Amelia Love (Blogs from 2006 - 2009)

Ode to My Daughter's Talent

2011-10-20T02:41:00.001-04:00

DSC_1856, a photo by JoyfulBeauty on Flickr.

We moved..and here is why.

2009-11-24T20:25:00.004-05:00

This blog originally started out to detail our parenthood of our first daughter Amelia. We had lots of love for her, hence why we named this site "Amelia Love." Sure, there was a period of 6 months or so when I completely shirked blogging when bogged down with breastfeeding, working full-time again and not sleeping enough. But this blog really captured most of our daughter's three wonderful years.

Then in Summer of 2009, we got pregnant again. Upon finding out that we were having a baby #2, I couldn't fathom just keeping a blog named "Amelia Love." What would our second baby say to us? Oh OK, the baby wouldn't have cared but I did. I was already feeling guilty about the future prospect of facing the unborn second child's lament about his/her name not being included in our family blog. So I was gearing up to change/move our blog then..

But then a bad thing happened. That baby never came to be. After 9 weeks or so, we were told that baby stopped growing at 4 weeks. We were devastated. I was far so much more depressed than I ever though I'd be. At that point, I knew I couldn't continue just keeping up our cheery news over here anymore.. I knew we were going to expand our family someday and we might as well keep moving on whether that be metaphorically or physically.

And we did. We physically moved from Maryland, where Amelia was birthed and raised, to Hawaii. A paradise island of full of uncertainties and promised land.

Our joyful, beautiful adventure is now found here here.

Getting Squared

2009-11-04T21:45:00.006-05:00

..Not like the sponge bob square-pants, unfortunately.

The journey on blogger has been wonderful. Many of my very personal thoughts and moments have been recorded since I was pregnant with Amelia in late 2005. Many were happiest moments, and some were very dark. I found myself needing a fresh start where I can start recording joyful moments again. I am going to make a conscious decision to think beautiful, happy thoughts and make sure to record them. If I have learned anything this year, it is learning to appreciate the NOW. Little moments, no matter how small, can be beautiful and meaning to me when I look back. That is how I want my blog to be. I also want to incorporate more drawings and photos in a separate pages of the blog to keep them all together.

So, I decided to move to Squarespace which lets me do all the above a little better.

http://joyfulbeauty.squarespace.com

It has been a great journey, blogger.

A journey of three

2009-10-03T23:54:00.001-04:00

A life that I want

2009-10-03T23:11:00.004-04:00

I can truly say that I am happy these days. It wasn't a total revelation that came upon me one day. Slowly but surely, day by day, I could feel myself getting happier. I could feel it inside me. This summer, I lost something that can't be replaced. But I also found things that I never would have otherwise.

First and foremost, I found my health. I lost twenty-five pounds since March and have never felt better. It is true what they say about healthy bodies leading to healthy minds. Second, I realized the importance of my family as well as all the personal relationships that I carry on day in and day out. I decided to let go of many things. Mainly, I had to curve down my tendency for basing all my actions and decisions around the goal of striving for the future-- in other words, perfectionism. My ultimate goal of wanting to be the best role model for my daughter, the best example that I can be for myself (and to my Mother to certain extent-- I never wanted to disappoint her) drove me to be a hard-working person that I am, but also a miserable one at that. Thirdly, my miscarriage, as painful as it was both physically and emotionally let me come out to be a better person. When I was lying on that operating table, I realized that I wasn't living the life I wanted to live, but only the life I thought I ought to have. There is no other way to best describe my feelings and thoughts at that moment beyond those words. All I could feel was that I was always living for the future, preoccupied about what to do next rather than savoring the life that I have now. What I wanted, beyond any reasonable doubt, was to be happy. Happy whether with just one child or another. Completely happy with the family that I have. AND savoring everyday to enjoy with these two best persons in the world. What they mean to me, how they shape my day-to-day life, the love they show me... all of that was and is there for me everyday. It is hard to waste it; this wonderful life of mine that I share with them.

Being mommy-tracked could actually be a good thing

2009-09-30T20:46:00.004-04:00

I have always considered myself an ambitious person. When I had Amelia, I was determined to not get "mommy-tracked" and give up my dreams of climbing the corporate ladder. Within last three and a half years, I have lived up to my words and succeeded quite well.

But now that I look back, I was not really happy. Even after reaching my goals, I didn't let myself revel in the celebrations longer than few days. I was busy devising other future plans and goals for me to achieve. To say I was constantly pushing myself was an understatement. I drove myself nuts at times (as well as others in the process). All those hard work and driven-ness came with a price, of course. Although I was proving to be a talented worker bee, I was an uptight perfectionist who forgot to have fun.

The ultimate question is, do I want to achieve the corner office status at the expense of becoming an asshole? Just how bad would it be to put my career in a "mommy-track" or slower pattern so I can achieve that so-called work & life balance? Me three years ago would have screamed "Hell no, I want that corner office! I have to keep moving forward, argh! (aww, snap) " But me, myself and I of today is starting to disagree with that attitude. I work in a much more low-key office than I did last year but yet I am much happier. I may have very little upward mobility at my current office compared to where I was last year, yet I am much less worried. Instead, I am beginning to discover and devote efforts to my personal life.

Who's afraid of the big, bad wave?

2009-09-08T21:31:00.002-04:00

whos afraid of the big bad wave?, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Not Amelia.

This picture defines my three-year old daughter these days. She is fun and fearless. I love this child.

Why does a man's immigration status have anything to do with this story?

2008-12-10T21:25:00.004-05:00

Most people probably have heard about tragic F-18 plane crashing down on a house in San Diego. My heart goes out to the Grandmother (who was visiting her daughter and her new grand daughter), the mother, and the two little girls whose lives have been taken from the accident. Even more so, I am very sad for the man who is the husband, the father, and the son-in-law.. who lost all four of his family members in such a devastating accident.

Brian was reading the news online and found this AP article titled "Immigrant doesn't blame pilot for deadly crash." He said, "why is this titled 'Immigrant'? Why couldn't it be titled "A Man doesn't blame pilot for deadly crash"? Brian hit the nail on the head. What does this man's immigration status have anything to do with the story and what happened? Whether he's an immigrant, citizen, or even a Martian, a man just has lost everything that means to him.. Are we supposed to care any less about what happened to him because he's an immigrant and not a citizen? Grrrr...Associated Press, you really goofed this one.

On a softer note, I really admire this man for easing the mind of the nameless pilot in the accident by making such a heartfelt statement. I don't know if I could have done the same had I been in his shoes.

Preview of Christmas

2008-12-07T21:54:00.017-05:00

We finally got our Christmas tree up this weekend. Big thanks goes out to Brian for hauling everything out of the garage. Amelia was excited to see all unique ornaments being pulled out of the box. 98% of them have come from my mother-in-law's house; she's collected a lot of ornaments from Brian's childhood and has sent them over the year we were married.

This was the first ornament I bought to commemorate our first Christmas as married couple in 2004:

Then in 2006, two became a three..

This year, Amelia was old enough to hang up some of sentimental ornaments from Daddy's childhood (she's holding ornament from 1990):

I'm thankful that my MIL was thoughtful enough to save all these ornaments and give them to us. It was precious seeing Amelia pull out each ornament with such excitement and her asking "whose is this?" (of course the answer is "It's Daddy's"). I'd like to make this part of our Christmas tradition every year-- working on the tree together and sharing special meaning of our family ornaments (is that too Hallmark moment?).

I also got Amelia all decked out in her Santa girl dress and took her Christmas portraits in front of the tree (I might just to an e-card for Christmas to save the trees). I have to say that some frustrated yelling was ensued due to Amelia not wanting to go anywhere near the tree, but I was successful in the end (the trick was to let her hold a small toy).

That's a wrap for our Christmas preview!

It's very apparent Amelia LOVES the Grinch

2008-12-02T20:37:00.003-05:00

Amelia LOVES the Grinch, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Amelia loves the Dr. Seuss books, but somehow I have a feeling she won't appreciate the story of "green Santa" (as she called it) as much as the other ones.

On Sunday, we visited an indoor Christmas show/venue called "Festival of Trees"; it was courtesy of my sister Grace and her free tickets :) As the name indicates, there were many decorated trees donated by businesses and organizations in Maryland. Some were classic and beautiful and some were very unique, like the one with Grinch stuck on the side of the tree. Other unique one was the Ballerina tree, which had scarriest ballerina face if you have ever seen one (It's in one of the below pics). Amelia enjoyed riding Merry-Go-Rounds and paiting her own star ornament.

Festival of Trees

2008-12-02T20:20:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving Wind Down

2008-11-29T23:29:00.004-05:00

There's officially one more day of Thanksgiving weekend left and I'm really sad. The last three days were just filled with so much laughter, happiness, and genuine appreciation for each other. I did not even bother to take as many pictures as I normally do because I was enjoying taking all the experiences and just living the moment. Honestly, I was either too busy eating or having good conversations to remember to take pictures. On Thanksgiving Day, we were invited to eat dinner with my best friend Jen's family. Jen's been my best friend since 11 years ago and I have come to known her family pretty well over the years. Although I feel like a Liliputian in the land of giants every time all her family gathers around (average height for peeps in her household is 5'8" minimum), I am delighted to hang out with them. They are so cool, genuine and has that wise-crack sense of humor that keeps you on your toes. Plus, they are always good about feeding the guests :) It was such a feast and I loved every minute of it. After the dinner, we rushed over to have dessert with my sister Grace's house so we could hang out with my immediate family for a bit. Even though I see my family pretty often due to all of them living in town, I couldn't help but appreciate all they do for our little family-- Brian, me and Amelia. They are always so happy to see us like we have not seen them in years each time. Although we missed my new brother-in-law Richard's kick-ass meal this year, we still appreciate the left-overs on Black Friday. On Saturday, we were off to visit my other sister Jieun who could not join us on Thanksgiving Day due too her busy dentistry practices (she's a senior in Dental School). Although it was a short visit, it was good to see her in her own temporary home turf, Philadelphia.

Being thankful for a kind heart

2008-11-26T21:00:00.007-05:00

From what I have seen, it has become a tradition for bloggers everywhere to share what they are thankful for during Thanksgiving week. I am no exception. I am thankful for so many things I might be writing all night if I try to. So this year, I thought I'd focus on one thing that I know I have to be thankful for: my child's kind heart. Tonight I had a conversation with my two-year old daughter that put my frugal heart to shame.

