Availability of Flu Shots (A Convoluted Relationship Between Private vs. Public)

When your health care provider is reluctant to order flu vaccines because the government is offering "free" flu clinics, and they were afraid to lose money by ordering too much - it shows the for-profit nature of the health care system and how the private and public sector is messing up each other. Sutter don't even have thermasil free vaccines for the babies.

Today under the frustration of unable to get the H1N1 vaccines (2nd dose for the kids, first dose for me) from all of our health care providers, we ended up going to the W. Sac "open to all" free flu clinic. It's not that we wanted to deplete the stock for the uninsured, it's because our health care providers (both adults and children's) have no vaccines in sight. The doctor's office even told us repeatedly to check out the free clinics first before "calling them back later to check on supplies"...

On the W. Sacramento clinic - there's hardly a line and the wait is less than 20 minutes. Kudos to Yolo County Health Department - it's very well organized, all kinds of vaccines are available, single or multi-dose (see ). Though seeing the RN/Police officers/volunteers easily out-numbered the people seeking vaccines felt like a waste of resources. Like the Sacbee reported, it's the poor and under-educated (who probably won't/don't have the time to read the newspaper for information on the free vaccine clinic) who are short-changed on getting the vaccine. They need to spread the words more. I don't see the free flu clinics advertised in the libraries, no flyers in the community, the only places I see the free flu clinics mentioned is the newspapers, and from my son's school's district. What about those people who don't read the paper or don't have kids within the school district? AND they only call people's homes when they don't have enough "customers" at the Davis flu clinic? And they consider the failed marketing of the flu shots to those really need it an accomplishment and gloat about the "resourcefulness of using the PA system at a grocery store/calling 9,200 people" after they realized their failure to reach the people who're most at risk for H1N1?

Another note - a local church of a friend is offering free H1N1 vaccine for their members only (from one "resourceful" doctor member), while the doctor's offices/the entire County are short on vaccines? One wonders how the vaccines are really distributed..

Thanks for reading. Thoughts and comments welcomed.

Little Sister Sounding like Big Sister/Mom "哥哥敢樣唔係坐好"

Scene:
Big brother "trying" to practice the piano.
Big brother started playing before seated properly on his bench.

Little sister: 哥哥坐好! 哥哥敢樣唔係坐好..(Brother sit properly! Brother this is not the proper way to sit).

5 minutes later:
Little sister munching on snacks. Brother saw and took some from her.

Little sister took the snack away: "哥哥彈琴果鎮唔好食野!" (Brother don't eat while you're practicing piano!).

Good. Now there's another little me making sure the son is behaving properly....

Little sister bugging brother after disciplining him...*kids will be kids*..

(published on facebook notes March 12, 2010)

Random Scene and thoughts on big bro and little sis

These years are really the best - treasure your toddler and little kids.

Scene: 3 and 8 year-old chasing each other all over the house. Laughing, happy, jumping and running in circles
Time: 9:20 PM (i.e. past bed time)

Question: Should we stop the bro/sis bonding time and called it a day?
Answer: Let's let them play for 5 more minutes.

So mommy and daddy just stand there, watch and bask in the forbidden happiness of watching your kids playing past bedtime (there's school early tomorrow you know)

Feeling blessed that we have two happy and healthy (for the most part) kids in the house. How lucky is my daughter to have a big brother who doesn't mind hanging out with a 3 year old? Or complies, and getting anxious to do it himself too when mommy says "hold your little sister's hand" or "watch out where she's going"? She's always so happy playing and chasing around with big brother too:)

Another Fall, Another Year

The Impossible Acres is the BEST! We're so blessed to have the kids childhood years spent in the gloris Davis, CA (Daviswiki is one of the busiest wiki in the world, did you know that?)

I like to commensurate the year with the Fall season - traditionally the season where we had the most outings, and when I took most pictures of the kids. Though life has become busier and busier, and the early start of the flu season means that for about 1.5 months of the most fabulous weather, we were not well enough to be out and about :( Well I took what photos I could..

