Wednesday, March 07, 2007

It was a heartbreaking day

Mommy is really disappointed with Kieona. For the past 2 days, she has been really insistent on getting her way, not listening, whining and throwing tantrums.

Just this evening, Daddy was home early and after dinner we decided to bring her and Kierra down to let her practise cycling with her new bicycle. She somehow rode down a gentle slope and because she only uses her right foot to paddle forward, Daddy told her to that she has to learn how to paddle properly so that she doesn't roll backward when she tries to rider back uphill. She screamed and told Daddy she doesn't want him and don't want to paddle that way. So she ended up rolling backwards her way of riding just wasn't going to work. After several failed attempts and rejecting Daddy's help for a few times, she wanted to give up and said that she doesn't want the bicycle anymore.

Daddy was furious, so took away the bicycle and said he'll give to someone else. She said ok. After that she told Mommy that she wanted the bicycle back, so I taught her to say sorry to Daddy and asked for it back. She did, but when we were on our way back home, she got on the bicycle and rode using her old technique again, so both Daddy and Mommy tried to teach her by guding her. She gave up and refused to co-operate, so we were both very disappointed and told her that she will sleep on her own tonight. She said ok and after a while started screaming and throwing tantrums after we went in with Mei Mei into our bedroom.

We decided to let her cry it out and taste for herself what it felt like to be rejected like that, so Mommy told Daddy to let her be until at least Mei Mei slept. Daddy fell asleep, so in the end Mommy had a talk with her in the maid's room, and later again in the hall. (She had gone to the maid's room, but in the end told the maid she wanted to sleep outside after I left the maid's room.) There she waited for me at the door to the study, and Mommy tried to ignore her until she made the first move. After a long talk with her did I let her back into the room.

Mommy sure hope that it has been a lesson to Kieona to respect and be grateful for other people's help. What at the end of the day we parents hope to achieve is that Kieona can change her attitude and try out (or learn) about things she does not know, instead of saying don't know and throwing in the towel without even trying. And worse still, tell us that she doesn't want us.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Kieona is 3 years old!

It has been a hectic few weeks, with the usual shopping spree with Chinese New Year just close to two weeks past and the preparation for Kieona's thrid birthday. Yes! Can you imagine that Kieona is now three years old? Just not too lond ago, we remember celebrating her birth and getting all confused on how to change, feed and bathe her.

Apart from having to get busy with business and shopping for the Chinese New Year, visiting relatives and so on, Mommy really was also rather stressed out with answering Kieona's constant questions about preparation of her goodies bags for her birthday. Now that she is bigger and having been through so many of her friends' parties in school, she definitely knows what she wants for her birthday - from the kind of cake (she wants chocolate with "Friends of the Zoo" cake) to the bags we use to put the goodies for her friends in school. The list is just endless and Mommy ran around town, the market and also searched the web before getting ready all her goodies.

All the hard work was worth it, as we could see how happy she was yesterday when she woke up to see her birthday present from daddy and mommy (a bright pink bicycle), and the mini celebration in school she had with her friends where our family attended as well. Below are some pictures of Kieona's third birthday (mostly taken courtesy of daddy).