Moments in My Life

Yesterda, Wednesday, we visited daycare/preschool at Launching Pad Northrop Grumman.  This school provides care for employees of NG only.  Their rates are discounted for the employees but still rather high as they only provide FULL day care and no half day.  A child can share time with another child but both the parents must be an employee of NG.  You can work out the sharing time with the other person, say 1 day a week and he/she takes 4 days, 2 days while he/she takes 3 days.

There was some traffic and I had to take a detour to get to the school.  It is about 6-7 miles from my home and about 15-20 minutes drive depending on the traffic.  It took me about 25 minutes to get there yesterday.  We arrived there around 10am and waited a bit for the principle, she was interviewing someone at the time.  Then she took us to the toddler class (C2 room) to meet up with the teachers - Karen, Tiffany and Jeanette.  I was allowed to sit in the class to see how it was conducted and see if Brandon can fit in easily.  They had just finished with rug time when we got there.  We even saw another boy we known from the Torrance Adult School in the class.  But Brandon wasn’t too into playing with the other kids.  He was basically next to me all the time.  The first 10 minutes he was wondering around the classroom while the other kids were doing art around the table. 

There are around 12-15 kids there.  They are all around 2-3 years old.  At around 10:30am they were taken to the potty and then ready to go out to play in the playground.  There are two C classes, C1 and C2.  So both classes has the same outdoor playtime.  Brandon was scooping sand and pouring it from high above the ground.  I was afraid there was wind that might accidentally blow the sand into other kids’ eyes whom are sitting in the sand and playing.  But there was no wind so it was safe.  I was still worried.  I saw other kids are playing sand low below but not Brandon.

We went back inside around 11am.  The kids were told to take off the shoes to get rid of the sands inside before going inside the room.  Brandon and I already went inside before that as he needed to use the potty.  Then I think he was hungry.  I left his water and snack outside in the car.  They do not provide water in the class, children who wants to drink has to drink from the water fountain.  I tried teaching Brandon to drink from it but he felt weird.  He put his mouth near it but he didn’t drink the water, just wet the lip.

Anyway, when the kids got back from the playground, the teachers took turn to take the kids to the potty in group.   They went and washed their hands as well.  It took pretty long to finish the routine with all the 12-15 kids.  Then around 11:30am they have another rug time telling story.  Brandon didn’t want to sit with the other kids.  He was the only one walking around the room which was quite disturbing as the teacher had numerous time telling him to sit down but he didn’t want to and he came running to me (I was sitting by the door) and thought it was funny. 

While the kids were in the rug, the other teacher was wiping down the tables and getting ready for lunch.  Food were brought to the table in big bowls.  They were having pizza, carrots, orange and milk that day.  At 12pm, they allowed the kids to sit by the table to eat together.  The class was separated into two tables.  One teacher at each table.  The teacher divide the portion for the each kid.  One of the lucky kid will get to start eating first while the kid sitting at the other end of the table will have to wait till his/her turn.  I guess this is to teach the kid about patience and wait for their turn? 

Brandon sat in one table and he was third in the line for food.  He kept disturbing the stack plates, taking one for himself.  The teacher told him many times no, but he didn’t listen.  Like I said earlier, I think he might be hungry.  We usually eat around 11:30am and furthermore he had used up quite a bit of energy playing in the playground earlier.  The teacher took a piece of cheese pizza and a scoop of cooked carrot for each plate.  Then she poured half a small glass of milk for each kid. 

Brandon started eating but he is not quite used to be eating with bare hands so when the pizza sauce dripped onto his hands, he was upset and kept turning to me asking me for wipes.  I gave him one the first time.  Then he asked for it again when he took the second bite.  I told him to use the wipe he has but he ignored me and went to get a new wipe himself.  The teacher was a bit annoyed by him I think as he didn’t sit quietly eating with the group.  The teacher kept telling him to use his first wipe but he kept going back for more wipes.

When I interrupted him by not letting him getting more wipes, he got upset and disturbed another kid whom was sitting quietly eating his own lunch.  Brandon kept wanting to sit on the kid’s chair for no reason at all.  He then started to fuss and throw himself back to the floor and kicking.  I had to pull him up and he started crying saying he wanted to go home.  I thanked the teachers and excused ourselves to leave the classroom.

