Random info...

Gemma is doing great! So many little stories, can't ever remember them at night time, though.

We are done with another 10 weeks of gymnastics, and although I would like to keep going I think its time for a break. She loves it too, and I think the studio is great, but its just too much for the schedule. I teach till 4 on Wednesdays, rush home to get Guinness, rush to Gemma's school to get her, rush her to gymnastics (which starts at 4:30), and chase Guinness the whole time. He likes the place too, and gets to jump and play before class but during class he wants to be on the trampoline, on the bars, and generally in the way. Which means I have to man-handle him the entire hour. Which is tiring! Gem learned a lot there and I hope we go back in the future, but I guess we should break for a bit.

We finished the Secret Garden today. She got a bouquet of flowers to celebrate.

The scholar?

We were working on Gemma's homework (yes she has a bit of homework every week, which I didn't know about ooops, so we are actually working on last week's homework) and she is bored.

I am pretty tired at the end of the day. I know I should make this so fun and exciting and foster learning and build that passion... but I'm tired. We'll see if I can get the creative juices flowing.

It really isn't anything at all; color a picture about something they learned that week. Last week it was God made the Sky. Practice writing 2 bo po mo fo characters. She has to write each one three times. Big deal, I think; I am personally PUMPED to be learning bo po mo fo as I feel it holds and important missing piece to my study of Chinese. She is bored. Sigh.... No pressure. I do want her to love school so we'll just do it quickly and happily and put it away. And I'll try to trick her into learning it another way....

What is bo po mo fa? Chinese phonics; a way to break down characters to sound them out. Only kids use it, then they just memorize all the characters.

Check this out:

Or this one. This one shows the sentence. You can see the small bo po mo fo symbols beside the character; so you use this to sound out the character but eventually you have to just memorize them.

Living Vicariously?

Gemma's room is ALWAYS clean before she goes to bed. (99% of the time). We always clean it after Guinness goes to sleep before we can have our special mommy-Gemma playtime.

My room is never clean. Maybe once a month or every 6 weeks I'll finally get so disgusted I'll hang up all the clothes (mine and Chris'..mostly mine), pick up the floor, sweep, etc.

Gemma's clothes are laid out for the next morning. I scramble to find something to wear.
Gemma's lunch bowl and water bottle are washed and packed for the next morning. I try to quickly make a PBJ sandwich for breakfast and remember to grab leftovers for lunch. Or at least my wallet to buy some instant noodles.

Gemma's hair gets combed and done before we leave the house. I wear the same ponytail all day sometimes.


I wish I were organized and prepared, but if I can't be at least she is!!

Great Day at school

She complained all morning about it.

I don't want to go.
Make sure you come pick me up in 2 minutes!
I don't like it!
Don't be late.


But her eyes were bright and round as lightbulbs as we got to the door. Shoes off, coat off. Proudly showing where the coats go, "I ALWAYS use the purple hanger for my coat." She was excited to go, happy to be there. Hardly said goodbye. Couldn't wait to see her teachers and her friends.

And she had an awesome day, the head teacher said her best day yet. She was cheerfully working on an art project when I got there at 4:10 (Wednesdays is art, I guess. And the workbook they have is SO COOL!!) So much excitement she was hopping around getting her stuff to go home.

Sigh. Of. Relief.

