wonders of competition

Madison and I were at the playground this morning.

Initially it was just the 2 of us ( besides the usual gaggle of retirees doing their morning line dancing) and Madison was climbing up and down the slides.

Then a little boy came along with his grandfather and the dynamics of the playground shifted. Initially both of them were pretty shy and hung on to their respective caregivers ( ie the grandfather and me ) but soon enough it became irresistable to interact with each other. Of course they weren't really playing like older kids do, but more like playing close by each other.

It just happened that I took her sippy cup out and offered Madison her morning milk. Usually it's 30 seconds before she flings it to the ground after a brief sip. Today, the grandfather took the boy's sippy cup out too and offered it to him. Just as the 30 seconds were up and Madison was about to fling the cup to the ground ( and get a telling off from me ) she spied the boy drinking from his cup. And the effect was IMMEDIATE. She stopped herself from throwing the cup and continued drinking!! Until the boy gave up and returned his cup to the grandfather!

I was amazed. Maybe it was just coincidence.

On another note, I've been thinking of whether to continue with Bibinogs for Madison. Chinese class seems to be a little repetitious these days and sometimes the teachers seem to spend too much time on snacks and reading and not enough time singing/action based activity. But having said that, I'm not sure if the other schools are any better. I'm thinking maybe location would be quite an important factor in the long run. Bibinogs at the Serene Centre is just off the PIE but traffic these days is terrible. Also it doesn't look like they do Chinese for the local school curriculum so Madison is going to have to attend a school that does.

So yesterday Chris and I went over to the Hua Language centre to see if they had classes for kids Madison's age but they only start at 3. But they seem to do stuff that prepares kids for the local Chinese exams, so I guess Madison will have to swop over at 3.

And finally... our Karcher steam cleaner is dead. Not even sure when it happened. It was working fine before the maid and now it was proclaimed " choked "! And only because I discovered the maid using the steam cleaner WITHOUT steam! I couldn't believe my eyes. This is after showing her a few times what the steam cleaner should be doing! It's going to cost us $400-$500 to replace. Not sure if I should just downgrade her to a mop. That is pretty indestructible and cheap to replace. Only trouble is that it means chemicals on our floor that Madison eats off. Argh.

Looks like more $$$ down the drain....