Monthly Archives: June 2013
Lily June Videos
Lily (1 year, 2 weeks, 1 day old) really likes to blow raspberries with her mouth. It’s so cute when she does it, but hopefully it won’t turn into a habit. While she was on her spitting rampage, she got tired and looks like she’s drunk, it’s so cute to see her do the things she does!
One of Lily (1 Year 3 weeks & 3 days old) favorite games right now is Peek-A-Boo!!!! So cute and amazing how more mature she seems while playing this game! Our baby is growing up so fast!!! *sniff sniff* Here’s 2 cute videos of her playing Peek-A-Boo. The second video is with her official red “Peek-A-Boo cloth”!
Khoa and I discovered today that our silly Lily (1 Year 3 weeks & 5 days old) pad has a favorite show, and the star of the show is none other than HERSELF!! She LOVES watching herself on the big screen! HAHA. I love her silliness!!! Warning, you might wanna turn down the volume…she gets pretty excited haha!!
Happy Father’s Day Khoa!
Happy Father’s Day Khoa!! Everyone knows that I (Jacqueline) write pretty much everything on this blog/website. So I wanted to change things up for this post, and have Khoa write it, and reflect on his 1st year as a daddy! =) That being said, I do want to say that I cannot be more lucky to have such a wonderful, amazing and loving husband, best friend, and father to Lily. The rest of this post, is written by Khoa, enjoy! =)
The following is a letter to Lily with Khoa’s perspective around her 1st birthday.
To my precious baby Lily,
I know that even before beginning to write this, it will be tough to express how I feel using words. From the moment that I found out you were on the way, to the emotion-filled second that you entered this world, I kept pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was finally going to have a tiny baby version of myself! A lot of people were surprised to find out that I have and will always love babies. Hopefully with the way I have nurtured and cared for you, people will no longer find that surprising. I never knew I could be as nervous as I was when mommy and I were waiting for the size percentiles from your ultrasounds or when mommy wasn’t feeling too well, since I know that mommy’s health affects her and you. You couldn’t imagine the relief I felt when you came kicking and screaming into this world as a healthy, beautiful baby girl. There’s a video around here somewhere and if you ever watch it, listen for my voice. I said your name twice when you finally arrived and if you listen closely enough, you can hear my voice crack the 2nd time because I was so overwhelmed with joy that you were finally here!
From that moment until now, you have brought mommy and me through a wild rollercoaster of memories. Everyone says babies get sick all the time and it really isn’t that big a deal unless the fever is extremely high. Of course hearing that and experiencing it is much, much different. I remembered trying to resist taking your temperature every 10 minutes to look for any signs of improvement and really trying hard to resist calling Dr. Wang since I knew the answer would be, “call back if the fever goes above XXXX or if the fever continues for 2-3 days.” Deep down inside, I think I knew you would eventually be fine but you will see what I mean one day when I say that doesn’t help how panicked I was at the time. I remember the night you couldn’t sleep because of your stuffy nose; I read online that if we laid your head up just a little bit, the nose would clear up enough for you to sleep comfortably. No matter how I tried to prop your head up with a pillow, you would just roll over and start crying since your nose would stuff right back up. So that night I just had you sleep next to me on the couch with your head propped up against my arm. I remembered watching you sleep peacefully after crying most of the night and thinking my staying up is such a small price compared to the prize of knowing I am helping you relax and get the rest that you as a baby desperately needed. I realized at that moment that my feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, disappointment etc… were forever tied to and dependent upon you. The Mastercard commercials (I don’t know if they’re still airing them by the time you read this) are so cheesy but they are completely accurate. Most of the things in this world cost money, but the things that truly matter and the things that bring you the most joy are priceless. Your first smile, your first laugh, your first roll, your first steps and I’m sure your first everything are moments that I could never put any type of value on since they were and will always be priceless.
Love, Daddy Khoa
Lily’s Father’s Day Gift for her Daddy!
My first celebrated father’s day.
