Nicolas turned 4 last Saturday. Wow. This means that he’s going to morning kindy as soon as a place becomes vacant. And that he’s going to school next year!
He’s turned into a real little boy now, complete with an inquisitive (“Why is it tidy up time?”), argumentative (“But I’m still playing!”) and negotiation-prone (“In 5 minutes ok?”) mind. He’s also very sweet to Eloïse, sharing his food (though making sure he gets the nicer bit), helping her when he realises she’s struggling with some tasks, and wanting her to come with him to places. He’s started developing a taste for relationships and friendships, reinforced by the fact that his friends came to his birthday party and gave him presents.
At the birthday party; making ice-cream and decapitating the Gummysaurus cake.
Nicolas has started to show an interest in reading; not so much in writing, his name ends up being a snaky scribble towards the end as he runs out focus. He’s started to recognise some words, though this might be due to repetition. He’s got an amazingly good memory and remembers where objects are hidden in games, or what certain words sound like. Or maybe his memory is normal and mine’s comparatively bad. He was given a great Lego set for his birthday and followed the instructions to assemble them by himself, with only minor guidance and adjustments from Maman. He’s become a little iPad addict, in particular to Where’s My Water?.
Nico keeping Eloïse occupied. He even grunts along with her to help her.
He’s has his first public speaking experience. On Tuesday he caught the train from Onehunga to Britomart, had some treats there, then back to Onehunga before heading to Kindy. There, he stood in front of all his friends and, showing them the map, explained what he was up to. Which is an achievement, considering how shy and quiet he can be. Maman is awfully proud of him.
After Ong Ngoai showed them the Pacific Island way to display flowers.
Ong Ngoai and Ba Ngoai came to visit for Nico’s 4th birthday. The kids really enjoyed all the attention while Maman enjoyed relaxing. By the end of it, Nico’s Vietnamese intonation really improved and he is a lot more likely to respond in Vietnamese or Dutch instead of English as was his habit. As for Eloïse, she was quite happy to repeat words, pretty much nailing the intonation.
Eating bi cuon, a join effort from Ong Ngoai and Ba Ngoai.
It pays to be ambidextrous, you can shove in twice the amount of food in one go.
Eloïse is turning into a little 21 month-old monkey (not in monkey years), climbing onto tables, windows and couches, and from then flying onto Papa’s beanbag. She’s fearless, and quite happy to go wherever her big brother goes, and do whatever he does.
She loves singing and dancing, and has been caught a few times singing the Alphabet song or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to herself. She’ll wriggle to any song. Her speech is coming along pretty fast, some words and sentences (“Whoops, made a mess…”) faster than others. She’s also a very polite girl, saying “Merci” more often than not, and “Sorry”. Her latest favourite is “Je t’aime”.
The kids tempers are radically different. Ellie is a lot more impatient and demanding while Nico is quite easy-going and can wait if he’s given a timeline. Nico is a bit of a dreamer and will his time to perform a task while Ellie is a bit more focused. Nicolas is cautious and will observe first; Eloïse will jump in. However they are both active and love running and hopping around, enjoy puzzles and reading books, love animals, and kisses and cuddles and junk food.
Sugar overdose!
