It has certainly been a very special summer for all of us. We've got a brand new member, Acacia, into our family. Tomorrow is the last day of Jacob's summer vacation and Daddy will also go back to work on Monday after 3 week leave. Timothy will have another week at home with me then he will start school too. I will miss them all very much, but I will have Acacia with me so I should still be very busy taking care of her.
I can't believe it's already been almost 3 weeks since I gave birth. I've almost all recovered and physically I feel very good. What I learnt from these 3 weeks with the boys is that I need to have more patience, especially now I have 3 kids to take care of, it's very easy for me to lose my patience and my temper comes out. Sometimes I caught myself too strict with the boys, I need to remind myself they are only small children and I need to give them space and time to learn and grow.
I tried cloth diapering Acacia today.. so far I am not too impressed with cloth diapers, mainly because they seem so bulky comparing to disposibles. I guess I will continue experimenting before I jump into a conclusion. I can always sell the pockect cloth diapers I bought and buy disposible ones... I just want to find out which one works better for Acacia so she won't have diaper rash.
My breastfeeding is starting to work well. For the 1st 2 weeks I leaked a lot of milk and my supply was way more than what Acacia needed so I had to pump a lot... so far I've had quite a lot of frozen breastmilk. This week I have been trying to taper down the times I pump and I only pump until I don't feel super-uncomfortable. My breasts are also learning to be "patient" and wait their turns !! 
It's amazing how our human body adjusts to the environment. I am surely glad I can still nourish and supply all Acacia's needs now she is out of my body. Dr. Cole said all breastmilk until she is 5 months then we will start adding some other foods. Acacia is also learning to nurse well. She a lot of times chokes because I have fast flow, and now she is more used to the way my milk comes down. For the past few days I've been making "母奶冰棒". I froze breastmilk in little containers with honey, and Jacob likes it a lot. Timothy doesn't like it too much. But at least some of the breastmilk is being consumed. Maybe I will use all these frozen breastmilk when Acacia is ready to eat rice cereal and just mix it with whatever foods I will be making for her in a few months.
On Thursday daddy took Jacob and Timothy to MST for Jacob to meet his new teacher. I guess all his good friends will be in different classes this semester. I am sure Jacob will make some new good friends. On Monday he will also take some lunch money as well as the albuterol inhalor for his asthma in case he has wheezing after PE classes. I've faxed Dr. Cole some forms to fill out so she can fax back to the school nurse.
This time around I am able to get back to shape a lot faster. I think it's due to all the exercises I did during pregnancy(yoga, weight, trademills), as well as the "sit month" foods I am eating. My parents really wanted to make sure I have a good "sit month" this time because it's my last baby. My dad paid for all the herbs I bought, and my mom cooks all our meals. So far I've consumed about 2 dozens of Taiwan rice wine... I've asked my mom to cut down the amount of rice wine because I don't want to pass any alchohol to Acacia through breastmilk. Only 1 week left then I should be getting back to normal living and eating. My mom said she will still help me cooks some meals and even picking up the boys after school, which should be a BIG help. But I am also excited to be able to get back to normal schedule where the boys go to school and I am the main care-giver for them.
Acacia is really a super good baby! 
She sleeps all night, excepting nursing a few times and she even cuts down pooping during the night. During the day she would usually be awake a few times, each time from 1-3 hours, I think this is why she sleeps so well at night.
The other night this week she pooped at 4am and "on" the sheets after I took off her diaper... so daddy had to clean the sheets and change to new sheets.. a lot of work!! But after all the mess when we settled back down to sleep(well, Acacia slept through the whole event of course!!), Acacia smiled(at sleep) at Daddy and daddy felt it was worth all the work he did. Surely a daddy's little girl ! Having daddy wrapped around her finger!
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I have 2 wonderful kids. They played by themselves happily and let me take a 2 hour nap. In between my long nap, I did hear them getting on each other's nerve and some arguments and crying, but they were so nice they didn't come into the room. They just figured out ways to solve problems and continue playing together. I am SO relieved. I think when Acacia is born we will be able to get the rest we need now the boys are so good entertaining themselves.
Today we didn't go out of the house at all. It's just too hot to get out there... Timothy after lunch asked if he could do homework, I was surprised but stayed calm and said, "sure" ! and he was excited. He finished reading a small book and writing his math very fast and Jacob also did his homework very efficiently. I am starting to think I really have 2 angels at home. 
People are starting to call and ask if I've delivered yet. I myself am getting curious when I will actually deliver the baby. It's such a waiting game, with no answer and each day I wonder if contractions will start. I am really not in a hurry now anymore. I enjoy the time with my 2 boys and am kind of scared of the busy and tiring days to come following Acacia's arrival.
My tummy has definitely dropped some. It's really sitting on my thighs when I sit... and it looks smaller for some reason. Acacia's movements also slowed down a little. I think she is very crowded in there. I've already packed the hopital bag.. actually I don't have too much stuff in there.. just some clothes and toiletry. Since we live so close to the hospital I can always ask Philip to come home and get me stuff if I need.
Jacob keeps saying he wants to know what Acacia looks like.. me too!! The 3rd child should probably be more of a mix of both sides I think. I think she is going to have a chubby face just like her 2 brothers.
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Yesterday was America's birthday. Happy Birthday, USA!!
Our ice cream store is open(Bigtom Premium Ice Cream). Cecilia, you are VERY welcome to come and taste our yummy ice cream!! Email me peggyhuang3140@hotmail.com so I can give you info of the store and I will give you some good coupons to use :0)
Here is the website of our store:
http://www.bigtomicecream.com/default.htm
Daddy has been very busy with the new store now open. After work he usually goes into the store and check if everything is going smoothly. Yesterday was July 4th and near our store was where the fireworks displayed(Fire Wheel Town center, Garland), so tons of cars filled the parking lot. We had the best sales record yesterday, and lots of people enjoyed our ice cream. We still need to make our store known to more people, because we are confident once customers taste our all natural, organic premium ice cream they will come back for more!! We as owners also have to pay when buying ice cream so we limit our visit to about once a week(because we want to set up a good example for our staff). The boys love the tropical mango flavor and I love our green tea & Strawberry flavors... SO YUMMY!!!
