I need a tan

My little girl is walking all over the house now. It is absolutely crazy how fast they pick up things! She rarely ever crawls, unless she knows (not sure how she knows, but she just does) it will be a long distance crawl. Here is a link of her walking (taken a few weeks ago)

She used to walk like this: (Frankenstein-esque)

but has gotten increasingly better. (Although she still walks like she's drunk) Looks like we're going to have to start putting shoes/slippers on her. :)

Cheesin for her mama

We went to Vance's co-worker's son's first birthday party (born about a month before Brooke)... the day started off happy...

Excited and walking all over the house. By the way, it is HARD to get a good picture of a walking baby!

Until we got to the party and there were life-sized costumes of Elmo and Cookie Monster. Now, Brooke has never watched Sesame Street before, so perhaps she was terrified of the big red and blue 'monsters,' but she clung to her papa like never before:

(Oh, and I need a tan. I am literally glowing in this picture. I really have no excuses either, living in Hawaii and all that jazz.)

Top 2 tuesday...

Top 2 Favorite Things About Summer:

1- Summer style.
Okay, so I normally dress like this on a daily basis, but I love that short shorts and flowy tops and flip-flops (slippers) are in style!


2. Summer vacations / activities!

Horseback riding at Kualoa Ranch


Kauai (2006)


Las Vegas (not sure what year... 2007?)


Kaneohe Sandbar

RANDOM!

1. First of all, can we talk GLEE for a moment? This show makes my tuesdays that much better. Hubs & I were seriously cracking up when the blonde cheerleader (I don't know her character's name) said, "when I pulled my hamstring I went to a myisogynist." RIDICULOUS! The same character that said, "did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks?"Seriously laughing out loud at the television.

2. We watch American Idol too. I am 100% in favor of Crystal. . . I was on team Siobhan, but she hasn't been doing as well recently. And I missed Lee's performance last night, but is it just me or does my hubby look a little like him? Just a teeny tiny bit? Maybe it's just the hair. (People have also told Vance he looks like Hayden Christensen, Camillo Villegas and I can't think of who else)

IDK? What do you think?

3. This past weekend we went to my high school's family fair. Vance won Brooke an enormous doll that was as big as she is..


My cousin & her friend and us in the back

3. Brooke's birthday party plans...
Here is a sneak peek at part of her centerpieces


And a high school friend sent me this link to THEEE cutest dress. Not sure if we're going to get it yet, but squeee! How cute is it!

[credit this etsy seller]

4. Planning Brooke's FIRST BIRTHDAY party makes me a little sad. She is pretty much full-fledged walking now... another step of independence away from her parents! While we are enjoying all of these milestones, it is a constant reminder that she is growing up and doesn't need us like she used to. Was it really 11 months ago that we brought this home:

Photo on left: the day her belly button fell off (because if you're a parent, you know how awesome that is!
Photo on right: Me trying to introduce the pacifier ... Brooke looking at me like I'm crazy. She would shoot it out of her mouth like it was poison!

Top 2 Tuesday

Top 2 Items Under $15.00

1. Magazines-- I love buying magazines!
2. Slippers (I think most people living on the mainland call them "flip-flops"). I wear them EVERY.DAY :)

I like Havaianas, Reefs, Rainbows, Roxy and cheapy ones from Walmart.. the current pair I'm wearing are Sanuk brand, I think

11 months!! & the MAN survey

My bebeh turned 11 months on April 15th. It's hard for me to believe that next month she will be ONE! Here are some pictures...

Her "smile" ... what a ham!


Cheesin' with mommy

11 months :)

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Going to do this b/c my hubs is going to guest blog soon... he is just frantically trying to think of something to blog about!

THE MAN SURVEY stolen from Taylor

Hubs & I NOW (taken 2 days ago in the car ... waiting patiently as Brooke naps. Can you see her in the background?)

Hubs & I 5 months into dating. Taken in Kauai. (August of 2006)


The Game of Tag about your MAN:

Who is your man? Vance (Lance with a V -- he is constantly having to correct people about his name and this is what he tells them!)

How long have you been together? 4 years altogether; will be 2 years of marriage in June

How long did you date? 1 year and 1 month before getting engaged then another year or so of engagement

How old is your man? 25 going on 26 in July

Who eats more? Definitely him, but I snack waaaaay more than he does.

Who said "I love you" first? He did

Who is taller? He is

Who sings better? He does, but that's not saying much because I can't carry a tune to save my life

Who is smarter? We "know" different things... he is much, much smarter than me at practical things

Whose temper is worse? HIS. All caps for a reason.

Who does the laundry? We both do.

Who takes out the garbage? He does

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do

Who pays the bills? Both

Who is better with the computer? Definitely me

Who mows the lawn? He does

Who cooks dinner? He does! HA HA! I am so undomesticated it is not even funny.

