July Fourth

The setup...the watchers...
the finale...

Lydia thoroughly enjoyed her first Fourth of July fireworks show at Katy Mills Mall. She was completely mesmerized by the bright lights and loud sounds; and would look up at me once in awhile, point to the sky, and say "uh". If you missed the fireworks, I hope you enjoy our digitally taped show. :P Happy Fourth of July!

Encouragement

Lydia always helps me encourage Sophie during her tummy times though she can be a little rough at times...notice as she bumps Sophie's face with the ball. Hmmm...must be tough love. :) Oh, also notice as Lydia mumbles "a ma" (aka "grandma on Mom's side in Chinese) as she goes for the phone; we had just gotten off the phone with my mom when I recorded the clip.

That's strange

I remember being compared to my cousin who is the same age as me and not liking it, but now I see myself doing it. I only have to deal with it every now and then, but Lydia and Sophie will probably be compared quite often for the rest of their lives, so I need to make sure to watch myself. Nowadays I've just been analyzing how differently each child develops. For example, Lydia started flipping over right when she turned three months old while Sophie shows no signs of it. Tonight she barely slept from 7-10 PM when she is usually knocked out, but I'm sure she'll sleep better the rest of the night. Maybe Sophie couldn't sleep because she was thinking of ways to flip over. :P

Something cute

Heads up

It's hard to believe that Sophie is already almost three months old! She weighs over 12 pounds and has definitely gotten longer. Here she is showing her favorite toy...Mr. Monkey.

Wedding pics

Here are a couple pictures from Hieu and William's wedding this past weekend. FYI, Hieu is Trung's second cousin (I think) or AKA his aunt's granddaughter. Special thanks to Sing and Maggie for the pictures.

Sleeping beauties

Our hectic weekend must have finally caught up with Lydia because she has been sleeping so much! She usually wakes up by 8:30 at the very latest, but yesterday morning Trung had to wake her up before he went to work at 9 AM. Then she napped for three and a half hours and I had to wake her up then too! So far today, she woke up at 9ish again and is currently taking her nap (I put her down at 12:40). It is no wonder she has so much energy, huh?

After two and a half weeks, I have finally gotten Sophie to sleep eight hours straight at night again. She has, for the most part, been sleeping through the night, but ever since our Michigan trip, she hadn't slept more than six hours at a time. After Michigan, the girls and I were in Houston for almost a week, and then all the relatives came into town for the wedding this past weekend; but finally our life is back to normal and we can establish a routine. Here is Sophie's sleep schedule:
8 AM - wake up
10 AM - 10:45 AM - nap
1 PM - 3 PM - nap (Lydia takes her nap at this time as well)
5 PM - 5:45 PM - nap
8 PM - go to sleep
10:30ish - dream feed

I tried this schedule yesterday and it worked like a charm; Sophie didn't wake up until 7:45 AM! The only problem is keeping her awake and cooperative enough for the dream feed. I know several people that have done it with great success...can you help me out? By the way, Sophie is quite the little snorer.

A Family Affair

Trung's aunt, uncle (Ma's younger brother), and cousin got into town around midnight Thursday night. They were very nice and aunt even did my hair for the wedding since the salon didn't open until 9 AM on Saturday and we needed to leave for Dallas by 8:30 AM. I was just expecting a simple French twist, but being the professional that she was, she added an intricate weave. Too bad I didn't get a picture of it because I have really no idea how the back looked. Anyhow, Lydia was a bit tired when I took the following picture, but here's aunt and uncle with the girls.

Okay, so we all got off on a late start Saturday morning to Dallas and ended up changing clothes in our cars and arriving at the church about fifteen minutes late. Trung and I spent the rest of the ceremony tending to the kids; Lydia was crazy as usual in the forum and Sophie was eating sporadically in the ladies' room. After the ceremony, we went to the hotel to eat and rest before the reception at 6 PM. The reception was very nice though we left soon after the wedding party visited our table because Lydia was exhausted. I thought that I would be slightly disappointed about not being able to stay and dance at the reception, but I honestly had a great time just hanging out with my man and girls in the hotel room. It's interesting what having kids does to a person. :)

Sunday morning we had some Vietnamese "breakfast" and then hung out at the hotel for awhile. We had already loaded up our luggage onto the car, so we just crashed in the lobby.
Lydia enjoyed watching the waterfall in the lobby and wanted badly to waddle in the surrounding pool. Here's a family group picture with Ma's older sister's family at our house after the wedding; some of the family members flew in from Switzerland!

I apologize for the lack of pictures from the wedding. Trung and I were preoccupied with the kids, plus he forgot the camera in the van during the reception. I'll post pics later when I gather them from other family members who attended the wedding.

Grandparents Ly

My in-laws (in addition to my brother-in-law and his wife; Trung's uncle, wife, and son) are in town for Trung's second cousin's wedding in Dallas Saturday, and the girls went with me to pick them up this morning. Lydia just loves her "pau pau" (Dad's mom) and "ye ye" (Dad's dad).

And she's back

Sasha the cat has returned to the Ly Family household because, apparently, the new owner's kids did not appreciate Sasha's protective nature. We all did miss Sasha, so it is nice to have her back temporarily. Lydia still gets upset at times when Sasha hisses at her, so I still have ads posted for a "tabby looking for a loving home"; if you know anyone wanting a cat, please do let me know.

Speaking of Lydia, she is officially signed up for Mother's Day Out on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting in September. Trung and I think that Lydia could use some more interaction with others kids and adults, plus it would give me a little break during the week. We checked out the Gethsemane Lutheran's Children Ministry (GLCM) facility today and were quite pleased. Good thing we thought about signing Lydia up too because she took the last opening for that time/day slot.