Dinner time. I think he saw da da fiddling with a camera across the table. He tried to go around to check things out, but one of the latest table rules is to stay in the seat until he's excused. As you can see, he was not too thrilled because da da just told him to stay put...
Next, he showed his reaction to his mom. Welcome to the wonderful world of preschoolhood!
Just a quick snap as mui mui came down the stairs. Probably not in the best of mood, but otherwise she doesn't quite make it too often to any postings. It was not very bright in the living room and the flash was off... hence the fuzzy pic.
What Green Highlights, you may ask? To make a short story long, let's go back to last Wednesday night, Thursday morning when Solar was wheezing and gasping throughout the whole sleepless night. Doctor Natori could not determine the cause of Solar's asthma-like attack and stopped short of calling it asthma since normal asthma does not develop overnight like that. We had bought the nebullizer and thought about returning it. We didn't after talking to Doctor Natori again on Saturday who recommended giving Solar a couple doses of treatment because his breathing was really hampered by the asthma-like attack. Doctor explained that even though Solar may not look sick anymore, by the way his lungs sounded during the Thursday examination, he would need a couple doses of treatment to clear up his breathing. We gave him one more dose Sunday morning and stopped. Joyce will call Monday morning to check with Doctor Natori again. Although we had initially decided not to go to worship this morning to minimize exposure, we did change our mind early in the morning. Plenty people came to comfort us and we learned that at least half a dozen kids that we know uses a nebulizer at home. I am not sure if I can accept this as a "normal thing" for Solar but we are asking God to give us a chance to take him out exercising more to build up his respiratory strenghts. Last time I took him out for a run in Magic Island he caught a cold the day after. I need to be more careful and exercise him wisely.
Today at Sunday school, somehow he did his hair green:
Another very happy pic during lunch. As you can see, he is very much back to his active happy self.
Sounded like asthma?
Still don't know what it is. It all started the evening before yesterday when we noticed that Solar was having a bit of runny nose. Yesterday morning he looked very lethargic and so I decided to make him stay home. He continued to be very very tiring and sluggish throughout the entire day. Last night was worst as he couldn't sleep and was wheezing the entire night. Thursday morning we went to see the pediatrician who was surprised to see that he would develop that much reaction with no pre-symptoms. Doctor gave him some nebulizer treatment and he is fine now. At least he is much more talkative. I placed a prescription at Longs but they called back saying they don't have a nebulizer for him until the next morning. Stooopid. Seems like Solar is doing much better this evening; otherwise, with no nebulizer to relieve him of the breathing problem, I would definitely rush him into the ER if he had problem breathing again.
I did not sleep last night. No. I probably can't tonight as I need to be at least semi-awake to monitor Solar's conditions. His breathing is still heavy but at least he's not wheezing and whining all the time.
Lord, I beg you to give me strength to be a good nurse and father to my little Solar.
Let me repeat an old story that I tell almost every year...
First time I ever flew, I left for Hawaii on a one-way ticket. I can still recall clearly that October 1st was the first day the seat belt law became effective back there. Even though the entire trip took almost 16 hours, we arrived in Hawaii on October 1st still because we flew in the direction of the earth's rotation... never mind the geography details.
October 1st marked the 22nd anniversary of my new life in a new place.
TOP 3 Accomplisments...
#3: The cutie in the foreground. Christine.
#2: The one with the fuzzy hair. Alexander.
#1: Happily married.
Earlier this week...
About the cruelest thing a parent can do is to make Solar sit still just for picture. I think this is a rare footage that he doesn't obey us.
This is a photo of Boy Boy at around the same age (16 months) as Mui Mui now. I think he's enjoying chewing on a piece of char siu or roast pork chop. Those were the days when he would eat anything and everything I fed him. Nowadays, I don't think he is too much into pork chops unless I put a sweet & sour pineapple sauce on it.
I sure miss those days when he had such a full and round face.
We are expecting some stormy weathers during the weekend, including flash floods along the windward areas. I hope I don't forget to let him wear his little windbreaker the next morning.
Little Christine was not very friendly this morning. She has been quite congested since yesterday and now she has a full-blown case of running nose. She doesn't have a fever or anything, but she has been very "clingy." Da Da has to stay home to watch her today just to make sure she could have plenty time to sleep and rest.
On the other hand, we just have to show you a sunshine pic of Christine, don't we?
HE Answers prayers, Hellelujah!
Hurricane Rita is now "skewing" right and hopefull will miss Houston altogether (well, MSN forcast says Rita's path will track a course about 75 miles east of Houston). I skipped dinner last night thinking that's the least I could do then. Many times the scriptures mention the followers would fast and pray intensely for the mercy of God. The Lord certainly sends some good news today. In my head, I kept hearing Naomi singing "Oh, God is good, and He's so good" when she was much younger.
