All Quiet on The Weston Front – Quite literally….

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the play on words…

The reason it is so quiet here on the Weston Front is because I have my annual case of Laryngitis. A few weeks ago it started out as a sinus problem/head cold and it has slowly been making its way south. I had the annoying post-nasal drip for about a week and finally after an afternoon of laughing in the wind at the park, I was struck mute. Okay, that all sounds rather dramatic and honestly it was not dramatic in the least. I slowly became croaky and then was reduced to a whisper. The kids are having a blast, Richard cannot believe his luck and I am already bored of all the jokes at my expense. Seriously, do I really talk that much?? Okay, don’t answer that!




I am also bored of the constant throat clearing, the sympathetic looks from strangers and the stupid questions (‘Oh, have you lost your voice…?’). I hate being sick, I am not good at it and would much rather do something else. Some people love all the attention, but I am definitely not one of them. How much use can I be as a Mom, when my most valuable weapon is out of action? The good news is that I managed to order coffee in Starbucks today sans voice and actually got exactly what I had ordered. I don’t think that has even happened before. I guess you lose the dodgy English accent when you have Laryngitis.

I do have to share this Aimee story – it was a classic.
Yesterday after school, Aimee informs me that she wrote a story about me in her school journal.

This is how the conversation went:

Aimee: I wrote about you today Mom.
Me: You did.
Aimee: Yes, the story was called Voice.
Me: Uh-Huh.
Aimee: Yes, I said that today my mom lost her voice. She lost her voice because she yells ALL the time.
Me: You wrote that?
Aimee: Yes.
Me: But why did you say that, I don’t yell all the time?
Aimee: I had to say that Mom because it was a Non-Fiction story…

I nearly died laughing. I guess that lesson in always telling the truth even if the truth hurts really has sunk in.

So not much else to report from the Choi home. Cadence is fast following me into sickness, poor baby has a cough and a nasty runny nose. She was sent home from school today, which was great since I collected Aimee while I was there - nothing like the weekend starting early. They did nothing but argue for the first hour together, which in itself is okay, but when you can’t speak it is really infuriating not to be able to yell at them to stop. Not that I yell ALL the time of course, right Aimee?

Anyway, the plus side to Cadence not feeling well was that this evening she came upstairs and snuggled in bed with me as I read (I was resting my voice). She fell asleep almost immediately and I was able to hug her to my hearts content. She is an affectionate little thing, but she never sits still long enough to snuggle, so this evening really was special. I miss her being a baby. I used to love taking a nap with her when she was younger. Now, she way too active and independent to sit with Mama for more than a few seconds. So even though I hate to see her sick, I will take hugs and be very grateful for them.

What about me?

The other day Aimee happened to be watching over my shoulder as I was editing an earlier entry. She saw the photos of CNY and then asked to see the rest of the blog. Of course, I never even thought about it, but I started this blog in January of this year and both the younger kids have since celebrated birthdays. Aimee picked up on this immediately and asked ‘Why isn’t my birthday picture on there? What about me?’ The fact that the blog started on January 1st didn’t seem to be a valid enough excuse, nor did the promise that she would get her day in the spotlight in December alleviate her concerns.

So after careful consideration, here are a couple of late photos of Aimee’s 6th Birthday.

I can't believe she is now on two hands...



Her hat was courtesy of her teacher - She got to proudly wear it in school all day

Cute as a Bug?

This entry is just to share a photo or three of our cute little bug Miss Cadence. It is not often that Cadence will allow me to put little ponies in her hair, but it is amazing what she will do for a piece of candy.

Okay, I'm smiling now where's the candy..?




Cady is such a little tom-boy until it comes to skirts and dresses and then she is all about frills, ribbons, swirls and pink, pink and more pink




She was also very proud of her new Disney leotard (actually it's a swimsuit, but don't tell her that!)




Does my bum look big in this...?




Thanks to Mary, I am now the proud owner of 4 more ladybug shirts...






Not to mention the 3 other tees she actually called me about, that I just had to buy...

Gung Hey Fat Choy!

I am beginning to believe that blogging is not really my forte. I have all the best intentions, but somehow the time just gets away from me. I guess I need to rethink the whole thing. Maybe some of my ‘professional’ blogger friends can give me some tips on how to keep this thing up to date….

With Feb 7th marking the start of the Chinese New Year, most of the recent events in the Choi house have been China related. On Weds Feb 6th, I spent some time with Aimee’s kindergarten class reading a New Year story and teaching them about the Chinese customs and culture. I have to say that I could not be a teacher full-time, but the occasional visit is a lot of fun. Mind you, with 3 kids 6yrs and under, my life often feels like I am a KG teacher already.

