Author: MICHELLE N

Last Day at Children’s World Preschool

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Now that William’s aunt Lily (Tim’s sister) is available to babysit him after school, we’ll stop sending him to the daycare, starting 8/20/2019. This for sure a great arrangement for both William and me. For me, I don’t have to use my lunch time to go pick up him at school and drop him off at the day care and then driving back to work. Every day I have to rush to do that in order to finish the whole driving loop within 1 hour; every minute counts. For William, after a long day at school, he can sleep on his own bed till whenever he likes; and he can eat something and have milk before going to bed; which means he will never be hungry when he’s ready for his nap.

When I pick him up at the school, I usually bring something like a cheese sandwich or hot dogs and let him eat that in the car for about 10 minutes before driving him to the day care. He’s a slow eater so in 10 minutes he can only finish a few bites so if he doesn’t eat much at school, he’d be so hungry while napping at the day care. This always bugs me because I can’t stand the fact that my boy is hungry from 1:00 PM until he gets home around 5:30 PM. Even though I pack some cookies/juice in his lunch bag but he rarely touches it. I keep reminding him to open the lunch bag after nap; and also asked the teachers to remind him that but not sure what’s going on. He’d not go get his lunch bag unless someone remind him to do so.

So the new arrangement is Mrs. Lily will pick William up at school at 2:00 PM, and then walk him home. She’ll stay with him until we get home around 5:30 PM. She babysat William few times before when William was younger; I know she loves him and she’s really good at feeding him.

I just hope that she’s always available to stay with us. I’d hate to send William back to the daycare (any day care).

William’s stuffs at the daycare. The pillow and blanket has been with William at the day care for almost 4 year. The lunch bag with the Pokemon character has been with him for about 2 years. I bought him a new lunch bag but now that we don’t need it any more; I returned it to the store.

When I dropped William off at the day care on Friday – the last day; I said good bye to Mr. Gary, Mrs. Rose Marie and Mrs. Angelina. I can’t believe it has been almost 4 years! I know Mr. Gary loves him; he let William to hang out in his office a lot; and William loves him too. He said if we ever need him/daycare, just give him a call. Saying goodbye is never easy, I had tears on my eyes.

I know for sure William will be happy to stay home with Aunt Lily; that’s all that matters the most! I’m trying my best as a mom to keep my baby healthy and happy. Love you son!

Back To School – Day 3

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Wednesday, it’s day 3. Nothing new. I took some photos before pushing his stroller out. He doesn’t look straight to the camera as usual, doesn’t matter how many times I told him to look at the camera.

Back To School – Year 2019 – 2020

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Summer break is over, time to go back to school. I prepared William mentally for the last 2 days that he would go back to school starting today.

Same school (Abraham Lincoln Elementary School), same classroom #54 and same teachers (Ms. Newman, Birdie and Sandy); except that William is now in the Kindergarten, and his class hour is from 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM (not 1:00 PM anymore)

Waking him up is hard as usual; and “I want to scratch my back!” is the first sentence that he said. He whined as usual, asked for few more times to scratch his back but eventually everything was done and we were ready to go to school. At first I wanted him to walk so I did not bring the stroller out but he said, “The school is far!”. He refused to walk so I had to bring out the stroller.

William’s sleepy face

It was good to see everyone is back: Ms. Newman, Ms. Birdie and Ms. Sandy. (We did not see Ms. Newman and Ms. Sandy during the last month of the last school year, before summer!)

Ms. Sandy with the boys, walking to the class room.

Upset!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Recently when William is upset and cries, he put his fingers into his mouth!

Not sure where he learned this from but looking at this picture really saddens me. Would a normal kid act like this?

This morning after I put on his socks and went to the kitchen sink to wash my hands; when I came back and saw he already took off his socks! I raised my voice a bit, “Why did you take off your socks? Put them on!” – That was when he started to cry and put his fingers into his mouth. I bet the reason he took off his socks is because he was upset that I turned off the TV. He wanted to turn off the TV himself. He kept whining “I want to turn off TV” while I was carrying him from the bedroom to the door.

I told you, “Put on your socks or I’ll send you to grandma” and then I sat on the couch waiting for his actions. After a while, he sat down on the floor, kicked/pulled the entrance rug, and tried to put 1 sock on. “I need help!”- He said.

