Just some family updates ...

By MAGGIE WANG

After a lot of searching, we think we've found a winner to help us in our housekeeping. Her name is Ivon. I was a little skeptical at first (and I'm still concerned she won't be with us long term). She used to be a store manager and quit because of the stress. I'm sure cleaning our house twice a week isn't her long-term goal, but I am hopeful she'll stay on with us even when she finds a permanent job.

It has been two weeks. The first week, you could tell she was finding her way around things. This week, it has been awesome! She take care of business, stays out of our way and I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a clean house. We don't have to take out the trash, worry about our floors (with all my hair falling out), sweep the driveway or patios. It is heaven!

Sedona is super cute these days. She loves talking on the phone and can pretty much carry a full conversation. It's pretty impressive.

It's really sweet that Whitney's daughter, Riley (one of Sedona's BFF's) tells Whitney before she goes out, "Mommy, you're so pretty," whereas today when I tried on a dress, Sedona said, "Mommy, I don't like." People think Sedona is an angel. Angels don't say that! *wink*

Maven is sitting up really well unassisted but hasn't started any crawling. I have a feeling she'll be a little later than normal given how 'healthy' she is. But Maven is on time for teething. So far she is handling it all very well. I've been mighty impressed; no need to use any medication yet.

Kevin and I are doing well. The Lakers' training camp has started up, so we are working on getting into the groove of things. The OC Register is putting an even greater emphasis on the Lakers, so this season there are two additional writers covering the beat with him. The other change is that Kevin is getting to write only columns this season. It's a fun and well-received challenge for Kevin.

Friends over

By SEDONA DING

My mommy's childhood friend, Carolyn Chen-Yuen, came to stay with us Wednesday night so she could meet us and catch up with Mommy.

She practiced holding Maven with the hope for future Baby Yuens.

I was happy trying to get in on Maven's monthly growth pictures with Gnow-Gnow. Maven didn't seem to mind.

Maven was 6 months old, as of Wednesday. Time flies.

Daddy took his first business trip of the season (to fabulous Fresno), so I missed him for a day. I had fun with him once he got home. We raised our hands as we're supposed to when Rocket blasts off on "Little Einsteins."

I was extremely excited that Baby Austin Lev came over to play tonight with Maven. He is crawling really well. He had a grand time partaking in Maven's toys.

I like to pet these little youngsters.

And little kids these days are also fun for me to hold!

Train! Train! Train!

By MAGGIE WANG

Today was a fun day, but I have no pictures to show for it. I am hoping, though, that Loretta or Betty got a picture or two for us to share.

We started the morning at 'gym class' so Whitney (whose dear husband just bought her a membership to West End for her birthday) and I could play some tennis. The girls are doing pretty well when they go there. It's nice and refreshing to have somewhere to bring them so I can take care of myself.

After that, we headed to Wilson Park in Torrance for the monthly train ride offered there. I had told Sedona we were going, so she was really looking forward to it. It was really sweet. It seems to be hosted by train enthusiasts who really enjoy working with and sharing their trains with the community.

When I was done with quality time with the girls alone (Kevin had a softball game), I dropped the girls off at A-Ma & A-Gong Ding's house so I could go to Equinox Spa in Century City to celebrate Anita Wang-Chu's 31st birthday.

We seem to be starting a Sunday ritual where we drop the girls off at A-Ma and A-Gong Ding's house so that Kevin can play softball in Orange and I can work, play USTA or relax. A-Ma Ding then cooks a fabulous dinner for us when we go pick them up. It's really sweet of them and a nice self-indulgent day for us.

Happy Birthday, Whitney!

By MAGGIE WANG

On Friday night, I had a dinner date with my dear ol' Accenture friend, Erin Oyama. We had great food and conversation ...

... after she got to meet Maven for some snuggles.

Maven is getting more and more active. She loves playing in this jumper now. Sedona wanted her baby doll (whom she called "Riley" today) in the jumper, but Maven was in the way. Maven had to share the seat. So said Sedona the Commander!

