心情不好闹来的

一早起来还挺好的，突然“晴”传“雷阵雨”，梨花带雨死活不愿意脱下身上的裙子洗，虽然自己也说有点臭臭地。我带她去挑别的裙子，哪条都不顺眼，那老妈的火气也腾地就上来了。僵持不下时，还好老爸来解围了，帮女儿选了条“她想穿但也不喜欢”的 - 就是照片上这件。然后妈妈有又帮她梳了个小辫辫，卡地花枝招展的，算是到此为止了。去向爷爷奶奶臭美去了：-) 再不满意，爷爷奶奶就该不干了 - 怎么能这样欺负我宝贝孙女哪？ 哈哈！

小辫还挺可爱得！

也是，本是一件小事，何苦大动干戈。爸爸也说小事别管那么多，人家也有自己的个性，喜好，不要强加于人，免得小孩子的创造性就这样不知不觉地磨灭了。其实她平时挺多自由的，好多事都还要商量(或说是讨价还价吧)那。当然，妈妈管的琐碎事多一些，这并不见得感情会浅一些。

反正孩子越大，教育的事也越复杂，没经历过就是体会不到那么回事。觉得不久以前，我也还是那个被管的哪. 那多省心哪，都是别人操我的心，那用我去理别人这些鸡毛蒜皮小事:-)

照片上看可不是个大孩子了吗, 满意了！

lovely classmates

This is her latest class photo, seems most kids had a blessed time with big "cheese" smily face :-)

It's fun to look at photo with her - she is telling stories about each one of them. One day when she grows up, will she be pointing to the photo telling you her classmates' stories again?

This year, she'll be in kindergarten. She's so looking forward to be a "big girl" going to "real school"!

Can't beleive times goes by so fast - my baby girl is going to ride school bus to school soon!

new toy to play

ohh, this girl learns things so quickly! Daddy hold her hand to show her how to skate about 20mins the first day. The next day, she is already walking by herself!

我印象中﹐小時候只有“壞”孩子才玩滑冰。 一是沒條件﹐再是
也没什么人玩。 直到中學時才偷偷摸摸地和同學去過一次﹐ 當然也沒學會。 一直到來美國後才有機會學滑冰。 想來當年父母也是擔心怕不安全﹐萬一摔斷胳膊斷腿﹐以後就嫁不出去了:-)

女兒真開心﹐有個貪玩的老爸﹐很多游戲都可以嘗試了﹗

Exercise is good!

Kaitlyn has PE class once a week, she was showing me what she had learned after dinner the other day! It's so cute!

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 :-)