Category Archives: Montessori

Happy 5th Birthday Lily!

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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!

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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 10 Months Leo!

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Leo 10 Months

LeoBookHappy 10 Months my petit prince Leo!  Leo now weighs about 18bs, and stretches about 29 inches long!  Leo had his follow up check with his urologist a few weeks ago and overall everything looks good.  He said to massage the two incision spots on his belly 30 second rotations each way every time he gets a diaper change and the scar should go away!  He has to come back in a year for another follow up, so hopefully everything stay good and healthy.  Leo is starting to play with his toes more now and he loves to roll all over the place.  He is holding onto his toys a little longer and really likes to play with crinkly texture toys.  His top two teeth are very visible now so his teeth count is at a whopping 4!  He’s starting to drool more now because of all his teething.  When Leo starts to suck his thumb, that’s a sign that he’s getting tired and sleepy, it’s really cute!  He’ll rub his eyes and them use his arm to cover his eyes and fall asleep that way.  He is being more vocal now too and making lots of different noises.  He likes to blow raspberries now and is beginning to lick things and slowly put things in his mouth, mostly his bibs.  Leo also really enjoys books and on a few occasions he was even able to turn the page all by himself!  He is very curious and loves to observe his surrounds.  Leo has a sweet gaze and will entrance with his beautiful eyes and sweet little smile.  Big sister Lily is still the best at making him laugh, but he is always so happy and smiling, he is literally a bundle of joy!

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Leo 34 Weeks

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Leo Easter 2016

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Leo 41 Weeks

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Leo’s 1st St Patrick’s Day

Leo had his 6 month assessment from the infant education program a few weeks ago.  I was actually a little surprised by how delayed he was in a lot of areas, I thought he was just a little bit behind in some gross motor skills but I didn’t realize he was delayed in other areas as well.  The assessment stated that Leo’s delays are attributed to a couple neuromotor factors such as low tone and decreased strength.  It was reccommended that his schedule gets changed to 3 hours of therapy a week instead of 1 hour a week, where it’s 1 hour for PT, 1 hour for OT, and 1 hour with his infant educator.  The Regional Center decided to go with 2 hours of therapy, 1 hour PT and 1 hour OT and forego the infant educator for now.  When I first saw the results to Leo’s assessment, I was surprised by the numbers and felt bummed, scared and worried for my Leo.  I think it’s a normal reaction, since I don’t want Leo be too delayed, if at all, but after some time to process all the information, and understand the questions and tests that were involved in order to do the assessment in the first place, I wasn’t as worried anymore.  I can’t get caught up in the statistics and numbers, I have to look at what’s right in front of me, and look at this from a different perspective.  Leo isn’t struggling, yes he is delayed, but he isn’t struggling, he is healthy, and most of all, he is happy.  Leo has his own journey that he is living and he is living it wonderfully.  He will crawl, stand, and walk, when the time is right for him; he will talk and eat when he is ready to do so, and he will continue to grow and develop the best he can, and that’s all I can ask and be grateful for.   Leo is my little miracle, and every day with him, every moment, every milestone, is more than a dream come true.  I want the very best for him, but he is already the very best son for me!

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Leo with PT Kerry

Leo started his first Physical Therapy session with his new therapist Kerry on Monday. I really like Kerry, she has a lot more activities and exercises that we can do with Leo at target and strengthen his core muscles.  She really put Leo to work and he didn’t really like it, poor baby, and even started to cry!  Leo hardly ever cries so it was really sad but funny and cute to see at the same time.  His bottom lip in his pout is just way too cute, I couldn’t resist and have to show you all haha.  It’s all good for him though, so he will thank her later!!  It was a very helpful first session and I feel like as long as Leo keeps at it, he will probably make a lot of progress real faster!  Kerry was very motivated as well to get Leo to reach his milestone goals, so that was very encouraging to see.  Behind those tears and pouty face, I think Leo really liked Kerry though because right off the bat he impressed us all by sitting unassisted for what probably felt like 2 minutes!!

