winkipinki_mom's Xanga

compare moms

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:08:22 GMT

This past Sat. we were all getting ready for attending a wedding which the kids were also invited for a 1st time. So I was giving Elise some nail polish for this special occasion; then she starts to have some questions and comments.....

E: "Mom, when you are little, do you put nail polish on your fingers?"

Me: "no"

E: "Why?

Me: "Because my mom, your grandma didn't let me do that."

E: "Do you wish you had it?"

Me: "yeah..."

E: "Oh... GOOD THING I DON'T HAVE A MOM LIKE THAT!"

Me: "um..."

"in-visi-ble"

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:59:40 GMT

my smart Elise is starting to use BIG words in our conversation... like "archeologist" which is whom she wants to be when she grows up... and now "invisible" and she uses her vocabulary mostly appropriately in her sentences!

so the other night after putting them for bed, she came to my bed to ask for some water. And I told her to go downstairs to get some from the kitchen which is not a hard task for her. She asked me if anyone is downstair? And I can see where that question is leading to... (the answer is NO, then she'd said she is afraid to go alone; and refuse to get the water herself; then I'll go get it for her, then she can chat more and stay up later.... NO, that isn't gonna happen) So I answer her, "YES. She knew daddy wasn't home that night, and Ju is already in bed, so she asked me who it is curiously. I said, "Jesus!" Then, she starts to whine: "NO.... I don't want someone is INVISIBLE with me, I want someone like daddy to go downstair with me!!" I can already see that she'd be out smart her parents by 1st grade...

question from Elise

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:51:09 GMT

Yesterday in the car ride; out of a period of unusual silence, Elise asked me: " Mommy, when I was vry very little, do I live inside an egg?"

Elise's love story

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:58:38 GMT

I look at Elise and amazed by how quickly she has grown and so articulate is her speaking. So jokingly I said to her. "don't grow up any more, okay?!" And she shouted, "NO, I WANT TO TURN 4, AND HAVE A BIRTHDAY PARTY!" I tease her some more and said, "but if you grow up, you won't be so cute any more?!" and she said, "that's okay, you will still love me!" (i guess she's right!)

Elise & Nerf gun

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:24:28 GMT

that's the nerf gun we got for tonight's fight. so fun!

Emman and I both bought some nerf gun today to get ready for a fight after dinner with the kids. So while I was getting dinner ready, I heard Emman whisper to Elise to shoot me with her nerf gun. But Elise said, "NO! Otherwise I won't have dinner!" After all, she knows who the boss is...

my heavenly daddy's words

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:11:07 GMT

Last night before Ju go to sleep, I had to talk to her about some repeated misbehavior she had yesterday. I was serious and calm but towards the end of my talk, she already has watery eyes. And somehow I knew what's behind those tears. I remember I was that little girl when my mom got mad at me, I was so sad for doing the wrong things that I didn't even realize why I did it; and I was afraid that my mom would be mad at me forever and she seems so mad and I truly believe she hates me. I ask her if she is sad, she nods. I feel this is what my heavenly daddy is speaking to me, I said to Juliette, "I am not mad at you, I already forgive you and same is God. The reason I am telling you is so that you could make a better choice next time. Mommy will always love you no matter what you did right or wrong. You know, God knows that we are going to make bad choices, that's why He send Jesus to take away our sins! If we never make mistakes, then Jesus doesn't have to come!" I feel His grace filled my heart and hers and His love covers all wrong. I see the sadness and shame has lifted from her face too.

Birthday Letter to Juliette on her 7th birthday

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:48:35 GMT

I got this idea from my sister & brother-in-law for writing a letter to reflect the growth and memory of their children and mail it out for them to receive on their birthday. So good thing I start to plan Ju's birthday early this year, so here is a letter we send to Ju from me and my hubby. For me, God has blessed me through the time of writing this letter what a sweet blessing she is to me; and it has deepen my love for her more and more in the process of writing the letter. This process also reminds me what are the things that worth the investment of my life, it's not 'things' but 'people' around me. 'cuz things are temporary but souls are eternal...

so here it is: (it's very long,she didn't finish reading it... hehe... i guess it's too long and boring!)

Our Dear Juliette,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I am not sure when you will read this letter, but daddy and mommy want to use this opportunity of your birthday to let you know how much we enjoy this past year of you in our lives; and so much good memories we had. Also, we want to celebrate your growth by looking back on what you had done and how you have grown in this past year.

Physical

You had many “First Time” experiences this year. It was your first to go skiing, and we had so much fun sliding down in the inner-tube and playing in the snow with our family. It was also your first time of playing soccer and we enjoy seeing you kicking the ball and running around on the field having fun! And I am so glad you love playing it too! We want to encourage you to find sports and activities that you enjoy. We know that sometimes they can be hard to learn or practice, but we know that you will do well if you try hard and do your best.

Emotional

It’s also the first time we have turtles and you help to take care and love them so much. Remember when we first got them and you wanted to name them “Micah and Toby”! Well, at least we got to have two new turtle brothers in our family, Ge-ge and Di-di. We know that you always have a sweet and gentle heart since you are little. Especially you are a wonderful Jie-jie to Elise, always very helpful and forgiving even when she is not on her best behavior. And sometimes it can be frustrating or annoying when she wants to copy you or fight with you, but it is because she looks up to you and wants to be like her older sister.

You have also become a great helper. There are so many things that you have done that really shows how much you have grown. You could get the mail for me, and you would open the car door for me to get ready for leaving the house. And because of your help, I was able to finish decorating the cakes much faster than doing it all by myself. And of course, you did so great in baking those delicious Christmas cookies with me. Sometimes I look at your soft and sweet face, I can’t believe you are turning 7 already and going to become a big girl soon!

This year you have become more independent. You start to enjoy sleeping over at Gong-gong and Po-po's house. That’s something I know it was difficult for you in the past, but you have become braver than before. And I was surprised that you were not scared of going on the Dragon Roller Coaster ride in Legoland, because even I felt a little bit scared.

Academics

One of the exciting thing about you in this past year is to see you become better and better at reading! It is great that you are even reading all the words from the packaging of the snacks; and you are reading the names of the restaurants so that you can tell us where to go for dinner next time. Also your most recent accomplishment in being “radified” as a super reader at school. We know being able to read has been your prayer requests for a long time, and God has helped you and blessed you with a bright mind to read and understand. And you works so hard to do that, we are so proud of you!

We are also proud of how hard you work at both your Piano and Chinese lessons. We know that sometimes it is not fun to do those things and sometimes it is hard to learn new piano pieces, and yet you didn't give up and just keep on practicing! One of the many great jobs you had done this past year worth mentioning is you got the Honor Student award from your music school. We want you to know how proud we are that you continue to practice your lessons and when we see you performing at the piano recitals, we are so happy for you when you do your best. And in Chinese, wasn't it great that when we went back to Taiwan, you got to use the Chinese that you learned. We hope that you will continue in your Chinese learning so that you can benefit from having the ability to speak in two languages.

Spiritual

Also, we see that you have grown in knowing our God better and better and also trusting Him to be with you all the time. Remember how you used to always say you were scared at night and we would pray with you to remember that God is always with you and now you can pray and talk to God on your own. We are so happy to see that you feel comfortable to pray to God. Because our heavenly Father loves you and wants to listen to you. We are encouraged to hear what you are learning about God from your school and church classes.

Social

Another fun and “First Time” you got to do is to go watch a musical of “High School Musical” and we got to spend some mother-daughter time with Auntie Susan and Gracie. I really enjoy of the time of doing things with you. It is so interesting to hear different things you learn from school or your friends, and it helps me to understand you better. And what about the Father-Daughter dance with daddy, that really helped me (daddy) to realize that I am blessed to have daughters and how different they are from boys and how I have to treat and care for you differently from a boy.

You also developed two great friends this year, Gracie and Kristen. This has also been one of our prayer requests for you this year that you would develop good friends with whom you can talk to and enjoy your time together. It makes us happy to see how much fun you girls have when you are together.

It is been a wonderful year and it is truly a blessing for daddy and mommy to watch you learn and grow and sharing many memories together. We love you very much.

Love,

Daddy & Mommy

January, 2008

E's comments about preschool

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:11:22 GMT

So the other night, the girls are talking about how many more vacation days they have before returning to school. Elise starts to give me her opinion about NOT going back to school. She said, "I don't want to go back to school anymore. Because it is BORING! And we also HAVE TO do a lot of things at school!" And this is PRESCHOOL she's talking about!!

