Lily & Leo

Leo 6 Months

Happy 6 Month my petite prince Leo!  Leo weighs 14lbs 8 ounces, stretches 26 inches long, and has a 16 inch head circumference.  He is now 5 percentile in weight but about 60% in height!  What a tall boy!!  He totally just stretched out this last month!  Leo also was a champ when he took an oral immunization and 3 shots to his thighs.  He only cried for a few seconds and then stopped quickly after.  He didn’t get a fever and was very chill, mellow and happy for the rest of the day, and slept a lot.  Leo’s neck is getting stronger and more stable each day, and he’s able to sit unsupported for a few seconds too, maybe a minute long at most before he starts to tip over haha.  He likes to roll over a lot now, back to belly, and doesn’t get stuck anymore, and he likes to kick his feet a lot like he’s trying to crawl!!  Leo has also been off his medication for a few weeks now, and maybe threw up a couple time since.  Leo has an appointment next week to meet with a urologist and he will then have an ultrasound to check out the progress of his southern areas, and if there still isn’t much progress, he will most likely have to do surgery.  I don’t know anything really about the details of the surgery, but I know he will get through it like a champ.

His teacher from Sunny Days feels like he’s still a little bit “behind” in terms of his gross motor skills, so she recommended a physical therapist who would be more specialized and help Leo with certain things that he needs help with.  His neck strength is improving but not fast enough, so that’s mostly what he needs to work on.  Overall though, I feel like due to his diagnosis, we are just more aware and have the advantage of having all these resources and aids for Leo, so this allows us to give him the best care and attention he can possibly have.  Many without this diagnosis could be behind in certain develop and be perfectly “normal”, every child develops at their own rate, it’s not a contest, so I don’t view these “delays” that Leo has as any fault of Leos or make him in any way “behind” in development.  Leo is simply developing at his own pace, and we are providing him with all the resources we can to give him the best possible chance of success. =)

Leo likes to coo a lot and he observes my mouth a lot and it looks like he tries to copy my mouth and repeat the sounds I make.  His focus is very good and he loves to smile and laugh too.  He is such a happy mellow baby, we are super blessed to have two mellow easy going kids!  Leo sleeps on average 12-14 hours through the night, eats 4 times a day 155cc each time, and usually puts himself to sleep when he’s tired too.  He loves music and is a social butterfly.  So if you quietly approach him and let him take you in, you’ll give you a sweet warm smile!  He is so amazing and I still count my lucky stars at how incredible he is.  I’m so proud of you my little prince Leo, happy 6 months son, keep reaching for the stars!

Check out this cute video of Leo!

Lily is also now 3.5 years old!!  Lily is constantly growing in her vocabulary and her growth and maturity in her cognitive skills and mannerisms always surpris and impress me.  She definitely says the darndest things but she’s also super sweet and thoughtful at the same time.  I cut my finger once and she told me a few days later while I was chopping and cooking dinner again, for me to be careful because she didn’t want my to cut my finger again.  She’s so sweet!  She is also very clever and sometimes too smart for her own good haha.  She’s constantly paying attention whether it looks like it or not, but she’s always alert.  The other day Khoa asked me if I wanted to go to the mall after we had lunch, and I said it depends on if Lily is sleepy and falls asleep on the ride home, and I looked behind me to check if Lily was sleeping and she lit up all wide eyed and said “Mommy I’m awake, I want to go shopping!” haha.  She is also still an amazing big sister to Leo and constantly wants to be around him and smother him with kisses.  She is very good at eating new foods and is eating everything we eat now.  It’s so convenient to not have to make her separate food that is “safe” knowing she’ll eat it, but instead, I don’t have to take that extra time to make her special food because now she will eat whatever we are eating!  It’s awesome!

Lily 3.5 Years Old

Lily is super spunky and fun and always soooo happy.  She loves to sing and dance and do arts and crafts.  Starting in January, she will be continuing her soccer classes in her after school program, but she will also be starting Spanish!  She already picked up the word “adios” so I figured, lets expose her to Spanish and see how she does!  I hope she enjoys it!  She’s still doing some signing and I try to refresh her memory on some old signs in hopes that she would retain it and eventually communicate with Leo once he starts to pick up signing as well!  That’ll be exciting to see them communicate with each other soon!  Lily is also a very big little helper around the house.  She likes to dust and clean and whatever I’m doing, she wants to do too.  Lily is very into the girly things like wearing dresses, headbands and jewelry, but she also loves “boy toys” like cars and dinosaurs and light sabers!  We introduced her to Star Wars this past weekend and watched episode IV and V and she loves it and is also a huge fan of Yoda!  haha!  She currently is a huge candiholic yet loves carrots and apples and cuties as well..so I guess it balances out? Overall she’s still such a very good kid and although she’ll have her moments, she’s still very good and well behaved and I feel so lucky everyday to have such an amazing little girl.  It’s never a dull moment with my precious Lily pad.  Her smile just lights up my heart, I love you Lily!!!!

Lily’s LePort 2015-2016 Yearbook Picture