Summer passed by all too quickly this year, and I have been really awful at keeping this space updated in the past several weeks. I thought I’d do a little compilation post of photos and videos here of some of our favorite cute/humorous moments captured on camera to share… better late than never, right?
…and thus follows the photo dump of all photo dumps.
Pooltime on the porch.
“Pool boy! Another margarita, please.”
“Just kidding!” 😉
Mio’s been obsessed with TMNT lately (or as she calls them, “masked turtles”). Today she’s Raphael and Mirei’s been anointed as Leonardo. (To me, they look more matsuri-ready…)
Mio patiently waiting for lunch at Santini’s. One of those moments where she still looks like a baby to me.
Lunch out with Daddy… one of her favorite moments.
Gelato and bingsoo at Sweetberry
Sticker-happy after a visit to Trader Joes.
All it takes is a blanket to keep them giggling non-stop!
Mio in her new bed!
Mio lined up these little animal dolls around Mirei as she slept on the Boppy.
Mirei’s first playdate with Lily. Mirei’s always tagging along to playdates for big sister, so it was nice to have a playdate for Mirei for once!
Mio pretending to kick Mirei… tsk tsk. Sisters…
Not sure what is going on here, but it looks like Mio is attempting to lick Mirei’s back?!
Mirei carrying big sister’s Minion backpack… which is almost the same size as her.
Such a funny sight!
Sisters both napping, in similar positions but in different places. (Mio fell asleep where she was playing, as usual…)
Mirei making an interesting fashion statement… (she can thank Auntie Miwa)
Crawling everywhere!
Sweet Mio
Our little angel ♥
She loves to roll herself up in her blankets.
Silly girl ♥
Mirei pulling herself up to stand by the cooler.
Mio playing frisbee with Daddy and Auntie in the backyard.
Mio coming down the slide at Meadow Lane Park
Sleeping giant at the park.
Mio riding the roundabout at the park:
Mirei being held by Obaachan
7 month old Mirei
Mio painting on the porch
Caught red-handed, getting into the diapers and making a mess!
Looking a lot like Daddy!
Going to the Lee District spray park again on Labor Day.Â
with my sweet M&Ms.
Mirei with Daddy
Mio is very much into making faces in selfies lately. She looks very fierce here!
Kissy-face selfie.
Mio likes to be in a “towel burrito,” as she calls it, after bathtime.
M&M in the window.
Standing in the crib already!
Our first time going to Japanese Storytime – wish I’d known about it sooner! Mirei was actually quite the social butterfly, constantly crawling away to other babies, making new friends. Mio preferred keeping to herself and exploring all the books there.
An ecstatic Mio with her mango popsicle.
Our resident flappy-bird…
Mirei playing with a taiko toy at a birthday party.
Spending a Sunday at the park
Stay forever Sunday.
Mirei will pull herself up to standing position every opportunity she gets!
This summer, in addition to ballet class and gymnastics class, I enrolled Mio in a program called Variety Zone, in which she can sample a little bit of each of the children’s programs offered in the county. In this class, the children rotate through different programs, experiencing two days each of Preschool Picassos, Gym Jam, Magic Kitchen, Wild about the Wild and Adventures in Gardening, over the course of eight weeks (one day a week).
Here are some photos and videos I took of Mio at the classes over the past couple months.
Making glitter fireworks for 4th of July for Preschool Picassos.
Adventures in Gardening class
Planting peas, garlic, and a sunflower.
Learning about the growth cycle of apple trees in Adventures in Gardening
Shaking up the whipping cream in Magic Kitchen. I think Magic Kitchen was Mio’s favorite among the programs, because it involved eating the creations. 😉
A video of Mio shaking the whipped cream, chopping up the fruits, and eating the completed snack.
Making marshmallow spiders!
Look at that smile! (Magic Kitchen, week 2)
Making girl and boy cookies out of crumbled graham crackers, cheese, pretzels, and raisins.
Gym Jam! It was also a hit with Mio, since she loves bouncing around and being active.
Our little athlete had a great time!