On America's birthday yesterday, I didn't do very well because I ate something(not sure what) in the morning and I started having stomache all day, I was so weak, having terrible pain and having to go to the restroom often. At first I thought, maybe I was in labor, but soon I realized it's my tummy that's hurting, not contractions. But I am sure Acacia didn't feel well inside either because she was kicking so hard all day. So the boys were very cooperative and they played by themselves in the living room while I spent all day in bed. At night, daddy put them to sleep around 9pm, and by 9:40pm I heard the fireworks(we thought they were cancelled because of rain), so I hurried up and told daddy let's go and see the fireworks, so daddy got the boys up from bed(they were already asleep, and Jacob said he just started his sweet dream :)) we all got into the van with our pajamas, and we drove toward our store. We did see the very last part of the fireworks and I was glad we didn't miss it totally because it only happens once a year! Daddy parked near our ice cream store and he went into the store to help since there were so many people, and he also went to pass out the coupon.flyers in the parking lot. As for us 3, we could only stay in the van because we didn't have shoes on and I was wearing a short pajama... not a pretty sight!! We had to wait for about 1 hour before daddy got back to the van to take us home. I was surely glad I didn't have to go to the restroom during that time!!!
Last week after my OB visit I had to go to Grapevine Baylor for a sonogram check of the baby. I took the boys, picked up daddy at work and went to have a sonogram, much to our disappointment, Dr. Graham didn't do a size check(which was what I was there for), because it has only been 1+ week since he last did one. He said it has to be 3 weeks to do another size check. So he quickly looked at the baby, of course baby was all perfect and healthy in my tummy. The doctor also pointed out there is hair on baby's head!! haha. I am glad our princess is not bald. So I made another sonogram appointment for next Monday(after my OB visit) to do a size check of the baby.
Brother Mike is in CA attending the training. He was really worried about me and asked me if he could go to the training. I told him of course he can go, I will wait for him to come back to have the baby!! And he said, if the baby is coming, he will fly 4 hours immediately to deliver my baby. It was very sweet for him to be so caring. I am not only a patient of him, I am his sister in Christ and he really cares for us. How precious!! I am so glad this time I chose to have him as my OB. Don't know why I didn't do that with my 2 boys.
So on Monday 7/10 we will set a day for induction. I can't wait to have a day set so I know when baby will come. I still haven't packed my hospital bag, In the meantime, I hope Acacia continues to grow bigger, so she will be nice and big when she enters the world. Well, maybe not as big as her brothers ... ouch!!
Since daddy took today off we went to Dallas Children Museum in the morning. Daddy has never been there, and he was very surprised to see how small and "sorry" it was. Well, I told him, at least we have one in Dallas. I wish we have one like Houston's or at least Austin's. Ours is so small and so outdated... poor Dallas kids. Today the subject was about Planetarium. The boys did some outerspace crafts, listened to the story and played a little bit (also ate free moon cookies). Then we went to eat lunch then daddy went to have his haircut. I do the boys' haircut but I don't cut daddy's hair very well, of course I blame it to his weird head shape... 
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57 more days before Acacia is due. But really she should be here in about 43 or 50 days more since we might be induced a week or 2 early.
This week is bible camp week, starting tonight, we will all go to bible camp and hopefully have a lot of fun. This is officially Jacob's very 1st bible camp because he is entering into 1st grade this fall. I am so excited for him. I hope he enjoys every part of the bible camp. I will be serving the 2nd grade class, although I hoped to be with Jacob's class, I think it's better for him to experience bible camp with a different teacher then mommy. Timothy will also join I am serving.
I've been enjoying Acacia's movements in my tummy. I can see the movements so clearly. I can also guess her body parts, like her bottom, her legs... and it's surely an amazing feeling to feel her moving, sometimes it's so strong it even hurts, but I still treasure each time she moves, I will miss these fatal movements so much after she is born. My tummy is getting so big, but comparing to last time, I could still gain 15 more pounds, and a much bigger tummy. I am trying to cut down the intake of rice and snacks, hopefully to slow down my weight gain. Still lots of aches and pains, but they are all a normal part of the pregnancy and I thank the Lord for giving me a normal and "boring" pregnancy. So these I can bear and not much longer they should be gone...
We are going to Galleria mall in a little bit. Timothy wanted to go to the indoor playground there.
Got a baby bouncer seat from Tom's house yesterday, they will also lend me the co-sleeper which I've always liked but never bought since it's a little pricy for being used only for a short period of time. It should be very nice to have the co-sleeper right next to my bedside because I can nurse the baby and put her in her own space right next to me. Oh the fun of co-sleeping! I've been washing Acacia's clothes, linens, toys ... and I am almost done. Now we are in the home stretch to wait for the grand arrival of our princess! 
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Today is the 1st day of summer vacation for Jacob. I have 2 boys at home now all time with me. I am happy to have Jacob at home with Timothy so Timothy doesn't come and tell me he is bored every 2 minutes!! And my big boy has graduated from Kindergarten... what a big achievement! I can't believe my son is entering 1st grade so soon... time surely flies! He did GREAT for his year at MST, made some good friends and luckily met a teacher(Mrs. Huggins) he really liked. Such a good start for him!
We've been going to swimming about 3 times a week at lifetime fitness. We sometimes run into Isaac(church kid), or Daven(Jacob's classmate). The boys enjoy the water very much, they ask to go swimming almost everyday, but going everyday takes a lot of energy.. which is what I am lacking now a days. But now we are all at home all times I might start taking them swimming more often to "kill time". 
As for me, my tummy(or my baby) is getting bigger each day. I look like I am about to pop everyday, but I actually have 2 more months to go! On one hand I can't wait to see my baby girl, but on the other hand, I am enjoying this last pregnancy so much(well, despite all the aches and pains), I treasure each fetal movements, all her kicking and rolling and punching !!! It's such an amazing feeling to feel my baby in my body. It's like transformation that takes place. And I am supplying all her needs. We all need to do the same for our transformation in spirit, taking the Lord for all our supply and grow by eating and drinking Christ!! Oh Lord Jesus transform me with your life and nature! ok I will include a picture of my huge tummy. ha!
