Tiny

Two-week old fingers wrapped around my finger.  Tiny.

Ooops!

Nang biked his third MS150 from Houston to Austin in April, so William and I drove up to see him cross the finish line.  William and I wound up stranded on the side of the road when our car's brake line failed, and I realized it while trying to slow down from 70 miles per hour to merge onto a cloverleaf highway entrance behind another car.  There maaaay have been a rapid fire succession of hysterical phone calls to a husband who was RIDING A BIKE from Austin - honey, please come pick baby and me up and handle this.  Right.  NOW.  Yeah, handled very well.

Ba?

Fast forward to the finish line and big mom failure of the day #2.  I was so consumed with spotting Nang and the guys approaching the finish line that I forgot to tell William when they passed, and he missed the group, so I pretended another group of riders contained his Ba, and had Little Man cheer for and wave to that group.  Big ooops!

Sign

In addition to Baby Ngo #2 (Elouise? Clara? Elizabeth?), I'm now incubating a cold AND a bad case of dog fever.  Some of the places I go for work are a little "edgy," and I always run across some rough looking stray dogs (of the pit bullish variety which Papa has verboten), and it is taking alot of willpower not to lure the little/big/cagey-looking/mangey boogers into my car and bring them home.  Logically, I recognize that this is not the appropriate time or way to go about getting a good family dog, but I'm not the only one that is sporting a burgeoning love of dogs.  The signs were all there from the beginning.  Would Nang be able to say "no" if the Wildebeest brought home a stray/shelter/rescue dog?

 3 months and hitting the dog hard

 Holding paws

Controlling two ferocious beasts on a walk

Flirt

In March, William "ran" his first 1k with his best-friend-who-terrifies him, Paige.  He hustled to stay with the crowd in the beginning, requested to be carried for the body of the race, and hit the finish line on his own to shake his money maker (and suck his paci) to the music blaring at the end.

 Hey, grrrrr.

Geeeeez!  Can't you see I'm trying to close the deal?  Buzz off with that camera. Embarrassing!

Shaking his groove thing for Mimi

Scoop

I looove having the scoop - a juicy tidbit no one else or only a select few know is delightful.  My famous friend, Meg, and her sister/photographer extraordinaire, Kate, call it "fo."  For the longest time, I thought they were talking about Vietnamese noodle soup, pho, but then they let me in on the scoop.  Today's fo: I FREAKED out fo real when I saw this cheese's expiration date.  Baby Ngo #2 (Harper, Jane, Caroline?) will be two weeks old by the time I forget to throw this away. Freaking out.

Pastoral scene, lower-fat calmness on the front 

Panic-inducing computer stamp on the back

Guilty pleasure

I succumb to an embarrassingly high number of guilty pleasures for myself, and feel appropriately guilty for each one - caloric content, time wasters, productivity zappers, etc.  William's guilty pleasures are cuter, and will therefore be our subject, but cause me more guilt than my own.

• Melted ice cream in a coffee cup that he sips while repeatedly telling his audience that he's drinking coffee.
• Too much screen time - Sesame Street, Thomas the Train, and cartoons he asks for by name ("Cats" (Puss in Boots), "Penguins" (Happy Feet 2), "Girl" or "Eugene" (Tangled - the Rapunzel cartoon), "Car" (Cars 2), "Elephant" (Ice Age), and "Elephant. Dinosaur" (Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaur (?))
• Pacifiers (but at this point, ONLY when he is going to sleep or sleeping).
• "Medium shoclat" (Whataburger chocolate milkshake), "Shoclat" (M&Ms or expensive chocolate bars Nang gets on out of town business trips), "Bacon" (beef jerky stolen from the stand at Om Noi's convenience store), and "Canny" (candy).

Summer loving

Summer will officially be over on Saturday, and William had himself a BLAST!  He swam at least twice a week, and his dark tan earned him the nickname of Little Pecan from Aunt Carolyn.  The pool's are closed during the week now, so Mimi and Papa won't be taking him swimming on their days watching him. Summer bummer.

***BUT***

William's first beach trip happened in the nick of summertime!  Nang and I missed it due to our responsible adultiness and jobs - booo/hisss.  Mimi and Papa said he had a BLAST from the car ride up there to the car ride back.  SO MUCH FUN that he didn't take a nap all day.  He also had his first McDonald's chicken nuggets, apples, and chocolate milkshake.  Oh, no!

 Uh-oh - the beach's a little dirtier than the swimming pool!

No problem

Summer loving had me a blast

Summer loving happened so fast

I met a girl crazy for me

Met a boy cute as can be

Summer 2012 - we'll miss you!