Potty Training – The beginning stage

One of the goals we set as a family for 2008 is to potty train Coconut a.k.a. Secondo. She’s 2.5 years old now and that was the age we started potty training Danielle. Back in 2002, as a first time mom, I didn’t know how to go about it and the suggestion that I liked best back then was to going from diaper to underwear. Pull ups are great but the child don’t feel any wetness so the process takes longer. Danielle got the hang of it within 2-3 weeks with major support of her pre-school teachers. I remember packing 5 sets of clothes for school in anticipation of many accidents and on the 1st day, I called and checked in on her during the day and the teacher told me that she was doing well. When I picked her up that afternoon, I found out that she did not pee all day when the teachers sat her on the potty. Before I picked her up, she had a big river type accident.
We are not as brave 2nd time around by going direct from diaper to underwear for the following reasons
1. Coconut’s care taker isn’t fully on board with my proposal
2. Coconut’s personality is very different than Danielle so the time it takes her to get the hang of it may be longer
3. It was stressful when we had so many accidents (#1 & 2) that I’m traumatized and don’t want to go there again
With Coconut, she had her first success this pass Sunday. She told me that she pooped so I checked her diaper and it was clean so I sat her on the potty and she took a dump on her little potty. We cheered, celebrated by giving her a candy & sticker. I said “ I’m so proud of you Coconut” She said “I’m so proud of you mama!” I also gave candy to Danielle and she said “ Why are you giving me candy? I didn’t poo in the potty?” I said “ You’ve been helping Coconut potty training so you deserve a candy too.” She seemed happy and proud and she has been prompting her sister to go potty every since.
This week, coconut has peed in the potty when we asked her to do so at home but still goes in the diaper at the sitter.

Happy New Year!

This picture was taken in October of 2007 at a beautiful wedding of one of my 2nd cousin's wedding down in Laguna Beach. They were a young religious couple who have bright and promising future ahead of them. I felt like posting something pretty on the blog while I home.
We spent New Year's Eve with our local neighbors/ friends. Our Thai neighbor wanted Chinese Food and requested ma-po tofu. I made it for the first time and it turned out OK. It could be a little spicier. I also made Vietnamese papaya salad with beef jerky, My neighbor made Egg foo -young and garlic shrimp. It took him a while to make the Egg foo-young because he was anal about the shape of the omelet. It had to be perfectly circular so he used miniature cheesecake pan to bake the omelet individually and then brown them on the pan. I'm not a big fan of Egg foo-young if there's no real crab meat in it so it seemed like a lot of wasted time and effort for a dish that is simple and quick. Garlic shrimp was not that tasty. May be they forgot an ingredient. After we ate dinner, we headed over to our other neighbor E&K's house to spread more cheers. There were a total of 8 kids in that house when we got there and they were having a blast having a dance party. Secondo (who from now on will be known as coconut) joined in with the older kids and had a great time. Later on, we went back to Thai neighbor's house and played poker while we waited for the count down. Danielle was playing Lego Star wars and Coconut was falling asleep. Others were drinking wine and I was drinking coffee to stay awake. After the count down, we all went home, I put the kids to sleep and I wasn't able to sleep until 2 AM.
During my time off, I played dance dance revolution (Xmas present from Bullseye. Thanks Bro!) with Danielle, read "Time Traveler's Wife" which I loved and visited friends that I have not seen for a long while. My friends P&G came over and I made Pad Kee Mow Noodles, Thai Green Curry and also Tom Yum Kung. Our traditional way of spending Xmas were to go out for Thai food. In 2007, I was able to cook all my favorite dishes and they said they were tasty.
We went to the Grove by Beverly Hills to see my friend A and her dog Cooper who is super cute.
From this picture, can you tell that Danielle was in love with the dog. We learned from my friend that having a dog is as much work as a child. Shots, hair cuts, check ups and etc.. etc.. I don't think we'll have a dog until Danielle is on her own. She's working on a dog painting at the moment so when it's done, I'll post her artwork on the blog. We ate at the farmer's market food court and the food was average and pricey. Next time I'm going to eat at the restaurant across from the American Girl store.
I went back to see my old dentist, Dr Chu and he still remembered me and Dad after not seeing him for over 10 years. He said that Dad helped him once at the airport and he really appreciated. From the check up, he found 2 cavities under 2 of my resin fillings and I was really shocked. One filling is at least 10 years old so I wonder when the cavity started to form? He was able to drill out the cavities with out any shots. He also has this green indicator that will turn the dentin green if there's still decay on the area. This is a great tool because they usually drilled away the brown decay and stopped in the beige area of the tooth. I have to go back again to take care of some other issues I can't ignore anymore. I'm so glad I found Dr. Chu again because he's a good ethical Dentist
Today is monumental milestone because Coconut actually pooped in the potty! We've read "Everyone poops" many many times and she finally did it. We praised her, I gave her some nerds candy as reward. Hopefully she'll do it again tomorrow. I got to let the sitter give her some candy for reward if she poops in the potty.
I did workout during the holidays but it must not be hard enough because today I'm really sore. Both my legs hurts when I go up and down stairs. My new year resolutions for 2008 are