Sedona is giving her baby doll this ride, but her latest thing is getting horsey rides. They have to come from me, because the physical therapist on Tuesday agreed with Kevin's doctor's initial evaluation that he has torn cartilage in his left knee from diving for a softball three months ago.

Saddling up!

Giddy-up! At least I was born the year of the horse.

(Thanks, Loretta, for taking the picture.)

Maven is teething these days, but a cold beer usually does the trick.

OK, OK. That was Kevin's beer while we were over at the house of my dear mommy friend Whitney, celebrating her 33rd birthday. Maven got some party love from Sedona's pal Sophie.

The toddlers decided trashing Whitney's living room wasn't enough, so they headed for the master bedroom. (That's Sedona in the red top and black pants that Whitney said makes her look like a little hip-hop star.)

They all had a ball in there, as you can see.

"Five little monkeys, jumping on the bed. One fell off and ..."

Uncle Lester in town

By MAVEN DING

Poor me. I've been congested the past couple of days, so it has been difficult to sleep. Fortunately, I've been feeling better as the day has gone on ...

I could breathe well enough to conk out here on the sofa with Daddy before my scheduled bedtime. Mommy thought I was terribly cute and wanted to let me sleep more, but it was right before bedtime so I woke up to take my big eight-ounce bottle feeding for hopefully a long straight-through sleep night.

If you look at Daddy and me sleeping, what do you think? We look alike, right? Even the eyebrows! I often get the comment that I look like my daddy (even Dr. Saad said it today despite Daddy not being there). Yet A-Gong and A-Ma Ding seem to think that I don't look like anyone and believe Sedona is more a carbon copy of Daddy.

It's so interesting to hear from people which parent they think Sedona and I look like -- but ultimately I believe we have taken the very best from both our parents to get this cute!

Uncle Lester came to town for a wedding Saturday, so I finally got to meet him. Rumor has it he held me for a hour Sunday while Mommy was working and Daddy was winning a softball game. (Daddy's team won the championship for the summer session in their league! Yippee!) Then Lester got a couple good photos of us with his camera over at A-Ma Ding's house Sunday night.

I heard A-Ma Ding made another one of her tasty dinners. All I got was a spoon.

My mom was hoping that I'd get to start solids soon given that I'm almost 6 months old. But after my doctor's appointment today (I'm at 20.1 pounds!), the official ruling is that I won't get to start until at least 7 months (and maybe even 8 months like Sedona).

Saturday action shots

By MAGGIE WANG

When the morning rush at our garage sale slowed to an afternoon lull, Sedona worked out possibly longer than I ever have on this Gazelle that I bought years ago at the As Seen On TV store in Santa Barbara.

Lulu & Ray came over after hitting the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival. Lulu played in the bounce house with Toffee and Sedona, and to the official Bounce House Safety Organization we are thrilled to report that Lulu was actually a "legal" bouncer at less than 5 feet tall!

They brought us kettle corn and garlic peas. Yummy! They are the best!

Once the bounce house deflated, you could see Sedona and Maven's new play area. We went crazy. We have other toys stored in the closed cabinets to the right with labeled boxes. So neat and organized. Can you believe it?

Our Garage Sale

By MAGGIE WANG

What a week! What a day! Busy-busy.

Kevin and I set a date about six weeks ago to do something about:

1. Sedona's and Maven’s toys invading all our rooms.
2. Providing the girls a special place to play and put their toys.
3. Reducing our house clutter.
   

We got ambitious and decided a garage sale today was the answer. The plan certainly assisted us in accomplishing all three goals -- we got so much STUFF outta here that it feels wonderful -- but I've gotta say we would have been better off skipping the garage sale and just donating everything.

All the time and effort we put into organizing, pricing and advertising definitely wasn’t worth the $570 we made. It might sound like a decent chunk of change, but it was quickly reduced by our post-garage-sale simple dim-sum lunch with the parents ($100)!

