Finals and end of the year

I am sure everybody is busy with endings and final sport days and end-of-the-year events!

It is hectic! And we have just one little one that's keeping us busy...

Little Missy had her Sport(s) Day at school on Saturday. I liked the fact that all took part, and they all got a chocolate (most important!) medal after completing 10 items.

Little Missy enjoyed the hurdles the most. She lined up for a race with the boys as well.

She also had her end of year gymnastics! It seems we will continue with it next year! She has been enjoying it. Not like the previous year where we had seen a number of melt-downs of a reluctant gymnast...

I love the end of the year! It is great to be able to look back at the year, and thinking that you have made/accomplished it!

I am also very proud of The Student who finished her second year at Varsity.
She is waiting for a final mark, but it seems she passed all her subjects!
Now the students have nearly three months of holidays!

Enjoy!

The brain knows about love

Yesterday, when I went to pick up the Little Missy at school, two boys came from behind and called out to her and waved to her.

She waved back, smiling.
She explained: "They like me!"

I asked her later how she knows that they like her. Did they tell her?
"No, my brain told me!"

Wordless Wednesday #200 - Random

The stories she tells

The conversations in the car on our way back home:

(Where does she get it?)

 

She sees a car that's been in an accident, and tells me that her car is also broken, but that they can't fix it in "the other world." They do not have glue or tape to fix cars in her world. She is having trouble now to get back to her house in that world.

The pink house that's in the clouds, and that is too far away!

 

Her dad and I won't be able to come and visit her now!

"I am very sorry, okay Mom! Okay?"

 

I have to write this down, because by tomorrow I would have forgotten it. One day I would like to remember how she stuck to this story of her pink house in the clouds. And that she threatens us with not being able to visit her when we have done a transgression towards her!

 

Very precious!

 

What stories are you being told?

The enthusiastic gymnast

We had a reluctant gymnast on our hands at the end of last year. Little Missy complained and did not want to go. She was also very demanding that we stayed next to her with the little gymnastics.

It changed at the beginning of this year, and she has been happily going, and doing the exercises on her own.

On Saturday she moved up to a bigger class, where they will be learning to do small routines.

I have a rule that if you start with a new activity, that you should do it for at least a year. After that you can change your mind again. It is expensive to pay the fees and pay the clothes, and then just to move on to the next thing.

I am glad that we did not stop going to the gymnastics.

Update

It has been crazy here. I think everyone has the same experience, with all the end-of-the-year finals and stuff coming up.

We have only the Little One to sort, and we have to decide on which overlapping event to attend!

I have been busy working on a presentation, which kept me busy for a month (at least). I was cursing and stressing about having said yes, but it all went well in the end. 

It is sometimes necessary to accept some challenges! It helps to become not too complacent. Although you wonder about your own sanity, and why it is necessary to rattle your own complacent little box, while you are stressing out big-time!

I completed my first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) before that, and it also took up a lot of my time. I am definitely going to do more of these. It is free!

Little Missy is busy as well! She never stops practising the hand stands and roll-overs and ... Any kind of movement she thinks of doing next! She is moving up to the bigger class at gymnastics on Saturday, which is also going to be a change for her!

I have to conjure a different hairstyle for her each day! The previous week she had a tantrum about wanting curly hair. At six o'clock in the morning I had to make her hair curl! (Mothers can do anything!)

For the nerds/geeks here: I finally upgraded my iPad 2 to iOS 7, and I am loving it! I was contemplating chucking the thing, and all of a sudden it's got a new life! 

I am teling everybody I know about it, and somewhere someone must share my enthusiasm!?

Happy weekend!

A Saturday night at Chicago's Piano Bar

                                   

We were on our way to get a pizza, when I thought about this place! We had been driving past it for a couple of months!

The Chicago's Piano Bar is on Beyers' Naude Drive, and it turned out to be a huge surprise.

"Walk into the 1920's with a cigar and drink in hand, stop by a card table and try your beginners luck, dress up, dress down and get ready for Jozi's biggest jol! 
Ladies: flapper dresses - sparkly outfits - feather headbands= free champagne!Men: moustaches - bowler hats - suspenders bow ties= free champagne!"

Little Missy always wants to watch musicians, especially since she has seen us going to "functions" (what we call it) which involves musicians. She has been nagging me that she wants to go with us.

We were there at six on Saturday night, when it still looked quiet, with only a few customers around. But by eight the place was buzzing!                                

                                          

She looked like this until she got her food! 

We had the best seafood, and Missy did a few steps under the disco lights!

We had to go at eight! But this seems to be a great place to chill, to listen to music and to meet your friends!

I definitely think we will be back, even especially with Little Missy in tow! 

Wordless Wednesday #194 - Take a photo of me with my "tower"

The phases of a Tantrum - as experienced by a parent

Melt-down about 3 missing chappies

(Which she ate herself)

I have read Melissa's blog post about The F-king fours, and was extremely relieved to know that it is not only us who struggle!