1. Walk 30 minutes a day for 3 days a week
   
2. Lower body fat by 5% via healthy eating
   
3. Continue reading

Danielle's new year resolutions are

1. Play more brain age 2
2. Paint more pictures
3. Take care of her hamster more
   

Stomach issues

Warning! If you are eating lunch or dinner at the moment or don't have kids, you may not want to read this explicit entry about what mom goes through with their kid's unpredictable multiple bowel movements.
I stayed home with the girls yesterday because both of them had stomach problems. Danielle had stomach ache on Tuesday night right before bed and around 1:30AM, he woke hubby up and told him that it was still hurting. Hubby gave her some medicine, woke me up @ 2:00 AM to let me know what's going on. Early morning Wednesday, she was still hurting so she's staying home for the day.
In the mean time, Secondo had diarrhea since last Sunday. On Wednesday morning, she had 2 big ones before 6:30 AM. Needless to say, she stayed home also and produced more diarrhea through out the day that I've lost count. When ever Secondo ate some food, 2 minutes later, diarrhea attached. When ever I hear someone farted, I said " Who farted?"
Secondo would answer " I farted!"
Me: "Danielle, grocery bag quick! Secondo! let's check your diaper now!"
Danielle ran over with a bag in hand and saw what was in Secondo's diaper "Eeeuuu.. liquid peanut butter.. Stinks!"
Me: "Very much so.."
Secondo: " I have peanut butter in my diaper?"
Me: " No.. your poo poo looks like peanut butter"
Secondo: "Oh.."
She wanted milk badly right before bed and I had to be firm and said NO for at least 50 times. She finally gave up and cried her self to sleep. I did give her some soy milk this morning so I'm sure her baby sitter is suffering the consequences already. I'm so glad we did not start potty training yet or it would have been a big mess.

It's really been a while

Hello... anyone still check out this site? I've been so busy at work, at home that there's just no spare time to blog about the things that I wanted to share before the holiday. Another major reason that I have not been blogging is that at work, our wonderful IT department had blocked out all the blogs so I'm not able to post or read any blog anymore. Sigh... If you are still interested in checking in, I'll be blogging one a week from HOME so you can't stop me from blogging. There's also a way of emailing my blog so I'm going to look into it.
I don't even know where to begin. I took some pictures of the girls and ordered Xmas cards online last night for 2nd day delivery. As long as I send the cards out before Dec 25th, I'm not really that late. I still have a couple of things to get and I'm done with the shopping madness.
Yes, back in November I was trying to read the " English Patient". I really tried to listen and not fall asleep but my brain just can't get into the story. I'm going to rent the movie and watch it and hopefully, that will get excited about reading the book. I also tried to read "Saturday" by Ian Mcewan and can't finish that book either. The one book that I enjoyed and finished reading was "Da Vinci's Code" by Dan Brown. It's a short and exciting book compared to English Patient.
At the moment, I'm reading "Time Traveler's wife" by Audrey Niffenegger and enjoying it from the start. Time travel has always been one of my favorite topic.

