Call Me Crazy

After a 9 year relationship with Blogger, I am bidding this site a Final Farewell!!  This will be last post on this blogsite.  To my loyal readers, DON'T leave me just yet!! I'm just moving my blog to Wordpress! I still love to blog and will continue to blog.  After thinking about it long and hard, I've decided that for the long-term, Wordpress seems to be a better option for me. It allows me to create additional pages and password-protect some of the my posts. It was just the right thing for me to do.  For those who know me well, I'm a nostalgic person so it was extremely hard for me to let go all my previous posts.  You can call me crazy, but I've replicated every single post from Blogger to the new Wordpress blog.  Yes, it was a lot of time devoted to copying and pasting, but alas, every post is accounted for!!  Now I still have the luxury to go back in history and reminisce the past on the same blogsite!! Please bookmark my new blog and visit me and leave comments!!

http://wanwanha.wordpress.com/

Discovery Museum / Sausalito

Lately, we've been blessed with gorgeous weekends here in San Francisco!  We took advantage of the warm weather and made a trek out to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito this past Sunday. Traffic was a breeze and we arrived at 10am, just as the museum was opening up. Sarah immediately made herself comfortable with the water feature and the indoor playground designed specifically for Tots.  She had a blast!!  This place is perfect for kids aged 2-5, with lots of activities both indoors and out.  The stunning view of the bridge & the bay also made the place a great hangout place for adults. This place is very nicely laid-out with shady picnic tables for lunch, and different areas for different age groups.

After the museum, we made a quick visit to downtown Sausalito, since we haven't been here in years!  It's still a very charming little town - relatively the same as I last remember it. We had some ice cream and walked along the pier and storefronts.

We ended our long day with an early dinner at Cheesecake Factory in Union Square (downtown SF). What a beautiful and fun-filled day!!

Hearts!

I used to go around town just to take pictures of these hearts all over San Francisco - that was back in 2004.  Wow, how time has elapsed!  I ran across 2 of them today at Union Square and made me remember my old pastime. Look under the label "hearts" and you'll see pictures of the other ones I took!

Sarah is 23 months old!

Happy 23-month old Birthday, my sweet baby.  In a month, you will be turning TWO!! 

Reloc - Moving Along II

It's utterly surprising how moving out of the country can push you to do all the things you have always "wanted to do" but "never got around to doing it."  It's like a time clock that makes you realize that time is short and you need to get things done!! Here are some examples of what I mean:

Financial Planner - This was on the list of to-do's for a long time. SQ and I are good savers but we are poor investors. We do not know how to use our money to make money.  We want someone to not only help us invest our money, but also guide us in retirement planning and estate planning. We know we can not depend on Social Security or Medicare when we retire.  Also, now with Sarah in the mix, there is a lot of things to think about - like setting up a will / living trust and her future education expenses. We need desperate guidance on what to do.  So we finally met with a Certified Financial Planner a week ago.  The session was only 1.5 hours, which was very short for the topics we had to cover.  I felt like we barely scratched the surface, but felt good that we were given some ideas and quick fixes which can help us in the long run.  We will meet him again in a few weeks.

Re-Finance - This was one of things that the CFP suggested we do.  Late last year, our mortgage broker approached us to refinance our house.  The rate difference between our rate vs the new rate was about 0.25% at that time and would save us about $100 a month in mortgage.  We had just re-financed the year before and didn't want to reset our loan for such a small difference.  Plus, we were too lazy to gather all the documents so we didn't re-finance. When our CFP suggested we re-financed - I was still a bit reluctant to, just because we only have a couple of months left before we leave and the last thing I want to do is to add 1 more thing to do on my already-long list of to-do's.  He said if I don't have time, then I should just call my current mortgage bank and start there.  So I did that, and I was surprised how easy it was!  I got ONE full point rate difference!  Every month, I will be saving $265! Hopefully, everything will be OK and we will close escrow in 21 days!

Medical Check-up - This applies to SQ only. He hasn't been diligent at getting his annual physicals. So because of the move, he finally saw his doctor for his physical!

