Lenovo M90z

Here is my first short blurb about my thoughts on this computer, the Lenovo M90z. I'm testing this computer, thanks to Lenovo.

So three main advantages I find as a physician mom who also happens to have a preschooler and toddler:

1)  Sometimes I am holding my one year old on my lap while I'm trying to work on the computer. I may do some charting at home. I may read medical articles. With the Lenovo, I have the option to unhook the keyboard and just use the touchscreen.  This is useful because when I am holding my daughter using my laptop,  she will usually bang on the keyboard and mess up my typing or accidently send emails to people without a body.  So with a touchscreen computer, it is easier for me to keep it out of her reach.

2)  The big wide screen of the Lenovo (23 inches) is much bigger than my laptop so my three year old finds that watching movies or cartoons on it pretty enjoyable.

3)  The other advantage of the big screen is that you can easily fit two windows in the screen to multitask.  Plus the machine is very fast.. so this is helpful when I need to try to get as many things done as possible while the kids are napping.

I'll be sharing more thoughts about the M90z over the next few weeks, so stay tuned...

Disney World with a Three Year Old and One Year Old...

The phrase "needing a vacation from vacation" sure stands true especially if traveling with two small children under the age of 3... and the third on the way!  We just got back from Orlando, FL and the kids got to visit Disney World for the first time.  This trip was mostly for my three year old who is totally into princesses right now.  We would have waited till both kids were older and even for kid #3 to join us but my husband was speaking at a conference so we thought we'd tag along.  We also brought my mother-in-law with us since there were going to be some days where I'd be alone with the kids and an extra pair of hands is always welcome.


So... Disney World... I could probably do a whole series of blogs on this alone but I will try to summarize our experience here.


Now some folks stay in the park and do the whole meal plan package.  I think if the kids were older and we were planning on making the most out of the entire Disney experience by doing as much as possible with rides, shows, etc that may be the way to go since it is convenient and we would never need to leave the gigantic park.  However,  because my kids were so small, I really wanted them to nap and sleep well at night.  Everyone is happier if the kids are not cranky =)  My three year old sleeps great if she is in a room by herself, so I got us a vacation rental home that was 6 miles away.  It had four bedrooms and a private heated swimming pool.  In addition, it was less expensive than staying in the park!  Sounded pretty ideal on paper but the 6 miles took about 20-30 min to get to Disney because of traffic lights and traffic.  My plan was just to hit a Disney park in the morning then head back to nap and chill in the afternoon.  Depending on the nap, we did go back for fireworks two of the nights.


Since we only had a few hours each day at the park, I did a lot of planning the night before.  Actually, I had to book the character dining months in advance and am very glad I did because those were definite highlights of our trip.  Since my three year old is enthralled with princesses right now (and especially Cinderella) we did a lunch at Akershus in Epcot and a dinner at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian Resort.  If I had booked more than 6 months in advance, I might have booked a lunch at Cinderella's Castle.  I'm not sure if I'd book the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique because of how pricey it is.  However, one mom gave me the advice of just buying the princess costume separately from home and going for the Coach Package.


Akershus Royal Banquet Hall - She got to take a picture with Belle after entering and we got to keep a 8x10 as well as 2 4x6 photos as part of the package.  There were four other princesses there roaming the dining hall going from table to table so you can take more pictures and chat (Aurora, Cinderella, Jasmin, Ariel).  They even had a little parade where my daughter got to hold Aurora's hand while parading around the dining room.  The food was very good, too!  It was a buffet appetizer bar then you pick from a menu for your main course.  Dessert came in plate where you get to try a little of everything.  The entire lunch took longer than I had anticipated so my 14 month old was pretty tired by the end of it.  Our reservation was for 12:10pm.  In the future, I'd probably try to book an hour earlier time if I'm aiming to get nap time in by 1pm.


1900 Park Fare - Cinderella and Prince Charming starts the evening off by opening the dining room doors and welcoming everyone there to dinner.  Our dinner was at 4:40pm so this was the day we skipped naps.  I think if my older one had napped she would have enjoyed this so much more since it was all about Cinderella and her world.  Cinderella, Prince Charming, the Fairy Godmother, and both step sisters (Anastasia and Drizella) were there to greet and take pictures going from table to table.  At one point in the evening, Cinderella and Prince Charming danced then they opened it up to dance with guests.  Again, I think if my older one was less tired she would have been there hopping and twirling with the Prince.  It was a buffet dinner and the food was very good.  So if we were to ever attempt this again I may go for a later dinner time to see if maybe we can squeeze a nap in and just sacrifice a later bedtime.


