lenora

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welcome to my blog

Friday, June 30, 2006 5:45:37 PM

Hi and welcome to Lenora's blog. A lot has happened since I started using this blog more regularly when we prepared to travel to pick up our daughter from China. To ease navigation for those dropping by more recently or wanting to catch up after an absence, here are some links of interest on this site:

Adoption of Risa - starting with receiving her referral on Sept. 11, 2005 in the September archive section. China starts from October 23, 2005.
Recent photos - of Risa and other things about the house. I'll try to keep the photos within the last couple months or so and cycle content through. Also accessible through the Photo tab above.

Enjoy!

6 comments

dilemmas

Saturday, October 22, 2011 4:18:46 AM

That's a hard choice, mummy. I know piano lesson is what I should do, but I don't really like it. But Jasper is my friend, and I really want to go to his birthday party...

Risa faces what is perhaps her first real moral dilemma: friends vs duty. Although she didn't seem particularly distressed at this decision. I haven't told her that the worst thing that could happen might be leaving the 2 hour birthday party 30 minutes early, and the best would be me rearranging her piano lesson which might be the more feasible solution as her teacher is quite flexible. As for not liking piano, Risa has decided she'd rather play guitar, but has agreed to stick out the rest of the term (1 more month) for piano as mummy has already paid for it. She had a playdate today with a classmate and enthusiastically tried to show her friend her piano skills.

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going to the "M"

Monday, October 17, 2011 3:46:39 AM

Risa once asked, about 6 or 7 months ago, "Can we have lunch at the 'M'?" After a few probing questions, I soon realized with some horror, she was meaning McDonalds. Fair enough, we knew that day would come. So we took her, but did not make a big deal about it (in front of her). It was just another restaurant. In fact, at that time, she declared the fries "too salty!" and actually said we shouldn't go back there. But we couldn't breathe easy as this weekend, she asked for the 2nd time this year to have lunch at you-know-where. Well, if it's taken this long for her to develop the taste (she now says she likes the McD burgers), and we go only twice a year, I guess we're doing ok. Her favorite burger place is still White Spot, where the Pirate Pak always rocks.

I should say the lunch did cost her. If she wanted me to take her there, I told her she had to not bug me in the morning when I'm still in bed. She is an early riser, along with dad, but likes to jump on me at 7 AM on weekends to wake me up. Contrary to what you see on TV, a 50 lb kid landing on you is not a joyful happening. If I weren't so dead, I might actually whack her. I told her the night before that I wanted to neither see nor hear her, and if I woke up because of her, then no McD's. Unfortunately, I happened to wake up a few minutes before she did, but she did whisper very quietly to her dad instead of the usual 100 decibel banter as they went downstairs to breakfast, and she set not one foot back in the room while I snoozed. Now if only I can extend that to every weekend (but without the M).

2 comments

autumn grilling

Saturday, October 8, 2011 11:47:25 PM

This is Risa at the Dunbar Harvest Festival on what was to be the last warm (t-shirt and shorts) day of the year in late September. Dunbar Festivals have been very good for getting free junk. Risa picked up enough toys and candy to fill a small bag, there was free cake, popcorn, and hotdogs, and I even got a free cosmetic pack with samples. And it's not even Halloween yet. We had a late late summer, and we never hit 30 deg C this year. Now in October it's back to cool and rainy, but that didn't stop us from buying a new, small, table top gas barbeque. It replaces our 17 year old rust bucket toxic firebomb of a grill. We wanted small so we could port it to a park or beach. It didn't rain today and so I grilled an inaugural meal of burgers and "fries" for lunch. The fries were potato and yam wedges, and we used toasted bread slices instead of hamburger buns. Risa's verdict? "It's as good as White Spot, mummy!"

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the only tigers here are in the zoo

Saturday, October 8, 2011 6:07:10 AM

Risa stands by the gorilla enclosure at the Calgary Zoo. Our only major travel this year was to drive out to Drumheller, Alberta, to see the dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum. I had a week break from work and we fulfilled a promise to Risa to take her to "dinosaur park". There's an actual park named Dinosaur Park, but we didn't have time to check that out. Risa enjoyed playing among the hoodoos as the highlight of her trip. The museum is first class. Highly recommended. Other highlights were the 3 Valley Gap Heritage Ghost Town, and Enchanted Forest, between Revelstoke and Golden.

