April Zheng

Bilingual

2007-09-25T19:06:00.000-05:00

After spending four months in the daycare, April showed a little bit sign of bilingual. Right now, she speaks mainly Chinese mixed with some English words at home. Like, she would say "要milk", which translates "want milk", or "怕big bad wolf"， meaning "afraid of big bad wolf".

The thing even amazing is that when we are teaching her Chinese characters at home she will translate some to English. Like today, when we showed her this character "兔"(pronounced like /too/), she immediately said "Rabbit" in English.

I guess she must relate the Chinese character and "Rabbit" to the real rabbit, and through the real rabbit, Chinese is connected with English and translation happens instantly.

Amazing.

Vocabulary

2007-06-27T15:28:00.000-05:00

She can read a little bit over 100 Chinese characters. We did not teach her any English before she went to daycare. Here is the list of English words she picked up since she started daycare a month ago:

NO, yeah, nice, bubble, pillow, water, mommy, bagel, diaper, pull-ups, more, pee pee, poo poo, slide, swing, hi and bye.

one phrase: no more

Funny notes:
1. One day last week we were very surprised to hear her yelling at us "No, no, no, no!". Before that, she always said "Bu" -- No in Chinese.
2. When she cries, she is crying for "Mommy", but she is not looking for her mom. My guess is she does not what "Mommy" is, just learned from other kids in the daycare when they cry.
3. Her favorite song now is "ABCDEFG...", but she doesn't remember all the lyrics, so she repeats "ABCD" over and over again.
4. I change the lyrics from "ABCD" to "no more no more", and force her to sing along with me when she wants more juice but she already had enough :)

Face painting

2007-06-23T12:14:00.000-05:00

April's daycare had a summer safari
yesterday. We had a lot of fun there. In the end, April had a blue dophin painted on her face.

Bye, Grandpa and Grandma

2007-06-19T08:56:00.000-05:00

Over the past few weeks, we told April several times that Grandpa and Grandma are going to leave us and she will stay. Surely, she doesn't understand what all that means, but I can tell that she felt something was going to happen.

7:00 am this morning, while April was still sleeping, Grandpa and Grandma was already on the way to the airport. 18 hours from now, they will be in Beijing, China.

In the past two years, Grandpa and Grandma took really good care of April. During that 2 year span, April was only sick for once. She is happy, healthy, smart and beautiful.

I am sure Grandpa and Grandma will miss April a lot. So do we. When April gets a little bit older, we will take her back to China to visit her loved Grandpa and Grandma.

Swim

2007-04-04T12:35:00.000-05:00

We took April to the War Memorial Hall for the second time yesterday to teach her to swim.

It was better than the first time, she did not cry and "swimmed" for about half an hour. But the life jacket did not help at all, it kept April off balance. And we had to grab her hands all the time.

If anyone knows a good life jacket for baby (2 years old), please let us konw. Thanks!

April's first checkup since getting back

2007-03-16T10:15:00.000-05:00

Everything looks good. She's got all the vaccines needed for daycare. And here are her numbers:
Age: 22months
Height: 34 inches
Weight: 27.2lbs

According to this chart, April is taller than 75% and heavier than 63% (or I can say lighter than 37%) of the girls in her age.

April and Grandpa, Grandma missed the flight

2007-01-16T21:54:00.000-05:00

Got a call on my way to the airport today. It was April's grandpa, saying they missed the flight from the Chicago to Roanoke because their lugguages did not arrive on time. While they were waiting for their lugguages they missed the fight to ROA. Therefore, they had to stay at the airport over the night. UA will put them on a plane tomorrow morning 9am.

Damn! I have to wait for another 12 hours to April!

April's coming back

2006-12-07T22:57:00.000-05:00

on Jan 16th.

Count down starts here ...

April's One Year Old Salon Photos

2006-07-16T15:26:00.000-05:00

April took a set of salon photos to celebrate her first birthday. We finally got the digital copy of some photos. So here you go:

Happy face No. 1

Red Skirt

Flag

Happy Face No. 2

Colorful

Bye Bye

More pics - eating, eating and eating

2006-05-11T20:22:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday April!

2006-05-04T17:48:00.000-05:00

Dressed up

Kung-fu girl

My twin brother! haha :D

One Year Old

Stay tuned, more salon pictures are on the way :)

First steps

2006-04-09T08:45:00.000-05:00

April is taking her first steps (from living room to kitchen), although she is only 11 months old.