But the photos in this note are from 2 years ago - Kaiser still a 1st grader (the year when he started *sob* shedding his childishness little by little) and my girl was barely a year old. Such precious photos and times with our little children.


 
(published on facebook notes October 2009)

My baby is 3 today (and graduated to proper Legos)

(The girl is not so much into Legos these days)

We went to the Cheesecake Factory last night to celebrate. No wait on tables nor food (usually it's 45 minutes wait for table and another 1/2 hour wait on food). Signs of tough economic times for sure. Both the Mahi Mahi and the chicken dish we got were delicious!

So I thought even though we already have tons of toys (we hardly brought any brand new toys since #2), I should get my girl her very own set of Lego, since she's always playing with brother's big kid ones (hence receiving "scolding" from Gor Gor all the time from "snatching just the pieces he needs at the moment"). So after dinner we went to the Lego store next door at the mall.

I wasn't sure whether there's any suitable set for her age and there I saw it - there were two PINK tubs of apparently girl orientated boxes, one 200+ pieces and one 400+ pieces. As soon as I pointed those out to her and said that she could have one (she proceeded to look at me suspiciously), but after I reassured her that she REALLY could have one, she picked out the smaller tub.

Yes it's 4+ but I think she's ready to graduate from duplos!

We followed the instructions and made these - she helped snap the pieces together for the "sister" and "brother" (she insisted that when you have a mui mui you have to have a gor gor). She snapped on all the "fruits" on the "tree" all by herself.

I thought I knew

I thought I’m staying home for the benefit of the baby/toddler, my daughter. I didn’t want to missed the growing years of her, like I did to my now 8 year old boy after I started working after graduate school, when he just turned one. Yes I missed his first steps; I barely remembered the way he talked when he’s a toddler, and millions of other milestones. I thought by staying home when my daughter is young, I would never missed those “important” milestones. But in the end, does it matter?

Yes, baby/toddler years are the formative years. Yes mothers are encouraged to stay home if they have the means to, to enhance “bonding” with the little one. All the parenting books and magazines and research I’ve read tell you that you could “always go back to work when the kid’s in school”. I, however, had a different insight. Having stayed home while I have an older child (5-8 years) and at the same time a baby/toddler (0-3 years), I definitely felt that it’s the other way round – that it’s easier to leave babies/toddlers for the care of others, when there are less opportunities to be exposed to the media/bad language, but it’s immensely difficult to keep up what you want you older kids to be exposed to, if they spend their entire day outside of home, with other children, and adults who may not “tip-toe” around the kids in terms of their behavior towards the older children vs. cute and innocent babies/toddlers.

I already knew that my stretch of being a stay at home mom (I don’t really count working one day a week a proper job, even though it somewhat keeps me afloat in my field), benefited both my children. However, contrary to what I believed earlier, my 8 year old had benefited more. I found that leaving the 8 year old in after school program for 4-5 hours a day is just not an option for us. How’s he going to bond with his little sister? Who’s going to coach him on his piano? Teach him his mother tongue? Would he have time to read his favorite books quietly, and not be distracted by other activates/kids around him? Who could care as much about his development and well-being other than his own parents? Who will bring him to impromptus ice-cream/bookstore/park sessions?

Thanks to the time available in the afternoon to teach him, at least my 8 year old is up to speed with the 2nd grader in Singapore in terms of his Chinese and math level (at least from the exercises books we got for him from Singapore), and he’s learning the joy of being able to play the piano proficiently. The effort to keep up with the speaking/writing of their mother tongue for Chinese kids in America is especially unbearable, where none of the kids at school will ever talk with each other in Chinese, even though they might have to speak that at home. In a mono-lingual speaking environment such as America, it takes A LOT more effort to keep up with being bilingual. Parents in Singapore, you’re having an easier way in that sense.

I love the challenges of work – but I’m unsure when I could enjoy that challenges fully again. For now, though, my kids are still my center and my priority, and until there is a solution, I’d continue to spend the majority of my energy nurturing the most important people in my life.

