New Paleontology Hall at the HMNS

Andrew and I ventured to the Museum of Natural Science this morning to check out the member preview for the new paleontology hall. Andrew and I were amazed by the beautiful exhibit hall with all the fascinating artifacts.

I had asked Andrew if he wanted to watch one of the 4D movies, but he declined. So, we left the museum and headed over to Rice to have lunch with Daddy.

Zip Line (Again)

Andrew got to go on the zip line again today at gymnastics. He totally loves it!! It was probably the highlight of his day!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

So, I had been growing out my hair for awhile, but was getting kind of tired of it. But I had the thought to grow it out so I could donate it to Locks of Love as a gesture for my two aunts that had lost their hair and sadly later, their lives to cancer. Funny enough, Aunt Anh Thu was doing the same, but neither of us knew about the other one doing it!! Anyways, she had done some research and was donating her hair to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program. So, I decided to do the same.

So, my mom and I have been watching the length of my hair (especially me since I was getting weary of it being soooo long). She finally thought it was long enough, so this morning, we headed for her shop. For Pantene, the minimum length is 8 inches. She put my hair in a ponytail and measured it again. She said she was going to cut it as much as possible just sure to make sure we had enough. Well, it turned out that it was over 9.5 inches!!

It's still really strange for me to have this short of hair. It is going to take some getting used to. I haven't had it this short since maybe high school!!! But it's for such a good cause I am so glad to have done it. And now I know that I can do it again in the future.

Here is the before and after photos:

Uncle Rick

Uncle Rick has been working back in Shreveport and had texted me about coming in this weekend. Of course, we were excited at the thought of seeing him; and luckily, we didn't have too much going on this weekend.

Friday night, we all went to dinner at Pappasito's including Ngoai and Uncle Anh Tuan (who was also visiting for the weekend). And yesterday morning, we hung out a bit before Uncle Rick headed to his sister's house.

But this afternoon, we had a crawfish boil in League City. Uncle Foo did a great job of cooking the crawfish! So delicious!!!

And it was great spending time with Rick as always.

The Zoo with the Lalors

This morning, we met up with Kathleen and William at the zoo for a play date. Both boys were great. I don't know how much William liked the zoo, but he didn't fuss much so I'll take it as a good sign. And again, Andrew was really sweet with William.

Right as we were going to ride the carousel, we saw Evie from school along with her dad and sister and she said she wanted to play with Andrew. So, we all rode the carousel and went to the petting zoo together. And then, we finished off the morning with a visit to the dinosaurs.

It was fun hanging out with Kathleen and William and I hope that we can do it again soon.

Happy 51st Month Birthday

Andrew is totally and Papa's boy. He still asks when Papa is going to get home from work and anxiously waits for that time. And one night at dinner, I ask Andrew what he wants to drink. He then gets out of his chair and gets Papa water. He doesn't get it for himself (I am left to do that) nor does he get some for his dad or mom!! But in all seriousness, I love that he loves his Papa so much!

As for soccer, Andrew is mostly interested in playing only defense. But he has really enjoyed playing and has gained a sense of camaraderie and team unity that we are so proud of. When he is on the sidelines, he will yell for his teammates and cheer them on.

Andrew loves watching the Smurfs movie. And he will tell me when he sees Neil Patrick Harris that he is in Smurfs if we are watching How I Met Your Mother or vice versa. And he is definitely more into super heroes. He will watch a cartoon series version of the Avengers and get so into it. he will cheer them on saying things like "Watch out, Ironman!" and "Way to go, Captain America!" It's so darn cute!

I also have brainwashed him with watching reality TV. He will watch Dancing with the Stars and the Voice with Papa and me. Papa also watches American Idol, but Andrew says "American Idol not so good." He will give his impersonation of a judge and tell us if they did a good job or if he liked it.

