The time we waited for is finally here. Winter is gone. Time for shorts, bathing suits, barbecues and air conditioning. Emma and Annya love to play in the water and sand. We almost lost Emma at the Indiana Dunes. We had to convince Annya that covering her sisters head with sand wasn't a very good idea. The girls did great at the water park. Emma decided to go down a large water slide with us. I just think that she didn't want to be left alone. Annya wouldn't be left behind. She also wanted to go down the large water slide. I talked to her all the way down. When we reached the end of the ride, her face was in shock and fear. As if to say, what the **** did we just do. She said that the ride was a "disaster." Emma wanted to go back on. Annya at first refused but to her credit she wanted to go back on. Once Annya realized that her young life wouldn't end, she had a very big smile on her face when we reached the bottom of the ride. Hopefully this is the beginning of a great Summer.

The little kaleidoscope of my little world just kept turning. May was again passed in a blur. June?

In June, I uprooted, yet again, my big, noisy family of young and old to the little town of Portage in Indiana. The little kids and the elder parents are happy with the enormous space. We did gardens, flower gardens and vegetable gardens. My mom threw into the ground whatever seeds from the last fruit she ate (apples, oranges), hoping it would grow like Jack’s bean stalk. Emma is a great helper, she gave grandma every little seed she saved as well. Louis tried to fill the vast “wasteland” with green grass.

The garden did grow, bloom, we actually did get a little bit of green to eat out of the field. The grass did gradually took root at the front yard, trees, still tiny, barely visible against tall weeds, seem to be growing as well.
Emma goes to Summer camp everyday now. She even did a field trip to see an Imax movie.

I had a million complaints about Portage, but gradually resigned to my three hours daily commute. On weekends, we still went out searching for fun, the weekend before we hiked then spent a lazy afternoon at the Indiana sand dune; we spent last weekend busy shopping, splashing water at the crown fountain at Chicago, then again at the Deep River water park.

Pictures here …

Dad, boys like to play Spiderman & Batman. Girls like to play Fairy Tails.
Yes, boys and girls are different.
Dad, I know the difference between a baby boy and a baby girl.
How can you tell the difference between a baby boy and a baby girl?
Dad, I just look at the clothes, A baby girl will be wearing a dress.
You are right, baby boys and baby girls are different...

Annya has become very aggressive and is now a bug killer. She patrols the house looking for bugs. Most of her bugs are imaginary. Right now she posses no threat to the bugs. Emma has suffered more blows from the fly swatter than the bugs. Bugs beware, once Annya perfects her hand and eye coordination, there will no longer be any bugs in the house.

Annya has improved drastically with her communication skills. She understands questions and can reply. It is so much fun communicating with a two year old. She listens to every word you say and can understand meanings to words she hears for the first time. Were still working on the potty training, she is about 80% trained. Once in a while she will have an accident. I try to be stern with her and tell her she must use the bathroom. She comes back with a big smile and says " bathroom OK." How can you be upset with a smile like that.

Emma is taking a break from school. She is Annya's teacher. Annya has learned a lot from Emma. Emma wants to be #1 in every thing she does. I just hope she takes this attitude and applies it to her studies. We want her to know that it is ok for baby sister to be #1 and that being #2 isn't a bad spot to be in. Emma likes to do everything by herself. This usually means that she has us take one step backwards before we can take two steps forward. In the long run, it will make Emma a better and more rounded person.

Our little family is growing...

Why? I almost forgot.

At the barn near Lincoln Park Zoo, where Annya was climbing through a giant egg shell.



Birthday cakes made for Annya and Louis.

When Emma was two, she delighted and amazed us with her abibility of reciting a good number of Chinese ancient poems (we have videos for proof). She has always always been a non-stop singer and giggler. She sang and sang, on and on; she giggled and giggled, for no obvious reasons ... Her teacher told us that she had never met any happier student ...

Now Annya!!!

Annya is amazing. Currently she is everything about Alphabet. She loves watching the slew of ABC songs on YouTube, singing in differnt voices, acted out in different ways. She sings along; she reads every ABC book, the I-spy ABCs, the plain ABCs ... she plays wiht magnets Alphabets, over and over ... so not suprisingly and yet no less amazingly, she recognizes almost all of the alphabets: A, B, C ...