This was actually my 2nd father’s day but Lily was only a week old last year so we didn’t get a chance to celebrate. Now that Lily is a whole year older, it is much easier for us to go out and enjoy ourselves with and without her. Jackie surprised me both mornings by waking up to feed Lily like a ninja; I didn’t even wake up until much much later. On Saturday morning, we took Lily to her music class (which is always really fun to watch) and then headed over to my aunt’s house to celebrate my grandfather’s father’s day. Jackie made an arrangement earlier on with my parents to watch Lily so we could go celebrate a bit without Lily. Jackie gave me a choice between shooting and watching a movie. This past year with Lily has taught me many things but one of the biggest lessons is how much I undervalued relaxing, so I opted with the less exhilarating but more relaxing movie-watching. We watched the Internship (I originally wanted Man of Steel but didn’t want to wait in line); it was a nice light-hearted comedy which was perfect. No need watching a movie that required my brain to do any thinking! After that we went back to my Aunt’s house where we just relaxed until evening. They have a very nice backyard made to look like a beach getaway complete with tiki torches, lounge chairs, and of course a pool. It really is the perfect place to just lay down and waste a whole afternoon doing nothing. When we got home, Jackie had the idea that I wasn’t completely happy with the movie choice so she let me choose another movie to watch at home. I chose Django Unchained. I know it came out a while ago but it’s really tough to watch a movie with a baby… people don’t like it when a screaming child ruins their movie going experience. Just kidding, we haven’t brought Lily to the theatres, yet….. Anyways, Django is a really good movie but I wouldn’t recommend it for the kids! The only thing is that the movie was 2 hrs 40 mins so we were pretty tired by the time it was over. We knocked out pretty fast and I didn’t wake up until Jackie’s parents were almost over for their weekly Sunday morning visit. We went out to eat at P.F. Changs for Jackie’s Father’s day (and mines too I guess since I got to choose the place). Afterwards Jackie’s parents hung out for a little bit and then left. We had some more time to kill before church and Lily was fast asleep so we watched another movie that my co-worker recommended: Pitch Perfect. It was another lighthearted comedy but it also included some pretty decent acapella music. The movie was pretty funny and even though I tend to hate these kinds of movies, I thought it wasn’t bad. This is where Jackie would chime in and say “Pshh, you’re such a movie snob.” Anyways, after church Jackie had a surprised dinner planned at “The Vintage Steakhouse” in San Juan Capistrano. She purchased a deal but unfortunately the deal isn’t good on holidays. I never thought Father’s Day was considered a holiday but oh well. We just decided to come back another time and went to eat at a Shabu Shabu place we really like in Fullerton. We both had work the next morning so by the time we got home we decided to call it a weekend and knocked out. We already planned out when we are going back to the Vintage so this Father’s Day is to be continued…
I have the feeling Jackie feels like we didn’t do enough for father’s day but I keep trying to convince her that for me, and I think for many guys, sometimes all I want to do is sit down, relax and not do anything. The fact that I got to “do nothing” with my wife and beautiful daughter is a super added bonus and it made my father’s day celebration more than I could have asked for. Thank you Jackie for planning out what I call the perfect father’s day weekend.
Toddler??
I just realized today that Lily is no longer an infant, but a toddler…sadness =(
Lily’s 1 Year Check-Up
Lily (1 year and 2 days old) got her 1 year check up yesterday! She weighed in at 18.1 pounds which is actually in the 5 percentile (so small!!!). Lily eats a lot too but I guess not enough! So the doctor told us to not give Lily whole milk just yet, but give her stage 2 (toddler 9-24 month) formula for about 3 months and add 5 more ounces of milk to her daily intake and reduce the amount of solids. Her head circumference is 17.5 inches (28%) which he said is good, and she stretches 29 inches long which is around 40%! Lilyd fell asleep while waiting for the doctor so when he finally came in, he was able to check her ear and nose while she was sleeping haha. He said everything else looks pretty good, we just need to work on her weight. It’s amazing how much she changed because just 3 months ago at her 9 month check up, she was almost about 50% in everything. I guess her metabolism is just too fast or something, time to fatten her up! haha. Next comes the shots! We decided to let her sleep while they give her the two shots she’s supposed to get, and this is what happens, poor baby, but what a trooper!! 2 minutes later she was smiling and happy again! Yay!!!
Lily’s 1st Birthday!
