Category Archives: Check-Up
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!!!
Reasons to Celebrate
It’s been awhile since the last update, so there’s a lot to share about the kiddoes! Leo is 31.4 lbs and stretches 38inches tall! Lily weighs in at 39lbs and stretches 46inches tall! Leo got glasses and looks so cute and handsome in them. It was quite an easy process to get him to wear his glasses. When he was getting them fitted, he stood still and let the optician put it on him and adjust them and he didn’t even try to take it off. Later when he did start wearing them, he would only take it off once in awhile, but I would just say “glasses on!” and he would stand there and let me put it on and then go about playing. I’m so lucky he’s so easy going! I’m sure it must be nice to see better too but the professionals say that kids don’t really care or notice much haha. Lily started first grade in the fall and is in Mrs. Penticoff’s class. She also lost her first two teeth, with a week of each other and was super excited to give her teeth to the tooth fairy and receive her special surprise the next morning! She did ask if I was the tooth fairy since I made her some acrylic necklaces and she saw some of the glitter and materials on my desk and said that looks like what the tooth fairy would use to make her necklace…what an observant smart girl…haha. She lost another tooth last month and has a loose tooth right now. All of these teeth are on the bottom room of teeth haha.
In September we took a mini weekend trip to Seattle for Kelsey’s wedding, but we took the kids and they got to enjoy a plane ride again and loved it! Lily loved packing up her M&M suitcase with snacks and stuff animals and Leo was so chill and slept on the plane ride and enjoyed the sites! The kids had a blast at the hotel and they even got to have a playdate with Kristin, Hisami, and Kristin’s cousins and their kids! Lily and the two other kids, Nathan and Kylie, got to play at a the park and then on a little magic show for us back at their house! We visited the space needle, went to Pike’s Place and visited the market and the first Starbucks. We also had a layover in Vegas on the way back home and I got to grab a quick drink with Alvina at the airport as well! It was a very quick trip but also fun and Lily is eager to go on another trip, especially one where you get to ride on an airplane!
At the end of October, my handsome boy started preschool at Sumner Danbury Elementary school!!! I felt confidant that these last several months of assessments, planning and meetings have definitely paid off to set Leo up in an environment that will cater to his needs and strive for success! He is such a strong amazing boy and he ability to adapt and learn never cease to amaze me! He is beyond special; he is my Leo! Leo gets to take a bus to school and then a bus to his daycare at Walnut Valley Preschool afterwards and he adjusted really well to going to school! He started to cry when I took him to the bus on the third day, but by the end of the following week, he walked onto the bus himself and was all smiles again! 
He enjoys the bus ride and the staff and teachers at Danbury are so wonderful and friendly and I just feel so appreciate for that program. Leo gets physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, adaptive PE, and sometimes swimming lessons when the weather permits, right on the school campus! 
They have all the therapy clinics there so it’s super convenient. They help him explore eating (trying to eat) different foods, it mostly ends up on his close but he’s starts to lick different textures of foods so that is progress! He is signing a lot more and he’s met a lot of his therapy goals and they have to adjust and give him new ones at the 30 day progress meeting I had with his team at Danbury. Right now some of the physical goals Leo is working on is walking up and down the stairs, catching a ball, fine motor skills, and exploring foods. All his teachers say he is so happy and such a joy to have in class, and that just makes me so proud and happy that he is happy at school. I’m super grateful and appreciative of this opportunity for Leo.
Leo had a small surgery in November. He had to be put under anesthesia so that a camera can go in through his nose to see if there’s any obstruction or anything with the blood vessels in his nose that may be causing his frequent nose bleeds and he also had to get all the wax cleaned out of his ears that may be causing his failed hearing tests. The nurse gave Leo some medication to help relax him and calm him down, but instead Leo totally got hyper and kept laughing. It was so funny and cute, it seemed like he was high on life and was just being so silly! 
I’m glad that he was so happy though so that the experience wouldn’t be too bad while I was waiting for his procedure to be over. Turns out there wasn’t anything wrong inside his nose and Dr. Ahuja said that it’s probably just from Leo rubbing his nose too much/hard but they did cauterized the left side of his nose to help it from bleeding so often. It’s not a permanent fix, just a temporary one though. They also cleaned out a whole bunch of wax in his ears and they had to drill through one of his ear drums because the canal was too small for them to get through. There was a lot of wax jammed pack in there. Leo later took a hearing test and it came out normal!!! What great news!! Leo didn’t wake up from the anesthesia very well and the doctor said that usually kids have a tough time waking up smoothly after head surgeries, so Leo was really uncomfortable and out it and cried a lot. That was the most crying I’ve ever seen him do and it wasn’t until his two hour nap when we got home that he was back to his happy usual self! I’m so thankful that his operation went well and that he is healthy and happy!
