English Class

When we first took LanLan to her Kindergarten class she asked if her teacher was going to speak English or Chinese and when we told her that it would be in English she responded with "But I need to keep learning Chinese.".  I could hear my husband's heart breaking, it is his dream for her to speak fluent Chinese . . . and she will soon forget it all.

I'm pretty sure though, she is enjoying being in English school and surrounded all the time by English. A day or two ago LanLan pulled a comic book out of a cereal box.  So excited about it she ran up to her grandmother and said "Look, it's in English!!"

(We would get her comic books in China, in Chinese of course, but I don't think she knew they existed in English.)

元宵节 (Yuan Xiao Jie - Lantern Festival)

Yuan Xiao Jie is the last holiday celebrated for the New Year. Translated, yuan xiao jie is called The Lantern Festival. It falls 2 weeks after New Years day when there is a full moon. On this holiday you eat yuan xiao which look like a full moon.

LanLan celebrated at school by getting to dance with her classmates in a dragon/lion costume. I wish I could have been there to see that, it sounded fun. They also made yuan xiao together.

LanLan described the process like this . . .
First you take rice and mash it down with your hands.
Next you take some black stuff and put it in the middle.
Then you roll it up into a ball and then you roll in some flour.

She was very proud of her Yuan Xiao and wanted to eat them right away. I was very impressed with them and excited to see how they turned out but I told her she needed to wait till daddy came home. When daddy did come home he had bought some yuan xiao at the store and so we cooked them and ate them for dinner.

I love yuan xiao! The outside is a glutinous rice dough and then inside is a delicious bean paste that tastes like peanut butter. Yum YUM!! (I believe that they make them with all different kinds of fillings.)

Happy Yuan Xiao Jie!!

Can You Hear Me Now?

LanLan has had a few ear infections in her life. For the past 2 years she has seemed to have hearing issues after getting sick (w/ or w/o an ear infection). We also noticed that she seemed to have issues hearing after we flew on an airplane. As parents we have struggled to know if it has been true hearing issues or just a listening & obeying issue.

We decided that we would take LanLan to the ENT to have her hearing checked.

Waiting for the test took over an hour but the kids did great entertaining themselves with snacks & toy cars.

There were so many people waiting to have their hearing checked the audiology lab closed for the morning. Thankfully we already had our slip turned in to have the test done.

We prepared our little orchid before hand for what the test would be like. She was very excited to listen for the beep and raise her hand.

LanLan was so excited after the test she told me "Mama I heard it!"

We went back to talk to the doctor with the results to hear what he had to say. He actually wasn't very informative. All he told us was "She has a middle ear infection. Here is a prescription for medicine." He didn't even give us the dosage. I was shocked and said "How can you diagnose an ear infection from a hearing test?!" We didn't anything explained to us at the hospital, we weren't even sure about the results of the test.

When we arrived home I called my brother who is also an ENT. I read the results to him over the phone and he talked with me and explained everything to me. He told me that LanLan had significant hearing loss in the right ear (the left was normal). He said that there shouldn't be any permanent hearing loss and that as soon as the fluid build up/pressure in the ear (we don't think it really is an infection) was gone the hearing should return. My brother said that after 6 weeks the fluid/pressure should subside and the hearing should be normal. If it isn't we can go from there.
I had mixed feelings through this whole ordeal. Relieved that there actually is something wrong with LanLan's hearing (and she isn't just ignoring her mother's instructions). Sad that my baby girl actually does have a hearing issue making it hard for her to hear mama & daddy/her teachers/friends . . . Frustrated that the doctor at the hospital was not helpful or informative, but not surprised. Thankful that I have a brother who is an ENT and was able to explain things to me. Impatiant as we have to wait 6 weeks before we know what the next step will be.

Math Class

This Friday we were invited to come to LanLan's Preschool to observe a math class. It was interesting to see what she is learning (as a 4 year old in a Kindergarten class in China). A few weeks ago LanLan came home with a sheet of math problems saying that she had to finish it before going to school the next day. We worked on simple addition problems (all numbers adding up to 5) for 30 minutes past bedtime. Another day we were practicing counting at home and she asked to count by 100's. Other than that I had no idea what her teachers were teaching at school.

