I don't want to go to school!

Friday...
maMi: let's go inside, your teacher is here!
didi: no, i want to look at boat, i want to look at boat...wah~~~~I don't want school

Monday...

At home
maMi: didi, we are going to school
didi: no, I don't want to go to school, I want to go to China.
maMi: We don't go to China that often and not on Monday. Let's get ready for school.
didi: no, I want to sleep. I go to bedroom to sleep.

Outside front gate at school...
maMi: didi, look, the gate has opened, let's go see your teacher.
didi: no, no, no, I want to look at boat
(maMi dragged the truble maker to a line of kids in front of his teacher)
didi: no, no, I want maMi, I want maMi, I want maMI~~~


What's going on? This boy has turned from some one who loved school so much that he didn't even want to leave school to someone who does not want to enter the school gate... I hope this is a thing that will pass soon...I have no energy to deal with this boy every morning like this...

On another note, I did try to ask him what's going on. He said he is scared of school and wants to go to China, TST, stay home...apparently he wants to go anywhere else but school. He also said once that someone from the class would laugh at him...I don't know if this is true. So, I wrote a note in the communication book and hoping to find out what's going on. I hope the teachers will be able to share some info that will probably help us to stop all these madness.

Cooking for maMi

Didi and daDi cooked tonight. maMi was a bit concerned when I saw the hot red pan. Didi was standing on a stall while daDi was holding onto him but it still made me very nervous. didi kept saying: "maMi go over there, its so hot.", exactly the kind of stuff that we said to him while he was trying to mess around in the kitchen while we cook everyday. After all the steaks were put in the pan, maMi thought that was enough for his first cooking lesson, I asked him to leave the kitchen.

Tada, the steaks looks a bit burned on the edges but tasted pretty good. Thank you so much didi and daDi. didi is not a big fan of steaks but he had a few bites before he gave up.

The doctor's appointment to take didi's stitches off is scheduled at 3pm tomorrow afternoon. I hope everything will go OK and really hope that it is not going to leave too big a scar...

Accident at school

While maMi was typing away in the City Hall Library, a phone call from the school teacher got maMi worried. maMi hurried her way back to kindy and found a cut wide open on didi's right cheek. oh, boy, that's a big cut alright.

Apparently, didi tripped and fell onto the corner of a table. When I got there to pick him up he has stopped crying for quite some time already and was quite calm. School nurse wrapped it up with a white cotton square but one can see the big clog of blood stain on the cotton.

AJ and I hopped on a taxi with didi and we arrived at the hospital near our place. The doctor took a look and suggested stitches done on didi's cheek because the cut was really quite deep and the way to minimize scarring is to stitch it up.

So, didi was partially sedated so that the doctor and nurse could do the stitching. The whole treatment procedure was the most traumatic experience for both didi and maMi. didi was screaming in pain and I think he was terrified too as maMi was chased out of the room. About four nurses were there to wrap didi in a blanket and hold him down so that the doctor could perform the procedure. maMi decided to stay with him for the rest of the day because didi obviously needs tons of love and comforting after his ordeal. We were talking before the afternoon nap and didi tole maMi: "Doctor hit me." Oh, boy, there goes his trust for the doctors...how do we fix it so that he can trust doctors again because we are supposed to visit the doctor again for a follow up on Monday...

Let's hope this won't leave too big a scar on didi's face, pray for didi.

Switch to Mandarin?

These days, you can carry a conversation with didi in English so the idea of maMi introducing Mandarin in our everyday life starts to emerge. This morning, didi and maMi had the following conversation...

maMi: didi我們講國語好不好？
didi: (shakes his head)唔好啊！
maMi:說「不好」。
didi：不好，how about English?
maMi：講國語啦，好不好？
didi:不好啦，how about English?

It looks like his preference is clearly English for now and don't know how much he can differentiate between Mandarin and Cantonese...

Happy Mid-autumn Festival

The Moon Festival Carnival of our apartment complex took place tonight. Everyone had a great time. maMi got LUCKY with the LUCKY DRAW! We won a coffee maker! hee hee...I am happy.


didi and yanyan both had a great time with their lanterns and at the carnival. We lost count on how many times they actually got onto the gigantic inflated hopping pit. That is a very good piece of exercise machine for kids, highly recommended.


After the carnival, we all walked back to our flat. Up high in the sky, maMi caught the full moon of this year's full moon festival. Actually, didi was the one who discovered the full moon today. He pointed to the sky and exclaimed:"maMi, look, its a moon!"

Happy holidays everyone.

Insect - Sesame Street Podcast

didi is going to love this Podcast from Sesame Street. He has learned the word "Insect" and has been telling me all sorts of insect. He told me on Saturday: "Mommy, ant is a insect, butterfly is a insect, mosquito is a insect..." I was impressed!

Sesame Street Podcast - Insect

Quitted School Bus

We have to say goodbye to school bus. Out of the three times didi was on it, he threw up twice and the only time that he did not throw up he looked "green" and tired. We have decided that he is not ready for the multi-pickup, hour long bumpy ride yet.

So this week AJ will take him to school on Wednesday and Friday. Starting next week, I will take him to school on the days when I work morning shift. It is about time that I pick up driving again so that I can drive him to school on the days that I work the afternoon shift.

