Our little family

Finally on a day where we are all decently dressed, Trung decides to bust out the "good" camera (digital SLR) and take a much needed family picture. Enjoy!

Gas or grin...

you be the judge.

This past month, Sophie went through a phase where she would only sleep for three hour stretches at night. This behavior was a bit confusing because isn't a baby supposed to sleep longer at night as they get older? Well, I realized that in her first month, Sophie had a hard time sleeping during the day, so she would make up for it by sleeping a lot at night. This second month, however, she has been sleeping quite a bit during the day, thus, sleeping less at night. So, this past week, I purchased a recommended baby book and followed some advice though not the restrictive sleeping schedule. Basically, I kept Sophie up longer during the day, dressed her in cooler clothes (onesies), and fed her as much as possible...it worked. Starting Monday I am going to try the hardcore sleeping schedule from the book, which allows only 3.5 hours of awake time during a 7 am -7 pm day...wish me luck!

I am hoping to have Sophie trained by next Friday when my parents will be watching the kids for four days. That's right...four whole days! Trung and I are leaving from Houston to attend his college friend's wedding in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Cool, right? And the timing couldn't have been more perfect with Trung starting his new job upon our return. I hope my parents will survive watching the kiddos, though I could really use the break.

Lydia vs. Sophie

First thing this morning, this is what ensued...

Frolicking in the sprinklers

Annie invited Lydia to join in the fun of running through her front lawn sprinklers. The experience was a first for Lydia and she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Here's a video of the girls rinsing off...well, kind of.

Moving On

After nearly 9 years of full time employment at IBM, I've (Trung) finally decided to move onto something new. Starting June 11th, I'll be working for Internet Brands. They are a small company (in the ballpark of 100-200 people is what I've heard) based in Los Angeles. They're an Internet company in the business of operating websites in several consumer categories, such as automotive, home-related, and travel. Specificaly, I'll be joining their Austin-based development team working on a website called ApartmentRatings.com. Perhaps some of you have used it while hunting for apartments.

It's a really exciting opportunity for me and definitely huge change of culture -- I'll be going from a large project (which alone may have more people working on it than all of Internet Brands) in a corporate setting to a much smaller team in a company that just went public last year (symbol: INET).

Additionally, I'll also be starting to do my part as any other good commuter in contributing to carbon emmissions, as now I'll be driving into work instead of working at home. Sadly, due to this new requirement combined with our ever expanding family, we've already made plans on getting a second car... Not a new one, mind you, but new to us. I'm sure Grace will elaborate on that in a later post.. Hint, the type of car has the word "mini" in it... oh no!!

I will really miss my co-workers at IBM. The team I'm leaving is truly a world-class team (literally -- as they are spread out over the entire globe in places such as India, China, Mexico, Argentina, Minsk, and of course dozens of locations in the US). The experiences and friendships I've earned there have been invaluable and something I can take with me wherever my path leads.

All Things Green

Going Green
Trung recently bought a manual push mower to replace our gas powered one. The mower is very quiet and does a pretty good job, plus it gives the out-of-shape Trung a decent work-out. Speaking of yards, Trung decided on his own accord to plant sunflowers, a couple herbs (basil and cilantro), a couple tomato plants, and a bell pepper plant. I attempted to grow the vegetable plants several years back when we first moved into the house, but have never thought twice about doing it again. I was able to grow a few tomatoes, one inedible bell pepper and one inedible eggplant; hopefully Trung will have better luck though planting the bell pepper in front of the clothes dryer vent may not help. :/

Finding Green
Last night we went to Barton Creek Mall to find a dress for me for an upcoming wedding. I had Sophie in her stroller with me and Trung had Lydia in a rental push car. We separated a couple times as I tried on some dresses and when I met them back up at Ann Taylor, Trung informed me that Lydia had just found $100! Apparently she was walking a step behind Trung because he walked right by and had picked up some papers from the ground. Trung saw her waving them around and was just about to tell her to put them back down when he discovered that it was 5-$20 bills and an ATM invoice. After he told me this, Trung and Lydia went back to find the ATM machine to see if anyone was searching for their lost money, but after waiting around for a good while, he came back with no luck. We considered giving it to the the mall security, but we figured it was about thirty minutes ago (the time was on the invoice) and there would be no way to find the person anyways.

