Lately, Mommy often loses her temper when she tries to take pictures of me cause I don’t stay put, and am almost always doing one of the following (please see pics for an example of each):
-Not looking at the camera
-Making faces
-Presenting some “interesting” poses

Yesterday, we were at Old Navy and Mommy noticed that I was checking the little girl mannequin out, so she generously offered to take a picture of us together. I happily agreed and put my arm around my plastic new friend. After a few pictures though, Mommy gave up and said we were leaving since I wouldn’t listen to her. I protested a little but figured since I already had a few photos to remind me of the small affair I had, that was enough.

Yesterday, Owen received his first “missing” ears report…no, it’s not a recognition or reward; on the contrary, I have been dreading for the day but knew it would come soon regardless. I am, however, very relieved that it wasn’t due to hitting/pushing friends but just not following directions.

Everyday, Mommy receives a daily report from daycare on how Mr.Owen did at school…during the first 2 months, it was always good reports ( his ears were always “on” or mostly “on”. Then once he had comfortably settled in, the trouble started…

We started getting reports of “loose” ears. First, it was maybe once a week, then it was 2-3 times a week. The teacher’s comments were also deteriorating, with reports of Mr.Owen pushing or hitting friends. Having always been a goodie goodie student all my life, I was very shocked - don’t know, but I guess I was expecting Owen to follow suit…or at theeast, not cause trouble. Alarmed to find out that sometimes, the aggression was not provoked, I tried to understand why he does this, but to no avail as Owen could not verbalize why he hit/push someone.

So I took both the positive and negative approach: if I get a report that he hit that day, when he gets home, he gets 2 mind of timeout in his room. I also repeatedly remind him hands are for gentle/nice touches and praise him when he was well-behaved that day. At night, he will also get ice cream. After 2 weeks and 2 timeouts, it is finally working. Now the first thing he says to Daddy & Mommy when we pick him up is: “Owen didn’t hit any friends today!”

Compared to him being physically aggressive and potentially hurting another kid, I would take a “missing” ears report for not following directions anyday!

Mommy is so glad Owen did not inherit his Daddy’s lack of rhythm ;P…our little one has shown great sense of beat since he was very young.  Even before he could stand by himself, he would dance to the music…when the music was quick, he would dance quickly and when it slowed, his dancing would also slow down. Over time, we’ve grown accustomed to his natural response to any upbeat music and have not thought about it in a while. 

This past weekend though, we were reminded once again of his talent.  We were listening to music while eating dumplings, and when Lady Gaga’s Poker Face started playing, Owen started going at it and doing his moves…it amazes me how many different moves he did! Daddy and I had such a good laugh watching him…you can too (good thing we always keep our Flip handy for times like this).

Owen had the 1st Easter party in his life today - he semi-enjoyed it as he cried through some portions of it.

His class had a series of activities for the celebration: a parade around the classrooms to say “Happy Easter!” and to show off their beautiful/cute self-made springtime hats, followed by a Easter egg hunt in the playground and finally, snacks.  By the time I got there, all the kids already had their pretty hats on…not sure why, but Owen started crying soon after he saw me.  When the teachers asked the kids to line up, he started tugging me to take him home…as the parade progressed, he would cry on and off.  It finally hit me that perhaps he thought he was going to another classroom and was afraid. 

Luckily, as soon as we returned to the classroom, the teachers did not waste any time leading right into the egg hunt, so Owen charged toward the playground as soon as he saw the eggs (we had practice last Sat on a much grander scale at our town’s egg hunt ;P so he knew what was going on.  He was doing great, picking up eggs with great speed until he came across a purple glitter egg that popped open…I asked him to pick it up and initially he didn’t want (prob figured it was a “bad” egg so he didn’t want it) but at my urging, he ultimately did.  I wished I hadn’t though…because he then spent the next 30 seconds or so fussing at the egg, turning it this way and that - guess he wanted to put it back together.  I repeatedly asked him to put it in the basket and to pick up more eggs but he was oblivious to me….after a couple of tries, he finally put the egg into his basket and started looking for other eggs.  Of course, in the 30 seconds or so he spent staring at the purple egg, most of the eggs were gone so he did not end up with that many, but he was happy, and that was all that matters.

