Thanksgiving

This year, we had an abundance of turkeys. Rick made 2 deep fried turkeys and Uncle Park got a roasted turkey from a Chinese BBQ restaurant. Yum!

Jalen and cousin Gracie read a Ni Hao Kai Lan book.

Jalen and Gracie get a pony ride on Grant.

Jalen and Nursery Rhymes

One of the things I love about Jalen going to daycare is that he constantly surprises us with the things that he learns. For example, he knows a lot of nursery rhymes and he has loved singing them long before he knew how to pronounce the words.


Jalen sings twinkle twinkle little star.

Jalen does itsy bitsy spider.

Better Late Than Never

Here are some long overdue pictures from Halloween.

Jalen was dressed up as a cowboy for his daycare class on Halloween. Here's his favourite T2 teach Ms. Ling. She speaks Mandarin with Jalen.



We took Jalen to Bellevue Square for trick or treating again this year. Since Halloween was on a Saturday, the mall was insanely busy. Jalen was a bit overwhelmed by the crowds and lost interest in the activities quickly.

Baby No. 2 Update

Here are the current stats on baby No. 2, which is essentially an update on me.

Number of weeks pregnant - 27 weeks, a little less than 3 months to go!
Number of pounds gained - 15lb
Baby gender - unknown

I'm entering the third and final trimester and I'm feeling very pregnant now. Even though I only gained 15lbs so far, I feel quite heavy and huge. I am hoping that I can avoid the swollen ankles this time and keep my weight gain in the happy 25lb - 30lb range (I gained 47lbs with Jalen). It's hard to believe that baby will be here that soon. We really have done nothing to prepare yet. I'm hoping for lots of help from my parents over the Christmas holidays! :)

Bed time ritual

Jalen has practically memorized this book because we read it EVERY night before bed.

Baby #2 Enters the Blogsphere

Being the lucky first born means that Jalen has gotten all of the attention from mommy and daddy, and the grand parents. Now he must learn how to share with a soon to be arriving sibling, starting now with his blog. Here's the story of Baby #2 so far.

June 6, 2009

How we found out -- I was getting ready to go to my girls trip to Phoenix with Tina. I still hadn’t gotten my period even though I took a pregnancy test the week before and it was negative. I was actually annoyed all week because I thought I’d be on my period while we’re in Phoenix! Anyways, I figured I should take another test since it’s been a week since the last. I took it at about 4am since I woke up and I had to go to the bathroom. When it beeped and read “pregnant”, I said “oh my God”. When I told Rick, he said “I knew it!” We had suspected I might have been pregnant because I was feeling more hungry and my face was breaking out. Thinking back, we guessed that it must have been the night after Jalen’s 2 year old birthday party. My parents were in town and we just had to take advantage of the free babysitting by going out and hitting the bars. Blame it on the alcohol! Wow, I wasn’t expecting the second pregnancy to happen like this but it is a true blessing.

July 1, 2009

Week 10 – So far, I think that I’ve felt less sick than I did with Jalen. I definitely have more energy since I still can keep up with my work outs. Although I’ve been taking it easy and just doing the elliptical. Last Saturday I walked for 3 miles which took me about 1 hour. It was quite relaxing and nice. I am tired of thinking about food all day long. If I don’t eat, then I get very hungry and my stomach feels queasy. So my daily intake is something like: 7am first breakfast, 9:30am second breakfast, 12pm lunch, 3pm, second lunch, 6:30pm dinner, 10pm, second dinner. In theory, you’re supposed to each 6 small meals to prevent nausea except I’m eating almost 6 full meals! The doctor said that I only need 300 extra calories while I’m pregnant. I’m definitely eating more than that. So I’m glad that at least I’m able to continue to work out. My goal is to gain only 30lbs this time around. With Jalen, I gained about 46lb.

