Baby Shower for Baby Ly

Our baby shower was held last Sunday at Hung and Liz's house. Patty's sisters Kristine and Karla, Bi and Liz all planned and organized the awesome event. It was completely secretive like a covert ops mission, even through all of the interrogating that Patty and I done, they did not crack. Pretty good.

The shower was everything we hoped it to be, great food, games, decor, weather, guests. It is something that we will never forget. There was even a photo-shoot set up with back drop and everything. 

Thanks again to everyone and a big THANKS to everyone that helped organize!

Here are some of the photos. Once we compile the photos from the other cameras, we'll share them too:

Baby Shower Photos

Only 23 more days until our DUE DATE!!

Pre-School

Huelan's preschool has been great.  We were kind of bummed last year when the oldest kids matriculated to Kindergarten and Huelan was the biggest one left in the school, but there soon came a couple of kids about her age and she was able to show them the ropes.  The teacher, Ms. Jan, runs it out of her her house, and her house is just 4 houses from ours, which is supremely convenient.  We are going to miss it.

On Monday, Huelan went to an assessment appointment at the school she'll be attending next year- Joaquin Miller Elementary, where they have three Kindergarten classes.  We met one of the teachers- Ms. Savage, and she took Huelan for her assessment while a parent volunteer led me on a campus tour.  I figured that the assessment was just going to be some simple questions designed to help sort the kids who had more academic preschools from the ones who haven't yet learned their letters and figures.  Huelan said that there were lots of questions, but she thinks that she "got every one right." So she's either well prepared or delusional.

She was so excited to see her new school.  Ms. Savage took her on a mini-tour and she beamed the entire time.  

We made a day of it.  I took her out of school early for the assessment, and after we went for lunch, candy, and Cinderella in the theater.  Pretty good day.

Here are some pics of her preschool from a little while back.

This is one from when I picked her up during nap time. 

All the kids love the calendar. She proudly tells us everyday what part she put up. 

Sophie, Bella, and some other kids I don't know. 

Bellies and Buttons

She had a phase around at around 16 months old when she was obsessed with belly buttons.  She would try to get at everyone's belly button, just walk right up, lift a shirt, and poke.





He's been in his phase for a few months now.  He's not as assertive as she was, but he definitely likes to get at a belly button when he can.

Pic Catch Up

It took us a while to get this done.  Traditionally, the baby wears a white sheath dress-like thing. He probably wouldn't have fit in it when he was two months old, so he had no chance now.  Oh well, better late than never and he got to rock the preppy look.

Baptism Pics!

Campus Tour

I thought that we lived closer to campus than any of my other friends, but it turns out that one of my friends lives in Rockridge and another lives just four houses up from the Claremont Hotel, and his wife walks to work at Boalt.  That is legit access to campus.

Even though we don't live quite as close, we're still plenty close to walk around campus on a sunny day. I actually think that this is the first time Vansen has been on campus since he could walk (it's been probably 10 months).  Huelan was at a gymnastics birthday party at the Golden Bear Rec center at Clark Kerr, so we took advantage of the sunny morning and hit up some of the spots.

The kid loved it.

Some more pics here

Sometimes

She's just in the mood to be a ninja princess turtle fairy. 

Dancing Queen

She may not end up as a professional dancer, but she has no problem putting herself out there.  Vids from the most recent "recital," about three weeks ago.  For a quick hit, the third and fifth vids are probably the funnest.

Time Capsule

This is the scene pretty much every night- standard kids getting ready for bed action sequence. Jockeying for step-stool space, negotiating for a toothpaste refill, and needing to be reminded to brush those back teeth. 

It's hard to compare these daily moments to the big ones- first steps, first words, road trips, and big memories yet to come, but we put all these mundane moments together and that's our day/month/life. I think down that road these daily moments will be as fun to remember as the big ones, and I hope I'll be able to recall the echo of the bathroom, the hiss of the faucet, and the tapping of the toothbrush against the sink. The silliness that happens in between and around those daily moments and routines.

Great to have this blog as a memory aid when the ol' noggin starts a foggin.

