Monthly Archives: February 2014
Bee Mine!
It’s the time of year again where everyone gets to shower each other with love! This year, Lily got to celebrate Valentine’s day for the first time at her school at LePort! Her teacher told me to bring 12 Valentine’s Day cards and write Lily’s name on all of them and they will distribute it to their kids. So I headed over to the awesome fancy 99 cent store, and found these super cute animal vday cards! It came with a bunch of stickers too, so I stuck 2 stickers on each card! I was very proud of myself because the cards were cute and it had stickers on it, what a nice bonus that is! So I pick Lily up from school on Thursday, and right next to her backpack is her decorated box of valentines with all her valentines in them. Then there’s a fancy cupcake box from Samuel. I was like WHOA, a cupcake for a valentine?! How sweet and ingenius is that?! I was blown away haha, and then when I got home and we looked inside her box of goodies, there were little packages of erasers, pencils, etc. I was like what?? Why are they going above and beyond! There was even a scratch and sniff valentine that said “you’re grape!” and it smells like amazing grapes! And here I am feeling so nifty with myself because I thought adding 2 stickers on each card was making it that much more special =(. Well, in the end, they are only 1 years old, and she’s not going to remember this anyways, and it’s all in good fun. I was just so shocked by the parents’ creativity, I feel like I need to step up my game next year…we’ll see if I remember haha! But anyways, isn’t this so cute what her school did? I love it!! Most of all, Lily really enjoyed it! They got a special Valentine’s Day snack where some parents brought in raspberries, cheese, yogurts, etc! She likes seeing all the colorful cards and decorating her box, so cute!
Khoa and I have been parents for a little over 20 months now, but we still try to make sure we spend quality time together as husband and wife! Normally we’d make a nice dinner then go out to the movies! However, it’s much harder to go to the movies these days, but we’re still very fortunate to have amazing parents who’ll watch Lily now and then! So Khoa told me to take a half day off work so that we can spend some quality time together, and he planned out the whole day! We started our nice date by going to the movies at the Arclight in Paseo Colorado mall in Pasadena and watched the funny Lego Movie!! It was so cool and funny with lots of wit and charm, and it had a nice story/message at the end too! It was very enjoyable and we splurged on expensive popcorn haha! We then walked around the mall and got Lily a cute fork and spoon travel set thingy, I couldn’t help myself haha. Then we had dinner at this cute restaurant called Cafe Santorini! The environment was very romantic and lovely. Then we went back to the mall and Khoa reserved us a spot in the Wine and Canvas class where it was “Date Night” and we each get to paint half a painting that fits together to make one big painting! The painting is called “Love Birds”, how appropriate is that?! It was so much fun and we HIGHLY recommend it to everyone! Khoa’s side came our a lot better than we both expected haha, I’m so proud of him! We now hang this painting in our dining room! So happy to showcase art that we made together!
At work, Khoa sent me another forever platinum rose to go with the one he sent me a few years ago! What a nice surprise!! However, my favorite part is his hand made card he made in powerpoint and paint haha! Who does that right? Well HE does! And he’s darn proud of it! He even put the Valentine’s Day date and our wedding anniversary date in the barcode! Oh the little details and thought that went through his mind. He also made sure to include a picture of Luna in the card too!! I love him so much, today and everyday for the rest of my life and beyond!
Lastly, I made Lily a new tutu tote bag! She loves purses and will wear anything that has a handle as a purse. So I decided to make the bag myself since I couldn’t find a mini tote bag that was a good size. I saw a princess tutu tote bag on etsy, but they used a bunch of tulle and make the skirt part really poofy, it looked really cute, but I didn’t want the tutu to be too much. So I used organza and just did 2 layers so that it’s just a simple accent to the bag. I used one of my existing tote bags as a reference and sewed a mini bag from that! So no pattern was used for this, but I did make my own pattern now! So I made one for Charlotte and Emmy too but in different colors so they all can have their own cute little bags!! I showed it to Lily and she went “ooOOooo” and loved it! She likes to put her pots and pans, crayons, and minion toys in it! haha! That’s my cutie pie!!
Happy 20 Months Lily!
Wow now in the 2-0 digits! Happy 20 months my sweet little Lily pad! Right now she stretches at about 32 inches and weighs about 21 pounds! She understands more and more each day and I feel like we can ALMOST reason with her at times! She’s still sleeps super well at night, so that makes us super happy and lucky as well. Thank goodness we can count on that! She’s so full of personality and fun, I love cuddling with her and tickling her and make her laugh! She really likes to play and she pats the floor to make you sit down and play with her. She likes to color and draw with markers, play with her musical teapot, play with her kitchen and plastic fruits and veggies, she loves going on her trike rides and playing at the park, particularly the slides! She also loves music and dancing, flipping through books, trying on and taking off beaded necklaces, brushing her and your hair, and playing with chapstick, and even tries to put it on you! She babbles a ton and picks up new words here and there too! She can say “eat” and “up” super clearly now, and she’s very good at saying “help”, “poop”, “eww”, “hooray” and starting to say “thank you”. She’ll try to say other words, not so clearly but it’s the effort that counts! She’s very good at expressing certain emotions too, and will say “ooOOooo” when she sees something new or something she likes and thinks it’s cool! She’ll make funny faces for fun and crack herself up!!
