08.31.07
Maddy’s four-year-old checkup
Weight: 36 pounds
Height: 39 1/2 inches
The girl grew three inches and gained 5 pounds during the past year. Both weight and height are in the 50% range, which means that she has actually slimed down a bit.
08.30.07
All in four days of school
Maddy came home very excitedly writing down “2007″ and showed it to us:
Mommy: Don’t tell me you did that all by yourself? [The girl had written this perfectly spaced and nicely printed ‘2007′]
Maddy: Yep. I did it all by myself. It is “2-0-0-7″
Mommy: Oh yea. How did you know it is year 2007? Is it something new you learned from K1?
Maddy: No, mommy. It’s NOT new. We’ve been counting EVERY DAY!!
Other new skills seen this week-
- Instead of her typical stick figures, she came home with a drawing of a girl in a shirt and skirt.
- Singing new songs, sign lauguage included
She is doing very well in K1, totally bonded with Ms T who happens to know how to make fancy hair-do’s for kids. The girl just HAD TO bring her hair brush and some clips to school, because “mommy doesn’t do the pretty hair braids the right way”
The only complaint I’ve heard so far was “mommy, do you know that the circle time in K1 is very very LONGER than P2?”
But she seems to be pleased with my reply that I am sure she can handle it because she is four years old now.
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Livy’s sign lauguage skill has leaped and bounced. She is doing them confidently, and FAST, and determined… however, we can’t get her to do ‘thank you’ yet. I am not sure if it’s because she doesn’t know how to do it, or because she refuses to do it.
It never ceases to amaze me how mature they get when they move up to a next level class.
08.28.07
Addiction second time around
Maddy had her paci addiction, and had to ‘quit’ the paci addiction before transitioning to Y2.
Livy never wanted paci, but her addiction is the bottles. Well, it’s not totally her fault. I didn’t exactly wean her off the bottles when she turned one, like most people do around here.
But in honor of her going to Y2, I thought that she can part with them. After all, all the kids drink with open cups in Y2, and there is no excuse or reason of why she should continue with her bottle usage.
So cold turkey we went again. She took it well at night. I credited it to the fact that she got to go downstairs and sit by the table (instead of staying in her room). She wasn’t very happy in the morning. First she wanted the milk, then she was mad at the sippy cup. Then she wanted the milk, and again she was upset that the milk was not in her normal bottle… this went on for a few times, and finally she gave in and drank the milk with a grumpy face.
So bye-bye bottles. Thanks for all the help during the past 16 months. It’s time we move on to bigger and better things!
New classes
The girls started their new classes offcially yesterday. The big girl was excited all morning, exclaiming “I am going straight to K1 today.” She came home with all sorts of new tales including how they say the prayer differently in her new class. They no longer say “Amen. Let’s eat” at the end. It is only “Amen” because that is what BIG kids say. They now say the whole prayer with sign language as well although she is only able to show us how to do “thank you for the food we eat”, which is 25% of the prayer.
I reluntantly dropped off the baby girl at Y2 yesterday. She just turned 16 month old, and not quite ready for the 18-24 month old class (in my opinion anyway.. I suppose I am still bitter about people telling me that my baby is NOT a baby any more) The teachers said she is sweet and she LOVES the circle time. When I dropped her off this morning, the baby went and got a puppet and proceeded to show me how to use it.
It’s wonderful to see them strive in new environments, and I can’t help but smiling about what a blessed mommy I am!!
08.24.07
Visit from mommy’s bestfriend
We had a special week. The girls got to meet mommy’s bestfriend from college, auntie Karen. It was a wonderful week. When auntie Karen left this morning, Maddy asked “Mommy, are you sad? Your best friend just left”
I am sad, and I’m not sad. It’s hard to explain to a four-year-old about the amazing blessings you find from a best friend, and he/she doesn’t have to be next to you all the time.
One day (when the girls are older), I will tell them all the stories about their mommy leaving ah-goon/ah-ma to go to college (mommy’s EE friends), meeting her life-long friends, and all the old tales about ‘the four of us’. And how one day, I hope my girls will find their own best friends to confide their happiness and struggles.
