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..

Another curtain call..

After 8 weeks of activities revolving around learning lines, new songs and dance moves, the  Original Kids Theatre Company of London Ontario put on the Fall 2013 show called ‘Squirm!’. It centred around the rhyme ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’.

This is just up Kylee’s street as she loves to learn new lines, songs and dance routines. She is and always has been a ‘natural’ entertainer who puts on impromptu shows wherever she is.

An example fairly recently was in Cherryhill Mall. There was an old guy watching her, and one would have to say that he didn’t look too impressed. However, when his wife arrived back from her shopping excursion and was ready to leave, he told her that he couldn’t leave just yet as he was watching the show. So they both watched Kylee until she had finished her routines.

Kylee always inspires pride in us, and this was one of many times, so if I was asked who was star of the Squirms show, I would have to say that Kylee was.

Of course, OKTC is not about being a star. It is all about fun, and the players do other activities as well as learning about stage craft.

There are some ‘players’ who don’t always remember their lines, songs or the dance routines, and look out of place, but OKTC ensures that all players have an equal showing, and that nobody is singled out in any way. These shows are as much about bringing children out of their shells as much as anything, and we should be grateful that Kylee does it with such ease.

Was it a good show? As grandparents, we were ALL proud of our respective ‘stars’, as one would expect and hope.

For more on OKTC, click on the link..

http://www.oktc.ca

.. and have a great day..

Now we are ‘Six’..

Kylee had a special birthday party two days before her official date. It was held at home and was a properly organised ‘princess’ party headed by a professional Cinderella.

Cinders made her an ‘official’ princess as part of the closing ceremony, and Kylee’s face was priceless. To be honoured in such a way was more than she expected, especially as she thought that Cinderella would be way too busy attending balls to even show up for her birthday party.

The birthday cake was special too, having been made by Aunt Mel (it was good, Mel. I would have eaten more of it but had to leave some for everybody else) and in Kylee’s favourite colours, pink and white.

In attendance were classmates and friends she has had since being able to sit up without the assistance of a Jolly Jumper. It was three hours of less raucous fun that I expected. Surprisingly, there was not as much screaming as one might associate with 17 little girls and one boy chasing each other around the garden.

Being ‘six’ brings other joys of course. Grade One school involves more learning than play, and she has the task of learning 32 new words, ‘en Francais s’il vous plait, je crois’. I will do my best to help out even though my memory of French is limited to mainly grammar and having to cast my mind back a ‘long’ way into the past.

Other than that, Kylee is adapting to being older very well.

Today, she gets to see her new car booster seat. It is one of these.. see the photo?

OK, well its time to get ready to greet her from school. Until the next time..

Grade One..

Thirteen days from now, Kylee will be 6 years old, and is now in Grade One school.

She was worried about a couple of things prior to moving up and out of Senior Kindergarten

1. With having school Monday through Friday in Grade One instead of every other day as per JK and SK, what would she do in the event that she became tired?
2. Would it mean that she would be too old to love her favourite stuffed bear, Rainbows?

Needless to say, she is coping admirably with the ‘stresses’ of 5 day per week school, as she will cope admirably with the extra weight of ‘homework’ beginning tomorrow. Don’t worry.. she will not be expected to write 10,000 word dissertations just yet. It will be all simple stuff.

‘Bravo’ badges are becoming the norm too, and if you knew her as we do, you would understand why we are not surprised, pleased for her of course that she gets recognition for being one in a million, but not surprised that she does.

On a slightly sadder note, we as grandparents don’t get to see her anything like as much as we did. We are down to picking her up from school on occasion and the odd baby sitting stint into early evening.

Yes, she is missed.

This October sees her start back at ‘Kidlets’, a theatrical group for aspiring actors and actresses, where she can really play out her skill for comedic timing and ‘drama’. If she doesn’t end up doing something on stage in later life, I will be shocked and may ‘turn over’ a few times in silent protest.

On the computer front, she now knows how to reset a wireless connection on a PC having watched me do it just once. Scary stuff, eh..

It is her birthday very soon, and so I will break from this blog temporarily while I consider what to buy her for a birthday present.

SK comes to an end..

The report: All good, including being kind, taking leadership, participating in everything, trying really hard to be the best that she can.

Oh, she does part of it in French too..

I would like to say that I have been a large part of what she is and can do, but the truth is that she was born that way, and I have learned more watching her grow up than I have ever taught her.

So, the start of the next year is not far off, and it is Grade One all of the way. The culture shock is that Grade One is school every week day, not every other day. It will be interesting to see what she can lean in a full week because she has astounded at times with what she has picked up part-time.

I asked Kylee what she thought about going up to Grade One and her response was tearful. She was scared that as she got older, she wouldn’t love Rainbows, her favourite bear, or be able to do all of the things that she does now. Strange how kids think, eh. We told her that life is not quite like that, so now her only misgiving about Grade One is the possibility of getting a bossy teacher.

Kylee has also been learning to swim and is at Level One, having completed the test which included doing a width of the pool unassisted. If she would stop talking, she would be able to swim more, but she likes to discuss her progress with the coach, entering into fairly lengthy discussions re her weak and strong points. The strongest point is that as with everything that she does, maximum effort is always applied.

Go, Kylee go..

The Original Kids Theatre Company..

Some eight weeks ago, Kylee joined the OKTC.

Every Monday after school, she attended rehearsals and, as always, put her all into it.

The first that we knew was a sudden burst of singing to a CD she fed into her computer.

The show, a musical, was called Lemonade!, a theme repeated throughout, but was based around a number of popular short stories and rhymes, including the Three Little Pigs, Chicken Little, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Bo Peep and many others.

Kylee’s part was Little Miss Muffet.

Did she do well? Kylee is a ‘natural’ performer who takes her audience seriously. She aims to get it right, and always does. She remembered her lines, remembered the songs, the steps and movements, her placing on stage, the whole nine yards.

Of a cast of twenty one, she was one of four who shone, and being biased I guess, she was the brightest of the four. Even other members of the audience thought it, so my bias is vindicated somewhat.

Will she be appearing in the OKTC again? This we don’t know. She had friends in the troupe who may be moving to a more ‘drama’ based company, but whatever, she will no doubt shine again, no matter what the ‘company’.

I have one photo, taken on a less than professional cellphone camera which shows Kylee (centre front) and her great friend Andie (left front).