Fever Continues

Posted on by Moonie

Last night around 10 PM his temp increased again to 101.3 F (he didn’t eat much during dinner) so we gave him 5 ml Children Tylenol.   During the night I checked his forehead several times, and his temp had decreased to warm only.  We decided no school for him today so Tim called in sick to stay home watching him.  He has been having fever on/off for 2 days already.

He plays and laughs as normal so hopefully this is nothing serious.

Fever on Valentines!

Posted on by Moonie

William woke up around 6:30 AM and could not go back to sleep.  His whole body felt warm; and he refused to drink milk.  He really loves milk so if he refuses to have it then something must be wrong.  I measured his temperature and it was 101.7.  He was just lying there with his eyes open and his hands scratching here and there on his legs.   His breathing was also faster than normal.

Gave him 5 ml of Children Tylenol; half hour later his temperature decreased.  Touching his forehead, body, hands and legs were not hot anymore.  I also let him use the Albuterol machine for some cool steam to help with his breathing.  Soon later I gave him the milk and this time he took it and finished the bottle really quick.  I also applied some Aquaphor on the areas that he felt itchy.

7:30 AM, while watching him watching the videos on iPad I was debating if I should call in sick and let him stay home.  His temp seemed to be back to normal (I should have taken another measure to be sure!)  so I decided to let him go to school; plus it should be a fun day today with everyone is giving out Valentines gifts.

I just hope that he’s OK at school today.

Hand made gift wraps and name tags by Mom

Last night I prepared some of the little gifts for William’s friends at Mitchell school; I tried to hold William’s hand to help him write down his initial but he refused and ran away.  Hopefully next year he will do better :).

Could Not Sleep Last Night

Posted on by Moonie

William could not sleep last night.  I felt asleep about 11 PM and then woke up a little bit later, I found William’s eyes still were wide open.  That must be 11:30 PM or so.  Then later around 3:30 AM he woke up again and laughed!  He must be remembering the Booba videos that he saw in the evening (he was laughing so hard and jumping up/down while watching it).  He could not go back to sleep until 5 AM.  That was the first time that he laughed at night.

Maybe watching videos too much?  I hoped that he’s OK considering the incident at Mitchell school last week.

A big fence hit William!

Posted on by Moonie
William with bruises
William with bruises

William was walking on the playground at Mitchell Child Development Center, and a metal construction fence felt on him; gave him a big bump on his forehead and several scratches on his face; I also found some scratches on his back and his right feet.

He has just started this school 2 months and got injured already!

The next day we had a meeting in the principal office with the Principal Mark Bello, his teacher Hana Suh and the school nurse.  Mr. Bello apologized for what happened to William and promised that he would make sure the school is safe for all the children.  This happened because the school is under construction; and a piece of the fence was left there leaning against the other fences without anyone noticed.  So when William was walking by, that loose fence suddenly felt and hit William.  They said William did not cry that much; and that they took him to the school nurse to apply ice to his face.

I received the call from school around 11:30 AM; so I came I picked him up right away.  He looked so bad with lots of scratches on his face.  I took the rest of the day off from work, took him home, fed him lunch and put him to bed for nap.  He didn’t want to each lunch at all; I tried to feed him his favorite Macaroni & Cheese but he refused, and 1 time he wanted to vomit.

He drank his milk and felt asleep around 2:30 PM; woke up around 5:30 PM; he didn’t show any bad signs at all.  I’m glad!

1 section of the fence like this hit William
1 section of the fence like this hit William
Actions taken by the school nurse
Actions taken by the school nurse
2 days later

 

Update 2/6/2017:

Mrs. Hana called and said that they watched the video camera from the playground and found that the fence did not hit William.   The fence was on the ground and William tripped and felt on it when walking by; he tripped a SECOND TIME when trying to run to the teachers.   It was a big fence, and no one noticed it? And when he felt the first time, no one noticed that to come and help him? Where were all the teachers and assistants?

To be frank I’m glad to hear about this fact because the impact of tripping might be much less than a big fence hit on him, I think!

Update 2/8/2017:

Met with Mrs. Hana and Mr. Bello at his office to watch the video clip of the incident.  The camera angle is really far from where the incident so all I could see was a very small and blurry image of William running around (he was wearing a yellow sweatshirt) on the new concrete area which is next to the playground.  No one else was there at that time.  He was walking to the fence near the street to watch the cars passing by and walking around, jumping up and down looking very happy.  Then he felt with his forehead, stood up and then felt again on his butt.  It’s really blurry that I could not see if he hit the fence or on the ground.  Mr. Bello’s assumption is that by looking at the pictures that Mrs. Hana took, there was lots of concrete stuffs on his face so he said he might not hit the fence.

Mr. Bello said there’s some skipping of the video that he didn’t see how William walked to this area from the playground.

They said there was 3 adults supervised 8 children at the time; but 1 adult needed to go to the bathroom; and there was some issue that the other adults needed to resolve with the kids so no one really saw the whole incident.  When William ran to them for help, they saw the fence on the ground so they assumed that the fence felt on him.  This is why they told us this story the first time. According to them, they knew William was walking in that new area but wasn’t aware of the fence on the floor.

