Life of a Teacher's Child

Caitlin attended her 1st Volunteer Tea Award Ceremony yesterday at my school site. Since I was part of the committee for the event, Eugene had to watch and chase after Super Energized Bunny around the school library. Caitlin was quite well-behaved in the beginning, but got bored quite easily. She really wanted to run around as we're passing out the deserts and the award certificates to our parents, adults, and teen volunteers. Eugene had to go bring her to our school yard to play around the playground equipment. She loved it and got to watch a little bit of our school play, Charlotte's Web , until I was done cleaning and putting things away in the library. Afterward, I got to bring our little Energized Bunny home with me. I didn't want to disturb the audiences with Caitlin's crying and fussing since it was getting near her sleeping time. Caitlin had a great time! It shall not be last either.

Caitlin turns 17 months!

Our little fuss bucket turns 17 months today. Caitlin's strong and forceful personality is definitely showing right now. We're hoping that we can train her more once she can understand and communicate with words. As Caitlin's parents, we noticed that she is like a huge walking sponge. She is copying a lot of my behavior from me. For example, Caitlin watches me get ready every morning like brushing my teeth, washing my face and putting on lotion. Well, she can put her own lotion on cheeks by herself now, which is more like a slapping motion in my point of view. It's quite cute. She knows how to say "sh" with the index finger on her little lips, but sometimes she ends up picking her nose. It is a funny sight! My all-time favorite is the motion of Caitlin kissing, and she can do the flying kisses now, which is called fei mun in Cantonese. Caitie pie recognizes some animals like bear (behbeh), dog (wohwoh), and cat (caca). Our biggest worry right now is that Caitlin is quite daredevil right. Caitie pie knows how to climb on sofa, chairs and beds. She loves jumping off from them time to time. Eugene just put a big pillow for her to slide down from one of her favorite jumping off chair. She sure knows how to make our hearts palpitate.

Busy Week

I had Open House last Thursday. A lot of my parents and students wanted to meet Caitlin. Therefore, Caitlin made some new friends with my students. Caitlin was a charmer as usual, and she charmed my colleagues, parents, and students. Poor Daddy had to take care of her the whole time, especially when she got tired of staying in my classroom. I had to stay since it's my Open House day. I had a really good turn out! Seventeen of my parents came to to the event. On Saturday, we went to Daddy's friend's house for a graduation celebration for finishing up their teaching credential program. Caitlin loved it there, because she got to swim and play in the water, most of the time. Caitlin got to pet a cutie dog at the party, too. Definitely the food and view were wonderful. Our little troublemaker was a charmer as usual for all the adults, tweens and teenagers at the party. We all had a blast.

Caitlin the Daring Explorer

It's so amazing. It just seems that Caitlin changed a lot in couple of days after turning 16 months. She looks so much bigger and older. Since she grew a little bit more, Caitlin has discovered that she can reach more things now like on our entertainment center and dining nook table. We had to move and put things away since she can get into more areas now. Couple of weeks ago, we went to IKEA and bought a tent for Caitlin. It's sitting near one of the corner of our living room. She bounces and pounces on the tent daily. I really wonder how long the tent will last. Caitlin loves it! Whenever we go to Eugene's parents' place, Caitlin finds YeYe very fascinating, especially with all his different instruments. She enjoys exploring and walking around to familiarized herself to YeYe's and MaMa's house. Last week, Caitlin bumped her head at the babysitter and had a slight bump and bruise. It wasn't too bad, but it scared the babysitter and me. I left my school site during my lunch time to check up on her. I had one of my colleagues watched my students, if I ran late, when our lunch time ends. When I got to the babysitter's house, Caitlin was being held and spoiled by the babysitter and her kids for the rest of the day. She started to be more clingy toward us after our spring break, too. However, Caitlin has a new fetish--as a walking green basket. =)

Caitlin's Language Development

I only have three more days left of my spring break. I am savoring every moment of it! This past week, Caitlin has certain words she keeps on using. It's been uh oh, ow, and oh. She still doing a lot of baby talk. I try to teach Caitlin to use the word milk instead nini, which means the same thing in Cantonese. It works for us at home; however, I am not sure it will work with the babysitter. Mum has three meaning right now- between food, mommy or MaMa (grandma in Cantonese). She can say up, which stands for picking me up or go up the stairs. Today she said up pease for up please, and it is kind of cute observing her language development. Since Caitlin has been teething, she is back with chewing the corners of the block books again. She says boo for book. I am still in the dilemma how I am going to incorporate English and Cantonese, since I am illiterate in Chinese.

Easter Weekend

It has been a busy 2 days for Caitlin and us. It was an interesting and exciting Saturday afternoon for Caitlin. Caitlin and I took a picture with the Easter Bunny. She went to her 1st Easter Egg Hunt; however, she had fun looking at the eggs from a far and watching other kids and parents clawing their way past each other to get as many Easter eggs as they could. Parents were not supposed to be inside the Easter Egg Hunt area, but as you can tell from photo many parents did not follow directions. We were most scared of the parents pushing Caitlin. I finally told Eugene to go into the area, so she won't get hurt. Eugene was able to get 3 eggs for little Caitlin. We ended sharing one of our eggs with Kalyssa, since she did not get any. In addition, Caitlin was able to pet a Police Officer's horse that was at the event. She also tried to throw some dice at one game booth, but Caitlin is still too young to do a lot of the activities. We can try again next year! In the evening, we had dinner with my family to celebrate GungGung's belated birthday at a Chinese restaurant in Foster City. Today, we went to Calvary Chapel for our Easter Sunday service, and Caitlin had a great time in nursery school. This church is close to where we live and has a good Kids Community. We had a nice and restful day.

Caitlin's Saturday

We went to Milbrae to go see TaiMaMa, MaMa and YeYe. Caitlin had a fun time hanging out with MaMa, YeYe and TaiMaMa for 3 hours by herself, while Eugene and I had our 2nd movie date. It's quite rare for us to go to the theater to watch a movie nowadays unless we have someone watching Caitlin. (The last time we went to a movie was for Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. My friend, Cindi, with her 2 daughters, babysat Caitlin at our place last time.) Then we stayed late to have dinner and hang out with everyone until night time. Caitlin had a fun time enjoying YeYe's singing and playing the piano and different shiny instruments. She also attempted to play the piano. In addition, she got to hang out with MaMa and TaiMaMa. It's Caitlin day to bond with the elders, not just Mommy and Daddy. The only one missing was Gu Jie, Auntie Rica. We all miss Auntie Rica.