Alexander: First baby tooth fell out last Friday. Tooth Fairy gave him $10 (gee… a RICH Tooth Fairy!). He gave the money to mama and daddy to save it for his college fund. Since he got the Star Wars Leapster cartridge he’s been more and more crazy about Star Wars…  asking Richard all kinds of questions related to the movies.

Alexander's baby tooth fell out. The new one was already out.

Ethan: We (it’s more mama than daddy) finally decided to potty train Ethan during night time sleeping. To avoid washing bed sheets and blankets everyday like we did with Alexander, we had him put on underpants with a pull-ups to catch the leak. The first night, we took him to bathroom late night but he still got his underpants wet the next morning. But starting the 2nd night, he went to bathroom by himself and the underpants was pretty much dry throughout the night! It’s been like this for 1 week now so cross our fingers… Night potty training with Alexander was extremely painful, so this is a big relief for Richard and myself.

When there’s good thing, there’s the bad: Ethan has been extremely bad behaving lately, refuse to listen and/or very slow getting things done… when will  this bad stage be over?… sigh!

Ethan trying to pout and laugh at the same time.

Audrey: Audrey was slow at crawling… didn’t start until 10 1/2 months old. But after she knew how to crawl, she picked up fast and now she’s crawling everywhere fast! She can now crawl up the stairs and pull herself standing up unassisted. Audrey can also cruise a little bit (1-2 steps) and wants to walk! The little sister wants to be with her brothers very much, but the boys always move her somewhere else or close the door on her (as Audrey always messes up their toys)… poor little Audrey doesn’t like it at all and here comes the tears…

Audrey stands up by the bath tub.

Alexander asked for 2 pieces of blank paper this morning. After cutting them into small pieces and some writing and coloring, this is what he came out with: A story book named The Robert (he meant robber) and Alexander.

The Robert and Alexander-- cover

The Robert and Alexander-- p.1

The Robert and Alexander-- p.2

The Robert and Alexander-- p.3

The Robert and Alexander-- p.4

Alexander did it all by himself… it’s so cute isn’t? Notice that he used past tense in all sentences. He even marked the page number…lol . Great job son, I am so proud of you!

I’ve been posting a lot of entries about foods recently. It’s time to do some updates on the kids:

Alexander: Alexander is now in kindergarten. He loves school. He loves books as always ever since he was little. This boy loves math too. Lots of time I found him wrote himself math problems on piece of paper and solved the problems too. Recently he’s into multiplication… hard to believe that next week he’s turning 6. Alexander never quite like veggie except for a few, but he is expanding his veggie varieties. He now takes kabocha squash, carrots, some leafy veggies like snow pea leaves, yu choy sum… Thanks for trying little boy. One thing very sweet of him is that he usually shares especially his candies…Despite his misbehavior sometimes, he’s a very sweet, loving and caring child. I know he will protect and look after his little brother and sister.

Ethan: Ethan now is 3 1/2 years old and so terrible three that’s him. He is now in preschool 3 times a week– getting more opened up at school which is good. This boy is more active than his big brother Alexander ever since little… always more into play than into books. However he shows interest in books recently and flipping books by himself. This boy has a chocolate tooth– chocolate is his first choice for candies. I remember one time when Alexander was eating M&M’s, and Ethan said “Ger-Ger (big brother in Chinese), don’t eat chocolate… it’s junky food!”( yeah… you can tell how bossy he is). Minutes later, he said to Alexander, “Ger-Ger, can I have some M&M’s ?”… lol. Unlike his brother, Ethan takes a lot more different vegetables (especially leafy ones). His favorites are kabocha squash, snow pea leaves, yam leaves– he wants big bites. While Alexander lacks of creativity, Ethan is just the opposite. He has more imagination and pretend play a lot of time. One time we heard him was screaming, and it turned out that he was screaming at himself (with a mean look, while looking at his reflection on the baby book mirror), “Hey, don’t copy me okay?”… it was funny! Ethan’s Chinese is not as good as Alexander, lots of mix use of Chinese and English in his sentences, so funny and cute…

