Halloween Night

I missed out on the whole Halloween night because Ai-Vy was so fussy I had to tend to her. I was in the room trying to put her to sleep when Hieu changed Ky-An into his costume, meet up with my sister and my nephew and head out trick-or-treating. I was suppose to stay home and pass out candies but can't do that because she was crying non-stop. I just put a little bowl of candy out for the kids but everytime I turn around, the bowl is empty! I mean literally. I would fill up the bowl of candy, walk Ai-Vy into the room, walk back out and the bowl is empty. There are some greedy kids out there! One kid even tell Hieu when he was passing out candies.."only one?!!! I want 3! I want this one, this one, and this one!" I gave out little bags of M&Ms, twix, Nestle Crunch, Reeses cups, etc..all the good stuff for cheap at Target. I bought 14 big bags and intended to give them all out but I got mad at the greedy kids and stop at 9:30. Great...now I get to be fat with the rest of the candies.

Ky-An came back early from trick-or-treating and stayed on the porch to give out candies. I was so sad I couldn't even join him outside the house. I can only look from inside the door from time-to-time while holding Ai-Vy. Hieu then put him to sleep and I couldn't even tell him goodnight because I was holding a sleeping Ai-Vy at this time and was afraid even the slightest noise would wake her up and she'll cry again. She was fussy the entire week and I hardly get to spend anytime or see him at all.

Hieu took some "studio" pictures of the kids that he set up in our garage:


He never did get along with other ducks:




Cinderella before her pumpkin turns into the carriage:




My little sister and her boyfriend. She has the most beautiful fairy costume:


Carving pumpkin with dad:


He hates touching the pumpkin's insides at first:


Look at that disgust look on his face. Hieu was laughing so hard because he's so dainty:


Now he's okay with it but he would only touch it with his thumb and forefinger:


Trick-or-treating with my second oldest sister:


Walking up to ring the doorbell:


But he has more fun passing out candies to the local monsters:


He sat on the porch and gave out candies:

I am so behind!

I thought it was because Ai-Vy was sick and congested that she cried non-stop and I had to hold her all day and all night, but she's been doing that even though she's all better. I am so busy with her that I am behind on everything else and it's getting overwhelming. I feel like I am trying so hard just to stay afloat but am not suceeding. At times I am so overwhelmed I feel like I am drowning and want to cry. I have 3 load of laundry that needs to be folded and are still on the couch. Our laundry is also pilng up and need to be washed. My coupons hasn't been clipped since the end of September and it saddens me. I have a huge stack on my desk and I am not sure when I will be able to get to it. Let's not even talk about chores and cooking. Thank goodness we have cleaners who come to help me keep my sanity. I've been barely able to keep up with my blog let alone keep up with anyone else's. I feel so bad that I haven't been able to read anyone else's blog and keep up with their lives. If you are reading this, sorry gals!

I haven't been able to spend much time with Ky-An either and I miss him so much. He wakes up at 6 in the morning and Hieu quickly scoop him out of the room so he won't wake-up Ai-Vy. I am too tired to go out to play with him so I went back to sleep with Ai-Vy. He left for the babysitter at 7a.m. and Ai-Vy wakes up at about 7:30a.m. She then fuss for the whole day and when I got her to sleep, she pops right back up as soon as I put her down. She cry so I feed her, then she cry in the middle of feeding so I burp her, still cries so I change her diaper, cry again so I feed her some more, cry again and I just put her to sleep. I put her down and she wakes right back up and the process starts all over again. I end up holding her the whole day with no time for anything else. I am also struggling to nurse her during the day when she's fussy. When she wants her milk, my letdown is not quick enough for her so I just end up pumping and give her the bottle. She seem to take it fine when she's drowsy or at nighttime.

Ky-An comes home at about 6p.m. and I am usually trying to put Ai-Vy to sleep in the room at this time. Then I took her out of the room at about 7p.m. so Hieu can give Ky-An a bath. If I am lucky then Ai-Vy will stay down and I can put Ky-An to sleep. Most days I am stll holding her or working with her and Hieu puts him to sleep so I end up not seeing Ky-An all day. It really suck because I miss him so much and the most I see him is in the weekend when Hieu's home to watch him. Then I can have a few stolen moments with my son after I get Ai-Vy to sleep or calm down.

