120129 Ethan Helped Fixing Dinner

Today was the last day of the 9-day Chinese New Year Holidays, and I decided not to waste it staying at home. This afternoon I took Ethan to Yong-he-shan reservoir (永和山水庫) for hiking so Helen could get a few hours without Ethan for rest and do whatever she wanted to do. We came back home near 5 pm and I dragged Ethan to take a shower before the dinner was ready.

While we were still waiting for the heater to warm up the bathroom, Ethan went in the kitchen and help Helen with the dinner. That I decided to take these photos when I saw what he was doing.

120128 Pants on Ethan's Head

Ethan put his pajama pants on his head and told us that was his hair. It was his favorite "Bear" pants!

120107 Annual Activity at Preschool (親子闖關活動)

Ethan and Helen are walking on the bridge crossing a "swamp". It's a part of the Animal World.

In the preschool Ethan goes there is an activity each year requires all kids to work with the teachers for at least a month to decorate their classroom and then invites all parents to come and play with the kids. In this school year it was on January 7th.

Ethan entered this preschool last year right after the activity and didn't participate it. So this was his first time. There are four classrooms in the preschool and in each one of them there was a theme. Like in the first photo above the theme was "Animal World", and in the photo below was another classroom "Ancient Life". Ethan's classroom was "Holes".

What I appreciated it was that it got all kids to involve. The teachers would just hint them with the subject and the kids needed to get their hands on. All the decoration was made by the preschoolers and the teachers finished it to hang them onto the wall and the ceiling. It was not that the teachers did it all and then let kids to play in. I was told the whole work took them about a month, for the once-a-year special day.

We had great fun and great weather that day.

Ethan was experiencing lifting water from a well. It was much heavier then it looked.

Lifting and carrying a cargo with Mom.

The spiders and web cob in Ethan's classroom. It's all made by Ethan and his classmates.

In "Holes", you got to go through different holes to reach each partition.

In each partition there was different subjects to explore.

Then go to the next one. There was no shortcuts for parents so we must go through the same  path to catch up.

That was Ethan's drawing, An ant queen.

120127 Somewhere in Tong-shao, Miaoli (苗栗通霄)

We went out this afternoon for sightseeing and took these pictures. (Nikon D50, Nikkor 85mm 1.8G, ISO 200, SB-800, TTL EV-2.7)

Ethan in the Luggage

Ethan in the luggage. (Photo by Helen)

I bought a new luggage bag weeks ago, and wanted to try if it was easy to pull. I looked around, trying to find some weight to put in. Then I saw..... ETHAN! He is the perfect weight! Almost 20 kg, close to the limit of luggage most airliners allow passenger to check in (for economic class), and perfect size to sit in.

He hesitated when I motioned him to sit in. I showed him the bag will be leave open like the way shown in the photo, and he was okay with it. Then I walked the luggage in the living room again and again, and Ethan thought it was fun and kept asking me not to stop.

Final, I sat on the floor and asked him to come out. And he refused. I had to tell him I was done for the rest of the day, and there would be no more pulling to convince him to get out of the bag.

Work, Work, Work

This takes 50% of the time I am awake, 70% of my attention, and 95% of my brain activities since December.

It is rewarding and addicting, to solve the puzzles in the work and make things going with endless planning, negotiating, and following up. Again, I can feel the workaholic spirit is resurrecting in me. But there is one thing different. I have Ethan and Helen. They are the brake to slow me down and remind me I got a life to live.

So far I think the new job is okay. In two more months I will be in this company for one year. Only sometimes it is annoying to hear people talking emotionally in the office, especially when I was busy in solving the problem. Unfortunately, it is not able to be eluded when dealing with people.

When I work, it seems there is a switch in my mind to shut down or tune down my feeling. And I like to stay this way. Just calm, and get things done.