Potty Training, Gardening and Gymnastics

Isabella has been using the potty for number ONE business for many months now (since she was 18 months), but asks for a diaper when she needs to make a bowel movement. This weekend, with the encouragement and enthusiasm of her Father, Isabella pooped in the potty both Saturday and Sunday. We are so proud of you Isabella. No more dirty diapers for Mommy to clean?!?!

As of late, Daddy and Issey have picked up the love for gardening. Daddy is so proud of the vegetables and flowers in our garden. Issey helps water the plants every day.

I guess Issey prefers to use the BIG watering pot. But she does not like getting wet or dirty!
She is too adorable in her gardening outfit.

This weekend was her last day at gymnastics. Issey was learned so much from taking these classes.

Here are some videos of Issey crawling across the floor She is the toddler in a red t-shirt and black velour pants. She is the only 2 year old in the toddler (3-4 years old) class. So I think she is doing very well!

Issey galloping across the floor:

Issey balancing on two beams:

First Day at Preschool (Orientation)

Today, Daddy took Issey to her first day at Alderwood House School. We all got up around 8:00AM and started to get ready for the day. Issey picked out a pair of black faded skinny jeans and a white t-shirt. All three of us were so excited for Isabella's first day. We had some milk and a hard boiled egg for breakfast. We left the house around 8:30AM and Issey arrived to school at 9:00AM.

Then at 10:45AM, I got the call from Mark informing me that Isabella was done with school. "Done with school", I replied with a tone of concern. Well, it turns out that the Princess wanted to leave after snack time. She refused to eat the apple but enjoyed the crackers.

Alright, the first day did not go great... so we'll try again on July 06. Perhaps Mommy will take Issey to school then.

Issey, Mommy understands how hard it is to start something new like school, but I am confident that you will enjoy it after you make some friends and find a comfortable routine. Soon you'll ask Mommy and Daddy to take you to school everyday (7 days a week?!?!?). I look forward to witnessing all your scholastic endeavors and friendships you will make.

Revisit the Doctor

We took Isabella to see Dr. Tiah to get the results from her blood work. Although there is cause for celebrations, we also received some bad news...

Isabella is not anemic and all her white/red blood counts were normal! YEAH!

The bad news... Isabella is iron deficient. Being iron deficient for a long time may result in becoming anemic. This means she is not consuming enough iron-rich foods such as red meat and spinach. So we will have to supplement her diet with Iron drops until we are able to introduce iron-rich foods to Isabella.

We have to give her Ferrous Sulphate 20mg elemental iron bi-daily (1.3ml) for THREE months. These are drops consumed orally and may stain teeth so it is recommended that we brush her teeth after consuming the drops. It is also recommended that we give her orange juice immediately after the iron as OJ helps with the iron absorption.

Isabella is now 12.8 kg (or 28.21916955968lbs) which is 0.4 kgs heavier than the Doctor's previous visit.

Gymnastics and Father's Day

This is the 3rd Father's Day we have shared together as a family. This is the first year Issey was able to help Mommy pick out a Father's Day card for Daddy. She pick the musical card with a song that sang "Born to be wi-i-ild..". We gave the card to Daddy on Sunday morning after Daddy got up from his late night on the Mel Productions Boat Cruise the night before.

On Saturday, we went to gymnastics class as usual. She has mastered the roll. This is a great achievement considering Issey is only 26 months but performing at a 3 to 4 years physical level. She has a good grasp on the parallel bars and able to excel in the running category.






After class, we headed to Grandpa's house for a seafood feast in celebration of Father's Day. We had two types of crabs, lobster and salad. It was a lot of food! We celebrated with three Dads, Thanh, Ivan and Mark.

Sunday was Father's day for Mark. We joined my parents and sister for early morning Dim Sum at Dai Tung and then headed to Corpus Christi for Sunday morning mass. After church, we all fell asleep on Mommy's bed for a few hours. When we all decided to get up, it was Daddy's choice for dinner so Mark wanted to visit a New Westminster bar which was hosting a Trinidadian Father's Day event. We got plenty jerk chicken, rice, bake and much more. We even got a box of food for Monday's lunch.

Mommy or Daddy?

Like father like daughter? Yes, Isabella definitely got her rhythm from Daddy (that is a good thing). She loves to sing and dance.





But she got her fashion sense from mommy (and that is a good thing)!

The Vanity

Today, Isabella is TWO years, TWO months, TWO weeks and TWO days old! I guess it is yet another milestone and celebrations are in order. Mommy will be taking Issey out the whole day to various venues and shopping malls. It will be Mommy and Issey day.

