Monthly Archives: June 2019
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!!!