In November Lily got awarded Student of the Month and was honored for the character trait of kindness! Lily had her first piano recital back in August and then her second one in January. Here is a video of her 2nd recital on January 15, 2019 below! She did great and got nervous during her second song and forgot how the song started and started to panic and cried a little bit and said she forgot, but I went up there and told her it’s ok and to just start with the right hand by itself and her teacher encouraged her as well and reminded her the beginning notes. Lily then remembered the song and played it well but you can see the tears and disappointment on her poor little face. She gave me a huge long hug afterwards and was happy for the rest of the recital. I’m very proud of her for not giving up and for trying her best. She still had fun in the end and that’s all that matters! I’m so proud of you my Lily pad!!
For Halloween the kids dressed up as Cinderella and the Petite Prince! This year I made is easier on myself and bought Lily’s costume online on the amazing Amazon haha, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked for Leo’s costume so I made his costume myself. Lily also was super excited to wear my tiara as well and she had fun spinning around in her dress. Leo seems quite comfortable in his costume too and I bought the fox from Amazon and the red rose from Michaels. I took the kids to Brea mall this year for trick or treating since it’s a change in scenery and I figured it’ll be much safer too. Leo had a blast this year, even though he doesn’t quite understand the concept of trick or treating yet, but he loved sitting in the stroller and just gnawing on all the candy with the wrappers on…haha. He was in heaven, it was so cute!
Lily enjoyed trick or treating as usually and we were going to donate most of their candy to CHOC, but they don’t accept candy anymore so we donated a bunch to US Veterans and their families! I used a website pickupplease.org and they donate all donations to the vets and their families, and the convenient part is they come and pick up bags of donations from your house! I’m glad that Lily is always so willing and enthusiastic about giving what she has to help others! Great job my Lilypad! Lily got to wear her costume to school for her school parade and Leo got to sit in a wagon and go trick or treating at Danbury as well! His class was the only class that got to go to the school office for trick or treating, how special is that? They played halloween kid friendly music and all the faculty members dressed up and passed out candy to him and his classmates as their wagons came by. How fun! I’m so grateful again for Leo to be taken so cared of at this school!!
The holidays just zoomed by this past year. The kids enjoyed eating lots of good food, well Lily did, Leo is still learning to explore new foods. They got to see all the bright fun Christmas lights at the Mission Inn in Riverside and the Chinese Lantern lights at the LA Fairplex. Lily loved the hot chocolate in Riverside, probably because it was also freezing outside, but she had a blast either way. Lily also hose to donate all the contents in her “give jar” to her first grade teacher Mrs. Penticoff! It was very sweet of her to choose her teacher because she looks up to her and is grateful to have a teacher that loves and cares so much about her students and makes learning fun and exciting! I’m so proud of you Lily, you are growing up more and more amazing each day! I know I say it all the time but I really and proud and feel so lucky to be your mommy!! Also, this year for Tết, Lily practiced a lot on how to say chúc mừng năm mới and her inflections are quite spot on! She loves going to Phước Lộc Thọ (the Asian Garden Mall) and eating all the Vietnamese food and checking out the flowers at the flower festival and picking out her áo dài! This year she’s very into the color blue! She got to wear it to school as well as the family gathering and also wanted to sleep in it because she said it’s so comfortable haha! Happy year of the pig everyone, oink oink!!
Some last updates are that Leo has to wear an eye patch for 2 hours a day. His left eye tends to dominate his right eye and so he doesn’t “look” out of his right eye much, so patching up his left eye will force him to use his right eye and strengthen it. Leo is pretty good at leaving the eye patch on and now messing with it. It was kind of cute when he first started wearing it because his depth perception would be off and his balance would get thrown off and he would bump into things a lot, but he just got right back up and kept on moving. He’s so resilient and strong and amazing, he can adapt to anything! Eventually his eye got stronger and you don’t see him wobble as much anymore! Hopefully at his follow up with the Ophthalmologist in March, he won’t need the patches anymore. Lily is currently doing Robotics Jr., piano, Fun with Science, and tennis after school. She loves it all and I’m glad she gets the opportunity to do all (except piano) those programs at her school! She also got awarded with a certificate of Kindness award for completing the Kindness Challenge at her after school Fun Club, where they had a month long challenge to complete various kindness activities! She said that only 5 other students in her class got the certificate, great job Lily!!
