Smurfy's Blog

When I go into the office from time to time, our son stays at my inlaw’s house. Since I went into the office today, we drove from our house to my inlaw’s house which is about 45 mins to an hour (depending on traffic) in the morning. After dropping Nathan off at my inlaw’s house, my husband and I drive back to the east bay to go to work. Then after work, we drive back down to SF again. Then after dinner, we drive up north to go home. So YES, lots of driving and long commute is crazy!

Just reminds me of all the transportation I took just to go to college at SFSU years ago (take bus from home in north bay to get to the bus terminal, take bus to go to BART, take BART to SF, then take muni train to go to SFSU). I was poor while I was in college. I didn’t have money to buy a car yet. I worked 3 part time jobs just to support myself financially through college. I did borrow my dad’s car from time to time but the car broke down from time to time. :-0 My parents live about 5 to 10 mins drive from my house. But we don’t often see each other. But it is better to take Nathan to my inlaw’s house so he can play with my niece who is almost the same age as him.

When Nathan and his cousin Selena are together, they are like fraternal twins! They always like to do the same things together. They fight over toys at times but they do enjoy each others’ company. Today, when one drinks milk, the other wants to drink milk. They even like to drink milk together!

Notice the fake tatoos on their legs! When one gets a fake tatoo, the other one wants the same thing. Also, when one doesn’t want to wear pants, the other one wants their pants off! 🙂 hehe

Our son will be going through speech therapy at the infant program near our house. Since he was born with cleft lip and cleft palette, going through speech therapy will help him speak clearly. This program is paid by taxpayers money. It is good to know that the taxes we pay is going into these programs that help young kids like my son.

Before our son can begin his speech therapy, the parents has to go through speech therapy as well. The speech therapist (Cathy) and educational therapist (Mary) don’t believe in just a classroom type setting where the child comes in for speech therapy then goes home then goes back to speech therapy another time. That is not how they want the program to work. They want the parents to learn some speech therapy techniques as well so that when the family leaves the speech therapy office, they can continue to teach their child back home.

Today, we had our first session of ‘It takes two to talk’ class which will be a 6 weeks course. While the parents were in class, the children were at the day care next door. In our first session with Cathy, she gave a brief introduction about herself as a speech therapist and talked about what we will learn in class. So today, it was mainly about presentation.

Before Cathy made her presentation, we went around the room to introduce ourselves and talked a little bit about our child like what are some funny things s/he does. After the parents told stories about their child, Cathy seems to have definition about each child’s actions such as behavioral learning, expressive body language or something like that.

In our upcoming sessions, it will be more activities such as role play where one parent is the teacher and other parent is the child. It will be interesting to see how the role play will go. I probably always take the ‘teacher’ role so I can boss my husband around and tell him to behave. 🙂 Once we have learned some techniques, Cathy will work with the family individually and do some speech therapy sessions with our son. After we have completed the 6 weeks sessions, Cathy will set up a time with our son (about few times a month) to continue with his speech therapy. So far, according to Mary (educational therapist), our son will be in this program for at least a year.

Our class consists of 4 families. So far, the only guy present was my husband and the rest were women. The other woman said her husband will join her next time because he couldn’t take off from work. Another woman who is probably in her early or mid-twenties went to the class by herself and made a silly comment. She said ‘I didn’t know this session was also a ‘HUSBAND’ thing.’ Is this woman that traditional or just naive? Does she honestly think that the parenting is done by only women and this class was created only for women? What did she really mean when she said ‘I didn’t know this session was also a ‘HUSBAND’ thing’. If both the husband and wife are raising the child, I believe that BOTH parents should go to this class. BOTH parents should help teach their child how to communicate through speech and use of body language. So yes, this class is also a ‘HUSBAND’ thing, girlfriend. It is created for both parents. I don’t know what she was thinking.