Next Wed I am going in for my 31 week prenatal check up. After that it will be every 2 weeks then soon it will be weekly visits. I am now 155 lbs.... yikes... I feel like a BIG whale, but I know it's mostly due to swelling(water retention) and hopefully this time after having the baby I will trim down faster then last time. I still go to my yoga practices. I love it very much, it makes me stretch and build strength and energy. Yesterday in the middle of the class the instructor came to me and shook my hand saying "are you ok? You look absolutely beautiful". I know she must be impressed with me going to her yoga class with such a big tummy. The pregnant moms I saw in my previous class had already stopped coming at this stage of the game. But I want to try to go as long as I can. Of course now I am very limited to poses, but about 80% of the poses are still good for me and I believe by keeping at yoga it will help me greatly in labor, delivery and recovery after the baby. Next Wed at my checkup I am going to ask Michael when to set up induction date/time. I am thinking 7/28.. a Friday which will be great for Philip because he gets the weekend without taking days off.
sister Melody will probably join me in the delivery room. At the begining I wasn't sure how comfortable I would be with a non-family member with me, but gradually I think it will be a good idea. She IS indeed a family of mine.. a dear sister and I am sure she will provide lots of support during the birth of our baby. And the best part is that Philip will be free to videotape the whole process.. which was something he couldn't do when Timothy was born because he had to hold my leg and coach me through the whole time. I hope Melody won't be scared with all the bloody show... but since she watched "baby story" and "special deliveries" on TV, she should be somewhat prepared... 
This Tuesday Timothy went to have his teeth cleaned. I was VERY proud of him. He was so brave through the whole thing, didn't cry a bit and was not nervous at all... of course I've been trying to pump him up for the idea for a while, but I wasn't sure if it really worked and it surely did. He even let them take x-rays of his teeth.. and I know how uncomfortable it must have been. The dentist was VERY happy that Timothy has 0 cavity. YAY!!! I hope he continues to have good teeth through out the years to come. Of course I've learnt my lesson and try to take care of their teeth as best as I can. Anyway, I am very proud of my little boy.
I am starting the "nesting" process... cleaning baby's stuff a little each day. Today I washed the diaper covers and now they are being "sun-dried" in our side yard. It's exciting to wash baby clothes everytime, knowing their owner will soon be here to claim her things. 
Today the satellite people will come to install "dish network" satellite for us. I am very excited! The Chinses program we've been watching can only be summed up with one word , very very poor quality. And all the money we've been paying for this poor programming . Now with Dish network the kids can have some better choices, like disney, discovery channel, noggins... and of course I get to watch my favorite shows like "baby stories", and HGTV shows. And it's a pretty good deal actually, $29.99 for the first 10 months, then $39.99 for the remaining 8 months. It's even cheaper then ETTV we are paying for now. 
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This is probably the best time of the year in Texas. The weather is great, not too hot, and with some breeze, it makes me just want to crawl in bed and take a LONG nap!
Last Wed. I went into Jacob's classroom to sub for the teacher, I mainly watched the kids when they had lunch and when they rested on the floor... well, not many of them rested because they were all so excited to have Timothy in their room and Timothy surely put on a show to make everyone laugh(by doing silly stuff). Timothy enjoyed eating lunch with the big kids!!
Last Friday Philip went to the doctor's office for his vasectamy operation. It only took the doctor less then 20 minutes to do it. And I was very proud of my dear husband to do this for me and our family. Now I can honestly say we've both done our shares. Very very fair.
I went in for my 28 weeks prenatal visit this morning, as usual, my tummy is measureing big(31 weeks) but bro. Mike said since it's consistantly big, it's ok. Baby's heart beat was 159, My blood pressure was like 59/90, so perfect. And I don't have blood sugar problem at all, my level from the test showed I am very normal. Of course I complained about the aches and pains on my lower back and left bottom shooting down the leg, Mike was very sympathetic but said there is nothing we can do, it's all part of the pregnancy symptoms. I will go in agin in 3 weeks(after memorial weekend) on the 31st. Then it will be bi-monthly visits I think. After my short visit with Mike I went to tour the Labor and Delivery ward. It was very nice, I saw a mommy laboring in one of the rooms, and the familiar sounds of the baby's heartbeat monitor, making me realize very soon I will be laying on the bed, waiting for my baby to come out. The L&D rooms are bigger then the one I had in Baylor Richardson hospital, and the nurses seem to be VERY nice, the one that showed me around was very kind and warm. I think it will be a very positive experience again.
Our front door( screen door) is complete, thanks to brother Eric's help and Philip's hard work. Saved us about $150 if we had to have professionals to install it. Now we can always open the screen window and enjoy the light and breeze. So nice!
Last Friday we had our home meeting at Eric and Ellie's. She made roast beef and it was so yummy... I ate a lot and was so full ! I've heard beef makes the baby grow and gain weight, I hope baby Acacia also enjoyed the yummy beef !
Once the weather starts to get warmer I will take the boys swimming in our club. We will all be very tanned and dark, but we all love water! Last Saturday becuase I was not feeling well(ate too much watermelon), so Philip took the boys to meet with the architect so I could rest, but unfortunately, the architect has a cat in his house(although they didn't see it), Jacob had a pretty bad allergy, all his face is swollen and itchy and eyes were red and swollen and watery. Poor boy! Daddy took him home and I gave him Benedryl, but he didn't completely heal until Sunday night. We have to be more careful when going to people's houses now. I surely hope Acacia doesn't have this kind of allergy like her big brother Jacob.
Saturday was Home Depot kids project time, daddy helped the boys build 2 beautiful flower pot holders!!
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My daddy and A Yi are on the flight back to Taiwan right now. They left LA 5pm our time. I am glad they finally can go home and have some rest. I know it must have been tiring to stay at other people's house and not being able to totally relax. I surely wish next time daddy can stay longer with us. Hopefully sometime soon, like next year.
Tonight Eric, Ellie and their 3 kids came over after dinner to play, and we had a good time fellowshipping and reading the morning revival together. Our home group meeting was supposed to be at Howard's house but since we were already at home, Philip called them and all the saints came. We had a good meeting, although Eric looked very tired.
