Thought I'd start a little series of random thoughts/goals directed to future me. It'll be fun looking back at these posts and see what I can check off.

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Dear Future Me (5+ years from now),

I'm sure a Disneyland pass is like a trillion dollars now, but I hope you've convinced Ken to get them for the family or at least got to go a few times? I bet there are tons of new crazy, kool rides!

You said you'd start running and exercising. I hope you got back some of your muscle mass and aren't huffing and puffing anymore going up and down the stairs.

Did baby #3 happen??

Erin best not have her own phone or whatever new electronic device there might be that people are completely fixated on.

Where have you traveled so far? Iceland, Korea, Japan, Sweden, all of the above??

You really really enjoy watching movies and I'm sure that hasn't changed, so I hope you've tried to go out and see at least 2 movies a year.

Hope you're telling your girls you love them a lot. I'm sure they've grown to become incredible little humans.

How's mom doing? Hopefully she has retired by now.

Also, both you and Ken work hard so please tell me you've taken a vacation sans kids. If not, go now.


With Love,

Your younger, not so put together, out of shape self


Must remember them like this..so little and just so darn cute!

Current Parenting Challenge: Underweight Child

Here we are again:
Doctor: "Ava is in the 1% for weight".

This is nothing new to us. Erin was underweight most of her life. The first 6 months of life, Erin was hovering around 45%, but then it started decreasing at each checkup and by 2 years she wasn't even on the charts. Looks like Ava might be on the same track. Doctors look at Ken and expect to see big kids, so when they don't, they get somewhat concerned. Erin's doctor suggested we get blood work done but nothing unusually showed up. We just focused on feeding Erin properly. Erin was a very picky eater (to think it couldn't get worse). Trying to feed an underweight picky child = Difficult. With age she became less picky and has now packed on some weight and at age 3 she actually feels heavy! Hooray! Ava is starting to get picky, but she definitely eats a lot more than Erin did at this age. It's amazing how early kids start to develop food preferences. Ava carefully analyzes what's on her plate and picks out the stuff she doesn't want to eat and throws it on the floor. Goodness. Hopefully it won't take Ava too long to pack on some weight.

Grocery shopping for the girls means buying foods that are high-calorie. Since they both can use some extra pounds, we sort of let them eat anything and everything. We try to keep meals as healthy and balanced as possible, but we definitely don't mind letting them put extra butter on something or eat an extra spoon full of ice cream (yes, Ava has tried ice cream already). Feeding your child can be quite stressful. It's a never ending battle, because one week they'll be eating like champs and the next, they'll want to eat nothing but rice. We're just thankful both the girls love milk. I'm sure at one point in the future, they will just suddenly start to eat well and weight won't be an issue anymore. But till then, we shall battle through this "One more bite!" journey.

Oh, and I remember my mom telling me what a picky eater I was when I was little and how I didn't want to eat anything. Apparently all I ate as a kid was rice with soup and I couldn't finish a McDonald's cheeseburger till I was in the 8th grade. haha! Sorry mom! 😁

Some high-calorie foods and meal ideas:

1. Dairy: Whole milk, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, ice cream, creamed soups, pudding
2. Protein: Eggs, peanut butter, bean soups, nuts, hummus
3. Fruits/Veggies: Sweet potato, avocado, dried fruits, bananas, peas
4. Carbohydrates: mac and cheese or any other pastas, french toast/pancakes, mashed potatoes, oatmeal
5. Other: honey, butter, syrup

• Oatmeal with blueberries
• Cottage cheese with strawberry jam
• Banana egg pancakes with nutella
• Toast with cream cheese and whole milk yogurt
• Scrambled eggs with heavy cream and cheese
• Pasta with heavy cream, peas, ground meat and cheese
• Butter on everything
• Cheese slices with pepperoni/deli meat and crackers
• Rice with beans and sweet potato fries 
• Smashed avocados and bananas
• Grilled cheese and smashed avocado sandwich  

My cute picky eaters:

