The twins have been with me for more than one month. I named them baby A and baby B. Baby A weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces and was 19 inches long, and baby B weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

Now both of them eat like hungry birds and grow like weeds.

Asking how I feel?

I WANT TO SLEEP!

Thanks to my parents to help me cook, clean, feed the babies, and entertain DD, I can manage to bring up two babies at the same time. It was impossible for me to take care of DD and twins and meanwhile do all the chores.

The arrival of twins changed our lives, and DD’s as well.

DD was no longer the center of the attention. I couldn’t read to her, Chinese books or English books. She spent a lot of time watching TV alone. Although her English vocabulary galloped, her Chinese language development retreated. She spoke English to me and went back to use simple Chinese words talking with my parents. And she lost her patience in drawing and playing puzzles. 

I was concerned, but currently my hands are full, literally.

As I said before, Parenting is a hard job. It requires tremendous physical energy, enthusiasm, patience, friendliness, affection, and the willingness to sacrifice (your career).

The most difficult part of parenting is: it is a long distance race not a sprint.

And the most intimidating part of parenting is: it is a work in progress not a perfect science. No matter how careful you are, how many parenting books and magazines you read, how many advice you get from grandmas and friends, you are going to make mistakes. Childhood moves on like a runaway train. There is no stopping or returning to undo those mistakes. Sometimes there is not even an opportunity to make it up.

And I am feeling this way right now.

Tags: Baby's Growth | Baby's Growth, Fourth Year, From Lina | Lina | December 6, 2011 2:58 pm | Comments (2)

“If You’re Happy Clap Your Hands” is a popular repetitive children’s song, stemming from an old Latvian folk song.

Music to this song coincides with the music of the song “Molodejnaya” written by Isaak Dunayevsky for the 1937-1938 Soviet film Volga-Volga. Another version was written by songwriter Alfred B. Smith (1916–2001). It has, like many familiar childhood cantations, been altered in various ways over the years for various uses.

The original song as it is known to many people begins:

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know it,
And you really want to show it,
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
A common variation of the fourth line is “Then your face will surely show it.”

The song usually proceeds with other verses that replace “clap your hands” with alternate phrases such as “stomp your feet.”

Here is Chinese version of If you’re Happy Clap Your Hands. Watch the video to listen to the Chinese children’s song. You can replay the song by clicking the “play” button. Click here to download the song with English translation and Pinyin in PDF file.

Due to the size of the program, content in the frame below may display blank. Simply refresh the current webpage or press F5 on your keyboard for the refresh function. (Please enable your computer audio and increase the speaker volume. You can hear the song and follow the sound track):

Related posts:
Chinese mythology: Pangu and Nüwa
Chinese mythology: Nezha Riots the Seas
Chinese folktale: The Snail Girl
Chinese mythology: The Magic Locus Lantern
Chinese children’s story: Kitty Goes Fishing
Chinese children’s song: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Tags: Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, teaching young children chinese | Bilingual Baby, Fourth Year, From Lina | Lina | October 28, 2011 3:15 pm | Comments (0)