Movie clips:Step 1 Step 2 (Right click to download)

10 Months old

2006-03-07T21:47:00.000-05:00

I have not posted for a long time, because April was sent home with my parents. Here are some new photos of her.
reading

eating

shopping

One Hundred, 100 and Bai

2005-08-11T20:05:00.000-05:00

Today, April turns to 100 days old. See how fast she grows

Here is the Chinese words for 100 days

First one is the same as Baidu's first character; the second means day, Pronunciation: /tian/

July 7th, Valentine's day

2005-08-10T17:49:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, Aug 11 2005, the 7th day of the 7th month in the Chinese lunar calendar, is the Chinese Valentine's Day or Girl's Day.

Once upon a time, there is a poor cow boy living on a farm. Though this cow boy is poor, but he is hard-working, warm-hearted and always ready to help others. One day he met a beautiful girl, and they fell in love with each other at the first sight. Soon they got married and lived happy lives since then. But what the cow boy did not know was that his wife was a maid of the Queen of the Sky Palace (who we called in Chinese "Wang Mu Nian Nian"). And the Queen was very angry when she found out about this. So she took the girl back to the Sky Palace. When the cow boy found his wife was gone, he ran after them and tried to get his wife back.

As he got closer and closer to the Queen and his wife, the Queen cast a spell and made The Milky Way Galaxy between them so that the cow boy couldn't get closer any more. Even though they were separated by the Galaxy, they still loved each other very much. Finally, the Queen was moved by their love, so she allowed them to meet each other on the night of 7/7 every year. On that day, thousands of magpies (in Chinese, magpie is the lucky bird) flew to the sky. A pie-bridge accross the Galaxy was made for them.

And 7/7 is called

in Chinese.
First one is seven, the second one means night (pronunciation: /shee/)

Four, Five, ... Ten and Baidu

2005-08-06T17:10:00.000-05:00

As I promised a couple of days ago, I am going to put number four to number ten on my blog. So here you go:

From left to right:
1. Pronunciation: /si/ Meaning: Four
2. Pronunciation: /wu/ Meaning: Five
3. Pronunciation: /lyou/ Meaning: Six
4. Pronunciation: /chi/ Meaning: Seven
5. Pronunciation: /ba:/ Meaning: Eight
6. Pronunciation: /jeo/ Meaning: Nine
7. Pronunciation: /shi/ Meaning: Ten

And the biggest news this week in search engine area (or even IT area) would be Baidu went public and its stock price doubled (or tripled) at the end of the first day. Baidu's name is picked from a very famous sentence of a Chinese poem by a great poet - Xin Qiji(1140 A.D.—1207 A.D.) (辛弃疾) who lived in Song dynasty. The name has two characters: Bai and Du.

Bai means hundred; Du means times
A hundred times? What does that mean? I said it was picked from a sentence in a poem. That sentence is saying that a guy has been searching for a girl thousands of hundreds of times, still can't find her; but when he turns his head, her dream girl is standing right there. Make sense?

An old joke

2005-08-03T20:47:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, there is a rich guy living in a village. Though he is rich, he does not know any word at all (i.e., illiteral). He does not want his son to be like him, so he hires a tutor, who can teach his son to read and write.

The first day, the tutor teaches the kid "one"; the second day, the tutor teaches him "two", the third day, the tutor teaches "three". At the end of the third day, the rich guy asks his son what he learned from the tutor. The kid tells his father he learned "one", "two", and "three" in school and writes them down on a piece of paper. As the rich guy sees the three characters, he laughs "Haha, so easy! You don't need the tutor any more." So he fires the tutor.

One month after that, the rich guy wants to invite a friend to his house. So he asks his son to write an invitation. His friend is called Mr. Wan (万, meaning ten thousand). The poor kid starts writing 6 a.m. in the morning and couldn't finish it after 6 hours. When his father checks back at noon. The poor kid complains "Why does your friends have such a HUGE surname? I have written only 500 lines till now".

Okay, this the HUGE word

Pronunciation: /wan/
Meaning: ten thousand

Pat, your feeling is right. You actually foresee change of the trend before it happens. ;-) I am going reveal "four" to "ten" in my next post.

Mom's instinct

2005-08-02T15:36:00.000-05:00

April, here is Mom's first post on your blog. I have so many feelings from the day you were born, but really don't know where to start. Hmm... let's talk about instinct first.

When I was discharged from hospital, an old lady told me "you are a mom now, you can use your instinct to take care of your baby!" I was so moved at that time, but not sure what instinct was. But gradually, I felt it more clearly from many small things, especially when I fed you at night. Sometimes, you are fussy at night, if it's not caused by hunger, I'll put your hand in my hand, and after a while you'll calm down and sleep again. At that moment, I feel really pround of myself and excited to expect more with you in the future.

