Check out the intense look of a 2 year old…
… determined to get the glass slipper onto Cinderella’s foot.
Hooray!
In case you’re wondering, she’s been sitting there quietly for about 10 min just trying to put that darn slipper on. I offered to help, only to be shooed off with a “I can do it by myself!”
When I first saw those annoying little plastic shoes, I was sure they will be lost the very next day. They drop off the doll’s feet ever so easily. Surprisingly… Cinderella’s shoes are still around!
And Estelle has been taking real good care of them, ensuring that the doll has them on before she puts it away. I’m so proud of her simply because I will never have the patience. Why did they have to make these things so flimsy? And once you lose them, it really renders the entire Cinderella doll useless doesn’t it? It’s not like they sell the shoes as an accessory either. And it’s pretty stupid to be so obsessed with a glass slipper… how comfy can that be? How does one walk with glass shoes? And hello?! It breaks…
Anyway…
I’m glad that Estelle has started to invent her own stories. Not fully grasping the whole evil stepsisters concept, she has accepted Drizella and Anastacia (using her Barbie dolls) and now the 3 dolls spend their time having cookouts and picnics with Pooh Bear and friends.
Estelle is starting to move away from the moulds and shapes which came with the playdoh set. Instead, she’d rather create her own playdoh family, and have her own parties.
So today, I took out a bunch of straws and cut them into various lengths for her. She immediately stuck them into the different coloured lumps and gave them arms and legs…
After a few attempts, legs were stuck to the front so that they can all sit down. (The characters kept falling over when she had them under the body, and she gave up after a while.) Okay, I had to help her out with moulding the shape of the body for some of them… bet you can guess which ones.
SO here’s the complete cast holding hands, singing “Ring-a-ring of Roses”. (Purple = Ethan, Pink = Amelie, Orange = Estelle, Green = Mummy, White = Ah Ma, Brown = Ah Gong, Blue = DaddyO.)
And after the party in the park… Ah ma had to give Estelle a bath…
Cousin Ethan is CRAZY about Dinosaurs… poor Ah Ma can’t get her tongue round the pronunciation.
All I hear is somethingsaurus, somethingraptor, somethingdon… (good thing I have girls…) hahaha.
We (DaddyO and I) had a “discussion” about dinosaurs (or rather, he griped, and I listened… heh heh).
He thinks that there is no point teaching Estelle about the dinosaurs as the “facts” we have about these reptiles, are merely theories, and interpretations of few scientists. And these theories keep changing. True… I don’t really want Estelle to explore fantasy YET.
He thinks that there are some features of the dinosaurs that just doesn’t make sense. Evolution can’t have made that much of a mistake. Especially for the super-predators which boast of flaws (such as T-Rex’s tiny forearms) which would have seen their extinction waaaay before the end of the Cretaceous Period. Well… that makes sense too…
And to be honest, DaddyO continues, we actually know NOTHING about dinosaurs, save for a few bones. Their colours, their appearance, etc, are all fictional. Can’t argue with that…
Apparently DaddyO himself was really interested in dinosaurs when he was young (during his “encyclopedia boy” phase) but he was deeply disillusioned when all the “facts” that he read just didn’t match up.
Still, I think it’s pretty useful to know about them if Estelle is interested… but in the age when we are reduced to just having 8 planets by a bunch of scientists, it’s hard to buy the theory of dinosaurs.
While out on our daily walks, Estelle loves to collect the sticks that lay on the pavement.
I usually allow her to pick up as many sticks as she’d like and she will happily relinquish the sticks when we finish our walk, or when she gets distracted with an insect or dandelion (or one of the species found locally).
So, on this day, the smarty-pants mother thought she’d use this to her advantage and teach Estelle about strength in unity.
“Estelle look! One stick can break easily (*snap*). But you can’t break a bundle of sticks.”
Estelle watched earnestly… and her eyes lit up.
Cool! I thought, she understood.
“Mummy look, Estelle break sticks!” *snap* *snap* *snap* *snap*
Ah well… maybe next time. 
Just as Estelle was enjoying her lunchtime movie, post cat-trauma… a little kitten ran right into our house! The 2 DOGuardianS immediately jumped into action (bet they haven’t had this much fun for a while) and the poor kitten ran past Estelle into the kitchen before jumping onto the window sill, hanging on for dear life.