What's on my mind

My throat started to get sore yesterday. Hubby, Danielle and Secondo had this cold before I did and I finally got it too. I was hoping to escape the cold by diligently no sharing food from the kids and hand washing. I'm trying Zicam and so far my sore throat went away in 1 day but I don't like the taste of the cherry rapid melts tablet. Hopefully it works and I'll be all better by tomorrow.
Tomorrow night is my company's Christmas party and I don't really feel like going anymore. I've been working long hours and I rather stay home than spend more time with people I work with. Attending seems more like a chore at this point in time so what am I going to wear? Hubby's Christmas party is on a Wednesday Dec 12th and spouses are not invited. My interpretation of the rule is that they don't really want anyone to attend or only single people are welcome.
I took Danielle to their on campus holiday shopping. She picked out one give for my mom and her friend Natalie. She wanted to get Nicole Dora the Explorer ornaments but they were the size of choking hazard so we passed.
I finally finished the book "Life of Pi" and I would recommend this book. Some part of the book shared too much details but from a scientist point of view, Pi is an excellent scientist/zoologist. Now I'm listening to "The English Patient" and so far it's putting me to sleep. I'm not sure if it's because I've been tired lately or the book does not interest me. I'll continue listening for the next 2 CDs and decide.

I've been busy

I can't believe that I have not blogged for the pass 22 days. I believe that's record breaking for being away that long. There are too many commitments in Nov so blogging got neglected as before. Between now and the last time I blogged

1. We celebrated my dad's birthday on the 17th along with 30 to 40 of their friends at my parent's house.
   
2. We celebrated Thanksgiving with hubby's family. I made Vietnamese beef jerky papaya salad. We stopped by my parent's house afterward and give my dad his present.
   
3. The week of thanksgiving, Secondo had fever for 3 nights in a row and now she has cough and cold
4. I've been hooked on Nintendo game "Brain age 2". It's a cool game that calculate your brain age by how fast and accurate you are on answering math questions or remembering numbers. When I got started, my Brain age was 80, after some lengthy training, I was 28. Danielle is very competitive and does not like the fact that my brain age is younger than hers. We both train regularly in hope to open new activities to train with. I've never played Sudoku before and now I'm really into it. I'm on the basic mode where I'm allowed to make 5 mistakes to complete the puzzle.
   
5. Hubby made a delicious orange cheesecake on his first attempt. I took pictures but not sure when I'll be able to post it.
   
6. I've been reading " The life of Pi" and can't wait to finish the book. The writing is humorous but Pi has been a castaway for way too long. Some one please find this poor guy and get him to Cananda.
   
7. Hubby put up most of the lights on our house.
8. I've decided to give Danielle and I a break from piano lesson. She has been practicing much and I don't have time to sit with her when she's practicing
   

I'm stressing out at the moment because I have not started X'mas shopping yet and December is right around the corner. The one gift I got so far is Brain Academy for my nephew.

Weekend in Fresno

I was up in Fresno the pass weekend with my parents visiting old friends. Our family had known the family in Fresno date back to when my parents were in high school. They live away from the city in front of a serene lake, semi man made. Hubby and I took the kids out on the paddle boat and explored the other homes. At first, we didn't really know how to steer so the boat would go straight so I let hubby be the Captain. After a while, he figured out the steering mechanism. Hubby didn't have much fun so he got off the boat with Secondo crying for me while Danielle and I took off. The boat was so much lighter with just the 2 of us. I didn't have to paddle as hard and we took turn being the Captain. When we got tired, we floated and let the boat drift where ever it wanted to go. That Friday was also the opening of Big bluff's 3rd restaurant name Sakura Chaya. If you are ever in Fresno, you must visit Sakura Chaya. They have the best Sushi and soft shell crabs. Big bluff was so busy that night that we didn't get to spend much time with him. Hen dog and his wife stopped by and said hello and went to the bar to watch a game. We also saw Big bluff's new baby boy who was 2 months old. He was a quiet baby and slept through our whole teppan dinner experience. Secondo enjoyed watching the teppan chef until he started a large flame. From that point on, Secondo watched chef from behind the chair and told me her face felt hot.
On Saturday, we went to California Wok that belongs to Mr Bond, Big bluff's 2nd brother.for lunch. I had the teriyaki BLT with yam fries and it was delicious. Hubby had chow mein and Danielle had spaghetti with meat ball. His restaurant was also busy and Mr Bond was able to sit down and spent several minutes with us. If you are ever in Fresno, please try out California Wok.
After lunch, we went back to the home by the lake and spent time with his kids. The baby girl is very cute and his boy is kind and gentle. Before dinner, we watched their Taiwan wedding reception video and saw how elaborate it was.

