Two Years Without Mom

Today marks the 2nd memorial since my Mom passed away. My family and I spent the day at my parents' home. He cooked up a storm in honor of her. After paying our respects and remembering her in our own ways, we feasted on lots of yummy food. It was nice to be together. I know my Mom would be happy to see us all. We wish Mai could've been with us, but we know she was with us in spirit, just like I know that Mom is still with us wherever we are. After eating we went out to the cemetery and decorated her grave with flowers. She always loved spring time and the flowers that would eventually bloom after a long, hard winter.

Though two years have passed there are days when it feels like it was just yesterday and the pain and sadness of losing her overwhelms me. Then there are days when it feels like it's been years. Those are days in which I feel an emptiness somewhere deep inside. I take comfort in having known and loved my Mom and for being loved by her for as long as I was able and for having such a great family to lean on during these times.

And, of course, the biggest blessing in my life is having a wonderful husband and a beautiful and healthy little girl. Keira gives me hope and fills my heart with a love I never knew before. I can only hope that we all brought my Mom this kind of joy and love in her life. I will continue to honor my Mom by being the best Mom I can be.

Speaking of Keira, she was so much fun today and brought much needed laughter. She is quite the character and loves to have fun! She showed off to her Grandpa, Uncles and Auntie how she can stand up all by herself, how she can feed herself snacks and drink from her sippy cup. She's developed some new skills rather quickly lately.

Here are some fun photos of her new abilities...

I was so excited to hear about Keira finally eating table foods. Mashed potatoes are always a good choice to start with!

After working really hard on getting some potatoes in her mouth and most of it everywhere else (hair, face, behind the ears, etc) she resumed her habitual stance when it comes to table foods -absolutely no interest.

Keira is not only able to stand on her own now, but she likes to do her "beauty pageant" wave to say "hi" and "bye" - so cute!

Keira's modeling the awesome outfit that Grandpa bought for her - love the coat!

Spring in Minnesota

Some of my friends residing in warmer climates have asked what the weather in MN is like now that it's spring. Ha ha ha...While the past few days have been much warmer, here's what our first days of spring looked like. I'm guessing this is not what spring looks like in Singapore or England or Thailand...But, spring will eventually arrive to Minnesota and I can't wait!!

A Night On the Town

This past Saturday Mark and I had a night out on the town with our friends, Heather and Chris. We had such a great time!! Miss Laura, Keira's daycare teacher, came to watch Keira so we could go out. Thank you so much Laura!!! We started with dinner. After getting stuffed with delicious food we piled into Chris's car, jammed to some tunes on his XM radio and headed downtown. I can't even tell you the last time we were downtown for anything.

We saw DL Hughley at the Pantages Theater. I laughed so hard at times I thought my sides were going to split. I just about passed out from laughter when DL had Mark come up to the stage and put him on the spot. I thought Mark was going to pass out (we all know how much he loves to be put in the spotlight), but he did an awesome job. I'll just say this...he is now an honorary member of the black community and his new name is Deandre! I bet that's got you intrigued...This is a night I'm going to remember forever. Thanks to Heather and Chris for planning such a wonderful night for us all!!

Keira's 10 Months Old Today

Our baby girl is 10 months old today! Keira is so curious and is a barrel of laughs these days. We crack her up, she cracks herself up. She's almost always smiling or laughing over something. She's close to standing on her own too. She does it, but not for very long. It's kind of funny to see because she's so small. It doesn't seem like she's old enough to be standing on her own. I have to watch her closely because she's quick when she crawls around. One minute she's playing in the family room and the next minute she's sprinting across the family room into the kitchen and then proceeds to open the cupboards and drawers. It really is a fun time.

We're having some difficulty getting her to try table foods, i.e. real foods. However, there are SOME foods that she'll eat. In fact, she'll even stand up nice and tall to get a taste. My little girl likes Chicken in a Biscuit and Chips Ahoy cookies! Can you believe it?! I tried to eat so well during my pregnancy to get her to like healthy foods, but somehow she's inherited my preference for junk food. Uh oh. Hopefully she'll be eating real, healthy food soon.

My favorite new development is that Keira initiates games with us now. She likes pulling her blanket up over her face, pulling it down and then laughing with us. She'll also look away and then sneak a look back at us while looking for a laugh. It's advanced peek-a-boo!

Here are a few of my fave pics from this past month.

Here's Keira helping us unload the dishwasher. She loves to help with chores. I hope that's the case when she gets old enough to actually help.

This is her new favorite pose. Her lips are almost always puckered these days. It reminds me of the "Blue Steel"look in the movie Zoolander.

Keira is all smiles on our lazy Sunday mornings.

Bazooka Barf

My friend, Janet, uses the term "Bazooka Barf" when referring to her kids getting sick and throwing up a lot. I learned what this really means tonight. Keira's been fighting a cold this past week and has had uncontrollable cough spasms. These spasms cause her gag reflex to kick in. She mostly gags and recovers, so it hasn't been too bad. On occasion she's barfed up a little bit, but nothing significant. Tonight was a different story.

I put Keira to bed while Mark was at the grocery store. I heard her start to cough, but waited to see if it would subside. It went on too long, so I went into her room and picked her up. As I held her to my shoulder and turned to whisper soothing words, she opened her mouth and out came a fountain of vomit. She got the left side of my face, which in turn, shot back onto the right side of her face and spewed down her clothes and mine. We were soaked! It was disgusting and I almost puked myself. Thank goodness it was just formula. That was enough to make me sick. Anyway, I'm proud to say I stayed very calm and got everything cleaned up in about 10 minutes - Keira, me, our clothes, her crib, and the carpet. She then went to sleep shortly after.

The adventures in motherhood continue...