Liv's 1st Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring especially Dad, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas or Mom soon would be there;

This is Olivia's first Christmas and boy did she score! I've not seen anyone receive so many presents before! Presents ranges from cute girly clothes to trendy hip outfits, from first time walking shoes to Cinderella Crocs, from Hawaiian sing along songbooks to storybooks that were accompanied with the stuffed-toy character itself!

We celebrated Christmas as early as Thanksgiving. Dad had rushed out to buy Christmas tree to decorate so that we can take family photos with Grandma & Grandpa Feldman, Auntie Sharon & Uncle Ryan before they traveled back home. We also made sure to take a photo with all grandparents as seen here. Olivia is blessed to have all her grandparents there to help celebrate her 1st winter holiday.

Feldman Family

Auntie Sharon & Uncle Ryan

Grandparents

As we neared Christmas itself, we again celebrated a little on the early side with Ai-Yi and Uncle Erick the night before they left for their traditional winter adventure (last year Egypt & Jerulsalem, this year the Galapagos islands).

Wong Family

We also got to open presents early with our good friends the Chan family & the Law family. We were sad to be missing the Murray family this year, but we hope that there will be plenty of Christmases to celebrate all together in the future. Miranda was very helpful in opening presents for the younger girls. Logan is probably going to write to Santa next year for a boy playmate in this group.

**Click on photo to enlarge**

Then we celebrated again with great food at Dlou & Aylang's house. Olivia got to meet Naomi, Isaac, Elisabeth (aka Bit-Bit), Tadem and Braydon (exactly 20 days younger than Liv) for the first time. There Elisabeth (aka Bit-Bit) helped feed Olivia. We didn't get a chance to take photos of Naomi, Isaace & Tadem with Olivia. We'll try New Year's Eve or Day.

Liv, Braydon & Aunt Claudia

Liv, Mom & Bit-Bit

Liv & Braydon

Dad surprised us yesterday by giving away his schedule. So we all settled in on Christmas Eve and woke up to stuffed stockings. We want to wish all our family and friends a Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy Happy Hanukkah!

Nice To Meet You St. Nick!

Today we took Olivia to meet Santa. I was a little concerned (okay more like anal) about where to take Olivia as I wanted to make sure that Santa really looks like Santa. Dave was about to call around and ask if their Santas have real or fake beards and if they are skinny or plump! haha. But we took our chance per the feedback from Dave's colleague and went to Hillsdale Shopping Center. Right after her late morning feeding, we took off to the mall in anticipation of a long line. When we got there there Santa was finishing a photo op and no one else was in line! Yea! So we sat Olivia on his lap, he was a very friendly Santa and took some photos. Since there was no one in line, we tried to get Olivia to smile, but she wouldn't have any of it. To be fair, we had just woken her up from a nice nap in the car (she loves falling asleep during car rides). It took a lot of will power for me not to stay there cooing and picking up Olivia to make her smile for her photo. Santa and his helpers (which by the way are no longer dressed like elves but regular people...what happened to the elves from when we were little, helping Santa?) seemed like they'd be patient, but I didn't want to embarrass my hubby with my occasional OCD. Besides, the photo we ended up choosing is a very good representation of Olivia's "what the heck are you doing to me now" look. Can't wait for next year when she has her screaming/crying face expression on Santa's lap! Oh, aside from the missing elves, they do not give out candy canes there. Instead they give you a coupon for a free loaf of bread from Boudin's with any purchase! What the heck?! I want my candy cane!

2 Month Check Up

Today we went for Olivia's 2 month check up. We always make appointments for 8:15am so that we can avoid patient traffic (with it being sickly season and all), but also because she's our Morning Bird. She was doing great, having been fed and out and about, with her smiles in tow. All smiles until it was time for Dr. Tanaka to do her checks on Olivia. For the next 10 minutes she not only cried with big drops of tears, but screamed her head off. Not only did she scream, but she demonstrated her ability to scream louder as the seconds passed! Now this is before her 2 month vaccinations (1 oral, 2 needles). By the time the nurse came to our room to give the shots, Olivia managed to calm down and was dozing. When laid back down on the exam table she began to cry again. So we were all bracing for the screams, but to our bewilderment, the nurse gave her her 2 shots, Olivia screamed some more until I held her and she quieted right down in less than 30 seconds! After that she looked a little sullen, but went back to dozing. So odd! Just goes to show...you never know!

Here are her 2 Month stats (click for 1 Month):
Head: 39 cm (70 percentile)
Length: 22 3/4 inches (70 percentile)
Weight: 12 lbs (80 percentile) --eesh, within 1 month she got bumped up ~20 percentile...I better lay off the Vanilla Breve Lattes....


Last Wednesday, Dec 2nd, marked her 8th week. We too our "monthly" photos then, versus today. We are trying to do similar shots so that we can compare them (click for 1 Month) later on in terms of her growth and development.

Olivia and Boo the Bear

Mommy * Olivia * Daddy

Olivia

Ms. Sunshine

Olivia Cam

Here's a video for all you Olivia fans. It's a little long (~2 mins) and you really don't see much until halfway through, but it's worth the wait!

I wish we can have a camera on her 24/7 because she does the cutest smiles and coo's. She's also very good at tracking and is very nosy and wanting to know what is going on. We now have her on the bouncer you see in this video because she doesn't mind sitting in it and falling asleep in it. I think it's because she's more upright and can see what is going on. Just today she started paying more attention to the doggies hanging from the bar. I feel like I need to find something a little more interesting and interactive to keep her interest.

**Lower your volume - nothing interesting, just jibberish from her fan club.