Who drives when you are together? Majority of the time (99% ), he drives. But there are occasions where I do.

Who pays when you go out? Both

Who is most stubborn? He would answer that I am much more stubborn

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Vance b/c I am never wrong!

Whose parents do you see the most? Um, we see them both a good amount.

Who asked who out? He did, but it took 2 weeks.

Who proposed? He did!

Who wears the pants in the family? Um.. we both do?


Vance on the night we started dating. He had a lip ring, a backwards hat and smoked cigarettes (which he quit later that year). & I still went out with him. [sigh]


Vance in Vegas, where he is happiest. He looks classy, no? (ha ha)

Can't believe I missed it!

Big fat mommy fail. Brooke walked!!!!!!!!!!! And I not only forgot to blog about it, I forgot to write down which day it was ... argh. Anyway, she is not full-fledged walking around the house yet, but she has taken 4 unassisted steps on two separate occasions. Huge deal. HUGE. I'm still a little confused though-- in the future if people ask me, "So when did Brooke start walking?" should I say "right before 11 months (she turns 11 months tomorrow)" ... or do I wait until she's totally walking on her own? Not a big deal, but I'm still confused about that.

Here are some other news and pictures regarding my little baby:

This is the face she makes when you tell her to SMILE! (Pardon the food in her mouth, ha ha! I am raising a really classy little girl)


She loves to read. She will pull books out of the container and point to us, like she's trying to say, "YOU. READ. NOW." And she is constantly trying to turn the pages before you can finish reading. This is why we ended up buying "babies first words" books like the one pictured below.


Here is a picture of her favoritest (yep, that's a word in my book) toy. We bought it for her on Valentine's Day... some sort of convertible toy that they can play with when they're able to sit up, then when they can stand up, and now it turned into a baby walker. She pushes it all over the house.

Here it is in action:

Sorry, just had to sneak in a little fam. photo opp.

Brooke is going to be a side sleeper! It is super cute in pictures, but not super cute in real life. Oh, and yeah, she sleeps in bed with us now. Really bad habit to start, I know. :(

She can hug! If you tell her to hug her dolls, this is what she does:

So that's that. What else ... she can shake her head "no," kiss (& blow kiss), wave, woof when she sees a dog or a picture of a dog, attempts to say "fish" (which ends up sounding more like shhh) and is constantly pointing at babies and saying "bay-beeee?" Everything Brooke says sounds like a question. Vance & I are currently trying to work on her making statements ("Brooke, it's BABY. BABY." To which she replies, "bay-beee?")

Top 2 Tuesday

Top 2 Beauty Secrets

Hmm... this is a hard one for me because I am a major plain Jane!

1. Air dry hair. . . I rarely ever use any heat on my hair and only towel dry it for a bit and then it dry naturally. The texture and everything is a bit different post-baby, but for the most part I've always had silky, straight hair (of course, some of that is due to being Asian. The straight hair sucks when you want it to be curled and it will fall out five minutes after you've curled it!)

2. Latisse / Revitalash
Again, probably bc I'm Asian, I don't have really long and thick eyelashes. (Like my hubby does-- I am super J of how naturally long his eyelashes are. He hates them, but I covet them! So far Brooke has long eyelashes, but they are very light)

Anyway, I started using Revitalash when I was planning for the wedding. I wanted long eyelashes! & this thing really works. Then I started using Latisse once it hit the shelves, but am back to Revitalash b/c Latisse is more costly and doesn't last me quite as long. I LOVE having long(er) eyelashes now! Just hope my eyes don't fall out. ..

Choose a trip, Brooke

If you've been following our blog, you know that we've been having trouble deciding where to take our first family vacation. We decided to leave it up to Brooke to choose. Vance & I had narrowed it down to Southern California (Disneyland, Sea World, San Diego Zoo), Northern California (SF, Napa, etc) & Vegas (for Vance & Vance alone).


I wrote our 3 choices on 9 pieces of paper and spread them out in a circle:

We let Brooke pick a piece of paper from the circle... we soon realized that this wasn't a good way of her picking a trip b/c she went for whichever piece of paper she was facing ...

So we lined up the pieces of paper in a row:



Put her in the middle and let her go!


Here she is with her pick:

& opening up the paper:

Here's what it read:

So I guess we're off to Southern Cali!

[Note: we're still looking at all options, but she did choose Southern California 3 separate times so maybe it's meant to be?] I'm not sure why our house looks so dark ... maybe Vance didn't have the flash on. We should have opened the door but I think the papers would have flown away if we had. Makes our little cottage look really gloomy, doesn't it? And please pardon the mess :)

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And on another note, here is my crazy furbaby begging for food or attention (it's either one or the other):


My four legged babies: