenging mission to accomplish in the next few weeks!

Weekly Review and School Wrap

There are indeed many surprises once Eeanne goes to school, mommy is really under stress...Besides thinking on what to prepare for Eeanne's lunch box, mommy needs to handle Eeanne's emotion and to dig info from her to know what happen in school..Whatever Eeanne told mommy about her school life can really makes mommy's heartbeat pumping rigorously! Sometimes Eeanne just didn't want to tell mommy daddy in details on what she did in school and this really creates tension and insecure especially to mommy.:-(

Monday:

Things went smoothly and Eeanne was steadily performed on her first day to school.

Tuesday:

As usual mommy trying to dig info and get to know what had happened in school and what did Eeanne learn that day. Thus mommy found out the programs are playing materials, singing (something about lion) and story telling.

On 2nd day to school, teacher already feedback to mommy that Eeanne is so....talkative and always has so much to tell...:-/ Everytime teacher told a story, then Eeanne kept interrupting with her own story telling until teacher had to call for a stop! Luckily at least Eeanne still may abide to teacher's instruction. Then teacher commented that during their Monday ice breaking, perhaps it took too long on the session, suddenly Eeanne said "teacher...sitting here and nothing to do, very boring....." :-/

Wednesday:

Bento lunch box that mommy made for Eeanne, thanks for auntie Leona's suggestion and auntie Alice's blog to show the example on what to prepare for kid's lunch box. Finally mommy made this which suppose to be the snowman, but it turned up more like a bird! haha.

So what had happened today in school?

Today Eeanne gave mommy daddy a heart sick when mommy daddy heard about this. When Eeanne broke this news to us, it was at night before going to sleep, and we started to interviewed Eeanne to get more info, then from what Eeanne had described, it seemed that Eeanne was sitting alone and suddenly a boy just come forward and gave her a hard slap on the shoulder and then she burst out crying. The whole story was so real and mommy daddy started to get worry and thinking to bring up this issue to teacher's attention tomorrow.

Unfortunately on the next day, when mommy told teacher the whole story, teacher gave mommy a weird look and said "nope...she didn't cry at all yesterday...instead very happy, and we didn't see anyone beat her...." So in front of the teacher, mommy started to confront Eeanne to tell the truth but she just kept diverting to other topics and pretended that she is not aware on what we are talking about. Oh! Oh! My girl was creating her own imaginary story again! It made mommy looked like a fool to ask the teacher about the "creation" issue. This incident really made mommy's heart sink deep into the sea bed, since when Eeanne know how to tell a big lie and treat it so....real. To comfort mommy, teacher said kids like to use their strong imagination to make their own story, and mommy wonders how many kids really behave this way....please he..ee..lp!

Thursday:

Today Eeanne was punished by the teacher! Oh no.....

After school today, Eeanne didn't mention anything about the school. But later on mommy get to know from kakak that Eeanne quietly told kakak that she doesn't want to go to school! So mommy casually asked the reason from Eeanne, then Eeanne just answered "I don't want to go to school, it is no fun"...oh oh...what kind of fun is Eeanne looking for? Mommy suspected something might be happened in school, after a long long pursuading, then only Eeanne confessed that she was scolded by the teacher but reluctant to expose the real scenario. So initially mommy thought maybe it was just a small event that teacher might have raised up the voice to control the whatever incident happened. Then mommy tried to explain to Eeanne that teacher will only scold if the student had done something wrong, but yet Eeanne didn't want to confess her fault. Furthermore Eeanne looked absolutely normal as her usual self and went to sleep.

Friday:

Early in the morning while dressing up Eeanne, suddenly she mentioned again "I don't want to go to school, teacher scold". Again mommy tried to explained the same thing and assure her that if she is good, teacher will not scold her anymore.

So as usual we walked across the road and reached the school gate. Then suddenly teacher asked whether Eeanne has mentioned anything to mommy, oh this question posted by the teacher really taken mommy aback. Then slowly the whole story revealed.

Eeanne brought her daily bad playing habit of taking all things on floor to school, so when she took out all playing materials and made a mess on the floor, she was asked by the teacher to put back and play one thing at a time. Stubbornly Eeanne ignore the instruction and ended up with teacher's reprimand. And knowing on her own mistake, she was reluctant to say sorry which teacher insisted, as usual Eeanne kept diverting her talk when being asked to apologise, after forcing by the teacher, she ended up crying and being punished to sit on the chair at the corner near to teacher:-( According to teacher, Eeanne cried for quite a long time...(oh so sakit hati to hear this, sob sob)

When teacher told the whole story to mommy with Eeanne waiting in the car, she was so cunning by winding down the car screen trying to eavesdrop on our conversation, knowing that she was being complaint...:-/

So in order not to further question Eeanne, mommy wanted to temporary put down this topic discussion until the night to find the opportunity to counsel Eeanne.