This morning after I dropped off Timothy at school I drove to the area where Ellie's house is and saw some garage sales so I thought I'd look around. The 1st house I went to, I saw one of Timothy's classmates' mom hosting. She didn't recognize me though, and I bought a white dresser from her for $25. It looks still in very good shape and just perfect to put Acacia's baby clothes in our room. Maybe later on when Acacia is bigger we will get her a bigger and nicer dresser(when she moves into her room probably in 2 years), but for now the dresser should work. We were thinking about buying one at Ikea but I am glad I found one at such a cheap price. Maybe I will stencil some girly decorations on the dresser to make it look nicer. I also went to Marshall's after the garage sales to look around, to kill time and relax. I found a Eddie Bauer diaper bag(backpack style) for only $9 dollars, a very well made diaper bag. The color is hunter green so it's not the greatest color for a little girl but I still like it a lot so I bought it. It's got some nice features and I am sure it will be very useful when Acacia comes. I never bought a nice diaper bag with my 2 boys and since this is our last baby I want to treat myself a little better.
Today was a little chilly, even raining here. When I went to pick up Jacob it was raining so I stood by the bus with an umbrella so Jacob wouldn't get wet. Mr. King told me Jacob has been standing up in the bus while he drove so I made sure Jacob knows NOT to do that anymore, too dangerous. Jacob said he was trying to pick up things he dropped on the floor... 
Philip might be going on a business trip to the British Virgin Island, if work required, sometime during the 2nd half of the year. I actually think it's good for him to go because now at Customer support group, it's nearly impossible to go abroad for trainings and business trips, and he will be able to gain some good experiences working there. I just hope it's not at the time when I am about to give birth or right after I have the baby, I will definitely want to have Philip around then.
Bought another brand new Carnation color wonderoos diaper today($12), the mommy was so nice she even includes a new insert for free, the insert usually costs $5.5 to $8 dollards alone!!! I am excited we are going to use cloth diapers this time with Acacia. It should be better for her skin and good for the environment, while saving money at the same time !!
I am also thinking about using a pacifier this time. With Jacob and Timothy they didn't use pacis much(Timothy totally rejected it). But I think it will be good to use it this time, so I don't have to be human pacifier to baby.
so I shall end here today. ready for bed. So tired!
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公公和姨婆來看我們, We were all so very excited! Philip and I started preparing the house(cleaning, installing laminate, painting the walls, rearranging furniture...) weeks before they came and finally had the whole house nice and clean by the time they got here.
On 4/12 Wed, Philip went to pick 公公和姨婆 up at the airport, and I took the boys to meet them at 家園飯店 for dinner. I was so excited, almost in tears when I saw my dear dad and A-Yi. It's been a whole year since I last saw dad and 2 years since I saw A-Yi. They didn't change much at all, still so looking so young to me. We ordered lots of dishes and were very full. The boys were also very excited to see grandpa and 姨婆. After dinner we went to Tom's house and Tom massaged 姨婆 and she felt good afterwards, we also took Grandpa and 姨婆 to see our future ice cream store.
After we got home, 公公unpacked his luggages and there were lots of snacks and gifts they had for us. Even 牛肉乾！！ We were all so happy we chatted until pretty late before going to bed.
On 4/13, for lunch we ate at 越南和粉, it was pretty yummy. Grandpa was happy to eat noodles with soup. We then went to shop at Walmart, then Chinese grocery shopping, then picking up the birthday cake I ordered for grandpa a day before. We then went home, me and grandpa went to pick up Jacob after school while 姨婆 put the grocery into the fridge.
姨婆 cooked lots of delicious foods for dinner that night, Cherie and her girls were also here to celebrate 公公's birthday with us. We had fun, laughing and eating and cutting the cake for 公公. I was SO happy this year I got to celebrate my daddy's birthday with him. What a great timing!!!
On Friday Philip took the day off and the boys were off school because of Good Friday. We went to the trail to take a walk, and it was cooler and we all had a great time just being with each other. We went to eat Cheesecake Factory and everyone enjoyed the food very much! We ordered a piece of Tirimasu cheescake and it was YUMMY! We then shopped a little in StoneBriar mall for a while, grandpa's 屁股 was a little painful because he walked a lot that morning. We headed home and everyone rested a little. At night we ate at home, we were all still very full from lunch.
On Saturday 4/14 we went to Fort Worth to see the long horns, since they were kind of special, the mark of Texas animal really. It was fun, the boys also got to pick the easter eggs(actually all candies). We had a big bag full of candies!! They are for play, not for eating though!! Way too sweet.
We went to eat at Chili's afterwards, and the food was pretty good, except fo the salmon, which was not very tasty. After lunch the boys and me and Philip took the minitrain ride, it was nice and breezing, we enjoyed it a lot(a little too long... 20 minutes!!), while 姨婆 and grandpa rested in the van.
We headed home, and finished a day of fun.
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My dad is coming to visit us tomorrow. He came from Taiwan last Friday and toured Las Vegas before he comes tomorrow. We have been extremely busy cleaning the house and getting everything ready for their visit. Well, maybe not really all because of their visit, but ever since Philip started installing the wood floors the end of March we have been painting the walls(now we have a very colorful house !!), moving the furnitures around, cleaning out old stuff... etc...
Philip did most of the job, I have to give him the credit. Because I have this big tummy, it's hard for me to move stuff or do much. I really want to have the house clean and nice before the baby comes.
Now our guestroom looks very cozy and nice with new paint (pink and pale purple). It will be our daughter's future room when she is old enough to move out of our room(probably when she is over 1 year old).
We have way too many stuff in our house that were accumulated over the years. I was inspired by the book "to live a simple life is to enjoy life". I know if we get rid of half of what we have we will feel much better. During the past few days I've been taking out some, but still not enough. Maybe gradually I will have the courage to clean out all the stuff that are not used anymore.
Philip bought some framed paintings(reprints of famous paintings such as Monet or Van Gogh's) to decorate our house. They do make our home look a little more upscaled. We bought them from one of his co-workers who also does painting wholesale as a side business. Jacob loves one that's called "Starry Night". A very famous painting, that he just learnt a few days ago from his art class at school. I am glad they are really teaching something at his school. Everyday he comes home with new knowledge. I am also glad I didn't decide to homeschool him. He will surely miss out a lot if he doesn't go to school.
