02.28.05
Posted in Maddy, Maddy's first words at 10:13 pm by tina
1. Ever since Charlotte’s visit and watching her peeling the 3D stickers all by herself, Maddy is eager to do the same. She has not perfect the fine motor skill yet; however, if I peel just a little bit and give her a head start, Maddy is now able to peel the sticker herself.
2. still obsessed with her shoes. She can put them on pretty quickly now with minimal help.. We are learning to differentiate between the right shoe and the left shoe and putting on shoes that belong to each other… will learn the velcro part later
3. Her drawing focus has improved from just randomly draw one/two lines to totally filling the paper up with all bright colors and she tries to leave no white space now… we learned to trace our hand although she still ends up drawing ‘on’ her hand… we are still working on colors. For some reasons Maddy still has trouble with the colors. I thought numbers/counting are much harder than colors, but maybe she has more nerdy genes than artistic genes.
4. Saying lots of words now… cute as a button. We went to Mama Wok for dinner yesterday and daddy said “oh, that hit the spot” and Maddy followed by “hit, hit”
Tried to say one of her favorite bath toy “Otpa” (octopus)
She is picking up some Spanish from Ms Lopes.. saying goodbyes, kisses, more in Spanish to Ms Lopes 
… still miss Ms Doris, she could have taught Maddy a couple French words as well.
5. a little control freak of her own.. loves to compartmentize her dinner tray. Sometimes daddy purposely puts her cup in the wrong spot.. it annoys her greatly.
6. Some very ‘girly’ traits have emerged: insist that her bear has poopoo and we need to wipe and put on a diaper; admire her pretty Sunday dresses and insist on picking out her hair clips herself; changes her mind on stuff on a fly.
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Posted in Maddy at 7:44 pm by tina
Usually I don’t mind Joe ‘practicing’ his harmonizing skills when there are just him and me, but frankly I rather him not try out new songs when Maddy is around (I don’t really want her to think that whatever he is ‘harmonizing’ is right.
He’s at it again during Maddy’s bath time yesterday, and I said “daddy, no; no; no; no..”
To our surprise, Maddy look at daddy, look at me, look at daddy again, and put her finger on her mouth and went “Shh…” to daddy.
I can’t help but crack up;
Daddy’s feeling is a little hurt, and he convinced himself that “Maddy doesn’t even know what that means…she doesn’t know what she’s doing”…
Sure, sure, sure… to set the record straight and to prove that Maddy knew exactly what she was doing.. the “Sh…” is from her book GoodnightMoon where there is a old lady whispering ‘hush’ in the book, and mommy has always done “sh…everyone is asleep and we have to be quiet”
Personally, I think it is fair. The child looks like Joe and has most of his personalities… a little teaming up with mommy is totally justified.
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Posted in Maddy, Maddy's first words at 6:01 pm by tina
Since Maddy has started to pick up her speech, sometimes she gets so frustrated because we don’t understand her. Her frustration is often not justified because it is impossible for us to get her from all her one-sound sentence; however, sometimes we parents are so dense:
On the way home from dinner:
Maddy: More..
Mommy: more what?
Maddy: Sing
Mommy: What song?
Maddy: Ro
Mommy: What? The boat? I don’t know a boat song
Maddy: Ro; Ro … shaked her head
Daddy: What? The ABC song?
Maddy: Ro; Ro … shaked her head
Mommy: The Ba-ba sheep song?
Maddy: Ro… shaked her head
Mommy: The Bird song?
Maddy: Ro; Ro …. shaked her head
Mommy: Maddy, I’m sorry… we don’t know what song you want
Silence in the car while I am going through all the songs we know
(click in mommy’s brain)
Mommy: Oh, she meant the Row-Row row your boat song!
Maddy: nods
Dummy mommy and daddy; how clear do you want your child to be? Here she is going “Ro-Ro” and we named every other song that does not have a ‘Row’ in it.
My excuse: It was the first time she said ‘Ro’ and hence requested the song for the first time.
Lesson learned: Listen to my child and expect the unexpected.
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02.26.05
Posted in Maddy at 9:22 pm by tina
Maddy is such a blunt mommy’s girl recently even I feel bad for daddy:
1) She wouldn’t give daddy the time of the day for her ‘one-minute’ moment before bed time.
She says bye-bye to daddy so quickly you totally know it is a hint for you to get out NOW. Daddy always then asks for a kiss/hug/nose-nose and gets them too. Unfortunately, it is more like “ok, I’ll do whatever you want so you will go”.
2) She doesn’t want daddy to read to her. There is such a ugly frown on her face when daddy reads as if he is reading the book all wrong. During reading time today, she ‘tricked’ daddy by giving him a book but then quickly came to me with another book. It was so rude that she wanted daddy to read his own book so again, Maddy and mommy can have our private reading time.
3) We give Maddy her bath together as our family routine before her bed time, but she has slowly rejected each of daddy’s responsibilities. Daddy used to get to carry her from bathroom to her room, and she had asked me to do that recently. Daddy used to put lotion on her, but today she told him she wanted mommy to do it… The only thing she still allows daddy to do is to put her butt cream on, which she demands with a rude ‘more’ from daddy.
