Growing Up with Brandon and Ethan

Next week is Thanksgiving. I will have no class for the whole week next week. Yesterday (Wednesday) was my last day of school before the break. We finshed up our Thanksgiving Book Craft so we could take home with us when the class ended yesterday. We didn't do all the craft in one day, but it has been a few weeks we did some crafts here and there. Here is the outcome of our beautiful Thanksgiving Book.

Thank you Miss Tanya and Miss La Donna for helping me put it together so nicely. Mommy was really proud of me when she saw this book.

Cover


My painted hands


My painted feet & a bird and a fish



Our class picture at the park (taken on 11/16)


My cutout of flowers & food (first time using the scissors)


Picture of me and glitters hearts


My favorite things

This is my Ah-Gee (Aunt). I drew her on my doodle board. She has big earrings (next to the eyes). She wears a dress. No glasses.

Mommy took me to Pat & Oscar's Restaurant for lunch today. We met up with four other mommmies and their kids. All of the kids were born the same year as I. I behaved so well during the lunch and mommy gave me a sticker when we were back home. I ate most of my lunch myself. I had the breadstick and pasta with meat sauce.

After lunch, mommy met up with two other mommies and their kids at a Pumpkin Patch nearby. Initially, I didn't want to go. Mommy said she would have to at least drop by to say bye-bye to the other mommies as she has agreed upon meeting up with them before we left the restaurant. But when we arrived there, I didn't want to leave. It was fun at the pumpkin patch. I was pulling apart the decorative but read dried corn leaves displayed there. I didn't pick any pumpkin to bring back home. But we sure did a lot of pictures when we were there.

Backdated post 10/2/09.

Noted by Mommy.

This was Brandon's first ever visit to the dentist. Did I prepare him at home? Just a little bit.

1. But we brought him to my dental office once during my regular check up in June 09. He watched for a little bit.
2. We know that he likes to brush his teeth and keeping them feeling clean. We also help him floss his teeth after dinner time every night.
3. We told him at the dentist, he has to keep his mouth open wide so the dentist can clean his teeth nicely.
4. We didn't read him any books about dentist or show him any DVD about dental visit.
5. We told him, if he did good at the dentist, we would take him for ice-cream.

When the day came for his dental appointment, I was hoping he was ready. And he was. I was amazed and so proud of him.

We visited Dr. Janelle Holden DDS in Manhattan Beach. She specializes in Pediatric Dentistry. Just like a regular (or may be more) pediatrician office, her waiting room is full of toys. She even has video games console in the waiting room. The process of registration for first time patient was a breeze. Our appointment was at 11am and we arrived at 10:45am and we were called inside at 11am.








Brandon met with with Dental Hygienist, Christina. She let Brandon pick out a toothbrush to bring back home. Then she asked me to sit on the chair and have Brandon sitting on me. She was very good in explaining everything to Brandon. Every little things she went into detail. She showed and told him what she was going to do before she did it on him. She talked to him a lot during the cleaning process, practically non-stop. Brandon wasn't actually listening to her because I knew he was busy watching Monsters vs. Aliens on the hanging LCD TV in the room (good thing to keep the kid distracted).




Next she asked Brandon what is his favorite flavor, whether is cherry, bubblegum or strawberry. We picked strawberry. Then she showed Brandon how she was going to count his teeth but asking me to open my mouth and counted mine. Brandon opened up his mouth and she counted 10 on the bottom and 10 on the top.


After the counting, she did the scrapping of the yellow stuff that stuck on his teeth between the gum and the tooth - we called that the plaque. This was the longest part of the whole cleaning process. When she was done with all the four quadrants, she showed him the water gun that will squirt water into his mouth to clean it. Also, she showed him a small little vacuum that will suck the water out. She touched it on Brandon's hand to show him how that little thing functioned.


Then she brushed his teeth with the special flavored toothpaste. Again she touched Brandon's hand with the electronic toothbrush like thing and then only started brushing his teeth with it. After that, she helped him rinsed his mouth again. The second final step was flossing. Since he was familiar with this part of the process, it was no problem. The final thing that Christina did was to apply a coat of liquid fluoride on his teeth and asked us to leave it on for an hour, with no eating or drinking.

