Taitai knits

Preschool #2

So I finally bit the bullet and pulled Luke from his very local preschool. Today I went to look at the very last preschool I knew about and it seems we will send him next week. It is closer to our house, cleaner with climate control but it costs 3 times as much as the other school. I hope it will be a better fit for sweet Luke. I just don't understand the need for 4 year olds to be pushed so much academically - and by pushed I mean made to sit down and do numerous worksheets at school and have tutors at home. Hopefully some of his newer nervous haibits will go away.
There was one thing that made me slightly ill - like most preschools in this country they have some Montessori materials around - so I asked about them - the principal said these kids are much too advanced now adays to get much use out of them. I guess Montessori teacher training in Malaysia is really as bad as I thought.

Happy Boxing Day

Christmas came and it was good. Luke was worried about how Santa was going to 'break in' our apartment. I have been productive this Boxing day and already had workers remove the dying tree. Our apartment would seem big again, if it wern't for all the loot everywhere.

And here our the birthday socks right before being mailed. I love them and might have to track down some more Cascade Fixation yarn.

Knitting roundup

These are the techguy socks from magknits - they are sadly still missing the little apple on the side since the black sock yarn I ordered has still not come. Maybe it will show up on Xmas Eve - our APO people are making a holiday run - which I think is so so nice!

A very boring orphan sweater in a very unattrative Paton sock yarn. It is the Baby Kimono sweater from Summer 2005 IK.

The start of a plain sock in Kintpicks sock yarn, which I love.

Another orphan sweater made out of Chinese wool and odds and ends.

Cable 8 sweater from IK made out of Chinese cotton yarn doubled. Using my great new Chinese bamboo needles - thanks Grace!

And finally! Grace's b-day socks. I felt bad since she will not get them before her birthday, so I thought I would let her have a sneak peak. I love them and they are so springy and soft.

Oh and knitting too

These are Jaywalker socks that I made for my friend, Grace. They are made from Colinette Jitterbug yarn and it is suitably fancy for Grace. She does not have cheap yarn tastes. I was beginning to worry about these socks as they had still not made it to China, but today they arrived and she loves them an appropriate amount. Now I hope she likes her birthday socks which are still on the needles but not made of super fancy yarn....in fact I am making them out of yarn she would never think of buying. But I feel sure she will love them too. Maybe she can wear them to Makro the next time she tries to change Chinese business practices...she is trying to tackle the problem single handedly!

There were no photos anyway

Tonight was the big Embassy Xmas party for families. It was nice and lots of people came - tons of kids running around. They also had Santa. I arrived earlier than David and Luke desperatly wanted the goodie bag Santa was handing out, but he was terrified of Santa himself. I tried to explain to him that Santa was in fact really busy with Xmas just a week away so it was really just a MSG dressed up in a suit filling in for Santa. Luke's response to that bit of information? "That makes it WORSE!"
Needless to say David got a goodie bag from the MSG while Luke hid behind him.

The camera is dead

So I was all set to post this morning and first the camera seems to have been 'used' by someone else - and by 'used' I mean broken. And that someone else is less than 3 feet tall....
Then the internet connection kept timing out. I hate that.

I would have had pictures of all the crafty things we have been up to. The making of ornaments, colouring of hundreds of Xmas colouring sheets, making of clothespin people and so on. Just use your imagination.

A few weeks ago Luke had his end of the year concert at the preschool. It was a flop as far as out family was concerned. It went on forever - they had a 10 minute slide show before each performance and the older kids all got to go first. Can you imagine dealing with a room full of preschools waiting forever to go on? Luke was stressed our about the whole thing and did not want to even attend. He had been complaining about school for weeks leading up to it and had started a new nervous habit of biting on his shirt collar. But he looked cute in his outfit - even if he did not get up on stage for most of the numbers - much to the horror of the Asian parents and teachers in attendance! And how they choose 'Indians' as a theme is beyond me!
We are so hoping to find a new preschool for Luke and Claire. One huge issue is the food allergy. In Malaysia a school can refuse to accept a student for any reason. Food allergy is one many schools will not touch. This school he has been going to is so just barely ok. I may have found a better one which is a little closer, but they are closed for the whole month. I hope someone comes to their office sometime during the month or I don't know what I will do on day 1 of school in January. I guess I will worry about that in January!

The animal scenes get more elaborate at our house...

And proof that I actually do still knit a lot. I finished Grace's secret Xmas socks and they are on their way to Beijing - I am not posting a picture because she hates surprises and would love to see them! She will have to wait. These socks are for David and will be the tech guy socks. I am almost done with the second sock. Yah!