One more month till Yaya hits the half decade mark! Woohooo!
[[image:2013-yaya59month-01.jpg:Poster child for barrettes?:center:0]]
Note: Mouse over the pictures for captions
It has been a busy month of June. We started off at the end of May going to Maryland to visit the family, and then working in New Jersey and Pennsylvania before returning home at the end of the first week of June. I think we are all still recovering from that long and crazy ride! But everyone did well, and we made it home and back to our usual routine.
Food status: No change. What can I say? The child is strong willed. We were never able to get her to do anything she wasn’t ready to do (e.g., talking, potty training) and we just have to keep being patient I guess. One day, she will snap out of this and start eating normally again, inshallah.
Yaya has been doing really well on spelling and arithmetic. She is just shy of breaking through to becoming a proper reader. She is showing lots of interest and wants us to read out different words for her, and when she learns how to spell a word (e.g., “luck”), we can keep her going having her spell things that rhyme with that word (e.g., “cluck”, “duck”, “truck”, etc.). She’s definitely getting it! She is also trying to spell the names of her favorite shows so she can search for videos on YouTube (I know!) on the big thing (the iPad). It’s all with parental supervision of course, but she is learning it. We also occupy her time doing math orally – e.g., “What’s 5+3?”. She can do additions and subtractions, and we also give her word problems and she can usually work out the answer. She thinks it’s all a game. Sometimes we do it in the car while on a drive and she gets very excited when she answers correctly. She’s even grasping the idea of basic multiplication (e.g., 4 x 2 = 8) and that you can add multiple numbers and not just two numbers (e.g., 3+3+2 = 8). It’s very exciting to witness as a parent, to see the switches clicking on in her head. 🙂
Yaya also likes to learn song lyrics – she will repeatedly rewind and sing through her TV shows’ theme songs, or other favorite songs in the shows, and sing along until she learns as many of the words as she can. All without the benefit of writing it down to remember – everything done in her head. She inspires Adik to sing along and dance with her as well. Some of my favorite times this month have been when the children and I are in a band together (me on the Piano, Yaya on harmonica or triangle, Adik on cymbals or tambourine), playing and singing songs together. Sometimes Vin is roped in to be our Conductor. Adik always gets so excited and dances around as well, and Yaya is determined to play the music correctly on her instrument.
Yaya and Adik are always up to something together as well. Adik just follows her around and Yaya does try to keep him away from the things she can use but he can’t (e.g., markers, pens, color pencils, etc.) but it can be a challenge. They do sometimes fight over things and then it’s a dust up but nobody usually holds a grudge (except maybe Mama) ;-).
Let’s get to the pictures that were taken this month. We begin with our travels:
[[image:2013-yaya59month-11.jpg:Yaya hangs out with her favorite buddy, Caoir, after a swim:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-12.jpg:Riding Coll and Caoir’s tractor:center:0]]
This next section is about having fun with Adik:
[[image:2013-yaya59month-02.jpg:Heads together over the big thing:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-04.jpg:Jamming on the piano:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-14.jpg:Hide and seek at a rest stop:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-15.jpg:Chasing after each other:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-17.jpg:Soccer break on the grass behind the hotel:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-16.jpg:Love Adik!:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-13.jpg:Group hug:center:0]]
Here are some of my favorite solo pictures of Yaya:
[[image:2013-yaya59month-03.jpg:No pictures of the artist at work, Papa-razzo!:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-05.jpg:Yaya the Baseball Explorer:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-10.jpg:Baseball Explorer binoculars!:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-06.jpg:Yaya built a crocodile:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya59month-07.jpg:Doing a singing/jumping/dancing routine:center:0]]
I just cannot believe that Yaya is almost five years old. Where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital. Happy 59 month birthday, baby girl! We love you!
[[image:2013-yaya59month-09.jpg:Super Yaya to the rescue!:center:0]]
