Watching a clip of President-Elect Barack Obama on the television screen:
Me: "Jude, do you know who that man on the TV is?"
Jude: "Kobe?"
Me: "No."
Jude: "Bynum?"
Me: "No."
Jude: "Then I don't know."
Nevermind my hair, I need to find a nice, pretty outfit:
Every milestone is bittersweet. My last baby is growing up way too quickly:
Poor girl thinks she loves Hotwheels cars:
So my mom sent me an outfit for Audrey to wear for Christmas. But since Audrey has all of ten strands of hair, the hat just looks like a fancy shower cap:
Not only that, but my mom forgot that I am not the typical mother who dresses her kids in nice clothes for a holiday pic. I was hoping to put Audrey in this:
I decided to compromise:
These days Jude has been rather loquacious during his mealtime prayers. Tonight among other things, I heard him passionate pray, "God, please let us not do sin stuff."
Eli: "Mommy, can I have some M. O. M.s? (This is what he calls M&Ms and I choose not to correct him)
I give him one M&M.
Eli: (disappointed) "No, Mommy. I want five..."
I tickle him to show him I'm joking.
Eli: "You're silly dude, Mommy."
I give him five more.
Eli: (Looking at his five M&Ms) "Actually, I want twenty hundred thirty."
This week I traveled to Dallas on business. With Audrey. I told my department that I couldn't leave my baby for three days and the only way I could possibly go is if they let me take her with me but she's seven months and very active now and would be too disruptive in the meetings and conferences to make the trip worth it. So how did our VP respond? "Not at all! Bring her with!" Yeah.... that didn't go quite as I had planned.
We only went for a day and while it was a challenge keeping Audrey quiet during the meetings, I thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of holding her for all her naps. She's the most huggable little thing.
For the past month or so, Kwang has been gracious enough to take care of the kids on Saturday mornings while I sleep in for a couple more hours. It has been a lifesaver. I do so much delicious sleeping on Saturday mornings that there probably isn't much sleep left in the world. So if you find yourself waking up early on the weekends without your alarm and wondering why you can't fall back to sleep, that would be because I took all of it, and I'm afraid I'm not giving it back.
The kids are growing up much too quickly. Spanky can already write his name:
And a few weeks ago, this was a conversation at our dinner table:
Kwang: "Jude, who is the coolest boy in your class?"
Jude: "Dylan. Because he runs fast."
Kwang: "Who's the coolest girl in your class?"
Jude: (pausing) "Ummm... Skyler?"
Kwang: "Who's the prettiest girl in your class?"
Jude: (pausing again) "Ummm.... Skyler, I think?"
And THEN a few days ago, this was a conversation between Kwang & Jude:
Jude: "Daddy, I did something nice at school today."
Kwang: "What did you do?"
Jude: "Skyler dropped her juicebox and I picked it up for her."
Yes, yes, stinks to be the daughter of a woman who birthed two boys before finally having a girl:
(little dress made by my mother-in-law)
Eli: "At school, my friend hits me."
Kwang: "Which friend?"
Eli: "Landon."
Kwang: "Do you cry?"
Eli: "No."
Kwang: "What do you do?"
Eli: "Ummm.... my Power Ranger moves?"
So Tuesday will be the historic day when Barack Obama is elected the first black president of our United States. He is the senator of my home state of Illinois but he is (gasp!) not the one I will be voting for. I know some people think it's futile to vote non-Democratic here in California. But I believe that voting where my ballot will do very little is not for naught but simply my civic duty and responsibility to my family. It was a bit surprising to discover that among Kwang, his brother, his brother's wife, and me, I am the only registered voter in California even though I am the one who did not grow up here. I myself detest politics, am neither Democrat nor Republican and will be glad when this is all over, but really feel it's one very significant way I can care for my children. How can I afford not to vote whether it's for the commander in chief of the nation I raise my kids in or on a proposition that determines how we define the marriage institution in our state?
What a notable week this will be in our nation's history.
