Snow Day

Jude was in an exceptionally good mood the other evening and happily recited both the Bible and Beyonce. As I mentioned before, he really dislikes the camera so I was surprised to have gotten this footage. Even though he knows more age-appropriate songs like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "This Little Light of Mine", it's just funnier watching him sing Beyonce. You can tell I'm striving hard for Parent of the Year.

Jude's class had a "snow day" Friday. For the rest of the country, this means "no school". In SoCal, however, it means I can bring Jude to school on his off-day to play in specially delivered snow placed in a section of the parking lot. I had a meeting conflict at work, but fortunately my director understood that this midwest girl will do anything to expose her kid to semi-real winter conditions. Actually, it wasn't even close to semi-real because I was still wearing short sleeves. Nevertheless, Jude had a great time sledding and throwing snowballs. He cried when it was over and we had to go home. Must be the Chicago in him...

Baby Eli, as you know, doesn't attend school yet and still studies diligently at home.

 

We are the Bears Shufflin' Crew

Chicago is going to the Superbowl!

In other sports news, Jude hits a homerun, rounds the bases, and slides into home...

You may think we are conscientious parents and that thing on Jude’s head is a protective helmet he wears while playing baseball. But you would be mistaken… that is his hair. You might then think we are terribly neglectful parents for allowing our son to walk in public with such a mop in which case you are still mistaken. As much as we like his head shaved, we are purposely growing his hair out. Only problem is, Jude’s hair defies gravity. So unfortunately at this length, it continues to reach for the sky in classic chia pet fashion. If it doesn't go down, we will stage an intervention. But on the upside, the bedhead it produces every morning is fabulous.

I love playing with my boys and admit I am not a typical girl who loves make-up or buys lots of shoes and nice purses to change with my outfit. But as I was sliding into an imaginary home base while playing with Jude the other day, I commented to Kwang that it would be nice to have a daughter simply because if we don’t, I may be in danger of losing all the femininity in me. So the next day I had Jude sit with me during lunch as I perused my latest In Style magazine. Unfortunately, that didn’t make me feel much better. I suddenly felt very old when he pointed to a picture of Avril Lavigne and called her an ah-ju-mah.

As we sign off, Eli would like to bid you a fond farewell. It may not be the prettiest or most heartfelt wave, but our little pumpkin gets it.

Lellow

I'll be sad when Jude begins to accurately pronounce the color "yellow". There are just some things I don't wish to correct. His current favorite book is "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss. He has been requesting this book every night but calls it the "Lellow Boy Book" because the main character is wearing a yellow outfit.

The Bears are going to the NFC Championship! Too bad I lost my copy of the "Superbowl Shuffle"...

Since my family visited a few weeks ago, Jude has reached a noticeably new level of speech & conversation. I can tell he loves being able to express his thoughts or ask questions in complete sentences. I’m surprised daily by a new phrase or verb tense he uses. But as quickly as he's growing, he is still our little Jude. He happily informs us when he's passed gas and exactly how many times (“Ah-bbah! I boomped two times!”) or when his nose itches ("Uhmmah! I got the burgert!"). The latter was a sentence that surprised me because I know I never taught him the word "booger". And no matter how many times I try to correct him, he insists that the flying vehicle Mickey Mouse rides is a SPACESHIT.

Jude loves to greet his brother in the morning when he hears him cooing.

Kwang was in London all week on business and then in Vegas this weekend w/friends. We missed him so much! Well, maybe just me & Jude. Eli might have thought of him once in a while, but I’m not sure he missed him. He was too busy catching up on his milestones. Our little Michelin man has started to show signs of authentic crawling. He can finally get his rotund belly off the floor! He is 8 months old which means he should probably be working on his cruising skills at this point. But being the mediocre mom that I am, it would go against my parenting practices to push him to learn faster. Yes, I am a disgrace to the Korean competitive spirit.

As much as I would love for my sons to be athletic, witty, artistic, handsome scholars, what I continually pray for most is their faith. I pray that God would help them grow into a deep understanding of who He is. There is so much I hope for regarding my sons, but my greatest if not only true hope is for their salvation. One of the best moments of my day is checking up on them before heading to bed. I love just watching them sleep. Oftentimes, it is at these moments that I am moved to lift them up in prayer one last time for the day.

"Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children."   Lamentations 2:19

 

Our rockstar son

Returning to work after the holidays hasn't been easy after a full week of nonstop fun with Jude & Eli. Well, almost nonstop... if it weren’t for the Terrible Twos blindsiding the Kim household. What in the world took over and possessed my fun lovin’ Jude? I admit I'm exaggerating slightly, but it’s certainly not a proud moment when your child is lying on the floor of Baja Fresh not wanting to eat his lunch. Doesn’t he realize that such a display is cute to, oh, absolutely no one? Being such a mellow fellow, he wasn’t throwing a tantrum. He was just lying there, apparently exhausted from all the energy we were exerting to get him to eat. And yet, I would somehow rather be there than sitting at work. Our office’s next scheduled holiday is Memorial Day. Oh... so... far... away...

What made the return to work even harder is that I am once again toting around my breastpump. I was spoiled for an entire week by having Eli with me all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful for my Medela Pump 'n Style because without it, I wouldn’t be so happy to work. But with this wonderful modern technology comes all 153 pieces I have to clean and sterilize every night and then pack up every morning and carry to work. It can get a bit tiring. Of course, it’s all worth it when I go home and see my ever-growing Pillsbury doughboy.

Funny story, last week at Disneyland while Kwang was standing in a line holding Eli, some strangers went up to him and asked if they could take pictures with Eli. So these people we didn’t know took turns holding Eli and taking pictures. It was as if he was a celebrity.

Eli turned 8 months this week. It’s hard to imagine life without him and yet it seems like just yesterday I was pregnant. A friend recently mentioned that Koreans supposedly have the highest threshold of pain tolerance. I never would have guessed we Korean women are strong, because after giving birth, I think we’re required by law to keep ourselves wrapped in about four layers of clothing even in summer, not exposing an inch of skin to the air, and staying locked inside the house for at least one month or else? Well, or else we might die. Meanwhile, our Caucasian counterparts carry their newborns around outside three days after having major caesarian surgery. Hmm… go figure. I guess it makes sense if I think about it. Labor without epidural wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, thus the high pain threshold. But I did have this strange waddle afterwards because my bones felt funny. I was walking funny for weeks… and I couldn’t help it for the life of me! And this is all probably because I recklessly exposed my ankles to the harsh summer air.

Despite this more difficult age, Jude is still loads o’ fun. He’s fairly placid by nature and even quieter in public, so most people don’t get to see him in all his glorious, uninhibited cuteness. It’s also difficult to capture on camera because he detests being photographed or filmed. Fortunately, I am smarter than my 2 year old son and can hide where he cannot see me. Here is never before seen footage of our little musician. The passion with which he sings is unparalleled.

He’s seriously going to hate me when he grows up. Happy new year, everyone!