The evening started us with us taking Amelia to her weekly gym class where she gets to play with bunch of kids her age for 45 minutes (lots of trampoline, running around, and moon bouncing). Inside the moon bounce, there is a little ladder one has to climb to get to the top of the slide to come down. Since the beginning of her class, she has loved this moon bounce. She would go up and down the slide more than dozen times. Recently however, we have noticed that she always lets everyone else get in front of her in the slide line. And I'm not talking just couple of kids, she was letting literally anyone who was behind her go first. We were encouraging her to go up the slide, letting her know that it is her turn and she can have fun with slide too-- but as soon as another kid came up behind her, she would climb back down (even though she was already half way up) so s/he would be able to go up the slide ladder. In the meantime, she would just bounce up and down and having a jolly old time all on her own, exclaiming "I'm waiting for other kids! I'm just bouncing!". This bothered both of us more than we thought-- we really wanted her to take her turn (and secretly hope that pushes her way through the slide if she had to). In the end she did get to go down the slide just one time, but only because no one else was around her. It was almost a little maddening. We certainly did not want our child to ever be a bully, but we wanted her to be assertive and know what is fair is fair.

Driving back home, I started lecturing at her. The conversation went like this-

Me: Amelia, you love that slide. Why didn't you go down the slide? Why didn't you take your turn? Mommy and Daddy told you it's OK to do it. You don't have to wait all the time.

Amelia: Mommy, I have to wait my turn. Other kids want (to ride) slides.

Me: Why? It was your turn to have fun. Other kids do not wait for you like that. Amelia, you are way too nice.

Amelia: Mommy, I want to be very nice.

Me: (...feeling a little taken back) Well, you can be nice, but you have to be assertive too. Just say "It's my turn" and go. Don't care so much about other kids. They do the same.

Amelia: No, Mommy, I care.

Me: (getting a little peeved and raising my voice) You shouldn't care so much (OK, foot in the mouth-- it was a heat of the moment thing. I cannot believe I said this).

Amelia: (raising her voice too) Mommy, I CARE. I want to be nice. I am happy.

I just froze right there. What was I saying to this child? I was scorning my child for being "nice:-- what the heck. Why couldn't I see that I have such a kind-hearted, thoughtful child here? Why couldn't I be thankful that she was that considerate of others' needs at such an young age. She was right; she has right to be nice; and it is great that she cares about others. And the best part is that she IS happy. She was letting others go in front of her because that was what she wanted-- she would rather bounce than do the slide. She was clearly asserting her preference that she wanted to do that and "wait for other kids." I was blinded by my own preference of how I wanted things to happen. My daughter grew up right before my eyes, and she was already more mature than me. I have to leave Amelia a little note to sum up what I learned from her tonight. Maybe she will be reading this in the future:

Amelia, if there's one thing for me to be thankful for this Thansgiving, is that I am so thankful for your kind heart and you being you. You are such a loving child and so gracious. You give "Terrible Twos" a bad name due to how wonderful you can be. I can only hope you can continue to open my eyes like you did tonight.

Big Fish Little Fish and Big Mammal

2008-11-23T19:01:00.011-05:00

We visited the aquarium on Saturday and got one-year family membership. We have been there at least four times already, but we still get so much enjoyment out of it because Amelia is a little older each time and appreciates it just that much more each visit. The yearly membership will come in handy during this very cold winter when indoor entertainment would be crucial if we are to avoid any cabin fever drama with an almost three-year old. Amelia was vibrant and exclaiming "Whoa! Look at that one, it has stripes and pretty colors. It's shiny!" It was first time she was able to describe the fish with that much detail. It made us feel so proud.

At the aquarium, I only had the 50mm f1.8 lens which does not auto focus on my Nikon D40, but pictures still turn out decent-- it just took a lot more effort to make sure everything was in focus. I ended up taking a blurry picture almost every other shot. But boy did it feel good when I got a half-decently focused one! If auto focusing feature is like riding a bicycle with training wheels on, manual focus is like riding it without training wheels and one hand off the handle bar. It required some skills that I didn't quite master yet, but I think I learned a lot playing around with it. The best thing about this lens is that it is superior for portraits. It portrays skin tone quite gracefully and blurs out the background significantly. I was not so sure if it will be good for "fish" or mammal (dolphin) portraits too, but it turns out it does quite decent job:

And this is an example of why it is great for human portrait:

Dora and Diego: My virtual babysitters

2008-11-22T20:48:00.005-05:00

There was a time when I promised myself that I will not let TV babysit my child. Well, a long time has passed since then and I have to say I went totally 180 on my original promise. I totally take advantage of letting Dora and Diego "babysit" Amelia. At first I felt so guilty-- but now I have come to terms with it and it's time to recognize the awsomeness of Dora and Diego. Although the shows themselves used to be annoying to me (how Dora over-enunciates and repetitive their songs are), they are thte only shows that will captivate Amelia enough to sit completely still for 30 minutes. That's 30 minutes of freedom in which I can:

read newspaper, magazine, or a book
get on the computer and do whatever (blog, facebook, upload photos on flickr)
(although rarely) attempt to cook
do yoga for beginners
engage in an adult conversation with my husband

After 30 minutes, I feel completely rejuvenated and satisfied from having to have some "me time" and Amelia is happy as a clam that she got to watch her favorite show. It's a true win-win situation.

Our next moves

2008-11-15T21:14:00.007-05:00

I took the above photo this afternoon. It is one of my favorite to date. I think it's because it sort of describes how I feel about this whole credit fraud/identity theft situation. Life is indeed like a game of chess. Sometimes an unexpected move from the opponent will throw you off the curb. I'm feeling much better than I did on Thursday night after talking to some people and reading up about this. I now realize that this credit fraud/identity theft thing is so much more common than I thought-- which is makes me a bit sick. I don't think it should be as common as it is now. We did the following things since Thursday to deal with the situation:

Contacted the fraud investigation team at our bank.
Filed an online complaint to Federal Trade Commission.
Filed a police report with our local police department.
Asked for credit reports from all three credit bureaus.
Signed up for credit monitoring service.

I think we did the best we can. I want our money protected.

Super Scary Experience

2008-11-13T20:30:00.006-05:00

My heart is beating so fast as I type this post.. We were putting Amelia to bed and Brian got a call on his cell phone. It was our bank calling us to say that there has been a security alert on one of our ATM cards. We were immediately alarmed and checked both of our wallets-- both our ATM cards were intact. I had checked our checking account online last around 3pm today so I knew what the balance was then. We logged on and I could immediately tell the balance was at least $900 below what it was at 3pm this afternoon. This is the detail we found that made both of our jaws drop:

Nov 13, 2008 200 RIDGE PIKE SUIT ($160.46)
Nov 13, 2008 GIANT FOOD #481 ($103.74)
Nov 13, 2008 WAWA 67 ($133.41)
Nov 13, 2008 WAWA 253 ($529.75)

Some asshole spent grand total of $925 using our ATM charge card number. This nut job spent $600+ in WAWA!!!! What the hell did he/she buy at WaWa? 9000 stale ho hos and fill up his beat up car 10 times? Did he/she buy cigarettes in bulk? I hope he/she dies with lung cancer and suffer horribly. We don't even have WaWa in Maryland. The bank rep also told us that all charges were made in Pennsylvania. I really hate Pennsylvania right now. The only positive thing is that our bank recognizes that this is a fraudulent charge and they will re-instate the money within 5-7 business days. They will also have their credit fraud team investigate to prosecute this guy/chick. They will also cancel the ATM card altogether. Something like this has never ever happened to us and we are really scared. Just the fact that our cards weren't physically stolen and some creep got our ATM number somehow is mind-boggling-- how the heck did this happen? Did someone hack into our account via Internet? Are our identities safe? I don't think I will be sleeping well tonight.

A-ya vs. Ouch

2008-11-13T19:37:00.004-05:00

DSC_0018, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Amelia spends much of her day with my Mom, who is diligent about teaching her Korean (thank you thank you thank you, Mom!). She has become a very good bilingual. She talks to my Mom in Korean most times and talks to us in English.

In turn, Brian, the only monolingual speaker of the household, tries to pick up as much Korean as he can from Amelia and me. One of those words that he picked up is "A-ya," which just means "Ouch" in Korean. It's not even a real word; it's more of an expression. Despite that, it's become Brian's favorite Korean word to date. Whenever he's horsing around with Amelia and she accidently hurts him (this happens pretty frequently), he always says:

"A-ya! Amelia! You A-ya'ed Daddy! A-ya, A-ya!"

Um, we have successfully turned my native English speaking husband to speak Konglish (concoction of Korean + English). Will my husband ever return to saying "Ouch" instead of "A-ya"? No one will ever know.

Son of Rambow

2008-11-10T21:16:00.004-05:00

Brian and I watched this movie the other night and it was so surprisingly good. As always, Brian was doubtful of my indy movie selection, but I had a feeling this one was going to be a delight (I do admit some independent movies are hit or miss though). The story is of a British boy named Will who is brought up in an overly strict religious household (no TVs, radios-- almost like semi-Amish style). His less than fun life leads him to imagine the wildest things and he draws them out on his bible, aka his sketchbook. He ends up meeting a bully during a detention. Will was let out of class because his religion would not let him sit in the class and watch TV, and the bully kid was just kicked out for being bad. Turns out this bully is a loner like Will too and he spends his days paying homage to Rambo series by making his own home movies to mimic his favorite movie hero. The bully tricks Will into becoming a stunt man for his movie. Will gets really into it after watching an illegal copy of Rambo (he pronounces it "Rambow"). The boys' silly adventures, exaggerated stunts and their story line and is just laugh out loud funny. Of course, the boys become best friends, which is expected but still very moving. Even though movie pays tribute to Rambo, it's really more of a tribute to the 80s pop culture in general-- the clothes, the attitude, the fashionable French boy student who woes everyone. The movie had so many little charming, quirky and sometimes awkward moments-- but in the end it just makes you feel so good. I was so moved the last 30 minutes of the movie. It was so fortunate for these two boys to have become friends and also reminded everyone of importance of family. All done in a non-preachy, quirky, heartwarming way with 80s tunes thumping in the background. This movie was so charming in its details than its storyline itself. It kind of reminded me of Juno in that sense.

Sunday afternoon bliss: Lake Waterford Park

2008-11-09T23:36:00.010-05:00

We had a very short two hour window between all the errands and an early family dinner, so we headed off to Lake Waterford Park in Pasadena to take advantage of the beautiful daylight. Amelia was at that park when she was just 9 months old and haven't been back since. This was how young she was when we first went there, she couldn't even walk yet:

Now she is a fully grown child, running around the whole playground gobbling down her Girls Scouts cookies.

