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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Acting the Big Sista

Today was the first day of a new term of Mommy & Me at 3e, and I was warning Rosabelle to sleep early last night so she could get up on time today. But no, she was kicking around in bed even after Wayne and I fell asleep and gave her repeated warnings to behave, so Wayne was so frustrated that he carried her to her own bed, leaving her to cry herself to sleep as we ignored her.

Naturally, I had to ‘wake’ her up this morning and luckily we managed to get there 5 minutes past the starting time of 10am (as there was a jam going out of our estate, can you imagine that, sheesh?!). There were many new faces, but familiar Claire and her twins Sandrine and Natalie (Rosabelle even wanted to help the former take off her shoes before going in). We made new friends and I realized Rosabelle was the second eldest in the class of about 12 kids. She was happily playing with paints, soap water (bathing toy rhinos and elephants), and pouring broad beans into cups/bottles. She even helped sccop some beans into a cup and gave them to a younger boy. When a little girl wanted to snatch the Tinky Winky Teletubby she was hugging and rocking to sleep, thank goodness she did not smack the girl, but instead quickly grabbed other soft toys for the girl to play. So sweet of her!

When it came to sing-along time and we gathered around, it did not seem as well-organised as those that used to be conducted by Alison, the marketing person at 3e. This time, they got a fellow Mommy who apparently also used to be a childcare/kindy teacher, but she turned off the music before we could all gather, and her 18-month-old daughter wasn’t the most cooperative, whining as she tried to get us all around. When it came to doing some runaway train song where we all had to stand and run in circles, that’s when it all got chaotic and they had a case of ‘runaway children’ instead as they all ran in all directions and got distracted by the other play stations.

Oh well, hopefully it gets better next time.

As we were getting dressed and ready to go, the twins were tottering away and Natalie fell on her bum. Rosabelle immediately ran over and helped her up, then gave her a hug and kiss. So nice of her! Even Claire commented that I teach her so well that she’s so sweet and helpful – so proud of my dearie…

We then hung around in the lobby as she snacked on a slice of cheese, and when she saw Alison from afar talking to somebody else, she actually ran up to her and waved hello – think Alison was quite tickled; guess Rosabelle remembers her from the last few lessons!

I had thought that I was only going to sign up for 5 lessons, and miss 5 because of our Singapore trip, but turns out they also break for CNY, so lessons go on till April 1, and we are in for a total of 7 lessons, yaay… just as well. The sessions are nice and affordable, and Rosabelle enjoys them.

After that, Rosabelle said that she wanted to play outside a little, and we saw some friends from the playgroup playing in the sand pit. I wasn’t really keen on her getting all dirty, but I thought, whatever, she’s just a child, and it’s not like she’s going to roll in mud, so off she went and joined the pair of siblings, Dou Dou, a boy 5 months older than her, and Xiao Mi, a girl barely one year old. Dou Dou was very nice and handed Rosabelle a shovel at first, but our girl had her mind set on getting his scoop. In the end, I had to dig one out from the barrel of sandy tools for her, so each had their own scoop and wheelbarrow to fill.

They were quite happy to do their own thing till Dou Dou also decided that Rosabelle’s scoop seemed much more attractive, and wanted to snatch it from her. Our girl of course stood her ground, and held onto it firmly, running away from him. That must have angered Dou Dou, who scooped up a big load of sand and emptied it all over Rosabelle. Haha! That was quite hilarious, if only not so dirty. Thank goodness the sand did not go into her eyes, and her head was covered with her down jacket hood, but I had to quickly brush the sand from all over her, and the grandma/mom were very apologetic.

The mom then remarked to me that Rosabelle is very strong and resilient, not even crying, and yes, I am proud of her for not even trying to hit or pour sand back on the boy. After that, I told her that what Dou Dou did was wrong, and she did well for not crying/hitting back, but that she should learn to defend herself and quickly move away from him in case he did it again. Looks like she can stand up to some form of bullying!

When we were done, I took a taxi to Lido Place since it's sub-zero temperatures these days, wanting to visit the bookshop – they only have books on 40% off now, not one-for-one, and since they were the same few books, I did not get anything. After I got my breakfast bread from the bakery, we then took a short walk to Element Fresh, where Rosabelle wanted to see her ‘pink Ayi’, one wait staff in pink that she was calling out for every time on a previous visit.

'Pink Ayi’, or Jenny, was there at the door, and we waited a short while to get a table. When I asked her to tell Jenny what she was eating, she did not say a word, but instead opened her mouth and let Jenny look inside – haha! Since we just ate at the Sanlitun branch on Saturday, I wasn’t very keen to get her the same stuff, but there really wasn’t much else suitable for her on the menu. The minced chicken in lettuce I’d ordered was way too salty for her to eat (even I finished only one of the three), so it was back to tried and tested mushroom soup, pork wontons, and mac n cheese for her, finished off with apple pie a la mode. Wayne had coincidentally forwarded me a message that indicated any spending of RMB100 and above at Element Fresh in January would entitle you to a free cup of cappuccino or hot chocolate, so of course I made use of that offer (the supervisor settling my bill after said that I was supposed to get a large cup, but the new trainee put in an order for a small cup instead, so I could use the offer again the next time I came, heh!).

After lunch, in the taxi on the way home, our girl decided she wanted to try on my shades, and refused to let me take them off… How’s that for a 大姐大 look?
I was indeed very amazed at the magnanimous way she treated the younger kids today in playgroup, and think it’s all a part of growing up – that she is now learning to take care of younger children as well. She is also mimicking us adults so well – like when I went into the room with my notebook yesterday afternoon to make a call to the kindergartens I was planning to visit this week, and closed the door to prevent her from disturbing me, she was actually observing me. Shortly after I was done, she took her own phone and went into the room, closing the door after her! Within seconds, she came running out, and grabbed her own book to run in again. Haha! Nainai and I eavesdropped and heard her ‘chatting’, '在哪啊?阿姨不在吗?', as she flipped away at her book. She was there all alone on the bed for at least 10 minutes! That's why Nainai said, very correctly, that 父母是孩子最好的老师.

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