Ethan: Mommy, what does BFF mean?
Me: BFF means Best Friends Forever.
Ethan: No Mommy, BFF means Big Fat Friend! Hahaha!!!
Two nights ago, Emma gave me a pleasant little surprise. I awoke in the morning and realized that she had slept right through from 10p.m. the night before, and only woke up at about 7:30a.m.!
That was a first for her, and I hope she will soon learn how to consistently do that. For the two subsequent nights, however, she did not sleep through, but woke up once. Not too bad.
Only time will tell if this trend will continue 🙂
Hannah still could not use the scissors properly when we arrived in the US about half a year ago. However, she amazed me when she picked up this essential skill almost immediately after starting school.
At home, she uses the same pair of scissors I had gotten for Ethan when he started using the scissors, and she will ALWAYS ask me if she needs to use the “safety scissors”.
I’m so proud of her for mastering this skill, but this would also mean we now have scraps of cut-up paper in all kinds of shapes lying around the house most of the time! 😛
Ethan completed a very interesting project for school last week. He’s learning all about timelines in school now, and he has been telling us the biographies of the people he has been learning about as part of his timeline study.
So as part of his homework, he was asked to complete his own timeline. The interesting part was that it was a Penny Timeline project.
We had to hunt and collect pennies for each year since he was born, so all in all, 8 pennies from 2006 till 2013. In addition, we printed a photo for each year in the timeline. Blogging certainly came in handy here. Ethan and I looked through my blog for events and pictures. 🙂
It was like a scavenger hunt for the past few weeks, and in the last few days before the project was due, we were asking almost every store we went to, if they had a particular year’s penny we were missing.
Anyway, we finally got ALL the pennies and Ethan was none the happier. I helped him assemble the poster board pieces together in an accordion style and he stuck all the photos and pennies and wrote the event by himself.
He presented his timeline in front of his class last week, and I could tell he was so proud of his work. 🙂
Last Friday, Ethan’s school organized a Science-O-Rama (like a school science fair) for the 1st Graders. Parents were invited to attend the event in the child’s individual classrooms for a half an hour.
They were studying about the life cycle of plants and seeds, which coincidentally was what Hannah was learning about too, so I brought Hannah along with me too.
Pushing a baby stroller and walking with Hannah, we made it to Ethan’s school in time for the event, even though it was a rainy day.
The Science-O-Rama event was an impromptu one and the kids would just explain to their parents what they had been learning about and would show them their “plant folder”, together with some seeds they had planted: Zinnia and Pumpkin.
The kids also took turns planting two other seeds: Carrots and Turnips. Here’s Ethan scooping up some seeds to plant in his cup:
I loved the interaction between the parents and kids during the event, and it was also a fun way for the parents to be taken on a tour around the kid’s class.
Scrap Credits
Purple Delicacy QP from Paprika
Autumn Splendor Alphas from Beth Long Designs
Hannah probably relates to Emma like a girl to a baby doll, but the fact remains that Hannah adores her little baby sis. She would ask to hug her and hold her, and she loves to sing to Emma too.
Sometimes, when she is in the mood, she would even give Emma a good night kiss.
Emma, of course, responds with gurgles and coos and smiles.
I simply love watching them both together.
Ethan: Look Mommy! My little toe is the same size as Emma’s big toe! In fact….I think it’s slightly bigger than her big toe!
Gosh, how fast my little kids grow! 🙂
Scrap Credits
Birthday Minikit from Verena Designs
Fuzzy Felt Alpha from Misschifis
Treasured button from Debra Anderson Designs
Weight
11 lbs 7 oz (5.188 kilos). She is in the 50.28 percentile on the weight for age chart, having gained about 2 kilos since birth.
Height/Length
23.25″ (59.1 cm). She’s a rather long baby, don’t you reckon? It’s probably because Emma stretches so much! 🙂
Motor Skills
- She’s gaining more strength in her neck, and can hold her head upright for longer periods when on her tummy now.
- She sometimes likes to suck on her fist.
- She likes to move her gaze towards objects which are red.
Communication and Social Skills
- Emma seems to want to *communicate* with us, and she does so by cooing at us in response to what we say to her. Her cooing is always right on cue and it’s endearing to communicate with her that way.
- She has started smiling! She’s mostly her “smiliest” in the mornings and also she appears to smile more when Daddy is talking to her. She’s also showing great affection for Ethan and Hannah: all they need to do is smile at her and she will smile back. Harder for Mommy to make her smile though…hmmmph..no fair!
Others
- Emma is still being treated for Seborrhoeic Dermatitis, which looks a little like eczema on certain parts of her body, especially on her limbs. We’re hoping it will clear up soon.
- Still unable to fully sleep through the night, but thankfully there were a few nights where she has slept 4 hours straight! Let’s hope she keeps it up and prolong those sleeping hours.
Food and Feeding
She is 100% on Mommy’s milk.
Recently, Ethan and Hannah, both on separate occasions, had their pictures taken in school for the obligatory Picture Day shots. I suppose they would have had one earlier on in Fall had we been here then, but since we only arrived around Winter, the Picture Day shots they got were for Spring this time around.
Here’s a glimpse of what the pictures look like:
The pictures come in several different sizes and types and in some cases, different poses and backgrounds too.
In a way, I am glad they only had one in Spring because these pictures are exorbitantly priced!! I mean we’re not forced to buy or anything, but this is how the photographer does it.
After the pictures are taken, they send a package back home with several printouts of your child’s photos. The tricky part is where the cost structure comes in. For example, it will be All 5 sheets for $44, Any 4 for $56, Any 3 for $42, Any 2 for $28 and Any 1 for $14. We are asked to pay for whatever we want and return the rest.
Because I am simply paranoid about what they would do with the returned photos, I simply bought all. SIGH. A sign a weakness on my part, I know…but …
In any case, I really love the photos! For one important thing, thick makeup isn’t applied on the kids (unlike in most Malaysian schools). 🙂
Well, as cliché as it sounds, kids are kids just once in their lives anyway… and I’m enjoying these pictures as it is 🙂
Scrap Credits
Birthday Minikit from Verena Designs
Elegant word art (beautiful smile) from Bethany
Stamp cluster 8 (modified) from Lindsay Jane Designs
We’ve been waiting for Emma to flash us that precious smile ever since she was born. As far as we can remember, her two elder siblings started smiling very early on, but it appeared that Emma was a tad serious. She wasn’t fussy or anything, it just seemed as though she was always deep in thought.
We did catch her smiling to herself in her sleep off and on (displaying her cute little dimple on her right cheek), but the social smile still eluded us. I tried talking, singing, laughing, tickling, …but nothing. She would coo a lot and watch me intently though.
However, just last week or so, Emma decided to start SMILING! 😀
I’m not quite sure how it started, but I remember her Daddy got pretty excited when his little girl started smiling at him.
Here’s to more SMILEY days ahead. I simply can’t wait to hear her first giggle 🙂