Family Photo Shoot - I wanted to take family professional photos outdoors. We've only done photos inside a  JcPenney/Sears studio, which are a lot cheaper, but they are only a hit or miss.  Besides, Sarah hated these sessions. She doesn't like staying still and posed in a small hot room with a stranger and a camera.   I wanted something a little more natural and for Sarah to feel like herself.  It took me so time to get SQ to agree to go in on this. So we did it!  ** More to come

New Mattress - embarrassing but we've had our mattress for 10 years! We bought our mattress at the same time we bought the house. We've been talking about getting a new mattress for about 2 years now, but never got around to it (too lazy to shop around)...so with the move, we definitely need to get a new one!  You might ask why don't we just buy a new one in HKG?  Well, the Queen size mattress is HKG is about 5 inches shorter than the ones in the US.  I don't know if I'll like a shorter mattress ..Plus we want to take our bed frame with us, so we need to have a mattress that fits! Hence, we will buy here and have it shipped there.  Mattresses are cheaper in the US and since we don't have to pay for shipping, so why not?

Reloc - Moving Along

Moving to a new living space is already a daunting task by itself.  But relocating takes moving to a whole new level!!  Thank goodness we have a third-party relocation company and an internal dedicated HR relocation team to help us move along the process.

First up, FORMS.  Lots of it.  Let's face it, when most people move, they move within a City, or within a State, or within a Country. Sure, you have to change your address, re-set your utilities, and that's pretty much it. As I learned, moving to a new country requires a lot of changes that one would never think about.

• A working visa. I had to fill out the application and provide passports, photos, resume, University degree certification, marriage license, and birth certificate. All of this to prove that I am who I am, my family's relationship to me, and I am the best qualified candidate for this overseas position.
• Banking. I have to set up 2 new accounts - one here in the US (so my paycheck can be deposited in US Dollars and one there in HK (so I can pay my expenses in HK Dollars)  Both accounts can talk to each other and I can transfer funds freely at any given time. I also need to re-route my direct deposits to the new US account
• American Express card.  I have to get a new HK AmEx for any Company-related expenses in HK Dollars. The one I have now pays out in US Dollars.
• FSA. Flexible Spending Account.  I don't have one set up so I think I'm good here. But for others, if they have been contributing to FSA, then they need to fill out paperwork to change how the funds can be reimbursed.
• Health Care. This needs to be totally changed. Because we are moving abroad, we can only enroll in health insurance through Aetna Global. This allows us to use doctors/medical facilities in both the US and HK. 
• Physical Moving. I scheduled a survey date of May 18 to get an assessment of all the stuff we have.  From now until then, we need to decide whether we want the items to get (a) trashed, (b) donated, (c) sold, (d) packed in a storage facility, (e) brought with us on the airplane, (f) shipped via air, and (g) shipped via sea. Decisions, decisions, decisions!! 

A Letter to Sarah

Dearest Sarah,
At 22 months:

• You can speak short sentences now - 2-3 word combos.  In fact, you can say more than 3 syllables at the same time and can mimic a lot of words and sentences
• You like to do things yourself, like putting on your shoes and opening doors. You can't always do it but you insist and then eventually ask for help.
• You don't like to brush your teeth, but still loves bedtime stories and books.  
• You can walk up and down the stairs by yourself, holding onto a handrail and sometimes not
• You are sleeping later and later at night.  We will get you in bed at 9 but you will not fall asleep until 9:30 or even at 10 sometimes. But you still wake up around 7 in the morning, even though you sometimes get cranky
• Your appetite is stunning.  You are little eating machine, although you don't appear to be chubby. All your food goes directly into your tummy, no where else. You don't have cheeks nor your arms/legs show any "folds."
• You weigh about 28 lbs right now (home scale)
• You can sing along most songs and love to listen to music in the car on our way to and from daycare
• You can now identify and say all your alphabets, numbers (to ten), colors, and most animals. We think you learn pretty quickly
• You love to grin with only your bottom teeth showing! 
• You got your first passport!! 

