So long!

Finally, I am done with my Master Program, and I will be taking a break from my study before I get my "Permanent Head Damaged" ....heeee...It has been very challenging studying and taking care of my little hon at the same time. I would definitely give all the credits to my dear husband, Rodney, who has been giving me a lot of emotional support when I was under stress with all the forever never ending assignments, physical supports by helping to cook, clean the house and dishes, do laundry, give me comfort food (chicken soup), and take care of our little hon most of the nights when I was busy with assignments, and last but not least, the financial supports for buying all the expensive textbooks for the program (even though the tuition fees were from scholarship). Without all the supports, I don't think I will be able to complete the course successfully with Distinction. Indeed, God has been gracious and I feel so blessed! My convocation will be held in May, and I hope that my family will fly here again to celebrate my success.

Next year, I have great plans for myself and for my little hon. I will be taking my little hon out of daycare, and will be teaching him full swing with a tailored curriculum just for him. I am battling whether to get a job or stay at home to give him my full attention, and finally I have decided that I need to be spending more quality time with my little hon. Believe it or not, my mum gave me a good "scolding" for wanting to stay at home teaching my little hon. My mum thinks that it's more important to build my career and leave the teaching to the teachers in the school. Am I not a teacher too? I am certified to teach in Washington State, so I should be highly qualified to teach my little hon. Is building my own career and earning money more important than teaching and nurturing my little hon who is God-given? I believe that God gives me the skills to teach but not necessarily teaching other people's children. I really hope to homeschool my little hon if it's God's plan for me to do so. I started formal teaching my little hon 10 months ago when he showed interest in learning when he was about 15-16 months old. Within these 10 months, I have seen him grow tremendously, may it be the basic knowledge, art, music, life skills, and personality. My little hon learns so fast that he really amazes me every time. Sometimes I am really at lost what to teach him, and I feel guilty of not providing enough for him to learn more. Since my little hon already know his basic, seriously, if I continue to leave him in school, I believe he will lose interest in learning because whatever the teacher teaches are too easy for him, and on top of that I don't think daycare teachers will differentiate instructions based on the child's ability. Therefore, I have decided to spend quality one to one teaching with my little hon and continue to spur him on in learning.

I am proud that my little hon has achieved 99% of the learning goals that I set when I started teaching him. As I looked back how much my little hon has grown from a 15 months old who knew nothing to a 24 months old who know all his basic and so much more that a 2 year old would ever learn, I feel so proud of myself that through God's strength and guidance, it can be done! Yes, there is so much more in life that my little hon need to learn, and obviously it will take him forever to learn. So why in such an early age? Firstly, I believe in seizing the moments. When a child shows interest in learning, it is the best time to teach, and never reject a child who wants to learn about things in life. Secondly, I believe that the earlier my little hon learns about things, the more he will learn about other things, and much more. Knowledge is built, and expanded based on the child's exposure. Last but not least, I believe that Knowledge is Power, one can be robbed of treasures and gold, but no one will ever rob away my little hon's knowledge once he possesses it. I want my little hon to be a life long learner, and to me it's important to impart the skills of a lifelong learner, and instill the values of lifelong learning.

Within these two years, I have spent great time with my little hon, and I really want to thank God for him. Even though, some times my little hon drives me nuts, most of the time, he is such a lovely and comical boy. He is a sweet little boy who surprised me one night with "Are you o.k.? Mommy" when I was burying my head on a pile of notes, and many times, he shows his compassion by stroking my hair, looking at me saying "Mommy, so pretty". I am not sure if he meant Mommy is pretty or my hair is pretty, but it doesn't really matter because to my little hon, no matter how I have aged, I will forever his pretty Mommy. Every day without fail, my little hon will whisper to my ears, "I love you, Mommy" before he goes to bed. Some of my Christian friends told me that this is the best time to bond, and don't trade in for anything else because children grow up too fast. Seriously, I don't want to miss any moments with my little hon, and I know my little hon will grow up too fast too soon, and I will miss carrying him, and all the hugs and kisses if I let time goes by without spending quality time with him.

