Memorial Day Weekend at Fiesta Hermosa

By MAGGIE WANG

Another holiday without the husband ... the story of our lives in this household ...

Kevin was in Denver for the Western Conference finals (Lakers vs. Nuggets) all of Memorial Day weekend. The Lakers won back at home tonight, so they're in the lead, 3-2, in the series.

With Kevin gone, we spent quality girl time in Hermosa Beach at my favorite event of the year - Fiesta Hermosa! It comes for Memorial Day and Labor Day, and each time it gets better and better as Sedona is able to appreciate it more and more.

I brought the girls down Saturday with Jimmy, Rosana and Ronin (sorry, no photo documentation), and then we headed back down again Monday with Alice A-ma & Toshi A-gong.

Sedona had a blast buying a new pig bath towel and purple ballet outfit, along with enjoying the fun rides.

Maven was eagerly watching. Next year, she'll be able to join Sedona on most everything.

Sedona gave Maven a shout-out here.

Sedona got on the $5 pony ride that lasted about two minutes. A complete rip-off, but she loved it while it was going.

Maven was again eagerly watching.

During our walk along the beach on the way home, we stopped for some happy grand-family photos ...

Sedona was happy playing in the sand a little bit.

Maven did her own thing for a while, enjoying Toshi A-gong's company.

Look at that scenic background, we are so lucky. That is our beach! I can't believe how fortunate we are to live in such an amazing city.

I couldn't resist ... I had to put up three of these pictures of them together. So cute! I adore these girls.

All the gals. ... This photo makes it apparent that Sedona looks like my mom & me despite what anyone else says.

Overall, it was an exhausting weekend but a fabulous one in which I got to spend a lot of time with the girls. I've been really busy with work, so it was much-needed time with them.

As the Lakers' season continues and I am sometimes frustrated with Kevin working so hard, I also remember that we are so fortunate. We both have great jobs doing what we love -- and making a difference in people's lives. We both get to spend really quality time with our girls, even though we work so much (and lack some sleep).

I love Hermosa Beach and look forward to the Labor Day Fiesta Hermosa.

Maven-Austin Playdate

By MAVEN DING

Before Daddy left town for Denver and Games 3 and 4 of the Western Conference finals, we had a playdate with Austin Lev. I really, really like this little guy, but I'm not sure he likes how much I crawl all over him. 

It is true that I'm much more physical than Sedona, but I'm going to blame her for this stuff with Austin. Sedona and I are always wrestling and giggling about it, so I assume other people like it too!

We look forward to more playdates with the Lev family this summer at the beach.

"Why is the ground shaking?"

By MAGGIE WANG

An earthquake was felt throughout our home tonight. It was the worst one I've ever felt since moving here, which makes sense since it was based only miles away from our home. (See below for official data.)

 Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 08:39:36 PM at epicenter with a magnitude of 4.7, located within these distances ...
1 km (1 miles) ESE (104°) from Lennox, CA
2 km (1 miles) N (9°) from Hawthorne, CA
2 km (1 miles) S (177°) from Inglewood, CA
16 km (10 miles) SW (215°) from Los Angeles Civic Center, CA

Sedona was still awake when it happened, watching her one pre-sleep TV show with Kevin. When he felt the quake and some things began falling off our shelves, he scooped Sedona up and began to seek shelter, but it was a brief rumble. Maven was already asleep and didn't seem to awaken.

Sedona soon asked, "What was that?" and then followed up with "Why is the ground shaking?"

Our family photo shoot

By MAGGIE WANG

I've been wanting to get professional shots of the family for quite some time, so when this opportunity came along, we jumped at it.

Natalie Young took the headshots for all my real-estate promotional material, and I think she did a great job capturing my personality. I'm really glad we went to the trouble of coordinating this shoot for all four of us before an afternoon Lakers game. Check out these selected images and let me know what you think!

Kidspace Museum

By MAGGIE WANG

The Lakers being in the Western Conference semifinals against my hometown Houston Rockets afforded me a wonderful trip to Houston with Kevin to see my dearest Jennie and Debbie last weekend.

Considering we didn't bring Sedona and Maven (who stayed with my parents), we tried to make it up to them Friday after Kevin came home in the morning from another trip to Houston. We all went to the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena (www.kidspacemuseum.org).

We started in the Early Childhood Learning Center, geared more toward Maven's age group, and the girls just roamed around and played indoors.

Then to Kirby's Kids Corner for some playground fun.

Right next to that was the Trike Track, where even Maven got a shot at the tricycles.

Sedona didn't want to leave the area but was elated when she went in and found this climber that went up about 20 levels. Kevin hit his head for the first time on Level 3 (and immediately removed his cap so he could see where he was in this little-person world) but accompanied her all the way to the top. She asked to go again and again.

Maven tried to climb up, which isn't surprising given how much she tries to copy Sedona these days. Sedona went up her bunk-bed ladder the other day, and Maven immediately went over and stood there trying time after time to lift a leg up to the first step and get going.

Sedona checked out a bug display and quickly moved on -- or should I say moved "on-sects"? -- to try N'Art to create her own masterpiece.

We headed back outdoors for some water fun. Maven was really into it and carried this plastic corn around for quite some time, and she has gotten good at lugging something around -- maybe a bottle of milk or a doll or a toy -- while multi-tasking with something else.

Sedona got pretty wet in the Water Play area, where they simulate rainfall. After lunch she was walking kind of funny, and I asked if she had to go potty; it turns out she wasn't thrilled that her butt was still wet.