When daddy and A Yi come tomorrow, we should be busy and hopefully everyone will have lots of fun and make happy memories together for the short 5 days they are here. I wish dad could be here longer but it was too late to change the airline ticket and it will cost too much to change their return flight. Next year when we go back to Taiwan it will be all 5 of us (including our baby girl!!)
I started teaching Timothy hooked on phonics yesterday. He is responding very well to it. He already learnt words containing "-at" and "-an". With Timothy I need even more patience because he is easily frustrated and he is kind of shy. But he is so smart so if we can do it slowly and steadfastly, we should see results very soon.
Mom was home yesterday and today, helping me doing some cleaning and cooking. It's nice to have her around, always giving me a nice break. It's not easy being a housewife. I am so tired of cooking everyday.....
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Spring is here! We started Spring time last Sunday morning(spring forward 1 hour), so spring is really here. We lost 1 hour due to time change, but all of us are adjusting just fine. Last Saturday I did a crazy thing, Melody, Cherie and I took Cheries' van to go shopping in San Marcos( which is 3.5 hour drive one way). I was a little nervous beforehand but wanted to go anyway because it could be my last shopping fun before the baby comes. Philip was very sweet, he offered to watch the boys and let me go with the sisters for the whole day.
We left at 8:30am and had a great time chatting and fellowshiping on the way there. At lunch time we arrived at Austin so we ate lunch at "Tapioca House" a chinese fast food restaurant. The food was ok, but the lavender milk tea was very good. After lunch we kept going, and it only took 30 minutes to arrive San Marcos Primes Outlet Mall.
We wanted to go to the new gymboree store there, but Cherie and I were VERY disappointed. Their price was about 20% off regular retail store prices, and not much sale going on. So we bought nothing there. Then we went to pottery barn. Again quite disappointed. I found their bedding stuff has decreased a lot while a lot more room for furnitures... but we didn't really care for furnitures. I managed to find some cute quilt pillow cases and Cherie only spent $5 there!!! We then shopped at Coach, LOTS of people, I saw a bag I kind of liked, and it's about $85, but I put it back and just after 2 minutes someone took the bag, GREAT, just saved me some money. We then went to Gap, Old Navy.... and finally were glad to end up in Disney store. They had some really cheap clothes, both Cherie and me bought some cute clothes for our girls :0)
I bought some clothes(shirts and pants) for Jacob, and some clothes for baby girl, bought 1 pair of pants for my post-delivery phase from Banana republic, a pink stripe short sleeve shirt for myself and we headed home.
The shopping part was not too exciting, but I really enjoyed the time talking with the sisters in the ride. We talked about a lot of things... and it felt great to be with the sisters alone for the whole day. Baby cooperated really well, I walked for about 6 hours and didn't really feel too tired... of course, legs were a little sore. But since I didn't have to drive it's ok.
I got home at about 1:30am. Philip was still up waiting for me. Thank you dear Philip!!
Last week we also painted our walls, so far 3 colors: light green, pink and golden yellow(more like orange). We are not too happy with the orange yellow it turned out, but I really like the light green in our family room and the pink I painted by myself under the counter. Philip didn't like pink too much, but I wanted to add some girly feeling to our house, since we are expecting our little princess. I will use the pink space to hang the kids' art, and it shouldn't look too bad. We have to get things back to their normal place by the time Dad and A Yi come next Wednesday!!! Yay!! Daddy is coming to visit me!! It was quite a surprise, but I was glad he decided to come, since I am not going back to Taiwan this year... and I really miss him. They will be here for maybe 5 days, and maybe more. I know Texas is really boring so I hope they will be ok here. They come here to visit us, and not really doing sightseeing... The boys will be off next Friday and so is Philip. We will probably go to Houston, Austin, and San Antonio for the weekend. We'll see.
I took the boys to the park yesterday and today after picking up Jacob. The weather is great, and probably the best time in the whole year to play. They installed brand new playsets in the park, and the boys really enjoyed playing. There were 14 baby ducklings yesterday with their mommy, and when 1 duckling got stuck between the woods, the mommy duck was very worried and kept making loud noise, at first we didnt know what happened, but finally the boys saw the duckling stuck and when we were about to rescue, the baby got out by itself. Wow, even an animal mommy can be so protective over her babies. I was amazed. Today was great, we even saw a big snake in the water, and a big and ugly toad, and some turtles. I think the snake will eat some of the baby ducklings. I wish we didn't have this kind of ugly animals in our park. I have to be careful not let the kids get too close to the snake. Good thing it stays in the water.
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Last week was a long and tiring week for everyone. I wasn't too tired because I didn't help on the wood floor installing at all It's a good excuse to be pregnant... no one wants me to help and I just sit and watch and give commands!!
Philip took a long time preparing the floor after taking the carpet out. He had to clean it, sweap it, vacuum it, and put cement on where it's not leveled. So the real installing work didn't start until Thursday...
We also went to the zoo on Thursday afternoon. The weather was GREAT so we took the DART train per the boys' request. It was a lot of kids at the zoo, and we had a good time walking around, I found myself getting tired easily now. It was also very warm, I felt my feet were a little swollen.
On Wednesday morning I went to see Dr. Cowart. Everything was normal, the baby's heart beat was 160/minute, it was pretty fast I guess because Dr. Cowart asked "what did you eat for breakfast??"... I told him waffles(I made waffles for the boys in the morning but I didn't eat too much). And of course weight gain.. I am now at 138 lbs... at this rate I will be HUGE by the time the baby comes. I told Mike I was worried the sonogram technician might be wrong predicting the baby's gender.. so Mike said I can go into the office on any day for him to do a quick sono check for me. SO NICE to have a brother to be my OB doctor... Free sonogram to check the baby!!! However I called this morning and it's pm and I still haven't heard from the nurse when I can go in. I should probably wait another week or so...
On the baby's front, I came up with a list of baby girl's name (biblical names) that I like, so I read them out loud and Jacob likes the name "Acacia Grace" the best. It's one of my favorite name, so as for now we are set on this name.. might change later on. I think I will not use the name "Summer" as I thought. It's not biblical and I will probably regret using it later on anyway.
