Crying at parties.

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Tonight, we all went to a Chinese New Year Party and I ended up crying on the floor in the middle of the party. I kind of knew it was going to happen sooner or later, but I didn’t figure it was going to be tonight.

The host and hostess were very sweet, but I hadn’t told them about Edda before I went to the party. Now it’s pretty clear that Edda is an odd duck now that she’s almost 2, so there is no hiding the fact that she has some “issues” she has to – you know – “work out”. So I told the hostess about Edda and the whole party (at least from my perspective) became a test for Edda’s abilities or lack of abilites. Bells ringing behind her head to see if she’ll turn around, asking Edda “where’s your mama?” to see if she’ll point, suggestions about using walkers or how to say words clearly to her, people asking Vince, “Do you play with your sister?”. THIS WENT ON FOR OVER AN HOUR. And it was all in Chinese so Jeremy couldn’t rescue me at all. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and sat down in the middle of the living room and cried. Then the hostess said that I drive away potential friends because I cry every time I talk about Edda. Gosh, so reassuring. Jeremy scooted me out of the party, Vince didn’t even complain about leaving even though he was in the middle of watching Sponge Bob Square Pants. I’m hoping not to do this at every single party I go to for the rest of my life.

Artist Painting

Well, Mom’s artist friend gave me a classic Chinese painting of boys she had in her bedroom. I like it very much and is going to hang on our Sheets Farm house.

We had a wonderful time here. She is also from Chung Ming and from same background as Mom’s. As a fact of fact, her son also graduated from MIT and had a brunch with Doris and us in Marriot during graduation ceremony. Doris and Donald, do you still remember that?

Yesterday, we went to the local restaurant called “Bob Chinn’s”. Their sea food was excellent.

Today, we will take a detour toward west again to visit “Nauvoo”, IL where Mormons started migrating westward. And will then take 70 to see our farm before going to Washington DC. There are lot of changes there. I like to show Mom.

Edda look good and hope the best.

Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner

Last night, Li Pei Zin invited me over for dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year. Honestly, I really actually enjoy the dinner’s with their whole family. Ching Mao is alwasy pretty talkative. We had a good time discussing the reasons why you parents are crazy to move all over the country.

of course, most of the kids are over too for the dinner. Emily and her bf Ben, Jeffery and Leigh and their kids Christina and Eileen, who are about Vince and Edda’s ages.

It’s sorta weird, I actually end up talking to Leigh the most. Perhaps she’s the most talkative of all in that generation? whoo knows. The funny thing also is that all the kids are into biking. Leigh bikes the kids to school, and has signed up for a marathon. Jefffery is biking a lot for fun. both Emily and Ben bike also.

This kids are pretty fun too. Christina ended up climbing all over me at the dinner table and putting things on my head, and sticking things down my shirt. Kinda reminded me of the vince-man. Apparently she also really finds Garfield comics to be extremely funny. she made me read her this one comic over and over again… it went something like this:

Garfield sleeping next to a clock.

TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK
TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK
Garfield – this clock is driving me nuts!
Garfield – I’ll have to move it.
TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK
Garfield – I’ll put it in Jon’s underwear drawer.
* garfield is asleep in his bed
* Jon come over to the bed,
Jon – Garfield, wake up! It’s almost….
BRIIIIIIIING! (as jon’s butt rings)
garfield – seven o’clock?

Also Ching Mao and I had a long discussion about housing prices and leveraging you money. He does a lot of real estate investements and I tried to get out of him whether he thought that the market was worth going into or not. I didn’t quite get a straight answer. He was basically like you never know what’s going to happen in life. whether the market will go up or not. but he said at some point, if you know the market is going to go up, you should buy regardless, because you can leverage your money in real estate. He said he wants the housing market to raise only 7% every year – a sustainable growth rate, because then if you put 20% down, you’ve made 35% of your money back in the first year. 7%/20%. I tried to frame it as a cash flow problem since i’m sorta interested in rental properties, but i dunno that i got thru to him that way.

oh yeah, Li Pei Zin and I are still working on the gf. mom, that 2000 dollars is stil on the table right?

I’m not tired!

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To prove to my parents I’m not tired, I took this picture of myself today on a geocaching adventure. See, I don’t look to bad for a mom with 2 kids under the age of 4. Actually, I think I look pretty good. Not to wrinkly or pouchy.

Cram session.

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It’s like we are studying for the SAT in the Lee-Martin household. Let’s see if Edda can push a button on a Sesame Street toy! Let’s see if Edda can find Peter Rabbit if he’s hidden under a blanket! Let’s see if Edda can walk from one couch to another! Let’s see if Edda will say mama in return for a Cheerio! Let’s face it, would any of you do anything in return for a single Cheerio? I think not.

Actually Edda can do a lot of these things, it’s just unclear to me if she wants to do any of these things. A lot of what the therapists told me involve finding a “motivator”. Much the same way a grown person will toil day and night as a corporate lawyer to get that way cool flat-screen TV, I have to find things that Edda wants to make her do things that I want her to do. I told Jeremy that Edda’s like the Buddha and has transended material wants. She doesn’t really want anything. Only food when she’s hungry, sleep when she’s tired and a clean diaper – and some company – she does get fussy when left in a room by herself. Toys? Not necessary. Treats? Nope. Games? Not that interested. Keeping up with other kids? Not important. She’s the Buddha I’m telling you.

Roasted Duck & My Thought

Uncle Louis last night treated us with his roasted duck together with a mixed vegetable plater. They were delicious.

Whole day, we talked about our Lee’s family past and present, including a lot of our family dark side. Well, some of them, you probably know. By looking back, it was dangerous close to total disaster for me. Maybe, Mom unconscientiously helped me a lot. She probably did not realize that. Of course, maybe, it was me. I got to give me some credits 🙂

I think , upstreams are only a couple of inches away along the continental divide (ie., critical moments). But, the downstream outlets are miles apart.

Chicago

Well, you are in Chicago area with Uncle Louis. He is preparing a duck for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow, we will stay with a Mom’s long time friend in Chicago. She was a buyer for many department stores for a long time. She knew all the stuffs in a department store, fairly interesting person with a lot of store buying & selling experience.

After that, we are heading to Washington DC and SC. Happy Chinese New Year to all of you.

Therapy.

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We went to Edda’s physical therapy today. I thought it would be an uplifting session, everyone encouraging and optimistic and hopeful – we’d finally start on Edda’s individualized physical / occupational / speech therapy plan. But instead it was kind of depressing. They assessed Edda at about the 9 month-old level and that we’re suppose to start working on the 10 month-old milestones. It’s discouraging that she’s more than a year behind on her development and not yet two. All this stuff that is suppose to come naturally to kids I’m suppose to spend hours teaching Edda. It’s been such a mind warp to think about staying home with the kids full time and enough to think about homeschooling in general, but when you have to teach eye-contact skills for hours, it’s really pretty much a bummer for me!Might as well throw a pity-party for myself – where’s the gin and tonic?

OK these are the things I get to work on this week:

  • Peek-a-boo
  • Take peter rabbit or a favorite toy and she has to look at me first and then I give it to her.
  • Object permanence which means that she has to remember that something is there when she can’t see it. Hide Peter Rabbit under a blanket and ask “Where’s peter?”
  • More physical play, swing her around more.
  • Putting things that she wants out of reach and waiting for her to indicate that she wants them.
  • Getting a push toy to help her walk.
  • Getting her to feed herself more.

Bummer.