Kylie knows how to say banana now. And umbrella in Chinese. And she knows the possessive word (the 's in English) in Chinese. Her sentences are almost coherent and today when Mom came inside from the backyard with Kylie perched on her hip. I almost thought she looked too big to be doing that. As a teammate pointed out last week, Kylie has grown so much since we moved here to North Carolina. Unlike me, who over ten years of her life in the peachy state of Georgia, Kylie is officially an NC kid.
North Carolina gives me the impression of being hillbilly, if that's a proper word. The Raleigh farmer's market is phenomena. The air is crisp and fresh except when it's hot and stuffy... you know what I mean, at least it's clean. Greenways, paved paths that don't allow motorized vehicles, provide safe ways for recreational exercise to the NC communities. In Georgia, we practically had a library in our backyard. I was never allowed there on my own, for two reasons. One, the walk was apparently too far, though it was less than a mile. Two, it was unsafe. And indeed it was. Despite being located in a well-off, suburban area of the greater Atlanta Area, our community has had multiple encounters with sexual predators.
A close friend's little sister is in 8th grade this year, and was approached in her neighborhood (a pretty expensive, clean, new neighborhood) by a questionable man in a ratty car. He asked her where she lived and other personal questions. The girl, very smart, ignored him and walked to her friends at the school bus stop to the local middle school. Another instance occurred when I had a friend over. We were crossing a small street to go to a local Menchie's and Kroger on a grocery run for my mom. Guys in a white truck slowed and stopped near us multiple times, whistling and yelling suggestive things, as well as asking for personal information.
I'm not implying that Cary will be unsafe. In fact, it's ranked number 43 as the best places to live in America, out of the bazillions of towns and cities we have here. I'm just wondering, what of a town isn't reflected in it's statistics? We've been here nearly a year and everything has checked out. However, we lived in our last house for 5 before anything extraordinary happened. Only time will reveal Cary's character.
-Chichi
Monday, May 21, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Sissy's Purpose
Mom: "Say hi to Sissy."
Kylie: [looks away]
Me: "Hi Yaoyao! Will you say hi to Sissy?"
Kylie: [shakes head] No.
Mom: "Yaoyao, say hi to Sissy."
Kylie: No. [points to kitchen counter]
Mom: [gives her what she wants - a packet of garlic green peas]
Kylie: Oooh, dou dou! [Translate: Yay, green peas!]
When we came home from my clarinet lesson, Kylie came and greeted Mommy and I at the door. Well, she walked right by me and into Mommy's arms. Same difference. It's the beginning of the Terrible Twos, so I'm told. I always thought that the Terrible Twos were something that affected parents, not siblings.For those closer in age, what was the worst years to share with a younger or older sibling? Usually, if I ask that question, I get the answer as four or five. Agreements? Disagreements?
Currently, I perform few roles for Kylie. I cut up her dinner for her occasionally, I provide the medium on which she watches her beloved Elmo's World, and I provide the lap on which she'll plant her tiny butt while indulging in reruns of Elmo's World. I don't mind, really. It's absolutely adorable. And with her talking so much, life is just so much more interesting. Our parents like to tell a certain story of me from when I was about Kylie's age. Some lost in time naughty task was performed, and some lost in time person asked: "Who did it?" Just learning to respond and speak when prompted, I answered immediately, "Chichi did it!" Kylie's response to that right now is just "Yaoyao!" No frills, no furs, just to the point. But it's nice to think that I wasn't the only toddler stupid with her responses. Silly kids.
-Chichi
Kylie: [looks away]
Me: "Hi Yaoyao! Will you say hi to Sissy?"
Kylie: [shakes head] No.
Mom: "Yaoyao, say hi to Sissy."
Kylie: No. [points to kitchen counter]
Mom: [gives her what she wants - a packet of garlic green peas]
Kylie: Oooh, dou dou! [Translate: Yay, green peas!]
When we came home from my clarinet lesson, Kylie came and greeted Mommy and I at the door. Well, she walked right by me and into Mommy's arms. Same difference. It's the beginning of the Terrible Twos, so I'm told. I always thought that the Terrible Twos were something that affected parents, not siblings.For those closer in age, what was the worst years to share with a younger or older sibling? Usually, if I ask that question, I get the answer as four or five. Agreements? Disagreements?
Currently, I perform few roles for Kylie. I cut up her dinner for her occasionally, I provide the medium on which she watches her beloved Elmo's World, and I provide the lap on which she'll plant her tiny butt while indulging in reruns of Elmo's World. I don't mind, really. It's absolutely adorable. And with her talking so much, life is just so much more interesting. Our parents like to tell a certain story of me from when I was about Kylie's age. Some lost in time naughty task was performed, and some lost in time person asked: "Who did it?" Just learning to respond and speak when prompted, I answered immediately, "Chichi did it!" Kylie's response to that right now is just "Yaoyao!" No frills, no furs, just to the point. But it's nice to think that I wasn't the only toddler stupid with her responses. Silly kids.
