Happy 40th Anniversary to Ong Ba Ngoai

Today is the 40th Anniversary of Linda's parents. We had a small family gathering at our house yesterday to celebrate the milestone. The best part of the celebration was hearing her parents retell their story about when they met and how they fell in love and the day they got married. And this time, we finally got it all on video.

A Parent's Nightmare... ending with a Blessing!

BEING AT THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME!

Just wanted to share a quick reality check that happened at Leyton's Preschool this week. On our way home from school, I spotted a young boy walking with a lunch pail all by himself on the sidewalk of a semi-busy street headed toward a very busy main road. At first glance, my first thought was why would someone so little be walking by himself, at second glance, I realized that it was one of Leyton's classmate (a 4 yr. old). He was at a spot that I couldn't stop the car, so I drove ahead and got to a position to try to intercept him before he hit the main road. After contacting the teacher with my cell phone (good thing I had the numbers programmed), who was already dealing with a frantic parent and a school wide search for the boy, I alerted them of his location as he was walking closer towards me. Long story short, I ended up taking the boy back to school to be rejoined with his mother.

There are too many scary thoughts that cross my mind if I wonder what could have happened if I wasn't there to stop him and return him to safety. The parent and teacher were both grateful that I was able to retrieve the boy, as you can imagine. The teacher made it a point to review the policies and responsibilities of the school and parents with the entire class at the next meeting, in hopes to prevent the same kind of incident from reoccurring.

The funny thing (although there is no humor in a lost boy) was that the boy had no idea that anything wrong had happened, at least not until he was reunited with his mother. Leyton handled it well too, although I don't think he really knew how serious the situation was (until we discussed it in length later on).

I thank God that I was there and was clear minded enough to take appropriate actions to get the boy back safely to his family. It reminded us that it's very important to always review the safety rules and procedures to Leyton (and eventually Lincoln), especially if he was ever lost. Fortunately, Leyton knows our names, the city we live in and my cell phone number, which we review with him on a regular basis.

An angel was watching over that little boy that day, and God sent me to help the boy and his family. I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to help out another family and I pray that if ever something similar were to happen to our kids, someone else would do the same and help return our children to us safely!

All I wanted to do afterwards was hold my kids tight and squeeze them with love and thank God that they are safe and in our lives!

Dinosaur Passion Revisited in Leyton's Preschool

Leyton's Prospect Preschool in Santee, CA had a special classroom visit from the San Diego Natural History Museum Wednesday (1/23/08). The presenter (Ms. Cindy) talked about the Mesozoic Mystery and the types of dinosaurs who roamed the earth at that time. Even though if you asked Leyton if he was still into dinosaurs, he would say "No, I already know all about them, now I love Star Wars," when the opportunity arises and the topic is dinosaurs, he quickly becomes our little dinosaur expert! It still amazes us how well he can pronounce the name of the most complicated dinosaurs, something he did soon after turning two years old.

The presentation included a story about the evolution of dinosaurs as well as a rotation of centers that included creating your own dinosaur fossil out of clay, dinosaur pretend play and a collection of fossils to closely observe and touch. The best comment Leyton made during class was when Ms. Cindy asked "What kind of food do Triceratops eat?" Everyone in the class that knew the answer responded "plants", but our son responded "green beans." I was cracking up because that was a tactic we used to get Leyton to eat his vegetables, because if the dinosaurs could eat them, so could he.

We'll see if Lincoln will have a love for dinosaurs like his big brother, so far he likes them but he hasn't quite picked out his passion yet (but it could possibly be balls, or soccer specifically, since he is our soccer dribbling machine).

The boys first trip to Disneyland!

WELCOME to L4 Wirschem's BLOG!

Below is our first posting. Please come back and visit our blog often as we will do our best to keep it updated with our latest events and adventures! They won't all be as long as this 1st posting, we promise! Enjoy!

