Nothing Short of Amazing

My first born, my son, my daughter's protector, my husband's mini me. My son's personality is blossoming and it is wonderful to see him shine. He is an absolute character!

My Boy has not had it easy, even though he is just two years and four months old. At the age of six months old, he was diagnosed with severe acid reflux. He was throwing up every day for about three to six times daily. It was absolutely horrible. He was on different medications, we were seeing different doctors and specialist, he was receving OT twice a week, and the list goes on. He was not eating much and was only in the fifth percentile for his weight. It was so frustrating. I felt like an unfit mother because I could not even feed my child. Through his medical problems, he was still flourishing with his language development and fine and gross motor skills (other than eating of course). He spoke his first word at nine months, "alright!" At one year, he was speaking over 25 words. At 18 months, he was speaking well over 260 words (yes, my Hubster and I actually wrote a list down of all the words). Then after his second birthday, our long awaited prayers were answered. He stopped throwing up. He took an interests in food and eating. It was a miracle. I was elated, but did not want to keep my hopes up because I thought it might be too good to be true. But then days of not throwing up turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. My Boy is now off all medications and is a healthy little boy.

My Boy absolutely loves animals. I'm not just talking about your average dog, cat, bird, cow, and pig. I'm talking about lemurs, humpback whales, toucans, macaws, orcas, jaguars, puffer fish, clown fish, and the list goes on. It's amazing to see a two year old go though animal flashcards and animal books and name all of the exotic animals, their different body parts, and what their diet is. It is also amazing when I see my son correcting his Uncle 'R' of a picture of a lemur is not a monkey as his uncle thought it was, or correcting his Grandma that the animal figurine she thought was a dog is actually a hyena, or his Aunt 'S' thinking that the picture of the seal is really a walrus, or his Grandpa calling a killer whale a Shamu is actually an orca LOL.

Don't get me wrong, he is in his terrible twos and gets his daily doses of timeouts. And as much as I dislike this age with tantrums, I absolutely love it as well because he is just soaking up everything like a sponge.

My Hubster and I often like to talk about what our kids might be when they grow up. When we talk about our son, we could really see him becoming a veterinarian, or a doctor, or a marine biologist. Whatever he decides to become, we know that he'll be nothing short of amazing.

I Thought Bubbles Were Always Supposed to be Fun

It was a Tuesday afternoon and we just came home from a birthday dinner. My Girl was asleep for her late nap and My Boy was still full of energy. I decided to take out the bubbles I had purchased the other day and burn off some of My Boy's energy out in the front yard.

Needless to say, it didn't pan out as I had planned. My son insisted that he blew the bubbles and not mommy. All I kept hearing for the first ten minutes was, "I'll do it Mama! I'll do it Mama!" Then ten minutes after that it was, "I can't do it Mama!" Instead of blowing straight out and forward, My Boy was blowing up into his nose. I couldn't help but laugh at my son's misfortune and snap my camera away...I know I'm a horrible mother. I then had to have our infamous "can't" talk. He's at that age where he wants to do everything on his own and when he has trouble doing things, he gets so bummed out that he cries and screams that he can't complete the task. I always tell him he can do anything he puts his mind to as long as he is patient and has a good attitude about it. So instead of blowing bubbles through the wand, we twirled with the bubble wand. We did not get as much bubbles as we would have if we blew it, but it got the job done.

I thought bubbles were always supposed to be fun?

I Want Out of the Box

It will be exactly 10 days, 10 hours, and 12 minutes since I last had any communication with my Hubster. My Hubster is at NTC (National Training Center) for one month. For two weeks he's in "the box" and they take all of the soldiers' cell phones because they work with live explosives that can be set off by cell phones. I am more than half way through the two weeks and I have my good days and have had my bad days. What is helping me get through these two weeks is knowing he is safe and not deployed just yet...key phrase just yet. However, what has been difficult for me is when people ask me, "How's your husband?" Yes, a simple question to some is so complicated for me to answer. I simply say, "He's doing well." But in the back of my mind I want to say, "I don't know how my husband is doing. I haven't had any communication with him for X amount of days. I don't know if he's taken a shower for days, has eaten a hot meal, or just had the same MRE meal, or is still in the same filthy ACUs for the week, or has gotten more than two hours of sleep because he was on a mission or on tower guard... I DON'T KNOW". However, a simple "He's doing well" will suffice.