08.22.07
Meimei’s new words
1) Waa-waa (socks in Chinese, but she refers to both socks and shoes waa-waa)
2) bar-bar (Bear bear)
3) za-ger (”this” in Chinese)… well, her exact expression is “za-ger-za-ger-za-ger-za-GAAAAA, then repeats from the first za-ger… for a few times)
4) ball (anything in ball shape, including balloons)
5) Wof-wof (all the dogs in the story books); all real dogs are ‘Braw-braw’ (Brownie) to her
My favorite:
“eh-eh-eh“, which translates to “mommy, I am done with my bottle. Take it away NOW.”
“eh-eh-eh” will be repeated until mommy drops everything she is doing at the moment to get the empty bottle from her.
Livy’s first sentence
I’ve seen the baby mumbling on and on with her little friends in school as if they were carrying on conversations. But she said her first sentence her mommy actually understood this morning:
“Where dada?”
It was the cutest thing ever!
08.21.07
She is four
Dear Maddy,
You had waited for a few weeks and FINALLY you turned four this past Saturday. As usual, we celebrated this special day with the guests you requested personally. It was perfect: The weather was gorgeous and fit for a pool party. Each guest knew at least a handful of people at the party, and you have your beloved auntie Betty, ah-goon/ah-ma by our side. Even ah-goon got into the pool party spirit and swam with us.
I’m blessed to see you mature and blossom into one little young girl this past year: your continuing love for arts and crafts; your new found interests in ballet and piano; your amazing ability to navigate on internet, and your obsession for wearing dresses DAY AND NIGHT, 24/7.
You’re still a chicken when it comes to swimming, and you struggle to find the balance between loving meimei dearly and avoiding all the irritations she lives to bless you with. You can get into your moody self and zone out everyone around you like they don’t exist. Sometimes it’s tough to bring you ‘back to earth’.
Somewhere/sometime during the past year, having you by my side is no longer just the responsibility of care taking. You’ve become my companionship. We talk about serious matter like God and silly things like our hair style. We pledge our love to each other, and we take care of meimei together when daddy is not around. You take up the part to either holding Brownie or pushing Livy during our family walks, which really is a big relief for me who used to have to push both kids and drag one dog that can’t walk in straight lines.
Often I forget just how young you are. Well… until your birthday morning: In all your excitements of opening gifts from grandparents, you walked into the sharp corner of the wall and had a huge bump on your forehead and a bloody nose. So much for being a BIG 4-year-old!!
Love you always,
Mommy
08.10.07
Baby’s shoe fetish
Meimei LOVES shoes… her shoes, Maddy’s shoes, any shoe she can get her hands on. She is so ‘un-Chinese’, insisted on wearing her shoe at home… just one shoe, and HAD to be put on the wrong foot.
The baby had a blast in school this week. They played the game of picking out your own shoes in class. It is amazing that they actually know which shoes belong to which kid. Here is the weekly report showing the cute actions:
Livy’s weekly report from school
08.02.07
The prolonged volcano experiment
I’ve been meaning to do the volcano experiment with Maddy since July, but decided to wait a while because 1) they did the same thing at school already (yea, the teachers had beat me to many other things before.. not that I am complaining.. I have more than great respect and admiration for them) 2) I don’t particular like to deal with messy things.
A few days earlier, I finally assigned daddy to be the volcano experiment person. That was my first mistake: A messy experiment + a messy person does not add up to a controlled chaos. When I came downstairs, I wasn’t quite sure what to say to two very messy people and a powder covered table and floor. All I could mustard out of my mouth was “Are you sure you don’t have to do it outside?”
To my luck, the volcano takes much longer time to dry than daddy was willing to wait, and he came up with his version of ‘volcano’ in a tall glass. Maddy did enjoy the baking powder/vinegar reactions, but she did complain about how it was not a ‘real’ volcano.
They spent the next morning painting the volcano pink (because we don’t have brown paint and because obviously we need to make it a girl volcano)
Perhaps we will see a REAL volcano getting exploded this weekend, OUTDOOR, of course.
