Wednesday, January 24, 2007

It's One Thing After Another!!!

SATURDAY
On Saturday, we had to attend my cousin's 11th birthday party. It was a late night and the kids had woken up early that morning, and didn't take a nap. My grandmother is NOT the grandmotherly type if you KWIM -- has no clue how to play with kids since nannies took care of my dad and his siblings when they were small.

It's about 9:30pm, and we're waiting for them to bring out the birthday cake. My grandma is bored and starts to "play" with my YDD who is 3 years old -- by taking away her toys, poking her and generally just teasing her. We didn't say anything to my grandma since she is old, and that is just how she is -- though we did tell YDD to be nice since she was giving dirty looks and growling at her. Removing her from the situation doesn't help since my grandma would then follow her around to "play". I did say something to my grandma, but since I'm supposed to be a "NICE" Chinese girl, I couldn't really do too much. Finally after about 30 minutes, my daughter had had enough -- she stood up, pointed at my grandma and said "You talk too loud" (grandma is going deaf and thus, tends to talk really loud). We all started laughing, including my grandma -- she secretly loves when someone stands up to her since not very many people do.

Anyways, my aunt (my dad's older sis who has NEVER been married or been around kids) starts freaking out about how disrespectful my daughter is and how we should discipline her, etc. My DH got upset and said that it's not about disrespect, but about standing up for herself. This really got my aunt angry -- I don't get it -- my daughters always greet their elders by name, they always say good-bye and give a hug & kiss, they always say thank-you and please -- and when they don't, we remind them and they always repeat it. They are ONLY 3 and 5!! It was utter chaos!! My grandma, my DH and I were all talking VERY loudly to my aunt -- which was a good 10-15 minutes of VERY loud arguing which took my mom, sis and BIL to break up. I mean, my grandma wasn't even offended -- she found it funny and even yelled at my aunt by saying "what is the big deal? She's only a child -- they don't know how to be rude (on purpose), etc.".

So anyways, this means that I won't be spending Chinese New Year with the family. It's very bad luck to say anything bad/negative on that day and I know my aunt will start something -- she's weird that way. And my mom and other relatives would be so unhappy if any arguing happened that day. I already feel bad that we ruined the birthday celebrations of my cousin (on my mom's side) since celebrations follow the same negative/bad rule.


SUNDAY
We had a guy come give us an estimate on painting the trim on our house and we got a quote of $2000+!!! Just for trim!!! If we wanted th entire house painted, it would be $4500+!!! Our house is very small, less than 1800 square feet!!

Guess we'll be getting a second opinion.


TUESDAY
My ODD had to see a pediatric dentist today. She has 6 cavities and when we took her to her regular dentist a few weeks ago, she refused to get her fillings done (after the 3rd shot, she clammed up, screamed and refused to get the treatment). So, she is going to the dentist I went to when I was a kid!! Weird isn't it?

Anyways, they did a consultation and it turns out that there is more work than anticipated. The believe that she will need about 6 crowns and tons of little fillings. It turns out that one of her front teeth is abcessed and has to be removed. She will need to go to Cambie Hosital, be put under and they will do all the work at once. Talk about expensive. They gave me a handout today and it costs $369/hour at the hospital and this is all BEFORE the dental work. I shudder to think about the final bill....

However, if it has to get done, it has to get done. Not much we can do about it. It's just frustrating as she rarely eats sweets and brushes her teeth after if she does. Drinks juice once per day with a meal. Brushes regularly and flosses every night. The dentist told us that she probably just has weak enamel and that there isn't much we can do about it.

Oh, and it turns out that she may be missing the two teeth besides her top middle two -- it could be late but most likely is missing. Apparently it happens and is apparently heriditary though I don't know anyone in the family who is missing them...so this may need ortho work later on....

ACK!!! Oh well, tomorrow is a brand new day!

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