Mu's measurements

Aalya is almost 5 and weighs 18kg and is 104.5cms tall already!

15th January 2007
Mr Bruce turned 50 so we went to the club with Lauren, Michael and Aalya. Lauren asked Aalya where she got her beautiful dress. Aalya said "my wardrobe".
6th January 2007
Aalya was looking at a picture on a packet of pull-up nappies. There was a picture of a child. She asked me if he was wearing pyjamas, and then she said "no, I think he's wearing his wake-up clothes."

December 2006

At the end of year presentation, Soraya received an award for Excellence in Reading.

Aalya graduated to the Whales Room after being in the Dolphin's Room. Children in the Whales Room don't wear nappies, there she's a big girl.

Pretty good to get a certificate to an event you didn't end up going to!

The "kids" Andrew, Aalya and Soraya watching a movie - Land Before Time.

NOVEMBER 2006Hands up if you love Sunday School!!

SORAYA'S YEAR 2 SCHOOL REPORT 
ENGLISH - OVERALL ACHIEVEMENT - HIGH ACHIEVEMENT
Talking and Listening - High Achievement
Reading - Outstanding Achievement
Writing - Sound Achievement

Teacher Comment - Soraya uses comments or questions to expand on ideas during class discussions. During Reader's Theatre she experiments with varying voice, tone, volume and pace to indicate emotion. Soraya is learning to make inferences about a character's actions, qualities and motives.MATHEMATICS - OVERALL ACHIEVEMENT - SOUND ACHIEVEMENT
Number - Sound Achievement
Patterns and Algebra - Sound Achievement
Data - High Achievement
Measurement - High Achievement
Space and Geometry - Sound Achievement

Teacher Comment - Soraya can count to 100 by two, fives and tens. She uses ordinal numbers 'first' to 'thirty first' on a calendar. Soraya is learning to recall the number of days in each month. She uses an array to model multiplication. She is learning to use the face value of coins and notes to count money.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - OVERALL ACHIEVEMENT - HIGH ACHIEVEMENT
Teacher Comment - Soraya followed a guided design process to make a number of toys including a 'roly poly', a pinwheel and a 'star jump Sally'. She was able to explain how her toys worked. Soraya confidently shared her design with her peers.HUMAN SOCIETY & ITS ENVIRONMENT - OVERALL ACHIEVEMENT - HIGH ACHIEVEMENT
Soraya enjoyed looking a pictures of toys from the past. She was able to discuss the similarities and differences between popular toys now and toys from the past. She was able to identify changes in her own life and predict what toys children might play with in the future.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT, HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATIONOVERALL ACHIEVEMENT - BASIC ACHIEVEMENT
Teacher Comment - Soraya is still developing the skills to hop on her non-preferred foot. She has difficulty maintaining her balance when standing or hopping on one leg. Soraya is developing skills to throw a small ball overarm accurately to a partner. She can identify different foods for a healthy life.CREATIVE ARTS - OVERALL ACHIEVEMENT - OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT
Teacher Comment - Soraya has enjoyed being a valued member of the School Choir. She learnt simple sign language to perform when singing True Colours at the School Spectacular. Soraya can respond to the beat and changes in tempo and dynamics when playing a percussion instrument.

Social Development (Rarely, Sometimes or Usually)
Works cooperatively - usually
Follows instructions - usually
Respects school rules - usually
Displays appropriate behaviour - usually

Commitment To Learning
Completes tasks in class - usually
Displays a positive attitude to learning - usually
Borrows regularly from the library - sometimes
Ask for help when needed - usually

Days Absent: 6

General Comment
Soraya is an entertaining and thoughtful student. She has the ability to complete work of a high standard. Soraya sometimes needs to be reminded to complete her work quickly and to the best of her ability. She usually shows sensitivity to the needs, rights, feeling and effort of others. It has been a privilege to have Soraya as a student for the last two years and a joy to observe her growth and development. Best wishes for Year 2, Soraya.

We were in a shop and Moo pointed up "look Auntie Ninnar, bumwhackers." Huh? Took her closer to make sure what they were, and they were pinatas. I had one at my birthday and she'd remembered whacking them with the stick. I'm still not sure where the name came from!!

Today we were in the car and Moo started chatting. "My Grandpa and Grandpa came to stay and my Grandpa took me to the farm. Cows have pulls you know."

"They have what?" I said.

