Category Archives: Birthday
Happy 6th and 9th Birthday Leo & Lily!
Happy 6th and 9th Birthday Leo & Lily! Leo stretches 3’10” and weighs 44.7lbs! Leo has been developing so much in the past year. He can eat almost everything now (that he’s not allergic to) except soupy things. He is good at holding the food himself and taking big bites out of it but now that he’s starting to lose his baby teeth, it’s a little more challenging since he doesn’t know to bite from the side of his mouth. No worries Leo, mommy will cut up the pieces of food for you!!! Some of his favorite foods are pizza, cheeseburgers, ham and cheese croissant from Starbucks haha, anything chicken, and chocolates! He also like chips and tons of different crackers and gold fishes, apple sauce and yogurt! He likes strawberries, blueberries and blackberries and looooves bananas. He still drinks pediasure about once to twice a day to keep up with his calorie intake! He also likes the mango dragonfruit drink at Starbucks and smoothies from my café!! He also drinks water like a camel haha! I’m so proud with how much he finally loves food!!
Leo is starting to read and is really good with making sounds of each letter!!! He will sometimes call the letters by the sound instead of the letter names since that’s how he learned it, which is great for reading skills! Leo can also count to 20 pretty well, we are just working more on counting objects instead of just counting to 10 or 20 each time haha. He loves reading time and listening to stories!
Leo likes making with dolls and figurines. He likes to also put them in his mouth due to his sensory needs. Leo is a huge fan of Spider-Man and all the marvel superheroes like the hulk, iron man, and captain America. He likes to stand in front of the mirror and pretend to shoot spider webs from his hands or sometimes flex his muscles like the hulk. It’s super cute!!! Leo also loves music and dancing and he’s learning more words to songs and loves to sing along to al his favorite tunes even if it’s not completely clear, it’s still super cute!! 
This past year has been so difficult for many reasons, zoom therapy and schooling is not very productive for Leo but I’m so glad to see him still making progress this past year. I’m super proud of Leo and his physical development is around a 24 month old, but he is just so smart amazing!!! He is starting to jump more, we are just working on him bending his knees more before jumping but he’s able to jump about 8 inches out!!! So great!!! He loves swimming in the pool with his floaty vest! He isn’t afraid to hold his breathe and go under the water either! He’s super sweet and very empathetic to others emotions as well. Leo is going to be done with kindergarten next week and will then be officially a first grader!! He’s so friendly and social, he loves everyone and has no stranger danger or separation anxiety haha. I feel like I say this every time but I’m so constantly amaze by all that he’s achieved and overcome! I love you so much my petite prince Leo!!! I can’t wait to see what more amazing things you will do and achieve. Happy Birthday my adorable son, mommy is so proud to have you!!!!
Happy 9th Birthday Lily!! Lily is 4’2” and weighs 51.4lbs! Lily loves all kinds of noodles, especially garlic noodles. She likes broccoli and corn and will eat pretty much all kinds of sea food, but for some reason, all other meats are not impressive to her, even the fanciest steak in town, she will not eat it with much enthusiasm haha. Her favorite restaurants are Olive Garden and Chili’s and anything with crab and noodles haha. She likes all kinds of snacks as well except she’s not into cakes. Unique child haha. She enjoys doing lots of arts and crafts and likes to draw and color. She’s getting
more detailed and creative in her drawings, she like to draw sloths, puppies, animals and her family! Lily likes crocheting and knitting and has become pretty quick and diligent at it too! Lily just finished the 3rd grade (year 3 month 9) and her end of the year math and reading scores shows that she’s at a 5th grade level (year 4 month 9)! Wow Lily, you are so smart!! Even with distance learning, she still managed to keep up with her studies and excel! I’m so proud of you my Lily pad!
Lily has mastered riding her bike with no training wheels, but also picked up some new outdoor sports as well. Lily learned how to roller skate, and now roller blading! She prefers roller blading over roller skating, maybe because I have roller blades too, so we match. She also picked up longboarding within 5 minutes! She is so fearless and I admire her bravery and her positive enthusiastic attitude when approaching new things! I need to get myself a longboard so that she and Alex can teach me haha. Perhaps I’ll have better luck with that than a skateboard maybe? She also really enjoys playing tennis still and needs to upgrade to a bigger tennis racquet since she’s getting bigger! Where did my baby go?? At least I can save her old racquet for Leo now! Lily also had her 1st communion and received the Holy Eucharist! I’m so super proud of Lily for completing her 2 years of religious education at St. Denis Catholic Church. She really embraced all the teachings and I’m so happy her hear her say that she wants to be the best version of herself possible!!! I cannot be any more proud!
