Category Archives: Lily School
Happy 14 Months Leo!
Leo 14 Months
Happy 14 months old to me precious Prince Leo! Leo weighs about 19.8 pounds, and stretches about 30inches long! Leo has been make slow progress, but still great progress! He is getting stronger with his core muscles and is able to sit propped up longer and sometimes he can even lift his arms to reach for things too. He is slowly getting more comfortable being on his knee and squatting (with assistance), and reaching for toys while sitting in his booster chair. He really like the crinkly texture toys, give him a piece of paper and he’ll be entertained for hours! He also is working on standing, you have to really prop him and hold him in place but he is starting to put pressure on his feet so that is definitely good progress. Before, he would just bend at the hips and not even let you hold his legs down, so this is wonderful progress for him! Also, he started to chew on his crinkly fabric book for a tiny bit, so that’s super great because he usually doesn’t like to put anything in his mouth besides his thumb and his bottle for milk. I hope he will start to explore the world more through taste soon!
Leo is in the process of being put on a wait list for a full time school program called Early Head Start. We don’t know if we qualify financially yet, we will know in a few weeks, but for sure we know that Leo qualifies since one of the specialty is that the program is offered for children with disabilities, and Leo’s diagnosis would qualify him, and since he is already receiving help through the Regional Center, he would get higher priority for the wait list too. Hopefully he can get in so he can get extra special attention and care while I’m at work! Grandma did a great job watching Leo but it’s getting time for him to start going to school. Leo also got his second hair cut, this time a home hair cut by Mieng and I think it looks pretty good! Leo looks so cute and handsome and very stylish!! He was very cooperative too, just hand him the phone and he’s occupied and calm. He likes to look at his reflection on the phone, or himself with you have it in the camera mode haha. Who wouldn’t like looking at that cute little face?? Leo has been sick with a fever and bad phlemgy cough for the last few days and it makes me so sad to see him not feeling so well. He would cry from feeling so uncomfortable in the middle of his sleep but even though he’s crying, I can’t help be think he’s so cute haha. I hope he feels better soon though, he’s always in happy spirits overall though. Leo is getting bigger (taller at least) and stronger everyday and I’m so proud of him! I love you so much Leo, you’re my rainbow at the end of the storm!!
Lily is so happy and always such a character, I can never get enough of her. Lily is always bursting with happy excited energy and she has a pure love and appreciation for everything! I watch her with such awe as I see her talk about things, her thought process behind all her actions. I feel like she speaks so maturely for her age. Her understanding and processing of information is just so impressive to me. All the things that I try to teach her, seems to really get absorbed by her, and she’s developing into such a beautiful little lady! I had a gift for her just yesterday and she didn’t even see what was inside but the fact that I had something for her, she was so ecstatic and grateful that she kissed the cardboard box it came in and said it’s so beautiful and she’s so excited!! haha. Lily still really loves to be hands on and help me cook. At her school they have a garden and grow their own veggies and so she learned how to wash and roast eggplants! She gets exposure to lots of different healthy foods at LePort, and it really helps her branch out and try new foods too. She loves working on puzzles too and is working on her writing skills. She knows a couple words from her Spanish class, particularly “frutas” for fruit and “bebe” for baby. She is such a sweet, smart and kind girl, and I love her pure innocence and happy nature. I cannot be more proud! I might be biased, but I don’t care, =P. I love her so much!
Here’s some video fun of the kiddoes!
Happy 10 Months Leo!
Leo 10 Months
Happy 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!
Leo 34 Weeks
Leo Easter 2016
Leo 41 Weeks
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!
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!!
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!!
“I’d rather lay like this than practice sitting.” – Leo
Leo 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.
Lily 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!!
Leo watches Lily go down the slide!
Lily & Leo Easter 2016
Lily Easter 2016
Lily 1st Day of Spring 2016
LIly St. Patrick’s Day 2016
Lily & Leo St. Patrick’s Day 2016
Time for some video fun of the kiddos, enjoy!
Happy 6 Months Leo!
Leo 6 Months
Happy 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.
His 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. =)
Leo 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!
Check out this cute video of Leo!
