A busy week Part II

This Thursday Enoch's preschool was at our house. Last month we had a field trip planned on my teaching day, so lucky me. I've started to get things ready for preschool a while back, I wrote out the outline of what I'm gonna do with the kids. Put some books on hold in the library. Printed out tracing letter page. One thing that kept me switching ideas was the crafty thing in the end. I eventually came up with making fish with a paper plate then coloring it. We even used the paper plates to eat our snacks before we cut them up. Hit two birds with one stone, I like that.

Here is the picture of my teaching table:

Notice the paper plate with drawings on it? I drew on every plate. The kids are supposed to cut the triangle out and pin it as a tail.

My letter of the day was F and the number was 6. For letter F we read books about it. For number 6, I had kids count 6 gold fish and crackers at a time. They loved that and were really obedient too. We also had a circle time for song singing, then we jumped on the trampoline in the end.

I didn't get a whole group picture while I was teaching, only realized it when I was done and kids were doing their own things and getting distracted. So here is one that only a few left by the table:

Kids are so different, their attention span is different too. I also told them to write their names on their paper and fish. Some of them did. Enoch being one of them, but his writings were still not regulated, meaning they were in different fonts:)

Some of them went to play with toys after a while. Enoch's preschool now has 6 kids (Michael not included), but in a month we'll have only 4. One of my dearest friends is moving away. I'm really sad about it!!

Peter napped for a good 70 mins, giving me enough time to teach and play. It was great!


Friday we went to the "Zoo Boo" with Michael's preschool group. Although we were all divided up, and never got to meet up together since the zoo was so crowded. We just agreed to do our own things and have fun. I was pretty bummed that the "Zoo Boo" was exactly the same as last year but apparently kids didn't care and remember at all, they still had tons of fun. By the end of it, we had a super super fun experience that I've never experienced before, actually I'm not sure if anybody ever experienced it before, so that made the zoo trip totally worth it. Here are the pictures, you have to connect them to see what happened:

Then the lizard fell backwards down. So funny! I actually acted it out to show Sam many many times at home, and still thinks that it was so cool! 

 I mean how many times did you see a lizard does this in the zoo? I've never seen it before. Maybe you are luckier than me. I don't know what triggered it to do this. Maybe Enoch? Maybe the light? Maybe nothing, it got bored. It actually did this twice as I was watching. First time I didn't have time to take a picture, I was hoping it would do a second time and it did!

Anyway, this week has been super tiring for me but my boys loved it. Kids are very easy to entertain outside, not inside.

Here are some pictures of the photo shoot Sam did last week:

This one everybody just did their own thing which was kind of funny.

Peter is getting cuter and cuter every day! He babbles all the time. He smiles at you when you talk to him. He watches really closely what his big brothers are doing. He loves to hang out with them in their room. He always tries to grab my nose and pull my hair. At the multiple night waking times, I have to remind myself how cute he is and how much I love him.

A busy week Part I

I like to plan outings for us to get out of the house every day mainly because my boys get bored at home. And I think they need more good stimulations. Also I found myself short of patience when we just crammed inside. Somehow, this week we ended up having crazy plans that packed every day full.

Monday, we had Peter's 4 months check up at 9:30. We then went to the zoo. I thought they had "zoo boo", but turned out they only have it Friday to Sunday. Despite that my boys still had a great time. Then we went to somebody's house to babysit from 3pm to 7pm. I'm not gonna lie: It was really hard to babysit at somebody else's house with a new born! Sam came to help me feed the kids after work so I was able to give Peter a bath and got him ready for bed.

Tuesday, we went to Discovery Green Park for Toddler Tuesday. We had to go because it was about Dora, Diego and Boots! We then went straight to my visiting teachee's house to do visiting teaching. I was going to babysit another friends' kids at home but it got canceled. 

Wednesday, I drove over an hour to Oil Ranch (a pumpkin patch) for our playgroup. It was a lot of fun but man it was hard to drag three kids age 3 and under across the ranch to do different rides and things. We then went straight to babysit at the same house at 3pm. All three kids took a nap in the car. 

