1/3/09: "No, I love you!"

1/1/09: Sliding in Vegas

12/30/08: Sledding in Vegas

12/29/08: Hopscotch Exhibition

12/24/08: Sedona the Gift-giving Elf

12/24/08: Maven's First Christmas

Dr. Saad's report

By MAGGIE WANG

Sedona and Maven had their doctor's appointment Wednesday.

Sedona is 2 years and 4 months.

Weight: 29.2 pounds (75th percentile)

Height: 34.5 inches (25th)

Head circumferance: 47.5 centimeters

Sedona seems smaller than her friends so I asked if Sedona was considered "short." Dr. Saad says the percentages are not the whole population but what is within the average range. She also said height at this age isn't an indication of future height -- so it'll be interesting to see down the road.

Maven is 9.5 months.

Weight: 21.15 pounds (95th)
Height: 27.5 inches (50th)
Head circumferance: 44.2 centimeters

They are both healthy -- and happy!

Daddy Days

By SEDONA DING

Mommy has been working a lot. She tells me it's a good thing, but I apparently lack the long-term and/or financial outlook required to see the virtue in it for as often as I ask Daddy in plain wonderment, "Where's Mommy?" Anyway, Daddy has really stepped up in the child-care department to the point that I was telling Mommy tonight when she was asking about missing her that I loved Daddy. (Manipulative mind games at age 2? Maybe!)

But it's good for us to spend quality time with Daddy. He's going to be gone so much in February and March at the airport and on the airplane, which is how I understand it to work when he goes away: He's continuously either at the airport or on the airplane ... and then he comes home.

The three of us took a Friday walk around the block -- well, Daddy was the only one walking; I rode in my little toy car and Maven rode on Daddy -- and had a grand time chasing a kitty-cat, a squirrel and a flock of pigeons while we were out. We also studied a bee and a fly. I also said I saw a spider and added: "I don't like spiders" ... and when Daddy couldn't find it, I admitted that I never saw it. We came home and then drew on the driveway with chalk.

Today it was raining, believe it or not, so we stayed inside and chilled except for a McDonald's run for a Mushroom and Swiss Angus Burger. I don't love eating meat, but I do really like hamburgers and will probably even learn to pronounce it differently than "hambelligeller" one of these days.

Daddy actually works extensively with me on my pronunciation, getting me to repeat things syllable by syllable. Sometimes I get it right on the first try and we do a bunch of high-fives, an area where Daddy stays on the cutting edge based on what basketball players are doing. (Our latest one is the backs of the hands together, then flying up in the air like birdies!) Sometimes I argue with Daddy for fun when he corrects me: I'll pronounce that red fuzzy guy's name as "Nelmo," and he'll say, "No, it's Elmo; bite your tongue a little to say it," and I'll say, "No, it's Nelmo!" But today I found myself correcting our housekeeper Aminda, who was saying Elmo's name a little funny. I told her: "No, no ... it's Elmo. Bite your tongue a little. Let me show you."

Here I am in my toy basket, which is usually filled up with stuffed animals. Why are there no stuffed animals in there now? Because Daddy and I had a fun war in which I sat on the top bunk of our bunk bed and tried to throw all the stuffed animals down to the floor before he could fetch them and throw them back up. Daddy claimed he won by getting all the stuffed animals up on the top bunk at one point. He threw his arms up in the air, sat in the rocking chair and gloated to Maven, who seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. But given that I announce after the fact, "I win!" even when I come in way behind in a footrace, I'll just say now after the fact ... "I win!"

I might look like I'm getting a little tired here, but I promise you it's just the shadow effect that Daddy created with the camera. He and Mommy can further affirm it by telling you the story of how many times Daddy had to take me back to my bed tonight because I kept getting up and saying that I wasn't sleepy or I wanted to wash my hands or I wanted the door open. Eventually, he broke my spirit and I dozed off. Next time I'll just throw some stuffed animals at him!

Sweet at heart

By SEDONA DING

In response to the comment my mommy's pal Loretta left here on the blog: "OK, I had to crack up again, Maggie...Sedona chowing down on the Joe-Joe's & having EIGHT boxes for the rest of the year! Just face it. Sedona eats just as much crap as the rest of our kids! :-D" ...

I must defend my mommy's honor!

I love carrots!

And I love corn!

I scarf down all sorts of fruit on a daily basis: blueberries, grapes, bananas, pears, apples, Clementines, etc. I still don't gravitate toward meat too often, but I do love Kalbi (Korean barbeque) and Yakitori (Japanese chicken on a stick). And yes, my mommy does give me the occasional sweet thing, but it's only now that I'm a big girl and after I eat a good meal.

Speaking of sweets, didja hear my new pet name for Maven? I call her "Sweetie."

Daddy (and crawdads) at home

By MAGGIE WANG

Kevin came home today bearing Shipley kolaches and donut holes picked up in San Antonio this morning. Yummy!! It actually went perfectly with the crawfish we had for dinner! Yes, we had crawfish again (but this time at a more economical $7.99 per pound)!

Kevin did some online research (something he is amazing at; he researches everything we do or buy online) and found a place called The Boiling Crab in Garden Grove, about 25 minutes away in Orange County. We were going to go last week but work has been really busy -- Yay in two ways: I love what I do for a living, and it's a good sign the economy might be on an uptick -- so today we spontaneously made the run.

We surprised A-gong & A-ma Ding, our crawfish couple in crime, by showing up and asking them to go with us and drove down there this evening. The Dings ate "medium" spicy while I ate "XXX" spicy ... though, to be fair, "medium" is right under "XXX." I'm not sure why they don't have a "hot" category in beteween but no complaints. It was great.

