Tough Love

Last Saturday early morning, Dylan woke us up at 1:30 A.M. crying constantly. At that time, he was telling me that his ears were hurting him badly. I handed him two tablets of Children's Tylenol . But guess what? It didn't help him.

Thus, he chose to cry until 6: 30 AM! I was REALLY POOPED out because the day before Ryan had a left ear infection. Dylan did not leave us any choice. I ended up taking him to an Emergency Room because both the doctor's office and Urgent Care were closed.

While we were in an Emergency room, he still had an uncontrollable crying for hours. Both doctors and I had tried to console him for hours even giving him an oral medication. He just reluctant to take any of our assistance.

By the time we got home, it was noon. He fell fast asleep without a medication. Could you image that I did not get enough sleep from 1:30 AM until noon? I frankly only had three hours of sleep. David was kind enough to let me take a three hour of nap while Dylan slept most of the afternoon.

Later after I woke up from a sweet nap, David went to get the prescription for Dylan. I was all ready to give him the medication. Still he refused to take it! My frustration grew for his stubbornness.

At the end of the straw, I took him out in the back and shove him the medication. He was stunned and got REALLY MAD at me. I then lectured him, "You are seven years old. You either can get worse if you don't take any medication for your ear infection, or get better with a medication. It is your choice." I walked away and locked him outside for ten minutes in order to make him think about his demeanor.

Ten minutes later, he signed to me from outside, " Mom, I learned my lesson. I will take medication." Believe it or not, he has cooperated me ever since.

Have you ever done any tough love with your children??? If you have, what was it?

Popsicle

This morning, I received a phone call from Ryan's school nurse telling me that he was crying and shivering. I knew right away that he has not recovered from the flu. By the time I came to pick him up, he was crying with a blanket around him and a high fever.

I immediately took him to see his physician doctor. Ryan told the doctor, "My ear hurts." He was right that he did indeed have an ear infection. Not again! He was treated with anti-biotic that he loathed.

He slept all afternoon and refused to eat even water, or a bowl of chicken noodle soup. The only thing I figured that treating him a Sugar Free Cherry Popsicle would ease his pain. My gut was right!

After he completed his treat, he went back to sleep again.

Zero Energy

Can you believe all of us have zero energy? We slept most of the day.

- Leaving the house extremely mess
- piles of dishes
- papers everywhere
- piles of laundry
- food crumbles on the table and floor
and many more....

I can't stand the mess but who is going to clean it all up for us?

A Birthday Party

A week ago on February 10th, we had a birthday party for Dylan at Chuck N' Cheese. Half of his 1st grader classmates joined the celebration. Many of them scattered everywhere in Chuck N' Cheese along with one of their parents. Oddly, either of their parents are deaf or knew signs came to the birthday party.

Our youngest guest was his cousin, Layla joined the celebration. She was so excited yet overwhelmed with all kinds of new indoor play sets. Dylan offered his assistant to go up in the playground. But she rather wanted to take her time to explore around Chuck N' Cheese. At the end, we discovered that she enjoyed the racing car with her mother's helping in pedaling the gas.

Before the kids had their birthday cake and present, they met Chuck, the mouse animator. This was the first time, Dylan decided to be brave with the animator. We were stunned yet felt that it was about time he took his courage. He followed Chuck around the party room until we, the family, had our picture taken.

Finally, the kids had their treat: a birthday cake. Dylan especially enjoyed hearing the birthday songs. He was so proud to have his classmates, including his family celebrated his 7th birthday. I guess number 7 is a lucky number.

Guess what he got mostly for his birthday gifts? If you guess it was books, you got it correct. First of all, he was pleased with his gifts from all of his friends and family who gave it to him. Not only getting books, he did received gift certificates so he could get whatever he wanted! The next thing he has in his mind besides books is collecting more Cars and Hot Wheels. I guess it is a REAL BOY thing!

Before the party was over at Chuck N Cheese, Dylan wanted us to take pictures of his "girl" friends for his scrapbook. How could I refuse to say "No" on his birthday?

Our Night Out

A day after Valentine's Day, we got ourselves for an evening treat. It meant to be alone without having to watch our sons for three hours!

