Photos: Barnes and Noble

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At her day care, Lydia enjoys playing with the train set, and whenever we visit the children's section in the Barnes and Noble near Alderwood Mall, Lydia's priority is to go to the Thomas the Train play area. On Saturday mornings, Lydia sometimes watches Thomas the Train on the local PBS television station while drinking her milk.

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"What I do want to play with next" is the thought echoing through Lydia's mind right now.

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Lydia is resting comfortably in a green wooden chair.

The other part of the bookstore that Lydia enjoys is the area in the children's section where the store employees regularly have story time for the little ones. In this section, Lydia loves sitting on the green benches since they are built for toddlers and preschool-aged kids.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on February 18, 2008 at the Barnes and Noble store in Lynnwood, WA.

Pooh's Easter Basket

March 14, 2008


Pooh’s Easter Basket

I have always enjoyed spending time in bookstores, particularly behemoths like Barnes and Noble and Borders because of their wide selection of books. On some of my days off during the week this year, I have brought Lydia to both of these retailers, and she has enjoyed these visits also, particularly riding the escalators and playing in the children’s section of both stores. At Barnes and Noble, she smiles as she moves the various “choo choo trains” on the tracks in the Thomas the Train area of the children’s section, and she likes sitting on the green benches in the story time section of that part of the store. At Borders, she enjoys playing with the large Elmo stuffed animals and sitting at a toddler-sized table.

At one of these stores earlier this month, I purchased a book entitled Pooh’s Easter Basket for her because as she is two this year, this is the first year that she would be eligible to participate in a number of Easter egg hunts in the area. The characteristics of this book that I liked included its unique form (the book is shaped like an Easter basket and even has a rope handle so that a child can carry it like an Easter basket), the brevity of the text, and wonderful illustrations done by various Disney artists, including a lovely one of Tigger (Lydia’s favorite cartoon character).

The book accomplishes its goal of introducing children to Easter eggs as well as teaching them about colors. A few excerpts from the book demonstrate those objectives as follows:

Pooh begins the story by finding a “shiny red Easter egg to put in his basket.” Later Roo, “rolls a green Easter egg to hide in the grass.” The story continues with “Tigger is painting an Easter egg orange. Maybe he’ll add stripes! [and concludes with this question] “Everyone in the Hundred-Acre Wood has such colorful Easter eggs. Can you name all the colors?”

(Source: Pooh’s Easter Basket. Random House: 2005.)

Photos: Food Court

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Lydia is eating a french fry at lunch. Compared to mash potatoes and boiled potatoes, Lydia prefers fried potatoes. During Lydia's outings with dad, which occur on Wednesdays and Fridays, they occasionally have lunch outside the home, such as at the food court of a local mall.

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Near the end of the meal, Lydia demonstrates her contentment as she points to something in the food court.

Note: Both of these pictures were taken on February 20, 2008 during lunch at the food court at Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, WA.

Photos: Alderwood Mall Play Area

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Lydia is crawling through a tunnel, an experience that she enjoyed so much that she repeated it a number of times on this Wednesday morning.

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Lydia's "Poppy, I am happy" look

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Lydia is sitting on top of one of the large toy objects.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on February 20, 2008 in the children's play area of Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, WA.

Good Night Hawaii

March 13, 2008


Good Night Hawaii

Knowing how much Lydia enjoys reading, we bought a book for her called Good Night Hawaii at a bookstore at Volcanoes National Park as a souvenir of our recent trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, and ever since we returned home, she has asked us to read it to her several times a day. Authored by Adam Gamble and illustrated by Joe Veno, this book is a part of the Good Night Our World series of board books. In each of those works, the author(s) focus the reader’s attention on the uniqueness of the local culture, fauna, flora, geography, and language of the place for which the book is named. Finally, the concise text and the colorful illustrations appeal to young children, particularly toddlers with their limited attention span.

