And My Journey Thru' Breast Cancer
Yes ! Chloe raised $725 for her school – thanks to the many generous uncles and aunties online and her Kai Mah – plus all the customers at our store. So here is prove that the money had gone to the school and Chloe won in bringing in the most money and thus she got to cut her principal’s hair. She had so much fun it was hilarious.
So I want Chloe to grow up to be a self sufficient kid – but I sure started late. Like all parents – and especially the first time ones – we tend to hover and over protect our babies and seriously, that is quite normal because we loved our kids and we don’t know any better. As for me – there was no one to teach me – for my own upbringing was entirely different. But one thing I’m very proud of Chloe is – she learned to clean after herself (toys) when she was very young. She can mess up the entire room – but when it is time to clean up – she does a great job!
But the dressing up, bathing, picking her own clothing and pouring her own drinks – all these came only at a later stage – and I’m not ashamed to say that it’s completely my doing because I’m the helicopter mom. But for moms-to-be or the new moms out there – children are a lot more resilient and a lot smarter than we give them credit for and they are capable of doing a lot more than we think they can.
So I keep reminding myself – all the time – to help Chloe grow into a self-sufficient kid – so that she will develop her self-identity and to learn that she is a competent lil’ girl and worthy of her friends and anyone around her.
This year we are really late in putting up our Christmas decoration at home even though the ones for the store – was up straight after Halloween. I think that has to do with having Gary around – so I got lazy at home – plus we were busy trying to get Chloe’s birthday going. Our new X’mas tree this year was bought last year after Christmas – so we got this pre-lit tree cheap – less than 100 and it’s 7 ft tall. Chloe always have a good time – putting up the Christmas decoration – and we finally put up the trees and lights today. I can’t wait for Christmas to be over – and things can go back to normal. Thus far, it had been cold – but not terrible yet.
PB has an aunt whom I admire greatly – because 2 of her girls turned out to be awesome girls and are now married and living happily – both girls finished their college and have jobs and no kids because they are living the Canadian dream. I admire aunt Sandra because she never raised her voice at anyone – not even her kids when they were teenagers. For the last 12 years – I’ve not seen her frazzled or upset at all. She is as cool as a cucumber and always showed so much love to all of us.
PB and I sometimes do raise our voice at Chloe when she is bad – and that of course has it consequences too – when she is upset – she raises hers. You see what good examples we are ? I am consciously telling myself to stay real calm with Chloe and am constantly reminding PB not to raise his voice even when he is upset with Chloe – because you reap what you sow. So folks out there – if you are wondering why your kids are behaving the way they do – first examine yourself – be very honest with yourself – and then you can punish your kids for being rude – but first – I think you’ve gotta punish yourself – for kids learned from their parents and people around them.
So we wanted to go grocery shopping because it had been busy during the weekend and we didn’t get to go. We arrived at M & M meat shop and the kid tells me she don’t feel well and that her tummy hurt, and like all moms – we rushed to go home without the groceries. But the ride home in the car – she said she felt ok but we were already half way home. So I had told Chloe that if she was fibbing – I would be very mad with her.
Got home – she rushed to the toilet – but of course, she didn’t poop – what a surprise – she insisted she was fibbing – but I think otherwise – so what would you do? Time out? ground her? or give her the benefit of doubt. Well, we gave her the benefit of doubt but also explained to her that fibbing is not right – and that we don’t tell lies either. That night I also wrote Chloe a note to remind her the Santa loves lil’ girls who are honest and tells the truth and in the morning – she did have a unusual huge poop before leaving for school. So yes, lesson to be learned here – gotta give the kid a benefit of doubt – but on the other hand – I should have brought her to the mall’s washroom. The next time I would know what to do.
We never did get our flu shots till last year – but this year – we were all quite gung-ho about taking our flu-shots and of course Chloe had her flu-mist – that goes thru’ the nose. She was a wee bit frightened of it initially because she had almost forgotten about it – but after taking the flu mist – she decided it’s not that bad after all. Plus, she met her favorite doctor this visit – Dr Randall – who gave her a hand drawn sticker on a sticky note – like last year – boy! was she tickled. Then we had to get our flu shots – and she didn’t want to look at it – so she went out to play in the hallway where all the medicine carts were lined up in front of the doctor’s consultation room. The girls at the clinic was very nice and let her hope around it – and explained to her what were the medicine carts for and what were in them. We left the clinic after half an hour for we needed to make sure that we didn’t have a bad reaction to the flu shots. Thus far, we feel that the flu shot had been good for us – for we’ve noticed that we don’t get sick as often as we did the previous years. So for now – we will continue taking the flu shots every year. Flu shots are free in Canada.
