One more month till the big birthday!! Can you believe it? We certainly cannot!
[[image:2012-yaya47month-04.jpg:Princess Yaya is almost 4:center:0]]
We had another activity filled month – the 5 days Zarin was here were quite busy (more on that later). I know, I still owe entries on Jo’s visit, but I’ll get there!
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
Yes, there will be a separate entry for the kids’ time with Uncle Zarin (I promise there will be! Just maybe not right away!) so I won’t talk too much about it right now. But suffice it to say, a theme park was involved and everybody except Adik went on rides. 😉
Food status: still no change. Still counting down to her 4th birthday as she still claims that she will be eating real food when she’s 4. I hope she doesn’t back too far away from it. I would be happy to just have her try things even if she continues to eat the stuff she likes to eat now.
Potty training status: She has pretty much achieved night-time dryness. However, the diaper seems to be part of the “outfit” – if she wears footed pajamas, she has to wear a diaper. If she wears just a pajama top she can sleep in her underwear. Even if she wears a diaper she only had one wet diaper this past month. If she has to go potty at night, she wakes up and asks to be taken to the toilet, even if she is wearing a diaper. Afterwards, she has to put the diaper back on. We haven’t made an issue of it since she is achieving night-time dryness. Baby steps, right? One day she will have to go without the diaper in her outfit ensemble, and we’ll see what kind of a fuss she kicks up then.
We signed Yaya up for weekly swimming lessons at the Y and she has attended 3 classes, enthusiastically kicking and splashing in the water. Her favorite part, she says, was one time when she fell into the pool without floaties on due to her fidgeting around while seated on the edge of the pool. She went all the way to the bottom of the pool and her teacher had to fish her out. She came out coughing and laughing! It hasn’t scared her away from swimming but instead has become her favorite part. Every class, the kids have to jump into the pool now. Yaya wears floaties (since her little escapade), but she loves jumping in to the deep end! Little daredevil! However, she seems to have issues paying attention to the teacher. After her second class, we agreed on two things that Yaya would have to do for the next swimming lesson: a) Listen to the teacher, b) Don’t drink the pool water. She started dipping the end of her floatie strap into the pool and sucking the water from it like a straw! So after her third swimming lesson, we had to amend and be a little more explicit with the things to do: a) Listen to the teacher, a’) Do what the teacher asks her to do (she said she listened and heard the teacher, but she found the loophole in that we didn’t tell her to actually obey the teacher), b) Don’t drink the pool water, b’) Don’t use the floatie strap as a straw (she said she didn’t open her mouth to drink the water when she was swimming – all true. However, the “straw” sucking trick was not an amusing loophole).
Other than swimming lessons, Yaya has been up to her usual physical shenanigans:
[[image:2012-yaya47month-01.jpg:Playing in the sprinkler in the front yard:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya47month-03.jpg:Action shot of her reaching up to bat a balloon:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya47month-05.jpg:Watch me play ball, Mama!:center:0]]
The above was in the proud Malay tradition of wearing a baju kurung top while running around like a wildcat! Notice how short the sleeves are (and the top too, for that matter). Yaya wore that baju kurung for Eid in 2010 when we were in Malaysia. The skirt only comes up to her knees now!
[[image:2012-yaya47month-07.jpg:Berserk grasshopper imitation:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya47month-12.jpg:Kitkat uses the force to keep Yaya the baseball player quiet and thoughtful:center:0]]
We also had periods of peace and quiet (few and far between, believe me!):
[[image:2012-yaya47month-06.jpg:Don’t take my picture, Mama, I’m shy:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya47month-09.jpg:In deep thought (or sleepy?):center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya47month-10.jpg:Big irresistible eyes:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya47month-11.jpg:Pondering her pink baseball mitt:center:0]]
She still shows lots of interest in books – a bit of a crash course in looking for things in a dictionary (she can alphabetize the first letters fine, but does not yet grasp that subsequent letters in the words are also alphabetized in the dictionary). It was quite difficult to try to explain to her how to find “schnauzer” in the Oxford American College Dictionary. Also, difficult to get to the S entries when one turns the page one by one from A..
[[image:2012-yaya47month-08.jpg:I’m still in B Mama, should I keep turning the pages?:center:0]]
She still loves to build things – all without a blueprint. She built for Papa his favorite animal – guess what it is:
[[image:2012-yaya47month-13.jpg:Yaya and Papa and Papa’s favorite animal:center:0]]
It has been another fun, action-packed and fast moving month! Soon Yaya will be four! How time flies. Happy birthday baby girl! We love you!!
[[image:2012-yaya47month-02.jpg:Family and balloon hug:center:0]]