His favorite apps on the iPad are Bakery Story and the Smurfs game. He loves buying cosmetic accessories. Andrew also plays the Teach Me applications. At first, he was primarily doing the Toddler version, but now is playing some of the Kindergarten level. One of the best features is that Andrew can add the required number or objects or move the objects into a trash can for adding and subtracting respectively.

And his favorite tunes nowadays are pretty much the same as last month: How Bad Can I Be, Let It Grow, Real Gone, and Life is a Highway. He still likes Glad You Came by The Wanted. A new addition to songs that he likes is fun's We are Young. He asked me one time when it was on "What it mean "set the world on fire"?" I think he was wondering if there was a big fire somewhere. And much later, he told me that he liked "this song because I learned it".

Some of his favorite meals are grilled cheese sandwiches and hot dogs. He still loves him some meat like thit nuong, Korean barbecue, and Mongolian Beef. For most breakfasts, Drew asked for kolaches. And he doesn't like the HEB kind, he likes the Jimmy Dean brand, which they only sell at Krogers (or else, I haven't them at our HEB yet). He is totally in a brownies kick and eating the Poteet strawberry ice cream from HEB.

We are still working with Andrew to perfect his alphabet. I am having him write them from A to Z on paper by himself without my help and same with numbers 1-10. Andrew also enjoys doing mazes and connect the dots. His drawing continues to improve and now draws his vehicles with more symmetrical windows.

Lately, Andrew has been really good about going down for bed. He doesn't yell or come out nearly as often, which is so refreshing. He still likes to listen to his music and have his two nightlights on. Oh, he loves wearing the pajama pants that Ngoai made for him. He has an air force one (Brennan so sweetly thought of him when he picked out the fabric for his own pj pants) and a Chuggington one as well. When he does wake up in the morning, he likes to yell out, "Mom, come here please!?" As for naps, he naps about 4-5 days out of the week and the other days, he just rests quietly.

Andrew still talks about travelling. He still excited about our upcoming trip to Pennsylvania for Stephanie's and Thomas's graduations. He also says he wants to go back to New York (primarily to ride the subway again). One day, we were talking about going to Korea and we asked him if he preferred to go there or Disneyworld. He answered Korea and when we asked him why, he said because "Papa over there!"

He also talks more about what he wants to be when he grows up. One day, he said he wants to be a firefighter but that he will miss us when he sleeps at the firehouse. And also, that he will go to the HEB and come back home to our house. He talks like he is going to live with us in this house when he is grown up. He pointed out that there can be "two daddies at the house" meaning him and James. Drew also said he wanted two kids.

Speaking of kids, Andrew tells us that he wants two more babies--a boy and a girl. But a week later, he changed his mind and said he wanted one baby and one dog. When he gets change, he says he is going to save it for the new baby like to buy him or her toys.

When we attend mass, he always says that we pray for Matthew at church. I really think he associates church with Matthew's funeral mass. He thinks about Matthew quite a bit and one day recently, he told me that he is a good big brother to Matthew. He sure is.

Happy Birthday, Andrew!! We love you, little man!

Daddy's Birthday Happy Hour

This evening, we invited some folks to Happy Hour at Natachee's. What's great about this place is that they have a big sandbox for the kids to play in so it allowed us adults to sit and socialize.

Andrew and his friends had lots of fun in the sandbox and the adults had fun chatting away. I love that the kids are getting older where we don't have to hover over them and watch them every moment when they play.

We had a wonderful time and are so thankful to those that came out to celebrate James's birthday with us. It was such a great evening!

Genetic Study

Dr. Lalani asked if I would be willing to participate in her study about my deletion of the chromosomes. She told me that of all the participants that were involved in her study, I was the only one that is homozygous. I really want to help especially if it could help children in the future so I happily agreed to participate. And it's kind of nice to think that Andrew's speech delay might have been genetic.

For my involvement, I only needed to go in for an MRI, which was done last week. I dropped Andrew off at Rice so that James could take him swimming while I had my appointment at TCH.

