Le Xuan turns 4!!!!

Ooops, realised that I have not written any post about Le Xuan's birthday for the past 3 years.

This year, the feeling was kind of different as Le Xuan seemed so grown up.  She had been counting down to her birthday, and when it finally came, she woke up with excitement, hoping that we could give her birthday presents and of course a birthday cake.

Haha, Le Xuan didn't know that I had been secretly collecting her birthday presents with things like a kung fu panda storybook, fashion dress up book, rapunzel dress, pretty pink socks, princess pencil case, cute sharpener, bookmarks, hello kitty beads, crystal like sequins, musical box. But we wanted to only give her the presents at night during her birthday celebration.  So dear and I decided to give her the presents from papa (the bubble guppy bubble wand) as well as hanrong ah yi (princess accessories) first. She had seen these presents before but were very happy to receive them officially that morning.

In the afternoon, dear and I brought Le Xuan to Causeway Point as she wished to decorate her own birthday cake. So it's the Icing Room confectionery shop again. Although dear and I were pretty sure that she doesn't have the artistic flair, we were nonetheless happy to see Le Xuan enjoying herself when decorating her cake. But the disaster came when Le Xuan accidentally dropped the cake after taking photos with it, and she started crying. I knew she didn't mean it and it wouldn't have happened if i didn't ask her to take photos with it. So I decided to buy her another cake to decorate again, which also meant that her birthday cake was quite an expensive one, LOL.

With the first cake before the disaster

We had a simple dinner at Vista Point and Le Xuan was happy to receive a birthday present from Jiu Ma - a Hello Kitty Watch. Guess Le Xuan must be too used to celebrating her birthdays with jiu jiu and jiu ma as well, so she asked jiu ma if she would be going to our house after dinner to cut cake with her, haha. Finally the moment she's been waiting for, birthday party!! Dear and I asked Le Xuan to hide in por por's room while we prepared her birthday cake, and laid out all her presents on the sofa. When she came out, she looked so surprised and beaming with joy when she saw all the secret presents from papa mama, as well as presents from por por.

Thereafter, it's cake cutting time!  Le Xuan sat by her pink table while we sang her birthday songs. When we asked her to make a birthday wish, I felt so touched and overwhelmed to hear her say," I wish mama's stomach well." Needless to say, I cried and tried very hard to hide my tears. I feel so blessed to have her as my little princess. Xie xie lao gong, hee :P

Birthday Party Time

Le Xuan was so happy eating her birthday cake, and it was very amusing to see her carrying all her birthday gifts to her room and had her quiet time appreciating each and every gift. Couldn't help feeling that she had grown up so much more than I expected. Haha, but the real fun wasn't over yet.  What awaited us the following day was our overseas holiday to Hong Kong! And the second part of her birthday celebration would be the day at Disneyland.  :)

Le Xuan finally combs her hair!

Hmm, can this even be considered another developmental milestone? LOL, although it's kind of late, but better late than never! Our dear princess finally knows how to comb her hair 10 days before she turns 4 years old! Not sure how other mothers feel, I was really happy and proud that darling is making another step towards independence, but another part of me also felt that darling is growing too fast! In other words, I'll miss her "baby-ness" :P Well, guess I'll just have to accept that many things that we encounter in life are transient, will just have to cherish every moment of it! :)

                                                         Le Xuan combing her hair *gasp*

Yay! Junior Tots Course completed! :)

Wow, time flies! I could still remember writing the post about enrolling Le Xuan to the Symphony Music School in April, and now she has graduated from the Junior Tots Course there! Although it was supposed to be a 9 months course which was unexpectedly shorten to 6 months, we were still very proud that Le Xuan managed to complete the course, and most importantly enjoyed and enriched herself.

Towards the end of yesterday's lesson (last lesson), Teacher Sing Yee asked me and dear to watch Le Xuan play the keyboard. Hehe we could see that she was so excited and so nervous about it, as she wasn't really able to perform to her standard. In the end, Teacher Sing Yee asked her to play the easiest piece i.e. Mary Had a Little Lamb, and she managed to pull it through, haha, and was presented with a certificate by her teacher. It was another proud mummy moment again *beams*. Hee I'm sure papa felt so too, given that he had been teaching and guiding Le Xuan with her music homework and practices all these while. I'm so proud of you lao gong! :)

Le Xuan holding her certificate and posing with Teacher Sing Yee :)

Nervous performance by Le Xuan :P

And now the next step will be... Piano or ukelele? It's quite confusing when Le Xuan keeps changing her mind, but really hope that she will eventually pick up a musical instrument that she loves and will benefit her for the rest of her life.