Last evening, Auntie Lisa bought Issey a Disney Princess Vanity that has a big mirror, drawers and a stool seat (all pink of course). Issey loves the set and spent many hours playing with it. She knew how to use the comb, brush, nail polish and perfume that came with the set. She even put nail polish on Mommy and the cabbage patch kid doll. She adores imaginative play time.

Life Labs

We have been procrastinating on the blood test for Isabella for two weeks now. Finally, Mark decided it was time. We left work early and took Isabella to the Life Lab yesterday afternoon. We wanted to test for various blood disorders.

I could not take Isabella into the room as my heart breaks any time I hear her cry. Plus, I knew I was not strong enough to hold her down myself. So Daddy rolled up his sleeves and took Issey in for the blood test.

I heard her yell for Mommy and her breathless cries of pain... but I could not do anything until it was over. As soon as it was over, I ran into the room to embrace and ensure her everything was going to be alright.

When Daddy joined us, he said that it was one of the hardest things he has had to do. Plus, it was an awful day to put her in a long sleeve shirt!

Now we just have to wait for the results. We have an appointment with the pediatrician early next week.

Parent-Teacher Meeting

We registered for Issey to commence preschool at Alderwood House School (http://www.alderwoodhouse.com/) in July 2009. So today we have a parent-teacher meeting (our first parent-teacher meeting ever!). I drafted a "Fact Sheet" about Isabella and plan to explain these points to the teacher:

Language:
Isabella is multilingual. She speaks and understands English, Vietnamese, a little French and a little Chinese. She uses the languages interchangeably, so you may have to ask her to repeat in "ENGLISH". Please note that she has a slight Trinidadian accent when speaking English. So "tree" may mean "three".

Potty Training:
Isabella started potty training at 16 months. She is 90% potty trained with the exception of making bowel movements over the potty.

a. Bowel Movements
- She will ask for a diaper and hide in a corner when she needs to make a bowel movement
- When she is done, (sometimes) she will ask for a change or "change diaper"
- When changing her diaper, please allow her to pick which diaper to put on (i.e., the one with Elmo or Zoe or Big Bird on the front panel of the diaper). This process may take up to three minutes. We appreciate your patience.

b. Urinating
- She will tell you that she needs to use the potty by telling you "poo". "Poo" means "pee"
- Once she says "poo", you will have about 20 seconds to attend to her before an accident
- She requires assistance with pulling off and putting on her underpants
- Isabella does not know how to flush the toilet
- She requires a gentle reminder to wash her hands after using the potty
- On the rare occasion, she will have an accident in bed (usually if we are not around to immediately respond to her "poo" request

Food and Nutrition:
Isabella is an extremely picky eater. We would like to introduce more variety to her diet.
a. Milk
- Isabella consumes about 24oz of milk per day
- She consumes milk from a baby bottle for comfort but will drink from a sippy cup or glass
- She usually has milk before nap time or bed time
b. Snacks
- Isabella loves crackers (i.e., gold fish crackers)
- She likes water and apple juice
- She does not like fruit or vegetables
c. Meal time
- Isabella likes plain pasta, fried chicken, french fries, plain rice and hard boiled eggs

Nap time:
Isabella requires a blanket (she will ask for "blankey") and a bottle of milk before settling down for a nap. We have always had to carry her until she is half asleep before putting her down on the bed.

Playtime:
Isabella enjoys dancing, singing, drawing and imaginative play with cars/trains/dolls. Please do not be alarmed if she breaks out in a dance or song. She is just expressing her individuality.

Random Words:
Isabella shouts "SpongeBob Square Pant" really loud sometimes... Usually, no one understands what she is saying.

She will ask you "what is" or "who is" when she is unfamiliar with something or someone. Please try to answer her questions.

Loud Noise:
She is sensitive to unexpected loud noise or unfamiliar loud sounds. You may need to calm her down by explaining to her where and why noise.

Hyper-activity:
Isabella has a hard time breathing when she is performing an intense physical activity. You may need to remind her to slow down and breath. Your neglect to remind her to slow down may result in vomit EVERYWHERE. We are currently working with her pediatrician with this issue.

Weekend Fun in the Sun

As usual, Isabella and Daddy went to Richmond for Gymnastics class Saturday morning. Isabella always enjoy gymnastics class as she gets to see her two cousins Luke and Ian who recently joined. Ian and Isabella are in the same class. Luke is an an older class. As usual, we went out for Dim Sum after class and ordered the usual dishes. We spent the rest of Saturday relaxing at home.

We knew Sunday would be eventful as we planned to head to Surrey to Uncle Terry and Auntie Orencia's for a fun filled afternoon with friends and family.