After our first session, we went to the day care to pick up Nathan. We have no problems dropping him off at the day care. Nathan adjusts into an unfamiliar environment easily and quickly. We just had a little problem taking him away from the day care because he was having so much fun playing with the toys. I was afraid he will burst out crying when we tell him we have to leave. But we took our time with him. We explained to him that it is OK to leave for now since he will be back another time. Then we helped him put the toys away. Just happy he didn’t burst out crying while we were leaving the day care.

Today it’s our first time celebrating our son’s birthday! We were not in China yet when he turned 1 year old last year. We first met him in China on Nov 29, 2010.

Nathan loves his Pixar Cars toys so much. He loves cars so much that he plays with other things like a car. He will move his spoon like a car, play with his crayons like a car and even drag his hair brush on a table like a car. So for his 2nd birthday, I bought him a Disney/Pixar Cars suit!

His birthday cake is also Cars!

His birthday dinner was at Buca Di Beppo (http://bucadibeppo.com/) in SF. Since we got into SF early, we had time to take the kids at the nearby playground at Yerba Buena Gardens.

At Buca restuarant, we had our private room which had a big round table that seats 15 guests. In the middle of the lazy Susan, there was this bust of Pope John Paul or one of the Vatican popes. I always had it turned the other way because it felt weird having that bust statue staring at me.

Nathan having spaghetti

Since my parents hasn’t seen Nathan in a long while, it was nice of them to be able to attend his birthday.

Selena covered up with spaghetti sauce

Nathan and Selena giving each other a big hug

It is time for Nathan’s birthday cake!

Nathan opening one of his gifts

That is the sign I saw hanging at the Walgreens pharmacy… ‘Get your Flu shot today and available everyday!’ or something like that. It was printed on pink paper and placed all over the pharmacy area.

There is this Walgreens store about 5 mins drive from my home. So today, I decided to get my Flu shot. This Walgreens is new actually. It recently opened more than a month ago. I have never seen a brand new Walgreens store before. But it was nice going inside a new Walgreens. It has nice clean floors, neatly and organized items, spacious aisles and new employees ready to work! Well, except one employee and it was the pharmacist. She wasn’t ready to start her new day at work.

There were about 5 customers ahead of me. But since there was only one pharmacist at this new Walgreens location, there was a bit of a wait to get my Flu shot. I talked to the pharmacist while she was accessing my insurance information. She told me that there were more pharmacists working with her at this location only in the first few weeks the store opened. After that, she was the only one left. She was the only one taking med orders, giving Flu shots, preparing the med orders and working on the cash register. I told her this is crazy. She needs help! She told me that she has been managing and working at the Walgreens pharmacy for 17 years and she is in need of a break from all this work. I told her that I don’t blame her at all.

While she was helping other customers, she gave me this vaccine consent form which had questions like are you allergic to some meds, you have health problems, bla bla… then I signed the paper at the bottom. When she finally called my name, I approached her at the cash register. She told me I had to pay a $15 co-pay. So when I swiped my credit card and she handed me my receipt, I saw $15.27 on the receipt! Since I waited there long enough, I didn’t bother to ask her what the $0.27 was for.

She told me to go into this room where she will administer the vaccine. I don’t know where she went after I sat down in this room because I waited for a bit. When she finally came back into the room, she told me again ‘I have been a pharmacist for 17 years and I really need a break.’ I forgot what I said to her. But while she was talking to me about not having a break, she pushed that needle onto my left upper arm so hard that I felt a sting for a second. Man, I think she really needed a break from work!

Last year when I had a Flu shot from Kaiser, I didn’t feel any pain at all. I didn’t realized that the person had already given me my Flu shot. My arm didn’t even feel sore.

However, after getting that Flu shot from the pharmacist at Walgreens today, my arm has been sore the rest of the day!