Audrey: Audrey Bell just turned 6 months last week. Growing up surrounded by people, she is not happy when no one in sight. I think she remember previous doctor’s visits because she started crying when I laid her down in the exam room. Starting last week we have been feeding her some rice cereal along with little water in bottle. She takes cereal okay but doesn’t quite like bottle other than biting on the nipple (with no teeth of course). But I believe all babies are  trainable so I’m gonna try giving her bottle everyday… wish me luck. Also, whenever Audrey sees me she gets VERY anxious/excited. I guess I am a milk production machine to her At this point she still wakes up once in the middle of the night for feeding. Very rare occasion that she would sleep throughout the night… we can’t wait till the time when she sleeps all the way till next morning… yeah, that will be very nice!

To Alexander, Ethan and Audrey:
Each one of you is unique and holds a special place deep in my heart. I love you all and want you growing to be a happy, kind and good person. A mother’s love is unconditional and you’ll understand when you become a parent. For now, sweet dreams and good night…. zzzzz…..

The weather today is HOT and we are talking May here. We live by the bay and there’s always wind and breeze, so if I say hot here that means it is REALLY hot! Of course the allergy doesn’t help at all. Alexander seems to have some level of allergy too from the observation yesterday… sigh!

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We bought a Beta fish for Alexander’s birthday months ago but it seems so lonely just by itself. So we decided yesterday to get some more fish since the kids love watching fish. When we came out of the pet store we ended up buying a starter kit 10 gallon tank too (cost justification reason) and spent most of the afternoon setting up the aquarium. Guess what: the Beta still doesn’t get to join in– we bought a couple of Guppy fish that would cause fight between them because of similar looks– but they are too pretty to pass… Can’t wait till next weekend to buy some more fish!!

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Several weeks ago I bought some hot pepper plants, a Japanese eggplant bush and a vine tomato plant for Alexander. I think it will be a fun science project for Alexander– he will get to water the tomato plants, watch it grow, pick the tomatoes and eat them too!

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Since we enrolled Ethan for swimming lessons he’s been missing several classes, but he’s improving especially during the last 2 sessions. He doesn’t cling as much and float on his tummy just fine, sometimes kicked his feet a little and started to like jumping into the water. One time he watched me blowing bubbles and wanted to do it too… so cute! Alexander on the other hand doesn’t like swimming lessons with the coach. He only wants either Richard or me teaching him swimming. Oh well, I guess being a parent includes EVERYTHING!

Ethan’s 18-month checkup results: weight– 26 lbs 0.2 oz (11.8 kgs); height– 2 ft 10 inches.

Alexander’s 4-year-old checkup results: weight– 36 lbs (16.329 kgs); height–3 ft 5 inches.

Ethan had to take 2 shots plus blood test this time. Of course he didn’t like it at all. What made it worse is that the nurses had to call his name twice to go into the lab (they give shots and blood test separately) so it’s twice trauma for poor little Ethan! Other than that, he is just happy and growing strong. Dr. Fan said to keep Ethan’s milk intake under 20 ounces per day.

Alexander didn’t like it when the nurse wanted to check his blood pressure. You could hear him crying/screaming from the registration area. I think kids generally don’t like to go for doctor visits, and Alexander likes it even less now after that accident happened while he was given shots (Somehow Alexander’s hand struggled free and pushed away the needle just as the nurse pulling it out, scratching his skin 3 inches long… ). Anyhow, Alexander had his blood pressure taken afterwards after we explained how it works AND a promise to buy a train for him. Dr. Fan said it’s good to play a little game to have him cover ears and one of his eyes at home, so Alexander would be a bit more cooperated during next visit for vision and hearing check.

Alexander always likes stories. You can often see him flipping books at a corner. Every night after his Chinese lessons with me, he always asks for daddy for story time before going to bed. Recently, Alexander has been requesting stories at meal times. Since he is such a slower eater and always ends up feeded at the end, I figure the story request can be a motivation to have him self feeded and also speed up his eating time.

