08.30.04
Posted in Maddy at 9:56 pm by tina
Height: 30 inches; 75 percentile
Weight: 21 pounds 4 oz; 50 percentile
Head: 46 1/2 cm; 75 percentile
I was pleasant surprised that she’s in the 75% height.. she does seem ‘longer’ these past few days.
And she is still 50% in weight, which is relieving as well. People don’t believe me, but sometimes she really eats as much as I do, and I’m not a light eater. I’ve noticed that I am starving in the mornings lately, and one day I realized that it is because Maddy eats a good portion of my dinner. I didn’t realize how much she eats off my plate until one day the sandwich comes already cut in two halves and she finished one half before I did.
I don’t know how a little toddler can eat that much. Her little tummy is usually as solid as a rock after dinner. The only saving grace is that she actually prefers veggies and fruits over everything else. The other day she even rejected the sweet yam with melted mashmellows and only wanted her beloved green beans, a few bites of baked fish, and fruit salad at K&W while daddy’s dinner consisted of fried fish, mashed potato (southern style: the kind with bacon and who knows how much butter), garlic bread and peacon pie. Maddy is setting a much better eating habit than daddy. And I decided that if she likes veggies and fruits, she can have as much as she wants.
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Posted in Maddy at 9:57 am by tina
These days, I am so aware that Maddy is no longer a baby.
I was so used to our one-conversation and me ‘imagining’ what Maddy would do during the past year, it made me step back and really start to respect her as a ‘person’ recently:
1) I asked her to bring me her bottle after she finished drinking her milk, and she walked to me and handed me the bottle with a smile.
2) Her current favorite book is the “Doggies”. I don’t think she can tell the difference between the books from their covers yet. But she’ll bring me a book.. I started reading. If it’s not the “Doggies”, she goes back to her shelf and bring me another book. When she finally gets “the” book, she would sit in my lap while I finish reading the entire thing.
3) Daddy and Brownie went for a walk last night. I ended up playing hide and seek with Maddy at home. I was tired after 5 minutes and asked her where Brownie is (thinking that’ll get her to walk around and look for Brownie). She stood up and walked straight to the door and started hitting the door and ’showing’ me that’s where they went. I was so amazed by her gesture. She remembers!!
It’s so neat to watch her transform in such a lightening speed.
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08.27.04
Posted in Maddy at 10:17 am by tina
With ALL the culture influences of comparing between kids, I had sworn not to compare Maddy with other kids and not to compare Maddy with her future sibling; however, with many friends having their seconds (and sharing their parenting stories second time around), it’s so hard not to even think about it.
Ms Doris and Lopes and the receptionist kept on telling me how great Maddy is. How they were amazed that she enjoyed the class since the first day and how neatly and how much she eats by herself at her age, and how she slept on command also since the first day (that I had to made the point that it didn’t come naturally for her… I always made a point to say it because people think Maddy is a natural good sleeper. She was not; we just worked very hard for it in the beginning so that we are ‘reaping the fruilts’ now). They even invited teachers from older kid rooms to ‘watch’ her, and got more amazed that Maddy greeted other teachers like she’s known them for years.
There is a new kid in class. He’s been wailing for days. Papa Joe tried to be sensitive and told his mom the story about how you would feel bad if your kid doesn’t cry because it looks like he doesn’t need/want you. It didn’t make the mother feel any better… then to make the matter worse the receptionist said “but Maddy didn’t cry since the first day” I feel so bad for the mom and that kid. Obviously people ‘raised’ their expectations after Maddy’s arrival, but in all honesty we just got ‘lucky’ with Maddy.
I so believe that every child is different and everyone has his/her own time/ways of dealing with things. But I have to admit that secretly, it is so much ‘better’ and easier to be Maddy’s mom than the new kid’s mom, poor woman.
And I wonder: how am I going to deal with my future child. Do I expect the same as Maddy? Will I use her as the ’standard’ unintionally and get all disappointed when he/she does not measure up to Maddy? (My sister swore that is what happened to her.. that she ‘lived’ under my shadows and every minor little wrongs she did seemed so terrible and bad compared to her nearly perfect sister) If I do get an ‘opposite’ child who does not eat, doesnot sleep on command, doesn’t deal with changes gracefully… am I going to tag the child as the ‘bad’ one? It just seems better if you get a not-so-easy one as first child then a easy one as second. But with Maddy’s history, how can you top that? And it’s almost scary that I already expect the ‘worse’ for my second child.. how I already started to compare even without him/her existence. Poor thing.