It was truly a nice family day despite how tired Kevin and I have been lately. We have both been working a lot these days.

Natalie Fu in LA

By MAVEN DING

Wendy and Natalie Fu from Charlotte, N.C., came in town this week while Daddy David worked on a project here in L.A.

Natalie is 17 months old, so just a tad older than I. We had a fun time shopping, eating and playing. They even spent the night!

Insects or Out-sects?

By MAGGIE WANG

In the car on the way home from seeing A-Gong & A-Ma Ding, Sedona was telling me: "We don't let spiders, bees, ants or flies in our house because they are animals."

Trying to teach her new things, I told her that they were not animals; they were insects.

She found me to be completely silly and said, "No, Mommy, OUT-sects! OUT-sects!"

I explained to her that even though they weren't allowed inside, they were named "insects."

She didn't believe me, but I think she'll eventually learn that I wasn't lying to her.

What the girls are doing ...

By MAGGIE WANG

SEDONA

• She is a chatterbox. We drive to Orange County a lot these days to pick up Boiling Crab for crawfish and during the entire drive (about 30 minutes each way), Sedona can keep talking.
• She loves to sing and make up songs -- as displayed in recent video post. That song is from the book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" But in other cases, she literally makes up tunes and words and sings (and will ask Kevin or me to make up a song based on a few words she gives us right before she goes to sleep at night).
• She loves to dance around -- sometimes we blare the music in her bedroom and just dance till we are tired and laughing silly.
• She still loves to eat. Her favorite -- Maven's too -- is frozen Trader Joe's sweet corn. We buy most of our groceries at Trader Joe's.
• When she gets something new, she asks, "Who got this?" or "Who bought this?"
• She loves parks and playing outside, which her homebody daddy doesn't do with her often, but Linda and I try to bring the girls out. Kevin has committed to going out with us as a family more this upcoming summer.
• Sedona loves to hold Maven but gets disappointed when Maven doesn't enjoy it as much.

MAVEN

• She is a skilled walker now. She walks everywhere and is going pretty fast without many falls.
• She loves to get into things. We catch her in the our bathroom medicine cabinet or trying to get her hands in the toilet. Yes, dangerous, I know!
• She loves to eat. She says "Ugh-Ugh-Ugh" when she wants something. The other day we were at the park with Sarah Tully-Lev and Austin, and Sarah had some food for Austin. Maven was making noises like crazy for it while Sedona politely stared. Sedona wanted it, too, but knew better than to ask openly ... whereas Maven just "ugh"-ed her way into getting some.
• She is opinionated. If she doesn't want to eat something, she wil make it know with a clear turn of her head and shaking of no-no. (Sedona thinks this progress in Maven's level of  communication is really funny.)
• She enjoys being in Sedona's space and area, which gets Sedona a little annoyed. But overall, they get along really, really well. Sedona will ask where Maven is when they are separated and enjoys the fact that Maven likes to copy her.
• Maven will get into Sedona's bed and just laugh and giggle with her.
• She can understand more and more. The other day I told her to go to Daddy and she knew what I was saying.
• When she drops something, she says, "Uh-oh." It's so cute. Sedona loves hearing it.
• She loves the swings at the park and trying to walk up the slides.

The girls each have matching baby dolls. Sedona recieved hers on her 1st birthday from Riley. It's a Mommy & Me blonde newborn baby that was supposed to help Sedona prepare for Maven's arrival, but Sedona didn't take to it until recently. And of course, since Sedona loves her baby doll, which we have named Kelsey (one of the names we considered for Sedona), Maven wants one, too. I searched all over and finally found an almost duplicate doll (no tuft of hair and green eyes instead of blue) that is Maven's doll -- and it is named, Bellisa (a name we were considering for Maven). The girls love going everywhere with them and clutch them tightly in the car, especially. It's adorable.

I'm super happy that our girls are close in age. I have a feeling there will be a continued struggle to share with each other, but ultimately they are very close and love to be with each other.

Today, they were doing "Ring Around the Rosey" together. It was really cute and a sign that they'll soon be entertaining each other without us.

"White Dog, Brown Dog"

Family outings

By MAGGIE WANG

Our little girl looks so grown up ...

She was crossing her legs and reclining with a snack while watching TV. She is definitely one of us.

Last Sunday was a nice family day. Kevin came home in the early morning from the Lakers' playoff game in Utah. We went to watch him get a rare chance to play softball (lots of conflicts with the Lakers schedule) in Cerritos. He says to note that despite the rust he had a 6-3 double-play to end the first inning and a nice running basket catch down the left-field line later. After the game we had yummy Guppy Teahouse food and drink out there before stopping by this fun carnival near home in Hermosa Beach.

Sedona absolutely loved this sports-car carousel. See for yourself ...

Check out that big smile!

Maven wanted to go but did very well standing there and waving to Sedona (and Sedona did well waving back while on the move!).

Kevin then helped Maven get a better view.

More and more people are saying to us that Maven looks like Kevin and Sedona looks like me -- contrary to what our poll concluded. Feel free to share more opinions with us!

Kevin had the day off (rare in the playoffs, but even before that he has been working very harder than any previous season with all the columns he's writing), so we decided to zip down to the Long Beach Aquarium. While en route, we changed our minds and ended up at the Santa Ana (Orange County) Zoo, which we found rather sparsely populated -- but hardly stopped Sedona from having a grand time.

Maven's panda bib was the only bear we saw. The zoo was mostly monkeys and birds, with a nice petting zoo inside.

See ya later!