Yesterday morning we had a huge tantrum when she threw herself on the bathroom floor after I had brush her teeth. I did not brush her teeth in "circles", apparently!
Last night coming home she wanted the music turned louder in the car. I could not turn it up because we had a passenger.  She did not stop crying!

I am regularly writing or trying some new ways of handling The Tantrums, but I do not feel that we have solved it!

How long can it last?

I am now beginning to see a pattern in our handling of the tantrum.
It definitely plays itself out in phases.


Phases parents go through when dealing with a tantrum:

1. Trying to rectify the problem immediately by giving in to the demand. (It usually does not work!)

2. Reasoning with the child. (It does not work!)

3. Picking them up / sitting with them / trying to hold them. (Usually not possibly with a wriggling child)

4. Giving up by walking away or ignoring.

5. Waiting for them to calm down by themselves.


I realise no 4 is not a very good parenting technique, and I am open to more suggestions?

- The video (I hope it opens up) was at our recent camp where her dad bought her 7 chappies. She put it in his pocket after she had eaten three of them. When she wanted it back, she was extremely disgusted about the fact that there was only four left. Dad said he would buy three again, then he tried explaining that she had eaten it, then he let her cry, and then he gave up...

Interview with the Preschooler

Little Missy passed her 56 month mark yesterday. She is four years and eight months.

I was trying to keeping this interview for her birthday, but I can ask it again on her birthday, can't I?

1. Who is your favourite person in the whole world?
     Dad

2. What is your favourite colour?
    Red

3. What's your favourite television show?
     Doc McStuffins

4. What's your favourite outfit?
    Beautiful dresses

5. What sport do you like best?
    Cycling

6. What song do you love?
    (I missed this question. Next time...)

7. What's your favourite cereal?
    Brown cereal (All Bran Flakes)

8. Who is your best friend?
     The boy she just played with at McDs
     What about Jade? Yes, Jade

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
    Grade R

10. What is your favourite book?
       Cinderella

11. What are you really good at?
       Tying a knot

12. Where do you wish you could go on vacation?
      Swimming pool

13. What is your best memory?
      McDonalds

14. What would you buy if you had R 1000?
       A doll for my child

15. What vegetable do you hate the most?
       All the vegetables

16. If you could have a wish, what would it be?
      I want a child

17. What is your favourite flavour of ice cream?
      Rainbow

18. Who is your biggest hero?
      Spiderman

19. What do you like to do best with your friends?
      Camping and swimming

20. What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday?
      Get a Barbie doll


This was shared by Rattle and Mum who lent it from In The Corner.

(Photo: Patrick Pretorius)

Wordless Wednesday #192 - Bike pose

A marrow bone for my teacher

Little Missy took a present for her teacher today: her marrow bone from last night that she loves to eat.
She washed it afterwards, and it went into her school bag.

Nothing that we said about it not being a nice present convinced her. That marrow bone stayed in the bag.

I hope the teacher knows that the "present" is very special!

We found a bike

We went on search for a bigger bike for Little Missy this weekend.
The extra two wheels can be taken off when she finds her balance!

Her dad saw a younger nephew already riding around without the two extra wheels at the back. He immediately thought that she has some catching up to do (as parents do...!) But I think the four-year old nephew is extremely advanced (with regards bike balancing), and that we should not be worried!

We did not want to spend enormous amounts, because the bike will only last for the most of three years.

Little Missy threw a tantrum got upset each time we decided to keep on looking!
It's all about the colours and the pictures on the frames. She actually wanted a Barbie one...

But the bright dangling handle bar strings on this bike clinched the deal!
And her doll got a seat as well!


This was our weekend!
Dad running after her in the town house complex, and dogs barking from behind the town houses' walls...

Hello and goodbye are not part of the vocabulary

At four and a half it should not be difficult to greet people? To say hello and goodbye should be normal behaviour without being prompted?

Not so to Little Missy!

She does not greet people, not even when threatened prompted!
She just stares at them.

I have spoken to her many times about it.
At first she said she was shy, and that she does not know the people. (But she also does not even greet people she knows.)
Then she said that I spoke too softly, and she did not hear when I told her to greet the people.

Her excuse yesterday was that she had forgotten. (I had reminded her just before the time she had to greet the person.)
"I am small, and small people forget!"
"You should not be worried! Okay!" (Her exact words.)

I have been greeting people on her behalf, and hoped that it would have made the difference.

She is able to talk to people she does not know very well, but refuses to greet them.

Some people feel offended when they greet her, and she does not respond! Asking me if there is something wrong. Like the cashiers in the shops, or the people at work....

Maybe it is a personality trait? Something to do with being shy?

How do you get a little one to greet other people?
We always greet people, and I make a point to greet people on her behalf.

Any ideas?


Photo: Patrick Pretorius

The things she says

Before I forget these...