Happy 1st Birthday to our previous Lily pad!!! When Lily was born, she was 6 1/2 pounds, 19 inches and pretty much slept all day. I remember having to always wake her up for feeding times. Now, Lily weighs 18 pounds, and stretches 27 inches tall and she developed quite a spunky personality! She is already walking, playing, eating solids really well, and is oh so vocal! She still loves to sleep and eat, but she now also loves to party and explore! Still, I cannot believe that it has already been a year since our little baby was born into this whole and filled our hearts with more love than we can ever imagine! I must say I have been planning her party ever since she was born! haha! I even bought her birthday dress a few months after she was born! Also, how convenient is it that her birthday lands on a Saturday?! I wanted to make sure that her very first birthday was super special and so I didn’t hold back and totally went all out for her celebration! Even though I know Lily won’t remember any of this, at least we will have the memories and have lots of pictures and video to show her later! We are so grateful for all our friends and family who helped us prepare for this special day, and we are so thankful for everyone coming to celebrate Lily’s birthday! We are the luckiest parents in the world, to not only have such a wonderful group of people who love Lily almost as much as we do, but for having such a sweet, smart, irresistibly lovable baby in our life!
We hired an amazing balloon twister from a company called Super Inflated, we saw one Emmy’s birthday party and we just had to have one for Lily’s, and she was a huge hit with all the kids, big and small =P. We also had a DIY photobooth where I made all the 2D props and Natalia lent us her equipment and helped us set it all up!! IT was a lot of work so we really appreciate all your help Natalia! We also set up a fun bubble station, ball pit tent with tunnel, and basketball hoop play area for all the kids! That definitely occupied the kids while the adults mingled and it also burned out a lot of the kids’ energies, you’re welcome! =P We ordered tons of Vietnamese food and my mom made her famous pasta salad and my aunt made her yummy fried rice! We bought a bunch of fruit and stuck them on skewers for our rainbow fruit skewers, and I also baked all the yummy goodies for Lily’s dessert station! I made French Vanilla Mini Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Frosting, Oreo Truffles (thanks Natalia for dipping them!!), and 6 types of Macarons (rose, mango, lemon, macha green tea, vanilla, and raspberry)! Since her party was held at the pavilion in front of our house, I made her a display cake instead of a real cake because I didn’t want it to melt in the heat. We ordered a mixed berry cake from Givral, that wasn’t decorated since we were just going to cut it up and serve it! We also got two small special cakes for our niece Ngan, and cousin Mimi since the 8th is also Ngan’s birthday, and the day before (the 7th) was Mimi’s birthday!!
We had tons of balloons everywhere since her theme was Up inspired that eventually turned into a rainbow theme with cute owls with an earthy feel haha. Auntie Jennifer made a really nice banner from her pre-birthday celebration in Canada back in April. I also made another banner myself since we had a lot of space to display banners, and Pixar’s Up inspired centerpieces. Khoa was a huge help in making the goodie bags for the kids! These bags are filled with movable dinosaur erasers, color pencils, puzzle blocks, squeezable rabbit heads with popping eyes, flute whistles and a fun polka dot pinwheel! Roger and Khoa was also a big help in filling up the mason cookie jar favors as well! There are 4 types of flavors for the favors, chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nuts, oatmeal raisins, and brownies! We also had personalized water bottle labels with normal size water bottles and cute little baby water bottles, after all, it is Lily’s party! =) I also hung pictures of Lily from this past year and had a little fun fact about her behind each photo! I’ve also been singing to Lily the birthday song days before her party so that she would be familiar with the song, so that way when everyone sings it at her party, she won’t get startle by the loud noise and be excited instead!! Hehe. Also, thanks Chi Hai for the amazing tip to buy the white plastic dessert tray/plates from Party City! They’re very light weight, looks really nice, is a really good size, and most of all CHEAP! It’s so convenient and it’ll make your display looking fabulous without breaking the bank on fancy ceramic plates! So if anyone needs nice plates to display their yummy treats on, go to Party City! I also had a Jenga Guest Sign-In where each person gets to take a piece from the Jenga tower, and sign a birthday wish for Lily! They have to be careful not to make the tower fall though otherwise Lily’s birthday wish won’t come true!
