Epiphanies

I’m sold.  It couldn’t get any easier.  Cut up a pot roast into smaller pieces, salt and peppered it and threw it into the slow cooker and wala - dinner.  Well, I had to do the rice cooker too but still, it was an easy breezy way to cook meat.

Practiced multiplication with B.  I almost fell asleep during one of the sessions.  I broke it up so that I could keep B’s attention a bit longer and mine too.  Talk about boring stuff.

J had stinky poop today - I think it’s a residual formula poop from the other days.  Makes me want to nurse him for longer if it means I could avoid changing the stinky diaper.  Boy was it nasty.  Forgotten how foul it could smell.

Forgot to mention C did diving in the outside pool again yesterday.  Well, more like belly flopped in but he’s still cute doing it.  I should have filmed it.  B came along since he’s on spring break.  I made him write a book report on one of those Deltora books that he’s reading.  P and I chatted about her new movie which is going to be shown this friday but unfortunately I can’t make it because Dh has a poker game with his buds and I have to take care of the kids.  I mentioned that I heard her neighbor is selling her house (which has a lake front view) for $1.1.  It’s tempting but she said it wasn’t worth it.  I already knew that but it’s still tempting.

B went to the batting cage with Dh the other day but I think he took out his frustration (couldn’t  hit a lot of the balls) on DD and DD had a  nervous breakdown (haha).  Poor Dh.

We played Candyland - Dora the Explorer.  B won so he was happy.  Think he’s been a bit perturbed by his losing streak so this was good.  I really want the kids to be laid back about losing at games.  It’s all just a game - nothing to get huffy about.

I guess I was getting overly frustrated with C the other day with the worksheets. I always thought he was a bit advanced for his age and teachers led me to believe so too since he was able to write his name right around 2 1/2. This led me to have higher expectations for him and I guess I felt I was letting him down because I didn’t focus on encouraging his abilities. So last week, I figured I would try to work on it with him. I do make time for that albeit sporadically. Even though he was learning to put together words “b” with “ig” to make “big” or other three letter words, it didn’t seem to be the light bulb going on the way that I thought it would. It’s a much slower process.  I happened upon this article warning parents to “Don’t start too Early”.

Basic points from the article that I will try to keep in mind:

1) Keep it fun and within reach. Positive experiences to build confidence. Don’t be too regimented.

2) Identify surroundings beginning with a certain letter. Point out letters and numbers - street names, house numbers, billboards, road signs, shop signs, advertising logos, food items.

3) Keep it short. No longer than 20-3o minutes. “Research has shown that young children are naturally far-sighted as their eyes have not fully matured to function like that of an older person. For this reason, to avoid eye-strain, a child should not focus on a book or a page for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. When they write, encourage your children to make big letters at this stage. Later on (when they start Grade 1) they can learn to write neatly between lines!”

4) Don’t be critical, just encourage him to keep improving.

I wonder what they mean by young children. I consider B young but he’s 8.

I found it while surfing.  Just rip it out and insert them into clear non glare  non vinyl plastic sleeves.  You can put them in a binder. Use different colors of dry erase markers.  Wish I had learned of this earlier.  C and B have written all over many many worksheets.

ROOT CANALS

Yesterday was the continuation of my root canal on my lower right side. It didn’t feel as bad this time, probably because Duc used a thing to keep my jaw open. Doing that helped me “doze” off instead of concentrating on keeping my mouth open. He also put my permanent crown on my upper left tooth. It was disturbing hearing Duc talk with his assistant Stephanie about dentisrty. He’s been coaching her, a good guy imo to talk her through everything he’s doing although it makes me a little too conscious of what he’s doing. I feel more comfortable with him as my dentist than I have ever felt in my life. He really puts me at ease. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a friend and I feel more trust in him or just his bedside manner. She spoke about how easy root canals were and he told her all the procedures in dentistry are easy on paper but a lot of factors can make it trickier, i.e. placement of teeth, patient reaction, how far back the teeth are, how many canals there are, how many roots there are, etc. Fun stuff

MOVIES AND GROWING UP

C had swimming as usual yesterday. I saw P there again. I remarked on how damn cold it was and that it was probably due to global warming. She suggested I watch “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Maybe we should sign up for Netflix. I seem to be spending more and more time in front of the tv. J has a sixth sense for when I’m on the computer these days and wakes up as soon as I get online now. He’s growing such a personality too. Yesterday, when I wanted him to nurse, he wasn’t having it and pushed me away. He’s never refused milk before. He also refused the bottle at my mil. He also has started batting toys on his swing. I’m not ready for him to grow up yet. Ahhhhh…

B has to do a computer timeline at school now. We had to submit two photos. One of when he was a baby. One more recent. I used a photo I took of him at the Corona Del Mar Castle building contest. He looks so happy at the beach. I looked through the baby photos and since Easter was coming up, I asked him if I could submit the one of him in his spring outfit, sitting in the easter basket wearing bunny ears. Think he was 5-6 months old. Soooo cute. His answer was, “No way, that’s so embarrassing.” I asked him again 5 minutes later. He said, “MO-OOOOOM-MMM.” Oh well, it was worth a try.