Ryan's Extension Student Service (ESS) staff offered parents to have their time out from the kids for three hours. It only cost me six dollars per child with a dinner, refreshment and a night movie. Dylan joined with his brother. What a great deal!

As soon we dropped our boys off, they dashed off to greet their friends for a couple of hours. While they were there, they ate home-made spaghetti, fruit punch and M& M Cookies. (We could see the spaghetti sauce around Ryan's mouth and his shirt when we came to pick them up.)

Throughout the night, they played a little bit of musical game, video game and a movie, "Eloise at the Plaza." This is one of the Disney movies I have never heard, so wonder what do you think of this movie especially for the boys?

While the boys were having fun at ESS, we had a nice, relaxing dinner at this popular restaurant, Casa de Pico, We indeed were lucky to avoid the long waiting line. It was due to that David immediately dropped me off while he was looking for a place to park our van before the people came to this restaurant. Throughout our dinner meal, we didn't feel the pressure because we released our tensions for watching our sons so long.
After we had our wonderful dinner ALONE, we went to one of our favorite places: bookstores. We bought our books including for the boys.

By the time we came to pick them up, they didn't want to leave their evening with their friends. In fact, they pleaded us to stay "five more minutes" to be with their friends. While we were there, they played a little bit of hide and seek with flashlights, and took pictures of their friends. (There were 35 of them.) Clearly, many parents appreciated the staff for giving us a break!

It made us smile because we felt it was a win-win situation for us to be separated for the evening.

Computers

Aren't we spoiled to have our own computers? That's right, each of us has own computer.

While David was installing the kids' programs for them, they had no patience. They fought like cats and dogs. Ryan ended up having a scratch on his face, yet he tattled tales on Dylan. We had to clarify to both of them that they have the rights to use their own computer.

Not only installing the games, we also installed the educational games. They only were allowed to play for a short time after they finish their requirements: homework, helping me cleaning a little bit in a house, and reading a book.

But while David was installing Ryan's computer, I caught him playing with the computer
game. He was relived that he got my approval for letting him to be like a little boy once again.

Walking Half -Marathon

Hey, can you believe that I made a little more than a half-marathon of walking within one week with my pedometer? It is a really huge leap for me from walking one and a half mile within two days to 15 miles within one week !

Frankly, I had two valid reasons for keeping my motivation up. One is that wearing a pedometer which it really helps me a lot. This is a continuous reminder for me. Second, I have a mind set up by slathering the cafeteria workers! In case you didn't know, we are having a competition between the teachers and the cafeteria workers!

I am pretty sure many of you assume that the cafeteria workers tend to stay in the cafeteria all day with a little movement. I thought the same about taking advantages against them. Well, I just found it out that one of the cafeteria workers walks to work and home two miles each way daily! That's NOT FAIR ! You bet I wish I can walk ALL the WAY to work and back to home, especially with two young boys!

That wouldn't work because it would make us one total walking marathon in both ways. Otherwise, I would have whining kids daily, or having their teachers giving me a bad report about me as a parent for giving them a severe punishment.

Since I was out of luck beating one of the cafeteria workers, this does not stop me. Even better, it does increase my motivation for keeping my legs going. For example, I made slight excuses by taking my two sons out to Target to buy small Valentine gifts for their teachers! I already made two goals: to increase more steps and to drink more water. Oh yeah, you may be wonder how did I survive without drinking water??!! Actually, I do drink water, but not enough to waste all of my toxic body!

Once I increase my walking half-marathon, I will strive for a marathon within a week in a couple of weeks from now, and continue through out even after the contest ends. I will buy myself a pedometer and a walking diary.

This sign displays that I made my mind up for not wanting to cheat my "walking" goals.

Wish me Luck!

More Photos of Dylan!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy 7th Birthday, Dylan!

Where did the time go? The moment you were born, you had given us so much joys.

We hope you have a wonderful 7th birthday.
We love you very much.

I CAN READ!

This is an exciting moment to share with you all that my younger son Ryan, who is in Kindergarten, can read at between first and second grade level. Actually, I already started noticing he can read at a kindergarten book, "Five Little Monkeys Jumping off the Bed."

Last week, I noticed he might be reading at a higher level because he read some of the passages from Dylan's all time favorite series, " The Magic Tree House." That even included the word, "whisper!"