I never thought about the "side effects" of praying. Somehow Alexander seemed happier when we arrived at the school grounds this morning. He was running back and forth between his home room and the courtyard area where mui mui and I were at. He seemed eager to say his "goodbye" to me so that he could start running out to the playground. Last night, of course I did pray to God to also look after my family in addition to my sister's family in Houston. Well, I suppose in my "moody" moments last night, I might have forgotten His ominpotentness. I'm supposed to know that I can unload my worries onto Him. Oh yes, another lesson learned. Thank you, Jesus!
Rita is forcast to hit land Saturday morning, or around late midnight our time. May God have mercy on His children and the land He built. May He send His angels to watch over Isaac, Barbara, Naomi, Gabriel, and Hannah Belle. May He also comfort the #1 as he is far away worrying his children all the way from another continent.
I'm hungry, I'm tired, but I am so happy because I can feel God protecting my family.
Solar was doing quite exceptional during his first week of preschool. However, he became somewhat resistant last week and finally, he must have somehow decided to accept the whole idea of "school"...
This is a shot of about 5 seconds after I said goodbye to him on the bench. When I said goodbye to him, he would look at me with a slight frown but give me a kiss regardless. Once I stood up to carry Christine on my arm and walked towards the exit, he would then dash straight out to the slides and climb up to the top. The pic below showed him just made it to the top. Ms. Virginia knew Alexander needed the space and would start wiping down the slides as early as she can.
Next is a shot of Alexander atop the slides when I just began to pull out of the parking lot after reversing out from the parking stall. See the helpless blank stare on his face...
Finally, here's the last shot I took before driving away. Last week, I watched him wailing at the top of his voice in this position. This week, he takes to his promise to his da da and stays calm. I would say goodbye to him from my car to him in my loudspeaker voice. Then, he would wave back at me in his own unique wrist-only way.
According to his homeroom teacher Ms. Wanda, he's getting better with the crying now. On the other hand, we've been seeing problems with the #1 and sometimes #2 almost everyday since Monday. I know he needs to learn to cope with this "little stressful situation" of preschool himself for his own good. Yet, somewhere in me feels like a thousand scorpions stinging inside.
Even though he never says it out loud, probably because I've told him sternly that he HAS TO STAY, I can clearly hear him saying, "da da please don't go, no no." I know deep down that with Alexander as my son, I am already having it easy, but it's still very difficult to leave him like that every morning.
I pray to the Almighty Father that Solar will overcome this bit of separation anxiety in no time. I pray to the Lord to give me strength to control my emotions. Amen.
It's Monday again. Dropping Solar off at the Olivet preschool is one of the most difficult for me to do. This morning, once I said goodbye and gave him a kiss, he dashed out to the playground and climbed up to the top of the slides again. He stationed himself at the highest vantage point that he could get to in order to watch me driving away. I lowered the passenger window to wave at him, and he waved back with his unique "fingers-only" wave.
He was not smiling.
Whatever that might be, it finally wore off this morning. Today has been a very tough day for all. When our car approached the preschool, Solar was already shaking his head and told me "no" in a slightly trembling voice. Being the good little kid that he has always been, he naively agreed to carry a plastic bag (carrying his school supplies) for me while we walked into the school yard. He followed Christine and me closely while I put his supplies into his designated cubby hole. All had been fine until I told him that he would be staying while Mui Mui and I were leaving. He didn't fuss in the beginning but vigilantly kept himself within 2 feet behind me. When I pushed open the sliding gate, he turned his body to the side as he tried to slip past me to go back out to the parking lot. Ms. Virginia caught what he was trying to do and came over to hold him down. Finally, he panicked and began to wail at the top of his voice. After he realized that the gate had been closed and I was leaving, he dashed out to the climb up atop the slide so that he could watch me driving away from the highest vantage point he could reach. I cannot tell you that I didn't feel guilty. Very difficult.
The traffic through downtown towards Kalihi to drop off Christine was uncharacteristically smooth. However, seeing Mui Mui's face made me realize she was not too pleased with what she just saw at the preschool. She was unusually quiet and I didn't feel like talking to her neither. I broke out my usual Psalm 121 (I think) tune which used to be boy boy's lullaby. She didn't respond and kept at her straight face.
Honestly I don't know what happened. Perhaps the novelty of the preschool has finally worn off today. Perhaps when Solar saw me in my work clothes it startled him. Perhaps Mui Mui felt bad for her Goh Goh. For the most of the morning I felt really really dark and moody. Thank goodness it wasn't a very busy morning at work. However, the afternoon came with some unpleasant surprises that made me staying quite a bit after work. Once I got home, I prepared a quick meal so that everyone could eat on time and go back to the normal routine. Unfortunately, Boy Boy was having a running nose and carrying a bit of a cough. Joyce gave him some Triaminic and I would make a decision to whether stay home with him tomorrow in the next morning. Sometimes we have good and sometimes we have bad days. Today is a particularly bad day. Look again at Christine's pic, that's exactly how we all feel.