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Leo chilling side sitting style

Normally he’s done maybe 30 seconds or less because he would get so excited and want to move around and he’ll lose his balance, but in front of Kerry, he just sat so stable and straight, it was amazing!!  You are still doing really great Leo.  Don’t let numbers and statistics dictate what you are capable of.  You will push boundaries and achieve great goals for yourself, and you can do anything you put your mind to.  I have faith in you my little Leo, you already make me so proud, and I know you will always be my beacon of hope and my bright light!  I love you so much Leo!!

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“I’d rather lay like this than practice sitting.” – Leo

LeoOTChristineLeo had his first occupational therapy session today with his new therapist Christine.  She was really nice and really good with Leo.  We didn’t deal too much with feeding today, more of just physical therapy so that Leo can build a relationship and trust with her.  While playing through therapy, she’ll occasionally touch his mouth and face to get him to get use to her touching his mouth, so later when she works with loosening his mouth and cheek muscles, he won’t be too closed off to it.  She said later one when he does start to eat, to let him be messy and explore his food, let him feel the texture with his hands, smell the aroma, point out all the different colors in his food, and then let him taste it and really exaggerate how good it taste.  It’s all part of the experience of eating and she said to make the process fun for him.  She seems very knowledgeable and I feel like Leo is in great hands!!

Also, Lily is so wonderfully amazing.  Lily had her Children’s Night at LePort recently and once again I’m also so blown away by all that she can do.  I’m very impressed with her beginning writing skills, her starting to sound out letters and trace in cursive, her dexterity with level of focus and concentration with her work too.  It’s really great to see her so confident in the classroom and excited and happy to do her work and show off her skills.  I’m so proud of her in every way, I can’t believe that beautiful smart silly funny little baby girl is all mine.  Lily also had a field trip to the Discovery Science Center and I think one of her favorite part about field trips is being able to ride the school bus.  Every time she sees one she gets super excited!  I got to go with her on her field trip and it’s very nice how empty it was and it felt private and so Lily didn’t really have to wait to do anything she wanted, she got to roam free and do whatever her mind was curious about.  Her favorite was this recycle game that they had on the second floor, she must have spent half an hour there!  You can view pictures from her field trip to the Discovery Science Center HERE.  I love you so much my Lily pad!! Check out this video of Lily at her Children’s Night at LePort back in March.

LilySmoothieLilyWriting1Lily continues to be such an amazing big sister to Leo as well.  She’s still constantly so loving and caring towards Leo, always wanting to give him kisses and play with him and making him laugh, she’s still the best one at making him laugh.  He loves her so much too and every time he sees her he loves to just watch her and gives her the biggest smile.  Lily is always so happy and silly, she lights up my life.  She still likes to be very helpful and likes to do a lot of things herself.  She even helps me out with cooking now too, from cracking and stirring eggs, chopping fruits and veggies, to watering plants.  She’s my little sous chef, my little personal assistant, my partner in crime.   She really likes music and loves to sing and even makes requests to hear certain songs.  Whenever a song comes on the radio that she likes, she would ask me what song it is if she doesn’t know it, or tell me that she likes this one.  She also enjoys watching a lot of movies and shows on netflix, I recently took her to watch Zootopia and she loved it and watched it many times after that (handicam version at home haha).  She said she loves the song in it and would watch the music video over and over.  Lily also enjoys coloring and drawing, she’s very good at writing her name, and she likes to cut and glue paper, the Kiwi Crates are still a big hit with her!  I like them too since it’s a great way to have bonding activity time with her that’s also educational and fun.  Lily loves to play pretend food prep for me as well and play with little random knick knacks, stick them in her purse, take it out, and put it back in, and repeat haha.  She has a very big imagination, is very observant, smart, and intuitive.  I love you so much Lily, you are always making me proud and happy, I’m a very lucky mommy!!

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Leo watches Lily go down the slide!

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Lily & Leo Easter 2016

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Lily Easter 2016

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Lily 1st Day of Spring 2016

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LIly St. Patrick’s Day 2016

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Lily & Leo St. Patrick’s Day 2016

Time for some video fun of the kiddos, enjoy!