I ended up put the socks on for him because we were getting late. While I was doing that, he saw my new water bottle, he took it and played with it. Soon after, he’s so attached to the bottle that he stopped crying, and acted as nothing has just happened. We walked to the car, put on his seat belt, he ate the biscuits while I was diving him to the day care.

He’s easy to forget like that!

He kicked the rug while trying to put on his sock

Arrived at the day care, I let him sit in the car to finish his biscuits before going in.

Every morning I have to deal with his whining, “I want to scratch my back!” so I have to scratch his itch before I can get him to go brush his teeth to get ready to the daycare. My days always start with struggles.

I hope one day when he grows up more, he’ll give me less headache.

He Likes Strawberries!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Got out of the door this morning to go the the daycare, William ran to the strawberry pots and picked a red strawberry. (Tim bought 3 pots from the swap meet about a month ago). I thought he just picked it for fun but no, when he got in the car, he took a bite!

Then he took another bite to finish it!

Did not know he likes strawberries that much, “Mama will buy more strawberries for you, ok?” – I said while driving off the house.

Not A Swimmer!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Tuesday Morning.

After dropping William off at the day care; I decided to check out the pool and see the new coach Ken. (I did not know the school hired a new coach until I talked to Ms. Angela last week; all the time I thought it was still coach Daniel like last year).

Eating croissant with cheese in the car before going in the daycare.
He loved to play with this pot even though I said “no, it’s dirty”

There was only 3 students and the middle-age coach in the pool at the time. I was just standing there and watching because I did not want to interrupt but the coach said Hi first and the conversation started to roll. In fact, it was 30 minutes conversation!

He asked, “Which William was it?” I told him he’s 5 and short. “There’s 2 William, one with Autism and the other one does not.” – “The one with Autism”, I said.

Then the coach went on talking about his background working as a case manager at RCOC; he said he knows most of the case workers at the RCOC in Tustin. He also worked as a teacher, as the “Violence Restrainer” (He’d come to the house of the violent people and if there’s sign of violence, he’d restraint that person to protect the other members of the family. He said but if there’s Behavior therapist is there, by law he is not allowed to do anything, he has to let the BT does the work, even if the violent person attacks and hurts the BT, he cannot interfere. ); and he’s willing to work for RESPITE hours during days or nights. And that he does NOT believe in ABA; he does not believe in the method of “give a coin” for the “good behaviors”.

But there’s only 1 thing he said that really sticks on my mind: William is not a swimmer! My husband Tim keeps telling me to stop sending William to Australian Swim school with lots of different reasons: itchy eyes, skin, it’s been a year and his skill is not improved, etc. I felt sad that he does not support me on this decision.

My argument is simple: William loves water, he’d stay in the pool forever and never wants to get out. Even if he’s not a fast learner in the pool, or maybe he doesn’t learn anything, who cares? he has fun, that’s what matters! I know it costs money and time, but if money can buy my son some joy, then why not? Plus, swimming is 1 of the valuable skills that a parent can give their children.

The coach Ken is the one on the right.

William started at Australian Swim school since Aug 2018 so it’s been a year now and he still does not how to swim yet. It’s only 30 minutes sessions with other 2 or 3 kids (max 4 in a class); and it’s only once a week (Sunday at 9:30 AM). So during the session, he can only have about 3 or 4 times with the instructor: 1 time to do star fish, 1 time to do back float, 1 or 2 times with the noodle; then the last 3 minutes is Play time, where they can pick the toys from the basket and play. So the fact that he does not have much time to practice and lack of concentration (he has ADHD) contribute to the slow learning process, I believe. What If I sign him up for One-on-One class, would he learn faster?

I believe one day William will be able to swim, but not only that, he’ll be a great swimmer. That certainly answers the question “Will I stop sending William to swimming school?”!

Diarrhea Or Not?

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Started on Saturday which was 5 days ago, William’s poop was all watery. There’s nothing new in his diet: still Mac & Cheese and Spaghetti. But I’m not sure what he ate at the day care though. Usually he’d “Poo” once a day or at most 2 times. These days he went 3 or 4 times!