On Sunday, we all got up on time for 10:00AM mass at Corpus Christi. After church, we visited a nearby park for some play time. Isabella made lots of friends at the park and had a blast. We knew Isabella needed a long nap before heading to Surrey at 4:30PM so we drove around our area hoping Princess would fall asleep. After about 20 minutes of driving, we gave up and went home. Isabella managed to fall asleep around 2:00PM and did now wake up until we arrived in Surrey at 5:00PM.

We had so much fun in Surrey. Isabella played with her three cousins, Ivan and little Gracie. Issey is truly a Princess as she did not want to touch the grass with her bare feet and insisted that we put shoes on her or carry her... she preferred the latter of course. :-)

The Visit to the Doctor's Office

We visited a pediatrician on Thursday June 4, 2009 for a general checkup and to ask about Isabella's allergies, situation with the vomiting and difficulty breathing when participating in heavy physical activities.

The pediatrician took all of Isabella's measurements and informed us that her height and weight are at the 50 percentile for an average Caucasian toddler. Her head measured in the 90 percentile for an average Caucasian toddler. Wow, I think the huge head is an Aleong trait?!?

She weighed 27.5lbs!!!

After the visit to the Doctor's office, we decided to head to the local beaches of Vancouver city. It was a hot sunny day with a slight breeze.

Like a fish, Mark went swimming in the cold water while Issey and Mommy enjoyed the beautiful weather under the trees. Here is a lovely photo Daddy captured of Mommy and Issey relaxing on the beach towel.

After a while, Issey got tired and pretended to sleep under the towels.











.. And then she decided to climb into the her Dora suitcase. She is such a flexible baby!

Daddy's Little Girl

For about half a year now, Issey has been sleeping with her Daddy so Mommy can get a full eight hour rest at night. Sometimes, Issey would sleep with Mommy on the weekends or in the early hours when Daddy was really tired. Lately, when I try to sleep with Issey, she has cried for Daddy.


Her attachment and bond to Daddy is becoming very apparent. I suppose this is inevitable as Mark has always been responsible for bath time and any extracurricular activities (swimming lessons, pool days, gymnastics, park time, etc).

So I wanted to reminisce about all those special Mommy-Baby moments captured on film.

A moment captured when Isabella was only one month old sleeping in Mommy's arm. Isabella and Mommy at Uncle Steve and Auntie Sharon's Wedding in July 2007. In a Basilica in Ottawa in September 2007. Vacationing in Tobago in January 2008.

Finally, Issey and Mommy at Uncle Mark and Auntie Delia's Wedding in May 2009. I feel so blessed to have such a beautiful, intelligent and loving daughter to love and cherish for many years to come.

Dinner with Auntie Karen

Last night, we had Auntie Karen over for a nice salmon dinner. It was just the girls as Mark was out watching soccer with his friends.

We spent the whole evening talking about trips to Asia, homes in the Vancouver area and general girl talk. Issey even danced for Auntie K Trini style of course.

Thanks Auntie K for the pink sweatshirt from Disneyland Hong Kong! Auntie K always gets Issey mementos from various Disneylands and Disney Worlds from all her travels. Was the wine from Korea or Hong Kong? I doesn't matter, I am sure it will be delicious!!!

"What is..."

Issey's new phrase of the week is "What is...". She will ask "what is" when ever she sees something new or unfamiliar to her. I may be biased but I think she is extremelyntelligent for a 2 year old toddler. She speaks three languages: English, Vietnamese and French. Last night, the show Ni Hoa Kai Lan was on TV and she said, "mommy, c'est Kai Lan!" I was simply amazed!

She is still enjoying her nightly episodes of the Tom and Jerry Show before bed.

Issey is learning to pose for pictures. Here are some photos grandpa took:

Around the World in 24 Months

Montreal (Sept 2007)
The trip to Montreal was Isabella's first flight. We were nervous and excited to begin our travels with Isabella. She was a trooper and only cried from Vancouver to Edmonton! She slept like a baby the rest of the way.

Mark gave me the grand tour of Montreal since he lived there while studying at McGill University.

We even started Isabella on solids since they had the Mother Hen products over here. She loved the yam puree!!!

We had a blast visiting Uncle Johnny and Auntie Rosa!


Toronto, Canada (Sept 2007)
Toronto was part of our East Coast visit. We stayed in a lovely hotel in downtown Toronto. It rained most of the time but we managed to visit most family and friends.



Ottawa, Canada (Oct 2007)
The last part of our East Coast visit was an extended stay in beautiful Ottawa. As it was a business trip for Mark, Issey and Mommy spent the day shopping, visiting monuments and museums. In the evening, we would meet up with Daddy for dinner and a stroll around the area.