That night daddy and mommy casually brought out the topic to dig info from Eeanne, but she was really smart to divert our questions and finally said "I don't want to talk about this topic anymore". Somehow mommy realise that Eeanne is aware on her mistake and felt guilty, she is kind of protecting her own face and do not want to reveal her fault, but somehow in mommy's persistent quiry, she was once softly and guiltily burst out "I won't do "this" again" (but still didn't want to mention what is the actual case)

After this incident, mommy started to get worry on Eeanne's behaviour, her self-esteem and egoism. All this while, Eeanne is getting what she wants and never been let down. Now perhaps mommy really needs more parenting education to learn how to handle Eeanne's emotion when she is being rejected or reprimanded by others. It is quite hard to face the fact for mommy, but anyhow this has to be cold heartedly let go rather than being protective which is for Eeanne's good to get disciplined.

The Benefits of Going to Kindy...

I believe most children will benefit from going to kindy, and that is why nowadays even 2yo children are already enter into kindy school life.

The fact of school benefit is clearly shown on Eeanne. Even on the 1st day of school, when Eeanne came back, she was like turning into a new leaf!

Why does mommy say so?

Yesterday when Eeanne finished playing all her miniature toys, before we were going out to the park, suddenly Eeanne said "wait mommy, I need to clean up my toys first."

?????????

Wah...usually mommy will need to instruct Eeanne to do so, or when come to going out, she will be the first to stand up and wait at the door, throwing and ignoring all her toys for kakak to clean up. But today, she willingly and automatically took her own sweet time to clean without any commands or nagging from mommy...:-s

Then in the car, mommy always put the Peter & Jane book for Eeanne to read. Each time there must be some bribe in exchange in order for Eeanne to read 2 or 3 pages, but yesterday, on the way to the park, once settled down in the car, Eeanne suddenly mentioned "mmm, let me read the book first..", then she just read and read until we reached the park...no exchange of any other games or deal at all!!

Just a merely 4 hours 1st day in school can bring such a impact and attitude changes in Eeanne, even better than mommy's 3 years of long winded teaching effort...

Think peers' influence and self esteem on positive self image in front of peers can really make a kid behave!

1st Day in Kindergarten!

All the waiting moments have finally arrived!

Today is Eeanne first day to kindy! It is just a walking distance from our house! (purposely chosen)

Mommy and daddy were so excited and took leave to bring Eeanne to school, even mama was also joining and anxious to see Eeanne carrying her bag and walk to school, haha!

Mommy set the alarm clock at 6.30am but forgot to turn on the button:-? (silly) Luckily daddy woke up sharp at 7am. Actually both daddy mommy hardly fell asleep the night before, we were so excited to see Eeanne at schoolJ

So how did my little princess react in the morning 7am? (this lazy bug is used to wake up at 9am).

7.15am-mommy was almost panic as Eeanne used her pillow to cover her whole face to turned back to mommy’s call! No choice, mommy had to carry Eeanne and forced her to go into the washroom. So all the wash up and dress up were carried out in a blink and we settled at down stair at 7.40am(really mo…)

7.40am-mommy tied Eeanne’s hair and gave her a few spoon of her usual vege drink and half sausage(mommy already gave her a bottle of milk upon wake up at 7am while Eeanne was still sleeping). Mommy’s initial plan to self make a 爱心breakfast for Eeanne is just remain a plan (pai se) as mommy was too rush to make all things in such a short period of time! Luckily kakak had already fried an extra sausage, thus mommy just put it into Eeanne’s lunch box with a slice of bread, that was enough to make mommy felt so contented..haha.

7.50am-Mommy daddy each gave Eeanne an 1st day schooling Ang Pow (so "lou tou"), after make a prayer to the Buddha statue, 4 of us walked across the road to the school gate. We thought we were late but Eeanne was one of the first few early birds! When we reached, mommy realized that we have forgotten Eeanne’s water tumbler (see how clumsy mommy is..;-/), luckily we are so near that daddy made a trip back to take the tumbler…

The moment Eeanne went into the school, she was asked by the teacher to say goodbye to mommy and daddy, and sure you are Eeanne just waved and smiled goodbye to us! No sign of clinging, she was so fully attracted by all the small children, can’t wait to join them! ;-0

Suddenly mommy felt a sense of loss…Eeanne is having her own circle of friend now, no more needing mommy as her close companion..sob sob…

We spent half an hour to observe Eeanne to ensure she is really ok…(later after school, we received the comment from teacher that Eeanne is very very OK and steady J despite seeing all the crying from the newbies. (feel so proud..haha)

By this time, mommy and daddy were having the same loss feeling, we almost shedding our tears…(sampat). Finally we left the school after seeing her went up to her 4yo class at up stair. (we returned after 1 ½ hour to peep through the door and found Eeanne was really enjoy herself..hehe)

The school recessed at 12noon, by the time we reached again to the kindy, Eeanne was already waiting for us with her bag, she looked tired and asked “can we go home now?” (after reach home with a milk fed and shower, Eeanne had her long 2 hours nap which is unusually longer than her usual only 1 hour nap)

So mommy daddy made it a point to make sure Eeanne brief us on her school life every day, so she vividly told us part by part that mommy needed to fix her story puzzle to guess what was really the sequence of her activities.