July 14, 2009

Week 12? - I had my OB appointment today. What a stressful event that was! It started out all normal until the doctor went to listen to the baby’s heart rate. She couldn’t hear anything, so she said, let’s do an ultrasound. I was like oookay. I had to wait in the lobby for the nurse. All sorts of thoughts were going through my head. Finally, they called my name and they couldn’t see the baby well because I didn’t have a full bladder. After some maneuvering, we finally saw the baby. It was waving its arm! Wow, that was more animated than the first time when I saw Jalen when he was just a little lima bean with a little flicker of a heart beat. This baby, you can see arms and legs and the heart beat as well. The nurse measured the baby and announced that it’s only measuring at 9.5 weeks, not 11 some as we had thought based on my last period. This makes my new due date February 12 instead of January 28. That totally threw me for a loop and now I have no idea when the baby was conceived. But the relief was seeing my baby moving and active. It’s so amazing and brought a smile to my face.

Another note is that I gained 5lbs since my first appointment a month ago. I can’t even comfortably button up my jeans anymore. Yikes! It’s not such much a baby bump as it is a bloated belly. Sigh. My doctor recommended taking Tums and Pepcid A/C to keep my tummy calm. Hopefully, that means I won’t have to eat as much to combat the upset stomach.

September 2, 2009

Week 17 – Yesterday was the first day when I felt some fluttering that could be the baby moving. I wasn’t sure whether it was the baby at first because I had been feeling a lot of movement in my tummy due to, ahem, gas. But this time around it was different. The movements weren’t accompanied with, er, bloating. It feels like a little fish is swimming in my tummy. Today I felt those movements again and I’m more certain that it is the baby! It’s so great feeling the baby move. In the last few weeks, I’ve been tired and my stomach has been upset. As I entered the second trimester those symptoms are subsiding. Oh, another lovely side effect of this pregnancy is that I’ve been breaking out a lot, especially on my chin. I’m just not one of those women that get the beautiful pregnancy glow. I get pimples instead. So with all of these things I have to deal with as a part of the pregnancy, feeling the baby move was the first big reward.

I’m completely dependent on the Bella Band now as I can’t even zip up my jeans now. I love that leggings are in right now so that I can enjoy the elastic waist band! My weight gain has slowed down since my stomach has calmed down so I’ve had to eat less. I’m still at about 5lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight which is good because I’m still on track with my goal of less than 30lbs!

September 4

The baby is definitely full on kicking! It no longer feels like litter flutters. Today I was able to put my hand on my belly and feel the kick from the outside. The baby is especially active when I'm pooped and pause for a rest. It feels great to get these little hellos from the baby. Hello to you too!

Summer Picnic

Last Saturday, we went to the annual Amazon summer picnic in North Bend, WA. Each year, Jalen has been able to enjoy the activities more and more.


Here's Jalen and his daddy on the tractor/train ride. He liked it so much he went on it twice.


This was a big high slide! Jalen didn't want to climb up by himself so Rick climbed up with him.

Jalen insisted that he comes down behind Rick. The slide must have been pretty slippery because he lost control right away and started head down instead of feet down.


Looks like it was a lot of fun though!

A Bouncy Fun Time

Last Sunday was Matthew's 2 year old birthday party. Jalen got a taste of the trampoline again and he had a lot of fun trying to jump on it. Unfortunately, he inherited his mommy's coordination skills and still can't take off on both feet. But he still enjoyed skipping and hopping and falling down.

Seafair Weekend

Last weekend was the traditional Seafair weekend with the Blue Angels air show and the hydroplane races. Our friend Tom offered his lake front home for us to watch the show. Jalen was at first excited about the planes. However, at one point during the show, one plane flew really close to us and it was really loud. After that he said "no more airplanes" and we went inside.





Matching outfits for Daddy and Jalen!

Weekend trip to Vancouver

Last weekend we were in Vancouver for my friend Catherine's wedding. My parents spent all of Saturday with Jalen, taking him to the park, then to the mall to keep cool. Jalen was a good boy and had a long nap in the afternoon. He reported back to us that he had french fries, cake and ice cream with grandma and grandpa! We're happy to let my parents indulge him as long as it's just once in a while!