When the class began the teacher pulled out these visual adds to help with counting. I was a little surprised that they are learning to read numbers in the 1000's. I remember working with these things when I was in 1st or 2nd grade, and here my 4 year old daughter is learning it.

After going through and identify which represented 1's, 10's, 100's, & 1000's the teacher pulled out papers with different numbers on them and the kids worked on pulling the proper bead sets to represent the numbers.

At the end of the class the kids split up in groups and the parents got to participate with the students.

It was great to see LanLan's teacher in action and LanLan in the classroom setting. Her teacher said lots of great things about my little Orchid, plays well with the kids, excels in everything especially drawing but is a bit behind in math. She is probably a little behind mostly because we don't reinforce these math concepts at home, I haven't thought about doing it since she is only 4. She also does struggle with the language. We will probably start to practice these concepts and numbers in Chinese at home so she can keep up with the class.

More Turkey Please

Getting a turkey here can be very difficult and very expensive, so if we get one it's a BIG deal. LanLan (living her entire life out of America) doesn't grasp American holidays easily. We want her to know her roots so we try and explain special holidays and make them as much as we can like what she would experience in America. I got really excited that we could get a turkey and therefore making her excited (but she doesn't really know why).

LanLan would ask when we were going to eat the turkey and I would respond, "On Thursday, Thanksgiving day". When Thanksgiving arrived she was so excited, she ran around telling her friends "We get to eat turkey today!!"

We sat down to dinner, served up the plates, and began eating. After awhile LanLan came up to me carrying her plate and asked "Can you give me more turkey please?!"

Pointing to the untouched pile of turkey I looked at her a little puzzled and said "That's turkey right there."

"Oh, can I have more of this stuff?" pointing to the bacon on her plate.

Flower Girl

My sweet "little orchid" was in a wedding this past weekend. It was her first time to be a flower girl. It wasn't a typical wedding someone from a Western country might think of. Although there were a few things that were similar there were more things that were out of the ordinary. The father walked the bride down the aisle which was a dirt street covered with a red carpet and shoulder to shoulder people pushing their way to see. As the bride, father of the bride and the two flower girls walked down the "aisle" people sprayed silly string and threw confetti. I guess this is like our tradition of throwing rice, or now a days, bird seed or bubbles. The ceremony took place inside the courtyard of the groom's house where people just crowded in so they could see.

Though my daughter was born in China and has been "popular" since the first time we took her outside you can see her personality shining through in the above picture. When lots of people she doesn't know are around she turns inward and internalizes everything. She doesn't talk (even very little to mom & dad), clings to mom or dad (in the picture she is staying very close to her friend) and never smiles. Looking at her I thought she was very scared and about to cry. I didn't think she was enjoying the experience. But I guess I was wrong...

When we left I talked to her and asked her what she thought about the wedding. She told me that she had a great time! She loved walking down the aisle and having people throw stuff at her. I never would have thought looking at that face.

Popularity

Being a child with white skin in China can be a little overwhelming. Fair skin is considered true beauty in China. If you watch the ads or look at the skin products they sell here most things are to help whiten your skin. So when a Chinese person sees a child with white skin they are fascinated and think they are the most beautiful person they have ever seen. (I don't blame them, my children are the most beautiful! hehe)

We knew we were in for a ride when we took LanLan to the park when she was only a couple months old. In a matter of minutes we were surrounded by at least 25 people just looking at her, wanting to take her picture, or taking a picture with her. My husband had to stand on a ledge to get out of reach from people so they wouldn't touch her. It's been 4 years since that has happened and almost every time we go out (especially to parks or an attraction) people come crowding around to have a look. It can get taxing and most of the time LanLan doesn't appreciate it.

Yesterday I was shocked! I noticed that a woman was eyeing my two children and I saw her get her camera out (not surprising). But she had the sweetest spirit and spoke so kindly. She talked to LanLan, asking her name, telling her she was beautiful (also not surprising) and then asked if she could take a picture with her. Most of the time people don't even ask they just do it. Occasionally we will have someone ask but there was something totally different about this woman. LanLan I think was taken with this woman's kindness and agreed to take a picture with her! (LanLan will usually refuse)