Family Photo

This was our family photo that Dawn took that we used for our Christmas card. For once, I actually waited until the Christmas card came out before posting it, but I definitely wanted to post it on the blog so I can have a hard copy once I order my 2011 blog book. Thank you, Dawn! It's our best (and only) family photo thus far, and I absolutely love it.

Totally unrelated, but Olin loves TV. I remember Christian didn't really know what was going on with the TV and showed no interest up until about 6 months, but Olin loves it and turns his head whenever it's on (he's 4 months). Last night in bed, Dae was watching TV and I propped Olin onto a pillow and they looked like little twins. Olin actually looked like a little adult lying on the pillow watching TV. Terrible!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas went off without a hitch! Dae and I went all out and ended up getting each other the exact same gift - 64gb iPad's. His was black, mine white (of course). (Prior to Christmas, I even asked him if my gift was one that he had given me before and I had returned and he said no, since technically, he had gotten me the iPad 1 last year, rather than the iPad 2. This guy's persistent.) I figured that if I returned it last year and got the same gift this year, apparently Dae will never learn...therefore I kept it and am really enjoying it!

Leelee always seem to present with a nice little fever at big holidays and such. No exception this year. His fever spiked to about 102.3 the day before Christmas, so of course Dae pulled out the Tylenol asap even though I insisted kids' fevers aren't alarming until they hit 103F. He is never one to shy away from medication.

Christmas Eve day I took it upon myself to cook my first family turkey dinner. I was very nervous :) I did all the grocery shopping earlier in the week and come Saturday I was all prepared, took the turkey out of the fridge one hour prior to cooking and removed the neck from the inside cavity (yuck!!!). At noon, I rubbed melted butter, rosemary, and thyme between the skin and the meat and placed it at 475F for 20 minutes. Then I reduced the heat to 250F and kept it slow cooking until my meat thermometer read 170F, which took about 2 hours. And voila...it was done and it was really delicious! I really had absolutely no idea how to cook a turkey until I read some different methods online and decided upon the one above. Her instructions were pretty specific and even included "remove giblets and neck from the cavity...some people need to be told this!" (me). I still have no idea what giblets are and whether or not I removed them.

Relaxin'

1 of 2 new firetrucks

2 iPads

2 of 2 new firetrucks

Panasonic wet/dry shaver

iPad

Communicating with Mal on Christmas Day in undies

Little Guy

This little guy is so cute. I just love him! Unfortunately, we might be creating a monster in that he is with us in bed, every night, happy as a clam. Eeek. It's just so easy, and we get better sleep than we ever did with Christian. (Plus I have to say I do like to cuddle the guy and I think he likes it too. hehe)

Two nights ago, Dae got called in back to the hospital at 8pm and I decided to try the good old Ferber method with Olin, after our great success with Christian and Ferber. No such luck with this kid. I put him to bed at 9pm, crying, and checked in on him at 3 minutes, another 5 minutes, and another 10 minutes repeatedly until he calmed down, as Ferber recommends. This took about 1 hour and 15 minutes of some serious crying. He finally fell asleep only to wake up one hour later at 11:30pm. Exhausted, I succumbed and he happily fell into a deep slumber in our bed next to a warm body (mine). Meanwhile, Christian woke up that same night at midnight and 3pm, yelling and crying for momma, so I tended to him, went back to feed Olin sporadically, and then got up for good around 6am.

So I'm tired. Story of my life. I told Dae all about the Ferber failure last night and asked if he was OK with us just keeping Olin in our bed for a while. I don't even think I finished my question before Dae said ,very definitively, "Yes!". I think Dae's getting the best sleep of his life, when he's not called in that is.

On a very positive note, Leelee has taken to the potty like a fish to water. Hooray! He has pretty much no accidents when he's with us or at daycare. When he's been in a new situation, however, he has had an accident or two. We had a mom's potluck last weekend and within 5 minutes Christian had had an accident, after I was all excited to show everyone that he was pottytrained. (good thing I hadn't yet mentioned anything about him being 'fully' pottytrained only to be totally embarrassed!) He proceeded to have another accident at the end of the potluck along with Ronan who had an accident upstairs and Ella who spilled apple juice all over the floor. The poor mom who was hosting. Her carpet and hardwoods really got a beating.

Olin is drooling like a maniac these days. I keep forgetting to put a bib on him and his outfits end up soaking wet down the front. I hope hope hope he does not get teeth for a while, just like Leelee (8 months is just fine with me, the longer I can avoid brushing those guys the better as far as I'm concerned!)

Seattle, Cont.

When we were leaving my mom's house we missed the 405 freeway and ended up in Seattle, not entirely to my disappointment! So of course we stopped by the University Bookstore (a Seattle must) and Chinatown. University Bookstore was a big success...Dae snapped up a couple of full-priced items for Leelee (whereas I always head straight for the sales rack). Not to mention Dae forgot to get our Oregon tax exemption. Sheesh. Can't take that guy anywhere! Here are Leelee's newest Husky items...

