Starting School

I finally started schooling on 1st July 2008 at Fingertips. Mommy took me there and stayed with me for a while. She left after 10 minutes or so. The principal told Mommy that she will keep her posted on my progress. Of course I cried after Mommy left, but I settled down after awhile. I took 3 days to fully settle down – didn’t cry at all on the 3rd day when Mommy left, and could even say bye bye to her.

Well, I started with half day at first. Took my lunch there too of course. What did they serve? I had rice with meat, vege, soup and fruits on some days, bihun or porridge on some other days. Normally we had western food like spaghetti or pasta on Fridays. They will paste the menu for that week at the entrance so that our Mommies would know what we eat. In the morning, we have our breakfast at 9am (normally biscuit or bread, with cereal or milo). Normally, Mommy will warmed up her EBM and let me drink before she dropped me at school, but since I was always in a bad mood (coz not enough sleep), I always refused to drink. So, she would pass it to my teacher to feed me. There were also times when she would just pass the frozen milk to them and they would warm up for me.

On Fridays, we normally have outdoor activities. Well, unless it rained. So I also need to shower or wash my hair on Fridays. Yucks! I hate it. They made me tilt my head backwards and wash it. At home, I never allow Mommy or Amah to do this to me. I’ll yell and cry until the rooftop falls. So they still need to wash my hair like a baby. But unfortunately I can’t use this trick in school. And much to Mommy’s surprise, I didn’t cry when washing hair at school at all. I guess I know when to behave myself, ya.

Oh yes, the school managed to break one more habit of mine. I gave up my pacifier! Ah, but unfortunately, I suck my finger instead. So, in the end, Mommy decided to give me back my paci.

Anyway, you must be curious to know what we did at school, right? See for yourself! The pictures tell a thousand words...

Mommy and Amah noticed that I speak more Mandarin now that I've started school. Before that, most of my vocab was in English, even though Amah speaks with me in Hokkien + English while Daddy & Mommy speaks to me in Mandarin + English. I've also learnt to be more independent. I could go the toilet on my own. At home, I would insist to do everything myself - from taking off my pants until pouring my urine from my potty into the toilet bowl and flushing it off. Of course Mommy was worried that I made a mess of everything so she forbids me to do the last part on my own. Hmm...sometimes we just don't know what these adults want - when to be or not to be independent. So, sometimes I just use the toilet directly - instead of my potty.

I guessed the biggest accomplishment of my starting schooling is I slept earlier now. Last time, it used to be ~2am in the morning. It didn't really help when I started half day at school. But when they switched me to full day for 1.5 months, they managed to train me to sleep earlier - around 10++ to 11++pm. That is really a major relief to Mommy, Daddy and also Amah. After that, they switched me back to half-day at school.

Well, despite all these 'good' things, there are some downside of me starting schooling. Yes, besides always getting sick and later passed it to Mei Mei, I also had lots of mosquito bites. Oh, but not only from the mosquitoes, I was also bitten by my schoolmates. I learnt to bite from school - and much to Mommy's dismay, I like to bite myself!

Recently we have a get-together and I got to perform in the Beijing Dance. We've started ractising a few months back and since then, I've made Daddy, Mommy, Amah and Chik Chik to dance with me at home. They were amazed that I could remember all the steps - not only for my part, but for all the rest of the others. You see, there were 5 characters in the dance - Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying, Ni Ni (my part), and I made them practise as these characters. If they made a mistake in the steps, I would be angry and correct them. Besides this dance, I also thought them all the other dances that the other kids need to perform like the Thai dance (by the 4 years old kids), Yankee Doodle (by the boys) and The Bear Dance (by the 2 year old kids). Initially, they thought that I would perform in all these, until the principal told Mommy that I'm only performing in the 3-year old category. Daddy managed to get this recorded on his camcorder, but too bad he had not converted it that so I can't share it here. Anyway, here are the pics.

Oh yes, I got an award for this semester, much to Mommy's surprise.

I got a trophy for best participation!

More pics from our get-together that day...

Well, overall I had a great time in school. Too bad it was a little too far from my place so Mommy & Daddy decided to stop me next year and find a nearer one instead. I would surely miss my teachers and friends. I learnt a lot, played a lot, and the most important thing of all, I had fun!