Lily had a special Smash Cake session a few days before her birthday so we can capture her first time eating cake! Also, this is convenient because not only do we get super nice photos from it, but it allows Lily to get all frosted up and covered with cake goodness, and then we can hose her down and not worry about time or keeping her party guests waiting while we do so! We also took family photos the weekend before Lily’s birthday to document out first year with our precious baby! Our photographer Janet was also our wedding photographer who also did our engagement photos (5 years ago!) and so it was a great way to complete this cycle but having her take out 1 year family milestone photos! We took photos at this great venue called the Monteleone Meadows in Murrieta, and we got super lucky that a wedding was going to take place later that day because we got to take advantage of all their pretty decorations! They had this cool vintage looking chair right as the dock of the pond, and they had a cute dresser that Lily was very fond of as well. The venue was beautiful and it provide a variety of locations for shots! We then went to Havertown Park to take photos with Lily and balloons and bubbles and she sure does love the bubbles!! We then went back to Janet’s house for her in-house studio for the cake smash session! A special gift we got for Lily was that our friends David and Drexelle offered to take photos of Lily’s birthday party along with some portraits of Lily! They have their own successful photography business at D. Park Photography, and they also did Lily’s newborn photos! Thank you so much for these wonderful pictures that forever documents Lily’s 1st birthday!!! I made her cake myself, it’s French Vanilla with swiss meringue frosting. The inside of the cake is 6 layers, with each layer being one color of the rainbow! I embellished her cupcake cake with some fondant flowers and a butterfly on top. I added gold trimming to the flowers and butterfly for some added elegance!
We actually did a second smash cake session because we wanted a more white and brighter background, so her second cake that I made her had normal buttercream frosting since it was softer by nature and we hope it’ll stick to her face better =P. When we first put her in front of the cake, she literally just ignored it and kept crawling right past it and towards us! haha. It’s so funny but it made sense since she has NO idea what sweet deliciousness sat right in front of her! So we had to help her along and took and frosting and put it in her mouth. She loved it! However, she didn’t “smash” the cake or grab it herself. She’s quite a diva and we ended up having to break apart the cake ourselves and then feed it to her haha. A few times she did seem quite excited and waved her arms in the air and rubbed the cake all over her arms…Overall, it was a lot of fun memories to watch her enjoy her first birthday cake!! Thank you SO MUCH to our photographer Janet from Purely Capitvating Photography and to Mieng Saetia for taking these beautiful cake smash photos!!! The turnaround on these photos were amazingly fast and we appreciate all the hard work and accommodations you’ve made just for our Lily pad!!! Thank you!!! More photos from these session to come!
Lily seemed to have a good time at her first birthday party. Even though she won’t remember it, I know we can one day show here these pictures and show her what we did for her! She partied pretty hard on Saturday and so she slept pretty long and didn’t get a chance to finish opening her gifts, so we had to wait till the next day to open most of her birthday presents and boy did it take a while! She sure has so many people who love her and not only because of all the gifts she got, but from all the people who came to share this celebration with her and us, and all the wishes she got from those who weren’t even able to make it. The day after giving birth to Lily, we had a celebratory dinner at the hospital. It came with these small bottles of sparkling cider and I thought it was so cute! We got a bunch of them, at least 5 bottles because Steve was able the nurse to give us more since we were having a big “party” in our room haha, and so I decided to save one bottle. I wanted to drink it after Lily was 1 month old, but then we forgot, so then I figured we’ll drink it at 3 months since that’s also our 3rd wedding anniversary, but I also forgot. So finally, I decided we’ll just wait till she’s 1 years old! Don’t worry, I checked the expiration date and it doesn’t expire till March 2015 =). So on her birthday guess what happened, I FORGOT!!! haha. So we FINALLY drank it the following day, which works out nicely because we had the celebratory dinner the day after she was born anyways! So I’m glad we finally got to celebrate that! =)
Lily with all her opened treasure!
Lily with her celebratory cider!
Mommy daughter matching toesies!