Our princess has been kicking very strong lately. I can feel her a lot everyday now. She is a good baby, resting when I rest, and exercising when I am awake. We are more than half way through the pregnancy(21 weeks) and not too long I will hold my baby in my arms. The boys are excited about their baby sister too. Timothy kisses my tummy everyday to show his love for his baby sister. SO sweet. 
On Sunday it was POURING, raining so much... I still went in for my prenatal yoga class, by the time I got into the club my pants were wet. I was glad I went because I had a private lesson for about 15 minutes then another girl came so we had a semi-private lesson with Heather. It was very relaxing as usual. I really enjoy it. Heather was pressing my lower back when I was in "extended child's pose". It felt really good. Everytime when I am pregnant, I always have lower back pain. But so far it's not too bad, I think doing yoga certainly helps.
Jacob is now starting level 4 of "hooked on phonics". I am very very very proud of him. It's only about half a year and he already finished 3 levels. His math is also improving each day. We are now working on addiitions, counting by 2s, counting by 5s. For Timothy, I found out he is such a SMART little boy. He can add very well, and most of the time he doesn't need to use his fingers to add, he can "think" in his mind to figure out the numbers. WOW. What smart boys I have. I have to be deligent to help them learn each day. This is the best job in the whole world.
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We had the Chinese speaking spring conference this past weekend at Plano. We had 1 family and a sister staying with us. We enjoyed the fellowship but were all tired from the weekend. The topic of the conference was "shepherding". I prayed the Lord will enlarge my capacity and give me the burden to be a shepherding one, to have the same burden as He does. What I was touched the most was that the Lord charged Peter to shepherd His sheep 3 times. Although Peter failed and was in a very defeated situation, the Lord still came to Him to nursish and cherish him first, to warm his heart, and when Peter told the Lord yes he loved the Lord, the Lord charged him to feed His sheep. We are all like Peter, in many situations denying the Lord, turning away from our spirit, but He never gives us up. Amen.
The boys are having their spring break from schools, and Philip also took the week off to do some house project. Mainly to change the floor from carpet to laminate wood. It's a lot of work, he first had to move all the furniture in the family room away, then to take out the carpet and lining, then to clean the floor and take out the wood trims, then the real work starts. I can't help this time so mom has volunteered to help. We will buy some paint and paint the lower half of the wall to be a darker color since the boys drew on the walls and it's the best time to paint before the wood floor is put in. I don't know how it's gonna work for the baby though..... if the baby falls on the laminate wood, it will be very painful(comparing to carpet), but if our princess has asthma like her big brother Jacob, the wood floor will certainly help eliminate the dirt and all the stuff that's hiding in the carpet that can induce asthma. Talking about our princess, I can't stop being SO HAPPY about our baby. I am so lucky the Lord loves me SO MUCH that he really fullfills all our desires, even giving us a girl I've always dreamed about. I would appreciate and praise Him the same if He gives us a boy, but a girl is like a dream come true. I know there will probably be a lot of times when I will have headaches and heartdaches and troubles with raising a girl, but it's always a mother's dream to have a little girl to cherish. And now I have the chance to do that with my baby girl. So exciting! I will go in for a monthly prenatal check up this Wednesday. It's going to be very routine, but I just enjoy every part of the pregnancy. This is our last pregnancy and last child so I want to savor each moment.
The girls in my prenatal yoga class were all very happy for me yesterday when I told them we are having a girl. All the other 3 women are expecting boys and I feel SO special to carry a baby girl in my tummy I always enjoy going to the prenatal yoga classes. I don't really get much exercise from it because it's SO mild, but I get to relax and enjoy the time to connect with the baby and with myself. Also to share all the emotions with other pregnant woman and a sweet instructor.
Tomorrow morning is my regular yoga class and I look forward to it too because I can really get some exercise from it and I always feel so refreshed after the class. I will probably take both boys with me since Philip will be busy working on the floor and our house is a mess and too much dirt flowing around in the air. But I hope Jacob will feel ok, and is not teared up by the door waiting for me to pick him up at the child center. Will see.
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Happy New Year to Everyone!!
Although in the US there is really not any atmosphere for the Chinese New Year, but we told the boys it's Dog year and we gave them red envelops and they were happy!! They even kneeled down to give us a Big 拜年 which of course made us very happy. I got to talk to my dad and A-Yi and uncle and alex on their Chinese new year eve. I was very happy to talk to my daddy after a whole month! Wish him and everyone a wonderful new year to come, that they will all be healthy, happy and prosper!
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Jacob performed in a music program for MST 1st graders and kindergarteners. We all went last night to see Jacob sing with his classmates. They 2 songs, itsy bitsy spider & little teapot. Jacob did very well, singing and moving shylessly. All the parents were excited to see their little ones standing on the stage. Grandma, me and 2 boys arrived there first and right before the PTA meeting started, daddy made it. Daddy had to buy a chicken sandwitch to eat on the way from work to MST. I am glad we have such a supporting daddy who makes all the events of his kids.
I went in for my 2nd OB visit this morning. I had to wait a long time before seeing brother Mike. I was surprised I lost 3 pounds since last month's visit. I think it's because I didn't eat any more then I was before pregnant and yoga certainly helps. Mike measured me and he said the baby is growing great, at the right measurement. My uterus measures 12 cms which is exactly 12 weeks. He found the baby's heartbeat immediately, so experienced. Since I've heard it several times at home, I wasn't too excited but still happy to heat that strong heatbeat of my baby. I asked Mike several questions, and he said those were EASY questions for him OK next time I will have to come up with a lot more complex questions!! I asked him about AFP test, and he said now they do "Quad" test which is a lot more accurate then AFP(triple test) so the result should come back more correctly. Quad is done around the same time as my ultrasound, which according to the nurse will be around the 1st of March. I can hardly wait!! Mike said we will be able to find out the sex of the baby then!! I also asked about baby doppler, he said it's perfectly safe to use it because clinics have been using it since th 70s and not 1 report about it being harmful to the baby has been issued. I am relieved. He also said his nurses when they were pregnant they would listen to the heartbeats a lot in his office.