Lily enjoys working on jig saw puzzles, but also word searches and spot the difference type of games! Lily likes to play board games now too. Alex and I introduced her to Catan Jr and Dominion and she totally caught on right away and had so much fun! Yay to another board gaming buddy!! Lily also likes sloths to the point where it’s an obsession like her momma, and enjoys drinking boba, especially with taro or ube milk tea! Lily likes to play with slime still…it’s a love hate relationship with me and slime… Lily also enjoys playing with Legos and putting together fun Lego sets. She enjoys building things and doing science experiments and projects as well. She’s an amazing little helper and would love helping me do things from helping me cook, bake, and even folding the laundry and vacuuming. Lily is so sweet and kind, she has a generous heart and is so mature and wise for her age. She’s growing up so fast, but I’m still so grateful she enjoys giving and receiving hugs and kisses!!! I will cherish all our snuggles on the couch together and all the enthusiastic “Mommy!” from her every time I pick her up from school. I love watching you grow into your own independent, confident, healthy little person and I can’t wait to see more amazing things you’ll do!! I love you so so so much my sweet Lily pad. Happy 9th birthday, you make mommy so proud, I love you 3000 times infinity!!!
Here’s their annual birthday videos, enjoy!!
Happy 5th & 8th Birthday Leo & Lily!
Happy milestone 5th birthday to my little prince Leo and happy golden 8th birthday to my princess Lily!! Lily measures about 48 inches tall and weighs about 42 pounds. Leo stretches about 44 inches and weighs in at 37 pounds. This year we had to experience the unfortunately worldwide pandemic of covid-19 and so the kids this year celebrated their birthday at home through zoom. I made a balloon garland and blew up a ton of golden and different blue color balloons to decorate the house as well and made them each a display cake that had all their current favorite things on it. I also made a read strawberry cake for Lily with whipped cream cheese frosting on it and got Leo a cheesecake since he cannot have eggs. The morning of their birthdays, I surprised them with a bunch of blue balloons all over the floor of their bedrooms, so that was very fun to watch them wake up to that! I had a bunch of candied bacon for their dessert as well and ordered Olive Garden (Lily’s favorite) delivered for lunch and invited friends to wish the kids a happy birthday! It wasn’t as extravagant as I planned for earlier this year but it was still perfect because the kids had so much fun and felt all the love from everyone, and that’s all that matters.
Lily learned how to ride her bike this past year and nailed it really quickly, within 30 minutes! I’m so proud of her dedication and willingness to learn, even if it may seem scary at first. She also learned how to swim, and can even do the forward stroke decently. She can float and play in the pool all on her own with no floaties, what a big girl now! Lily really likes to cook and bake still, she’s my little sous chef! She also likes to practice origami and her favorite thing to fold right now are boxes, cubes boxes where you blow into it and it puffs up into a box! She is a very social person and so staying quarantined these last few months have been quite challenging, as I’m sure is the case for everyone else right now. She does facetime with her classmates and so that helps a bit. She likes to go and ride her bike outside or go swimming or play on the splash pad to cool off and burn off some energy. Her favorite shows are The Last Airbender and The Legend of Kora. He favorite movie was Sonic the hedgehog and she loves playing Arms and Animal Crossing on the Nintendo switch. She also really likes playing with slime and watching a bunch of YouTube videos, especially of Collin Keys and he craziness haha. Lily also likes reading a variety of books, and reading to Leo as well. What a great sister Lily! Lily also donated her give jar to her 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Barnes because she said she loves Mrs. Barnes and she had so much fun in her class and wants to donate her money so Mrs. Barnes can get more things to help teach more kids. Lily, you have such a sweet and amazing heart, you impress me everyday with your kindness and generosity, I love you so much!!
Leo loves Chuck E Cheese right now and I would say it’s pretty accurate to say that Chuck E Cheese is his best friend haha. I got him a Chuck E Cheese doll for his birthday and he brings him everywhere he goes. It’s so cute to him so attached to him, and he’ll even pretend to give Chuck E Cheese his milk, and share his snacks with him as well. He also likes watching Peppa Pig, GooGoo GaGa on YouTube, Pixar’s Bao, Float, Birds and Moana. He likes to sing a lot more now and will try to sing along to random songs on the radio, but he favorite is the Happy Birthday song. He can sing almost the entire song pretty well!! Leo loves dancing to music, or even when there’s no music, and he loves to follow along to the Chuck E Cheese Cha Cha dance video. He memorizes all the words and moves and will shout along periodically the words! I love to watch his excitement when he plays the dance video, he has to stop what he’s doing and dance along! It’s super cute! Leo is also increasingly more affectionate and loving as well, it just truly melts my heart. He’ll come over and randomly gives me hugs and kisses. Sometimes he’ll ask me to give him a piggy back ride going down the stairs as well. He needs to remember to not let go sometimes but he knows to hold on for the most part! Leo really likes to climb, run around, play with swords, and baby dolls. His vocabulary is increasing and he’s able to put 5 words together in a sentence recently too! He blows my mind with how smart he is and how much he’s learning and able to achieve. He’s also able to eat pretty much everything now too, except for soupy things, he’s still working on that. He can eat rice dishes, noodle dishes, all kinds of seafood, chicken, tacos, any kind of sandwiches, he is such a great eater now! He also still loves fruits, strawberries, blackberries, grapes, cherries, apples, oranges, pears, everything! I am constantly so proud of him! The zoom sessions for therapy and school has been challenging but I’m so glad he continues to make movement in his accomplishments. You’re so incredibly amazing my petite prince Leo, I love you oh so much, and you light up my life!
