溫馨語錄

Natalie and I had a conversion last week as follows:
N: 公公係你 Daddy 呀﹖
Me: 係呀。
N: 公公係唔係你以前細個時 “gei" Daddy 呀﹖
Me: 係呀﹐不過我宜家大個左公公都仲係我 Daddy。即係我宜家係 Natalie 媽咪﹐但係到你大個左我都仲係你個媽咪 lor。
N (smiled) : 我都仲係你個 Baby。
Me (覺得好甜地答): 係呀。

Friends ...

It's again my turn to drop off Natalie at daycare this morning.
When I was taking Natalie out of her car seat, Natalie was telling me:
"我唔想返學。"
Me: "點解呀﹖你返學可以同 Christine, Kaitlyn, Kara 佢地玩 wor。"
Natalie said sentimentally: "But I am not their friends ... "

I don't know what to say. It seemed that she was trying to tell me that "只是我一廂情願當他們是朋友﹐他們可不當我是朋友。" I don't know why she was saying that all of a sudden. But since it's already quite late in the monring, I just replied,
"唔係呀﹐你尋日見到 Christine 同佢玩得好開心 ga。"

I don't know how to explain to her that she just needs to learn and lives with it. That's life. If she really wants more friends, she needs to change her personality.

一個溫暖的早上

It's my turn to drop off Natalie at daycare this morning. As we entered the classroom, we heard a welcoming voice yelling, "Natalie!". It was Kaitlyn.
Natalie started smiling immediately. As she was walking to Kaitlyn,
Kaitlyn asked, "Did you have fun with me?" (not sure if she meant Saturday)
Natalie replied, "Yes, sure."
Kaitlyn went to grab Natalie's hand.
Then, they were holding hands together and walked to play at the table.
I was thinking, if I were Natalie, 我會覺得很溫暖啊。
It was too bad that I did not have my camera/phone with me to capture this moment.

Natalie's first dentist visit

This Wednesday afternoon, it's Natalie's first dental check up. Both Kin and I went to pick up Natalie from daycare. After we had picked her up, Natalie said she wanted to go home. I decided to disclose the truth to her that we're taking her to the dentist. Well, it was not really news to her, because I actually mentioned about the dentist visit a few times in the past few days. But still, when she heard me, she kept saying that she didn't want to go to the dentist. She kind of expected what's gonna happen, we had read the book about dentist visit to her many times.
On our way to the dentist, I started worrying that Natalie would not be cooperative during the visit since she seemed to be scared.
However, it turned out that she was very good. She was cooperative, she did not cry at all. She listened to the dentist's instructions. The only thing was, the doctor found out that Natalie was missing a canine tooth at the bottom. Hmmm... the dentist said Natalie was too young, she would take an x-ray for her next year to find out if there's a tooth bud inside. O well, we'll just have to wait and see then.
Look at the picture, she opened her mouth wide for her teeth cleaning. Woo hoo! I am so proud of her.

Preschool

This week is the 2nd week of Preschool (fully transitioned) for Natalie. I was a little worried when she first started the transition. She missed her Jr. Preschool class very much. She's been telling me that she wanted to go back to her old class, and she didn't want to go to Preschool. She would break out crying when she saw me picking her up from school. All of these made me wondering if she's really ready for Preschool yet.
But I am seeing improvement this week. She does not cry when she sees me picking her up from school (although she still cries when I drop her off). She runs to say goodbye to her head teacher before we leave from school. She has not mentioned she wants to go back to her old class anymore. I am so glad to see the improvements. I think the familiar faces in her class does help, too. These familiar faces are Kaitlyn and other kids who came to this Preschool class from her same old Jr Preschool class.
Thank you Louisa for sending me this picture. I am relieved to see that Natalie seems enjoying her Preschool life :) Kaitlyn is such a good 姐姐 to keep Natalie company :)

一啖沙糖...

