Pease Kids

“Little Rivers” is playing lego with grandpa. The lego is the birthday present from grandma.

亲爱的易峰，

时间过得好快，一晃你就四岁了。首先祝你生日快乐！

以前常常有过来人教育我们要好好珍惜和孩子在幼年期的宝贵时光，这种体会随着你的长大变得相当的深刻。好像在昨天我还为你的第一次翻身，第一次会爬，第一次迈步走路雀跃欢呼，为你第一次去托儿所大哭而暗自流泪，今天我发现几乎你所有的衣服都一下子小了，你不仅长高了，变得更懂事了，每次看到你对爸爸妈妈和弟弟们的似水柔情，爱心呵护，我们的心都被你的细致体贴融化了。

你喜欢在路边采花给妈妈，看妈妈戴在头上，你总是由衷地说“妈妈，你真漂亮呀！”很小的时候，你就展示了你令人惊讶的细致和体贴。有一次，妈妈为家里保姆的事情生气，你抬头看看妈妈，问：“妈妈，你为什么生气呀？”然后你说：“妈妈，不要生气，笑一笑。”在那一瞬间，我突然羞愧自己的渺小和不成熟，有这样懂事的儿子妈妈还有什么抱怨的呢？在妈妈生小弟弟之后，你更是体贴入微，每天早上走到妈妈床边，问妈妈是不是感觉好些，在妈妈休息的时候，还送花给妈妈。

从小你就喜欢读书，在中国，人们就会叫你“书虫”。你现在会了二十六个字母，但还不识字。去年你凭着记忆力给妈妈从头到尾绘声绘色地讲了一本书，书名叫“我忘记了”，那本书的作者也看到你讲故事的录影带，他鼓励你要继续好好读书呢。但你不太喜欢关于巫婆或打架一类的书，你说你会害怕。妈妈曾担心作为男孩子的你会不会胆子太小了，事实证明妈妈是错的，每次你磕到，碰到，你哼哼两声，然后马上很勇敢地跟妈妈说“我没事”。有时候你在托儿所发生一些小意外，看到老师的事故报告后，你总是很骄傲地说：“妈妈我没哭”。

去年你跟着爸爸妈妈爬上了七英里高的铁山，一座颇有挑战性的一个高山。爸爸妈妈知道你在爬的时候很累，但我们希望你学会坚持，你边爬边哭，中途休息的时候，你想通了，破涕为笑了，最后你越爬越高兴，还和妈妈唱起了歌。易峰，那一天，爸爸妈妈真的为你感到自豪。当我们带天天弟弟去爬铁山的时候，你跑得像一头矫健的羚羊，我们不得不在后面喊你停下等一等。当弟弟累了不想爬的时候，你过去拉起他的手，一路鼓励，爸爸妈妈备受感动。

天天弟弟是个小顽皮，有些时候爸爸妈妈不得不教育他，让他去罚站。你告诉我们尽量不要跟天天弟弟计较，不要打他屁股，不要罚站。看到我们真要教育天天，你就当在我们面前，扭头对弟弟喊；“快跑！”。有一次，妈妈没听你的，让天天罚站，你急得都哭了。易峰，相信我们，爸爸妈妈爱你和弟弟们胜过爱自己的生命，自从跟你解释了没有规矩不成方圆的道理之后，你理解了为什么有些时候天天弟弟要去被罚站。善良的你仍尽量帮助弟弟，　告诉弟弟不要说“ＮＯ”，让弟弟承认错误，如果弟弟还不主动认错，你会走到弟弟身边，温柔地拉起他的手，说：“弟弟，不哭了，听哥哥的话，去给爸爸妈妈道歉。”　天天弟弟说：“好的。”

明明弟弟最喜欢对你笑。你学爸爸妈妈逗明明的样子，总把我们家的保姆乐得前仰后合。听到明明哭了，你会说：“明明，不哭，哥哥在呢。”然后拿出你各种玩具逗明明笑，明明都笑出声来了。

亲爱的易峰，当爸爸妈妈有了你和弟弟们之后，更深刻体会到养育之恩，教育之难。爸爸妈妈希望你永远把健康放在第一位, 永远保持一颗爱人的心，在你还小的时候，努力去发现你的兴趣特长，你的梦想，做自己喜欢做的事。

祝你有个最美好的四岁！

爱你的爸爸妈妈

Dear Alex,

I have been thinking about writing you this letter for a while. Max was suddenly sick and the letter was delayed. The purpose of this letter is to let you know how much dad and mom love you and appreciate what you have turned out to be in four years. English writing is not what mom is best at. Mom is not sure she can express what exactly we want to say, but mom will give it try. Fist of all, Happy Four-Year-Old Birthday!