But we sure did learn a lot:

(1) Observations on garage sales:

a. People show up and are ready to buy before it even starts.
b. Parking can be limited by our house (lots of beach parkers), but professional garage-sale buyers just double park on the street, even the wrong way. It seems there are no rules.
c. Always best to sell to the first person interested in an item. Don’t assume someone else will be willing to pay more later.
d. Adult clothing does not sell well. I read that on the Internet but was hopeful people would pay something for our designer clothes -- with no luck.
e. Some people will bargain; most others won’t; they’ll just walk away if the price sounds too high, so it's better to price much lower and/or be aggressive in lowering the price in talking to them.

(2) We (or I) are constantly consuming material items and need to stop. For example, I was at the store Friday and saw some paint brushes that cost $2. I picked them up ready to buy for Sedona (b/c they were, well, cheap) -- but I put them back upon remembering Sedona already HAS at least 15 paintbrushes. Does she really need more?!

(3) I’ll NEVER EVER-EVER-EVER have another garage sale. The charity of giving things away is a much better feeling. Luckily for Goodwill, we have consumed so much that we still have more than half a garage full of items to donate. So we’ll be scheduling an appointment for pick up.

This whole experience was a good time to reflect on how lucky we are to have a home, our health and all the amazing people around us. There are many people who have more than us financially but also people with much less too – and it all doesn’t really matter. We have each other and amazing friends and family who support us.

In general, I feel like we live in a very material-consuming nation, and I’m interested in progressing away from this mindset. I’m declaring here that I’m going to start spending less money on THINGS and focus on using our hard earned money toward life experiences.

Maven Day

By MAVEN DING

My Thursday started out with Sedona looking at me like I was a stranger intruding on time with her beloved Linda ...

... but watch out, Sedona! You're going to have to share.

Just a cute picture of me chilling. I'm wearing these hand-me-down pants with ruffles on the butt (originally from Auntie Lulu to Sedona); my mommy absolutely adores them.

Lookie here ... my friend, Ronin, came over for a playdate! Hi, Ronin! Shake hands! What ... can't go left?

Look at us! Such obedient little Asian babies lined up for pictures.

Here is Sedona petting Ronin. He crawled up to Sedona and was hugging on her. Later in the day after Ronin was long gone, Sedona volunteered to Daddy how she liked Ronin. And when Daddy asked what she liked about Ronin, Sedona listed all the fun things he could do, including "crawling" and "taking pictures." I can't wait until I can crawl too, so I can give Sedona hugs and kisses.

Oh, just another cute picture of moi! In the baby business, we call this a "tripod" pose, FYI.

Sedona and I were left home alone with Daddy while Mommy went out for Indian food with Ronin and his mommy, Rosana. For those who don't know, Ronin's daddy, Jimmy Tsai, is now a superstar! He is starring in new movie he co-wrote called "Ping Pong Playa." It's super funny -- Mommy and Daddy trekked to Alhambra recently to enjoy it -- and you should go check it out at a theater near you: www.pingpongplaya.com.

Maven debuts on the swings

By MAVEN DING

Last Saturday, Mommy and Daddy took us on a walk to the beach, and I got to get on the swings for the first time ever! I really liked it. We didn't have their camera, but we made do with Mommy's cell phone. These shots that Daddy took aren't too shabby.

It was a gloomy day, but Mommy continued to preach about how lucky we are to live in Southern California with the beautiful weather -- and how fortunate we are to get to go the beach weekly.

Daddy and Sedona

By SEDONA DING

Daddy and I had a ball at home while our other half was out at Mommy & Maven class Thursday night.

I was hanging out with the original Gnow-Gnow, Daddy's stuffed animal from when he was a baby. Can you believe this thing used to be a blue dog that looked similar to Maven's new Gnow-Gnow bunny?

Pretty gross, huh? I agree with Mommy about that and sometimes will throw Old Gnow-Gnow off the bed, but because I love my daddy so much, sometimes I play along. ... Kiss!

These are the giggles I save for my daddy. I'm truly a daddy's girl.

I think Daddy's starting to understand how lucky he is to have two girls. The admiration a daughter has for her father is absolutely precious -- which is why Daddy says that we need a little brother so Mommy can feel the same kind of love from a son.