Our very own bounce house!

By SEDONA DING

A-Gong Toshi's closest brother (Mommy's fifth uncle on the Wang side) from Japan was in town, so we had a nice dinner Tuesday with Uncle O and his granddaughter at Kincaid's on the Redondo Beach Pier. His family spoiled us with lots of adorable gifts.

And yesterday, I got a birthday gift early from A-Ma Alice & A-Gong Toshi. Perhaps you can guess what it might be from the proud title of this blog entry!

MY VERY OWN BOUNCE HOUSE!!!

Riley was my first guest to bounce -- or 'boing,' as I often say -- in the 8x8 house that fits quite nicely in Mommy and Daddy's office.

Somersaults are all the rage!

It's easy to get pooped from all the exercise!

But I find my second wind pretty fast! And I definitely did when Sophie (and her pet cow) showed up to join us.

YAY!!! I burned so much energy that I slept in till 9 a.m. today, and Riley 8 a.m. (both an hour later than usual).

No worries, Maven ... we won't break it before you can use it!

(Editor's note: After Maggie and Sedona went crazy in the house of bounce today in Day 2 of its existence here, we can only hope that we won't break it before Maven can use it.)

Cousin Cathy's Wedding

By MAGGIE WANG

My cousin, Cathy Chen, got married on Saturday at the Doubletree Hotel in Monrovia (near Pasadena) to Edward Lee.

To enjoy the evening to the fullest, we decided to stay the night and bring our nanny. After grabbing some dim sum in nearby Arcadia, we got some time by the pool, with Sedona being hosted in the water by A-Gu Felix.

What is smiling Sedona doing with her hands? She's getting ready to ...

...splash Felix!

Meanwhile, Maven chilled with Aunt Lulu in the cabana.

On to the festivities! Here's my uncle, David, who is my mom's youngest brother, walking the beautiful bride down the aisle.

Our full family here! Who looks like whom? Yes, I know they both look like Kevin.

Sedona was a star. The professional photographer there to shoot the wedding was so smitten with her that he gave her a private modeling session (with Felix here as a production assistant).


Kevin didn't miss out on the opportunity to get some cute shots, too.

But this shot was even better: A-Gong Toshi and Maven, gazing lovingly at each other.

Here's a photo in honor of all the second-born children in the world. We noticed while going through Kevin's old photo albums that there wasn't a single photo of just Kevin and his parents (without his sister in there)! I'm sure it was the same for me too.


Sedona spent the end of the cocktail hour playing with fountains. Absolutely adorable.

A-Gu Felix is great with his nieces.

Sedona inevitably started to tire a bit considering all the hubbub...

...but she didn't leave without enjoying this good-night kiss with me and my mom.

Next-Generation Second Cousins

By SEDONA DING

My second cousins (the kids of A-Ma Alice's eldest brother's eldest daughter, Christina), 10-year-old Anna and 8-year-old Nicholas, came over today all the way from Plano, Texas, for a day of fun in the sun, SoCal style.

They brought two LeapFrog storybook machines with lots of stories, and I showed how I'm better at identifying stars and triangles than squares and circles. If there is a child psychologist out there who can break that down for me, please do!

Anna's hair is wet because we all came home and showered after a big afternoon at the beach. I was an eager beaver to get in the ocean when I saw my cousins were playing around in there. I made Mommy go in over and over again, even though I was shivering. Then after a yummy noodles dinner prepared by our new Indonesian live-in nanny, Sioeyong Lauw, I inched over on the sofa so that I could sit right next to Anna!

Then we played with my bubble machine outside on the balcony! We made so many bubbles that some people walking along the street below thanked us for sharing our bubbles with them.

While playing with Anna and Nicholas, I toted this big-eared bunny, New Gnow-Gnow, with me most of the time. Back story: Daddy's sister, A-Go Kristen, got the original Gnow-Gnow (a dog stuffed animal) but passed him on when Daddy was born in 1971 -- and Gnow-Gnow is very much still with us. When Maven was born, A-Go Kristen gave her New Gnow-Gnow (a rabbit stuffed animal, yet nevertheless possibly Gnow-Gnow's twin in appearance). So yes, technically, New Gnow-Gnow is Maven's. But considering Old Gnow-Gnow wound up in the other sibling's hands, why can't New Gnow-Gnow wind up in my hands? That sound logic aside, I'll add this:    I LOVE HIM! :)

Aunt Christina bonded with Maven while I played with my cousins. Maven quickly fell asleep to the gentle rubbing on the head of an experienced mommy.

Share girls

By MAGGIE WANG

On our trip to Santa Barbara, all four of us stayed in the same room, which was a great way to experiment and transition to the girls sharing a room at home. As previously documented, we did put the girls into small walk-in closets at the rental home, but I promise, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. No closet doors were closed!