Amelia is such a cookie monster..

She has grown up to be such a delight child to spend a day with-- she is just so engaging, lively, sweet, and so...Amelia. I just love simple, yet blissful day like this where we re-discover how much we enjoy each other's company. It was an absolutely perfect Sunday afternoon.

I've made up my mind

2008-11-03T20:20:00.006-05:00

For being such a decisive person, it took me a while to make up my mind on who I was going to vote for tomorrow. I no longer consider myself a Democrat, but an Independent. I did not just want to vote someone based on race or the hype. I did not want to vote for someone just because they felt safe and familiar either. In the end, I finally made up my mind. While I was looking through my pictures from Friday night, I came across the above picture. Brian actually took it, and it struck a chord with me. I want something that will be the new future for my daughter's generation, and I realized how lucky I am to be even in this position-- to be able to contemplate and make a decision for the future. I made up my mind now. I will be going in there to vote despite how sick I am with a cold.

Halloween: Disney Princess On Ice Show

2008-11-01T13:46:00.004-04:00

On Halloween, we took Amelia to the Disney Princess On Ice show for the first time. Amelia was donned as a little mermaid and attended pre-princess show where all the beautiful Disney princess dresses were in display. She loved all of them except Snow White's display because the talking mirror scared her. It's a bit ironic considering she was dressed up as Snow White at the Zoo Boo just last week. The show was magnificient-- we were able to see world-class ice skating performance as well as their beautiful costume and set changes. Amelia was enjoying pretty much all of it except when Ursula came out during Little Mermaid and Skull got Mufasa killed during Lion Kind performance ; they could have done without that story line-- there were many little girls and boys crying during those parts too. After the intermission, the highlight was all Tinkerbell. It was based on the new DVD movie that just came out. Amelia forgot all about scary moments and enjoyed their magical performance. The choreography was ingenious, they were literally flying and also dancing on ice.

The Best of In-laws Visit

2008-10-28T20:35:00.010-04:00

Brian's family visited over the weekend and we were able to pack in many activities. On Saturday, we went out to Inner Harbor and Columbia Mall. Our day was cut short due to nasty weather, but had fun playing Wii at home. Amelia and Gabriel were lovely together-- just

running around entertaining each other the whole time. On Sunday, we headed out to the Maryland Zoo to attend Zoo Boo, a pre-Halloween trick or treating event. Amelia dressed up as Snow White and our nephew Gabriel was a firefighter.

Amelia asks, "Glass, glass in the zoo, who is the cutest Snow White of the Day?"

Amelia the Snow White and Gabriel the Firefighter takes a walk (not the romantic kind! They are COUSINS!)

My Florida Mom and Dad looking lovely:

Gramma was happy to hold two children at once despite how much her arms are getting tired:

Amelia was so happy to see her Gramma! See you again soon!

For more family fun moments, click on the picture below:

My Water Lilly Nymph (Korean dream interpretation)

2008-10-06T19:43:00.006-04:00

Koreans believe that a particular dream while being pregnant tells a lot about a child to be born. I never believed in any of that stuff until I became pregnant with Amelia and dreamt a particular dream. I dreamed that I was walking through a very misty water side. As I got near the water, the mist began to lift and I saw beautiful water lillies everywhere. It was a purple water lilly with great white big leaves. The leaves themselves were so beautiful, they looked like huge white flowers surrounding purple lillies. I pulled one leaf out of the water and it turned bright green. When I put it back it the water, it turned back to white. While taking these dreamy pictures of Amelia while she was bathing, I thought of that dream.. how fitting she is of that dream-- since then, I became a believer that these dreams, called taemong truly is somewhat indicative of what kind of child you will have. She is my water lily nymph that the dream indicated that I will have. The more practical nature of these taemongs are to see if you will have boy or a girl. For instance, they say mothers having a girl will often dream about following subjects such as flowers, snakes, jewerly, or anything flashy and glorious (?). Boy dreams are often indicated by aggressive animals (tigers, lions, big fish), or big masculine tree.

Now a clear shot without all the manual exposure of the caamera. Say cheese~

Eek OK, I'm officially freaking out due to the economy

2008-09-29T19:00:00.006-04:00

Watching the Dow plummet after the failed bailout made me think of this popular song:

How long can you to? Yeah Yeah Get down to the ground Yeah Yeah

Alright, maybe nobody's ever heard of the song but me but it really captures the whole catastrophic event that took place in U.S. today. Our stocks went down -777 points. Is this a joke? We went down negative of three most lucky numbers. I'm officially freaking out and wondering how this will impact my decision on following:

Am I going to afford to bring another child into this world? (ANSWER: Hell no! When stocks are up +777 points, I shall think about it-- yes, I'm superstitious)
Am I going to work till I die (ANSWER: Probably, but mostly by choice. I will be that 80 year old lady in the office who wouldn't know how to check too advanced form of e-mail)
Am I stuck to live in Brooklyn because no one will ever have money to buy my house forever? Ach!
Am I never going to have to keep shopping in Walmart? (ANSWER: To me, this was the most depressing thing. I noticed that we spend a lot less money when we shop in Walmart vs. when we shop in Target-- most likely because I just want to get the hell outta there because I don't want to spend another minute in that place. But my Gosh it was cheap to shop there).

Little coughs, Big laughs

2008-09-24T20:29:00.003-04:00

Doing a little dance, sharing a little love, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Last night, Amelia started getting a little sick again. She developed really nasty cold and was starting to get a fever. I rushed to Food Lion in record speed to stock up on following items:
lots of strawberries, 5 huge oranges, 1 gal OJ, Pedia Care cough & sneeze medicine, yogurt drinks, regular yogurts..

I just about bought everything I could in five minutes and drove straight back at home. As soon as I came home, she gobbled up some strawberries and yogurt, which Mom told me that's what she's been craving all day. I don't know it's because I fed her what she wanted to eat, but this morning Amelia was a lot better. She was all laughs and just small coughs here and there. The fever was gone. We have successfully prevented cold from taking over Amelia's happy spirit.

Where's my pig -- pottery painting.

2008-09-21T15:33:00.005-04:00

We were originally supposed to host Kevin, Rachel and Gabriel for the weekend since they were attending a friend's wedding in Columbia-- only 15 minutes away from our house. It turns out Rachel already promised to drop off Gabriel at her mother's house, so what they did was spend the weekend by themselves as a romantic couple in Baltimore Inner Harbor area (lucky them). We were little disappointed to not see Gabriel and Amelia play together but we understand them having a need to do a romantic weekend getaway by themselves. That inspires us to plan something in the future!

We ended up having a fairly relaxing weekend doing little things here and there and even managing to take care of some house projects. On Saturday, Brian went to University of Maryland's Football game with his friend Tom and I ended up taking Amelia to a pottery painting class. I've been meaning to take her for a while so I was pretty excited. Amelia is very artsy and loves to do anything crafty-- I think she really takes after me. She was very excited to paint her own piggy bank although she was pretty upset when we had to leave it for the store to finish it/glaze it for us. Amelia kept asking "where's my pig?" the rest of the day.

In the evening, we went out to Ikea and purchased a self/closet unit to hide all my arts and crafts knick knack from my college days. Whoever said that artists have a lot of junk could not been more observant.

Health is the most important thing

2008-09-16T17:01:00.003-04:00

Since August, I have not been feeling too well. I'm constantly battling unexplained daily fatigue, dizziness, unexplained water weight gain that fluctuates, and headaches. Tomorrow, I'm finally seeing a specialist to hopefully find some answers to why I am feeling like this for the past month or so. I'm tired of being tired all the time. I just need some answers. I need to keep my energy for myself and my family. I now realize why everyone says that health is the most important thing.

Best portrait taken at Andrew's birthday party.

2008-09-16T16:26:00.004-04:00

DSC_0017, originally uploaded by jisoob.

I took the best portrait of Amelia to date at my friend Binnie's son's 1st Birthday party. Out of all places, we were in the powder room.. the lighting was just right and Amelia was in fantastic mood (she was excited for the party and also the fact that she peed). I just got the most perfect expression of her. I'm so happy.

The rest of the pictures below are from the party itself, Andrew and his sister Natalie were gracious hosts.

Rainy Day Playdate

2008-09-08T22:43:00.003-04:00

Rainy Day Playdate, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Originally, we were planning to go out to a baseball game with our friends Binnie and Marcus; however, TS Hanna made sure we stayed indoors by blessing us with rain and wind all day. So instead, we invited them over to eat some spaghetti and meatball dinner, play some wii, and just have a good time. Amelia was so psyched to have both Natalie and her brother Andrew visit. The girls were a riot when they were playing Wii.

Procrastinating sucks but gaining "me" time was worth it

2008-08-24T17:40:00.003-04:00

DSC_0005, originally uploaded by jisoob.

So I have a five-page rough draft paper due on Tuesday for a class I'm taking. Since I always wait till the last minute typing away on Monday night for any assignment, I decided today that I was going to reserve some quiet hours to myself to do this paper writing. Anyone with a toddler knows that having quieet hours is next to impossible, so I sent off Brian and Amelia to go check out Maryland State Fair with my sister and her fiance. I also told them that they are not to come back until at least 5-6 PM so I can have at least 5 hours to write this thing.

Well, I have been doing anything but writing this stupid paper. I sat for 30 minutes to an hour fidgeting only to start blogging, reading e-mails, fixing something to eat, then did 4 loads of laundry, 45 minutes of Wii Fit, watching an old episode of Iron Chef.. just about anything that had noting to do with paper writing - I accomplished. I'm just majorly procrastinating and I am feel pooped; I'm making the same face as Amelia is making in this photo - only not as cute/adorable. Brian is not going to be happy about the fact that I didn't use my time so wisely while he was out entertaining Amelia. I hope he doesn't read this post. But somehow, I feel very relaxed, well rested and recharged. While I might not have accomplished what I set out to do, I gained something else in the process - I had a blissful "me only" time!

