Monthly Archives: June 2016
Lily & 360 Hair
I cannot be more proud of my Lily pad! The other night I told Lily that I’m going to give her a hair cut, like I’ve done every year since she was 2 years old. One of the first things Lily said after saying “ok” to me giving her a haircut was “It’s just hair, it will grow back!” That made me happy to hear because I didn’t want her to be too attached to her hair and be shallow or something. It was funny though because after I chopped off a chunk of her hair, she said “that’s enough mommy” haha. But she was totally fine and just watched her show on her Ipad while it straightened out her cut. She was very cooperative and sat still and everything! So after I finished her haircut, I told her that we will be donating her hair and said she has a lot of hair, and so we will give it to someone who doesn’t have hair and needs it. I wasn’t sure if she fully understood the concept, but kids are like sponges and they soak up every information you throw at them, so I figured I’ll just tell her and if she gets it, then cool, if not, then maybe she will later. So after I told her this, she seemed to be excited and said she wanted to give her hair to “them” (people who need it), and I said we have to mail it, but she insisted she wanted to go to their house and give it to them, haha, so sweet. I told her she can put it in the mail box with me and that was a compromise that seemed to pleased her.
So the next day at school, we walked past the reception desk and the reception commented on how cute Lily’s new haircut looked and she had a big smile and said thank you very sweetly. Then I asked her what we are doing with her hair and she said “anate it”, which I translated to “donate it” for the receptionist haha. The receptionist said that’s very special and so nice of her and lily skipped off to her class all excited. When she got inside her class, she had the biggest open mouth wide eyed smile on her face, waiting for people to notice her haircut! It was so cute to see her so happy. When I picked her up from school later that day, her teacher told me that Lily went up to her and said she’s “anating” her hair. So her teacher asked “what do you mean anate?” Lily said “I’m giving it to people who don’t have hair.” So her teacher asked her “who doesn’t have hair?” Lily says “sick people and old people” (I didn’t even tell her that part, she just got that all on her own!) and her teacher told me she got all emotional to hear Lily tell her that story! Then she said all day she was telling all her friends about how she’s “anating” her hair and all the other kids said they want to grow out their hair long so they can “anate” their hair too! That story just made me so teary eyed and so super proud of my baby girl. She just turned 4 years old and now she’s already inspiring others to be generous, kind, and help others.
When I wanted to be a mom, I always had visions of what kind of human beings I wanted my kids to be; kind, generous, smart, thoughtful, active, nice, caring etc. Then when I actually became a mom, I always tried to be very conscious of how to raise Lily and Leo to be that, and try to find opportunities where ever I can to teach her how to be kind to others, share, be caring, helpful, etc. Little did I know that Lily was all that and more! It’s a continuous learning process and I don’t know if what I’m doing would do much or if it’ll make a difference or not, but I just keep trying and hoping for the best. All these years I’ve been so delighted and grateful to watch Lily grow into this compassionate little person, and she’s just been more and more impressive to me that I feel so humbled to call her mine. I have so much joy in knowing that she is my baby girl, and that story about her haircut just filled me up with so much pride. It’s encouragement to myself to keep doing what I’m doing, and see how she’s growing so beautifully. It makes me feel really good as a parent and person. Lily’s pure innocence and caring heart just boosted my belief in the beauty and preciousness of life. Here is the LINK to 360 Hair with info on how to donate hair, and the minimum length needed is only 6 inches! I cut off about 7 inches of Lily’s hair. Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to make a big difference. I’m so super proud of my Lily, and I can’t wait to see what other amazing things she’ll do. I love you to pieces my precious Lily pad!
Happy 4th Birthday Princess Lily!
Happy birthday to my sweetest little princess Lily! Lily weighs 29lbs (6%), and is 39.5 inches long (63%). Lily had a finger prick blood test to test her iron levels and her levels are normal! This is an improvement from last year since she was low last year. All that fish is paying off! Lily also got 3 shots on my arm and that was really tough and painful for her and she cried her little eyes out, poor baby girl. Other than that, she is doing really well and is a healthy little girl! She is definitely on the smaller side but at least she’s healthy! Lily has a very cute eccentric sense of style, it’s a mixture of comfort, colorful, and cute style. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t match, if she likes it and makes her feel good, then go for it baby girl! You be you and I strongly encourage her to explore her of style to promote her sense of self and confidence. 
Lily loves to snack, to name a few, she likes potato chips, cheesy popcorn (Pirate’s Booty), strawberry Special K Crisp Bars, cookies, butter popcorn, all things candy, strawberries fresh and freeze dried, carrots, apples, cuties, brussel sprouts, and lots of cheese! Lily likes going out and doing things like playing at the park, running around and spinning in circles, making silly noises and being silly, and her imagination is really growing and she likes to play imaginary situations all the time with her toys. Her vocabulary and speech and is so big and eloquent, she doesn’t seem like a 4 year old at all, maybe a 5-6 year old! You can see how she phrases her sentences that she puts a lot of thought into her communication, it’s just so impressive to see. I’m so constantly proud of her!!