When in the car, he was back to himself.  I gave him some snack and water while I was driving back home.  Then back home, I made him more lunch.   

So is he ready for school?  I don’t think so.  I guess will wait for another few more months to see if he will do better with other kids and the teachers. 

Actually this is a daycare experience we went to.  I would be more interested to see how the pre-school schedule is.  It might be the same as it is a full day class too.  Most of the pre-schools here are full days to accommodate the working parents. 

What I want for him is a two hours two three times a week of formal class.  No nap, no lunch at school, only snack time.  Hmm … if I can’t find one, I have to do it myself at home.  Anyone home pre-schooling their kids and would kindly share their comments or suggestion on what and how I should do it?

I just placed a booking for a Maui Vacation!  Can’t wait to head off for our family of three vacation to somewhere we’ve never been to before.  It will be the first time for all of us to visit this island in Hawaii.  Now I have to plan the itinerary for the 5 days that we’ll be there.  It took me 1.5 day to put together the package (flight, hotel and car).  And with the Discover Card 5% Bonus Cash Back for this quarter of the year, we will get some extra discount from this promotion. 

YES!  Finally a nice beach vacation for the three of us together. 

Backdated 1/18/09.

When we woke up in the morning that day it was late. It was around 10am when we were going out the door without an idea where we were heading to. Hubby suggested we visit Irvine Spectrum which is about 45-50 minutes drive down south. I agreed since I have no other better idea where to go.

A ferris wheel and lots of palm trees at Irvine Spectrum

By the time we got there it was already 11am. My first stop was at the Old Navy store to grab some items on clearance. I got some tee-shirts and a jacket for Brandon. Cheap buy.

Brandon doesn’t have any patience waiting for me to shop, so his Daddy took him out to the fountain area to enjoy. He has this love for fountains.

Enjoying fountain

Brandon requested to ride on the carousel when we walked towards it. It cost $2 for a ride.

Carousel ride

It was past noon time, so we stopped and had lunch at Wahoo Fish Taco, Mexican restaurant.

Nearby the restaurant, there is an ice skating ring set up. Imagine the weather that day was around 80-85 degrees. It must be nice to be on the ice.

Ice skating ring

We walked to Target and shop for a little while. But Brandon was more excited to be outdoor since there are fountains everywhere at this place. It was difficult for me to shop because he didn’t want to be inside. So his Daddy went out with him to the fountain just right outside Target while I finished up my window shopping in Target to see what clearance they have on sale.

It was 1:30pm the time we left. We only finished walking half the outdoor mall. This is a very nice mall to walk around with plenty of good restaurants and shops to wonder around. Brandon didn’t nap in the car on the way back but I managed to get him napping later when we got home.

Hello world.  I’ve been missing in blogging action lately because I became a TV series worm.  I was basically in front of my laptop all day but instead of blogging or blog-hopping, I was watching, rather chasing episode after episode of this Singaporean Media Corp Production of ‘The Little Nyonya‘.  I was introduced to this 34 episodes Mandarin TV series (with English subtitle) by CrazyChineseWoman.

When she posted a summary about this new series, I was intrigued and really interested in watching it.  But on the other hand, I wasn’t sure what to expect from a Singapore production.  After catching the first episode I knew that this is going to be a good one to watch.  It was much better than I was expecting.  Then when I saw my sister online, I told her about it and got her and her MIL into this series as well.  Next, when I saw my cousin online, I also told her about this series.  She went and bought the whole series in DVD and finished watching it before I did.  

The Little Nyonya is a series span over 5 generations of Baba & Nyonya family in Malacca and Singapore.  It mostly revolves around a little nyonya by the name of Yue Niang.    The story was told by her to her granddaughter, Angela, whom has just returned from Canada to visit.  Yue Niang had a very awful life as she was wickedly treated by her family (Huang’s family).  It was tragic that her own grandmother whom was maid back then was raped by the tow-kay (master).  The master’s mother was very nice and she agreed to let this maid became the master’s 2nd wife/mistress.  But the 1st wife and her children had this hatred towards the 2nd wife, her daughter (Ju-Xiang) and later, her grand-daugther (Yue Niang).  Ju-Xiang became mute and deaf when the master’s mother (Ju-Xiang’s grandmother) passed away when she was 9 years old. 

