Chez Mui Richard

The weather is officially warmer. What does that mean? Crazy amounts of laundry to wash all the kids winter clothes, picking out anything I can reuse for Sebastien, packing away everything else to donate or give to friends, breaking out all the summer clothes, washing them, putting them away and figuring out what clothes my kids need… yes I know… mommy drama.

So I have a whole bunch of 24 month / 2T summer clothes that Chloe sort of wore during her trip over Thanksgiving to Hong Kong where the weather was milder but she was only 21 months and still small for her age so her 24 month clothes were huge on her. Mind you, that was only six months ago. So I brought out all those clothes again thinking that she’d fit in them by now. WRONG. I didn’t realize it until I took these pictures but clearly I’ve got some summer clothes that do not fit Miss Chloe.

Here’s a really bad picture from Thanksgiving of Chloe in her blue dress. If you can make it out, you’ll see that the dress hem covers her knees. Fast forward six months to today and the same blue dress is inches above Chloe’s knees almost to the point that it’s inappropriate to wear. She’s all legs! Mommy will be taking THAT dress out of the drawer and putting it away HA HA.

Great-Aunt Loretta came to visit for two weeks from Hong Kong and so we spent a long weekend up in Connecticut visiting Great-Uncle Savio. Packing the car was oh-so-fun as usual although not quite as painful as our last trip to Hong Kong. I figure it was practice for us to get ready for our trip to France in August.

Chloe was loving the grassy lawn, the wide open spaces… she completely rearranged practically everything in Savio’s house and we were able to avoid breaking anything! =0)

I know every mom says the same thing about her kids, particularly her daughter. But Chloe has a really special place in my heart and when she gives me these rare, little smiles of her, she melts my heart. She’s my sweetie.

Chloe having a grand ol’ time running around a huge grassy lawn. I think it actually might be her first “real” lawn and not that NYC astro-turf stuff…

And this video just makes me laugh. I buy some sidewalk chalk for Chloe and what does my mom draw? A hop scotch. Chloe’s two years old. How is a two year old going to grasp hop scotch? Ha ha. I think it’s even funnier that while my mom is explaining it, Chloe decides to EAT the chalk. HA.

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The picture on the left was one of forty I believe. That’s how many attempts it takes to get a semi-decent picture of both my kids at the same time. And the picture on the bottom right is my son asleep during a mid day nap and clearly there’s too much room in his crib because he has to warp himself into this contorted shape in order to fall asleep AND he has to bury the blanket in his face. Sigh. Silly man.

And this was a video while we were trying to get said picture above… as you can see, they didn’t sit well together for very long.

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Sebastien spent most of the weekend being abused by the adults – there was so much open space that we would just make him walk back and forth between us and he seems to be getting the hang of it! He’ll even let go and start walking on his own (granted of course there’s motivation… i.e. food that you have that he wants).

This walking video was the beginning of the weekend…

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And this video was when we returned and went to the schoolyard across the street. Lots of great progress in just a few short days! Although I think Sebastien was just running away from the crazy stalker girl…

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Rompers are amazing. I wish they made adult rompers and they were cool. Who doesn’t want one outfit on a summer day that’s a t-shirt and shorts in one?

 

My cool daughter with her too cool Dad, ha ha.

Chloe is a super fast learner. Show her something once and already she knows what to do. It might take her a few times on her own after she’s seen you do it but then watch out, she’s on the run.

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Laurent is the best. He sends me emails in the middle of the day at work with pictures of the kids. For instance, I got the medley of pictures below one day in the middle of work. I had just taken a big gulp of water when I opened the email and when I saw the look on Chloe’s face and the email caption from Laurent that said “Mom we miss you”, I choked, nearly to death, and had tears coming out of my eyes. My coworker had to stop by and ask if I was still alive, that’s how much water I swallowed down the wrong tube. But it was so worth it. These kids I tell you.

Daddy and Chloe messing around in the garden. Doesn’t she look just like him?

Some of Chloe’s crazy dancing…

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Cousin Abby came for a visit this month, she’s so BIG and look at her long hair! She’s so beautiful. Chloe, surprisingly enough, was so polite to her and shared her toys and wanted to play with Abby. I don’t know if it’s because Abby was a girl or because Abby was about her age or if it’s just not her brother, but why can’t Chloe be that nice to Sebastien instead of always beating him up? Sigh.

So we’re marking the heights of the kids along the door molding in their room. Not sure if you can see it clearly through this picture but all the way on the bottom is the length of the kids when they were born: Chloe at 18.5″ and Sebastien at 19.0″ and in the middle is the kids at 1 year of age: Chloe at 29.25″ and Sebastien at 29.50″.  It’s a tight race, although I’m sure it won’t be long before Sebastien is bigger than his sister.

And I don’t know what took me so long to finally put Sebastien in Chloe’s lap while having his bottle, but there it is finally.

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Love my kids. When they’re sweet, they’re so sweet.

 

How quickly a year goes by! Mr. Sebastien Richard Mui weighed in at 20 lbs 11.5 oz and 29.5 inches in length at his first year doctor’s checkup.

Thanks to all the family and friends that came by to celebrate Sebastien’s first birthday!

