04.24.07
Posted in Maddy at 9:14 pm by tina
The girl has been extremely sweet recently… not that she wasn’t sweet before, but she is now at the melting point of sweetness ALL THE TIME. I would highly suspect her alternative motives if she is a teenager.
On top of all her lovey dovey-ness, she is quite nurturing as well. Since being sympathetic and nurturing is not my strongest point, I chuckle every time she ‘mothers’ me.
The other day Livy and I were hanging out in the screen porch and Maddy was swinging in her playset. She screamed from the top of the lung:
Mommy, are you doing ok up there? I am just swinging here. I will be right up when I am done. ok?
I think I’ll have to remember moments like these when (if she ever) she gets into her rebellious periods.
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04.21.07
Posted in Life with my girls at 11:12 pm by tina
Mommy is so mad at herself because she had accidently overwritten most of the pictures taken at Spring Fling Carnival at school this morning. There are those beautiful beautiful pictures of baby girl and Yeh-Yeh; Maddy in Jump House and on the pony ride. It was a very very sad night for mommy.
Birthday baby girl got lots of visitors this weekend: Yeh-Yeh/Nai-Nai, Ah-goon/ah-ma, and auntie Betty. We all had a blessed time hanging out together. Thanks for making Livy’s birthday so special!!
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Posted in Livy at 11:04 pm by tina
Dear baby Livy,
I sat on the chair in lab yesterday, the same spot I sat on a year ago, remembering how you came on that Friday afternoon so unexpectantly.
That is how it is with you. Everything has to be on your term.
As stubborn as you are, you are even a bigger charmer, and I’m not the only person being biased about it. Your teachers had commented mutliple times about “Something about Livy makes her so adorable. She can just sit there doing nothing and look so very cute. She is one of those kids that everybody loves”
I love your silliness.. how you can crack up at yourself.
I love your seletive hearings.. how you can look through daddy as if he isn’t even there when he tries to annoy you.
I love your passion for Maddy.. how you practically worship everything she does
I love your perky-ness.. how you try to wash Maddy’s hair and splash her totally and absolutely on purpose
Most of all, I love your hugs and kisses… how you call out “ma-ma, mama” in such a pathetic tone I would drop everything I do at the moment and come to pick you up.
Someone had asked me if I love you the same as I love your big sister, and I had answered no, I don’t love you two the same. I don’t love you any more or any less, but I do love you differently. How can I love you the same, when you’re your own unique person and we have our unique bond.
I am convinced that the gift of children is God’s way of showing us what He had made us out of. In this world filled with aweful aweful actions by men, we are reminded that after all, we are also capable of giving unconditional love, over and over again.
Happy Birthday, Mei-mei!!
Love, mommy
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04.20.07
Posted in Misc at 10:39 pm by tina
Once upon a time, there was a guy in his prime 20’s. He visited his girlfriend and told her about his encounter at his volleyball game:
“There was this grandfather there. He is old and couldn’t jump very well. We purposely served to him the whole game, and he went home just after one game looking all tired and beat up”
The girlfriend said “That is so mean of you. I hope one day you’ll become the grandfather”, and to which the cocky guy replied “Never. I am invincible!”
=====================
This past Monday night-
Mommy: Why are you home so early? I thought Sportsplex doesnt close until 11:00pm?
Daddy: I’m too old. The kids there just laugh at me. I can’t jump, and my whold body is sore.
And at that moment, a huge smile merged on mommy’s face… and yes, she couldn’t resist the temptation to remind daddy about the story of a young man who teased his old vball counterpart. But as any loving wife would do.. she did re-assure the hubby that she will always love him no matter what 
Daddy then proceeded to take a bath and soaked himself in the whirlpool with sorrow for the rest of the night.
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Posted in Life with my girls at 10:25 pm by tina
The girls don’t dress alike usually, but once in a while I do get in the mood of putting them in the similar outfits. They are too young to protest for now, but they do make a good looking sister pair!
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04.18.07
Posted in Life with my girls, Parenting at 11:11 pm by tina
For the past three weeks, baby girl has been sleeping through the night IN HER CRIB. She doesn’t even cry when I put her down for bed, not even her typical 2 minute protests. Considering we had done everything in the “Never to do if you want to sleep trained your kid”, this is a huge accomplishment by Livy.
The baby pretty much slept with us for the first 6 months of her life. Partly because she was just so tiny.. partly I was too lazy and exhausted to deal with a crying baby and possibly a woken up cranky preschooler… mainly because Livy is the ‘BABY’ and I just wanted to baby her.
We finally started to put her in her crib at night. She surprised us by not really crying before falling asleep, but would always wake up in the middle of the night crying… and mommy daddy bed she came.
Then she turned 11 months… decided herself that she is happy with her crib all night. So there we have it. Peace and quiet for mommy!
I wonder why I was so darn strict with Maddy when she was a baby, and decided that it was what I needed at the time being a 1st time mom. I am no longer an advocate for BabyWise. Not because I don’t think there is no value in following schedules and setting rules on how/when the kids should sleep. I still believe in the principles.
