Rockin' that look

You know what happens when Daddy decides to do the hairstyling!

The January Blizzard

Since it has been unseasonably warm and pleasant this January, we have had to go look for blizzards.  We have occasionally seen the bright sun, in between the rain and thunder storms, but blizzards aren't as readily available.  So over the weekend, we walked to our local DQ and enjoyed our version of a blizzard.  This post is accompanied by a very huge apology to those who have actually shoveled some snow this winter!!

Yes, we really did eat outside as the temperature was 50 degrees at 7:30 pm.

Trampoline in the 'hood

On our daily walk around the block recently, I saw our neighbor kids enjoying their trampoline one balmy afternoon.  From a distance I could see the two middle school aged children jumping high into the air.  I couldn't quite figure out what the boy had going on with his legs.  When we passed them, I realized he had his hockey goalie pads strapped to his legs and he was practicing bouncing down in the "W" formation that the goalies like to do.  Impressive use of a trampoline!!

On the trampoline

Our recent play date was at our friends' house where all the kids enjoyed the trampoline in their back yard.  Lucia watched with fascination from the window while the bigger kids jumped, and couldn't wait for her turn!  "More, more" she kept signing to me.. not that you can tell from the expression on her face in these pictures.

This week's art class

Our focus was on the family, so we created a house and all the people who fit into that house (pocket!).  As usual, it was Mommy cutting and pasting, with little girl adding the creative scrawls, dots and color.

All of us in the house

Outside of the house

You can guess who is who!

New perm

Troy teased me the other day, saying I was good Korean since I had managed to get my insurance company to pay for my new perm.  That really was a good one!  For those of you who haven't seen the progression from buzz cut to awkward mullet to over-priced perm.... here are some photos of my latest hairdo.

Almost FREE pizza

The other night, we ventured to a chain pizza buffet place which offered $1.99 per person buffet, with kids under age three for free.  Though not really our favorite pizza place, the price lured us into the doors.  We stood in line a mere five or ten minutes and enjoyed chatting with the senior citizens behind us (there were a BUNCH of them there).  The staff proved very friendly, the food plentiful and the seating decent and clean for a busy night.  Our girl who doesn't eat vast quantities of anything, ate two whole pieces of cheese pizza by herself plus a brownie for supper!  By the end, her cheeks were flushed with the warmth of the pizzeria, her belly full and stuck out, and her smile huge as she watched lots of kids wandering around the place filling their plates full.

In line, charming the grandmas behind us

Second cheese pizza

The fabulous duo

Words, words, words

Fiiiiinally, after waiting for months, our girl started spouting new words daily this past week or two.  Yes, I had been reassured by the pediatrician, by Troy, by the grandmas, by my sisters-in-law, by my dear friend the linguistics professor, and just about everyone else that I didn't need to worry about her expressive language since her comprehension seemed fine. But I'm a mom first and foremost.  So my primary job is to worry.  My main only role in life is to worry.  You can imagine my relief when the properly-used words came tumbling out of her mouth -- "apple, mouth, cheese, owl, Bible, light, more, coat, go, baby, ah-pa (Korean for daddy), um-ma (Korean for mommy), draw, boots, nose, eyes, hae-ba (Korean for do it)" etc.  She already knew "hi, mommy, mama, daddy, dada, duck, car, truck, cracker, no, yeah, koh (Korean for nose) plus a handful of signs.  This morning, we learned the downside of encouraging her speech when she wanted to talk during the reverent, quiet service.  

Psssst... come look at this

is what Troy whispered loudly to me the other night as we were in kitchen.  I was cleaning up the dishes, and he had been playing with our girl when she ran around the house to the living room, carrying her Bible.  Troy surreptitiously watched from the dining room as she climbed up on the red chair.  She opened her Bible and started talking  around her pacifier (no, she wasn't supposed to have it in but she found it!) as if she were in meeting.  So cute!  She must have seen Daddy after a minute or so, as she mentioned for him to join her on the red chair.  I ran to grab my phone or camera but the truly special moment passed too quickly.

New coloring book

In the spirit of reduce, reuse and recycle, our kid colors with crayons in the 2011 PDR, thanks to her dad's ingenuity.  There are endless pages which don't seem to rip, and can tolerate a toddler's version of coloring.  Maybe she'll absorb some biochemistry along the way.

