Costume changes

Lydia started off with a ladybug costume that she wore to the Halloween party at Mother's Day Out, but the velour was too hot for the suddenly warm weather. Where did the cold front go? Plus, it was a tad short and I didn't have any shoes to match it. Then Lydia tried on a purple flower fairy costume that was in my eBay store. I promised my peeps at Gymboree and Janie & Jack that I would give them a Halloween picture of the girls, so they had to represent.

Then finally Lydia went trick or treating as Lilo from the movie "Lilo and Stitch" because the fairy headpiece was choking her double chin. Sophie stayed a pumpkin throughout the day and was perfectly content with being held the whole time while trick or treating.

Sophie with pretty pink poodle Amy

Graces and their kids

We went to my cousin Grace's place yesterday and the kids had a grand ole time playing. Nathan loved hugging Sophie, maybe because she is too young to refuse him...
but not too young to complain.

I never really got to hang out with my cousins at all while growing up since we were living on opposite sides of the globe. Now that we are in the same city and especially with kids about the same age (Nathan is three months younger than Lydia), hopefully we will be seeing more of each other. :)

The girl next door (or a few houses down)

Sarah, our neighbor across the cul-de-sac from us, has her parents living with her and John to help out with baby Amy for a few months. Her mom likes to hang out with us; I don't know if it's to have somebody else to talk to (in Chinese) or because Sophie and Amy are only a couple weeks apart and she likes comparing the two. Regardless, it has been fun talking walks around the neighborhood or having them over, even though I don't understand half of what she says. (The smile and nod method seems to work really well most of the time.)

Taking turns doing the "airplane".

Feeding Sophie

Sophie started eating carrots on Sunday since her rice cereal was established, so I thought. The next day she started downright refusing all solids. Sophie had been sleeping 7-7 without a dream feed recently, but without that extra rice cereal dinner, she began waking up hungry around 3:30 AM. I think my timing was off because she was just too hungry to be spoonfed, but I think we are back on track again.

Sophie's first taste of carrots

That wasn't so bad...

Eating is hard work

Lydia offers Sophie a peace offering

Hanging on

My parents come to visit us on Friday and as always, the girls had a mini photo shoot with my picture-crazed father (and me :P ). I wish that I had taped the following in its entirety, but this is close enough.

Falling...

falling...

DOWN!


Sophie has a death grip and Lydia, who has been shying away from cameras lately hence the lack of pictures of her, just wanted to get away.

Playing together (well, kind of)

Now that Sophie is older, the girls are starting to play together more.

Lydia is still learning to share. Why does it seem like every time one kid has a toy, the other kid has to have that toy too? I now see why some families have duplicate toys...to save the parents from grief. :P

Milestone Weekend

This weekend was full of firsts for little Sophie. She enjoyed standing with the help of Daddy and the encouragement of big sister Lydia.

Today she really began dragging herself across the floor (notice how Trung's sneeze startles her)

Also, during her bath time, so didn't scratch her belly, which was the first time in a long time. Even after recovering from her minor bout with eczema, Sophie would scratch herself and get all red and blotchy, but today she actually played with her bath toys. This may not seem like a great accomplishment, but for me not to have to restrain her from scratching, it certainly felt like one. :)

Weeklong visitor

My brother Mike left this morning after spending the week with us. We hadn't seen him in three months, but it seemed like just yesterday that he was in Austin visiting us...time really flies with kids and a new business. The girls and I had a great time hanging out with Mike; we shopped and ate, and ate and shopped. The next six months before he returns home again will hopefully fly by as we will miss bunches, as we always do.

Several people say Sophie looks like Mike (including my Mom), do you notice a resemblance?

Lydia wouldn't take any pictures with Uncle Mike, but here she is enjoying her pizza...

Three years, two kids, and one minivan later

Trung and I met Columbus Day weekend five years ago at a camping trip.

Three years later , we got married in Dripping Springs, Texas.I can't wait to see what the future still has in store for us. :)

Starting solids

Sophie started eating rice cereal yesterday. She seemed to like it at first, but got impatient soon after, so we didn't get very far into the feeding.

Today Sophie's feeding went much better; she ate more than she dribbled out. First feedings are always a nerve-wrecking experience since change is hard for me, and the pediatrician says that it's supposed to be fun! Yeah right! :P I just need to get past this initial state and I know everything will be just fine.

Also this past weekend, the girls got to play with my cousin's son, Nathan for the first time. Lydia met him before he went to Taiwan over a year ago, but they were still too young to play. We look forward to many more play dates! :)

Sophie wants food

Saturday Trung and I volunteered to help out at the church where Lydia attends MDO. Trung put together some cribs and spread gravel while I cleaned and scraped paint off the wall. It feels different cleaning a room when you know your child plays there; I think I cleaned each window three times!

Afterwards, we grabbed some dim sum at Kim Sim though I wouldn't recommend it because the food just was not that good. Sophie was quite observant while I was eating or maybe I was just being a tease. Regardless, she will start her rice cereal tomorrow; it should be interesting.

Double Trouble

After experiencing the craziness of dealing with two kids at the doctor's office by myself before Lydia started MDO, I wanted to avoid doing it again. Well, Sophie had her six month old doctor's visit today and I brought Lydia along to get her flu shot because the vaccine had not come in yet during her two year old visit last month. Okay, so it was hard enough with just Sophie crying from her shots, but TWO kids crying...AHHH!!! Actually, it was not that bad since Sophie got over her shots quite quickly; Lydia, on the other hand, was apparently too hurt to walk and needed to be picked up. Carrying a toddler and a baby carrier? Yeah, didn't happen. Somehow we made it to the minivan and home without drowning in tears.

Sophie now weighs 15 pounds and is just over 21 inches long. The girls can actually share the same size diapers now, which upset Lydia at first because Sophie was using HER diapers. Speaking of Lydia, I think taking her to MDO may have its negatives as well (besides the germs). We have been missing sippy cups, bowls, and even sunscreen around the house because Little Miss Priss learned in MDO to throw things in the trashcan. I wouldn't be surprised if we found Sophie in there one day! Also, Lydia has become picky eater. She will just look at her food and refuse to eat it; she used to eat everything! I've heard that some kids just suddenly become that way one day, but I think it's because at MDO, they don't make her finish all her food before giving fruit (her all time favorite "food"). Both Trung and I naturally have low iron and have passed it on to Lydia, so it is very important that she especially eats her meats (her least favorite "food"). Nap times and bath times have now become crying sessions; I really hope that she is just going through a stage. Please pray for patience as I get frustrated pretty easily and am quick-tempered at times.