Poor daddy. No wonder he wants a boy as our second kid… daddy says “all you three girls have something going on” Nobody sides with daddy 
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Posted in Maddy at 5:46 pm by tina
The weather is always unpredictable here, and it makes it hard to plan any weekend activities ahead of time. But today, it was beautiful; a bit chilly but sunny; a perfect sweatshirt day:
1) Maddy slept in until 8:00am.. had her nice big breakfast and roamed around the house harassing Brownie
2) We head out at 10:00 for Chinese breakfast, but found out that the restaurant doesn’t open until 11:00am. It made us miss CA for a bit, but we settled for a nice bagel shop a couple doors down
3) Visited the big flee market in Raleigh… Daddy was very happy to get free samples and got a big bag of warm roasted pecan; Maddy was entertained by all the people/dogs and little shops around and got to have her first taste of popcorn, joined daddy in sampling all the food and totally content with the dried cranberries we got her. We even got a nice painting for the family room (although daddy would tell a different story about how he got the ‘fancy’ painting)
4) We all took a Chen nap for two hours
5) Maddy got up hungry again; had her 3:00pm ’snack’ that I am pretty sure contained more food as a regular meal for most other kids
6) We all went out for the weekend family walk - stopped by the tot ground and played in the swing/slides. Met neighbors three doors down who had walked to their son’s place and picked up their granddaughter Abby and joined us in the playground. Maddy had a blast following Abby around and tried to copy everything Abby did; Brownie enjoyed being out with us, although she got bored at the end.
7) Daddy went to the Men’s group at church at 4:30pm; Mommy decided that we will take advantage of every sunny moment today.. so Maddy and mommy went to Southpoint Mall; We stared at each water fountain for a long long time. Maddy is fascinated by them. The fountains are pretty big, but they must seem gigantic to her. She giggles and laughs although she started to get tired.
8 ) Went into the indoor part of the mall and had a chicken nugget meal as her 5:00pm snack. For the spirit of a fun family day, we even stood in line and got Maddy a doggie from the balloon artist and started heading home.
9) Dropped the doggie on the car floor. I thought she’s going to throw a fit since she’s so tired, but she actually agreed to leave the doggie there until we get home and I can pick it up for her.
10) 6:00pm, went down for her late afternoon nap with her balloon doogie and rest of her stuffed animal.
11) 7:45pm, enjoyed her dinner
12) 8:00-9:00pm, playing Maddy version of hide-and-seek/tag with mommy and daddy; being a total crazy giggly girl
13) 9:30, went to bed after our usual night-night routine.
Such a wonderful day… makes me look forward to the next sunny weekend!
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02.18.05
Posted in Maddy at 8:47 pm by tina
Weight- 24 pound 10 oz 50-75%
Length- 32 inch 50%
Still has a big head in 75-90% range… It looks like she’s on the same curve for all three.
I would feel a bit better if her weight comes down to 50% as well, but for the amount of food that girl consumes, I’m very pleased that she is in the ‘norm’.
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02.17.05
Posted in Maddy at 7:10 pm by tina
We were playing in her playroom this morning before going off to work/school-
Mommy: Maddy, you’re too cute!
Maddy: I know…
We shall work on the modesty from now on.
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02.15.05
Posted in Maddy at 9:22 pm by tina
When I pick Maddy up in the afternoons, she usually has a different hair ’style’. I don’t know how but Ms Lopes can braid Maddy’s fine and sparse hair into all sorts of cute looking things. Even her simple two piggy tails look so much tidier and cuter than when I do them.
Ms Lopes said that Maddy would sit there very patiently (which is not her usual characteristics) while she braids Maddy’s hair. After Ms Lopes finishes, Maddy would walk to the mirror and check herself out. Ms Lopes usually asks Maddy if Maddy likes her look or not. Most of the times Maddy nods with smiles; however, there were a few times she didn’t like them and Ms Lopes actually re-did her hair.
I thank Ms Lopes in passing and told her that Maddy really likes how she does her hair and I wish I know how to do half of the stuff she does. Ms Holmes told me not to worry about it because Ms Lopes enjoys it more than Maddy and Ms Lopes looks for every opportunity to braid Maddy’s hair (so I was told Maddy gets her done at least twice a day at school)
Such a spoiled princess.. first she gets personal welcomes and hugs from cute little boy in her class, then she gets special personal time with her teacher… then she has mommy and daddy wrapped around her little fingers. What a little lucky girl!
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02.14.05
Posted in Parenting at 6:35 am by tina
Dear Maddy,
Today is the national ‘love’ day, but I don’t feel need to celebrate it. With you, everyday is Valentine’s Day!
You’re still innocent and you love ‘everyone’; you give your trust and love freely without asking anything in return. It is sad that all that will change when you grow up. We live in an imperfect world and we are selfish by nature.
