Love letter

In case you cant read this, it says:

Dear Wei Pyn

My number 67570794

Love Terelle

I. Am. Floored

My daughter, who is all of 5, has just given her phone number to a boy.

She is kinda besotted with this boy from her class. A skinny little ball of energy named Wei Pyn.

Im not sure if she truly understands the meaning of love or perhaps she simply enjoys his company very much, because Wei Pyn, from what i can tell from my sneaky observations in school, is a spontaneous, fun loving and mischevious little boy.

He has many characteristics that are similar to my mafia queen and they are inseparable in class, always playing and chatting happily and even poking fun at their classmates together.

And so for the past few weeks, its been 'Wei Pyn this, Wei Pyn that". She tells me she wants to marry Wei Pyn when she grows up. When i say she's too young to be thinking about marriage, she retorts, "No not now Mummy, when Im big like you, I will marry Wei Pyn."

*Smacks forhead in disbelief*

He loves anything to do with Transformers and she brings Transformers stickers to school for him. Heck she even smuggles Thane's Transformers figurines into her schoolbag when he's not looking, to give them to Wei Pyn!

What disloyalty to her brother! haha!

And sometimes i catch her smiling to herself and when i ask her why, she tells me with a shy smile and a twinkle in her eye that she dreamt Wei Pyn got down on his knees and asked her to marry him.

Oh myGod.

The best part is, Wei Pyn actually called her that night, after she gave him the note in school.


The conversation went as follows:


Terelle: Hello? *giggle giggle* Hello? You want to talk to my brother?


*passes phone to Thane*


Thane: HAR-LOW??!! HAR-LOW!!?? WHO ARE YOU?


*snatches the phone back*


Terelle: My brother is very funny right? *giggle giggle* OK... ok... see you tomorrow! Bye!



And she comes up to me and says,"Mummy how come Wei Pyn sounds so squeaky on the phone? He sounds like a mouse!"


That's cos his voice hasnt broken yet!? That's cos both of you are 5 years old!!?


That's him, that's my supposed future son-in-law.

Sigh...should i start fretting now?

My baby's Five

My precious firstborn turns 5 today.

We spent the morning having a leisurely macD's breakfast while Thane was in class.

Trying to glam it up with my sunnies

My little rock chick!

And after school, Hubby left work early to join us for an ice cream treat

Terelle is growing up to be a real little lady, and i am so proud of her for achieving many milestones so far.

Physically she can:


1) Swim a short distance now!

She has made such great progress in swimming and i am very impressed with her coach.

I would never have been able to achieve what her coach has managed to get her to do in just 2 short months.

She started as a whimpering scardey cat, sitting and crying at the side of the pool, refusing to put her head into the water. Something the coach said then made sense to her. (and me too! I thought it was a great quote to coax kids!)

He said that it was ok to be scared but its not ok to cry. Surprisingly she started to trust him after that, and tried her darndest to follow his instructions, even if it meant coming way out of her comfort zone.

Here she is at one of her 1st few lessons, still a little fearful of the water

And then, Coach managed to get her to dunk her head in to blow bubbles

Her confidence bolstered, she began to clown around in the water

And recently, she has managed to swim a short distance, unassisted!!

Well done babe! Mummy hopes you will continue to perfect your strokes and have total confidence in the water!



2) She can run about 1km without stopping for a break.

All my training sessions on wednesdays while Thane is in school have paid off!

Mummy secretly hopes you will follow in my footsteps and take up running. You can do it anytime, anywhere, it keeps you fit and in shape and best of all its free!

Here she is outrunning Shukai, the son of one of my good friends - He is so pooped he gives up and flops to the ground without managing to catch her!

I think you can keep your shotgun Daddy, our girl will be able to outrun any boy chasing her in the future! Haha...



Intellectually she can:

1) Read simple books now!


Thanks to Alice who introduced this method used by mothers who homeschool their kids, Terelle's confidence grew and before i knew it, she could recognize a lot more new words.


I dont know exactly how it happened, but suddenly she was able to read complete sentences and whenever she encountered new words, she would at least attempt to try to sound it out. Previously she would just give up whenever she was stuck.


To further encourage her to read more, I came up with this reading chart. For every book that she reads, she will earn a sticker. Every 5 stickers can be exchanged for a treat - ice cream, kinder bueno, gummies, chocolates...she names it, she gets it!


Close friends know that im such a stickler when it comes to the "No Junk" policy for my kids, so all these treats are like Christmas coming early to her and she totally relishes them.


And it works! She gets a real kick out of actually being able to read an entire book by herself and then sticking each sticker in its respective box. Of course, the books that i choose are simple readers as ive realised that the more difficult ones tend to discourage her and put her off.


No matter, babe! We'll get there together soon!

My cheeky gal would still sometimes play the fool and say something ridiculous whenever she didnt know a word, collapsing in fits of giggles at my admonishings. But generally her reading has improved by leaps and bounds and i am glad.


For a period of time i considered sending her for extra classes to teach her how to read!
Phew! Money saved!


Her current favourite books are those by Dr Seuss as his wacky humor totally appeals to her goofball character. She will read them over and over again and keep laughing at the bizzare and silly parts in the book, and then repeat those parts to her brother and insist that he laugh too.


2) Write simple words all by herself!


Everyday i find a jumble of unrelated words written in a myraid of colors on the easel

It is pretty fun reading new "quotes of the day" on the easel everyday

And for mothers' day, she made this card for me all by herself!

She didnt ask for any help to spell out the words

It's a simple card, with simple words, but im proud, so proud!

3) Play simple tunes on the piano


We are blessed with an awesome teacher who has a knack for getting her to practise her pieces.

On those "off" weeks when no amount of cajoling, threatening, begging or scolding on my part can get her to even go near the piano, one lesson at Aunty P's and she's so motivated, she will practise on her own everyday for the following week.


I have no idea what P does or says to her but it works! And Terelle simply loves her piano lessons now.


And I am so glad i dont have to scream like a banshee at her everyday and pull my hair out over her practising the piano!

Playing one of her latest pieces

Socially she:

1) Empathizes and read feelings very well


When im teaching or upset or busy and flustered, she knows how to stay out of my way until ive calmed down. And then she will give me a hug and tell me that she loves me. Or she will draw something funny or write me a card to cheer me up.

I can never stay angry with her for long!


And if i scold or scream at her, i always feel terrible straight after, cos she is generally so well behaved (albeit a little mischievious and cheeky) and easy to manage, it doesnt seem fair to her to be yelled at by Mummy.


I thank God for her understanding, if not for her, I wouldnt be able to achieve half of the things I do everyday!



2) Obeys orders and is pretty easy to discipline


She knows her daily routine very well and will usually do as she is told without any complaints. The tricky part is not to let her get too tired. When she's tired, all protocol is thrown out of the window and she starts to whine, cry and basically melt down.


If things really get out of hand, all i have to do is look at her sternly and tell her firmly that i want the hysterics stopped at the count of three. She will usually stop right after she hears me start on "one".


Other than that, if she is well rested, she is a joy to have around and i love hanging out with her as she is interactive and fun to be with!




3) Is still a little shy among adults


I am training her to greet her elders loudly and clearly whenever she meets them, but so far she manages only feeble little squeaks of acknowledgement.


Well, we're still working on it. Some days she greets people that we meet loudly and cheerfully while other days she still hides shyly behind me and squeaks incoherantly.

Sigh...no matter! Im sure we'll get there too!

So Happy Birthday babe! May you always stay my happy, healthy and spunky little girl!