I finished listening/reading Snow flower and the secret fan and I would give it a 3/5 rating. It could be the reader who I'm not so fond of or the story was too predictable half way through the book. I'm glad that she went in to details about foot binding and I can't stand Lily's character in the story. Her character was not believable, felt artificial and may be I don't want to hear again and again that women are "useless branches on a tree" or women's worth is measured by how many sons she's able to produce and how small her feet are.

Now I'm reading the Kite Runner and I'm really enjoying the book. Their writing style is more to my taste and I fell more entwined with the characters than previous book. The kite runner brought back memory of when I was a 7-8 year old kid in Indonesia, my dad used go on the roof top of our house and kite fight. I was his assistant, holding the string spool for him while he cut the other kites or handed him new kite when ours was cut.

Fire in So. Cal

The fire that's closest to our home is the Santiago Fire. We saw it on Sunday on our way back from Tamecula wine country and it's still burning. We are also close to the fire near San Clemente. Air quality is very poor so the kids had been kept in door from Monday through Wednesday. Today, the whole school district is closed and we will know more about school situation for Friday later tonight.
It's so sad to learn that this disaster is caused by an arson. Many homes destroyed and fire fighters injured.

I'm praying for rain. Lots and lots of rain to distinguish all the fires we have in Southern California.

Good for another year

I went for my follow up mammogram yesterday and hubby went with me. I was nervous all morning and finally we face the music together. I felt stronger when he's besides me.
I had a different mammogram technician this time and she warned me that it's going to hurt more because the area where they saw a change in density in the area near my chest and it's not an easy area to squash. Next year, I'm taking some Advils before the torture process.
Tech: "We want to capture a really flat area and hopefully you don't need to do the ultrasound"
Once the Xrays were taken, I went back to my little dressing room, still wearing my little gown and waited for the Dr.'s interpretation of the Xray. I flipped through the travel magazine for a long time and decided that I want to visit Europe and Japan before I leave this earth. I came across a page about San Antonio Tx. It showed a happy couple enjoying the River walk. I've been to San Antonio in August and it was hot, humid, nothing as serene as the picture. Could the pictures about Europe and Japan be misleading also? hm...
After a long ass wait, the mammogram technician told me that the ultrasound technician will come and get me when she's ready.
"Holly crap, that's not a good sign."
After more waiting, the ultrasound technician came, took me to the examining room and started the examination. She said that everything looked normal to her but she took some pictures and let the doctor make the final call.
After more excruciating waiting pain in the room she said that everything is normal and nothing to worry about. I'm good for another year.
When I shared the good news with hubby, I felt the weight came off his shoulder too. He was puzzled why it took me so long where as other ladies came in and out quickly. It's because I had to wait for the Dr to interpret my result on the spot.
I'm so.. thankful that my twins are good for another year. After the test, we celebrated the good news at the South Coast Winery Restaurant in Costa Mesa. I had the seafood pasta and it was creamy and tasty. Plenty of muscles, baby scallops, shrimp and fish. Hubby had a steak sandwich and he said it was OK.

5 grains of Sand

On Saturday, I got the unwanted letter from the imaging center asking me to make a follow up appointment for further testing on my right breast (mammogram and ultrasound). Even though the technician had prepared me for this possibility, getting it still made me worry. Logically, I know worrying isn't going to help the situation so I tried to distract my self by keeping busy with the kids and reading.
The fact that October is breast cancer awareness month, I'm reminded of the test, when I'm at the store, in the gym, and can't escape from reality.
On Sunday, I was picking up some milk and as I was checking out, the cashier asked if I want to make a donation for breast cancer research.
Me: “ Sure. I just had my mammogram done last week and I’m hope these scientists find a cure soon.”
Checker: “ I’m going in every 6 months. They found calcium build up in my breasts and @#$!%^&$$ tumor @#%*%$%. Early detection is the key.”
Me: “Definetely!”
After she mentioned "calcium built up", I felt like Charlie brown and stopped registering what she came out of her mouth . My mind wondered off to my own uncertainty, what would be come of me? Will I be in her shoes?
I shared this calcium built up conversation with hubby and he tried to keep things in perspective and reminded me that we are lucky to have the imaging center that has the high-resolution digital X-ray system. It's better to know now than later.
On Monday, I talked to one lady to make sure our insurance covers the cost of 2nd mammogram and she shared her breast cancer experience with me. I'm share with you my dear reader because it’s important for us to understand the significance of mammogram.
A while a go, S went in for her annual mammogram and they found five tiny cancer cells the size of a grain of sand. She had the option

