Archive for the ‘laughter’ Category

Time Out for CAMP!

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

Since I had the summer off, I decided to start a one-man Summer Camp for Malachy.  He dubbed me “Camp Dad,” and he dubbed himself, “Camp Son.”  Instead of spending over a grand and putting him in a summer program, I thought to myself, “Wait, I CAN DO THIS!”  We would have more flexibility in schedule.  We could go on a Family trip and do other fun things together.  Malachy LOVED the idea. ;)

His first request was to have a campfire and roasted marshmallows.  I don’t know what possessed me to promise him one.  As July drew near, he got more and more excited about the idea of a campfire and marshmallows.   I started to fret, and thought to myself, “How are we going to do this in the City?”  A few days before our Camp was supposed to take off, I actually did a Google Search for Campfire in Manhattan, Camfire in NYC.  Guess what?  I found one!  I found something that said, “Beach Campfire!”  It was going to happen on July 2 at Jacob Riis Park, from 7:30pm-9:30pm.  I asked Shien and she said, “Sure!”  Still, I thought, maybe it was going to be a big fire, and we wouldn’t be able to toast marshmallows.  We kept telling Malachy that if it didn’t happen at the beach, we  would toast it at home by candlelight.

At the Beach with PoPo

I called a couple of days in advance just to make sure it was for real.  I got the car from Staten Island, and we went after dinner.  As usual, I relied too heavily on GPS.  It took us through local traffic, and I was so confused because it said it was in Queens online, and we were driving through local traffic in Brooklyn.  I thought it was going to take us to the wrong place.  Anyways, when we got there, NO CAMPFIRE!  I kept figuring it was the July 4th weekend, and that they just decided to cancel it.  There were a few people around, and we walked around the beach for a little bit and decided to stay just a short while and then go home… :(

"There's A Hole in the Beach!"

I tried calling the number a couple of times that I had called 2 days earlier.  No answer.  I kept looking far off in the distance, and saw a group of people.  I decided I had to check it out to see if that could possibly be it.  IT WAS!  I couldn’t run back to tell them, because it’s SO HARD to walk fast in the sand.  I called PoPo, and told her the great news.  Malachy was SO excited! :)   He got to have his roasted marshmallows and even a hot dog!  There was some even some campfire singing; the weather couldn’t have been more perfect.  Unbelievable!  Another thing I could never have imagined.  A campfire in NYC, at the beach!  SO COOL! ;)

Toasting Marshmallows at the Beach!

First Beach Campfire EVER for all of us!

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Time Out for IM…

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

Malachy on AIM...

Malachy started Instant Messaging before he was 3, mostly with his uncle and grandparents. In a previous post, he actually assumed my identity! ;) His uncle thought he was chatting with me.
He always loved letters, so he naturally loved the keyboard and typing away. When he got older (can’t believe I just typed the word “older”), he learned that the Mac could use the Chinese Pin Yin system and type out Chinese characters. He LOVED that, too! He can now type on his own, and he will sometimes switch back between English and Chinese, just for fun. When it’s Chinese, he’ll just insert random characters. Sometime, he’ll ask me what he just typed in Chinese, and I’m like, “I don’t know. Go ask Mommy! ;) ”
Tonight, his uncle was feeling a bit down, so before bedtime, I suggested that he call his Uncle Chris. He tried calling twice, but it was so loud on the other end, and it hung up twice. So, first, he left his uncle a voice message telling him he shouldn’t be upset and that people are just talking, etc…
Then, while Malachy was on the computer, his uncled IM’d from his Blackberry, so I had Malachy take a break to IM him. I sat on the couch while he typed away. I gave him suggestions on what he could type, but he typed what he wanted. This is what he had to say… At first, he didn’t finish the word “UPSET,” so I told him he could retype it. Instead, he thought he should just add the letters on the next line. Later on, I showed Shien and she asked, “What’s GN?” I told her, “Good Night. Your son decided to just type GN on his own…” Ai ya! ;)

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Time Out for Lights Off!