Happy 6 Months Leo!

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Leo 6 Months

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

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

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

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Check out this cute video of Leo!

LilyPickingTree2015Lily is also now 3.5 years old!!  Lily is constantly growing in her vocabulary and her growth and maturity in her cognitive skills and mannerisms always surpris and impress me.  She definitely says the darndest things but she’s also super sweet and thoughtful at the same time.  I cut my finger once and she told me a few days later while I was chopping and cooking dinner again, for me to be careful because she didn’t want my to cut my finger again.  She’s so sweet!  She is also very clever and sometimes too smart for her own good haha.  She’s constantly paying attention whether it looks like it or not, but she’s always alert.  The other day Khoa asked me if I wanted to go to the mall after we had lunch, and I said it depends on if Lily is sleepy and falls asleep on the ride home, and I looked behind me to check if Lily was sleeping and she lit up all wide eyed and said “Mommy I’m awake, I want to go shopping!” haha.  She is also still an amazing big sister to Leo and constantly wants to be around him and smother him with kisses.  She is very good at eating new foods and is eating everything we eat now.  It’s so convenient to not have to make her separate food that is “safe” knowing she’ll eat it, but instead, I don’t have to take that extra time to make her special food because now she will eat whatever we are eating!  It’s awesome!

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Lily 3.5 Years Old

LilyChristmasTree2015Lily is super spunky and fun and always soooo happy.  She loves to sing and dance and do arts and crafts.  Starting in January, she will be continuing her soccer classes in her after school program, but she will also be starting Spanish!  She already picked up the word “adios” so I figured, lets expose her to Spanish and see how she does!  I hope she enjoys it!  She’s still doing some signing and I try to refresh her memory on some old signs in hopes that she would retain it and eventually communicate with Leo once he starts to pick up signing as well!  That’ll be exciting to see them communicate with each other soon!  Lily is also a very big little helper around the house.  She likes to dust and clean and whatever I’m doing, she wants to do too.  Lily is very into the girly things like wearing dresses, headbands and jewelry, but she also loves “boy toys” like cars and dinosaurs and light sabers!  We introduced her to Star Wars this past weekend and watched episode IV and V and she loves it and is also a huge fan of Yoda!  haha!  She currently is a huge candiholic yet loves carrots and apples and cuties as well..so I guess it balances out? Overall she’s still such a very good kid and although she’ll have her moments, she’s still very good and well behaved and I feel so lucky everyday to have such an amazing little girl.  It’s never a dull moment with my precious Lily pad.  Her smile just lights up my heart, I love you Lily!!!!

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Lily’s LePort 2015-2016 Yearbook Picture

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!!)

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

Halloween 2014

This year for Halloween, Lily casted her spell on all of us with her bewitching costume that my aunt gave her!  Lily got to participate in her school’s Halloween parade for the first time, and she did so well!  She is quite a character!  Check out the video below!

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We also took Lily to Mickey Mouse’s Trick or Treat Halloween Party at Disneyland for the first time this year too!  Lily dressed up as a Minion, one of her favorite characters, and totally got spoiled by all the candy Disneyland gave out!  It was literally handfuls of candy at each station!  What was nice was that they didn’t just give out chocolate candies, but they also had healthy alternatives like baby carrot sticks, apple slices and yogurt craisins!  Way ta go Disneyland!  We will definitely come back next year!  You can view more pictures here.  We also took Lily to go trick or treating for the first time at the South Coast Plaza Mall.  I like it a lot since it’s so safe and easy and Lily got the hang of it really quickly, and even said “trick or treat” before they gave her the candy!

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We also took Lily to the pumpkin patch again at the Irvine Regional Park with her friends Emmy and Skye!  She enjoyed riding the fake pony, rolling the pumpkins around, and playing with her friends more than the pumpkin patch itself.  Maybe next year she’ll be big enough to drive the little motor tractors and enjoy doing more activities!  She’ll probably be able to carve her first pumpkin next year!  That’ll be something fun to look forward to!  You can see more pictures and videos here.

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Happy 23 Months Lily!

