Archived News

2006

December
  • To celebrate Madeline's growth, she got a new room with a new twin bed! She loved her new big bed so much that sometimes when it got dark, she would remind us that it was time to sleep even thought it might be 6 PM only!
  • Up until now, Madeline had been very good at preparing herself to be a big sister. She had a list of things she wanted to teach Sharkita in the future. She showed Sharkita her art work by posting them on Mommy's belly. She played "knock, knock" with Sharkita when it was kicking. She told Sharkita to grow up so that it could come out and enjoy the crib, baby clothes and baby toys! Let us keep our fingers crossed that this behavior will continue AFTER Sharkita's birth.
  • Madeline's quote of the month -
    • James was looking at a toy that Madeline was playing and said "that was a cute duck you have." Madeline said "no, it was not a duck. It was a bird because it was red." James replied "oh, yeah. Madeline, you are right." Madeline said without second thoughts, "always." Talk about self-confidence...


November

  • For those of you who were guessing baby Sharkita's gender, you could continue on. As much as we wanted to know whether Sharkita is a boy or a girl, Sharkita simply thought it was too early to reveal the answer. As the result, during the ultrasound, Sharkita kept the legs closed! Since there is no more ultrasound scheduled for Phyllis, we might not know until Sharkita's arrival next March.
  • Madeline was kept at home for a few days because of a cold with fever. James was calculating the tuition paid on days she missed school and said jokingly "Madeline, your cold is too costly." Upon hearing that, Madeline immediately started to cry and said quietly "Daddy, don't say that. (你不要這樣子說嗎.)" She would only stop crying when James hugged her and apologized for such insensitive comment. Lessons learned - do not underestimate a toddler's capability of understanding and feeling, ever...
  • At the end of the month, Madeline traveled to California with Mommy and Daddy for a family reunion. Thought the trip was very short, Madeline was very happy to see her grandparents, uncles, aunt, and cousins.


October

  • Madeline had figured out that the time Mommy was on the phone or in the kitchen was the perfect opportunity for her to try out all sorts of things which might or might not get approved otherwise. So far she had tried coloring herself green using markers (washable ones - thank goodness!) or using the whole bottle of school glue as hand and shaving lotion.
  • Seeing that Mommy and Daddy spent quite some times in front of computers, Madeline longed for one, too. Therefore Daddy built her a top of the line model, using wooden blocks! She loved it and was very fond of her wireless block mouse as you can see from the picture.
  • Grocery shopping was a frequently done activity on Phyllis and Madeline's agenda. After being the understudy for 2.5 years, Madeline already knew the specific products carried by specific stores. If James took her to a store trying to get a certain cookie that she liked, she would tell him it was the wrong store and they needed to go somewhere else for it


September

  • School, school, and school! That was all Madeline could think about these days since she started the Stepping Stone class at The Montessori House 3 days a week. With a personalized calendar, Madeline could cross off each day before going to sleep and checked herself whether she had school the next day. With the unique phasing in process the school adopted, Madeline had gotten used to school life and routine gradually and happily.
  • Vomiting, vomiting, and vomiting! That was pretty much what Phyllis was doing this month.
  • Madeline's quotes of the month -
    • At the grocery store, Phyllis and James were busy picking out fruits and told Madeline we would be getting some papaya. She thought for a second and said "what about mama-ya and baby-ya???"
    • When James asked Madeline to count, she said "I could not count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I could only count 1, 2, 3!"


August

  • The big achievement for Madeline in August was that she got potty trained! For a few days, Madeline had been "notified" of the existence of new underwear, just like Mommy's and Daddy's. On the day that she got to wear it, she had accidents and quickly learned that it did not work like the diapers or pull-ups. After 3 days, she would do all her peeing in the potty without much reminding. It took her 5 days to figure out how to have a bowl movement in the sitting position and get the timing right, too. Then she had lived happily with her potty, accidents free...
  • Do you love lobsters? Well, if you do, James, who recently took a cooking class on lobster at the Institute of Culinary Education, might have some tips and recipes to share with you.
  • What did you expect? If you have guessed another baby in the Shaw-Lin household, then you have hit the jackpot. Baby #2 (a.k.a. Sharkita until it's born) is expecting to arrive late March, 2007. We were thrilled with the news. Madeline had been telling Sharkita over Phyllis' belly that she was going to be the big sister (we weren't so sure whether she was doing self introduction or trying to secure her status.)


July

  • This July was the month when we did most of our summer travels. We went to Montreal first for a few days, then Portsmouth, RI to join some other friends.
  • Have you ever seen a pig race??? We never did until we went to the NJ State Fair. It was more entertaining than we thought. So next time when you have a chance to see one, go for it.
  • Was "Terrible 2" a virus that could be caught by any toddler at any minute without prior warnings? The answer was yes... We did not realize that until Madeline threw her first tantrum this month. It was quite a shocking experience especially when Madeline was quite good at reasoning before she got infected by this virus. Luckily she recovered after a week (well, at least for the time-being...)
  • Madeline's comments of the month -
    • One morning after trying to get James to wake up without much success, Madeline gave up and said "Daddy is being a little lazy bug (爸爸在當小懶蟲)."
    • Observing James wiping the table after breakfast, Madeline pointed at the remaining bread crumbs and said "Daddy, it is not clean here (爸爸,這裡還沒有擦乾淨)." Seeing that James did not take up the advice for the follow-up cleaning, Madeline said "Is that nice??? ( 這樣子好嗎???)"


