Grandpa's visit and July 4th

June was gone in a flash. Our widow friend Sue passed away on June 6th. David was so busy with her funeral arrangement, possession distribution (she donated all her possession to a Children's Home), medical bills, etc.

For Father's Day, we had Mexican food at home. Emily helped me to make the Father's Day cards for David and for Grandpa. She also helped me to make a frame to put in David's office.

(Inside the cards, Emily said "I very very like you!" -that's how she said it before she learned to say "I love you very much".)

As part of the Father's Day celebration, Dad came in the following weekend. We took him to In and Out for hamburgers. We liked the hamburgers. When David looked at the bottom of their beverage cup, it said "John 3:16" on it. I wonder how many people who ate there noticed it. Saturday we went to the Butterfly house at the Fair park. The kids enjoyed it. But it was a little too hot. They maintain a 80 degree year around for the butterflies inside. For Emily, she enjoyed more spending time with Grandpa than anything else. Even before Grandpa came, she said, "I want to go to Grandpa's house and hold him!" When Grandpa was here, she followed him everywhere if she wasn't holding Grandpa's hands:



Emily reached her arm out the whole time for the butterflies to land. Unfortunately none of them landed on her arm as she hoped.


Andy followed the butterflies around. He didn't care about the heat at all.

Emily with Grandpa

A couple of butterflies:

July 4th David had four days weekend. So we thought we might use it to do some house project. The first thing came to our mind was to change the carpet for the living room and the family room. Friday we got the estimate and Saturday it was installed. During the installation, we began to smell the strong fumes that I never thought of. At night after I read about how bad the lingering new carpet smell and the carpet itself were for the little kids and everyone around, I couldn't sleep. I wanted to take the new carpet out right away. But nobody works on Sunday or July 4th. So we took out the carpet Monday (July 4th) morning and bought the bamboo wood floor ourselves. David North offered to help David. He spent most of the day shopping around with David and taking out the carpet. Luckily (God was watching over us) a floor installer whom we contacted earlier called back in the afternoon. He found three guys to help him and they were able to finish the wood floor on the same day with a very reasonable price. So we got it all done during the weekend. The weekend was anything but relaxing. While David was doing the work with others at our dusty and noisy home, I took the kids to the July 4th festival at Kyri and Jeff's neighborhood at night. We had a good time. Emily enjoyed the food, the free snowcone, watching other kids playing, and staying in the bouncing house briefly. But we certainly wished David was there and our weekend wasn't so hectic. That was an expensive lesson! It certainly made our July 4th memory!

Leslie brought over the Sprout BBQ ribs lunch on Saturday. It was delicious! We had a great time visiting each other.

Mary Ellen gave Emily and Andy some of her old sunglasses and toys. Both kids loved their sunglasses. They had so much fun.






Emily started going through the stage of drawing things everywhere. We found her drawings on the wall, furniture, Bible, etc. After she drew this in the utility room, we took away all her crayons and markers.

One day, Emily put a candle in the yellow cup and left it out in the backyard. When she saw it the next day, she told me, "Mommy, the candle grew inside the cup!!" David explained to her how candle melt in the sun and got remolded by the cup. To help her understand, we put some ice on the stove and melt them into water. She had a small science lesson.

One night right before bath, Emily sat on the toilet. She put a piece of toilet paper on her head and said to David, "Daddy, Look! Now I'm married!" When David told me that, it reminded me of the day. Emily saw a middle east lady walking by our car with head covered. She asked, "Mommy, is she married?" I guess in her mind, everyone who has a cover on the head is married. She also thought a dentist can fix anything. An old crown on my tooth chipped a little. I told her the dentist could fix it. Since then, if anything (her sock, her toy, etc.) is broken, she would say, "Are we going to see the dentist?" One day she said, "Oh no, Daddy's Bible is broken. We have to get a new one for Daddy, or we'll have to let the dentist to fix it!"

She loves pretending reading. When we parked at our pediatrician's office for Andy's appointment, she pointed to the building number on the wall "5560" and said "It says 'Doctor's Office'!"

Emily's favorite indoor things to pass time are: watching videos and playing games. She likes to line up Blokus or use dominos to build buildings.

Emily picked half dozen of the squashes in a few minutes in the backyard. We made several dishes with them. Our favorite one so far is the baked squash casserol.

Our Andy is really mobile now! Grandpa said he was hot-footed. As a result, we put up the gate to limit his cruising territory for a while since he had so many bumps and falls. He is pretty stable now so we sadly said bye bye to the gate. Our baby is a toddler now. He is also very friendly and social. He smiles and waves hi to everyone he sees. When we were in public, Emily used to get all the attention. Now it is Andy's turn.

Andy was very constipated for a while (mainly because he loves carbs and didn't drink enough water). Our doctor asked him to take Miralax. Luckily he likes prune and prune juice. It didn't take very long for him to clear up the constipation. We are working on eating more fiber, fruit, and hopefully vegetable. Andy absolutely loves watermelon (Emily on the other hand doesn't want to have anything to do with it). We consume at least half a watermelon each day.

Emily and Andy love to play together. The only thing is: Emily sometimes doesn't know what to watch for when they play together.

Emily is very protective of her loveys. This is a rare occassion when she didn't mind Andy sharing her favorite security blanket. Both kids love smelling and touching the blanket. Wonder what was in it?!