A Pleasant Valentine's Surprise

I got a very pleasant surprise this evening when we came back home after Shaayla's gym class. There, in front of our door, was a very lovely bouquet of tulips in a delicate glass vase. Tied around the glass vase was also a very cute and cuddly teddy bear. It was a surprise Valentine's Day gift from Suresh.....who's still in Munich...sigh....

Unfortunately, I can't take a photo of the actual bouquet as Suresh had taken the camera with him. Here's a picture of what it looks like...from www.gaetasflowers.com

Daddy's Not Around...

The past week has been an extremely busy period. In between trying to recover from a long-drawn cold, I had to start packing for Suresh's 3-week business trip to Europe. It's not his first business trip, but it's the first time he's going to be away for so long, and at a time when I'm trying to cope with the increasing weight of a 6-month pregnancy.

On Sat Feb 2, we had actually planned on visiting the Challenger School open house, but there were just too many errands to run. In the afternoon, we went for the Playhouse Disney Live! show at the San Jose Civic Auditorium. It's our second time seeing the show; the first being in Disneyland last August. This was different because it featured the Little Einsteins (Shaayla's fav), Handy Mandy (not Shaayla's fav), and of course Mickey and the gang from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Winnie the Pooh with his friends Darby and Tigger. After a quick trip to Target, we had dinner at Shalimar. It was only 6.30pm, so the dinner crowd wasn't in yet. But the night wasn't over yet, as I had to make a nine-layer kueh to bring to Maye's place the next day for an early Chinese New Year lunch.

On Sun, it was a busy morning cooking chicken rice to bring to Maye's place. Just before noon, Suresh rushed off for his last massage appointment at Grace Chiropractor as his neck, arm and shoulder were still troubling him.

And on Mon, after dropping Shaayla at school, there was some last minute packing to be done while Suresh took 2 last minute calls from the office. Then, it was a quick trip to Burlington Coat Factory to get a pair of replacement gloves for Suresh (he lost his at a warehouse audit the previous week). After lunch, it was time to leave for the San Francisco Airport. Suresh was taking the 6.30pm flight to London and we planned to be there at 4pm. But surprisingly, the airport was empty, so we had plenty of time for an early dinner. Given the peak hour traffic back to San Jose, it might be a long drive back home.

Tue was a usual school day, but Shaayla keeps mentioning 'I miss Daddy'. She'll look out of the window after her nap and see if Daddy's car is there. After school, she'll ask if Daddy is waiting in the car.

Wed is her gym day. In the evening, we were invited to a friend's house for Chinese New Year reunion dinner (steamboat!). But strangely, Shaayla developed a fever and her nagging cough was still troubling her. Today, I decided to keep her at home and brought her to the PD to figure out if it was something more serious. Seems like she might still have some remnants of her earlier UTI.....we'll see the results tomorrow.

Another 18 days before Suresh will be home......

Shaayla's Bedtime Reading

Here's Shaayla 'reading' her bedtime story. Well, not exactly reading...she actually remembers the words after we read it to her once or twice. But she does recognize a few words like 'a', 'the', 'I', 'is', 'up'.

Shaayla's School Crafts

In the blink of an eye, Shaayla has attended almost a month of preschool. She's really enjoying herself now. She has made many new friends and is quite a darling with the teachers. They've done quite a number of crafts in school and these are just some of them.

The school had a 'Grad for a Day' session yesterday where they were brought to the class of their next grade. So, Shaayla's class was brought to a Pre-K class where they did that messy chocolate biscuit that you see. It was part of math learning as they learned to count the M&Ms.

We've got to register her for the new school year starting in June. But we haven't quite decided if we want to continue with Merryhill or register her at Challenger School. Challenger is known (good or bad) for its emphasis on academics, and is therefore hugely popular among the Asians. But we've read a few comments on greatschools.net about its lack of a holistic education and over-stressed teachers, so we're still in two minds about it. We'll probably be able to decide better after the Challenger open house on Feb 2.

It's Raining Hail

The past few days of wintry cold weather brought a pleasant surprise early this afternoon. We were planning to go out when the heavens suddenly opened and torrential rain fell. But it was tiny hail stones that pelted down! They were more like little chipped ice, but it was great fun for Shaayla who ran out to the patio trying to catch the 'stones'.

Looks like the winter storm watch isn't over yet. The weather forecast is for more rain over the next week with temperatures hovering around 5C.

Brave Little Shaayla

It's been a week since Shaayla started preschool at Merryhill Preschool, and she's doing great. I'm actually pleasantly surprised at how fast she adapted. She cried on the first 2 days, standing forlornly at the fence staring at the carpark and crying 'I want my mummy!' But, by the third day, she only cried when I left her and then she was distracted by her new friend, Julia, at the playground.

On Monday this week, when we dropped her off, she had a slight look of hesitation, but it quickly faded and she smiled and waved goodbye. The rest of this week has been really great. Today, being Friday, is sharing day and she brought a storybook "Max & Mo Went Applepicking" to share with her class.

I had a surprise myself when I picked Shaayla up after school today. A boy, Justin, was wailing his lungs out and covering his ears. Guess the teacher, Ms Pretti, must have thought I looked worried, so she explained that they had a fire drill this morning! She quickly reassured me that Shaayla took it very well and didn't cry at all. When the alarm first sounded, she did ask for Mummy, but she soon calmed down and even comforted her friend, Julia, telling her there was nothing to be afraid of.

Our little girl is getting to be brave and sensible.