Sprint Kids 2013

Interestingly, this event was totally unplanned and unexpected.

It's a Saturday, and the plan was to bring darling to Changi City Point to play at the Petite Park indoor playground. Once we reached there, we had a late but satisfying breakfast at Hans before making our way to the Petite Park.

It was a fun one and half hour there, though we were concerned that the place was too cold and Le Xuan had just recovered from flu. As we left the Petite Park, Le Xuan saw kids running at the Kids Sprint event organised by Frasers at the atrium and they received medals for it.  To my surprise, she said that she wanted to go for the run too, hmm but my first thought was that darling is not very agile and will sometimes fall down even when she walks. Nonetheless, we went to enquire further at the registration booth, and I felt assured and even quite excited about it when the lady at the booth said that Le Xuan can run together with papa. Yup, payment made and to proceed to the run! :P

We got a goody bag with 2 T shirts for signing up the event. As dear and darling got ready for the run, I quickly stood by the track, all ready to take some shots using dear's camera. 3, 2, 1, go!!!!! Haha, I felt so happy when I saw dear and darling running hand in hand and smiling all the way as they ran. I also felt so proud to see darling running with so much drive and determination, and most importantly enjoying herself with daddy! Hee and it was a proud mummy moment to see darling receiving the medal from the organisor!

After the race, daddy and darling took a nice photo in front of the event's backdrop, smiling gleefully with their medals around their necks. It was definitely an unforgettable experience for all of us, especially Le Xuan, since this is the very first medal that she has won for herself. :)

Puteri Harbour, here we go!!!

Our first overseas trip as a family, to the Little Big Club and Hello Kitty Land at Puteri Harbour!! It was 30 May 2013, the day after attending dear's promotion ceremony. Dear and I were all excited and abit apprehensive about bringing Le Xuan overseas, especially when she was not feeling well.

We left at about 7.30am, and reached our destination only at about 10am.  Le Xuan managed to have her breakfast and also took a short nap on the way, so her mood was pretty good and it was considered a smooth journey for us.

Le Xuan was exhilarated when she first saw the Hello Kitty cafe and souvenir shop. After a quick bite, we made our way to the Little Big Club, and felt welcomed by the friendly and helpful staff there.  I must say this place is really a children's paradise.  Le Xuan was so happy taking photos with Pin Gu (abit scared tho) and Angelina Ballerina, and there were many fun and interesting rides upstairs where we took the train rides, Ferry's wheel, Helicopter, and also spent some time at their indoor playground. At 12 noon, we caught the Barney show, and Le Xuan kept saying that she wanted to go on stage to find Barney, LOL.  Although this was not possible, Le Xuan managed to go up close to Barney below the stage, and shook hands with Barney!

After the show, we went down to the Hello Kitty Land, thinking that we could possibly have lunch there. But there was nothing much to eat there, so we stayed to watch the Hello Kitty show first before making our way back to the Little Big Club for a disappointing lunch as well, haha. Hello Kitty Land was in fact more crowded than the Little Big Club. The pink theme was already a big plus point for little pink fanatics like Le Xuan.

We went to the spinning tea cup rides (2x as Le Xuan wanted to make sure she took the pink one), photo taking with Hello Kitty and Daniel, jewellery making, costume dress up, mascott scooping, cookie decorating, and also their indoor playground. There were times we had to queue up quite long, but thankfully we went on a Thursday, as it might be a lot worse if it was a weekend. We could see that Le Xuan enjoyed herself very much, and I'm happy that we took quite a number of nice family photos, but poor hubby had to lug a backpack, DSLR and pushed the stroller around.

After a great time at the Hello Kitty Land, we decided to go shopping and bought Le Xuan a small Hello Kitty soft toy and a box of Crayola crayons. Then, we went to a crepes shop where hubby ate something, and darling drank her milk before the bus came to send us home. On the way home, it was backbreaking when Le Xuan fell asleep and I had to carry her up and down the bus to the various check points. It was also worrying when Le Xuan's cough and flu seemed to get worse on the way home. Nonetheless, it's been a fun day out to Puteri Harbour, and it was obvious that Le Xuan totally enjoyed herself especially when she asked,"Mama, can we come here every weekend?"  LOL.