The story of Good Night Hawaii is as follows:

“Good morning, Pacific Ocean.
Good morning, humpback whales.
Are we ready to share a wonderful day?

Aloha, friends.
Do you like to wear a lei?
Aloha, surfer girl.
Ride that wave!

Good morning, lush, green mountains.
Good morning, waterfall.

Good afternoon, green sea turtle.
See the colorful fish swimming around the coral reef.
Good afternoon, dolphins, playing in the lagoon.

Aloha, beach babies.
Do you like to play in the sand?
Aloha, horseback riders, exploring the island.

Yummy! Don’t you love fresh fruits like mangoes,
Papayas, guavas, passion fruit, pineapples, and bananas?
How about coconuts or macadamia nuts?

Hello, nene and goslings.
Do you like to smell the flowers?

Good evening, windsurfers and canoeists.
Wow, listen to the call of the man blowing in a conch shell.

Aloha, hula dancers.
Aloha, fire dancer.
Isn’t a luau fun?

Good night, little gecko.
Good night, lava streams, flowing down the volcano.

Shine in the night, Honolulu lights.
Good night, observatory, from where you can see galaxies of twinkling stars.

Good night, Hawaiian islanders. Mahalo.
Thank you for sharing a wonderful day.”

(Source: Adam Gamble and Joe Veno. Good Night Hawaii. Our World of Books: 2007.)


Although this is the first book in the Good Night Our World Series that we have given to Lydia, we will look out for other titles because of the quality of this book.

Photos: Digitally Matted Photos of Lydia

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One advantage of digital photography and imaging compared to traditional film photography is the ability to create new images long after the original pictures were taken.

First, the four pictures were cropped from their original rectangular format to a square format.

Second, by using two software programs for photography, specifically Adobe Photoshop CS2 and John Hartman's Quickmats 3, this image was made. Since I bought Quickmats last fall, I have used it a number of times to create digitally matted pictures not only of Lydia but also of many other family members and friends because of its ease of use and its diverse matting options, including its ability to produce customized mats. (Adobe Photoshop Elements, including the latest version that was released last year [version 6], unfortunately does not work with Quickmats.)

This was created on December 19, 2007.

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This image, which is very similar to the one above, is one in which I changed the mat color to pink, which SiowFong agreed was better than the original blue color. Then I opened Microsoft Publisher, imported the square image, centered it on the rectangular layout, and saved everything as a new file. I then reopened the image in Photoshop CS2, changed the white areas on either side of the square image, and saved the file again. Finally, I reopened the file in Microsoft Publisher to add the text.

This was created on March 30, 2008.

Note: The four smaller pictures that make up the two larger pictures were taken in the living room of our home on September 1, 2008.

Photos: Lydia's Scratched Face

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Lydia's face bears the scratch marks that Lucas, her day care classmate, gave her yesterday that resulted when Lydia refused to surrender the toy that she was playing with that Lucas wanted. Note that Lydia has several scratches, including the big one on her right cheek, another on the bridge of her nose, and some small ones on her left cheek.

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I asked Lydia to hold a ruler next to her face for this picture so that the viewer can measure the size of the largest scratch, which is located on her right cheek. (SiowFong says that Lydia looks like a criminal in this picture because of her mug shot appearance.)

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Another close view of the scratches on Lydia's face

After I took these pictures, I printed a few of them at home, drove to Lydia's day care (with Lydia in the car), and met with Janet, the manager, to express my concerns about this incident that occurred on March 11, 2008.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on March 12, 2008 in our home. The first two were completed in the upper landing area, and the last was done in the dining room.

"I Want to Ti Book"

March 12, 2008


“I Want to Ti Book”

When a colleague recently asked me about Lydia’s favorite activity, I paused for a moment before responding that Lydia enjoys looking at picture books and asks SiowFong and me to read to her every day. The sentence that she uses to communicate that preference to us is usually, “I want to tai book.” (The word “tai” in Cantonese means “look”.) Then Lydia selects the book in which she is interested for us to read to her, and we read to her either as we sit together on a sofa or the floor of the living room.