Once we got back to the classroom, the kids had tons of food - it was so fun watching them eat and have crumbs/cakes all over their face and hands.  All of them - including Owen - seemed to be starving and stuffed down the snacks and juice…overall, Owen still did enjoy his 1st Easter party so it was a huge success!

Today marked Owen’s first day of day care without tears.  Usually, in the mornings, since he wakes up, he will periodically repeat, “Don’t want Miss Ann.” Initially, it alarmed me because he said it about every 10 seconds the first weekend we started day care that I wondered if there was a reason why he singled out Miss Ann.  From what I was told in the daily reports, Miss Ann was his favorite teacher - he followed her everywhere and when she needed to step out for whatever reason, he would get upset.  Last Wed, they finally moved back to the REAL day care and I finally were able to see him in action via webcam.  He seemed to get along with both teachers and the other kids, so I felt much better, but still had to deal with “Don’t want Miss Ann” (read “Don’t want school”) every AM. The little smart aleck appeared to have come to recognize the route and he would start crying halfway to school.  Every time he does this, my heart ached and I wonder if I should quit work seeing the poor kid resisting so.

Today was different.  Although he whimpered and almost cried during the last minute, I told him that he was a big boy now and is brave and that Mommy/Daddy has to work in order for him to buy Thomas (he loves the choo-choo train Thomas)…while we go to work, Owen goes to school, and we’ll Amazingly, when we got to the school and went to the playground (it was outdoor time), the teachers greeted him and waved at him and Owen happily waved back with a smile and “Hi!”.  They opened up their arms for a hug and he went straight to hug them.  Then he turned around, cocked his head to one side, and with a huge grin, said, “Mommy, bye bye!” with a wave.  I just stood there in disbelief.  Then it was a wave of relief and gratitude to God for helping Owen adjust to quickly.  It’s only been 8 days since he first started daycare and he has adjusted well beyond my wildest imagination.  My baby is really growing up. *happy tears*

It is finally here…the time when Owen will be old enough to start causing trouble. He drew on our master bedroom’s bed sheets today and it only took a few seconds!

I was looking at something on the computer and the next moment when I turned around, he had already “decorated” the sheets.  My initially response was of course a loud “Owen, no no!” Then remembered all the articles I had read about not saying no, but rather explaining what he/she can do.  So I calmed down and tried to explain to him that you can only draw on paper.  I don’t know if he understands…we’ll see.  Sherwood asked him why I had given him a pen and I said I gave him a pencil, but somehow he got a hold of a pen and that was what he ended up using. Luckily, we were still able to wash the ink off.

The incident doesn’t end here though.  When Sherwood came home from school yesterday, he noticed the marks and asked Owen who drew on the sheets.  To my surprise, Owen lied and said “Mommy.” Now that was not acceptable.  We firmly told him that if he did it, he should say he did it, and not lie about it.  It’s unbelievably hard to explain to a 2.5 year old the concept of lying.  We did the best we could…he seems to understand as he later said “Owen” when posed the same question.

I personally expect many more of these incidents to happen, so I  need to read up on what to do when they do and how to teach him the virtue of honesty.

*Sigh* Yesterday was the worst day for Owen to start day care, but I had no choice as his caretaker - my aunt-in-law - was leaving for TW today.

Two main reasons:
1) We actually had a snow storm (by NC definition - a few inches) on Tuesday and since it has lingered in the 20’s, the road conditions were not great yesterday morning.

2) The day care had a flooding over the weekend, and thus had to moved to a temporary site, so Owen would be at a new environment (what I was trying to avoid by having him sit in the class for a few days) and I would not be able to see him during his first few days via webcam.

As we braved the road conditions, I hit black ice along the way and had a spinout.  Was initially on the left lane of a 3-lane road and ended up facing the opposite direction on the right lane.  Thanks to God there was no cars behind us (know God was protecting us because that’s a busy road) so we managed to manuever back to the left lane but I was clearly shakened.  Didn’t think Owen was affected until this morning, on our way to day care, he kept on repeating, “Mommy, no spinning, no spinning.”  Poor little guy.

