words of Kay

"I feel it (music) in my body, so I dance."
"I need to shake away my crazies "
Then she rolls around in bed, shakes her bum and moves around like a crazy cow.

An overwhelming feeling of love

It's becoming harder and harder to find time to write a blog. It's no excuse as this is the best way to keep track and document "the story of Kay" as she is growing up. Well, Kay will be celebrating her 5th birthday this sunday. It seems like yesterday that she was a baby with spiky hair.

Anyway i was sent home with some homework that I have to do for her Birthday celebration in school on March 20th. So I might as well write it in here. According to true Montessori tradition, the school that Kay is in (Progressive Montessori Academy) will have a ritual called the "Celebration of Life". It is a done during circle time, where a candle is lit to represent the moment of birth. The child will walk once around the circle to represent each year of life. A candle is lit each time the child walks around the sun while "The Story of Kay Lim" is being read aloud. So here I am... having to write the story down.

How do you sum up 5 years in one paragraph ? Ok here we go.

____________________________

"The STORY of KAY Lim - Age 5"
Kay was born on March 18th 2007. It was a Sunday around 7pm, in Toronto Ontario, Canada, North America on the planet earth. She had to be held and taken care of all the time, couldn't talk to mom or dad what was needed; had to wear diapers; drank lots of milk and slept most of the time. By 3 months she could sit up by herself, and made some new friends in Stouffville (Niall, Paige, Mina & Caitlin). By 6 months she was crawling and by 9 months she had 2 front teeth poking through her gums.

When Kay was 1 year old, she could walk on her own. And she loved to talk, but in her own language. She also travelled to Singapore (in Asia) and took the plane for the first time. She was still scared of Santa Claus and had spiky hair.

At 2 years old, Kay had 3 successful attempts at the potty. Her favourite things were Dogs and Dora. She loved to be read stories like Go Dogs Go and poems. She could also sing many songs.

At 3 years old, Kay rode her tricycle for the first time. She loved posing in front of the camera and dancing. She had her first dance recital on stage. She still loved music, reading and can speak in full sentences. She was still with her nanny at this time and loved to play with her nanny's kids (Sarah and Stephen). They have become good friends and Kay has become a part of their family as well.

At 4 years old, Kay went to Progressive Montessori Academy and started her first year in school. She travelled to Asia and New Zealand to see her grandparents and spent her 4th birthday in Nelson, New Zealand. She still loves to read, dance, sing and play hide-n-seek. She could play some tunes on the keyboard and recorder. She could also ride her bike (with training wheels) on her own. She was scared of the Strawberry Festival mascot and spiders...and still is.

And now Kay is 5 years old! She can dress, go the washroom, wash her hands and eat her meals by herself (most of the time, with mommy screaming at her to "hurry up"). We are so proud that she can write her name in Chinese characters and starting to spell words on her own. Her favourite colour is Green and Blue, favourite food is chocolate, chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. Her favourite thing to do is ride her bike when the weather is nice, play "connect 4" with her mum and dad and beat them at it ! Her favourite book is _____ and there are a lot. ( will have to ask her)

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So, there we go. The Story of Kay in whole long breath.
My homework is done, but I'm glad I got to go back and look at all the events that happened in our journey together. It has been so much fun and I wouldn't trade it for anything else.

Will update with photos of the party on Sunday.

Question & Answer

Gotta love the 4 year old toddler and all their questions. I will start this post and come back to it every time I come across something that Kay said that is cute, funny, heart-warming or frustrating. We are really enjoying this summer together so far, so there will be lots of conversations to document here. The busy Strawberry Festival weekend just passed with lotsa fun with friends in the neighbourhood, sun, horse-riding and splashing in the pool.

"Why is our nose between our eyes ?"
Hmmm...i told her that she wouldn't want it on her back as she would smell her poo every time she went to the toilet. Granny Lyn said: "So we can see it better ... one eye for each side of it :-)"

"Mum, I love you so much i don't know what to say". The version earlier yesterday was
"Mum, I love you so much but I don't know why..." ....Just melts your heart.

Me:"Kay, why are you taking so long in the toilet?"
Kay: "Cos' I have a lot of poo !"

Kay just wet the sofa after her nap, got scolded by me.
"Sorry i peed on the couch, accidents happen".

"Why do men pee from their belly buttons?"

"argh hahaha ... " Kay at 4, has the loudest fake laugh ever !

"Find me, mum!" ... constantly playing hide and seek (at least 20 times a day)

"Let me tell you my plan today" ... one of her usual lines when she wakes up in the morning.
Her plan usual starts with waking up, brushing teething, washing her face, going to pee, change her clothes, have breakfast, then go to her nanny's place. But it takes her 10 mins to tell me her plan before we can start doing anything.

"Where are we going?" ... if I make a turn that is not in the usual route, she needs to know where we are going.

"Mum I don't want you to grow old" ... when she sees an old lady on the streets.

3 and a bit

The gap between blogs seem to be widening as there are more things happening in our lives. Between March and now (which is September), we were busy with endless things : Search for a site for the cafe; bought a property for cafe; Looking for contractors; Branding and Renovations for Red Bulb; Kay's dance recital in May; Michelle & Andy's Wedding; Sharon (a dear friend from singapore) visiting Toronto; Opening of Red Bulb; Muun Design Studio winning an award; Took a trip to Ottawa/Niagara/St. Jacobs; Dealing with extremely hot weather; Vince & Penny (from Hong Kong) Visiting Toronto; More hot weather and playing in the splash pads ...

We are glad that Kay has been a part of every one of these events in some way or another and it has a great journey so far. No doubt there were lots of sleepless nights, heated arguments and headaches along the way, we have managed to come through it all unscathed (so far). Kay has been the shining light at the end of the day. Yes, she wears mummy out excessively, but everything would be fine after a hug and a kiss. It's been such joy seeing her grow into this little person. Very opinionated, extremely sharp, smart, sensible, sensitive, vocal and funny. She would break into a dance while playing "tea party" or start humming a Hedley "Perfect" tune on the radio while knowing all the words in the lyrics.

Recently, she has been into a somewhat disturbing topic of "death". She keeps talking about things dying, not fully understanding the concept. It's a tough one to explain to a 3 year old for sure. We also want to teach her about compassion and not killing bugs and ants when she sees them. So I've been telling her how bugs also have families and how little bugs have mummies and daddies just like her. Then trying to explain why we are killing flies in the cafe. There probably isn't a good enough reason ever to be taking away the life of a living thing as we are taught in Buddha's teachings. So we have tried to close the windows at the cafe whenever we can to prevent them from coming in.

I should probably be blogging more to talk about her little peeves and such as they happen, but right now I just want to be completely absorbed in the moments before she grows up too quickly and begins kindergarten next September. Here are some snapshots from the past few months.

Strike a Pose ...birthday continues.

A week ago ... we are going back and forth with the timeline a little.
Kay and her friends waiting for the Pinkalicious Play to begin. It was a LONG 40 minute wait before it started. But glad they enjoyed it. Kay and Caitlin were the only 2 that sat on the rug by themselves through the whole play. Then we enjoyed some $2 pink mini cupcakes after the show. Weather outside was wet, but at least we had some fun inside :)

Fast forward to this week, yesterday...
The birthday continues as Uncle Mike and Art visits Kay. More smiley cupcakes. As you can tell mummy is not very creative with the cupcake decorating. Actually i'm just testing out all the nibs I have in the piping kit I just got at the recent Food show.

The rest of the photos ... is just Kay POSING .... She Loves to pose for the camera. Wonder where she got that from :P