09.29.05
Posted in Maddy at 11:32 pm by tina
An ice cream truck passed by our house yesterday when we got home, and Maddy girl picked out a strawberry popsicle for herself. It was a nice treat for the both of us. I always loved the lingering music on ice cream trucks and how all the kids stop what they are doing and run to catch it. Maddy was surprised that she can get ice cream off a truck driving by and of course, who wouldn’t enjoy a nice cool popsicle in the semi-hot late afternoon?
The poor thing had to face her disappointment today though, and it was so sad.
We came home, and she refused to go into the house:
Maddy: I want ice cream truck
Mommy: oh sweetie, it doesn’t look like the ice cream truck is here. Maybe it’ll come tomorrow
Maddy: No, I wait here.
The child sat on our front porch steps, mumbled about “I wait for ice cream truck”.. standing up every time a car drove by, and look sadder and sadder by the minute.
Mommy: I’m sorry, sweetie. I don’t think the ice cream truck is coming today. We’ll get it the next time it drives by our house
Maddy: I wait here… (she insisted)
So we sat out there for a good 10 minutes (I’m sure that is like an eternity for a 2-year-old), but she wouldn’t give up.
She’s a brave little toddler though.. no complaints when she finally gave up… just went into the house and started her next activitity and not another word about ice cream. I was quite proud of how she handled the whole thing… I would have been complaining and whining.
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09.27.05
Posted in Maddy's First at 9:34 pm by tina
Mommy: Do you need to go potty? (I asked the girl half-heartly after undressing her to get ready for bath)
Maddy: Yea..
She ran to her own todller potty in our bathroom, sat down and started reading her potty book… nothing happened
Mommy: Did anything come out?
Maddy: No..
She got up; heading towards her bathroom.. but returned almost immediately “I need to go potty”
Mommy: ok (I’m thinking.. yea, sure)
She sat down with a serious face, and next thing I know, I was hearing something.. not a drop, not two drops, but a stream of pee-pee.
We danced and jumped together, celebrating her first potty success at home (supposedly she’s been ‘pottying’ at school at least once every other day now)
Now I just have to figure out how to transfer the stuff out of her little potty without grossing myself out.
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Posted in Maddy at 2:20 pm by tina
All grown up and talks up a storm from the moment she gets up to the moment she climbs into her crib.
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09.22.05
Posted in Maddy at 2:45 pm by tina
It’s sweet watching the interaction between Maddy and Abraham. Their friendship is effortless, and their care for each other beyond words. When they play together in class, they are oblivious to other kids in the same room.
Ms Larson told us (Abraham’s mom was there at the same time this morning) how their buddy-ness has extended to the bathroom lately, with their potty training and all:
When it’s Abraham’s turn to go on the potty:
A: Where is Maddy?
When it’s Maddy’s turn to go on the potty:
Maddy screams: Abraham come potty!!
So, not only they hold hands in the playground, they have been going to potty together (well, sitting on the potty together to be more exact)
We’ve moved around enough to know that we can always make friends any where we go, but we’re lucky if we find a few good friends. ‘Bestfriend’ comes by once in a blue moon… In my entire life, I had only called two people my ‘best friends’.
As Abraham ran to Maddy and gave her his overly sweet hug while Maddy preteneded that she was annoyed, I can only thank God for sending Maddy such a precious gift at her tender age.
I asked Maddy to tell Abraham “Happy Birthday”… She quickly ran to him, put her face one inch from his but somehow ‘lost the words’. After they stared at each other for a good 10 seconds and Abraham finally had to remind Maddy “Happy Birthday”…. They giggled and laughed and totally cracked us up.
Happy Birthday Abraham!
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09.17.05
Posted in Maddy at 10:59 pm by tina
Maddy got to hang out with mommy and daddy’s friends from way way way back. They started to be our friends BEFORE our dating days and we used to hang out 5+ days per week.
Thanks to Mrs Harris Teeter and grandma’s handmade chicken buns, mommy’s ‘cooking’ consisted of turning on the oven for re-heating and making the punch which I did have to mix the stuff myself.
We had a great time re-living the past since Joe dig through his old files and pulled out piles of old pictures (back in our younger days… when we printed out pictures)
Maddy had a blast playing with all the kids. The playroom and playset just seem so much more fun when we have friends to share them with. Even with her three hours nap in the afternoon, she pretty much passed out the moment everyone left.
It was a wonderful night spent with old friends, and reminded again on how blessed we are through the friendships we had build so many years ago.
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Posted in Maddy at 1:17 pm by tina
Mostly because I am nosy about what other 5-star preschools are doing in the area, I dragged Maddy and Joe after our Little Gym class this morning to the open house of Kids&Kids on the other side of town (The same owners are building a new center next to Primrose).
I was very impressed with the facility (usually I’m hard to please). The rooms are much bigger than Primrose’s classrooms, one of my complaints when we first moved out of Cisco daycare. They start phonics at 2-year-old classes, but learning them with games and songs instead of the structured ‘repeat-after-me’ style. With 3-year-old and above, they have electives of learning different languages.. one of them being Chinese (in one of the classroom there is a game of counting in Chinese as part of their daily center activities) They also provide Webcam. Not that I actually used webcam that much at Cisco Daycare, but it’s definitely a plus given the option. I like their separate ‘cafeteria’ area away from the classrooms. Maddy is specially impressed with their mini-merry-go-around in the lobby.
Like Primrose, they also say blessings before each meal… I’m realizing that it’s one of the big plus living in the South… You don’t have to go to a Christian school to have an environment that encourages your children to thank God for everything.
