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...