The following, most of which are gifts to Lydia from family members and friends, have been some of Lydia’s favorite books for the last several weeks:

Bear Learns to Be Brave
Candle Bible for Toddlers
Cat Learns to Care
Dino Love
Five Silly Monkeys
God Is Good
God Loves Me
Good Night Hawaii
Hippo Learns to Help
I’m Growing Too
Jesus Loves Me
Madeline Loves Animals
Mi Libro Grande de Las Palabras
My First Book of abc
Once Upon a Potty
Pooh’s Easter Basket
Pretty Poems and Wonderful Words
Princess Valentine Opposites
Tiger Tells the Truth


Lydia is not bored after seeing the same pictures and hearing the same story day after day. If a certain book is one of her favorites during a particular day, she will ask us to reread it to her a few times throughout the same day. (Throughout the next few weeks, we will share with you some of these very short stories in Lydia’s blog.)

Photos: Mummie and Daddy

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Lydia is wearing her favorite ski cap.

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Lydia and papa have similarly shaped ski caps.

When she wears this ski cap, Lydia sometimes comments, "like Papa".

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Lydia and mom

Note: All of these pictures were taken on January 5, 2008 in the living room of our home.

Photos: Lydia and Kakadu Goodbye

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While SiowFong gently holds Kakadu, Lydia touches Kakadu on Kakadu's last day at our home.

Kakadu, a hand-tamed parakeet, was born on December 12, 1996, and SiowFong recalls that she bought him either at the end of January 1997 or at the beginning of February 1997. Before Lydia came into our lives, SiowFong had much more time for Kakadu, but she felt that she had been neglecting Kakadu for much of the last year; as a result, when Julie Song, her colleague, recently informed her that she and her husband were thinking of getting a pet bird for their daughter, SiowFong offered to give them Kakadu, and Julie accepted.

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Lydia is giggling after touching Kakadu, whom SiowFong is gently holding in her hands.

One reason why SiowFong thought that this was good timing to give away Kakadu is that she was concerned that Lydia would grow attached to Kakadu in the coming months, and giving away Kakadu later might exact an emotional toll on Lydia.

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Lydia is reaching for the door to Kakadu's cage.

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May Song and Lydia are standing in front of Kakadu's cage.

May, a 5-year old, had been asking her mother and father for a pet bird. Within a half hour after this picture was taken, Kakadu, his cages, his pellet food, and a number of his accessories would be on their way to the Song home.

Note: All of these pictures were taken on February 2, 2008 in the dining room of our home.

Roughed Up

March 11, 2008


Roughed Up

Day care has provided a number of benefits to Lydia. These include interacting with peers, learning many new English words, phrases, and even simple sentences, and experiencing authority from teachers. Day care, however, also has some drawbacks. Among the shortcomings are acquiring acute infectious diseases from other children like colds and stomach viruses and learning bad behavior from peers. For Lydia, another disadvantage of day care is being the victim of the occasionally aggressive behavior from other toddlers. This occurred today because Lucas wanted a toy with which Lydia was playing. When Lucas tried to pull the toy away from Lydia, she refused to give it up, but Lucas reacted by scratching Lydia’s face and neck in several places.

According to Arlene Eisenberg, Heidi Murkoff, and Sandee Hathaway, the authors of What to Expect: The Toddler Years (Workman Publishing. pages 189-192), the 20th month is the time when toddlers begin to exhibit aggressive behavior, such as hitting, pushing, and grabbing. The reasons for this behavior are multiple and include the following:

A drive for independence and identity
Frustration
Egocentricity
Lack of impulse control
Inability to foresee consequences
Lack of social proficiency
Lack of verbal facility
An interest in cause and effect
Lack of sleep
Hunger
Illness
An unsettling life change
Inadequate attention
An overly hostile environment
An overly controlling environment
An uncontrolled environment
Impaired parents or caregivers