Sea World

Nick gave us a couple free tickets to Sea World on Saturday, so even though the kids are still a bit young to really enjoy it, we decided to take them. There really wasn't much to do for a child shorter than 36", but Lydia still seemed to enjoy herself. I was impressed that she wasn't scared of the whirling motion of this paint can ride; she actually wanted to go faster...

Taking a water break with the flamingos.

The Ly family at Sea World.

SHAMU!!!

Lydia posing with a purple pumpkin. Too bad I didn't notice the lady bending over in the background until now. *shrug*

Sophie having a little end-of-the-day laugh. I just love hearing the sound of a baby's laughter!

Friday Fun

I figured since Sophie wasn't crying and Lydia wasn't hitting her too hard, that it would be okay for a quick clip. I stopped Lydia moments later. It is awfully sweet though when Lydia tries to play with Sophie because Sophie really does love her big sister.

I didn't realize how much energy Sophie had at the end of the day. She has been sleeping much much better now, waking up at 7:30 AM this morning; maybe the jumping will help her sleep like a baby again from now on.

Stay at Home Week

Yay, all my favorite shows are back on! Trung and I used to watch Heroes, but since we are uncertain how much we've actually missed, we've decided just not to watch it this season. Plus, we want to catch the entire season on DVD for instant gratification; those weekly cliff hangers kill me! I watched Dancing with the Stars all three nights; Brooke and Lance are currently my favorites. I was hoping that Cloris would get voted off, but apparently America loves the older women...Jane Seymour, Marie Osmond, etc.

Since David Blaine's Dive of Death was right after Dancing with the Stars, I just left the TV on to see if anything interesting would happen. The clips leading up to the big dive were pretty interesting, like catching the bullet in his mouth, but the actual dive itself was pretty lame. David didn't even dive and what's up with the support rope? Trung and I think the lights were supposed to go off just as he jumped, and then the rope would take him away so as to appear that disappeared into thin air. Well, whatever it was that was supposed to happen probably would have been lame too. As you can probably see, I'm not a real big David Blaine fan, he has been pretty disappointing...first not holding his breath as long as he said and now this. Oh wells.

Grey's Anatomy was certainly action packed. I was so relieved that Rose was joking when she said that she was carrying Derek's child...whew! That icicle was certainly an interesting twist too. I'm looking forward to this season of must see TV!

Over the weekend

This past weekend we took it easy, which was nice because next weekend will be busy busy. It's funny how are weekends are normally pretty free, but when events do happen, they are all on the same day. Like this coming Saturday, for example, we're going to Sea World for the most part of the day and then Trung's company barbeque at 5 PM AND we were just invited to a neighbor's birthday party at 3 PM, which we won't be able to attend. Needless to say, it's going to be a busy day, but at least the girls can do most of their napping in the car on the way to and from San Antonio.

Saturday we had a mini gathering at our community pool. It was fun watching the kids play in the freezing water and just hanging out with our friends, which we don't do very often anymore.
Also over the weekend, Sophie started waking up at 1-2 AM and again around 5:30ish. Lydia has had a runny nose and cough ever since she started MDO a few weeks, and I think Sophie has finally caught something. Either that or she isn't filling up on breastmilk anymore and gets hungry, who knows. Regardless, I have been spoiled with Sophie sleeping through the night before she was two months old, so this new sleeping schedule has been quite tough on me. You would think that being a stay-at-home Mom, I would be able to catch a nap some time during the day, but it's been hard getting the girls to sleep at the same time nowadays. Oh, and Trung and I have begun to show some minor cold symptoms too, like runny noses and coughing. Hopefully everyone will start feeling better before the weekend.

Two piggys and their blankets

In case you missed it...

Sunday night around 11 PM as I was taking out the trash, I noticed how usually bright it was outside. I looked up and behold...the Autumn Moon.
I quickly went inside and told Trung, who was already in bed, how cool the moon looked that night. He took a peek out the window and next thing you know, we're both grabbing our cameras and heading outside. Not only was Trung able to capture the beauty of the moon (my camera couldn't pick up the detail), but we were able to spend some quality time together that we rarely do nowadays with him playing his Spore game and me working on my store at nights.

The phrase "the calm after the storm" came into mind when I saw this image for Hurricane Ike hit Houston that very morning. Fortunately my family was fine, just some leaks and fallen trees, and of course, power outage. And to think, I have Lydia's smelly diapers to thank for letting me experience such beauty!

Super baby

She grunts...

she scratches her tummy...

she rolls over and tries to eat Mommy's pants...

she's....SOPHIE!

