The girls decided to take a ride in Mimi’s Mercedes (another great gift from Oo-oo Melissa for her 3rd Birthday) with (of course) their necklaces. This was Moysee’s first time in the car and boy did she have a great time.
A brief stop for a photo of the ladies with their necklaces. They couldn’t stop too long. After a minute, Moysee started to shake the car back and forth signaling it was time to go!
Moysee watching her big sister drive. Look at the concentration on Mimi’s face.
Moysee liked to change the radio stations. And in this car the radio stations play real music!
How cute are these two!
Moysee sticking her tongue out at me.
Mimi taking a hard right turn. Moysee loved the turns!
A brief stop to play with the necklaces.
And now time to chase Ee-ee up the street.
And down the street!
I hope my girls will always be this close, and one day drive a real Mercedes wearing their necklaces.
Chrissy xoxo
We celebrated Isabella’s (or Moysee as we call her) first birthday last weekend. As I was putting together the guest list, I realized that Moysee doesn’t have any friends. I don’t have any friends with kids her age and we haven’t participated in any activities yet to meet friends…something I need to work on before her next birthday. So we decided to have a family party, which turned out to be over 40 people! The party was a BBQ and thankfully the weather cooperated and it was a beautiful day.
My parents stayed with me at the house a week before the party to get everything ready. My goal was to do very little cooking the day of the party besides BBQ’ing so that we could hang out with our guests. That meant all meat needed to be marinated, dumplings wrapped and frozen, corn husked, salad washed, fruit cut, decorations hung…there was a lot to do. And even with all of this preparation, I was up till 3am the day before the party, and my mom was up till 5am! I found this DIY birthday sign on Pinterest, made some modification to jazz it up a little bit, and had Jeff make the letters and numbers with his sticker machine. It took me three days to make but it looked great and I was so proud to make it myself. Because it was so much work, I decided to make it for ages 1 to 99 so we can use it for all our birthdays every year!
One of my Dad’s projects for the party was to paint the dining room. Boy, was this a big project…especially when you have a baby crawling into everything. As much work as parties are, it’s a great way to get you motivated to clean the house from top to bottom and take care of all home improvements on your list.
It rained in the morning but by the time the party started it was a beautiful day. We blew up the water slide jumping castle for the kids to play in. It was a huge hit!
We also had water balloons for the kids to play and throw. It’s amazing how 100 water balloons could be gone in less then 15 minutes. The kids had a blast!
Moysee played in the water for a little bit. It was a little hard with all of the big kids splashing around but she was happy to just be around them.
Then she went to her swing to hang out.
We had so much to BBQ my dad brought his charcoal BBQ from the house upstate. After dinner, we let the kids roast these gigantic marshmallows I found in the store. I found out later Mimi had two of them! No wonder she had a belly ache the next day.
Isabella’s birthday cake was an ice cream cake from Carvel. Two weeks before her birthday I started to replace her formula with cow’s milk to make sure she wouldn’t be allergic to her birthday cake. And of course we had the hello kitty candle we use for all our birthdays on top. Our cousin Zui took this photo. I love that he caught us all blowing out her candle.
Moysee loved her ice cream cake.
After I fed her a few times, she wanted to use the spoon to feed herself.
She was doing a great job with the spoon.
But she couldn’t scoop up a lot of ice cream so she started to use her hand.
Using the spoon and her hand was the best (and messiest) way to get the ice cream into her mouth. She had to take a bath right after finishing her cake.
The next morning Moysee opened her gifts after Mimi gave her a morning kiss.
She loved ripping the paper.
Mimi helped her open the gifts.
Oo-Oo Melissa (Chinese for paternal aunt in kiddy speak) always knows the fun toys to buy. Moysee played in the car all day.
Ee-ee (Chinese for maternal aunt in kiddy speak) really wanted to open a gift also so we finally let her.
I came to visit one of the weeks. Every week there is a theme and the week I was there it was the Olympics. Every day the class does a craft in line with the theme of the week and then on Friday the kids bring home all of the crafts they made. For the Olympics, Mimi made an Olive Leaf, Olympic torch, and German flag. She got new sneakers at the beginning of the summer when we were 
Mimi would hang her backpack on the shelf before walking into the classroom. She had sunscreen, bug spray, snacks, and a water bottle in her bag.
Parents (and Grandparents) would sign up to bring snack. My mom signed up for Monday, August 23.
One day that week Mimi got to take home Clifford and Cherry, the camp’s two red dog stuffed animals. She spent the day with them and we took pictures and wrote down what they did together in the notebook to share with the class the next day.
This summer Aunt Bernice and Uncle Mark invited us to their house in the Berkshires for the weekend. We were really excited to visit because we celebrate Christmas at the house and only know the Berkshires when it’s cold and wintery outside (which isn’t much because we usually stay in the warm cozy house), and now we can go out and explore in the warm weather. T-times, swimming in the outdoor pool, visiting a local farm, shopping, going to the park…so many choices! Unfortunately, it rained all weekend, but that didn’t ruin our fun at the indoor pool.
