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!

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*

Not mine…a girl’s.

Today, my two aunties (Mommy’s younger cousins) took me to the library for our usual storytime sessions. We got there late so we missed the session but we stayed there for a little while to read books.

While I was reading, there was a 21-month-old American gorgeous little girl who noticed me and kept glancing my way. She finally inched her way towards me, greeted me with a cheerful “Hi!” and wanted to stay by my side to read with me. Unfortunately, I do not have a thing for her so I mumbled “Hello” reluctantly at the urging of my aunties and then turned my back toward her (not forgetting to take my book with me so I can continue reading without interruption). Mommy said that wasn’t very nice and I should share, but she should know that feelings can not be forced…there’s just no chemistry between the two of us!!!

There was another girl that was also interested in me but she’s too young even to be considered.

*Sigh* I am only 2 and I already have to fight off the girls…what am I going to do when I grow up?! ;P

Yippey! I’m so excited!! I bathed in the REAL bathtub for the first time today!

As usual, Mommy was going to fill up my “baby tub” but I wouldn’t let her. I kept on telling her to put it away. She tried a couple of times (mainly because she can save some water ;P but also because she was afraid for whatever reason, I may lose my posture and go under) but I wouldn’t give in so finally she did and filled up the big tub. I kind of changed my mind after Mommy filled up 1/3 of the tub since it looks kind of intimidating and hesitated in going in but she was determined not to waste water, so she put me in despite my protests. After getting in though, it wasn’t so bad after all! It’s just like the good old times, except now I have much more leg room…it’s actually like having my own miniature pool!

I am starting to run out of things to play with though…already know the alphabets like the back of my hand so the foam letters are not fun anymore. Think Mommy is thinking of getting me bath crayons…;P

Owen helped someone broke the record - on the day he visited NC Zoo for his time, so call the largest nature habitat zoo - NC zoo had a a record day of visitors, totally 32K people visited zoo during the weekend.

It was a hot day, but obviously the 1.5 year old is not so hot about the zoo, he felt asleep before even seeing the sleeping lions (don’t know why, this is the 2nd time we saw the lions in NC zoo, the lions were sleeping when visited last time). Fortunately we get enough photos before he started day-dreaming…

So here is bit of advice, if you do plan to bring your little baby travel, make sure you plan the schedule to cover the things you want him/her to do/see in the morning.  Sleeping is very contiguous - by 2pm, we have seen most parents/grandparents were carrying sleeping children (in very many sleeping poses)…

Technically, it’s not really a preschool, since Owen is far away from kindergarten, but it is the first time he will be cared for outside of our home. Grandparents Yao are going back to China next Monday, and although praise and thank God we found the ideal caretaker for him (an experienced mom of 3 in her 30’s who has a degree in child development who is bilingual, and who would only be taking care of a max of 3 boys - her 2.5 yr son, Owen, and another boy who would only be part-time), we had to wait until this week to get Owen acquainted with her.

We decided to take Owen to the caretaker’s home just mornings this week to somewhat ease Owen into the routine. Frankly, I was REALLY worried and anxious about dropping him off this week since Owen has very strong stranger anxiety (first reaction when he sees any strangers in our house - even if they are not even attempting to touch him - is to cry).

So on Monday, I stayed with him during the 2 hours we were there….during the first 30 mins to an hour, he would not leave my side since he realized that it was a new environment. I quickly came to realize that I need to “disappear” in order to force him to adjust, so while he was temorarily mesmerized by the other kids, I sneaked away upstairs. Our caretaker swiftly took over the pacifying when Owen realized that I was gone and started crying. To my surprise, it was very brief. He quickly got sidetracked by other activities, for the next hour or so, would only cry when he periodically remembered Mommy, and cried for me, “mama, mama” but then again would be distracted by other things very soon.