-Chichi
Monday, May 7, 2012
Pepper Jack Cheese
Chinese food, Indian food, Moe's queso, Flamin' Hot Cheetos. What do all of these have in common? They're often considered spicy. It's nothing extraordinary that a Chinese teenager would have a fairly high tolerance for spicy foods. After all, spicy food is delicious. However, it is a bit odd that an 18 month old baby loves spicy food almost just as much as her big sister. There are some things that I can handle but she can't, but she's 18 months old, for goodness sakes.
Target's brand, Market Pantry, sells these pepper jack cheese sticks. I personally think they're the most amazing things on the planet. I eat one with my salad for lunch every week day, if there are enough in the refrigerator. Kylie has her own cheese. Kraft American, 2%. After dinner, if we're wrapping up leftovers and the refrigerator gets open, Kylie will undoubtedly poke her head in. She'll eye the contents for a moment, ignore our requests for her to come out and close the door, and turn to look at us sweetly. "Cheese," she'll assert, pointing at the pepper jack.
Once she sees it, she won't allow denial. Because sometimes she doesn't finish it, and sometimes we try to leave enough for me to have it with my lunch the rest of the week, we'll try to offer her other things. "How about Yaoyao's cheese?" Grandma will call. "Come eat watermelon," Mommy will coax. "Kylie, get your head out of there," I'll yell from the sink two feet away, where I might be doing dishes if my mom is lucky. Our words always fall to deaf ears. Kylie will ignore our sadly inefficacious work and toddle up to someone. She'll hold up the cheese stick and plead, with her eyes, for it to be opened.
This pepper jack cheese isn't exactly the world's mildest. Even our mom thinks it's a bit too much. Today, just a little bit after dinner, Kylie spotted it and asked for it. Our grandmother tried to distract her, but finally relented and held it just out of Kylie's standing reach. Kylie actually jumped to grab it, giggling the whole way and and down. Honestly, I didn't even know she knew how to jump. Ah, well, there's one more cheese stick in the bag. She can have it. I'll eat an apple with my lunch tomorrow instead.
-Chichi
Target's brand, Market Pantry, sells these pepper jack cheese sticks. I personally think they're the most amazing things on the planet. I eat one with my salad for lunch every week day, if there are enough in the refrigerator. Kylie has her own cheese. Kraft American, 2%. After dinner, if we're wrapping up leftovers and the refrigerator gets open, Kylie will undoubtedly poke her head in. She'll eye the contents for a moment, ignore our requests for her to come out and close the door, and turn to look at us sweetly. "Cheese," she'll assert, pointing at the pepper jack.
Once she sees it, she won't allow denial. Because sometimes she doesn't finish it, and sometimes we try to leave enough for me to have it with my lunch the rest of the week, we'll try to offer her other things. "How about Yaoyao's cheese?" Grandma will call. "Come eat watermelon," Mommy will coax. "Kylie, get your head out of there," I'll yell from the sink two feet away, where I might be doing dishes if my mom is lucky. Our words always fall to deaf ears. Kylie will ignore our sadly inefficacious work and toddle up to someone. She'll hold up the cheese stick and plead, with her eyes, for it to be opened.
This pepper jack cheese isn't exactly the world's mildest. Even our mom thinks it's a bit too much. Today, just a little bit after dinner, Kylie spotted it and asked for it. Our grandmother tried to distract her, but finally relented and held it just out of Kylie's standing reach. Kylie actually jumped to grab it, giggling the whole way and and down. Honestly, I didn't even know she knew how to jump. Ah, well, there's one more cheese stick in the bag. She can have it. I'll eat an apple with my lunch tomorrow instead.
-Chichi
Monday, April 30, 2012
Mosquito Magnet
A hummingbird can beat it's wings up to 600 times per minute. A mosquito beats it's wings between 300 and 600 times per second. Mosquitoes fly at 1 to 1.5 miles per hour and beat their wings in synchronization with their lovers. Personally, I also consider them the biggest pests on the planet.
When I get bitten by mosquitoes, the bite will swell to the size of that bone on the outside of my wrist. My wrists are pretty skinny, so that bone sticks out quite a bit. Kylie currently has two mosquito bites on her face as well as a scab from one she most likely had a mild allergic reaction to on her leg. Mosquitoes have been deemed by my family as the worst of pests, worse than large flies, worse than the mice that live in our crawlspace and visit once in a while, worse than roaches and termites. At least, these sentiments are shared by my mother, myself, and surely Kylie.
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on earth. This isn't exclusively to humans; mosquitoes can carry a huge number of viruses, some of which are more harmful to animals like your dog and cat than yourself. They all require water to breed. Want to kill mosquitoes? Suck the moisture out of your house and wait 5 to 6 months, the lifespan of an average adult mosquito.
In the nature camp I attended 5 or 6 years ago, they required us to have DEET containing bug spray. An adventure club I was a part of in middle school also did. So what exactly is DEET? DEET doesn't actually kill the bugs. It doesn't even work well for every kind of mosquito. But DEET is safe to use on skin and clothes. It stands for N,N-Diethyl-meta-Toluamide, and even after decades of research, scientists are still unsure of how DEET works. It's assumed that they impair the insects' ability to detect life. Mosquitoes are able to sense carbon dioxide (that we output) from 75 feet away.
