Lil’ C’s favorite animal is the pig. Guess why it’s her favorite animal??? Because it’s PINK!!! Wonder when this pink phase will pass? Anyway, some time ago, we made this cute little pig using toilet paper roll. We actually made 3 to represent the piggies in the Three Little Pigs 
It’s mid-winter break this week. That means no school! So I am at the mercy of a 4 year old all day. So far it has been fun just hanging out with my little one. Guess where we were at all day today? The bookstore!!! Yes, I realized that my little 4 year old is a total bookworm. She could just sit and read all day. Yes, she can read all by herself too. Lil’ C started reading even before she turned 3. Now she is into reading chapter books already. It is actually a little scary for me because I feel that some of the contents of the chapter books are not appropriate for her yet. So nowadays, I try to do a little pre-screening of the books.
Anyway, I realized that through all the reading, she has reached a point where she is creating her own story too. So recently I decided to cut up some papers, added a colored paper for a cover and created some blank mini storybooks for her to write her stories.
This was the first story that she wrote a couple of weeks ago.
The cover:
Pages 1&2:
Pages 3&4:
Back cover:
She still has all her uppercase and lowercase all jumbled up but it doesn’t matter. I was pretty surprised that she wrote the whole book by herself. Since then, we have been working on a few more books. Yesterday we had one about monsters & princesses!!! That one has lots of pictures instead of words. But it was definitely an interesting read. 
Lil’ C had her first major piano recital over the weekend. The recital was originally scheduled for the week before Christmas but it had to be postponed due to the snowstorm. So most of the kids were playing Christmas songs for the recital. Lil’ C did a great job considering that she was playing on a baby grand piano for the first time. Usually she only plays on a keyboard. She had no stage fright at all! She’s definitely not like me. I would have been shaking at my knees.
The spouse, B was in charge of videotaping Lil’ C’s recital and guess what? he forgot to press the record button!!!! Grrrrr…… Next time I am taking over the videotaping duties! Sorry Lil’ C, we’ll get the next one on tape. : )
As a mom to a preschooler, I am always on a lookout for fun educational toys. So I was very glad when I was given the opportunity to review the Toddler Tote by Lauri. The Toddler Tote comes with 3 animal-shaped puzzles, 4 mini and 1 large geometric-shaped puzzles, 2 mini pegboards and 7 Tall-Stacker pegs. The puzzles are all made from crepe rubber and washable. It also comes with its own 9” carrying case complete with a handle, thus making it easier for my little girl to carry with her all over the house. It is also great for travelling.
My little girl loves the bright and bold colors of all the pieces. She likes the puzzles but her favorite are the Tall-Stacker pegs.
If you are looking for a gift for toddlers this Christmas, this is a great gift. It helps to develop their fine motor skills while teaching them about colors and shapes. The best part is that if any of the pieces are missing which happens very often with toddlers, Lauri will replace them!! The Toddler Tote is currently available at MNC toys.
Lil’ C has been taking piano class for a few months already. Originally I never intended for her to start piano so early but it so happens that my neighbor is a piano teacher. She wanted to start a preschool piano group class and needed some guinea pigs. So that’s how she got started on piano classes.
I remember when I was young & took piano classes, I didn’t like them very much. Piano classes were also boring to me. There’s also the dreaded piano exams. So I quit after a while. A fact that I regret sometimes. Well, at least I know if Lil’ C ever quits piano, it will not be for the same reason as mine because they have NO piano exams here!! They just learn whatever they want. Right now C is loving her classes. She has since graduated from preschool piano group class to private class. With the private class, every month they have a little recital among younger kids. This was taken last month at her very first mini piano recital.
My family has been asking me to post videos of Lil’ C for the longest time. Unfortunately the video-ignorant me could not figure out how to download from videocam to my pc!!! Duh!!! I still don’t and my technical support aka the hubby is too lazy to help me!! So I finally ended up using the video feature of the camera. So hopefully this works!!
I was just reading Mumgather’s post about board games and I couldn’t agree more with her that board games are good for kids. This summer with Lil’ C out of school and us travelling so much, I have been using this opportunity to play board games with her.
We started off with My first UNO. It is the kiddie version of the regular UNO and less complicated. When she first started playing, she started crying and got really upset when she didn’t win. But soon, she started to learn that she couldn’t win all the time and got over it. Now although she still likes to win, she doesn’t get upset anymore.
Another game we play is Chutes and Ladders. It is a great game for counting. The latest game that we are playing now is Monopoly. I got the Junior version. Since Lil’ C is able to read, I took the opportunity to let her read the instructions herself and figure out the game all by herself.
Here she is playing the game and actually beating her daddy!! She owns more blue ticket booth ( the junior version uses ticket booths instead of hotels in the regular Monopoly.) than her daddy’s green ticket booth. I love this game because she learns counting and also learn how to use the different currencies. It’s great for learning additions and subtrations too. For example she has to pay money to buy ticket booths. Now she understands that to buy a $4 hotel, she can use either four $1 or 2 $2 or even a $5 and get $1 change. Lots of fun ways to learn Math.
Lil’ C finally got over her fear of getting her head in the water during swimming class yesterday!! It’s a big breakthrough from the first day of class last month when she didn’t even dare to put her face in the water. She even went under water to pick up a ring! Once she discovered how fun it was to go underwater, she couldn’t get enough of it. She kept dunking her head even while the instructor was talking. Hehe…. I think pretty soon she will be able to swim on her own already.
Remember how Lil’ C loved puzzles? Well, she has a new craze right now and it is doing maze. I bought a couple of maze book during the cruise to keep her occupied and she hasn’t stop since then. When she first started, she did not know how to do a maze but after a few lessons, she is very good at them now. I wonder how long this maze craze will last and what’s next.
In spite of the fact that I live near the sea when I was growing up, I never learned how to swim till I was in high school. I wished I had learned earlier. It was so much harder to learn when you get older. That’s why I am determined to make sure that Lil’ C should learn swimming as early as possible. It’s not my intention for her to be a super swimmer but just to learn enough that she can swim casually and also to learn water safety.
So a month ago, I send her to swimming class twice a week. When she first started, she didn’t even dare to put her face in the water but today, she finally dunked her whole head under the water! She can also float on her back for a few seconds. Way to go, sweetie!! So far, she’s loving the classes. The club pool is an indoor pool so we will probably going to continue her classes in the winter. Hopefully by the end of the year, she will be able to swim all by herself.
