03.29.07
Posted in Livy at 9:15 pm by tina
I almost forgot how exciting it is whenever the big girl transitions to her next class. This is Livy’s second week in the Young Toddler I, and we’re again seeing many milestones being met:
The baby is crawling (finally)… Sure, Maddy was walking and totally eating by herslef at this age. Sure, the baby does not have the world’s best crawling form. It’s more like of 1/3 crawling, 1/3 scooting, and 1/3 dragging, but she has advanced ahead. She even attempts to stand still and laughs out loud when her whole body fumbles down.
She is also eating table food (again, finally)… Sure, her big sister ate dimsum like a pro when she was 7 month old, but who cares about what Jiejie did. She had her moments and now it’s all about her. Livy is a non-Chen when it comes to eating. She is picky and she stops at the moment when she is no longer ’starving’. However, second week into her ‘big’ kid class, she has stopped eating baby jars all together and has finished everything the school provided.. morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack.
She is still a big charm! She imitates my kissing sounds after I give her big kisses on the cheeks; she insists on playing hi-five with daddy and giggles at her own silly-ness. She starts every night by sleeping in her crib but somehow makes her way to mommy daddy bed by morning.
Congratulations for becoming a toddler!
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03.28.07
Posted in Maddy at 11:51 pm by tina
Maddy got into playing the “what is this letter?” recently with the flashcards that came with our Disney learning DVD’s. It is such a shock for me because for any other time she still much prefers not to have anything to do with alphabets.
I haven’t been forcing her to learn/review them at home. She is three and half, so I don’t have to start panicing until next year. Besides, she seems to be doing just fine with her school curriculum and enjoys her show-and-tell every Thursday for letter-of-the-week.
The girl actually has the majority of the letters down.. with exception of E, G, K, and P. Not bad for my girl who does not like alphabets.
She has also taken an interest in writing things other than her name ‘Maddy’. Nothing particular. Mostly they are just scribbles of letters she decided to write at the time; however, she seems to be writing ‘hit’ and ‘t-i-t’ quite a bit not really knowing what she wrote. Perhaps I should stop her from writing the latter.
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Posted in Life with my girls at 11:38 pm by tina
Maddy is silly most of the time during our nigt time routine. She stalls for time; she insists that we hold her hand while she jumps out of the tub and carries her back to her room; she makes smarty excuses to come back out of her room such as how we forgot to brush her teeth and how she needs to go to the bathroom (and also manages to squeeze out a few drops of pees every single time). There are days she even resorts to use “mommy you forgot to say bad dream bad dream go away and line up everybody(her stuffed animails)”
But she is an AMAZING three-and-a-half year old on the days daddy has night time church meetings or vball games. On the request that “Maddy needs to be extra good tonight because there is only one mommy but two girls to be taken care of”, she rises to the occasion with such maturity and independence:
1) The girl pushed her baby sister on the swing with gentleness and constant statements of reassurrance.
2) She pulled mei-mei to herself without being asked in the tub so that mei-mei “would not fall into the water”
3) Mommy asked her to wait for a few minutes in the tub while dressing Livy, and only to find out later the big girl had already unplugged the water, wrapped herself up in her towl, and started dressing in her room.
4) She quietly sat next to Livy and ‘pai-pai’ her while mommy got mei mei’s milk ready. Livy was screaming and fussing the whole time but she posed herself with such calmness and patience mommy thought she can learn from the big sister
Both girls are down before 9 pm.. No extra peeping out of the room with her usual excuses.
I can’t stop gloating!
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03.25.07
Posted in Life with my girls at 9:06 pm by tina
With jie-jie by her side ‘protecting’ her, Livy went on her first boat ride.
She look so grown up and took in her new experience with ease.
I see lots of sister boat rides in the future.
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03.20.07
Posted in Misc at 11:13 pm by tina
Watching a tv show on third graders learning probabilities -
Daddy: If a tower consists of four blocks and you have two color blocks, how many combinations can you have?
Mommy: 16
Daddy: How do you come to that conclusion?
Mommy: 2 times 2 times 2 times 2
….
Daddy: What if you can build a tower up to four blocks, then how many combinations can you have?
Mommy: [think think think] 30
Daddy: How did you come up with that?
Mommy: Same thing. Just add them up. 16 plus 8 plus 4 plus 2.
Daddy: I don’t think you just add them up. Are you willing to bet your life on it?
Mommy: Let me re-add them again. [click click click] yea, 30
Daddy: I don’t remember adding things up in statistics. I don’t think it’s 30. If you’re wrong, then I can get my 37 inch TV, right? [went on to do his math]
Mommy: What do I get if I’m right? How about you wash Maddy and Livy’s laundry for the next month?