Thursday, it's my turn to teach Enoch's preschool. I was kind of stressed out a little before hand since I never had enough confidence to teach. Somehow I convinced myself that I will be a bad teacher, but I'm pretty sure I can teach really well if I want to. Preschool turned out great. Peter even napped for 70 mins to give me enough time to teach. 

Friday, tomorrow we are going to the "zoo boo" for Michael's preschool field trip.

I planned to not make dinners this week and that was a life saver! I still have some freezer meals I made a while back, and we've just been eating off our freezer this week. Along with busy outing schedules, I overstuffed our camera with tons of pictures. So now get ready for tons of pictures.

Here are two pictures from the zoo on Monday: 

Enoch loved to pose for the camera. And Michael loved climbing up and down that fence.

I'm so impressed that Enoch is getting more and more brave. I believe that having his eyes fixed made him more confident with things. Cant imagine how bad I would feel if one of my eyes cant really see things well or if I always have double visions.

I have a few pictures from Toddler Tuesday: 

We didn't even get to take a picture with Dora Diego and Boots cause there were too many people in line. 

Some pictures from oil ranch:

Of course we had to ride the train. I had to go find my almost lost baby ergo carrier so I wasn't riding with them this time. My friend Leah took them on. 

Riding the tractor and feeding the cows. 

Riding the ponies.

Remember last year Michael was too scared to ride the ponies. Well, this year he got more brave. I was going to walk with him but babies are not allowed inside so my friend Leah walked with him instead.

Both Michael and Peter got scared of the invading goats and were crying. Peter was screaming so hard  in this picture.

Jumping House with slide: Fun!

Enoch loved the slide. 

Me and baby Peter. And yes I'm in my pre-jeans. And I love my new pink shirt, I look good in pink. Right?

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One pumpkin is included in the ticket. 

It was definitely fun to go to Oil ranch. Although I'm not sure if I'll ever recommend going with a new born.

Done for today.

Say bye bye to CMV

Today after finally heard the news from our doctor, I cried. For the first time since Peter's birth, I cried not because of sadness, stress, or anger, but because of a huge relief and happiness. Now we can officially say "bye bye" to CMV.

Looking back the past three and a half months, we had it really hard. Since our infectious disease doctor told me that two kids in her research program had onset hearing loss at age 16 and 18 because of congenital CMV, and that even perfectly healthy kids can go on to develop symptoms any time for the rest of their lives, I was stressed out every single day. When Peter cries, I worry that he hurts because the viruses are attacking him again. When he doesn't eat, or when he even looks tired, I worry that his immune system is down and CMV might fight back. When he sleeps through things I worry if his hearing is getting damaged. When he doesn't sleep I worry too, and I get sleep deprived of course, that makes it worse. I also feel guilty for putting Peter through all these, even though I know perfectly well it was not my fault that he got CMV. Anyway, I was a stressed out mess. 

I was angry a lot too. I was angry that the Lord chose Peter and chose us. I was angry at people who have healthy children. I was angry that I just wanted to give up but I couldn't. I was even angry at people who congratulated me for having a healthy baby, can you believe it? I wanted to go back in time and tell them how ironic it was and how I wished they were right for having a healthy baby. I know, I was twisted angry at times. 

We even changed our original family planning, we first thought we should wait a long time to have our last baby but then I felt it was not enough. I was even leaning towards not having any more children any more. It would have been a really bitter decision, but sometimes things happen and we have to be prepared for the worst. I wanted to make sure Peter will be well taken care of,  should he develop any symptoms, or should he need my full attention for the rest of his life. 

It was a blessing that there was a way to figure out when Peter got CMV. So that we don't have to second guess it any more or be stressed for the rest of our lives worrying. And it's an even amazing blessing that Peter got it after birth. Which means that we can now go back to our original track and know that Peter will most likely going to be as healthy as every kid can be. 

This trial has made me to realize what a blessing it is to have a healthy baby. I definitely took it for granted with the other two. 

I really wanted to write this down to remember this trial. And also I really wanted to thank all the people that supported us through it. I feel like we are given a new life, and it's everything to be thankful for.