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Amanda had her VCUG a few weeks ago to see if she has any reflux in her bladder. This procedure is routine in all cases of infants having urinary tract infections. We are happy to report that the test came out negative and there was no sign of reflux. We hope she continues to be a healthy (and presumably happy) baby girl.

Sorry, but I don't have much time to write a blog entry.  For those who are interested, I have posted new pictures of Amanda to the Picture Gallery located at the top.  The new pics are in the latest folder of August 15th.  She is cuter and cuter by the minute.

Amanda visited her grandparents and cousins this past weekend in Sacramento. She enjoyed the hot summer weather and spent time with her many aunties and uncles. She especially had lots of fun playing with her cousins Evan and Maddie.

Amanda is getting bigger and bigger each day. Much cuter too.

This outfit is so popular at Gap that we received three of the same from various folks. Of course, we kept them all. No, Trinh does not like to return things. Gap should pay us for the free advertising especially considering how cute Amanda looks in their clothing.

Here are some pics of Amanda on July 23rd, exactly one month from the day she was born.  It would be great if she grew up to play professional golf or tennis.  Billy Ray Cyrus has his cash cow, why can't I? 

It's definitely an oldie, but a goodie. You all know the words so might as well sing along.

One last weekend with Amanda before going back to work. I can't believe how quickly these 4 weeks have gone by. I am not sure how I can handle being away from her during the work week, but I guess I just have to learn to let go.

More visitors over the weekend. This time uncle Peter, Tien, Chris and auntie Vy came to visit from Orange County. They were all too shy to take pictures with Amanda.

I love the colors in this picture.

This outfit was given to us by uncle Lewis and auntie Akiko.  I would say that this is the best outfit we have in her entire wardrobe.  It may be too soon, but I hope that Amanda follows in my footsteps one day.  Once a Bruin, always a Bruin.

Amanda was excited to learn that Bruin basketball had the top recruiting class in the country. 

Amanda was sad to learn that the Bruins made it to the Final Four 3 years in a row without a championship.

To all the Trojans out there:  "Kiss my b*tt!"

Happy TranPhamily.

Amanda's cousin, Marcus, can dance better than you. I am sure of this.

Amanda is now three weeks old. IMO, she's got a pretty sweet deal. All she does is eat, sleep, pee and poo (not in that particular order, but you know what I am talking about). Plus, she doesn't even have to get up to do these things. We have to go to her. All of the peeing and pooing gets really messy, which leads to many outfit changes. You won't believe this, but the pictures below were all taken on the same day. That's four new outfits in a span of approximately 8 hours. I hope she doesn't become too obsessed with fashion. Mommy and daddy can't afford it.

Amanda has also grown a lot and now wears clothing meant for infants 3-6 months old.

We received boxes and boxes of diapers at our baby shower last month. At the time, I thought what the hell am I going to do with a thousand diapers? Now, after only 3 weeks of life, Amanda has gone through at least one box of diapers (if not more). That’s roughly 200 diapers in 20 days, or 10 per day. I didn’t realize this before, but diapers are not cheap. You want some sound investment advice? Put all your money in Pampers or Huggies.

Amanda started getting baby acne.  She's a little self-conscious as you can see from the 2nd picture.  Regardless, we still think she's adorable.

Trinh and I have come to learn that Amanda whistles everytime she’s doing a No. 2. It looked mighty cute at first, but the smell and whooozing sound that follow ain’t pretty. Plus, if you’re holding her at the right moment, you can feel the action through her diaper. I love parenthood!

During the holiday weekend, Amanda was visited by several members of the Tran Phamily. We fired up the grill and bbq’d some ribs, chicken and flap steak, which is similar to skirt and flank steak, but less expensive. We all had a great time and look forward to many more Independence Days ahead.

Amanda’s paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin Marcus will be visiting this weekend. Amanda can’t wait to meet them. In the meantime, here are some new pictures of Amanda, some taken today in her new “cutie” outfit.  Check out our latest gallery of pictures we took the day before the 4th of July.

After spending the weekend at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, we finally came home last night. Doctors discovered from a urine sample that Amanda had a urinary tract infection. Specifically, her urine contained the e-coli bacteria, which apparently is pretty common in newborn infants. We took her to the ER on Friday afternoon and was admitted to the hospital that same night. For the next three days, Amanda received doses of antibiotics to combat the infection. Fortunately, the antibiotics were effective and Amanda was allowed to go home.

Amanda would like to thank her grandparents, Auntie Erica and Teresa, Uncle Johnny, Tommy and Casey for visiting her while she was in the hospital. Trinh and I would like to thank these same folks for bringing us Vietnamese food, which we were craving badly. Hospital food, as some of you may know, is not very good.

Not such happy times, but you all deserve to know what we did this past weekend. In any case, at least we have a happy ending.

Here are some images from the weekend:

Trinh and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your warm and well wishes since the birth of Amanda. We are sorry we could not respond to all of your individual emails. There were just too many. We are blessed to have so many friends. Amanda is doing well. Like most babies, she has a reversed schedule - sleeps all day and cries all night. Trinh and I are adjusting to this schedule, but of course, would love for her to follow our schedule.

Again, thank you and hopefully, you all can meet Amanda soon.

PS. Sean Foley won the baby pool. He picked June 23rd at 9:00 am, which was the closest to the actual time of delivery at 10:51 am. Congrats Sean. The check, as they say, is in the mail.