Go Kaitlyn!

Congratulations on your big winning today! Kaitlyn finished her freestyle with the 1st place ribbons in her age group this morning. I was more excited than she was! She was calm when she saw the ribbon. Very politely showed it to me and other bench moms she knows. I would be jumping up and down, lol!

This is my girl who didn't know how to swim freestyle and refused to jump into water a month ago before the practices, now brought home her 1st place ribbon! How proud I am! All the hot-burning afternoon training pays off, and most important, I'm glad she enjoys swimming and feels confident about herself!

It's funny that Kaitlyn's goal is not getting as many first places as she can, but collecting all 8 ribbons - each has different color! Her theory is the 1st place is not that hard, second is the best and hardest - because you can't swim too fast to be number one, but can't swim too slow to fall behind! Sure! Good to hear that, as least I don't want her have much pressure but just have fun! One more meet left, she have two more ribbons to collect - second and fifth! Way to go!!

Truely, this is her personality! For any performances she attended, I can't tell if she was nervous during the performance, and if she was excited about her rawards or not. I can tell she is happy and proud, but she's not the kind to show off, and not having much stage-frighten either!

Later afternoon, after we got home and finished watching World Cup soceer game between US and UK, I felt asleep while Meghan took a nap. Everyone, except Kaitlyn, who I thought need a nap the most! She went to bed after 10pm the night before and I woke her up at 7am in the morning. She had fun playing by herself while we all past out:-)

When she asked me how could I machine-washed her favorite swimming suit? I told her I didn't see it, it was buried under her laundry basket. Grandma explained mommy was probably too busy, didn't notice that. She responsed back "Busy?! How could she be busy?! She was sleeping, daddy was sleeping, Meghan was sleeping, grandma was sleeping, I was the only one busy playing!" She then proudly stumping feet marching upstairs. Ohh, my lovely 6-year-old!

Seems like Kaitlyn's pictures were all about swimming these days!

Daddy took some really cute pictures at the swimming pool on the group picture day. I have to put them in separate post, wish there is a slide show function here to upload all together.

Ready? Let's see what's going on there... Set... On the Mark... Go... Mommy taking pictures...

One of the reason she likes swim competition - got to eat candies, lollipops, and drinking more Gatarade...

Enjoying her breaktime...

Yummy...

Go...

What're you thinking, girl?

Looks like to a ballet dance instead of swimming...

Way to go... Thanks for the cheerleading mommies!

One more!

Another ribbon!

Our cheerleading girl just woke up from nap...

Yeah!

Let me take some pictures too...

My little mermaid...

More ribbon time...

Girls playing hot potatoes...

Video of the day

Tons of video to upload later. Here are some quick shots of my two girls life for today:

Swimming practice this afternoon - I really like her backstroke swim, at least I don't know how to do it. Last summer, Kaitlyn wouldn't jump into water, still wanted to use floaters, and this year, just a few weeks, she can swim across pool in different styles. I'm so impressed!

Kaitlyn after swimming before dinner - She likes videotaping herself for random things.

Meghan is not in time-out! Everyone else was out, I was gonna let her eat some snacks, but too lazy to move out the highchair. This is a short clip to show couple of things Meghan is busy doing nowadays - eating (her favorite thing), shake head and body (especially piano), and pick up things using two fingers.

Celebration of learning

Another school year is almost finished!

Kaitlyn had her celebration of learning in her classroom yesterday. We're so proud and happy to her growing like a big girl everyday. She is much taller and heavier, she lost her first tooth, she had a baby sister, she learned a lot from school not that I can list every single one, she made new friends, she is a comet for her gymnastics, she tried some many different things, that I can't remember all... It's time to celebrate all her accomplishments!!!

It won't be long for the time we attend her high-school graduation, her college graduation. For every single step she step out, she puts her heart into it, she worked hard to earn it. She is a normal girl just like everyone else, but she's special to us, she is precious, she is a wonderful girl. We're so proud of you and we love you so much, Kaitlyn! We're so lucky to be her parents, watching you grow up day by day. There is nothing more I can ask for than to have a wonderful daughter like you. We share laugh, tears, happiness, sadness, frustrations, even madness together. That's what make our life so special.

I wish you grow up stronger with faith and be happy! We love you so much!!!
Sitting next her teacher after walking down the "red carpet" for award. Sharing special memory with Mrs. Branch.
Waiting for her turn:

Congratulations! Sharing her favorite memory of 1st grade:

Wish I brought videocam to record the lovely dance she performed.

