華華搬家嘍！

爸爸終於受不了奶奶不停的催促，動手重整April的房間。其實前後就半小時的時間，華華小床的空間就驣出來啦！最開心的人當然是April，姐姐是一直都很須要人陪的。半夜裏不時過來找爸爸或媽媽陪她睡。現在有華華天天陪她，她心裏就踏實了，睡得也好。就是嘴巴硬，堅持說是她陪華華，不是華華陪她。華華呢? 基本上對她沒影響，這倆天感冒，鼻子塞住，不過晚上睡得還真不錯。

華華去托兒所有倆禮拜啦！很有進步，星期五離開時會跟阿姨揮手bye-bye，上學下學沒哭，也開始和小朋友玩得久了。來看看華華自己發明的擦嘴法和有勇氣自己走的片段...

上托儿所进度

第二天是最惨的，去时哭不用说，回家后还是哭，睡前一直要人抱，平常爱玩的东西一样也不要，第二天早上喝完奶还吐了。往后是一天比一天好啦，阿姨是这么说，华华也的确一天比一天正常。但是，早上奶奶送她时还是哭，最特别的是黄金产量大幅度增加。平常是隔天一包，现在是每天2-3包，周末回常。奶奶估计是神经过敏，希望习惯后会回常点。

来听听托儿所阿姨对华华的评价:
- 你女儿很敏感，可能要一个月才能适应。
- 她怎么那么惊醒的啦? 都已经睡了，我轻轻动一下身体，她就马上睁开眼睛。
- 她动作怎么那么快的啦? 我传身去拿药膏，她就翻身爬过来了。而且，换尿布特别困难，是否要给她个玩具?
- 她吃东西怎么那么困难的啦? 要花好长时间。一不要吃，就给我跳Tango。
- 你这小孩怎么那么精的啦? 脑子动作都像一岁大的小孩，真是的！(是表扬还是批评呢?)

Mommy, I am going to take care of you

Mommy: I have a headache, a tummy ache and I have a bad cough
April: I am going to take care of you
Mommy: You are?
April: I am going to make hot chocolate and hot soup for you
Mommy: You are?
April: Yeah, I am going to get grandma to make the hot chocolate and soup for you
Mommy: Oh!

上托兒所第一天

今天華華滿十月就可憐巴巴地給送去托兒所了。沒辦法給她做心理輔導，因爲她還聼不懂抽象的解釋。不過也該去跟其他小朋友交流交流，奶奶也快撐不住了。早上很順利，阿姨成功地轉移她的主意力，帶她看大小孩玩。奶奶和我帶April離開時華華都好好的。但是下午4點奶奶去接她時就知道華華后來是有哭的，而且是想想又哭想想又哭了好幾次。吃得也不好，只是看到別的小朋友吃香蕉，她要了幾口。奶奶給她準備的麺，她只吃了3口就不要了。不過，回家后華華還是很正常，吃得好，跟我們也玩得好。明天可能會很困難，因爲華華現在有心理準備了。

Academy of Science SF

After series of advertising campaign from Daddy, we finally agreed on visiting Academy of Science in SF. What we didn't anticipate is the crowd. Even knowing the museum was rebuilt for the past 10 years, and just opened in Sept last year, we didn't know the popularity is still way up high. I felt like every household in SF that has young children all went there! Parking is hard, hard, hard, even getting close to the entrance take a long while. Not to mention April almost got a car sick. When I reached the entrance with grandma and kids, while Daddy still searching for a parking spot, there were 4 lines. One nice young lady kindly pointed me to the line we supposed to be in, where its tail trailed out of sight. We spent a good hour crawling the line while getting both kids fed.
We made it inside the museum by 1 pm. I guess it was worth the wait. Everywhere we browsed was of spectacular view, a meticulously well designed museum. April had a blast seeing the alligator, penguins, fishes, jellyfishes, T-Rex bones, whale bones in the ceiling and trying to catch the colorful butterflies inside the transparent rain forest sphere. Even River got so excited, keep pointing at things and talking gibberish. She only took 2 brief naps, each 30 minutes, the entire day! This day trip really tired everyone out, we probably won't visit SF again anytime soon.
One little surprise we had at the end of the day was seeing River walk by herself. After dinner, April was playing with her hippo walker, River saw it and got really anxious. I took her down to the floor, she just started walking without holding onto anything. After a few steps, she suddenly realized and immediately tried to sit down. I hold her back up and let her continue a few more steps in order to grab her dear hippo. Later on, we couldn't get her to do it again, she still need the security of latching onto something when she walks.