Lily 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!
Lily 3.5 Years Old
Lily 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!!!!
Lily’s LePort 2015-2016 Yearbook Picture
Happy 3 Months Leo!
Happy 3 Months my little prince Leo! Leo weighs 10.05 pounds now (still under 0 percentile but he’s growing so that’s all that matters) and stretches 22.5 inches long (3 percentile)! He is growing bigger and stronger each day and he developing into such a bright and happy boy! Leo is starting to smile more now and is very alert and likes to look at his surroundings and just take it all in. We are letting him sleep for a 5 hour stretch at night but we will start to let him sleep longer now that he’s gaining a decent amount of weight! He feeds about every 4 hours, and takes about 95cc per feeding. He still throws up now and then, especially when we increase his intake, and he takes about an hour to finish his bottle, but lately he’s starting to take maybe 45 mins! Leo had his hearing diagnostics a couple weeks ago and for both ears, his high and mid tones are normal but he has trouble picking up the low tones. He has more trouble in his left ear than in the right. 
The doctor thinks it could be due to fluids in his ears that prevents the ear drums from moving properly but they need to check to make sure it’s not nerve damage, and they couldn’t test him at the time since it needs to be super quiet for the test to take place and by the time it came to that portion of the test, he was already awake and feeding (to keep him from shaking the equipment off his head and ears) and the sucking of the bottle was too loud for the test. So we will come back end of September to see if it’s due to nerve damage or if it’s just fluids. If it is just fluids then eventually he will be able to hear low tone sounds but the fluids can come back. If it’s nerve damage then it will be permanent and the low tone sounds will be very soft and hard for him to hear, but it’s not serious enough for him to need a hearing aid. I think that’s pretty good outcomes!
Leo 10 Weeks Old
Leo 11 Weeks Old
Leo 12 Weeks Old (PC: Phong Truong)
3 Months Old
Check out these video clips of Leo during his tummy time, making silly faces, and some bonding time with his Ông Ngoại (grandpa)!
Overall, Leo is doing so great and it makes me super happy! Sometimes he does a vigorous head shake that’ll be on and off for 10-15 minutes, and after doing some research on the trusty internet (haha), I concluded that it could be due to blockage inside his ears and so it’s probably bothering him and he’s trying to get rid of the annoyance. I would massage his ears when this happens and he actually calms down so I feel like that could be it. He is so calm and mellow and happy, it just warms me heart to be with him. I’ve also met with a case worker from the Regional Center of Orange County and she is setting Leo up with an in-home infant program for babies with special chromosomal needs. A therapist will be coming once a week for an hour to work with Leo and make sure he’s developing on track. If he is showing any signs of delays or needs help reaching his development goals, the therapist will work with him to get him to where he needs to be. Also, if the therapist feels that Leo needs extra help from an occupational or physical therapist, then she will make that recommendation and get that set up for him as well. This will be great for Leo regardless of delays or not because this will only help Leo become a healthy strong and smart individual! Leo also went on his first family vacation to San Diego and got to go to the beach and watch his first sunset and he loved it!
Also, Lily is such an amazing big sister to him. So far, she hasn’t shown any signs of jealousy! I try to be very conscious about how I treat her when Leo is around and even when other people are interacting with Leo, I try to make sure to give Lily attention too so that she doesn’t feel like everyone is so focused on Leo that we forgot about her. Whenever she comes home from school, she always asks where her baby Leo is or if she sees him she goes up to him and gives him a kiss! She’s so super sweet! She likes to hold him and always asks to feed him and say he’s hungry and needs his milk haha. She likes to watch us change his diaper and would sit and watch him get a bath too! She amazes me so much and I cannot be more proud of my precious Lily pad.