She recently did a photoshoot with MGA Entertainment this past wednesday (1st photoshoot since October of last year!) and she did great! In the waiting area they had tons of toys for her to play with and she quickly made herself at home. They gave her an outfit to wear and then we headed over to hair and make up! Before we went, I asked Lily if she wants to go and play with some new toys and she nodded and said “yes!”. So the stylist put out her hand and Lily took and walked happily with her to the set! They put some lotion on her face, a little bit of powder and Lily tried to push the brush away. The makeup artist then said Lily looked so pretty so Lily put out her face for her to put blush on! She asked if she wanted lipstick (lipgloss) and Lily nodded and said “YES!” and of course licked her lips after to taste haha! She so cute! They gave her a cute purple matching headband to wear too. The product was this realistic functioning (but plastic) shopping cart. It was really cute, I might have to buy her one when it comes out in the fall! Lily did really well and loved playing with the cart and fake fruits and veggies in the cart, and she loved the wrangler too! Lily was laughing and playing and had a great time! I’m so proud of you Lily pad, can’t wait to see the pictures later this year! Below is a picture of her playing with toys in the waiting room and then after hair and make up! What a pretty doll she is! Also, someone found Lily’s Disney Baby Minnie Mouse bedding set advertisement in a full page spread in the American Baby Magazine in the February 2014 issue! I was able to buy a couple copies from Ebay and Amazon!! It’s so amazing to see see in a magazine!! You see polka dots on her face because the pages are thin and it shows the ad on the back of the page…haha. Either way, she still looks super cute!!
I also had Lily’s parent teacher conference at LePort this past Thursday and I was super happy to hear what Ms. Monica had to say about Lily. Lily didn’t get a progress report since she hasn’t been in the toddler class for long, but she gave me an update on how Lily is doing. Ms. Monica said that Lily is such a sweet girl and that she has a contagious laugh! She said Lily has a very good sense of order and memorizes things really well, and would reorganize the puzzles and put them where they’re suppose to be on the shelf! She likes to clean, pushing around the vacuum and she apparently loves to sweep the floor haha. She’s really good during snack time and setting up her seat at the table, and putting things away when she’s done eating. They have a snack station to get their place mats, plates, and utensils. She eats all her food every time, and she drinks all her milk too! What a good girl! Ms. Monica said she loves doing art and gets really excited when they do crafts, and she loves it when they have music time which they do twice a week. Sometimes during nap time, she’ll sit on her cot and just sing to herself and then go to sleep, haha! Her teacher said that doesn’t bother her since Lily’s not disrupting her classmates and Lily stays on her cot, so that’s totally fine! She’s so silly! haha. Lily picked up on the routine pretty quickly, and they ring the bell whenever they change activities, and so when she hears the bells, she’s very good at stopping what she’s doing and go to the carpet for circle time, or lining up to go play outside! I wish I can observe all this one day because it sounds so amazing what she’s doing! She also really likes to water the plants! They teach her to touch the soil and see if it’s dry or wet, and if it’s wet, then they would move on to find a plant to water, and if it’s dry, then they would water it! Ms. Monica said that Lily’s language skills is developing really well and she’s saying more words! She’s learning to spell her name and is learing to pronounce her name better too! She’s also really good at asking for help whenever she needs it, like if she’s on her tricycle and someone crashes into her and they get stuck, she’ll yell out for help! Her teacher said not many kids will vocalize that much, so that’s really great! She also said that Lily might be ready to be potty training in a month or so, wow that’s so quick! So we’ll be getting ready for that soon too. Overall Ms. Monica said that Lily loves to do everything, and that she’s learning things really quickly! She finally figured out how to use the lock and key puzzle the other day too! Ms. Monica said that when new parents come to tour the campus, they’ll see Lily and say she’s so cute and that her face is just like a little doll! She said that she loves having Lily in the class and is so happy to have her here! Hearing all these wonderful things about Lily just makes me soooo happy! I’m so grateful for all the hard work the teachers do to teach Lily, and I’m so glad that we’re keeping up and doing well with raising her at home as well! We are so lucky and Lily makes my smile brighter and my heart fuller each day!! I love you my sweet Lily pad!!
Year of the Horse 2014
Goodbye year of the Snake and Hello year of the Horse! Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!! We started the festivities by going to the hội chợ tết at Phước Lộc Thọ (Asian Garden Mall) with my parents! Lily loved seeing all the pretty decorations and she really liked the little lion puppet, so we just had to get it for her!! I noticed she’s really good at “window shopping” and she’ll walk to the displays and just look, and not touch anything! She’s so good! She had so much fun that she went way past her nap time and then totally knocked out on my dad’s shoulder! How sweet!
We then had a series of family events and she got to wear her new áo dài that I got her at Phước Lộc Thọ and she looked so darn cute in it! She really liked wearing it too because when we try to take her out of it, she whines and doesn’t want to take it off! She’s so smart these days!
Lily also got to make this cute little lantern at school! She contributed by coloring in the little white circles on the lantern. When I came to pick her up, she kept showing it to me and held it really carefully by the handle! So cute!! It was fun to see all the family to celebrate, and eat lots of delicious food. Lily also got tons of lucky lì xì as well and this time she didn’t put them in her mouth! This new year of the Horse is off to a great start, and I wish for lots of love and happiness this year!!