Being an Army wife has been one of the hardest things that God has blessed me with, but I truly believe that God chose this path for me because I CAN do it. My Hubster and I CAN do it. My family and I CAN do it. Most importantly, we will do it and we are doing it. I have learned so much and am so much stronger since my Hubster joined the Army. I am so proud of him for what he does every day. My Hubster has one deployment under his belt and only one more before his term ends.

So for now, the kiddos sleep with their Papa dolls, we watch videos of him reading us bedtime stories, I read old text messages from him, and I listen to his last voicemail he left me telling me to kiss our kiddos for him and that he loves me and misses me.

My Boy

My Boy and I had a wonderful Sunday afternoon at the park.

We played on the playground equipment.

We played peek-a-boo.

We picked flowers in the grass.

We slid down the slide.

We shouted out at the top of our lungs.

We conquered our fears of the shakey playground bridge.

We ran around in circles.

We played in the sand and got dirty.

We danced like nobody was watching us.

We learned to be patient and wait our turn.

We tried to catch a lizard...

...And got too brave for our own good.

We walked on dirt trails.

We smiled and laughed.

We had a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

In a Blink of an Eye

Witty. Stunning. Beautiful. Amazing.

These are only some of the words that describe this young lady. This yet again is one of my cousins, 'A'. Although she is only six years younger than me, of legal age to consume alcoholic beverages, living on her own, and graduating from college this May, I still consider her my little cousin.

Growing up, her sister 'B' and I would always dress 'A' up...Usually for church on Sundays. 'B' would usually pick out her outfit and try to put make-up on her. I was in charge of styling 'A's hair and it was usually a hot mess. I would go crazy with the curling iron and hairspray. Imagine a six year old, Asian Annie with bangs...At the time, I thought it was a masterpiece, but looking back at old childhood pictures and videos, I don't know what we were thinking.

'A' will be graduating from California State University of Fullerton this May with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Kinesiology. She asked me to take her pictures at the school and I was more than delighted. During our shoot, as I was behind my camera looking through my lens, I couldn't help but get a little emotional. My little cousin seemed to have grown up into this gorgeous, radiant woman in what seemed to be as quick as the shutter speed of my camera (not to mention, a grim reminder of how old I'm getting as well).So as you enjoy and see these pictures of this gorgeous new graduate, I still see in the distance, my Asian Annie with bangs of a little cousin.

Fullerton, California

A Mother and Her Son

'B' is my sister that I never had, my cousin, my maid-of-honor on the day I married my best friend, and one of the few people who really know me. Growing up, we were inseparable. We would dress alike from head to toe whenever we could. We would have sleepovers and tell each other our deepest darkest secrets. We would dream and talk about our future and plan out our lives down to the name of our fourth child that we both planned on having at the same time. My fondest memories of my childhood, teenage years, and even college experience were with 'B'.

She is a smart, intelligent, hard-working , and an independent woman, of whom I am very proud of. She is a loving and wonderful mother.

Not to mention, absolutely STUNNING. What can I say...I have a beautiful family (I'll be taking pictures of her little sister and will be posting on a future post).

This handsome little man is 'B's son and my godson 'J'.

And these two are some of my favorite people in the world.

La Jolla, California

My Girl

A mother's treasure is her daughter. ~Catherine Pulsifer

Torrey Pines

I was given the opportunity, yet again, to shoot as a second for my good friend 'J'.

'R' has a wonderful laugh and smile that is so contagious. She wanted to have pictures taken at her favorite spot, Torrey Pines. She wanted pictures taken to track her progress in her weight loss. It was such a pleasure shooting 'R' because she was so relaxed, fun, and full of energy. She let 'J' and I experiment different poses, angles, and ideas. It was amazing!