Happy 23 months my precious Lily pad!!  Right now she weighs in about 22.4 pounds, and stretches about 33 inches tall!  Lily loves to talk now and starts to mimic our words we say!  She is picking up so many things so quickly and is getting so smart so fast!  She is talking so much more these days and picking up new wordings really fast!  Right now she can count to ten, but she likes to say the next number in the sequence.  For example, I’ll start with saying 1, then she’ll say 2, I’ll say 3, then she’ll say 4, etc!  It’s so cute and I’m so impressed with her!  She likes to hold things for us and say “I hold it!”, “that’s funny” or she’ll plug her ears and say “It’s loud” when she hears loud music or something haha.  She is super good at spotting parks miles away and saying “SLIDE!!” and “PLAY!”  She’ll also point things out like boats, trucks, trains, dogs, bunnies, stroller and say what they are too!  It’s amazing how fast she picks things up!  Also, we would ask her what does a cow say, and she’ll say “moooooo” and we’ll ask her what does a bird say and she’ll say “kaaa!” like the seagulls she saw in Seattle.  Then we asked her what a dog says and she goes “dooooog!”  hahaha!  So cute!  We’ll work on that haha.  She will also point to my jacket and say “mommy jacket” or point at Khoa’s and say “daddy jacket!”, or point to our shoes or feet and say “mommy shoes” etc!  She also likes to bring our shoes to us to tell us that that she wants to go out to play!  She also knows who to say “this is heavy” and she’ll say “oh!” a lot too!  She surprises us with new vocabulary everyday!  She’s a non-stop talking and is so smart!  I can listen to her voice all day long, she never stops amazing me!

We also went on vacation to Vancouver and Seattle from May 1-6!  Lily was such a great traveler!  She loved seeing all the new sites and playing at all the parks!  She especially liked Maplewood Farms where she got to pet a bunch of animals like baby goats, cows, and guinea pigs!  She made herself at home at the hotels as well and loved playing hide and seek behind the curtains and jumping on the bed haha.  We took her to various parks and let her play and run around, and she loved seeing all the new things she hasn’t seen before!  You can see all our photos HERE!

This past weekend we also celebrated my 2nd Mother’s day!  It was really busy but overall very nice!  Lily came home on Friday from school with a special sweet gift she made for me!  She made me a really nice card, and a frame with her cute little foot prints on it that made a shape of a butterfly!!  Her teacher said she worked really hard on it, and I know she put so much love into it!  I’m going to make sure I hang it up in a nice spot so I can see it everyday! =)  later that night we had dinner for Khoa’s mom for her special mother’s day celebration.  On Saturday, we had lunch and dinner for our families, and here are a couple pictures of 4 generations from Khoa’s mom’s side, and 3 generations on my side!  We had a nice lunch with Khoa’s mom side and a nice dinner with my family later that evening!  We appreciate and love our moms for all that they’ve done for us all our lives.  We would not be here without them and we love you so much!  Thank you for all your hard work, caring for us, and showing us what love is.  Happy mother’s day mommies and Bà Ngoại!

On Sunday, my sweet little Lily pad came into our room with this huge heart shaped balloon that says “Mom is the Best!” and sings “Simply the Best” when you tap on it!  It was so cute seeing her walk in all excited with the balloon.  She lights up my life and makes me so incredibly happy!  Khoa then surprised me with a brunch buffet at Don the Beachcomber in Huntington Beach.  Everything was decorated Hawaiian/Polynesian style and at the end of brunch they had a Polynesian show with Polynesian dancers and a fire dance too! I was very pleasantly surprised!  Good job baby cakes!!  Afterwards, we had a nice relaxing stroll along the Bolsa Chica State Beach!  Not many people were there so it was really nice not having to deal with the crowd.  After Lily got to play in the sand for a bit, and picking up all the tiny trash items in the sand (gross haha), we dropped her off at her grandparent’s house and we saw the movie The Neighbors!  It was really funny and better than I expected too!  We then went to church and got my special mother’s day blessing.  We then had dinner at Gyu Kaku where I ate an entire s’more even though I said I’d only have 1 bite…whoopsie! =P  We then picked Lily up, put our sweet angel to bed, then watched Game of Thrones!  Thank you Khoa for a wonderful day, I love you!  Also, big love and thanks to my special baby, my sweetheart, my love of my life.  When you came to be, you became my everything!  I would not have this wonderful gift of motherhood without you, my Lily pad.  I love you with all my heart my love, and I feel your love everyday, and it warms my soul, you complete me!  Also to my angels, I love you, and thank you for watching over me. <3