Last night we started the sharing of their room at home -- moving Maven out of the master bedroom and into the main crib in the nursery, where Sedona has been in her big-girl bed for some time already, sleeping in the bottom bunk. And they did great! Maven didn't even cry in response to all of Sedona's morning blabbering. Wish us continued luck!

We also had Maven's 4-month-old wellness appointment. She is 17 pounds, 14.5 ounces (AGAIN off the charts), 24 1/8" tall (75th percentile) with a 42 cm head (75th percentile). She is 'perfect,' according to Dr. Saad.

Best Day Ever?

By SEDONA DING

To kick off a very memorable day in my not yet two years of living Sunday morning, I got up bright and early to chill with my homeys in our eight-bedroom Santa Barbara rental home ...

Kendall and I shared some Kashi cereal for breakfast. I heard she was hanging out with Maven late the night before, feeding her bottled milk before bedtime. That was awfully nice.

What's going on here? Well, my pal Riley was playing a 2-year-old's version of dress-up on Maven ... by just dumping clothes and diapers on her while Maven lay there on tummy time in full cooperation. Fun!

Soon we were off to hit the Santa Barbara zoo. Suffice it to say it was about the best time I've ever had! (Even though I look a little vacant in this family portrait with a dorky fake giraffe behind me.) The 30-acre zoo was just the perfect size for us to go through in one day under picture-perfect Santa Barbara skies. Last month, Daddy and "Andrew Tsai" were contemplating in one of their great late-night chats a rare unphilosophical question: whether Santa Barbara might be the loveliest locale in all of North America. Discuss!

This picture was courtesy of T.L.'s daddy, Tommy. Thank you!

I got to feed a very real giraffe two biscuits right out of my hand. I was calm and cool, and his super-long tongue came right out and snapped the food up from me while Daddy held me. It was so neat. (Click on the photo for a larger view).

If you look closely, you'll see a giraffe in the background of this picture with Daddy, Maven and me.

Just in case Daddy didn't realize how the giraffe ate it, here I am showing him. We also have a fun video of me being captivated by a gorilla behind a glass wall ... until I spotted a random run-of-the-mill bug crawling on the glass wall and yelled out in excitement over that.

I'm a flamingo! And so is Mommy! Look at our legs! We're hilarious!

Mommy and I took a ride on the choo-choo train after I waited patiently in line. I love trains! I wanted "more" after the ride was over, but I settled for looking at a bug exhibit that had monster cockroaches that made Mommy jump! There was also a cockatoo birdy that made me laugh so hard when he tilted his head the way I did in this July 2007 baby video when I was not yet a year old. "TILT!"

Some of my very best friends in life are turtles. I have yet to grow tired of yelling: "Turtle!" And there were a lot of fun ones at the zoo, including this turtle statue that gave me a make-believe ride.

Just so you know, this is how we roll: Maven literally laid back in her comfy car seat and me skateboarding along on the stroller-attachment platform Mommy and Daddy got me after some seriously extensive research. Cool, huh? (I can kiss Maven so easily from this position, too!)

Here's Maven, as usual -- so kissable, but looking serious and/or bored!

The zoo wasn't quite as life-changing for her, but she found "animals" on her bib to fascinate her, so she's good!

I told Mommy on the way out of the zoo that the elephants were my favorite. My analysis? "Big," I said. But I really liked watching those big guys feed themselves grass with their trunks, and Daddy and I sang little tunes in tempo with the elephants' tails swinging from side to side. What a great day at the zoo!

Santa Barbara trip

By SEDONA DING

We went to Santa Barbara on Aug. 1 for vacation in one group house with my friends Riley, Kendall, Sophie, T.L., Zack --plus Maven with Zack's baby brother Luke ... and a bunch of old people who were their parents.

We started the drive north (about two hours, if you go direct) in the morning and hit up A-Gong & A-Ma Wang's hotel in Thousand Oaks for some brunch and three whole pies. We then stopped in Camarillo, where Mommy bought me some clothes before we moved on to our eight-bedroom vacation rental home in Santa Barbara. It's super sweet, really.

Riley and I quickly settled in.

Even though we all live mere blocks from the beach at home, we drove to the exact same ocean for some entertainment. It doesn't make sense to me, but I have to admit that I had a ton of fun with Daddy experiencing the waves crashing onto the beach and me (while Mommy and Maven bonded under an umbrella).

These are my new sunglasses from the outlets. My mom really spurged: It was a whole buck!

And I now understand the whole point of this adventure: Maven and I get stuck in walk-in closets while all the mommies and daddies drink and have a grand old time!

"Talk!"

By MAGGIE WANG

Sedona is just talking up a storm these days. There are times when she'll pull herself up into our laps, make eye contact and say, "Talk!" So we'll run through the day, having a full-blown conversation with her. Every day Kevin and I look at each other in amazement at how much of a person she has become -- at less than 2 years old!