I’m so happy with how much the kids are growing and learning and developing each day. Leo currently likes to close doors, knock on doors and walls, look and point and photos, dance with his arms waving up and down, lots of sweets like lollipops and chocolate pudding, and recently likes YouTube kids. He watched and learned how to navigate through the app from Lily and can even skip the ads sometimes too! I think he really likes the interactive aspect of it, but he also likes to watch the nursery songs and alphabet singing videos! He also now sleeps in a transitioned toddler bed and the transition was so smooth it was so unbelievable haha. He knows routines very well and I think he is striving so well with structure, something that I think his school at Danbury helped him learn. Lily loves watching movies and YouTube shows as well. She likes to watch kids making arts and crafts and family YouTube channels that have babies and kids who go out and do fun games and activities. Lily currently likes to watch Hotel Transylvania 3, the Chihuahua movies on Netflix, and other random movies, mix of live action and animation. Both kids love going to the movies as well and Leo’s able to stay focus and engaged during the entire movie as well and even dances at some musical numbers in Mary Poppins Returns! Lily really likes to draw and has a very eccentric fashion style haha. Both kids are quite silly and happy little kids, and I count my blessing every day and am so grateful and humble to be their mommy!! I love you my Lily pad and petite prince Leo!! Enjoy these videos of the kiddoes!
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 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!
Happy 21 Months Leo!
Blessed shirt is from the amazing Summer & Skye Shoppe at summerandskyeshoppe.com!
Happy 21 months my precious Leo! Leo weighs 23lb and 3oz, stretches 33inches tall and has a head circumference of 46cm. Leo has a recent GI follow up and he is growing just fine! He just now has to take MiraLax (8.5gm/day, powder mixed into his milk) instead of the lactulose medication. He is still on the Periactin to help increase his appetite. He has to come back in 3 months, and if he’s still not eating solids yet, then they’ll have to go in with a camera to see what’s going on physically in his esophagus and tummy. His results finally came back in from the EEG and I’m happy to say that his results came back all normal! He is not likely to get seizures and his head shaking isn’t abnormal and is nothing to be concerned about! He is such a trooper, he is such a strong little boy, I cannot be more proud of him! Leo is crawling much faster now, and pulls himself up to his knees very easily now. He is exploring the world on a higher level now that he is getting more stable and can stay upright a lot more. He really enjoys the pull up bar and gets such a kick out of seeing his handsome face in the mirror! Leo is very vocal and likes to squeal from happiness, but he is also explore lots of other sounds now too. He is so happy and chill, he makes my life so much better in so many ways. He is also starting to bite onto things (everything but food…) so hopefully he will start to eat solids soon! He is very curious and very tough and amazing! I can’t get enough of his cute little face, but please stop drooling soon Leo…it’s getting quite out of control…haha. Happy 21 months my petite prince, I love you so much!!!
Lily is as sweet as ever! Lily speaks very eloquently and I’m always impressed by how quickly she picks up new words and her level of comprehension. She’s very observant and very intuitive and compassionate as well. She is a little burst of happy silliness and her laugh and her smile is truly contagious! She loves going to the beach still and playing in the sand and running around and playing on the swings. She likes to help me garden and water the plants and then prune some flowers and put them in a vase inside our home. She likes to cut some flowers and put them in her hair as well, so cute! She loves doing arts and crafts, drawing, coloring, painting, cutting, gluing, all of it! She also recently got to visit the spaceship Endeavor with Khoa and she had a blast and picked out an astronaut barbie as her souvenir! I hope you aspire to do big things, I know you will be amazing at whatever you dream to be! I also found out that Lily got accepted to the Dual Language Immersion program at Walnut Elementary School! Space is very limited for that program and so I’m excited and feel very lucky that Lily got in! She will be learning Mandarin! Maybe she will be tri-lingual…? haha. Here’s hoping! Anyways, I can’t believe my little princess will be in kindergarten this fall! Until then, she will soak up the last several months at LePort! It’s such an amazing school and she’s growing up to be such a wonderful, smart, sweet little lady! I am always so proud of you Lily, you are my love, my light, my everything!