Needtheless to say, I signed Maddy up right away. The RTP center won’t open until the first quarter of next year. I still have to check out the new facility and their staff first before deciding on transfering Maddy there. Well, that and also checking out the Carolina Kids Academy in Carpenter Village when it is done, since I found out last week that it is also going to be a 5-star preschool. I think it’ll be tough to beat the new and improved KidsRKids though. We will see.
Maybe I’ll convince Abraham and Cole’s parents to jump ship as well.
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09.13.05
Posted in Daycare Reports, Maddy's First at 11:55 am by tina
Report from Ms Larson:
“Maddy sat on the potty today. She look, look, and look, and one drop came out”
One drop is better than nothing… nothing has yet to come out when she’s at home.
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09.10.05
Posted in Maddy at 9:15 pm by tina
Mommy: Maddy? … no answer..
Mommy: Where are you, Maddy? …no answer..
Mommy: (found the girl)… Madison CHEN!
Maddy: Mommy CHEN!
======================
Mommy: Grandma is coming tomorrow to visit you, Maddy.
Maddy: Grandma? And ah-goon and ah-ma?
Mommy: No, no ah-goon/ah-ma. Just grandma this time.
Maddy: Ohh…. I show grandma shopping.
======================
Mommy: Maddy, can you read this book?
Maddy: (flipped a few pages) It’s too hard to read. Mommy read.
=======================
Mommy was busy talking to daddy while Maddy also tried to talk to mommy..
Maddy came over, used both of her hands and pull my face to hers:
Maddy: LISTEN.. I’m talking to you, mommy
Mommy: I’m sorry.. was mommy not listening?
Maddy: Mommy time out?
Mommy: No. Maddy can’t give mommy timeout. You silly.
Maddy: Ohh.. (not very satisfied with her level of authority)
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09.09.05
Posted in Maddy at 9:25 pm by tina
Maddy’s preschool has a theme of “celebrating cultures” this month and had their annual international day parade today. I asked her if she would like to dress in her Chinese outfit, but she said no. I figure she ‘looks’ Chinese enough, and does not need to wear anything special to show that she’s Chinese.
Last year we managed to put a Chinese outfit on her, but that was before she started talking. This year, she’s her own person with a outfit she picked out herself.
Last year at the parade, daddy ‘invited’ himself to a big-kid class where there was food. Thankfully, Maddy’s class had their own party with food this year.
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09.08.05
Posted in Maddy, Maddy's First at 9:06 pm by tina
While I was drinking my coffee this morning —
Maddy: I see u later, mommy..
Mommy: What? Where are you going?
Maddy: I’m going shopping.
Mommy: Shopping? Shopping for what?
Maddy: hmmm… chicken
Mommy: ohh… OK.. see you later.
Maddy: (running back to me) Give me my hug… see you later mommy.
Mommy: Bye
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09.07.05
Posted in Daycare Reports, Parenting at 5:12 pm by tina
One of the things I appreciate Maddy’s teachers is that they really encourage kids to try out the next developmental behaviors/expectations. In many ways, they teach me as the first time mom to know when/how to sense Maddy’s ready-ness in her growing-up process.
Maddy’s daily report since last week has “sat on potty” here and there. The teachers ask kids if they would like to try on the potty during each diaper change time and the ones wish so go through the whole going-to-potty process, although just about 100% the results was simply “sat on potty”.
C’s mom, A’s mom, and I had conversations about this potty training during Maddy’s birthday party. All three of us are first time moms and all three of us are so not ready to start the potty training thing. We’re very happy changing their diapers for now. We heard that the last wave of kids who moved up to Early Preschool I got potty trained in two months.. ALL of them, and we joke that with mommies like us, it will surely take them more than two months.
But so many times I was wrong:
1) I didn’t think there was a point for Maddy to do art when she was only four months, but different teachers/people had commented on how great Maddy’s fine motor skills are in early days
2) I didn’t think it had a point to give Maddy utencils when she can barely sat up herself, but she totally self-fed before she turned one
3) I didn’t think it was needed to have a rule that no paci in young toddler II class, but she was able to ‘quit’ her addiction in 45 mins… much to my surprise, I think I was not ready to have her leave paci as it symbolized her being a baby.
4) I didn’t think she was ready to be neat and clean at the table, but was amazed by all the 18 months olds eating without bibs and drinking with open cups with very minimal mess in her classroom.
Maybe, just maybe once again, I’m the one not ready for her to be potty trained because I want to keep her as my ‘baby girl’.
There are tons of kids and parents waiting at the corner of our street for school bus each morning now a days…. I see Abby, our 5-year-old neighbor, carries her own backpack with her dad by her side… I see an Asian boy, who is at least 8 or 9, with his mom still carries his backpack.
It’s quite a funny picture, and I suspect she uses that ‘Attachment Parenting’ thing to raise her son(most traditional Asians I know still do)… she is probably horrified that the other parents are not ‘helping’ their young kids with their heavy backpacks. I watch them and all the sudden the picture became so clear to me.
I am convicted with an answer… I will join Maddy’s teachers in preparing her for potty training from today.
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Posted in Maddy at 12:16 am by tina
We took a road trip to one of my favorite cities, Washington DC, during Labor Day weekend.
We got a good deal at Washington Suite Alexandria. It’s located in the nice Old Town Alexandria area, and the best part is that there is a separate bedroom. Although we could no longer cafe-hopping at night in George Town like I used to do, we got to relax in the hotel after Maddy went to sleep.
Auntie Betty and uncle John came down from NJ to meet up with us, and we did the usual tour thing around the city the first day… visited the National Zoo Park the second day.. first time for all three Chens, and we were pleasantly surprised at how pretty, well-organized, clean zoo it is (and it’s free).
We will definitely have to come back some other time!
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