It's so great to be a mom :-)

Three days from three months old, lesson three

2005-08-01T21:14:00.000-05:00

On Aug 4, Apil is going to be three months old. In Chinese, three not only means three, sometimes it means many also. A lot of Chinese idioms has the character "three". Like "one" and "two", "three" in Chinese has a very simple and straight forward form

Pronunciation: /san/
Meaning: number three

Three straight lines: the middle one is the shortest, the top one is longer, and the bottom one is the longest. Three is no rules or requirements that the top line must be how much longer than the middle one or the bottom one must be how much longer than the top one. As long as it's balanced and looks beautiful, then it's fine.

Chinese is not that hard, right? One straight line is "one", "two" is two lines, and "three" is three lines. So what about "four", "five", ... "thousand", and "ten thousand"? ;-)

Perfect position

2005-07-30T17:07:00.000-05:00

I spent 1 hour this afternoon to play with April. We did some exercises. It was great. And I even found a perfect postion for me and April to play together.
I lay down on the bed, put several pillows on my back and let her sit on my stomach. And I bent my knees so that she had support on her back too. This position gives us good eye contact -- she could see my face when I talked to her. The best part of this perfect postion is that if she gets bored/tired of one pose, you can easily adjust it (from 0 to 90 degree) by moving your legs back and forth.

See, "diet" and exercise keep us more healthier. The double chin is almost gone. :-)

Two, even easier

2005-07-28T20:50:00.000-05:00

Many people agree that Chinese probably would be the hardest langauge to learn. But it does not mean all the Chinese characters are as complex as the one (Love) I introduce at day one. Yesterday's character is a simple one. Today's one would be even easier.

How could it be?

Pronunciation: /er/
Meaning: number "Two"
Two straight lines! Top one is shorter than the bottom one. Pat, is it what you have in your mind? ;-)

This is a very important feature of Chinese charaters - you might get the meaning of the character from its look, but not know how to say it.

This one is easy

2005-07-27T21:14:00.000-05:00

Pat told me this morning that the yesterday's character was too difficult to learn. So I am going to try a easier one this time.

Pronunciation: /yee/
Meaning: one

That's Chinese character for number "one". Simple, huh? Does anyone want to guess what the number "two" would look like in Chinese? Answer will be revealed tomorrow.

Chinese Characters, Start, Love

2005-07-26T20:59:00.000-05:00

The other day, one of my colleage Vinny came to ask me what was the Chinese character for love. I wrote down the simplified form (爱) for him. But he said he kind of remembered there was a "heart" inside of the that character. Oh, he was asking for the traditioanl form of that Chinese character. Unfortunately, I did not remember the traditional form. So I ended up Googling for it. Lucky enough, I got it in .gif format.

Last weekend, when I blogged about Harry Porter and ABC, I kind of had an idea -- making my blog a platform, or a channel to present Chinese culture -- Chinese character, Chinese festivals, Chinese food, Chinese histroy and whatever I come to my mind related to China. I can not only use it to teach April everything about China in the future, but also provide people who love to know China with stuff they might be interested in.

Alright, first lesson - Chinese character (traditional form) for "Love"

Pronounciation: /eye/
Meaning: Love

Harry Porter and ABC

2005-07-24T15:44:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, the sixth book of Harry Porter series finally arrived in stores. I felt really happy and lucky for those kids living in English speaking countries.

According to Beijing Morning (in Chinese), the Chinese version of Harry Porter and the Half Blood Prince will come out on Oct 15th, 2005. That's three months away from the English version hit the store. Most of the Chinese kids have to wait until then.

For our April, she is going to be a little ABC, American-Born Chinese (definition from Wikipeida). According to this definition, "ABCs tend to assimilate rapidly into the English-language environment of the United States and often have more reduced facility in Chinese than other members of the Chinese diaspora". So I am sure that April will enjoy Harry Porter VII, VIII (if there is any) just like any other American kids. But in the meantime, I still want her to be able to appreciate many wonderful Chinese works. I wish her could take the opportunity as an ABC to become a real master of both languages. This is also a part of meaning of her Chinese name ().

Big Girl

2005-07-22T20:11:00.000-05:00

On July 8th 2005, two months and 4 days (or 65days) after April was born. She was 15lbs and 8oz, 4lbs and 12oz more than last month. And she was about 25 inches (63.5cm) tall. Her head circumference is 15 inches (38.1cm). I was shocked by the news. NO Wonder holding her a little longer will give you a numb arm.