Annya can count too. If not in a real sense of counting. However if we say 1, 2, she picks up quick, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ... in English and Chinese. This is a big progress over the 2 year old Emma, she was always confused about how comes after 2 or 3. Emma still complains she does not have enough fingers to do her math.

Annya and Emma are a pair. They sing and sing, the Mouse love song, they sing blissfully: "I love you, I miss you, like that a mouse loves rice ... no matter how hard it is, I will always be with you."

They love beautiful dresses, then they spin and say: Look at me, look at me.

Annya is so much bolder. She loves swing, she says: higher, higher. She says: can we go slide today? T
...

Love them.

The month has been a big whirl of events. I could not even remember to take some pictures.

School is just about over. Emma has done very well. It appears that my daily reading to her has paid off. She was accepted to Skinner Elementary School. Mom might deserve a little credit, but were not going to tell her. All year long we received emails from her Teacher telling us how well she is performing. We decided to give Emma one whole week off. She will be attending Summer Camp. We are hoping she can over come her fears of lions, tigers and bears. Actually, I'm a little jealous, I never went to Summer Camp. Maybe we won't send her to Summer Camp.

Annya is dying to go to school. She sees everyone either going to school or going to work. She will say that she wants to go to school and that she wants to go to work. Her English is coming along very well. She finally gave up talking to me in Chinese. I'm going to miss the stare she gives me when I don't understand what she is saying. She must think Dad doesn't know too much. Even though I have learned a couple of Chinese words from her.

Enjoy the Summer girls. Don't we all wish we can turn back the clock and be in their shoes?

Annya has over come some type of un invited Virus. She suffered all week long with high fever and temper tantrums (we suffered with the temper tantrums). She finally over came her fever on the fifth day just like the Doctor said. Thank my God that she didn't have to go to the Hospital on the sixth day.

Emma is doing fine and thinking about marriage. This is a little conversation we had about marriage.

Dad are you going to get old?
Why?
Some day I want to marry you.
I'm already married to your mom.
Can you only be married to one person?
Yes, you can only be married to one person. Someday when you get older, you will meet someone, fall in love and get married.
I know Dad, I don't want to get married right now!

Dad, do you think these flowers will live? (Dandelions in a cup of water)
Emma, why are you bringing weeds into the house?
These are not weeds, they are beautiful yellow flowers.
They are yellow, but not beautiful.
There are so many beautiful yellow flowers outside. I like to blow the yellow flowers when they turn white.
Please don't blow the yellow flowers in front of our house. Yellow isn't my favorite flower color.

Annya and I celebrated our birthdays together. She just turned two. I turned 35 or 36. I stopped counting after 30. Age is just a number that doesn't count. We each had our own home made cake. Annya, Emma and Mom made the beautiful cakes decorated with strawberries and kiwi. Annya has mastered the ABC'S. She can speak Chinese, English and Spanish. Her favorite Spanish word in andale. Looking foward to spending the Summer with Emma, Annya and my beautiful wife.

April is supposed to be a beautiful month. The April this year in Chicago is a little cold, a little damp. Still it gradually warms up, occasionally sent us a lot of warm sun. Trees and flowers and grass finally woke up and turned green and opened up the beauty.

The spring indeed has come.

April is a little crazy for me, in a good way though. The past two months, I am probably one of the busiest person on earth. Got married, got a new job. The long-planned full-blown vacation to Washington was blown away though, because my new job.

The new job was a lot of fun.

Too bad though I could not spend more time with the two kids in this beautiful season. Emma definitely felt the miss. One day she asked me to draw a clock and mark the time at which I would return. She had me write down my phone number too. However, when she called, I was away. So she asked me, Mom, when I called you, why you said "Please leave a message"?

My blog suffered too.

Annya and Emma has grown beautifully. Could not read Emma many books as I have wanted, Annya got less reading. The plan to have Emma read to Annya has not worked out. However, Emma has always been eager to be the "sister", in charge of Annya's education, development and behavoir. With a sister like such, inevitably Annya has to cry. She admired her sister still. The two girls are inseperable.

In April, we decided to make flower gardens, vegetable gardens at the Louis' house at Indiana. So we had done a lot of work watering, weeding, planting, hoping ...

We plan to do more ...