Happy special milestone birthdays Lily and Leo!! I hope you both had an amazing birthday this year. This year has definitely been a challenging and different experience for birthdays, and any kind of social celebrations, but I’m glad that it doesn’t take much to make your guys happy. I’m glad that you both appreciate the little things that just feeling my love for you is enough, and that I can make you happy with what I have. You guys are my everything and I’m definitely going to take you guys on a big vacation next year when things are safe. Can’t wait for more adventures with you Lily and Leo, I love you both so much!! Your hearts, smile, laughter, hugs and kisses makes me the luckiest and happiest mom in the world. Happy golden 8th birthday Lily!!!!!!! Happy milestone 5th birthday Leo!!!!!
Here are Leo and Lily’s birthday videos, Lily riding her bike with no training wheels, and Leo’s video of his 5 word sentence! ENJOY!
Happy 7th Birthday Lily!
Happy 7th birthday to my precious Lily pad!! Lily weighs in at 41lbs (7 percentile) and stretches 46.76 inches tall (31 percentile)! Leo is definitely catching up to her haha. Due to Lily’s low percentile in weight, Dr Wang suggested she drinks pediasure at night before bedtime just to give her some extra calories. We’ll see how that goes but overall it’s not too much of a concern since she’s always been on the low end of the curve, but the important thing is that she’s still growing on her curve. Lily didn’t have to take any shots at her annual check up but will have to come back in November for the flu shot. Despite her low weight, Lily has a huge appetite and will eat a ton, she just has a super fast metabolism and burns it all off. She loves pasta and garlic noodles, she likes fish, pizza, cheese, tons of snacks and candy as well haha. She’s also very good at eating veggies like broccoli and boy choy, carrots, ginger, spinach, and all kinds of fruits too like dragon fruit, oranges, raspberries, and cherries. Thank goodness she’s not a picky eater, makes my job a lot easier haha! Lily also passed her hearing test and has 20/20 vision as well!! Good job Lily!
Lily loves to swim and even though her little floaty donut is her crutch, it still helps her feel confident to be in the water without assistance and swim across the pool and splash around and have fun. She’ll still try to practice certain strokes and I’m hoping maybe by the end of this summer, she’ll use the floaty less and less and swim completely on her own! Lily is definitely getting more brave as she gets older and is conquering her fear with heights by bouldering more and reaching to the top many times! She likes to practice and keep pushing herself and challenging herself to reach the top. She says she’s still scared but she has fun! I’m so happy she doesn’t let fear hold her back and understand that scary things can still be fun! I’m so proud of her! Lily likes to be very active and has been practicing riding her two wheel scooter instead of the 3 wheel one. She said it was hard but that she wants to keep practicing to get better at it! Love the attitude Lily! Hopefully by end of this summer she’ll learn to ride her bike without the training wheels too. She hasn’t been on the bike much due to all the rainy weather but she does like to bike around a lot too. So many activities, so little time! haha.
Lily also has been taking piano lessons for over a year now and had her first piano concert at the Diamond Bar High School auditorium. She did really great and didn’t get stage fright and didn’t mess up either! She was so happy and had so much fun! It makes me happy she gets so much enjoyment from it! I told her not to worry about messing up, and to just have fun, mission accomplished! At the end of 1st grade, Lily also got an award for Outstanding Achievement in Writing! Way to go Lily!! She continues to tell me how much she likes doing homework and how she likes to help all the students in her class too. I would help out her teacher, Mrs. Penticoff, Friday mornings before work and she would always tell me how she’s never met any kid like Lily and how she’s just so sweet and caring. She said that she will miss her a lot but hope to see her around on campus! Lily has a summer writing journal that she can fill up and if she does, she’ll get to have a special lunch with Mrs. Penticoff, so Lily is working very hard on that on the weekends! Lily’s favorite subject is math, but she loves doing all the arts and craft projects. She’s very creative and even though some of her art work is out there…I’m just glad she has a very big imagination haha. Embrace it Lily, it’s what makes you special!!! Her favorite color is currently blue, she loves unicorns and her favorite shows are Talking Tom and Friends, Barbie Dreamhouse, Nailed It, Mako Mermaid, and lots of animated movies. She also wants to donate her Give Jar to Leaps and Bounds Pediatric Therapy, Leo’s hippotherapy! That is sooo amazingly sweet! She said it’s so they can continue to help Leo because she loves leo so much! Lily is so sweet and kind, I just feel so lucky to be her mommy. She’s growing up so fast, I wish I can save every moment, but photos and videos and my human memory will just have to due for now until they invent some crazy thing that’ll make me never forget haha. I love you so much Lily, Happy 7th Birthday my Lily pad!
Enjoy her birthday video below!! She is such a bright ball of happiness!! I can’t believe my precious Lily pad is 7 years old!! Time just flies by in a blink of an eye! I’m so proud to watch my Lily pad grow, but most of all, having fun doing so! She doesn’t let any set backs get her down, she just gets right back up and charges on with a big smile on her face! It warms my soul to see her live life with so much joy and happiness! I love you so much Lily, happy 7th birthday!!
