Luca says his first complete sentence today

He says, "I love you." He says it quite a few times to mama and pappa.

He says it so fast that it sounds like one long word.

Luca is a natural entertainer and he can really make you laugh. He seems to know he's funny because he'll pat your head or arm to get your attention before he starts his "shows." He likes being a magician, hiding stuff underneath a pillow and retrieve it with a great smile and an exaggerated shoulder and arm gesture, as if to say, "Look how smart I am!" He likes "attacking" his food. He makes sure that you're watching him while he puts a HUGE spoon of food into his mouth - yes, he can finish a big banana with three or four bites.

He loves food, but it's difficult to make him eat vegetables. Actually he wants nothing to do with them. Mommy has to put vegetables into smoothies (luckily, he likes them) and dumplings.

Luca and his beloved trains 

Catching up and Maya classroom pictures

Here are some photos from her teacher Mr. Dihn's website. Maya's class number is 20.

http://mrdinh.weebly.com/about-our-class.html

We've been super busy. Luca went to the hospital many times for his persistent coughing (one night we almost took him to the emergency room). It was said to be asthma initially (by two doctors), but thanks for the x-ray Dr Rosen ordered, the real cause turns out to be pneumonia - the left corner of his lung was slightly clouded. After taking medicine (what a struggle to make him take his medicine!) for 10 days he was finally well. We'll have to keep using qvar for a while as a prevention.

While Luca was sick, we always slept in his room, making sure he was okay. He used to a fantastic sleeper, falling asleep on his own, sleeping through the night. But he's a terrible sleeper now. He can no longer fall asleep on his own - it only takes more than an hour to get him to sleep, even to nap during daytime. When he wakes up at night, he cries and wants to be carried out of his crib and to sleep on the mattress on the floor instead - of course, with mama or pappa next to him.

Maya is not so good a sleeper either. She refuses to nap even though she's tired after school. She finds all kinds of excuses to delay her bedtime. She cries when she wakes up at night and needs to comforted - the result is that she spends the second half of the night in mama's and pappa's room EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.

Mama and Pappa are quite exhausted, with with waigong and waipo's help. Hope Maya and Luca will sleep better soon.

Last night, while Maya was playing with a pen, she accidentally stuck it into mama's left ear (well it's hard to explain what really happened. Mama asked Maya to give her the pen. Maya made a big movement, trying to be funny or what. Thus the accident took place). It hurt quite a bit and there was blood coming from inside the ear. Mama had to see a doctor. Luckily, the injury seemed to be external and mama will have to use certain ear drops for ten days. This incident reminded mama of a funny website called Look What Your Kids Did to YOu. Something like that.

Luca's vocabulary has grown a lot but he hasn't spoken a clear sentence yet. And of course, his pronunciation can still be hard to understand unless you know him well.

Examples in English
"Ar-bi"= airplane
Ar-pen = open

Two of his favorite words: "open" and "mine." Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, sometimes he says, especially when Maya is trying to grab stuff from him. He's curious about anything with switches, buttons, lids, caps, covers....and always tries to study them with his unique (or brutal) method.

His favorite sport: soccer. He positions himself like a pro when he kicks, he's accurate, he's powerful (for his age at least), he can even run with the ball. Mama and papa are definitely sending him to a soccer class. He likes tennis balls too and kicks them like soccer.

Maya has learned some not so great phrases from school, such as "you're not my friend," (which she's used on mama and pappa couple of times) "what the hell," "I don't care" (when mama asked her to organize her room), "I can do whatever I want" (when she doesn't feel like to do what mama or pappa tells her to do)....hmmm, talking about peer influence.













 

Maya: star of the week at school

We've started getting homework from Maya's class.

This week Maya is the star of the week in her class. She's the first in this program. Is it the result of a random draw or a deliberate arrangement? Anyway, she brought home a big poster last week. It contains questions such as her favorite place, her favorite color and activity, her top wish, her dream job in the future, etc. Maya did all the writing herself, and we helped her find photos and decorations for the poster. Wish we had more time so we could get real photos. But for now, they had to be black-and-white pictures from the printer.

This Thursday and Friday, we will make ppt slides to showcase important moments and things in Maya's life. It'll be a fun project. And of course, we'll have go through many many photos. We'll also write a letter about Maya and Mr. Dinh will read it to the class.