Happy 20 Months Leo!
Happy 20 months old my little prince Leo! Leo weighs in at about 23 pounds and stretches about 33.5 inches long. Leo recently had an Electroencephalogram (EEG) scan (where they send tiny electrical impulses to brain to measure brain wave patterns, activity and responses) to see if it’s functioning like how a child his age should function and respond. I won’t get the results until another week or so, so stay tuned! Leo is getting much better at crawling and can go greater distances before falling onto his belly. He is also getting much quicker and stronger at climbing up to his knees. Leo still hasn’t made much progress when it comes to eating solids but he sure is putting almost everything into his mouth, everything except FOOD! I try to trick him and put some puffs on his high chair tray along with some toys and he’ll play but will lick everything else except for the puffs! What a clever little boy. He’s gonna be trouble later on! He’s getting bigger though, drinking about 7-8oz of formula each feeding, 4 times a day. He is making lots more different sounds with voice and loves (really loves) to squeal high pitched noises of excitement when he’s happy! He likes to blow raspberries and get drool EVERYWHERE too. I feel like he’s starting to purposely drop things now too because he’ll drop something and then look at me to see my reaction. Also, whenever someone asks Leo where mommy is, he’ll look at me! Yay, my baby boy knows who I am! =) I love you so much, happy 20 months, keep on shining and growing strong!!
Also, I am participating in a virtual run on April 29th called the Chromosome 18 Starfish Dash for my Leo and created a team page for him. Help me support Leo’s journey with Tetrasomy 18p and the Chromosome 18 Organization and Society! If you would like to participate and donate, click HERE. If you can’t donate at this time, then please help me by spreading the word!! Thank you so much for all your love and support for my precious Leo!
Lily gets more and more amazing each day. She recently had her progress report at LePort and here’s what her teachers had to say about Lily, “Lily is blooming this year with her bright smiles and animated conversations with her teachers and peers. She is making new friends of different ages, both younger and older. Her interest in engaging socially seems to be great importance to her and yet it sometimes inhibits her concentration and makes working on her own a challenge. However, when Lily is engaged in something she enjoys, usually in the company of a classmate, she can work with concentration. She has now started to seek out new lessons with enthusiasm and takes pride in developing skills such as writing! Once Lily has mastered a lesson, it is wonderful to see her enjoy repeating it, and some activities she revisits daily. Recently she has consistently been verbalizing her thoughts and feelings with confidence and is working diligently toward refining her penmanship, using the Metal Insets and taking her time to write correctly formed letters and numbers. Lily also continues to trace the Sandpaper Letters carefully, revealing a greater retention and knowledge of the shape, sound, and lowercase cursive symbol for all the letters of the alphabet. We look forward to seeing her long-term recall of letter sounds so we can work more in-depth with her on the Moveable Alphabet, an important work highlighting sound blending. We are thrilled to see Lily gain openness to taking on some new and challenging tasks. Well done Lily!” It’s so wonderful to hear all the great things about Lily and how she’s learning and growing into a beautiful smart lady! She even impressed me by pointing our some states on the map like Texas and California, and even all the countries on earth, except she couldn’t remember the name “Australia” but that’s pretty difficult to pronounce at first. I cannot be more proud of my Lily pad!! I love you so much Lily!!
Here’s some video fun of the kiddos!
Happy 19 Months Leo!