Happy 4th Birthday Leo!
Happy 4th birthday to my petite prince Leo! Leo weighs in at 33lbs (24 percentile) and stretches 41.5 inches tall (77 percentile)! What a tall boy! At his annual check, he had to take 3 shots, and that last one was a live virus so you can tell it hurt the most, poor baby! He will have to come back in November for this chicken pox shot and the flu shot as well. I know he won’t like it (who would?) but it’s for his own good and he stopped crying within a couple minutes and was happy again! He was being friendly to everyone at the doctor’s office so it’s nice to know he doesn’t hold a grudge haha. Leo is still not eating much solid foods, mostly just mashed up foods that I made him and recently he’ll eat more soft crackers like ritz, cocunut butter crackers, and gnaw on eggless cookies till it’s soft enough for him to eat. He really likes bananas and yogurt and fruits as well as long as it’s massed up. He has a major sweet tooth so he loves lollipops and candy! He also really like cold water and and slowly learning how to drink from a cup too! He understands the motions, he just needs to have more control so that water doesn’t spill all over the place. I do have these special cups that have an insert in them that slows down the water flow, so that helps minimize spillage too, you can check it out HERE. He’s so smart and observant, and imitates a lot now. It’s so fun to see what new things he picks up each day!
Leo really likes music and loves to wave his arms in the air, that’s his signature dance move, it’s toooo cute! He likes interactive toys that would light up or play music as well. He’s recently taking a liking to the ipad and phone to watch youtube kids and play on the app ABC Animals! He’s very into alphabets songs and games, probably because that’s what he’s learning in school. His teacher said maybe he’ll be a teacher one day because he likes to stand up in front of the class and point to the calendar and numbers and pictures and babble like he’s teaching the class, imitating the teacher! That’s so adorable!! Leo also likes watching birthday videos of people singing happy birthday to little kids and watching them blow out the candles and then clapping in celebration with them! I though maybe he’ll be super excited when we sing happy birthday to him for his birthday but he just got shy instead, but he still clapped at the end haha.
Back in April we had the annual Starfish 5k Dash for Chromosome 18 Society and Organization and Leo and Team Leo raised the most amount for solo and team entry!! They sent us two trophies and I’m just so happy and grateful for all the supporters of Leo and helping me with bringing more awareness and resources for this cause. We had some difficulty dealing with some discrimination at Leo’s day care, but the lesson is to always speak up and stand up for what’s right. We managed to get in touch with the higher up people and talk to the right people to set things straight. We mostly we able to educate the staff members about Leo and his chromosome disorder and I feel like learning and bringing more awareness makes all the difference. For those directors and supervisors and managers, I am grateful for them and all their help for making Leo’s day care environment more inviting and inclusive of him. Little changes can make the biggest difference!
Leo is starting to work on bending his knees more to learn how to jump. He’s starting to when he dances and plays. He knows how to say “done” very clearly now and he’ll try to say “thank you” but it’s not quite as clear but I understand what he’s trying to say. He definitely picks up signs much quicker and easier than verbal words but it’s all part of learning communication so I will continue to sign and speak to him verbally. He also upgraded to a big boy’s twin size bed a couple months ago and he loves it!! The big mattress is so much more comfortable than the crib mattress and he has more space to stretch his long legs and I feel like he sleeps even longer too, which is impressive since he already sleeps a lot! He looks up to Lily a lot so I think he’s happy that he has a big bed just like Lily now too. Leo is also using the booster car seat like Lily now too! What a big boy! He loves playing with cars and it’ll be cute to see him zoom across the room on the floor pushing his little cars and trucks around! Leo is very curious about the world and his surroundings, he likes to observe everything and take it all in. He’s also very sensitive and sweet and when someone’s not feeling well, he’s very curious and tries to go over to them and wait it out and then try to give them a consoling hug. He’s super sweet and caring and I just love seeing him grow into such a kind soul. His laugh just melts my heart too and he is such a happy go lucky kid. I’m so grateful!
Enjoy Leo’s birthday video below! I just can’t stop smiling thinking about my little Leo! What a wonderful year it’s been watching my petite prince Leo grow and develop!! He’s such a big ray of sunshine and happiness, it just melts my heart. I’m so lucky to be his mommy!! Happy 4th birthday my littlest love!!!
Happy Birthday Leo & Lily!