 
(published on fb August 2009)

芬蘭驚艷 - 全球成長競爭力第一名的故事 (Finland Unveiled-A Story of No. 1 in Global Growth Competitiveness) - RE: education

If only the Singapore MOE care to study what makes the Finnish successful while not overly competitive. These kids are very fortunately to have educators writing such excellent books for them. Totally inspired. What does it take to attract knowledgeable educators, who obviously studied graphics design, child psychology, on top of the necessary knowledge to write such informative and educational text? How much resources are we going to put in to ensure such high quality text exist for our future leaders?

A page from the 3rd grade math textbook

• Canada CN Tower 553 meters. 
• A pyramid in Egypt 139 meters. 
• Finland Nasinneula Observation Tower 168 meters.
• Taiwan Asia Plaza 431 meters. 
• Malaysia Petronas Towers 450 meters. 

2/5 of the page was the proportionally correct architectural picture of the above mentioned towers, with building names and country of original. The Asia Plaza in Taiwan hadn't even been built yet *at the time of publication*, not many Taiwanese even knew about it, while the Finnish already put it into their elementary school textbook. The country's effort in opening their student's eyes to the world, especially emerging economies and third world countries, from a young age is apparent.

Another page from their 3rd grade math textbook - ten full colored flags from Ukraine, Nigeria, Libya, Poland, Peru, Columbia, etc. The teaching topic is the fraction, using the color in each of the flags. There are numerous examples similar to the above.

" 三年級的數學教科書教加減法，題目上畫出加拿大多倫多電視鐵塔，標高五百五十三公尺；埃及某金字塔，標高一百三十九公尺；芬蘭鐵塔一百六十八公尺；台灣亞 洲大廈，標高四百三十一公尺；馬來西亞雙塔四百五十公尺。版面站去整頁的五分之二，建築物名稱和所在地國家都註明其上。台灣亞洲大廈在高雄，二OO八年才 會落成，台灣都沒多少人知道，芬蘭人早已放進教科書裡了，他們對世界的了解，尤其企望下一代多了解新興國家和第三世界國家的企圖心，瞭然可知。

再 舉個例，三年級的數學習作整頁畫了十面彩色的國旗，包括烏克蘭、奈及利亞、利比亞、波蘭、祕魯、哥倫比亞…等，第十面就是青天白日滿地紅，國家的名字是 Taiwan。這個主題在教分數，各種顏色在國旗中所佔的比例。難怪作者到芬蘭還沒有遇到過一個不知道台灣的芬蘭人。諸如此類的例子，匯集成一本教科書， 這樣的教育態度和教材，從小養成了芬蘭人作為一個國際公民應有的態度。"

EXCELLENT book 作者: 吳祥輝 出版社: 遠流 出版年: 05/2006

Info about English Version of this book from Agenda Magazine, Finland:

http://www.agendafin.com/article.php?ID=71

teaching planetary science and airplane design in elementary school geometrymerry-go-around as example

Old Fashioned Mom?

The Scene: Small town library children section, on a typical hot summer day.

8 year old boy, mom, and little sister around art table set up by kind librarians.

Girl, similar aged to boy, appeared out of nowhere, hands around boy, expressing in an enticing way "I'm sorry I've been out of town, and haven't been able to go out with you"..

Girl disappeared. Leaving mom with wide open month, surprised by 1) son being suddenly taken advantage of; 2) the possibility of son going out with said girl; 3) the behavior of little girls nowadays, in front of boy's mom, no less.

From the nonchalant expression of boy, seems like a common occurrence, either with said girl, and/or with others.

Meanwhile - little sister concentrating on her art.

(I love the Mondavi Center!!)

I feel blessed to be able to attend this event by Yo-Yo Ma, where he performed three of Bach’s suites for unaccompanied cello. He dedicated this performance to Robert Mondavi, the renowned winemaker who passed away a year ago. Mondavi's the major donor of the performing arts center.

You cannot beat the acoustics at Mondavi - I can feel the music echoing back at the perfect pitch to my ears from the walls, especially the bass notes.