Christina gave Brandon some stickers and she left to get the Dentist. While waiting for the dentist to come to check his teeth, I took some pictures around the room.










Dr. Holden came in for less than 1 minute to check on him and gave us some advice on how to take care of the teeth - no gummy bears, apple juice (acidic and too sweet - mostly sugar), ice cream is OK, eat more apples and carrots (clean teeth), keep brushing two times a day (even better if is after each meal) and to come back to see her in 6 months.

Then we were done! It was a 30 minute visit. We took Brandon to Baskin Robbins for ice cream of his choice after one hour. He picked the Vanilla flavor.

Backdated post on 10/13/09.

I made my own pancake breakfast this morning. Mommy had bought a new box of multi grain pancake from Trader Joe's over the weekend. She had wanted me to make my own pancake since last week but we didn't have any pancake mix at home.

Was it fun? Oh yea! Mommy took out a stainless steel bowl. She guided my hand to pour in the bowl 1 cup of pancake mix. She also guided my hand to measure 1/2 cup of milk and also break one egg into the mixture. She put in a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Then she let me mixed the batter with a whisk.

I didn't want to stop beating. But she said we couldn't have pancakes if we don't cook the batter. She heated up the nonstick pan and melted a little bit of butter in it. She guided my hand to pour a scoop or batter into the pan. And she did the rest of the cooking, ie: flipping the pancake. I saw bubbles on the pancake and Mommy said it's time to flip it over.

Mommy asked what toppings I want on my pancake, and I told her, "Strawberry jam!"

A thumb up for a good delicious breakfast.

Oops ... Mommy forgot that she didn't help me post up some of the pictures of us visiting Ethan in Australia before she posted the previous post about KL.

Oh ya, Mommy and I have been traveling a lot. We visit Ethan, 'yee-yee' (aunty) and 'gong-gong' (grandpa) in Australia. The more interesting part was ... 'kam-poh' and JoJo 'yee-yee' came to Australia from Malaysia. So we traveled together from Adelaide to Sydney and then to Brisbane and to Gold Coast where they departed Australia.

We spent about 3 weeks in Down Under. We arrived at BNE first and stayed with 'gong-gong' for one night before flying down to Adelaide to meet up with the rest of the gang.

We did a lot of sight seeing and the weather was a bit cold.

Here are pictures of Ethan and me in Adelaide.

We met again ... this time in Kuala Lumpur. Mommy and I traveled to KL on Aug 18th and returned to LA on Sep 18th. Ethan and his family arrived from Adelaide on Sep 8th and we met up on Sep 9th. He still likes his Thomas the Tank Train a lot. While my CHUCKS helicopter is my favortite toy. We had some fun together but not as much as last year. We didn't stay together this time. Ethan and his family stayed at Cheras with his paternal grandma. And Mommy and I stayed with 'kam-poh' (great aunty) in TTDI. We saw each other like may be 6-7 times?? Most of the times, Ethan would be inside the study room playing his computer. He misses his computer time, I think.

Here is a picture of us together. Not too many pictures of us playing together.

Lately, Mommy has been getting me to write ABC. Daddy too. As for Daddy, I will write my ABC to Z after my shower/bath at night. I do the ABC freestyle on blank piece of paper.

With Mommy, I do it on pages with boxes with dotted letters. She bought the exercise book from KL. She said she couldn't find any similar type here. So she asked Daddy to make copies and I only write on copies so she would still have the original to keep if I need more practice later on.

How did Mommy get me do my 'homework'? Before I can watch any DVD, she will ask me to write a few or the whole page, depending on how I feel like. But I need her to sit beside me and guide me sometimes with her hand on mine. I am holding the pencil better now, rather than grabbing the pencil with my whole palm, I am almost holding it the right way now.

Here are a few pieces of my work. The one with the little red arrows were the one Mommy was helping me with.

I think I have some trouble keeping my letter in the boxes. Hmm ... need to improve on that I hope.