Well Kaitlyn has been in school (daycare) and has learned a great deal. From saying to mommy “Can you stop?”, “I don’t like that!”, and “No!” to learning to sit on the potty (although nothing ever comes out) to pretend play, Kaitlyn is becoming a big girl. It’s getting really scary.

She is always full of energy and wants to do everything herself. She loves to sing and talk in both English & Cantonese. She loves to watch Cantonese versions of “Cinderella” & “Monsters, Inc.” She has picked up a lot of Cantonese words & phrases especially from “Cinderella.”

Strange things about her are that she’s afraid of humans dressed up as characters (like Hello Kitty, m&m’s) and she’s afraid of animals. In a way it’s good because then we don’t have to worry about her wanting to go to the zoo or to Disney World. We’ve saved hundreds of dollars already. =D

She is such a daddy’s girl. She sure loves her daddy. She will smile the biggest smile when she wakes up and sees him. She loves to pick on mommy.

This year, she’s a cat. Although this one has legs, she didn’t really like wearing it either, but for the most part she was OK with it. It might be because she got to wear it once at a church Halloween party, a few days before Halloween. This year, we took her to Queens to her grandparents’ house & trick-o’-treated there.

Here are some pix from the party & Halloween night:

So this is what happened. My old pal Patrick happened to come down from Boston that weekend. He stayed with us for a couple of days, so we, along with Diane & Nancy, went to Ave U & had dim-sum/lunch that morning. After that, Patrick wanted to go into the city & do some shopping. “We” tried to invite him to go to dinner with us, but he insisted on us going by ourselves. Of course, I later found out that he knew about the surprise dinner all along. Both Melanie & him were just playing along when I was trying to get him to come to dinner with us.

So we went home & decided to take a nap before dinner. At that time, I still didn’t know where Melanie was “taking” me to dinner, but it didn’t really matter to me, so I didn’t ask.

By around 6, we left the house. Since I was the one driving, Melanie had to act like a GPS, tell me where to go, turn by turn, without giving away the final destination.

So we got on the Belt Parkway, everything was fine, but then all of a sudden Mel started to complain about stomach pain. She pretended to pretend to act OK, but was soon taking deep breaths! We “happened” to have just gotten off of the highway, so I asked her if she knew of any place that has a restroom she can use, since we were at least another 15 minutes away from where she told me the next turn is. So she “suggested” Diane’s place & I said let’s call her & see if she’s home. (Of course she was!) She said no problem, but wants us to bring Kaitlyn in so that Mr Kwok can see her.

Mel jumped out of the car before it came to a complete stop. Diane was outside already. I pulled into the driveway, took Kaitlyn out, & followed Diane up the steps & into the house, & that was it——SURPRISE!

Here are some pics from that day:

Here’s a video of Kaitlyn having fun with her friend Darion at the party:

From looking at our last post, we realized that we haven’t updated this thing for almost 2 months now! Our daily readership has probably gone all the way down from the 40s to 2 a day by now; one loyal “reader” being my parents’ computer, since its web browser’s home page is set to our blog, and the other would be my sister.

Since school started 2 months ago, Kaitlyn has had the cold 3 times, Mel got sick once for a week or so, and I got sick once for a day (weird). So, that’s why we have been kind of unavailable to put up new posts.

But today, since I’m home again with Kaitlyn because she has a cold, I decided to finally write something during her afternoon nap. As a bonus, here’s a video of her during her first couple of weeks at school. Enjoy!

*more videos on YouTube

It’s either the toys, the teachers, the other kids, or a combination of things that she likes about the place. As I dropped her off on both mornings, although looking nervous & hesitant, she also had this curious & excited look on her face. May be that’s why a big hug & a kiss was good enough, and that she didn’t cry when it was time for me to leave.

So, there here you go. That’s the update on how she did on her first & second day of school. Now, it’s time for me to go to bed, or I’ll have a hard time staying awake at work again.

We were still very tired from the red-eye flight that we all left the house @ 7:30 this morning, a little later than we were supposed to. The trains were packed and everyone was sweating as usual. As we transferred from the N to the 6 Train at the 14th Street station, we got separated.

Mel got onto the train but Kaitlyn & I couldn’t. Some guy was just hovering by the door after he got on, so I was trying to get around him. Since he had his headphones on, he wasn’t aware that there were people behind him trying to get on. Now thinking back, I should had just rammed him with the stroller! I’ll admit that I’m a “door-hoverer,” too, because I don’t love holding onto the poles. But at least I’m a responsible “hoverer!” When the train doors open, I always move out of the way & make sure that people can get on & off easily. And I’m always willing to move in to the middle when needed. But this guy just stood there, blocking half of the doorway with his 50-inch waist, 250-lb body!

Anyway, by the time—which was just 5 seconds later—Melanie realized that we were still on the platform, she turned around, and tried to get off, the train doors closed & I had to pull the stroller back.

We eventually got there. Kaitlyn was pretty happy as she walked into the classroom and excited to see other kids. She would walked up to them and looked at what they were doing. There’s this one boy (I think his name was Toby) who came in a few minutes after her. As soon as his mom said goodbye, he just started crying & screaming. At that moment, I was like “oh, no,” because I can just see Kaitlyn doing the same thing. Some time during our vacation, Kaitlyn became very clingy & attached to us at times. She would freak out when we leave her sight or when she sees “strangers” (my family, whom she has met many times).

Fortunately, she only acted shy and asked me to pick her up once (but I didn’t). When it was time for me to say bye to her, she was OK and would let one of the teachers hold her instead. I stayed for a few minutes outside the classroom looking at her through the one-way glass on the door. Although she kept looking at the door, she was calm & didn’t cry or anything—at least for those few minutes.

Hopefully she’s OK and is having a good time right now. I guess we’ll find out later today.

We’ll keep you posted.

By the way, I’ll try to start posting up photos from our vacation by Sunday, but not until I unpack first.

Our trip to the city (Top of the Rock @ Rockefeller Center, NBA Store, & Central Park)

Taking turns to take pictures with the princess (we charge $100 per picture. haha):

Their final day in NY:

We miss you guys! Can’t wait to see you next month!

Which photo do you like the most?

– while in the car:

– Downtown Philly:

– Messing around in the gift shop:

– Amish Country (Pennsylvania):