I have been very excited these past several weeks. God has been so good to us. Praise God! Many good things seem to come our way lately. One of them was something dear hubby and I have been waiting for quite sometime. We got positive result on it just recently! So you bet how excited we can get ……haha! NO! We are not expecting another baby. I better rule that one out before you flood me with congrats and trigger another excitement on me..…haha!
There is another reason why I am so excited right now. We are going to New York City in several weeks. Yeah!!! Finally I am going to step my foot at the Big Apple. Dear hubby hates big cities so no surprise New York City was not in his ‘Must Go’ list. I have been giving hints to dear hubby to reconsider a trip to NYC for many years and only gotten the ‘nay’ answers. The best answer I have gotten were ‘you can go there with your sister when she comes visit’ or ‘maybe someday, hon.’
However, he seems to have changed his mind recently. As we are going to Pennsylvania in several weeks, he has given me some hints that he would not mind traveling to NYC for a couple of days afterward. And the best thing was he has given me the job on looking for hotel for us to stay while we are there. Of course without any hesitation, I took the job….haha! Since neither of us had been to NYC, it was quite a challenge to find the hotel that we would like. The key is the hotel must be at least 3 stars, good user reviews and close by to Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Park and other major attractions.
After searching at several popular hotel reservation sites such as Quikbook, Hotels Combined and All Hotel, I have found four hotels that I am interested at.
The first hotel is The Hotel At Times Square I found through Quikbook. The rate is only $215 per night, quite cheap considering it is a boutique hotel and the location is almost what we are looking at. Times Square and Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station and many more attractions are within walking distance from the hotel. They also offer varieties of amenities and services including free Wi-Fi, continental breakfast, personal safes at the front desk as well as in each room, cable TV, laundry and many more.
I found the second hotel, Hampton Inn Manhattan Times Square New York through Hotels Combined. It’s a three stars hotel with a very good user reviews and the rate is just $220 per night. Yeah, I am pretty cheap…haha! So I was searching for the best yet the lowest price I could get. This hotel is only three blocks away from Times Square and Rockefeller Center and five blocks from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Central Park is only about 0.5 miles away. So we would probably take public transportation to go there, if we stay at this hotel. One more thing I like about this hotel is they offer a buffet-style breakfast as complimentary. Dear hubby would definitely love this.
Another hotel at Hotels Combined that caught my attention is Murray Hill East Suites Hotel New York. This hotel is located in the heart of the historic Murray Hill section of Manhattan. All rooms are furnished with full equipped kitchens with free coffee and tea. Sounds great! Our little one is a picky eater and to be able to make him food while we are on the trip would be great. I also like the fact that the hotel is within a walking distance from Grand Central Station. At least we would not have to think about the transportation problem. There are also a variety of fine dining, shopping and entertainment venues that are only minutes away from the hotel. Oh yeah, the lowest rate for this hotel is $308, not bad for all the features it offers.
I searched at another site called All Hotel and found Excelsior Hotel. This is a 4 star hotel, located on the trendy West Side between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. Their rate is quite cheap with the lowest price is $239 per night. I like this hotel because it’s close by to a museum such as American Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Children’s Museum of Manhattan. It would be nice to be able to bring Billy to one of the museum particularly the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Dear hubby would probably insist that we visit the museum if we decided to stay at this hotel.
Then I get to the hard part, to decide which of these hotels is the best for us. After looking at these hotels, I decided to choose the Hampton Inn Manhattan Times Square New York that I found through Hotels Combined. Other than the great price, I like what most of the visitor say about this hotel. I am hoping that dear hubby would not have any objection so we could make the reservation soon. That’s one exciting job!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Aaah!!! I Accidentally DELETED My Previous Post!!!!
Aaah!!!!! How does it happen??? Silly me! Is there any way I could retrieve it? I have guest coming today and thought while waiting for her I could use that little times to clean some old entries in my draft. I used to be very careful when it comes to cleaning my blog. Oh well, I will be more careful next time. To all my friends who left comments to my previous entry, 'WHAT A TEASE!, thank you...hihi!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Respectful Parenting; Getting Your Child To Come When You Call.
Pre-School Press(Vol 5, Issue 2) - Ms Heather.
One of the most frustrating moments in parenting comes when your child does not respond to you. For example, pretend your child is playing with their toys. You say, "It is time for dinner. Come to the table." But your child does not move. He pretends not to hear you. So you get louder and say, "Come to the table now!" But your child still does not respond. You may think your child is misbehaving. While that may be true, there is something else that is happening too. When children start doing something they enjoy, they have a difficult time stopping. We want them to stop when we say stop, but just because they don't does not mean that they are misbehaving. They just need time to change what they are doing, they take longer than we do to slow down and stop.
As their parent, it is your role to help with this process. For example, you can give them a 'warning' that a transition is coming. "Dinner will be ready soon. You only have a few more minutes to play". Then, wait a few more minutes and say again, "It's almost time to be finished with your blocks". Maybe even setting a timer to alert your child of the transition would be helpful. Remember that your child cannot tell time and really cannot understand the passage of time, so using cues to alert them is helpful.
One of the best things you can do to acomplish your objective(in this case having them come to dinner when you call) is giving them choices. They feel that they are still making the decision, not recognizing that you are the one that provided the choices, all of which are acceptable choices to you! Going back to the dinner example; 'It's time for dinner'. (You have stated the expected behavior). Do you want to have your blue plate or your yellow one? (You have drawn their attention to the fact that it's time for dinner and have given them some control and interest over the situation by presenting them with a choice).
Some tips on giving choices.
1. Give only two choices at a time; Young children are not ready for many choices and may get confused or overwhelmed with more than two options.
2. The choices you offer should be OK with you; Do not give the choice of oatmeal or pancakes if you do not want to make pancakes!
3. Do not make everything a choice; Some things should not be negotiable and presenting everything as a choice can lead to control issues later.
Remember, perenting is also about teaching and you are your child's first teacher!
Thank you Ms Heather!
One of the most frustrating moments in parenting comes when your child does not respond to you. For example, pretend your child is playing with their toys. You say, "It is time for dinner. Come to the table." But your child does not move. He pretends not to hear you. So you get louder and say, "Come to the table now!" But your child still does not respond. You may think your child is misbehaving. While that may be true, there is something else that is happening too. When children start doing something they enjoy, they have a difficult time stopping. We want them to stop when we say stop, but just because they don't does not mean that they are misbehaving. They just need time to change what they are doing, they take longer than we do to slow down and stop.
As their parent, it is your role to help with this process. For example, you can give them a 'warning' that a transition is coming. "Dinner will be ready soon. You only have a few more minutes to play". Then, wait a few more minutes and say again, "It's almost time to be finished with your blocks". Maybe even setting a timer to alert your child of the transition would be helpful. Remember that your child cannot tell time and really cannot understand the passage of time, so using cues to alert them is helpful.
One of the best things you can do to acomplish your objective(in this case having them come to dinner when you call) is giving them choices. They feel that they are still making the decision, not recognizing that you are the one that provided the choices, all of which are acceptable choices to you! Going back to the dinner example; 'It's time for dinner'. (You have stated the expected behavior). Do you want to have your blue plate or your yellow one? (You have drawn their attention to the fact that it's time for dinner and have given them some control and interest over the situation by presenting them with a choice).
Some tips on giving choices.
1. Give only two choices at a time; Young children are not ready for many choices and may get confused or overwhelmed with more than two options.
2. The choices you offer should be OK with you; Do not give the choice of oatmeal or pancakes if you do not want to make pancakes!
3. Do not make everything a choice; Some things should not be negotiable and presenting everything as a choice can lead to control issues later.
Remember, perenting is also about teaching and you are your child's first teacher!
Thank you Ms Heather!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Washington DC Trip 2
Cape Charles beach. One gorgeous little girl came to say hi to Billy but our shy little boy run to dada instead. 
I need my swimming trunk, mom.
Aaah! Strange looking bird. 
A dash of sand found it way on Billy’s cheeks. 
We drove through Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel from Cape Charles to Virginia Beach. 
One of the tunnel.
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.They charge two different entrance fees to the city parks/beaches to the local and out of state visitors. So we decided to keep our $8 and continue our journey instead.
We stopped for lunch at a seafood restaurant in Virginia. I ordered ‘fried soft crab’. It was pretty disappointing. As you see in the pic, it a very small crabs, just two of them. The two small crabs, coleslaw, biscuit and applesauce cost me $12. The crabs taste was not even close to the one I had in Gayang Seafood Restaurant, back home. 
Dear hubby had fried fish fillet. His lunch is cheaper and taste better than mine.
Strange looking cloud.
Bethany Beach. I like this family friendly and well maintain beach. 
Beautiful beach! .
Tired little one. Napping in style. (LOL!)
Virginia Beach…beautiful! Unfortunately, Billy was napping and we decided to just take some pics and continue our journey to the next town.
After the long boring journey, we brought Billy to the pool at the motel where we stayed in. It’s much more fun than just sitting in the car.
Billy fell off the step face down into the water, scared the hell out of me. But minutes later he was back into the pool. We have determined to send him to swimming lesson by summer next year….haha.
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