I've been looking into cloth diapers recently and have started to buy some. I am excited about usig cloth diapers this time because it is definitely better for the baby's health and it's cheaper(supposedly then disposables) and of course very good to the environment. A disposable diaper takes 1000 years to fully be absorbed by the soil. Hard to imagine!! I've been buying some cloth diapers from ebay and a website where moms exchange or sell cloth diapers. I was amazed the resale value of used cloth diapers are very high, which means if I maintain them well, I will be able to get most of my investment money back.. YAHOO! I only wish I'd look into cloth diaper with my 2 boys. I guess they weren't so popular at that time. I am sure it will mean a lot more work, but since I will stay home with the baby, I think it's not a problem.
I also got a haircut today at Mimi's by Judy. I really like it. Judy trimmed a lot of my hair down and now it's shoulder length. Much easier to take care and looks cuter. I kind of miss my long hair but for now it's great!! Timothy went with me and sat there nicely the whole time, what a good boy I have! And after haircut we went to Asia's world to buy some grocery. And we ran into Eric Fu and his wife!! Wow!! Philip's OLD roommate(1991-1993?) in Denton. They still live in Denton, and their boy is already in 6th grade. Eric looks a little older now, but his wife looks the same. I told them we are expecting the 3rd and he said "wow you look the same just like 10+ years ago and now you are going to have 3 kids" !!! Of course I was in the clouds hearing that comment!! Recently Philip's been telling me I look like I am 18 years old, well, at least in his heart. So sweet!! I don't mind getting older, since my kids are growing bigger each day, but it's always nice to hear people say you look younger than your age. HAHA.
Better go cook now. My boys will be hungry VERY soon!!
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Happy new year to everyone!
2006 is here. Hard to believe.
This year we will have a new baby joining our family. The due date is 8/1. The boys are excited about the baby and can't wait until that day to hold their baby. I am doing better these days, very slight nausea, but last night was very bad for me. After we ate dinner with grandma & Jimmy at 廣東飯店, I felt so bad afterwards when we got home. I started to have stomache ache, and 拉肚子. I don't think it was the food because they all seemed to be pretty fresh, and I was the only one having the problem. I did eat a lot of fried shrimp. I think my body is not used to the oily cooking and probably seafood was not what I should have eaten. Later at night I started to vomit, but after that I felt a lot better with en empty stomache. This happened to me before when I was pregnant with Jacob. Some saints invited us for dinner and I drank some very fresh and yummy fish soup, and after I got home, the exact same situation. Maybe from now on for the rest of my pregnancy I will avoid seafood all together. 
This morning I attended the video traning at the meeting hall. The topic of the training is "The Building of God". Brother Ron Kangas spoke a very sober and clear word. We were all very much reminded that we need to have the same heart God has. In this entire universe God only desires one thing, which is to build His eternal habitation, a mingling of the divinity with humanity. What a great way to start the new year, to be able to know God's heart desire. May the Lord strengthen each one of us, that this year will be a year of loving Him, and being built up together for His building.
Still not feeling too well, but it's very mild now. Philip said the Lord was reminding me I should watch what I eat, which is true. now I have a baby inside my body, I need to be very careful what goes inside my mouth so the baby will get all the nutrients he/she needs. Everyone assumes we are hoping for a girl. I guess in my heart I still do, but I've come to the conclusion I don't care either way, as long as the baby is healthy. I believe the Lord gives us what we need, so His arrangement is the best. May the Lord keep this baby healthy and safe.
Tomorrow Jacob starts school again. I am thinking to let him ride the bus home after school. Although I want to pick him up very much, but it's taking up a lot of time and energy for me. I usually have to wait there for about 40 minutes, then we have to wait for Patric and Tristan to get out. It's about 1 hour sitting there in the car. It's very tiring sometimes, and I don't think being pregnant or even when the baby is born we can do that. So starting tomorrow Jacob will try to take the bus(Red Circle) to Big Springs and I will pick him up there. It will take him longer to take the bus, probably 30 minutes instead of 10 minutes to get home. But we will try anyway and see how it goes. May the Lord protect Jacob on the bus that he will feel happy and safe, not being bullied by some naughty kids.
So it's the end of our holidays, and everything goes back to normal starting tomorrow. A new start for all of us.
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Yesterday we went to Ikea to shop with grandma and daddy. Dad was taking the day off sick because he has a cold and doesn't feel very well to go to work. We first went to pick up our van. Three tires were changed to brand new ones. Then we went to see Grandma's future senior apartment, which is near downtown Plano. It's still being built and the parking lot is not ready yet, but it should be nice because it's brand new.
When we arrived at Ikea there weren't too many people, we looked around for a few minutes then decided to go eat lunch first to avoid lunch crowd. I like Ikea's food, they are yummy and not too pricy. We ordered 2 chicken marsala, 1 large meatball plate, macaconi cheese, chicken tender. It was more then enough to eat. Then we started shopping and it began to get crowded. It's amazing how many people are taking their vacation days. Grandma bought some stuff, and we only bought a few things, but daddy had to wait a long time to pay. The boys ate ice creme while waiting.
These past few days Jacob fell in love with lego building. He enjoyed building lego so much, he didn't want to eat or go to sleep, but we limited him anyway. He finished most lego sets daddy bought, and is already asking for more. We are saving one big box for him to do when he turns 6 next month. My big boy will be 6 in a few weeks. Time surely flies. I sill remember the day he was born.
I am doing much better these days, nausea is almost all gone. And I am starting to do yoga so everything should get back to normal now, except I still need a nap almost everyday.
I am 9 weeks and 1 day today(starting my 10th week of pregnancy). I pray the Lord will protect the baby the whole 9 months of pregnancy and he/she will be born healthy and safe into this world, into our happy family.
Grandma is home yesterday and today, the boys are happy to have her here, but she is still with a cough from the cold. I hope she gets wholly recovered soon.
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Yesterday lunch we invited 4 families over for a small celebration party, just to get together and have some fun. There were (1) Wang-Hun's family, (2)Wei-lin's family, (3)Kathy's family and (4) Amy's family. Total number of people were 24!! A lot of kids running around but it wan't too bad. Everyone brought some food so the pullock was a big feast.
