Month: August 2021

Second Day of Back to School

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Today when dropping William off at school, I had a chance to talk to Ms. Dora, 1 of his teachers.  She said he’s doing fine, and that he’s so fast at playing Tag.  I said, “Thank you for being so patience especially with kids with special needs!”

– I love kids! – She said.   Then she asked if William wanted to go with her to pickup his classmates at the bus.  Before they left, William said, “Mom, stay right there!”.   He still wanted me to wait for him to get into his classroom before leaving.

1:45 PM, I came to school to pick him up, it was so crowded and hard to find a parking spot so I parked on the next residential street.  I waited for about 5 minutes then I saw William’s face peeking thru the metal gate looking for me.  His teacher Mr. C saw me and pointed so that William could see me.   He ran out of the gate toward me; he did not look happy.  On the way to the car, he said “I will not go to school anymore!”.  I asked him why but he did not say anything.  I could tell that he was not calm.  What worries me is that he cannot explain or willing to share what bothers him.

Mr. C said that he did not eat anything at all; it’s very nice of him that he’s worried William will be hungry because it’s long hours at school (8:00 AM – 2:00 PM).  He said he gave William snacks but that is not lunch.  So I told him I’d pack William lunch.  Not sure what I should pack though because William only wants to eat pizza and mac & cheese.    Today I put 3 Melano cookies in his backpack and it’s all gone.  He must be hungry.

Once we got home, I made him 1 slice of pizza; he finished it really fast!

First Day Back To School – 2nd Grade

Posted on by MICHELLE N

After 14 days of self quarantine per the school nursed advised, today is William’s first day back to school. He woke up early around 6:30 AM and then woke me up.   He had milk and butter bread for breakfast, and by 7:30 AM we drove to school.   As usual, I’d let him sit in the car with the window rolled down when we arrive at school early.  He enjoyed looking out the window, and some times put his head outside and even stands up.

5 minutes before 8:00 AM we walked from the car to school, his teachers and his classmates were walking toward the gate, they call William name and asked him to get in line, but he was just running around.

Earlier, he said, “Do not leave until I get into my classroom!”

–  OK, that I can do!  – I replied.   Last night he wanted me to stay in the car until his class is over at 2:00 PM. I told him I cannot because I have to go to work.  I’m glad that this morning he made that compromise.

Covid-19 Safety procedures:

  • They sent us a text in the morning to remind us to let our children stay home if they have symptoms like fever, cough, etc.
  • At school, everyone has to wear mask and keep 6 ft distance.
  • There’s a staff standing by the gate, she sprays the hand sanitizer to the students’ hand before letting them go inside.

 

Mass At Cathedral Church

Posted on by MICHELLE N

I asked William on Saturday night, “Tomorrow is Sunday, what to we do on Sunday?” – Go to church, he said.

The crystal cathedral church has a new Mary statue so I wanted to check it out.  Vietnamese mass is at 1:15 PM.  We went up the stairs to seat; William was running around and making too much noise.  During the mass he kept asking so many question, where does Jesus live? who lives in this church? etc.  I told him to be quiet but he raised his voice louder.  Finally we had to leave the mass because we did not want to disturb everyone.

So we walked around the church grounds, it’s such a beautiful church.  We took a few pictures.   William enjoyed his churros we bought at the food stands while we were walking back to the car.

With his behaviors at the mass, we really can’t take him to the mass; even if we do, we’d have to stay outside where he can make noise and run around but will not disturb anyone.

Virtual Back to School Night – 2nd Grade

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Cases of corona virus still high in Santa Ana so this year Back To School Night is done thru Zoom.  The school principal Mrs. Roque and assistant principal Mr. Merkt and counselors talked about the school, mostly about the safety measures for 30 minutes.  Then we joined different zoom meeting with Mr. Castenada, who is William’s teacher.  He talked a bit about himself and the goal of the class.

My Little Cocoon

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Lately William loves to cover his whole body with the blanket when he sleeps, only his face and sometimes hands/arms are not covered.  And the way he twists the blanket to cover his head and his body is so funny :).

He loves this blanket a lot: he’d not go to sleep without this one.   Sometimes I replace with a different one while this one is being washed, he’d refuse to use a different one, he’d just wait for this blanket to ready.  Also he hates any blankets that have lots of flowers prints.  He’d throw it down on the floor, and does not want his blanket to touch the flower patterned blanket!

Honolulu – 2nd Day

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Today highlights would be riding the Maitai catamaran for 1.5 hour and Kuloa Ranch’s Hollywood Sites tour.

This day marked 1 of the most terrifying moment in my life: we lost William while walking from hotel to the Maitai catamaran departure point.  I was not sure if we headed the right direction so I left William with Tim to go asking for directions.  When I came back I asked Tim, where’s William? Tim looked around and there was no sign of him around!  Tim said, “He was just here looking at the sign!”.  Tim ran back toward the streets, I looked at the beach but I did not think he’d go there by himself because he’s always afraid of the waves, so the only direction he’d go is to go back to the hotel.  So Tim ran that way, I followed.  After 10 minutes walking, we met a couple and they said they saw a boy was running and calling “Dad! Dad!”.  Someone already stopped him when Tim caught up with him.  Poor little guy, he was crying so hard.  Lots of thanks to those nice people that stopped him, otherwise we could not catch up if he kept running.

Maitai Catamaran: William at first was excited when we got on the catamaran but later he felt asleep, he only woke up that last 15 minutes.   Not sure if he was seasick or not.  It was a beautiful day to spend the day with family: nice music and clouds and view of the Waikiki beach and Diamond Head.  At some point it was rough that the ocean water was splashed into our boat.

Kuloa Ranch: the tours at Kuloa ranch sold out fast 2 weeks in advance so I could only book 5 tickets to the Hollywood Movie sites tour.   We were supposed to check in 1 hour before the tour time but we got there late because it took almost 1 hour to get there from the hotel.  They called us right on time when we just got to the ranch entrance.   They took us around the ranch on a open window bus.  It’s a very beautiful ranch where they shot lots of famous movies like Jurassic Park.  But in my opinion it’s not a must to visit.