Sedona's 3rd Birthday: The Build-a-Bear Bash

By KEVIN DING

Once upon a time we moved into this house just a week before our wedding, so we're not at all averse to over-packing our schedule. Along those lines, it was no biggie to stage Sedona's Build-a-Bear birthday party in the late afternoon and then head out later in the day (Aug. 29) for a family flight to New York to begin our eight-day vacation.

Maggie added some extra touches to the party that were pretty neat, led by surprise custom-made T-shirts with each kid's photo on them to be worn by the bears/dogs/whatevers.

We liked the Build-a-Bear party idea in part because every kid would come away with something special, not just Sedona with her pile of gifts. And it was indeed quite sweet to see how seriously the kids took the selection process of which animals they wanted to build for themselves. Sedona was undeterred by the fact that she was the only kid to ask for the chocolate-colored puppy. (T.L. soon saw the wisdom in the selection and snapped one up, too.)

As much as they hang out, it does seem sometimes that Riley and Sedona are joined together as a two-headed monster, but in this case it is just a photo illusion that Riley's smiling face is protruding from Sedona's right shoulder.

As excited as the kids were, I challenge anyone to find a more freakishly enthused face from the party than the one offered above by A-Gong Ding. I would crop it tighter to show you better, but it might frighten the kids watching at home. Sedona maintained a calmer head about the process, but you can see her joy in the video below ...

Sedona being a clean child who only occasionally will do stuff such as eat the fingernail polish off a finger, she took the first-time "washing" process of her puppy very seriously. I refrained from posting the photo of her scrubbing the puppy's butt.

Group photo! There were so many kids that the Build-a-Bear logo is totally shrouded. But the affection you see from the kids for their bears is the greatest publicity we can offer this fine St. Louis-based company.

Maggie delighted the kids (and the Build-a-Bear employees) with cupcakes and cookies -- the latter with Sedona's smiling face in the frosting on top. Riley was very kind in her attempt to devour all parts of the cookie except Sedona's face.

Sedona took a different approach.

Maven wore a "Sedona is turning 3" shirt in support and showed remarkable restraint in not tackling Sedona to take her cookie.

My parents were on hand with the assignment of keeping Maven from tackling kids for their cookies. And they got to welcome another grandchild into the fold in the form of the chocolate puppy that Sedona wound up naming in honor of her age: "Three." (I tried hard to lobby that we tweak the name to "Tres" or "Trace" -- get it? -- but was denied. Such creative brilliance wasted, I know.)

Soon it was on to LAX for the kids to begin their first Eastern Time Zone experience. Our plan was to use a red-eye flight to minimize disruption, and it worked pretty well. (Side note now that the trip is over: There are no red-eye flights coming back. Ugh.)

Check back soon for all the updates from our action-packed trip to the New York area!

Bit-o-Honey

By MAGGIE WANG

I'm not proud of this but my baby bites ... and, well, I have a hunch it comes from my side of the family. I was known to bite Felix when I was a child -- and my mom later admitted that she did the same way back when.

Documentation of how hard the bites are can be seen below on Sedona's arm. Sedona took a toy away from Maven, and Maven responded with a big bite in protest. Other times, Maven gives love bites. For example, she give love bites when you hold and snuggle with her; she has broken her daddy's skin on many occasions and just the other day got A-Gu Felix.

In general, Sedona has never been a huge fan of hugs from most people, but now she specifically declares, "I don't like hugs from little people. Maven bites me." Hard to blame her. Maven will go up behind her to hug and might well take a chunk out of her back. Not so fun for Sedona, but a little funny to me. Who would have known biting is hereditary?

Sedona and Maven now have matching and personalized Pottery Barn Anywhere Chairs.

Sedona's 3rd birthday present from Alice A-Ma & Toshi A-Gong was this chair. It became necessary because they were often fighting over the Maven chair given to the little one as a Christmas gift.

In other news, Felix got engaged! Jenny Chang will be my new sister-in-law, and we were there to document Felix's proposal after dinner.

Field of Dings

By MAGGIE WANG

On the note of Kevin's team winning the softball championship, here's the recap of the last play of the season e-mailed out by team manager/pitcher Mag:

As per usual, we took a nice lead against our nemeses, the Castoffs (with a few breaks here and there, but still). It was 14-7 heading into the bottom of the seventh. Again per usual, the Castoffs rallied. They scored five runs. They had runners on first and third with the wnning run at the plate with two outs. The batter hit a medium-hard groundball up the middle. I took a step to my right to field it. Then the ball took a crazy-big, crazy-bad hop over my shoulder!

I turned around, and Kevin was leaping to field the ball behind second base. He dove at the second-base bag and tapped it with his glove (at least it appeared that way, and the umpire bought it; only Kevin knows for sure, and he's taking that secret to his grave). Game over. Championship secured.

Kevin ran in to celebrate. Everyone joined him. I was so stunned and tired, I wasn't even sure what had happened.

And here are some pictures of us rooting Kevin on this season...

Yes, that's Felix in the background of my cool photo!