1. Get a lumpectomy to remove areas where these cells were found but there’s still 30% chance that the cancer will return.
2. Remove the whole breast and 0% chance that cancer will return.
   

She chose the brave and safe path and removed her whole breast. When the cancer was autopsied, it was 11 days old. She was very grateful for early detection and able to take care of it. We are ask to do self-examination regularly; however, there's no way in hell I would be able to detect 5 grains of sands. By the time it becomes a lump, who know how old the cancer cell is then?
After I got the letter, I did some more research on the subject and found this informative website that shows the differences in Xray between calcification and cancer cells. The Xrays are toward the bottom of the page.

Let's hope this episode of my life is much ado about nothing.

Time test part II

Danielle's teacher emailed me and her reply wasn't so helpful. Her solution to my inquiry is this one summary page in her homework binder that shows hints on how to help our kids with math for the whole year. As far as time test 1 & 2, she said the concept is counting on. So for counting on we get a line liner explanation on that paper, not enough details so I know what I'm suppose to do at home. She also mentioned that the time test should not be a high pressure and I should not worry and assure her she will eventually pass. I guess she could take the same test 10 times, statistically, you will eventually.
My goal is to pin point the concept she's not learning so we're more efficient with time instead of going over the things she already know.
I emailed her back confirming what she was referring to as far as counting on.
Me: " You mean addition of X+1 or +2 or +3 where X can be any number from 0 to 21?"
Teach: " I don't have the binder in front of me so ask Danielle to bring her binder to me tomorrow and I'll go over it with her"
That was a surprising reply when I was expecting "counting on" is being taught in class at the moment and she would give me several ideas off the top of her head on how to review the same concepts at home.
That same night, I forgot to give Danielle instructions to bring the binder to her teacher so as expected, the teacher did not initiate to show Danielle the page she was referring to in her email.

Last night, I was preparing dinner in the kitchen and I asked Danielle

Me: "How was school today?"
D: "Good."
Me: "Did anything exciting happened in class?"
D: "Not really.."
Me: "Was there any tests going on?"
D: " YES, we had our math time test and I think I know what I did wrong. I made the mistake of 7+? =.... Hmm. I can't remember it now.."
I was all excited about her revelation which could be a false alarm
Me: "Did you pass?"
D: "I don't know, we didn't get our test back yet."
Me: "Ms. B didn't have time to grade them?"
D: "No. Parent volunteers grade them, not Ms. B"

That's one of the missing puzzle piece to solve my riddle. It explains the vague reply I got when I asked her for the specifics. She didn't grade the tests so she has no idea what concept my child is or isn't learning. We're going to have lots to talk about during our next parent teacher conference. It's not easy being a teacher so I'll help as much as I can.

Frustration

Danielle gets math time tests twice a week. In theory, reviewing her addition flash cards should help her with passing these tests. Last week, she passed the 1st test on her 1st try and that helped built her confidence. On 2nd test, she got 35 out of 36 so I wasn't too concerned. When I asked her if the teacher reviewed the test with her and she said no. The test got thrown out so the kids can't memorize it and she's not aware of the mistake she made. During our homework time, I make up a mock test with random numbers that adds up to be 21 and gave her 3 min to finish the test. With my test, she had 10 questions left after 3 min was up and she got frustrated and cried because she could not finish the test in time. I told her that my test may be harder because I knew she's able to solve the easy ones. As long as she did her best, I don't care how many times it takes her to pass the test.
Yesterday, she took the 2nd test again and also scored 35 out of 36.
Me: "Was it hard or easy?"
D: " It was easy."
Me: "Did you have extra time at the end to check your work?"
D: "I did check my work and it's all right."
Me: "It's hard for me to guess what we need to work on not knowing what you missed."
D: " May be it's my hand writing because I had to go really fast and I usually take my time to write neatly but not during time test."
Me: "You may be right. Can you write a little neater next time?"
D: "Yeah. I know I can pass test 3 because all the numbers add up to ten"
Me: "I'm sure you will pass this one too once we figure out what concept you've forgotten from 1st grade. "
Me: " Remember you did time test at 1st grade and you went all the way to 19?"