Pinterest - it works

I took this idea from Pinterest and it works! Tired of buying the entire bundle of green onions even though you actually only need 1 stalk? Tired of throwing away half of your bundle because you can't finish them before they turned yellow & limp?  Well, this is your solution!  Simply take 1-2 stalks and put them in water.  Change the water every 3-4 days to keep it fresh.  In a week, the roots will begin to grow and you will have new green onion shoots.  When you need green onions, just snip off what you need and more will grow for your next time use!!  It's great!! In fact, I used some today (that's why the tops are cut).  Genius!! I love it!!  

This Old House

Picture used on the Open House flyer

10 years ago this week, SQ and I went to the Old Republic Title Company in West Portal and signed what seemed to be an endless stack of escrow papers to officially buy our first house together. 2 days later, we got our keys and officially saw our house for the SECOND time. Here's our story of how fate has us owning this house:

Early 2002, before we got married, SQ and I looked into buying a starter home. We both made pennies back then, but we aggressively saved for about 1.5 years and had about $40k.  My sisters combined would lend us $45k.  Our budget was $300-350k.  Although we would love to live in the City, we never really seriously looked here because our budget would only allow us to live in the Bayview/Hunters Point area.  So we looked at houses in Oakland, El Cerrito, San Leandro, and in Berkeley instead.  We submitted offers to 3-4 houses but were outbidded each time.  However, on a Tuesday in March (election day), my agent called and asked us to go to see this house in the Sunset, which is offering a Broker's Open House that day until 7pm. This was 1 bedroom house selling for $379k.  I had my doubts that we would ever get it.  In the Sunset?  Nevertheless, I used the excuse of having to go vote to leave work early.  SQ and I made it to the house a little past 7pm.  When we walked into the house, the seller's agent was already packing her stuff to leave but decided to make a last minute phone call to the owner to brief her on the open house.  We looked around and it was a blur.  I just remembered a lot of furniture and the downstairs basement was undone, but it was sectioned off with couches & tons of books.  It was used as a reading book/library. We peeked outside the window to the yard so we couldn't see a thing because it was so dark. We didn't know what the condition of the yard was.  Because we were the last ones there, we got a chance to talk to the seller's agent. We shared with her that we're about to get married, trying now to find our 1st home, and that my parents lived only blocks away.  We learned that a few people came by as well, many of them contractors who knew although this house was listed as 1 bed 1 bath, there was a high ceiling unfinished basement (with lots of expansion potential).   We also found out that the last day to submit offers was the next day!!

We called up our agent & she came to my mom's house at 9pm to draft up an offer. We put in an offer above the asking price. **It was during the crazy time of the house-bidding war.  Our agent wanted us to bid at or above $400k so we would have a better chance, but we didn't budge.  This was already way past our budget so we stuck the maximum amount we would pay.

The next day, I was at work when my agent called.  Our offer was in consideration & asked if we can give a little more.  We ended up agreeing to pay $1k more...which in hindsight, it felt almost like a joke, since $1k is NOTHING when compared to the hundreds of thousands the house is selling for. After a couple of hours, my agent called me back and we got the house!!  We did not give in the highest offer, but because the owner was "touched" by our story (a young couple starting a new life together and my hope to live near my parents), she decided to sell us the house. It turns out that the owner was a Professor in the East Coast - used to live in this house with her mother, until she got an offer to teach in the a university in the East Coast, so she relocated.  Her mother didn't want to move so stayed in the house, until she was too old to take care of herself - so she eventually moved to a nursing home. It was evident that the money was not on the top of the owner's mind. She did not want any open houses even though it could have maximized her number of potential buyers.  The agent held only 2 broker tours on Tues between 3-7p and that was it. No For Sale outside nor was the key in a lockbox for any unscheduled visits.  She chose us because she was close to her mother and loved the fact that we also wanted to be close to my parents.  She trusted us to take care of the house and make it a home...which we did. We closed escrow on April 16, 2002 and recorded the deed on the 18th.

It has been 10 years living in this house. We finished the basement, redid the front and back yard, remodeled the kitchen, added in new appliances, fixed the roof, and insulated the entire house.  We've done a lot within these past 10 years!! We take pride in our house and try to maintain it in good shape.  Couldn't believe that we'll be moving out of this house this year...It's been great living here!!