Happy 19 months my little prince Leo! Leo weighs in at 22.4 lbs and stretchs about 33 inches long. Leo is now drinking about 6-7oz of Pediasure Grow and Gain with Fiber 4 times a day so he can gain more weight. He is still taking his medications twice a day and taking a medication to help increase his appetite right before bed since it makes him drowsy. He had his hearing test and he woke up when they tried to put the probes on his head so all they can find out is that both ear drums work, so that’s good, he just has to go back in April to see how much hearing he has. He also had a speech evaluation and his speech and understanding skills are mostly at a 3-6 months and some 6-9 month old range, but since it closely matches his physical development, they’re not recommending speech therapy for now. He has to come back for a follow up in 3-4 months, and if he is not showing any improvement, then he will probably need therapy. Overall, he is still always a happy playful and cheerful personality. He likes to play peek a boo and clap his hands, and he really likes interactive toys. He is doing so much better at drinking from his bottle by himself. He’ll drop the bottle sometimes and will need help near the end but he is doing so much better. He can also sit up now all by himself, yay!! He is crawling more and even pulled himself up to his knees in his crib too! He is making great progress and I cannot be more proud of him! He is still not eating solids, but he is starting to lick objects and discover the world through that sense and that is a huge milestone. I’m hoping he will eat solids soon now that he’s ok with licking things, it’s a great sign! Leo is also making lots of new sounds and loves to squeal with excitement, sometimes a little bit too loud…haha. Leo also had his first trip to see the snow and had a lot of fun and was very curious about the snow too! Happy 19 months old me sweet petite prince! I love you so much!!
Lily is always so silly, goofy, smart and sweet! She loves to dance and watch music videos and listen to music. She currently loves the movies Troll and Sing! She can play those songs and videos on repeat all day long if she could haha. She also is really enjoying karate more at school! Lily’s appetite has been increasing too and loves to snack on strawberries, raspberries, and cookies. She eats but then burns it all off so quick! She really likes to sing more now too and I’m very impressed with how well she can memorize songs after hearing them a few times. She likes a lot of modern songs on the radio but also school songs that she learns at school. She gets really proud and excited to show me what she knows but she’ll get shy if put on the spot. Lily is very into all sorts of toys right now, Shopkins, Num Noms, Legos, Princess Elena, shooting “alligators” (shooting nerf guns from upstairs down at imaginary alligators), and lots of arts and crafts. She also is getting much better and faster at riding her tricycle and balance bike too! Lily also had a blast in the mountains and loves sledding. She wanted to go with my first just to get a feel for it again and then she was all on her own non stop! She loves to get her nails painted and sometimes I’ll let her do it herself. She likes to brush her own hair now too and brush mine and try to tie my hair as well. She also loves watering plants in the garden still and cuttign some flowers to bring them inside to put in a little small vase that I have for her! She really loves her teachers at school and a couple of them left to work at other schools. She told me about it and told me that she’ll miss them a lot. She’s so sweet! She then told me she got new teachers and that she went up to them by herself to say hi and tell them her name, I’m so proud of her! You’re my giant ball of sunshine my Lily pad, I love you to pieces!
Here’s some video fun!
Happy 18 Months Leo!
Happy 18 months Leo (sorry I’m so late on this post)! Leo weighs 21lbs 8 ounces, stretches 2 ft 8 ins, and has a head circumference of 48cm. Leo had an appoointment with his neurologist, Dr. Lily (good name!) Tran, and she ordered an EEG scan to see how susceptible he is to getting seizures and seeing if any of his delays are due to that rather than just muscle tone issues. She said he has low muscle tone but it’s not AS bad as we think, she said she’s seen a lot worse. She also stated that since he hasn’t started pointing at things, he is showing signs of autism but we won’t really know until he’s 3 years old. Also, he’s not hugging or giving kisses yet so she feels there’s also social delays, so he just needs to have more therapy to work on those developments. He will have a follow up in 8 months and once insurance gives me authorization for his EEG, he will do that. So I just have to wait for insurance to get the authorization for it so that i can make the appointment for that. He also had his hearing test and did various tests and he’ll pass in certain ears in certain tests and then fail in others and so overall it’s inconclusive, so he will have to retake the test in a couple months. If they still can’t get conclusive results, then they’ll have to put him under to do a more accurate brain wave activity test for his hearing. Leo also had his GI appointment and she prescribed him medication to help increase his appetite, taken before bed on Mondays-Friday with breaks on the weekends. He also needs to increase his milk intake since he only gained half a pound in that last 3 months and she feels he needs to gain more weight. She said that if he doesn’t start eating solids by his 2nd birthday, then he will need to do an upper endoscopy where a camera goes down his esophagus to rule out eosinophilic esophagitis, reflux esophagitis or gastritis. She wants to make sure that his food allergies isn’t causing any irritation in his esophagus that might make him turn away from eating solids. Overall, Leo is so happy and is growing beautiful. He is army crawling a lot faster and I feel like he will full on crawl soon! He is clapping his hands a lot now and likes to squeal a lot too! He really likes interactive toys, but he also likes the tv remote control and my hair haha. Despite all his hardships, Leo is so happy, I cannot feel more lucky and blessed. Happy 18 months my petite prince Leo!!!!