I emailed her teacher to asked for some recommendation on how to help her from home. I know she can do the math; however under pressure, mistakes happens.
Why can't the kids move on when they get 97% correct? The principle may know the answer.

Mammo techonology

I got my mammogram done today and the technician was very proud of the latest and greatest digital imaging system they have instead of the film type mammogram system they had 6 months ago. I asked the technician what were the advantages of the digital vs. film version. Instead of saying the machine was able to generate higher resolution images, she said " It's like regular camera vs. digital camera or better yet regular TV vs. HDTV".
Digital or not, the intensity of crushing of the boobs are the same. I was hoping that the machine doesn't require boobs to become pancake before taking images but that ain't going to come true any time soon. She also warned me that I might get a call from the radiologist because of the higher resolution images so I should not be alarmed because they rather error on the safe side than vice versa. I pray that my twins are happy and in good health
October is breast cancer awareness month so I'm wearing the pink bracelet and got the pink bow pin that I'll put on my jacket.
I'm in the middle of reading Kafka on the shore and I'm more into the book now than before. Unexplainable weird things are starting to happen and two stories starts to merge together. Listening to this book opens up my desire to read more about Greek tragedies, really think about metaphors and irony of real life vs. fiction.

Note to self:
1st appointment is better than last appointment of the day. Shorter wait and staff members are still fresh= more friendly, less grouchy. Arriving earlier than appointment time also help since there will be surveys to fill out. NO Deodorant please.

Going to bed early

On Saturday, around 5PM, we went over to Secondo’s friend JJ’s house to play and I had to give them 15 minute going home warning around 6:00 PM because JJ goes down at 7PM. Both girls love going to JJ house because Danielle likes his dogs and Secondo likes his toys. Danielle was protesting
D: “ Why do we have to go home so early? It’s one hour before 7PM.”
Me: “ Well JJ has to get ready for bed at 6:30”
D: “ So we have 30 min to play instead of 15 min?”
Me: “We have 15 min so JJ’s dad has 15 min to get ready to put JJ to bed.”
We ordered Pizza for diner so I was able to use Pizza as the incentive for them to leave JJ’s house.
We took the kids to the park on Sunday afternoon and met up with her friends from school for a play date. When we got home, hubby gave the girls their baths and Danielle announced that she’s going to sleep at 7 PM so I asked her why.
D: “ This way I can get up at 5 AM and have more time to get ready for school.”
Me: “ That’s fine with me.”
She actually got in bed around 7:30 and she said that it took her a while to fall asleep but when I woke up Monday morning at 5:30, she was already up and was reading in her room.
Hubby and I were hoping Secondo would go to sleep early but she went to bed at her normal time.
When she got home from school Monday afternoon, I asked if she's tired and she said no but she'll go to bed early still. After a quick dinner, we went to her piano lesson and she fell asleep during the short drive to her teacher's house. I think she was tired and didn't play as well as she could have if she was fully awake.

Back to school night : 2nd Grade

Talk about feeling heavy, I certainly felt the bricks coming down on my shoulders after being informed on what my child will be learning as 2nd grader, daily, weekly and for the whole school year.

• Reading: 20-30 min, every day through out the whole year. As parents, we are encourage to ask open ended questions about the plot, compare and contrast characters in the book vs. people we know and also asked our child to prediction of how the ending is going to be.
• Writing: All 2nd graders are expected to write grammatically correct sentences with punctuation, and capitalization etc. They also have a journal that they keep to write down their free flowing thoughts, and ideas.
• Spelling: The school has cut down the number of words the kids need to learn on the weekly basis so I’m SO happy about it.