A child's laugh

I asked Sarah to bring me some books so we can read them together before bedtime.  She took a long time. When she returned, she had three big books in her hands. I was surprised that she could even hold that many....then she started to laugh uncontrollably and couldn't stop! Absolutely precious that we caught this on camera!

Easter Weekend- Sunday

The weather was sunny and mild today, even in the Sunset so I thought it was a perfect day to go visit the San Francisco Zoo. Although we live literally blocks away from the Zoo, we don't come here often.  I guess it's probably because it's usually so cold and gloomy here in the area.  But not today!  A very last minute plan, but a great decision nonetheless! We really enjoyed our day - best yet was the Sarah was able to name a lot of animals!  The last time we were here, Sarah was only 5 months old.

Today, we saw giraffes, zebras, flamingos, peacocks, brown bear, polar bear, penguins,chimpanzees, hippos, rhinos, lions, and gorillas.  The best exhibit was probably the gorilla's.  They were very playful and active.  Too bad that we're moving, otherwise, we might consider an annual membership here.

Easter Weekend- Saturday

We enjoyed a fun-filled Easter weekend!! On Saturday, we went to my sister's house for an Easter egg hunt with her cousins. This is the first year that Sarah was able to walk to find eggs.  Last year, she was only 10 months old and didn't even know how to walk yet! What a difference a year makes. The weather couldn't be more beautiful in the City. 

Cousins carefully dying the eggs

Sarah got so excited over the bubble machine

Eating ready to start for the egg hunt!

Sarah found 4 eggs! Yay!

After the Easter Egg hunt, we went to King Wah Restaurant in Daly City for dinner to celebrate my dad's birthday.  It has been a while since my sisters are all present for an event. A total of 26 people, 3 tables - we had a tasty meal! 

Sarah is 22 months old today!

Storm Trooper

This blog is also called "Just for Fun" and it details the lives of 2 Storm Troopers. It is so creative and fun!!

http://9gag.com/gag/3641891

The 1960s fashion

I randomly came across an Etsy site that sells vintage sewing patterns.  I thought it was interesting and once again, really wished that I knew how to sew!!  Upon looking at the different fashions of the different decades, I am IN LOVE with the fashion from the 1960s!! (a la Jackie O).  I soooo wish that they have clothes like these now... I would totally wear them!! Here are some of my favorites:

All 3 made from the same pattern, but each with a little twist and you have 3 different dresses!

How cute are those jackets!!

Love, Love, Love these dresses!!! And the collar is very 60's!!

Moments: Saturday Night Fun

A Letter to Sarah

To my dearest little baby,
At 21 months -

• Your new favorite word is "Mine!!"  You say this word with a whiny voice or sometimes even scream on top of your lungs when we take something you want away from you.  You should know that nothing is yours!
• You are just starting to say two-word combo phrases - brown bear, mommy help, and more babies (referring to a book titled, More, More, More! Said the Baby) We will continue to work with you on improving your sentences
• You can read over 20 alphabets and can periodically spell your name. Sometimes you get the order mixed up, but you know that your name has a S, R, A and H
• You know how to sing the ABC song!  We can make out most of the letters you sing
• You are testing limits. You like to throw things on the floor and like to throw your hands to hit on things when you get frustrated. Whenever we tell you that it's not OK, you act silly and start to giggle to get out of trouble. You are a sly little baby!  We don't let you get away with it though.  
• You never seem to be able to catch a break in the marathon of colds, coughs, and runny noses!  
• You refuse to go to bed, no matter how tired you are. You want to read books, drink milk, eat crackers, or find other excuses not to go to sleep.  You are just an Energizer bunny!
• You speak mostly English, but there are certain words that you say in Cantonese from the start and still do: bao-bao (bread), po-po (carry me), and nai-nai (milk).  It's funny that you refer to nai-nai as milk in the bottle.  When we give you milk in a cup, you say "no, nai-nai." (milk in a bottle). We've cut you out of milk in a bottle already so you don't say nai-nai anymore.
• You don't like rice. You still eat it, but you rather not eat it.  You eat everything else though and have spoon-precision skills to scoop out all the other food without scooping out the rice no matter how much we mix everything together. You loooooove soup!

