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...

Bitter and sweet

I asked her to go to Katy Mills with me, she said no. I bribed her with a carousel ride.
She said " I don't want to play that anymore!"
I asked her why? She said teenagers don't like carousel.
"But you're not teenager?" I told her.
She then told me "Teenagers tried to get away from riding carousel with their little sisters or brothers by saying 'Got go to the bookstore or something like that'", and "I'm not a teenager, but I'm growing up! "

Bitter sweet feeling for mommy...

Random updates

Seems like I can never catch up how fast kids grow and how quickly they learn new things everyday. There are tons of videos and pics in my computer that I want to upload, then as day goes by, they're still sitting there. At least I still have them as memory.

Before I forget, an interesting story told by Kaitlyn - she got home from school the other day, showed me two pretty marbles out of her pocket. I asked her where she got it from? She proudly claimed she traded her pencil with Austin(a boy on her bus) for those. Trade?! Since when she learned to trade with other kids? I joked with her to trade her marbles for 10bucks, she said no. I asked her if she would pay $10bucks for those. She said no, and she would no take things from home that's not allowed by daddy and mommy. That's good! But I'm really surprised she now move onto "monkey business" with her school kids. Totally a different level as a school-age kid!!

She is so like a big girl now, hard to describe in word, but definition from her action, expression. I can discuss many serious issues together, and she has her own opinions.

Well start with Kaitlyn based on pics on my computer:

She went to Katy ISD Folklife Festival with daddy couple of weeks ago, seems like a lot of fun. I was home with Meghan:-( That's when I wish Meghan would grow up faster, walk by herself and eat by herself, so I can take her out more for fun.

Such a big bubble!

Something mommy would never never touch! Yikes!
Kaitlyn doing corn grist mill:

Making a doll in native Indian style: Now we're proud parents of Cinco Ranch Swim Team league. She is so excited to join the swimming team, and started training herself couple weeks before team meeting. Now she can swim across the whole lap easily. She is working on her freestyle and backstroke, while her favorite one is doggy.

Looking back see who is after?

Go go going!

Pretty smiles!

At her friend's birthday party for skating:

I like this one - I don't know what happened to my camera, everyone around her is blurry, her haircut really stand out! Catching up with friends:

Best buddy from kindergarten:

Don't they look like big kids in high school! I foresee that in this picture. Note: As I wrap up this post, Meghan woke up from her nap. Kaitlyn ran into the room to turn on mobile, pull up curtains and play with her, so I can finish up here. What a big helper!

To be continued later...