Happy sweet 3rd birthday to my handsome petite prince Leo and 6th birthday to my beautiful princess Lily!! Lily weighs in at 37lbs (8 percentile) and stretches 44 inches tall (32 percentile) while Leo weighs 29lbs (21 percentile woohoo!) and stretches 37 inches tall (41 percentile). Leo is getting smart and clever and sweeter each day! He is now developing empathy and when he sees someone like Lily get hurt, he goes over and tries to give her a hug or looks at her face and tries to see if she’s ok. If he gets in trouble, he’ll know he did something wrong and start to pout and then go to try to give you a hug as if he’s trying to say sorry! He’s so silly and I just discovered he has a favorite hiding spot for some of his favorite toys. There has been some toys missing when I would clean up and put all the toys back in their designated spots, but I’ll look all over the floors and under the couch even and can’t seem to find some toys. Then one day I saw Leo put his tiny hand down the corner of the couch between the pillow and couch and pull out a toy! A HA! I found his secret hiding spot! I went to check and what do you know, all the missing toys were there! Haha, silly Leo! He likes to clean up and now and after his naps and sleep, he would pick up whatever stuff animals that he would toss over the crib, and throw it back into his crib! He also like to throw random toys into the kitchen sink too. I think he just sees me and Lily putting dishes away and so he wants to participate too, so cute!! Leo also will understand the word “hug” and likes to hug his arms and hug toys, hug anything really, and he likes to give hugs as well.
He can now sign “sleep” really well and when I tell him it’s nap time or goodnight, he will sign sleep very gently over his face, it’s so cute!! He really likes to explore now that he is more comfortable walking all over the place! He is very curious and likes to take in the environment and see how things work. Leo had a series of assessments done with the public school district for his transition from the Early Start Intervention Program with the Regional Center to the public school system. They say he’s around a 10 month to 1 year old in terms of development and that he will qualify for special needs education, and they recommended the school in Claremont called Sumner Danbury Elementary School where they have a built in therapy facility there that Leo would benefit greatly from! They even have a pool that he can do therapy in as well! The school sounds amazing for him! Leo is starting to eat a tiny bit of thicker foods. I made him a mashed avocado banana yogurt recipe and he ate it and didn’t mind the chunks in it! Fingers crossed, I hope he will start moving on to more solid foods soon! He really like sweets and lollipops and candy, I wonder where he got his sweet tooth from? Haha! But he also likes to lick lemon slices… He likes to see what you’re eating now too so I think this new curiosity with food is a huge development! I love his growing mind and sweet loving spirit! I’m so proud of Leo, and cannot be more happy with his progress and development. He is amazing in every way, and will always be perfect in my eyes! Happiest 3rd birthday my handsome petite prince, I love you so so so so so so much!!
The kids are growing up so quickly, I just want to bottle up their youth and innocence forever! Currently Lily is into the shows Spirited, Dr. Seuss, the Magic School Bus, and Vamporina! She really likes playing with dolls and pretending to be a shop owner and selling you groceries or ice cream or anything really. She likes going fishing and catching the fish with the giant net that’s bigger than her and putting the bate on her hook and casting it into the water as well. Lily also likes to read books and is doing pretty good at writing out sentences and sounding out words and spelling it like how it sounds. Spelling isn’t always correct but it’s a super great start for learning to write right now! She comes up with silly and funny sentences too, like “It is raining outside but I wanted to play. I guess I will wait.” Haha! Lily’s been saving up money in three different jars (Give, Save and Spend) for the past couple months and on her birthday, I said she can use the money in her Give jar to someone or something to help make the world a better place. She wanted to give her money to teachers, specifically her kindergarten teacher Ms. Edwards because she feels you make the world a better place!! How sweet is that?! So told her that I’ll matched how much she saved (and rounded up haha). I attached a video message from Lily as well! This was the wonderful response from Lily’s teacher:
“This email made me cry many happy tears! Happy birthday sweet Lily and thank you so much for your kind-hearted gift on your birthday. It means so much to watch that video and hear your kind words. It is students like Lily that make me love coming to school everyday and I look forward to seeing all the wonderful things that Lily is going to accomplish! She has such a kind heart and I am so honored to have been her teacher at QS and be the person she chose to present her Give jar to… Thank you, again, my heart is so full from Lily’s thoughtfulness.”
I’m so proud of Lily and it melts my heart to see her touch others’ hearts like she’s touched mine. Lily felt so happy when I read her the email, and her smile just lit up the entire room. You can feel the fullness of her heart, and I hope she continues to feel that throughout her life, and keep making a difference in this world!
Lily is also very into arts and crafts and has a very imaginative mind! She likes to draw and color and make things with cutting paper and gluing things together. She likes to make Leo laugh as well and feels very proud of Leo every time he makes a new sound or does something new! She’s such a proud big sister and that warms my heart as well. Lily also graduated from Kindergarten and she also got chosen as one of the readers of the classroom too!! Great job Lily!! Lily really enjoys summer school fun club at Maple Hill and she gets to do so many fun things during the week! I can’t believe my baby girl is going to be a grade schooler now, time sure flies by! Lily’s piano teacher said that Lily is really mature and is keeping up with the lessons and doing really great in class! I see a lot of a growth and improvement in just her hand positions and fingers as well. It’s impressive at how fast they pick things up at their age. Lily also loves gymnastics and her favorite thing to practice are her handstands. She’s improving a lot in that as well and is becoming more bold and daring and really willing to throw herself into the activities and give it her all! She was very excited but also reserved at first, now she jumps onto the balance beam, doesn’t even look scared of the heights, and she even climbs the rope about halfway up the wall too! Way ta go Lily pad!!! Her bright generous sweet caring nature makes me so happy! Happy 6th birthday my Lily pad, I love you so so so so so so much as well!!!
