10 More Days

Is Tennessee ready for this

Signs

I don't believe that there are only 12 differents types of people in the world described by the astrological zodiac signs and neither do my people.  Instead, there are 12 animals (earthly signs)  in the vietnamese lunar calendar and 10 heavenly stems in a 60 year cycle.  So, there are at least 60 different types of people in the world :) 

We collect figurines of our earthly signs.  My mom is a monkey.  My dad is a tiger. Nghia is a rooster.  Lilly is a pig.  Gigi is a rat (we say mouse to be polite).  Woodie is a dog.  Cole is a snake.  Jonas is a ram.  I'm a cat.  Chis and Van are buffalos.  Fitzgerald will always be my puppy. 

Want to know your vietnamese sign?  click here

A dog. A cat. And two buffalos

Thanksgiving Part 2

Holiday season is here!  Family, food, friends, food, and more food.  I love that feeling of home for the holidays.  Things haven't changed since I was a kid at my parent's home.  We lounge about all day.  Talk, nibble on food, take pictures, feast, sit around because we're too full from eating.  It is leisure central.  My parent's home is familiar and warm.  I walk in the house and instantly return to my childhood - my mom's home cooking, my dad's shuffling feet, Nghia tapping on the keyboard.  It was a good Thanksgiving.  I hope to create the same warm fuzzies for Van.

Can't get enough of his aunties

Oops, we did it again

When Cole was a baby we fooled him to thinking that mom was always around.  All 3 of us wore a white top and the same perfume.  We went shopping  while caring for Cole and he was none the wiser.  Coincidentally, we wore the same color on Thanksgiving.  Weird sister thing.  We plan to do this again to Van.  Momma needs a new pair of shoes. Hee hee!

Gobble, gobble, yum

The classic pose

Maddie is camera ready

Pudge is camera ready

So not camera ready

A First

Thanksgiving

We've kicked off the holiday season with our friends' Thankgiving celebration.  We're a growing clan with all our kids, puppies, and husbands.  We enjoyed the day with stuffed bellies and lots of laughter. 

Trae, Cathie, Kegan, Van , and Mia

Baked apples with sweet potato stuffing yummm - Thank you Erin, Kegan, and Abigail

Sonya's warm touches to hosting this year's festivity

After food and fun, the men retreat to Carlos' man cave

TGIF

I'm new at this blogging gig.  Just added two features at the top right corner of the web page.  Ok- Chris did it for me.  First is the RSS feed - links you to updated posts accessed from your reader service (Google reader). Basically, you have one point of access to all the places you have subscribe to.  Yes, my sentence ended with a preposition. Wiki speak:
"RSS (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication" but sometimes "Rich Site Summary") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format"

For more info: BBC speak
 
Second is the subscribe via email. Obviously it enables you to receive email alerts of new posts from this blog.

BTW, it's FRIDAY!

Gotcha

Nghia is always the first to dodge a camera.  Our family albums are confettied with brushy permed hairdos, embarassing 90s outfits, and lots of photos of my mom posing next to flowers.  Nghia is usually behind the camera but not this time :)

Missed Again

I'm still off the mark with Van's hat size.  grr.

You're killin' me Mom

Temperatures finaling dropped below 70F.  So, I just couldn't resist getting out Van's winter gear.  hee hee

Why must she do this to me

Adverse Event

This should have clued us into what would happen next...

Pears in the morning

Pears spewing onto the floor.  Eeew.

Van is not a fan of pears, apparently

But he'll eat octopus.  Dats my bebe

Yes, I plan to get full use of that Cmas hat

Too early for Cmas

Guessing Van's size while he was in utero was kind of tricky.  I got it right for his Halloween outfit but way off for his Cmas outfit hat.  So, it's Cmas in Nov.

Luv dis bebe

I just left a surprise in my pants for Daddy

Sisters

I never knew I needed my sister in-laws until I became a mom. Yup, I was naive to all the dizzingly wonderful complexities of parenthood. A phone call may seemed like nothing.  An email maybe was of convenience.  Nope, not to me.  Their words held onto me.  Gratitude isn't enough.
I never knew I needed my sisters until they show up at my door, take my first born and kick Chris and me out of the house to have some quality time.  Van was in loving hands.  My sisters were giving me what I never knew I needed- time to be still.  Gone for exactly 50 minutes, we had lunch at Little Bigs.  It felt fabulous to be outside and unnerving to be without Van.  Gratitude isn't enough.

Baby Snatchers R Us

Good lord, she's gonna eat me

My sisters and sister in-laws give Van what I cannot.  The love from adoring aunts.  Van needs them too.  He is counting down the days until his Tennessee Chrismas.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Making baby food turns out to be fun.  It's not like grinding corn or churning butter.  Cook if needed, mash with fork/blender/food mill, add breast milk.  Done.

Going high tech for this banana

Uncle Neal and Uncle Art said crawfish goes well with bananas.  Yes?

A sippy cup?  No, Van's new chew toy

Eat 'em if you got 'em

Van "accidentally" drops apple pieces on the floor for his buddy to find.  Fitzgerald is quickly learning to police the highchair during meals.

Halloween

We trekked over to the Woodlands to celebrate Halloween with everyone. Van was not in the best of moods.  So no cowin' around for him (cheeeeeze)

Van Squared

 Nam Van and Van Lewis attached at the hip stomach

My parents are experienced grandparents.  They know how to spoil their grandkids.  Attention, love, and kisses for all to have.  They are good at sneaking dollar bills into grandkids' pockets too.  I've seen my mom dote on Cole and Jonas, feeding her delicious food to them until it hurts - even with Jonas's healthy appetite.  I'm a daddy's girl.   It melts my heart to see my dad love on Van.  Grandmom is soon to follow with the loving and playing too.  I'm lucky to have my mom and dad and Van is even luckier.

Solid Poo

Van is starting solids...

Mmmm zebra- the other white meat

I'll eat anything

But not avocados- yucky!