While they were playing together, I overheard Jude giving Eli a little of his trick-or-treat candy (surprise, surprise, Eli had finished his daily allotted amount). Eli must've been disappointed with what he got, because I then heard Jude use a phrase he learned in school: "You get what you get and you don't get upset." I think his teacher says it. Not bad!
(Ethan & Jude after an evening of trick-or-treating)
Two year old Eli has also learned a phrase from a classmate at school. He now says, "What the heck?" in correct context. Wonderful.
My favorite little bumblebee in 2004 was Jude Kim. My favorite little bumblebee in 2006 was Eli Kim. My favorite little bumblebee in 2008?
What a sport. Audrey has a horrible cold right now but still managed to put up with mom's camera. We're so cheap that not only do we not buy different costumes for our kids but we conveniently timed each of their births so they would all fit the same size-6-month costume:
It was a fairly busy weekend with friends and family which made Monday come a little more quickly than usual. One thing Kwang and I have in common is that we both have a horrible memory. Awful. Terrible. So when Kwang asked me to remind him first thing in the morning to defrost some meat to grill on Saturday, I wrote myself a sticky note because I knew I'd probably forget. So, yes, I made a reminder to remind myself to remind Kwang. Wandering around the house trying to find an effective place to stick the note, Kwang laughed at me for thinking so hard about it and said that simply putting it on the refrigerator was sufficient for even him to see. I thought it would be more effective upstairs on something like our bathroom mirror, but I did as he said. Well, the next morning I went downstairs to find all the boys lounging around and playing and found that the meat hadn't been taken out. So I asked Kwang about it and he realized he completely missed the bright orange sticky note which, it turns out, wasn't as effective on the refrigerator as he thought. But I most certainly did not tell him that I told him so, did I not tell him so? I think I told him so, wait, let me check, yes, right there, that's when I told him so, and maybe he shouldn't laugh at me next time. I didn't say any of that. I just smiled and felt justified for my neuroticism.
So anyway, Kwang grilled up some yummy food and it was a nice weekend overall. We had his family over for dinner on Sunday after our little Audrey was baptized. Being our most active baby at this age, the antithesis of Eli, my mother-in-law was afraid Audrey would squirm her way out of Pastor Owen's arms. But our little sweet pea was an angel:
The hairclip was my feeble attempt at making Audrey look more like a girl. I was able to clip it onto all five strands of her front hair. She was baptized on the same day as Charlotte, another little one at our church. As I look at this picture, I'm not sure why we thought it'd be nice to take a picture of Audrey with such a cute baby girl, because it only emphasizes the fact that Audrey does indeed look very much like a baby boy dressed in frilly pink. But I suppose it will make for a nice memory:
Audrey (7mos) and her cousin Joshua (1mo), Bo/Bonnie's 2nd son:
And this past Friday was Pumpkin Patch day at Jude & Eli's school. I took a little time off work to snap some pictures of the boys. At first, they didn't know I was there and I tried hiding behind my camera so they wouldn't come charging at me. But in this picture, I could tell Eli thought this might be me taking pictures but couldn't tell for sure because he couldn't see my face:
Jude and his obligatory smile for mom:
Our pastor spoke today about God's "steadfast love", a gentle and welcomed reminder. It's been a bit tough these days to stay optimistic when so much around us is negative. Kwang has been out of work for a little while, our 401k has dropped 30%, and nothing in the news gives any sort of hope. Yet I know full well that God is in control. As my sister shared from her pastor, "A God that is present in the good but absent from the bad, is not big enough for life." Our God's hand is sovereign.
So after watching the news, I like to give myself a dose of Eli:
This year, I've noticed a difference in Jude from his previous two years of preschool. Last year, if I'd ask what he did or who his friends were, without fail his answer would always be, "I don't know." But now on our way home, he'll share in detail what he did in school, who he played with, and what his thoughts are about certain things. It's my favorite time of the day, our drive home in the car.