Yesterday, Maya told me that everyone in her class wanted to play with her. Guess the poster really worked! :)


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Here's Maya's presentation. She brings to her class several items that tell people who she is. This 50%Chinese-50%Swedish-100%American concept is entirely her idea.

My name is Maya. I just turned five. I’m half Chinese and half Swedish. 

My mom is from China. Here is a Chinese silk umbrella she bought for me. It’s pink and really pretty. Here is a Chinese dress. It’s called Qi Pao in Chinese. Daddy bought it for me from Shanghai. I’ve been to Shanghai. It’s a very big and very busy city.

My daddy is from Sweden. Here is the Swedish flag. It’s yellow and blue. Blue is my favorite color. Here is a Swedish book my farmor and farfar bought for me. They’re my Swedish grandparents. I’ve been to Sweden many times. It’s a beautiful country. 

But I’m also 100% American because I was born in the United States. Here is my favorite Cinderella doll. It’s from Disneyland. That’s an American company.  

Thank you!

Luca's new vocabulary

Luca talks a lot (he always does). Though there's still a lot of gibberish, but he has certainly grown his vocabulary. He hasn't said a sentence yet.

In Chinese, he can say clearly gougou (dog), maomao (cat), da kai (open it), qiu (ball), rourou (meat - he loves meat but he wants nothing to do with vegetables) and some other words. He likes repeating after you. Now, when Waigong and Waipo being with us (they arrived two weeks ago), he shall pick up Chinese really fast.

In English, his vocabulary is limited. The word he uses most often is "more." Yes, more water, more food, more playing, more hugs (not really. He's as much a hugger as Maya)...

In Swedish, there's no much improvement yet. Guess daddy needs to work harder on being a teacher.

Sunday morning we go for a drive to down town Willow Glen to check out a classic car show. Once there we can't find parking and end up circling around and around. Luca falls asleep in the car so we go back home to put Luca to bed.

Instead Maya and I head to Whole Foods for lunch and some grocery shopping

After lunch we pet cats at the pet store and then head to Toys r Us for a visit. Maya get a Star Wars angry birds set and Luca gets an airplane from Planes. We play when we get home and the airplane is a huge success with Luca. He keeps flying around and around the kitchen with his new plane.

After play time I load up the kids in the bike trailer and go for a ride along Los Gatos Creek Trail to downtown. We have a great time together and stop for snacks and a chat before turning back home again.

We take a dip in the pool to cool off in the heat when we get back home. Dad has a really busy evening giving you both a bath, cooking dinner, giving Luca all his medicines and putting you both to bed.

After you finally are both asleep I start packing the bags for school and ballet class tomorrow. I manage to find everything: ballet dress, ballet shoes, socks as well as your tap shoes. The tap shoes are missing the laces so I have to steal some from my own shoes....way too long but it works at least.

Saturday fun

Both Maya and Luca had a good nights sleep and wake up full of energy. After the usual chaos over breakfast, Waipo and waigong take Luca and Maya for a morning walk in the park. Daddy takes advantage of the peace to get a quick shower and eat some breakfast before we head out.

It's a very hot day and we head out to Happy Hollow Zoo to see Ethan B and Madison. The kids have a great time on the rides and the playground. Ethan B, Justin and Jessica stay for a nice picnic  in shade under the trees before we head back home for Luca's nap.

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Luca naps,in the afternoon while Maya and I read books and play.

In the evening we have dinner and then a short outdoor movie night while snacking on cold watermelon to cool us down.

It's an intense for daddy being alone with the kids and trying to take care of waipo and waigong at the same time. I go to bed early feeling exhausted but thrilled/proud that we all got through it together without too many hiccups.

During the night Luca is roused by Waipo who goes in to check on Luca when he cries a little. Dad ends up having to stay with Luca until morning.

Mommy leaves for London

Mommy is leaving for London to see her agent for a week. A limo picks up mommy on Friday noon to take her to the airport. Maya is not used to seeing mommy leave and cries her eyes out for 5 min, repeating non-stop. "I don't want mommy to leave!, I don't want mommy to leave! " etc.

Daddy cooks pasta bolognese for dinner and it all goes off pretty well. After dinner we even fit in a walk in the park with waipo and waigong who arrived just 2 days before mommy left.

Both Luca and Maya sleeps well and we are off to a promising start of our week without mommy. :)