Ma was larger than life on stage - a lone chair in the middle. I was glad to have brought the binoculars - The myriad of micro-expressions on Mr. Ma's face was completely amazing and captivating. Bach pieces are not popular repertoire for the masses-they require "depths" from both the musician and the audience, yet give incredible emotional ranges in hands of great cellist.

And than came the encore-he seemed to have put some thoughts to it. It sounded like a Chinese song to me, beautiful-many commented that it's the best piece in the recital.

At the end of it, like one of the usher lady exclaimed - the feeling is "like God descends to earth". How lucky I am to hear two of the most celebrated musicians in the world, Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman in the span of three months, 2 minutes from home?

(BTW, check out the youtube video of the Obama Presidential Inauguration Piece "Air and Simple Gifts" arranged by John Williams, where Yo-Yo Ma performed with Itzhak Perlman et al. Amazing and beautiful. )

Brother and Sister (2009)

(Oh men, my kids are so grown up now, compared to in 2009 >_<)

They play, they fight, they learn– brother to be nurturing and share what he has (and expected to be, since he’s 5 years her senior), sister to learn to do the big kid things from the big brother, such as playing with “real” Lego and not swallow them (ok, she did like to “chew” on those little tires). In turn, sister learns to share too, and be considerate toward others (of course, still learning as a toddler..)

I’ll always remember how sweet the kindergartner big brother was – past the toddler/preschool age, he was able (and willing) to help mom take care of sister, and yet understood enough to not be jealous with her.

She’s his talking, laughing and moving doll that he pushes around the house in the doll stroller. Yes accidents happened-such as the time when they got too excited jumping on the bed--sister received three stitches on her head. It happened in a spit second, right in front of my eye. I still won’t trade anything for their laughter during play, though.

After taking thousands of pictures, I hope to have captured some of the brother/sisterly moments to show them when they grew up.

Quantum Leap from Matrix

I shared this (from a blog that I read recently) at the Davis Daytime Toastmasters meeting and it was very well received. Just wanted to share

There was a scene from the movie "Matrix", where Morpheus is telling Neo how he believed that Neo's “the One”, who has the power to destroy the invincible agents where none of them can.

Neo says: “What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?”
And Morpheus replies: “No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.”

So, towards the end of the movie, Neo is shot by Agent Smith and presumed dead. But then Trinity reminded him, and that he is the one, and can’t be dead. At that instant Neo realized that he’s the One.

So he gets up, uses his mind to stop the bullets, sees through the Matrix itself to green code behind it, and jumps inside Agent Smith’s body and explodes him from within.

This sudden and profound jump from one state to another may be referred to as a quantum leap (to borrow a term from physics).

Some quantum leaps in life may be learning to ride a bike. Other quantum leaps aren’t inevitable. For example, it’s up to you to decide if you want to develop a positive attitude, or establish healthy eating habits.

A lot of personal development often occurs in quantum leaps. You can put in a lot of effort without seeing any results, but that doesn’t mean that you’re not making progress. The bullets may seem fast, but if you keep trying to dodge them, maybe one day you’ll find that you don't have to.

Basic Crepe

Super easy and taste basic crepe - add any toppings to your heart's desire! 

Ingredient:

1 cup flour

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups milk

1 tablespoon melted butter

My Strawberry Nutella Crepe with Whipped Cream

Sift flour and salt into a bowl. Add eggs and a little milk. Beat well with a wooden spoon, working in all the flour. Gradually add the remaining milk. Stir in melted butter.

Add a small amount of oil to a 7 in pan (or use a seasoned cast-iron pan) and place over high heat. Pour in enough batter to cover the base evenly (you'll have to tilt the pan). Cook about 1 minute until lightly browned underneath (my trick was to cook until the entire crepe is not "shiny" on top).

Turn crepe and cook other side for about 15 seconds. Continue until batter is used. Makes about 8 crepes. (6 for me since thicker crepe is easier to turn over)

(This was posted on FB in 2009)