I did it! I mowed for the first time ever

2008-08-20T20:19:00.003-04:00

DSC_0169, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Our lawn had been looking disastrous for a while due to Brian not being able to mowe it due to his foot injury. I got my "I'm a woman! Hear me roar" pants on and I helped him out by mowing yesterday evening...and boy, it was one of the hardest physical activity I have done recently. It didn't help that our entire lawn is on a slight slope either. Another thing that freaked me out as I was mowing was the fact that there were so many crickets jumping out of the grass as I was mowing (my "I'm a woman, hear me roar" attitude was drowned out by my squirming of "eeeks!" and "yikes"). I despise bugs of any kind but especially crickets. In the end, our lawn looks beautiful and Brian certainly did not let his wife do all the work. He was trimming the edges to make my semi-crooked mowing job flawless. This morning, my palms ache from having to hold on to the mower for over an hour. I have a renewed respect for all the lawn work that Brian has been doing without a complaint for so long. I have never mowed and never thought that I would want to do it, but in the end, I did it and I'm proud of myself.

I love my husband - I mowed

2008-08-20T19:58:00.003-04:00

Our lawn had been looking disastrous for a while due to Brian not being able to mowe it. I got my "I'm a woman! Hear me roar" pants on and I helped him out by mowing yesterday evening...and boy, it was one of the hardest physical activity I have done recently. It didn't help that our entire lawn is on a slight slope either. Another thing that freaked me out as I was mowing was the fact that there were so many crickets jumping out of the grass as I was mowing. I despise bugs of any kind but especially crickets. In the end, our lawn looks beautiful and Brian certainly did not let his wife do all the work. He was trimming the edges to make my semi-crooked mowing job flawless. This morning, my palms ache from having to hold on to the mower for over an hour. I have a renewed respect for all the lawn work that Brian has been doing without a complaint for so long.

Zooing in August

2008-08-20T19:12:00.003-04:00

These are pictures from us visiting the Maryland Zoo on Saturday. The weather was surprisingly pleasant for August. We were only able to visit the Children's Zoo since Brian's foot was still kind of sore.

Viva La Vida - My Favorite Song; My New Motto for Life

2008-08-11T20:56:00.000-04:00

Time to Get Wii Fit

2008-08-11T19:35:00.006-04:00

DSC_0003, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Two weekends ago, Brian sacrificed the first 2 hours on Sunday morning getting in the line at local Toys R Us to get his hands on Wii Fit. This was supposed to be his Father's Day Present, so it's long over due! He tried to buy it before back in June but got beat out buy a lady who got there literally 10 minutes before him. So this time when he got there literally at 8am (store didn't even open till 10am), he was shocked to find out that he was actually the first person.

Needless to say, we are psyched about our Wii Fit. It is so much better than I imagined it to be. I love how fun it is and have been exercising on it almost everyday. Brian was doing it everyday too until he sprained his left big toe! Then Amelia aggrevated it further by accidentally dropping her chair on it. Ouch. So Brian has not been getting "wii fit" for a few days now, but I'm trying to make up for it.

Despite how ill I was last week, I am doing much better healthwise. My Doctor still wants me to see a Specialist for my dizzy spells in September, but I think I'm all right for now. At least all right enough for me to do the Wii Fit anyways: to do some WII FIT anyways.

Her Story - Essay on my neighbor's plight

2008-08-02T13:27:00.003-04:00

Something horrible is happening to my neighbor Neri (I changed her name). I wrote this essay in her honor. I hope things get better for her.
-------------------------------------

They were all gathered outside. I was hesitant to break into their circle. After all I was not part of the “in-crowd” in this neighborhood. I knew my immediate neighbors, but barely said more than friendly hellos and shared a few chitchats. The only person amongst them that I could really call a friend was Neri who lived across the street from me. We became friends when our daughters became friends. Being only children in their households, both girls enjoyed each other’s company immensely to fill each other’s void in lack of playmates. She was my liaison into neighborhood gossip as well as happenings. She knew ins and outs of everyone on the street, and her friendly and chatty demeanor was a delight to anyone.
Usually, when I see the most members of neighbors gathered around, I try to ignore them and mind my own business. But tonight something about Neri’s expression from afar beckoned me to break into the circle and get closer. I gingerly made my way across the street. I immediately gave all my attention to Neri and avoided all other unfamiliar faces. I asked about her recent vacation to her hometown back in Panama to casually start the conversation.

“Neri, I'm glad to see you back. Amelia here has been asking for her friend Alina a while.”

“…Well, Amelia is not going to see Alina for a while because her father took her away this morning…” Neri began to sob uncontrollably.

I was dumbstruck to find out about her plight so suddenly. I hugged her and asked her what happened. Neri explained that she and her husband were having problems for a while. Every summer, Neri visits her family in Panama with her daughter Alina. Since Neri is a stay-at-home mom, she had to always rely on her husband to pay for the trip. This year, however, her husband decided that he was only going to pay for their daughter’s airfare and not Neri’s. Neri’s husband liked to torture Neri for the fact that she was not making any money of her own. He restricted the amount of money he gave her to barely cover for groceries and other necessities. Yes, there was no doubt about this, Neri’s husband was and still is a jerk.

Neri got her relatives back home to pitch in for her share of airfare and was able to visit home for few weeks. When she and Alina came back home, her husband acted like their big argument before her trip did not even happen. Neri decided to forget about it too. Thamt morning, her husband suggested that he wanted a one-on-one time with Alina since he had not seen her for past few weeks. He wanted to take her to a toy store and to his mother’s. Neri agreed and did not think anything of it. A few hours after he was gone, she heard a knock on the front door. When she opened, she found a man standing there with a thick, white envelope.

“Are you Neri Bucknell?”

“Yes.. but who are you?”

“This paperwork is for you. You have been served.”

Just like that, Neri was served with a thick envelope full of legal paperwork. Because English was her second language, she had trouble reading and understanding what all these legal terms meant. She had to wait until her Spanish-speaking neighbor got back from work to translate it for her. Neri didn’t understand what the paperwork exactly said, but she knew instinctively that her husband took her daughter away from her.

Neri dialed her husband’s number frantically but it would only ring indefinitely. She drove to her mother-in-law’s house but no one was there. She came back and sat on her neighbor’s porch waiting, clutching the thick white envelope and contemplating what all the words in the envelope meant for her. The black fonts on the white paper have never been so frightening to her. She has never been so thankful and felt resentful toward her illiteracy at the same time. Knowing what was on those papers would be devastating, but not knowing what it said was equally haunting as well. Waiting for her neighbor to translate the document, she felt as though she was going to die right on that porch.
Neri's unusual solemn nature and vacant expression was hard to not notice. Just as I felt pulled into the circle, all the other neighbors started appearing by her side one by one. Neri had been each one of our friends; we needed to show her that we were her friends to at a time like this. None of us knows what's going to happen to Neri, but we know that we are all by her side, listening to her story. She deserves to have her story heard.

Her Story - Essay on my neighbor's plight

2008-08-02T13:27:00.000-04:00

Something horrible is happening to my neighbor Neri (I changed her name a

Amelia does not take herself too seriously

2008-07-28T22:42:00.006-04:00

Can't decide what to drink, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Milk or Juice? How about both?

Amelia is just a comedian these days. She makes us laugh and enjoys laughing with us. I love my silly girl!

Sunday dinner with friends

2008-07-28T21:33:00.003-04:00

the Lees, originally uploaded by jisoob.

On Sunday evening, we travelled to DC to have dinner with my work friend Sang, his wife Ami and their adorable daughter, Mika (pronounced Mie-ka). We went to an excellent Italian restaurant called Maggianos (also one of my in-laws' fave restaurant in Florida), which is coincidentally where Sang and Ami were married. This restaurant was magnificient. Not only was the food awesome, but the decor was just majestic and regal, a kind of place where Godfather would take his family to have a nice family dinner on Sundays. The adults throughly enjoyed eating four-course meal, but both of our toddlers were getting tired of sitting still through it. They both demanded to be let out of their high chairs and walk upstairs to see the ballroom size halls. Regardless, it was a very nice dinner and we were glad to finally meet Ami and Mika! I often give away some outgrown clothes of Amelia's to Mika, and she is well worth all those clothes.

Lesson from Amelia: Just let go and have fun

2008-07-24T21:03:00.003-04:00

Look at me looking at me, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Last week was funky, difficult, and just downright tiresome. Well, no more of last week! I am much more rejuvenated and back into my grove. I realized I was working myself to hard again and was not taking care of myself. I decided this week, I should dedicate getting myself better, which means doing things that are just plain fun. As part of this new initiative, we took Amelia to Rolly Pollies, local children's gym center. Amelia definitely taught me a thing or two about just letting go and enjoying the moment. She's amazing, this child of mine. She just kept grabbing my hand and kept saying, "Come on, Mommy. Let's go~! Ppali-ppali (fast and faster)"!

Her precocious nature is even more intensified these days with her bilingual abilities in Korean and English. She's constantly chattering, in one language or the other. I'm just so proud of the fact that my daughter is old enough to teach me a lesson or two and allow me to have fun. I love you, daughter. We are going to have more fun just bouncing around and being silly every Thursday evenings from now on at Rolly Pollies.

Escape to Pittsburgh: Big City, Small town friendly

2008-07-22T23:16:00.004-04:00

Escape to Pittsburgh: Most under-populated big city, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Just like I said in my last post, we were able to escape to Pittsburgh, the home turf of my best friend, Jenny. She played a welcoming host of her city by giving us a very personal walking tour of downtown Pittsburgh. We also got to visit the Andy Warhol Museum and even took a cable car to get to one of the highest point of the city, where the majestic view of the city could be seen, captured in this picture. For dinner, we went out to little Mom & Pop's Cambodian restaurant and met Jenny's boyfriend for the first time. He's also a Ph.D candidate in Engineering like Jenny. Such cuttest underachievers (!!), those two. I remember the dating days. No, wait.. I actually don't.

We tried to stay up late by staying out at bars, but we just realized we are way too old for that. After just two drinks each, we thought it was best to go see the new Batman movie. The only show available was 1130pm one and we stayed up watching the whole thing, although I was so exhausted in the end I feel like I missed the real climax.

The next day, Jenny took us out to a very cool Antique store/Vegetarian Brunch cafe called Zenith. I won't ever consider becoming a vegetarian but some of the veggie stuff on their menu was just good enough for me to forget about meat. We were joined by Jenny's boyfriend and her other Ph.D friends (married couple). For bunch of very smart people, they are so down to earth and so easy to carry on any kind of conversation with. I really liked hanging out with all of them. This quick, schedule-packed weekend was just what the doctor ordered to cure my over-worked hangover. Even though it took us 5.5 hours to get back because city of Pittsburgh decided to shut down their major outbound highway (I guess they really really wanted us to stay, maybe?), the trip was very worth it. Thank you so much, Jenny!

p.s. Amelia had a wonderful weekend spending at her Auntie Grace's house. In fact, when we went to pick her up, she said she didn't want to leave. That made me feel better about having any guilt of leaving her. Uh, not that I was having any.

