Author: MICHELLE N
I Want to Sleep At Home
1:00 PM
Picked William up at Martin Elementary School and dropped him off at Children’s World Preschool. While I was unbuckling, I said “Go in and sleep ok?”
“No!”, he said.
“Why Not?” – I was surprised.
“I want to sleep at home!” – I was a bit shocked because he’s never said that before.
It shows that he’s now trying to use words to express what he wants. Second, it means he’s actually thinking, he feels the difference between home and daycare.
“Mama has to go to work, so William sleeps at the daycare, ok?”
He did not say anything, looked like he was ok with that.
I’m happy and sad at the same time. Sad because we have no-one at home to watch him so that he can stay home; it’s only a 4 hours before we’re off work. Happy because my boy is growing up fast and his language skill is improved a lot. He observes more and talks more.
All the hard works actually pay off.
William has had ABA sessions since he was 2 years old: spend at least 3 hours a day with a therapist every day. While other children his age can learn simple things easily and naturally; he has to learn it over and over again so many times in order for him to get it. Lots of frustrations, tears and tantrums along the way, but I’m happy with the progress he has made.
There’s still lots of things William needs to improve and learn but regardless, I’m so proud of him!
Love you, Son!
Rafting Adventure 2019
The highlight of our summer trip this year was to go rafting on the Stanislaus River in Oakdale, which is about 2 hours driving from San Jose.
6:30 AM we left the hotel, stopped by Huong Lan Sandwiches to get some Pate Chaud and coffee for breakfast; then headed to the meeting point Golfland. We were on time but there was not many people there; and my friend was still picking up his friends, so we decided to go to the Knights Ferry.
Arrived to the Knights Ferry about 9:10 AM. We needed to check in at the parking lot near the bridge first to get our bands and pay for parking, then we head back to the bridge and walked down the stairs to where the boat ramp is. This is where they gave us a short orientation about safety and what to do, and make sure we all had the life vest on before letting us board the raft. Our family of 10 people fit nicely in this big raft.
Julie, Thân, Danny & Tracy Võ
Eliza, Bryan, Victoria Nguyễn
Michelle, Tim & William
Soon after we left the ramp, friends from other rafts starting to attack us with water guns and buckets full of water. We came prepared too, so we attacked back with the water gun and water buckets. Vy, Bryan and Eliza was so vigorously in fighting back :). Soon we all were wet from heads to toes.
William at first loved the boat, the water but he did not like the water war; he asked “I want to go back to the car!” so I hugged him and tried to shelter him from all the water splashes. After that he was fine; he tried to use the water gun to shoot others too.
The river is beautiful, lots of times we can see the rocks at the bottom so some parts are not that deep. When we stopped for lunch around 12:30 PM, William refused to get out of the water, he loved to play with the paddle in the water.
After lunch, we continue our way to the Orange Blossoms ramp, which is about 3 miles ahead. This leg of the river has more waves which added more excitement to this fun adventure.
We arrived to the Orange Blossoms point around 2:00 PM. There were River Journey Adventure staffs waiting to pull our raft to the shore. This is where we had to take our stuffs and got off the raft and gave back the safety box (they let us borrow for free). William did not want to leave just yet, he ran back to the water that I had to pull him back. There was a shuttle waiting there to take us back to the parking lot. So it was a one way river trip.
It was definitely a fun trip for everyone; it’s 1 of the family trip that we will remember as we go thru life. And most importantly to me is that William had fun and he was happy to play with the water.
Cost: $33.00/pp (child or adult). If buy more than 10 tickets then the website will automatically apply discount of $3.00 off.
San Jose 2019
Saturday 6/22 – Monday 6/24
A friend (Do Vu) from San Jose asked if we wanted to join his friends to rafting on the Stanislaus river. We’ve never rafted before so it was very tempting so I asked my sisters if they want to go. The answer was Yes, so we decided to go. It was that easy!
After a few sleepless nights of researching for the hotel that can fit 10 pp, I settled on the Hyatt House in San Jose; which has 2 rooms with 1 king and 2 queen beds and 1 sofa can turn into a queen bed and a kitchen. It’s about 700 sqf so it fits 10 of us nicely. ($550.00 for 2 nights includes tax).