Ju-Xiang was arranged to married a rich scoundrel.  Before she was sent off to get married, she ran away.  Along, she met a Japanese photographer, married him and they had Yue Niang.  Both her parents died during the Japanese occupation in Singapore.  She survived and went back to her grandmother house in Malacca.  The Huang’s family already left for England during the Japanese’s occupation leaving behind Tao-jie (maid) and his 2nd wife.  They returned a few years later and started the ill-treatment towards Yue Niang.  Yue Niang didn’t believe she was fated to be like other nyonyas to get married, be a wife and later a mother and grandmother.  She had a different idea how and what type of life she wanted for herself. 

When she was sent off to married a butcher but she didn’t give up.  In the end, the butcher and her became sworn brother and sister instead of husband and wife.  Later she began her business in bird nest trading with the Singaporean.  She failed miserably during her first trading in Singapore as she was conned after using her money from selling the bird nest to purchase a bulk of silk which turned out to be low grade fabrics.  However, she was successful in her business venture later on. 

As for her love life, she fell in love with a rwealthy Baba from Singapore whom she thought was a chauffeur in the beginning. When she found out his real identity she was confused and she didn’t accept his sincere love. Her love life is very much interesting filled with obstacles and difficulties, but I am not going to tell all here. You have to watch it.

One loophole in this series I noticed that the Huang’s children supposed to be educated in England but upon their return to Malacca, their first English sentence spoken was full of slang. I was expecting them to converse in fluent British accent. Anyway, overall it is still a very good tv series.

Here is a preview, part of the first episode.

This morning when we were out and about in the car, my hubby told me that his company has reorganized.  We were about to enter the parking structure of the mall when this conversation took place.

Daddy: Before this reorganization, my sector was called the Space Technology.

Mommy: So now after the reorganization, what is your new sector?

Daddy: Now it is called the Aero-Space-System, is A.S.S. Ass you know.

Mommy: *giggle giggle*
Daddy: *giggle giggle*

When we were leaving the parking structure after an hour and heading home this was the conversation we had.

Brandon: ‘S’ hai mall, moh fun oak kei. (’S’ is at the mall and not following us home)

At first I didn’t understand what he meant. But a second later, I knew immediately he was referring to the A.S.S. we were talking about earlier. My analogy is he thought we were bringing ‘S’ to the mall initially (that why he laughed) and left it at there without bringing it home with us. LOL! Kids

I can happily say now that I am enjoying motherhood a lot more now than before.  Brandon is soon turning three and he understands a lot of our conversation, which mainly is in Cantonese.  Since we can converse both ways more effectively now, there is less misunderstanding.  I still remember there was times when I talk to him face to face on certain things and he gave me this blank look.  No more now, and I felt much more in control than before.

Also being out of the real estate transaction I had with the unpredictable timing to work and answer calls, all the stress is gone.  I am still doing real estate but now I know what I am dealing with and how to handle the short sale transaction much better.  But now I have no transaction, so I am enjoying a full time stay-at-home-mom job. 

Although there were times where I got really angry and it was because I wanted Brandon to sleep by himself.  He was doing fine earlier but due to the cold weather during the Christmas week, I slept with him a few timesF  from then on, he wants me to stay inside his room to accompany him to sleep.  Some nights, I managed to negotiate that I would be sitting by his bedroom door instead of sleeping next to him.  It takes him longer to fall asleep.  Before Christmas, he would have his milk and then I read him couple of books before he would go to bed by himself while I left his room to use the laptop which was just two steps from his bedroom door.  I can simply avoid this scenario by sleeping next to him when he goes to sleep.  I really like it (sleeping with him) but it will mean the training I did earlier will be down the drain.

He eats well, plays well, enjoys watching DVD (sometimes laughing himself at the movie), loves his grandma (mah-mah), and of course he loves me too.  The only thing is he still doesn’t go potty himself.  But good news is he is getting better. *touch wood*  At least now he will try not to wet his underwear, although sometimes it was a little wet, but I know he is trying hard.  He does great when we go out and he is mostly on his underwear now even when we go out.  I only put his pull-up if we are going to somewhere which I think clean bathroom is hard to find (in like Chinatown).  At home, we bring him to potty almost every hour.  Usually if he tells us that he needs to go, it means too late.  But for number 2, we have to be quick.  He tells us he needs to go means we need to drop what we are doing instantly and bring him to the toilet right then.  We can’t be a second too late, or else we have to clean up the mess in his underwear. 