Then today, I was going to eat lunch with her as a surprise. But silly me got her time wrong. I thought her recess time was the lunch time. When I got there, they're just going out to the playground. That's what happens when I do things the last minute, Ur...

What I didn't expect was Meghan became such a hot star by her classmate. Girls and boys surrounded her pat her hands and faces. She was way overwhelmed by their hospitalities!

She wasn't moving but starring at everyone, half-way leaning in her stroller - must be wondering what are all these people doing around me?

I bet she's thinking "don't treat me like a new puppy!" Here is Kaitlyn, the second to the smallest girl in her class, next the second to the tallest girl in her class. Wow, what a big difference!

Where did my time go?

Looking at 5 unfinished posts in my blog, thinking where did my time go? I barely have time to sit down during the day, (well, maybe here and there checking emails) and after some internet surfing at night, I'm so exhausted to think anymore.

This is one big difference between working fulltime and staying home. I lost all my pregnancy weight by now this time. But with Kaitlyn, it took me at least 3-4years to get close to my pre-pregnancy weight. I was mentally more stressed out after having Kaitlyn between work and home, and was sitting in front of the computer all day. Now, I'm constantly on the run, even if I'm in the house all day. I'm more physically stressed out, on top of endless housework, then running errands and taking Kaitlyn to different activities. My back hurts, my shoulders and legs feel soared, my ankles too. But I still feel like going exercise, because this physical tiredness feels different from workout.

Now move onto what's new recently - As for Kaitlyn, she have swimming practice everyday after school, and she still wants to do gymnastics on Thursdays. This girl has lots of energy, and she barely has any fat in her body at all! Between homework and swimming, and playing with Meghan, she has a full schedule going on everyday! That also takes a lot of my time driving her around. But I enjoy it to have those alone time with Kaitlyn. We have so much fun talking, laughing, or "arguing" together!

Beside swimming, her favorite "sports" is internet! I can see she is so tanned after swimming practices. She sure looks like a big girl with her new hair style!

As far as Meghan, she learns new tricks everyday. If I don't write down right away, she'll move on to something else the next day. Her biggest goal nowadays is crawling, climbing (not really, but trying hard) everywhere to reach things she wants. She is very active and naughty. Leave her on the floormat, she looks around for things she shouldn't touch, like dust, shoes, or any "strange objects" under the table. She is able to lift her tummy off the ground and crawl. She rolls both way quickly, het can't pull herself up from lying down to sit position yet.

She had physical therapy twice. She doesn't like that place, even though the lady was very entertaining, and there are lots of toys. She is very alert to her and cried every time we were there. Hopefully by doing those exercise at home, her muscles will get stronger and relaxing sooner.

When talking about Meghan, I can't miss how much she loves to eat! She eats three meals a day now, but not that much milk. About a week ago, she all of sudden decided to stop breastfeeding herself one night. From then on, she won't let me put her to my breast, but only drink from Sippy cup. So strange! I though babies don't stop breastfeeding themselves before one year old. My guess is her appetite increases so fast, therefore, she refuses to lay down for 5-10mins for milk, while she can get the same amount of milk from cup in 2mins while watching everyone playing the same time.

It works great for both of us. I'm relieving myself from feeding her all the time, both of us has better sleep at night. She is so looking forward to her three meals each day. She have oatmeal cereal, yogurt and a fruit for breakfast, sometimes we offer her little bread. She has rice cereal and vegetable for lunch. That's when she gets to try different food. She has tried egg yolk, different yellow or green vegetables and fruits and tiny bites of meats already. Umm, yummy!!!

She loves food, especially food on the table. Funny she knows the difference between our bowl and her bowl. Anything coming out of our bowl excites her. She stumbles her feet and smacks her lips and screams if we don't let her taste it. Like today, she gets really mad and screamed at Kaitlyn when she pretended to eat food from her bowl.

This is one big difference between her and Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn is like a "three bites" baby. She only ate three bites of food, but lots of fruits. We tried so many ways to get her eat, but never won the battle. For Meghan, I have to stop her, or she can eat non-stop till her tummy hurts. That's why we have so many pics of her eating. After I feed her before we eat. Then I drop some tiny pieces of bread of noodles or vegetables on her tray. That keeps her busy for a while as she tries to pick up as many foods as she can! Very concentrate and persistent!

Here pics worth thousands of words:

Stuff in her mouth before anyone takes away!