I would say that my little hon is a fast learner, and in terms of learning, he is a very patient boy. He loves to learn, and though academic knowledge is important, I still strongly think that good values and knowing about God will be the main focus in our next year's curriculum. Not only that I want my little hon to be outstanding in all that he does, I want him to learn to have God-like characters, values and personalities. I am not a perfect Mommy, and I am not a 100% godly woman, but I know what is best for my little hon, just like any other parents who want the best for their children. It has been a good 1 year 8 month updating my little hon's learning journey, and I hope to take a long break from blogging and focus 100% on my little hon, without spending time uploading videos and pictures and writing which are very time consuming. So for next year, I am planning to spend quality time with my little hon, and I believe 2010 will be a very fruitful year for both mother and son as we learn from each other with love, joy and laughter. I thank God for choosing my little hon to be my son, and me his Mommy. I will never trade my little hon for anything else in this world. I want to thank God also for my little hon's God-given intelligence, and I pray that he will grow up to be a smart man of God with great personality. I also pray that God will continue to provide me His strength and guidance to train my little hon in the way he should go(Proverbs 22:6), and bring him up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). In Jesus name, I pray.

Thank you for visiting my blog, and it has been a great 1 year 8 months of my blogging journey. I wish everyone a blessed Christmas, and a Happy 2010!! So long, my friends!

What an Ad!

We went to Ikea for breakfast over the weekend, and saw this huge advertisement hanging down the ceiling. Rodney & I found it funny. Not sure if you caught it? ....pretty hilarious....haaa...

Raising kid/s

This statue at University of Portland reminds me that it takes a whole village to raise a child, grandparents, friends, teachers, pastors, activity group leaders and many others in the community. Yes, I strongly believes that many individual others all have a role in the lives of our children, however, parents do bear the first and primary responsibility for their sons and daughters, in terms of educations and well being. I remember my mum once told me that it's easier to give birth to a child, but it's not easy to bring him/her up to the kind of person you want him/her to be. Two weeks ago, I spoke to one of my friends who has two boys in their teens. I asked her how's life being a mother of 18 years, and her reply was : CONSTANT WORRIES about the boys! Hmmm...I guess my mum must have thripled worries when my 2 brothers and I were in our teens. So does that also imply that the more children you have, the more worries you will be? That is kind of worry me because with my little hon, I am always worrying about his health, his needs and well being etc, so if I have another one, which this same friend asked me if I intend to have one, won't it be double worries? It's always interesting that when I have no baby, some people ask me when I will be having one. Now that I have one, some people will ask me when I will be having another one after my loss. I am also finding myself asking this question to some of my friends who have only one child too. I would love to have one more before I reach my big 40, but I know it's impossible because my previous loss was due to chromosome abnormabilities issue, and with my age, doctors told me that the risk of having abnormal kid is higher if the pregnancy carries through. So I must be really thankful to God that I miscarried then, otherwise, my 2nd kid will be someone special. Though, I am trained in Special Ed, I am totally not prepared to have or raise a special kid. Ironic, isn't it? Seriously, don't get me wrong, I am not discriminating against special kids, I love teaching them, and everyone is special in God's eyes, it's just that I am not willing to have special kid of my own, knowing my incapability to raise one. Some friends told me that I may not necessarily have special kid if I do get pregnant, but I don't think I want to take the risk. For now, I am just too thankful and happy to raise one healthy smarty pants if that's God's plan for me, and I guess God knows my ability as a mother, I am just not willing to take any risk. So I hope that my little hon will not blame me for not giving him any siblings.

Makeover revealed!

Finally, my new countertop is done! I am so pleased with it, and I'd better be ...haaa....I am very particular about cleanliness, and now the new countertop is so much easier to maintain. Our kitchen now stands out more than the old tile countertop, and it looks fabulously wonderful! I told Rodney that maybe we should change our stove, refrigerator, and dishwisher into stainless steel. Unfortunately, Rodney is not going to invest any further on this house, and says that when the housing market is good, we should try selling our house. Now that I see my new countertop, I don't feel like moving anymore ...haaa....

Before

After

Wordless Wednesday #4

Wish for another white Christmas this year!

Pls visit here for more Wordless Wednesday.

