吃冰長大的孩子

Talking to my coworker the other day, she mentioned how her little girl (16month girl) starts to show her love of mommy and daddy with hugs and kisses on her own. I know that feeling; those small actions just melt you down every time.

Just like this morning, Kaitlyn woke up the same time I got up (that’s really early for her), she looked around, the first thing she said was “mommy, give me a hug!” “I love you”. I was so flattered. ha-ha… She’s probably surprised as well because she normally does not see me around when she wakes up.

Even though Kaitlyn is a relative shy girl (in public only), she is more open to express her feelings than us. She will hug you and kiss you when she is happy, she will put crab shell on daddy’s head to appreciate him cracking crab legs for her, she’ll tell you “it’s not fair” to ask her to “too much” stuff by herself, she’ll say “I love you” a lot more than her mommy and daddy…

We ate lunch at Chinatown the other day, she wanted 刨冰, we wanted 牛肉面 (at a new restaurant), we negotiated to eat noodle together first then go next door for 刨冰. When I watched her enjoying ice so much, I’ve been thinking she is growing up in a totally different environment from us. I’ve never allowed to eat ice or drink ice-cold water with meals, I don’t know what’s 刨冰 until I got here, I have never been to Chicken-fil-A or McDonald when I was little, I don't have the luxury to pick "English" restaurant or "Chinese" restaurant when eat out, I never got any Christmas presents, I don't go to store asking parents to buy stuff she learn from TV commercials, I didn't played computer games at her age, and chat with grandparents on msn…
She lives in a wealthy country; abundant resource is available when she needs. (It’s probably the same in China nowadays, but that’s not my generation’s lifestyle)

I looked at other Chinese teenagers sitting at other tables, talking and laughing, thinking will Kaitlyn grow up like one of them, an ABC face… 一方水養一方人

when she is sick, my memory goes back to...

Kaitlyn got sick right before the holiday, started out with coughing, headache, then high fever for two three days. We two took turn, day and night, to keep an eye on her. For a couple of days, she barely ate or drink anything, not even her favorite fruits, kept complaining her whole body aches. (She doesn't normally complain about headache, bruise, or anything. Sometime she even tries to hide it to show she's a big girl, but we see tears tumbling in her eyes.)

Needless to say, she looked even skiner! Luckily after she recovered, she started loving boiled eggs. She asked for it every morning, sometime even wants two! When she eats it, she keeps saying it’s so yummy, she loves it! Remember she used to only want egg white, and you still need to beg her to eat.

I'm sure all parents went through this worrisome, not once but many times. I remember on those days, when I sat next her watching her sleep, I was imaging she jumps off bed telling me she's well and has appetite now!

That's silly thinking :-) I remember when I got sick back in China, didn't feel that long ago, what I wanted the most was the noodle soup mom cooked for me! She cooked it very simple but so refreshing. I would feel recovered instantly! Remember dad used to joke about me saying I pretended being sick every time I wanted mom to cook that noodle soup for me! The recipe was simple - clear broth with light seasonings (but very tasty flavor), thin noodles, sliced of green leaf vegetables, sesame oil, etc. I tried to mimic the recipe, but never able to make it the same!

What I did this time is made some hand-made noodle from scratch for Kaitlyn, she actually liked a lot! But it's no where close to what mom's recipe. And it’s time consuming, I don’t anticipate do this often as all!
Childhood memory, inerasable memory, it sits there quietly forever, then one day, any day, the switch turns on, then you realize how much you're influenced by your childhood life.

I love you, mom and dad!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This Christmas, because both Kaitlyn and grandma got sick, and I got sick right after that, we didn't go anywhere. But we still had fun.


The last Sunday before Christmas, we went to a friend's house for a children's Christmas party. She is really brave to plan this party with all kinds of activities for kids, and allow parents to leave.

Well, I don't think any parents left, but we were able to chat around, enjoyed tasty snack food she prepared, letting kids running around following her and her grandma for games, making gingerbread house, doing crafts, etc.
It's fun! We all enjoying ourselves!

Great! We finally can eat as many candies as I like!

One part I thought it's interesting, they were going to do a white elephant game for kids. Everything went well with picking gifts and opening gifts. When it comes to stealing gifts, everything went downhill right away:-) First boy picked the gift of another boy - a McDonald register with food (I really don't know what's so attracting about it, but all kids wanted it, including Kaitlyn), anyway, the other boy refuse to give it away - "it's mine!" After we explained to them the purpose of the game, he finally agreed to give it a try to pick another toy, then he picked a mechanical car from a girl. That's another chaos, the girl cried like hell refusing to giving it away, then crying started everywhere - some kids were upset holding their toys tight afraid someone else will take it, other kids were unhappy wanting to get the gift they want!