The cousins reunion at Potomac Mills

2008-07-14T21:56:00.005-04:00

DSCF9080, originally uploaded by jisoob.

On Sunday, we had a chance to hang out with Kevin, Rachel and Gabriel. Amelia and Gabriel are only cousins to each other as of now.. so any moment we can get them together is very special. We all decided to meet in Potomac Mills Mall since that's the exact half way point between our two residing cities. The cousins were very cute together..although Amelia seemed to have gotten girlier while Gabriel seemed to have gotten more manlier than last time they were hanging out together back in Christmas/New Year's 2008 timeframe. They both have grown and changed a lot since then - these kids change so much day by day. They were both eager to get out of strollers and walk around so we told them they have to hold hands if they wanted to walk. They happily obliged. Awwww. Everywhere they walked holding hands, they attracted attention. Our children are so cute! They were way cutter than some of the girls lined up for an open audition for "America's Top Model" they had going on at the mall~ but I'm really biased, I know ;)

It's a fun day for a playdate

2008-07-14T21:38:00.003-04:00

If only Andrew had been looked..it would have been a perfect shot!, originally uploaded by jisoob.

On Saturday, we went to our friends Binnie and Marcus's house. Amelia and their daughter Natalie are same age (only two weeks apart). For one reason or another, we have not seen them as a family since last fall, which was just few weeks after their second child Andrew was born. The girls have matured so much since back then. They recognized each other and they were playing along like they were fast friends. Amelia was just having so much fun with all Natalie and Andrew's toys. Their house has toys that every child would dream of.. it's like a glammed up Chuckee Cheese (case in point, they even have a moon bounce inside their house!).
The girls were just conversing and just running around non-stop. I was so busy being impressed with their second child Andrew. He's only ten months old, but he's such a flirt! He was very busy chasing (by crawling) after two older girls. It won't be long before he joins them on the play.

Will I succeed? YES...98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed..

2008-07-10T21:52:00.006-04:00

I had one of the toughest days at work today. It literally drained every ounce of restraint and energy in me. I'm writing today's post to remind myself why I will overcome this work issue, and why I am passionate about what I do - the excerpted passages from "Oh, the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss pretty much sums it up. I read this to Amelia almost every night...but some nights like this one, I recite it for myself... I will learn to un-slump myself and be courageous enough to face the problems that I need to face.

Oh, the Places You Will Go - Dr. Seuss

Congratulations! Today is your day.
You're off to great places! You're off and away!

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You 're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

...(skip)

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you. And when things start to happen, don't worry. Don't stew. Just go right along. You'll start happening too.

OH! THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up! You'll be seeing great sights! You'll join the high fliers who soar to high heights. You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed. You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soong take the lead. Whereever you fly, you'll be best of the best. Whereever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't. Because, sometimes, you won't. I'm sorry to say so but, sadly, it's true that bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you. You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You'll be left in a lurch.

You'll come down from the lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you'll be in a slump. And when you're in a slump, you're not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

(..skip)

You can get so confused that you'll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place. The Waiting Place... for people just waiting. (..skip) Everyone is just waiting.

No! That's not for you! Somehow you'll escape all that waiting and staying. You'll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you'll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

(..skip)

I'm afraid that some times you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you. All Alone! Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you'll be quite a lot. And when you're alone, there's a very good chance you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on your will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike. And I know you'll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

(...skip)

And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!
-----------------------------------------

When I first read this book, which is pretty recently, I had someone who read me this book as a child and told me that I could grow to move mountains. But then I realized..that I actually do have this someone telling me all these things already. My Mother's been telling me all those above things in Korean, all my life. She truly believed that I could grow to move mountains if I wanted, and I learned to believe that myself. I already was reciting the passages from this book in Korean before I even came across this book.
I WILL overcome this.

Mini-reunion at Aunt Linda (and the late Uncle Scott)'s House

2008-07-06T19:37:00.004-04:00

Amelia with Aunt Linda, originally uploaded by jisoob.

On Independence Day, we got invited to a cook out at Aunt Linda and the late Uncle Scott's house up in New Hampshire. In a way, it was a like a mini-reunion. Their house was very big and gorgeous..my dream house if it were in Maryland. We were greeted by unbelievable food. I think I'm still full even though it's been two days. I have never been to their house before, but I could tell that Aunt Linda and the late Uncle Scott had a very good life in that house. It was very generous of Aunt Linda to invite everyone along for the festivities. I got a chance to say hello to Aunt Linda, her sweet mother, and Brian's other Aunt Lou. Had we not made a trip this time, I don't know when I would have gotten to see them again (or in fact, ever). Amelia was not shy about exploring the house and meeting new people at the party either. She sincerely was loving all the attention she was getting as the only toddler in the house. She was even dancing up a storm for a little while, imitating Rebecca's awesome dance moves while we were watching her dance recital DVD. She was not even shy with Aunt Linda and her family too. She personally gave a hug and a kiss to each and everyone.

Overall, our trip to Massachusetts/New Hampshire was such a success, we are so glad we did it. Our first road trip could not have gone any better. Amelia was very cooperative and I think she was a delight addition to the trip. She was even more patient than I was during bad traffic jams. She loved hanging out with Nana & Papa and Uncle Dave's family. Gone is the shy/anxiety-ridden child she once was. She was a pure extrovert, ready to carry out a mission of entertaining and putting a smile on everyone's face. It was so great to see all the family even though it was a short 3-day trip. The happiness and the joy we shared with Nana and Papa as well as everyone else was a memory we will not forget (hence why being recorded in this blog post). It was well worth 16+ hours spent on the road round trip. We realized that life is way too short not to attempt some road trips to visit family members~ even if they live a bit far away from you. Special thanks goes out to Nana and Papa for letting us crash at their place with open arms. We are ready to attempt some more road trips from now on.

Road trip ahead

2008-07-01T20:31:00.003-04:00

DSC_0026, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Tomorrow morning, we will be embarking on our first long road trip as a family. We are visiting Brian's maternal grandparents in Massachusetts. Our estimated arrival time according to google is around 8 hours...but with toddler in tow, I'm sure we can pad a few hours here and there. Needless to say, it's very exciting to be able to take Amelia on a journey such as this one. Amelia has been talking her "Banna" and "Papa." We saw them last during Christmas so she sure haven't forgotten them. Amelia has a very good memory for a two year old. We will be spending next few days there and coming back on Saturday. We are psyched to spend the Indenpendence Day in the Bean Town!

Thanks, Auntie Jieun!

2008-06-26T22:09:00.003-04:00

Auntie Jieun's gift, originally uploaded by jisoob.

My sister Jieun often surprises us by sending us nice little gifts such as this. She just usually sends them just because she's thinking of us. This time it was a cute little shirt for Amelia. Thank you and we are thinking of you too!

Bedtime Rituals

2008-06-24T20:07:00.006-04:00

Today marks three weeks since Amelia started sleeping on a toddler bed. Even though we had feared the transition, in the end there was nothing to fear. Amelia loves sleeping on her new toddler bed and willingly climbs in every night diligently. We tuck her in every night put her Jimmy blanket (her security blanket, aka "the blanket") over her, then her monkey blanket. We sing one verse of "you are my sunshine" and "twinkle little star." Tonight, she started singing "you are my sunshine" with us...and to our suprise, she got 80% of the words right! I wish I had a recording device to prove it. I cannot believe my daughter is now old enough to sleep alone in a toddler bed and sing the bedtime song with me.

My Dancing Muse

2008-06-17T22:36:00.003-04:00

Amelia in Motion, originally uploaded by jisoob.

Since buying Nikon D40 in February, I have yet to play with manual functions of this versatile camera. The other day I just decided to play with it and these were the ethereal results. As always, Amelia became my muse for these shots. I wouldn't have it any other way for my first beautiful, accidental experiments.

Father's Day

2008-06-16T20:50:00.004-04:00

DSC_0001, originally uploaded by jisoob.

So Father's Day has come and gone but pictures have been just uploaded to share! We had great crab feast accompanied by beer and hot wings.
It was great to come home and enjoy this lovely holiday with my family, especially my ever supporting hubby. Brian was just so happy to have me back and I was as well. We usually don't say a lot of mushy stuff to each other, but on days like this, he deserves it.

Brian, you have a heart of a gold and intuitively do what's best for everyone surrounding you. You are the best father Amelia could ask for and the husband for me. In Korean culture, there is a saying that a woman needs to assess the potential of her man by observing his father - how he treats his wife and his children is a reflection of how her man would turn out to be. When I met your father and saw how he treated his wife and his children, I knew you would have been taught the same value. So this not only goes out to you, but also your Dad for passing down the unbelievable good genes on being a good husband and a father. Thanks for being who you are, and also learning from the best :)

Jieun was also able to visit for Father's Day weekend, so we celebrated her Birthday which was last week. Amelia was aching to blow candles and eat some cake. I guess she will appreciate the steamed crabs much later in life.

She..

2008-06-03T21:35:00.004-04:00

Beautiful hair, originally uploaded by jisoob.

is the reason for me to become a better person.

And she is my number one inspiration for me to work hard, everyday.

I got promoted :-)

Very Brief Trip to the Beach

2008-06-01T11:06:00.004-04:00

Today, I'm leaving for Virginia Beach for work tomorrow morning and coming back home tomorrow night. Although our lodging is going to be on the beach, I doubt we will have much time to spend there since we will be arriving around 8 PM.. well, maybe I can capture a nice sunset shot with my camera. Stay tuned!

A girl's gotta have fabulous shoes and love (an homage to SATC)

2008-05-30T22:58:00.007-04:00

A girl's gotta have her shoes..(an homage to SATC), originally uploaded by jisoob.

Tonight, I saw Sex and the City (SATC) the movie with two of my girlfriends. I could not wait to see this movie and I've asked Brian to babysit Amelia so I could do this tonight. I've been a big fan of the show since college, but it gave a whole new meaning when I watched the movie... Just as I have changed and matured since college, so did my girls of SATC. The movie felt like a big gab fest with your girlfriends, talking about everything from sex (of course), shoes, shopping, parenting, marriage/relationship and friendship. I felt like I was one of the girls sitting around listening to their issues as well as sharing their happy news. Gosh, it's been a while since I've felt this way - I felt like I was single again. This movie just hit the nail in the head of what women want as well as what women deal with in everyday lives. The movie fulfills plenty of women's fantasies - everything from designer shoes to yummy looking men (especially their gludius maximus), but at the same time stay very real by unwinding issues that everyone can identify with (what woman's heart has not been broken once? what woman doesn't have doubts? )..