It didn’t help that all this happened during a tropical thunderstorm, we had the blackout curtains drawn for the projector television, and Estelle was all alone, sitting on the sofa.
She SCREAMED.
I didn’t know who was more terrified, the kitten or Estelle. After rescuing one from the sofa, I put the dogs away before getting the other one off the window, and gave it some milk.
The poor kitten was so skinny. It’s quite a cute little kitten with black and ginger spots. But it has a swollen left eye and some dried blood on its face. The swell has gone down since I saw it last night when it dropped by my neighbours’ house late last night. It must have liked us… either that, or it’s just trying its luck.
It’s quite a trusting little kitten. I was pretty glad to have the opportunity to show Estelle how vulnerable cats are. And also, it helped her get over the earlier incident.
Awww… I would have kept it if we had a bigger place. I don’t even have the space to foster it for a little while… so sadly, after it had its fill, I had to put it out once more, into the wet and cold… Life is hard without love…
On our regular morning walks, we usually catch sight of this ginger cat that roams about in the neighbourhood. The smart kitty always takes off whenever she sees Estelle approaching… I think mainly due to the fact that Estelle never walks anywhere but gallops at top speed or bounces around like a kangaroo.
And having grown up with 2 dogs, Estelle is addicted to animals, and pretty much has no fear of any barking dogs or hissing cats. She’s been wanting to make friends with this ginger cat for ages, but the cat is no one’s friend…
Well, we can’t really blame the cat. She did allow Estelle to pat her and panicked only when Estelle wanted to carry her and give her a hug.
Poor Estelle burst into tears.
Back at home, a quick antiseptic swab and some cream (ahem, ICE-cream) later, her mood was pretty much restored.
Lesson learnt? hmm…
Estelle is starting to play on her own these days. Another sign that my baby is growing up? SOBS.
She was happily organising a tea party with Lumpy and Roo (from the Heffalump movie) while I was busy with the baby this afternoon. She even had the correct food served! Lumpy had bananas and watermelon, Roo had watermelon and apple (okay, not strictly right since kangaroos eat grass… but we don’t have toys that resemble grass and according to the Disney movie, Roo ate watermelons and had apples in his lunchbox.) and Estelle had a hot dog.
It’s soooo sweet. heh heh. Yes, I’m obsessively in love with my daughter.
I’m glad we (ahem, credit goes to SSAY) decided to indulge in her liking for Pooh stories. SSAY bought the really cool Lumpy toy and DaddyO found little Roo while they were in USA. Estelle plays with them everyday. This is how she usually travels with her compatriots… (you can’t really see Roo here, but she has it in her right hand.)
The character Estelle likes to imitate is that of the little joey, Roo. She’ll happily hop around the house the whole day while saying “tongy, tongy”. She also calls me Mama Kanga and that’s my cue to address her as Estelle Roo.
Estelle and Ethan have been moved to the Thursday Playgroup at MyGym. This group has kids who are closer to age 3 rather than 2, and are more involved with the activities and with the teachers.
And for the first time… I think my darling Estelle has slowly become a preschooler rather than just a toddler.
The first quarter of an hour was still pretty much madness, kids hopping and jumping and doing heaps of stuff around the gym during free time. A lot rowdier and a lot chirpier.
But when it was circle time, all of them sat down and engaged with the teachers, followed instructions. And during Story Time, they asked questions, fought to be the first to answer questions and to identify the objects in the books… altogether a more mature and vocal bunch.
There wasn’t any clingy whimpering young ‘uns, and no run-off-and-do-my-own-thing toddlers, and instead of merely tolerating each other during play time, they actually talked to each other and sang songs together! I even caught Estelle asking a boy for his drum, and the boy later exchanged it for Estelle’s xylophone.
But of course, Estelle still prefers cousin Ethan… Spot the difference. These photos were barely 5 seconds apart.
On the way back from Grandma and Grandpa’s place…
“Amelie look like boy…”
Pause.
Patting Amelie on the head… “Good boy, Amelie, good boy!”
“No darling, Amelie is a girl.”
“No! Amelie boy, not girl! Good boy Amelie!”
It’s been absolutely ages since SSAY and I took Estelle swimming… And seeing as it’s SSAY’s off day today, we simply had to go for a dip!
Here are my two wearing matching clothes courtesy of SSAY.
And here’s the beach babe parading the latest item in her swimwear collection…
