Nose Pickers

Would you ever believe one of the articles from Austrian doctor believe that "people who pick their noses with their fingers are healthier, happier, and more in tune with their bodies?" Boy, is it so gross to even think about this? I would not disagree with you.

That's what happened when we had visitors visiting at Cathy's place on Friday night. One person had a mischievous thoughts for the picture. It was not me this time. It was GINGER ! She encouraged Dylan, Ryan, Danae and her friend, Sami. Actually, they thought it was funny when I took a picture of them.

Copy Cat

Typically, any sibling would do anything to copy from either older or younger sibling. That's what Ryan did after he saw what I did to his brother, Dylan after accepting his grant.

While I was busy cleaning the kitchen, Ryan came up to me wanting me to paint...a pink nail polish on him ! Can you believe that???

Ryan came up to me, " I want pink nail polish."

Of course, I was stunned because I thought he wanted to join the boat with Dylan after I finished painting Dylan's toenails and fingernails. At first, he refused to accept my offer. But later, he had changed his mind.

At the end of the pictures taken by me, he kept saying, "turn the camera off." I guess he now realized he is embarrassed that I would be showing it off to my relatives and friends who read my blog.

Wish Granted

You wouldn't believe what Dylan had made one BIG wish. Truthfully, I had averse to his idea and was hoping he would forget his wish. But it didn't happen. A day after the school has ended, he remembered what I would give him the privilege his wish at the end of the school year. I couldn't find any valid excuse for saying, "NO" because the school is out for the summer. Can you guess what was his wish???

Thus, his wish was being granted....

180 Days

Friday, June 22nd was the last day of Kindergarten, the closing of one door and the opening of another. It is hard for me to believe that this school year has come to the end! Over the past 180 school days, Dylan has grown both socially and academically. He has gone from knowing a few letters and sounds to reading words, sentences and even books! He has also learned the social skills of sharing, caring and being responsible. Most of all I hope Dylan has learned to love school and learning and will look forward to next year with same enthusiasm I have seen this year !

Before Dylan's last day of school, he invited me to his Kindergarten Breakfast. Oh how sweet of him! While I was there, he and his classmates sang few songs: Each of Us is A Flower, Love Me For Who I Am, Silent E, Four Hugs a Day, and I Think You're Wonderful. Almost throughout the songs, I was surprised to see almost all of his classmates had learned few of the song signs. It was due that he had taught them during their practices. Isn't he a good teacher, huh? But at the end of the song, " I Think You're Wonderful," it actually brought me tears. (Of course, I had a sign language interpreter standing behind Dylan.)

At the breakfast, there was sliding shows and awards. Dylan received an Outstanding Reader award and Reading Incentive Award. He has never missed any Reading Log for the last 180 days of school. While standing next to his teacher, Ms. Goldman was telling the other students and parents, who were at the breakfast, that Dylan was always "correcting her if she signed wrong, or skipped the words from reading a book. He knew if she followed it through the Storytelling." (Ms. Goldman has experienced working with deaf students in the past, thus she knew few signs.) After the breakfast was over, she mentioned to me that she has learned a lot of more new signs through by Dylan.

He also received awards for Outstanding Reader, Reading Incentive Award and Principal's Honor Roll. What an honor ! He also got a free Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt. Yummy! But can you image the teacher told the parents and students that she is looking forward to seeing the name of our child on the roster for the high school graduating class of 2019? It gave me a heart attack to think far ahead of having him leaving the nest.

Ding ! Ding !

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the four of us went on a Trolley for a Father's Day event. We started from La Mesa, near my work to Seaport Village.

If you were there, you should have seen the looks on their exciting faces to go on a trolley ride for the first time in their lives. Actually, they had pleaded to go on it for weeks until I finally convinced David. Once we were actually in our seats, they squealed a lot while looking at the window.

Dylan said, "Yeah, we are on a trolley. We are going to Seaport Village."

Ryan said, "Yeah, I see the Trolley goes faster and faster."

Once we got off the Trolley, we walked for a half-mile long to Seaport Village. From there, we had an early dinner and then went on Carousel Rides. Fortunately, spinning around did not affect my Vertigo this time.