This was Moysee’s first time in a pool and she loved it! I think it’s because she thought it was a gigantic bath tub.
Mimi has been taking swimming lessons all summer. She loves to swim but wouldn’t wouldn’t jump in the water. Uncle Chris helped her get the courage to jump by holding her hand until finally she jumped by herself! Thank you Uncle Chris!
I know this is because I am her mom, but I think Mimi has the perfect back float.
There was lightening outside so we had to evacuate the pool. I’m not exactly sure why, I think it’s something to do with getting electrocuted. It was perfect timing because Moysee needed to take a nap. Oo-oo Melissa (Chinese for aunt in kiddy speak) walked Moysee to sleep with Mimi walking next to her playing her iPhone. Oo-oo Melissa is a great multi-tasker.
They walked…
And walked…
Until Moysee finally fell asleep.
And she wasn’t the only one sleeping…
When we make the trip down to the Chinatown apartment , we get really creative to keep the girls entertained. Without a backyard to have a swing set to play on, Cousin Cheryl became Mimi’s personal jungle gym. Here Mimi is climbing up her personal jungle gym.
Cheryl helping Mimi reach the bars.
Yes! Reached the bars…with a little help from Cheryl’s shoulder!
Hanging upside down!
The personal jungle gym is so much fun Si-Ee-ee (小姨姨, younger Aunt) wanted to give it a try also.
Cousin Jennie is staying in the Chinatown apartment. One day when we came to visit she let Mimi be her make-up artist…brave, brave girl.
Putting on blush…with her hand.
Oh no, no more makeup!
All done! Doesn’t Cousin Jennie look so beautiful?! She’s all ready to go out to her party that night.
This week my Mama took me into NYC to visit Bak Bak (maternal great-grandmother). We took the 
I found a ball to play with on the floor. It was so fun!
Later in the day, Bak Bak took me out to dinner at her favorite restaurant, 
I was having fun blowing raspberries at the dinner table.
Bak Bak let me play with her chopsticks.
I point my arm to tell Bak Bak what I want.
I was pointing to an orange. Bak Bak wiped the skin over 100 times so I could eat the orange.
Boy is this orange delicious.
So juicy! Good thing Bak Bak rolled up my sleeves. I had so much fun visiting Bak Bak. I love her so much and cannot wait to see her again.
Moysee (Isabella’s nickname) wakes up every morning with a big smile on her face. She has my undivided attention during the week while Mimi is away at camp upstate with my parents so I decided to share her morning routine.
For her morning stretch, she stands on her tippy-toes and reaches her arm to try to touch a flower.
After her stretch, she goes to her toy chest to find something to do.
This particular morning, she found a book to read. It was about animals that live in the ocean.
Back for another stretch.
Dada comes to say good morning and read her a Barbie book about 
With Mimi away, she plays in the kitchen uninterrupted.
Finally, time for breakfast! This is her favorite part of the morning.
I tell her stories when she eats. She is a good listener.
She laughs at all of my stories.
And then claps. I love you Moysee!
We just came home from a family trip to Boston. This was a big trip because:
Our first full day, we went to the 
Even Jeff got into the bubble blowing.
This machine makes life-size bubbles but it was not really working that day.
Who is taller?
We had a great time at the 
Since Mike lives across the street from the 
The next day we went to the 
After the aquarium we went on the 
On our last day of sight-seeing, we went to the 
Mimi loved how close she could get to the butterflies.
She even touched one (which I’m pretty sure is not allowed).
This is a silly (almost embarrassing) story…On the front door of Mike’s apartment, I saw this sign. It surprised me so much I had to tell my sister to look at the sign and commented that Boston is really relaxed about racial terms. Since some of the concierges are Asian, I thought the “FOB” meant “Fresh Off-the Boat”, a derogatory term for immigrant. After a good laugh, Kimbie explained it meant the 
We survived the Boston trip. I love to travel and Boston isn’t that exotic of a place, but it was a change of scenery and not too stressful. I cannot thank Kimbie and Mike enough for accommodating us, helping us navigate, getting us meals, and babysitting one night so Jeff and I could have a nice child-less dinner. We all had a great time and we cannot wait to come back again and visit.
Mimi, my oldest daughter turned 4 a couple of weeks ago. This year instead of having a big party, we took a family vacation to Boston (look out for pictures in the next blog post). On birthday day, it was all about the birthday girl. The Hello Kitty candle on her Carvel ice cream cake is the same candle we have been using since her first birthday.
After a birthday pancake breakfast, it was all about opening presents.
Moysee (Isabella’s nick name) helped her big sister open presents.
Family picture with the birthday girl in front of her birthday cake.
She might be 4, but I remember her this big like it was yesterday.
Happy 4th Birthday Baby! I love you always. Love, Mama