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

We have the shades down in our bedroom, so it’s usually still pretty dark when we get up in the morning. On weekends, it’s almost always Malachy waking us up, but on weekdays, it’s usually the other way around. We usually try to get him up by drawing the shades to brighten up the room. Once in a while, I’ll turn on the halogen with the remote light switch, so it gets REALLY bright. When I do that, Malachy usually quickly gets up out of bed, grabs the remote switch to turn the lights off, and jumps back into bed.
Earlier in the week, I turned on the lights, and he immediately turn off the lights. Then he said, “Daddy, didn’t you read my sign?!” I hadn’t noticed. He said, “Read it!” He had stuck a piece of paper on the nightstand (located between his bed and ours), and it read, “DO NOT EVER TURN ON LIGHT SWICH!” Unbelievable! ;)
I believe it was over 6 months ago that his uncle had joked around with him saying that he would sleep in Malachy’s bed if he didn’t go to bed. Believe it or not, that worked a few times. Eventually, I told him he could make a sign to say that it was his bed and for him only. The power of writing… ;)


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Time Out for Wake-Up Calls

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Food Visions...

What are Malachy’s favorite two words, when waking up, besides “Good Morning?”
“I’M HUNGRY!”
This morning, not only did he say he was hungry, but he said his whole body was empty. We read him a children’s book on the digestive system. (Yes, they do have children’s books on that now! ;) ) This morning, as I was barely awake, he was calling out, “Daddy, I’m hungry. My whole body is empty. I have nothing in my esophagus!” I don’t think I learned about the esophagus until HIGH SCHOOL! Unbelievable! ;)
Sometimes, he wakes up with “food visions”. :) The other morning, he was telling me about his latest dessert vision. My dad had brought some Turkey Hill vanilla and chocolate ice cream along with some premium lemon and cherry ice, which he had for the first time the night before. YUMMY! So, he was telling me how he pictured a spoonful of vanilla ice cream on one side next to some ice on the other side, topped with some M&Ms, and a Pizzelle on top, AND it had to be in his ice cream bowl. We’ve made similar things for him, but he owned this one. So, what did we do? On this one, Mommy made his wish came true! There’s nothing like the excitement of having a wish come true, is there? ;)

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Time Out for Laughs…

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Laughter

In education, you have the “3 Rs” – reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. In high school, I came up with the “3 Ls” in life – Living, Loving, and Learning. Since then, I’ve discovered the fourth “L” in life, which is laughing. Malachy has brought so much laughter into our lives. It’s awesome! :)
On the snow day on Friday, Shien and I were SO sleepy. He dragged us both into the living room, after finding out there was no school. We were both knocked out (on and off), while he ate his snack and did some writing. At one point, he asked me if he could use the computer, and so I let him use it for a bit. He pretty much can operate my Mac, as soon as I put him on the internet. Later on, I had noticed that his uncle wrote on my IM, “You guys had no school, right?” Malachy had typed back the word, “yes!” Then his uncle wrote, “Malachy must be so excited.” Malachy read what his uncle wrote and typed back the words, “uh – yes.” When I got on the computer later on, I told his uncle that I just got on, and that he was actually “talking” with Malachy. He was like, “Shut up, I don’t believe you.” I couldn’t believe how Malachy made his uncle think that I was talking to him, without even intending to. ;)
Some other funny Olympic moments today…

During the hockey game, Malachy asked, “Why are they playing with a checker?” So, today, he learned the word, “puck.”
After the Canadians received their medals, and flowers, Malachy asked, “What are they doing with that broccoli?” He was right, those flowers that they have been giving out do look like vegetables!
Finally, I was feeling so bad for the American goalie, when they were interviewing him after they lost and received their silver medal. The interviewer was just asking him a ton of questions. I was saying, “Come on. Leave him alone.” Malachy looked at the television and said, “He needs his mommy.” He was right. He REALLY looked like he did. ;)

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