So...finally my little princess has grown up!

There will be more stories to blog on her school embarking experience...mommy is really looking forward to share her another stage of growing adventure...:-)

It was still early, Eeanne just took out some games to entertain herself.

Small library corner, Eeanne choose her favourite Cinderella.

Eeanne needs interaction, telling the story to teacher and to soothe the crying mei mei.

At the upstair 4yo class...Eeanne wandering around to look for her targeted games.

haha...found it!

Eeanne was so concentrate on her own games.

Ta da...another mission accomplished.

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"Slipping through my fingers all the time..."

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well known sadness and I have to sit down for a while, the feeling that I’m loosing her forever and without really entering her world. I’m glad whenever I can share her laughter, that funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time, I try to capture every minute the feeling in it, slipping through my fingers all the time.
Do I really see what’s in her mind? each time I think I’m close to knowing...she keeps on growing, slipping through my fingers all the time.

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table, barely awake I let precious time go by. Then when she’s gone there’s that odd melancholy feeling and a sense of guilt I can’t deny. What happened to the wonderful adventures, the places I had planned for us to go? Well.. some of that we did but most we didn’t and why I just don’t know.

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture and save it from the funny tricks of time. Slipping through my fingers....

Our 2010 Achievement...Together We Grow and Welcome 2011!!

1/1/11 - Happy New Year to all my friends and whoever read this blog. May you all be well and happy!

Every year there will be a new year, but 1/1/11 is only appears once in our lifetime! Before we set our 2011 new year resolution, let us reflect on what we have achieved in 2010.

This year we(Eeanne, daddy and mommy together with kakak) had a rather peaceful and meaningful new year celebration in SJBA temple. But before that we had a sumptuous buffer dinner with mama yeye at Tasty Pot steamboat, it is somehow imperfect as we can't celebrate together with kong kong and bobo, but Eeanne called to M'cca and sent her new year wishes!

This is the first year mommy daddy spent a quite peaceful new year instead of squeezing in the crowd to view the fireworks. Perhaps age is catching up and we only wish for a get together happy moment, sharing and talking..:-) We really had a wonderful moment. We chanted and sang the Buddhist hymms with the blessing quotes slides showing on the screen, we are glad that Eeanne followed and enjoyed the whole session.

So what has Eeanne achieved in 2010?

Luckily everything has been jotted down in this blog, mommy recalled those memories by browsing through this blog, and realize 2010 is really speed like a blink of an eye.

Here are Eeanne's few significant achievement:

#1: Eeanne started her Da Vinci drawing class and drafted her first drawing with a happy family 3 members for daddy's birthday.

#2: Ballerina Eeanne ventures into Agape Ballet class and throughout 1 year, she has change her ballet dress twice because her physical growth is out growing her suite.

#3: Eeanne has her 1st trip to National Zoo.

#4: Eeanne is free from her beloved pacifier.

#5: Mommy fulfilled one of the 2010 goals to have a family local trip with mama yeye and kong kong bobo. We had a great time in Langkawi Berjaya Resort.

#6: Eeanne masters her 1st 20 numeric numbers with counting and able to write 1 to 20!

#7: Eeanne has her 1st cinema show of Toy Stories in 3D, ever since that time, we had numerous cinema shows and Eeanne really enjoy watching movie in the cinema:-)

#8: Eeanne 1st time expose to poster color! And since then she always like to use the paint brush to color her whole palm and make her own colorful palm painting.

#9: Mommy realise that mommy indeed has a helping hand during the time period without a kakak, Mommy never been aware that Eeanne can also help in doing house chores. Mommy is so proud of you, girl...

#10: Eeanne is so understanding to help mommy to save the diaper money, she is totally diaper free 3months after she turned 2yo!

#11: Mommy is glad that Eeanne has cultivate the good reading habit, she is now finishing her Peter & Jane 4b! Hooray!

#12: Eeanne has her 1st horse riding experience in Penang beach, riding with Eeanne is always mommy's dream and it came true....

#13: We achieved our dream to have our 2nd trip to Hong Kong and Eeanne met all her princesses in HK Disneyland!

Overall we are grateful on what we have achieved. 2011 will be definitely a more challenging year especially Eeanne will be started her another growing stage of entering into school. There will be more to learn, enjoy and achieved.

Mommy and daddy wish Eeanne to be wise, healthy, filial and respectful.

Happy New Year 2011