And in the last week, something of a miracle has happened in our home. Jude and Eli have always loved playing with each other, but it's been a love/hate relationship with equal amounts of love and hate. There really is no such thing as a day in our home without time-outs. But these days, Jude and Eli will play together for long periods of time WITHOUT FIGHTING. The first day it happened, I assumed it was a fluke. But after a week, I timed it one evening and sure enough, the boys played together on their own non-stop for OVER TWO HOURS. It's probably pathetic that I'm overjoyed about this, but I'd been starting to wonder why I thought it was a good idea to pop three kids out so close in age and now I think I might have my answer. This is what I turned around to yesterday after washing the dishes (the picture is blurry, because I couldn't take my gloves off and focus the camera quickly enough):
As if having sons with unruly hair isn't challenging enough, we have Eli. Jude is a champ and will sit there and take it. Eli... not so much. I may not have needed pain medication when giving birth to him, but it would have been nice if the hospital gave me some epidural to take home for future occasions like his haircuts. Oh my goodness is the boy difficult. After a half hour of non-stop wailing, hair sticking to his body from the tears and mucus streaming from his face, and repeated cries of "Mommy, hold my hand! Mommy, hold my haaaaaaand!", we were done. You'd think this was his first encounter with a pair of clippers, but he should know by now that it doesn't hurt since Kwang gives him a haircut EVERY. TWO. MONTHS. Whatever, I've given up trying to understand.
That's the thing about Eli. When I think I have him somewhat figured out, he'll do something that surprises me. He started preschool three weeks ago and I would never have guessed he would like it. Just one year ago, he had severe stranger anxiety for anyone that wasn't me. But it hasn't even been a month and now he'll actually want to go to school and no longer cry when we drop him off. Even though I had nothing to do with it, I couldn't be prouder of him or more relieved! This speaks to the wonderful preschool teachers and program God has provided, but also to Eli's enigmatic nature that keeps us on our toes.
My babies are growing up much too quickly for my liking. Not even two and a half years old, Eli already knows the Lord's Prayer. Well, almost. He kind of makes it up on his own at the end but he speaks so confidently, you almost think it's correct. Amusing.
And call it denial but somehow without my knowing, my baby Jude has outgrown the toddler stage without my permission. Last week, Kwang decided to keep a spider he saw out on our porch as a pet to show the boys how it eats other insects. He'd catch different bugs and feed the pet spider. And while I find it a bit cruel, he calls it the circle of life. Other than a mosquito or ant, I can never get myself to kill a bug. I'll either take it outside, live with it, or put a cup over it until Kwang comes home. I don't know why it's interesting to watch anything eat another living thing, but Jude loves it. Unfortunately, Kwang's spider fell prey to another spider. Jude asked why the spider died and Kwang said it wasn't strong enough because it didn't drink enough milk or eat enough vegetables. Jude gave him this look as if he couldn't believe Kwang thought he'd believe that and responded, "Nooooo. Spiders don't drink milk or eat vegetables." And then he got in his car, drove away to college and now he doesn't call us anymore.
Because Jude and Eli are so different from each other, I'm curious to see which attributes of each God has given Audrey. But one attribute he's given all our kids is an adorable silly face. This is probably my favorite expression of Audrey's:
Jude & Eli attended three funerals earlier this year and while we tried to teach them about death as best as we could, some things got lost in translation and in what they observed at these services. It is, after all, heavy stuff for a four year old let alone a two year old to process:
Kwang: "When do you go to heaven?"
Eli: "When I die."
Kwang: "How do you go to heaven?"
Eli: "In the car."
Jude (interjecting): "You know, first you drive the car and then you put the dead guy in. And you drive and you lift him up, put him down, lift him up, put him down, and then you put him in a box."
Audrey had her six month check-up today and although she is our lightest baby (25th percentile), she is our longest (90th percentile). When she was born, Kwang said he didn't understand why guys felt so overly protective of their daughters and made the comment that he felt the same for her as for our boys. But last week, I overheard him casually talking to Audrey and asking her never to leave us for anyone and to live with us... forever.
I guess she's not quite ready to sit up yet, but look how cute. She gets an A for effort!