June

  • The unthinkable happened when Phyllis' laptop committed suicide on 6/26/06. Out of the blue, the computer went dead and was only willing to display the following message on the big black screen - Operating System not found. It was a torture to think that all the data files (especially Madeline's pictures and videos which hadn't been backed up since last October) would be lost forever! Luckily, James had a software called Knoppix Linux. With that, we were able to boot up the laptop and retrieve the data files.
  • Madeline got some geographic lessons while we planned for our summer trips. One day while talking to Grandma on the phone, Madeline told Grandma "Canada is at the north (加拿大在北邊)."
  • For the first time, we visited the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ. The aquarium was nicer than what we expected and Madeline was really happy to see the penguins and hippos!


May

  • Turning 2 was a big event for Madeline this month. While not knowing exactly what a birthday was, she quickly learned to love the song. As the result, she had sung the Happy Birthday song to herself the whole month...
  • Conversation of the month:
    - One day while Phyllis was talking on the phone, Madeline went over and started squeezing Phyllis' hand. Phyllis asked "what are you doing?"
    - Madeline said "how come Mommy did not sing?" Phyllis was puzzled for a minute until she realized that among Madeline's toy collections, there were 2 dolls which would sing when the hands got squeezed...
    - After getting no response, Madeline gave the final verdict - "Broken" and walked away...


April

  • Madeline's major achievements this month:
    • Could count from 1 to 10 in both English and Mandarin (though she tended to miss 6 in both languages...)
    • Blew bubbles
    • Took off pants and made pee pees in her own potty sometimes
    • Played by herself quietly for 50 minutes while Mommy & Daddy took dance lessons
    • Visited dentist for the 1st time and did great!


March

  • For the first time in Madeline's life, she took a ride on the airplane and the destination was St Thomas of U.S. Virgin Island (see our vacation pictures). It was a one-week vacation that everyone enjoyed. As a matter of fact, Madeline liked it so much that during the trip, she changed her usual morning greeting from "hi hi Mama" to "we go to beach. (我們去海邊,好)"
  • After working at IBM Research for three years, James had decided to pursue a slightly different career path with Ask.com.
  • Madeline's major achievements this month:
    • Said and gestured "Rock, Scissor, Paper"
    • Became even more verbal and could make up longer sentences such as "auntie forgot to turn off light (阿姨忘記關燈)" & "Mommy cooks; Daddy eats (媽媽煮飯飯; 爸爸吃)"
    • Could play by herself and not interrupt Mommy at all for at least 20 minutes while the timer was ticking
    • Knew and said names of Daddy, Mommy, and herself


February

  • Conversation of the month:
    - Phyllis took out a pre-cooked sweet potato from refrigerator for Madeline's afternoon snack and asked "the sweet potato is cold so what should we do to make it warmer?"
    -Madeline thought for a second and said "wear a vast (穿背心)"
  • Madeline's major achievements this month:
    • Knew more alphabets "P", "F", "U", "I", "D", "W", and "C"
    • Had 16 teeth
    • Saw the word "ZOO" and said "2 Os, a lot (二隻O, 多多)"
    • Sang 80% of her cookie song
    • Could replace toilet papers (unwraped the new roll, took out the unfinished old roll, tossed it into trash can, and placed the new roll on the holder)
  • We thought we had seen snowstorms. But the one we had on 2/12/06 was a total eye-opener. With snow accumulation close to 27" in a 24-hour period, the whole ground looked magical (well, maybe not much so from the eyes of the guy who needed to shovel).


January

  • It was said that small actions often could be the key to demonstrate one's personality. From Phyllis' observation, Madeline was a little child with great consideration for others, especially Mommy. While Phyllis did the housework, Madeline would clear the floor space for Phyllis, without being asked, so that Mommy would not trip over. During bath time, Madeline would gather her toys so that it made Mommy's job easier when changing the waters out of her bathtub. We certainly hoped this good nature of Madeline would continue to stay with her forever.
  • Madeline's major achievements this month:
    • Knew the following alphabets "M", "O", "A", "B", "K", "Y".
    • Had 13 teeth
    • Could distinguish between big and small plus long and short
    • Knew the shapes of circle, square, star, and triangle
    • Walked up and down the stairs without holding on to anything
    • Drank soup directly from a bowl by herself without spilling.
  • 1/29/2006 marked the beginning of a Chinese new year. We had a small celebration in the city the night before and enjoyed the company of good friends and good food.