Sunday, January 31, 2010

How big is the tv screen at movie theater?


This weekend we went to a watch a movie for the first time. The last time we went to watch a movie was more than two years ago, before Isaac was born. So we decided to go watch a movie this weekend. This is not a date, we took both Meredith and Isaac with us. We don’t have much to do this weekend and we felt that Meredith are old enough to enjoy watching a movie already. So we looked up the movie listing and decided go see “Princess and the frog” at AMC in New Orleans. Meredith was very excited about going to a cinema. She kept asking how big is the tv in the cinema. She said, “Is it bigger than our new TV or the same with our old tv?” So, that means a choice between a 25inch TV and a 40inch TV. Boon Hong replied that, “No, the TV in the movie theater is bigger than a wall.” Meredith keeps saying this is not possible. We have taught her to question thing that doesn’t make sense, so she says a tv bigger than a wall is impossible. When we got inside the Cineplex, Meredith was delightfully surprise with the size of the screen!


She is almost four years old now and she is a crazy about cartoon. She was practically glued to the “The princess and the frog” movie. This is fun cartoon, it is a special remake of old Disney classic but the princess is black and the story is set in New Orleans, there is a lot of places in the cartoon that we recognized.

New Orleans finally have free museum day

Having lived in Houston, we expected museums and zoos to be free on certain days of the year with corporate sponsors chipping in to have free days for the public. Well, this is certainly not the case in New Orleans because there is a very few big companies here. None of the museums have free days until now! Finally, Target is sponsoring a free day once a month at the children museum, so I took Meredith and Isaac and had a blast a the children museum. Below is some photos from the children museum and also from Eechin visit. Eechin came in from Houston a day before her conference.

Free day at children museum

Isaac and Meredith pretend to shop at the kids grocery store at the children museum


Isaac playing eye doctor








This weekend

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Meredith first play date


Boon Hong took Isaac and Meredith and Zoey to the playground near our house and ended running into Kayla, which is another one of Meredith's classmate.

Zoey, Meredith classmate, at the craft table with Isaac and Meredith



Meredith invited her classmate, Zoey, to our house during Martin Luther King holiday. This is the first time Meredith invited her friend to our home. Zoey is one of the only three girls in Meredith class and Meredith constantly mentions her name when she tells us about her school day. So, we decided to invite her to play with Meredith. For a few days, Meredith was super excited about her friend coming over to visit her. She will obliged to anything we say, including finish your rice, clean up your toys as long as we threaten her with canceling her friend visit. Meredith also mentioned that she really hope her brother, Isaac, will sleep really really late the day her friend came to visit, then she claims that she can play barbie dolls and cooking with her classmate without Isaac disrupting them.

The first question Zoey asked Meredith when she got to our house is:" Meredith, where do you sleep? Can you show me your bedroom?". Meredith is very innocently reply, "I sleep on this small bed on the floor or I sleep with my mummy". Actually, Meredith uses a small baby size mattress that we took out of her baby crib. Her baby sized mattress is laid on the floor next to Boon Hong bed but nine of ten times, she ended sleeping on Boon Hong's bed. Zoey couldn't help but burst out laughing when she saw Meredith mattress on the floor. Most American kids have their own bedroom so she was surprise that Meredith sleep on the floor in our bedroom.

Picturepeople studio portraits from 2009







These three photos are taken when we went to Houston in August 2009. There is a nice and not too expensive photo studio in Houston Galleria shopping center. Boon Hong likes to bring the kids there once a year to have their portraits taken. So far in New Orleans, we have not come across any photo studio like Pictures People in Houston. Most of the studio here are either the Walmart and Target photo studios or the really expensive private photographers for hire, there is not much in between.






Saturday, January 09, 2010

Day after Christmas

We went to Baton Rouge the day after Christmas and saw our friends Miao Miao and Tien Yuan from Houston.















Saturday, January 02, 2010

2009 Family Newsletter

2009 has gone by very quickly for Chang’s family. While Boon Hong often wondered how time gone by so fast, Meredith frequently claimed that she wants to grow up quickly so she can do things bigger kids do. Meredith had a rather eventful year after coming back from Malaysia. She struggled with several episodes of asthma attack in September. She now uses a nebulizer daily to inhale her asthma medication and tends to get sick easily with weather changes. On the bright side, Meredith is learning how to communicate her feeling with her mother every single day. She would let her mother know that she doesn’t appreciate her mother for cutting short her school hours from full day to half day. She was also upset when her mother picks her up an hour earlier on Wednesday because that’s when the lawn was mowed and the pollen level is higher. She doesn’t yet understand that her mum wants her to be like any other kids and is sad to hear her says that. Meredith loves attending school and she has a very close friend in her class whom she loved to play with. She talks about her friend almost every day after returning from school. One funny story is Meredith often swaps shoes with her friend in school. Still, Meredith’s favorite time is spending quality time with her dad at night as she gets to pick books for her dad to read for her. She has a good bond with her dad, and she has stated before that she never ever like her dad being away from home in her broken English one day. This certainly melted her dad’s heart and this sweet statement of Meredith will go with her dad for a long time. Many friends have quizzed us about how Meredith gets along with her little brother. I would say their relationships are tense, combative and sweet and fun all at the same time. They fight constantly and tears are often streaming down Isaac cheeks as he pointed towards “Jie Jie” as Meredith wins almost every fight at this stage. Isaac has grown more assertive compared to a year ago. Isaac learnt how to complaint to his mother by saying “Jie Jie” and then pointing his head or run towards his mother while his sister tried to take away his toy. Sometimes, they played so well and the room is filled with laughers. Isaac is a happy toddler and has great personality that makes us laugh all the time. While he is not good at expressing himself verbally (he can only mumble a few words), he is very good at expressing himself comically. Isaac loves to imitate. We were watching American football on TV where players crashed and tumbled all over each other. tackled Isaac soon found a ball, and started running around the house, throwing himself on the floor every few steps like the NFL players. Isaac seems to understand everything we said. He dances, pick things up, perform his comic routine, and repeats words at our command.
Boon Hong is still the cook, babysitter, mommy, and toy pick up person in Chang’s family. She has enjoyed her time at home and being able to watch her kids grow daily. She enjoys the peaceful moment even more when both Meredith and Isaac play together nicely. Boon Hong is also very grateful this year for her family to come visit her. After living in the US for 13 years, Boon Hong’s parents and her sister finally come to visit her for the first time. They stayed for a month, took a tour of California and went on a road trip to Smoky Mountain and Atlanta. Boon Hong would cherished this very special month with her family for a long time.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010























Road trip to Smoky Mountain with Boon Hong family. We saw some snow at Smoky Mountain.