The last two stops were duds. Green Village II, the best noodle place, is closed on Sundays, and I couldn't find any of the 3 items I was looking for at Viet-Wah (leaf wrapped sticky rice, coconut milk rice dessert cups, and black currant candies).

Photo Bonanza from Seattle Weekend

There are tons of photos in this post, mainly because I can't seem to edit. (This is what it must be like to work on a sitcom, e.g. Parks and Rec, and have to edit down the funny stuff, except about a million times harder for those folks.)

My mom went all out with the food and treats and gifts as always. It was such a fun weekend!

Check out Olin's face, and Didi picking his nose

Leelee's puckered lips that give Puo Puo a chuckle

Olin got lost in the shuffle and ended up behind a cushion at one point

The "Stripe" family as Mal says...plus a misplaced Leelee

Out like a light. Antlers and bottles strewn everywhere.

The Transformers that Leelee and Didi got.

Dae worked on transforming while Leelee observed...

and worked...

and recruited Ev...(the two engineers, quite the elitists)

and worked...

It took him well over an hour to transform this guy. We might re-package this one for leelee in a few years! Ha! Meanwhile, Dae says there is "no way" I would be able to figure out and transform the Transformer. I have chosen to take him up on this challenge and will blog about my success in the near future!

Leelee had been complaining all afternoon that his stomach hurt. We didn't know if it was a ploy for attention, so imagine how bad we felt when he vomited great volumes all over mom's nice cream carpet. He spent the rest of the afternoon shirtless and sat next to a wastebasket at dinner.

The facial expressions in this photo make me laugh out loud!

Boys

Self-portrait on our walk

Me & My boys

80's jacket. Literally 30 years old, now used as a housecoat. Leelee doesn't seem to mind.

Bellevue Square, the fancy mall when we were in college. Now it is very fancy.

Olin 100 Days

Olin is 100 Days! A big day in the Korean world. We got him his own BR cake with "Olin" inscribed on the top. This might be our new tradition after Dae's funny birthday cake this past August.

Anatomy of a Large Head

Leelee loves his helmet. And his Cars tattoos, which we generally keep on his arm for about 2 weeks at a time. I think Kindercare must wonder if this guy ever gets a bath...

Meanwhile, Dae is seriously working 15 hour days on average. He leaves every morning at 5:30am and gets home around 8pm, sometimes a little earlier, and often a lot later. And when he gets home at night he is always willing to hug and hold whichever boy is awake, take 1 minute of free time to change his clothes and then put Christian to bed, read to him, or hold and rock Olin to sleep. A real gem. :)

(BTW it's 8:00pm and I haven't seen hide nor hair of Dae yet....I'm adapting!)

Photos of shirtless Christian with his helmet below...

Tatted up.

Huge Head - Confirmed

We walked into Emanuel Hospital today for their $5 bike helmet fair that they hold a few times a year and headed straight for the 1-5 year old table, filled with age appropriate helmets (cute patterns, nice pastel colors). I suggested to the guy that Leelee had a pretty big head, so he went straight for the largest helmet on the table, tried it on, said "Yup, that won't fit" and steered us toward the 5-8 year old table. Yikes. Poor Leelee. A 2 year 8 month old little guy in a 5-8 year old helmet. And let me tell you the 5-8 year old selection was definitely uninspired (monochromatic, adult-like). Nothing like the infant and toddlers' helmets!

So we walked away, successfully, with a nice dark blue adult looking helmet that Leelee asked to wear in the car and into Fred Meyer.

Grilled Cheese Grill

I decided to take the boys to the Grilled Cheese Grill school bus for lunch as a treat. Totally by coincidence, I got an e-mail from Living Social with lunch specials for today only. Therefore we got $9 worth of grilled cheese sandwiches for $1! Leelee liked it but kept asking when the bus was going to go somewhere.

Oh Little Christmas Tree

I feel like our Christmas tree is like a mini-pony (small, cute, manageable). Ev texts me, horrified, "why in the world would you want a small Christmas tree?". Well, Dae has about 30 minutes of free time a week, therefore I am sure I will be the one disposing of said tree once January rolls around. A 4-5 foot tree fits right in with my weight limit and abilities while wrangling 2 boys!

Anyway, we love our tree. It has exactly one present underneath it right now, which Christian stepped on today to get to a candy cane on the tree.

Ridiculous Amounts of Milk

Well I think my milk-collecting obsession is over. The amount in our chest freezer is getting ridiculous and I am losing track of how many ziploc bags and boxes of milk there are. My original goal was 300 ounces before I went back to work, and when I passed that I upped the ante to 400 ounces and passed that. I hope when I'm done nursing Olin maybe I'll be able to donate the leftover. I hope my milk is high enough grade for the donation centers! haha!

Olin + Mom

It's been a nice Olin + Mom day so far. Christian's at daycare (accidentally paid for 3 days this week) so we've been relaxing together.

I hope his little dimples are here to stick.

This guy smiles all the time. It is so rewarding!