The evening of February 6th was spent at our favorite Chinese restaurant (Miss Yip’s in Miami) along with our local FCC friends and family. Of all the events our FCC group puts on, this has to be one of my favorites. I don’t think there is anyone more excited than me to see the Lion Dancers doing their show each year, not to mention seeing all of the beautiful children dressed in their finest traditional clothing. The food was delicious as always, the company was delightful, the Lion Dancers were incredible and the firecrackers were deafening. I love Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, the evening was over way too fast, but I think everyone had a lot of fun. The journey home up Alton Road looked like something from CSI: Miami. There were more police cars than I had even seen and yellow crime scene tape everywhere. It was only after watching the 11pm news that we discovered that there had been a murder/suicide. Nice! Gung Hey Fat Choy!

The Choi Kids prepare for a fun-filled evening




Hansen shows his usual enthusiasm for his food




Richard and Aimee feeding one of the lions some Hong Bao (lucky money)




Cutie-Patootie Cady taking notes, maybe she is going to be a reporter



On Saturday Feb 9th, we crossed county lines (I am well-known and much-teased for not crossing them normally) to attend the Palm Beach Zoo Dragon Fest. We had wanted to attend this event in previous years, but for some reason or another we have never made it before. I am so glad we could make it this year, the day was picture perfect and it was made even more special since we met up with many of our local FCC friends and family to watch the show. We are so blessed to have such an incredible and supportive group. Being so far away from our own extended families, Richard and I have come cherish the friends we have made on our journey to becoming We5Chois.

When I was pregnant with Aimee, I joined a Yahoo group (it may have been my first) for parents expecting in Dec 2001. Since then I have joined many, many more groups to discuss every angle of parenting and adoption (not to mention everything in-between), but no group other than FCC South Florida has come anywhere close to offering the same level of friendship and love as my Dec2001Moms group. I seriously do not know how I would have gotten this far without each of them. I have learned and shared so much as we have all laughed and cried our way through building our families. Thank you everyone!


Enter the Dragon...


The 3 Choi Wise Monkeys



Miss Katie Starr is such a sweetie pie


Big Finale


As I mentioned before, the day at the zoo was just perfect. After watching the dragon, the lion dancers and the Kung Fu demonstrations we were off in search of food and animals. The rest of the day was spent bumping into all our Chinese friends and learning some old and new Chinese arts and crafts, with the occasional zoo animal sighting. My favorite sighting was when Joyce finalized realized the Iguana she had been watching for 10 minutes was actually real and not made of stone! Crazy Girl! For those of you who have never been, I love Palm Beach Zoo and I highly recommend it. There are not as many animals to see asin other zoos, but the park is a great size for younger kids to wander around and enjoy, and there is a wonderful water feature for them to cool off in before heading home. There is nothing better than watching your kids squeal with delight as they run and splash the afternoon away. After a quick dry and a change of clothes, we were off in search of home and some dinner. Unfortunately, this was not before poor Cadence had a little pee-pee accident. This would not have been too much of a problem, but she was wearing a short skirt and we had no alternative underwear. The poor thing was forced to ride home knicker-less. A couple of minutes into the journey home the heavens opened and it was like hurricane season had arrived again. Rich took a photo of the highway, but it doesn’t show how awful the rain was. Rather than risk getting caught up in heavy traffic, we decided to stop for an early dinner.



The nearest place we found was a Cracker Barrel. We strategically seated Cadence on the inside chair so no one would discover her ‘no knickers’ situation and proceeded to have one of those ‘perfect, once in a blue moon meals’ where all the children behave like they are in a Kodak commercial. As one old couple were leaving, they made a point of coming over to congratulate Richard and me on our beautiful and well-behaved family…!? It is always wonderful to get compliments on your children, but we knew not to push our good luck and so we made a hasty retreat before Cady flashed anyone or Hansen and Aimee started showing their true colors. Needless to say, once we were safely back inside our car, the usual screaming and yelling started up again, but thankfully our reputations were intact.

The Grand Total

For those of you who were kind enough to purchase GS cookies from Aimee this year, we want to say a huge thank you.

Aimee's troop had a target of 127 cases and she had a personal goal of 35 boxes. Thanks to your amazing support, she was able to achieve this goal just with orders from our local FCC members - Whoohoo! (You guys are awesome.)

Since the FCC lunch, Aimee has been selling to anyone and everyone she knows. We have now called it a day (even though the sale officially finishes on Feb 5th). With her personal sales of 170 boxes, her share of troop booth sales of 26 boxes and donations to the armed forces of 22 boxes, Aimee has an official final sale total of 218 boxes!!!! Not bad for the first year and the youngest girl in her troop. She is absolutely thrilled.

I cannot believe she has personally sold $742 worth of cookies and has earned her troop $127.50 towards their 2008 funds.

Thank you again for all your support and encouragement, special thanks to Uncle Steve, Uncle Bill and Miss Gay who were her biggest customers. Aimee has learned a lot through this experience and has definitely grown. I know a few years down the line, there will be many,many gorgeous little girls in our FCC group selling cookies. I for one want to make an order for a box thin mints now!

Best wishes,
Kim & Aimee