Changes

So after my last doctor's appointment, it looks like I'll be delivering Violet 2.0 a week early! He said, "You have big babies," so we'll schedule a time to get me induced during week 39 of my pregnancy. The sooner the better for me, at least immediately... but I'm still not sure how I feel about the kids having birthdays so close to one another... I refuse to do the joint birthday parties. Well, right now I refuse the joint birthday party. ha ha ha. We'll have to reassess this in a few years. :)

The Princess Parade at Downtown Disney

One of my cousins, P'Kae, from Thailand came to visit us. On her first day here, we took her to Downtown Disney to walk around and see the sights. What we didn't realize was that we would stumble upon the recruitment for the Princess Parade!!


Violet was VERY intrigued but wasn't quite sold on the "parade" part. Here she is trying to sum up the situation. We decided against committing Violet to the parade but let her make the decision by herself. One should be able to choose if one wants to become a princess.


She eventually shared a tambourine with the princess in the orange tank.


As the parade started to move, Violet noticed a group of people clapping and cheering. She stopped right in front of them and applauded back. By the time the accolade was over, the princess parade had moved on.... And so did we.

Feeding the Birds

So the back story of our house is that an old man and his wife used to live here. The man, Mr. Gard, LOVED birds.... cardinals to be precise. So when we purchased our home, our backyard already had bird feeders and bird homes.

Apparently Mr. Gard was such a good bird caretaker that he had "regulars" that would come and nest with him every year.

Last year (our first year of owning this house), we bought a big bag of bird seed. Unfortunately, we forgot about it and left it in the garage. So this year, on a nice autumn day, we were reminded of the bird seed. Joe and Violet headed out to the backyard to feed the birds!!


Developmentally, Violet is learning all about transfer. Put seeds in cup, transfer seeds to feeder. Seeds stay in feeder. Viola! It was a fun game that she played for a long, long time in the backyard. Thus, Violet has a new responsibility, feed the birds. I imagine that Mr. Gard would be so proud.

MK with the Lieu's

Our first official Magic Kingdom photo of the two families together. There's a lot to take in Charlie!


The Lieu's on our first ride of the day, the carousel.


Violet loves to pose when her daddy is taking pictures.


Say, "Cheese!"


"Hey Charlie! Are you in there?"

Pregnancy Update

For those of you wondering about my pregnancy, here's a quick update. This week, I'll be 30 weeks pregnant!! Time really flies by fast when you have a little toddler to chase. I've gained about 25 lbs so far and things are going really well. The baby is developing well and all of my blood tests have come back with the best results.

I haven't really had time to take belly pictures (which I know I should because I regret not taking that many pregnancy photos with Violet) but hopefully I will start soon. My plan is to get up to speed with my posts, and then start posting belly pictures week by week till the new baby arrives.

It's a girl! :) Joe always said that he wanted 3 kids but now that we know #2 is a girl, he's really starting to wonder if 3 girls would be too much estrogen in the house (his face literally went white when he saw that Gap Kids Christmas commercial where all the little girls were cheering and dancing in their adorable red, pink, and white striped clothes). But needless to say, he's super excited about #2. I'm excited because I get more shopping buddies. I also can't wait to see if #2 will look anything like her older sister :).

Florence, Phong, Charlie, & Lake Eola

Florence, Phong, & Charlie came out to visit us early November from sunny San Diego. Our kids got to meet for the first time. I must say, I was a little apprehensive because Violet was going through a sometimes-I'm-not-a-good-sharer phase but you know what? She loved Charlie. In fact, the morning after they arrived, she showed Charlie all of the ropes to our house. She even showed him her prized stash of books. She grabbed a book, flipped through the pages with him and narrated each scene with an emphatic, "Wow."

Their first day there, we took them to Lake Eola where they were having a arts and crafts festival. There is a cute little playground and we were able to get some adorable pictures of the kids.


What little kid doesn't like swings?


Here Violet is sharing some special Daddy and Me time. Please note the stash of acorns she has in a pile in front of her. For about 30 minutes, she collected acorns, then proceeded to hand her father one acorn at a time until she was out of acorns. He handed them back to her and the game replayed itself.

She can play this game for hours and don't think that this game is limited to acorns-- she'll play with mulch, rocks, seeds-- whatever she can get her hands on.


The park has an awesome tree, perfect for the best father-daughter picture. Ever.

And here are the men, posing with their little kiddos. There were actually better ones of Violet but I couldn't resist the scrunchy face candid-- so here it is world. Posted on the internet.

I'm sure she'll thank me one day.

Using Chopsticks For the 1st Time

After seeing her mommy indulge in a bowl of ramen noodles, Violet demanded chopsticks and noodles for herself.


She's pretty darn good with them considering that she had never used them before!


My baby does have some Asian blood in her :)!

Her Best Friend, Annika

Our neighbor, Jen, has a daughter named Annika who is just a few months younger than Violet. The girls love each other! We met up at our neighborhood park one morning so the girls could play on the playground. We unintentionally dressed our children alike. Someone asked if they were twins!

Halloween

For Halloween, we took Violet down to the Toddler Halloween Fair. It's a mid-day event so we wouldn't have to worry about taking her trick or treating late at night. There was tons of free food. The popcorn was a family favorite.


Violet was the most comfortable in her stroller so who were we to make her get out. She was a Fairy Violet for Halloween. Her outfit even came with a fairy headband but she refused to wear it (surprise, surprise) so we had to suffice with a purple barrette which she kept in her hair for a few minutes.

Just For Fun

"Say Cheese Violet!"

The picture below is why we don't take more self-portraits.

Gymboree

For Tiana's 1st birthday, we celebrated with her at Gymboree. It was Violet's first visit and she loved it.


It was awesome because we were with all of Violet's playgroup friends. The little boy on the right is one of her good friends, Landon. Landon's a tough kid-- he lets Violet beat up on him and he doesn't cry. He a man's man, if you will.


Here Violet is with the birthday girl, Tiana. Note that Tiana doesn't have any problems with wearing things in her hair. Violet on the otherhand still won't let me put barrettes, hair bows, hair ties, etc near her... hence the haircut (my mom took one look at Violet after her 2nd haircut and said that Violet looked like steamed Chinese bun).

Is She a Monk?

Nope! She's just trying on one of Daddy's shirts.

Splash Pad

Who's got the cutest little girl at the Splash Pad? That's right, I do.


So, I might have to note that she was the only little girl there...


The little boy in the background was Violet's age too. I think his name was Isaac. He had curly blond hair that Violet wanted to yank. I had to separate the two and explain to Violet that she shouldn't be jealous of his blond hair.... That's what hair dye is for.


This is one of my favorite pictures of Violet of all time. Today was the day that she started to say, "Cheese!" when I take pictures. She learned the word from my cell phone!



Ready to go home after an hour at the splash pad, she puts on my shoes and marches right out to the car. Okay, maybe not the car but she definitely was trying to march somewhere.

Edible Arrangements

We received this lovely and yummy Edible Arrangement as a gift to my mom for teaching one of our interns (Lisa) how to cook Thai food.


The fruit was yummy and super fresh. We gobbled it down in no time at all!


Also note, that a week prior to this picture, we had taken Violet in for her 2nd haircut. Even though Joe was adamant about telling the "stylist" that he didn't want Violet to have bangs... Viola! Violet got bangs... Needless to say, Joe and I think that we could do a better job cutting Violet's hair so the next time she needs a haircut... Lookout! :)