Umm, so enjoyiing the taste! Umm, let's see what else on the table I should try? What're these yummy stuff on my fingers? Enjoy my moment of eating!
This is so much fun - playing and eating!

Guess what I'm thinking now?

I'm working hard using my fingers!

Am I cute when I'm busy working on my food! I'm detail-oriented! Camera, please! Messy girl!

Meghan is pretty much a happy smiling baby all the time! She loves smile and play with us, and strangers as well (she has her pick, not everyone. She talks to people sometimes too!) She still wakes up for milk at least once at night, but goes back to sleep right away. It's much easier to put her to bed now, day and night. Normally with a few minutes’ of rocking and holding, she is asleep. Or I can put her down before she falls asleep; she mumbles a minute or two then fell asleep herself.

Ohh well, that's it for today, I hear Meghan crying now. Summer is coming. I'm so looking forward to spend more time with Kaitlyn at home!

Tooth fairy visited us last night

Finally, tooth fairy stopped by our house last night!

Kaitlyn has been wiggling her tooth over the weekend and complained about pain all day long! I know her tooth will come out anytime. 20mins after she went to bed, she came to me excited showing me her bloody tooth! She was so nervous and excited! Finally, she is not the only one in the class who hasn't had loose tooth!

She read so many stories about loose tooth, and has been waiting for the moment since February! Now her baby tooth is falling out and her adult tooth is coming in!

Girl waited and waited for the tooth fairy, to see what tooth fairy looks like, but can't hold anymore:

Holding her tooth! Prettiest smile! Checking out her teeth in the mirror! Shiny tooth lying in her jewelery box waiting for the tooth fairy! Make sure I put it somewhere tooth fairy won't miss it in the dark!
Tooth fairy gave her a certificate, and it's a mermaid fairy from Australia! Tooth fairy also left a lovely letter with two gold dollar coins!

She was so excited about tooth fairy's stopping by! Hope she won't start wiggle her tooth to force any other loose tooth, haha!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's day to my mom and my Mother-in-law, all my mommy friends and to-be-mommies!

I had a great Mother's Day! My birthday was on Friday, that happened to be our bock party! Kaitlyn hurried off back from her piano class and was mad she was late for the party for 30mins! Of course, she's not about food, but play with her friends!

As you can see how many kids we got around the corner! Average of 2kids per family, most of them are in close ages! One family brought a pinata, that's highlight of the night for the kids! I can't get a picture of all kids together! And we do need more girls. Right now, boys outrun girls by twice as much!

When we cut the cake next day, daddy caught some interesting pictures! Do these pictures tell you something about my two girls?! LOL...

Story started with a pretty cake and my two lovely girls: One looks at her big sissy and asked what's that? Can I have some?

NO! That's mine! One says "Stay away from my cake!" The other one says "Fine, move on to the big cake, that's not gonna stop me from finding troubles!"

The big sissy thinks as long as you don't touch mine, go for it! Big sissy thinks, oh mine, please take this little trouble maker out of my sight!

Ohh, no! Sneaky baby turned around for big sissy's water class!

That's no fair! Mommy, get her out of here! That's my water! I already let you have the big piece of cake!

But I want both! See one hand go for water, and another one hold on the cake!

Ohh, mine! She sure gives me headache! Mommy, help!

Baby Meghan would not waste her chance studying food - a yogurt wrap Kaitlyn left on the table! How does it work?

Now, back to Kaitlyn. We went to Michael's last week to make earrings! Not that either one of wearing earrings. But Kaitlyn loves crafts and she said she wanted to make one for me! That's so sweet!

One for mommy!

One for me!

Pretty cake! Thank you Chung!

Here is my sweet girl with the birthday cake!Here is a poem Kaitlyn wrote for me - I'm so touched, the best mother's present I can ever asked for! Notice the one, she came up with a list of things, with first letters spell "MOTHER" all together! Wow, how creative she is!

Ohh, here is a quote from Kaitlyn today I have to write it down now before I forget: "Can you all be a little quiter when you congratulate her!"

We were at the dinner table, Meghan did something funny and silly. Me and my mom both laughed. That's when Kaitlyn mumbled to herself, and I heard it. She wasn't mad or sad or anything. I tried to explain to her we weren't congratulate Meghan anything, she won't buy it! I know, she still haven't get over the jealous feeling! She won't, and Meghan will have it some day as well! As a parent, no matter what we do, the kids will always think we're playing favors to one or another sometimes...