Mrs. Hana said that she has changed her schedule to make sure at least 3 adults will supervise the kids when they’re on the playground to make sure no incident like this will happen again.   And that the new concrete area is blocked for now; but they will open it when it’s ready (this is the bike area) and they will make sure at least 1 adult will watch this area.

Update 2/10/2017:

This morning when I dropped William off at class, I asked Mrs. Hana if I could have a copy of the images that she took.  She said yes.  But soon she called me and said that Mr. Bello said no video or images should be given to me.

When I picked William up when school ended; Mrs. Hana said the picture that she took is AFTER William’s bruises were cleaned at the nurse office so it’s nothing different then what I saw when I picked him up on the day of incident.  I was hoping that if I could see the pictures of William right after he felt to see how bad it was but I guess that was too much to ask.

First Day at Mitchell Child Development Center, Santa Ana

Posted on by Moonie

Wiilam didn’t cry on his first day at all, not until 3rd day then he cried when I parked our car in parking lot and got ready to the classroom.  He cried again when we got to the classroom.

His schedule is: 8:15 AM – 1:15 PM in room 309 with teacher Hana Suh.  Mrs. Hana has 3 assistants: Ms Susan, Ms Yoana and Ms Analiz.  Everyday he has 1 hour of one-on-one session in a different room at 8:30 AM to learn about behaviors.  Breakfast and lunch are provided.

At 8:15 PM Mrs Hana and assistants come out to pick up the children who are dropped off from the bus,  so we can either let them take William to the room or we take William to the room ourselves.  When the class ends, at 1:10 PM they take the children out to the curb side in front of the office (same place when they pick up the children) and we pick up William from there.

The reason we let William goes to this school is because he’s 3 years old now but still doesn’t talk.  William was using Regional Center of OC services for speech therapy for 1 year.  When he reaches 3 years old,  RCOC referred him to Santa Ana School District for evaluation.  They set up a meeting at Mitchell Child Development Center with a psychologist, a nurse and 2 more ladies whom I forgot what their roles are.  They observed William while asking him to do different tasks and asked me questions about his behaviors.  Then 2 weeks later we had a 2nd meeting with Mitchell school to discuss about William’s evaluation result.  They said he’s 3 years old but he’s like a 6 months old; so that he’s qualified for special programs provided by Santa Ana school district, all the fee are paid for including the bus transportation if we need.  This is why right after his 3rd birthday we’re sending him to this school with the hope that he can learn more to speak.  His birthday is Nov 24, so he started on the next Monday which is Nov 28, 2016.

Inside school, William classroom is on the left
Teacher & assistants
Room 309

So this is our daily schedule now:  I take William to Mitchel school at 8 AM; class at Mitchell ends at 1:15 PM so I pick him up and then drop him off at the Children World preschool because I have to go back to work, then Tim picks William up after work around 5:20 PM.

Too much driving around; and it’s tougher when there’s so much rain lately, but we believe Mitchell school can hep him get better at speech.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

W’s First Day at the Children’s World Pre-school

Posted on by Moonie

Daddy got back to work after 1 year of unemployed so we had to send William some where.  2 more weeks then William will turn 2.

I called & visited all the babysitters who put their ads in Viet Bao newspaper but could not find any one at all; some houses are so dirty, some babysitters look old and not in good health, etc.

A good friend (Nam Quan aka William Trust on Facebook) introduced me to babysitter Thuy, who was taking care of his children .  I was so happy because I hoped William would have some friends about his age to play with at Thuy’s house.  1 week passed by and I sensed that Thuy was not happy.  On Friday when I picked him up; she told me William was too difficult to take care so she would not be able to babysit him anymore; she said William cried too much and so clingy that she had to hold him all the time and didn’t even have time to eat lunches.  I just think that William just needed some time to adjust to new environment; he was barely 2 years old, of course he’d be scared to spend the whole day at a new place all by himself.   I wish she could give William another week to adapt!

So I called babysitter Loan, who babysat William when he was little (from 2 months to 1 year).  I was so happy that she said ok because I know she’s a good babysitter with a clean and roomy house; it’s just that her house is a little bit far from our house.

I was happy to drop William off at babysitter Loan’s house and went off to have a meeting with Love2Learn staffs about William’s speech sessions.

15 minutes later while I was waiting for my appointment at Love2Learn office, Mrs. Loan called and asked me to come to pick William up!  She said William ran and felt on his face so his nose was bleeding; and that he made so much noise that would wake up the 3 months old girl that she was babysitting too.  So 1 hour later, after the meeting with Love2Learn counselor, I picked William up at Mrs. Loan’s house.  His nose was still bleeding lightly; he didn’t cry but he looked so sad.

