Date night, Leah visits, Katelyn gets a tooth and doctor appointments! (Week 156/18)

Happy 4th of July everyone!  Hope you guys all had a great long weekend.  We have news - Katelyn's teeth are officially on their way out!  She's been a drooling MACHINE the past couple weeks, quite fussy and gnawing at everything in sight.  We had started seeing the outline of her bottom two teeth in the gums, but just yesterday they finally poked through!  The result?  Painful biting on my finger - those little buggers are so thin and sharp!  ... not looking forward to what this means nursing-wise.  I must be brave - Tyler didn't get his teeth until 6 months - and I definitely remember some ouch moments...

We started the weekend out with a (much needed) haircut for Tyler.  I think he looks better with shorter hair, plus it'll be cooler in the summer.  He was really well behaved the whole time - I had flashbacks of having to distract him with snacks and videos on my iPhone - he's such a big boy now!

Here's the finished haircut!

Then we headed to Toys R Us.  Usually we wouldn't bring him, but Tyler got a birthday card from Geoffrey the Giraffe (their birthday club) and it had a coupon for a free Thomas the Train wooden train! Wow!  FREE!  My favorite word. heehee.  They gave Tyler a birthday crown and a balloon - he was really excited to walk around and random people would stop and wish him a happy birthday.   Although...there was one little boy (a bit older than Tyler maybe?) who had a meltdown because he wanted a balloon too.  Anyway, we got him a Percy train (Tyler is very clear on which trains he does NOT have... too bad they didn't have Hiro).

Saturday morning we headed to Pretend City for some morning fun.  We've had a family membership pass since they had their grand opening last year end of August.  Unfortunately, we haven't gone that often, especially after having Katelyn!  I'm a big fan of their 9-10am members-only hour - it's quite empty and Tyler can run around freely!  It's interesting how much wear and tear the place has gone through though, I guess that's what happens with tons of kids playing with their stuff everyday!  Here's Tyler picking strawberries - which reminds me - we need to take Tyler real strawberry picking before the Summer is over!

My little fireman.  He looks young here, doesn't he?

Katelyn was great - I had her in my sling and she slept for most of the time.

Tyler liked checking out the little chicks in the incubator.

I wonder if he gets that these chicks end up as his chicken nuggets...

Quietly contemplating...he knows that eggs come from chickens...

After Tyler's nap, my mom and in laws came over around 3pm.  Why?  Our first date night out in a million years!  Seriously.  The last time I can remember Will and I going out for dinner late was when our friend got married in August 2008.  Seriously.  Can that be right?  That's insane!  It took a lot of courage (on my part) to convince myself it would be fine to leave the kids at home with THREE grandparents.  Haha!  I know, I'm lame.  Here's a picture with my mom, myself and Katelyn.

I was already starting to miss Katelyn, and we hadn't even left yet!

Ugh, enough with the forced smiles Tyler!  Lately we've been trying to avoid those smiles by telling Tyler to think of YogurtLand or something.  It only works some of the time...

We were finally able to hit the road and make the long drive up to Pasadena.  The wedding was at the Langham hotel (formerly the Ritz Carlton) and it was B E A U T I F U L !!  I loved it - made me want to get married again, heehee.  I was worried that it was going to be super hot since it was a garden wedding, but it was quite breezy.   Kareen/Andy also drove down from the Bay Area for the wedding - we were glad to be able to hang out.

The ceremony was beautiful, and afterward it was open bar all night!  The only rum they had was Bacardi (which I usually detest) but the bartender hid the taste quite wonderfully.  Yum!  It's been FOREVER since Will and I have been out without the kids.  I did text my mom a few times to check on the kids and get updates. :)

The reception was so beautiful too - it was great seeing lots of old college friends and catching up.  There was a photo booth as well as a formal photo setup (like for formals!).    Kareen and I even snuck away for a bit in an adjoining room to pump some breastmilk (see how dedicated we are? haha!)

Here's a picture of the ballroom.

The centerpieces!  Loved it!  The food was great too - filet mignon so very very tender.  And they even had a dessert table set up - a huge selection of fancy little desserts that they kept refilling.  Ooh, it was so yummy!

Here's a picture of Kareen and me with the beautiful bride Heidi.  It was her 3rd dress that night!

And a picture with Kareen/Andy at the end of the night.  We headed home by 11pm exhausted - we're such boring old folgies huh?!  When we got home, my mother in law was holding a sleeping Katelyn on the couch.  Tyler had been quite tricky that night.  After going to bed, he came back downstairs and told my mother-in-law, " I love you Nai-nai, I want to stay here with you.  Hah!  He is such a little sneak, he knew she wouldn't send him back upstairs after that!

The next morning (Sunday) Will and I were still super tired - Katelyn was quite fussy - poor baby with her teeth coming out!  By noon Kareen/Andy came down with Leah.  Yay, reunion for the girls!