Check out these kiddies’ birthday videos!
Happy 5th Birthday Lily!
Happy 5th birthday my precious princess Lily! Lily is 33 pounds and is 43 inches tall! She is a super happy go lucky kid and is very sweet and compassionate and kind! Lily loves to draw, paint, and write. She loves working with puzzles and mazes and counting up to 100 too! She also enjoys singing, especially the songs she learns from school, and she really enjoys her extracurricular activities like Tajik Karate, yoga and now Gym/Dance. She was doing hula, which she really enjoyed too but they don’t offer it in the summer. She likes running around and playing in the water and sand at the beach. She also likes to cook and bake and she has a very big imagination too. She’s super creative and anything is possible in her eyes; that’s one of the many things I love that about her. Lily is very thoughtful and really thinks about others. The other weekend, Alvina was over for lunch but she was upstairs putting Chloe to bed, and Lily wanted to bring Alvina some water in case she’s thirsty up there! How nice of her to think of Alvina! She also had her first trip to Hawaii as my birthday gift to her for her milestone 5th birthday, and on the plane, she used her airplane blanket to cover my arm and said “so you don’t get cold.” She’s such a sweetheart! She also got a hair cut and chopped off about 7 inches of hair, and has a matching hair cut like me! She told all her friends and teachers at school how she’s donating her hair again and even told me that there are kids who can’t grow hair, as a response to why she’s donating her hair. She’s so sweet and I love that she takes pride in helping others!
Lily also graduated from preschool on her actual birthday as well. She didn’t get to go up and get a “diploma/certificate” though because at LePort, you have to complete 3 years of primary class to “graduate,” but that 3rd year is equivalent to kindergarten. Since Lily will not be going to kindergarten at LePort, I considered it her graduation regardless haha. She still got to participate in the song they performed at the ceremony. It’s nice to see her come out of her shell a little bit. She gets really shy and doesn’t like to be the center of attention, so in a group setting, she tends to do better! I also got her a lei and folded her a butterfly out of money, which she thought was very cute!
On the trip to Hawaii, Lily already knew about leis and kept asking for one when we landed! So I went to a local flower shop and got her a nice real orchid lei and a tea leaf one for Leo! Lily got to go to the Dole Plantation, the Polynesian Cultural Center to see a luau and show, and participate in the Dolphin Quest where she got to feed, pet, and interact with the dolphin! She wanted to dress up like Moana in Hawaii so I made her a Moana dress and necklace with the heart of Tafiti and she wore it on multiple days during the trip! I’m glad she loves my handmade things! =) She loved the beach and shopping there as well, and said she wanted to stay in Hawaii forever! She kept saying “aloha” and when I returned the car rental, she said “bye hula car!” haha. She’s the cutest! She is super easy to travel with, she always kept her hand on the stroller while walking outside, and she never wandered off and listened very well! She ate really well too and had no trouble adjusting to the time difference either. She loved the hotel and got to sleep in a queen size mattress all by herself too. She had a blast for sure! Lily is so good at sleeping as well, she still takes a nap when she’s home and she can almost give herself a bath all by herself too. I just make sure she’s completely clean but she does pretty well for the most part!
I can’t believe my baby girl is 5 years old now, time definitely flies by. I threw her (and Leo) a birthday party at home and made it a unicorn theme since she loves unicorns and rainbows right now. I went all out for her milestone celebration and got a bounce house, balloon twister/face painter, and a photobooth! She had such a blast and gave all the guests a big hug when they showed up and a big hug good bye! She saw me working on the cake for a few days, and she was so excited and really wanted to eat it! She was majorly bummed when I told her she couldn’t and that it’s not real…She didn’t quite understand but she eventually got over it haha. I’m so grateful and humbled by the person she’s becoming and my heart is overflowed with love for her. She is very generous, thoughtful, silly, funny, and oh so happy! She is also very clumsy and tends to fall and hurt herself (and others by accident) a lot, but I’m afraid that’s my quality that got passed down to her…haha. She’s just so excited about everything that she can’t contain it in her tiny little body haha. I’m so happy to have such a beautiful little girl both inside and out as my daughter. I love you so much my Lily pad, happy 5th birthday!!! Can’t wait for more adventures and memories to come!
Click HERE are more photos from Lily and Leo’s Hawaiian vacation! Enjoy these videos of Lily!
Happy 2nd Birthday Leo!