So yesterday, I did not stay long before I was “shoo”ed away from the caretakeer…she took him aside and said that I could go, and that he would cry only briefly. As hard as it was to see him cry, I know it’s a stage he has to go through, so I left as instructed. A later call to the caretaker reassured me that Owen was indeed happily going about his business. ;P When I picked him up yesterday noon, it was the cutest thing; I saw him as soon as I made the turn onto the street since the caretaker was holding him standing in the driveway and he was not crying, yet as soon as she pointed to my car coming down the street and he recognized my car and me, he started crying! It was as if he wanted to tell me how much he missed me! The same thing happened today when his Daddy dropped him off.

The only catch now is that Owen is very cautious - he won’t eat or drink anything from someone who he doesn’t trust yet. So…he has still yet to eat or drink something that the caretaker gives him (even if it’s a food or drink that he usually loves). Our guess - and hope - is that by next week, when he will be there for the entire day, he will have no choice but to eat/drink due to hunger/thirst.

I’m a proud Mommy - came home from work today and Grandpa Yao happily told me that Owen “poop-poop”ed in the potty this morning! To make sure that I shared in the joy and witnessed this historical event, Grandpa and Grandma Yao deliberately saved the poop for me to see (despite the fact that it was stinking up their bathroom ;P ). Being a Mom, I almost went running for my camera to take a picture of this poop for memory sake!

I asked Grandpa Yao if Owen got scared when the potty started singing and he said no, though he did find it very amusing! Hopefully, that will encourage him to go running to the potty next time he has an urge to poop!

I am already getting a taste of the terrible two stage..and Owen is not even 18 months yet!

From knocking off bowls from tables, flicking food off the spoon, to smacking people and tearing books (as can be seen in the image below), little sweet Owen has been scolded quite often recently. He’s a real keen observer of a person’s mood based on his/her expressions…here’s usually what happens:
1) Owen does something wrong.
2) Mommy reprimands him.
3) Owen stop what he’s doing and looks at Mommy with a serious “uh-oh I did something wrong” face.
4) Owen then tries to lighten up the mood by smiling at Mommy, calling “Mommy” sweetly, hugging/kissing Mommy, or climbing onto Mommy’s laps.
5) If Mommy can’t hold her laughter and gives in, then Owen wins and he’s a happy camper.
If Mommy manages to keep a stern look, Owen starts looking down at the floor and all around - everywhere but avoids looking into Mommy’s eyes (as he is doing here in the picture).

He also doesn’t dare move around - he will stay exactly where he was when he got scolded. He will remain there with roaming eyes until Mommy softens her voice and holds out her hand to hold Owen.
6) Owen happily smiles and calls Mommy and comes over to be held.

Funny thing is the above process only takes place IF Owen knows he did something he shouldn’t have. When he thinks you have wrongfully accused him, he will cry.

Have to admit - despite his ability to constantly get in trouble nowadays, he is still helplessly adorable with his toddler talk. He learns words so fast now, especially in English. I have noticed that it is much easier for Owen to pick up English vocabulary than Chinese…for the past two days, he has been walking around alternating between “What” and “Watch”. Today, while Grandma Hong was saying goodbye to Owen on Skype, Owen imitated after Grandma and replied, “Bye bye”. Grandma Hong was so surprised - as was I since that was the first time he said “bye bye”!

Oct 31, I think everyone with children knows what that day is. (Jane said Christian is not supposed to celebrate it, but anyway, we have to make exceptions)
Thanks to Owen, now we are no longer the household that can only provide candies, we are also the consumers!! With Owen being the leverage, a so cute version after we dressed him in the pooh-bear costume, it is not hard at all to get candies.

Leaving auntie staying at home base to serve other children candy, five body guards (two parents, two grandparents, and jane’s cousin) escorted the King Owen to sweep my neighbor-hood. People nowadays are too generous, our little basket became full after we just visited the neighbors in the cul-de-sac, not wanting to waste too many candies since we don’t want to eat that, so we called it a day. Don’t think Owen knows what is the thing people given to him, too him, these are a full basket of “toys” which can kept him busy for a while (Owen likes to dump the candies from the basket and then put them back one by one, what a organized kid!!)