My Favorite Christmas Story (Thus Far)

One of Lance's aunties gave Emma and Ethan $20 each for Christmas.  When Emma opened the card with the money inside:

Emma:  "Whoa!  A million dollars!!"

Me:  "Whoa!  That's a lot of money!!  May Umma have some?"

Emma (with very serious look on her face):  "Well, you may have a little bit."

A Rainy Weekend in San Francisco

A weekend chronicle in pictures:

 On our way to a birthday party.

 



All partied out. 

Surf's up on Ocean Beach. Really good waves and high tide. The little black dots are surfers, who were out in droves.

 Graffiti art at the beach.

A rare shot of me with the kids.  Wearing my new favorite hat - Molly in madelinetosh dk Glazed Pecan.

 It's cold, but I have a bib in case I have to eat something at the drop of a hat.

 Deep thoughts by Ethan.

 Mud pie in your face!

A sand dollar treasure.

See,  I knew the bib would come in handy.

At home, safe and warm with hot chocolate faces.

Sourpatch Kid

Here's Emma (she turned three this month!) in her new Sourpatch sweater.   It's been a while since I have knit anything for her.  I love how she still gets excited about her handmade things.  I don't imagine that will last too much longer, when she will eventually whine, "I want the store bought designer sweater, Umma, not the one you made!!!"

But, for now, when she smiles and says "Thank you!  Pretty colors!" after I show her the finished knitted sweater, it makes my heart so glad. 

Gangnam Style

In order to fully appreciate our home video, you should watch this first:
Ridiculous.  I am embarrassed for my peeps.  But, apparently, husband tells me this Korean dance video is taking the world by storm.  

First stop, my house:

Emma and Ethan Gangnam Style 

One might ask why would husband be showing this to our children?  Especially, because you can see that right at about 1:27 she is imitating the ladies doing yoga in their teensy shorts.  But, there are too many funny things that make up for the indiscretion.  

My favorites:
- The first moments when Ethan can't figure out what is going on, and then suddenly he is like, "Ok, it's cool.  I'll just dance, too."
- Emma doing the cowboy rope swinging move.
- Dramatic music and dance pause by Ethan, followed by immediate bopping.
- And, well, actually, Emma doing the butt yoga pose...I am just glad she didn't choose to follow along with the guy in the elevator.

BTW, in case you really want to know what he is saying, he repeats "Oppa Gangnam Style" a lot.   Oppa means older brother in Korean, but Korean women use this term to refer to boyfriends, too.  Gangnam is a ritzy area of Korea, as my mother puts it "where rich Koreans live."  The guy is talking about finding his perfect woman and how he is someone with "Oppa Gangnam Style!"

Overheard

Emma:  I'm Korean, Umma is Korean, Jung-Bin is Korean and Hammi is Korean!
Husband:  What is Appa?
Emma:  Appa is Spanish.

Happy Birthday, Ethan

Happy birthday, my baby boy!  He turned one on July 9.  We had his Korean traditional dol on Saturday. 

Oh, what!!! He picked the gavel.  Just what we need, another lawyer in the family. 

Why, Hello! I am Big!

Why, hello there!  I went to my nine month checkup on Friday. 

I can't believe I am so old already.  I love to crawl around (when I crawl my mother says I am like an elephant, I plop my hands down really hard and lumber around), and I also love to pull myself up on everything and cruise around causing lots of trouble. 

I am just a few ounces shy of 21 lbs. (around the 55th percentile in weight and height).  I look huge though, but that could be because of my big melon (around 78th percentile).  Check me out in my hat that my mom made.  She just finished it, but I guess she didn't realize quite how big my head is. 

I am really proud of my big sister, by the way, who is now potty trained and has been for the last month and a half.  She is so big and tall, I can't wait until I am able to walk around and play with her.

Color Affection Shawl and Date Night

Ok, I officially love this knit. 

Might be one of my all time favorite things I have made, not only because the yarn (Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering) is so soft and squishy with glowing colors, but also because:
- the pattern is very well written.
- I love the colors I picked (gray, yellow, and a difficult to describe and photograph hot pink/red.  I swear it does not read McDonald's, even if the pictures sort of do).
- the thing is knit in all garter stitch which is so easy and relaxing, with results that make it look more complicated than it really is.
- it is soooo freaking cozy and warm.