Personally, my favorite part of the trip was actually visiting Epcot Center at night.  The lights were beautiful and it was fun to walk around.  I actually thought it was pretty romantic.  They also had an amazing light/fireworks show called Illuminations at 9pm.  Unfortunately, it was so loud and so powerful that it totally woke up my sleeping one year old.. but oh well, one makes sacrifices when the daily routine is disrupted on vacation.


We didn't really go on that many rides for several reasons:
-  kids really were too young and even some of the more benign rides have parts of in it that may be too scary for a three year old
-  the more exciting rides have longer wait times and we really didn't have the time
-  I'm pregnant and can't go on a lot of the rockier more exciting rides anyway


So what rides did we go on?
At Magic Kingdom:
-  It's A Small World (this was my favorite ride when I was 3 and we actually rode this one like 3 times)
-  Peter Pan's Flight (though there was a part with the crocs that scared my 3 year old.. she now claims it is her favorite ride and wants to know why we didn't go on it again.. go figure)
-  Magic Carpet of Aladdin
-  Dumbo The Flying Elephant
-  Prince Charmin Regal Carousel
-  Jungle Cruise
-  watched a 3D Mickey Philharmagic Show


At Epcot:
-  Nemo Ride (had scary shark part.. but talking to Crush at the end was super funny and cute)
-  Living with the Land (read online that this was good to do with three year old so chose the ride.. it was okay)
-  spent the rest of the time princess hunting:
      Mulan was in China
      Snow White was in Germany
      Belle and Aurora was in France (though we didn't go since they were at the lunch)
      Jasmin was there too but we caught her in Magic Kingdom


At Hollywood Studios:
-  Voyage of the Little Mermaid (you get a little wet which the one year old didn't care for too much and had some parts that were little scary)
-  Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage (three year old loved this!)
-  then we had to stop by Star Wars: Jedi Training Academy because my husband is a Star Wars fan (to say the least)... you had to be four to actually do this and since my girls did not seem to interested maybe we'll be back with #3


So really, we spent most of our time princess hunting, watching parades and random music shows they would have on Main Street of Magic Kingdom.  My one year old loved waving at all the characters in the parade and swaying to all the music!  We watched the Dream Along with Mickey show twice because there were scenes where Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora all were waltzing with their prince.  When they first came out, even I got the chills =)


Bottom line for us is we have to do Disney in chunks, otherwise it is way too overwhelming!  It was helpful to go back to our vacation rental and just chill in the afternoon.. swim in the pool... we did take out and ate in two of the nights so we could get the kids to bed earlier.  When they slept, they were much happier and it made for a better day the next day.  My husband and I even went back to Magic Kingdom one of the nights while the kids were sleeping so we could have some alone time and went on some rides that we wouldn't bring the kids on like The Haunted Mansion, the Snow White ride (this is way too scary for a three year old), and we wanted to go on Pirates of the Carribean but the ride was down so we did the Jungle Cruise at night... very different ride at night!


All in all.. it was fun... but tiring.  In the beginning of the week, my three year old told me she wanted to live in Disney forever and never go home.  By the end of the week, she told me she was glad to be home and didn't want to go to Disney anymore.  Hahaha... go figure.


Well, if we ever do go back I'm sure it will look like a totally different trip.  Depending on the age of the kids and gender, there will be different interests and activities.  Since we're supposedly adding a boy to our clan I'm sure our trip would not be so focused on princesses in the future... but I suppose we'll see.


So we're home now and on a totally side note, I got a Lenovo Thinkcentre M90z shipped to our door for me to play around with and blog about.  So for those of you who know us, my husband is the techy one with all the cool gadgets and toys to play with.  He has blogs dedicated to this.  So now I get to play around with a touchscreen computer and kinda see what benefits it may have for a mom and/or physician in a clinical setting.  So I will be throwing in some posts on this as I figure it out...

Tribute to Parents Who Sacrifice for Their Kids

So 20/20 recently had a two hour special on the sad story of the Kim family.  This happened in 2006 and I remember feeling very sad back then for James Kim (CNET editor... for those of you not familiar, it is like a gadget news site).  My husband, being the gadget geek that he is, actually brought it to my attention back then.  Since he is also quite the outdoorsy mountaineering guy, he also understands more the dangers of extreme weather in remote mountainous regions and was explaining that to me.  I can only draw from my own experience of attempting to climb Mt Rainier on my honeymoon May 2002.  It was very cold and very difficult!  We never made it to the top because of the bad weather and made the wiser (but less glorious) decision to climb back down after reaching high camp.  Sadly, two very experienced climbers  perished the very night that we would have attempted the summit!  Now that was with winter gear and boots etc... this guy James attempted to look for help I think only wearing a sweatshirt and sneakers?!  