I tell myself I need to wake up in the morning to spend some time with him before he goes to the babysitter's but Ai-Vy end up being fussy the night before or she wakes up every hour that I end up being tired and can't get up. I hate myself every morning when I wake up and he's gone. I can't even have him home with me in the morning anymore because Ai-Vy is so fuss that he ends up being ignored and I feel so bad. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the time with baby girl and love her to pieces. I just wish I get more time with my baby son also.

Ai-Vy's first cold

I had to take Ai-Vy to the doctor today. Her head was hot the night before but didn't have a fever. Her temperature was 99.4 to 99.6. Fevers for infant is 100.5 and above. However, I decide to take her to the doctor anyway just for my ease of mind. I want to make sure she's not developing an ear infection, yeast infection, nor UTI. My family was here over the weekend and my oldest sister plus her kids are sick so I am sure she probably caught it from them. I knew they were sick before they came but I didn't want to stop her from coming since I love seeing them and so does Ky-An.

Ai-Vy is now 11 lbs, 7 oz. The doctor said her lungs, heart, throat, and ears are all healthy. She just has her first cold and just to monitor her. If she gets a fever then give Tylenol otherwise be conservative with any kind of medication. I feel the same so that's good. She has some congestion so I'll give her saline drops and turn on the humidifer if it gets bad. Poor kid, I hate it when they are sick! She was drowsy the whole day today because of her fever and barely eat. I hope she gets better soon!

Ai-Vy's one month celebration

The one month celebration was great. Ai-Vy got $140 plus lots of clothes from my sisters. My oldest sister gave her a pair of earrings and I can't wait to get her ears pierced in the next month or so and put them on her. My mom and her friend cooked up lots of food for us and we ate it for 3 days. My mom's friend cooked lots of sticky rice and sweet dessert so we can do the offerings and also to pack and give back to anyone who gives her presents. I think they called it "returns". We had enough to pack everyone to-gos and brought some to our Vietnamese friends/neighbors also. Ai-Vy was fussy all day but that's because she couldn't sleep with so much noise and activities. She behaved very well overall.

Here's how she is most of the day:


My beautiful niece, Yvonne. She can speak so many more words than Ky-An and she's 2 months younger! She can also speak sentences.


My older niece, Caitlyn. They are both so photogenic!


All dressed up:


Doing the offering. Praying that she'll eat well, be healthy, strong, and grow fast.


My mom's friend doing the blessing that she'll grow up and everywhere she goes people will love her. Whenever she opens her mouth, there's people that will fall in love with her. Whenever she opens her mouth, words flow like flowers. Whenever she open her mouth, she get beautiful and fragranced jobs. (Literal translation here..haha)


One more:


Presents from my oldest sister and her mother-in-law:


Ky-An congratulating his sister on her one month:


My younger sister gives her an adorable jacket and some sleep-and-play jumpers. My second oldest sister couldn't make it because sleep-deprived me told her about it too late and she had to work.


Our first family picture with Ai-Vy:


With my older sister and her younger daughter:


With my younger sister. The camera does make us look good! LOL


And the guest-of-honor slept through it all:


Ky-An is oblivious to what's going on behind him:


Going to the playground across our house:


Poor baby is exhausted:


This is my favorite time. When they first get up in the morning and hang out in their PJs:


My oldest sister, the supermom..I think she may be ready for her third..haha:

Ai-Vy's progress and Ky-An's toilet-training prep

Ai-Vy really hate the carseat and if she wakes up in it or is awake when I put her in, she'll scream her little head off. With Ky-An I didn't go anywhere for at least 4 months because I just don't have it together to take him out and plus he was difficult. With Ai-Vy I take her out at 2 weeks but it's more out of necessity to run errands. There's only so much Hieu can do and I can't sit around and wait until he has time to run all my errands for me. It's also not easy for him to run around doing all these things because he has to take Ky-An wherever he goes.

I took her to pick up some stuff today and she woke up when I put her in the carseat. I usually wait until she's asleep before I go so she doesn't fuss. I was hoping she'll fall back to sleep once I start driving but she start whining a bit. I hope she'll calm down since she's not really crying so I keep on driving. She then starts crying and then screaming her lungs out. I stopped by a gas station to see if I can calm her down and I see little tears in the corner of her eyes. I felt horrible at this point for not stopping earlier. My baby needed me to comfort her and I ignored her. Seeing her little tears make me so sad. I realize that I don't run everytime I hear a peep out of her or when she starts crying like I did with Ky-An. I usually try to finish whatever I am doing (like washing my hands or shampoo out of my hair) instead of dropping everything like I did with Ky-An. She definitely cries longer and more than Ky-An before I pick her up.