The weather in San Francisco for the past week and a half has been miserable.  It was dreary, rainy and cold.  Actually, it still is.  Wearing this shawl as a really big scarf around my neck has kept me warm and makes me look like I am wearing those big cowls that are so in fashion these days.
People are knocking this shawl out in a few days on Ravelry, but since I have limited time to knit, it took me a little while to finish it.

In other news, husband and I went out on a date without the kids for the first time in months.  We ate fondue at Fondue Cowboy.  Yes, a weird choice for food, but think about it, can you ever really eat fondue with kids around?   Not, really.

 French comte, white wine and mushroom fondue.

Dark chocolate and cayenne fondue.  This was unbelievably delicious - let's not think about the calories, ok?  Hey, there was a lot of fruit to make this a balanced dessert.

And we saw a movie - the first one since May 2011!  We went to see The Hunger Games.  I have read The Hunger Games trilogy, husband has not.  I loved the books, and was really excited to see the movie.  This was opening week, and I swear the line for the ticket holders went around the lobby and out the door, and we even arrived 30 minutes prior to the screening time.  I was reminded why we rarely go see movies on opening weekend even before we had kids.

In my opinion, movies based on books are never as nuanced as the actual books, given the constraints of time and format.  However, I thought this movie adaptation was really good.  I admit when I saw the actor cast for Peeta Mellark, I was initially disappointed.  From the books, I imagined a much taller and overall bigger person in the role.  But, by the end of the movie, I was convinced that the actor fit the role and did a great job.  I would recommend the movie to friends, and I wasn't sorry that we chose this movie as our date night movie (unlike the last one which was Pirates of the Caribbean).  Oh, yeah, husband enjoyed it, too and he says he will read the books.  Which means these books might be among the few things he reads that isn't 1) about baseball, 2) about samurais, 3) about work related computer stuff or 4) about Jeremy Lin. 

The Biggest Troublemaker in Our Home

Meet Gohm (it means "bear" in Korean).  He is such a bad boy.  If you ask Emma where all the crayon, marker and pen on the wall and couch came from, it came from Gohm.   If you ask Emma why Ethan might be crying and why his head might bear an angry red mark on it, well, it was Gohm again.  Gohm strikes at random and he is not very discriminating in the type of trouble he causes.   He might spill something on the floor, he might throw something across the room or he might just take away toys from Ethan for no good reason.  Sometimes, I think that Gohm should be thrown out of the house.   But, then Emma would be sad because who would she take to bed at night or make snacks for or put in her baby stroller? 

Look at Mr. Chubby Cheeks, so innocently sleeping, so unknowing that Gohm is coming to get him soon to wake him up from peaceful slumber because he is "lonely, and wants to play with Ethan."  That Gohm, such a troublemaker.

Happy Valentine's Day aka Friendship Day

Happy Valentine's Day, or as Emma's preschool calls it, Friendship Day.   I received some lovely long stem roses from husband, and Emma received a little brown "Friendship Bear" (well, the bear arrived with the roses, and so it became Emma's bear).

We all (except for poor Ethan) had a Friendship cookie after dinner, along with glasses of Friendship milk.  Emma got a big kick out of the pink milk.

And just because, here's Ethan in the bath.  So chubby and cute!

It's Nice to Be Wanted

Today at dinner:

Ethan, lurking in background:  Reaches over and pulls at my shirt, trying to get me to pick him up.
Emma, sitting in her booster, watching this happen:  "Hey, Jung-Bin (his Korean name), that's MY mommy!"
Ethan:  "Gurgle, gurgle, YAHHHH!!!!"  Continues to tug on me, until I give him a snuggle.

It's nice to be wanted, I think?

Catching Up

It's been busy around here.  Both husband and I were really swamped at work, and for a while all it felt like was work, work, work, kids, (very) little sleep, then start all over again the next day.

Things have calmed down a bit, but our whole family is getting over a cold.  I think I have been sick the entire month of January.  It stinks.  The kids usually just get a little sniffle, but I am knocked out by whatever it is that they pass to me.   I lost my voice with this last one.

Ethan went to his 6 month check up in early January.  He is big and healthy, and weighed 18.5 lbs.  He slowed down in his weight gain though, dropping from the 90 percentile in height and weight to the 75 percentile in height and the 70 percentile in weight.  His head, though, went up from the 50 percentile to the 75 percentile - yes, his head seems huge now.