Sarah's "HAPPY" face

Sarah's "MAD" face

You continue to be your silly-self and bring us so much joy and laughter everyday! Love you, my sweet little mao-mao!

Sarah turns 21 months today!

D-Day (aka Decision Day)

After 2 months to the exact day since the announcement, I have finally given my verbal acceptance to the relocation offer.  Our family will be relocating to Hong Kong end of July.  Believe me when I say that this is one of the hardest decisions I had to make thus far in my 36 years of life.  I contemplated and internally debated with myself for a long, long time.  I had many discussions and tearful conversations with SQ - what it would mean for us and how it would affect our family.  My emotional roller coaster went through valleys and peaks, crests and troughs.

Most recently, my sister 7 was faced with a dilemma whether or not to throw a full-blown wedding. I remembered my sister 5 asked her, if she ends up not having a wedding, whether she would, a few years down the road, regret her decision & want one then. If the answer is yes, then, even though the wedding may not be something sister 7 wants now, she should still hold one to avoid being regretful in the years to come.  Because if the time has passed, it would be hard to get it back. As when I faced this relocation dilemma, I also asked myself whether I would regret not going later on if I do decide to turn the offer down now?  Would I wonder about how my life would be if we lived in HKG and would I continually ask myself the "what-ifs?"  After answering the questions with a yes, I felt better about taking this leap. There will surely be a lot of uncertainty, changes, and/or even risks.  But I can't possibly worry about all the future problems now, right?  I will get there when I get there, one day at a time. Que Sera Sera  

Financial-wise, we can make it work with one income for a while.  Living adaptation-wise, it'll probably will take some time, but we're not hard to please, so we'll eventually get used to it.  Sarah-wise, she should be ok. SQ will stay home with her for a bit.  Extended family-wise, not OK.  I think this is by far the biggest pull for me not to relocate.  I am super close to my parents and my sisters, both in terms of relationship and physical locality (most of us live no more than 20 minutes apart).  They have always been my strength, my backbone, my "go-to" people for help on anything, to watch over Sarah, to seek advice from, to vent to, to care about, and to laugh with.  So this will be hard.  Very hard.  So I am not going to lie to myself that this part of my life will be OK, because it won't be, not without my family being nearby.  The only comfort to this situation is my hope that they will come visit me and we will return back to the U.S. as often as we can.  And hopefully, my parents will learn how to use Skype!  The other comfort I have to console myself is that this relocation is not forever. The contract is "at-will."  There is no time frame commitment.  If I choose to leave within 1 year, I just have to pay back some of the relocation costs (pro-rated based on time spent abroad). I figure, if my life really is so miserable to the point that I must return, then the relocation costs is actually a small price to pay for happiness.  SF will always be my home.

Now that the decision has been made, I need to move forward.  I need to direct my focus of what needs to be done before the relocation.  Time will zoom by. And I am prepared to have breakdown moments when the day comes closer.  Bear with me.  Be my support and tell me that everything is going to be OK. Que Sera Sera  

Parent- Teacher Conference

I had Sarah's 2nd parent-teacher conference yesterday.  I am so glad to hear from the teacher that Sarah is doing very well. She has grown so much since the last conference & especially since she started with this daycare.  Here are her accomplishments and areas for development:

Self-Help
She is now very familiar with the daycare routine - she washes her hands before and after each meal, throws away her leftovers into the compost bin, brushes her teeth after lunch, and even tries to put away her cot when she's done napping (with the teacher's help). Next she will be learning how to put her jacket on/off and help dress herself such as pulling up her pants.

Social/Emotional
Sarah is doing well.  She is very weary of any strangers in the room and likes to maintain her distance with them until she is comfortable (which is a good thing!). She will cry when strangers approach her too fast. In terms of sharing, Sarah doesn't like it when someone snatches a toy away from her. She will fight and will cry out loud. She needs to continue to work on sharing.

Cognitive
Sarah is getting good at recognizing shapes and colors.  She can recognize 5 different colors - so the teachers are moving on to the mixed colors, such as purple, pink, etc. Sarah can also do puzzles and match 2 similar objects together.

