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Bright Horizons

Ashlyn & Alex are going to start school on next Monday.  The facility invited us to meet with the teachers and the staff today, we decided to take Ashlyn & Alex along with us.

The meeting was set for this afternoon, 3-ish.  30mins to meet with Alex's teacher, and 30mins to meet with Ashlyn's.  The purpose of the meeting was to go over some forms, things that we want the teachers to know about, and to answer any questions we had in mind.

At the beginning, both kids were quiet, demanded to sit on our laps.  10mins later, Alex wanted to sit alone and started to drink water.  Before you know it, he started to talk, alot, non-stop.  Ashlyn still observing the place and people.  Soon after Alex was sitting alone, Ashlyn asked to have her own chair to sit in, and demanded for pen and paper to scribble.

They invited us to check out Ashlyn's classroom.  What a great idea.  Not only we got to meet the teachers, watch they kids interact, the most important was that I got to see how Ashlyn react to the new place and people.  I'm not too worry about Alex getting involve with other people, Ashlyn concerns me the most.

To my surprise, when she saw something interested her, she let go of my hand and explored.  As we were leaving, she demanded to play at the playground and didn't want to go.  It seemed like a good start for her and Alex.  I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed, and hoping it's not gonna be too difficult on Monday.

: )

Facebook Search Updates

Oh, it’s not her. The person I contacted thought she might be the potential long lost friend I was trying to locate, replied. It’s not her. So, my search continues.

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Facebook

I have received a few invitations from friends to join Facebook awhile ago, but I didn't feel that I have a need to. For whatever reason, I finally signed up just an hour ago, and surfed a bit.  I was amazed how great this network is.  Hack, I have a website, started blogging, signed up bloglines, why not Facebook?

First of all, it pulls the contacts from your email, and if your contacts already are Facebook members and upload pictures in the profiles, you will be able to see it.  I was in shock to see some of the profile pictures of my friends/email contacts.  For those I haven't seen them for years, most of them haven't changed a bit, a few of them..., let's just say I had to look very closely, and starred for minutes, and view pictures in their photo albums, to come to the conclusion "that's the person!", not just random pictures of strangers they used.

I just had a few great conversation with a friend and his dad in HKG, whom are very close friend of my family.  And there's a possibility that I might have found a friend from HKG whom we attended the same school and I lost touch with years ago.  Couldn't really tell cux the profile picture was too small.  I just sent her a message and waiting for her reply.

Ashlyn's Latest Favorite Song

Drawings

Nowadays, whenever Ashlyn & Alex sit down, they ask for pens and paper. Here are their recent masterpieces.

Ashlyn's Self Portrait

Ashlyn wrote the E, L, and A, but she didn't write ALEX

Use your imagination, not sure what she was trying to draw

Alex's first drawing

These are happy faces, according to him.

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Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

中秋快樂

The Kids

We had dinner at the in-laws' on Saturday. Brother & sister in-law came with their daughters too.

We finally able to take a decent picture of all of the 4 kids. Although not looking at the camera/directions the same time, but at least they were willing to sit down quietly, calmly for the picture.

From left: Allyna (2.5 years old), Jolie (8 months old), Ashlyn (3 years and 3 months old) & Alex (2 years and 2 months old).

Bargain Shopper

I took Ashlyn, along with my aunt to Costco on Sunday. As we walked in, we saw these cute little cardigan, perfect for Ashlyn to wear at home. We let her hold on to it as we shop. We got home, Ashlyn got off the car, and she said:

"係唔係減價呀? 好平呀?"
"Is it on sale? Very good price?"

One bargain shopper in the making!!

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What Do You See??

My brother, Jeff, and sister in law, Penny, are expecting their first child in Spring 2008. Penny just had the amniocentesis (抽羊水) done 2 days ago and the results was GOOD!

This morning, Jeff and I IM'ed a little. Obviously, my first question was "you got the result back?" Here is our conversation:

Miss CHU 朱小姐: got the results?

Penny 叉燒: yes.... everything is OK.

Miss CHU 朱小姐: boy or girl?

** one minute later, no response **

Miss CHU 朱小姐: BOY OR GIRL AH?????

** 5 seconds later, request to accept/transfer file **

Miss CHU 朱小姐: image too small la

Miss CHU 朱小姐: baby sneezing??

Penny 叉燒: hahahaha

Miss CHU 朱小姐: cannot tell wor

so, here is the image Jeff sent me.

Conversation continues:

Miss CHU 朱小姐: is this really your baby??