Lily also started the new school year at LePort a couple weeks ago. She is really cute and wants to bring her baby Leo to school with her too, so I thought it would be cute to take this picture with Leo inside her backpack haha. Lily also made a new friend at school, a new student named Zoey and her teacher Ms. April says they’re inseparable! That’s really cute that she can make friends so easily. She’s still such a happy and spunky little toddler. She talks so much now and speaks in complete sentences, it’s like she’s a tiny person! You can read some of the super cute and clever things she says HERE. She understands everything I say and hears everything too. She’s always paying attention so its harder to get things past her, she’s definitely a smart cookie! She loves to draw, paint, color, and do all sorts of arts and crafts. I feel like she’s definitely my mini me! Haha! She also likes to paint her nails, wear hair accessories, dresses (no pants!), and is very into sandals now since she sees us wearing them all the time. She also still loves minions, she likes to play in her kitchen and make me a “special lunch”, play with play doh and now legos! She also likes to play with her toy cars and guns as well! So well rounded! Her favorite shows are the moment are Masha and the Bear, Octonauts, Dragon Tales, How to Train a Dragon, Cinderella, Wreck it Ralph, and the Minions Movie! She has moments where she’ll be very good at eating but then other moments where she hardly eats. She’s so easily distracted at home but when we do go out, she tends to be better at eating, probably because there’s no toys to play with haha. I love you my Lily pad, you are so wonderful and amazing, you light up my life! Happy 3 months Leo, you are such an amazing little fighter, I love you so much!
Here’s a couple videos of Lily being a wonderful big sister burping her baby brother and then another video of her at Target, and then one of our fun at the pool together!
Happy 3rd Birthday Lily!
Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet wonderful Lily pad! Lily weighs 27 pounds (only gained 4 pounds this entire year) and is 37 inches tall, both in the 13th percentile range. Her hemoglobin levels dropped from last year down to 11.3, on the low side so she needs to have more iron intake, more fish it is!! Haha. There’s actually a lot of foods rich in iron like red meats, pork, poultry, seafood, beans, dark leafy greens, dried fruits, and certain cereals breads and pastas! She pretty much just needs to eat more in general, but she’s so energetic she just runs around and burns it all off. Less play, more eating Lily haha! She’s small for her age but definitely big in personality and maturity. She’s so smart, spunky, and sassy and is constantly surprising us with her level of understanding and awareness of our world. (Thank you so much Mieng for these beautiful pictures of my Lily pad!!)
A couple weekends before her birthday, we had a small lunch at Favori with both of our immediate families to celebrate Lily’s birthday since we didn’t throw Lily a party this year. Then on her birthday weekend, we took her Balboa beach where there is this nice little playground on the sand that Lily likes to play at. She loves to climb up the ladders now and go down the big kid’s swirly slide and repeat those things all day long! She also likes to look at the water and run towards it and away from it, over and over again. Digging in the sand for hidden treasures is also a favorite beach activity of hers and pointing out all the seagulls and birds that fly by as well.
As you all know, Lily’s little brother Leo made his special and amazing arrival the day before her birthday. So unfortunately we couldn’t continue her birthday weekend as planned, but I still wanted to make sure I do something special on her actual birthday. I told Khoa to bring some presents that I had for her to the hospital, to let her open and I also made her a cake that is her favorite by far! She doesn’t really eat cake or cupcakes much, so I decided to fill a glass with her favorite sweets, crispy M&Ms, skittles, and red vines and stuck a sparkly candle on top! I’m pretty sure the hospital would not approve of the open flames…but we did it quick so they don’t know, and we were safe about it haha. Plus, Lily LOVED it and that made me super happy. Her face lit up when she saw the bowl of candy and she was even more excited when she saw how sparkly the candle was! So that was a big success!
Thank you to everyone who sent her birthday presents as well! I’m so touched by everyone who took the time to remember Lily’s birthday and shower her with love even though you can’t be here in person to see her and celebrate with her. This birthday is special, not just because she got a new baby brother!! So it was very important to me to make sure to make her feel loved and special even though there’s this new amazing change in all our lives. So thank you everyone for helping me make her feel special. I know it’s just presents, but to a little 3 year old, it’s much more than that.
We had a special celebration at LePort for Lily’s birthday as well, and we brought in fruit filled cookies from Trader Joe’s and cut up some strawberries for the kids for the special snack. I also bought some minion themed party favors to pass out to the kids as well since Lily loves minions right now! I bought plastic favor cups, bubble wands, super bouncy balls, stickers, and organic fruit snacks. I made thank you favor tags as well and tied them to the bubble wands with yellow ribbon to complete the package! Lily and her friends loved them! It was really cute and impressive to watch Lily set up the table for snack time and sit at the table and eat her snacks so well. She was so good at cleaning up after herself and then saying goodbye to us without a fight! I was so impressed with her maturity, it made me proud and also a little emotional that she’s growing up so fast.
I cannot believe my precious Lily pad is now 3 years old! Seeing my Lily pad happy makes me so happy, and knowing that I was a part of making her happy, just makes me feel so wonderful inside. I feel like she’s so smart and advance for a three year old, she speaks so well with multiple complete sentences and has such a wide range of vocabulary. She is so observant of her surroundings and is so intuitive to emotions as well. She’s majorly sweet and is a naturally caring and nurturing person, proven by the way she treats her baby brother Leo. I cannot be more proud of my Lily pad and I look forward to watching her continue to grow into such a beautiful lady, both inside and out. I love you soooo much Lily, you light up my life, you make me and your daddy so happy, you are so amazing and beautiful, you are everything worth living for my love. Happy 3rd Birthday my precious Lily pad!! You can see more pictures from Lily’s birthday festivities HERE! Below is also a video I made of some fun happy silly loving moments with Lily in the past year!! Enjoy!
More Lily Please!
Lily has been developing quite a sassy and entertaining personality. I can never get enough of my Lily pad, and I seriously can just watch her all day with the biggest smile on my face because she also does and says the darnest things! If you’re bored, or just want to brighten up your day, here are a bunch of videos for you to enjoy! Warning: these videos will force you to smile and melt your heart! =)
Here’s one of Lily laughing so hard that she had to pee haha!
Lily (2.5 years old) uses training chopsticks for the first time! I’m so impressed with her because she picked it up in a matter of minutes!! Before I started recording, she said “I did it!” and was so excited!! I’m so proud of you my lily pad!!!
Lily (2.5 years old) learns her first Christmas song, Jingle Bells! I love her voice and enthusiasm!!! So cute!!
Lily (2 years 8 months old) is enjoying eating her orange slices with mommy and being silly!! She cracks me up!!
Lily (2 years 8 months old) really loves music and singing and likes to play on her guitar! Check out her awesomely cute talent!!! I love her to pieces!!
Lily (2 years 9 months) loves to talk and sometimes it’s gibberish but it’s still pretty cute. Here’s a video of Lily reading a book called Animals Around The World (thanks Sarah for the book!) and she decides to read it her way to us! I can listen to her all day, she’s so hilarious!! I love her to pieces!!
Lily (2 years 9 months) loves to sing and picks up songs really quick now. She sang this song before but it hasn’t been this clear. It’s really cute, but why does she have an accent when she says “master”? Haha! I think it’s from the youtube video from the UK that she watches and they tend to have an accent when they sing…Either way, it’s super cute. Also, when she weighed herself on the scale, she said she’s 24 pounds, and she really is 24 pounds, amazing! High 5 Lily!
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!
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!
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.
Back to School 2014
Lily (2 years and almost 3 months old) just started the new school year at LePort last week, and she was showing me all the things she learned and can do at school during parent visitations, the day before the new school year started. I’m so impressed by all the things she knows how to do and all the things she understands as well. I’m so in awe watching her work and showing me all her skills! I’m so proud of you Lily, mommy loves you so much!!!!
Lily also Lily played on the iPad for the first time and loves it!!! The game is called Forest Flyer! Thanks Mieng for the recommendation!! I love seeing her crack up!!
Lily also loves to draw and can’t stop talking. I think her favorite shape is the octagon, but does anyone speak Lily because I barely know what else she is saying! Haha, her voice is so cute though!
Happy 2nd Birthday Lily!
Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet little Lily pad!! Lily is about 23 pounds (8 percentile) and stretches about 34 inches tall (average percentile). At her 2 year check-up, she got a finger prick to test her hemoglobin and lead and the doctors said her levels are really good, and she got 1 shot in the thigh and she cried at first but then stopped and was a happy camper shortly after! She even said thank you to the nurses and waved bye and when asked how old she was, she’ll put up 1 finger and say “TWO!!” haha! Her pediatrician said she is developing really nicely and acts like a 3 year old instead of 2 year due to her openness to everyone and how cooperative she was. She listened really well and is talking so much, and picks up on language super fast! She’s starting to go through a mimic phase and will copy her friend’s actions and she loves to hold her friend’s hands! She’s getting smarter each day and is growing so fast! Where did the time go baby girl? She also started potty training 2 weeks ago and is making really great progress!! She’s at the point where she’s really good at telling us she needs to go and we take her and she actually goes! Her favorite phrase right now is “I go poopoo choilet!” I love the way she says toilet haha. “Choilet!” She talks so much now and her vocabulary is exploding! Just last week she knew the word “octagon!” We are so proud of her and all her accomplishments in her first 2 years of life!
On Friday, June 6, Lily had a little birthday celebration at her school. We had a special circle time with all her classmates where her teacher, Mr. Monica, showed her classmates 3 photos of her (1 of her at 1 months old, 1 years old, and now 2 years old). They had a special music box that plays the Happy Birthday song when you wind it, but Lily didn’t want to wind it so we just sang to her without that. Then we all went to sit down at the table where the kids got to eat sugar free cookies and apple slices! The sugar free cookies were actually pretty good, who would have thought? Haha. I also made origami lilies from various designed scrapbook paper, and used floral tape to tape down little party favor bubble wands inside the flower. I tied a gold ribbon and tag to the top of the bubble wand, and the tag says “Roses are red, violets are blue, blow some bubbles, Lily is 2!” All the adults seemed to really like it, they weren’t going to pass them out to the kids until they leave for the day, but I’m hoping they liked the bubbles, who wouldn’t? Lily also got to enjoy some refreshing watermelon before it was time to go home from school! She had a great day celebrating at school!!
On Sunday, it was Lily’s actual birthday, and that’s when all our family and friends gathered to celebrate our little angel turning 2 years old! I made all the desserts with the help of my lovely assistant Sarah! Desserts included milk and white chocolate mousse, tiramisu, panna cotta, chocolate kiss nutter butter acorns, macarons (green tea, raspberry, and fruity pebbles), and I made this balsamic mozzarella cheese tomato appetizers too. My aunt made chocolate dipped strawberries and had the creative idea of sticking them on the top of pineapples! My super talented and crafty dad made all the wooden dessert stands too! I also made Lily’s display cake as well! We ordered the usual lot of Vietnamese food (nem nuong, fried noodles, egg rolls, banh beo), and my family made some clear noodles, soy, fried rice, pasta salad and cut up fruits too. Lily had a super great time this year because she’s older and she had a blast running around the grass with the balloon sticks and playing with all the other kids! I love watching her play and laugh her little tooshie off. Her happiness is my happiness!
My friend Mieng also did a really nice photoshoot of Lily for me for photos to be displayed at her birthday party! I was also able to use them to print out thank you magnets to send to everyone as well! The photos came out better than I could imagine and I’m so grateful to have these beautiful photos that I can share and hold onto forever. So special thanks to Mieng for all your talents! We are lucky to have you! =) You can view more pictures from her birthday party from my simple camera and photos that Mieng took HERE!
Look at all the presents! She was so excited to open them but there was so much that she just wanted to play and got tired of opening them, so I had to step in and help her open them all haha. She’s really spoiled with so much love by everyone! She deserves all of it and so much more!
Lastly, Khoa selected a bunch of video clips from Lily’s past year and Jennifer put them all together in this lovely video! Thank you Khoa for combing through the hundreds of video clips and thank you Jennifer for creating this video that we will be able to share with Lily when she’s older! It’s so wonderful to be able to watch our sweet baby girl grow from being a 1 year old baby to a 2 year old toddler! Get ready to smile, laugh, and fall in love with Lily all over again in the video below! She is the greatest joy of my life! Lily I wish you the most wonderful 2nd birthday! I love watching you grow everyday, and you made me the happiest mommy in the whole world! You brighten my days, my life, my soul. Baby I love you so much with all of my heart, forever and beyond!
Lily Turns Two from J.N. on Vimeo.
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!!
Bee Mine!
It’s the time of year again where everyone gets to shower each other with love! This year, Lily got to celebrate Valentine’s day for the first time at her school at LePort! Her teacher told me to bring 12 Valentine’s Day cards and write Lily’s name on all of them and they will distribute it to their kids. So I headed over to the awesome fancy 99 cent store, and found these super cute animal vday cards! It came with a bunch of stickers too, so I stuck 2 stickers on each card! I was very proud of myself because the cards were cute and it had stickers on it, what a nice bonus that is! So I pick Lily up from school on Thursday, and right next to her backpack is her decorated box of valentines with all her valentines in them. Then there’s a fancy cupcake box from Samuel. I was like WHOA, a cupcake for a valentine?! How sweet and ingenius is that?! I was blown away haha, and then when I got home and we looked inside her box of goodies, there were little packages of erasers, pencils, etc. I was like what?? Why are they going above and beyond! There was even a scratch and sniff valentine that said “you’re grape!” and it smells like amazing grapes! And here I am feeling so nifty with myself because I thought adding 2 stickers on each card was making it that much more special =(. Well, in the end, they are only 1 years old, and she’s not going to remember this anyways, and it’s all in good fun. I was just so shocked by the parents’ creativity, I feel like I need to step up my game next year…we’ll see if I remember haha! But anyways, isn’t this so cute what her school did? I love it!! Most of all, Lily really enjoyed it! They got a special Valentine’s Day snack where some parents brought in raspberries, cheese, yogurts, etc! She likes seeing all the colorful cards and decorating her box, so cute!
Khoa and I have been parents for a little over 20 months now, but we still try to make sure we spend quality time together as husband and wife! Normally we’d make a nice dinner then go out to the movies! However, it’s much harder to go to the movies these days, but we’re still very fortunate to have amazing parents who’ll watch Lily now and then! So Khoa told me to take a half day off work so that we can spend some quality time together, and he planned out the whole day! We started our nice date by going to the movies at the Arclight in Paseo Colorado mall in Pasadena and watched the funny Lego Movie!! It was so cool and funny with lots of wit and charm, and it had a nice story/message at the end too! It was very enjoyable and we splurged on expensive popcorn haha! We then walked around the mall and got Lily a cute fork and spoon travel set thingy, I couldn’t help myself haha. Then we had dinner at this cute restaurant called Cafe Santorini! The environment was very romantic and lovely. Then we went back to the mall and Khoa reserved us a spot in the Wine and Canvas class where it was “Date Night” and we each get to paint half a painting that fits together to make one big painting! The painting is called “Love Birds”, how appropriate is that?! It was so much fun and we HIGHLY recommend it to everyone! Khoa’s side came our a lot better than we both expected haha, I’m so proud of him! We now hang this painting in our dining room! So happy to showcase art that we made together!
At work, Khoa sent me another forever platinum rose to go with the one he sent me a few years ago! What a nice surprise!! However, my favorite part is his hand made card he made in powerpoint and paint haha! Who does that right? Well HE does! And he’s darn proud of it! He even put the Valentine’s Day date and our wedding anniversary date in the barcode! Oh the little details and thought that went through his mind. He also made sure to include a picture of Luna in the card too!! I love him so much, today and everyday for the rest of my life and beyond!
Lastly, I made Lily a new tutu tote bag! She loves purses and will wear anything that has a handle as a purse. So I decided to make the bag myself since I couldn’t find a mini tote bag that was a good size. I saw a princess tutu tote bag on etsy, but they used a bunch of tulle and make the skirt part really poofy, it looked really cute, but I didn’t want the tutu to be too much. So I used organza and just did 2 layers so that it’s just a simple accent to the bag. I used one of my existing tote bags as a reference and sewed a mini bag from that! So no pattern was used for this, but I did make my own pattern now! So I made one for Charlotte and Emmy too but in different colors so they all can have their own cute little bags!! I showed it to Lily and she went “ooOOooo” and loved it! She likes to put her pots and pans, crayons, and minion toys in it! haha! That’s my cutie pie!!