Words cannot describe how I feel about our little angel being 1 years old. She is the joy of our lives and she deserves the very best in everything. All our hard work, late nights, exhaustion, and stress is all worth it to see our baby have a great time and have a huge smile on her face the whole time! She also already watched her first Disney movie, only 1/3 of it, and it’s The Little Mermaid. She loves to sit on my lap with and watch while chomping away at cheerios from her snack catcher! I just watch her in amazing at how she’s slowly becoming a little toddler, and I just can’t get enough of how cute she does every little thing! I love that her forehead crinkles every time she takes a bite of her cheerios, more like stuff her mouth with 3-4 cheerios, and how she gives me sweet kisses on the cheek, and how she knows to say “mom” every time she wants something!! This first year has flown by and so much has happened with so many memories. She’s even has a career as a baby model and has made a good amount towards her college fund already! We can’t wait to see what other adventures Lily has in store for us. Each day is a blessing with her and we cannot ask for a better life than this! Happy 1st Birthday our sweet baby Lily! We love you to pieces, forever and a half times double infinity!!!
Throughout this past year, I’ve been taking video clips of Lily whether it was of milestones, tiny accomplishments, or her just being silly and being Lily! Jennifer pieced together an AMAZING video with some clips we took of her in her first year of life, and it is a great recap of how much joy and love she brought to all of us! Thank you SO much Jennifer for doing this and for creating such a memory time capsule for us! Enjoy this super cute video of our precious Lily pad! Happy 1st Birthday our baby doll! We love you so so so so much!!!!
Lily Turns One from J.N. on Vimeo.
Lily Dancing and Clapping!
Lily (1 year and 1 day old) was opening her presents from her birthday, and came across this toy (thanks Cindy & Daniel!) and look at her cute reaction!!! She recently learned to clap her hands too! I love the joy in her face!!!
Last Day of Year One!
Today is the last day of the first year of our precious baby Lily’s life! I can’t believe her very first birthday will be tomorrow, it has just zoomed by! Something exciting did happen yesterday though, she FINALLY drank from her straw cup!! I’ve been trying for a long time to get her to drink either from a sippy cup or a straw cup, and I bought different brands and styles too and FINALLY she’s able to drink from the Munchkin straw cup! She’s so cute doing so, as you can see in the video below! I’m so proud of you Lily, we are constantly amazed by you! She is also starting to wave goodbye (or hello) now too and her little hand is just too precious as it turns back and forth for her little wave! Keep it up Lily pad, you’re doing so great!!
Lily also has another photo up on the Infantino website! This 3rd one is the cutest one yet and she’s the 1st photo on the page!! She’s introducing the new Rattling Jittery Pal Lola!! I love how she’s smiling while teething on the toy! All these past 3 photos were from the same photo shoot back in March! Amazing!!
Lily with Snap & Pop Pals
I’m so excited to see Lily on another Infantino product online! My friend Sandy had to point it out to me too, I really need to be better at these discoveries! haha. Anyways, here she is on the website, click on this LINK, and you’ll see her in the second photo for these cute Snap & Pop Pals!! Yay!!
Lily’s Infantino Online Debut!
I’m so excited to share with all of you Lily’s debut on the Infantino website!!! She is playing with the Soft Safari Foam Puzzle that’s a newly released Infant Toy from Infantino! You can see her on the website by clicking on this LINK and then going to the “Photos” tab, and she’s the 3 photo!! =) This photo was taken back in March, look at those chubby cheeks!!! I’m so proud of our little baby model! <3
Walk On By
So a couple weeks ago I mentioned that Lily took a whopping 3 steps! Well yesterday when I was dropping Lily off at school, she took about 5 steps to her teacher! That was the max she’s done! Then at home she did the same. However, when I went to pick her up from school, her teachers were telling me that she’s trying really hard to take steps by herself and that she’s walking! And I was like walking???!! I mean she takes steps but when do you consider them walking? Her teacher told me that to them, once they’re able to take a step or two by themselves, that’s considered walking!! So apparently, Lily’s been “walking” for quite awhile now!! How did we miss this?? haha! Either way, she’s getting better and better each day! We’re so proud of her and it’s SUPER cute to watch her take those baby steps all be herself!! I attached her school report to officially document that she’s is now walking!! Lily also did a pre-birthday photoshoot this past Saturday, and here are a few previews! =) Enjoy!!