Near Future

We took a short trip to Round Rock outlet today to buy Lydia a pair of tennis shoes for MDO. She plays outside in the sand when she's at "school", so I've been putting socks on her with her sandals, which kinda looks tacky. Anyhow, Trung conveniently found an abandoned two-seater car for Lydia; we stuck Sophie in it for a quick photo shot.
One day in the very near future, we will be trekking our two little girls around in these shopping vehicles. Just this morning I was showing Sophie how to ride a tricycle. She's got the hold-on-to-the-handles thing down; now if only her chubby legs could only reach the pedals.

Growing and growing

Within these last couple of weeks, Lydia has completely stopped using her pacifier at home and only has it during nap time at MDO; she sleeps in a full-size bed instead of her crib; she takes showers with me instead of taking baths; and just yesterday, she started brushing her own teeth with her Dora toothbrush. We plan on moving her crib back to the nursery for Sophie and hopefully getting her room all girly-ed up. Lydia just turned two, but seems so much older nowadays!

Oh, and she's finally gotten bitten (pretty hard) by the jealousy bug. Now that Sophie is grabbing for toys, and grabbing Lydia's toys at that, Lydia does not seem to care for her very much. Every time I hold Sophie, she's just staring at her with a sad look in her eyes, even though I'm looking and singing with her. Lydia has also been saying "mine" and "no" to Sophie quite a bit, even though the baby is just sitting there and not doing anything. *sigh* Thus is sisterhood.Sophie has physically changed...her hair no longer sticks up, which got me pretty bummed. I enjoyed brushing my face against her hair, but now it has gotten too long to stick up. Sophie is sitting up by herself pretty often now and enjoys eating everything, even people's noses. She still plays alone fairly well, though loves the company of others, especially her big sister. Sophie has been dragging herself in circles, so I think she may start military crawling soon...can't wait!

More Weekend Fun

Lydia woke up this morning a bit under the weather, so we tried doing her favorite activities to help her feel better. (Not only did she catch another strand of virus at MDO late in the week, but our busy schedule the last two days didn't allow Lydia to rest very much and recuperate.) We went swimming in the morning and then to the park in the afternoon; Lydia had a busy, but fun birthday weekend!

Sophie checking out Trung's new "Spore" game

My girls and I at Zilker Park

Sophie's position the entire time while swinging

Fun times with Daddy

Our swinging little monkeys

Lost Pines Resort

Rather than attend my ten year high school class reunion today in Katy, I decided to spend the day with my family. Cora, my sister-in-law, is attending a conference this weekend at the Lost Pines Resort about 30 miles from Austin. Jimmy and the kids tagged along, and he invited us to come up and check out the resort; we pass it every time we go to Houston, but I had no idea what was behind those trees! We had lunch at the resort cafe and then headed to the pool, which was really cool and had a relaxing "river" that carried my float around. The resort itself was very nice, though the room arrangements reminded me of a cruise ship with all the rooms lined up closely.

Sophie getting ready to catch some rays

At play at the pool

Daddy and Lydia

Sophie catching a nap instead of those rays

Lydia not wanting to leave

After settling back at home, Jimmy's family decided to follow us back for some Chinese food since they were getting sick of the cafe food, and Parker's family came over for a play date. The kids had so much fun playing with Lydia's new toys, and Lydia got to celebrate her birthday again...two birthday "parties" for a two-year-old. At this rate, we will have had fifteen birthday parties for Lydia by the time she turns five!

Terrific Two's here we come!

My little girl, or should I say "big girl", turned two today. It doesn't seem that long ago that Lydia was a tiny baby, well, probably because it really wasn't that ago, but still, she's growing up so fast. Happy birthday, sweetheart! Mommy and Daddy love you very much and are so proud of you!

Labor Day Weekend

We drove to Houston Saturday afternoon; Sophie slept the entire ride while Lydia, who was still feeling a bit under the weather, stayed awake watching Baby Einstein DVDs. Jimmy brought his kids over to my parents' house after we arrived and the cousins played while we waited for dinner. My mother took Lydia out for a walk after dinner and I hit the local Gymboree after putting Sophie to sleep.

We dropped Sophie off at my old home church's nursery on Sunday for the first time. I told myself that if I knew someone volunteering in her class that day, that I would, and there was...two, actually. Lydia's class had gone out for a ride in the bye bye buggy, so the remaining teacher was going to take her in a stroller to find them, but she seemed content just playing in the room by herself. She was completely healed too, no runny nose or anything; my little Wolverine.

We had a mini celebration for Lydia's upcoming second birthday with family and local friends at Jimmy and Cora's house Sunday evening.

My mother made her usual yummy Chinese food and we had chocolate cake a la mode and fruit tart for dessert; Sophie was happy just to eat her hand. The kids has fun playing together while the grown-ups chatted. Here's me with some gal pals...

Daniel's ready to go home!

The girls taking a bath together for the first time with Grandma's help.

Sophie summarizes the day.