 

Happy Mother’s day to all you wonderfully fabulous mothers out there!

Happy 22 Months Lily!

Happy 22 months my sweet Lily pad!!!  She is currently around 22 pounds (FINALLY) and stretches around 32 inches tall!  She is such a vocal baby and had such a spunky personality.  She is a very happy baby and she loves music and is starting to sing a long a little more to a lot of songs.  She currently loves the Disney movie Frozen and would point to the TV and say “let it go!” haha.  She is learning to say a lot more words too.  She will point to her shoes and say “shooos.”  We also taught her how to saw “I love you”, I just love her voice!  You can see her progress here:

Lily also likes to point at baby pictures or babies she sees when we go out and say “baby!!”  It’s so strange to see that because she’s still MY baby! haha.  Her favorite activities are to color and draw, and when she’s done or sees her art work that’s she’s done in the past, she likes to point to it and say “I did it!!”  She also likes to dance and play with bubbles, ride her trike to the park, and play on the slides!  She’s fearless on the slide and likes to go on the big kid’s slide now too.  She is turning into a little fashionista and loves jewelry, sunglasses and hats as well haha.  If she sees a hair bow, she’ll take it and say “bow” and try to put it in her hair!  So cute!  We love her so much!!  Happy 22 months our sweet precious Lily pad!!

Lily also had Children’s Night at LePort and she got to see what she’s learned at school.  We got to follow her around her classroom as she showed us her doing some “work” (activities).  She really loves to paint, and do puzzles!  I’m so impressed with how much she knows.  She knows where everything in the classroom is, and she’s got the routine down really well.  She’ll take the activity to the table and set it up and start working, then when she’s done, she’ll clean up her work and put it back on the shelf she got it from!  She also really likes to put on the apron when she paints and she can put it on herself too.  It’s so cute!  She never ceases to amaze me!! Here is a video of her completing the butterfly peg puzzle!  We are so proud of you Lily!!

Happy 20 Months Lily!

Wow now in the 2-0 digits!  Happy 20 months my sweet little Lily pad!   Right now she stretches at about 32 inches and weighs about 21 pounds!  She understands more and more each day and I feel like we can ALMOST reason with her at times!  She’s still sleeps super well at night, so that makes us super happy and lucky as well.  Thank goodness we can count on that!  She’s so full of personality and fun, I love cuddling with her and tickling her and make her laugh!  She really likes to play and she pats the floor to make you sit down and play with her.  She likes to color and draw with markers, play with her musical teapot, play with her kitchen and plastic fruits and veggies, she loves going on her trike rides and playing at the park, particularly the slides!  She also loves music and dancing, flipping through books, trying on and taking off beaded necklaces, brushing her and your hair, and playing with chapstick, and even tries to put it on you!  She babbles a ton and picks up new words here and there too!  She can say “eat” and “up” super clearly now, and she’s very good at saying “help”, “poop”, “eww”, “hooray” and starting to say “thank you”.  She’ll try to say other words, not so clearly but it’s the effort that counts!  She’s very good at expressing certain emotions too, and will say “ooOOooo” when she sees something new or something she likes and thinks it’s cool!  She’ll make funny faces for fun and crack herself up!!