So I made an appointment to see the doctor today. Picked him up at the day care around 3:45 and took him to the doctor. As we got near to the doctor office, he said “No Doctor!”. I told him the doctor will check out his stomach to make sure everything is ok; and that there would be no shots. He kept quiet and did not cry or kick.

Last time we had a hard time to get him up on the scale. This time was easy, he went straight to the scale when his name was called.

Dr. Huy was off, so we met with Dr. Chi this time. She said he only went 3 or 4 times so there’s no need for medicine. Just watch out for what he eats: no milk. If he goes more than 6 times a day we can let him have Imodium. She checked his stomach and said it’s ok. So that was it!

I asked if taking Pedialyte is ok; she said yes since we’re reducing the amount of milk that he’s gonna take.

Dr. Yen Chi & William

We went to Walmart to buy the Pedialyte after leaving the doctor office. William’s behavior was so good, he did not run or sit on the floor. While paying the the Pedialyte; he grabbed the Mentos mint and ate some on the way home.

So we limited the amount of milk that he had at night. We could not just totally take it all away because he has to have milk before bed; otherwise he could not sleep.

8/4/2019: in the afternoon his poop was fine but then later at night, it was all watery again.

8/5/2019: it seems to go back to normal.

  • Waiting to be called..
  • Waiting in the room, can’t stop playing with the keyboard and mouse.

Another Day …

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Another day at the day care. As soon as he went thru the little door, he sat down on the floor and scratched his legs! So I went in, pulled out the chair and told him to sit on the chair, not the floor.

I remember when he first started here, he’d lie down on the same spot. So nothing has improved. He has no awareness that people would get in /out that little door and might step on him.

I’ll try to remind him not to sit on the floor or ground; hopefully one time he’ll stop doing that.

I took this picture thru the shelve, the little door is on the right.

Lonely Boy

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Tuesday 8:30 AM

Dropped William off at the daycare today, while I was sign up, he sat right next to the kid entrance door with the lunch bag next to him. So I came in, put his lunch back away and asked him to go outside to play. He said his belly hurt and wanted me to rub. So I told him to wait because I needed to replace his swim suit with the new set I bought from home. He followed me outside to the wooden shelve where they put the children’s swimming stuffs.

So I rubbed his belly; then he wanted to go to the restroom. He sat on the toilet for quite a bit. Then when he was done, I asked him to go outside but he refused. He sat down on the floor in the corner next to the restroom. I told him to go outside several times, finally he did but as soon as he got out of the door, he sat down on the ground! I told him to go sit on any chair because the ground is dirty. He refused to stand up; until I told him I’d rub his belly if he sits on the chair. That’s when he followed me to sit on the bench in the playground. I rubbed his belly a little bit more; but I needed to leave for work so I told him to continue sit there.

As soon as I stood up and turned my back about to leave, he went back inside and sat in that same corner! I came in to ask him again to go out and sit on the chair. “I want mama to go to work!” – he said.

I guess he wanted to be left alone.

Left is the restroom, right is the door to the play yard. He leaned on the door that leads to Yellow Bird Classroom.

I don’t mind if he sits by himself but the fact that he sat on the floor near the restroom really sadden me. Plus, he leaned on the door; what if someone opens the door then he’d get hurt! After 4 years at the same daycare, I thought he’d be better at this place but obviously nothing has changed. He acts the same way as did the first few months when he started going here.

I looked around, Ms. Rose Mary and Jennifer and the new teacher were busy outside with other kids; no one really paid attention to him.

I left the daycare with broken heart and tears on my eyes. What kind of a mom I am that I left my only son there feeling lonely and unhappy. But there’s really nothing I can do; unless I quit my job and stay home to take care of him. Finally, I can’t do that.

Closer look. He has been itchy a lot lately.

3rd Hair Cut

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Sunday Afternoon.

William’s hair is getting so long; and the summer heat is too strong so it’s time to get another haircut. We came back to the same salon we went to last time, Stephanie Salon. This time we had to wait for about 10 minutes; I let him watch videos on my phone while waiting so that he’d not messing around. This time we got a different barber.

He behaved better, get on the chair without whining. He only said “No” a few times when the lady changed the hair cutter or tried to use the scissor but I came and comforted him; redirected him back to the videos to distract him.

He looks thinner with the new hair cut.

  • Before
  • After
We got a new bed and he loves to lie on the headboard