However, reading the story now from the wife and mom's perspective and having 2 young girls myself... I feel the sadness and desperation in a whole new light.  Especially when she mentioned that the 7 month old stopped smiling and had feeble cries... my heart is wrenched and I just want to go hold my girls.  How I take for granted a warm roof over my head... food on the table...


I remember being told that I would not really understand how God our Father loves us as children until I have children of my own.  Truly this agape love that a parent has for a child is strong stuff!  We just celebrated Valentines Day... I suppose the emphasis there is more on eros love.  It probably should be a holiday to celebrate all forms of "love".


So "kudos" to all you moms and dads out there who love your kids and who would sacrifice for them.  Hopefully, we will never be put in the same desperate situation as the Kims but when it boils down to it.. we would probably do whatever it takes for their well-being.


For those of you interested in learning some winter survival skills, I thought this was an interesting link.  You can click on this for a more condensed 5 basic survival skills.

Daddy Daughter Relationship

My three year old daughter went on her first date tonight.  Daddy took her to the Chik-fil-A Daddy Daughter Date Night.  She was super excited and had been talking about the event for a while.  They both dressed up (she picked out his tie) and he even got her a rose and a balloon.  I thought it was a really neat idea when I first saw the flier at our local Chik-fil-A.  Who better to go on a first date with than with one's own daddy?


Many have touched on this topic about the importance of the father daughter relationship.  He is the first male interaction in her life.  He plays a powerful role in shaping her self image and self worth.  She'll watch the relationship between mom and dad to know what to expect in a marriage.  And based on how he treats her, she will form expectations on how she should be treated by other guys later in life.  Plus, some studies show that fathers now influence the future and career path that daughters may take.


Watching my daughter and husband interact is very sweet.  It is a different relationship than the one I have with her.  There are times (usually when she is sick and throwing up) when she wants mommy.  I'm there as her comforter.  But I recall other times... like when we were at the beach and the waves were coming fast, where she will call out for daddy!  He is her protector.


My younger daughter is too young this year... but next year, daddy will have three girls to take turns taking out on individual date nights!

Toddlers Eating Linked to IQ!

Almost every toddler I know goes through a period where they become more "picky" with what they want to eat and even how they eat!  Part of it may be linked to their development as they are becoming more independent and wanting to exercise their ability to make decisions.  Different parents would share stories of how their son or daughter will only eat certain foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (like pb&j).. or that they will only eat certain foods that are a certain color.. or that certain foods cannot touch on their plate.  Whatever the case, you will often have worried parents wondering if their toddler is getting enough calories or nutrition.


Usually the advice to parents is to present healthy options and try to keep meal time pleasant by not forcing the toddler to eat.  The idea is that they will get hungry and eat... eventually.  I have to admit this is much easier advice to give than to adhere to.  My older daughter has never been a great eater and she has been in the lowest percentile for weight ever since birth.  She also seems to have a fast metabolism and is a super active kid.  All that in addition to the fact that every time she gets too excited and jumps around too much, or runs around too much after meals... she will often cause herself to go into a coughing fit and then even throw up everything she's eaten!  So we try to balance between not making meal time a complete stress vs making sure she is getting some healthy caloric intake... not an easy task.


Now, this article caught my eye today.  It basically links poor eating habits in toddlers with lower IQs.  Main take away points I got from it are:


-  children at age 3 who eat a high fat, sugar, and processed foods diet have slightly decreased IQ later in childhood (they tested the kids at 8.5 years old)
-  children who eat a "health-conscious" diet rich in salad, rice, pasta, fish, fruits, and vegetables have 1.2 point increase in their IQ
-  theory is healthy eating = optimal brain growth (which fastest brain growth happens from 1-3 yo)


So of course the authors go on to say that further research is needed to confirm this link.  One thing they could not adjust for in the study was maternal IQ.  This is huge because maybe it is not so much the association of food that produced the higher IQ but more so the link that moms with higher IQs tend to offer more nutritious foods to their toddlers.. and therefore their toddlers scored better on the IQ tests later on.  One way I can think of to really test this theory is to have only twins in these kind of studies... offer one twin "nutritious food" and the other twin the so called high fat, sugar, and processed foods and test their IQs to see if there is a difference!  Of course, trying to get twins to enroll in a study like that may be challenging...