With Natalie, I always feel we get 一啖沙糖, 一啖 "ssss". But I'd like to talk about the time of 一啖沙糖 here. She can be very sweet when she wants to. And also at times that I do not expect, too. The most recent example was last Saturday. Last Saturday, we took her to Yerba Buena, because it has a carousel there. If you have read my previous post, you know how much she likes carousel.
She was very excited when we got off the car. She ran to the carousel and she kept rushing me while I was struggling to insert the dollar bills into the ticket machine. After the 1st ride, of course she wanted the 2nd ride. The waiting time in between rides here was quite long, it was about 5 minutes. While I was standing next to her horsie to chat with her while we're waiting, we looked into each other's eyes and she suddenly gave me a big hug and said, "I love you, mommy!"
So, I said, "I love you, too"
She went, "I love you, too"
We went back and forth 5 or 6 times until Kin (who's standing on the other side of the horsie) 雙眼反白 and said "頂你地唔順" (he's just jealous, hahahaha).
But ... you know what, women love sweet talk. When we don't get it from the man, we get from our kid(s).
p.s. We only had 6 rides on the merry-go-round this time, not bad ;-)

San Diego trip - Aug 2009

We went to San Diego from Aug 2 to Aug 6. We decided to go, mainly was because Kin had to go there for business trip :p
At first, I was a little worried that Natalie might be home sick once she got there ... and she did. Once we checked into the hotel, she already told me that she wanted to go home. She kept mentioning it during the whole trip, she only forgot about it while she's having fun.
We also went to San Diego once last year, but she was able to enjoy the trip much more than last year this time. She has really grown a lot in this year. She loved going to the beach. Not only that she could play with sand, she also loved getting into the water. I was a little surprised that she was not afraid of those big waves and the roaring sound of the waves. We had a good time jumping waves :)
We went back to the zoo again this year. She liked the tram ride more than checking out the animals. Although she liked polar bears and panda, she would only look at them for a minute and then told me that she's done. I think she'd rather touch them than just watching them. We spent quite a bit of time in the petting zoo. She loved picking up dried grass on the ground to feed the goats.
When we're leaving the zoo, she spotted the merry-go-round that's next to the zoo. She wanted to go there so badly. I promised her to bring her back the next day. Man, I didn't know what I was getting into when I promised her. As some of you had heard already, I ended up riding 11 times of merry-go-round. At the end of each ride, Natalie would say, "One more time!" (in Chinese, "再黎過") I was stuck on the horsie for an hour. It was not cheap, too. I needed to buy 2 tickets for each ride (for both me and Natalie). It was $2 per ticket and 6 tickets for $10. I got dizzy after the 6th or 7th ride, and I felt sick at the 10th ride. So, I forced Natalie to leave after the 11th time :p
We spent about 3 hours in Sea World. She liked the kiddie rides (in Sesame Street area) and she liked climbing the net structure. It was quite a workout for me. We went to see the Pet Rule show, it was ok, but I don't think she wants to watch it again :)
I am glad that we had the trip. Natalie had a good time.
Here are the pictures.

Vancouver Trip May 2009

It was a relaxing trip. The weather was nice the whole time when we were there. We did not go to many places, just a couple of petting zoos, local parks, shopping malls and restaurants, but we had quite a good time. Please click below to view the pictures:

From May2009

Highlights of the trip:

Kin and I could go out together at night after Natalie went to bed. It's something that we had not done since Natalie was born. Although we only went out for Cantonese dessert/Taiwanese snacks and drinks/Chinese night market, these were nice little breaks we had.

I could slowly finish my meals! Natalie liked hanging out with my sister and brother. Either of them would play with Natalie after she finished her meal, so I could have time to finish mine :)

Natalie had fun playing with a goat's ear. She found it's very funny that whenever she touched its ear, the ear moved (I think the goat felt itchy)! She kept saying "隻耳仔彈下彈下" and was laughing, and she kept playing with the goat's ear (poor goat ...)

Thanks for my brother, he's the store manager at Foot Locker. I bought a pair of sneakers for Natalie and a pair for myself with his employee discount.

Natalie could figure out who the top authority was. Whenever I asked her to go to bed at night, she went, "Grandpa, grandpa, I don't want to sleep ..."

1. Natalie was crying and it had something to do with my brother. My parents wanted to calm her down, so they told her that they would "打舅父". 2. My dad was telling Natalie that if she got bullied at school, she should hit the kid who bullied her. 3. Natalie was yelling at a kid in the park, her grandma said, "Yes, you have done the right thing." (You see, she learned about hitting/bullying people! I tried explaining to her afterwards it's not right and what she should do instead. But I think Natalie had kept this in her little mind anyways. Sigh ...激死我﹗)

Goodies from Vancouver

The very yummy "Lo Pau Bang"

Condensed frozen "Black Sesame Paste"

2 bottles of Horlicks (Have you noticed that the Chinese supermarkets in the Bay Area don't sell Horlicks anymore? I can only find Horlicks from Draegers, which are imported from UK, and it's $14.99 a bottle.)

