02.28.08
Posted in Life with my girls at 11:13 pm by tina
Both girls got some sort of stomach bugs since the beginning of this week thanks to their father (He is known to be the weakest link of the family). It has not been fun at all. Unlike having a cold where a little Tylenol does wonders, the girls pretty much had to tough it out.
It’s funny to see their polarized personalities though. Maddy, the minime, totally needed her space. My frequent trips to check up on her finally resulted in her request: “Mommy, that’s enough.” She curled up in a ball in her bed, didn’t want to be talked to, didn’t want to be touched.
Meimei, on the other hand, behaved EXACTLY like her father. She is whiny, she is incapable of anything other than demanded to be carried ALL DAY. The scene of our pre-marrital counseling kept popping up in my head when Joe said “I am not high maintainance. I just need lots of sympathy.”
They’re finally about 90% recovered and both are back to normal with their happy-selves. Unlucky for us that daddy started to have this cough thing going. I am so worn out by Livy, and I have no more sympathy to give. He’s given the warning that he will get expelled from the house if any of the girls start to cough.
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02.22.08
Posted in Maddy at 11:57 pm by tina
There is a range of different helper positions kids get to do everyday in Maddy’s class. It’s hilarious because there are funny funny jobs like “table monitor”, “line leader”, “flag holder”, “book passers”, etc.
Maddy: I was the teacher’s helper today.
Me: Teacher’s Helper again? You were teacher’s helper the other day.
Maddy: No. Abagail was teacher’s helper yesterday.
Me: You like to be teacher’s helper, don’t you?
Me thinking: But you were teacher’s helper the day before yesterday. You’re teacher’s pet. 
And that goody two-shoes deserves to be one. When I asked her what she was doing looking ‘through’ my arm, she went on and on:
Maddy: Well, I am looking at the sky through a telescope. I see the moon and a star. Do you know what else I see? A PLANET! A planet is not just a moon….. And there is an astronaut dancing in his rocket ship.
Not bad for an astronomy lesson from a 4 1/2 year old. The girl is officially 4 1/2 as of four days ago. She got a ‘half’ cake because it was a ‘half’ birthday. We also try not to take pictures of her new bangs. The new straight bangs make her look rather fobbish. Mommy is very sorry for even thinking about trying such a new look on her.
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Posted in Life with my girls, Parenting at 11:33 pm by tina
Last week was particularly trying for me. There was just one too many of those “You are bad mother if you work and your children are most definitly going to have issues” conversations I overheard on different occasions. I suppose ‘overheard’ was an understatement. Let’s just say that I chose not to be in the conversations.
It’s hard not to be angry when people who don’t know my children make judgement on them, and for several days I caught myself getting all boiled up just thinking about what was said.
What got me out of my grumpy mood:
- I had two great talks with two moms of Maddy’s close friends. We are totally “in love” with the teachers AND the kids of their classes and are looking forward to have them in the same elementary school (althogh one girl will enter school next year because her late birthday missed the cut-off date)
- Several teachers chatted with me this past week and praised Maddy for both her characters and her developmental milestones
- Livy’s teachers gave me details on her little perky personality traits (like how she ignores them on purpose but would look back and give them smirks) It’s a treat to see that she captivates her teachers as much as she does us.
- A ‘Happy Gram” from Maddy’s K2 class teacher
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02.14.08
Posted in Livy at 10:45 pm by tina
Recently, the baby’s teachers described her as being “intense”, I thought they hit it right on. The baby is like a fireball wrapped up in one petite body, and you can never tell the magnitude of her emotions from her small frame. Everything has to be “zi gee” (do it myself): She insists on brushing her own teeth, picking out her own outfit, deciding on which jacket and shoes she is to wear, and very close to being to dress herself.
She loves to read. It’s the first thing she does when she gets to school (after washing her hands, of course). The whole class can be dancing, building blocks, or playing house, but the child just wants to read. It’s like her thing to do. The teachers think that is what she does at home all the time (We do read to her everyday, but not THAT much)
And she is so set on doing everything her big sister does, and I mean EVERYTHING. She’s been ’studying’ Maddy during bath time for quite a while now. Tonight, she finally had enough guts to do the full body lean back (so her hair is all the in the water for us to wash).
Her tantrums are still larger than life. She is also gotten the whole ‘time out’ routine down- stay on the same spot for one minute, saying ’sary’ (sorry) when she sees you, giving you a big hug and loud kiss to make up… She’s got the whole nine yard, except I don’t think she is really sorry when she’s all lovey dovey and bubbly about the whole timeout thing.