"Pulls, you know to pull the milk out of the cow.Here are some photos Grandpa sent over.

2006 pre-school photo

Soraya loves here little sister, who was already asleep, so she left her a note......

Grandma and Grandpa Green were staying and Grandpa woke up. Moo's been having trouble working out whose name belonged to who. Grandpa was awake (well, his eyes were open - it was 6.30am). Moo said "the boy one is awake!!!"

October 2006
Look! We had our hair sprayed at the School Fair!

Soraya created a menu all by herself-
Monday - nodles
Tuesday - meat-balls
Wednesday - tomatos
Thursday - nugets
Friday - chicken
Saturday - patatos
Sunday - steack

Mr Bruce playing with Aalya. G'night Mr Bruce.

Snowboarding in the lounge room is lots of fun....

The girls love to play shops, and now have a shopping trolley to complete the experience!

Soraya's school photos.

12TH OCTOBER 2006

The two photos above were taken by Mitey.

Pre-school photo day. Aren't photos getting expensive?? So, when Aalya got home,

we took our own. This one taken by Auntie Dinnar.

5TH OCTOBER 2006

Soraya was playing with the sentence builder - hmmm love the one about a blue woman.

Aalya drew a picture of a mother and baby mouse all by herself.

AUGUST 2006

Aalya decided to make a scarecrow out of scraps of paper!

22ND AUGUST 2006Padawan Moo Moo (from Star Wars)

20TH AUGUST 2006

Moo on her tricycle.

"Mitey if we get our helmets, I can ride my tricycle and you can skate, okay? But don't forget my water bottle!!!"

14TH AUGUST 2006

Aalya drew a picture of a mother and baby mouse all by herself.

Aalya drew a picture of a mother mouse with her baby.

9TH AUGUST 2006

I was feeling rather unwell and we had to have an "adventure" to the doctor. She was SO well behaved and waited nicely, that I bought her something at the chemist. Her face says it all, doesn't it?? The kit has a mobile phone, a hair dryer, brush, comb, mirror, lipstick.

8TH AUGUST 2006

The saga of George the imaginary friend continues.

Moo's (Aalya) pink phone rang and it was George. He's still not well. What happened I said...............George went swimming with his Mum. There were 5 tigers there and one of them bit his arm, so he had to stay home today.
You might remember, George had to stay home yesterday as he was sick.

7TH AUGUST 2006

We sing a song about toffee apples and the girls hadn't seen any. I found some at our local supermarket and the girls sure enjoyed them. Even ate all the apple!!

1ST AUGUST 2006

Quote Of The Day

Auntie Dinnar - "Rabbits with pink eyes are deaf (like white cats with blue eyes...)"

Soraya - "Then why do they have ears then????"

5TH JULY 2006

Soraya was sitting at the kitchen bench and looked at me with those big sparkly eyes and said "I think you are just the nicest step-mum" Aw. Then we sorted out that perhaps me living with her Dad wasn't the best idea, lol. In 6 year old terms of course and then we decided that I was the Nanny or the 'spare' Mum.

29TH JUNE 2006

Aalya said she would like me to buy her a cow.

She was very specific. It took a week for me to realise that we often drive past a

house that has two painted cows on their front verandah.

27TH JUNE 2006

So, which one's the dolly????

26TH JUNE 2006

I hope everyone enjoys my pancakes!

9TH JUNE 2006

It's hard to tell who's got the better face!!

7TH JUNE 2006

Adam (8) and Matthew (10) came to the car (we don't often arrive at school at the same time). Both boys came to the window, I say to Miss Moo Moo, so, which one is your boyfriend. She pointed at Adam and said "that one, I love Adam". Matthew looked relieved and Adam ran to Julie (his Mum) to tell her. Aaaahh.

JUNE 2006

We were on our way home and Aalya asked me if we could visit the 'castle'. The what? Oh, that's not a castle Aalya, that's a big church. Oh, she said, so there's no kings or queens there??

6TH JUNE 2006

The lovely goilies. Soraya 6 years 5 months and

Aalya 3 years 2 months.

21ST MAY 2006

Darth Bhana

Dressed up by Michael (Mitey)

20TH MAY 2006

"I'm concentrating on my music"

9TH MAY 2006

I love my new jumper!

