April River rhymes: Sept 2007

Beach day with Purdue families
Before the summer ended, we had a gathering for the kids to play sand together and chase waves. The location was a coast line south of Santa Cruz. We started with a packed lunch under a wooden walking bridge, serving us as a natural beach umbrella. Then when the older kids were "well" fed (obviously anZel and April, well is a stretched term to mean full), both Daddies were off bringing them to chase the waves. Both of them got wet and needed clothes change, lots of work on the parents, yet we were happy to see them yelling and running under the sun, by the vast sea. Chubby Levaunt stayed behind with Mommies and Grandma, continue his munches and once in a while did a bit of sunbathing. A joyful day to conclude the summer, the only downside was Mommy's big toe got stung by a bee :(

Wii
Mommy's workplace got a Wii for research, and one Friday April came for a short visit after school. Mommy made a Mee character for her and introduce her to the bowling game. She hated it since she couldn't figure out how to use the remote. She's more curious about the other remote that link with the main one. So Mommy launched the boxing game for her to play. It's funny watching her shaking both remotes while the character on screen beating up the opponent. That's the easiest level, basically the opponent didn't move, if not, it will be game over in 1 second.

多愁伤感的April
This was a sureal momment I shared with April. A weekend dinner at a HK style restaurant, we got seated at a small table next to couple big ones. Each of them was occupied by families of 3 generations, with grandparents, parents and lots of kids. They were much older kids. April started out staring at them while they chat and play. At one point, she changed her focus, there was this old lady, full of white hair, walking out of the restaurant. She had one hand holding a walking stick, the other side was a middle-aged lady holding her right hand. She walked slowly with difficulty. April stared at the old lady for a long time. Later I noticed her face turned into such a sad facial expression, so I asked her, "If Mommy gets this old, will you take care of me?" She nodded her head seriously. I wondered if this was her first encounter with aging.

Police and fireman visited her school
This month's theme at school was about safety. The school actually called in a police car and a fire truck on separate days for all the kids to see and crawl around. Each class would have a short time to talk to the policemen and firemen. April gave us a brief description about the inside of the police car. The most hilarious part was her holding out the index finger and told us there was a computer inside the police car. Both Daddy and Mommy gave a pretended surprised look.

Mooncake sharing at our house
We had another Purdue family gathering around Mid-Autumn Festival time. Grandma sent us a batch of homemade mooncakes. We invited the Zhen's, Chen's and Ko's family over for an afternoon snack with wine. April proudly presented her "toys" to anZel and Levaunt, yet her plastic jewelry had absolutely no attraction to both boys. On a contrary, Levaunt was more interested in the remote controlled toy car and anZel's more interested on the real TV remote control. Hence, Boy is boy and girl is girl.

Quotes of the month
One weekend afternoon, we were doing a drive around to put April to sleep. Daddy and Mommy chatted endlessly about random things in the car assuming little April would be bored and fall asleep. Yet a little while after, April suddenly declared: 你们把你们的女儿吵醒了。

At the Mountain View Wine and Art Festival, Daddy getting the food while Mommy holding a seating area, April was spacing standing in front of Mommy, then suddenly she turned and said: 我在发呆！

At the Safeway checkout line, the man in front of Mommy had a long pony tail. April kept staring at the man and suddenly she had a revelation: 男孩子也可以有长头发的。

One afternoon, she was playing Mommy to the blue care bear. She's using a small cloth as the blanket, humming the bear to sleep. Mommy told her that she shouldn't cover the bear's head, since that will block the bear from breathing. Trying for a real pretention, right? She replied: 它是假的啊！(妈妈真是有苦难言)

This month, she's into a strange habit. Whenever she needed to get onto the car, Mommy had to said: 请小姐上车！Then she would nod and pleasantly sit herself onto her car seat.

It's a night Daddy's on duty to put April to bed. April asked for Mommy instead,
Daddy replied: 你可以陪爸爸睡吗?
April proclaimed: 你长大了呀！你要自己睡觉呀！我很忙，我要去陪妈妈。

Sunday morning, Mommy just got back from farmer's market. Daddy told Mommy while she's away, Daddy questioned April why she's still in her pajamas.
April: 妈妈根本没有给我穿衣服。

Songs of the month
但愿人长久 - April's version