Um, that's probably daddy's circles but her scribbles

Sorry, sometimes blogger turns photos

Hard at work!

A day in the life of me

Believe it or not, besides a blog, I keep a diary of my days.  I've been recording little tidbits of our day, notes of routine boring stuff (like what time she napped and what she ate), and also cute things I want to remember that our daughter said or did (but not necessarily blog).  I'm finding the days, weeks, months fly so quickly that I can hardly remember one day to the next unless it's written down. 

So here's a little snippet of our day yesterday which started REALLY early (it's not any different from any other mom's life but this is my reality!).  Little girl decided at 6:20 that she needed some milk.  Sigh.  After playing with blocks, throwing her balls back and forth, reading books (baby bear, brown bear and panda bear) the phone rang and I talked with a friend for quite awhile.  Since little girl started getting fussy, I bundled her up and we went for a half-hour walk.  She fell asleep quickly in her stroller.  While she napped, I surfed the web, blogged and made some phone calls to figure out the best place for my mom to get some new glasses.   Then I finished reading one point two journals which included CME questions.  After munchkin woke up from her nap, some friends came over and we hung out until the weather cleared a little.  Then we walked the greenway to a park, met some more friends there and played for more than an hour.  The kids all enjoyed playing and this mom enjoyed all the other moms' company.  We got back late afternoon and I decided to make bread and banana chocolate chip crumb muffins since the oven was going to be turned on anyway for the stuffed baked potatoes.  I whirled the Kitchen Aid mixer a few times, plopped everything together and tried to remember the timing of the different things that needed baking, all  the while a toddler roamed the kitchen with random books, pulling random spices and containers out of random places, saying "mommy, mommy."  With dinner finally pulled together and devoured, dirty dishes piled into the dishwasher, the last duty of the night remained a bath for the girl.  And I didn't even write all the details.

Birthday Surprise!!

The UPS man stopped at the end of our driveway last night, exited his brown truck with a headlamp on, and walked up to our side door with a HUGE box.  Hmmm.... we should have done one of those unpacking videos that people like to shoot, but I didn't think of it until just now.... especially since our little girl was quite excited to help open the box!  Anyway, inside this HUGE box from Omaha Steaks was a belated birthday surprise for Troy.  A great surprise for the champion meatatarian!  And, it's a gift for me, too, since I don't have to cook tonight. Thank you, thank you.

Box contents

ADDENDUM 8pm:  The dinner was delicious!  I added green beans to the stuffed baked potatoes and filet mignons.

"I like toast and jam..."

Despite downing a bowl of oatmeal, some scrambled eggs, and part of a cinnamon roll, Lucia was delighted to share her daddy's toast and jam.  Especially the jam.

Saturdad

Mommy's working today.

1 trip to 2 dumps (first one wouldn't take the old water heater)
+ 1 trip to new library
+ 1 trip to Mommy's work, for lunch/snack
+ 1 pending trip to Lowe's!
+ 1 nap (under way)
-----------
= I can't wait for Mommy to get home.

PS - Despite my attempt to be creative with the title, turns out it already exists, at least in the Urban Dictionary.

Are you ok??

Guess who came up to me this morning and wanted to put on her hat and gloves?  Yes, the same little girl who couldn't stand the hat and gloves a couple weeks ago.  Maybe the cold weather is inspiring the change of heart....

The squeaky wheel....

... gets some results, anyway.  Troy happened to notice the subcontracted tree trimmers methodically moving around our neighborhood, chopping down limbs near power lines.   Sounds like a good idea, except at a couple of houses up the street, the trees ended up with an L-shaped chunk eaten out of it.   After calling the power company, waiting for a human response, then waiting for that man to come out and look at our magnolia, and then waiting for him to call back.... our tree was trimmed this week.  The guys happen to come the day Troy worked from home, and they stopped at our door a couple times for him to check their progress.  They ended up giving the tree a nice trim.  Thankfully.  This topic was the major subject at story time yesterday as a couple ladies from our neighborhood asked about our experience with "the tree guys."  Ah... the tiny details in life that stir us up....