She recently did a photoshoot with MGA Entertainment this past wednesday (1st photoshoot since October of last year!) and she did great!  In the waiting area they had tons of toys for her to play with and she quickly made herself at home.  They gave her an outfit to wear and then we headed over to hair and make up!  Before we went, I asked Lily if she wants to go and play with some new toys and she nodded and said “yes!”.  So the stylist put out her hand and Lily took and walked happily with her to the set!  They put some lotion on her face, a little bit of powder and Lily tried to push the brush away.  The makeup artist then said Lily looked so pretty so Lily put out her face for her to put blush on!  She asked if she wanted lipstick (lipgloss) and Lily nodded and said “YES!” and of course licked her lips after to taste haha!  She so cute!  They gave her a cute purple matching headband to wear too.  The product was this realistic functioning (but plastic) shopping cart.  It was really cute, I might have to buy her one when it comes out in the fall!  Lily did really well and loved playing with the cart and fake fruits and veggies in the cart, and she loved the wrangler too!  Lily was laughing and playing and had a great time!  I’m so proud of you Lily pad, can’t wait to see the pictures later this year!  Below is a picture of her playing with toys in the waiting room and then after hair and make up!  What a pretty doll she is!  Also, someone found Lily’s Disney Baby Minnie Mouse bedding set advertisement in a full page spread in the American Baby Magazine in the February 2014 issue!  I was able to buy a couple copies from Ebay and Amazon!!  It’s so amazing to see see in a magazine!!  You see polka dots on her face because the pages are thin and it shows the ad on the back of the page…haha.  Either way, she still looks super cute!!

I also had Lily’s parent teacher conference at LePort this past Thursday and I was super happy to hear what Ms. Monica had to say about Lily.  Lily didn’t get a progress report since she hasn’t been in the toddler class for long, but she gave me an update on how Lily is doing.  Ms. Monica said that Lily is such a sweet girl and that she has a contagious laugh!  She said Lily has a very good sense of order and memorizes things really well, and would reorganize the puzzles and put them where they’re suppose to be on the shelf!  She likes to clean, pushing around the vacuum and she apparently loves to sweep the floor haha.  She’s really good during snack time and setting up her seat at the table, and putting things away when she’s done eating.  They have a snack station to get their place mats, plates, and utensils.  She eats all her food every time, and she drinks all her milk too!  What a good girl!  Ms. Monica said she loves doing art and gets really excited when they do crafts, and she loves it when they have music time which they do twice a week.  Sometimes during nap time, she’ll sit on her cot and just sing to herself and then go to sleep, haha!  Her teacher said that doesn’t bother her since Lily’s not disrupting her classmates and Lily stays on her cot, so that’s totally fine!  She’s so silly! haha. Lily picked up on the routine pretty quickly, and they ring the bell whenever they change activities, and so when she hears the bells, she’s very good at stopping what she’s doing and go to the carpet for circle time, or lining up to go play outside!  I wish I can observe all this one day because it sounds so amazing what she’s doing!  She also really likes to water the plants!  They teach her to touch the soil and see if it’s dry or wet, and if it’s wet, then they would move on to find a plant to water, and if it’s dry, then they would water it!  Ms. Monica said that Lily’s language skills is developing really well and she’s saying more words!  She’s learning to spell her name and is learing to pronounce her name better too!  She’s also really good at asking for help whenever she needs it, like if she’s on her tricycle and someone crashes into her and they get stuck, she’ll yell out for help!  Her teacher said not many kids will vocalize that much, so that’s really great!  She also said that Lily might be ready to be potty training in a month or so, wow that’s so quick!  So we’ll be getting ready for that soon too.  Overall Ms. Monica said that Lily loves to do everything, and that she’s learning things really quickly!  She finally figured out how to use the lock and key puzzle the other day too!  Ms. Monica said that when new parents come to tour the campus, they’ll see Lily and say she’s so cute and that her face is just like a little doll!  She said that she loves having Lily in the class and is so happy to have her here!  Hearing all these wonderful things about Lily just makes me soooo happy!  I’m so grateful for all the hard work the teachers do to teach Lily, and I’m so glad that we’re keeping up and doing well with raising her at home as well!  We are so lucky and Lily makes my smile brighter and my heart fuller each day!! I love you my sweet Lily pad!!

Hello Juniper!