The only thing that was missing from the movie was the whole perils of balancing work and parenting, having a career after baby, etc. Oh well, maybe they are saving that part for SATC Movie II? Oh I would just love that.

Needless to say, the movie was great. The company that I had was great. After the movie, I had to call my best friend Jenny in Pittsburgh because it made me have a greater appreciation for the friendship I have with her. Jenny and I will be old but fabulous looking in the future, just like the gals...knocking few cocktails too and talking about our past as well as future (well, few Cocktails for Irish/German chica; just one for me since I'm a light weight).

The movie was sophisticated, funny, unapologetically feminine, and in other words, the wrapping was gorgeous but so was what was inside... It wasn't shallow contrary to what people would expect and it didn't not take itself too seriously. The basic message of the movie was simple, all you need is love, both for yourself as well as for the partner.

Captain Scott B and Captain Bobby B

2008-05-26T20:26:00.005-04:00

Capt Scott and Capt Bobby II, originally uploaded by jisoob.

On our last day in Florida, we decided to have lunch in this restaurant called the Grills, located in Port Caneveral where all the Cruise ships port. As soon as we found the parking spot and got out, Beverly noticed these two boats floating side by side near the dock. She noticed that first boat was named "Captain Bobby B", then when she looked at the boat next to it, her mouth dropped open.. The other boat was named "Capt Scott B," as in our late Uncle Scott B, her beloved brother. And "Bobby B" was their first cousin who had passed away a mere month before Uncle Scott. Both had passed away in their fifties and way too soon.
It was such a happenstance..and it was very shocking for Bev. Bev did not have her camera, but luckily we did (leave it to the gadzet-holics to have a camera ready).

Uncle Scott, if this was meant to be a message to us, God bless you. We will always remember you.

A Day at New Smyrna Beach - Sand, Wind, Salt Water and Eczema

2008-05-25T10:53:00.004-04:00

Jumping family portrait, originally uploaded by jisoob.

On Saturday, we took a day trip to Florida's New Smyrna Beach. The weather was gorgeous and I just immediately fell in love with it. Since Amelia has pretty bad eczema, I covered her up in her long sleeve swim suits like in our family portrait photo. Unfortunately, the combination of sand and salt water with her tight long sleeve suit did not agree. Amelia started screeching to take off the suit, so we had to. I think it was aggrevating her poor sensitive skin. After we took the suit off and put a loose fitting SPF 50+ jacket on her instead, she was all happy as clams. She wouldn't stop jogging on the beach grinning from ear to ear. We ended up having a great time. What a great day to spend the one last full day in Florida. I will have to go home and research if there is sunblock lotion made for children with Eczema so it does not sting when I put it on her.

Disney Rewind - Day 3 at Old Key West and Downtown Disney

2008-05-24T09:22:00.005-04:00

On third staying at Old Key West resort, we decided to take the day easy by swimming in the pool and later shopping at Downtown Disney. Amelia is such a water baby she just did not want to leave the pool. We always had to lure her away by promising her with something she liked better, like a lollipop or popsicle.

Disney Rewind - Monday through Thursday

2008-05-22T21:28:00.027-04:00

We spent the last 4 days and 3 nights at wonderful Disney World Resort, visiting 3 of the 4 parks while staying at fabulous Old Key West courtesy of Beverly and Tom (many thanks to them). I was being a usual shutterbug that I am and was just taking pictures left and right. At Disney, every single moment was a Kodak moment, as cheesy as it sounds. Here are our best moments, broken up in days.

Monday: Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom is the main park and has all the iconic relics of Disney. Cinderella's Castle, Walt Disney's Statue...etc. We had wonderful character dining with Winnie the Pooh cast, and surprisingly, Amelia had a fantastic time! Unlike back in December (the debacle that was with Disney characters at Chef Mickey), she was thrilled to see all the characters and called them out by their names and started waving at them, one by one. I know children grows up sometimes way too fast, but at moments like this, I love my child being all grown up.

Episodes from Tuesday (Epcot), Wednesday (Pool & Downtown Disney), and Thursday (Disney Hollywood Studios - former MGM Studios Parks) to continue after I get some ZZZ...being an official photographer for the Bean family is quite hard work.

Memorendum of Third Mother's Day

2008-05-13T22:16:00.007-04:00

My third Mother's Day was simple and beautiful despite downpour of rain all weekend. My favorite memories to cherish from the top:

Amelia saying "I love you"s and wishing me "Happy Mommy's Day"
Thoughtful note and gift from Brian. Finally, I will be able to get around without ever trying to figure out which way is East..
Good health of my parents. I'm so lucky to have my folks nearby to celebrate almost all the special holidays with them in town.
Company of three women who are most influential in my life. We do sort of all look alike, a lot.
(Not pictured) All the single friends who wished me "Happy Mother's Day." I hope that someday I will be able to wish all of you the same :)

Something to Brighten our Rainy Days

2008-05-10T08:49:00.006-04:00

...the pictures of Amelia frolicking in her spring dress.. She has been dressing like that everyday this past week due to her demands :) It's going to be a very yucky and rainy Mother's day weekend here in Maryland.

Ms. Carrie Bradshaw, Jr.

2008-05-07T20:50:00.008-04:00

We officially have Ms. Carrie Bradshaw Junior from Sex and the City in the making. Amelia loves fabulous pairs and many of them.

She's constantly rotating on trying on a different pair and demands that she wears them inside the house. Sometimes she's so adamant, we even bend our "no shoes policy" every once in a while.

She's also been very selective about what outfit she puts on each day. Each morning, she demands that she puts on a dress and has to agree on whether it's pretty enough of not. If she's not feeling the vibe, she will say "No, you (meaning herself) don't like that." Boy, do we have a diva here or what? She even critiques my work outfit in the morning. If I put more effort on putting something nice together, she says "woo, Mommy pretty dress! Very nice~" She certainly knows who she needs to kiss up to :D

I wish she's old enough to go watch Sex and the City the movie with me. She would be certainly appreciating all the fashion!!!! (but only fashion) I really want to see this movie. Who wants to go see it with me?

Carrie Bradshaw, Jr.

2008-05-07T19:47:00.002-04:00

We officially have Carrie Bradshaw Junior in the making..Amelia is a shoe-holic to the max. From the moment she wakes up and till she goes to bed, she is constantly making comments about shoes, trying on shoes and thinking about shoes. It's gotten to the point that we actually sometimes just let her wear shoes inside the house. We keep strict Asian "no shoes in the house" policy, but for our mini Carrie Bradshaw, we sometimes bend the rules.

One and a Half Days of Change

2008-05-05T22:06:00.005-04:00

After spending nearly 1.5 days attending Uncle Scott's wake and the funeral. Brian made it back to home. Even though he's only been gone barely two days, I felt a a lot of change in him. He spoke with such love and care for his family. Brian said at first it was bittersweet to see everyone he has not seen in many months, even years. Even though he was very glad to see all the family and friends, it was understandably sad that they could only meet under such circumstance. He has learned so much more about the people who he thought he knew, especially Nana and Uncle Dave. He could not believe the kind of positive light and energy they both gave upon the people they were greeting despite how sad they were. He said Nana is his official idol.. for such a tiny person, she really has such a big heart enough to console everyone else around her. He spoke of his Mom's tender eulogy to her brother, Scott. How she was able to finish giving the eulogy because she was able to gather the strength within her to do it. Listening to him, I felt he has almost grown more a man than I could have imagined in just 1.5 days. It's true that sometimes tragedy brings out even greater characters out of each individuals.

30 minutes after Brian got home, Amelia just woke up unexpectedly and started wailing. It was almost as if she heard Brian's voice and wanted to get his attention. Brian got in their, held her and rocked her gently back to sleep. It's so glad to have him back. The home is once ours again. We are rock solid in our love again. God bless everyone.

Hello Nathan

2008-05-04T19:31:00.008-04:00

Today, I was able to get a rare treat by visiting my high school friend Seth's house, alone. It was courtesy-a-la my parents who wanted to spend some alone time with Amelia. I took a very scenic drive to their house and met their 5 week old son, Nathan.

I forgot how little and sweet small babies are. Nathan was beautiful and he took after his mother, Kim's features a lot. But when Seth was holding Nathan, I could definitely tell he resembled Seth too. . Like how his nose looked and his forehead was. We were able to converse and just chill without being interrupted by anything, since Nathan was napping the whole time. Nathan did wake up just in time as I was leaving so I could take a picture of him. Sorry for the flash going off, Nathan!
I cannot believe that Seth, my friend since 10th grade in high school is a parent now too! We've all come such a long way.

Congratulations, Seth and Kim. You guys are already pros at this :)

For Uncle Scott

2008-05-03T21:36:00.007-04:00

On Thursday, Brian's oldest uncle Scott has passed away unexpectedly. For past couple of days, it's been very solemn and all we could do was pray for the family and the Uncle. Brian is flying to Manchester to attend the wake and the funeral. He will be one of the pole bearers with his cousins and his brother Kevin. Brian's handling it alright so far, but he's still shocked..especially since he never had to attend a funeral in his life thus far.

Last couple of days have been kind of hazy in a way. I was very sad, not just for Uncle Scott but his remaining family as well. I felt like I couldn't really describe the kind of emotions I was feeling in words.. and I still really can't.
Today, I was semi-engaging in a drawing activity with Amelia (she really wanted me to start drawing, I really didn't at first) then I started just sketching and mindlessly. Amelia was urging me to draw her a picture of Nemo, but I just really couldn't do that. While drawing, I was thinking about Uncle Scott, how young he was and just everything. I ended up drawing a mysterious picture of a woman in the above picture..
After looking at it, Amelia commented "the lady crying... very sad.. why lady cry..?"

God bless you, Uncle Scott. May you rest in peace.

31 Cent Bliss

2008-04-30T20:05:00.009-04:00

Today, Baskin Robbins was having 31 Cents per scoop day. In these hard Economic times, it's good to know that 31 Cents can actually buy some bliss for a child.

Happy Birthday Mom

2008-04-29T22:01:00.005-04:00

You are beautiful both inside and out (and look so young! Please tell me you passed your younger looking genes to me). We love you very much for who you are and all you do for us everyday.