Happy 2nd birthday to my amazing prince Leo! Leo weighs in at 25 pounds (~11 percentile) and stretches 34 inches tall (~50 percentile)! Leo is getting really good at pulling himself up to stand and is cruising a lot more and very easily now too! He’s starting to imitate me more like when I blow raspberries, he will try to do the same. He is making lots more sounds and it sounds like he tries to say “bottle” when it’s meal time too. Leo is getting stronger in his core and is able to keep his head up when he falls down so that he doesn’t smack his head into the ground, and he is crawling up the stairs and the couch now. He’s trying to climb up almost everything so that’s good he’s learning to explore more and be curious. A huge milestone that Leo is coming upon is that he is finally allowing the straw in his mouth for the first time! I’ve tried many times in the past and he would just fight me and not let me put any milk in his mouth from the straw. This is called Mr. Juice Bear that was created by therapists for children who have trouble learning to drink from straws. You can find it HERE, and the best part is that it’s spill proof too! The bear is soft and the straw is durable but soft as well, and you just squeeze the bear for the milk to come up so that Leo doesn’t have to suck it up. Eventually, he will learn how to suck and I won’t need to squeeze the bottle for him anymore! This was a huge success and step forward for Leo! He actually put the straw in his mouth and tried to get milk from it! He doesn’t know how to suck up the milk yet, but simply having the straw in his mouth and drinking some milk from it is huge progress!!! I’m so proud of you Leo!!!
Leo also had his first plane ride when I took him and Lily to Oahu, Hawaii for vacation to celebrate their birthdays! He was very restless on the flight there and only napped for about an hour, but on the flight home he did awesome and slept for about 3 hours and was calm the rest of the time. He did great in hawaii and adjusted to the time difference just fine and loved all the sight seeing! He also didn’t like the sand at first from the beach, he would hold his hands up in the air like “what is this I’m sitting on?!” but he eventually warmed up to it and even tried to lick the sand! Haha! He also got to pet a dolphin and went to his first luau too! He’s already a little adventurer! Let also got a shot at his 2 year old check up and cried from the shock of it but quickly settled down, he didn’t even flinch for the blood prick on his finger though, what a brave boy! I realize I’m ending every sentence with an exclamation mark but I’m really that proud and happy for my little prince haha! Leo is such a happy easy going little boy and he is developing and improving each day. He has the brightest smile and I feel so blessed and lucky to be his mommy. Happy 2nd birthday my baby boy, here’s to many more adventures to come! I love you Leo!!
Click HERE are more photos from Lily and Leo’s Hawaiian vacation! Enjoy these videos of Leo!
Angel2’s 2nd Birthday
(PC: Google Images Joakim Kremer)
My dearest Angel2 Baby,
You would have been 2 years old yesterday…I’m sorry I’m a day late, I did not forget, I never would and I never will. I think about you all the time, not just on special days like yesterday. I’ve been thinking about what wish to give you all day long, but I couldn’t get myself to come up of something that’s good enough for you. I am trying my best to be happy and positive for you, but I find it very hard because I find myself engulfed in the sadness of losing you. As your birthday approaches, I keep telling myself that I’ll be fine this time, and that I’ll be ok. Yet I end up thinking about you, what you never got to be, what I never got to have with you, and it makes me cry. I think about the moment I lost you, because that’s my last moments with you, and the pain instantly floods my heart. Some people are naive and ignorant by thinking I can’t miss someone who was never even here, but for a couple months, you were here, with me, in my womb. All those happy feelings and love that I have for you, that you gave me, that was real and that is what I miss. I miss what I never got to experience with you, I miss all the all the hopes and dreams that I once had for you, I miss you my angel2. It pains me not to be able to celebrate your life you never had a chance to live with you, and it saddens me that my tears are what makes me feel closest to you. However, your love lives inside my heart and I will always feel your love knowing that you are watching over me. I’ll never stop missing you, the pain will never go away, until I finally meet you one day. Until then, I’ll keep missing you, and thinking of you, and loving you. Happy 2nd Birthday my precious angel2.
Love always and forever,
Your Mommy
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!
Angel1’s 2nd Birthday
My Dearest Angel1,
You would have been 2 years old today. You would probably be running all over the place, talking, (and if you’re anything like your big sister Lily) eating all sorts of candy and snacks, and gifting the world with your uniquely wonderful personality. I should be celebrating this momentous day with all my friends and family after spending a good amount of time planning this special day just for you. Instead, weeks, days, and hours before this day, I spent it juggling emotions of sadness, gratefulness, loneliness, humbleness, and grief, to name a few. You should be getting showers of wonderful birthday wishes, comments on how fast you’re growing, how amazing and wonderful you are, and receiving lots of love, surrounded by lots of smiling happy faces. Instead, I might receive one or two “thinking of you” messages, and other supportive related wishes from those who are in tuned with my life, paired up with sympathetic hugs and pep talks. That being said, I’m very appreciative of any support and love I get on this day, but that’s just me, to better cope with my grief. I don’t need a room full of people, fancy party decorations, cake and presents to know how much you mean to me, and I don’t need the world to acknowledge your existence to remind me of how much I love you.
Today though, is for you, so in my heart, I celebrate you. Every year, I will try my best to spend these important dates, doing something that makes me happy, for you, to create some joy that you would have added to my life. I know your soul is watching down on my, so I will make you proud. It’s painful to imagine what you would be like at this age because it reminds me of what I’m missing, and what I didn’t get to experience with you. However, I imagine it anyways and for a brief moment, I smile and my heart feels warm and happy. But soon after, I quickly feel the pain of the dream. In a weird way though, it brings me closer to you, probably because I’m able to feel real tangible feelings for someone I never got to hold. I will never forget you. Happy 2nd birthday my angel, I know you would have created so much happiness in my life, so I wish to make myself and everyone around me as happy as I possibly can, to spread the love you have given me deep in my heart. I love you with my every being.
Love you always,
Mommy
This is a my very special DNA keepsake beaded jewelry that I got made by the super special and talented Kelly from Sacred Legacy Arts. The two outside beads are her memorial beads with the Forget Me Not flower inside it for miscarriages, for those who don’t have anything tangible to represent their lost babies. The green and blue bead has some of Leo’s hair in it, and the purple and pink bead has some of Lily’s hair in it both with gold shimmer. These beads are super special to me, because I am able to literally able carry a part of my babies everywhere with me. I’m so happy I stumbled upon Sacred Legacy Arts, it’s amazing what she does for others, and giving us this opportunity to have such a wonderful keepsake item that means so much more than jewelry to us mommies. Thank you so much Kelly, I will wear it around my neck, close to my heart, always!
Happy 3rd Birthday Lily!
Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet wonderful Lily pad! Lily weighs 27 pounds (only gained 4 pounds this entire year) and is 37 inches tall, both in the 13th percentile range. Her hemoglobin levels dropped from last year down to 11.3, on the low side so she needs to have more iron intake, more fish it is!! Haha. There’s actually a lot of foods rich in iron like red meats, pork, poultry, seafood, beans, dark leafy greens, dried fruits, and certain cereals breads and pastas! She pretty much just needs to eat more in general, but she’s so energetic she just runs around and burns it all off. Less play, more eating Lily haha! She’s small for her age but definitely big in personality and maturity. She’s so smart, spunky, and sassy and is constantly surprising us with her level of understanding and awareness of our world. (Thank you so much Mieng for these beautiful pictures of my Lily pad!!)
A couple weekends before her birthday, we had a small lunch at Favori with both of our immediate families to celebrate Lily’s birthday since we didn’t throw Lily a party this year. Then on her birthday weekend, we took her Balboa beach where there is this nice little playground on the sand that Lily likes to play at. She loves to climb up the ladders now and go down the big kid’s swirly slide and repeat those things all day long! She also likes to look at the water and run towards it and away from it, over and over again. Digging in the sand for hidden treasures is also a favorite beach activity of hers and pointing out all the seagulls and birds that fly by as well.
As you all know, Lily’s little brother Leo made his special and amazing arrival the day before her birthday. So unfortunately we couldn’t continue her birthday weekend as planned, but I still wanted to make sure I do something special on her actual birthday. I told Khoa to bring some presents that I had for her to the hospital, to let her open and I also made her a cake that is her favorite by far! She doesn’t really eat cake or cupcakes much, so I decided to fill a glass with her favorite sweets, crispy M&Ms, skittles, and red vines and stuck a sparkly candle on top! I’m pretty sure the hospital would not approve of the open flames…but we did it quick so they don’t know, and we were safe about it haha. Plus, Lily LOVED it and that made me super happy. Her face lit up when she saw the bowl of candy and she was even more excited when she saw how sparkly the candle was! So that was a big success!
Thank you to everyone who sent her birthday presents as well! I’m so touched by everyone who took the time to remember Lily’s birthday and shower her with love even though you can’t be here in person to see her and celebrate with her. This birthday is special, not just because she got a new baby brother!! So it was very important to me to make sure to make her feel loved and special even though there’s this new amazing change in all our lives. So thank you everyone for helping me make her feel special. I know it’s just presents, but to a little 3 year old, it’s much more than that.
We had a special celebration at LePort for Lily’s birthday as well, and we brought in fruit filled cookies from Trader Joe’s and cut up some strawberries for the kids for the special snack. I also bought some minion themed party favors to pass out to the kids as well since Lily loves minions right now! I bought plastic favor cups, bubble wands, super bouncy balls, stickers, and organic fruit snacks. I made thank you favor tags as well and tied them to the bubble wands with yellow ribbon to complete the package! Lily and her friends loved them! It was really cute and impressive to watch Lily set up the table for snack time and sit at the table and eat her snacks so well. She was so good at cleaning up after herself and then saying goodbye to us without a fight! I was so impressed with her maturity, it made me proud and also a little emotional that she’s growing up so fast.
I cannot believe my precious Lily pad is now 3 years old! Seeing my Lily pad happy makes me so happy, and knowing that I was a part of making her happy, just makes me feel so wonderful inside. I feel like she’s so smart and advance for a three year old, she speaks so well with multiple complete sentences and has such a wide range of vocabulary. She is so observant of her surroundings and is so intuitive to emotions as well. She’s majorly sweet and is a naturally caring and nurturing person, proven by the way she treats her baby brother Leo. I cannot be more proud of my Lily pad and I look forward to watching her continue to grow into such a beautiful lady, both inside and out. I love you soooo much Lily, you light up my life, you make me and your daddy so happy, you are so amazing and beautiful, you are everything worth living for my love. Happy 3rd Birthday my precious Lily pad!! You can see more pictures from Lily’s birthday festivities HERE! Below is also a video I made of some fun happy silly loving moments with Lily in the past year!! Enjoy!
