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!!  

Pinterest

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!!