Our own secret garden adventure

So I am home for 3 days this week 'cause Chris is in LA for a conference. I like to do extra special things with the kids because I know as a working mom I am often tired and busy and often we have stuff we HAVE to do instead of play (but really, I know that ALL parents and families have responsibilities and no one can play all the time, right?) So this morning we went off on a garden tour of small gardens set up along our main road. It's part of a 'green' project put on by the city and the floral expo to make some of Taipei's ugly spaces, well, less ugly. They tear down old abandoned buildings and then plant grass and flowers, etc, in the empty lot. (Ooo, like Wonderpets save the tree!) We have three of these right by our house and they are cute and beautiful and interesting. As we were walking to the second one (the one with the shopping carts at the Guting elementary school pedestrian overpass) we noticed that the lot beside it was all walled up! We liked this lot because it had a stone path, and one time we found pieces of a 'p-edallion' there. Gemma says 'p-edallion' sometimes but she means 'medallion', as in a kind of fancy treasure. One time we found a few pieces of broken blue and white tile. So we collected them and brought them home and tried to assemble it but we couldn't and even though I threw those pieces out every time we go there she wants to look for more medallion pieces, "And Mommy, DON"T throw it out this time, even if I don't play with it for a long time, OK??????" But anyway, the lot had a wall! Just like the secret garden. And after we looked by the edge of the wall and found more medallion pieces and played with caterpillars, and walked along the garden wall and climbed the overpass to look at cars go by and check out the new church, we were ready to go get food and go for a picnic. Because why not spontaneously decide to go for a picnic when you're on holidays? One the way past 'the wall' we saw the door. And it was LOCKED!!! (Because it is condemned and unsafe for people, I am assuming, or else why a wall?) But I want to play along and I remind Gemma that interestingly enough a few days ago we found a key so I ask her if it would fit? Gemma looks at the key hole, and says, No Mommy, we need a screwdriver!!! I didn't actually look but I play along and say Ok, lets go home and get it and come back and then go on our picnic. Because that is the kind of things you can do when you are on holidays: walk 10 minutes home to make a picnic, get a screwdriver and walk back to an empty lot to try a key to a magical door, then walk BACK past your house again to get to the picnic spot. (TaiDa).

Smart girl; when we got our picnic in order and screwdrivers and made it back I actually looked at the lock. And it was a cross shaped hole; thats why she knew she needed a screwdriver and not her key, because she knew her key was one flat line, not two crossing ones. But sadly, it didn't fit (good thing, people would wonder why a foreigner lady and her two kids were breaking into city property!)

Ahh, no time limits and schedule to muck up our day :) Its fun to just go with it.

Sadly, not the case for the next two days! But I'll try to schedule some spontaneity, haha!

Phewww

Way better day today. I was in a near panic this morning about what to do, but she made it to school no problem, had a great day, and even went to bed at 9:30, in her own bed. I hope this becomes the new norm and she is 'adjusted'. It is only 3 more months, so I think we'll stick it out. A note on culture: There was a lot more sympathy for Gemma from the Canadian side of things. Friends here were more on the side of tough it out.

Of course if it got really bad we'd pull her, we are not out to damage her for life but I think its normal to have some adjustment issues with a new situation, and since we're at 7 good days of 8 think she's doing OK. Knock on wood, we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Drop out?

It is not getting easier to take her to school. It is getting harder.

She cries. And doesn't want to stay.

She's napping at school, which is good for them but bad for us. It is 10:45 and she is wide awake, reading books in here with me. She hates the nap time, she says. And I am so exhausted staying up with her.

I have no idea what to do. We have to pay the tuition tomorrow, and its like a thousand bucks CDN. So don't really want to shell that out if its not going to work. Tonight she begged me, Please don't take me to that school.

Or do we push through; its only 15 more weeks.

Pray for us!

Secret Garden

We're halfway through Secret Garden! She keeps asking for it, so thats good, she seems to be getting most of it. We're at the part where she meets Colin, and we are learning how demanding and spoiled he is (Rajah Craven!). I love this book!!!! Tonight she fell asleep while I was reading, so precious. I know I am biased, but she is so beautiful.

Pictures of school

A friend whose son is enrolled at the school emailed me these pics and a little report. (She must have dropped her son off after I left) Here's what she said:

"Hi Nevada,
I thought you might like these pics of Gemma that I took for you this morning when I was there from 9:00 - 9:30am. Just wanted to let you know that she was happily engaged in play with the other girls when we showed up during the early free play time. During the worship songs, she paid close attention to the teachers and tried to do the actions with the songs. Of course, getting to play in the big cars was quite a thrill for her and all of the kids! She seemed to be really enjoying herself overall."



Pheww, sigh of relief. It will be the hardest thing for me I think to not know what she is doing all the time.

1st day!

A successful first day, I think!

We were at school a bit early, so it was very quiet. Gemma was looking very interestedly at all the toys. We found out where to put her bowl and spoon, water bottle, sleeping bag, coat, shoes... And then she was ready to play. We played with some blocks for a bit while we waited for other kids to come. One of the teachers was putting costumes on a few kids and Gemma got a flower costume, then she was a part of the welcome team which welcomed people to school. Except she didn't want to stay there and be a flower, she was ready to go and check out the new stuff. Once the kids started coming and she was more interested in her surroundings I said goodbye and left. First time I left my daughter for a whole day at a new place like that! But I knew she'd have fun, and she did.