He is sitting up on his own, probably started right around 6 months. 

This ability gives us a little relief because when he sits up he can entertain himself for about 5-10 minutes before the bawling starts.  Sigh.  I love the little guy, but he is crybaby.  I don't remember Emma crying this much at his age.  In fact, it is so interesting to see the difference in their personalities already. 

From the start, Emma was a pretty easy baby and "independent".  She was content playing by herself while lying down or sitting up.  She sort of sleep trained herself.  She slept with us until she was about 4 months old, then she was ready to go into her own crib and slept for 5 hours stretches at a time.   She actually did not enjoy being held all the time and to this day, she doesn't like it when someone tries to touch or to hold her while she is falling asleep. 

Ethan - weeeellllll, he is another story altoghter.   He is still sleeping with us, he wakes up all the time and won't fall or stay asleep unless someone is cuddling him.  I mean, the kid has cried for over an hour straight.  Whenever I think he is about to stop crying during these crazy long crying jags, all it actually turns out to be is a small pause to catch his breath so that he can regain strength and volume. He nurses to sleep most nights and he uses the pacifier.  As one of my friends put it, the pacifier is our frenemy.  We are so dependent upon it.  Emma, on the other hand, never used one.

Our pediatrician says that one day we will be glad that he has such a "cuddly" (euphemism) personality.  She uses her own college age kids as examples.  She tells us her daughter was similar to Emma when growing up and her son was similar to Ethan.   Now her son calls her call the time, visits often etc., but she knows that when her daughter calls, she better be sitting down for the news.  I hope Emma won't be quite as dramatic, but I could see it happening. 

Emma is a talker.  She talks all the time (taking after her mother, I guess). 

Her phrases crack us up.  Here's a few of our favorites that we wanted to memorialize so that we can remember them in our old age:
"What's that noise from?"  - whenever she hears some distant sound.  She has excellent hearing.
"[Noun] went away?  Tired?" - when something she likes disappears or is taken away.
"Umma, I am very tired now" -  she actually emphasizes the "very".  Where did she learn that drama?
"Umma, I'm bang bang" - this is a mix of Korean and English.  Bang bang is Korean baby talk for "I am full."
"What's that you're eating?  I want some." - usually happens when I try to be sneaky and put something like chocolate or a cookie or chip in my mouth when she is not looking.  Shoot. 
"Hey, [Umma/Appa/Hammi/Insert name here], don't do that!" - when we do something she doesn't like.  Especially when we try to take something away.
"No, I am busy right now."  - told to us when we ask her to do something she doesn't want to do.
"No, the big one." - when we try to give her a little piece of something she wants, like a treat.  She points to the bigger piece and says this.
"I need a book first."  - she is learning to use potty and she sits there, but wants a book.  Where does she learn these things??
"My laptop, please" - when she wants to "work" alongside us.
"I am strong!" - one day I started to think about the types of compliments we give her.  A lot of them are along the lines of "oh, you are so cute!" or "so pretty!"  Of course, she is super cuties, but I want her to know that she is so much more than just those things.  So I have started to tell her more often about how smart, how brave, how strong she is.  One day, when I asked to her to clean up her toys, she picked up a big box filled with her blocks, and said "Look at me, Umma, I am strong!"   I almost cried.  Now, she says it all the time.

I realize that a lot of the phrases above make her sound like a demanding child, but she is a toddler, after all.  Emma is a good kid overall, bright, good natured, and funny.  She has finally gotten over ther violent stage toward Ethan, and shows a lot of affection for him. She often asks Ethan "to give her a hug", or if she can give him a "po po" (kiss, in Korean). 

She also loves eating her veggies - what a blessing!  Look at the salad she is eating.  She actually asked for salad for dinner that night. 

And, there's Ethan, lurking in the background of the photo.  He will cry unless he is held during dinner.  We have to take turns eating, if we want to eat in any semblance of peace.   Ethan is very interested in the food we are eating.  He started solids at 6 months.  He basically spit out any sort of cereal we tried, but is now obsessed with squash, butternut or zucchini.  He smiles when he sees the food, and then, cries (surprise) if the food isn't coming quickly enough to his mouth.  All this crying - I tell myself, this, too, shall pass.   I hope.  I pray.  I chant.  Please, in the name of everything holy, please!