At first I just made up some silly animal stories and later we moved on to colors (i.e. blue+red=purple etc… what things are in purple etc) then back to animals again– but more on animal facts (i.e. physical features, what do they eat etc…). I usually started telling a little to get Alexander interested, then I would point at his food and said, “Take 3 big bites and I will tell you more… I want BIG bites…” I asked him questions to make him stay focused. I also wrote down Chinese characters (that corespond to the subjects) on paper, have him pointed at the characters to start the conversation on that sujbect. 

So far this method works. Alexander is doing pretty good job feeding himself and he enjoys having conversations at the table. For me it’s a new trick learned. It is less frustrated for both of us as I don’t have to count to 3 for every single bite. Parenting, parenting, parenting… it’s a matter of endless learning for the moms and dads!

September 16th was Alexander’s first day of school. It is a year round weekend Chinese learning program and we think it will be a good transition for Alexander before exposing him to longer school hours, plus he can learn more Chinese along the way. Since we registered a bit late, we had only 1 week before the school started to mentally prepare Alexander to the school idea. We told him that now he getting a big boy so he will go to school just like many of his friends; that daddy and momma and Ethan can’t stay in the classroom with him but will pick him up when it’s time to say bye-bye to teachers and friends; that if he needs to go potty at school he has to do it on his own without any help… etc. Alexander was OK with what was told but I was still a little concerned about his reaction when the day came. The program started from 9 to 11am, so Richard and I were up that day 7ish am (earlier than weekday schedule!) in order to get everyone changed and fed and ready to go by 8:30am.

We parked our minivan in front of the school on the street.  Knowing Alexander’s personality and also learning from his schooling experience in Malaysia, we purposely arrived early so he got some time to be familiar with the environment. Richard and Ethan stayed in the minivan while Alexander and I went inside. At this point Alexander is still in pretty good mood, but as soon as we were greeted by the principal and teachers Alexander started to “glue” to me. I decided to bring him to the bulletin board that has all kinds of chinese learning posters and he loosen up a little. More students and parents flew in and he got attached to me again– wanted to sit on my lap. While the principal was giving a speech during the orientation Alexander asked to see those educational posters again, and later sat by himself (next to me) and even clapped his hands after the speech. I was a little relief. Later, we followed his teacher to the classroom. While the teacher was sorting things out, Alexander was walking around inside the classroom and even played a little fooseball. He answered to the teacher when being asked about his Chinese name. Minutes after observing all these good signs I decided it’s time for me to go, so I told Alexander that momma has to go back and will pick him up after school. He was silent… wasn’t sure if he was OK with me leaving him alone. As I was closing the classroom door, I saw him still seated with his head turning towards me, watching me leaving. No crying… I was so glad! We were there early too to pick him up. The teacher said he was OK the whole time. He was excited to see us and keep wanting to hold on to his school backpack that has new text books inside.

All and all, it was a GOOD first day of school for Alexander. Remembering the schooling experience in Malaysia, it wan’t as smooth and was quite frustrating for him and myself. My little Alexander is growing up and is ready for school now. I have mixed feelings for that… I love you Alexander and I am very proud of you!

Alexander finished his breakfast this morning in less than 10 minutes!! Wow!!!… He had a piece of blueberry waffle, a slice of cheese, a cup of milk and a can of yogurt. Normally it would take him 30 minutes to finish all these food (with my assistance towards the end of the meal). Not only he finished the whole meal without me counting 1-2-3, he did it all by himself! For the first time he finished his food before his little brother Ethan, who just eats non-stop. I was surprisingly happy with Alexander and I rewarded him with several raspberry cream filled cookies afterwards.

Now I wish Alexander will be acting like this at the table at all times. But of course it didn’t happen. Oh well, if he is behaving well at all times then I won’t be blogging this, will I?