expiration date 

today marks her graduation from baby/toddler thing to a child. wow. and she does act like a child… you know, she wants to do everything herself… anyways, this year, we’ll divide the year into two categories:

the first half: before school

this was definitely the best time of my life… i got along very well with her. and she’s very helpful. we woke up together. showered together. we cooked meals together, where she helped me with kitchen work. we cleaned the house together. we shopped together. and we rarely fought.

we got along so well that there were times where i felt sad knowing that this will someday end.

this was also the time when i felt that i wanted to have another child. i mean, who doesn’t? with a daughter so helpful and so sweet, i thought it would be good to have another one like this one.

unfortunately, aina did not want to have a sibling. at all. infact, she would get angry of we touch that subject. oh well.

second half: school

at 4.5 year old, aina finally went to school. even though she was briefly worried, she quickly adjusted and is having the best time at school. so good that she doesn’t really like weekends.

school was a big change, so it took time for us to adjust. and for the first two months, aina and i kept getting into disagreements. then, we went on a family vacation in March to Europe, and after that everything went back to normal. the three of us got along well again. i guess that’s why we needed a family vacation once in a while… to get in tune with one another.

and now, the usual quick list of milestones:

1. started school… obviously, a big milestone
2. rides a bike on two wheels. yes, she can ride a bike now!
3. graduated into a pre-ballet class. she’s been waiting for this for the last 6 months!
4. she now can read. i mean she can write, but that’s from the school… but she’s been teaching herself how to read lately.
5. she’s been very into Chinese languange. thanks to her Chinese teacher at school, Chinese class is her favorite class, along with SportBall.
6. she can sew. not too neat, but good enough to make small felt decorations.
7. she’s also enjoys doing spool-knitting, and plans to do some more.
8. she’s been doing cross-stitching lately, but i haven’t posted that entry yet.
9. she went for a non-competitive kids race and ran with me on Cold Storage Kids Run. that was fun :)