English that she learnt from school

Although Natalie started daycare since last October, she only started talking a lot more in English these couple months. Here are what she learned from daycare, and some of them was quite interesting (something we didn't expect she would pick up):

- Again? (used when I asked her to take a bath)
- I am scared
- Help!
- Popsicle
- Oh my goodness, there's eat and drink. (used when we walked to a snack stand)
- Here you go
- This is for you
- Over here
- Mine, mine, all mine!

The little girl at the park ...

I took Natalie to Central Park in San Mateo after her Little Gym class this morning. Natalie was happily running on the big structure and went down the curly slide. Everytime after she went down the slide, she would say, "再黎過". I was following behind her. This time, there was a little girl sitting near the top of the slide. She was neither going up or sliding down. She looked like she was about a little more than 3 years old. I told Natalie to wait. We waited patiently at the top of the slide. About 30 seconds later, the little girl started pointing at Natalie and shouted at her:
"You stinky little baby! Get out of here! I am a big girl now. I hate stinky little baby!"
She repeated it a couple times. Natalie started getting upset, because she totally understood the girl. Natalie was telling me, "姐姐唔鍾意我呀。"
I felt for Natalie, because she was 好無辜. She didn't do anything, nor say anything to the little girl. She didn't understand why the little girl was shouting at her. I couldn't hold it and the mommy bear of me came out. I asked the girl,
"Where's your daddy or mommy?"
She pointed to a mid-aged man on the bench.
I took Natalie with me and walked to that guy. I asked him, "Was that your little girl over there?"
He said, "Yes."
I told him what happened. He just smiled and said he would talk to her. He didn't apologize (well, I didn't expect him to) and he didn't even seem to care a bit about it.
I was thinking, "This is the kind of parent that taught a kid to behave that way."
I certainly wanted to erase Natalie's memory of what she heard from the little girl. Not only because it hurt her feeelings, but I also didn't want her to have any memory of it and then used it on some other little kids later on.

怎去教導孩子?

The topic sounds big, but just my random thoughts ...

When the child is still at the age is all about me, me, me, how to teach the child to be considerate? How to teach the child to care someone else's feelings (besides the parents)? When I tell Natalie that I am not happy, she cares about it and she would do something about it. But when it's someone else (even Dad), she doesn't seem to care much. When she has done something that someone might dislike, or when she has said something, I can tell her not to, and tell her that someone would not be happy about it. But I don't tell her the consequence could be, the other person would not like her from then on (Is this too complicated for her to understand? Even if she does, can she take this fact at her age?). 看見自己的孩子被討厭﹐真的會很心疼。

當然﹐孩子可以做一個自以為有性格的人。但當他未夠成熟去做這個決定時﹐what can the parents do? How can the parents to make the child understand?

Dora: I Love My Papi - 活學活用

Last night, I was reading the book, "Dora the Explorer: I Love My Papi" to Natalie. The last 2 pages were as below:

At the end of every day, Papi tucks me into bed. Then we read book. I like books about animals.
Papi says, "I love my Dora!"
And I say, "I love my Papi!"

After finished reading the book, Natalie made comments:

Nat: Natalie 係媽咪陪"訓覺" ga. (means tuck her into bed)

Me: 係呀﹐媽咪晚晚都陪你"訓覺" ga la.

Nat (looking at me): I love my mommy!

(and gave me a hug, too)



This was so sweet. At the same time, I was thinking, "she's picking this up really fast, really 活學活用".

沖涼小軼事 [Bath]

This conversation happened when I helped Natalie taking a bath a couple weeks ago.
Natalie was sitting in the tub, the water was up to her belly button, so both of her legs were under the water. I put some soap on my hand and wanted to rub on her legs. I asked her to give me her right foot.
Me: 右腳 [right foot]
She gave me her left foot.
I wanted to make sure that she knew which side her right side is.
Me: 呢隻唔係右腳 wor﹐係左腳 wor. [This is not your right foot, it's your left foot]
Natalie: 唔緊要 la﹐洗左腳先 la. [It's ok, just wash my left foot first]

Trip to Sequoia National Park

Thanks for Twins Mom, she forwarded us this special deal of a lodge at Sequoia National Park in Jan, so we booked the trip and we had been telling Natalie that we would take her to play snow, play with EA and other kids. Natalie was looking forward to it.

