My Sweetheart

Tricia loves to draw and colour just about anything… she’s very excited about craftwork and she can cut and paste all day. It’s wonderful to watch her work on her stuffs. She’ll organize her things, hum a tune and sing a song as she draws and colours, cut and paste… I think she has drawn more pictures than I have in my whole life.

My darling girl, my sweetheart...at her favourite spot in the house.

Here are some of her drawings on the ground in the backyard...

One day, I gave her some chalk and she went to work right away. Her favourite type of drawing is of a girl, in 2 ponytails (that's how she likes me to tie up her hair), usually surrounded by flowers, stars and hearts. She likes to draw all of us too... When she reads storybooks, her eyes light up when she sees beautiful pictures. Sometimes, she also laments that she can't draw as well as the illustrators.

While playing in the backyard, Tricia discovered that she can draw with woodchips!

She loves to read Mandarin books and she learns to write Mandarin characters pretty fast. I find myself rather inadequate when it comes to coaching her in this area... I hope that reading and reading would help in her learning Mandarin...

Getting Tricia to read also centers around pictures and colours, cut and paste… These are her sight words that she’s cut and pasted onto her butterflies. I told her that she’s helping her butterflies to find their way to the flower…that seems to encourage her to remember these words.

Tricia misses her cousin, Clarissa. On the left is the birthday card that Clarissa has made for her. She has drawn some pictures and cards for Clarrisa, got to get them to the post office soon.

Tricia's impression of Moomba Waterfest. She remembers the ride on the Ferries Wheel and the fireworks. I marvel at her great sense of colour. She blends them beautifully. This also applies to her dressing. Just like mummy, she takes pain to coordinate her clothes...

Unlike her brother, Tricia is very shy with the other kids, mainly due to the language barrier – she can’t understand the lingo and nuances in the other’s kids’ speech. She often says, ‘I dunno what they’re talking about.’ My poor girl.

One afternoon, Tricia asked me, ‘Mummy, when are we going back to Singapore?’ ;(

I was shocked by her question and very concern what she was thinking. I went to her and told her we’ll go back at the end of the year. And to that, she asked again, ‘Is end of the year tomorrow?’ This is how fast kids her age want things to happen.

I spent some time talking to her and explained that we’re here now and they’ve started school, papa has started work…so we’ll stay till the big holiday before we return to SGP. Of course, she can’t wait.

In her own words, ‘I miss My S’pore School, my teacher, Mrs Lin, and my friends in Lemon class.’ Now and then, she talks about returning to SGP and continue to the nursery class she was with last year. That’s how much she misses BPMC Kindergarten. She has had wonderful memories there. But most of all, she misses her grandparents.

She likes being with Aria. Aria’s her new friend, her family has moved here from India 3 years ago. They share and work well together. They both love to draw. When Aria’s not in school, she comes back and tells me how lonely she felt. She also asked me why there are so many kids with blonde hair and some with blue eyes. Lately, she's beginning to speak with an aussie accent, usually when she's playing with her dolls and toys, imitating her teacher...

Her buddies from Grade 5, Anna and Teju, made these cards for her.

Tricia and I made this little paper plate autumn wreath. This week, the letter is A and Tricia’s Show and Tell will be on Autumn, A for Autumn… Just wish that she didn’t have to do this in the hot ‘summer heat’… but we’ve so much fun making it. We love our autumn wreath.

I admire Tricia's patience. She spent about 3 hours on this, colouring, cutting and pasting the little flowers and leaves.