Last week, on January 20th, Lily started her first official day at the Juniper Toddler class at LePort!!  It was very bitter sweet to have her graduate from the infant Willow class to Juniper, but we are so proud of her.  We were sad to leave the Willow room because we know how happy she was there, and we liked the comfort of it and how flexible they are with her schedule and everything.  You develop this nice relationship with the teachers there that was another tough part about new beginnings.  We can’t stay there forever.  We are so thankful and grateful for all the amazing teachers here at LePort.  Lily surprises us everyday with all the things she’s learning, and she’s growing into such a beautiful person thanks to their teachings!  Good thing though is Lily will still be able to see her fellow Willow-mates on the other side of the toddler playground fence!  Here’s a picture of Lily saying goodbye and giving with her teacher, Ms. Bianca from the Willow class, a hug on her last day!

Two weeks prior to Lily’s start date at Juniper, she got to do a transition period where she gets to visit the toddler class for a little bit at a time.  She got to have snack time there, take naps, and even test out the toddle playground!!  Her new teacher Ms. Monica, tells me Lily is adjusting nicely and her daily report always says she’s happy!  She tends to eat really well too, and we are now able to order her food from Cater Tots for her lunches!  Since the toddler class has a set schedule, she ends class at 3:30pm, and then gets to go across the hall to her After Care and play with her friends until I get off work at 4:30 and pick her up!  The exciting thing about the toddler class is that she gets to see some of her old friends who use to be in her infant class but moved up since they’re older.  It was a nice reunion and her teacher told me that her and her old friend Sage kept giving each other hugs on her first day, how cute is that?!  Can’t wait to see all the amazing new things she learns this year! =) Goodbye Willow, hello Juniper!

Lily painting her 1st masterpiece!

Lily having fun washing her hands at the toddler sink!

Lily playing and learning!

Happy Sweet 16 Months Lily!

Lily’s artwork from school!

Happy Sweet 16 Months to our precious Lily pad!!  She’s still small, hasn’t grown too much since last month, weighing in at 19.6 pounds and is stretches about 30.5 inches tall.  She recently got bronchiolitis and had to breathe through a nebulizer for a couple weeks, but she’s all better now, no more wheezing!  Also, Lily is finally off the bottle, woohoo!!!  We were so happy and proud of our Lily pad when she started drinking a significantly more amount of milk from her thermos straw cup.  We tried sippy cups, normal straw cups, and finally the thermos straw cup.  We tried to ween her off but it wasn’t working so we decided to do it cold turkey.  Eventually she realized the only way she can have her milk was through the straw cup, so instead of pushing it away, she now takes it without a fight!  It felt good to put away the bottle drying rack, we now have more space on our counter, and Khoa’s super relieved he doesn’t have to wash anymore bottles (for now).  Good job Lily pad!!  She also is so good at listening, we’ll ask her to put her toy back when she’s done playing with it and not only does she put it back (most of the time), but she’ll put it back in the right spot on the right shelf and everything!  I’m just so amazed by how much she understands and how well she listens!  She loves to babble and she’s learning to say a lot more works too even though sometimes she likes to add a “buh” sound at the beginning of some words, like “baiper” instead of “diaper” and “bup” instead of “up”! haha.  She even knows to say her name, except she says “yiyi” instead, close enough! haha.  That’s our cutie pie!  She’s also signing a lot more words and picking up new signs a lot quicker now too!  She’s also very good at feeding herself, eating bananas by herself and hold a spoon and scooping yogurt, oatmeal, or porridge into her mouth!  It’s still messy but it’s all part of the learning process!  Lily loves playing at the playground and going down the slide, feet first but on her belly haha.  She loves being outside, playing with friends, and riding on her elephant Elijah (thanks Cynthia!).

Last week she graduated from her Parent & Me Beginner swimming class and will move on up to her Parent & Me Intermediate level swimming class!  She got this cute certificate and got to dig through the treasure chest to pick out a toy for graduating from the beginner’s class!  It took her awhile to pick a toy cause she kept shaking her head no at all the things the worker showed to her, but she finally settled on a green stretchy plastic guy that you can bend and shape!  You can also check out a short video from my instagram of her swimming too below!

