Bubble Bubble

Shi-Shi was invited to a friend's birthday party. She found a bottle of bubble liquid and enjoyed making bubbles. She's had great time with friends and got tired afterwards, and she's been asleep for more than 3 hours!

Creazy about Bubble!

Shi-Shi went to Elizabeth Gamble Park with friends from her playgroup. It was a perfect weather for walking around the park. There is a rose garden, and it is really beautiful. Mama had never seen such a lot of roses in one place. Mama remembers that she once visited a park which was famous for roses, though, the day she visited was not the season and only saw leaves. Shi-Shi was interested in roses and touched flower petals. Later on, they went to a cactus garden, and there was a girl playing with her bubble maker. The girl generously let others to play, and Shi-Shi and her friend enjoyed making bubble.

 

Grown-up girl

Shi-Shi's grandma bought the pink dress last summer, and it was really big for her at that time. Now she wears it, and it's just her size!! She's grown up since last year. Grandma must be really happy to see her next month!

Home-grown carrots

A friend of Shi-Shi and Mama has a home garden and brought a bunch of carrots!! Shi-Shi only knows carrots in a store, not carrots with leaves and earth. Mama asked Shi-Shi to help cutting off the head part, and Shi-Shi curiously tried and tasted the freshest carrot. They were really crunchy and sweeter than one at a store. Mama made carrot salad for dinner.

Baking Bread

Mama is a big fun of a bread, though, she has never baked a bread by herself. She found a book about how to bake a bread for biginners the other day, and thought " well, maybe we (Shi-Shi and mama) can bake together!". So mama bought everything needed and was ready. Mama started scaling flour, yeast, suger, salt, olive oil etc, and, Shi-Shi was very curious what mama was going to do. Shi-Shi distracted and annoyed mama, but by the time when all the ingredients were mixed and got in a big one dough, Shi-Shi could touch and be allowed to knead some part of the big dough. It looked like she was playing with play dough. Shi-Shi is now sleeping, and mama is waiting for the second fermentation. Baking a bread is time consuming!!

Balance Bike

Shi-Shi got a balance bike and has practiced since then. She seems to be really fun pushing her bike in the living room. On the first day, she took her bike outside and steped it over and walked around the apartment. There were so many things which distracted, such as a manhole, leaves, seeds of some kind of tree, etc... and never went straight. A friend of Mama told her that she had to be really patient for the several days until Shi-Shi found an interest in riding a bike more than finding something else outside. But mama was not that patient person, and she got really tired after all. Actually, Shi-Shi did really well for the first run. Mama was so proud of Shi-Shi!

Mother's day

Mama had a relaxed sunday on Mother's day. Papa cooked Okonomiyaki (Japanese pizza?!), and Shi-Shi made dessert for dinner. Since mama is a stay-at-home-mom, papa seldome cooks, so it was realy nice of him to cook, so that mama could be away from her daily work. Shi-Shi was exposed to cooking for the first time! This is an instant dessert that you just need to add 200cc milk and mix together. First, mama brought all the tools and ingredients ( the package and milk), and let Shi-Shi put the ingredients into a big ball, and let her mix together.

Boiled egg peeling

Shi-Shi's breakfast for today was a boiled egg, a piece of bread and salad. Mama simply gave her non-peeled boild egg because Shi-Shi always wanted to do what papa and mama did. Amazingly, she knocked the egg against the table without being told, and she started peeling the egg shell. She hold the egg so hard, and a yolk came off, but she could peeled egg white well. Mama was recently inspired by Montessori education, and mama found out that peeling eggs could be one of the montessori activities, which help kids to learn things practically. Therer were some boiled eggs left at breakfast, and mama asked Shi-Shi to peel those eggs, so that mama could fix tossed salad for dinner.

Transition

Shi-Shi and mama went to one of preschools in town to have an interview. They visited once last fall, and mama found interest in terms of circle times and individual activities. Teachers encourage children to use soft voice, so it is a lot quieter than other preschools. I think it is once of the charactristics of the preschool, and mama thinks it is good and bad because children suppose to play and run around how they feel, but on the other hand, they need to learn the place and time and control their feelings.

Shi-Shi and mama stayed there for two hours, and mama found a LOT of rules in the school. What made mama surprised the most was kids had to have their shoose on all the time either in side of class rooms or outside. A teacher explained mama that that was for kids' safe in case of emergency. Also in playground, there is a tricycle track, and it is one way. ( if kids bike other way around, a teacher warms. ) There are more and more rules. Mama wonders " does Shi-Shi enjoy?"

But mama thinks it is transition time that happens when kids start preschool. There are lot of rules at home as well, though, as they spend time together, they don't realize how many rules mama created. It is a matter of a fact that as kids spend time with others, there have to have rules because each family has diffrent rules ( even though, some of the rule are the same.).

Fairyland

Shi-Shi's family visited Fairyland in Oakland on Sunday. It is a little theme park for younger children. There are little houses, rides and play structures which are designed by famous fairlytale such as The Alice in Wonderland and Pinocchio. Shi-Shi liked Alice's wonder-Go-Round so much, and she rode it for 6 tims. After the last ride, she still wanted to get on, though, papa and mama got tired of it and forced her to move to next attraction. Mama heard that this theme park was a miniture of fairytale story book, and you would find yourself in fairytale. It is not that well organized, though, everyone of the family enjoyed their family time on sunny day!