We can’t believe that Lily is already two years old. Two years ago right now, she and I were bonding in the hospital, and she was keeping the entire maternity ward floor awake with her *really loud* newborn shrieks in the middle of the night. That girl’s got lungs on her from the very beginning. Heh.

Yesterday, we had her birthday party, and Dave’s side of the family came to celebrate it, as well as one of my friends. She loves playing “hostess,” as she thinks it’s the most awesome thing in the world for people to come over and hang out with us. She was ecstatic to see the decorations.

And even more ecstatic to see the presents piling up. She kept asking, “Presents now? Presents now?” Heh. Yup, the “kid” stage has officially begun.

Our little Lily is so big now, she looks like a little girl instead of a baby. Her baby fat is almost non-existent, with the exception of those darn cheeks she inherited from me. She dressed in her birthday outfit (a onesie with the number “2″ on it, and a yellow tutu I made for her), and she strutted around proud, declaring, “ME! Lily’s birthday!” the entire day. Heh. However, when you told her, “Happy birthday, Lily!” she would respond in like to you. For example, when I said that to her, she’d say back to me, “Happy birthday, Mommy!” She loves sharing the spotlight.

She liked the part where she got to open presents, of course. We were all overwhelmed by the excitement of it all, and how many cool things she got.

She also liked the part where everyone sang her “happy birthday” and she got to blow out the candle on the cake. She thought that was awesome. Her cousin, Jaeden, got to help too.

And then, she got the willies when she actually saw the birthday cake up close (which she chose!). She thought the squiggly icing decorations were “worms,” and refused to eat any of the cake, even after we took the icing off! Silly girl.

Today was actually her official birthday. We didn’t do a whole lot special. We went to the park, for her to slide, as usual. And then we converted her crib into a toddler bed (basically, same bed, just took one of the sides off). She absolutely LOVES having the mobility to get in and out, and she stayed put when it was time for naps and bedtime. What a good little girl! She thinks it’s so awesome being able to *read* in bed!

Our little girl is so wonderful. She is beautiful, smart, loving, kind, LOUD, cheeky, almost always happy, and just an all-around most awesome little creature. So beautiful. In recent weeks, she’s also learned how to tantrum (the full-blown on-the-floor, fist-pounding, leg-stomping, yelling-at-the-top-of-her-lungs type), and says “MY ____” to basically everything, from “car” to “house” to “cat” to “Mommy” (the most popular one: “MY mommy!”). She talks a mile a minute, almost non-stop from the time she wakes up to the time we put her to bed again. She comes up with the funniest phrases and sayings, as well as actions and dances. She makes up her songs and lyrics, and sings all the time. She is just so bubbly, so wonderful in her personality, so loving. She is generous with her kisses, she asks how you are in the mornings, if you’re still tired after waking you up, if you need a nap. She’ll give you hugs so you can feel “all better now,” and she tugs her best friend, “Bubby,” her stuffed pink bunny everywhere she goes.

She is awesome.

When did our toddler grow up to be such a lovely, lively, cheerful young lady, who can converse so well and so accurately and articulately over the phone?

*ring ring ring*
Nana: “Hello?”
Lily: “Hi, Nana!”
Nana: “Hi, sweetheart! It is so good to hear from you.”
Lily: “What doing, Nana?”
Nana: “Nana’s talking on the phone with Lily, and Nana enjoys it so much.”
Lily: “I love you, Nana!”
Nana: “I love you too, Lily. What did you do today?”
Lily: “Eat lunch, Nana! Daddy!”
Nana: “That sounds fun! You’re coming to Nana’s house tomorrow. Did you know that?”
Lily: “Nana’s house!!!”
Nana: “What will you be doing at Nana’s house?”
Lily: *pause.. thinking* “Play toys… and… eat lunch… and… nap time!”
Nana: “I’m looking forward to seeing you, Lily.”
Lily: “Nana’s house, ‘morrow! I love you, Nana! I miss you!”
Nana: “I love you too, baby!”
Lily: “BYE!!!!”

Our little 22-month-old baby girl just read her first book this morning, cover to cover, word for word. She went into her room, got the book, sat down in the rocking chair, got Elmo to sit next to her, and read the book to him. It’s where we usually read to her before bedtime, and she was re-enacting the experience with her Elmo doll. The book she read was “I love you, sun. I love you, moon.” It’s great. Our little reader, reading her first book, full sentences, before she’s even 2 years old. I can’t help but brag and be so proud.

Lily hit off 2010 with turning 18 months old, as I mentioned in the previous post. So far, 2010 is going great. We’re not a “New Year’s Resolutions” type of family, but this year, it was sort of forced upon us. For one, we were looking to get into a new house after the (what seems like) spontaneous sale of our current home. After a roller coaster ride with the first offer and having it fall through within 48 hours of making an offer and having it accepted, we were discouraged, freaked out, stressed, and tired from the whole house hunting scene. So, when we found this house, we were over ecstatic, and we didn’t want to jinx it. After an excruciatingly long week of having an offer accepted and then waiting for all the “conditions” to fall into place before the closing date (today), we finally, finally can say that we are officially home owners! Of this beautiful, brand new house:

It’s a 3-story split-level home. The first two stories belong to us (3 bedrooms), and the 3rd story is actually a basement suite, to be rented out. We also have a coach home above the garage, also to be rented out. It is a great thing to be able to have income every month to help us pay for the mortgage. Besides that, as we grow as a family, we’ll be able to reclaim the basement suite again and make it our own. It will be sweet!!

Of course, Lily’s favorite part of the house is by far the stairs. She wants to climb up and down it every time we go and visit and have another look. That’s all she wants to do. Stairs is the big thing in her life right now.