Despite their bad eyesight, other senses are sharp. Sense of smell is one of them, and mosquitoes use it well to their advantage. It's probably not as simple as using the awful sent to cover the scent of carbon dioxide, but something along those lines makes your number of mosquito bites decrease exponentially. I don't know, perhaps its as effective as claimed perhaps not. I, however, like to spray Kylie's surroundings and my clothes when going out summer evenings. I don't like to spray it directly on her because of her more sensitive toddler skin. Off! smells awful, but it's far more attractive than huge red bug bites.
-Chichi
When I get bitten by mosquitoes, the bite will swell to the size of that bone on the outside of my wrist. My wrists are pretty skinny, so that bone sticks out quite a bit. Kylie currently has two mosquito bites on her face as well as a scab from one she most likely had a mild allergic reaction to on her leg. Mosquitoes have been deemed by my family as the worst of pests, worse than large flies, worse than the mice that live in our crawlspace and visit once in a while, worse than roaches and termites. At least, these sentiments are shared by my mother, myself, and surely Kylie.
Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on earth. This isn't exclusively to humans; mosquitoes can carry a huge number of viruses, some of which are more harmful to animals like your dog and cat than yourself. They all require water to breed. Want to kill mosquitoes? Suck the moisture out of your house and wait 5 to 6 months, the lifespan of an average adult mosquito.
In the nature camp I attended 5 or 6 years ago, they required us to have DEET containing bug spray. An adventure club I was a part of in middle school also did. So what exactly is DEET? DEET doesn't actually kill the bugs. It doesn't even work well for every kind of mosquito. But DEET is safe to use on skin and clothes. It stands for N,N-Diethyl-meta-Toluamide, and even after decades of research, scientists are still unsure of how DEET works. It's assumed that they impair the insects' ability to detect life. Mosquitoes are able to sense carbon dioxide (that we output) from 75 feet away.
Despite their bad eyesight, other senses are sharp. Sense of smell is one of them, and mosquitoes use it well to their advantage. It's probably not as simple as using the awful sent to cover the scent of carbon dioxide, but something along those lines makes your number of mosquito bites decrease exponentially. I don't know, perhaps its as effective as claimed perhaps not. I, however, like to spray Kylie's surroundings and my clothes when going out summer evenings. I don't like to spray it directly on her because of her more sensitive toddler skin. Off! smells awful, but it's far more attractive than huge red bug bites.
-Chichi
Monday, April 23, 2012
Progress Report
This post is going to be short. Kylie turned 18 months old on the 22nd of this month, which was Sunday. When I was this old 13 years ago, I was on a plane to America with my mom. I was about to meet my dad for the first time since I was 7 months old. Of course, I don't remember any of this, but we watched a video of me from a few days before moving then. Kylie pointed at the screen and said "baby" in Chinese every time she saw me, and even recognized my mom from 1999. I thought it was about time to make a list of <i>everything</i> she knows how to say while it's still compilable.
Words she can say in Chinese:
- Mom, dad, sissy, grandma, Kylie
- Car
- Bird
- Meat
- Corn
- Wash
- Dry
- Hold/Give me
- Horse
- Dog
- Duck
- Pen/pencil/writing utensil
- Eat
- Shoes
- Thank you
- Socks
- Nose
- Baby/Doll
Words she can say in English:
- Hi
- Byebye
- Kylie
- Chichi
- Daddy
- Dog
- Duck
- A, B, C, D (can almost read them!)
- Uh-oh
- No (accompanied by vigorous head-shaking)
- Truck
- Bus
- Beep beep
- Names of some of her classmates at daycare
- Ball
- Sit
- Shoe
- Nose (Nose-y, actually)
- Baby
I'm sure I'm missing things. She knows so much already. She understand far more, but can't put it all to words. She can say some more things just by copying our sounds, but she doesn't know what they mean. In the house, our family has had to start being careful about what we say around her, because currently, her favorite word is N-O. We try not to say N-O out loud because it just reminds her of how much she enjoys shaking her head like a maniac and saying no.
-Chichi
Words she can say in Chinese:
- Mom, dad, sissy, grandma, Kylie
- Car
- Bird
- Meat
- Corn
- Wash
- Dry
- Hold/Give me
- Horse
- Dog
- Duck
- Pen/pencil/writing utensil
- Eat
- Shoes
- Thank you
- Socks
- Nose
- Baby/Doll
Words she can say in English:
- Hi
- Byebye
- Kylie
- Chichi
- Daddy
- Dog
- Duck
- A, B, C, D (can almost read them!)
- Uh-oh
- No (accompanied by vigorous head-shaking)
- Truck
- Bus
- Beep beep
- Names of some of her classmates at daycare
- Ball
- Sit
- Shoe
- Nose (Nose-y, actually)
- Baby
I'm sure I'm missing things. She knows so much already. She understand far more, but can't put it all to words. She can say some more things just by copying our sounds, but she doesn't know what they mean. In the house, our family has had to start being careful about what we say around her, because currently, her favorite word is N-O. We try not to say N-O out loud because it just reminds her of how much she enjoys shaking her head like a maniac and saying no.
-Chichi
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