Normally, breastfed baby gets about 1-2 pounds per month in its first 6 months, then get about 1 pound per month from 6 month to one year.[1] But the doctor said though she was growing fast but it still falled into the normal range and most importantly she was pretty healthy. Well, she can be more healthier if she is not overweight. : )

After we came home, we decided to breastfeed her at least every 3 hours. Prior to that, she was breastfed every two or two and a half hours or even more frequently. April didn't notice the policy change and responded very well. After putting her on "diet" for 2 weeks, we feel she does not gain that much weight this time. Can you tell from the picture how much she weighs now?

With grandma

[1]. AskDrSears.com

"First" Moments

2005-07-02T08:20:00.000-05:00

It's been a month since the last post. During the last month, April had her first month party, first big, big smile, first musical experience, first hair cut, first "Yi Yi Ya Ya", first passport photo, first excercise and etc. And we are planning her first trip at the holiday weekend.

Here comes the photos:
1st month (6/4/05)

SMILE

Rock & Roll

Haircut (by Dad)

Passport (by Dad)

Tip: Making your own passport photos

Exercise

Diaper

2005-05-25T09:30:00.000-05:00

The last diaper for 'N'ew born (up to 10lbs) was finished by April last Friday, so we started to use size '1'(8-14lbs). But it seemed a little bit larger for her then, we changed it back to 'N' on Monday. This time, 'N' seemed a little big tighter for her.

She is getting bigger - holding her in your arm for a while will probably make it numb when you put her down. She can make some noise from her throat even though we don't what that means. She is able to focus - looking at you when you are looking at her. She can move her arms, maybe unintentionally, to reach out for some toys.

She is now 3 weeks old.

8lbs and 2oz

2005-05-18T16:50:00.000-05:00

We went to the pediatrian this Monday. April weighted 8lbs and 2oz, 12oz more than last time visit. She is doing pretty well, eating well and sleeping well. Unfortunately, she prefers to sleeping in the daytime and crying at night! :(

It was not always the case, she did sleep well before. But from last Sunday we are having trouble to calm her down during the night time. We tried everything we could. But nothing worked, she was dictating the night. So we are trying something different - making her awake during the day time. Does it work? We don't know yet.

she is 2 weeks old:

The first week

2005-05-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

One week now since April came to this world. How do I feel now? Wonderful, excited, happy and a little bit sleepy. :)

I have to admit that the first couple of days were difficult. We had no experience at all to deal with a new born. The first night we got home from hospital, I tried half an hour to calm her down and keep her from crying, but finally failed. I felt really really helpless at that moment. Fortunately, Xiaoyan's mom was there helping us out. She has been a big big help.

April grows up everyday. We grow up with her too. The connection between us is built strong day after day. Now I can tell from her cry if it's a wet diaper, she is hungry or she just wants to play. Though she doesn't recognize me at this moment, it is coming, soon.

aaaaaaa!

pinky finger

look at my face

Dad

April's day 1

2005-05-06T14:57:00.000-05:00

5/4/2005
The cervix softening process yesterday was painful and frustrating. Contraction started from 2pm till 10pm, every 2 1/2 min. After the 8hrs, Xiaoyan still dilated about 1 cm. So, we were very concerned about the choice of induction today.

We got up 6am in the morning and got there at about 7am. The doctor came in at 8am. We raised our concern about this choice. "What's the chance of getting our baby out naturally without a C-section after induction is used, given that Xiaoyan only dilates 1 cm?" The doctor did not guarantee us, but she did convince that it was better to give it a try at first . And it turned out to be an excellent decision (Thanks, Dr. Abrams!). Another wonderful person that we would like to thank is the nurse Denise. She was a big, big help for us. She told us her own experience, helped xiaoyan to relax and took very good care of Xiaoyan, and later the baby.

The induction began at 10am. The regular contraction started at about 11am. Water broke at about 12 noon. When Dr. Abrams cheked back at about 12:30, Xiaoyan already dilated 3.5 cm. Exciting news! If she followed this pace, she would be able to deliver the baby at 5pm. As the time went by, the contraction became more intense. We asked to have Epidual(?) at about 2. Xiaoyan was given one shot at about 2:30pm, but this one did not help much. What I could do was holding her hand when the contraction was coming. At 4pm, Xiaoyan almost dilated 8-9 cm, pretty good! However the pain became much stronger (What the heck is the Epidual doing?). She asked to redo the epidual. Just after getting her second epidual, she was almost ready to push, Dr. Abrams came in at about 4:20. Xiaoyan started to push at about 4:30. After 4 pushes, our April was out! It was AMAZING! I was so overwhelmed that I could help bursting into tears.