We just took the babies to see Dr. Natori yesterday for their respective check-up's. Praise Our Almighty Father for His Grace as I'm glad to report that both of the kids are doing quite well. There seems to be more photos of Solar and so today I am posting a delicious pic of mui mui. She is an overall 75th percentile baby as far as height and weight are concerned. I think Joyce said Christine is practically the same size as Solar was during the same age-mark.
Solar is no longer the sumo he once was. While towering around 75th to 90th percentile mark at 3 feet 3¾ inches in terms of height, he now weighs 33 lbs, which is the 50th percentile mark on the chart. He is getting more expressive nowadays but still appears shy in front of strangers. As of today, he's been very cooperative with the toddler bed arrangement and hasn't strayed from it until I gave him specific permission to leave bed.
Hmmm... not sure if this message would be posted as September 7 or September, but I will find out soon enough. You see, Hawaii is quite a number of hours behind the mainland. Anyhow, today is Solar's 3 years old birthday. We didn't plan anything for him because we thought it's best for him to stay undistracted to adjust to his new "school life." So far, so good. Well, today we had an episode of Solar getting lost. I just found out that Nathan was there yesterday guiding Alexander to enter his classroom. Today, since Nathan wasn't there to show him the way, somehow little Alexander ended up in the other class for 3 years old. You bet I was a little fumed about that but then I bit my lips on this since Alexander will have to count on Ms Wanda for quite a number of months to follow. Good thing Andrew was preaching at the school area today and eventually found out what happened to Alexander. Tomorrow when I dropped him off at school, I will show him where he should go when the bell rings. Hope he would catch on within a couple of weeks. Ok, let's see some birthday pics...that was Solar digging into the box to look for his favorite toy. We let him open up some of his parents after he came home.
Though we may not do anything spectacular for him, we did buy him some birthday cake. From that photo you can see clearly he is most definitely a strawberry person.
The little guy woke up around 5am this morning and waited in bed I gave him an ok to get up. He still felt a little bit warm but otherwise fine. I did give him a dose of Motrin before I dressed him. Since this is his first day of school, we decided to change the routine a little by dropping off Christine first at Ginger's place. When we arrived at Ginger's place, Boy Boy and I stayed in the car while Joyce carried Mui Mui up. Guess what? Mui Mui wailed when Joyce walked out. Never happened before. In the car, I told Joyce Mui Mui probably knew "something" even though we never exactly told her that her big brother is not going to Ginger's place with her any more.
Boy Boy's homeroom teacher, Ms Wanda, was already there greeting the kids and parents when we arrived at the preschool around 7:35am. We stuffed his supplies into a small cubby hole with his name on and headed out to the playground. I took a few snaps of Solar having a good time going up and down the slides. Joyce noticed another kid sneezing and coughing and still running around the playground area. Please be careful and don't get anything. I watched from the gate when Joyce told him that we're leaving. He didn't think much of it and said "ok". I told Joyce I would check on him later around lunch time, but she insisted to bring him home before lunch so that he could eat a square meal and take a good nap. Some of you may saw my "Half-time report" email:
So far so good. He actually enjoys staying in his bed until someone tells him to get up. Perhaps he feels excited or more "grown up" to have a new bed. If all goes well, we will move mui mui into the room too. Soon.
I am thankful that Solar is such a mellow, obedient little fellow. This morning, instead of letting me carry him up and out of the bed, he insisted on climbing down on his own. For a split second, I thought he was going to dash towards the master bedroom to look for mui mui, but instead he stopped at the bathroom and let me changed and freshened him up. Whatever "morning routine" we taught him, apparently IT IS WORKING! Last Saturday Solar's mom kept saying boastfully that she had no doubt that Solar would stay in bed. I suppose my faith in Solar is not as strong as his mom.
Last Saturday, August 27, 2005. All physical barriers have been removed and are literally behind me (that's my old crib, which will go to mui mui soon) right now. Tonight, I am going to jail-break and attack the bedroom on the Diamond Head side to reclaim that plush queen-sized bed. Wish me luck.
(It looks kinda bright outside, I know, 'cos it's not yet 7pm, but I am tired today and I will fall asleep before I finish the bottle. Don't worry, I know the topography around here and no need night-vision equipment for tonight's attack. Besides, my team, from left to right, Mo 仔 (Nemo), 大舊 (Bruce), 熊熊 (Pooh Bear), & 恩美熊熊 (from Amy), will hang tight with me tonight.)
"He's quite a little gentleman, staying in bed all the time until he was told to get up. According to Peter, Hinson was good in the beginning until he figured out that he could freely roam around the house now. We shall see." - c