Language
Sarah knows a lot of words and her mimicking skills are good. She is able to listen to a word and pronounce it very close to what she heard.  Sarah is able to communicate most of what she needs - milk, eat, more, book, etc.  Her next step is to learn how to use two-word sentences and put 2 different ideas into 1 sentence.  The teachers are also continuing to teach them sign language & words at the same time.  Sarah loves to read books, especially when someone reads it to her.

Fine Motor
Sarah is able to draw with a crayon upright.  In the past, she will always hold it in a slant position so nothing will come out, but now she can draw circles and lines.  She is learning how to weave strings in holes to practice precision and hand/eye coordination.  She is enjoying sensory activities such as sand, shaving cream, and messy paints much more than before.

Gross Motor
Sarah knows how to run, walk backwards, walk up and down the stairs, and kick the ball.  She is refining her skills on hopping, jumping, and standing on one foot!

It's nice to get these progress reports from the teachers every so often...because it helps to know what the teachers are teaching her so we can do the same at home.  Just like when the teachers told me that Sarah is now drinking from an open cup, we switched out all our sippy cups at home.  And now that I know they are trying to get her to take on/off her jacket, we will encourage her to do the same at home.  I am so glad that Sarah is learning so much from the daycare!

Sarah's 2nd Home

We came back from Hong Kong late Friday night, close to 10:30pm by the time we got home. Knowing that Sarah has already slept for the night, we decided to pick her up the next morning.  We arrived at my sister's house and rung the doorbell.  Sarah stood by the glass doorway up the stairs and she had the biggest smile on her face when she saw us.  She was so excited that she giggled.  But as we walked up the stairs to her, she suddenly became confused.  She still recognized us but probably realized that she hasn't seen us in such a long while.  Where have we been? Although babies don't typically have a sense of elapsed time, she probably knew that we were gone for a long time.  She ran back to my sister's arms and somehow became distant.  Only moments later did she open up and went to her dada for comfort.  Sarah then became quite clingy, as if she wanted to punish us for leaving her behind.  She started to whine and whimper, knowing that she is now in her parents' arms.  There was a moment in time that I was afraid that she wouldn't recognize us...but luckily, she did.  From what I heard from my sister, Sarah slept and ate well during the week and was very cooperative.  Barely any crying and no fuss.  I must say that I was a bit afraid that Sarah wouldn't adjust or that she will be hard to manage because it was the first time both SQ and I are away from her.  She has been waking up in the middle night for many nights in a row...not to mention that she started to throw tantrums and cried a lot more than she used to.  Plus, her left eye was a little pink the day before we left...(thank goodness she didn't have pink eye). All of that just made me a little afraid that Sarah would be a handful for my sister and my BIL.  Thankful it all worked out!

Here are some of Sarah's activities during the week:

Visiting her Great-Granny

At the library with her cousin, EK

Love to eat waffles!

Playing with her cousins' toys (yes, a lot of boy toys!)

I am so grateful to have such strong family support and my sister and BIL for lending their hand to watch Sarah.  I am thankful that all my sisters willing come to my rescue every time I call out for help. This is a bond that I will miss when we move to Hong Kong and it gives me great sadness whenever I think about it. :-'(  

Exploratory Trip

Just finished Day 3 of our exploratory trip in Hong Kong...and we are exhausted!!  Our schedule thus far has been packed with school tours and apartment hunting. Every morning we start the day between 8:30-9:00 and go school hopping.. We have a total of 10 school appointments within this week.  We are looking for 2 types of schools - one that is kinda like a daycare center where Sarah can begin in Aug 2012 at 2 years old, and one that is a preschool / primary school where Sarah can go to when she turns 3 and continue on until 10 years old.  The school situation in Hong Kong is not good.  There are more demand than supply...and because we are expats, we can only go to International schools and not the local schools. There are wait lists and wait lists with no guarantees.  