Love,
Jisoo, Brian and Amelia

Saturday at Celtic Festival

2008-04-29T20:42:00.007-04:00

Many go to find their roots at Celtic Festival...they had "clans" table where you could look up your family names. Us, however, went there to experience different culture and kettle corn (and hang out with Haelim and Tom). Well, Amelia does have some Irish and English in her, but not Scottish, I don't think. It was a very lovely experience. But it was too hot for me and a little suffocating. I don't sweat much and I heat up too much internally.

All I Want Is a Rock Salt Lamp

2008-04-22T21:24:00.006-04:00

Spoiler Alert! I have found a gift for my Mom's upcoming Birthday. Well, part of her gift. I'm still going to have to get her something else.

(disclaimer: No..it's not a gag gift. Check out its awesome specs here)
Check out the rock salt lamp:

All I Want Is a Rock Salt Lamp

2008-04-22T21:24:00.000-04:00

Spoiler Alert! I have found a gift for my Mom. Well, part of her gift. I'm still going to have to get her something else.

Check out the rock salt lamp:

What's In Her Face?

2008-04-22T21:16:00.001-04:00

Playing with Photoshop Express

2008-04-16T19:41:00.007-04:00

I've been playing with the new free version of Photoshop available online at http://www.photoshop.com/express.

Amelia's seeing red...it's the evil vacuum. Yeah, I vacuumed today. Amelia cried a lot and screamed in Brian's ears while holding onto him. Some day she will be Okay with the vacuum...like when she's 45.

I love how you can make it black and white then add just add selective color, like this one:

My virtual role model - Carme Chacon

2008-04-15T18:48:00.011-04:00

As you could see from my previous posts, I needed some inspiration. Why I work so hard and what I can accomplish as a working Mom.. I thought I had it pretty clear in my head, but sometimes even my dreams get a little cloudy.

Sometimes, our inspirations can come from anywhere. While reading my routine working Mom blog from Wall Street Journal's the Juggle, I got to know about this this little lady: Carme Chacon.

Who is she? She's the new Defense Minister of Spain. She's single and she's 7-months pregnant! Wow. You go girl! I got an instant boost reading about her little career history and it makes me think... If someone like her can handle a job like a Defense Minister while being pregnant, I can surely make my career aspirations come true while tending to a toddler. And unlike her, I'm not doing it alone; I got my support system: My loving husband and my awsome Mom.
Hats off to you, Carme. I will probably never get a chance to meet you, but you will forever be my virtual -- working Mom --role model. And how the heck are her thighs so thin when she's 7 months pregnant? I think my ankles were thicker than her thighs while I was 7 months pregnant with Amelia.

Swinging

2008-04-14T22:04:00.005-04:00

$20 infant/toddler plastic swing + $75 playground set + many hours of labor by Richard & Brian to assemble the playground set =

The most satisfied toddler in swinging her heart out in her backyard.

Taking It Easy

2008-04-14T21:03:00.006-04:00

I was supposed to meet my friend Carolyn yesterday, but we mutually decided to call it off till next weekend. Our reasons for calling off shows how different our lives are. She was hung over from the night before, and I was just exhausted doing chores all day and parenting Amelia. I think in general, I was in a foul mood all weekend. I had so much to do and just felt like I was on the edge. Today, Carolyn wrote me back a text message saying "Take it easy this week." I had to really think about that. I rarely take it easy anymore. I'm always working, doing chores, and thinking about what to do next. I do have to relax at some point otherwise I will break apart. I can't honestly remember when the last time it was for me to just not have a care in the world and just dance like Amelia does.

Mommy really needs a vacation. The working mom blues is hitting me hard lately.

Fear Factor: Lawn Mowing and Vaccuuming

2008-04-13T13:37:00.006-04:00

Our sweet daughter has a problem. She is hyper sensitive to a loud noise making machines. Mainly, she hates lawn mowers and vacuums. Well, the spring time is here and we tried to clean up the house inside and out. Little did we know that we would ruin our chance of having peaceful time if we had done both. Amelia abhors lawn mowing and vacuuming. She cries incessantly as long as the activity ensues. She's been like this since she was a baby, so I got in the habit of vacuuming only while she naps. We don't wear shoes in the house so we really don't track dirt much...hence why I was able to get away with vacuuming only 2 times a week, or sometimes even just once. Anyway, on Saturday, Brian mowed and trimmed the lawn, which took him about 2 hours total (and the yard looks gorgeous, thanks hubby). But Amelia was hysterical all that time and there really was nothing I could do to console her. Yes, Amelia hates lawn mowers. But must we stop mowing just because our daughter gets upset? No.

Then at Church's toddler class today, since the kids made a mess with cupcakes they had for snacks, one of the Moms decided to hand vacuum. Amelia would not have it. It was amazing how calm the other kids were and how upset Amelia was in comparison. It was almost embarrassing because it almost looked like Amelia was upset because she was not used to vacuuming, hence possibly implying that our house really must not get vacuumed much. Once that thought reached my head, I felt mortified. My sister-in-law Rachel once blogged about how she got embarrassed when her son Gabriel didn't know to recognize what an ironing board was (implying that he never sees his parents ironing or something like that). I felt the same way, except with vacuuming.

From now on, I vow to vacuum at least once every other day. Regardless of how tired I am and how upset Amelia gets. I will have success at having Amelia get over her fear of vacuum cleaners by exposing her to it. No more sneaky vacuuming! And I will ask Brian to mow and trim the lawn at least twice a month while Amelia is in the house. We will help our daughter get over her fear factors even if this is really hard on our ears (since she cries and screams in your face while these activities are going on) as it is hard on her.

Backyard Bliss

2008-04-12T13:08:00.006-04:00

Since December, I've been working two jobs. My second job is pretty flexible (as in I make my own schedule), but I'm required to work close to 10 hours a week as possible. So in total, I've been working on average 50 hours a week and sometimes even more, because my primary job has also been keeping me busy as well. It dawned on me this week...Spring is finally here. I started the two job deal in the dead of winter. Where has time gone? It's unbelievable how fast time flies when you are super busy.
Usually I've had to work on Saturday mornings lately, but I finally crammed all 10 hours within Mon-Fri this week. It was not easy, but hooray for weekend just reserved for family time! Hence why I was able to take these beautiful pictures of Amelia playing in the backyard. I really don't like to cram and over schedule on weekends anymore. Being able to enjoy my daughter and capturing her sweet dispositions is the best time for me.

First Family Movie Experience

2008-04-07T22:38:00.003-04:00

On rainy Sunday afternoon, we took Amelia to see Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who. Mind you, this was our very first time taking Amelia to a big theater, so we were very nervous. She usually does not like dark places and is very sensitive to anything scary. Upon settling down in the theater, Amelia started crying because she was startled by the new Speed Racer movie preview. All the surround sound of race car driving just had her nuts. Being a parent changed me so much. I would have been very interested in watching the Speed Racer preview had my daughter been OK, but because she was not, I was really appalled and annoyed by the preview. Once the movie started, Amelia was quite content. She loved watching the "big elephant" and asking about his every single move (Whatz ele-fant doin-g?) and was fascinated with other creatures of the jungle (woah! Kan-garoo--we don't know where she learned what a Kangaroo is--! Bloo-n Mon-ky!). She also is her father's daughter. She had a biggest tub of pop corn on her lap and was just gobbling it up as she was watching the movie while sitting on Brian's lap. Every time we tried to take it away from her, she immediately asked for it back. Maybe they could enter the father/daughter pop corn eating contest.

As for the movie, it was very lovely. The humor was appropriate for little kiddies but good enough to make parents laugh. I love that animated movies nowadays are very considerate enough to infuse humor both for parents as well as for the children. I laughed out loud so many times. This is definitely one of my recent top animated picks after Ratatouille. It even made me want to cry a little at times because I really loved how nice of a character Horton (Elephant, voiced by Jim Carrie) was.

Amelia and the Tree in Full Bloom

2008-04-06T21:14:00.009-04:00

Last May, we bought a Cherry blossom tree and got it planted in our front yard. Since Brian and I are blessed with "black thumbs" (meaning everything we plant ourselves usually end up dying), we hired the professionals to come plant it for us. We planted it in commemoration to Amelia and her birth and to mark the growth of Amelia as the tree grew taller and older. Basically, the tree was a gift to our house, so we unofficially started calling it "Amelia Tree." We should have planted it back in 2006, which was the year she was born, but I was way too busy breastfeeding and working, and Brian was fighting his lack of sleep and long commutes.
Anyway, over the last 11 months, the little skinny tree has grown fatter and taller. And now for the first time since it's been planted, it's in full bloom!

Seeing how much the tree has grown just makes me think more about how much Amelia has grown and how she also is in full bloom of being the happiest two-year old lately :)

We also attended a co-worker's son's Birthday party on Saturday. Pictures can be found here.

Back to Basics: Straight and Straighter

2008-04-04T21:20:00.006-04:00

After two years of permed/wavy hair, I decided to go back to my roots by going straight (hair, that is):

I didn't realize how much I missed having straight hair. Being able to run fingers through it and feeling how silky it is. It may be a bit more maintenance than my former permed hair, but I'm loving it.

Some might wonder what kind of process it takes to revert wavy hair back to its natural state of being straight. Well, the answer is...to perm it! I know it sounds funny to perm wavy hair to get a straight hair, but basically that's what one has to do to get pin straight hair. Koreans calls this process Magic Perm (because your hair feels like "Magic" afterwards) and Japanese call it Japanese Thermal Straightening Process (their lack of imagination on naming their perm kills me). It takes about 3.5 hours at the salon...and make sure to bring your checkbook or a credit card. This service is not offered at your local hair cuttery! Beauty takes time, pain, and money!

Movie Recommendation: 2 Days in Paris

2008-04-03T20:20:00.005-04:00

We watched 2 Days in Paris starring Julie Delpi and Adam Goldberg recently and we highly recommend it to those who are open-minded politically (preferably more liberal), can take nudity jokes (as well as seeing some sausages), agree that racism exists very badly not just in America, but all over the world, and enjoy very smart, and insightful dialogs (in both French and English).

Interested? Then read on. The story is about a couple who's on their way back from their very uninspiring vacation from Venice. Delpy, who is a native of Paris, suggests to her very New Yorker boyfriend to stop by Paris for 2 days before returning to the U.S. From this point on, they just start arguing more than ever (but their bickering is not whiny though and the dialog here is just amazing). They fight due to language barriers, run-ins with her ex French lovers, on their political views and how they react to it, etc. Delpy, who wrote, directed and starred in this movie, is marvelous. I didn't know she was this talented! Now I am a fan.