Anyway, I am still glad I got my Flu shot. 🙂

It is really sad to hear that Steve Jobs died. I never met him but I had seen him in person at one of Pixar’s wrap party. I forgot which movie. But it was when Steve Jobs was still CEO of Pixar. I remember seeing him on stage of the movie theater wearing a black top and blue jeans while the other men on stage wore tuxedos.

After Steve Jobs passed away, I just found out that he was adopted. I find it fascinating to read true stories about an adopted child who had grown up to be a very successful person. His story reminds me of the animation movie Meet the Robinsons where a boy gets adopted by the Robinsons family and became a great inventor.

I have great hopes for my son. Nathan may grow up to be a famous doctor who found a cure for AIDS, President of the US, famous sports player, a Software QA Engineer like his mom or IT nerd like his dad 🙂 If he will end up not being any of those I mentioned, I hope he will be successful and happy with his life.

I am a member of this adoption support group called China Expedited Referral Group (CERG). Since my husband is Chinese, we qualify to be in this group. One of our members emailed the group after she watched the story of Steve Jobs. On TV, she heard the reporter say that Steve Jobs was an ‘Unwanted Child’. This member got very offended with the use of ‘Unwanted’ child. She felt that the word was too harsh to describe children who were given up by their biological parents. After hearing ‘Unwanted’ child on TV, this member will write to the TV show to let them know that the use of ‘Unwanted’ child was totally inappropriate.

So far, after reading Steve Jobs story over the internet or watching it on TV, I haven’t heard someone use the word ‘Unwanted’ child. My husband and I adopted Nathan. If I heard ‘Unwanted’ child on TV, I would not be that sensitive about it and write to the TV show to tell them that it was wrong to use that word. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If she is infuriated about it, then perhaps she should voice her feelings to that TV show.

In my opinion, I feel that there are some people who never wanted their own child. I am sure that some of the reasons that parents give up their child are due to poor living situation, financial hardships and/or the inability to take care of a child with a disability/special need. Then there are some other people who never wanted that child (healthy or not healthy) in the first place. They will eventually put up the child for adoption or worst case kill that child. So if I hear someone say ‘Unwanted’ child, I would not get offended by it because I believe that certain people don’t want their biological child.

We went back to the Disneyland park before heading home. Since it is no longer summer, Disneyland park hours are shorter. Today, it opens at 10am and closes at 8pm. We took Nathan back to Fantasyland in the park. He especially love riding the merry-go-round.

For lunch, we tried Cafe Orleans. I ordered the Chicken Gumbo Crepe and Nelson got Monte Cristo sandwich. I shared my food with Nathan. The food actually tastes pretty good but just very pricey. Even though we get food discounts using our Silver Pass, our orders were still expensive.

Chicken Gumbo Crepe

Monte Cristo Sandwich

Before we left the park, there was this dance group that performed in Disneyland. There were at least 30 females and only 1 male! The male was even wearing make-up. I took some pics but when I looked at my pics, I just noticed I took an awkward pic of the male dancer dancing behind one of his female friends.

On our way back home, we decided to have dinner at Harris Ranch (http://www.harrisranch.com/index2.php). It was our first time in that restaurant. I thought the restaurant was going to be plain and look like a Sizzler restaurant. But it is actually a very elegant ranch style restaurant. It also has a very nice hotel nearby. Only thing I didn’t like was the smell of cows! I didn’t see an animal farm but the area smelled like cows. But once you get inside the restaurant, the smell disappears! If you are a carnivore, this is a good place to have fresh meat!

I got the 12oz dried and aged prime rib

Nathan was given crayons and paper to draw. I decided to help him draw something. I can’t draw at all! My cow looks more like a mix between a bat and 4-legged animal.

Since we are staying at Disneyland Hotel, guests of the hotel can go into the park an hour early before it officially opens to the public. We got to the park around 7am which is the Disney magic hour. The park opens at 8am to the public. Even though the magic hour is only 1 hr, we got to go on a lot of rides especially in Fantasyland. Normally, the Peter Pan and Dumbo rides are popular and very crowded. So we got to ride them before the line got too long.

