Brownies..

Not the cake things.. BROWNIES as in junior Girl Guides.

Kylee had her induction today, promising to be good to all (including grumpy old Papas) and other stuff which Brownies have to promise.

We then had a show of what Brownies do at the beginning of every Brownie meeting, and I now know why the meeting extends to an hour and a half.

After the show, all new Brownies were presented with badges which need to be sewed onto the Brownie sash, and the proceedings finished up with everybody eating chocolate cake.

A successful evening all around, and as with all group activities which don’t include homework, Kylee had loads of fun..

A hiccup..

It;s called ‘Pneumonia’ and is very debilitating, especially for a young child. Kylee had three weeks of it, time away from school, and it has left her a little behind in what her class has been doing.

She will catch up of course, being a smart child with an unwillingness to come in second to anybody, but it is going to require some hard work on her part and an insistence on ours that it is done.

She calls her illness ‘ammonia’, and yes, pneumonia is every bit as distasteful as ammonia.

Sometimes, her expectations bring her down. An example: She recently started skating with a view to being a figure skater, and her expectation was that she would soon be on TV performing a ‘double Salko’ and a ‘triple Lutz’.

It’s a difficult situation because, on the one hand it is good to encourage her to do things, but on the other hand it is easy to put a child off doing something because it is going to take years of practice. For somebody who likes instant success, it is even more difficult. So I will say this.. 

Kylee, you can do it, but it may not be tomorrow..

It’s back to school..

.. Grade 2 no less. Kylee was a bit upset about going back, I understand, maybe misgivings about not liking the new class teacher, but after the first day, it was all smiles and I don’t doubt that she is well on her way to becoming teacher’s pet.

Apparently, there was no learning of anything, just talking about different things. I would imagine that the new teacher is quickly trying to remember names and make an initial assessment of each child.

Kylee thinks that the new teacher is ‘awesome’, btw.

Grade 1 is over..

.. and guess who received a glowing report? All a’s and b’s again. Kylee also received a certificate, and incidentally the only one given in her class, commemorating her ability to speak French in class almost all of the time.

Each child also received an album containing photos throughout the year showing a variety of class activities, and Kylee’s teacher, Mme. Nolan wrote that she would miss her ‘little ray of sunshine’, something that she has been to her Granny and myself since she was born. The funny part was that she had no idea what a little ray of sunshine was, but assumed that it was a positive thing.

I note that she also did well in the ‘skipping endurance’ part of physical activities. They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but this old dog managed to teach Kylee the trick of how to skip with a rope enough that she could manage over 50 continuous skips when she put her mind to it.

Yes, I am still as biased as ever but what grand-parent wouldn’t be.

Grade 2 will start September of this year, and if Kylee continues to improve at the rate she did through Grade 1, her next report might be all a’s, a far cry from my school reports, I can tell you..

The skipping rope..

It is a relatively cheap red plastic rope with black handles at each end and, two weeks ago, the best that Kylee could do was two skips. It’s summer, there is a an up and coming skip rope competition at her school and Kylee wanted to skip.

So, after breakfast (I have been on early morning duties recently), I was asked if she could skip outside. It was painful to watch, I have to tell you, as time after time she managed two skips and then bust.

I may not seem like the best skip rope tutor these days, but skipping is like riding a bicycle. Once you know how to do it, you can always do it, or at the very least remember how to do it.

The first job was to get the right length, and you do that by stepping on the rope and adjusting the length such that it reaches your armpits. In theory this is good but not when the skippers arms are not holding station. Anyway, after a few minutes, we had the rope at the right length.

By the end of the first morning, we had six consecutive jumps. Two weeks later, and after practising every weekday before school, Kylee managed forty eight consecutive skips, followed five minutes later by forty four. Not bad when you consider that her personal target was thirty. In total, she probably managed two hundred jumps in total, and although it wore her out, she made her way to school feeling very pleased with herself and a determination to enter the skip rope competition at school.

Do I think that she will do well? Yes, I do because when Kylee puts in the effort, she can do anything, and Kylee is not the type of personality who likes being at the back.

A tip I gave her is to hold both handles in one hand and rotate the rope at a constant speed, adding jumps every time that the rope hits the ground. This technique helps a great deal with timing, and Kylee adopts it when she is struggling to make more than three skips.

She thinks that I should take on a second job as skip rope tutor to the world..

A new pin..

.. a second pin has been set up because the old pin is full. Full of what? Diamonds of course, and after the seventh diamond is attached to the pin, you get to take it home and a new pin is started. Now do you see what I mean?

You get a diamond for being good, actually exceptionally good, a role model no less. After Kylee got her first ‘Bravo’, she had already won double the awards I ever got at school and she is not even out of Grade One yet.

Getting to take your pin home is no easy achievement but I would imagine that Kylee makes it look easy.

Another success..

Guess who doesn’t need trainer wheels on her bicycle anymore? It doesn’t take much guesswork, and if you answered ‘Kylee’, you would be right of course, but there are no prizes for a right answer.

Kylee’s achievements to date show how far a person can go with kindness and a determination to succeed, and it will be interesting to see the grand total for the entire year. There are only five and a half months to go to her next birthday celebration and a lot can happen in that time, and I expect that it will..

A new way to make friends..

Kylee has been told not to interrupt when people are speaking, and being an intrinsically good kid, she obeys the rule. However, Kylee is difficult to keep down, not a bad thing in my books, and a few days ago, she found a new around not interrupting.

We were sitting in a local Tim Horton’s, and Kylee has been playing a version of ‘hide and seek’ with a couple of pensioners sitting behind us. She asked me for use of a pen, grabbed a paper napkin, wrote ‘My name is Kylee’, and then held it up for the two pensioners to see.