Oh my gosh, how to explain the give-exchange-sharing idea to a bunch of 3, 4 year old! It's so interesting to see kids at this age express their feeling straight out! - "It's a toy for me, I picked and opened the wrapping, why should I let someone else take it! Why should I rational the meaning of the game! Even if I may just want to play my toy for a minute, why someone else take it now?"

A fun game that doesn't work for kids this age!! Hahaha... I wish I had pictures showing what's going on then. But no, I'll be ashamed of myself making fun of these kids to make my blog looks more interesting :-)


One thing I felt good about it is we went to Christmas Eve Candlelight Service in our neighborhood. It reminds me this holiday is not only for shopping and eating, but also to remember us that "Jesus is the reason for the season."


On Christmas day, we opened presents, or I should say mainly Kaitlyn ;-) I know she truly believes in Saint Claus now!

Out of all gifts she received, she love the reindeer and Barbie the most! There is a story behind reindeer.

She had been asking for a singing reindeer long before holiday, I finally got her one to put under Christmas tree. She took it with her to California trip, then one of our friend's son liked a lot too, I wanted to give it him since they don't have garden ridge there. But Kaitlyn won't give it away no matter what I promised her to get her a big new one, any other gifts she likes. On the day we left, I left the reindeer in the car for the boy not telling Kaitlyn. Of course, the next day when she found out, she cried for hours. I kept telling her, Santa knows she did a good thing, he'll bring one for her. She kept asking me whether Santa will bring her for sure? I bought one after we came back not letting her know it, wrapped it as a gift. As you can imaging when she opened the box found the same reindeer, she just can't believe it. Later, she kept telling me " I know Santa will give me this! Santa give me this!" "How did Santa get it? Did he bring it back from California?" "Santa heard me!" She took it to school the day after Christmas, her daddy said she told her teachers, even receptionist, Santa brought this back! She knows Santa will! It's so touching to see her eyes sparkled when she see it. Hopefully she learns to Cherish her toy, and more willing to share!

The barbie is also very interesting. Daddy was complained about her falling in love with barbie recently, so I purposely not bought any barbies as a gift this time. Then a friend of mine gave this to her as a gift, I didn't know what's it and asked her to open the Christmas Day. When she opened up the gift saw the gift, she was quite shock, asked me in a few minute delayed - "How does Santa know I like Barbie too?" "I love Santa Claus!" "When will Santa come back?" Haha... I almost felt off the chair, laughing...

"finding lost family" :-)

好久沒寫點東西了﹐ 昨天收到鄧君的email﹐ 看到她和姍姍的blog﹐ 好開心﹐ 就好像見到多年不見的家人樣。在這時才覺得Internet真好﹐一下子把我們的生活拉近許多。 一眨眼﹐Nina和睿睿都這麼大了﹐想上次見她們也是看照片﹐是她們出生不久。 州州和龍龍也就就見過一次。

歲月不饒人﹐幾年前大家一起讀書﹐打打鬧鬧﹐吃吃喝喝的日子也並不遠。 如今只是全然不同的境界。 最喜歡的是看到每家人樂融融地笑開心的照片。 生活不過如此﹐還要求多少呢﹖

不過讓我詫異的是新農變化挺大。 也不是說他老了那麼多﹐只是覺得他眉宇間的神情變化挺大﹐應該說是更“成熟”了。 不是我印象中的當年毛頭學生了﹕) 翻看當年阿沖的照片﹐也是如此﹐“阿哥”晉昇“阿叔”了﹕-)

又到了家人團圓聚會的日子了﹐但願所有的朋友家人開心﹐幸福﹗

p.s. I'll add their web links to the right side soon.

stealing blog topics :)

Haven't update as I should recently, one reason is because I'm really busy, another reason is because daddy stole my topics to write:-)

I have at least 6,7 drafts sitting in the folder, none of them was completed. They either lack pictures at the time or had to stop half way and lost passion to finish it... As daddy beefs up his blog everyday, topics we discussed or pictures I took are taken by him first, Umm...

At least I should be happy she is a lucky girl with both mommy and daddy love her so much. One day when she grows up, it'll be fun to read all these, see how her day by day changes affects and enriches her daddy, mommy's lives, little by little, on our small family, big family and every person that loves her!

when I grow up, I want to be...

Just another random topic, we sat in the car, she started telling me she wants to "grow up to check teeth for other people"

"Is that what you want to do?" I asked, "to be a dentist?"
"Yes!" she said confidently.