Here is our little girl:7lbs 12.3oz = 7jin

Dr. Abrams with April:

Denise with April:

Mom with April:

April is sleeping:

Isn't she beautiful?

Dad

Mission Accomplished

2005-05-05T11:43:00.000-05:00

Mission Accomplished @ 5/4/2005 4:40pm!
So overwhelmed!
Stay tuned... More details

Final Doctor Visit

2005-05-02T13:58:00.000-05:00

Today we were told that this was the final Doctor visit during the pregnancy. April is in still excellent condition, kicking around a lot. Maybe it's so excellent that she does not want to get out. :(

Since there is no contraction at all since last Doctor visit and it's the 41st week, we are going to hospital tomorrow for cervix softening. 15% chance we will get her out by doing that. If we still have no luck, we are going to have an induction the day after tomorrow.

So, in either case, she will be with us in the next a few days.

Stay tuned.

Going over

2005-04-28T13:01:00.000-05:00

April,
We are waiting for you! Don't be shy!

Dad

Count down

2005-04-21T14:58:00.000-05:00

April,
Only one week away from now, you will come to this new world, surrounded by loves from all around. Are you anxious? Are you ready?

We can't help dreaming about you in the night.

Love u,
Dad

Street Fair

2005-04-09T16:41:00.000-05:00

April 9, 2005. A beautiful day outside. We went out for the International Street Fair hosted by the Cranwell International Center @ VT. Check it out!
1. Street 1

2. Street 2

3. PRC

4. Taiwan

5. Egypt

6. Philippines

7. Brazil

8. Library

9. Drill Field

April

2005-04-08T11:11:00.000-05:00

[from m-w online]
Pronunciation: 'A-pr&l
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French & Latin; Old French avrill, from Latin Aprilis
: the 4th month of the Gregorian calendar

[another source]
四月April：罗马的四月，正是大地回春。鲜花初绽的美好季节。英文四月April便由拉丁文April(即开花的日子)演变而来。
四月的另一种说法是来自于拉丁语Avril意为“之后”、“第二”，因在凯撒之前的古罗马历法中，每年的第一个月份是三月。九月September、十月 October、十一月November和十二月December也分别来自于拉丁语Sptem、Octo、Novem和Decem，分别意为 “seven、eight、nine、ten”。

Child birth class

2005-04-07T14:56:00.000-05:00

We went to the child birth class in MRH last weekend. 2 days, full 8 hours. We learned some useful stuff from that class. Besides that, the hardware and the environment of the hosptical really impressed me.

This was the second time we went to MRH ( the first time was for the breast feeding class). There was no bad smells at all, which I believe every hosptical in China has. We were given a tour in the child birth center. Single room for each mom. Every room has jacuzzi, refrig, cable and etc. Yep, looks like a hotel room! (They do provide room service! No kidding.)

True! They do charge you a lot for the services. But it's better than "hidden fees", such as HongBao, that you have to pay in China. Plus, at least I can see where the money goes.

At the end of the class, they gave us a child birth certificate. Very nice!

Well there is a long way to go for people's medicare in China.

Wenjie

Mom coming to town

2005-03-30T23:10:00.000-05:00

April,
Tomorrow, you mom's mom is coming to town to make sure that everything is ready for you. We have been waiting for her for a long time. She will bring you a lot of good stuff from China, little clothes, little pants, little hats, little toys ... Of course, she will bring us great Chinese food. That's what we are waiting for! :-D
Last Sunday, we set up your little crib.

Yep, everything is ready! After about one month, you are going to sleep on that bed with us.

Love u,
Dad

Where does April come from?

2005-03-23T15:57:00.000-05:00

April,
April is your English name, because you are born in April (in fact, at this moment, all I know is that your mom's due day is late April. But even if you are born this early May, you will be still named after April, in Chinese lunar year).
Beside April, you still have a Chinese name 郑语 (Zheng, Yu). You get your last name from me, and first name from your mom. So you are daddy and mommy's girl.

Love u,
Dad

1st post

2005-03-23T11:24:00.000-05:00

April,
I put up this blog not only because how hot blog is right now, also because I want to keep track of every little thing in your life. When you grow up, mom and I become older, this blog (if still there) would be an important part of our precious memory.

Love u,
Dad