As it happened, both were or had been teachers, and they just had to talk to her as we were about to leave. All big smiles of course, and questions for her.

She loves it, people around her love it, and we could all learn a lot from her. It’s al too easy to become insular, secretive and crotchety, and far too many of us do attain all three negative qualities. I am hoping that she doesn’t or is forced into it by the disposition and attitudes of others. So far, it s all good, and is a pleasure to watch.

PS. Guess who can ride a bike without training wheels attached? Another break-through in recent days. It all happens for good little girls..

A lover of technology..

Kylee has always embraced technology, right from the first days of watching me fix computers. I set up a computer for her at this location almost four years ago and, last birthday, she was bought a cellphone (it wasn’t me) which occasionally has minutes out on it.

Anyway, it came to pass that I had to collect her from school last Wednesday, visiting the school office before leaving. I was told why, but Kylee was completely in the dark, and a touch apprehensive about having to go there.

On entry, the school secretary looked up, big smile, walked around the desk and presented Kylee with a prize she had won in the school draw. It wasn’t an ‘also ran’ prize. It was the TOP prize, an iPad Mini no less.

I have seen Kylee go through many emotions over time, but I have never seen her blush so much or be speechless. As the enormity of it dawned on her, she let out ‘I’ve won an iPad”, a phrase repeated continually as we left the school, on the way back home, at home..

I can’t think of a better candidate for the win. If anybody deserved it, she did, for her kindness, her caring, everything good about her.

Well done, Kylee..

One liners.. perfect timing..

These are not in any particular order, but most were said in the early days of her grasping spoken English. It is but a small selection. I will start another post if I remember more.. 

‘This is my bum’

Location: Masonville Mall. Kylee was walking by this time and she liked to pull along the red cooler bag in which were stored supplies for a diaper change. She was very proud of her red bag and told everybody what was in it.

“I got keys”

Location: the elevator in our apartment block. She was sitting in a push chair at the time, holding Granny’s keys. The elevator stopped and another resident entered. The extraordinary part about this is that we were not aware that she knew the word ‘keys’.

“On the cupboard”

Location: Our apartment. Kylee had hurt herself, obvious by the complaining. It wasn’t bad, but Granny asked where she hurt herself. We expected her to say ‘knee’ or ‘hand’. For her age at the time, she wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the age where multi-syllable words could be said.

“No moon, no sleep”

Location: balcony. Granny was out on the balcony and was holding Kylee such that she could see more. Granny had also been explaining earlier about going to sleep when the moon comes out. Kylee looked out over the night view and saw that there was no moon.

“I want houp”

Location: Tim Hortons at Wonderland and Southdale.  Kylee was asked what she would like to eat. On a previous visit, I had shared some of my SOUP with here, but at the time, Kylee couldn’t manage the letter S at the front of a word. Granny couldn’t understand her, so Kylee raised her voice and said “Baba Houp”..

“Four year Old's can do that”

Location: Anywhere. This expression was used if Kylee was advised that what she was about to do next might not be a good idea..

“Ha Ha Ha”

Location: Masonville Mall. Santa had just announced his presence with a hearty ‘Ho Ho Ho’. Seconds later, Kylee announced her presence too..

“She used to be on a lot”

Location: Our apartment. Kylee knew that her mother was an ardent hockey player, and when hockey was being shown on TV, she more or less assumed that her mother was one of the players. Granny may also have played a part in Kylee believing this. So, when passing the TV, she would say ‘skate momma, skate’. Recently, hockey was on TV and she asked if her mother was playing. Granny told her no, and Kylee though about it for a few seconds and finally said “That’s strange.. ……..” The rest of this story should be obvious..

One hundred days into Grade One..

.. and Kylee’s interim school report is glowing, all A’s and B’s. But wait, there is a problem!

Kylee is pleased to have A’s and B’s, but other kids in the class got C’s and D’s, and Kylee doesn’t have any of them. Zut alors!!

She is a competitive girl and does not like to lose out, even on low marks apparently. It was explained to her that C’s and D’s were not so good, and the tears that had started to appear dried up rapidly.

Destination Disney..

As I write this, Kylee is in Florida for her yearly visit to Disney, beaches and warm weather. The family first drive to Detroit and stay over in a hotel because the flight south leaves criminally early in the morning. For Kylee, this part of the journey is almost as exciting as Florida. If it were me at that age, I would be asking when we were going to be on a beach, not looking forward to a night in Detroit.

Swimmingly good..

On the ‘learning to swim’ front, Kylee is getting set to swim Lake Ontario, well not quite that yet, but certainly the ‘deep’ end of the pool at the ‘Boys and Girls Club here in London. The only problem is that the deep end is separated off from the shallow end by a solid divider, and it is considerably colder on the other side.

Even with tears in her eyes, and swimming against the current made by the circulatory pumps, she made it from one side to the other, a truly supreme effort.

Gymnastics..

Kylee likes it but she lacks a ‘quality’ that all gymnasts have.. fearlessness. Whether swinging from bars, hanging from rings or ‘flic-flac’ floor exercises, gymnasts put a lot of faith into the landing, and Kylee doesn’t have what it takes to do that. A ‘flaw’ perhaps as far as gymnastics goes, but her fear works for her in everyday life. Safe, soft landings is her bag, and quite honestly, I think that is a good thing.

She recognizes that she is not quite the gymnast that some in here peer group are, but she enjoys the exercise and that is what counts.. 

Well, that rounds up this entry..