Brandon is still staying at home with me.  Remember how I blogged that I will be sending him to pre-school soon last year?  It has yet to happened.  One reason, he still not fully toilet train … he can pull down his pants but it will need to be all the way out but he can’t pull his pants up.  Second reason, I don’t want to find a job just because we need to supplement for his tuition.  Third reason, I am enjoying him at home and I might feel lonely if he goes to school for the whole day.  I prefer school which has part time, half day class.  But the cost is almost the same as being there for the full day.  I would definitely prefer to have him back at home for nap.  There is actually a place which fits my criteria but they only accept fully toilet trained kids.  It is part time, 2/3 days a week for 2 hours in the morning from 9am to 11am.  Although they requested for the parents to help out in the class at least two days per term, I do not mind.  The fee is very affordable too ($214/term).  A term is about 8 to 9 weeks.

I like toddler at this age as they do many funny things that put a smile on our faces.  He talks funny too at times.  And sometimes he would say something that we might not thought he would. 

Happy New Year everyone! 

Sorry for not frequently updating my blog lately.  My hubby had a one week (25th to 1st) shutdown from his office so we were going out almost everyday.  He was back to work on Friday and then work half day on Saturday to close some reports.

What have I’ve been busy around doing?  Well, everyday when I have my meal (breakfast/lunch/dinner), I will watch Gem of Life online here.  I am on episode 53 now.  I didn’t watch much of the other TVB series, Pages of Treasures which has the series finale last Friday.  I was able to catch a few episodes in the beginning of it and then finished up with the last episode. 

The day after Christmas I went to the Del Amo Mall to check out their after-Christmas Sales but I was very disappointed as there were not many sales at all. I guess they probably knew that many customers would be spending their gift cards anyhow so they didn’t bother to cut the price lower.

On Saturday 12/27 we went up north to Camarillo Outlet Mall, which is about an hour drive from here. Hubby stopped me at the Coach Outlet first and it was crowded and most items on their clearance shelves were gone, the shelves emptied! It was only 10:30am. I didn’t get anything for myself there. We did about 1.5 to 2 hours shopping there and left. I bought two Banana Republic blouses for myself. Got two Carter’s PJs for Brandon and Hubby got himself a long sleeve top from Gap.

Sunday 12/28, we drove down south to Fashion Island Mall in Orange County. They have the BIG REAL Christmas tree on display. Since we already put away our Christmas tree at home, I promised Brandon the night before his bedtime we would bring him to see a BIG Christmas tree. We had lunch at Wahoo Fish Taco and Brandon was eating quite a bit. He must have been hungry after all the walking around the mall looking at fountains. We stopped at the Costa Mesa Ikea on the way back home.

Monday 12/29, was our big shopping day at Target for their after-Christmas sales. The Christmas items were marked down 75% from the original prices. Hubby bought a few ornaments and some other Christmas decorations. I bought food items that were marked down - Christmas cookies, biscuits and chocolates!

Tuesday 12/30, visited Long Beach Aquarium. Since it is the aquarium 10th anniversary, anyone whose birthday falls on the 10th of any month can get in with only $10 admission.  Both my husband and I birthdays fall on 10th and Brandon is free.  But it was very crowded in the aquarium as it was school holiday.  Brandon didn’t show much interest in ‘fish’ so we spent about 45 minutes in it and we left to walk around the marina. 

Wednesday 12/31, had a late breakfast at Norm’s.  I had two pancakes, hashbrown, two slices of bacon, two sausage links and two eggs over easy.  Hubby had the same but he had waffle instead of pancake.  I shared my plate with Brandon and he ate quite a lot of it.  He finished almost two of my sausage links, a few bites of hashbrown and one and quarter pancake.  After breakfast we went to Target in Manhattan Beach and then stopped at the Manhattan Village Mall.  At night, I watched the countdown on NBC and fell asleep right before the ball dropped to 0:00 2009.  But I remember hearing a lot of fireworks outside the house.

That’s what we did for the last week of 2008.  Sorry for the late posting, it took me 3 nights to finish this post.