Perhaps it’s because she’s a small replia of her daddy in personalities, I fall for her EVERY SINGLE TIME. It is hard not to when she says the sweetest “I I DO” (her “I love you”)!
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02.07.08
Posted in Maddy at 11:18 pm by tina
We don’t really have a habit of celebrating Chinese New Years, so it almost seems awkard that I made both girls wear Chinese tops today. I figure I should get the best use out of the pretty Chinese outfits the grandparents have given us throughout the years.
On the more exciting event, we registered Maddy in the school I really like. After months of researching, discussing with other parents, and planning, I’ve come to the realization that picking the education choices for our children is as personal as it gets. At the end of the day, I am responsible to make the choice I believe best suited for Maddy. I am responsible to know what are the criteria I expect my child’s educators to have, and that I need to find educator partners who share the same beliefs and practices.
For now, there are several things that are important to me:
1) I want the school to be close by to home/work. Unfortunately, this rules out all the magnet schools in Wake County Schools for us although I LOVE the programs they offer. I think we would reconsider when the kids are older. For now, I want to be able to get to her between 5-10 mins.
2) I want the school to be academically driven. I am not into play-based schools. Not that I don’t believe school should be fun. Good teachers know how to instruct and teach in creative ways.
3) I want the school to have good diversity of ethnic groups.
4) I want the school to be in all year round calendar, and us picking our track choices FAR AWAY from the traditional school calendars. I like the track out camps to be less crowded, and look forward to have our family vacations during the time the rest of the kids in this country are in school.
And I’m grateful that I don’t have to look into after school program. Maddy will get to spend her ‘after school’ hours with ah-goon who will move here in a few months. Ah-goon will have 15 mins Chinese and 30 mins drawings with the girl everyday (He just doesn’t know it yet, but he will when he reads my blog), and mommy expects him to show me daily progress when we go home for ah-ma’s homecook dinner (she doesn’t know it yet, but she will when she reads my blog).
Happy Rat Year from the Chens!!
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02.06.08
Posted in Maddy at 10:08 pm by tina
We found out that Maddy had three cavities during her regular dental checkup last week, and had to go back today to do one crown and two fillings.
The girl did well… so well that her dentist decided to combine two appointments in one to finish everything. The girl was finally on the edge of losing it after she had to sneeze through all those contraptions in her mouth, but she fought and fought and kept her composure (although at the end she just wanted to be left alone)
It is a bit traumatizing for a four year old with all the dental work for the first time. The laughing gas helped, and the Ratatouille movie on the ceiling definitely helped:
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Posted in Maddy at 9:21 pm by tina
The class “Chinese as Second Language I” class has been practicing the song and reciting their book I for Chinese New Year. Maddy was in a good mood and we got it on video first take:
Happy Chinese New Year!!
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02.03.08
Posted in Life with my girls at 10:41 pm by tina
Minime Maddy and copycat Livy are becoming best friends lately. Livy is picking up with speech so much that sometimes we get ‘real’ conversations out of the two of them. The copycat totally worships her big sister. Most of the times Minime gladly accepts taking the leader role although there were times parent intervention was needed:
Times like when Livy pulled down Maddy’s homemade sign on her bookshelf-
Minime: [cry cry cry] Livy.. Livy
Mommy: honey, it was an accident. Livy just wanted to help. Livy, can you say sorry?
Copycat: sary.. heh heh [at which point the flashback of my childhood came vividly in front of me. How I would get so frustrated and angry with Betty when she did something bad AND not feeling sorry]
Minime: She is not sorry. She is laughing… wah wah wah
……
But most of the time, I do have two lovely girls to watch:
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Posted in Maddy at 10:04 pm by tina
Maddy had a week of transition and tomorrow she goes to K2 full time. She’s had quite a few developmental milestones in K1, with the most noticible of the writing, phonics, and free drawings.
I know it’s not a big deal. After all, EVERYONE in K1 is making the same milestones. Maddy practically grew up with some of the kids together for the past three plus years, and it’s such a delight to see how much they’ve grown/learned and the big ‘little people’ they’ve become. They will all be ready to face the big kindergarten world. For some of them who are going into the all-year round schools, the time might be as soon as July.
The man tuned to watch Super Bowl today (not because he likes it nor he follows it during the season. For the record, He just wants to have ’something to say’ to people tomorrow about it). After watching the game for a few minutes, the girl bursted out “Football. F–ootball. Daddy, does football start with “F”? That is my girl!
Here is a picture of Shrek and princess Fiona (I was specially impressed by the fact that she got the color of Fiona and her dress/hair all down)-
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