She still sleeps most of the day and sometimes when she stays up too long, she'll fuss and I'll have to craddle her tightly up against my armpit. Sway her in my arms (it's good excerise I tell you) and make shushing sound. That will calm her almost immediately and she goes to sleep. It's cute whenever she calm down after a screaming fest, she'll let out a sigh and then goes "a-ger" before closing her eyes. If I let her go too long without feeding her then she'll go crazy. She'll keep crying and won't take my breasts because the letdown is not quick enough for her. She's basically freaking out because she's hungry. Whenever she gets like that, I have to give her the bottle to calm her down a bit. Once she's calm down and is drowsy, she'll happily latch on to my breast to go to sleep.

She still likes to sleep in her bouncer and would grunt and squirm all night long if I put her in the co-sleeper. On good nights she'll wake up every 3-4 hours at night, eat, then go right back to sleep. On bad nights she will wake up every hour or stay awake and fuss for 2 hours before going back to sleep. Two hours of screaming seem like an eternity at 3 in the morning.

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We are prepping Ky-An for toilet training. He's always running away and hide when he needs to poop and if you follow him, he'll run away and yell "Nooooooo". That's a pretty big hint so whenever Hieu sees him do that, he'll scoop him up and take him to the bathroom. We have those little toilet seats for him so he sits on there. He whines for a bit because I guess he's scare of the big toilet but would actually do his job there. He gets excited after he's done and keep looking down. He also like to flush the toilet. We also empty his diapers in the toilet and let him flush so that he can get an idea that's where stuff is suppose to go. He loves it and goes "bye bye" "bye bye" whenever he flushes.

My poor son...

I feel like such a bad mom to Ky-An. He's been spending a lot of time at the babysitter's lately because Ai-Vy has been fussy and keep me up most of the night so I am too tired to watch him. This morning I was putting Ai-Vy back to sleep in the closet when he woke up. I heard him chatting with Hieu through the monitor. My heart ache to be with him and snuggle with him because morning wake-ups are the best time with Ky-An. After I put Ai-Vy to sleep, I was tired and fell asleep also. I wanted to get up and play with him for a bit before he has to go to the babysitter's but that didn't happen. I only saw him for a milisecond this morning when Hieu brought him into the room so I can kiss him goodbye. Now I won't see him until this evening when Hieu pick him up...that is if Ai-Vy is not fussy and needs my attention.

Then last night he was stirring and scoot up to snuggle next to me. That's a great sign that he's warming up to me again and I love to hold him. However, Ai-Vy started stirring so I had to turn my back on him to tend to her. She settled down so I turn back to hold him. He was calm and almost back to sleep when she starts stirring again. (It's like she knows!) This happen about 4-5 times and he laid there patiently until I can get back to him again. Whenever I was holding him and hear Ai-Vy stirring, I just pray that she'll go back to sleep but that didn't work because she starts crying. I had to wake up Hieu to tend to Ky-An while I take Ai-Vy to the closet to feed her. I can still hear him stirring in the monitor and have a feeling he was waiting for me. I finished feeding Ai-Vy and put her down on the co-sleeper. I climb into bed and reach for him but he give me the "Nooooo" like he usually does. I think he's mad at me so I let it be. He was cuddling with Hieu but keep on moving around so I know he wants to be close to me to fall asleep but is still mad so I waited. Finally he was so tired, he moved over and snuggle up under my arms to go to sleep. My poor sweet boy..I hope I can be a better mom to him soon!

More pics

Ai-Vy at 1 week and 4 weeks


Big brother I think I have you beat this month :)


Funny, KA seems to have grown another foot longer since AV was born. He used to seem so little




Got a smile!




Bath time!


Ky-An helping mom bathe little sis.


Out of the tub you go..


Changing time!


Ky-An in his Halloween costume. He's the cutest duck I've ever seen. :D


His little feet slipped out of the costume:




I want to be the baby too!


My happy boy:

Week in Ky-An and Ai-Vy's Pictures

This is when she grunts:


Tummy time!


Can you tell which one is Ky-An and which one is Ai-Vy?? DON'T LOOK AT THE SHIRTS!