Here’s a quick video recapping Sebastien’s first year, enjoy! Sadly, had to cut the video into two parts due to upload limits. #technicaldifficulties Oh well, you’ll still see the whole thing. =0)

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I was so thankful that I was able to see Chloe’s first steps and catch them on film. I was worried I wouldn’t see Sebastien’s first steps but both of my kids blessed me with waiting till I was home to put on a show. Check out Sebastien’s first steps a few days before his big first birthday!

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Some action shots of Chloe in the park that I thought were pretty cool. My daughter is pretty cool I must say…

More videos of Chloe in the park…tearing up the asphalt with her scooter…she’s starting to learn to lean to turn in the house which is pretty funny as it causes her to wipe out all over the living room floor but she’s getting the hang of it.

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Chloe practicing piano with “Hippo” and I get a rare but beautiful smile. Hello Chloe.

A fun filled weekend with the kids, especially with this beautiful weather. And I had to make a mental note to remember to take a lot more pictures and a lot less videos since someone asked me the other day for recent pictures of my kids and I only had videos. Bad mommy. So I might have gone a little crazy with the pictures this weekend. There certainly were quite a few.

When I watch Chloe run around the playground, she’s absolutely fearless. She runs up the steps and comes down the slide and again and again. She’s super determined and super confident. I know. I have my hands full.

Sebastien still needs to hold on to your two fingers to walk forward; he hasn’t quite yet mastered his own balance. He’s so alert though when we go outside; he wants to watch everything and he responds in his noises to the cars and people that pass by. Pretty soon I’m sure he’ll be running after Chloe.
I am still debating what the best caption is for the picture below on the left. I don’t know what he was doing or what he was thinking but if I had to guess, it was something like “no more pictures, please!”.

Chloe’s hair still seems to be super electric…

I really wish they were looking at me in this picture… I don’t get many chances to take pictures of the two of them together since Chloe is so rough with little Sebastien. Poor Sebastien. He needs to grow a thick skin. Fast.

It’s not often I get Chloe to look straight into the camera AND say “cheese!”. I got her to do it TWICE!

And who loves sitting on our Brooklyn stoop and people watching? Sebastien and I!

Here’s a video of Sebastien on the slide for the first time! Watch him push off by himself and climb up too!

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And Chloe amazes me with how fast she is picking up riding the scooter – I can’t keep up with her!

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Happy eleven months to Sebastien! One more month till the big o-n-e y-e-a-r birthday!

Here’s a video of Sebi learning to feed himself… he’s not quite there yet… he has to lick his whole hand until he finds the snack… but he’s getting there, ha ha!

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Some new pictures of Sebi. Look at his “Tin-Tin” cowlick hair and those teeth on the bottom! He’s got six more on the top, you just can’t see them but he can sure bite your finger now with all those teeth! I still don’t know who he looks like. I don’t think he looks like either Laurent or I… I may just have to get those DNA tests after all…

Check out this video of Chloe enjoying her strawberries and cream. And then she decides to share with Sebi! I think she really has a soft spot for her brother… even if she does beat him up all the time. Hopefully she outgrows that sooner rather than later.

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I took last Friday off since Laurent was out of town and the weather was so beautiful that Chloe and I enjoyed some time at the park. I think it’s time I gave Chloe’s bangs a trim – she looks like she’s rocking a Beatles haircut in these pictures…

Here’s a quick video of Chloe being silly tromping around the house in Daddy’s crocs:

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I remember one time in the schoolyard, I saw a father trying to teach his son to use the scooter and so I asked him how old his son was and he said three years old. At that time I thought to myself, “wow three is young for a scooter…”. Nope, I was wrong. Miss Chloe will prove me wrong on a lot of things I’m sure.

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And more silly Chloe playing with her sunglasses. She loves to see herself in the camera. It’s impossible for me to take any videos or photos of her anymore with the back camera. She sees me pull out my phone and immediately wants to see the screen so now everything I take with her is in selfie mode. These millennial kids I tell you…

And the only reason I can get a photo of the two of my kids sitting absolutely still and not wanting to rip the phone out of my hand? Of course. They’re watching Sound of Music. But they’re so cute. Look at absorbed they are. That’s brainwashing at it’s best I tell you. They’re going to have watched Sound of Music more times than I have and that’s really impressive. Seriously.

This video caught Grandma and I both by surprise. I didn’t catch it all but it’s enough for you to see the love. I was putting away the Milano cookies I had bought (since Laurent loves them) and Chloe caught me in the act and said “gateau!” which is what Laurent calls them. Since she was a good girl, I gave her one and she shares with Sebi!

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It’s been too long since my last post, I’m sorry. Here’s a video of us enjoying the beautiful weather in the park that lovely Wednesday when I took off of work to spend time with everyone. So much fun! And the weather is supposed to be lovely again this Wednesday but Daddy will be on double duty by himself… we’ll see if he manages to take any pictures…

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And Chloe makes me laugh, she’s such a happy little girl when she’s outside in the park. And then there are those times when she’s not so happy too ha ha! But when she’s sweet, she’s so sweet.

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And check out Mr. Sebastien who desparately wants to walk on his own and chase after Chloe but hasn’t quite found his balance yet. When he’s pushing the walker or in the harness, he’s off to the races! It’ll be soon when he’s walking on his own and the two of them are running around!

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