Coming Makeover

Time is so sneaky! My 3 weeks summer break passed by without me realizing it! I thought my family would go for a short trip somewhere, but Rodney has other plan! He decided to spend the money on our kitchen countertop instead, and so no trip for us :( However, I am really excited about the new countertop makeover, and it won't happen until this coming Friday. Why the makeover? I guess we have been staying in this house for almost 5 years, and our initial plan was to sell this house and get something slightly bigger. Due to the economic downturn, and the house market weren't looking good, we have to put off our plan to sell this house. Not that I don't like this house. I love everything about the house. It has pretty serene environment, nice neighborhood with beautiful greenery just a stone's throw away from our backyard, with nice neighbors, and good schools around. Since at the moment, we are not able to sell our house, Rodney thought it would be a good idea to upgrade our 5 year old tile countertop with something else more durable with less maintenance, and hope that by the time the house can be sold at a higher price value. It took us a while to decide what we want to put onto for our new countertop. Seriously, we don't mind spending on granite (about 7-8 grand including tearout+haul+plumbing+undermount sink+backsplash+custom edge nosing) if we lived in a million dollar house, but the fact is that we are not. So we decided to choose quartz which is more affordable price range for us (but still cost us more than 6 grand). Maintaining a tile countertop is really a pain in the neck, especially the grout area! On top of that, our countertop is off white, and it makes stains and mould stand out more under the light. I hope that we make the right color choice, and I just can't wait to see it next Friday.

It's life

I can see that my little hon is getting there, his terrible two! I was complaining to one of my girlfriends that sometimes, my little hon will do things that drives me crazy! My little hon is quite a handful now. He is always picking things up, playing with them a little while, and dropping them around the house, especially the alphabets bath foams & alphabets & number fridge magnets! Each time, when these little alphabets go missing, I have to search the whole house to make sure that they are in complete set. At times, my little hon will take out all his crayons, going and naming through the colors one by one WITHOUT putting them back into the box! This drives me nuts because I hate crayons to be lying around on the carpet, and I am particular about putting things back in place. And at times, he will be like a caterpillar, trying to crawl under my coffee table, and other times, a little monkey, trying to jump from one couch to another! On good days, my little hon will run towards me with hugs and kisses. On bad days, it will be "NO, and more NO!" to everything, including his favorite dessert, ice-cream! Though my little hon drives me nuts at times, I still could handle them pretty calmly. My girlfriend whom I was complaining to has 3 children, age 4,6,9, and she was telling me how her 4 years old daughter insists doing things her own way, how her 6 year old son refuses to let her hug and kiss him in public, and how her 9 year old daughter rolling her eyes, and talking back at her! OMG! I really can't imagine, my little hon doing those to me! No way! But wait a minute, didn't I used to do that to my mum? I used to roll my eyes on her when she refused to let me out too late in the night, I used to talk back to her when she kept nagging at me for using the phone for long hours, I used to stomp my feet, throw my tandrum when I didn't get what I wanted. I must be giving my mum a hard time when I was young, and I believe she has shed many tears when I was growing up. I believe my mum longed to hold me like a baby when I was first born, always be her cute little obedient girl. So when I think of my little hon's terrible two, I guess it's not that horrible as what I think. I just have to take one step at a time. Sometimes, I wonder if I have more than 1 child, would I have more things to worry about, and be more insane if all of them go through the terrible 2s, more terrifying 3s, or the frightening 4s, and will I have sufficient energy left to handle any meltdowns. Now as I come to think about it, I really admire friends who are stay-at-home mum (SAHM), and have 2 or more children to handle. I can imagine how crazy it is with 2 or more children if they have meltdowns at the same time! And as the cute little ones grow older, they enjoy phone talking to their friends, wanting to watch their own tv shows, and enjoy their alone time more. I can't help but to entertain such thoughts that my little hon will one day no longer be my little cute baby who used to do things together, and learn things from his Mommy. Whether my hubby and I have 1 or more children, we both know that we cannot keep them with us forever. But I guess, I am a selfish Mommy who wants my child to be with me, and be my cute little baby forever. Maybe I really need to learn to let go, and maybe I should focus all my love to my hubby instead of my little hon, because eventually, my hubby will be the only one who will stay by me forever ;P .....I guess I am thinking too much now .....I'd better enjoy every moment, every second I have with my little hon before he grows too fast....