When I married your daddy, I thought my love to him was the ‘best’ love I can give to another human being… After you were born, I’m shamefully realizing that my love to him is so conditional. I get mad at him when he makes a mess; I get extremely annoyed when he makes us late, etc… My love to you is different. When you woke me up in the middle of the night for no reason and gave me headaches, I didn’t yell at you.. instead, I woke your daddy up and made him suffer. Poor daddy.
But I do wonder how you would give your love when you grow up. What do I want you to remember what love is. Will you look at your daddy and I and say to yourself that this is the kind of family you want to pass on to your children? I sure hope so.
When you grow up, perhaps I will ask you one day. It seems weird that one day you’ll be a grown woman and we will have an adult-to-adult conversation. But I will ask you and I hope you will give me your honest opinions.
And I know it’s such a ‘Sunday school’ answer thing to define love, but God has the perfect answer already.. they seem so ‘obvious’ yet I doubt that any of us has mastered it:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthian 13:4-7
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02.13.05
Posted in Maddy's first words at 10:25 pm by tina
New words Maddy said this week:
1) “Mi-mi” with a pointy finger — For a few days I thought Maddy was saying her baby sitter Emily’s name who lives next door, but I finally realized that she’s not talking about Emily. “Mi-mi” translates to Maddy language “One-minute”, which I say quite often to her when I need her to get ready for something, like “Maddy, you have one minute before you get out of bath”; “Maddy, one minute then you have to take a nap”, etc.
2) “Char” — I asked her if she had a good day before her late afternoon nap, and she said “Char” (for Charlotte who spent the whole day with Maddy on Sat).. We think Maddy had an exceptional good time hanging out with a bigger girl.
3) “Eye”, “No”(nose), “Toe” — She’s learned all the body parts in English from her preschool, and started to say them at home. My little bi-ligual girl! I always wonder about that since certain things she says them in Chinese and other things she says them in English. I guess she’ll have to figure out the differences and when to use them on her own.
Other new development:
1) Maddy has tried and ‘accepted’ the LeapPad she previously threw on the floor…She still doesn’t like the page that shows different colors, but she loves the page that has all the alphabets/animals.
2) She’s gotten the concept of ‘counting’. We’ve been counting with her 3-D stickers she LOVES… she no longer just grabs a handful, but carefully picks the stickers out from the bucket one by one while we count (since she’s usually allowed to get five at a time). Before we use the stickers, we line them up and count them again. She did not show any interests or care for weeks, but she counted with me today, even attempted to say “one-two-… five”.
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02.12.05
Posted in Maddy at 7:52 pm by tina
We invited Charlotte over to spend her Sat with Maddy. One reason we thought it would be a nice break for her parents since they just had their second kid (a whooping 9 pound 8 oz cute boy); one reason to give Maddy a playmate; another reason for us to taste what it’s like to have two kids.
They had such a great day together and both of them were being so good throughout the day..
However, I thought it must be almost nine when the Chinese New Year program started at seven at church. Shortly into the program, daddy announced that “it’s time to go home” (The girls were pretty good but they weren’t exactly sitting still and listening to the symphony and I think daddy surpassed his threshold of tolerance for kids)
We’re so ready to hit the sack, and it’s not even 9:00pm yet… pretty pathetic for us!
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02.11.05
Posted in Maddy at 11:40 am by tina
It is all my fault, and I take full responsibility for it… but the overwhelming exhaustion plus a splitting headache brought senses back to me.
After two weeks of all the bau-bau requests from Maddy, her supposedly just a phase thing because she was sick and had a good reason for being pampered turned into this simple habitual routine. After being waken every other hour in the middle of the nights and only to find that there is nothing wrong and she just wanted to be bau-bau for a while, her requests was everything but cute.
So we were back to sleep training:
1) First night, she acted like she had never slept by herself… cried a few times before midnight which daddy went to tend to her, then awake from 2am - 4am… did my usual ‘check-on-her’ every now and then. She tried to stall for time by asking me to change her diaper, and was happy that she got that extra two minutes on the changing table but then went back to her crying after I put her down in the crib.
I was so tired and so annoyed I actually woke Joe up just to tell him that his daughter has been up for the past two hours and I refused to be the only adult suffering through and he should be awake to listen to her whining too.
2) Second night.. Maddy woke up at 10:30pm. After I went in to check on her, she pulled the I-love-you-and-please-don’t-leave-me trick. I did not fall for it… told her we will not have any more bau-bau sessions in the middle of the night, but gave her a long hug and lots of kisses then put her down… She cried cried cried for another half hour..
I went in again, gave her a short hug and kiss and made her lay down.
That is when she started the “I-am-so-mad-at-you!” cries and I walked out. I was so happy and so relieved to hear her distinct angry cries. As expected, silence came shortly after that…. did not wake up until I went in to get her this morning.
And I had to explain to Joe about the differences of her cries.. before the “I-am-so-mad-at-you” cries, her other cries are what I called her “come-get-me” cries. Maddy can go on and on with that for hours because she has hope that we will go in. But the “I-am-so-mad-at-you” cries, she knows mommy is not playing around any more and she is so very angry at mommy… and since she knows there is no hope in succeeding, she usually stops crying within minutes, sometimes seconds.
Thank goodness we’re back to the normal routine!
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