You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2008.
It was snowing last night. I was caught off guard! At first, I thought it was raining but the snowflakes got in through the partially-open kitchen window. I asked Qianyi to step on the snow landing on the carpet. It’s fun! By the time Hubby left his office, it had stopped snowing.
While Qianyi and I were walking to the nursery this morning, it was freezing..0 C. We still managed to see some traces of snow.. I’ve taken some pictures to record this first snow in autumn. This winter is going to be really cold…
A trip on the London Eye is called a flight! There are Standard Flight, Champagne Flight, Secret Spell Flight, Fast Track and Mulled Wine Flights. We booked our Standard Flight online to avoid the hassle of long queues.
It takes this giant ferris wheel around 30 minutes to complete one rotation. This speed is slow enough for people to get on and off the capsules without the wheel’s rotation being interrupted.
It moves at a slow but steady pace. It’s not scary at all. I managed to enjoy London’s magnificent view in a relaxed way.
As usual, we were busy snapping pictures!
When our 30-min flight ended, we took a walk below the London Eye. There were some very interesting street performers but Qianyi was scared of them.
There’s a nice playground below the wheel too. We bought ice-cream and let the little one enjoy herself at the playground.
Next, mummy and daughter went for a ride on the merry-go-round below the London Eye. It was turning really fast compared to the slow-paced wheel. We shouted and laughed together. This was our 3rd ride on merry-go-round. I was very scared during our first ride. I tried to be braver for my little darling on our 2nd ride. Now, I managed to enjoy it for the very first time..haha..
Qianyi’s so happy to “meet up” with Chiaki and Luoyi today. The three little sweeties enjoyed taking bubble bath together! 
Hubby said “Qianyi” didn’t look like Qianyi, so I challenged him to make a “Qianyi” paper doll himself. After drawing one, he said it didn’t look good. He went on to draw another one. When he finished, he said it didn’t look like Qianyi either and dumped the cardboard on the floor. Qianyi picked it up and said they were Chiaki’s mummy and Luoyi’s mummy…hahaha…
October is Black history month. Qianyi and I went back to the nursery before 3pm today to enjoy African drumming. It’s a family event. Three guys came to the nursery to present the wonderful African drumming. Qianyi was a bit passive in the beginning. She started walking around when the dance session began.
The dance session was led by the black guy in the photos below. He made the atmosphere so much fun. Oh, I enjoyed it very much. It’s good to move your body, shake it, twist to the bottom and twist to the top. It’s really a good exercise and I had to remove my sweater half way through as the dance has made me sweat! The little one didn’t dance much but she enjoyed watching.
Most parents were sitting at the back. I danced until the session ended. I haven’t had so much fun for a long time!
My little sweetheart loves to play in the bathroom. During the parent workshop I attended last month, we were asked to share what our kids loved to do at home. I told them Qianyi enjoyed singing in the bathroom. She would close the door and sing loudly. I opened the door once and saw her standing on the toilet while looking in the big mirror.
We bought her a wooden bathroom set. She’s so happy to play with the bathtub, toilet, shower with curtain, basin with mirror and the towel rack. She loves bathing Peppa Pig and George and put them on the toilet too.
Hubby bought a new Peppa Pig toy for Qianyi two days ago. There are some Peppa Pig pieces to be placed on a board to create a story. The pieces would cling to the board. It’s quite fun.
What Qianyi enjoys most are the paper dolls I made her. I’ve made almost 60 paper dolls for her. They are her favorite characters from books and DVDs. She would play with them everyday. I talked about my self-made paper dolls at the parent workshop too. I told them how I used them to encourage Qianyi to talk. They were very interested in what I did with Qianyi and said I was a very creative person. Recently, Qianyi loves to make the hold-hand scene. She would place some characters on the carpet, make them hold hands and ask me to tell the hold-hand story. It starts with “One day, X decided to hold hands with Y…Y decided to hold hands with Z…Now, all of them are holding hands.”
When I asked Qianyi to finish her last spoonful of rice yesterday, she told me, “Wait for a while. You wait for a while.” That was the first time she asked me to wait. I was so touched.
Last month, Choi (the Assistant Manager at the nursery) and I were filling up a speech therapy application form together. It’s actually not just for speech and language. It’s called a CAF (The Common Assessment Framework) form. Discussion and completion of the extremely detailed form (a few pages) made me mentally exhausted.
Yesterday, I attended the CAF panel meeting with Choi. She warned me that what she was going to present to the panel would sound very negative. It was held in a small meeting room in Woodfield medical centre. I sat down facing 12 people (including Choi). They were representatives with decision making authority from the main agencies working with children and families. There were doctors and people from Children Centre and Family Centre. I couldn’t remember all. They went through the detailed form first before letting me and Choi join them.
Choi was asked to summarize Qianyi’s case, and then they started asking me questions. They didn’t just ask about Qianyi’s speech development. They asked about her relationship with her daddy too. Choi told them it might not be just the problem of speech and language because Qianyi loved to engage in solitary play. They discussed and decided what service was best for Qianyi. One woman would contact a speech therapist and the other one would get in touch with a child psychologist. Oh dear, I couldn’t remember who is who… So, there’s an action plan to tackle Qianyi’s problems. A review date was set . It’ll be held in Jan. I wonder if we’ll still be here.
Choi asked if I was feeling OK after the meeting. I was mentally prepared but I still felt a little down. It’s not fun at all being there with so many strangers, discussing what “treatments” were best to “cure” my little darling. I had a nasty headache yesterday.
It was a gorgeous sunny day yesterday with temperature around 19-20C. We visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Trees in Kew Gardens were showing the first signs of autumn. I like autumnal colors. It’s beautiful!
Qianyi had a good time playing with fallen leaves. She helped two bigger girls to gather leaves into a large pile. The two girls took turns to jump into the leaf pile. Qianyi was happy to watch them but she made a little fuss when Hubby threw her into the leaf pile. One of the girls decided to lie down to be buried in the leaf pile later. Qianyi enjoyed burying the girl too.
We checked out the unique Treetop Walkway. It’s a steel structure 60ft above the ground. It’s great being up there with the trees but I’m a timid person with fear of heights. It’s a bit scary for me to walk on the stairs and walkway. I didn’t dare to look down because my knees would feel weak. 
There are more photos below. Let the pictures do the talking now. Overall, this is a lovely place to visit especially in autumn.
Parenting is really hard. Sometimes I just don’t know how to be a good parent. I don’t know how to raise my child well. I don’t know how to help her express herself. When I can’t figure out what she’s trying to tell me, I would feel very lousy because I spend a lot of time with her, I should be the person who knows her best. When she gets frustrated because I can’t understand what she wants, I would feel very upset.
I had a little talk with Hubby the other night. I told him my heart sank when Qianyi’s teacher told me, “I have to be frank, she’s ….” She used “I have to be frank” a few times when we were filling up a speech therapy application form together. We know our daughter is a slow learner. We know we have to be very patient.
No matter what happens, we have to hold our heads high and keep trying. We have to keep moving forward for our daughter’s sake.
Here’s the lyrics of Annie-Tomorrow that always makes me feel better.
When I’m stuck with a day
That’s gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And grin,
And say,
Oh
The sun’ll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
‘Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow
Tomorrow
I love ya
Tomorrow
You’re always
A day away
Hubby will start his new job tomorrow. We went shopping this morning when the little one was at the nursery. We would like to buy a pair of boots for Qianyi to keep her feet warm and dry as we have to stay until winter.
There are so many lovely boots for little girls at John Lewis. We decided to buy a pair of Clarks boots for Qianyi in the end. Oh, don’t you think the berry leather boots are beautiful?
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