I'm a shrew????

A week ago, Lauren was riding home with me in the car. She was reading her new book, called The Unwilling With Sleeps Over. She came to a page and asked me, "Mummy, what's a terrified shrew?" I only knew The Taming of the Shrew, so I was not sure exactly what that meant. "Let's google and find out", I told her.

As soon as we got home, we googled and out came the 1st meaning for shrew. The ONE we all know...a fiery, illl tempered woman. Lauren asked what fiery was and I explained that meant a very, very fierce lady. She looked up at me, touched my hand and said innocently..."Mummy...you're a shrew..." If only a camera could capture the horror on my face!.

Finding solutions

It was 8.30pm and Lauren was playing disney computer games. Still school hols, so Lauren gets to go to bed a little later (9pm).

I reminded her that it was time to stop computer games. She says yes. Grabs her new Club Med book, clips it under her armpit...and continues playing. 8.45pm, and I tell her bedtime - NOW.

She gets it. And starts whining that she needs to read her book. I tell her "tomorrow". She starts tearing and says..."Nooooo...".

Since it is school hols, I decide to push her limits and stick to my earlier instruction - nope. bedtime now. Read the book tomorrow, since you chose to play PC games instead of read.

More tears.

Finally, she looks at me and says, "I know. I can read this book at daycare tomorrow, ok Mom?".

Now, aren't I just so proud of Lauren!

Great job girlie!

School holidays, year 2, term 1

Yippee! School holidays are here. 2 weeks of fun for Lauren and no school stress for Kevin and I. So far, we've managed to get our chores like washing school shoes done. A bit of swimming. We managed to get Lauren to wet her face (!) and hold her breath in the water. Of course she does not like wetting her face. I think it's quite an ordeal for her. But she's managing well. As a treat, we let her go to the playground after swimming.

She's been having trouble doing the monkey climb. Strangely enough, it is after swimming that she seems to be able to automatically monkey climb, on her own. My theory? The cycling in the water helps her left, right, left, right movements. So far, there is no other theory against this.

We're off to Club Med in two days. Let you guys know how things go then....

Mid Years, Year 2: who's anxious, you or me?

Lauren started day 1 of her mid term exam. Year 2! Wow.

She gave us a mixture of thumbs up and thumbs down for the her Malay papers. And was quite frustrated with all of us asking her the same question today (her tutor, dad and I!). Who's the anxious ones...? :-)

TGIF...

Thank God it's Friday. Long week and tomorrow another school day for Lauren. It's a replacement school day for the one week holiday she will get for Chinese New Year.

We did a new thing yesterday. I dropped her off at the school gate instead of walking her there (as I've been doing for the past one year!). She was great. But I did prep her in the car about the change, and the fact that one of her school security guards might open the car door for her (and close it for her as well!).

Today, we finished our Math homework in the car. Bad jam to Ah Ma's place.

Meltdown #1, 2010

Finally, I'm back. 3 months of silence. I've been totally undisciplined.

Lauren is in Year 2 in Primary School now. She is settling in well. Academically she is following class work. Socially, we have lots of work to do.

Last Sunday, 31 Jan, she had a major meltdown. All because she did not get to the last tennis ball in the basket before one of the students. She cried, rolled on the floor. Kicked her legs up in the air. Screamed. Then, still angry, she went and pushed the basket (already filled up with tennis balls again by the other students) down. Sigh, sigh, sigh.

It was heart wrenching for Kevin and I to watch this. We decided not to intervene because we wanted to watch exactly how bad she would get and also see the reactions of her friends, on-lookers and her coach. He handled her well (as well as he could in the situation). And Kevin managed to get some of it on video.

At night, after washing up and all calmed down, Kevin shared the video with her. I think she didn't realise half the things she did on court.

2 steps forward and one big step backwards

Lauren attended two birthday parties in July and August and was...ok! In fact, she even played games and won a prize at her friend's party at McDonald's. Two weeks ago, we celebrated a friend's birthday at a restaurant. Loud singing and clapping and she was ok too. A little nervous but no negative reactions after. We thought she had finally overcome her sensitivity to loud, sudden noises @ birthday parties.

The last Friday, 2 October, we celebrated her brother Luke's birthday. 10 adults, 2 kids in a tiny house. She was excited. She played with party blowers and helped to open presents. Then her party blower accidentally blew off the "U" on her brother's cake making it read "Happy Birthday L ke!". She asked for it to be fixed. Well, how could we. No instant icing. She was still not happy. Actually she was very unhappy about it. Then, the happy birthday singing started. Then clapping and cheers. Followed by Lauren's scream and shout. Kevin and I pulled her aside to speak with her in a room. She tried to calm down and after about 10min, told us she was ready to go out and rejoin the party.

We opened the door and next thing we knew, she had gone straight for her nearest aunty, and squeezed and messed up her aunty's piece of cake!!! She was a mixture of anger, frustration and being upset.

I brought her into the bathroom this time. We spoke. She apologised and this time, really calmed down. Enough to accept (but not happily) that she had to apologise to her aunty and would face punishment at home. All was well after that.

She had no tv and computer game the next day until 12noon (it was Saturday). Went through the "punishment" without much complaint.

Sigh, that's my girl.