We'll find out more on Friday when her communication book comes home about what she learned, etc. I asked her what they had for lunch and she said, "I don't know what it was called" Ha ha, Taiwanese lunches can be a little odd to say the least. But she said it was yummy, so OK. She did have a nap at nap time, "I was tired!" she said, which explains why now tonight she didn't fall asleep till 10. Hopefully that works itself out over time. I think this is the honeymoon phase of school, where everything is new and exciting and fun, but I imagine we'll have some hard days when we have to wake her up to get ready, and when she realizes her days of TV watching and hanging around the house are done :)

Pictures.... I took pictures. A friend emailed me some pictures... Let's see if I can get a few up here before I fall asleep on my keyboard.

Chapter Book

We are reading our first chapter book, and I love it! I was telling her one day about the story of The Secret Garden, and she was very interested, and the more I thought about the story the more I thought it was right up her alley; secret keys, grumpy Mary, mean uncle, and the surprise of Colin (and, of course, the secret garden!!) I brought it home from school and we've read a chapter or two a night for the last three nights. Amazing! (Knock on wood) I hope she stays interested. Tonight Mary met Ben Weatherstaff, and found the garden with no door. The next chapter is the 'wailing in the corrider' and Mary will discover Colin; I think Gemma will love the mystery of it.

I hate sleep training

I am so tired of waking up in the middle of the night.

Now Gemma is coming to our bed. Which is fine because then we actually SLEEP instead of me walking over to her room 3 or 4 times a night. But since I would like to sleep with Chris instead of Gemma (although she is cuddlier and has better breath) last night we insisted she go to her own bed. And so I was up because she woke up three times crying. And if we want to sleep train her we will have to go through this for days and days until she starts to sleep n her own in her own room. All night. And I can not cave in and fall asleep in her bed. Or let her come to my bed. Which means I will not sleep much. Not that I do already. Ugg, I am already in a bad mood thinking about it. Lack of sleep makes you crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Earlier bedtime = success

We've been doing an 8:30 bedtime for a week or so, and its worked! And in fact, on Thursday night I kept her up just because I was being selfish and I wanted to go to the rest of Chinese Corner because it was being hosted in our building so after I paid the babysitter ad made sure Guinness was asleep I just took her upstairs. This bumped bedtime to 9:45. And that night was terrible!!

A friend suggested this sleeping incentive. Every night she sleeps in her own bed, and doesn't sleep in our bed, she gets to put a sticker on a chart. The stickers say S L E E P I N G and when she gets them all she gets a prize. 2 nights of success, yay!

Did that just happen??

The things I see in this country never cease to amaze me.

Tonight I was watching one of Gemma's educational Chinese language VCDs. Its a great set starring ChaoHu, the tiger, ChiChi his rabbit friend and a host of other animals and puppets. Lots of cute songs and repetition, and we've learned a lot from it.

So tonight we're watching a new one I haven't seen yet. And they are doing a farm tour. We see the cows in the field, eating, and they're talking about how hungry they are, etc. Then they go back to the barn because they are full. Once there, they have their udders washed and we see a milk machine demonstration. Ok, thats cool. Then we see the milk go to a processing plant, etc, and put into bottles. So far so good, right? Well, this ties right into a 'where do cows come from' segment. It shows a cartoon cow with an egg. Noooo, cows don't come from eggs. A large X appears on the egg laying cow, and the next clip is a LIVE COW GIVING BIRTH. Yes, you see a real live cow giving birth on the TV. Can I just say that I would NOT expect that appear on a children's DVD at home, ever in a million years???? But like I said earlier, the things that I see in this country are just not what you'd expect sometimes.

Gemma's School

Gemma will be starting preschool after Chinese New Year break, February 14. Annabelle is leaving us; getting married to a Taiwanese American and moving to the US and we needed a new plan for the kids. We've been thinking about school for a while but they don;t do it here like they do at home; twice a week for a few hours or whatever. Here it is everyday, half days or full days. Except half days are almost as expensive as full days and because Chris does most of his meetings/work over the middle of the day so we are going for the full day program. Gulp. Is my daughter ready for full days out of the house? Drop between 8-9, pick up between 4-4:30.