This way, didi gets his full breakfast and get some excise done while we all walk to the MTR station. Taking the train has now become a healthier option for didi. I am sure the crowded MTR is not going to be too much fun either but that's the most viable option for us now.

What did didi do on first day at new school?

maMi got on school bus with didi on the first day. Everything went pretty well for the first half of the journey. It took about an hour to get there and there were quite a few stops because they have to pick up 7 other kids on that day. So, he got a bit light headed and vomited. We had to borrow a clean set of school uniform the second we got into his class room. didi only had to attend two days (Tuesday and Thursday)of school last week and he will be attending three days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) this week. It will probably take longer on the road once all kids are going to school everyday on the third week.

didi likes his new school not because he told me so, but also because he likes the idea that he can move between at least 5 stations where he gets to do art work or paintings or just play with sand, water or play dough for about an hour! I like the teaching staff too as they do let me feel that they do care about the kids instead of pretending that they care. The teacher asked one of the K2 kids to show didi the stations and those two boys actually held hands and giggled together while they first met! I hope didi do get along with his new friends and will eventually tell me who his best friend is and what he does at school everyday. Here on the left, didi was working on his first master piece at his new school! I asked him what it was when he brought it home with him, he said it is a jungle!

We need to submit 4 recent photos of didi. We tried to take ID photos for didi at home but he kept making all sorts of funny faces and as of now we still fail to get a proper photo of him to send to school yet...

He is now a boy with strong mind of his own and does not do what he is told like when he was younger. It takes a lot of time and persuasion to get him to do things that you want him to do these days. Terrible Two had never really left us, and now Horrible 3 is here already!

Saturday@TST

didi and maMi spent a wonderful Saturday in TST. We set off for TST Library and after spent around an hour in the library we left for Hong Kong Science Museum nearby and spent a couple of hours there. This was where didi discovered the dinosaurs on the sidewalk. There were different types of dinosaurs and although he does not know them by names yet, he was excited about his discovery.


Inside the Science Museum, there were different types of equipments that show kids how electricity is produced. didi was having so much fun pushing all sorts of buttons to light up light bulbs. Then we went upstairs where he got on flying and driving simulation rides. Although he does not know the reasoning behind how electricity is produced or the logic behind functioning of a yellow submarine, he really enjoyed his visit.



After a quick lunch at McDonald's we went to StarWalk at the water front. In the picture above, didi pressed his hands on Andy Lau's hand prints. His first taste of star dust~~

maMi was so happy that didi walked most of the time and maMi did not have to carry him for too long. I wanted to be firm and let him know that he is a big boy now and he needs to walk all by himself. On Friday, we had an episode outside YMT MTR station where he wanted me to pick him up but I insisted not to. The five minutes walk turned into a 30 minutes stand off... I was being really firm in not carrying him and I guess that paid off and the result was an enjoy outing that maMi did not turn into a human-stroller for didi!

On school bus alone

didi was on the school bus all by himself this morning. There is a bus mom onboard to look after the kids of course but this was the first time that he traveled on his own. I got teary and was a bit concerned because I was on the bus with him on the first day of school and he vomited on the bus.

It was a very long bus ride which took about an hour to reach school...He was doing very fine during the first half hour but then I guess the motion became too much for him and he vomited.

didi did not have any milk for breakfast, so if he got sick by any chance it won't be too much an "eruption" as suggested by the bus mom. We sent AJ to wait for him by the school gate so that she could meet didi when he got off the bus. I called to find out if he got off the bus OK, AJ said he looked a bit disorientated but was doing OK. What a relief!

I hope didi gets rid of his motion sickness soon and really gets to enjoy his school life everyday!

Happy 3!

Happy 3!, uploaded by maMi.

didi turns three today! Happy happy happy birthday my love! I don't know if you made any wish, but maMi's wishes are for did to be healthy, be happy, be wonderful, be smart, be a confident 3 year old!

Sleep Patterns for Kids

How many hours should your kid sleep everyday? According to this site, a three year old should sleep 10-11 hours per night and a nap for around 1 to 2 hours.


AGE Approx. amount of sleep needed:
Newborn 16 to 20 hours per day
3 weeks 16 to 18 hours per day
6 weeks 15 to 16 hours per day
4 months 9 to 12 hours plus two naps (2 to 3 hours each)
6 months 11 hours plus two naps (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours each)
9 months 11 to 12 hours plus two naps (1 to 2 hours each)
1 year 10 to 11 hours plus two naps (1 to 2 hours each)
18 months 13 hours plus one or two naps (1 to 2 hours each)
2 years 11 to 12 hours plus one nap (2 hours)
3 years 10 to 11 hours plus one nap (2 hours)
4 to 5 years 10 to 12 hours. Usually no nap.

didi starts school tomorrow and we want to get his sleeping pattern back on track. We threw him a birthday party on Sunday and he was so excited that he did not go to sleep till around mid-night although he was tugged in at around 10pm. He work up at 10am this morning! I was bascially panicking because he is supposed to be picked up by the school bus at 7:40am every morning!

To make sure we don't miss school bus, we decided to move dinner time to 6:30pm so that he can be bathed at around 7:45pm and go to bed by 8pm. If he wakes up at 7am then he will have 11 hours of solid sleep.

I really hope this plan works...fingers crossed!