Lily & Leo

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!