For lunch, we went to the Roundup and Bbq. We had very good ribs and chicken plus corn bread and beans.

After lunch, we visited the animal farm

Nathan’s first time riding the monorail

Back in our hotel room, I was spying on some bridal party. I wonder how much it cost to have a wedding in Disneyland. I am sure it will be very expensive.

Disneyland Hotel gave Nathan balloons and bday button even though his bday is not until Oct.

On this day, I am happy to announce that my son finally figured out how to drink from a straw! We ate dinner at Tortilla Joes in Downtown Disney. When we sat down in the restaurant, I just remembered that we forgot Nathan’s sippy cup in our hotel room. While Nelson walked back to the hotel room which is just a walk away, I wanted to see if Nathan is able to drink his milk from a straw. He kept biting on the straw at first but I told him not to. When I told him to sip, he managed to get the milk into the straw and drink milk from the straw! Since Nathan liked drinking milk with a straw so much, he finished his milk pretty quickly even before he finished his dinner. My son is a big boy now. 🙂

Late at night, we had ice cream at our usual ice cream shop in Disneyland

After checking out from Motel 6 in morning, we went to the Disneyland park since the check-in time at Disneyland Hotel was not until 3pm.

Disneyland has their Halloween decoration on display.

In afternoon, we walked back to Disneyland Hotel to finally check-in.

This is my first time staying at Disneyland Hotel. My husband stayed at this hotel when he was very young and the hotel looks very different now. While checking-in, the 1st floor is going through some renovation. Disney hotel is making the 1st floor look more modern. I dislike the new style actually because I miss the 1950s look with the nice crown molding and victorian style furniture. Modern look isn’t bad but at times it doesn’t look good either.

The room we got was pretty big and of course much nicer than Motel 6! 🙂

The headboard was interesting. It is made of wood and carved with the Disney castle and fireworks.

When you switch on this button that is located on the lamp between the beds, some Disney music starts playing and the headboard lights up!

There are Mickey’s everywhere in the room.
On the lamp

In the bathroom

There is this funny sign in the hallway of the hotel regarding the fire alarm. One sign says: The fire alarm sounds like whoop whoop sound.

After settling in the hotel room, we decided to head down to the Disneyland hotel pool

This is Nathan’s 3rd time going to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA in 7 months. We were going to take him to Disneyland for his 2nd birthday next month but our Silver Pass won’t work throughout most of October due to black out dates. So we decided to take him to Disneyland before his bday. After work, I drove to Nelson’s work then we headed down to Southern California late in afternoon.

Nathan playing peek-a-boo in the car

We stopped in Los Angeles to have dinner at http://www.roscoeschickenandwaffles.com/menu.html. This is our second time having dinner at this place. I had my chicken and waffles while Nathan got his mac and cheese. I also got the corn bread. All the food we ordered tasted so good although my husband thought his chicken was kinda overcooked.

Since we were arriving very late in Anaheim, we decided to stay at Motel 6 on Friday night. For the rest of the weekend, we will be staying at Disneyland Hotel.

Nathan prefers to drag his own backpack

We took Nathan for a nice stroll on the Golden Gate Bridge. It is his first time touring the bridge. It was a very nice sunny day in SF. It was windy on the bridge but it wasn’t cold. I even brought my thick jacket because I thought it was going to be foggy and cold. We took some pics.

While on the Golden Gate Bridge, we even got to see Sea Princess go under the bridge! It is the same cruise ship we took to go to Alaska about a month ago. Sea Princess came back to SF from Alaska and its next voyage is from SF to Australia (about 29 days cruise).

Here is a video of Sea Princess going under the Golden Gate Bridge. If you listen carefully, you can even hear the cruise ship band playing on the ship!

When we went on this cruise ship a month ago, this is the video I took when we went under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Video leaving SF