Oh, and earlier when we had just arrived at the mall, Trung was debating whether or not to rent the push car. Well, as Lydia was playing in a "stationed" one, he discovered that it was not locked back into the "docking station", thus receiving a free ride + $1 when he returned it. Man, with Trung's luck, I don't see why he doesn't like to go out shopping with me more often!

Green Girls

Lydia joined Sophie on her play mat this morning and I realized they were both wearing green and for once, it was not planned. :P

Lydia's baby

Not even eight weeks old and Sophie is already learning how to share and she doesn't appear to like it very much.

Lydia is always busy busy busy; she kinda reminds me of myself.

Splish splash

We paid a visit to the community pool today for the first time this summer. Lydia had a blast despite the slightly cold water and faint wind.

Reality Shows

Yay for Kristi for winning Dancing with the Stars; I knew she could do it! Flower power! I almost thought for a split second that Cristian might win with sympathy votes, but America always votes justly. I still have never called in a vote before, so I can't really complain even if I wanted to.

After the show, I stuck around and watched as Deanna, the newest bachelorette, met 25 eligible bachelors. I had watched as Brad broke her heart last season, so I'm happy for her and I hope she finds the man of her dreams this time around.

Lydia-isms

Like many young toddlers, Lydia has her own 'language'.
Here are a few of my favorite mispronunciations:

• cracker - cacak
• ball - baw or ba
• apple - app
• uncle - unk
• baby - beebee
• pig - bick
• goat - goach
• cat - atch or oww (meow)
• music - ick
• cup - up
• eat - each
• fruit - wooch
• smoothie - ee
• TV - ee
• trash - otch
• hat - hatch
• hug - hock
• milk - oak or woke
• wipes - ipes
• eyes - eye
• ears - eea
• nose - no
• feet - beet

I'll add more as I think of (and hear) them.

Also, I hear mommy may be posting a movie that captures some of these pronunciations in action. For now, though, I'll go back eating 'wooch' while I listen to my 'ick'.

Daddy Daycare

Taking advantage of the nice "grilling" weather, we had some friends over last night for Boca burgers, sausages, and chicken wings. This was the first gathering where all the kiddos were present, which I found quite exciting. The evening began and ended early as little ones needed to go to bed, but did not lack entertainment as you can see...

The newest additions this year...
Sophie "kung-fu style" (6.5 weeks), Kaitlin (4 months), Trevor (2 months)

The "old" and the "new". I stuck Sophie in the picture thinking everyone would do same with their kids. :P
Lydia (20 months) & Sophie, Parker (1 year), Ethan (10 months)

Daddies and wanna be daddies.

Peeping Parker

Silence is a virtue

I've been taking the girls out during the morning to keep the house quiet for Trung's important conference calls these last couple of days. I can usually keep the kids pretty calm or Trung can tune out the sound while working, but he has some speaking parts this time, so he really needed the silence. He has talked about moving his office, which is currently in the dining room area, to the guest bedroom so that he can shut the door, but then our only guest bedroom would be pretty crowded. We may have no choice because the kids will only get louder before they get quieter.

I had my six week visit today...yeah, I know, already! Everything is just fine despite the slight lack of sleep, though I can't complain since Sophie will sometimes sleep for five hour stretches. We've limited her swing time to only once a day now and we haven't given her a pacifier in a couple days. Hopefully we can keep it up and only give her the pacifier when we're out and if necessary. Lydia is still loving her little sister and is very helpful when fetching the baby's diapers and "ipes" (as she likes to call them); she truly is mommy's little helper.