April's version of Martin Luther King's story

On the way home, April said...
We don't go to school on Monday
Because it's some one's birthday

Mommy: Whose birthday?
April: I don't know

April continue...
He's black
He wants to play with his friends
And the friends is different color
He can't play with his friends longer
He's very sad
When he grow up, he's like his father
He made the different color upside down
Before he see that he died
Now different color friends can play together really long

Mommy: Does he have a dream?
April: Yeah.

First music composition

I didn't anticipate a composition homework from the piano teacher. For a 4 years old, it sounds mission impossible. Not sure how other fellow parents feel, I can't formulate how I could possibly accomplish this task with April, even after listening to lengthy instructions from the teacher. But, it turned out to be a great experience. I started with drawing the treble clef, then it was a natural flow of discussion with April on everything we learnt at the class. We made a song! In like 30 minutes. It was key to limit it only using 2 notes, C and D ;)

我們都要服從地主婆的“指”示

在雪山上華華就開始用食指指她要去的方向。回家的路上我們找了個plaza停下來透透氣，本來打算給華華奶瓶，怎知她不賞臉。就在等輪流上厠所的時候，爸爸抱華華，媽媽跟姐姐玩，剛好有一刻媽媽和姐姐抱在一起，華華看了一下姐姐，然後指一下媽媽，再拍拍自己的胸膛，意思說“媽媽是我的。”自從那時開始華華的主意就越來越大，她的“一陽指”功夫也越來越厲害。現在是她大人有所“指”，我們不服從的話，地主婆就馬上反臉。發燒前媽媽侍候她吃飯，她指一下水我餵她一口水，指一下菜餵她一口菜，指一下飯餵她一口飯，簡直把我儅奴婢。下禮拜就上托兒所，看她能霸道多久!

Boilermaker new year walk '09

原来不是长牙，是出玫瑰疹

现在不烧了，但食欲还没全回来。

小的發燒大的咳嗽

April 一開學就不知從那裏感染了咳嗽，然后華華昨天開始發燒。以爲都是April害的，但到今天華華還只是燒，沒有鼻涕咳嗽。現在懷疑是長牙。但媽媽我沒有經驗，April從來長牙沒發燒，就是華華頭倆顆也沒發燒。不知長牙除了發燒還有什麽症狀？琢磨呐!

來看看倆姐妹生病前一起跳舞的片段:

More on dress

I intended to write this down but kept getting side tracked. Last time I talked about having fight with April over dress or pants on cold (well, cold as a relative term here ;)) winter days. Then that Sat about a week later we had the same argument again. It took me a good hour to talk her out of wearing a dress. Just as I thought all is good through the day, we came to the piano class classroom. I could feel April get slapped on the face just like mine. There was this discrete moment we were just staring at the other 2 girls (the whole class is small and there are only 3 girls) who obviously were wearing dresses.

Afterward, I thought hard on this matter and I noticed both girls had thick tights on. So I took April to our friendly Target and picked out 3 winter tights of her choice. Those we had at home aren't really the right ones, and they have holes, result of falling in the playground. April wanted to put them on the moment we left Target, I let her. What I got is a crying baby in my hippo. She kept complaining the tights didn't feel right, it's uncomfortable near the upper thigh and underwear area. Well, tights as it is so called TIGHTS, the fabric holds on TIGHT to your skin. It does take some get used to time, isn't it? She went back home and tried all 3 tights and ended up crying more, realizing all the tights feel the same. We had another talk and eventually I believe she understand and accept the fact that pretty does cost a price. She put on one of the tights once more and came down for dinner without complaining about the tights ever again.

Then recently April was playing with her scooter outside of our garage. Our neighbor came by, on her way to throw away their household garbage. She praised April's dress. She then came to me and told me her daughter wanted dress but nothing when she was young, and now that she's 8 years old, she hates them and won't wear any dress. She now has a headache on changing her daughter's wardrobe all over again with just pants. I looked back at April and I see another American girl growing out of our roof.