Before we headed to Sequoia National Park, I was worried about the long car ride. Before this trip, the longest ride that Natalie had been in was about an hour when we went to the Lei's. So, we decided to take a day off and drove during the day, so that we could take a couple breaks.

We left at around 9:45 am on March 13. When we were leaving, we found that Natalie had a low fever at 99 F. I quickly threw the Infant Tylenol in our bag and hoping that we wouldn't need it. Natalie was pretty good during the car ride, she was napping soon after we started driving until we took our lunch break at Merced (almost 2 hours). After lunch, we checked her temperature, her fever went up to 103F! So we gave her a dose of Tylenol. I asked Kin if we should drive back home and cancelled the trip, but Kin said Natalie had been looking forward to play snow, he didn't want to let her down. Therefore, we continued driving. When we reached the destination, it was about 5 pm.

The next morning (Saturday), Natalie didn't have a fever. We took her to the snow playground after breakfast with Alan, Emmett and Aidan. She had fun sledding for the first 0.5 hours.

March2009

However, she then didn't want to sled anymore and she didn't want to play snow neither. We sat there for about 10 minutes, then I asked her if she wanted to leave. She said "Yes", so we just went back to the hotel room and waited to get lunch. After her afternoon nap, her fever was back at 100F, and Natalie didn't feel like going outside. Therefore, we just stayed in our room and I watched Blue's Clues with her.

It's too bad that Natalie did not feel well most of the time during the trip. I think she would have enjoyed the snow more and would have enjoyed hanging out with other kids if she were not sick. I am looking forward to our next trip with other families :)

終於等到喇

終於等到這一天喇﹗ 等什麼﹖ It's Natalie finally does not cry when we drop her off at daycare! It does not happen just once in a blue moon, she has been good for 2 weeks now! I think it is finally over! She won't cry anymore ! In the past 2 weeks, in the morning, I walk into the classroom with her, put her stuff in the cubby, then I tell her:

"媽咪去返工喇。乖乖地喇。"

. She just says, "好呀。"

Then, we say GoodBye to each other. Both Kin and I are so glad that she finally accepts that she needs to stay at school without us. Although she still tells me that she does not want to go to school in the mornings and tries to hide in the tent sometimes when we are about to leave home, she still cooperates when I tell her that she has to go to school for the day because mommy and daddy have work.

這少少的進步已令我很安慰啊。

宿命

I really started to believe that every time when Kin goes to a business trip, there's something bad bound to happen.

Last time when he went to business trip, I had a cold and I ran out of the cold medicine that I usually take. So, I took Sudafed and I had alergic reaction (had bumps all over me).

This time ...

Last Sunday morning, Kin left to LV. That night, Natalie started having pretty serious cold symptoms (I suspected that she got it from Enzo, cuz he came over for play date in the afternoon). Monday night, she not only had very bad runny nose, but also non-stop coughing while she's sleeping at night. That meant, I almost didn't sleep at all that night. Tuesday afternoon, I got a call from CCLC (the daycare) that Natalie threw up during her nap. They asked me to pick Natalie up within 30 minutes. When I picked her up, I was informed that I had to keep Natalie at home for at least 24 hours (to make sure that she wouldn't throw up anymore) before she could return to daycare with a doctor's note. I had no choice, but told my boss that I had to take Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday off and could not meet the deadline on Wednesday. On our way home, I made a stop at the doctor's office to make an appointment. Natalie started crying and screaming from the minute we got off the car that she didn't want to see the doctor. Although I told her that we probably would not see the doctor now and we only went there to make an appt., but she didn't believe me. With Natalie making a scene there, I made the appt. and we went home. Since she only napped 10 mins. at the daycare, I wanted her to continue the nap at home. After spending 30 minutes on her bed, I knew that she wouldn't nap anymore. I decided to take her to SF to see Chinese doctor. I am going to skip the details here. After Chinese doctor, we went back home. I started boiling medicine and cooking dinner for both of us at the same time. After dinner, I bathed Natalie and then had a big struggle to feed her Chinese medicine. When she went to bed, I really felt that Tuesday was a very long day.

