A year gone by

Lydia did not have MDO today since the school is preparing for transition next week. I can't believe a year has already gone by! We were thinking about switching Lydia to another MDO program where 15 month olds, hence Sophie, are accepted, but decided against it because 1) we really like the current school and 2) there was no valid reason to spend that extra money when I stay at home; Sophie can wait until she turns too also. :) Too bad Sophie won't get Lydia's teacher, Tania, though since she will be in the older 2's class and Tania teaches the younger 2's.

Lydia and Ms. Tania at their first meeting

Lydia and Tania on the last day of school

Until we meet again

Sunday morning we met Jasmine and Trey, who were in town for a wedding, at Kirby Lane for brunch. The restaurant still had its infamous long waits and slow service, but the food was pretty good.

Trevor, Lydia, and Sophie chilling during our 45 minute wait

Group picture


A human chain while walking to the car

Shortly after we arrived home, Tiffany and Christian headed back to Houston. It was very sad to see them go because we had such an awesome time, hopefully they will come back and visit us very soon.

Just a silly clip of Sophie throwing away her diaper to cheer me up. :P

Tiff the tuber

I forgot to mention that I met Tiff when we were freshmen at Baylor and we have been close friends since; she was even the matron of honor at my wedding almost four years ago! After seeing pictures I posted on facebook after my last trip to Lake Travis, Tiff totally wanted to go when she came up to visit, so we did! It was the girls and Christian's first times on a speed boat and Tiffany's first time to go tubing; they all did great!

Sophie fell asleep on the way to a rest stop

Christian, not looking too happy, and me about to take "the plunge"

Bombs away!

Sophie, me, Christian (under his goggles somewhere), and Tiff


Lydia was never 100% sure about her life jacket while Christian became fully confident


Sophie observing everyone from atop the boat. Look at those huge feet!


Sophie eyeing the approaching Albert


Self taken picture of Tiff and Christian...too cute!


Ready to rumble! or not, I could never sync up with the driver to finally get up



Trung wanted to be better me, but with no luck either


Tiff on the tube; it took a lot of turns to knock her off!


Poor Albert didn't get the full effect since the boat kept stalling because we left the ladder down and our rental time was up


Sophie and Christian catching up on some homework at the Oasis afterwards

Wet and wild

I have heard great things about the splash pad at Brushy Creek, so Tiff and I took the kids there to cool off. The pad was nice and big; the kids ran around while the adults mainly stood nearby and watched. Nowadays I'm never sure what will scare the girls, so I was delighted that they had fun.

Lydia has this same facial expression on almost all the pictures I took

Sophie content with just observing from afar until she realizes it's not my skirt that she's holding

Encouraging Sophie to play with the little fountain...

just seconds before it shot up...into Lydia's face!

Lydia and Christian having loads of fun together

Sophie finally braving up to have some fun. She shut her eyes nice and tight every time before sticking her hand out to touch the fountain.

Sophie, Christian, and Tiff

Taking a break from running around the pad


After lunch, Tiff and I picked up Wendy and we went to watch "The Time Traveler's Wife". It was a good movie and lots of tears were shed; the ladies will enjoy it. :) Later, Tiff and I went downtown, first to my friend's party and then to a couple lounges. It was nice to get out since the last time we went out was my bachelorette party.
Prepped and ready to hit the town


The birthday girl Rukaiya and the triathletes

Right on time

Today Sophie and I went to visit the newest addition to the Huang family, Mackenzie Kayla, who arrived on her due date last Friday. What a cutie! We look forward to more play dates with Parker and now Kenzie too!

The sleeping princess


Catching some rays


Parker found a new playmate in Sophie



Sophie backing away from Parker's kiss attempts. Smart girl, hee hee!

Mother's Day Out

I can't believe Lydia has been in Mother's Day Out for almost a year now! She will be promoted into the three year olds class in a couple weeks, which I'm sure will take same adjusting. Now that Lydia knows her classmates better, we've being slowly invited to their birthday parties. We're still debating whether or not to have one for her this year; we'll probably just have a small gathering of some sort. Anyhow, Lydia attended Elizabeth's 3rd birthday party Saturday with a bunch of other classmates. Elizabeth lives off of 360 and Bull Creek, so her house had a nice view of the country. If was fun getting to socialize with the parents more since we rarely run into each other with Lydia's drop off at 9 and pick up at 2:30.

Sophie just hanging around.


