Li-Ann turned FIVE last week. As we celebrated her 5th birthday, we gave thanks for many things:
*It’s HALF a decade! I thank God for taking care of LA.
*She blew out ALL her 5 candles all by herself. Thankfully kor kor and jie jie were not too near her to beat her to it.
*One day before her birthday, she told me,’I want angpow (red packets).’ I’m not sure if her siblings told her anything but I taught her we should not asked for gifts.
*God blessed LA with many gifts. Some were angpows (so LA’s wish was granted). One friend gave her her favourite play dough. She said,’Yea yea! Goody, goody goody!’ Another friend gave her a cranberry cake – and Li-Ann knew she was eating cranberry; she really enjoyed the cake. While eating at a restaurant, someone came and gave us a $20 voucher which helped to offset our bill. WOW!! It’s like money falling from the sky…
*She is more mature now. Just now when Rebecca cried because Li-Ann sat on her fingers, Li-Ann not only hugged her and apologised when asked to do so, she even went to get a piece of tissue and helped to wipe off Rebecca’s tears. So sweet of her.
*She is SUPER chatty and wants to tell us what she thinks and also to find out what’s going on.
*One morning I was surprised when she took off her shorts and panty and sat on the toilet bowl. When I asked her, she said she wanted to pee. And she did! Since then, LA has been telling us she needs to use the bathroom to urinate and these were pretty accurate signals. During the weekend when I suspected she may want to poo, I asked her if she wanted to go to the bathroom, she said ‘yes’ and actually did her big business for that day. I continue to pray for success in toilet training.
*I’m training her to spit out the water as she rinses her mouth. She reminded me again that she wanted to use toothpaste. Hopefully that’s encouragement for her to spit out the water and toothpaste more during tooth brushing.
*Her pretend play is more elaborate now. I saw her playing swimming with 2 frisbees, with pictures of shark and fish on them. She was doing leopard crawl as she swim with the fish. So cute. She also loved to pretend to be a book seller – she would lay out the books neatly in a row and try to sell them. She enjoyed being a teacher too – telling her pupils to sit down on the little chairs or cushions she had arranged and reminding them to keep quiet and listen. Sometimes she played the mama to her baby Carol too – carrying the baby, rocking her gently, putting her in the pram, changing her diaper and feeding her milk from the bottle (but she’s the one chewing the teat :-(). It;s so good to see her playing on her own happily – engaging all her senses and a good application of her fine motor and communication skills as well.
*She recognises ‘triangle’, ‘square’ and ‘circle’/’round’. The educational psychologist told her about ‘trapezium’ and she observed that it struck a chord with her. Maybe she heard me teaching Rebecca. She can read ‘God’ and knows that ‘M’ is for mommy, monkey and MacDonald’s (an evidence of successful marketing techniques although we rarely visit the fast food outlet) and along with that, ‘O’ and ‘S’ too.
I Can Do It! 