Joyeux NOEL

have you met TOY PICKER?

Have you met TOY PICKER?

If you have not, you better ask Noel.  But before you ask, you better clean up, yes, clean up your desk, your room, your studio...etc. before you go to bed at night.  In Noel's case, she needs to clean up all the toys!

TOY PICKER is not a bad guy, he just comes by at night when people are sleeping.  Kind of like the little elves who help the shoe marker!  He goes to people's house, picking the toys that children scatter around the house, he then takes those toys to kids who cannot afford toys.  So a good lesson to learn here is - if this is something you love, you better put it away neatly before you go to bed!

Noel learns the lesson, really!

She asked me to put away one of her new toy - a game set that you play it like a tic-tac-toe!  But, this is really Noel's job, mama was too tired to do that.  So guess what happened the next morning?  The toy was GONE!

Noel was sad, but she decided there is always room for negotiation, so she left the toy picker a note:

 

and... it worked!  The following morning, the toy set was sent back but toy picker also left Noel a note....

And being a very nice child, Noel replied with a thank you note.....

 

What do you think our living room looks like before we head to bed every night?  You bet!  Clean and neat!

P.S for those of you want to leave a comment after a good laugh reading this post PLEASE remember Noel can read now, so be careful what you write!!! (unless you write in Chinese!)

I will make my own craft!

This little preschooler is always busy, she has "schedules" just like a grown-up!

But we are not talking about the schedule that she gets up at 7 am, brush teeth and is ready for bed at 8pm, with a mom as an artist, quite a contrary, Noel's daily routine may be a shock to other parents.  No, we are talking about her activities here - violin, drawing, reading, math, religious study, playing house, online games and yeah, never too young to play - she is a facebook user too!  One of her activity books is a craft book, honestly, it's more of a project for her to do with a babysitter than me; but today (a horribly cold spring day) when she suggested that we should do some craft, I agreed.

But little did I know, it's not your usual kind of craft, Noel actually "made" her own craft book... take a look, and read her writing...

"HOW TO MAKE A WAVING KID?"

"PULL HER ARM AND SHE WILL WAVE AT THE SUN"

Noel is just to creative for her age, this "craft book" makes me laugh every time I see it, even as I am writing this blog! 

 

And of course the craft project did not happen, because I am not as creative as my daughter, the thought of making this "proposed project" happen is beyond me!

travel sketchbook

In my student days, I used to travel around Europe in the summer; at the end of the trip, I come home, not with bags of souvenir, but stacks of drawings.  Now with Noel, traveling around and sketch sounds like a luxury, but on this last trip to Seattle, I still have to come home with a stack of drawings.  Guilty though, not a single one by me.

 

These are about half of what Noel did while we were on the trip, she can sit down, draw, write, and come up with story books for an hour straight. 

 

I have hard time throwing away my own drawings, and now, I am left with a big stack of drawings....everyday, on the trip or not.

 

and when she draws on loose pages, they get scatter around, I am sure the sequence of these drawings are way off, but hey, what's a mother to do....especially when I don't have the heart to throw the very nice ones away.

 

I need to hunt down a gallery that sells talented kid's artwork.  Noel is so productive, I may be the next million dollars mom!

love notes

What happens when your kid learns to read and write? 

I thought receiving love notes is a high school privilege ( at least it was when I was younger.)  Lately, I could be doing dishes, and as I turn around, there will be a love note left by my feet.  Or I could be getting ready for bed, and there on my pillow, another love note :)  Without fail, each time those carefully composed note brings me a big smile. 

 

What a sweet child!

I can spell....kind of

Ever since Noel starts reading, she wait for no time taking on writing.  This smart cookie is doing well, but spelling is still early for a 4 year-old; and when she could not spell the right word, she comes right to her mom for answers (yeah, like that is very helpful :)  )

Noel has her own facebook and a journal, along with a "handy dandy notebook!"  Like many of us, she cannot wait to go on her facebook and play games, instead of looking at it as something negative and stopping her from doing it, I try to make the best out of it - teach her to read, write, and communicate with others there.  For those of you get the messages from her, no matter if the messages make sense, or not, yep, they really do come from Noel.

In the beginning, Noel would write/type messages that might not make any sense to you, but if you ask her, oh, yeah, it makes "perfect sense" to herself.  and lately, she is determined to do better..... " mama, how do you spell 'what', 'how' why' 'speak'  'lights'  'know'.....etc?"

It was super exciting for me at first, then it gets old, she would even come into the bathroom while I am in the shower, asking for the spelling of a new word.  That's it, so I borrow the "handy dandy notebook" idea from Blue's Clue.  For words that she asks a lot, I just write them down and she can look them up anytime!

 

Hey Noel, are you going to be a spelling bee one day?

message on the computer screen

...it really makes you realize, it's 21st century, there is no more message in the bottle!  ha!

unscramble this.....

Can you believe I cannot figure it out when Noel first showed me... but now that I know, it's impossible to NOT know what it is....
As for this drawing, I just thought the little girl who turns the head around is so animated, nicely done!

sweetest birthday note

....makes aging a bit less painful!!!

is this how it works?

Introduce yourself

Sure enough, the beautiful weather  is gone.  We are having a grey and chilly Saturday.  No idea where we could go, we spent our early afternoon in Noel's room playing. 
What am I going to do with the long and upcoming winter months???

I drew myself painting and Noel drew herself riding Big Thomas train (ah, she still remembers)  But as soon as she saw my drawing, she hurry and drew herself drawing in front of an easel too - copy cat!