I gotta tell ya, to put it mildly Audrey is THE MOST DIFFICULT BABY I KNOW. Oh my goodness. The girl has a built-in speedometer, altimeter, and ultrasonic hearing. She is the lightest sleeper and will wake up to the sound of my blinking if I am in the room, I am not even kidding. And if the car is moving, no fuss. But as soon as the car stops, fuss. If I'm holding her and standing, no fuss. If I sit down, fuss. Stand up, no fuss. Sit down, fuss. Everybody now!
But she is also our most smiley baby and it's hard not to adore her when she flashes her ear-to-protruding-ear smile:
This past Saturday was the last session of Eli's sports class. They did soccer, baseball, and basketball. Yes, Eli always picks the pink soccer ball:
His wonderful coach just happened to be a former Chicago Bulls player from the 60's, Corky Bell:
Great job, Eli!
As for Jude, we had started him in a class but quickly learned it wasn't all it was cracked up to be so we pulled him out. That's okay. Being the stellar parents we are, we allow our kids to play ball in the house on a daily basis and with football season starting, he really isn't missing out on anything:
Pretty impressive, Jude!
Jude: "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a hero."
Me: "Oh, that's so nice, Jude!"
Eli: "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a... (thinking)...a... monster."
This past week was the first week of the preschool year and Eli's very first day of school. It's amazing how different Jude and Eli are. In almost every single way. Jude loves his dad. Eli loves his mom. Jude hates bedtime. Eli will tell us that he wants to go "night-night". Jude loves meat. Eli prefers veggies. And since Jude has never given us a problem when we've dropped him off at school, I was fully expecting a meltdown of epic proportion on Eli's first day. But on the way to school Eli told Kwang, "Daddy, I'm not gonna cry there." And he didn't cry when Kwang dropped him off but he did look as if something had rocked his world. The first thing he said to my mother-in-law when he came home was, "I missed you, Hamonee!" That night he ran a fever and, I kid you not, we all thought the cause may have been stress from having gone to school. Turns out, he came down with hand, foot, and mouth disease. Poor guy.
Kwang thinks it's good for Eli to go to school so he can socialize with peers and participate in different activities that can't be provided at home. If I weren't working, I would probably want to wait a year before putting him in. I mean, he's already learned so much at home:
Close, Eli. Very close. And also very cute.
It recently dawned on me that I finally have a child whose hair I'll be able to style. This was such an exciting revelation that I took out a baby brush and feathered Audrey's peach fuzz:
I guess this is what having two boys has done to me. And I have a feeling that expression on Audrey's face is the same look she is going to give me the day I'll want to break out the John Hughes movies to show her the classic teeny bopper romances I loved to watch growing up. Pretty In Pink... Some Kind of Wonderful... They just don't make them like these anymore.
Kwang received another offer for some free nights at the Palazzo in Las Vegas, so we packed up the family for another weekend getaway. I never thought I'd consider Vegas a great place for my young family to vacation, but the two trips we've taken there this summer were better than I expected. So I'm thankful for the offers, because I don't think I'd have even thought of going otherwise. Not only that, but each time we go Kwang is able to win enough to pay for our gas and food to make it a truly free vacation.
This time we spent a large amount of our time at the pool and I think it's safe to say that Las Vegas would be the only place Jude & I would meet a little girl who would greet us with "My mom can eat fire." I didn't know quite how to respond to that, but it didn't matter because Jude had no interest in her... which reminds me of a conversation Kwang had with him back in the hotel room which was prompted by a cartoon on the TV:
Kwang: "Someday, you're going to like girls, Jude."
Jude: "Noooo, I'm not....."
Kwang: "Then who are you going to like?"
Jude: "Nobody."
Jude seemed appalled at the notion. So I guess when he sees me and Kwang holding hands, he must think people are wondering how in the world he ever let his parents out in public like that and he's all, yeah, I'm hoping this is just a phase.
I think Audrey is the only girl Jude thinks he will ever like. This is how I found them as I was busy unpacking from our trip:
Audrey LOVED the pool: 
The stylish Ms. Hepburn:
As we rode the elevator down to our car to head home, a group of adults took a look at our kids and one woman said to us, "Enjoy every moment. It goes by fast." So despite waking up that morning with Eli's foot on my mouth, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.
