When A Child Is Born: May Birthdays, Butterflies, and fun

May started with some time spent in Tulsa with Amy and Dad because of Dad's heart problems. We are so thankful that Dad is improving day by day now. While we were there, we were touched by Dad's friendly neighbors who dropped by to ask about Dad, who brought us pizzas, who offered baby-sitting, who went to the hospital to visit Dad, who saved Dad's life by calling 911 and took care of him when we were not able to ... That's kind of community that David and I have been praying for our new home to be in. And may we be those neighbors to others in the future!
Since Amy and Andy share the same birthday. Dad's birthday was one week after. We had a combined birthday celebration in the hospital.

Here are a couple of pics of Dad with the grandkids. I thought they turned out pretty good except that Sophia's face was blocked and Andy didn't know what was going on since he stood at the very front. Didn't Dad look great?

On Andy's actual birthday, he had a candle on the cinnamon roll for breakfast and played all day at Grandpa's house. He was so proud of himself to be two years old. So did we! During the past year, our baby has grown so much, from speaking in words to talking in sentences; from walking with help to running and spinning; from wearing diapers to putting on the big boy underwear, from sleeping in the crib to staying in the big boy bed ... He knows all the uppercase alphabet and numbers 1 to 10. He can count to 14 in English and 10 in Chinese. He can spell his first name… He loves dancing and singing. He is a people-pleaser and observer. He is so tender-hearted and friendly. He learns and adapts to changes easily. We wish he will always keep these good traits. We are so lucky to have both of our children!

"Wake up birthday boy!" As soon as he woke up in Dad's King size bed, he rolled over and gave Emily a hug "Good morning, Emily!"

This balloon candle is Andy's favorite candle. "Happy Birthday Andy!"

After breakfast, the kids played in the backyard with Amy and David's childhood tricycles.

And they giggled and danced their hearts out

"Now, how old are you, Andy?"

The kids and I came home first. David and Amy stayed several days longer. On the way home, we had a great time enjoying the road trip. We stopped for lunch, potty, and running around at the state line. The kids did amazingly well. They were happy and cooperative the whole time.

We had Dawn and Jarrod over for dinner after we came back from Tulsa. We had a great time. After dinner, Jarrod showed us a trick/talent to spin the ball with one index finger. The kids took on the challenge and wanted to try right away!

We made up for Andy's birthday at home with Gayla and Mary Ellen on the following Saturday. Since Andy loves fish, we made everything fish.

"Gayla and Mary Ellen are here!" They brought Andy's favorite toys: balloons, ball, blocks, bubles, book (all "b"s!)

I made the cake pops per Andy's request

Andy's mini fish cake

Grilled cheese sandwiches before they are grilled

Fish fruit plate: Because I ran out of time, I didn't outline the fish as I planned to.

Andy loved blowing the candles. He asked Daddy to light the candles again several times after he blew them out.

Andy's favorite people:

After the kids took a nap, we played a fish game with home-made fishing pole:

We got this workbench for Andy's birthday. They spent a lot of time building and hammering for the next several days.

Later in May, Dawn and I took the kids to the Butterfly festival at the mall. It was really a neat experience. I think we all enjoyed it more than the discovery garden at the Fair Park.

Andy was trying to attract the butterflies with his flavored q-tip. I guess he wanted the butterflies to land on his forehead so he put the q-tip on his forehead.

Emily picked out her own clothes that morning. I didn't even know she had that shirt in her drawer. It was perfect. See, the butterfly that landed on her shoulder looked exactly the same as the one on her shirt!

Austin tried to catch the butterfly with his q-tip

Butterflies were everywhere!!! The kids were totally amazed.

Before we entered the butterfly tent, the kids played at the play area for a while. Andy quickly made a friend. She did all kinds of tricks to make Andy laugh.

The kids' favorite playmates. Aren't they adorable?

Andy's dancing in the mall on the way home

After the exhibition, we took a Butterfly Larvae home to watch the transformation. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the whole process. Two days later after we ran some errands in the morning, David noticed this huge butterly in the cup.

We released the butterfly in the backyard. It took a while for the butterfly to learn to fly. It hopped from places to places until it landed on a taller grass, then it flapped the wings for almost a dozen times and took off.

Emily's end of year school program was in Mid-May. The theme for the program was sesame street. Emily was Oscar the trash. She did great. She was smiling all the time when she was on the stage and she remembered all the lyrics for the songs!

Emily's last day at school with Mrs. Holly

We attended the first services at church on Sundays in May because David was assigned to serve the communions for the first services. After church one Sunday, we dropped by the Asiandragon festival in Irving. Andy loved seeing the kits contest. Emily enjoyed the bouncing house. We bumped into David's FriendSpeak reader there.

Andy watched the dancing with David's reader