Story Time

Thankfully, we are back in the swing of our pre-holiday routine.  Story Time was packed this morning (perhaps the gray, drizzly, cold weather helped with attendance).  Our girl who loves to do all the rhymes, dances and movements at home spent the whole time just watching all the other kids moving and shaking today.  She happily clapped along but her fascination was with the other children.  Afterward, while choosing books and sitting at the little table, she was especially mesmerized by twin boys who were running their tired grandma to her wits' end. 

Alex Alligator

This book once belonged to Troy, and now his daughter enjoys the "snap, snap" of the alligator book.

The only weekend photo

No one was exactly feeling energetic enough to hold a camera, much less look good enough to have a photo taken..... but, here's the one and only photo of two eating toast.

Our girl is definitely feeling better today as she ate her entire dish of scrambled eggs this morning, and asked for more.  She also ate a good portion of her oatmeal, and then was hungry again in a couple of hours.

Stomach bug, stomach bug what do you see?

I see three people running away from me!

The past week started with our little girl battling a cold. Then, she started with the stomach bug which she generously shared with her parents.  Troy probably caught the worst of it, with fever, chills, body ache and nausea.  Our washer ran multiple loads of laundry in the past few days.  Our diet consists of rice porridge, tea, toast, cereal and not much else.  Hungry but scared to eat anything of substance (only because we were dumb enough to try it once this weekend!) We thought last night that we had beat this icky virus, but today we're still feeling rough.  Unfortunately, that meant we missed meeting up with some Ohio friends who were traveling through town. Sorry about that!!

We have entertained ourselves with reading "baby bear, baby bear what do you see" books OVER and OVER, flipping pop-up books, playing with mega-blocks, scribbling, and even daring to take a few walks.  We have been amazed at our little girl's happy disposition even while sick.

Tell me I'm not actually seeing THIS SIGN!

Our sweet traveler

Little girl KNEW something was going on as I started to pack our suitcases.  She was soooo tired since she woke at 6 am, but refused to nap before we left for the airport, refused to nap in the car on the way, refused to nap on the plane until the last five minutes of the flight.  She most certainly was not going to miss out on any activity.  Despite being so tired, she traveled well and entertained everyone with her little hand wave and "hi."  At the end she passed out in my arms and slept on the airport bench while waiting for luggage, then in her car seat (despite a stop at Trader Joe's on the way home) and finally after we arrived home, slept in her bed for a total of two and half hours.

Ya gotsta eat dis!

Only in the midwest.....

can you get Bob Chinn's seafood,

Cousins' Subs

the best locally-owned donut shop, run by a Cambodian couple (you will never have better donuts!)

Mars Cheese Castle

And, unrelated to food, but an important midwest stop anyway... the cleaners that my parents used to run, aka my summer job, spring break job, weekend job, jail cell (oops, did I say that?! just kidding, Mom and Dad!)  Anyway, it did make me happy to see that the store continues to be busy and doing well, especially in this economy.

She's my cousin!

It is amazing to watch the instant bond between these girls.  New Year's Eve consisted of assembling, coloring and playing with the cardboard house.

Resident artist

Tall enough to color the roof

Sliding entrance

Check it out, now!

Hi!

Fishing something out of the chimney

Look at my ow-ie, Sam-chon!

Aww.. it's alright.

More special visits with very special people

Since Jane happened to be in the area one night, we fortunately met up with her too!  We were glad that Lucia was able to meet Auntie Jane who is a very special auntie to many, many children!

Also we attended a special meeting in Wisconsin and Lucia got to meet Uncle Rich.  We were excited to see and hear him as he just returned from Ecuador.  Coincidentally, Troy ran into his cousin Mary Anne after that meeting... as in they literally bumped into each other!  We were happy for a few minutes to catch up.  We also met several old friends there and exchanged lots of smiles and hugs.  Later that evening, Uncle Tim and Aunt Susan came to the house along with Gomo Halmoni and Halabuhgee.  Over a delicious lasagna that Susan whipped up, we enjoyed the fascinating stories of World War II and the Korean War.  It's hard to comprehend just what the previous generations (our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents) endured, but we are thankful we can still hear the stories.  Those stories need to be recorded!

Happy New Year

We wish everyone a wonderful 2012!