Maven seems more interested in ball games these days than Sedona, but Sedona really loved them at Maven's age, too. One of Sedona's favorites was when Kevin would stand behind her as she threw a ball in some random direction and he'd dive for the ball and try to catch it (with sound effects to make her laugh) before it hit the ground.

There was a tractor randomly parked next to our car in the lot on this day, so naturally the girls wanted to hop on. Silly ... but I do often say that Kevin comes from a family of Taiwanese farm people!

Jury's Out

By MAGGIE WANG

I was on call for jury duty this week, so I kept my schedule pretty open -- and it made for some great family time.

We started by going Sunday to Kevin's softball doubleheader, in which his team won twice to win the championship! Congrats to our daddy!

Then we hit the Sunday night concert at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach with the Tucker family as our host. Hailey and Sedona had a great time feeding pigeons and climbing (see below) -- while little sisters Maven and Landry barely acknowledged each other.

After such a fun-filled day out (the girls had their own ball during Kevin's softball by hitting the nearby water-fountain play area for a while), Sedona was all smiles with her daddy during storytime before bedtime.

Sedona stole the peach I was eating and declared it her peach. This girl still loves fruits and veggies but often opts to skip the meat dishes (unless it's something yummy such as kalbi).

Riley and Sedona played together a lot this week. Here they are doing yoga!

See how Sedona and Riley are wearing their new matching Crocs?

There was more fountain fun by Pinkberry in the El Segundo Plaza ...

Kevin loves to record video, as you can tell from all the action-oriented summer posts. I agree that videos are precious to capture the moment, but I'm still partial to the camera.

Today, Sedona and Riley had a great time scootering around the basketball court next to Riley's house. Our Mini Kick scooter was a present from A-Ma & A-Gong Ding for Sedona's upcoming 3rd birthday. Maven, meanwhile, loves almost nothing more than tagging along on walks in her little red car.

I was called to report to jury duty Thursday, but I was excused after being there for 1 1/2 hours because I'm the primary caretaker for my precious daughters ... an additional perk of having children! Ha-ha.

The Doctor's Office and the Classroom

BY MAGGIE WANG

The girls went to the doctor Wednesday for Sedona turning 3 and Maven's 16-month checkup. Both girls are super healthy, ranging in the 25th percentile for height -- to which Kevin responded, "That's your side" -- and 75th percentile for weight (well, Maven and her hearty appetite are up in the 75-90 range).

SEDONA: 33.2 lbs and 36 inches

MAVEN: 25.6 lbs and 30 1/8 inches

Today was Sedona's first day visiting Montessori School of Manhattan Beach on Peck Avenue. She'll start school there on Sept. 8. We expected her to be shy on her first time in the classroom, and she did start out a bit clingy to her daddy, but after a few minutes of the visit, she was loving it: playing with all the different puzzles, observing the other kids and chatting with Miss Valerie.

I am very happy that she seems to like it and definitely excited for her. It reaffirms our decision that Montessori should fit her personality well ... but it also makes me super sad in a sense that she is growing up.

All About Maggie

By MAGGIE WANG

This blog is usually about our precious daughters, but given the title "Kevin, Maggie Sedona & Maven," I think we should use it to document our lives (as a family and individuals).

Kevin always encourages me to be my own person. I really enjoy playing tennis (these days probably a little too much). I just started up with running, and it's like meditation for me, b/c I don't think about anything else while I'm going. And obviously I love spending time with my friends, though there still is never enough time with all the amazing people I have in my life.

Last weekend was a prime example of the things that I am doing that allow and encourage me to focus on who I am beyond whatever I do in family and work.

My college pals Julie and Sara and I signed a pact on a napkin more than 10 years ago that we would take a vacation together every year. Sara has framed in her room.

This year we headed to Dallas: home of Sara Olson ... no kids or "others" allowed.

We started off our first day together with Tex-Mex food and margaritas and ...

... shopping. Well, it was more making fun of crazy-expensive hats (priced in the hundreds).

We also were chilling outside with beer and cider and ...

... we wound up ending the trip with quesos and more margaritas, the latter causing the wacky but choreographed jazz-hands show below.

It's neat to think about how much change and growth has happened to each of us over the years, yet when we are together, we can talk about "nothing" for hours and entertain ourselves with silliness and nonense as if we were still 20.

I am truly blessed with great people and friends in my life, but I don't think this comes to me by chance. I do put effort into my friendships. I definitely don't talk to some folks every day, week or month, but I do my best to make sure they know that I care and would do anything for them.

Since having Sedona and Maven, I've been lucky enough to have found some amazing local moms. They support and help me navigate through these new challenges that we face and also share all the joys of parenthood with me. We've done a number of Moms' Nights Out and even had a crazy overnight bonding time in Hollywood.

I want my kids to know that life is about choices, and by taking care of my body, mind and soul, I will be a better mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend and role model.

Solo Dancing and Solo Board-Gaming

Here are some additional photos from the above concert:

The older girls played in the sand...

... while the little ones (Maven and Ronin) played.

Looks like Sedona is ready to go home! Check out her facial expression below.