House (or Apartment) hunting is quite interesting.  We are here not looking for individual apartments per se. Since we're not really moving until late July, the vacant apartments we see today will probably not be the same ones that will be available then. So right now, we are just looking at the neighborhoods and/or the apartment complexes that interest us.  We are primarily looking for space (which is tight in HKG), near schools, convenience to public transportation and proximity to restaurants, grocery stores and work.  And of course, all of this have to fit into our budget!  The past 3 days we traveled on the HKG island only.  It's quite interesting that although we don't know which area we like, it is clear that there are areas we don't like. haha. So far we like Happy Valley, Kennedy Town, Pofuklam and Sheung Wan areas.  It offers the best selection of the above things we are looking for. 

2 more days to go - more school tours and we will be going over to the Kowloon side to do more apartment hunting.  We are so physically tired and mentally drained!  If you think we are here on vacation, then you think wrong.  This is a lot of work. Tiring work!  Can't wait to get home to my mao-mao.

I miss her dearly.  :-(    

A Letter to Sarah

My dearest baby,

In just 1 month, you've learned so much!! It's so amazing!! Recently,

• You know how to walk up and down the stairs by yourself.  The stairs are usually not that high but still...what an accomplishment!!  
• You now know how to count! You count the best when we go up or down the stairs. That's because when you were just a baby, mommy and daddy will always count the stairs out loud as we carry you up the stairs from the garage
• You are beginning to throw tantrums! You don't do it often but sometimes you just cry for no reason. Really, for no reason at all!  But knock on wood, your tantrums are usually very short (no more than 5 minutes) and then you return back to your normal happy self
• You love to point and shout out "BUS" every time you see one when we drive in the car.  You are now seated facing forward in the middle, so you have a full vantage point
•  You know how to speak many words right now, it's almost hard to comprehend.  Some of the words you know just amazes me... like "ambulance," and "wolf."  And you say "No" as much as you say "Yes" to questions.  Actually, you don't say Yes, you say, "Yah!"  You are so Californian!
• You know how to identify at least 1/3 of the alphabets. I love how you sometimes say 'T' as "7" and "W" as "M."  I totally see how these can be mixed up too!
• You are about 25 lbs right now
• Just today, I told you to go get your shoes. You took a long time so I went to see what you were doing. I casually picked up a pair and asked, "do you want to wear these?" not expecting an answer.  Then you said, 'No' and picked up another pair.  I thought to myself, uh oh.  Do they start this young??
• You call yourself "Wah-wah." as in "Sarah"
• When I ask, "Who's Sarah?" you point to yourself. When I ask, "Who's kay-kay?" you point to yourself.  When I ask, "Who's mao-mao?" You also point to yourself! You know! You actually know that you have 3 names!! 

Sarah, you brighten our lives. Every day, you make us smile, giggle, and laugh and experience pure joy. We are so lucky to be your mommy and daddy!! We love you!!

Bee Mine!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sleep Tight, my baby!

We have always been blessed with a good sleeper. Sarah takes her full naps, whether they are the 2 hour naps 2 times a day or the one 3 hour nap she's taking now.  She never gets fussy when she's tired and she goes to bed without being rocked or carried.  We plop her onto bed and then Sarah manages to fall asleep on her own by licking the crib sheet or blanket (equivalent to a pacifier or thumb, both of which she didn't pick up, thank goodness!).   She sleeps at 8:30pm at night and wakes up at 6:30am in the morning.  When we wake her up in the morning, Sarah rarely cries. She just wakes up, opens her eyes and then she is off to doing whatever we have plan for her.  I am seriously not exaggerating. Sarah never had any issues with sleeping, well, maybe until now...

For the past month or so, Sarah refuses to go to bed at night.  As in any toddler, she wants to play and don't want to stay confined inside her crib.  Even after the whole bedtime routine, she still doesn't want to sleep. She would cry a good 10 minutes before eventually going down for the night.  Sometimes we have to sternly tell her, "Sarah, go to sleep, go to sleep!" By that time, it's close to 10pm, not the time we want to go to sleep.  Just when we think we can finally rest, Sarah wakes up in the middle of the night screaming her lungs out. We've used the Cry It Out method - but sometimes she would cry so hard that she gets congested and eventually throw up.  Then it becomes a big dramatic affair to calm her, change the crib sheets, and change her clothes.  Not something I want to do at 2 am in the morning!  Sometimes she would fall back asleep but not without first having one of us get up to pat her back to sleep. We can't quite understand why she's not sleeping through the night. Perhaps she's growing her back molars that giving her pain? Perhaps she's cold at night? Don't know???  All I know is that I hope this is only a phase and I will get back my good little sleeper back!!  