In the reviews online there were mentions of long lines outside this place all the time, which I didn't believe. But yes, on a Thursday night, there was a very large crowd waiting to get in -- although we happened to get a spot without much wait. Who would have thought Californians would like my crawfish this much? I joked that Kevin found this place so I wouldn't go back to Texas every year.

Before our crawfish trip, Sedona and Maven played in their room after the naps.

Sedona insisted that Maven get in bed with her so they could play and "hide."

"Hey! Where is Sedona going?"

"I'm coming too. Wait up!"

Maven is super active. She gets her eyes on something and makes a straight move to it. She has actually been sick this week with a cold but is super good about it. We are so fortunate that she is super easy-going.

ADDING SECURITY...

By MAGGIE WANG

With the new year, I have decided that we will secure our blog site, so if you are following us and want to continue being updated on our family, please e-mail me at maggieding@aol.com so I can email you back with access!

I'll be adding this feature when I have time in the next couple of weeks. We really appreciate you following our blog and caring about how our children and lives are going. We are fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends.

(And no, I'm not officially a Ding ... though I don't mind being one based on my admiration for A-Ma Ding, Kristen Ding and my beautiful girls.)

Austin Date

By MAGGIE WANG

Austin Lev and his parents came over to play last Saturday. Maven and he are definitely able to interact more, which was really sweet and cute.

In general, it seemed like Maven was extremely interested in Austin ... and Austin clearly preferred playing with Maven's toys over playing with Maven.

Even though the polls (see right side of page) are saying Maven looks like me, when we are out in public most people say exactly the opposite: that Maven is a spitting image of her father. I have to say, though, that she looks like me in this picture.

Watermelon Seeds, Part II

Sedona's love for Joe-Joe's

By MAGGIE WANG

Sedona discovered Trader Joe's Peppermint Oreo-style Cookies (called Joe-Joe's) this holiday season -- so being the dear mom that I am, I purchased eight boxes,  which should tide her over for a long time given that we rarely give her very many. (Joe-Joe's are a temporary holiday item at our beloved Trader Joe's grocery store.)

Maven is 9 Months!

By MAGGIE WANG

Can you believe our little baby is already 9 months old?!

Wait! She's not a baby anymore! Boo!

But she so fun and cute now. She totally recognizes her mommy and daddy and loves to be with us. It's really precious. But she is also great at entertaining herself and is super interested in all the fun things Sedona does.

Maven is eating very well. She loves Cheerios, Graduates (puffed snacks), peas (just like Sedona did) and halved blueberries. She is great about just eating by herself when we are at restaurants, enjoying picking up the food herself. We are super fortunate to have such a well-behaved, calm-natured child.

Welcome to 2009!

By MAGGIE WANG

We spent the last few days of '08 in Las Vegas with the kids' four grandparents, savoring that the Lakers (and Kevin) got a little holiday break in the schedule.

We stayed at Toshi A-Gong & Alice's A-Ma's home in the Spanish Trails area, while A-Gong & A-Ma Ding (the blackjack couple) stayed at the Hilton.

Sedona might look a bit funny here trying on her snowsuit for a sunny stroll with Toshi A-Gong to feed the ducks, but ...

... soon enough, it was time for her first snow!

Yay! We drove around 40 minutes from Vegas to go up a mountain and get a big, broad area of snow for Sedona to play in.

She was clearly fascinated by the snow -- so much so she was unable to smile for the camera here with all her handlers.

Kevin lifted Sedona out of the snow so she could focus and do this family photo. Kevin grew up with snow in St. Louis and I got to start skiing when I was young, so we definitely have appreciation for this stuff.

Maven enjoyed it too -- just chilling most of the time, although she did take one run on our "sled" here. Yeah, we weren't quite fully prepared, but we were innovative with me grabbing the bottom of our Bugaboo as our seat and Kevin finding someone's deflated plastic floatie for a slick surface. It worked (as the video to come will show)!

Maven enjoyed the snow enough to put some in her mouth.

Wahhhh! Too cold!

Sedona had many runs down the hill, going time after time until she got her left hand squished into the snow a bit when finishing a tumultuous one-time ride with Daddy on board. Nevertheless, the next day Sedona woke up asking to play in the snow again and asking once we headed off in the car for lunch if we were going to see snow again.

Alas, she had to deal again with our usual Western U.S. winter weather, which looks like this. Sedona still enjoyed going out with the geese in the backyard with Alice A-Ma.

When inside the house without all her usual toys, Sedona got some use out of her DVD player -- and so did Maven. Soon enough, though, we were back out of the house to hit a park that I'd spotted on our drive to the casinos the night before.

You know Maven loves swings!

Sedona had a ball at the playground, starting out with her coat and shades on but not keeping them on for long as she embraced all the activity.

She is getting much more daring.

Maven seems to think A-Ma Ding serves her well as a makeshift swing!

Pretty cool artistic candid photo taken by Kevin. It's great that our parents are longtime friends.

Here's Sedona in her new roller skates! She loves them so much; she is always asking to be in them, and she used them a lot at this park.

Bye-bye, super-cool park!

We ended the trip with some excellent "extra spicy" and yummy Louisiana crawfish and shrimp at Hot & Juicy Crawfish. It was live crawfish at $10.99 a pound, which is a CRAZY price compared to what I'm used to in Texas ... but it was so yummy. I'm still craving it.

The best part was watching A-Gong Ding really take to the crawfish. He had the sauce dripping down his chin and was sweating like crazy but thoroughly enjoying it. It was so fun!

It was a great trip -- and reasonably profitable in light of Kevin's work at the blackjack table -- and only an indication of all the wonderful and fun things that are going to happen in 2009. I am truly looking forward to an amazing year full of great memories with friends and family. We were blessed in 2008 with our Maven but know that 2009 will only bring more experiences, prosperity and memories.

We wish all our friends and family an outstanding 2009!