The other day in the car:
I said I am still trying to wake up, because I said something nonsensical.
I said that I am not a morning person, but an evening person! I think that she, Little Missy, is also an evening person. She also struggles to wake up in the mornings.
Little Missy: "I am not an evening person, I am a party person!" (with a very disgusted tone!)

On the same drive:
She tells me that she does not always get to make a proper smile.
I look back in the rear view mirror, and she is busy pulling her mouth in a grimace!
I tell her that we can always try thinking of something good or funny...
Little Missy: "No, I can't make a smile the whole time!"

Last week when I went to fetch her at the pre-primary school, she told me to come and look at what they did in the sand pit.
They had dug up a whole corner of it.
Little Missy: "We were searching for Jesus!"

Posted with Blogsy

Wordless Wednesday #186 - Check my shoes! #fashion

Finally - fourth time lucky at the dentist!

We tried for a fourth time yesterday to get Little Missy in the dentist chair!

She promised that this time she would definitely sit and open her mouth. 

And she did!

She was at first reluctant. 

But after her big sister had her check-up and she could look over the dentist shoulder, it made all the difference...

The very capable dentist, Chantelle, did not mind at all that Little Missy was hanging over her arms and instruments. She, in fact, told her to come very close.

We have found our dentist for the Little One (and also the Big Ones)!

Little Missy had a check-up, her first teeth x-ray, and a teeth cleaning. 

All is well with her teeth for now! 

Thank goodness!

I made an Animoto for her fourth visit to the dentist:

Check out this video I made with @animoto - Fourth time lucky - at the dentist! http://t.co/nWBhPmsxKS
— Karen du Toit (@karentoittoit) July 2, 2013

Related post:

Third try at the dentist 

Four and a half years

 I used to post each month on the 21st a monthly update, but the 21st days of each month are passing too quickly...
She's getting bigger! Too soon!

Little Missy is her own personality, and it is such a blessing to see her becoming her own person.

She still wants to be carried, and that's why we have to get a shopping cart.
(She is four; sometimes small, and sometimes big!)
15 kilograms are heavy, especially if she is all over the place.
Look there!
What's that?
Why are they wearing that?


She also does not want to sit in the chair, but at the back of the shopping cart, or standing on the front, holding.
Or being pulled like a roller-blader all over the shopping mall floors. (See the Vine above)
Anything, but walking...
Walking on her own needs creativity with racing from one shop to another, or seeing who gets where first!

I have a friend who still has to carry her 25 kilograms 4-year old! We consider ourselves lucky :D

Do you also struggle with getting them to walk on their own, or should I start worrying?

Mid-year report

Little Missy is doing well at school!
I was totally surprised to learn that she can say all the months of the year! (We did not think to start teaching her ourselves, and here she is doing it.)

We still need to focus on concentration and listening skills!
So we got lists of stuff to do at home!

But she got a mention for her creative work!
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She has been approved for Grade R, and I felt like dancing! I don't know what we would have done if otherwise...
Happy holidays! For the lucky ones! (Not us! :-()
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Please hold thumbs for The Student who is writing 2 subjects tomorrow! Thinking if you!

Posted with Blogsy

Carcussions

The discussions in the car on the way home in the afternoons are priceless.

The day before yesterday:

Little Missy: "I am left-handed now. I am cutting with my left hand."

Me: That is not a good idea. You are right-handed, and it is much better to be right-handed."
(Making a mental note to check with the teacher with the next report feedback. Just in case she has been trying to cut with her left hand...)

Little Missy: "I prayed to Jesus to swap my hands, and I am now left-handed."

Me: "It is very difficult for people who are left-handed, because everything is always for right-handed people..."

Little Missy: "I want to be left-handed."

Me: "ehhh..."

Little Missy: "I will pray for your hands to be swapped as well. Then you will be left-handed as well!"

Me: "Please don't do that! I want to be right-handed!"

Little Missy: "I'll pray for Dad to be left-handed."

Me: "I don't think Dad wants to be left-handed. Rather not!"

Little Missy: "He won't know that I have prayed for his hands to be swapped."

Me: "Rather not..."

Little Missy: "I'll pray for my sister, Grandma, etc..." (going through the whole family tree)

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Yesterday:

She is non-stop busy asking for us to translate songs to Afrikaans.
I put on an Afrikaans radio station to get a bit of a translation breather, and there was an Afrikaans song about broken hearts.
The guy was singing that he stands in the dark, waiting for his love.

Little Missy: "Why does he stand in the dark?"

Me: "It seems he is a bit stupid. He should rather stay in his house." (Bad answer. Bad parenting moment.)

Little Missy: "You are not allowed to say stupid! You are hurting my little heart!" (The "stupid"rule comes from school, I think!)

Me: "I am sorry! I won't say it again!"

Little Missy: (Crying. For real!) "You must never say stupid!"

Me: "I am terribly sorry!"

Little Missy: "It is very scary in the dark. There are dragons and shadows of dragons. It is very scary!"
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