Cutie Face

Cuties- the popular mandarin orange brand. He has no mercy on these things. He nearly pulps them while trying to peel them, and when they're finally free of their rind, he smashes them into his mouth, as many as can fit. Probably 6-7 wedges at a time, though a little smaller than their original size for having been slightly rung out. He's done as many as 4 in a sitting, though that ceiling may be artficially imposed by us. Who knows what his natual upper limit may be. 

30 week ultrasound

Here's what our baby boy looks like at 30wks in the womb! You can see his face and arm under his chin posing. He had his HC and AC measured, which was slightly bigger than the norm.

At this point, he is 6 days bigger than average. Weighing in at approximately 3lbs 14oz (give or take 9oz) and is healthy.

He'll be getting much bigger in the coming weeks for sure, I'm guessing he'll be 8lbs 2oz when we meet him. We'll see!

Summer in March

Birthdays for me are now pretty much just another excuse to let Huelan help me blow out some candles and for both the kids to load up on sweets. 

This time, they got to do both on their first visit to Fenton's. After taking in some of their average diner fare, we split a banana split and Huelan got to choose the scoops- vanilla cherry with loads of marachinos, blueberry cheesecake, and choco chip. Pretty good selection by her, considering she could have opted for bubblegum and cotton candy flavors. My birthday, and they get the treats- pretty much the way it is now.

One thought I had was that Vansen is making out like a bandit. He gets to do all this cool stuff way before Huelan ever got the chance to, relative to their ages. Right now, the advantages mostly involve eating sweets, but he also gets to watch cartoons when she does and even gets to weeze on the ipad when we're feeling especially generous. 

I know that this will come up a bunch more times when they're adolescents, so I am planting this post here as something I can point to to prove that we're not favoring him unfairly. We're just lazy, inconsistent parents sometimes. 

Stairway

He learned to throw things down the stairs tonight. This is going to be a fun few weeks. 

Babymooning in Yosemite

Patty and I were debating on a few destinations for our babymoon. Hawaii, Arizona and San Diego were the front runners, but we decided to go to Yosemite instead. It was a short drive and we didn't have to deal with any airports which was huge. Neither of us has ever been so that helped us make the decision easier.

We didn't know that it was so close either, it only took us a little over 2 hours to get there and the drive wasn't bad at all, gorgeous really.... a segment of the drive in was like a scene from Lord of the Rings. We entered the park through the HWY 140 entrance.

We stayed at a little B&B about a mile from the park entrance for 3 nights over President's Day weekend. The park admission was free so that was a bonus! We mainly stayed in the Yosemite Valley and explored some of the smaller trails where we were able to get up close to a couple of waterfalls. One of our favorite times was where the giant sequoias grow in Mariposa Grove. Walking beside these 1,000+ year old giants was nuts, we were so small compared to these old giants.

It was a short trip, but we need to save some time for when the baby arrives! Nonetheless, it was an awesome time for us and the baby!

Goat/Ram/Sheep all say Baaaaaa

The last day of the Lunar New Year festival was this week, and SF had their annual parade today. We'd been mulling over whether we would go, and were on the fence til the last minute. Liz went many times growing up in SF (she says Dad loved parades and fireworks. They were free), but I had never been and the kids had never been.

It seemed a little daunting- packed streets with both kids. Loud noises. Bart. And it would have been super easy to default to hanging around the house a polishing off the leftovers. But instead we decided to pack some bags and make some memories. Transit was super easy, people were exceedingly nice, and the kids did great- Huelan was stoked to be so close to the action, and Vansen took it all in from his elevated backpack perch with minimal squirming.  There were Lions and Dragons for miles, and Huelan especially liked all the kids in the parade. I know what was going through her mind watching them- "...that could be me out there."

And it was free. Including this nice little surprise- Free Pocky Truck? Yes please!

Hi Tech

Finally upgraded to the new iOS, and this is one of the fun features- voice texting! You can't hear the message Huelan left for Ba Noi on this post, so you'll have to trust me that the adorability level was high.