Anyways, whether it is true or not it is a good plug to offer more healthy options to our toddlers.  


One other interesting thing is that the Asian diet is mostly rice, meat, and vegetables... so since she was on solids my girls have been eating rice mixed with meat and vegetables as their staple. In fact, my three year old really does not eat other foods well... she doesn't really like pizza (though she will pick the pepperoni or sausage off the cheese and eat that).  On the other hand, she loves ice cream and will eat only ice cream probably for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if given that option!

Toddlers and Second Languages

Just the other day, my older daughter made an article about learning a second language at a young age.  The article mentions how toddlerhood is the best time to pick up a second language.  In fact, if exposed to several languages at this age, it is possible to pick them all up!  I have friends who can speak nine different languages because they lived in a place like Malaysia where they are exposed to that many languages/dialects at a young age.  The first three years of life is when the brain is most intensely developing speech and language.  Certain nuances of sounds can be picked up at this age where in adults (where the brain has already molded and matured) it may be very difficult for one to hear, differentiate, and then enunciate certain sounds.  Studies are showing that there are certain "critical periods" in infants and young children to develop develop speech and language and if those periods are missed without the early exposure to language then the ability to pick up that language would be more difficult, less efficient and perhaps less effective.


This is why I took great effort to immerse my daughters in Mandarin Chinese and in Taiwanese (a Chinese dialect) at an early age.  Since my kids are cross-cultural in more than one sense (their father is Korean while I'm Chinese.. and we're living in America!) I felt it was important and even useful in the future to be at least bilingual... but I'm hoping they'll pick up Korean, too.  And if you count the Taiwanese dialect as another language (because I think Taiwanese and Mandarin is as different as Spanish is from French).. then she'd really be quadrilingual!


So they get the Taiwanese exposure from my parents and my older daughter is pretty fluent in Taiwanese.  I know they will get English in school and she is already speaking mostly English because most of her friends at preschool, church, etc all speak English.. after all we are living in America.  So I still try my best to speak to her in either Taiwanese or Mandarin Chinese because I know that some kids lose the ability to speak a language they once knew as a toddler after they are full time going to school.  As for the Korean lanugage.. since dad mostly speaks to them in English, we'll have to have their paternal grandmother speak to them more and perhaps we'll have to send them to Korean school!  Or we'll just have to hire a korean speaking nanny!


But especially with the way the future looks with China becoming more of an economic power... I think it may be really useful to be able to master the Chinese language.  So we've been going to this "Mommy and Me Learn Chinese" class in our community for about half a year now.  It is for kids age 3-5 and it is mostly just crafts and songs but it's exposure!  The class was featured here.  Come join us if you have Monday mornings free and live in the area!

Sick Babies and Toddlers

My 14 month old is currently sick.  It is hard enough when adults fall ill but what misery when the little ones succomb!  They are miserable when they feel bad so will not play, laugh, or smile as much as usual.  Naturally, they will want to be held more and demand more of the caregiver's time and attention.   One has the difficult job of coaxing the sick child to drink more fluids in between wiping away snot which takes skill in of itself.  Then there is the nose plunger, which some parents are much too aggressive using, but when done right, could suction out gobs of mucous to the little one's temporary relief.


The challenge is that sometimes there is very little one can do to relieve discomfort.  Time, rest, and fluids are key.  However, sleep is often disrupted due to coughing fits, snot fits, and unfortunately, like for us last night, even vomiting fits!  A sleep deprived child means more fussiness and less immunity to fight sickness so it can be a vicious cycle.  Often parents will fall ill themselves due to lack of sleep as well as the close contact with all the contagious secretions.  That is why hand washing is so important!


So what best to do during these trying days?  Offer supportive care.  The goal is to try to alleviate symptoms as much as possible so the child can rest.  There are limited options because studies show that it is harmful to give cough medications to children under the age of 6.  So as best as you can:


-  push fluids to avoid dehydration!  (don't stress if appetite is down and child is not eating much solids.. they may throw it all up later anyway!)
-  tylenol if needed for fever or pain
-  saline nose drops can help if nares are crusty and dry (sometimes helps them sneeze out gobs of goo)
-  stepping into the bathroom with child after a hot steamy shower can help with breathing
-  humidifier at night if you have the heater on and to avoid nose bleeds


Most upper respiratory infections are due to viruses and do not require antibiotics.  However, if symptoms persist for more than 1 week or worsens instead of improves make sure you see a physician so the child can be checked for ear infections, bronchitis, strep throat etc!


At the end of the day... the best medicine you can offer may just be lots of love, hugs, and kisses!