Risa is now enjoying Grade 2, continuing karate, and has started another term of piano lessons at the local community centre. I'm no longer able to take her to karate due to my work hours (now dad's duty), but I take her to piano and sometimes guide her daily practice. Which leads me to the subject of "tiger mom". This term has been recently flung at me, by more than one person! And yes, I read the book by Patricia Chua. I was accused (in jest, I hope) of being a TM when I talked about observing Risa's piano lessons and taking notes. I use the notes to help Risa when she practices at home because I try to reinforce what the teacher wants her to do, like maintain her hand position and to play smoothly. When she was having difficulty remembering a long karate routine last year, I shot a video of her in class with the instructor so we could watch it at home as there was no way I could memorize it myself. The difference between me and Chua, however, is that I don't force anything. Push, maybe, but force, no. Risa has a fairly determined personality and actually wants to practice so it's lucky I don't have to expend extra energy in fighting! We'll see how far this takes us.

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Where's the summer?

Saturday, July 2, 2011 11:26:57 PM

Is anyone still watching... Yes, so it's been 6 months since my last post. Just shows how little I fire up my pc these days, thanks to handheld devices. Anyhoo, Risa has finished Grade 1, earned her orange belt in karate (3rd belt), and continues to be a happy monkey. We hit Canada Day festivities in downtown Vancouver. As the picture indicates, however, Vancouverites are slow to party at 12 noon and the plaza with the Olympic cauldron is only half full. The good stuff wouldn't start until dinner time, which is still too close to bedtime for Risa. But it was still a good family day. Now that I'm working regular hours again, we'll have regular family days which is something we missed a lot during the past 10 months when I did a temporary job.

Here's a picture of last week's family day outing: Mini Maker Faire, Vancouver's first. It was supposed to highlight do-it-yourself projects, but seemed more like "geek fest" with lots of robotics and other mechanical demonstrations. Fascinating, nonetheless. Risa loved this oversized tricycle carriage.

Summertime will see Risa in day camp (our current child care option), and we still await warm weather.

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a merry christmas to all!

Saturday, December 25, 2010 4:05:42 AM

Risa hugs her hot chocolate in the pouring rain while we tour the Festival of Lights event at the Van Dusen Garden Botanical Garden here in Vancouver. It was our first visit to this festival. Risa got to sit on Santa's knee again. While she has heard that Santa may not be real, she still believes that he will come around tonight with gifts. We had 3 presents already under the tree as of last week, one for each of us, at which Risa wondered how they got there so early if Santa has not started his round yet. So I told her that Santa was so busy, he had to do a preliminary run. We have milk, cookies, and a thank you note for Santa sitting by the tree. I told Risa that if she got up in the night and discovered evidence of Santa's presence, she was not to wake me up! And with that, a very Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

2 comments

hey dude!

Friday, August 20, 2010 2:55:14 AM

Whatever happened to "Daddy, I'm finished my bath!"? Now it's "Hey, Dude!!", which is only nominally worse than "Raaymooond!!!" You'd think Risa is turning 13. She picked up "dude" from the movie "Surf's Up", a movie I happen to like a lot myself.

It's been a summer of visiting relatives in Toronto, day camps, swimming (pictured here in Maple Grove pool), playdates, and moments of general boredom. The summer will end with her 6th birthday and the Pacific National Exhibition. Then it's on to Grade 1!

Earlier this month we attended the annual Powell Street Festival and sampled spam sushi. There were many display booths and stage performances, but Risa stuck to the Children's Tent and playground, and took part in the kiai contest and tug of war.

4 comments

whales and war wounds

Sunday, June 20, 2010 12:41:58 AM

Risa and her fellow Whale classmate have their lesson conducted in the deep end of the Aquatic Centre at UBC. Their instructor is teaching them how to dive in from the edge. At this stage of their development, however, it's more of a belly flop. The two seem equally matched in skill and Risa enjoys her swim lessons so much she completes each exercise with a clap of the hands and shake of the boodie when she's out of the water.

Miss speed freak enjoys the double spinning action of this carnival ride with dad as we spend the day in the neighboring Point Grey Fiesta. An outrageously large field is filled with booths, food stands, and rides for this annual event. In spite of appearances, we had to be extra cautious today, with sit-down activities only, as Risa is sporting 6 stitches to the head, administered in the ER of Childrens Hospital just the night before as a result of a fall from her bicycle. She suffered a deep, messy cut just above her eyebrow, and just under her helmet when she hit the asphalt on a flat, smooth road. It's actually the first time she has fallen off her bike since learning to ride just over a year ago. We occassionally ride up to 6 km in a day. Risa cried a bit when freezing medicine was injected directly around the cut, but she practically fell asleep on the table as the doc sewed her up. The "perfect patient". Back to the fiesta, Risa insisted on going with her black eye, and rather than listen to her whine all day, we compromised with light activities, and absolutely no bouncy castle. The stitches will be removed in 5 days.

2 comments

caribbean cruisin'

Sunday, May 30, 2010 9:50:00 PM

I write this post with the mind of one who has had only 5 hours sleep in 48 hours (gruelling return trip itinerary). We have just come back from a vacation with 7 other members of my family aboard Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, currently the world's largest cruise ship.

