Hoang Family Happenings: 2010

Monday, November 1, 2010

Maddy's 3rd birthday PARTY - 10.09.10

this year maddy really started to understand what a birthday was. for months leading up to her birthday, she constantly asked when it was going to be her turn. we would count off weekends, and i would tell her whose party we were going to next until FINALLY her big day arrived.

we held her party at the river park clubhouse... the weather was great, and the kids had fun on the playground... unfortunately, we didn't appoint a photographer, so we didn't get very many pictures.

copying a page from ella's party, i arranged for an ice cream truck to come... the driver was instructed to call me when he was down the street so i could get the kids outside to hear the music and watch for him... that didn't work out as planned, but the kids were still excited for ice cream! maddy still talks about how the ice cream truck was her favorite part of the party!

dora, YUMMM....

it was a day full of occasions to celebrate - maddy's birthday, kim's birthday and mine & thach's anniversary!

thanks to everyone who came to help celebrate!! and extra thanks to those who helped out with decorations, food, opening gifts, setting up and cleaning up!!

Maddy's 3rd Birthday - 10.07.10

maddy turned 3 this year, and she had quite a few celebrations. her birthday fell on a thursday and since it was a school day, i brought cupcakes and party favors to her class. after school, i indulged her girly girl-ness and took her to get pampered at the nail salon, along with emmie and sophia.

it was her first time at a nail salon, but she looks like an expert, just chillaxin'...

emmie was more interested in the dvd they had playing...

and that's a guilty grin on sophia.... she had a surprise for her nail tech - STINKY FEET!!

the girls had a lot of fun (even emmie, i think!?)...

and maddy showed off her nails to everyone for the next week.

i'm just including this picture bc i think it is funny!

that night we continued the celebration at olive garden.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

a family of four

paige hong uyen joined our little family on tuesday, 8/3/10 at 1:43pm.

she weighed in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 20.5 inches long.

(photo courtesy of marshall-ngo photography)

i guess what "they" say is true... the 2nd baby will be opposite of the first. so far, so true.

as a newborn maddy never let us put her down, and was never a good sleeper. i had to hold her in my hospital bed to sleep at night. and when we got home she spent a good amount of nights co-sleeping in our bed. i remember spending hours trying to get her down, thach and i taking turns. i would nurse and rock her, thach would run the faucet and sing to her. i always describe her as my "high maintenance" baby... her pedi calls it being "strong minded"... that she is!!

paige, on the other hand, has been a super sleeper (hoping not to jinx anything here!) since day one. even on that first night at the hospital, the nurse came in at 4:15am, asking for an update on her last feeding... my answer: "um, whenever it was the last time you asked, because we all have been sleeping since then!"

so her routine is pretty much this: eat, sleep for an average of 4 hours, sometimes longer (at which time i wake her to nurse), diaper change, eat, sleep for an average of 4 hours, sometimes longer (at which time i wake her to nurse), diaper change... etc, you get it. about three times a day she is awake for anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour and fifteen minutes just looking around and playing.

maddy has taken beautifully to the role of big sister. she has not shown any jealousy towards her baby sister. she is super protective and pretty curious. the first thing she asks when she wakes up and when she gets home from somewhere is "where is em?" she does sometimes get annoyed, though, because she says em sleeps too much and doesn't want to play with her. but oftentimes she disappears from the living room and we find her laying on our bed, watching paige sleep in the cosleeper. it's very sweet.

and on our first outing as a family of four, we went to the ngo's house for a photo shoot. while maddy wasn't too cooperative and fond of sharing the spotlight for pictures, the ride to and from home was super sweet, because she wanted to hold paige's hand the whole way.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

ready to be a big sister

maddy has shown signs of her nurturing personality towards babies for some time now. she just adores them. we have been talking to her for awhile now about her little sister's arrival, and while she seems to get it, i often wondered how she would actually take to it when the baby was actually here, and stealing all her attention.... because as much as she loves babies, she also loves to be the center of attention!

over the last couple of months, she's really shown a great love for my belly... several times a day she will ask to see the baby (at which time she thinks it's totally appropriate to lift up my shirt - whenever or wherever we may be)... she loves to kiss and love on my belly... she talks to it in her baby talk voice... she knows to be careful as to not hurt it when climbing on or around me... she even stuck a pacifier in my belly button for the baby... if you ask her what the baby's name is, she will tell you paige (if we decide to change our minds, i'm not sure maddy will let us!!)... and if someone else tries to touch my belly, she will defensively tell said person that is her em or her paige!

i think she's going to be an awesome big sister and i can't wait to watch how she will take on that role!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

ALOHA!

thursday night we arrived in maui, and went straight to the hotel. by the time we got there it was almost 11pm hawaii time, which was 2am in san diego and 5am in houston!

the two things i was most excited about going to maui for was 1. five nights of sleeping on a heavenly bed and 2. relaxing on the beach. both ended up being disappointments, but we still had a great time.

despite the heavenly bed, i had trouble getting a good night's sleep. i couldn't get comfortable, and every morning, without fail, either thach's phone or mine would ring from a phone call or text message between 5 - 7am. sleeping was over for me at that point, because every morning we also got a call around 7am, asking if we were ready to go eat breakfast. so much for sleeping in while on vacation!

we didn't spend too much time on the beach, and when we did, i wasn't relaxing. the first time, maddy cried the whole time we were there, begging to go back to the hotel. she was terrified of sand. i have no idea what prompted this fear, but i knew about it, because my mom tried to take her to freeport during memorial day and she reacted the same way.

so here's a recap of our time on maui:

riding the sugar cane train

maddy put her swim lessons to good use, showing off her kicking, face dunking and jumping in.