This school year – I’m only going to do one fund raising for Chloe’s school – instead of doing a few. This fund raising – is selling Lobster tickets and as usual – Chloe is truly blessed – not only the people here buys the tickets to support her effort but her Godmother and my friends from overseas donated to the fund raising too. As of today – we’ve raised $572.00 – and we are going to keep at it till December 15. I have to say that I’m very grateful to all of my online friends – who’ve donated very generously – between $10 – $100 each. I’m hoping to raise as much as I can for this fund raiser – that way for the rest of the year – I don’t have to raise any more money.
Chloe will be 8 yrs old in a month time – mannn! time really flies – and I have to keep reminding myself to enjoy her as much as I can before she becomes and adult and leave me – to have her own life. I’m busy preparing not only for Chloe’s birthday but for Christmas as well – and looking back at the last 7 years, I’ve learned so much from bringing Chloe up. One thing for sure – is the realization of what my own mother must have gone thru’ while bringing me and my siblings up on her own. I learned not to be too critical of her and I learned to love Chloe a lot more – and because of my own father’s non-participation in our life – I made sure that PB plays a very important role in Chloe’s life. As I did not have grandparents to dote on me – I hope that Chloe’s paternal grandparents would – unfortunately, they spend so little time with her – so much so – I’m afraid when she grows up – she might not be closed to her grandparents. Chloe is a happy and sensitive kid – she is doing well in school and most importantly is healthy. I pray for all good things for her – and want her to be a good person and many, many more years of watching her grow.
Many of us remember when educational toddler toys began and ended at alphabet blocks and pull-string toys that emitted animal sounds. These days, however, the emphasis on encouraging your children to use their minds from an early age means that the field of educational toys has exploded. There are some wonderful toys out there created specifically to feed your child’s brain from infancy onward.
1. OLLO Action Robot Kit
If you want to give your child a head start on those mechanical engineering programs you hope to inspire him or her to delve into later, this OLLO kit is an excellent educational toy. Five different pre-planned robots can be built from the same pieces included in the kit, including a windmill, walking T-Rex, dog, and more. There are also plans not included that can be looked up online. All of the designs work on a single AA battery.
2. Creative Puzzle Peg
Intended for children 18 months and over, this unique puzzle toy goes a bit further than your typical sort-and-stack toy. It encourages problem-solving skills and helps to develop fine motor control. The base comes apart in four puzzle-piece shapes and each piece has a post featuring small nubs. The included brightly-colored shapes stack on the posts, but they first have to be manipulated to move the opening of the shape over the nubs to get it down to the bottom.
3. First Time Gear Clock
This child-friendly clock is based on the first mechanical clock’s design. It teaches how gears work, as well as how to follow directions, and encourages cognitive development. The color-coded set of directions shows your child how to assemble the 27 parts into a working clock that runs for over eight hours without requiring a battery.
4. Mozart Magical Cube
The popular theory that Mozart’s music helps to improve spatial-temporal reasoning in infants and toddlers continues with this toy. This is a bit more than a music box, though. It features five large buttons that are easy for small hands to work, each of which plays a different instrument – piano, violin, flute, harp, or French horn. A sixth button plays them all in a choice of eight of Mozart’s compositions while the toy flashes to the tempo.
5. Chinese Magnetic Poetry
In a world where everything and everyone is connected, being multilingual has never been more important. Many schools are teaching foreign language from preschool on up now. This magnetic poetry kit builds on this by providing an array of 140 double-sided magnets with a simplified Chinese character and its pinyin pronunciation on one side and the English translation on the other, allowing for vocabulary-building. The set comes in a hard plastic case to keep them organized.
Learning just got more fun!
Chloe had a appointment with the specialist last week – and she had all sorts of breathing test done for her – and then of course, she got to see the asthma doctor too. The whole process took about 2.5 hrs – for the asthma doctor took an hour to talk to us. Yup ! you heard me right ! while most doctors here can’t wait to get you out of their office – so that they can see another patient – this doctor was totally different – which took us by surprised. But a pleasant one ! Anyhow – Chloe was taken off her puffer – but she had to be monitored the next time she catch a cold or flu – to see if it was worst. We too hope she is not going to be dependent on the puffer – because PB is till today. I was quite worried when she first had to take the puffer – because Chloe was quite resistant towards it – but after she learned that it wasn’t bad or hard at all – she took it like a champ. But taking steroids is not good for anyone – so we are keeping our fingers crossed that she only had a lung infection the last time.