For her birthday celebration, I had the joint party with Leo for Lily. She also had a celebration at her school where the class sang a nice around the world song for her as she walked around and showed her classmates pictures from each year of her life. We brought yogurt, animal crackers, and mini blueberry muffins for her classmates to enjoy for a special birthday snacks and her teachers provided strawberries for everyone too. Lily really enjoyed passing out all the snacks to her friends and I was so impressed with how good the kids are there and how much Lily wanted to help and pass out the snacks. Lily’s been excited for her birthday for months now and I’m so glad that this day finally came so I can celebrate and spoil her (more than usual) and make her so super happy! It’s a fun age for birthdays since she’s so aware of what it is now, and all her friends have birthday celebrations, so it’s just such a happy time. I’m glad she looks forward to her birthday, I will make sure I always do whatever I can to make this day special for her, and to show her how this day changed my life forever in the best, most wonderful way possible. For more pictures from Lily and Leo’s birthday celebrations, click HERE! Special thanks to Mieng for taking the beautiful photos of Lily and Leo for their birthdays!!
I feel super blessed and lucky to have Lily as my baby girl! She is super sweet, smart, silly, funny, sassy, kind, compassionate, and everything I wanted in a daughter and more!! She is constantly impress and amazes me with everything she does and I can’t wait to see what else she’s going to teach me in life and what other adventures we will have together! My heart is so full when I look into her bright eyes and sweet smile. She is such a sweet, caring, and compassionate big sister to baby Leo as well. Seeing her interact with him, all on her own too, is so touching to me. Even when she see other babies, she just says “awww that baby is so cute!” and she will be so warm and caring to them. Lily is so good at sharing too and is always looking out for me and making sure I am careful walking down the stairs and tells me to hold her hand so I don’t fall! She is just the sweetest and I’m so proud and humbled to call her mine! I love you more than you’ll ever know my precious Lily pad!! Happy 4th birthday my sweetest angel!!
Check out some of Lily’s adventures this past year!
Happy 1st Birthday Prince Leo!
Happy 1st Birthday to my dearest le petit Prince Leo! Leo weighs in at 19.65lbs (21%), stretches 30 inches long (56%), and head circumference is 17.5 inches (22%). At his 1 year check up, he got a finger prick and his iron level was a little bit low, so he is now going to start taking poly-vi-sol vitamins with iron in it once a day. Leo got 3 shots and cried his eyes out but took them like a champ and calmed down shortly after. It’s also so painful to watch, but it’s for his health and he luckily didn’t have any fevers or anything afterwards. Leo’s PT and pediatrician noticed some of hypertension in Leo’s legs and arms, and so Leo will be getting a full neuro evaluation and an MRI scan to see what’s going on, and if there’s anything in the brain that’s preventing him from achieving certain developmental milestones. If the brain looks good, then it’s just a matter of working with Leo to strengthen his muscles and train his mind to get him to develop. If something is going on neurologically, then we will have to go with a different approach, I’m not sure what that would be yet.
The pediatrician said he’ll probably need speech therapy later on, and I talked to his PT and usually that would start around 18 months of age. There was mention with his PT that they might add an Infant Educator back onto his early start program, but I said if he doesn’t really need it, I’d rather not because 3 hours of therapy is a lot for the little guy, and an infant educator is more broad and not necessarily specific for any particular development. So he might not have to add another hour of therapy to his already busy schedule. Leo also had to do an allergy blood test and I found out that Leo has a severe allergy to eggs, egg whites in particular. His doctor said if he gets in contact with it, I can use Benadryl to help the allergy reaction, otherwise, we will be to have an epi pen on hand just in case he gets an accident and he reacts badly. We noticed that Leo’s skin will turn red just from touching things that had eggs in it, so it’s sad that this is confirmed, since eggs are so yummy and are in sooo many yummy foods. However, it’s good to know now so that we can keep him safe and healthy! He is also allergic to nuts, particular peanuts and cashews. Poor baby Leo. He will learn to enjoy other foods though (once he starts learning to eat). Leo also got his first haircut a few weeks ago and was so cute and super ticklish too. He looks like a little boy now, where did my baby go???
I threw the kids a nice birthday party to celebrate Leo’s milestone 1st Birthday and Lily’s 4th Birthday! I baked vanilla, pistachio, chocolate, and orange blossom macarons, bavarian cream fruit custard, and Haupia cupcakes with a coconut filling. I also made a nice big 3 tier display cake in the theme of the book Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I hired a very talented balloon artist and face painter, and Khoa’s coworker, Vinh, generously set up a photobooth for us as well. I got catering from Newport Rib Company and had a lot of yummy BBQ as well. It was a very fun party and this 1st birthday means so much to me. For more pictures of Leo and Lily’s Birthday celebrations, click HERE!
Happy 1st Birthday my dearest prince Leo. You are such an amazing little inspiration. There was a time when I thought I wouldn’t even be able to hold him in my arms, to see his beautiful smile, or hear his sweet laugh. Yet here we are, it’s been a crazy long journey, from the moment you existed, and now, we celebrate you. My little prince Leo, you are such an amazing little fighter, inspiration, and miracle. I look at your sweet face, your cute sweet smile, and your innocent pure eyes, and I just can’t help get emotional and overwhelmed with feelings of love and gratitude. I love how I can just hold your hand, with your tiny fingers wrapped around mine, and you just feel safe and at ease with me. You feel like home and the ultimate sensation of comfort when you are in my arms, and I never want to let you go (except maybe when I have to pee…). I can stare at you explore this world of all it’s wonders, and listen to your sweet little voice all day! You are truly the definition of hope. You are beating all the odds, and I can’t wait to see what adventures we will continue to go on together. Keep shining bright, keep fighting, keep being my ray of hope. I love you to pieces Leo!
Check out some of Leo’s adventure from his first year of life along with his first haircut experience!