Wednesday ... another very tiring day. Just thinking about it already made me tired . Let's just the details, too.

To conclude, when Kin returned on Wednesday night, I was half dead.

We are getting there ...

After the first time Natalie didn't cry during drop off at daycare on Jan 28th, she went back to her "crying routine" during drop off. We were wondering when the next time would come. Finally, last Friday, Feb 13th, she didn't cry when I dropped her off! It was quite unbelievable for me! If it were Kin, I wouldn't be surprised, cuz she's usually better with Kin. But ... it's me! When I said bye to Natalie and left the classroom, Natalie only said, "Mommy, mommy" a few times. No tears! I was so proud of her .

But of course, it was just that one day. This morning, she was crying again when I dropped her off. Oh well, but I think we are getting there , we just need to be patient .

Little things about 美人魚

I forgot since when ... may be about 3 to 4 months ago, when I wrap her in a towel after the bath, she says, "美人魚黎 la". I have never taught her the term "美人魚", I think she learnt it from my nanny.

So, I told her that the English for 美人魚 was mermaid. But every time when I ask her what 美人魚 in English is, she tells me it's octopus. I have been telling her that octopus is 八爪魚. Recently, I have found that she says it wrong on purpose, she just thinks it's funny.

If you have read my previous blog entry, you know that Natalie has been dying to eat ice-cream but we can't let her eat it because she's still coughing. These few days, after her bath, when I dry her with the towel, she tells me:

"美人魚想食 ice-cream 呀."

I always answer, "係咩?! 但係美人魚咳 bor. 唔可以食 ice-cream 呀."



Isn't it funny that she knows "Natalie" cannot eat ice-cream, so she tells me 美人魚 wants to eat ice-cream?

The never ending sickness

First of all, I'd like to let me dear friends to know that Natalie did not keep her good behavior ... she only didn't cry that one morning when we dropped her off at daycare (see my previous blog entry). I guess we just have to be patient here.

Anyways, this blog entry is about Natalie's sickness.

Since she started daycare, she seemed that she had been sick and never got recovered fully. That is, since end of last October, Natalie had been coughing and had runny nose. Every time she got better (after drinking those bitter Chinese medicine) and was almost recovered, she would catch another new bug and started all over again. Then, during the Winter break, she finally was fully recovered. I was so happy - no runny nose, no coughing, more importantly, that meant good sleep and no more throw up due to severe cough. I rewarded her by buying her ice-cream, it's something that she had been asking for almost everyday. I kept saying that she couldn't eat ice-cream because she's coughing. I promised her that I would buy her ice-cream when she's fully recovered. She was so happy when we took her to the ice-cream store, she said, "Natalie 好番lu! 可以食 ice-cream lu". However, our happiness only lasted 3 weeks. During the 2nd week back to daycare, Natalie got sick again. Same old friends: cough and runny nose. As of now, she's still coughing at night.

Sigh ... when will this end? Summer?

值得慶祝的一天

Natalie has been crying every morning when we drop her off at the daycare ever since the first day my nanny didn't stay at the daycare with her, which means it's been 2 months.

This morning, as usual, when she woke up in the morning, she told me that she didn't want to go to school. And as usual, I told her that both daddy and I had to go to work, so she had to go to school. I had dropped Natalie off in the past 2 mornings, it's Kin's turn to drop her off this morning. At 9:38 am, I got a call from Kin.

First thing he said, "What's the date today?"

I said, "Jan 28th"

Kin: "Write it down. Natalie didn't cry when I left from daycare a few minutes ago"

Me: "Wow! That's big improvement! But then, she always behaves better when you drop her off. She was crying and screaming when I dropped her off yesterday and the day before"

Anyways, both Kin and I are very happy that Natalie didn't cry this morning. Let's hope she would keep it this way.

Natalie's First Gingerbread House

I was reading Twins Mom's blog about "Gingerbread Houses" a couple days ago. Then, I recalled that Natalie had made a gingerbread house at school (daycare) and we brought it home. I was going to break it apart and eat it when I first saw it. Luckily Kin stopped me in time and let me know that it was made by Natalie. I thought it was just a gift from the school as it was wrapped very nicely in plastic paper. So, I didn't eat it, but the gingerbread house was sitting there for me to take pictures for almost 2 weeks now . I have just taken a few pictures of it. It still looks very nice, but I don't think it's edible anymore.