The program was a really fun way for Mio to sample a variety of fun activities over the summer, and she was always excited every week to go to the class! (I think she had more fun with it than gymnastics and ballet.) I really recommend it as a nice way to keep the kids occupied, especially during the summer when they’re out of school.
A bonus video of Mio from one of her last ballet classes:
We had a busy weekend, attending a couple birthday parties on Saturday and then BrickFair LEGO Convention on Sunday with friends! See all the weekend fun below…
Dan holding Mirei at Clara’s birthday party.
Mio wading in one of the pools that were set out in the front yard.
The kids having fun with the water balloons.
The theme of the party was Frozen, and Mio loved all the Frozen-themed snacks!
Mio was having so much fun, but we had to leave Clara’s birthday party a little early so that we could also attend Augustine’s first birthday party, which was held at Westwood Country Club in Vienna.
The beautiful spread for Augustine’s first birthday! I had the honor of designing the backdrop.
Look at those amazing cake pops and cupcakes!
Mio getting her face painted.
Hello Kitty!
Mio smiling at herself in my phone camera.
There were cute props at every table!
Guest’s wishes for Augustine hanging on a tree. Such a beautiful idea!
Xiaolu meets Mirei
Doljanchi tradition… Auggie picked the ball! Future athlete!
Auggie with his parents and grandparents!
Mio was so excited that the balloon twister made her a ninja turtle balloon!
The birthday party had so much detail and thought put into it, and was extravagant like a wedding! Ploi did such an amazing job of throwing a birthday party to remember!
My brother stopped by the house while Mio was eating Pop Rocks for the first time (they were in a goody bag), in this pose. He asked, “What are you doing, Mio?” to which she deadpanned, “I’m popping.” lol
On Sunday, we got to go to the BrickFair LEGO Convention at the Dulles Expo Center because our friends had extra tickets! It was the largest gathering of LEGO enthusiasts in the area and there were quite a lot of impressive LEGO creations to see!
Mio and Kosei with a minion made out of LEGOs
LEGO Egyptian civilization
LEGO castle and soldiers
I particularly liked this theme park made out of moving LEGOs!
Mirei getting lots of hugs from Kosei. He’s got the big brother thing down!
Special thanks to the Smith family for inviting us along to BrickFair! It was a lot of fun for the whole family! 🙂
On Wednesday, I took Mirei to the doctor for her 6 month wellness exam. She was her usual cheery self, beaming and smiling at the nurse and doctor and charming the socks off of everyone! She got her routine immunizations and just let out some whiney cries before quickly calming when getting her shots.
Mirei’s been growing so much over the first few months of her life that I thought that surely she would have tapered off a little in the pace of her growth since her four month visit two months ago, but nope! She wowed both me and the nurse with her off-the-charts growth stats!
Mirei now weighs an impressive 21 lbs 6 oz, which pushes her off the charts in weight compared to other 6 month olds. No wonder my arms feel sore!
She measured 28.5 inches tall, putting her off the charts in height-for-age as well.
Her head size is now 17.5 inches, which is in the 95th growth percentile based on head circumference-for-age.
I can’t believe that Mirei has gained a whole three pounds and grown two inches in the last couple months! I wonder when her growth is going to start tapering off… I don’t know if our arms can handle her getting much heavier so quickly! The other night, we measured the circumference of her thighs and compared it against her head circumference… and the difference was only about 1.5 inches. Hers are the definition of thunder thighs! But we love how chubby and healthy she is — makes her all the more squeezable!
Here are some photos and videos of Mirei from this past month.
Mirei taking a bath a few weeks ago
As of a couple weeks ago, she’s been sitting up in the bathtub!
She loves bathtime.
Mirei in her chubby naked glory
Finally got a photo of her first teeth!
Mirei teething
Look at all that drool…
Recently Mirei has discovered how to blow raspberries, and she’s been doing it a lot this week!
Since Mirei turned 6 months old on Friday, we introduced her to solids for the first time on Monday evening, after coming back from our weekend camping. Here’s a video that we captured of her first taste of solids! (We gave her baby cereal made of single grain oatmeal.)
She doesn’t seem super enthusiastic about it and wasn’t able to retain the spoonfuls very well in her mouth, so it kept dribbling out, but in the end she ended up eating most of it!