On Sunday night Liu Zhi and Hwa Lu came for dinner, we had a nice time chatting and getting to know their work and life situation in Memphas. Then we got a call from mom her tire was flat in Plano so we had to go rescue them. They were going to see the Christmas lights but on their way the tire quit working so they had to walk to the nearest gas station to call. Poor mom. Philip quickly changed the tire and we drove around Willow Bend to see the lights but for some reason this year's lights were not very impressive. So we headed home becuase Timothy slept the whole way there and back.
This morning I went for my Yoga class. This was the 1st time I did Yoga after I found out I was pregnant. It was a good class, I felt very good afterwards. I asked the teacher if there was any pose I couldn't do, she said no since we were not doing inversions today. A bad news is that Lifetime will make most of its yoga classes fee-based. But the fitness yoga on Tuesday and Thursday mornings are still free so I will probably just go take these anyway. I found on the website these are the poses I shouldn't be doing during pregnancy: jumps, pranayma(stopped breathing, or rapid breathing), inversions, backbends, Ab works(boat pose), lying on belly(cobra), or hot yoga. So I will have to remember these when I take my yoga classes. Both boys went with me and they did very well during my class, but when I went to pick them up they were waiting by the gate, ready to get out.
We then went to Target. I wanted to buy some maternity yoga pants but I couldn't find any, but Jacob found a spiderman toy he likes and I went ahead and buy it for him, knowing he will probably only be interested in 1 day or 2, then I will be able to return it to the store. If he decides to keep it, it will be his 6th birthday present. They both are having a blast playing with it right now. I might as well use this time to take a much needed nap.... It's so strange, ever since I am pregnant I have to take a nap. So tired all the time.
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We came back from the ski trip last night. It was a long drive, Philip drove the whole 11 hours. It was a very fun vacation. On Saturday after a whole day driving we arrived at Albuquerque, NM. The boys did very well in the car, they didn't want to go outside the car at all, and it was very convenienet for them to go potty into a water bottle while the car was moving!!
We went to eat at a Chinese Buffet then went to the saints' home for hospitality. The couple has 3 children, age 8 months, 3 and 5. They live in a church owned house right next to the campus. It was a very nice house, the outside looked old but the inside was newly remodeled. The room we stayed in was big, about 2 times our master bedroom. It has 3 twin beds and a bathroom in it. It was quite cold in NM, and extremely dry. The next morning we went to the Lord's day meeting to blend with the saints there. We dropped the kids at a house near the elementry the church meeting was, then enjoyed the meeting very much. They have about 40 people in the meeting, and it was very vital, a lot of people shared one by one.
Even the boys had fun in their meeting(playing toys).
After the meeting brother Joe Ho took us to eat Chinese noodles then we all headed to Santa Fe. On our way to Santa Fe all 3 of us fell asleep while daddy drove for about 1 hour or so. We decided to check in at our hotel directly so we could unload the luggages and took some rest. The hotel was called The Bishop's Resort. It was a 3-star resort. We got a nice room which had a small living room and a bedroom. The boys slept on the sleeping sofa in the living room. After we unpacked a little, we were ready to go up to the mountains to see some snow.
It was about 16 miles to drive up to the ski area on the mountain. We got there at around 4:30pm and it was already starting to get dark. We looked around, saw snow and felt how cold it was... then we decided we'd come back early the next morning. On our way down the mountain, we saw the Japanese spa place where Philip and I and our friends had a outdoor spa there about 13 years ago!! It's name is Ten Thousand Waves 萬波.
We went to the Furr's for American buffet... the food was not very impressive. but we realized it's very hard to find a decent restaurant in a place we were totally unfamiliar with. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and started to rest.
The next morning we quickly ate breakfast and decided to go up to the mountain, by the time we arrived it was about 11... time for lunch again! 
Jacob started to feel uncomfortable for some reason, I was so afraid he was sick and would't be able to ski... we already rented all the ski equipment for daddy and the 2 boys on our way up the mountain. I didn't rent any because I thought I'd better be more cautious and not ski this time. After we rested a little the boys started to ski a little. I had to hold Timothy and ran down the little hill with him because it's his very 1st time skiing... WOOHOO!! He did so well I couldn't believe it. He was not afraid AT ALL. So did Jacob. They skiied a few rounds with our help, then they started playing snow with Henna and Tirzah and we just watched Daddy ski. It only took daddy a few times to get used to skiing. He has great sports genes, only fell once!! Then Cephas and Cherie also tried to ski for a little bit borrowing Philip's ski equipment.
It was such a nice day, with the sun brightly shining, it was not cold at all. I enjoyed watching them skiing, and hoping next time we will all ski when the baby is older.
At about 3pm we started to head back to the hotel, this time we went to another hotel that we bidded on priceline.com the night before. I loved this hotel. It's called the Inn of the Governor's. It's 3 star as well. We only had 1 room but it had 2 queen beds in there and was very clean and comfortable. The best part was they had a heated swimming pool which Philip used and Free HOT breakfast. Yesterday morning after we woke up we went to eat the breakfast oh I was SO surprised how good the breakfast was. It's got fruits, cold stuff, hot stuff, all kinds of yummy juices, and coffee and tea, and so much to choose from. I was very satisfied with this hotel. Will have come back to it again next time! After breakfast we decided to go ahead and leave without waiting for the Lo's family because I'd like to arrive home as early as possible to get a good night sleep.
So we came back home happily and safely... how nice to be home sweet home after the trip. Philip drove the whole way back, I slept most of the way... I know Philip must have been so tired but he wanted to make sure I feel good. What a nice husband. Thank you Philip!!
Then came this morning, our 1st visit to the OB's office. Philip went with me because we were going to have a sonogram to see the baby. We had to wait a little but I know it's common for seeing a doctor. I was kind of nervous because this is the 1st time I got to get a sonogram this early. The Sonogram lady was very nice(Lori). She congratulated us and quickly found our little baby on the machine. The baby looked very cute.. with 4 limbs(2 arms and 2 legs), and a strong beating heart. The heart beat was 171/minute. I was so happy to see our little peanut on the sonogram. It's really true!! A baby is living inside my tummy, with a heart of its own.. How amazing! We got to take 2 pictures home. The baby's due date is estimated to be around 8/1/2006. So the baby is 8 weeks and 1 day old today.
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