In any case, Owen did not cry when I left him with the teachers (he was too caught up in observing his new surrounding).  According to the daily report, the teacher wrote “Owen had a great day all things considered.  He has cried off and on today.  When we transition to something new that he’s not familiar with, he gets a little upset.  Tomorrow will be a much better day now that he’s getting the routine down. Great job, Owen!” He ate most of lunch (Turkey & cheese sandwich on wheat) and all of his snack (wafers & cookies) so he did do pretty well for his first day!

Great news! God is - as always faithful - He answered my seemingly impossible prayer and created a space for Owen at the day care center!

I called the center again this morning to see what position we are at and the answer was once again, disappointing - 3rd (registered back in Sept or so). However, this time, the person provided another glimpse of hope when she suggested that I try the other branches. I did not realize that I could simultaneously be on the waiting list for all of the branches in the area (no one told me). Even though I was not hopeful and assumed the waiting list would be as long as the one we’ve been on, at this point, I am willing to try anything so I asked her if she could help me get on the waiting list for the two other locations (one in Cary, another in Durham) and she said sure, that all she had to do was forward my application to the two locations.

Not long after, I received a call at work from the Durham location informing of the great news - they had just opened up a new class for the 2 year olds and can offer us a spot right away! I was ecstatic and am so thankful to God that He - once again - heard my urgent plea and created a miracle. Even better is the fact that currently, the class is not full (only 12 rather than the max of 16) so Owen can receive extra attention (there is a huge difference between 1:6 vs 1:8), at least initially. Here are some pics of the school:http://www.kidsrkidsrtp.com/photoGallery.php. It also has secure web cam so I can “see” Owen” whenever I want.

Another note: Owen is having some major jet lag…he woke up at 5am this morning, went back to sleep at around 7am, did not wake up til noon. Then after lunch, at 3pm, aunt-in-law suggested they go upstairs to play and Owen replied, “No, so tired, go upstairs to sleep.” He did not get up until 7pm. That’s why I wanted to give him a few days before he starts school.

The weekend trip to the mountain was really not well planned, in deed not planned at all, the decision to go was quickly made by the two decision makers few hours before the trip, fortunately Owen has been cooperative for the most part, he was sleeping most of the time on the road and didn’t miss too much of the action. Since we didn’t research well for the trip, we totally screwed up the timing (it was still a bit earlier than the peak season) and also missed several beautiful spots near Boone NC.

Not being first time to the mountains (remember our last trip report to Canadian rockies?), owen quickly adjusted himself from a city boy to a nature lover, and showed his profound love for the adventure, he even waved to the Elk next to the road.

As far as the highlight of the day trip, two things were stuck in my mind.. one is the great find of Thai Orchid restaurant near Hickory (the Spicy noodle and Thai chicken really broke my happiness meter), and the other being Four Point hotel at Asheville (it blew away my low expectation for a Four Point hotel by seeing the modern furniture and a big LCD screen, plus free cookies and drink)

As usual, enjoy the photos.

A month ago, I received my weekly newsletter from BabyCenter which stated:

Variety is the spice of 2-year-old life. Your child needs exposure to all kinds of playthings and places to stimulate his developing brain.”

Now that statement is burned into my mind and I try to expose Owen to as many different things and places as I possibly can.

Our first trip that weekend was to visit our nearby park. Daddy was busy, so it was just Owen baby and I. It was a pretty sunny day with breeze so the canoes and kayaks were out. Needless to say, I took advantage of these stimuli and urged Owen to explore them. I have to come to realize, however, that Owen is quite timid when it comes to new things…he is afraid of them and needs coaxing before he would even come near them. I attribute this to our (grandparents as well as myself) over-protectiveness when he was younger. We will work to help Owen becoming more daring.

As you can see from the pics, Owen did finally get into the kayak and canoe! (of course Mommy had to get in it first to show him that it won’t hurt him).