So, I asked his special education teacher what was his reading level. To make a double check that we both are on the same page, she had another evaluator assessing him because I wanted to buy him appropriate reading level for him. As a result, the evaluator was pleased to see that he does have excellent intonation and fluency when he read difficult text. He could recognize the words beyond second grade, but he is weak on reading comprehension.

Both his teachers: special and general education teachers and I agreed that he would be better to start off from the book, "I CAN READ"at a first grade level, and ask him comprehension questions. That would build his comprehension skills.

While he was reading his new book, I thought you might like to hear hear what he was saying. (Note: Ryan was feeling antsy while reading a book because he just got a haircut. At the end, he realized I was filming him. He actually loathes having a picture taken or being filmed.)

Walkaholics

Hey, come to think of this new definition for me !

Believe it or not, I have done all kinds of excerises for years until I had Ryan. The physical fitnesses I have done were: running, swimming, cycling and karating except for walking.

1. Believe it or not, I used to run daily with my barefooted dad on the weekends and even joined 3K for the fund raising. I had to pretend that I didn't see my dad for not wearing his running shoes when the strangers were starting at us.

2. Swimming was my all-time favorite sports. I used to swim over 200 laps per day, 4 hours daily. That means I even had to wake up at dawn and be at the high school pool at 5:15 A.M. The best part of being in swimming was swimming against the Variety Breaststrokes with the high school boys in Finals. My mom was there shouting from the bench, "Go, Go, Laura!" Then she realized I couldn't hear her shouting, but her presence meant a lot to me.

3. Riding on my cycling was another thing I have done without having a driving license. It was a good thing I didn't get my license until I was 18! My best average of riding a bike was 36 miles per day for Mc Donald's fund raising. Not only doing the fund raising, I remember running a bike at Big Bear Lake on Alpine Magic Mountain, the top of the mountain, down to the bottom of the hill without realizing the brakes weren't working properly. Good thing, I didn't crash to other cyclists or cracked my head. (The helmet didn't invent at that time.)

4. Last, I earned a brown belt. It meant I was only two belts away from getting a black belt. Too bad, I was not able to compete with Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris. However, I did flip one of the students over at a recess because he didn't believe I could do karate. From then on, he never bothered me again. So watch out because I still have the left-over karate skill. It would be wise to be nice to me.

5. Walking??? Believe it or not, it is a new definition for me. I have joined the walking club at my work site. I wear Pedometer daily. With 15 of us walked more than 31 miles within a week! Our destination is to plan on beating the race against the cafeteria worker's. The only crime is a lonely pedometer sitting on the bathroom vanity. So, I just reset my pedometers and keep on walkin' throughout the day! At the same time, it is a good thing I'm rovering from one classroom to another.

Consequently, I come to think that it is a valid excuse to keep me going throughout the day, even a slight excuse such as making copies for other teachers' request (not my job description but winning against the cafeteria workers fits my plan.) That's my way of thinking of escaping being in a cooped place all day in a classroom or taking care or helping my kids' at home after having a LONG DAY at work! Maybe I can stop thinking about all of the "stressful" lists I have in my manic mind such as having kids' making mess on a kitchen floor, dirty clothes, and many more you can image. The best part of walking and counting the steps I have done so far. As least, I can be proud to make it over 10,278 steps on first day, especially for who are like me, is really out of shapes! I must admit.. but it all comes back to me that this is a good way to start all over with my long overdue of
excerises!

Our Big Day at Big Bear

On a bright day at Big Bear Lake, we headed for Alpine Magic Mountain. This small amusement park offers Family fun activities year round.

Since we were there for the Winter Activities, we decided to start off slowly especially with our young sons. First, we joined the sliding down the hill with our rubber tubes. Dylan was able to go alone because he was over 48 inches yet got a free admission because he is not even seven. Ryan had to go with me on every rides.

Before we went on a top of the hill, we entered in a tubing hill that has escalator. I admitted I thought it was pretty cool especially who were not feeling security to go on a chair lift. On our first round, Dylan wanted to be close to me. We held each other's rubber tube while Ryan was on the top of me. It was not easy for me especially of his age and his weight! Lucky David, who was at the bottom of the hill to preserve his hernia repair, enjoyed and took pictures of us.

