66 months! Five and a half years old! Whee!
[[image:2014-yaya66month-02.jpg:My baby girl!:center:0]]
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
Food status: No real new foods this month. I forgot to report that last month she also tried a candy cane. This month, she took a small finger taste of the frosting on my birthday cake, but she didn’t go back for seconds. And she has tried the frosting before, so it wasn’t completely new. But that was it for new foods. She claims she will eat chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. So we will have to make it sometime. Unfortunately we still have too much birthday cake in the freezer so I’m not really feeling like I need to bake us yet another cake!
Reading status: same as last month. Baby steps in getting her confident. I’m trying to just include it in every day life – e.g., if we are at the store and looking at a bunch of different things (like the choice of flour, for instance), I ask her to identify the one with the word “bread” in it (without telling her how to spell it). Or, if she wants me to do something, I ask her to read one or two words on a label or a page before I do it. She knows more than she thinks, but there is always that level of confidence – if she doesn’t know it perfectly, she does not want to try or be seen to try/fail. I understand the impulse, and so Vin and I have been talking to her about the fact that it is OK to make mistakes and that nobody would be disappointed in her if she makes a mistake. The key to that is to learn from it. I told her that some of my best lessons were learnt after making a mistake. We shall see how this goes.
This month, there will be more photos than my usual Yaya monthly blog entries. Not so much because it is her half birthday, but really because we took the kids to their first live concert, the Fresh Beat Band. It was fun and there are some extra pictures in here because of that. Let’s go ahead and start with the Fresh Beat Band concert pictures! Coincidentally, it was actually on 22 January, so it was on Yaya’s actual half birthday!
[[image:2014-yaya66month-08.jpg:Yaya can’t wait for the show to begin, Adik is a little scared:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-09.jpg:The Fresh Beat Band perform!:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-10.jpg:Hugging Adik at intermission:center:0]]
Adik was overwhelmed during the first half of the concert – he stayed in either Vin’s or my lap throughout. When he was in my lap, he kept his face and body half turned away from the stage, so he kept a watchful and wary eye on the action, but wasn’t fully participating. Yaya was singing and dancing and totally immersed in the show.
[[image:2014-yaya66month-11.jpg:Yaya tries to tell Adik not to worry and to have fun:center:0]]
Luckily Adik warmed up to the show in the second half. He decided to sit in his own seat, and started singing and dancing along and having a good time too. I guess he just needed time to understand, and adjust to the new experience. After the show, Yaya begged for Fresh Beat Band light-up toys that other children had at the theatre, so we stood in a very long line and purchased a light-up microphone and light-up drumsticks. When we got home, we were treated to a concert of our very own with Yaya as the lead singer and Adik as the drummer:
[[image:2014-yaya66month-21.jpg:Light up mike and drumsticks concert! Just like a rock star, hey hey hey!:center:0]]
And now, let’s get on to some of my favorite pictures of the girl taken this month. We had many many snowy days and Yaya loves the snow:
[[image:2014-yaya66month-06.jpg:Snowy eyelashes:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-16.jpg:Posing with her brother in the backyard:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-17.jpg:This is how you shovel snow, Adik:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-18.jpg:Hi Mama!! Yes, I was inside while Vin took the kids out to play:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-19.jpg:They came over to chat with me through the sliding door:center:0]]
Art, Yaya’s favorite pastime:
[[image:2014-yaya66month-13.jpg:Let’s paint!:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-05.jpg:Yaya inspires Adik to paint too:center:0]]
A different kind of art:
[[image:2014-yaya66month-07.jpg:Piano errr, five hands? You only need one hand to eat toast:center:0]]
How about some fun with Adik?
[[image:2014-yaya66month-01.jpg:Playpen filled with toys, what could be more fun?:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-03.jpg:More playpen fun:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-15.jpg:Yaya is Adik’s seat belt while Papa spins them around in the swivel chair:center:0]]
Here are some solo shots:
[[image:2014-yaya66month-04.jpg:Yaya dwarfs the rocking giraffe:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-12.jpg:Poking her head out through a hole in the “not a box”:center:0]]
[[image:2014-yaya66month-14.jpg:Trying on her new winter boots:center:0]]
Happy 66-month birthday, baby girl! We love you!!!
[[image:2014-yaya66month-20.jpg:My rock star:center:0]]
