Commercial Day

I prayed a lot today, I was so nervous about what to expect. Especially when on Tuesday I got a text saying it would be 10 hours. I called the agent immediately and said, "You do know she is only FOUR years old, right?" and she said of course, it wouldn't take that long, and that was the maximum number but it definitely wouldn't be that long, etc etc. So ok, here we go.

Annabelle took her to the north end of the city to meet the agent, who then drove them to a location. I guess it was a pretty big deal shoot. Lots of models, locations, etc, and for a pretty big name company (in Taiwan, anyway :) So Annabelle and Gemma waited for a while, then it was her turn. She told me, "There were these machines that lifted the people up and then they dropped the petals on me! I just had to catch them and play with them. It was really fun!!" I mean, what little girl wouldn't love to have millions of flower petals tossed down all around them ??? There were other kids there to play with, too, which made it fun. After that scene, they waited. And waited. And waited. The agent said they wanted to do one more scene yet, but then after about 3 hours of waiting, they said Gemma could go. So her day started at 11am, and she was done by 5. And over half that time was playing with other kids and visiting with Annabelle, which is so precious since our time with her is almost gone. The pay? 6000NT - about 200 bucks. Which of course we have to pay Annabelle out of, etc, but not bad for standing around at Danshui all day.

So we'll see if we do it again. The risk of having my kid out working for hours and hours and hours is not cool, so I will definitely ask about that before agreeing to the job. For us, we need to have someone who can take her to the jobs, since Chris and I work. But to me, if she likes it and is having fun then its not a big deal. The lady asked Annabelle if she trained Gemma to act like that, because she was so professional, and I laughed and laughed. Nope, lady. That is just how Gemma acts :)

I have no idea when we'll get to see the commercial, if ever. We don't watch a lot of TV here (that's not downloaded). But who knows? I hope to see it sometime.

The diva continues...

Gemma will be shooting her first commercial next week.

Very interested in the process. Very interested in how long it takes, and if she'll behave for that long. Very interested in how much it will pay, ha ha!! She is thrilled about 'acting surprised' as flower petals fall down all around her; this was part of the audition and a part of the commercial storyboard.

Will let you know...

Doing things her way

It is so funny that we had this argument again so close to mother's day; what she wants to wear. She has SO MANY cute clothes. I want to try them all, match carefully, see all the different outfits on her. She picks her favorite skirt and then we argue about which shirt matches it. I prefer pants or shorts, she likes skirts every day. She likes her long and down straight. I like it up and off her ears. The reason this is funny is I have very vivid memories of fighting with my mom about clothes, too. It takes all of my strength to bite my tongue and let her pick because I want to pick so badly. But our relationship being intact is more important than her wearing the outfit I like, and so I will do my best to keep it to myself!

Also doing things her way, she's been a bit constipated the last few weeks. Tonight she was super uncomfortable, I could tell by how she was walking and complaining and after her customary 10 second potty run and crying about how she can't do it (actually, her exact words were, "There's no use Mom, I can't push it out!!" ) I made her sit down and try for a longer time. We put the stool under her feet, got a story book and sat. And she's bouncing up and down on the toilet seat, saying this helped. I got her some water, and she would swish it around her mouth and then swallow, because that 'helped' too. Water swishing would be followed by more bouncing. "If I just do this 20 times, then it will come out" I was DYING trying to stop myself from laughing, it was absolutley hysterical. After about 10 minutes and no action she decided some PE was neccessary. so we went to the living room where she lead me through a series of stretches and exercises, and sure enough after that we went back to the potty and ta da!

When does it stop being ok to tell poop stories? It was just so so funny.

She does lots of funny things. I just can't remember them. Need to start keeping a list as they happen.

Meat

I know I facebooked this but I have to blog it, too, because it is so funny.

While talking with Gemma about the farm tour, the truth about where meat comes from came out. She totally doesn't believe it of course (that meat comes from cows) and has trying to process this new information. She asked me again on Saturday, "Are you SURE meat comes from cows?" Cuz I milked a cow at the farm and I was watching and no meat came out!"

Love it.

Field Trip

Gemma went on her first field trip today, to a farm. She got to
-milk a cow
-feed the cow
-feed the bunny
-roll a haybale

She saw a lizard climb up a tree, and saw a goat. How awesome for schools to take kids on trips. Seriously, what an enriching experience.

I know Taipei is very urban, but I would say I am satisfied with the amount of wildlife and nature we enjoy. We see lizards, frogs, giant snails, fish, ducks, birds of all kinds, and turtles all the time. We go to the park almost everyday, where there are lots of trees and bushes and leaves falling and ponds and equipment. I think of parks as backyards, and we just own a lot of them and other people maintain them and keep them beautiful ;) True, no grass (well, no grass we really play on) True, the air is not fresh. But I'm grateful for what we have and think it is sufficient.

Gemma's Holiday

What does Gemma like at holidays?

-Playing in the pool.
-Using floaty tubes and toys in the pool. In the purple tube. And then out. Then in the floaty car. Then out... and on and on.
-She loved the Aquarium. She liked to see all the animals, get 'scared' in the dark ancient ocean display, and pretty much just enjoyed all the aspects of the ambience created there. Both the kids were SO patient, as it too over an hour to get out there; including 50 minutes of waiting at a bus stop on the side of the highway. Long story short: bus drivers kept telling me 'no' they didn't go there so I finally went back to the front desk girl who told me to wait there and she sent someone from the hotel out to help us... ANYWAY, we made it. (Chris was meeting a friend in the opposite direction, which is why he didn't drive us.)
-Eating icecream with marshmallows dipped in the chocolate fountain
-missing school ;)

Drop off

I dropped Gemma off at school on Friday. Break your heart! She acts tough, fights back the tears and says, "I'll miss you so much mommy" and with her chin up marches in. What on earth am I doing to her with this full day torture???? She of course has a lovely time and is happy when I pick her up, but Chris says that mornings are still tough. I'm happy I'm the 'pick up' person usually and not the 'drop off' person. (Sorry, honey :)

Anyone have good reading about teaching your kids foriegn languages? I'm not sure that simply 'immersing' her is working. Need to make some sort of plan, as well as decide how to maintain/develop her English skills as well... So much to think about and 'try'; I so wish I didn't have to experiment on my child; what if I make a terrible mistake and damage her for life?

I'm sorry first born dear, I love you and tried my best!!!

If I wear make up...

I pray for wisdom on nights when I hear this:

Gemma is putting on makeup in the bathroom. She is smiling. I ask her, "What are you doing?" She says, "There's a boy at school who likes me. If I put on makeup, then he will like me even more!!!"

I will also point out that this is at night, before bed. Because he daddy won't let her wear makeup to school, so she was trying to do it at night before.


We've been talking (I've been trying to talk) a lot about being beautiful on the inside, how Esther was beautiful but used her beauty for good, a wife of noble character.... ANYTHING I can think of to de-rail that train!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!