Of course, it is an excellent school. It is at a nearby church, and they have a huge facility, lots of materials and things, across from a huge park. High teacher student ratio. Designed for 3-4 year olds. Very Christian in teaching; lots of prayer and worship time, music time. Nap time after lunch. PE, music, art, science, math, history, geography, Chinese and English. (Although the instruction and day to day will be in Chinese) I always get a kick out of things like geography for 3 year olds but whatever, its cute and they need to learn stuff so thats cool. There will be 4 other wei-guo-ren children there (foriegner) so she'll have some companions, at least for half day as those children have mothers who stay home.

I think she is ready for the challenge of school, and although this is a big step I think she'll do great. I can't wait to see what she'll learn.

Night Terrors/Confusional Arousals

They're back.

My girl had these confusional arousals for a long time. I could count the number of times she slept through the night on one hand until she was three years old. Then, finally, blissfully, she slept. 10-12 hours UNINTERRUPTED! You can imagine how amazing this made my world!

Until now. Recently (the last 6 weeks) she has been up 5-7 nights a week, several times a night. Calling out, crying, yelling, getting mad at people (me, Annabelle, Guinness...) thrashing, yelling louder. These sessions last for 10-30 minutes. She is not awake. She has no idea I am in the room. I can not say or do anything to calm her down. I almost never get her to wake up. (And experts say NOT to wake them up, they will pass sooner if you just leave them alone.)

I call them confusional arousals as opposed to night terrors because that's what some experts call them. Terrors are more screaming afraid type behavior, whereas confusional arousals are more agitated, anger, upset behavior. Terrors aren't generally as long as arousals. In both behaviors the kids have no recollection of what happens. And, the most maddening thing about all the reading I've done and research is THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO.

Ugg, great. So basically don't sleep through the night ever again. Ok, they are supposed to outgrow it. But when?

One thing the books do say is that being overtired can make them worse. So bedtime is officially bumped up. Guinnes: 7:45. Gemma, lights out by 8:30. She is very active in the day, not napping anymore, so that could be part of the problem. I am thinking that school will help (when she starts attending full time in February, more to follow) because she will behave naps there (and I suspect she'll sleep) and be more tired at home after a full day of activity.

Anyway, you know what my prayer request is now...SLEEP!

Biker!

Gemma loves her new bike, and is for some reason obsessed with TaiDa and going biking there. On Christmas day we did an almost 2 hour bike trip. Boxing day we did an hour and a half. Today she was so excited to go (even after walking the zoo for 6 hours) that we were all dressed and in the porch at 5:45, even though we had a 6:40 date with Auntie. So what did we do? Walked to Auntie's house to help with garbage, then to TaiDa for biking. We didn't get home till about 7:15. I have to job to keep up with her sometimes, she can really cruise, and so I think the bike is going to be an awesome present for all of us. Hours outside everyday, yay!!

Except I have to keep Guinness in the stroller, because he won't cooperate and walk in the same direction as us. I try to please both but the battle of choosing one kid over the other continues.

I really like doing these things with her.

Gemma and Time

Still working on time words...

SETTING: Gemma is in the office playing computer games. I come in.

N: How long have you been playing computer games?
G: About 1 hour.
N: We better stop then. An hour is a long time.
G: Hmm, maybe 2 hours. Is that shorter than 1 hour? (imploring expression)
N: Uh, no Gemma. That's even longer.
G: I know, 5 minutes. That's how long I've been playing.

Uh huh, Gemma. Whatever you say.

Birthday

A successful Totally Spies rescues the Princess party! Fun rescue mission, cake was good, thoughtful presents, and of course friends. It was a pretty exciting, long awaited day.

Squiggly

Still lots of love for the amazing Squiggly.

How do you explain to an almost 4 year old that NO, there is absolutely NO WAY we are bringing the fish to church? And that NO she can't touch him. She was trying to scoop him into a paper cup so we could change his water, and after multiple swoops around the bowl I intervened, saying 'you're scaring him!' To which she retorted, "He's not scared: I"M his mommy!!"