Happy 4th Birthday, Avalyn!

 Dear Avalyn 

Happy 4th birthday!

You are indeed a rainbow baby, bringing us so much joy after storm over and over again. Thank God for keeping you happy, strong and healthy.  

Your first year is all about mastering your motor skills, the second year is about body movements like walking and running while the third year is learning how to talk more and listen. 

What about your 4th year?

If I could summarise, it's about understanding the deeper meaning of words, conversations and things around. 

Over the past 1 year, your vocabulary expanded though you don't really understand what they actually mean. You could repeat many words when you hear it and have a rough sense of the meaning based on the situation and the rest of the sentence. While you don't often get the real meaning, I know you are processing and figuring out what it means. At 4 years old, we have no problem conversing with you and you seems to understand alot of what we say. It's really fun talking to you now. 

You learnt all your alphabet & numbers and how to write them without much help. You surprised me one day by writing your name out as I hardly go through "school work" with you. It's always play for you at home.

 

 

After about 2 months of circuit breaker and speaking mostly English at home, you became rather resistant towards Chinese language. You switched off a little when we talk to you in Chinese. At the last Parent Teacher Meeting at the end of 2020, we raised our concern about your lack of interest to communicate in mandarin. We also started to communicate more in Mandarin and read more Chinese books. Thankfully you are more opened towards speaking in Mandarin and are catching up really well. 

We are glad that the school offers enrichment classes like Abacus and Speech & Drama classes so that we don't have to worry much about weekends classes. You tried ballet for a few times but couldn't open up to the teacher so we withdraw you from the class. The class size is rather big so there wasn't much time to warm her up. I'm still trying to let you experience different kind of activities and learning.

You are still very much the same in terms of your interests from last year - water play, role play, barbie toys, lego and sylvanian families. You enjoy watching shows on the TV and listening to songs too. But most of all, you love playing with your sister! 

You wear your emotions on your sleeves and definitely have very big emotions. When you are happy, you jump and do happy dance. When you are sad or angry, you cry the house down. When you love, you give hugs and kisses so sweetly. Every other night, we pray that you will learn to understand and control your emotions; and you are getting better at it. After your burst of negative emotions, we will give you time and space for you to calm yourself down. We are still figuring out your personality. You can be a really good girl when you are good but difficult one when you worked out. More recently, you started to say more thank you and sorry.

 

 

You are quite a foodie and are open to trying new food. Of all, you love noodles fruits most! You are still thinking formula milk twice a day - in the morning and before bed. You sleep well on most days. I must also note that you are a 汗宝宝 and love big fan. In the morning, you sleep through your milk feed, change and car ride to school as you get out of home early at 6.45am. I guess this is the only downside of having a sister. You are off diapers mostly in the day and still wearing diapers to bed.

Like Emmalyn, you have a head injury when you are 4! You were dancing and twirling happily before you lost your balance and hit the sliding door track. Daddy brought you to A&E for a glue stitch. Thank God that you recovered well and you didn't hit your face or eyes. 

Comparing to the other years, the past year seems less exciting than others. But I'm grateful that we get to visit Snow city, did ice skating (so proud of you!) and had a enjoyable staycation last December despite in the middle of pandemic.

Life for you as a younger sister is all about play and fun! You love your sister so much and enjoy playing with her. Both of you can play together in harmony for close to 1.5hr on good days. It's our blessing! However, this year has been slightly different as Mama spends more time on school work with your sister. It means you lose your best playmate and you need to play by yourself or with Daddy. 

 

 

It's still quite a juggle every day but I'm thankful that for the past 4 exciting years as a mother to 2. I pray for God's wisdom and guidance to parent both of you! For the year ahead, may you keep your cheer, curiosity and health strong!

Daddy, Mummy and Jie Jie love you soooo much!