On our second round trip, Ryan decided to carry his own rubber tube against his weight. He definitely had a strong-willed to do whatever he could do on his own. By the time we were on the top, Dylan was gallant enough to go on his own while we were behind him. However, the other couples crashed on us.

After we made a three round, Dylan wanted to go on a scenic chair lift. Since Dylan could not go with me nor David helping him due to his height, he kept saying that he wanted to go alone. You know how panic I would, but I had to remain calm. Dylan was gallant enough to go alone while I was in a front of him with Ryan to keep an eye on Dylan.

As for me, the operator had to stop me shortly because I was not able to do fast enough to get it on the chair lift with Ryan before we went up on the of the hill. Admittedly, it had always been my weakness though I was able to ski, but not getting on a chair lift. Wasn't that strange?

By the time we were on the top of the hill, we could see the most panoramic views of beautiful Big Bear Lake and the surrounding mountains. I wish we could have a house on the top of this awesome view.

From there, we navigated our own individually controlled sleds. Boy, I was not sure if either of us would flipped over the two-quarter mile long cemented track with lots of turn and straightways on our Teflon runners and ball bearing wheels. Dylan and I were able to apply the control the speed with the control handle. But Dylan would rather to accelerated the speed to the end, instead of using the brake. At the end of the ride, he made a hard hit without getting hurt. Good grief, he was not like Dale Earhart, the race driver! I was the total opposite of Dale Earhart because I was a designed driver since Ryan was with me.

Boy, I was pretty pooped out after dealing with two active kids and even had a lack of sleep. We soon were heading for home. While I was resting, David took over the van and drove on our way back home in a late afternoon. On our way home, the fog reminded me as if we were in a movie, "The Shining." It was scary especially driving on a wet road, without needing to put our chains. But that was not the only thing we saw... it was full of clouds over the mountain. It looked like we were in Heaven. I guess it was the sign that we would be arriving home safe and sound.

Indeed, I had to say it might be corrected because the next day was "raining cats and dogs" in our home area. We evoked ourselves we might have been caught in a bad blizzard storm up in Big Bear Lake.

Nevertheless at the end of our mini get-away vacation, we would not argue that it was one of the lifetime memories, especially for the boys' first time experiencing in the snow. There was no way to replace this quality of time to spend together. Life is too short to waste. Grab and spend the time with your loved ones.

First Night of Our Mini Vacation

On early Friday morning, we headed for our mini get-away vacation . We all were excited to give our two active boys experience the snow for the first time.

After we finally passed the worst construction we have experience between 215 and 10 Freeway, seeing the snow from the distance released from the traffic tension. Both Dylan and Ryan became excited and counting the hours down until we arrived to the City of The Big Bear Lake.

While driving on the road to Big Bear, we could see FULL OF SNOW at 8,000 feet high. It was indeed a beautiful sightseeing on both side of the road. As we were approaching to our nice Northwoods Hotel, we were pleased that the Alpine Magic Mountain that designed for the family activities was only about three blocks away. Unfortunately,we had to wait until the next day.

The boys instead explored our hotel for a little while before going outside in the snow. Ryan was especially thrilled to see the REAL fireplace and explored our overview baloney in our hotel. Not only finding the new stuff around them, they especially were excited to touch the real snow instead of man made snow as soon as they got out of our van.

Of course, we allowed them to play at night snow. We felt that it was appropriate for them to experience at the low 30's degrees first time. During their night play, they played hide and seek, made snow angels, snow fights, and sitting on the top of the snow. While they were playing in the snow for a couple of minutes, Dylan decided to be SILLY by putting his head in the snow. I guess he wanted to experience what was like to have his head being COLD.

At the end of their night playtime, they had enough for being so cold so long. We headed for the cozy hotel. The only problem while we were sleeping in the hotel, Dylan kept me awake almost all night: telling me that he saw a ghost, thought we had fires, and thirsty. I was REALLY exhausted by the morning arrived.

Instead of sharing the same bed, our next visit would be bringing the two air mattresses for the boys to sleep on their own while we sleep on a guest bed in a cabin that we had eyes for it when we saw at Big Bear. Did you know that there were over 300 cabins in The Big Bear Lakes? I would highly recommend you all if you guys ever want to visit The Big Bear Lakes.