Juliette's bedtime prayer

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 06:18:53 GMT

tonight Ju prays for us before bedtime, she starts with the usual line of "Dear God, we thank you for the wonderful day we have..." then she continues with "I hope you had a good birthday party, and thank you for have Jesus come and to take away our sins.... and in Jesus' name!" This was the lesson of her sunday school this past Sunday, I am not sure how much she comprehends the idea of "Jesus took away our sins," at least it's a step of her understanding of our faith that she makes the connection between Chistmas and God send His son, Jesus to be born for us. I praise God for the little seed of faith and truth is planted in her.

the goal for my kids... (i'm just thinking out loud)

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:40:45 GMT

Being a stay-at-home mom, I'm constantly being challenged by my "work" because the children are constantly growing and changing! One thing that I was always need to exam and ask myself is, "what is my goal in parenting? What do I hope their lives to look like?" Often I hear comments like, "I just want my kid to be happy with what they do... " or "I want them to make the right choice." But somehow I don't feel that's the goal God wants us to do as parents. If it is, God could've just make every child into a happy robot. The obvious and simple answer is to raise them to be godly people or people who loves God. But what does that look like in a close view in the different stage and different areas of their lives?! Does that mean if I do my job right, they won't be involved with drugs or any scary things?! Or supposedly according to many modern parenting teaching, if we truly model a good marriage or parents; then they will turn out to be less messed up than us?! Or say if we tried our best to help them explore and develop their interests and strength of their ability so that they could have a career that they are happy with... But what if, they still got into big trouble in their teenage years?! what if they still can't get their acts together after they finish school?! Or a worse crime and shame for a Christian parent, what if our children stop going to church?!

When our children turn out to be in these type of situations of their lives, what does that say for our parenting job? and what is God trying to do there?! Does that mean we fail as parents?! Maybe, or maybe not. But one thing for sure is we, as parents will fail them somewhere and sometimes!

Is there really a principle that ensure our children have a "better" life if we do our best as parents? I believe it works only on one direction which is, "if we are good Christian parents; pray, teach and model Christ for our children; they will experience more God and might have a deeper relationship." But I don't think the principle guarantee any negative results which is guarantee that "if we are great christian parents, then our children won't forsake their faith nor would they commit serious sins in their lives." It seems obvious to us in life examples that we see many respected ministers or Christians parents have children who did things that aren't honoring their parents and family. But we can't help wonder why is the kid this way while their parents are such wonderful people or we wonder if there is anything we can do or not-do to avoid making similar parenting mistakes.

We've all heard of this common principle, "our children should lean from our mistakes so that they won't make mistakes or so that they could be more successful or so that they could be happier or spiritual.. or whatever you fill in the blank." But is making their lives better/easier/spiritual/comfortable/ really the goal of parents?! I wrestle with God for a long time during my teenage days about this idea of trial and suffering. I asked God, "is my suffering and pain really necessary?! Why gives me trial while I'm already devoted to you, Why do you test my faith?! In fact, God, I love you so much and I'd love you even more if you just bless me and don't give me anymore suffering!" And of course I learned that indeed we need to be tested and tried in order for God to purified us (so little I knew back then about how much pride and problems that I need God to work in me) and through trials that deepened our relationship with God. So God's concern is for my life to be changed and my relationship with Him. God's concern about my children is NOT whether they would know how to resist temptation so that they won't take drug or engage premarital sex or they would married to godly men and build beautiful christian family... of course that's what I hope for and nothing is wrong in itself. But I starts to understand that's not the ultimate goal of my job as parent. Because they can't become humble without their pride being crushed; they can't extend grace and mercy to others without needing grace and mercy at first place; and they can't become like Christ without experiencing Him through trials and sufferings. I think this is the comfort God gives me to bring peace to my heart as to "what and how I am doing as a parent?" Sometimes I still feel very conscious about how people would judge me by judging my kids' behaviors and performance. (and unfortunately that's because I judge others that way too!) And sometimes I can't help to worry about my kids' future. But God comforts me and said to me, "don't expect a peaceful and health life for your children; but pray that whatever they experience, they will learn more about me through it; they will learn more about my forgiveness and healing when they experience hurt and loss; they will experience my peace and power when they go through scare or trauma; they will experience my faithfulness and complete acceptance when they experience betrayal and failures"

Oh, Abba Father, you love my children so much, your way is higher than our ways. I'd rather my children experience you deeper everyday than live a comfortable life.