Little truant

This little, cute, innocent girl might be labelled a truant by her teachers ... and it's all because of her mummy.

I seriously can't believe this has happened but it has.

We missed Aeryn's first day of school. (at her new Kindegarten)

Who on earth has ever heard of a mother mistakening the start of the school year. And to make things worse, I'm erm in the education line too ... This is so going to be the joke of the month .. no, of the year ... no, no, of Aeryn's life!

I'm never going to be able to live this boo-boo down.

I am so going to get dirty looks from the teachers, adminstrators, school cleaners tomorrow when I bring Aeryn to school tomorrow. I can just imagine fingers pointing at me and parents whispering to each other while they look at us from the corner of their eye.

While everyone will be nicely orientated to their new environment, it will be a foreign place to Aeryn. Already, she is saying she wants to go to Aunty Jean's school and not the new school .. did I just make the whole situation worse? Her Tong-Tong might even think I was trying to sabotage her whole Nanyang experience. So if you are reading this Dad, I cross my heart it was a pure over-sight. I seriously thought she was starting school on Thursday, not Wednesday.

.... Oh no .. will I be made to go see the Principal tomorrow? ... Eeeks ... that's a scary thought. NOW, I'm really nervous about Aeryn's first day at school.

A month in Sunny, Sunny Perth

It's hard to believe that we are coming to the end of our month long visit in Perth. What have we done for the entire time? Nothing much .. cos it has been so, so hot. The highest temperature we have had so far was 38 degrees so you can imagine the level of motivation we have to get out of the house.

It is warm enough indoors, so being outdoors its a killer. But we have managed to squeeze in a couple of trips outdoors, like picnics, visits to markets and even a bush dance, more about that in a later post.

Really, the best thing to do in Perth in Summer is either to:

(1) Have an ice-cream.

or (2) Have a fresh-fruit ice-lollie.

Mini Rock Band

Thank goodness for the lock that Abel installed at the top of the door before he left for Perth.

Cos every time Aeryn hears someone coming up our stairwell, she will immediately stop whatever she is doing ..

Look at me and whisper conspiratorially , " Who's that?"

And before I can even answer, she would rush straight to the door, pull it open, eager to rush out ... only to have it stopped at the top by the lock. :)

If it was someone other than our direct neighbours, she would simply push the door close and return to whatever she was doing.

However, if it was Kor-Kor Julian who just came back, she would come running to me and asking," Mummy.. Mummy .. can I go over to play?"

Usually we leave the kids to their own devices. They have plenty to entertain themselves with anyway.

A couple months ago, Aeryn went over to Julian's to play, giving the parents a time-off when I suddenly heard loud noises coming from Julian's house. Curious, I popped my head over to take a look and this was what I saw:

They had pulled out a playmat, microphone and guitar and were pretending to be a rock band. It was hilarious!

Just check out the next video for some of the antics they were up to.

However, it has been some time since the two last played together. It could be because of our busy schedules that we never seem to be free at the same time. Another reason could be because Julian is going through a stage where he thinks girls are silly and only wants to play with boys.

And this has made Aeryn a sad little girl cos she knows her Kor-Kor Julian doesn't really want to play with her these days.

Hopefully, he gets out of this phase quick.

Aeryn really misses playing with him.

Visit to Bethany

As a round up to the school year and not to waste all the efforts in rehearsing for the school concert, Little Sheep Montessori organised a field trip cum CIP for the little ones to Bethany Nursing Home.

Some of the entertainers for the day. From left to right: Sarah, Joash, Sean and Aeryn.

Repeating the school play for the old folks was a brilliant idea and it really made the day of many of the old ladies.

Bethany Nursing Home is located in Chua Chu Kang. It was so sad walking in and seeing these old ladies, more than half of whom were in wheel chairs, just sitting around, doing nothing much and simply waiting for their day to pass. But to see their eyes light up upon seeing these young kids was wonderful. The children didn't really need to perform. Their presence was enough.

It was one school outing that was really, really meaningful. If only all the other kindergartens included more of such activities for their pupils, instead of simply going to places like the zoo.

Sarah and Aeryn looking mighty pleased with all the joy they managed to bring.

First School Concert

Yet again, I have fallen behind on updating Aeryn's blog. For some reason, I am lacking the motivation so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will get out of this 'mood' soon, if not Aeryn will miss out on many memories.

On the 13th of Nov, the second last Friday of the school term, Aeryn had her first ever school concert. She and her schoolmates had been practicing loads the weeks leading up to the day of the performance and I was also looking forward to it big time. Hey, it was the very first time my girl was performing!

The day started out with Jean gathering all the kiddos to a corner for a prayer for everything to go smoothly and for everyone to overcome any nervousness.

But as you can see, only Ernest was doing all the right things. The other kids simply looked as Jean said the prayer.

The audience was about 25 strong; quite intimidating if I must say so. But the kids performed very well! There was song, dance, recitals, piano performance etc.

Guess because it was the first time for Aeryn and there was suddenly so many eyes watching her, she got stage fright and spent most of the time off-stage, rather than on-stage, even when she was supposed to be on-stage.

In this particular segment, she was to be between Nat (boy in green) and Joash aka Fish Fish (boy in blue) but where is she??

She kept running back-stage to look for Aunty Kwan (her favourite teacher) who had to constantly make a guest appearance, in her bid to encourage Aeryn to go back on-stage.

This was the only segment that she went on stage willingly.

But even though there were many bloopers, like Sean snatching Joash's star and Sarah coming on stage and loudly declaring that Nat took her violin stick, and Aeryn having stage-fright, everyone had a great time and laughed along with everything that happened. At this stage, parents are simply pleased to see their little ones on-stage performing and it really didn't matter how well they do it.

Crossing the halfway mark

Am happy to announce that Abel is finally into the 2nd half of his stint in Perth. He has been pushing himself real hard and flying as often as he can, which on some days, can be up to twice a day. All so that he can return home as soon as he can. :) We love you too!

Report Card

The wonderful thing about having your friend as your daughter's teacher is you can immediate updates/feedback about her progress. And so before my mobile conks out, here are some of the text messages I got from Jean on Aeryn:

"Don't worry! She stops crying withing a few minutes and is perfectly fine now!" 23 Sep 09 (Her first day of school was the day before)

"Aeryn did very well again today! She was playing well with the other kids and shares very nicely! Today she was hungry. Ate all her 3 pieces of bread and most of her huge banana! And when I did actions for the animals, she followed along today!" 25 Sep 09

"She likes to talk .. Can talk non-stop, stringing one topic after another and I often have to put a stop to it while I am teaching." 25 Sep 09

" Hi Michelle. Aeryn is doing well. She has a good pincer grip and is good at tracing. She is a breeze to teach!" 5 Oct 09

"Today Aeryn said to a bigger girl while she was approaching the table for snack, do you want to sit with me? And she has begun to be more assertive! Fighting back for her toys when they are snatched away from her. Yet she will share if asked nicely. She told me when two boys were fighting over the swing too!" 7 Oct 09

"Hi. Aeryn is still doing very well. In fact, she's getting better and better. Concentrates well and learns fast. She is getting more assertive as she is more comfortable" 13 Oct 09

She loves going to school which at this age, is the MOST important thing.

And now, I can finally clear my inbox.