Audrey's Birthday Party

It was another beautiful, warm and sunny day in Seattle for Audrey's second birthday party.

Jalen and Matthew looking so cool in their daddies' shades. Matthew is 2 months younger than Jalen but he's already 35lbs. He's tall just like his mommy.


Jalen got his first taste of cotton candy today. He seemed to like it but then he proceeded to use the cotton candy to dust the table. I guess the cotton candy looked a little too much like his grandma's Swifter Duster!


Jalen had so much fun playing with the water slide and water toys. He didn't want to get dried off even though it was getting a little chilly.

Here's Jalen taking a big bite into the yummy turkey leg Audrey's mommy made.

Jalen found the beat on a electric keyboard and got all the kids dancing at the party.

Fun in the Pool

Saturday was a sunny and hot day in Seattle. We took this opportunity to go to a community aquatic center. Jalen loved being in the adult lap pool where he was able to float around. He's very buoyant in the water so we just have to barely support him. He also liked sitting on the ledge of the pool and pushing off into the water. He doesn't quite get jumping yet, so no cannon balls for Jalen this time.

4th of July

This year, we had a full and busy 4th of July. We started by going to the celebration in our neighbourhood Newport Hills park where Jalen played on the slides, ate hot dogs and played on the Tumble Bus. After an afternoon nap, we went to Tyler's house for a BBQ. We lit off some small fireworks and sparklers. Then at 10pm, we watched the fireworks display in Renton. Jalen loved staying up late and all of the fireworks. Tyler and Preston both were tired and called it an early night. Jalen is such a party animal!

Big News!

This is a picture of Jalen sitting on the toilet in May. We'd try to put him on the toilet or the potty once in a while and he always just sat there and no pee. Last Wednesday, when I picked him up at Grandma's house, she told me he peed in the toilet! I couldn't believe it. We tried it again at home and sure enough, he peed! After he pees, he would flush the toilet and put the potty seat away then we would wash his hands. It's only been day 3 of preliminary potty training but Rick and I are so excited we went and bought Pull-ups. We're just dreaming of days of diaper-free Jalen!

Splasin' Around

Yesterday was another beautiful sunny day in Seattle. Tyler's daddy Viet invited us over to their house to play in their backyard pool. Tyler was taking a nap while Jalen had so much fun splashing around. When Tyler finally got up, they played in the water some more by dipping their cars in the pool.

Some Older Videos

Here is Rick teaching Jalen the art of eating string cheese the right way. Great... Now I'm sure to find dried up crusty pieces of cheese laying around the house.


Here's Jalen waking up one morning and decided to break dance in his crib. I think this is around the time when we were watching America's Best Dance Crew and Jalen was inspired by their dancing.

Visit to Vancouver

A couple of weekends ago, Jalen and I went to Vancouver to visit my parents. Rick didn't make the drive because I was going for my friend's bridal shower so he didn't want to come. I left Seattle on Friday evening around 7pm. On the drive up to Vancouver Jalen was awake almost the whole time. He didn't doze off until it finally got dark around 10pm. I was worried that he was going to be cranky but he was quite good with his pacifier and his book. I left Vancouver around 3pm on Sunday after Jalen's nap and he was a bit restless for this part of the drive. Luckily, I was prepared. I got a portable DVD player with his favourite movie "Cars" preloaded and ready. As soon as I turned it on for him, he was all quiet.

Here we are at Van Dusen Garden. It was a beautiful sunny day!

At Oakridge Centre, Jalen met his favourite: Lightening McQueen!

Preston's Birthday Party

The May birthday parade arrived at Preston's house the weekend after Jalen's birthday party. Preston was born just 2 days after Jalen, on Jalen's due date. It was a gorgeous May Saturday so the kids were able to enjoy all the toys outside in the yard.

Here's Jalen helping Preston open his birthday gifts.


Here's Jalen looking very serious in the kitchen.

Look out, there are two little boys in the kitchen!