We were invited to Austin and Amy’s beautiful house for BBQ. The kids had fun going in and out of the kiddie pool and enjoyed eating delicious grilled food. 

Juicy Naomi… so delicious!

Chloe was so cute. At one point, when she saw Shane playing by himself, she came and grabbed his hand, encouraging him to go in the water with her. 🙂 Those are the moments that make my heart all fuzzy and warm…oh my sweet Chloe.

Movie geeks… 

Chloe and Austin became good friends. It was too funny seeing them hanging out together and Chloe kept calling him Naomi! Thanks guys for having us over!! We had an awesome time. 🙂

Shane is such a good boy.  He doesn’t complain much, hardly cries, and always smiles and claps when we are around. Even though he’s been fighting a cold + a sinus infection for the last few weeks, he’s been in a good mood and has not given us a hard time at night. 

Just over a month or so, he started to play hide and seek by himself. He would grab a curtain and go under it to hide. We’d then pretend to look for him and say, "oh no, where did shane go?" He giggles and laughs while inside the curtain. It’s the cutest thing! Then he pulls himself out all proud and excited! We love it!! 

We went to dinner at P.F. Chang for the first time since the incident.  Shane set down like a gentleman, ate his meals and cheerios until we were done. Seriously, he’s such a GOOD boy! 

Btw, I don’t think anybody recognized us at the restaurant… I don’t think… 

My little girl is growing up fast. I put away some of her clothes that don’t fit her anymore this weekend. It was so sad. I’m surprised as to how much she’s grown just this year. 

Chloe wakes up hungry. As soon as she sees me in the morning, she asks for cheerios, apple juice, pretzels, candies, etc. I have to be really quick to prepare a breakfast for her because otherwise, it becomes a tough morning. This morning she finished a bowl of vegetable fried rice and it was a great start to a day.  

I love having breakfast in our backyard. The weather has been nice recently and the sun light feels so comforting in the early morning. The air was a little chilly so we got a little blanket to wrap ourselves. It’s so nice to walk outside of the house in our own PJs and eat breakfast as a family. 

I was feeling creative this morning so I made mashed potatoes with kale, sweet potatoes, carrots, then topped it with sautéed shrimp and bacon bits with raw beets on the side. I also made a grapefruit salad with olive oil and fresh mint AT 7 A.M. 

After breakfast we headed to the Jersey shore. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera in the car so I didn’t take any pictures while we were on the beach. We went to a beach near Old bridge town, giving up on an idea to go to Pleasantville because of too much traffic. When we got there, the beach wasn’t quite nice. It was rocky with many broken sea shells and seaweeds floating around the water, and it was more of a fishing area. However, Ms. Chloe didn’t care. She HAD to get in the water and Andrew wasn’t too thrilled to jump in the water so I carried her a quarter of a mile to the other side of the beach where it was a secluded area with nicer sand. It was great. At the end, Chloe and I had the most fun being the only two people in the water.

Before we headed back home, we went to a playground nearby because that was the only way to convince Chloe to come out of the water. Yeah, I forgot my secret weapon, the lollipop.

Shane started clapping three weeks ago right after his 9 month doctor’s visit. His doctor asked us if he had started clapping yet and that very afternoon is when he started to clap. Today he started doing ‘jam jam’ hand motion (closing and opening of palm) following Andrew’s motions. He tries to imitate motions and sounds that we make. He’s an expert at saying Ummmm-Ma (mommy) and sometime he says Da-da. I think it’s safe to say his first word was Uhm-ma.

He’s gotten very STRONG. It’s hard to handle him now. Changing his diaper has became my daily workouts. I have to crawl after him, grab his legs with my left hand and pin him down with my elbow while wiping him and changing the diaper with my right hand. This boy does not stop moving. He twists and turns until he gets away.

in the backyard.

Chloe smile!

Chloe: like this?

We had a great time at the bear mountain state park this afternoon. We had a picnic by the lake.

Chloe even got to paint.

We walked around the river which took us about 2 hours. Chloe walked with us, talking and singing the entire time. I was impressed. 

We had my mother-in-law’s 73rd birthday party at our house today, which meant that 5,000 clan members from Andrew’s side of the family attended. I was afraid…  Okay, all jokes aside, I have the best in-law family. They came with massive amount of food, fed us, cleaned up the mess, and did dishes before they left. What did we do? Andrew grilled all day and I bought flowers and cakes for the party. Grandmother with all of her grandkids

 11 kids total. Chloe and Shane with their 9 cousins ages ranging from 2 – 19 yrs old.

The oldest & the youngest

Korean style summer rolls

eat, drink and play

When they were leaving, Chloe howled because she was so upset and devastated that they were leaving. It was painful to watch. She gets so attached to people and it describes her affectionate and endearing personality. Oh my sweet Chloe… 

Chloe:  Emily and Joshua are my homies.
Me:  What?? Where did you learn this?
Chloe:  They are my homies, mommy!

9 months check-up:

wt: 18 lbs. 6 oz.
ht: 28 in
hc: 45.5 cm 

Now that Shane is over nine months old, I began making super porridge meals just like I used to for Chloe when she was a baby. We even have a small rice cooker that’s only used for the kids. Time to start grinding grains again.

Chloe: "are you making noise again, mommy? Aaagain?!?!"

We invited a very small number of friends over today for some bbq. I made over 36 beef patties with carrots, chives and bacon bits in them, topped with sauteed red onions with brown sugar and blue cheese, 12 chicken thighs marinated with rosemary and garlic, cucumber and red onion salad with basil, cilantro and citrus dressing , some green salad with pineapple yogurt dressing, guacomole dips for chips and some homegrown mint lemonade. Andrew also bought lots of spicy chicken sausages and spinach dips and some watermelons for dessert. At around midnight last night, we got everything ready for some good times. 

Let the party begin…  

Terrence is "feeding" Shane. Most of the food ended up on Shane’s face. Lol! Thanks for trying!

Terrence is doing what?! 

Finally we got to meet little Hudson!!

A beginning of a new friendship. ^^

This is not how we treat our guest. I promise. 😉

We had a fantastic time!! Thanks so much for coming and playing with us. Chloe was so sad (as you saw) you guys left so I promised her we’ll have another tea party in August. Please do come back!