We hung out at the house the rest of the afternoon (with a Yogurtland trip of course) before heading to a nearby restaurant for dinner to celebrate my grandmother's 93rd birthday.  It was the first time in a long time where my grandmother and all 5 of her children were all together.  It was great seeing all my uncles and aunts.  Here's a photo of me with Katelyn and Tyler.

Here's my mom with Katelyn.  She TOTALLY looks like a little boy Tyler.  Sigh.  C'mon Katelyn - time to get girly! :)

Kareen with Katelyn!  She was quite good that night too - she let everyone hold her!

Here's Katelyn with my 2nd uncle.  He's my favorite uncle - lives in New York currently but is moving back to China.  Awww.

Group picture!

After dinner, we headed over to my aunt's home.  How crazy is it that they live within walking distance from us in Northwood?  Well, it's "walking distance" but still too far for me to walk! haha!  By then we were so tired!

Here's a picture of Kareen/me with the babies and my dad and his 3 brothers.

Tyler was going a little crazy with tiredness.  He gets a little delirious when it gets late and way past his bedtime - but he was having a lot of fun!

When we finally left my aunt's house, we had missed all the fireworks.  Awww!  We were too tired to even realize though!  Back at home, we dug out some old sparklers and Tyler got to have his first real July 4th firework display!  (Both previous years 2008 and 2009 we were quite the sticklers for bedtime and he was way asleep by the time fireworks started!)  Tyler was great at listening and being careful with the sparkler. :)

Here's a short video of Tyler playing with the sparkler:

Whew, what a day it was.  We were so pooped that we went to bed right after.  Katelyn slept in our room that night in a bassinet since Kareen/Andy/Leah were in the nursery.  It was another long night with Katelyn's teeth discomfort.  Poor Katelyn!  I miss a full night's sleep!

Monday morning we headed over to my parents' place in Hacienda Heights for brunch.  Will snapped a few really cute photos - these are my favorite!

LOVE this one - check out her chunky thighs!

I'm trying to get better at putting Katelyn in cute little dresses and not always wearing pants.  She's a girl for goodness sake!

Heehee, she has a funny expression in this one.

A picture with Kareen and our babies.  How cute are they!

Picture with my parents.

Here's my mom with the girls in the backyard.

Tyler has a great memory.  He saw my parents' cat Berkeley and said: "I don't want to bother Berkeley".  He remembers her biting him last time!  He was really interested in watching my dad's turtle Tennessee.  That turtle moves so slow!  He pet Tennessee on the shell and said "he didn't bite me!"

Tyler also really had fun picking different fruit from their backyard.  That day it was peaches!  He was so excited to pick one for everyone that he ran and tripped.  Awww...  We even picked some plums!

What a weekend!  I miss the times where we could just sleep all day when we had a break from work.  Sigh.  But it's worth it. :)

Today we took the kids to see our pediatrician Dr. Galang.  Tyler was getting his 3 year old well check and Katelyn had her 4 month well baby check.  First we checked out Tyler's stats:

• weight: 34 pounds (77th percentile)
• height: 38 inches (71th percentile)

Not bad.  Still above average for now.  We gotta keep him drinking lots of milk to help him grow tall!

Tyler had 2 shots that day - he was old enough to sit there and watch them do it.  He held my hand and I tried (unsuccessfully) to distract him.  He got a TB bubble and a Hep A vaccine shot.  Poor Tyler - no one likes shots!  He calmed down pretty quick though when I gave him a bag of gummies. :)

Next up, Katelyn!

• height: 25 3/4 inches (93rd percentile)
• weight: 16 pounds 12 oz (96th percentile)
• head circumference: 16 1/4 inches (58th percentile)

I find these percentiles a little fishy since they're not what I get when I google the measurements online.  Regardless, she's growing great for a totally breastfed baby!  Watching her get shots was hard though.

Random pictures from the week:

Happy birthday to my dear friend Mariam!  We celebrate with a yummy Shik do Rak lunch (after watching Eclipse...yes, I know, we're not teenagers! haha!)

Here's Tyler being silly.  He's turning 3 on Friday! THREE!!!!

Katelyn's 18 week bear picture.

And the newest thing - the jumperoo!  We took this out of storage and assembled it on Sunday morning. She LOVES it!  We had the exersaucer out already but she wasn't really feeling it.  It must be the bounciness. She can even turn herself around in it and play with the different toys.  She loves it!  (Tyler was quite crazy about it too!!)

Here's a cute short video I took on my iPhone of Katelyn playing on the jumperoo.

Hi Katelyn!

Another short video from my iPhone!

Have a great weekend!  Hopefully next week I can blog that Katelyn has returned to her sleepy self.  Sniff sniff.