Alex, when you were born, you didn’t have colic, but you were not an easy baby. It may be because you are dad and mom’s first child and we were too green to calm you down in the right way. We also had a latch-on issue, which really frustrated a new mom and a new baby. Mom took you to a feeding class trying to learn how to improve. At that time, mom’s back hurt very often because she held you too much. Mom never had problems to lose pregnancy weight after having a baby. One day mom’s boss called and they chatted a little about each other’s babies. Her boss was very surprised mom didn’t eat lunch when mom was nursing. Every day went like a intense fight. When you went to sleep, mom needed to check emails from work or pump the milk or take care of laundry. Dad also lost 10 lbs the first month you were born. But when we saw your angel like smile, all the hard work was worth it and all our energy came back.

Even before you could sit up, dad started to read books to you. Amazingly, you love it immediately and love it more when you get older. Last year, for the first time you read mom a book named “I Just Forgot” all by yourself based on your memory. The book author saw the video and encouraged you to read more books. Before DiDi moved to your room, if you get up earlier than 7AM, you will read books in your room waiting for your clock and dad and mom to wake up. Now you know all letters and are learning how to read words. It is so cute to see you ask everybody to sit on the carpet around you and you read books exactly the same way your teachers do. Mom is not surprised you speak better English than her already. We appreciate very much you are very patient teaching mom how to pronounce “wood” and “wool”, and explain the words mod doesn’t know.

One of most interesting things we did last year was climbing up Iron Mountain. Originally, we hoped hiking would increase your appetite so that you can eat better. Iron Mountain is not easy for an adult, let alone a three-year-old. So when you reached the top of Iron Mountain on June 18th, 2011, everybody cheered for you. Dad and mom see all the emotional and physical difficulties you have overcome and are very proud of you.

Of course, you ate lots of coconut hard candies mom bought in China during hiking. We need to get more candies and hawthorn strips you like next time we go to China. That will be your third trip to China. Grandma and grandpa in China miss you every day. One morning you sang a Chinese car song over the phone to grandma, which made her almost cry.

Before you turned to four, you have two brothers already and show everyone what a great big brother you are. You always love giving babies hugs and kisses. You volunteer to help mom change diapers and watch brothers. After mom came home from hospital, you came to ask if mom feels better and said hi to your brothers the first thing every day. When your brothers cry, you always say “Don’t cry. Ge Ge (big brother in Chinese) is here!” You never like mom put DiDi in timeout. Sometimes it even makes you cry. When DiDi was in timeout, you would tell him what to do. If DiDi still didn’t listen, you would go put your arms around his shoulders and said “it’s ok. Take a deep breath. Go say sorry to mommy.” Then you held DiDi’s hand walking to us. Dear Alex, it is hard for mom to express in words how much dad and mom appreciate how gentle and caring you are. DiDi and Max are so lucky to have you as their big brother.

When you were little, you said you wanted to be a cook. Recently, you told everybody you wanted to be a football player. Alex, stay healthy, dream what you can dream, and follow your heart to do what you truly enjoy. Have a fruitful and fun fourth year!

Love,
Dad and Mom

It was like yesterday when Alex was just four months old.

This past Wednesday he turned to four years old. Where does time go? But Alex still thinks the time doesn’t go fast enough. Since last year, he has counted days like ” after Thanksgiving, after grandpa’s Birthday, after Christmas, after New Year, it will be my birthday!” When the holidays have pasted one by one, Alex sensed his birthday is getting closer and closer and he is more and more excited. Isn’t it interesting to see how eager a young soul to grow up when his mother is a little scared by her age? I remember when I was little, I have exactly strong desire to become old enough so that I don’t have to do homework every day.

The family celebrated Alex’s birthday at grandma’s house. As a football fan, watching football on TV before the dinner was perfect as part of celebration.

Both boys spent quality time with grandma.