In other news, seeing that Lily is now 18 months old, we decided to mark this awesome time in her life with a hand print in plaster. She loved being part of the mixing, and she was so good at paying close attention and following directions. She only put her hand in the plaster when I asked her to, and then she was so excited about what she did, she couldn’t stop talking about it (or rather, pointing to it over and over again, saying, “Hand! Lily hand!”). Then she had to drag Daddy into the kitchen to show him what we just did as well.

Our Lily is 18 months old. Everyday is a new day, everyday she learns something new, everyday is becoming harder and harder to catch up with her. Soon, at this rate, she will be smarter than us by the time she’s five!! Not only has she been reading since she was 10 months old, now she also knows all of her colors, her shapes (even “half circle” and “crescent”), her phonics, she can count from 1 to 20, and she is now a singer too!

Here’s another video of her reading a bit more clearly:

From the get-go, we’ve been singing to her a lot. I think somehow, this has ingrained in her the love for music and harmony. We’ve also noticed in the past couple of months that songs are connected to emotions for her. We were stunned when one day, Daddy decided to sing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” to her after not singing it to her since she was about 6 months old, and she started tearing up at a high note. We thought something was wrong, but she looked at her Daddy and asked for a hug and kiss, and asked him to sing the song again. So he did, and sure enough, at the certain high note, she teared up again and suddenly started full blown sobbing, asking him to finish the song. She clung onto him, giving him a huge hug, and gave him teary kisses. What a sweet girl. We were stunned that a song can bring such emotion out of her, and equally stunned that she remembered this song from her very early babyhood months.

We’ve recently found that certain songs will evoke out of her strong, emotional responses as well. For example, the way Sarah McLachlan sings “Silent Night” makes her teary-eyed, and she demands cuddles with Mommy while she listens to the song. When I sing “You are my sunshine” to her when it’s not bedtime (it is our routine bedtime song before I put her down to sleep), she tears up and sings along. She is quite the sensitive child. Such beautiful, emotional responses. We are stunned, and so proud.

Then, out of nowhere, she decides that she can sing the songs we’ve been singing with her. Word for word, in her own baby accent. It started with just the end words of the verses, and suddenly she just went for it and sang whole songs while we were singing them.

Here she is singing the “ABC” song in its entirety:

Here she is singing the Railroad song with her daddy:

We also went through a whirlwind of a Christmas holiday. Our house sold right before Christmas, and we spent the majority of December house hunting for a new home! In the midst of all of that, we almost forgot about Christmas! But, we were right on time to putting up our Christmas tree (about a week before Christmas):

The haul we got for Christmas was absolutely ridiculous. Most of this stuff belonged to Lily, of course. We couldn’t stop ourselves from getting her more and more and more and so much more. And apparently, neither could all her aunts and uncles and grandparents!

One of the coolest things Lily got this year for Christmas was her rocking horse!

This year, like last, my sister Sophie, who is Lily’s Auntie “Bopee,” visited for Christmas for two weeks. Lily had the pleasure (much to my sister’s grunting dismay) of waking her Auntie Bopee up every morning with a kiss and a lot of loud toddler talking:

For Christmas, we all went to Nana’s (my mother-in-law) house for Christmas Eve dinner and opening presents from the aunts and uncles. On Christmas Day, this was our first year hosting Christmas dinner!! It went so well, and we even cooked and prepared food. We may have a repeat of this next Christmas as well! I was nervous about it, but it went without a hitch! Lily loved having people over, and she was ecstatic to be a hostess. Unfortunately, amongst all the craziness, I forgot to take pictures for our Christmas day dinner, but here are some from Christmas Eve:

Lily with her great-granny, Lilias (who she was named after, and who she affectionately calls “Ganny”):

One of the things we did while Auntie Bopee was here (one involving ME going SKIING.. I know, crazy, right?) was go to Vancouver’s Chinatown. It’s one of our favorite places to visit because of its familiarity to our roots. Lily loved the Chinese and Japanese zen garden!

The holidays have come and gone, and now we are just wrapping up the first month of 2010, hopefully with some positive news about a new house to be moved into at the end of February! We have something in mind, but nothing is finalized yet, so we are hoping for the best. Lily has gone to every house hunting escapade with us, and has given her own version of a seal of approval (does it have STAIRS that she can climb up and down on?!) on several homes. Here’s us keeping our fingers crossed!!

In the meantime, our Lily continues to grow… and grow… and grow. She is sleeping 11-12 hours a night. She still has her regular naps every afternoon around 1pm. She eats voraciously and she gives hugs and kisses openly. One day I tried counting how many words she can say, and I lost count at about 9am after about 80 words. So who knows how many she can say. It seems like her growth is exponential. She follows directions really well. She sometimes has tantrums. She definitely has a mind of her own and can be very, very stubborn. She’s a little firecracker and a little bulldozer. She is ALWAYS, always on the move. However, our Lily shows us constantly that she is kind and compassionate to others’ needs. She shares wonderfully and she likes to include other people in what she does. She has opinions about what she wants to read and what she wants to play. She greets people openly when we’re out and about. She knows several words in Vietnamese and affectionately calls my parents “Ngoai” without an accent (except her baby accent, of course). She says her “please” when she wants something, and is learning to say “thank you” every time after she gets something. She is our little sweetheart. She is loving, and we’re amazed at what a warm spirit she is. However, she also definitely has a mind of her own. We’re amazed how much stubborn she can be when she wants something, and she seems to have a very clear sense of what is “right” and “wrong.” We have so many speculations about what she would be like as she gets older, but most of all, we are just so excited and ecstatic to be able to be part of her world and see her grow.