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Sunday, 17 February 2008

Audrey's note to Mom

Audrey is now writing notes to me. She doesn't write to me very often but when she does, the content is quite hilarious. I can thank her kindergarden teacher for encouraging her to write... the theory is that spelling doesn't matter - children should just write freely and eventually they will learn to spell. I think it is a brilliant concept so I want to continue to encourage her writing...I think. Anyhow, here is a note that she wrote to me.

Isn't this lovely? Audrey gave me a wonderful note with a gift!

ohhh!! The gfit is a note she wrapped for me in her Auroa Rose face cloth. sweet. I wonder what it says!

Gee... What an insightful gift.

Saturday, 16 February 2008

Audrey's Piano Recital

Written Dec 2, 2007
Audrey had a piano recital on Nov 28, 2007. She played 4 pieces and we were so proud. For about a month, we played a game we called “recital” where Audrey would make people sit and be the audience and then she would walk in and play the piano. It worked like a charm. She practiced walking to the piano and taking a bow… it was great.

Here’s the link to the video. Click Here

I had 2 people taking videos… Bob and our helper Devika. Both of them missed the part when Audrey walks out and bows to the audience. I was a little annoyed… I mean, read the program! You can’t be surprised that she's coming out next if you actually READ. I wanted to see what she looked like when she bowed… I bet it was super duper cute!
I love Audrey’s school

Written Dec 2, 2007
I really really love the school that Audrey goes to. It’s surprisingly good… I wonder why I’m so surprised but I guess I didn’t think Kindergarden was so… educational. Audrey’s learning to spell and write upper and lower case… it’s just so fascinating to see her learn and advance so quickly. I wish that I went to a school like this when I was a kid. Why do I love it? Well, let me tell you…

1. They do cool stuff. They learn by playing games. They had a field trip to a Hindu temple. I’ve never been to a Hindu temple before. She brings home a lot of art and creative creations too… I wish I did that as a kid!
2. They are very focused on education and learning. They called Halloween, “Book-o-ween” and the kids had to dress as a book character. The kids also had to bring in the book for Halloween. It was brilliant!
3. They like to have parents involved. I volunteer in the classroom at least once a week and I'm not the only one. Audrey is so excited when I come and help.
4. The mandarin program is good and her teacher is lovely! Audrey is singing songs and correcting me when I try to sing. It's pretty hilarious.
I had originally thought that I would take Audrey out and put her in the Chinese Int’l school just for the bilingual education but since she’s getting mandarin classes in HKIS and getting some outside tutoring, I think we’ll keep her in HKIS.

This is Bob's Mother as the "Mystery Reader" for Audrey's class. The other is Audrey with her book about her recital during the "Author Celebration".
To have 3 or not to have 3…

written Dec 1, 2007
I've come to the conclusion that I am not going back to work. Bob works long hours and I need to balance out his parental absence with my parental presence. What I may do is sign up for this Intensive Mandarin course at HKU (Hong Kong Univeristy) which is 5 days a week and 3 hours a days. Perhaps I'll actually learn how to finally speak this language correctly.

Now that I’m not working and my day is filled with the kids, I find myself a little baby crazy. For about 3 weeks, I was actually pregnant but then we found out that it was not a viable pregnancy. We’re ok with it… I mean, we’re sad and disappointed but it was our 3rd pregnancy. After the initial shock and grieving, it’s hard to get all worked up about it. The baby never was formed… the sac was there but no heartbeat. Bob and I created a dud… and yes, I’m joking about it now. The question is then… was I fully pregnant? Can you be a little pregnant? My doctor said that my body may take months to realize the pregnancy isn’t working (can you believe that?) so I had the procedure where they took the sac out of my womb just 2 days ago. They knocked me out to do this. It was totally easy. The only weird thing that happened is that I bit my tongue when I got knocked out and I got a black and blue mark on my tongue!

The pregnancy knocked me out of my marathon training (no big deal… training isn’t all that fun) and knocked us back into deciding whether or not to have 3 kids. I was all ready to have something else make the decision for us (ie a pregnancy). We’ll see what happens. I call the last pregnancy the “planned accident”. Maybe we’ll plan another “accident”.

Friday, 15 February 2008

Our first Halloween in Hong Kong

Audrey was Snow White and Courtney was a flower and a lady bug.Courtney didn’t want to keep any of the costumes on for any length of time.Audrey practically fell asleep in her costume.We went to a friend’s apartment complex to go Trick-or-Treating because apparently our building has a lot of HK locals and local families don’t get into Halloween so there are no trick or treaters.I don’t know that they are thinking…Halloween is soooo much fun.

Audrey had a parade in their school today and I was volunteering in the classroom so I show up dressed as a witch.I wore all black and wore a witch’s hat that had some creepygrey hair.I was the only parent dressed in remotely anything Halloweenish! At first I felt a little foolish but hey!It’s Halloween!!!