Before the dinner, grandma lightened up the candle Alex made for her during Christmas. Alex saw the candle and said ” let’s sing the song!” and then he started singing Happy Birthday song. It cracked everybody up. We still followed Alex, sang the song,and let him blow the candle.Then we explained to him that was not the candle standing on the cake. We needed to wait after dinner.

The moment Alex has waited for one year finally came!

Families and friends are very generous to Alex. DiDi tried to help Alex open presents.

Three days later, Alex had another birthday party at school with his teachers and classmates.

In the morning, Alex was very happy to wear the Chargers jersey to school. Fortunately, that day was warm enough for short sleeve.

This picture was taken at Alex’s request. “Look at cream on my nose, Mommy!”

Alex’s transformer birthday cake wowed his friends at schools.

I spent the whole morning making pot stickers and egg rolls for the birthday party and DiDi’s class. I am glad Alex and his friends enjoyed the Chinese foods while learning more about China. Happy Birthday, Alex!

I don’t recall either Alex or DiDi was this sick when they were at Max’s age.

Since last Thursday, Max had started to cough. He got watery eyes, running nose, and plugged head. All of them bothered him and he’s had a really hard time to sleep. Our nanny suddenly cannot function. When she tried to feed Max a bottle, Max always got chocked and very angry. When she tried to rock him to sleep, Max cried and screamed. On Friday, I held Max the whole night, bouncing and rocking him. Max was very fussy and easily irritated. He even didn’t allow me to sit down for one minute when I felt really tired.

At Saturday night, I held Max until 530AM in the morning and then I passed him to the nanny. In less than one hour, I heard Max cried really loud. When I rushed downstairs, Max had lost his voice.

Max didn’t have fever. Starting from Monday, he feels better and smiles again. So I didn’t take him to see pediatrician. He has still not got his voice back. His recovery is slow. I cannot wait to see he doesn’t cough and have no running nose any more.

When I was holding Max last Friday alone, I thought of my parents.

My sister coughed a lot since she was born. Before she turned to four-year-old, my parents never slept the whole night. They took turns to look after my sister at night. My mom said she vividly remembers for a couple of snowy nights, my sister’s situation got worse, my dad had to carry her and walked 2 miles to a hospital. I cannot imagine how my dad did it without street light, a car, or even a pair of warm shoes. Every time I hear about this story, I feel tears in my eyes. What great parents! Now they are old, but I cannot stay with them to take care of them when they need help. This guilty pain is beyond the words.

Here’s Max in the bathtub.

Michelle is amazing at giving the babies baths. She can really keep them calm and they have an excellent time getting clean. Of course, she (and the bathtub) have had a lot of practice! Here are Nicky and Alex in the same tub when they were babies.

As always, we received many generous beautiful presents from our families and friends. Thank you all!

In the stockings, the boys found not only presents from Santa but also sweet goodies. Alex couldn’t wait to eat some candy. DiDi has never had that kind of candy before. He was so curious.

He was sharing his own candy with DiDi.

“One for you and one for me”.

Led by Alex, DiDi would like to share his candies with Charlie as well.

We had such a wonderful Christmas in 2011. DiDi and grandma are already looking forward to next Christmas.

But DiDi would rather take pictures with grandpa than Santa. Santa is wondering why.

The boys stayed up late on Christmas Eve watching movies. Since we all stayed overnight at grandma’s, for the first time, Alex and DiDi slept in the same bed. To impress Santa and get the presents they want, it was not very difficult to put two boys to bed. However, on Christmas Day, the boys were so excited they woke up before 5:00am.

DiDi rushed out of the door and asked “where is Santa Claus?”

Santa promised Alex he’d bring him Hiro, a good friend of Thomas the train, if he is a good boy. Alex has been waiting for it for the whole year. Would he get it?

Thank you, Santa!

After the three boys got up from their naps, we packed up the presents in the van and drove to grandma’s house at around 4:00pm. DiDi liked the idea of putting presents around the tree. He excitedly helped dad unload the presents from the box.

Alex helped put more ornaments up on the tree.

Both boys are amazed by grandma’s Christmas tree. They cannot take their eyes from it.

Books are Alex’s all-time favorite. Reading a book is a very smart way to keep him from keeping looking for the presents with his name on them.

Influenced by Alex, DiDi is more into books than ever. He was checking out the fishing book grandma Dennis compiled for grandpa. If you know how to read lips, you could tell DiDi was saying “fish”.