"Oh, good for you!" I appraised her.
(Is it funny her Chinese name sounds like "dentist", and she wants be "dentist"...)

"oh, well, I also want to be a chef..." she had a second thought,
" I want to start learning cooking now..."

"that's a great idea too!" I looked at her from rear mirror, thinking she's a big girl now, starting thinking about her future.

"Well, you probably should start practicing cooking now..." I asked in a way see if she really want it.

"Yeah! Great idea! I'll start wash rice for you tonight!" She is so proud of herself coming up this idea.

Before I gave any comments, she said" I think taking care of animals is also good..."

"Err, that's good. but you mean 'farmer' or 'veterinarian' " I asked,

"I don't know, maybe both..." she replied.

I'm thinking do I have any expectation of what she's going to be, or what are my expectations?
What was my parents' expectation for me when I was little?
Did I really grow up doing what I wanted to be doing?
Is it really necessary to set up a plan to orient her toward a "good career potential" like many other Asian parents do?
Should I start telling her the real world of work life once she grows up?
Can parents really teach kids into what parents want them to be?
How can I pass her the good traditions from our families in this such dynamic, uncertain world?

Somedays, I'm just thinking too much :-)

I have a great idea!

It's so interesting to see her picking up different expression at a period of time.

Recently, she has been saying "OH, man..." with exaggerated facial expression and body language, so funny to watch her doing that...

another favorate expression is "I have a great idea!..." No matter if it's big creative idea or just a simple quick click in her mind that she wants to eat, to talk, or anything.

Say if she is hungry, instead of telling you she is hungry or wants to eat, she will say "I have a great idea! I can eat something!" Me and daddy sometimes made fun with her by saying "That's a great idea! a brilliant idea! :) " "What do you want to eat?" Then she would think hard of her choices, analyse which food is healthy for her, which is not... So hilarious to watch her doing that!

I bet she must be feeling like she is a big girl as she is able to think and talk like a adult! Especially when she gets sort of recognition from others, she is further proved she is right, being recognized as one of us...

Hope to catch it on video before this action fades away...

Saturday night fever :-)

Kaitlyn doesn't like talking on the phone at all, but she loves talking on msn. I guess that's because she prefers see and interact with the other side face to face.

When we talk to grandparents on msn, she always ask to type letters herself or send emoticon/winks... But when you ask her say something on the phone, you'll have to bribe her with incentives, something she really really wants, still, she will only speak a few sentences just to get it over with. A lot of times, we'll even need to tell her exactly what to say. Isn't this interesting? This is fine with us, as we know one day, she'll love talking and talking, to a point, either we will get tired of her, or she will request to have her own private line:)

Last Saturday night, while we talk to grandparents, she did a live performance, as you see...

reading

I'm so excited to see the change that keke gradually could read by herself now! We have been reading TO her since she was a baby, now as she learns more, she learn more words, especially recently after going to school.

One time, we went grocery shopping, I had a shopping list written on a sticky note. She volunteered to hold it for me, then amazingly, she started reading words off the shopping list randomly - yogurt, garlic... That's so surprise not only because she could read, but also recognize my chicken-scratches! Ha ha, that's my girl, right?

Then recently as we read before go to bed, I'll let her pick out a few words from the book we're reading and try to read it out herself. 90% of the time, she did it correctly! I guess soon, she can read a book herself before go to bed instead of me reading to her, what a relief! Wow, my girl is growing up so fast!

Also, this reminds me of what her teacher, Ms. Anny, talked about last night at the teacher-parents conference. She has been teaching and encouraging kids to read, not through recognize letters or memorize alphabet first, but though reading phonics and sounds first. Ms. Anny said even if they make mistakes not able to pronounce correctly, just let it go and appraise how well they did. As they go, they'll be able to link letters and sounds eventually.

This is interesting, I guess as an adult learning English as a second language, we learn it in opposite way. For her to learn the language as a native speaker, it's more natural for her to learn how to speak first.

Do ya'll remember this one when she was 6-9month old, how interesting she is doing the same thing nowadays, except she's sitting up instead :) - That doesn't seem too long ago, but time sure fly by...

homework

Started yesterday, Kaitlyn has daily homework! More accurate, it's also homework for me :)

I scan a copy of her homework calendar in case you're curious or if you want to remind me to do the homework:)

Last night, she did really well. We stop by a friend's home before dinner, she did her work with the their two girls together (one in 3rd grade, one in 7th grade). Before went to bed, she found a notepad and started practicing again on my bed.