That means I need to find a babysitter FAST!  My sister introduced me to a friend’s mom’s friend, so I called her up and came to her house to check it out on Friday’s evening.  It was a small and old apartment with a small living room that was only big enough for a couch and a TV.  Next to it is a small kitchen with full of stuffs.  Next to the living room is a room that was rented out to a woman who made a living by sewing; that explains why there was a huge stack of fabric on the couch. Which means there’s no place for William to play!  But I really had no choice because I needed someone to take care of William starting on Monday!  She agreed to babysit William with the rate of $30.00/day from 8 AM – 5:30 PM.

Monday afternoon when I picked him up, I found William was standing inside a crib.  She said that he ran around and pulled things down so it was better to put him in crib.  That was where my poor little 2 year old boy spent his whole day!  He ate, slept and played in the small crib!

On the 3rd day, William refused to go! He cried & kicked his legs when I made a left turn to her house.  I felt bad because I knew he was not happy at this place at all.  So the term “Pre-School” came to mind; and his Dad also mentioned that as an alternative.

After work I checked out Sun Flower preschool in Westminster; At 5:30 PM there was a long line of cars waiting to get to school, I guess parents were coming to pick up their children, and there was not that many parking spaces at school.  Anyway, they said it was full and that they had a long waiting list; so I put William’s name down in vain hope.

Pre-school and the play ground next to it, under the big trees.

I looked up Google to find any pre-schools around our area.  Not that many unfortunately.  Then I suddenly remembered that some of my nephews & niece went to Mr. Gary’s Children World Preschool when they were little; so I called him up.  He said he could only accept 2 years and older kids; and William was not 2 yet!  I tried to convinced him that it was only 1 more week before William would turn 2; and that my nephews and nieces came here; and they learned great things from this school.  Finally he said yes and told me to stop by the school to pick up the paper works. How relieved I was because I knew William would be better off at this school then at any babysitters houses.  My only concern was that he could not feed himself yet but Mr. Gary assured me that his staffs will try to teach the boy self-feed.

The Children World Preschool rate is $175.00/week which is fine with me.  First few days William cried and threw himself on the floor but then 1 week after he was fine.  The only concern I had was that he didn’t each much at lunch time, the daily report most of the time said he ate “some food only” which means that he had been hungry; that explained why when we picked him up he’d drink a full bottle of juice in a jiffy and ate whatever we gave him like banana, cookies, etc. (which when at home he would not want to eat voluntarily).

Update 2/10/2017:

The little door that William goes thru every day.

Now it has been 1 year and 3 months we’re still sending him to this school but only half day because he goes to Michell Child Development Center in the morning.  I dropped him off at 1:30 PM after picking him up at Mitchell; it’s nap time here at Children World Preschool so he is put to bed right away.  I can hear his laughing on my way out when Ms. Mo or Ms. Leila tickle him trying to pull up the blanket to cover him.  For sure he’s happy here!

Atlantis Resort, Bahamas

Posted on by Moonie

William & Dad
William & Dad

Aug 26 – 30, 2015

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We flew from Miami to Bahamas on Wednesday and returned home 4 days later.
On our last day the Erika storm was passing by on his way to Florida which causing lots of winds and some rains.
We were so afraid that the flight would be canceled but fortunately it did not; so we got home safely and on schedule as planned.

Atlantis Hotel & Casino is so beautiful in every way, especially the scenery, the aquarium and the Aquaventure Park.
The room is nothing fancy but it is comfortable.

Things are expensive in this resort. For example, a small Orange Juice bottle cost $4.50 while the outside stores sell it for about $2.
Half gallon of milk: $7.00. A cheese steak burrito: $13.00.  We didn’t know until the last few days that if we walk only a few minutes to the small shopping center near by then things are like half-price.

To my surprise, the food courts at the Bahamas airport have better price, mostly same prices as in the U.S.

Overall we love this place!

Willam & Mom, Dad
Willam & Mom, Dad

Willam at Atlantis's Aquarium
Willam at Atlantis’s Aquarium

With Grandma Tuyết
With Grandma Tuyết

Miami, Florida

Posted on by Moonie

Aug 21 – Aug 26, 2015

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William is 1 year old

This is the beginning of our Florida-Bahamas trip: we stayed in the Miami for the first 5 days then flew to the Bahamas and stayed there for the next 4 days.

The suite at the Alexander Resort Hotel is nice; William liked it a lot; he’d running around touching this & that; we had to hide some of the decorations so that he’d not break it.  But some times he’d wake up during the night and cry a lot; no matter what we did, he kept crying.  William’s cousin Danny tried to help by turning on the cartoon channel on the TV (thanks Danny).

William & God Father Than Vo

We tried to take William to the beach once but he was so scared; he’d hold on to me so that his feet would not touch the water.  But he liked the hotel’s pool.  His God Father Than Vo held him so that he lays flat on his stomach on the water, he liked that a lot.  During this whole trip William was so attached to his God Father; William would jump up on his thigh and sit there, which he rarely does with us :).

On the day we visited John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park and went on a submarine to see the Molasses Reef.  William threw up while we were waiting on the line for the submarine.  Then he felt asleep soon when we settled down inside the submarine.  Poor little guy, he didn’t enjoy anything!

I guess his favorite place is in the hotel, where he can run around freely.

Living room of the suite

William and Dad Tim, from the balcony