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Posted in Maddy at 9:11 am by tina
I set up Maddy’s playroom yesterday (well, not totally… I would like to get a muralist or a painter to do something on the wall)
Her eyes lid up with surprises when she walked in. I think she recognized her toys that she hasn’t seen for the past months and all the new stuffed animals on the toy chest. She flapped her arms and bended her knees like a little King Kong, the funny gesture she does when she is excited.
She didn’t want to come out. And when we went upstairs the second time, she walked straight to her playroom without making a mistake of knowing which room it was. I even went to another room to do some errands, and she didn’t even bother to follow me.
I’m amazed at how she knows that the playroom is HER space, and how she looks so content and happy walking from one toy to the other, couldn’t really quite decide which one she wants to play.
I had always known that despite all the similarities in personalities she has with her daddy, there are certain traits rooted deeply in her that are from me. Needing a private place for retreat is one of them, and I’m so thankful to be able to give her that… specially with all the packing/unpacking, cleaning, moving, errand runnings she has endured with us these past months.
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08.25.04
Posted in Maddy at 4:27 pm by tina
Ms Doris has been purposely delaying the AM snack time to accommodate Maddy’s late arrival in the mornings. According to daddy, they’re usually ‘almost done’ by the time Maddy gets there, but they will serve Maddy anyway.
Since Maddy is the only girl in the class, they assigned the center seat for her. While Maddy eats her snack, all the other boys just watch her and wait for her to finish.
They no longer call her lumberjack (although we think it’s a cute nickname); instead, they call her ‘the princess’. I think she’s acting more like a ‘Queen’: eating in her center throne while all the other little knights wait on her.
That’s just great!@# I can see how all the special treatment does to her ego, and she’s going to grow up like her daddy, wanting to be the center of attention. 
Primrose is working out much better now that we’ve smoothed all the kinks. Maddy seems to be very happy (well.. ok, she’s always been pretty happy there), mommy has finally adjusted to it as well.
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08.24.04
Posted in Maddy at 8:21 am by tina
My close friends from college laughed at me because I told them I live in the country side now. To prove my points, I would like to list our special neighbors who ‘agree’ with me:
1) On the right side of our Carpenter Village border, there are goats of some sort in the family two houses down
2) Across the street from Carpenter Village, there are many cows
3) On the left side of Carpenter Village border, there are horses AND donkeys
4) There are deer on the streets during night time.
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Posted in Maddy at 8:05 am by tina
I had decided that God made human with instincts to survive and conquer, plus I can only give myself so much self-pity before I get annoyed at myself. I ventured out yesterday during lunch time. Without daddy, without GPS, only a Yahoo map that I prayed didn’t have any mistakes.
To my utterly pleasant surprise, I found ‘civilizations’: large clusters of commercial retail stores, groceries, and very hip restaurants near one of the richest neighborhood in Raleigh.
I took daddy and Maddy back there during the night time (yes, mommy actually lead the way.. although I got a little confused with the directions at the end). Daddy and Maddy are so proud of mommy’s finding we’ve decided to call this area Mommy’s Shopping Centers. There are rows and rows of bright lights at night! Something you don’t find in Cary neighborhood.
There ARE people who believe in convenience and being preppy here!! YES!
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08.22.04
Posted in Maddy at 11:39 pm by tina
I found the Carpenter Trail near our house to walk Brownie. It’s a paved trail around the lake so I love it! I will try to jog around the whole lake once we settle down. Brownie seems to enjoy the area more after two days being here. She is not allowed to go upstairs where the carpet is but she seems to finally ‘understand’ that and is content roaming around on the first floor. She has made sure to pee right in front of our front yard every time we take her out, so I think she knows this is HER house and she’s marked her territory.
The weather in the late afternoon today was beautiful. It’s probably only the second time we have a pleasant late afternoon since we moved here (see how I pointed out the late afternoon, not a pleasant all day..just the late afternoon). I’ve learned to ’suck it up’ when it’s hot and humid (which is really most of the times.. at least during the past three weeks), but I’ve decided to make the point to enjoy the very little good weather moments we have here.
We went out for a family walk in our Carpenter Village. We found the part by the lake where there are tons of ducks around. Maddy loves them.. we’ll have to bring some bread for the duckies next time we visit them.
