Nick and Mia accomplished their goals (my goals) for the summer!!!

Nick learned to ride his bike without training wheels today! Way to go Nick! In the first 2 minutes, I was thinking that it would take a while. I was running along side him helping him balance while in motion. That was hard work for me. Then I thought I should just let him push off and glide while trying to balance. After 2 minutes of that he decided to pedal too and then he was off. By the end of the day he was pretty confident...he was riding fast and without feet on the pedals. Mia was cute...she was cheering him on.

Now for Mia's news. She potty trained over the July 4th weekend. Since I had a stretch of 5 days and we staying in town I thought it was the right time. We started by having her wear underwear and putting her on the potty every 30 min or so. She had a few accidents that day. The next day she had no accidents. She caught on pretty fast. She was dry at night too. We are finished with pullups. But we have to get up early in the morning to take her to the potty, but she goes right back to sleep for a couple of hours. The first couple of days I had to tell her I would give her candy if she would go back to sleep (bribery works). Now she just does it. Yea for my kids!!!

Mia's Birthday Week - Our Friends from Vietnam

We spent not just a day, but a week celebrating Mia's birthday. We went all out this year since last year we spent her birthday travelling home from Vietnam. Mia's birthday was on June 17th. On June 14th we had some of her friends from Thai Nguyen over our house for a little celebration. We are so lucky to live near 2 families who adopted babies from the same orphanage (the Mills and the Carrolls). We wish we could have had over Mia's other friends from the orphanage, but everyone lives so far away. Hopefully we can get together soon for that reunion!!!

Lilly, Maddy, Mia, and Julie in the sandbox

Grayson, Jeremy, and Nick playing Playstation 2
Mia in the bounce house

Mia and Maddy Julie
Partners in crime
Nick, Mia, Lilly, Grayson, Jeremy, Maddy, and Julie

Father's Day at the Getty

We had a great Father's Day. Nick enjoyed looking at the sculptures and seeing the artwork by the artists he studied in school (Monet, Van Gogh). Mia enjoyed running around and looking at the waterfalls. Nick and Mia surprised John with their own artwork...a tile which they decorated with their handprints. Nick also gave him a baseball hat which he decorated at school.

Mia is almost 2!!

Mia will turn 2 years old on June 17th. I just can't believe it!! She is doing really well; she is expanding her vocabulary and I can tell she really trying to put together a sentence, but at this point it is only 2 words. And she is continuing to work on using the potty, but right now I think she would rather go in her diaper.

What I have to say about Mia is that she is very engaging, friendly, and has her own little personality. She went through a phase from about 17 months until 20 or 21 months when she didn't want to go to anyone except for our immediate family or close friends. But now when we go out she says "hi" and "bye-bye" and waves to strangers, and wants to interact with people she does not see all of the time. She makes friends very easily and attracts alot of attention because she is so cute and engaging. I have had people tell me that they enjoy just watching her because she has such a cute personality. Even though she is so tiny, people can still tell she is 2 because of her communication and motor skills. She is an amazing little girl, and we adore her!

Can I brag about my kids??

I haven't posted to my blog in a while. Nick and Mia continue to do great!!

Mia has made progress with potty training. She started on her own last week when she pointed to her bottom and said poo-poo. Well, after a while I took it as a sign and put her on the potty. To my surprise she did it. She has not pooed in her diaper since. We still haven't been completely successful with #1 though but we are working at it with some progress. Also, she has added alot of words to her vocabulary. She can say 50+ words. And can put 2 words together, like "daddy bye-bye" (Daddy is her favorite word, and also na-na for Nick).

Nick continues to amaze his teachers at school. At the last conference Miss Kathy said he is working on fractions, adding and subtracting multiple digits, and is doing well with word problems. Miss Elise says Nick is working on a second grade workbook and is reading chapter books. She also said that he encourages his friends and doesn't brag about it. They both said his peers look up to him.

Nick tested for his brown stripe belt in TKD a couple of days ago. He broke a board on the first try with a jumping side kick over 2 kids. He demonstrated the kick a second time, also breaking it on the first try.

He did great at his last t-ball game. He caught an infield fly, tagged 3rd base for a second out, and tagged the kid running from second to third for a third out. It was a triple play!

My kids make me so proud!!

Nicholas is 6 1/3 years old

So far all of my posts have described Mia and what she is doing. This post is about Nicholas. At 6 and 1/3 years Nick:
-is 48 inches tall and 48 pounds (about 75th % for both)
-is in Kindergarten at Brighter Days Montessori where he is doing great; he reads at the 3rd grade level, and Miss Kathy describes his reading as "insane" and says he has an amazing brain.
-has lost 2 teeth (bottom front)
-has a blue stripe belt in Tae Kwon Do and was recently chosen to be on the TKD school team
-has 3 best friends-Brendan, Ayden, and Ethan
-loves playing the Playstation 2 he just got for Christmas
-loves board games
-loves reading
-loves his sister, Mia and is a great big brother
-is the most affectionate and loving little boy
-reminds me when it is time to visit his Grandfather's grave
-likes riding his bicycle, and will soon be able to ride without training wheels
-is really just a typical 6 year old boy

Happy New Year

My sister and her kids came over yesterday to exchange gifts and hang out. We had a great time.