Mother of two

Trung and the girls took me out to dinner to Sushi Sake last night for Mother's Day to avoid the crowds today. It was the first time that I've had raw fish since being pregnant, so I was VERY excited. We ordered our favorite specialty rolls, while Lydia enjoyed some vegetable udon.; Sophie snoozed peacefully in her carseat. I love her chubby cheeks; I just want to eat them right up!Afterwards, we went to Marie Callenders across the parking lot to pick out a pie to take home. They all seemed to look good to Lydia!
My girls (please note the matching outfits :P) and I wish you mommies out there a very happy Mother's Day!

A few of my favorite things

- Watching my kids grow up
Lydia is learning so many words and enjoys repeating them. She also plays copycat and mimics just about anything you do; it's especially funny when she tries to do tae-bo. Lydia still puts everything in her mouth, which is scary because her hands are always dirty from touching everything. She's still a very happy little girl, despite the fact that I'm always reprimanding or yelling at her, which I am trying so hard to change. I've always had a quick temper, so disciplining Lydia has been a trial for me; she sure is teaching me how to be more patient.

Sophie is getting a little bit spoiled, only sleeping in her swing or with a pacifier during the day. We've started letting her cry herself to sleep at night (she's crying now), which is very tough, but the doc says no pacifiers at night! Sophie goes right back to sleep after her 4 AM-ish feeding though, which is nice. She's beginning to play a little now, loves her baths, and of course, doesn't care for her tummy time.

- Dancing with the Stars
I'm surprised that Mario left the show this past week, though not completely shocked. I truly believe that Cristian got by with sympathy votes and the fact that Cheryl is his partner. What can I say about Marissa? America loves her and so do I; she's so bubbly and genuine. Marissa has a great personality, but Cristian has more skill, so he's my pick to make it into the top three. Overall, I still want Kristi to win. :)

Check-up

Sophie weighed in at 8 lbs, 15 oz at her one month appointment, which was a month and five days to be exact. She jumped from 15% to 50% for weight, and respectively gained more weight than Lydia did, so we are right on track. Sophie has been sleeping four to five hour intervals at night, so sometimes I've been waking up only once a night! She's growing up so fast and we're already getting glimpses of her personality. As for big sister, she LOVES the baby. Lydia always wants to kiss Sophie and has recently started burping and hugging her own baby doll. I can never leave her alone with the baby in fear that she'll smother Sophie with kisses, or smother her in general as she likes to get on top of her at times. :/

One month weekend

We celebrated Sophie's one month in Houston and though we were in town for less than 24 hours, it was plenty of time; managing two kids on a trip is really hard work! We had a delicious seafood dinner at Sinh Sinh Saturday night and then had lunch with my Dad's congregation on Sunday. It was exciting finally getting to introduce Sophie to everyone, and Lydia got to do some entertaining on the piano. Maybe one day she'll play hymns for the church like her Mommy once did.

Remember those bye bye buggies? My Dad took Lydia for a little ride by herself in one and she had a ball; needless to say, we had a hard time getting her to come home with us.The girls did great on the drive to and from Houston; Sophie slept the entire time both ways and Lydia took naps as well. A little more than halfway back to Austin, Lydia did get a little fussy, but entertained herself with a couple of mangoes that we failed to keep out of her arm's length.

You can't tell from the pictures, but I put the girls in matching outfits. Yes, I am "that kind" of Mom though I'm sure it won't last long once Lydia starts picking out her own clothes. I might as well take advantage while I still can.

Sophie's first month

Yeah! Sophie is now one month old and doing great! She is now sleeping in 3.5 to 4 hour intervals at night and about 2-3 hour intervals during the day with an hour awake time in between. Sophie is already outgrowing some of her clothes and we'll soon be upgrading her to size 1 diapers. I already miss her being so tiny even though she's still small, but I'm looking forward to her first smile and her sleeping through the night. :)

Here's a picture of my mother-in-law "Ma" giving Sophie a traditional red envelope. The little one must know that there is money inside of it because she's already got a good hold on it.