But one thing I learn as a second time mom, is that we simply just find ways that work for our families, and it might mean different methods at different times. Our children are these amazing, flexible beings and they adopt to our expectations in the blinks of our eyes.
Maddy now has a ’special’ night with us. Every Friday she gets to sleep on mommy daddy bed. The rest of the week she is bubbly and content on her big girl bed. I imagine that Livy will join her on our bed when she is older…. Now she is finally making her crib her retreat at night, we’re more than thankful to have our uninterrupted sleep back!
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04.12.07
Posted in Life with my girls at 10:50 pm by tina
Maddy: Mommy, do you know how much I love you?
Mommy: How much do you love me?
Maddy: As high as the biggest tree you can find, as deep as the water, and as loud as one hundred bears put together. That’s how much I love you.
Mommy: Wow.. that’s a lot. I love you very much too.
Maddy: But I only love daddy a little bit.
Mommy: How come?
Maddy: Because he does a lot of things wrong.
Mommy: He does? like what?
Maddy: Like when we take bath, he puts water in my eyes, and he also put water in mei-mei’s eyes.
Mommy: Is that right?
Maddy: yea. and many times he is late…..
Mommy: Well. daddy tries hard, and sometimes accidents happen. We should still love him a lot. (ok.. so in my head, I was really thinking. yea, you’re right. he does do a lot of things wrong. We can make a list of all the things he does wrong and prioritize them because there are so many..oh we can make a flow chart)
Daddy’s reaction to our conversation:
Maybe Livy will be on my side.
Let’s hope so.
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Posted in Maddy, Parenting at 9:44 pm by tina
Maddy: Where did you get the green and white chairs in the back and in the front? (pointing to the porch furniture and screen room furniture we got from our neighbors)
Mommy: We got them from Ms Susie and Mr Jim
Maddy: Why?
Mommy: They moved and don’t them any more
Maddy: Why do they move?
Mommy: They want to try a new house
Maddy: Why?
Mommy: So they can try a different place and meet different neighbors and make new friends. It’s like how we used to live in California, but we moved and now we’re in North Carolina. And it’s great because we love different places.
========
Maddy: Mommy, I’m really glad that I tried this new food.
Mommy: yea?
Maddy: Yea. It’s good to try new things. And if I don’t like it, it’s ok because at least I tried it. And if I like it, it’s great. If I didn’t try it, I wouldn’t know I would love it.
That’s right, honey. I hope between trying something new or keeping things the way they’ve always been, you will always have the courage to take risks. Fly, honey.. you might even fly and fly but end up at where you started, but the journey of flying will make all the differences.
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04.08.07
Posted in Maddy at 9:34 pm by tina
It is jie-jie’s turn to transition from P1 to P2 last week. After a whole week being in the new class, something about the girl changed. It never stops to amaze me just how much a few days in a new class can totally shape a child to such a different level of maturity.
For the first time, she didn’t flip through the phonics games on the computer. I’ve been carefully watching her and monitoring her progress.. simply because I know that this is not a subject of her passion. She asked me about the rules to play the game, and proceeded with two sets of reading materials. One set with only three letters where she picks the first letter from choices of four and the other set with four letters where she picks the first letter and the last letter. With the exception of the sounds for “k” and “g”, she got the rest of them correctly.
She also asked to write “Chen” along with a few other words like “Tina”, “Daddy”, “Livy”, “Madison” (instead of her usual Maddy), and a few numbers.
It is such a big delight to watch my girl reach a different milestone of her life!
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04.05.07
Posted in Maddy at 9:45 pm by tina
Primrose had their Easter program today. Maddy’s PreSchool II class had a cute performance of singing and memorizing a poem. Here is a video of Maddy in her ‘rain’ group doing their poem:
I am the rain; I fall from the cloud.
Sometimes I’m quiet; sometimes I’m loud
drip drop drip drop drip drop drip drop
Sure she is a little reserved, but did I mention that this is only her fourth day in the new class?
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Posted in Misc at 8:39 pm by tina
Daddy: honey, I just want let you know AGAIN, that this weekend is going to be bad for me. Starting Friday nigth all the way till Sunday afternoon.. I have to prepare for blah blah blah…
Mommy: How is it that it is bad for YOU when you dump two kids on me for the whole weekend?
Daddy: Let me re-phrase.
Mommy: Ok.. I am waiting. I will let you re-phrase.
I am so glad that ah-ma and auntie Betty are coming tomorrow.
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04.02.07
Posted in Livy at 11:57 pm by tina
Twelve years ago, daddy (bf back then) visited me in school and attended an lecture(because he wanted to see what it feels like to be an EE at the school that rejected him). He sat in the FRONT row (his choice) along with three other poor souls who came in late and had to take the front seats. He FELL ASLEEP during class. The dude just put his head on the table and went to sleep intentionally AND shamelessly. Imagine the shock and snickers I had to endure from my very close knitted senior EE classmates!!
The baby, who has demonstrated over and over from her birth that she inherited daddy’s personalities, showed once again that she is undoubtably a Chen.
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