Daddy: No. If you’re right, you get the pride of knowing that you are smarter than me.
Mommy: [rolled eyes] Let me know when you come up with another answer.
Few minutes later.. with daddy’s “hee hee hee ha ha ha” self:
“honey, I think you’re right. You do add them up”
Mommy: [rolled eyes a few more times… but as any good wife would say] It’s ok honey, you’re a much better programmer than me….
Note to self: Add prayer request to make sure that girls do not have math genes from daddy.
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03.18.07
Posted in Livy at 10:16 pm by tina
Mommy: Mei-mei, where is daddy? Daddy zai na-li?
Livy: [no response with a dummer than dummer look]
Mommy: Mei-mei, where is Jie-Jie? Jie-jie Maddy zai na-li?
Livy: [no response with a ‘r-u-talking-to-me’ look]
Mommy: Livy, where is Maddy?
Livy: [Looks and finds Maddy.. She gave Maddy a two-second stare]
Mommy: Livy, where is Brownie?
Livy: [looking for Brownie and finds the dog] Brah brah
Mommy: Oh.. there is Brownie!
Livy: Aah.. Aah
It looks like maybe, just maybe.. doggie Brownie is making a new best friend! At least, Brownie is happy to get some attention from Livy.
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Posted in Life with my girls at 9:59 pm by tina
Despite the nearly freezing weather outside, Maddy requested to do the ice sculpturing experiment after watching her Curious George with the ice experiment insert.
We made different shapes of ice cubes, and we were supposed to learn about how ice melts while building ice castles and such; however, the girls had something else in mind.
Maddy spent about 10 seconds watching me build my ‘UFO‘, and proceeded with her ice sculpture eating execise. Livy quickly followed suit. They had way too much fun than we could have imagined.
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03.13.07
Posted in Maddy at 9:11 pm by tina
Girls got into the tub for their baths. I was holding on to Livy’s arm (she has a tendency to lose balance and daddy almost drown her TWICE) and trying to help them wash their faces. We heard guitar playing from daddy’s den, and it went on for a few minutes.
Maddy: What is daddy doing? [with a very annoyed face and a scolding tone that made me so proud] He is NOT helping!
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03.11.07
Posted in Maddy at 9:20 am by tina
Maddy was in her sulky mood after bath yesterday because her insensitive mother put her in a T-shirt and shorts instead of a princess PJ for bed.
“I can’t turn around in this”
“Yes you can.. you can still twirl around in a T-shirt. It’s too hot to wear your long sleeve PJs”
[looking grouchy and unhappy from the child]
“Are you grumpy, young lady?”
“No. I am not grumpy. I am just wery wery (Maddy’s very) SAD”
I was finally forgiven this morning after dressing her for church.
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03.09.07
Posted in Life with my girls at 11:04 pm by tina
I chuckled at the sight the other day.. at how much Maddy doesn’t mind her baby sister bugging her (not yet anyway), and at how much the stubborn baby wants to be exactly like her big sister even though she has no idea what she’s watching.
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03.08.07
Posted in Maddy at 11:32 am by tina
Mommy: Maddy, don’t play with the thermometer. It’s only for mommy and daddy to use. I don’t want Maddy to play with it.
Maddy: [continued to play with it]
Mommy: Madison!
Maddy: Ok.. take it away.
Mommy: Just don’t mess with it.
Maddy: Take it away, mommy. Put it somewhere I can not see and I can not touch. If you put it here where I can reach, it is making me play with it.
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03.07.07
Posted in Livy, Parenting at 9:46 am by tina
Livy made it through preschool full time for the past FIVE MONTHS with no sickness. One weekend she had a little running nose and cough, but it was gone as fast as it came.
I dropped her off at church nursary during the service for the first time this past Sunday, and she woke up with a 104 degree fever after Sunday afternoon nap and is struggling with it ever since.
It is no body’s fault but my own. It’s not like there wasn’t the historical sickness trend graphed out by Maddy who gets 85% of her illness from no other place than the infamous ‘church nursaries’. I’m only a fool fantisizing that it would be any different with Livy.
I remember becoming so furious when Maddy got sick from church nursary. Taking care of a sick baby second time around is definitely different. Perhaps I’m a lot more relaxed (and hopefully much wiser now). We simply joke with each other: We take the good and and bad of a church. It’s a package deal.
Ironically, I told Joe that for the first time, I am no longer bitter towards those moms who had commented/implied that “I’m a horrible mother who chooses to work full time and send my kids to preschool where they will obviously get sick all the time”. I finally see where they come from.
Instead, I thanked Livy’s caretakers profusely at school… for their ridiculous clean-ness, for their dedication to provide an environment as germfree as possible, for being amazingly wonderful partners with me and many many other working moms in raising our children.
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