Aidan's School Life

Dear Logan,

I didn't get a chance to give you an update on your brother's little hip condition.  Everything's fine!  He recovered really fast and was back to normal after 2 days.  What a big relief!

Mommy has been very busy with work lately.  Too many things going on and I was going crazy for a while.  This coming week will be another crazy week.  I've been actively looking for a job in the for-profit world, but with a bad economy and so many more qualified candidates out there, I haven't had any luck.  I am really not in a hurry to quit my job, it's just I am mentally and physically tired.  The commute is really getting to me.  Now that your brother's school is in Sunnyvale, I don't have the midway break in Palo Alto anymore.  The traffic down 280 by your place is so bad everyday, sometimes taking 101 is actually faster.

Aidan is enjoying life in his new school.  He is like a little sponge!  He's soaking up all the new words, new ideas, and new discoveries.  I am amazed at the things that they teach to 4-year-olds these days.  He learned about AB color and patterns, Pledge of Allegiance, Book Title and Authors, Earthquake drills, and of course reading and writing.

Aidan has never been an artist.  His art is still no way near the quality of other kids' that I've seen.  However, he has definitely developed a bigger interest in drawing these days.  His favorite thing to draw: Traffic Lights.  He's been drawing pictures of traffic lights and posting them on his bedroom wall.  It's actually really cute.  Of course, I wish he would be drawing cars and airplanes and flowers and trees, but I am happy that he is finally not opposing to drawing.  Took him a while.  His main interests are still in numbers, clocks and calendars.  That's him.  Numbers!

Remember the Spanish number song he sang to you last time?  Yes, he's learning Spanish at school, too.  Hopefully, next year his interest in learning Mandarin will be just as great.


Love you,
Mommy

Oh No! vs. Awww....

When I picked Dan Dan up at day care Wednesday, Mrs K. told me he was "H-I-T-T-I-N-G" another kid. Oh my gosh! Is he at that Terrible 2 stage already? I was surprised because he has always loved playing with this other one-year-old cute baby girl. Apparently, he pushed the girl on the head and grabbed her toy. This is the first time I heard it from day care. He's shown frustration by hitting the table or the floor before. I've seen him trying to get another kid to not touch the horsie that he was on at Tanforan, but nothing at day care. I tried to tell him it's not OK to hit and the baby would be in pain. I am not sure how much he understands. I guess more episodes of that will happen in the near future.

On the other hand, when we picked him up yesterday, he greeted me at the door as always, calling me "Mommy! Mommy!". Then he went over to the cubbies and brought out a sheet of paper for me (all by himself without being prompted by Mrs. K). He showed me a painting that he did! His first from school! Of course, since he's only 2, he just scribbled on the sheet, but the fact that he went over and got it for me, showed how proud he is of himself.

I told Daddy that I've been reading how other mothers save kids artwork in pizza boxes or containers. I think what I am going to do is to start scanning them and put in the "Aidan's Artwork" folder on my computer. If I feel like it, I might make a photobook out of them. Knowing us, these sheets of paper will just be all over the place and become trash.