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Source: moredesignplease.com via Sandy on Pinterest

Sarah turns 20 months today!

  

A Shoe Lesson

Today I learned something new about myself. I have hammer toes.  I've always had long feet and long toes. I have toes so long they curl downwards and bend a little on the joints.  I've known these to be my toes as long as I could remember and have accepted them as part of my feet.  However, finally today, upon walking into a specialized shoe store, I found out the truth. I have hammer toes, which is actually a deformity at the proximal interphalangeal joint of the second, third, and forth toe causing it to be permanently bent, resembling a hammer. Don't worry, I'll spare you of any disgusting pictures of my actual toes to prove my point.  I was not born with hammer toes (at least I don't think I was).  They are results of wearing poor-fitting shoes, forcing the toe to a bent position.  As I hear the shoe/foot specialist explain all of this to me, I knew that he was right.  I have worn too many shoes that are really too tight for me! Of course, growing up - who knew about all these things? We never had our feet measured. Shoe-shopping was a trip off to Payless or something equivalent and find a shoe that fit the budget. Even when I got to buy my own shoes, I've sometimes compromised comfort for style instead. I was also stupid enough to believe in an old wives tale that if I wear a big shoe, my foot would grow even bigger to fit that shoe. So I always opted for a smaller shoe even though it was snug.

I ended up buying a pair of Brooks Addiction shoes from the shoe store. They are one of the ugliest shoes out there, not to mention that they are ginormous in size!! But if you notice, this shoe doesn't have any arches.  In fact, I have an insert in there on the arch so when I walk, it forces the toes to flatten out (rather than bend).

    

I've learned my lesson.  From now on, I will buy shoes that I have wiggle room in and that I can stretch out and flatten my toes inside the shoes.  I may be wearing the biggest shoe on the planet known to mankind, but at least I can be comfortable!!

Saturday Activities

We had 2 events yesterday, which made the day a bit busier than usual.  In the morning, Sarah went to SKC's house in Castro Valley for a play date with CF and SKC.  Sarah checked out SKC's new kitchen and all his food and cooking utensils! It's more complete and impressive than the real kitchen in our house!  The kids enjoyed each other's company, had a couple of "fighting for toys" moments, but everyone had fun!!  Sarah loved the 2 kitty cats!    

After leaving Castro Valley, Sarah took her usual afternoon nap while we went around Oakland/Lake Merritt to enjoy the unseasonably-warm day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous.

In the evening, we went to St. Thomas' School for their annual CNY fundraiser event. My nephews come here to learn Chinese (Mandarin) and my sister, MT, is one of the committee chairs.  The event has a lion dance, food, raffles, and lots of performances by the children.  Sarah saw the lion dance for the first time. I was pretty surprised that Sarah was not afraid of the lion, even though the drums and symbols were quite loud.  She even saw the lion up close! I am so proud of my two nephews for such awesome performances.  It was a fun-filled day indeed.

Sarah's first "ya-ya"

SQ and I aren't one of those parents who get freaked out every time Sarah falls down or hurts herself.  We believe that she can toughen up and learn from the falls and mistakes she makes along the way.  Thank goodness Sarah also isn't one of those babies who are super adventurous to experiment everything. She is a careful baby. For example, we are able to leave our stairway door open without fearing Sarah's falling down.  As much as we wants to follow us down the stairs sometimes, when we tell her not to come down, she actually listens. So when I heard from the daycare teacher that Sarah got a gash on her face (near her left eye) and saw it for the first time, my heart dropped. Oh my! How did Sarah trip and fall like that?!  Silly Girl seemed to be in good spirits when I picked her up though.  When I asked her where's "ya-ya?" she was quick to point to her eye.  Today, the corner of her eye is a little blue, which only means that it would eventually turn purple and it will look like a black eye... :-(   I just hope that this wouldn't leave any scars!