Special edition of Kaitlyn!

Since daddy took so many good pictures on team picture day, I put together this special collection post here! I love all of these pictures, they're so pretty, and catch many different sides of Kaitlyn! Every one is the best! I hate to leave out any one. Great job Daddy!!

Waiting in line... long wait... and super hot...

Computer Crashes!

Computer crashed - looking at my computer except can't do much work for the past two weeks! I still miss quite some software to install. Luckily I have backed up all files.

Just updated pictures for Kaitlyn's post. This one is all about Meghan. As far as Meghan, she doesn't have much appetite recently. She keeps spitting up everyday, and threw up big time last Saturday morning. Scary as my mom and Chung described, I wasn't there. Almost every time I left for some time, something weird happened to her.

I guess her teething (two on the top came out the same time) really bothers her, plus uncomfortable stomach from eating too much past few weeks? At least she doesn't look like having infection or anything serious so far. She doesn't like pureed food I prepared for her, not much milk either. She likes chewing things to practice her chewing skills. She likes bread, noodle, rice texture. Even watermelon, she doesn't like drink the juice I smash for her, she prefers to bite the melon herself, being messy! I'm waiting for her to eat table food with us one day, so I don't need to prepare separate food anymore.

Wow, a blink in my mind, I barely remember how she looked like and what's she doing when she was 3months old! I'm getting close to have Parkinson's disease! LOL That's why I need to keep up with my blog. Anyway...

Guess what, she is crawling now! She's been crawling really fast on her tummy for two months already, and has been rocking back and forth holding her arms and legs straight. So funny! All of sudden this week, she starts crawling and balances really well. The same time, she can pull herself up from crawling to sit position, and push herself up to standing holding things! This girl is getting ready for walking! Her development changes are counted by days, she does not waste any time learning something new! This could be another reason she's not eating/sleeping recently. She is too busy working on her new big milestones!

What else does she like nowadays? -Umm, she loves to push books off to the floor and tearing pages out.

She loves banging toys/cups.

She loves playing pee-ka-boo, she is good at pulling off blanket off her face, not very good at pulling over yet.

She LOVES her sister, absolutely, no matter if she teases her, or scares her, or pulling her.

She knows her names (we call her English, Chinese, and Chinese nicknames at home, she seems take it all!)

She still puts everything into her mouth. I anticipate this stage will go on for a while.

She understands "NO", but it doesn't mean she will follow your order! A lot of times, she smiles back to you - she knows her way to get out of trouble!

She is not afraid to crawl everywhere. I mean everywhere - off the bed, up to sofa, across the table. But she does take judgement. She will check the height and distance, and whether anybody is around. It's very nerve-racking for us, not her. Someone has to keep an eye on her constantly. This is very different from Kaitlyn - Kaitlyn was very cautious, she won't take actions unless she knows for sure.

She babbles a lot - baa, Dada, um, aah, mama. She is full of feeling and expressions. She looks at people and initiation conversion by saying "Ahh!" She wants you to take her somewhere by saying "Ahh!" and lean her body in the direction. She enjoys her food by saying"Umm.." She is frustrated by saying "maamaa!" She wants your attention by saying "urr!" She mumbles to herself with long "sentences"...

She still not sleep through the nights most of the time. She woke up once or twice before 2am needs patting sometimes. She drinks milk either around 2-3am or 5-6am. She likes sleeping side ways to her right, or butt in the air. (I thought that's funny when I first saw Wendy's kids do that, now I got one too:-) At least she likes sleeping in crib not on my bed.

She likes music. She loves "Twinkle little star" and "Row Row Row your boat". She sings along and shakes her body with the music sometimes. I need to get some videos.

She finger-feeds herself, and coordinates pretty well.

She has separation anxiety at nighttime. But seems better these two weeks. She has her pick which stranger to smile and which to cry.

She looks for tiny foreign objects on the floor, and put into mouth. How fun is that!

She is very nosy - any sound in the house, any movement in her view, she has to check it out! Got to take some funny pictures when she turns her head 180degrees touching face on the table to see what's happening.

I have to say Kaitlyn is a wonderful big sister. She keeps an eye on her, she entertains her, she shares food with her(try it out first, lol). I thought only younger kids will do this, but Kaitlyn too - She climbs into Meghan's crib playing with her. She builds blocks for Meghan to destroy. She lets Meghan touch her toys, to certain extent. She rolls ball, perform silly shows, plays hid-and-seek games, with Meghan.

Seems unfair I can name so many milestones for Meghan. It's just easier to keep track of Meghan's physical development than emotional/mental development of Kaitlyn with so much activities going on.

Well, I haven't installed software for video editing yet. Just some recent pictures:

Oops, ball rolled over...
Let me go get it...
Tied down by swing? No problem, I can swing out to reach for... Meghan's best buddy and Kaitlyn's best friend on the block...

We went for duck feeding two weeks ago - so much fun watching baby ducks fight for food with big ones...

Happy girl!

Will she be a lefty?

She sure use left hand a lot...

My little gypsy musician - pantie as a hat, big scarf in summertime, backpack for Meghan, ballet shoes, and of course a bag for ID and money... Love Meghan's expression - I'm stuck here with the music. Not bad, what's she doing? Here is my little girl trying to get off the futon - test the water first

Easy as pie, I'm here!

Umm, where should I go first? Haha, I discover the bridge

Keep going...

Aha, I found toys hiding behind shelf... One thinks "Let me help you to get out of my room!" Another one thinks "I'll find a way to come back soon for sure!"
A random picture of how Kaitlyn put "make-up" on Meghan...

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!