William was very excited when I told him that we were going on a mini-vacation.
Our trip started at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning. Our first stop was a McDonald in Ventura for restroom break and some harsh browns for William, he loves harsh brown!
Next was Solvang, a Danish town; but William did not like it; he insisted to go back to the car.
William’s behaviors got better after we made the coin. He loves to make the coins wherever there’s a coin making machine.
Leaving Solvang after the kids have a chance to eat some ice cream; and my brother in law Thân tasted some cheese, we arrived to San Jose around 4:30 PM.
But the room was not ready yet; they said to come back at 5:00 PM so we sat on the lounge near the pool waiting for the room. William was so excited and ran around the hotel without waiting for me.
We came back to the front desk, the room was still not ready yet, they said “10 more minutes!”. William could not stay still, he ran up and down the elevator and played with the curtain next to the bar. Moments later, the front desk came and told us our room was ready. What a happy moment for us after a long drive, 8 hours!
To make up, the hotel offered us free parking and a plate of snack/fruit. William took the red apple and ate it while jumping around the rooms.
About an hour later, the kids went to the pool; they definitely had some fun there. It’s a heated pool but they keep it only at 70 degree so it feels cold.
Next day, Sunday, we went rafting which we had so much fun (see the post here )
Then in the afternoon, we went to the Our Lady of Peace Church and Shrine in Santa Clara, which is famous for its Statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. William ran around the spacious garden freely. It’s a beautiful statue of Mary.
I Want To Scratch!
“I want to scratch!” is the phrase that William has been using every day for a few months now. He loves to be massaged/scratched on his back. In the morning, in order to get him out of bed, i have to scratch on his back; and few more times before heading to school; and then few more times at night too. I’d count from 1 to 3; and often time he would ask “I want scratch so many times!”, which simply means he wants more.
Why do you want to scratch? – Because it hurts!
But it’s not really because he’s hurt, he just feels itchy.
We always apply lotion all over his face & body after shower; in the morning after washing his face, I’d put more lotion on the itchy areas but he still scratches here and there. Some day is better than the other days. Like today, the teacher said he was scratching all over his body so she took him to the nurse to put on some hydrocortisone cream.
Bed Time
William really has trouble with sleeping; he doesn’t fall asleep until 11:30 PM or so; some times he’s still awake at 1:30 AM!
By 10:00 PM, I’m too tired; felt asleep several times and woke up, still finding him to sit on the bed and play.
He wants the light to be on ALL the time; both lights: 1 over the bed and 1 on the night stand in the corner. I waited until he sleeps and then turn off the light in the corner. If he suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night and he sees the light is off, he’d cry and ask to turn it on.
Here’s William’s normal schedule: Wake up around 7:30 AM in the morning to go to school; school is over at 1:00 PM (or 12:00 PM for summer school) then I take him to the Children’s World preschool where he can have a short nap (teacher wakes him up around 3:00 PM), and he stay sthere until 5:30 or 6:00 PM when Tim comes to pick him up. Then he has ABA session at 5:30 PM – 7:15 PM every other day. We let him have dinner around 7:30 PM. A full day like this one would think he’d be too tired and can sleep early, but No!
He only can sleep early if he doesn’t take a nap at noon.
Another bad habit that we don’t like. He loves to bring the stuffs that he likes to put it all over the bed; and he doesn’t mind to lie on them! Lately it’s a pile of game cards (Uno, etc) that he stores in a big can. He takes this can with him every where we go: grandma’s house, park, etc.
“He’s Been Very Good”
12:10 PM. Picked William at Martin school and while we were sitting in the car as usual; Ms. Birdie saw us and waved to us, then she came up to our car.
I rolled down the window, she said “He’s been very good!”. I was so happy to hear that.
From my observation, Ms. Birdie is a tough teacher, who enforces the rules very good. William has to say “No, thank you!” not “Uh uh” or has to ask nicely instead of just taking the things from my hands.