We stayed in a hotel in the middle of downtown Ottawa so everything was within walking distance. We got to visit Uncle Nigel, Uncle Mike and Uncle John.

Issey even went to her fist hockey game... the Senators vs. Sharks?


San Francisco, USA (Oct 2007)
We visited San Francisco to attend Uncle Patrick's wedding.

We stayed with Auntie Quyen and Uncle Ulf at their lovely home in Alameda.




Trinidad (Dec 2007 - Feb 2008)
Although Grandma and Grandpa came to Vancouver to meet their seventh grandchild in June 2007, we wanted to show Isabella the beautiful beaches of Trinidad. Also, we wanted Isabella to learn about the culture and history of Trinidad. This photo was taken in from of Movie Town.

Auntie Karen met us in Trinidad for the last two weeks.


Tobago (Dec 2007 - Feb 2008)
Tobago is the sister island of Trinidad. It is a tourist island with beautiful white sandy beaches, calm blue water and tropical trees and flora. Tobago was one of the Islands we visited on our Honeymoon!



Grenada (Feb 2008)
Grenada is another Caribbean island north of Trinidad. We took a small jet plane to the island. It reminded me of San Francisco (the tall hills) with a Caribbean twist.


Washington D.C., USA (Mar 2008)
Washington D.C. was another extended business trip for Mark. Hey, I might as well travel while on maternity leave?!?!

We saw lots of building, museums and monuments. We got to visit Auntie Kelly!

We also visited Uncle Scott's new family.



New Jersey, USA (Mar 2008)
We drove the car to New Jersey to visit Auntie Brigid, Uncle Greg, Catherine and Greggy. We had so much fun with Catherine and Greggy! Auntie Brigid took us to a party store and got us birthday party supplies for Isabella's upcoming birthday party. Thanks Auntie Brigid!





Honolulu Hawaii, USA (June 2008)
Vacation or business trip you ask? BUSINESS TRIP! We stayed at the grand Hilton while in Honolulu! Grandma came with us. We were there for a few weeks soaking in the sun and sand. Isabella enjoyed the warm weather of Honolulu and made many friends.

Uncle Jose's family was there too! We had so much fun playing on the beach with Santi and Sophia!




Germany (Oct 2008)
Yes, Germany was another business trip! So Auntie Lisa, Baby Megan, Issey and mommy packed our bags and met Mark in Germany.





Amsterdam (Oct 2008)
We visited my Uncle's family in Amsterdam and stayed with my cousin in her beautiful home in Amsterdam. Of course we visited the Red Light District.



Paris, France (Oct 2008)
This picture was taken in the garden of Versailles. We spent an entire day exploring the Versailles Palace.

We visited the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Louis Vuitton store and many more sites.

We stayed in a little hotel near the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower looks different at night with all the glittering lights.

Paris was beautiful and cold.


Rome, Italy (Oct 2008)
Rome was amazing and warm. We enjoyed the spectacular culture museums and monuments. The people in Rome were the friendliest people I have ever met. We stayed on a mountain top at the Waldorf Astoria while in Rome (http://www.romecavalieri.com). The room and atmosphere was amazing.

My favorite activity was visiting the ancient ruins.

As for Issey... while in Rome, dress like the Romans! We had to buy her the "Bella" t-shirt and matching purse.

The Italians loved Issey.. Ciao Bella!




Trinidad and Tobago (Feb 2009)
We went home to Trinidad to visit the Grandparents and to enjoy Carnival. We spent a lot of time on the beautiful sandy beaches.

Issey attended her cousin's Birthday party and made a new friend.

We took some beautiful videos of Issey playing in the pool with Daddy in Toco, Trinidad.

Milestones up to 24 Months

SMILING:

GRASPING:

HEAD CONTROL:

ROLLING OVER:

CRAWLING:

SITTING:

TEETHING:

EATING:

STANDING:

WALKING:

SWIMMING:

TALKING:

SENTENCES:

April 03, 2007

This blog was created to share stories with friends and family of our little Princess who arrived at 19:20 on April 03, 2007 weighing 7lbs 7oz.




We were pleasantly surprised the little person tumbling in mommy's belly for nine months was a beautiful baby girl. Originally, we wanted to name a baby girl Gabriella Teresa or Isabella Teresa. As soon as we met out little Princess, mommy and daddy immediately knew... Isabella Teresa Aleong.


We had to stay in the hospital for 10 days as Isabella required light therapy for four days. Plus, mommy was recovering from the emergency C-section.


It was a rainy April afternoon when we took Isabella home. Here are some of my favorite photos we captured over the next few weeks.