I so ended up falling asleep in the MRI. It's all warm in there and with the rhythmic noises, I must have been out in like thirty minutes.

Anyways, Dr. Lalani emailed me some images from the MRI today and said it looked consistent with the other participants in the study. She is looking for white spots which she has put arrows on the MRI to point them out.

Peter's 9th Birthday Party

Right after the party, we drove up to Austin for Peter's 9th birthday party. Unfortunately, Andrew threw up just outside of Austin so we went over to John's and Sharon's to clean him up as well as the car seat. But we headed to the party shortly thereafter. The party was held at Pinballz Arcade, which had a lot of old school games that Uncle Johnny and Daddy used to play. Andrew spent most of his time trying to earn tickets to redeem for prizes.

Daddy found this one game with superheroes so we played that. We just pushed the buttons as fast as we could. We managed to get through a few rounds, but luckily the game ended because our fingers were tired!!

Then, it was time to eat and to sing Happy Birthday. After, the kids went back out to play more games. We turned in our tickets and Andrew picked out a few prizes.

After the party, we drove back to their house to hang out. Andrew and his cousins played LEGOs and jumped on the trampoline. Then, we came back here to hang out with Anh Tuan and put Andrew down for bedtime.

Happy Birthday, Peter! We love you very, very much!! We are so glad we could join you for your celebration!

YMCA Spring 2012 Soccer: End of Season Party

After the game, we had our end of the season party at Skeeters. It was a little cramped in the area they made for us, but we can't really complain (or I am just not choosing to at this point in time). But it was really sweet because the kids all wanted to sit together. One of the kids even told his parents they couldn't sit at their table because it was just for kids. It was totally funny, but totally cute! I really loved the camaraderie with the kids this season.

Daddy and Coach Gray handed out the trophies and the awards. And Andrew loved handing out the favors we gave the kids, which were goody bags filled with rubber soccer balls, straws, and luggage tags that I made.

It was a great season!! Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and learned a little more about the game. Most of them won't be playing with us this summer, but have already asked to play with us again in the Fall.

YMCA Spring 2012 Soccer Game #8: Toronto vs. Seattle

We had our last game of the Spring season this morning. We aren't able to make up last week's game so this was it.

Andrew again wanted nothing to do with offense, but we asked him to play one quarter of it because we needed him to try to possess the ball. He did okay, but didn't dominate possession like he used to last season. He was much better at playing defense and had a few saves.

After the game, we got together for a team photo before we headed over for the end of the season party.

The Last Day of School

It was the last day of school today for Andrew!! I can't believe how fast the year has passed. Andrew was sad about it being the last day with his teachers and classmates, but we know we will see Mr. Sanchez and Ms. Edgett and some of the kids during summer camp and next year for Pre-K.

For the party, the kids decorated their own sand buckets with foam stickers. And then, they also ate cutely summer-themed decorated cookies.

Then, it was time to say goodbye. The class presented the teachers with gift cards and a card. We have had such an amazing year with them and the kids. We know how lucky we were to have Mr. Sanchez and Ms. Edgett for our teachers. It has truly been an incredible year!!

Happy 36th Birthday, Daddy

Happy 36th Birthday to Daddy!!

We ended up having my cousins over for dinner tonight because it was the only evening that most of them could come over before Hung leaves for Italy. I asked James if it was okay that his birthday was spent with my family, but thankfully, he likes the cousins and didn't mind. Also, I have made plans for us to celebrate his birthday again next week with some friends.

Andrew wanted to make Daddy a card even though he had picked one out at the store. His method of selection was just to pick the character he liked best and asked "if it a birthday card?" which ended up being a Lightning McQueen card.

Drew also said he wanted to make brownies for Daddy versus a cake. So, we picked out a dark chocolate brownie mix, which was pretty tasty.

Happy Birthday, Daddy! We love you so very much and are so grateful for everything that you do for us. We couldn't have a better dad and husband!!