Lily is a giant ball of sunshine! She is so sweet and caring and super smart! She has such a happy spirit and gets so excited about the little things, it melts my heart. She is always so sweet and attentive to Leo, and understanding of him as well. Lily is getting more excited about her Tajik karate classes and likes to demonstrate what she learns at school for me, and her gymnastics as well. She likes to show me her punches and kicks and her tumbling skills! I am also so proud of her at her LePort Christmas Show, where she actually sang most of the two songs! She sang a snowman song and Jingle Bell Rock! She told me Jingle Bell Rock is really hard but come the day of the show, she knew most of the words and sang proudly too! I cannot be more proud of her!! She is so artsy and crafty too. I like seeing all her art projects that she does at school, and she’s getting pretty creative and more advance in her drawings too. She’s going from rainbows and blobs to actual people and things now! I can’t wait to spoil her this Christmas with so much holiday cheer!
Happy 16 Months Leo!
Happy sweet 16 months to my sweet little prince Leo (sorry for posting this so late Leo!)! Leo weighs in at 20lbs and stretches about 31 inches long. Leo is getting so much stronger each day and constantly making progress in his developments. He had his GI appointment and the doctor prescribed him some medication to help with his chronic constipation. She said that he needs to clean out his colon and he has to be on this medication everyday for about a year to get his system use to going number two once a day. His colon is probably enlarged due to the constipation and holding it in for days at a time, so he needs to allow himself a lot of time to get his colon back down to a normal size. She thinks that maybe if he poops more regularly, maybe he won’t have a tummy ache (even though he doesn’t see to be fussy about it, maybe his tummy has been aching) and maybe this will cause him to want to eat and try solids. Overall, the medication is working and he’s still not taking solids, but it’s going to be a process. The OT said she’s never met any non g-tube that’s be this orally defensive before. I hope you start to learn to eat solids soon Leo because food is SO enjoyable haha! Leo did have a great accomplishment though and that he’s starting to hold his own bottle during feedings! He’s not confident yet, it’s more like me propping his hands up and holding his hands in place, but it sets the motion and he would hold it for a minute or two by himself, and sometimes he’ll even tip the bottle up himself to get the last of the milk as well! He is also tucking his legs under him more when he’s on the floor on his tummy, and he’ll rock back and forth sometimes in that position too. It seems like he’s really wanting to crawl soon, fingers crossed!! He’s also getting stronger at standing. Sometimes he’ll pull himself upright but he still needs a lot of assistance and support when standing, and he’s still pretty stiff, but he’s improved a lot just in this last month. The two PT sessions a week now really helps! He also does this ridiculously cute thing where he’ll put his arm up and his hand on his forehead whenever he’s tired or doesn’t like something, and if he really doesn’t like something then he’ll pout, but it’s just so super cute I cannot resist his doe eyes when he does it! All his baby steps are huge leaps in my eyes and I cannot be more proud of my petite prince Leo!
Lily just so bright and sweet as ever! Lily is learning a lot at LePort and even though her Spanish class isn’t offered this quarter, she is still reciting numbers and words she learned and is very proud of it! She is always super silly and likes to use her giant imagination and create lots of elaborate stories during playtime. She is very loving and sweet to Leo still and still continues to give him lots of hugs and kisses and is still so good at making him laugh and smile. She also had a recent school field to Zoomars Petting Zoo in San Juan Capistrano for the first time and she had such a blast! She loves riding the school bus and she really enjoyed all the animals! She liked feeding all the guinea pigs, goats, and pigs, and she even got to brush a goat’s fur. She also conquered her fear of horses/ponies and rode on a horse with no tears at all! I am so proud of her and she even had so much fun and waves hello to me several times during the ride. There was giant corn kernel pit at the zoo too and she loved making corn angels in it haha. Lily really likes songs on the radio and is singing along to them more, I love her sweet soft little voice! She still has a slight accent when she says certain words, it’s pretty cute and unique haha. I don’t know where she gets it from…but it’s cute regardless! She’s so silly and always bursting with so much sunshine and happiness, you just help but smile and love her even more. I love you so much my precious princess, my Lily pad! Keep on shining oh so bright!!