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We just go back from our first 2 day trip to Disneyland over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. We headed up to Orange County Saturday night to stay out our cousin Nguyen's house in Tustin and spent the evening hanging out and catching up with cousin Andy. Sunday morning we headed out to Disneyland after breakfast at IHOP with cousins Andy and Karen. Amazingly, we got seated relatively quick and Leyton ate French Toast for the first time (Yeah... another food break through, one step at a time).

It's been over 14 years since Linda's been to Disneyland and Leon can't remember when he was there last. To say the least, it's changed a bit. It took a little while to get our barrings straight but we finally managed to get our way to the front entrance to Disneyland. Both the boys have been trying to get over a lingering cough (again) and had not completely recovered but enough to make it to Disneyland. Our first day at Disney was mainly spent in Tomorrowland, except for a quick trip to Tarzans tree house and Pirates of the Caribbean (someone didn't remind us that you get wet sitting in the front row). Both our kids are so quiet as they go through a ride for the first time, it's hard to tell if they like it or not. As it turns out like most first things for them, they are quietly absorbing every bit of information they can and will later unload their excitement after the fact. Leyton was very brave as we persuaded him to go on some rides that he didn't want to do, some of which he was slightly scared (mainly the ones in the dark) but he made it through and turned out to enjoy them a lot. His favorite ride was the Nemo Submarine (75 minute wait, FastPass not an option). Of course he was mesmerized by the Jedi Training Academy, unfortunately we couldn't get him to volunteer to be a Jedi, but hopefully next time. And of course the night parade and fireworks are never a disappointment and well loved by the kids (and parents too!). You may be wondering why we weren't glued to a TV watching the Chargers-Patriots game. We had already planned this trip to Disneyland before we knew that the Chargers would still be playing in the playoffs. So we stuck to our plans and Leon adorned a headset to listen to the play by play call of the game. Sadly, the season came to an end for our Chargers but we wore our Charger jerseys proudly our 1st day at Disneyland.

We spent the night at our time share (Dolphin's Cove) just a little over a mile away. Great place to stay and we hope to come back more often. Our 2nd day was mainly spent in Fantasyland and Toonland. We luckily avoided the rain (just a brief moment of sprinkles) all day. Leyton's favorite ride was the Tea Cups. He says next time he wants to go on a roller coaster ride (we hope so, but we'll see). We met Mickey Mouse at his house in Toonland (didn't realize the line would be semi long to see him) and got our picture with him (didn't have an autograph book yet). And we ran into Pluto and Lincoln got his signature (the 1st) in our Disneyland Autograph book. We ended the day short as we caught the day parade and then hit the road back to San Diego (luckily didn't hit any traffic coming home). Being the first time that we have taken kids to Disneyland, it was definitely a different but rewarding experience seeing the joy and excitement in their faces.

Some things that I (Linda) realized as I look back on our first experience at Disneyland. Good health and a good night's rest before the trip can make a huge difference in how the day goes. Although the kids did enjoy Disneyland, I'm sure it would've been even better if they were well rested and were able to get a decent nap in during the day (somehow). It also came to my attention that our boys are not very familiar with a lot of the princesses (what a surprise), which is pretty much everywhere you look at Disneyland. By the end of the day, Leyton could name most of the princesses, but doesn't have any idea what their stories are about. They've seen Little Mermaid and a small portion of Alice In Wonderland, but Snow White (& the Dwarfs), Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle and the others are pretty foreign to them. I guess we might have to borrow the movies from someone someday, since we most likely would not keep them in our collection. Fortunately there were "boy" stuff like Buzz Light Year, Star Tours and Pirates for some type of familiarity. All in all, it was great to be back to Disneyland. Leon and I commented on how it's difficult to not feel happy as soon as you enter the gates with all the cartoon characters roaming around bringing out the glowing smiles of young children everywhere, as well as the blaring music everywhere you go throughout the park. It reminds us of the scene in Addams Family Values when the kids were locked up in the little house forced to watch Disney movies because they inevitably make you smile and happy! That's still the feeling you get when you visit Disneyland and that's the way it should always be for kids and adults!

Here's a few photos from our Disneyland trip. Enjoy!!!