Shortly before we headed back to the Trolley, we had a light snack, a small cup of ice cream. While eating our delicious snack, Ryan and Dylan chased the Pigeons. It was like they were running around as if they were in a horror movie, "The Birds" from Alfred Hitchcock. Fortunately for the people who sat near us were laughing even though the birds flew over them. Good grief, the "poops" did not hit any of us.

After had such as adventurous day for Father's Day, we headed back to the Trolley. Boy, we were all exhausted.

So far, the boys have been on an airplane, a boat, a bus, and for our next adventure we will be taking them a Nemo submarine ride at Disneyland.

San Diego County Fair

What has food, rides, prizes and other items? It is San Diego County Fair aka Del Mar Fair. David's parents joined us for a couple of hours.
On our way to the Ferris Wheels, the first thing on David and Richard's mind were FOOD! Believe it or not, they ordered: BBQ Corn on the Cob, Squeezed Orange Juice, Potato Chips and Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Dipped. It was not even lunch! Oh, that is so typical of men! You should have seen their faces as they acted like they were five years old.

As soon as we entered in a fair, Dylan suddenly made the decision to go on the Ferris Wheel. Well once Dylan and Cathy joined Ryan and I on the Ferris Wheel, they immediately wanted to get off after the first go round. Poor Dylan and Cathy were scared of the height, but Ryan and I remained throughout the ride. It was a beautiful sight to see the Del Mar Beach. I was blown away seeing the beauty of it!

Even though Dylan was frighten of height with the Ferris Wheel, Dylan was brave enough to have his face painted. Ryan was the one who refused to have his grandma (Cathy) pay for his face to be painted. He would go on daring rides instead.

While we were in the Fun Zone, the boys went on more rides before eating a lunch. The best part was going on the Hydro Rides (Log Rides.) I enjoyed seeing both boys wet their pants from the water as if they had wet their pants! Too bad, they didn't sit on Cathy's or Richard's lap. It would have been more fun seeing their pants wet, too. Bummer !

Another bummer was that I was unable to take a picture of Cathy with a smile on her face. She is camera shy. The only thing I could do is to sneak a picture of her ! However, you can decide on how she looks when she was leaning her head on David's shoulder. That is the best picture I could do.

On our late lunch, we sat under the shade with our BBQ lunch (Beef, Hot Dog.) You know the junk food they offer at the Fair. Besides eating the sweets, it was nice chatting under the shade.

Throughout the day, we did a lot of window shopping inside of the buildings. Cathy got a beautiful gold toe ring! I would have done the same, but it would not have been too beautiful since I have black and blue bruises on my big toe. (Dylan stepped on my toe the other day.)

After we were through with the window shopping, David encouraged me to let the boys to go on the Wave Swinger. Boy, I felt like as if my over-protectiveness was tested to be limited! I was worrying and freaking out until they returned safety to me ! Whew !

After staying for a few hours at the fair, we headed for back home. Dylan and Ryan were so tired. They fell asleep with their heads resting each other. Aren't they cute?

Raising Hearing Children

"Mother father deaf" is a phrase commonly used in the deaf community to identify a hearing child of deaf parents. Statistic shows that over 90 % of all deaf parents have hearing children referred to as CODA (Children of Deaf Adults.) Most of hearing of deaf parents have two bi-languages and bi-cultural: American Sign Language (ASL) and English, and Deaf and hearing cultures. It gives them the advantages and disadvantages on living both worlds.

The advantage parts are:

1) Able to use both languages: able to pick up a third or more different language easily

2) Able to accept other kinds of disabilities easily

3) custom of reading closed captioned and reading books at early ages

4) tend to have excellent relationships between the deaf parents and hearing children (Rienzi, B "Influences and Adaptability in Families with Deaf Parents and Hearing children.")

5) learn more "sounds" from the hearing children such as telling us the oven is ready (We have always look at the temperature before putting the food in it.)

The disadvantage parts are:

1) don't always interpret everything the insensitive remarks or comments made by a hearing person (Filer &Filer, "Practical Considerations for Counselors Working with Hearing Children of Deaf Parents')

2) become hyper vigilant, listening for that their parents could not hear such as "monsters," burglars, smoke alarms, and cracking sounds of the ceiling collapsing

3) Cannot hear any fights between the siblings' or friends' comments

4) worry a lot more when I take showers or wake up finding them out of the bed before me

However, David and I are very fortunately that we do keep our technology and research up. So that way our mischievous boys cannot trick us !