3 1/2 Year Update - Erin

• She is completely potty trained (including nighttime).
• This girl talks non-stop. She has been using some funny words these days like: twinsies, gosh, silly, perfectly, totally, kinda, like... and she'll say: "how about this mom"(trying to reason),  "I want to tell you something", "look at your child", "it looks like a snake (while pointing at her poop)"...
• She loves matching clothes with any one of us.
• She moved up to the 3-4 year old preschool class. It's cheaper (score for us!).
• She still loves/prefers Asian food.
• Currently enjoys watching anything on Disney junior: Doc McStuffins, Micky Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia the First and PJ masks.
• Jacob was her favorite friend till just recently when she told me that Addie is her favorite now. 
• Favorite toys/activities: dollhouse, books, little/miniature things, blocks or any building toy, coloring/drawing.
• Erin and Ava are actually playing together now. It's so cute, but now they're fighting over toys.
• She calls Ava "Av" every now and then. She came up with that on her own. Funny girl. 
• She loves to cuddle.
• She's not so terrible anymore. Less meltdowns and better listening!
• She enjoys helping out with everything (make food, laundry, clean). She'll get upset if we don't include her in our daily chores. 
• Ms. Sassy Pants wants to do everything by herself and forces us to leave her alone (Brush her teeth, wash up, change clothes, etc).  She'll push us away and close her door to get some privacy.
• She prefers uncles over aunties (Should I be concerned?).
• She definitely feels heavier. Yay for finally gaining some weight!

Ava's Wildflower Themed First Birthday

We got really lucky with it not raining the day of the party. It was raining all week, but it stopped the day before and started raining again the day after. The weather was actually quite perfect. I mentioned in a previous post why I chose Wildflower as the theme for Ava's party. I tried my best to incorporate things that complemented the theme that day. I filled the space with hints of greenery and bright colored flowers to bring the theme to life. I kept things simple because I really do believe less is more.  Everything turned out great! Both girls were troopers (they both got sick the day before) and Ava didn't cry once. Thanks to everyone who came early and stayed afterwards to help out!

1 Year Update - Ava

Ava is 1! It's crazy how fast this first year with Ava went. It's been such a joy being her mommy thus far. Quite a different experience this second time around. A lot of my favorite moments with her have been based around nursing and eating. Food is definitely the way to her heart. She seriously has such satisfaction and delight when it comes to eating and I love seeing my baby well fed and happy. She has become quite the sassy/feisty girl, with her already giving us the cold shoulder and her yelling all the time. She's actually really loud. She's always demanding we open things for her and you'll often find her trying to snatch food out of her Erin's hand. The way she interacts with Erin just melts my heart. They're the cutest together and I'm so thankful they have each other! She's already getting frustrated and will swat/hit our hands to show us she's upset.  She loves shaking her head "no" now all the time too. She'll go from pretending to be sad to pretending to laugh in a split second. Such a funny one. But, she's also the sweetest and her constant smiling just brightens up my day. Can't wait to see what kind of person Ava blossoms into. I have a feeling she'll be keeping us on our toes!

Fun Facts:

• She currently has 4 teeth.
• She has a bad case of FOMO. Girl wants to see everything and be everywhere. 
• She's eating tons of different kinds of foods, but is now starting to develop preferences. She still eats a lot though.
• She doesn't like eggs.
• She's a huge copycat.
• She's finally crawling around, but not walking yet.
• She loves to stand and is now starting to cruise.
• She shakes her head "no" and fake cries.
• She loves bath time and splashing around.
• She loves music and dancing.
• She'll flip out when you take food away from her. Probably one of the few times you'll see her cry real tears.
• She says dada and mommy.  
• She dropped a nap and is down to two.
• She is never still, always on the move or trying to be.
• She's a pain to hold because she's either standing on your stomach or trying to twist around and get away.
• She likes to open/close things and put things in and out of stuff.
• She's still waking up once around 10:30.
• We're ending our breastfeeding relationship this week and we'll start her on cow's milk shortly.

Stats: (will update after her 1 year appointment next week)

Here's the slideshow we made for her first birthday party. (I made the entire thing on my iPhone!).