I also found Lily on the cover of another Infantino toy, the Teether Links, at Babies ‘R Us!  I went to several different Babies ‘R Us and was finally able to track this down.  I was so excited when I saw her darling face that I grabbed three of these, then I stood there for a minute pondering if I should just but the rest as well, since there was only two more on the rack, and so I did!  BUY THEM ALL!!! haha.  I was so excited, I didn’t even have a cart, so I’m juggling all of these and plopped it onto the cashier counter.  I had a proud momager moment and told the cashier guy that that’s my baby on the cover!!!  I’m so proud of her and this is the first time I was actually able to find one of her toys myself!!!  Just look at that sweet chubby little face, don’t you just wanna squeeze her?  So proud!!!

I also took a gamble and bought her Funflower, seen HERE, and her Soft Safari Foam Puzzle Set on Amazon, and look who’s on the cover!!!  My dad also found her Jittery Pal at Babies ‘R Us, it was the last one at the time!  Woohoo!!  So excited that my collection of Lily’s toys are growing bigger and bigger!

Lily’s 1st Week of School (Fall 2013)

Lily just had her first week of the new school year (2013-2014) this week starting on Wednesday September 4th!  She hasn’t been in school for almost a week due to the Labor Day holiday, and so when I was driving her to school, I was wondering if she’ll be clingy to me or not.  So when I got to her classroom and let her down on her feet, she immediately started to walk around the classroom and checked out the new layout!  She was waving “hi” to her teachers and totally looked ready to start her day!  She’s so cute I wish I can stay and play with her allllll day, but I’m glad she’s in good hands!!  As I was leaving, I was telling Lily “bye” and she just waved back at me waiting for me to leave so that she can play haha!  How they grow so fast! Her new head teacher, Ms. Stacey Dee took emailed me some great pictures of Lily at her first week back at school!  Her teachers tell me that she insists on feeding herself now, and that she loves to greet everyone (adults and babies) who come in and out of the classroom!  They say she loves to talk and always has a smile on her face!!  That’s our little bundle of joy!! =)  This is going to be a great school year!!!

Enjoy these pictures that her Head Teacher Ms. Dee sent me of Lily at school!

 

 

Happy 14 Months Lily!

Happy 14 months old our precious Lily pad!!  She weighs in at about 19.0 pounds and stretches about 30 inches tall!!  She is super happy all the time and is very healthy!  Lily loves to talk!  She’ll talk to herself while playing, talk to us, strangers, anybody and anything!  She loves to eat and even has a molar tooth growing in the back!  She really likes to eat “normal” foods now, and some of her favorites are bananas, strawberries, grilled chicken strips, and turkey and cheese sandwiches!  Lily is getting better at drink with a straw too, and sometimes she can drink a little bit out of a glass with our help of course.   She loves to walk EVERYWHERE and she’ll just keep walking till she’s completely pooped!  She’s still a great sleeper and naps twice a day and it can range from 1 hour nap to 3 hours!  She sleeps about 11-10 hours straight at night as well!  She’s so good and we feel super blessed and lucky every single day!!  Lily is so much fun and she’s starting to understand and respond so much it’s scary haha.  Happy 14 months old Lily pad!!  Best 14 months of our lives, and going!!

Enjoy these videos of our Lily pad and her newly developed skills!  Here’s a video of her signing to eat!  (This was recorded last month when she was around 13 months old!)  She tried to sign more too by putting her arm close to her, so we can see her efforts!!  Good job Lily we are so proud of you!!

Here’s a video recorded yesterday of her signing for more! Her fingers are bunched together too where as before she had her hands flat almost like she’s clapping her hands. Now she’s getting so good at signing more!! More more more baby signing please!! =)

Also, here’s a video of Lily enjoying her first funnel cake at the OC Fair, click HERE!
Lastly, here’s a video of her enjoying a turkey cheese sandwich after a long day at the fair, click HERE. I love how happy she is!!! =D
For more pictures of Lily’s first time at the OC Fair with my parents, click HERE!