She’s exactly the teacher that I want William to be with!
Thanks Ms. Birdie for your hard work.
First Day Of Summer School 2019
Thursday 8:00 AM.
We only had 3 days of break before the Summer School starts at Martin Elementary School. The summer hour is 8:00 AM – 12:15 PM, about 45 minutes shorter than the Spring session at Lincoln school. This Martin school is about 10 minutes driving from our home.
William woke up around 2:30 AM this morning because he peed in his diaper and wanted me to take off his diaper. I gave him another bottle of him but it took awhile for him to get back to sleep. “I want to scratch”, his usual request to massage/scratch his back every day. I put some oil on the bottom of his feet, on his belly and back and then message his back. I think the mild hot feeling from the oil helped to put him back to sleep faster.
Then I cut his finger nails. He’s 5 years old but still refuses to let me cut his nails so I have to wait until he sleeps to do so.
Then I cut his finger nails. He’s 5 years old but still refuses to let me cut his nails so I have to wait until he sleeps to do so.
Both of us did not have a good straight sleep so we both were very sleepy to wake up to go to school. But as soon as I washed his face, he was so ready to go to school.
His room is 11, with Mrs. Chavez, Ms. Birdie and Ms. Anna.
We were late, 8:15 AM. I dropped him off at the gate with 1 of the teachers from the special ed classes; then I walked to the office to drop off William’s medicine with the nurse. She said the forms are expired so I need to get the doctor signs the form again. “The forms are expired after 1 year”; she checked the date that the doctor signed on the forms that I gave her. “This was signed on 6/2/2018 so it’s expired already!”. His Epi-pen will expire on 7/2019 so I would need to get the doctor’s prescription to get the new one. So a trip to doctor’s office a a must!
Teacher Chavez 
Classroom 11 
Cafeteria – children is picking up breakfast 
This way is to the cafeteria 
The road next to school is beautiful with the purple flowers
Cough
Monday 5:3 0 PM. I went home from work and heard William was coughing. Tim said he has been coughing the whole day.
Later at night we gave him Dimetapp. He continued to cough for the next few days. On Wednesday nigh his cough almost gone.
I’m so glad.
Parents’ Worse Nightmare
Tuesday Noon.
Picked up William from Lincoln school at 1:00 PM as normal. Ms. Newman said “He threw chairs today!”. Last week I was told William hit his friend. In the Teacher/Parent Communication book, the teacher wrote down that William threw sand on his classmate’s face while in the playground; and also kicked his classmate when he did not get what he wanted.
Whenever I heard complains like that, I felt really bad. At home I always remind him that it’s not nice to hit, to fight; he seems to understand!
William is physically the smallest boy in the class but he’s always the one to cause trouble.
William is 5 and 1/2 years old now but I still have to use stroller to take him to school every day. I still need to brush his teeth every morning and night. We still have to give him shower every evening; and feed him spoon by spoon at dinner time. And I think worse of all is that he still prefers to drink milk from the bottle while lying on the bed at nites. And top all that is that he stays up really late: he’d never fall asleep before 12:00 AM. If he doesn’t take a nap at the day care then he’d sleep early around 10:00 AM but usually he’d take a nap at the day care from the moment I drop him off around 1:20 PM. Ms. Angelina would wake him up around 3:00 PM.
Whenever we go out, to shopping malls or park, he’d just run off to see what he’s interested in without asking me so we’d have a hard time to run after him. He’s very fast, that little boy! This is not good because we’d loose sight of him; and if in the parking lot, cars might hit him.
His favorite food now is Spaghetti, Macaroni & cheese and Pop Eye crispy chicken. Occasionally I feed him Vietnamese Noodle Soup called Phở, he’d eat it but not much. Hot dogs and Pizza are next in the line.
He’s 43 lbls now and healthy. His dry skin make him feel itchy though so he always asked “My back is hurt, i want to scratch!”. What he meant is itchy, not hurt, and he wants us to message and scratch his back. I have to scratch his back every morning to get him out of bed to get ready for school in the morning.