ACTIVITIES TO DO WITH THE KIDS

I met this woman Sulan at the park today. I met her last time as well. She had a few good suggestions for occupying kids during the summer. I told her I didn’t want them to spend all their time playing video games. She has theme days i.e. making a movie day, arts and crafts day (draw a flower in the garden day) , math/worksheet day, write an article day and science day (google cool science projects). She has a website which she runs where she programmed cool free educational software - free math/chemistry games (sort of like teaching tools) for kids to play and along the side are google ads where she gets $/click. I may try to find it.

EASTER BASKETS

I popped by Target this morning. It was great. They open at 8am so after I dropped B and C at school, I swung by there via Irvine Center Drive. I wanted to get all the goodies for their Easter Baskets or in this case bucket (bought that at Big Lots in Laguna Woods). I didn’t want to concentrate on just easter wrapped candy (i.e. candy that just has a different wrapper) but candy that they don’t often have or at leaast has some significance with the “Easter Basket” tradition. I bought jellybeans, malted choco balls, bunny-shaped chocolate, easter animal pez dispensers and also some egg shaped gum because C seems to have a thing for gum. I also bought some goodies like hot wheels truck combo that has a car inside, pokemon card packs, some crayola goodies for C. I also bought some clothes for a portrait sitting later on. I want the kids to have a photo taken together professionally, maybe at Kiddie Kandids since that seems to be the place to go by all my friends.

FINANCIAL ADVICE

The pokemon cards rang up at $13.99 but on the rack they were $9.99. Normally, I would never have noticed because I don’t really pay attention when cashiers ring up things but it just so happened that yesterday I read Common Billing Errors that can Cause You Money - most notably “With the computer age, many people assume the bill is automatically correct and don’t review what the actual charges are. While computers can make errors in calculations less likely, they are far from foolproof. The result is that consumers lose billions of dollars by making unnecessary overpayments each year.” It stuck in my head and I had resolved to be more proactive when it comes to finances since budgeting may play a bigger role in the near future. It’s good to make it a habit of being aware of your money and where it is going.

Id theft is a scary thing too. I think I may do 1-888-5-OPT-OUT and buy a cross shredder. I’ve always wondered what would happen if you submitted a taped up cc application and now I know.

“If we are not willing to fail, we will never accomplish anything. All creative acts involve the risk of failure.” -Madeleine L’Engle

I read somewhere that you should always praise your child for working hard at achieving something rather than for “being smart”. “Being smart” creates an idea of perfectionism and causes a child to have a fear of failure and not being “smart” anymore. If you create the idea that if you work hard at anything you can achieve anything, the child learns that anything is possible and won’t be afraid of trying. I’ve done both but now that I know the consequences of both, I’m going to try hard to praise for working hard. This option is much better than the other. I don’t want my kids to be afraid of failure. I think sometimes that is my handicap. My father always told me I was stupid and although it had the opposite effect of making me try harder to prove him wrong, it did affect my self-esteem at times and made me cognizant of “failing to be perfect”.

We worked on B’s school project called “Fantasy Island” today. I sketched out his vision of “Pokemon Island” which consisted of Pikachu and Skitty. We then painted the ocean, lakes and rivers blue. Then he mixed a recipe of dough, salt, and water to make the landforms. We used food coloring to make the grasslands and mountains. I printed out a key on a Pokemon card and a compass rose on a pokeball. We then made labels for all the different landforms - they were all pokemon names. It was fun. C also made his own landforms which consisted of a volcano and whatnot. He managed to put all the toothpick labels correctly on the corresponding landforms without any guidance. Sheer luck or sheer genius? The jury is still out on that.

We went to Spectrum food court for a quick bite to eat at Wasabi. Then we went over to Barnes and Noble to check out the kid’s section while C went on the Merry go round. We tried looking for the rest of the Deltora Quest books by Emily Rodda but they didn’t have it. They had some other series by her. B only has 1-5. Later on, we bumped into P & Austin. They just came back from Taipei (his grandfather’s 80th bday). Chatted a bit - seems like I wants to become a flipper instead of a Pilates instructor. He told her that she had to become a realtor first if she wanted to do that since the profit margin is slim after realtor commissions. Might as well earn the commissions herself. He seemed to think Socal is immune from the RE market. Is he the only one? Possibly.

Watched “Little Miss Sunshine” with A after the kids went to bed. Was quirky and amusing although not the Oscar type movie I thought it would be. I think people are just ready for a happy light hearted movie with meaning. *goes to write the script for the next big thing*

While B and I were waiting for the elevator he mentions to me that this was a different kind of elevator. I stare at him blankly wondering what on earth he could mean. The elevator seemed like a typical elevator to me, nothing special about it at all. I ask him to explain. He said that there was only one door that slid open to one side instead of the two doors opening up. Wow - he boggles my mind sometimes. I can’t help but be proud of him.