• Math:

1. Number sense
• Place value of whole numbers to 1000
• Addition and subtraction of 2 and 3 digit numbers with regrouping ( not sure what regrouping means)
2. Algebra and functions
3. Measurement ( metric vs. English units of measure for length, volume, area and perimeter)
4. Geometry
5. Statistics
6. Data analysis
7. Probability
8. Problem solving

These kids will be tested weekly on a math fact sheet. 3 min time test with have 36 questions ( i.e. 5 sec/question). One must score 36/36 on the test before one can move on to the next math fact sheet. If the child complete the whole cycle of sheets then they will start the cycle again but the time allowed is reduced down to 2 min ( 3.3 sec/question). This time constraint sounded stressful for the kids and parents. Got to figure out a way to make this fun for her because it’s going to be part of her weekly routine until she stops going to this school.

• Science

1. Earth Science: Rocks, soils, fossils
2. Physical Science: Learning about motion, sound energy and magnetic energy
3. Life Science: Life cycle

These topics are interesting and appropriate for her age and I strongly feel that making the connection of motion and PE may motivate her to like PE more.

• Social Science

1. Government
2. Exploring Family Roots
3. People who supply our needs
4. Cultural difference etc..

• PE: My favorite subject in school but not Danielle’s. School’s expectation are basic: participation and sportsmanship so that to me is the easiest subject out of all. Shows up, give it your best and don’t feel bad if you loose. I plan to work with Danielle on jogging and softball to build some self-confidence out in the field.

After meeting her teacher, I sense that she’s stricter than her 1st grade teacher. I felt her intensity in her sentences, and sternness in rules and expectations . We will have a parent teacher conference in November so we’ll see how it goes. I was sitting with other parents and one mom was trying to console me by saying “ It sounds like a lot but it’s not really that bad. Just wait until she goes to 8th grade.” It’ll be interesting to compare the workload for Secondo 5 years from now. I’m sure the school will provide more testing and homework in this time span.
SERENITY NOW….

Changing to more lighter and funny subject
Last night, for a brief moment, I turned on the TV and Dolly Parton was singing 9-5 while the professionals were dancing on the floor. I noticed how skinny she’s getting and how her small frame accentuate her large breast even more than before. We all went to bed before knowing who got kicked off the show and I had the dream that I had a boob job gone wrong. They were shaped like pyramids and there’s nothing the doctor could do to fix it. I blame Dolly for this wicked dream of mine. I'm happy with what I have and will not get an augmentation even though most of my neighbors have one.

Feeling heavy

For the pass few days, I've been having this heaviness feeling on my chest which required me to purposely taking deep breaths to get rid of this feeling. Have I forgotten how to breath properly?
I recently found a Shiatsu place by work and decided give it a try. My regular Tui-na lady broke her arm so it'll be a while before she's able to work with her hands. I was expecting a Japanese lady for the Shiatsu but she turned out to be Chinese. I told her areas of my aches and pains and she asked if I wanted traditional Shiatsu or Chinese ba-guan mixed with massage. Ba-guan is a technique using suction cups on are of pain and promote circulations. I decided to go with ba-guan because I've had success with that before. She told me that her technique is really call fei-guan (flying cups) because she used light levels of vacuum and flies over the back quickly. Fei-guan felt pretty good. On the lower back area where I felt sore, she left the cups there a little longer. During the massage sessions, she asked me to practice deep breathing. She'll pushes harder on my back as I exhale and she asked me to extend my exhalation as long as possible. It felt as if I was practicing yoga breathing while she's working on my muscles. When I forgot to breath, she'll breath loudly as a reminder so I worked hard breathing while she worked on my back.
She felt too much tension on my shoulder and her advice was to relax and rest.

Workout, Reading & Food

Hubby took the day off today so I was able to take the 5:30 AM cycling class which I normally couldn't because of the kids. I like the class because it's not crowded and it kicked up my metabolism to face the day. In class I noticed this lady who shrunk so I congratulated her and of course asked her how she lost so much weight. She told me that she went on weight watchers, continued with working out and lost 30 pounds.
Workout log:
Time: 1:08 min. (I kept the monitor on while driving home)
Cal: 496
Ave heart rate: 147 b/min
During class, the instructor announced that she'll be teaching a 3 hour ride next Saturday to raise money for MS. Can I ride for 3 hours? Hypothetically it'll take off 1500 calories from my body but then I'll be dead tired and non-functional for the rest of the day.