This photo will link to the rest of the album I have posted in the Photo section. The picture depicts 2 major elements of our experience: spending money, and no Risa. Gads, what was that?!! The Royal Caribbean brochure boasts that parents will "not see their kids" on their vacation, and our dutiful gut response was, "How selfish and repugnant!" Well. That's exactly what happened. The ship had pulled no stops at providing a fully supervised (and funded: Crayola, Fisher Price) activity center, Adventure Ocean, all for children from age 3 to 11. Risa went to the "Aquanauts" section, which catered to the 3-5 year set, and spent 7 out of a possible 9 hours a day there. The 2 missing hours were spent in breakfast and dinner, stuck with us, and the center closed for lunch. We actually could not drag her out. On shore days, the center fed the kids from one of the many restaurants on board at no extra charge while the parents could waltz about the towns all day. The center conducted themed crafts, shows, and games every day. Risa's suitcase became stuffed with a whole stash of her creations. The children even put on two stage performances for the parents, which Risa really got a kick out of as she was given staring roles in each (likely as she was one of the oldest in the group) and she loves being center stage.

So what did that free us up to do with Risa trapped in kiddie mind control? Spend money, of course. Ingenious. So this photo was taken with a new toy: an Olympus waterproof camera which we took to the waters of a bouyant salt water pool on the pool deck. Purchased on board, tax and duty free. I also spent mega on spa products, but hey, my toes look smashing. Plus various souvenirs and jewellery; it was just too easy.

Weather was stinking hot, food was fabulous. I liked the concept of small cafes in between the shops, where you could just have a little sandwich or piece of pizza for lunch or snack, rather than navigating your way through a 500 seat restaurant just to grab a small bite. It also gave Risa time to have a swim before the next Aquanaut session.

What would Gordon Neufeld, noted attachment theorist, say to us abandoning Risa in the ocean daycare? Yes, it wasn't great for family bonding, especially with so many members present. We did get her to the Pirate Museum in Nassau, but dragging her through the blistering heat on a 3 hour island taxi tour in St Maarten might not have gone over too well. An hour of shopping on top of that? Whining guaranteed. But she had a great time in a safe environment, is all I can say.

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growing growing

Friday, May 14, 2010 8:55:22 PM

AAAAIIEIEEEE!!! That's how I say "yes" in Screamish, mummy.

Risa is now quite literate in "Scriblish", and fluent in "Screamish". These terms were totally made up by her.

Risa is having a playdate at our home, and it has, unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), deteriorated to sitting in front of the television. Network tv. I'll try to kick them outside after this post. On the bright side, the more important development is that Risa has overcome her aversion to having other children in her space at home, and is now comfortable with being the hostess of a playdate. About a year ago, Risa would've free-fallen straight out of control when another child touched any of her belongings, even if it was a piece of paper. In spite of that, she has always been perfectly fine in anyone else's home, but we could never invite anyone over. Now in kindergarten, she seems to have built up strong enough friendships to override her insecurity with her space, and is now proud to show off and share her toys. She is quite a good hostess, in fact. As one of the social workers at our adoption agency stated, Risa would need to want the playdate more than she wanted to protect her stuff. So we simply had to wait it out.

The same social worker is now mediating an 8 week course on parenting, Power To Parent, by Gordon Neufeld, a leading child psychologist based in Vancouver. I've been attending this course and have had many previous notions turned upside down. I believe we have a good relationship with Risa, but we see there is much room for changing the way we approach certain things, such as discipline. Neufeld argues that time outs and consequences are not only ineffective, but potentially detrimental. I would highly recommend this course for any parent.

Risa still absolutely loves kindergarten and her class will take part in a Spring Concert next week. Risa has been practicing the song they will sing. She also still loves karate, which she has been taking for 8 months now. She's not quite at the next belt, yellow, yet but doesn't show any sign of slowing down. And that's the wrap up for now.

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special veggie soup

Monday, March 29, 2010 8:48:46 PM

I watched a little bit of Jamie Oliver's new show, "Food Revolution", where he is attempting to overhaul North American eating habits. The comments and blogs on the internet are largely supportive of his efforts, and what struck me was commentary on his attempt introduce cutlery to the kids. I missed the 2nd episode, but apparently he has to help kids hold their forks properly(!) and the school gave an absolute no-no to giving them knives. Knives! This reminded me of a video I shot of Risa just before last New Years Eve, but never bothered posting until now. My kid knows how to use a knife (Raymond's kiddie knife from his own childhood!). Risa demonstrates how she makes her special veggie soup. Sorry if the video takes a few minutes to load.