Penny 叉燒: look closer la...

Miss CHU 朱小姐: looks like the baby is driving, and slaming on the brake

Miss CHU 朱小姐: aiya, the image is very very very tiny

Penny 叉燒: shifting gears.....

Miss CHU 朱小姐: AAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Miss CHU 朱小姐: so, it's not image of your bb la

Penny 叉燒: no la

Miss CHU 朱小姐: but very cute

Get it? Any winners??

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It's Official !

It's official, I think. It's been 3 weeks in a row that Ashlyn went diaperless, even nap time and sleep time at night. Zero accidents (touch on wood).

She calls out everytime she needs to use the bathroom. I think it's pretty safe to say it's official that Ashlyn IS now potty trained. So proud of her! ; )

There goes savings on diaper money! HA HA!

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ARE YOU READY ??

Finally, we got good news from the Cisco Family Connection, where they offer daycare/pre-school/pre-K programs. They now have openings for both Ashlyn and Alex, and they can start as early as Oct. 22. Although it's only a 3-day week, it should be a good start for them. If we give up the spaces, we will be on the bottom of the waiting list. No, No, No, that's not gonna happen!!

Baba picked up all the necessary paperwork this morning, and we must turn in the applications and fee no later than tomorrow evening to make it official.

There are so many questions running in my mind since we received the email last night. Would they get used to it? Would they cry on the first day? How am I gonna video tape both of them on the first day of school? What time should we start? Is 9am too early? Can they start 9:30am?

Oh well, they are going to start going to school some time anyways, why not start now?

Now I can tell people "YES, my kids are going to school now!"

~

V. I. P.

COACH has the V.I.P./Preferred customers sale event going on right now (by invitation only), and I'm lucky that I have some V.I.P. friends. My dear friend, Elaine, she's so generous that she sent me her invitaion. 25% off all Fall merchandise.

I went and shopped for coworkers in Taiwan, and I was told the price in Taiwan is twice of USA's. So, I picked up couple of items for my coworkers, then I found this. Probably new this season, never seen it before, the COACH Beauty item. I knew they introduced the perfume earlier this year, now, they have lipstick (3 shades) and a shimmer powder compact.

I bought the lip stick color ROSE, a more neutral color, retail $18, and the shimmer powder compact for my cousin as her birthday gift, retail $38.

You see, there's even the COACH logo on the lipstick itself.

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Halloween is Haunting !

Soon after Labor Day, stores already started to put Halloween items on shelves. Last year, I went every where to scout for the perfect Halloween costume for Alex. The requirements: keep the kid warm, easy on and off, under $20.

I stumbled upon Old Navy store and found this perfect costume for Alex. Not only it met all of the requirements and it was the C-U-T-E-S-T around town. O, did I mention it worked well with Ashlyn's too. Last year, Ashlyn was JoJo the Circus Clown, so, Alex was her best friend, Golith the Lion.

The belly and the butt of the lion costume was filled with synthetic cotton, and when Alex walked, the belly and the butt swinging left and right.

This year, Ashlyn is determined to be a Princess, so I can put all my energy to scout for Alex's costume. I had couple ideas in mind. Pirate, Turtle, Gold fish. I ended up getting the Pirate from Old Navy. It's been almost a week since I purchased the costume, I have been trying to lure Alex to try on the costume, but he refuses. I will keep trying. Here is the picture from Old Navy website.

Here are the other costume I had in mind. Turtle from The Children's Place, and the Gold Fish from Babystyle.

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What else is there?

As we were walking back to the hotel from Time Squre, we saw this from far away, and needless to say, we must stop by and check it out (it's already 11pm):

This is just one of the many clips they play on the screen. I guess if I had video taped every one of them, it would take a good 15-20 mins. Go see it for yourself.

We were suprised to see a Disney store on the 5th Ave. Just out of curiosity, we had to check it. WOW was the only i can come up with. It's a 3-story store. The ground level had all the princess stuffs, the Micky stuff and souvenir items. The first day, yes, the first day, we went back again and again. On the first day/time we were there, we must have spent a good hour to hour and half there just to check out everything. They have every character you have ever seen on the cartoon network, movies, and story books. You know how High School Musical is so hot now. When we were there, 4 of the staff came out with the High School cheerleading outfit and singing songs and dancing the moves from teh High School Muscial. There were kids around the age of 7 to 10 singing and dacning with them, and they knew all the moves and didn't miss a beat!!

*more to come*