Happy 3rd birthday Jalen!

After hosting Jalen's 2nd birthday last year at home, I swore that his next birthday party wouldn't be at home. Yet this year, I changed my mind and thought it'd be better to have the party at home instead of at a jungle gym or something. Now, I'm saying again that next year's birthday party won't be at home! We spent Saturday afternoon shopping for groceries, Saturday evening tidying and cleaning, Sunday morning prepping, then Sunday and Monday cleaning up. I think I just recovered from the party on Tuesday. But at least the kids had lots of fun!

I was expecting about 10 - 12 kids aged 2 - 4 at the party so I knew we needed an outlet for all that energy. So this year, we had Dizzy's tumble bus come to our house. It was a good thing that we got the tumble bus too because it was raining at the start of the party.

The kids had a ball, literally. It took them no time to warm up and start having fun. The bus was only here for about 1 hour but it was plenty of time to get them worked up, tired out, then ready for some food and cake.

Jalen went down the slide head first into the balls. He loved it!

This year, for the sake of ease, we got giant cup cakes from Costco. Man, it's a lot of butter and sugar even for an adult!

Happy Mother's Day!

This past Sunday was my first Mother's day as a mother of two. Jalen made a card for me at school that says "I love my mommy so much because she play toys and play Legos". I think the best gift would have been a real day off! But since little Max is still nursing every 3 hours, that day off will just have to wait. We went to brunch with our family then went to the park in the afternoon. The weather was beautiful in Seattle so overall it was a great day.

I was so excited to see how great Jalen is doing on his balance bike. I've been taking him to the park every week and each time he's getting more confident with balancing on his bike. It's such a joy to see how quickly kids learns new things and how fearless they are.

Max is 14 weeks old!

At 14 weeks, Max likes to smile when he has a full tummy. He likes to watch the mobile on his swing but he won't sleep very long in it. He started sucking on his hands and fingers but he still finds his pacifier more comforting. Max loves car rides and stroller rides and in general he loves being out of the house. When I take him out to run errands, he can take long 2 hour naps. At home he only takes 30 minute to 1 hour naps. I've started putting Max down for the night around 9pm in his crib. He can usually fall asleep on his own. This is a great victory for me since I think we held Jalen until he fell asleep when he was this age. It's hard to believe that he's already 3.5 months. I must remind myself everyday to savor this time when he's still little and wants me to hold him as much as possible.

Max is 3 months old!

Max celebrated his 3-months birthday in Vancouver, Canada. This was Max's first trip to Canada. Rick couldn't leave town because of work so he stayed back with Jalen and I took Max by myself. I didn't know what to say to Jalen when I was leaving. He kept on asking "where are you going?" And the only thing I could muster was "I'll be back!" Having just one child to take care of was a piece of cake! I talked to Jalen on the phone when I was in Vancouver and he wasn't too upset about me being away. Phew!


These are the mandatory bath time pictures. I took Jalen to Vancouver by myself when he was around 2 months old and we also took bath photos. My parents kept on comparing Max to Jalen. Finally, I had to tell them, please don't compare them in front of Jalen! You're going to give my kids a complex!


Of course I didn't make it any less easy to compare Max to Jalen. Here Max is wearing Jalen's old Roots Canada shirt for his first trip to Canada. Jalen was in this shirt when he was 1.5 months and here Max is 3 months old. Obviously, Max is a lot smaller than Jalen.

Come on Joming, don't you want one of these cuties too?

Hey there Tina, why are you sooo far away? Come closer and give my cheeks a kiss!

Here's Ivy showing Max lots and lots of huggy love.

Birthday party weekend

Last weekend we went on the kiddie birthday circuit with Tyler's 3rd birthday party on Saturday then Trenton's 3rd birthday party on Sunday. Jalen had a lot of fun at the jungle gym for Trenton's party. We were pleasantly surprised that he could swing really well!

Here's Rylan and Max and their daddies. Rylan is about 1 month older than Max.

Jalen giving birthday boy Trenton a big hug!

Jalen was fearless when swinging on the rings.


Lately, our whole family of 4 have been ending up in bed by the morning. Usually, I bring Max into bed with me after the 6am feeding. Then Jalen hops into bed with us when he wakes up around 7am. Sometimes, Jalen comes into our room and gets into bed in the middle of the night without us knowing! Most of the time, we're too tired to tell him to go back to his room. Good thing we have a king size bed!

Max is 10 weeks old!

Wow, our little Max in double digit weeks! He's hit a couple of new milestones in the last week or so. First, he is starting to smile more while he's awake. He's always smiled while he's asleep but now he will smile when he's awake, alert and in a good mood. He's also started sleeping longer at night. Thank goodness! Max's last feeding of the evening is at 9pm then he'll usually drift off to sleep around 10pm or 11pm. In the last few days, he's been sleeping until 2am or even 5am! Then he'll sleep until about 6am. After the 6am feeding, he tends to wake up again around 7am but I'll just bring him in bed with me and he'll sleep with me for a bit longer. There's nothing better than sleeping with your baby. I treasure all this cuddling with him because pretty soon, they'll get big and won't let you hold them anymore!

Max's neck is getting stronger so I had him in the Bumbo seat today. So Jalen immediately asked if he could sit next to him in his own chair.

Max was content in his Bumbo for about 30 minutes today while I sorted out Jalen's old clothes by size. He was mesmerized by the TV.

This is a mini smile I managed to capture on camera.

Easter weekend and Grandparents' visit

My parents came to visit from Vancouver this Easter weekend. We didn't do any themed photo shoots but my dad still captured these great shots of Max and Jalen.