奶奶回MN

这5个多月来奶奶给我们的帮忙很大，奶奶包家务、厨房、带华华、接送华华、有时大家上班上学不在家，她还出去帮我们买菜或修补家里的东西。最厉害是早上爸爸妈妈April还在懒床时，她是开着4个炉子煮早饭、准备April 和 华华的 lunch的同时，还要娱乐华华或抱华华、喂华华吃东西， 因为华华一般早起，要找人玩。奶奶是很会煮也很会催人吃东西的，所以公公婆婆来了说大家都给奶奶养胖了，除了华华(这个下回分解)。奶奶离开后，我们都进入了调整期，爸爸妈妈现在要多做点事，就一个周末，妈妈就叫苦腰疼，看来我们的确是给宠坏了。

A simple celebration

公公婆婆來了！

華華看見公公婆婆哭了，不見機個月不認得了，不過會時不時看一看他們，好像在思考什麽似的。April是最興奮的，抓住公公婆婆說長說短，拿着玩具和新鞋子愛不釋手，就是沒碰過那幾本中文書！吃完晚飯April鑽進公公婆婆的房間裏，安靜地在書桌上畫畫，不一會兒畫好了，給我們看一個PostIt。有7個人，5女2男，有大有小，有label，原來是一個全家福！看着婆婆心裏溫暖哪！還表揚April畫得好。家裏現在熱鬧的很，准備給華華過一嵗生日呀！

是否偏心?

前天早上我起晚了忙着赶April上学，我在自己厕所刷牙，April在她的厕所刷牙，没空理华华。华华现在流着哪，来来回回穿梭我俩的厕所，像个管家婆一样。晚饭时告诉爸爸，爸爸并不觉得好笑反而突然紧张起来，因为俩个厕所之间通楼梯口。 华华不爱爬楼梯，喜欢‘走’楼梯，必须有人牵手，不然很危险的。晚上安顿好俩小的，爸爸就开始动工，以前装修工人的本领都拿出来，又是墙上钻洞，木板上钻洞，铁丝老虎钳等等，弄到半夜栏杆门大功告成，你说爸爸偏心不? April 的年代可没那么幸福，只是教April如何爬楼梯，什么都没装。

Screening test

I don't think I had taken a test for kindergarten, at least I don't remember there was one. If I really had one, I must have turned in a blank paper, or muted during the whole interview. All I could retrieve from my lossy memory are those foreign shape of alphabets which I couldn't memorize and I hated the same snack they provided every single day in that crappy kindergarten in Hong Kong. I rarely talk, since I just moved to Hong Kong. Don't speak a single word of Cantonese and I felt so alienated.

One generation down, it's for sure a different world. Will and I attended the information night at our home school. I promptly registered April and picked the time slot for her screening test. Thinking it would just be a casual and friendly chat with the kid, like a get to know your kids conversation, so they could balance each class "somehow" in a better and harmonized way, turned out to be sort of an exam.

I sat quietly at the far table observing the test. It's a series of questions, asking April to write her own name, to recognize shape and colors, to draw the shapes, to draw something she never see before, to talk about her days in school, to count and add, to perform some big motor skills to lastly draw a self portrait! I couldn't imagine drawing myself at the age of 5. She actually finished it in a minute, and have all the parts of face and body in the right place and later took her time to color the clothes in rainbow colors. Thanks to her pre-K teachers, I felt like they can predict the screening test.

The funny thing is at the end she asked the teacher if she can take HER self portrait home because she think it's a pretty drawing. The teacher told her that she need to share it with other teachers, thinking that will stop April from asking more. April countered back asking if she can have it back after all the teachers see it. "Maybe next year, if I still remember." said the teacher. April tends to carry herself quite far away when she's in the mood of talking, especially when the teacher is instructing a class. She will compete with teacher stealing air time. And sometime she will completely ignore teacher's question, by saying something which has a remote relationship to the topic. Here's a good example:

Teacher: Who's your favorite friends in school?
April: (slience for a bit) You know what's my favorite color?
April: It's pink.

Afterward, I asked her why she didn't answer the question. She told me she couldn't decide on who her favorite friend is. She has lots of good friends but can't decide who is her best friend. Well, you could still tell the teacher, you haven't decided, instead of being silence and derailed to something else. I was being praised and warned by the teacher, that I know and indeed have been working on it at home. Talking about pressure from school even before the school start!

I am grateful where April's at today, both mentally and psychologically, even though there are buckets of things need to be worked on. Starting kindergarten will open a new chapter in her life, she's merrily looking forward to that day. I hope she will learn to adapt as much as she can while stay being a giggly happy gal, since I know it will be piles after piles of work and pressure. At the end of the day, I felt relieved that we didn't win the lottery to a local charter school, which is being considered by lots of parents as a highly prestigious elementary which obviously has a high mark for each of its student's academic and all other performance.

垃圾處理員

在奶奶的教導下，華華懂得“垃圾桶“在那裏了，而且今天還幫媽媽丟了3次垃圾，可是3次以後華華回到垃圾桶，把剛丟掉的廣告拿回手中，然後嘰里呱啦地在家裏到處亂走！