Report card from daycare

Yesterday, I sat down with Olivia's teacher, H, to go over her progress at daycare. H reported that Olivia is very smart, has a beautiful vocabulary and speaks really well. She plays well with others, is very independent and understands instruction.

H said that Olivia could understand 2 part instructions which is impressive for a 2 year old. For example, if she is told to take off her shoes and put them in the box, she can complete it. Most 2 year old can only do the first part - take off shoes.

Olivia knows all her colors and shapes. If H ask her to pick out a blue square, she can do it and it is not an easy task for a 2 year old to know the color AND the shape. She is involved in class activities and interact well with the other kids. Best of all, Olivia has a good memory. She knows the answer to a subject that the class discussed a month ago.

The only thing that we have to work on is when she gets frustrated or if another kid takes her toy, she would sometimes bite, instead of using her words. Biting is a pretty common behaviour among toddlers and they will eventually grow out of it.

H thinks that Olivia is advanced for her age and sometimes H is surprised that Olivia is only 2!

In a nutshell, Olivia is doing GREAT!! Hubby said it is a tradition that if you can a good report card, you get to go out for ice cream. Will Olivia get to have ice cream? :)

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Hong bao na lai.....

Elmo is here!

Olivia was invited to a classmate's birthday party last weekend. There were about 10 children there and they were playing and jumping before having a snack. As usual, the snack was pizza.

After that, there was a young man who provided some fun activities like blowing balloon animals, tattoo and face painting. For the balloon animals, Olivia requested a dog.

Then, instead of getting her face painted, she got her hand painted. She chose a dog image again....Hhhmmm....I'm beginning to see a trend here.

Then came the highlight of the party....Elmo came for a visit!! Olivia was very excited to see Elmo, she danced and hugged Elmo and was not afraid of him at all. It was great to see her have such fun with Elmo.

Most of the kids there were afraid though....hehe. Some of them ran to their mommies and won't let go until Elmo left.

I was thinking if Elmo is 4 feet tall instead of 6 feet, would the kids be more receptive?? hehe....

Introducing Molly Mouse

Molly muppet mouse is Olivia's latest favourite toy. Olivia was first introduced to Molly Mouse when I registered her for a music and movement program at our local library. The star of the program is Molly Mouse.

At the 45 minute program geared towards children aged 18 months - 4 years, they sing songs, play and there is story time with Molly Mouse. She has been to the program a few times and is really into Molly Mouse.

She received this Molly Mouse puppet as a Hanukkah gift from my in-laws. It comes with a house for Molly Mouse and a CD with music.

She loved it so much that she put Molly Mouse on her hand the whole night, even while playing with her cousins, as you can see from the photo below.

She even took it to daycare one day to show off....lol.

Primping Miss Olivia

When it comes to dressing up Olivia in very nice clothes or doing something nice with her hair, I'm just not the best person. Because I'm not the type to spend a lot of time on what I wear and on my hair, I don't do that on her.

She has clothes but not the really nice ones where you wear to a function cos she goes to daycare and they get dirty anyway. As for my hair, practical and fast is my motto. Roll out of bed, do a good comb and out the door is the style I keep. No curling iron, no tying it up, no nothing. Therefore I don't do anything for Olivia's hair either.

That being said, I decided to go shopping for some hair accessories for her since I want to let her fringe and hair grow out a bit. These are what I got and I can't believe it costs me almost $15! I also just noticed all of them are in pastel colors...ugh.

Anyway, 2 days ago was Olivia's daycare picture day. I decided to 'dress' up her hair with one of the bows. Pretty nice, eh??

My massage experience

Remember I received a gift card to a massage place for my birthday? Well, I finally got the chance to redeem my 1 hour massage over the holiday week. I'm excited as this is the first time I'm getting a massage.

The place is only 5 minutes from our house. My masseuse is a male. He led me to a room with dimmed lights and soft music. The room feels very cozy and relaxing and the bed is heated. After getting undress, I got under the sheets.

The masseuse came in and started the massage. He had to tell me to relax a couple of times. I guess he could feel the tension on my body. The hour went by quickly and the massage was done. It was not ticklish at all.

The verdict: I like it! It actuallly made me feel calmer and even tempered for a few days afterwards.

It would be great if I could have a massage every month but it is not cheap. As this is an introductory offer, the cost was $49. The regular one hour massage is $98 + gratuity. Unfortunately I could not afford to do that every month.

Now....if hubby would like me to be in a better mood regularly, I guess he better know what to do since Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and our Anniversary is coming up....*wink* :)

"I want to be a baby"

This was what Olivia told me when she saw the activity mat that she had used as an infant. She took it out and wanted me to put together.

Here she is pretending to be a baby.

Happy 2009

Wishing my family, relatives, friends, bloggers and readers a Happy and Healthy New Year!!