• Just last week, Kevin was tickling Sedona's feet in the car, and she quite casually said, "Don't tickle me." We had never used this sentence before; she just put it together herself. It was really amusing, and she brought it out on her own again a few days later with A-Gong and A-Ma Ding.
• When Maven is crying, Sedona is the first to go give her a kiss and say, "Don't cry, Maven."
• When Sedona is looking for someone, she adorably runs around the house and calls out the person's name. For example, "Maven! WHERE ARE YOU, Maven?"
• Sedona absorbs so much. Lately she is using words that we rarely use. Just today she introduced "sour" while commenting on some food.
• She can pretty fully sing her A-B-C's, "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star," "Happy Birthday," "Elmo's Song" (or "A-Ma's Song," as Kevin has turned it into, much to Sedona's delight) and lately loves "Skip to My Lou, My Darling."
• She can count, sort of. She has gotten past her tendency earlier this month to step out of convention and say: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Maven, 8, 9 ..." But she still tops out at the same point with "... 10, 11, 12, 13, 13, 13 ..."

Here are a couple quick photos ...

Here is Sedona happily going through one of the old Ding family photo albums by herself. We've had them out recently to find some pictures of Kevin's cousin, Joseph Wu, for his farewell party as Taiwan's ambassador to the U.S. Kevin was flabbergasted when he saw some photos from when little Kevin was 6 years old ... and A-Gong and A-Ma Ding were as old as Kevin is now: 37!

By the way, Sedona's outfit shown above is from Sprout Kids Clothing -- and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. My friend Rosa, who used to work for Jennifer Garner's agent, gave us some goodies that were initially meant for Violet Affleck. Celebrities get a lot of free stuff; they pass it along to their agents; and the agents pass the stuff along to us little people. (Thanks, Rosa!) The Sprout clothes are really cool and made from bamboo ... which makes them antibacterial, biodegradable and actually amazingly soft.

Sedona is so fascinating at this age that I'm thrilled to know that we can go through it all over again with Maven. So far Maven has been such a laid-back child. She has already started to wean herself off sucking her fingers to calm herself and is going to bed awake but without any crying, sucking or anything. She is independent and really sweet -- always smiling. We are so fortunate to have such a sweet baby.

Falling Asleep and Rolling Over

By MAGGIE WANG

On Tuesday, July 22, we officially started to sleep-train Maven. What does that mean? Basically it's teaching Maven to put herself to sleep without external help such as swinging, bouncing, pacifier-using or patting. We want to teach our girls how to be independent and stand on their own in this world, and in a small way this is just the beginning of it.

Fortunately, Maven didn't need much assistance, so it wasn't too difficult. Yes, she cried the most she has ever cried in her life, but given she rarely cries it wasn't too bad. The average baby (i.e. Sedona) definitely struggles more with it. Without any outside assistance available to her, Maven seized the opportunity to learn how to suck on the index and third fingers of her right hand as a calming trigger.

Maven is now going down about 9 p.m., waking up at 6:30 a.m. for some food, and then going back down for more slumber until getting up post-9 a.m. to start her day.

We sleep-trained Sedona for the overnights, so she is a great night sleeper. But we probably enjoyed holding her for her naps when she was younger too much; she still won't nap more than an hour a day. We're not making the same mistake twice, and Maven is doing an amazing job -- way better than most parents can ask of their 3 1/2-month-old babies.

On Thursday, July 24, Maven also rolled over from front to back for the first time. She was playing in her crib and just started doing it -- super cute and a fun milestone to hit. (She did back to front maybe two weeks ago with a head pillow for a head start.)

Saturday, July 26, was a party at Art Zone for Sophie Abe's 2nd birthday. Sedona had a major post-nap meltdown prior to going, and we were almost going to skip the party. It was the worst fit we have ever seen from her. She really, really didn't want to take her Sleep Sack off and change clothes. We did eventually come up with a way to get Sedona out the door: We bribed her with her beloved Maven.

Sedona would only go to the party if Maven and Kevin went, too. We've noticed that we can get her to do more things when Maven is joining in. Hopping into the dual stroller is much easier when Sedona gets to sit by Maven, for example. I cannot wait for them to get a little older so they can really play together.

I've also noticed that Maven is watching Sedona a lot when she is playing -- and watching very closely.

Unfortunately, no pictures from Sophie's party. We were lucky to even get out the door (although the other Mommies there refused to believe that reputed model-child Sedona could really throw a full-fledged tantrum).

Once at the party and thereafter, Sedona was great ... so great that T.L. even came over to play.

Here they are playing with my pink Nike house slippers. (To offer my feet the same comforts of home he enjoys, Kevin got them for me to match his black slippers that they are also enjoying.)

Today, was Anita's bridal shower (http://www.jinpatisserie.com/). It was a lot of fun. Anita has some super sweet friends and great bridesmaids.