Le Xuan at 3 year 5 months

It's April 2013 already. Time really flies, Le Xuan has already attended school for 4 months.  Really happy to see that she has completely adjusted to school life, and is more willing to share about the happenings in school.  Recently, she even said that she has a favourite teacher whom she loves to talk to.  After much investigations, I realised that her so called favourite teacher is actually the..... Principal! ROFL! The principal always pops by the class for awhile, and Le Xuan had thought that she is a teacher :P Nonetheless, I'm really happy to see her enjoying school now, and not anti-social towards other kids anymore. A few days ago, she had even played with her classmate after school at the playground, what a big milestone.

Here's another milestone that I have to record down.  Ever since we pulled her out from ballet class in January due to her horrible and traumatic experience, dear and I decided to let her attend this music appreciation class at CWP symphony music school that started in April this month, hoping to brush up her social skills. We were also glad that the school allowed us to sit in the class with Le Xuan for 1 month as we were concerned that the ballet saga might repeat itself again.  To our surprise, it turned out that Le Xuan enjoyed the class and liked the teacher very much. I guess her 3 months prior training in school has really made a significant difference. The big milestone came when it was Le Xuan's 3rd music lesson. She actually told me and dear that she would go into class all by herself, and we could see that she was also beaming with pride when dear, me and the teacher praised her for this.  And of course not to forget her reward for this - a Hello Kitty princess toy set that comes with a tiara, necklace, rings and earrings! :)

Oh, one more thing to mention, we had started training Le Xuan on her writing skills about 3 weeks ago as we were concerned that her hand skills are quite weak, and that she will need to master these by the time she goes to K1 next year.  Our sticker rewards system is rather effective, but it's quite disheartening and frustrating whenever she doesn't listen to instructions or cry and throw tantrums. Sounds like a daily struggle for us and her. However, she has made tremendous improvement today, as she did not cry during our writing practice and seemed to be getting used to the routine already. Yesh! Will continue to persevere and hope that things will get even better!! :D

A New Breakthrough at 38 Months!

It had been a difficult 2 weeks for Le Xuan and of course the rest of the family. 

Being timid by nature, Le Xuan was traumatized ever since she started school. She cried so terribly whenever we wanted to help her change into her uniform. She would beg us not to bring her to school.  She would start to get cranky when the sky turned dark, and refused to bathe or sleep, knowing that we would bring her to school again the very next day. We had to carry and pull her down the car when dear drove us to her school in the morning, and she would get hysterical when the school door opened.  This was the first time ever since she's born that she got so hysterical and we could hear her crying and screaming from outside the classroom. It was really stressful and heartbreaking for me to see my beloved princess struggling during this period, but I had to hide my feelings in front of her and tried my best to assure and comfort her.  

Mum and I felt so helpless every time we got chased out of the classroom, and had to leave darling screaming and crying in class. I felt even more uneasy when I had no chance to talk to the teachers after school to find out about Le Xuan's progress in class. I guess motherhood has really changed me.  Instead of brushing this matter off, I went to see the principal and told her how helpless I felt not being able to understand the progress of my child in class. Fortunately, the principal was quite reassuring and even brought me and mum to another room where we could see how Le Xuan was doing in class, and even promised us to bring Le Xuan into class every morning and stay with her for a while before we leave. 

The day came when Le Xuan gave us a pleasant surprise. It was also the day when she turned 38 months and after been through 2 weeks of school.  When mum was carrying her and walking towards the school door, she requested to come down and go in by herself.  She went into class, greeted the teacher and did not cry anymore! That was a really touching and proud moment for us. My little princess seemed to have grown up all of a sudden.  It was no longer a chore for us to bring her to school in the morning now, although she would still question why mummy or por por cannot join her in school. But I believe things will get better and my princess will enjoy going to school every day, fighting!! :) 

Le Xuan's First Day of Preschool!

It's Le Xuan's first day of school at PCF Nursery, and her class is NN Apple. Papa even took half day off today to bring Le Xuan to school. There were more than 10 students in the class, and I was surprised that there is even an ang moh student in Le Xuan's class. 

It's orientation today, so it was basically for parents to find out more about the school and teachers, and for the kids to familiarise themselves with the new environment.  

As usual, it was difficult to get Le Xuan to sit still and we had to always ask her to sit down and be quiet when the principal was talking. Although it was only a 1-hour orientation for the kids today, we could see that Le Xuan was quite tired as she did not sleep well last night.  This girl started getting emotional last night, and said that she did not want to attend school, knowing that parents are not allowed to stay in the classroom. Not sure how it's going to turn out tomorrow, but definitely hope things will turn out better than expected, and good luck to us! Fighting!