Lily & Leo

Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet little Lily pad!!  Lily is about 23 pounds (8 percentile) and stretches about 34 inches tall (average percentile).  At her 2 year check-up, she got a finger prick to test her hemoglobin and lead and the doctors said her levels are really good, and she got 1 shot in the thigh and she cried at first but then stopped and was a happy camper shortly after!  She even said thank you to the nurses and waved bye and when asked how old she was, she’ll put up 1 finger and say “TWO!!” haha!  Her pediatrician said she is developing really nicely and acts like a 3 year old instead of 2 year due to her openness to everyone and how cooperative she was.  She listened really well and is talking so much, and picks up on language super fast!  She’s starting to go through a mimic phase and will copy her friend’s actions and she loves to hold her friend’s hands!  She’s getting smarter each day and is growing so fast!  Where did the time go baby girl?  She also started potty training 2 weeks ago and is making really great progress!!  She’s at the point where she’s really good at telling us she needs to go and we take her and she actually goes!  Her favorite phrase right now is “I go poopoo choilet!”  I love the way she says toilet haha.  “Choilet!” She talks so much now and her vocabulary is exploding!  Just last week she knew the word “octagon!”  We are so proud of her and all her accomplishments in her first 2 years of life!

On Friday, June 6, Lily had a little birthday celebration at her school.  We had a special circle time with all her classmates where her teacher, Mr. Monica, showed her classmates 3 photos of her (1 of her at 1 months old, 1 years old, and now 2 years old).  They had a special music box that plays the Happy Birthday song when you wind it, but Lily didn’t want to wind it so we just sang to her without that.  Then we all went to sit down at the table where the kids got to eat sugar free cookies and apple slices!  The sugar free cookies were actually pretty good, who would have thought?  Haha.  I also made origami lilies from various designed scrapbook paper, and used floral tape to tape down little party favor bubble wands inside the flower.  I tied a gold ribbon and tag to the top of the bubble wand, and the tag says “Roses are red, violets are blue, blow some bubbles, Lily is 2!”  All the adults seemed to really like it, they weren’t going to pass them out to the kids until they leave for the day, but I’m hoping they liked the bubbles, who wouldn’t?  Lily also got to enjoy some refreshing watermelon before it was time to go home from school!  She had a great day celebrating at school!!

On Sunday, it was Lily’s actual birthday, and that’s when all our family and friends gathered to celebrate our little angel turning 2 years old!  I made all the desserts with the help of my lovely assistant Sarah!  Desserts included milk and white chocolate mousse, tiramisu, panna cotta, chocolate kiss nutter butter acorns, macarons (green tea, raspberry, and fruity pebbles), and I made this balsamic mozzarella cheese tomato appetizers too.  My aunt made chocolate dipped strawberries and had the creative idea of sticking them on the top of pineapples!  My super talented and crafty dad made all the wooden dessert stands too!  I also made Lily’s display cake as well!  We ordered the usual lot of Vietnamese food (nem nuong, fried noodles, egg rolls, banh beo), and my family made some clear noodles, soy, fried rice, pasta salad and cut up fruits too.  Lily had a super great time this year because she’s older and she had a blast running around the grass with the balloon sticks and playing with all the other kids!  I love watching her play and laugh her little tooshie off.  Her happiness is my happiness!

My friend Mieng also did a really nice photoshoot of Lily for me for photos to be displayed at her birthday party!  I was also able to use them to print out thank you magnets to send to everyone as well!  The photos came out better than I could imagine and I’m so grateful to have these beautiful photos that I can share and hold onto forever.  So special thanks to Mieng for all your talents!  We are lucky to have you! =) You can view more pictures from her birthday party from my simple camera and photos that Mieng took HERE!

Look at all the presents!  She was so excited to open them but there was so much that she just wanted to play and got tired of opening them, so I had to step in and help her open them all haha.  She’s really spoiled with so much love by everyone!  She deserves all of it and so much more!

Lastly, Khoa selected a bunch of video clips from Lily’s past year and Jennifer put them all together in this lovely video!  Thank you Khoa for combing through the hundreds of video clips and thank you Jennifer for creating this video that we will be able to share with Lily when she’s older!  It’s so wonderful to be able to watch our sweet baby girl grow from being a 1 year old baby to a 2 year old toddler! Get ready to smile, laugh, and fall in love with Lily all over again in the video below!  She is the greatest joy of my life! Lily I wish you the most wonderful 2nd birthday!  I love watching you grow everyday, and you made me the happiest mommy in the whole world!  You brighten my days, my life,  my soul.  Baby I love you so much with all of my heart, forever and beyond!

Lily Turns Two from J.N. on Vimeo.