we went on a sunset dinner cruise, which turned out to be a little more of an adventure than we had anticipated. after the boat was an hour late due to engine problems, we finally got on and enjoyed the great view and food. unfortunately cindy and cassidy both got really seasick. then as we tried to dock, half our party made it off the boat, and the rest of us were on the stairs getting off, when we were told to get back on because the engine was having problems again. at that point, we had to be speed-rafted in... i was a little nervous, but the driver promised the baby wouldn't fall out.

here's maddy showing off her dance moves... until the singer tried to talk to her...

getting her hair braided:

- road to hana -

the VERY BLUE convertible:

one of the many waterfalls:

black sand beach:

red sand beach:

there's no picture here, because we never made it down to the beach. thach found a parking spot on a hill, and said "i'm not sure how i'm going to do this." next thing i know we're rolling backwards and CRASH! we hit the car behind us. HARD. there was no damage to the other car, but we left anyways.

our second attempt at going to the beach, i was prepared and armed with a bribe. i told maddy she didn't have to play in the sand. she only had to sit on the beach mat, but she couldn't cry. i told her if she didn't cry she could have a tube of mini m&m's. she happily obliged.

thach and i went on a date night to dinner and a magic show at warren & annabelle's. his family took maddy to a luau, and she came home learning how to hula and this:

so now we're home, and it's back to life, back to reality... and most unfortunately, back to the heat and humidity!

go, san diego, go!

i had been both excited and dreading this trip for some time. excited because it's vacation! but dreading the plane ride with a rambunctious 2.5 yo AND being big and uncomfortable at 31w pregnant.

but the plane rides to california and maui actually were not bad. maddy did great, and i was fairly comfortable.

we arrived in san diego monday evening and went straight to the hotel to sleep.

tuesday we spent some time exploring the city and grabbing lunch at in & out.

then thach went to play golf at torrey pines, while maddy and i explored the hotel and had dinner with kristi and her baby, jaya.

wednesday was a fun, but exhausting day! we got to the zoo at 10am and stayed in the balboa park area until 5:30pm!!

all maddy talked about was how she wanted to see elephants, and how they were her favorite. but when we got to the elephant exhibit she was scared and wanted to leave! but as we were leaving the zoo, she insisted on taking a picture with this elephant.

we were able to get a great view of the baby panda bear, su linh. maddy also really liked the koalas, which we visited THREE times, just to try to catch one of them awake... FAIL!

her most favorite, though, was baby jaya! she just adored that sweet baby! who wouldn't? she's such a smiley baby. i don't believe kristi for a second when she says she can be a bad baby! i bet she's an angel all the time!

thursday was our last day in san diego and before we headed to the airport, we went to the la jolla beach area to hang out. we walked around the shops and attempted to sit on the beach for a bit, but maddy wouldn't have any of that.

other than the beach freakout, we had a great time in san diego. the weather was great, and it was good to see kristi and mitul and meet little jaya. and i don't know what it was about that city, but maddy ate like a champ there!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

tomboy vs. girly-girl

cassidy turned 6 on june 1st, so this weekend we took her to lunch and then to the mall. on the way to the mall, we had a conversation about tomboys vs. girly-girls. cassidy is a self proclaimed tomboy and identified candace as a girly-girl. when i asked her what a tomboy was, she told me "a tough girl".

i used to think maddy would be a tomboy because she is so rambunctious and all.over.the.place. but as she gets older and her personality becomes more defined, she is most definitely a girly-girl. she loves to carry purses and get her nails painted and wear dresses. oh boy, does she love to wear dresses.

over the last 3 weeks or so, it has become a daily battle. not only does she have to wear a dress, she has to pick it out herself. and sometimes that could take 3-4 tries before she's picked the perfect one. she gets upset if she's not wearing a dress because she loves to dance. if i succeed in putting something on her besides a dress, she will attempt to twirl then complain that she can't dance because she is not wearing a dress. once she gets a dress on, the first thing she will do is run to our room and look at herself in the mirror, usually twirling the whole time. then, she has to show dad and ask "you like my pretty dress?"

not sure who she gets the vanity gene from, because it sure isn't me!

summertime swimming

i had been planning to put maddy in swim lessons since late last year, but wanted to find a private instructor rather than a group "mommy & me" class. no such luck in our area, so when the opportunity for 2 openings came up with candace and cassidy's instructor from last summer, we decided to take it. that's right, i said we. maddy took one spot and i took the other. for 2 weeks, we made the drive to greatwood everyday... in rush hour traffic.

maddy took to "miss laura" immediately (though at first she insisted her name was "miss dora"), but we quickly learned she was quite the lazy swimmer. she loves the water, but only if she gets to play how she wants. she'd kick halfway across the pool and then just lay there and expect to be pulled around on the board. or she'd lay on the steps and say she was swimming. laura was great at coming up with "games" they would play so it would seem less like work!

the goal of the 2-week session was for her to get used to the water, be able to put her face in, and learn to kick and float. she was successful at all of those, except the floating. as soon as water gets in her ears, she bolts up. but she is comfortable with putting her face in, and even her whole head sometimes. in the beginning she would be hesitant to jump in from the steps in the pool, but by the last day she was jumping in from the side of the pool!

as for me, i sure hope swimming is easier when i'm not 7 months pregnant. that's all i gotta say!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

inspired to try again...

i started this blog awhile back, and when the pictures from my posts didn't format correctly, i got frustrated and gave up!!

well, the recent startup of friends' blogs and finally, kim's request for help in the naming of her own family blog gave me a little guilt trip, so i'm going to try to pick up where i left off... here goes the fast forwarded, cliff notes version of our "happenings"....

december 2007: i miss those chubba-cheeks!