2ND MAY 2006

Aalya's 'babies' (dollies) got put in the naughty corner as they make too much noise (crying). By the way she is 'crying' for them now and has told them she is sick of them. Must be nap time. She's a crack up. She's told them on the way past on her way to bed that they have to be quiet or they'll be in BIG BIG trouble. What a funny girlie!!

26TH APRIL 2006

Here is Aalya cuddling Ruthie doll (Lauren's cabbage patch doll).

She's just had her hair cut and looks so very grown up!

6TH APRIL 2006

One uppon a tibe dere was a little girl named Charlee.
Charlee did bang her head berry hard and it hurt.
Then she banged her elbow (like this) and it did make her cry. The end.

by Miss Aalya - at bathtime.

3RD APRIL 2006

This is for Keshav, taken from Lauren's blog.

I love Starbucks/Monday's adventure

Me go-ed to darbucks!
Me got a 'chino!

On Monday, Molly, Michael and I went on an adventure.Here are all the things we did:
drove to the train station
bought tickets
caught the train to the city
looked at all the boats at Circular Quay
saw a man pretending to be a statue
had morning tea at Starbucks (where the above photo was taken- I acquired and bought her the baby chino so I could have my own latte fluff!)
Caught the Ferry to Manly
ate McDonalds for Lunch at Manly Beach
Caught a Jetcat back to Circular Quay (they replaced the ferry with a jetcat, we didn't pay extra for the privlege)
Went to a book shop. I got "The 10th Circle" by Jodi Piccoult, Molly got "Spot's Treasure Hunt" by Eric Hill. We both left the book shop happy.
Michael bought the new Queen's on the Stone Age DVD. With MY Visa card... Mikey, you better pay me back!
We caught the train back to Canley Vale, and then drove back to Mum's house.
It was a big day! Molly got to be the princess and be spoiled all day long. She lapped up the attention! She was well behaved all day, and was "not tired" at all (even though she did fall asleep in her pram between the bookshop and the trainstation). It was lovely to make a small person so happy!
Of course, if you ask Molly, we went to the city and saw the "cashew" (statue).
That's It!
Lucky we took lots of digital photos to help her remember everything else.

7TH MARCH 2006

Isn't she cute? Self portrait Tuesday

This is a photo of me with my little friend Molly. I think she is gorgeous.When I'm out with her at the shops, I'm sure people looking at us are thinking that she's my daughter, but she's not! I just borrow her! We went to Gloria Jeans together yesterday. Molly had a great time sitting at the table like a 'big girl', eating a pink cupcake, and spoonfuls of the froth off my latte. She kept looking over to the counter and saying "where's my 'chino?" Her parents buy her babychinos, but I didn't order her one. She kept saying "Lollen, you share with me!", so I was spooning the froth off the top of my coffee for her. When I have children, I am not going to introduce them to milk froth!We are shown here playing with Michael's digital camera.A while ago I taught her how to use our old digital camera- she was so fascinated by telling people to smile, and pressing the button (I did the "pointing" so that the people would actually be in the pictures), and looking at the pictures of them on the screen. Now she loves cameras!If you are 2 it must be great to have a grown up friend to let you take photos!If you are that grown up, it is certainly fun to be part of!I think all grown ups need to have some small friends to show them that ordinary things are fun. Molly thinks that going on the bus is wonderful!I go on buses so often that I don't think about it.Molly also thinks that everything costs $2... I wish she was right!

22ND MARCH 2006

Aalya with my old camera. This was done to enter her in a Mother’s Day competition of a child using a camera. She may not have won, but we know she has a winning smile.

......

I left Aalya in the sand pit at pre-school and told her I was going and she asked if I would come back later and I said yes. As I left she stood and the teacher looked worried, but she called out "I love you Arnee Dinnar", and blew big kisses and waves, one of the other teachers suggested that I run, but I said no, we do this with her sister and I think that's what she expects from me, so lots of waving as I was walking away and lots of kisses.

9TH FEBRUARY 2006

We were reading a 'lift the flap book' called Dear Zoo which has an animal on each page.

It goes like this...

I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet. They sent me

(lift the flap and name the animal) a camel!

He was too grumpy, so I sent him back.

So Aalya points and says "there it's baby in its tummy Arnie Ninnar!"

JANUARY 2006

Soraya turns 6 and has her birthday with friends and Lollipops Playland.

Mum and Aalya enjoying birthday cake.

Mirjana with Aalya to the right.

21ST DECEMBER 2005

Here's our Mum helping with the school concert.