I just started reading/listening Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami on my drive in to work. So far I barely know Kafka who time traveled and the story jumped to Mr. Nakata who's taking advice from a cat that speaks a "common language to human". It may be one of those stories where I have to go back and re-read the first couple of chapters to complete the circle.

On with my favorite topic, food

I've been meaning to post this Vietnamese shrimp egg roll that mother in law orders when we have get togethers or birthday parties. It tasted like typical egg roll except the exterior has more crunchy bits and there's a shrimp wrapped in the middle of the fillings.


Above is my version of Pad ke Mow, which I learned to make from my Thai friend #2. It wasn't a big hit at the party because I didn't add any Thai chili. There were lots of left over so I had this dish for a week, got tired of it and have yet give it a 2nd chance. Very similar to Chinese chow-fun plus basil and chili.


This is virgin Mojitos, contribution of Angie. It is tangy and sweet, perfect drink for the hot summer days we've been getting lately. The downer is that I saw how much sugar she added so I had one small glass with lots of ice.

Main ingredients are

1. Lime juice
2. Carbonated water
3. Sugar, lots of sugar.
   
4. Slices of mint leaves
   

Nothing particular

I read other people's blog and they acknowledge and celebrate the birthday of their blog where as I, can't remember when I started blogging. When I looked back, I can't believe I've been blogging for over 3 years. I recalled the day when I emailed Mir and told her how uncomfortable I was sharing my thoughts on cyberspace. I'm too vulnerable! Writing is not my strength and who wants to be judged for creativity, writing style, grammar,& content? Right around that time is when my grandmother from my mom side passed away. Mom and dad went back but I wasn't there for the funeral which made feel guilty. I felt that my time on this earth is quite limited and I wasn't really connecting with my brother who lives up north, my aunt in Indonesia nor my old friends as much as I liked. Back then, I enjoyed reading Bulleye's entries about poker tournaments, Fresno's hot's entries about his gripes on certain products but as time goes by, they stopped blogging yet I continued. I still keep their sites on my favorites hoping one day when I click the link and I'll be surprised by a new entry.
Look back, I've lost some blog sites but met some really cool friends over the years. Some days blogging does feel like a chore when I have other more pressing things on my plate and I'm not sure if anyone out there still interested in reading my stuff.

Last month of swim lessons

Danielle had a short break and she started up with private swim lesson last Saturday. She did really well with back stroke and her teacher said that Danielle took instructions well and we, the parents should continue to bring her to the pool to practice so that does not regress too much by next summer. She also said that it's good to mix up private lessons and group lessons so the kids can encourage each other and see what they are capable of learning.
I also signed Secondo up for swim lesson for toddlers. She did not like being dunk in the water but she loved playing in the pool. The lesson is more for me on how to encouraged her to kick, moved her arms and blow bubbles in the water.
After swim lessons, we went to my company picnic. They served BBQ chicken, BBQ steak, hotdogs, burgers, & fruit salads. They had raffles with the main prize being Wii and other stuff (toys, gift cards, pillows, etc) that we could put our tickets into if we are interested. Like last year, we did not win anything. The picnic is very much the same as the year before so I'm planning to participate in the planning meeting to change it up a bit for the coming year.
We went to Barnes & Noble after the picnic to check out the new Magic Tree House book "Monday Mad Genius" for Danielle. Danielle read all the other Merlin mission so she was really excited with book # 38 and finished reading the whole book. I didn't get to read much because I was busy putting things on the shelf after Secondo took toys off the shelf. She's not the type that will sit still for 5 minutes on her own to read a book. She would rather explore the book store, play with toys or have me read with her.

Back to School

Today is Danielle's 1st day of school as a 2nd grader. It's exciting for her, new clothes, lunch box, back pack, and school supplies. It was nice to see some familiar faces in her new class and everyone appeared taller and have more front teeth than 3 months ago. Her teacher seemed kind and caring so I hope she doesn't get shuffle around because the principal does re-shuffle students to combination classes based on true attendance. One minor issue I dislike is that her class room is a pre-fab, portables or trailer. It's not that big of a deal, just something she'll get used to. I was there at 7:30 AM and the heat was unbearably hot. The principle provided option for the kids watch cartoon during recess instead of playing outdoor.
I recall that 2nd graders get tested so I'm going to look into it on parent's night next week.