The majority of Lydia's classmates

Lydia hugging Elizabeth so that she can get her bubbles party favor, which she has added to her sleeping collection.

Oh, and another thing I discovered...typically just the mother and the invited child go to American birthday parties, while the entire family usually goes to Asian birthday parties. Hmmm, must be a cultural thing.

To Amy's house we go

Lydia held Sophie's hand (and her pants) all the way to Amy's house.

It's soooo sweet when the girls are nice to each other.


Some refreshing water fun!


The three musketeers


An oversized Lydia in the water table

Unrevealing (and a lot of venting)

Due to the pediatrician's urgings, I took Sophie to a pediatric endocrinologist a few weeks back to find out if her low weight gain was due to hormones, chromosomes, or what not. I had a horrible experience because not only did I feel that Dr. Nunez did not know what she was talking about, but I had to spend an additional hour in the waiting room with a tired toddler while the assistant tried to get a hold of the pediatrician's office to find out what additional blood work they needed. Normally this would have been a routine thing, but what really bothered (more like perturbed) me was that Dr. Nunez said that I had to contact the pediatrician's office myself and get the test names to tell the assistant. So, I did just that, but then I find out that the assistant ended up calling them herself and had to wait 30 minutes for the pediatrican's office to call her back, when I had just gotten off the phone with them! Basically, lots of time wasted.

Two weeks passed and I hadn't gotten heard back from Dr. Nunez's office, so I called and left a message with the nurses. Two days later, a nurse calls to say that the blood test results were back and the doctor had looked at them, but didn't tell her what they said. Sheesh... Finally, three weeks after the visit, another nurse calls me back to tell me that Dr. Nunez said that the results were "unrevealing" and that I needed to go to a GI specialist and immunologist. Okay, it was tough enough to bring myself to take Sophie to the endocrinologist in the first place, and now two more specialists? I KNOW that Sophie is fine, but what if she's not, so I have to take her, right? So, I called the pediatrician to kind of complain and not only did she agree with Dr. Nunez, but she wanted me to add a hemotologist to address Sophie's anemia. WHAT?!?!?!

Okay, so I make all the appointments and am finally okay with everything. The pediatrician than personally calls me back today and tells me that after our conversation, she looked at the test results again and didn't see any reason for the immunologist. So, she called Dr. Nunez who agreed that everything was normal and who sounded a bit confused. The pediatrician doesn't even think Dr. Nunez looked at the test results! So, I guess, in a way, it was a good thing I got all disturbed because it made the pediatrician take another look and saved us a trip to an unnecessary specialist; the one time my hot-headness came in handy!

So, Sophie's got her hemotologist appointment in a couple weeks and the GI specialist apointment in October. The hemotologist appointment is mainly for her future, to understand where her anemia is coming from though treatment is not needed. The GI specialist is essentially our second opinion to see if Sophie has any absorption problems because of her low weight gain. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for letting me vent.

The Houston Zoo

Trung took the Monday off and we took the kids to the zoo for the first time. Jennifer and Calvin joined us in viewing the always interesting animals and battling the heat. Overall, the adults had a good time, but I think the kids were still a bit too young to enjoy everything.

The chipmunks were so cute; I wanted to take one home in my pocket!


What are YOU looking at?


The head honcho giraffe watching over all the other giraffes (and us).

Jennifer, Calvin, and Sophie makes three!

Beam me up, Scotty!


Taking a ride on the jungle carousel.

Speedy monkey

This clip reminds me of those monkeys on National Geographics that pick each other's fleas off and eat them.


Toby the Red Panda


Posing with Toby


What a fun (and hot) time!

Mom's Birthday Bash(es)

We went to Houston Saturday afternoon to celebrate my mother's 60th birthday. She started off her birthday weekend with a lovely dinner at Ocean Palace with family and close friends Saturday night.

My sweet girls before the party.

Lydia just loves her "ah-ma"!





The family sans Mike


Lydia being a good big sister.


Mom's second birthday celebration at church on her actual birthdate.


Sophie took a liking to Uncle Jimmy's finger that afternoon; her pouty lips are sooo cute!


We cooled off at Jimmy's community pool in the afternoon where Thomas, his boys, and his mother soon joined us.


Mom's third "party" at home with a bunch of MY friends. :P Trung did a great job grilling steaks, which was, as suspected, only the second time the grill has been put to use since we bought it last time we were in Houston.