We walked all the way to the middle of the ‘common areas’, commenting on how nice it would be when the shops and restaurants are finally open; checking out the different styles of houses on the way there; looking at people playing vball/tennis and the popular swimming pool. We even stopped by a kiddy playground for Maddy to swing. I actually can say I LOVE it here for the first time (well.. watch the weather turns against me tomorrow and I’ll be all annoyed again) The only down side of our walk is that I got quite a few musquito bites. It marked my first musquito defeat in 4 1/2 years 
I need to put on some bug repellant next time, and I wonder if it’s safe to use it on Maddy… will look into that tomorrow.
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Posted in Maddy at 11:19 pm by tina
Mommy’s whole family is here this weekend. It’s been a long time since the whole family got together. As much as I LOVE California (and still do), I did miss the fact that I didn’t get to see my family very often and I never knew when is the next time I would see them again.
They all stayed at a local hotel since we don’t have any furniture or anything to offer at the new house, but they all came over very early on Sat morning. They got Maddy so many gifts it was if we just had a big party for her.
Maddy acted shy in the beginning, but she bonded with ah-ma real quick. The grandparents watched Maddy so Joe and I can unpack as much as possible. Auntie Betty help mommy with setting up Maddy’s bedroom. Her crib and changing table are back, yea!! Daddy ‘conveniently’ went out to walk Brownie and ended up talking to our neighbors for the longest time while uncle Andy moved all the heavy boxes from the garage to daddy’s den. We found out that our next door neighbors(Jim and Susie) have two poodles and Susie is a professional landscaper (no wonder they have the most beautiful yard in the neighborhood)
We went to the original China One for Dim Sum. The food wasn’t very good and the service was slow (I shall write more on the Chinese food here later) Betty help us ran more errands in the afternoon while the grandparents took care of Maddy again.
Daddy, ah-gong and Andy set up the swing/slide set for Maddy in the afternoon. Maddy absolutely loved it.. thank you so much, ah-gong and ah-ma! I would like to say that Maddy now has too many toys so please please do not buy her any more things in general!
Because everyone has to work tomorrow, they all went back to their respective places by noon time Sunday. It’s funny that I didn’t feel ’sad’ saying goodbye today. When we lived in TX and CA, daddy had to give mommy and grandma ‘moments of silence’ every time we said goodbyes.. Perhaps it’s because I know that they’re now only a couple of hours away and we can make weekend trips to see each other whenever we want to.
Well… hopefully our house will be furnished the next time they visit so they can actually stay with us.
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Posted in Maddy at 10:58 pm by tina
We moved into the new house on Friday, 8/20. I don’t know why Joe and I always picked the most hectic time to do things since my whole family (ah-gong, ah-ma, auntie Betty, and uncle Andy) all came in on the same day to celebrate Maddy’s Birthday with us.
Auntie’s Betty’s flight was delayed so she didn’t get in until 10:30pm. The rest of the Chang family didn’t get in until 1:00am. Everyone was tired, but mommy is so happy to see them.
We don’t have any furniture in the new house. The only big nice sofa we have got rained on by the leaking terminal storage (that reminds me that I should ask daddy to fill out the claim form)
Brownie was nervous. The place smelled like new paint and I’m sure many people passed through during the past month. She doesn’t really know what is going on yet.
Maddy seems ok… then again, she has been such a wonderful child who didn’t have any transition problem in the new daycare, and slept through the night in our temporary condo… I imagine that she’ll be just fine again.
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08.18.04
Posted in Maddy at 6:18 pm by tina
Maddy is ONE today! Ironically, we didn’t really do anything to celebrate for her ‘birthday’, but we did do a whole bunch of other stuff in ‘honor’ of her:
1) Closed on our new house!
2) Picked up both of our CRVs from the auto transportation station
3) Moved all of our stuff from the ABF terminal to the garage in our new home
There are still many many little things we need to do that came along with moving, but I guess we’ll wait till tomorrow.
Ms Lopes said that Maddy walked around a lot in the room today. They sang happy birthday and blew bubbles in honor of her birthday. I stopped packing her bottles to school. She’s officially transitioned to cow milk at school (and will be at home after she finishes her last can of formula)
My little baby is all grown up!
Dear God, I thank You so much for all the blessings You have given us through Maddy this past year. It’s hard for me to even remember the days without her. I promise that I will raise her up in the ways that are pleasing in Your eyes (to my best knowledge); I pray that you will give us the wisdom and strengh as parents; I pray that Maddy will grow up knowing You and loving You and depending on You with everything she does..
Happy Birthday, my little girl!
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08.14.04
Posted in Maddy at 4:01 am by tina
Maddy is WALKING!! About 10 steps on her own. She’s such a show off too. Walking back and forth between mommy and daddy and acts like it’s nothing.
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