This movie is funny, insightful, sad, and shows the raw nature of relationship (not just between couples, but with strangers too) and how difficult everything just can be when you come from two very different cultures and get exposed to its differences all at once. As a woman who is dating a man of different culture "), I highly agreed with a lot of things these two different characters are going through. The bottom line is, I really loved it. It was a very smart and refreshing movie. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if your criteria fits (see above), do check it out! And after watching this movie, I realize that French people are not so pretentious after all.

Official Move-In (woo hoo) and I'm exhausted

2008-04-02T20:16:00.005-04:00

Hello. Did you find my secret, love child? I'm talking about this blogsite, of course!

For a long time, this bloggy spot had been nothing more than a backup site to my other blog at Xanga. I originally started blogging here when I was pregnant with Amelia, so I guess this really is my blogging home. Although it's been neglected and played second fiddle, Blogspot had grown and matured (as in its bloggy features) to the point of me wanting to settle down permanently on here. Only thing I would desire is for its picture uploading and photo album options to improve (which is why I was favoring Xanga more in the first place).

Anyhow, from now on this is my only blogging home.

As always, I'm pretty exhausted tonight. It's just been non-stop since last week. The more my body and mind get exhausted, there's also something else I'm accruing inside too: GUILT. That's right. I feel guilty that I'm not spending enough time with Amelia. I have averaged out seeing her about 1.5 hours a day. It's pretty dang pathetic. Don't they call this Working Mom Syndrome? While other families are happy to expand theirs by awaiting the birth of second child (or starting the adoption process for a second child :D), I'm just wondering how the heck I'm supposed to ever see my second child (if I ever have another one) when I don't even see enough of my first and only one so far. All I feel is guilt lately. My love for my career is conflicting with my love for my child.

Our Little Guitar Hero

2008-03-27T21:10:00.001-04:00

Like I said in my last post, we've been sort of obsessed with playing Guitar Hero. Amelia decided to join on the fun..

She's jamming!

Happy Easter Egg Hunting at Maryland Zoo

2008-03-22T21:16:00.003-04:00

Even though it was a bit chilly, Amelia was all armed and ready to go in her winter coat.
Complete with the bunny ears:

Happy Hunting!

Amelia loved eating her prized chocolate which she traded after hunting for 5 different types of Easter Eggs. Ahh...but it was so worth it:

Fly like an eagle, Amelia!

After the hunting, we walked around the zoo and enjoyed seeing all the animals. It was a lucky day for us. Almost all the animals were all wide awake from their naps and very active. We had such a fun time, we decided to buy an yearly membership. Afterall, how could you not want to go back after seeing a face like this?

Rest of the zoo pictures are here.

Stay At Home Mom for a Day

2008-03-18T22:53:00.004-04:00

Capturing moments of Amelia watching Curious George in the morning. I wonder how anyone could look this expressive watching a cartoon. This is why children are so precious.

The reason I stayed home today was because my Mom actually suffered an injury yesterday. Amelia almost fell down the steps head first so my Mom lunged to catch her and ended up twisting her right wrist. Thanks for God (through my Mom), Amelia is completely fine. My mom's wrist was sprained pretty badly, hence why I suggested she take a day off. Her dedication to my child is what keeps me feeling relieved. Thank you Mom, for everything you've done and what you do everyday while Brian and I are at work.

A Day at the Museum

2008-03-17T22:23:00.003-04:00

On Sunday, we decided to take our budding artist to Baltimore Museum of Art. First, we had to feed our tummies so we could truly appreciate the meaning of art. We went to Paper Moon Cafe in Baltimore, which is very well known for its eclectic and artsy decorations. I used to come to this place a lot during college years, when I was an art major and hopelessly broke.

Amelia thought the cafe was neat too. Neat collection of pez dispensers had her hooked before even entering the dining room:

The view from the inside:

Amelia thought it was rocking..

We were off to the museum to view some real art. Amelia was given a notepad and colored pencils and were quite content in her stroller. She was an eager artist, treating me like her assistant asking for different colored pencils. "Mommy, O-renge! Red! Bloo!" I'm so glad she knows her colors well but did not appreciate having to hand colored pencils, navigate stroller, and try to enjoy art at the same time.

Brian was just casually strolling enjoying art more than I did..oh wait, maybe he was just thinking about getting to the next level on Guitar Hero:

For a two year old, Amelia was quite well-behaved at the museum overall. But when we went into the most popular exhibit of the month displaying the photography works from celebrated artists circa 1900-1960, Amelia decided it was time for Karaoke. Instead of displaying her appreciation for the arts, she started showing off how much she loves music.

Amelia: Happy Birthday TO YOOOOOOOOOU!!!
Me: Amelia! Shhhhhh, it's nobody's Birthday today. Shhhhhh!!!
Amelia: Twinkle, Twinkle, Birthday!!!!!!! Oh~ Bloo Colo-r! Blaaaack! White Colo-r!
Me: ......

I've never navigated through an exhibition faster than that. So our first experience with Amelia at the museum was more "Amazing Race" than anything, but I'm still happy with the turn out. I think next time we will visit Walters Museum.

It's Wonderful Life to be a Mother of a Two Year Old

2008-03-17T22:21:00.002-04:00

By the title, one would expect for me to be sarcastic. But no, I'm truly grateful that Amelia is two and I'm loving every minute of it. Everyone I had known had warned me about terrible twos stage. I was secretly anxious of how bad Amelia would turn out as a two year old. The fact is, she has been a very sensitive, reserved child around strangers and strange surroundings since she was six months old. Amelia was developmentally faster than any child Id known, so it was no surprise she started experiencing stranger anxiety and separation anxiety much earlier than other children her age as well. Her anxiety would get to the point that would totally exasperate me. I'm an extrovert by nature, so it was upsetting not being able to take her to new places and meet new people for a while. That was, until she turned two.

In recent two months since she turned two, Amelia, the once shy girl around strangers, did a complete 180 on us. She understands us much better now and she's actually friendly to strangers. The ultimate show and tell signs of her transformation was when we took her to my coworker Jim's son's baby shower yesterday, and Amelia mingled right in without any hesitation.

Here she is just hanging out with my other coworker, Yon-suk. 6 months ago, Amelia would not even let Yon-suk come within 6 feet of her, let alone hold her.

She was just happy beside herself running around Jim and Chung's beautiful backyard:

It even had a Koi pond, which Amelia loved. She loves fish:

She made friend with a four year old boy and they ran around chasing each other:

It turns out Jim was turning 60 the next day, so the baby shower was actually his birthday party too. Happy Birthday Jim! Boy, there are a lot of birthdays in March :

Wherever the action was, Amelia had to be there. She demanded she wanted his "60" candle:

Here are the happy soon to be parents, Ella and Jay, opening presents. Amelia again wanted to be in on the action again.

Our small gifts to the future parents. They are expecting a little boy:

All in all, I'm finally proud to say that Amelia is over her stranger anxiety! She is now the life of a party and loves mingling with people. She now walks in the room and says, "Hi people" and loves leading them by hand. It turns out, Amelia turning two was the most wonderful thing for her anxiety after all. This is why I'm so happy to be a mother of a two year old mother. Amelia, thanks for being "the wonderful two", from bottom of my heart.

Is it too late to apologize?

2008-03-11T22:11:00.002-04:00

On Sunday night, I let my attitude get a hold of me and ruined someone's Birthday. I didn't agree with something and thought my action at the time was justified. But because of it, I made someone else feel very uncomfortable and upset, especially on that person's Birthday. I think part of that came over me because I had heard something during my Birthday dinner that transpired my action on Sunday (it's meant to be cryptic! no more explanation..sorry). Anyhow, that doesn't at all justify my wrong doing and acting like a butt hole surfer looking to ride on a revenge tidal wave (wow I'm poetic! I should really quit my day job).

I'm really, really, sorry, Richard. I'm thankful for all you have done for us individually and how happy you make my sister. I know I make her very unhappy at times (like on Sunday), but thank God you are around to bring back the balance. I hope you can accept my apology. I really wasn't even thinking about whether I was offending you or not because I was that caught up in my own thoughts.

p.s. Our doors also thank you for the beautiful upgrade on the accessories and patching up the damage on the storm door frame. I'm not cutting down my husband, but who knows how long it would have taken him if he had to do all this by himself? Thank you, thank you.

A Girl's Best Friend

2008-03-05T22:12:00.002-05:00

Thank you for the two-day early Birthday gift, honey. I know you wanted me to wait to open it till Saturday, but I couldn't wait. They are simply beautiful. I will wear it everyday. I love you and thanks for paying attention to my rant on the blog! I am going to get you that Wii & Guitar Hero..if I can find where to buy it.

How to Make a Baby Boy

2008-02-26T20:30:00.002-05:00

Ever since posting my blog about baby boy names, I've been getting a lot of tips on how to "actually make a baby boy."

Here are the advices I have gotten so far and I would rate each one on their credentials.

My Mom : You have to be an early bird. You have to "do it" first thing in the crack of dawn; "doing it" at night results in girls.

Mom's credential: Sorry Mom, but you had three girls so your credential is very low. If you were right, then all the Moms of boys are either insomniacs or cheery morning bird types, which I am neither.

My MIL: You have to do it later in your cycle. You have to "do it" like right before your period starts.

MIL's credential: She did have two boys (including my husband), so she must know what she's talking about a little bit, right? The later in the cycle is means the eggs are further down fallopian tubes then compared to the beginning of the cycle, so this is advantageous for "boy" sperms who can swim to eggs faster but cannot swim for a long time like "girl" sperms can. The more I think about this, the more it makes sense, actually. Thanks for the advice!

My SIL: Same comment as my MIL. Hm, I wonder if her Mom told this to her as well??

My Friend: Get the ovulation kit and "do it" on the day the stick indicator is at its brightest.

Friend's credential: One boy and one girl. So it's like 50/50?

My daughter, Amelia: Mommy, make bro-der (brother). Make baby. Make Play-doe (Playdoh).

Out of all the advices, Amelia's is the easiest and the best one. Why wouldn't I make a baby boy out of Playdoh? Why, I can make one in each color!

Visiting Richmond

2008-02-18T21:25:00.004-05:00

This weekend, we ventured out to our very first sleepover at Kevin, Rachel and Gabriel's house in Richmond, Virginia. Rachel, my sister-in-law, was gracious enough to host us even though it was her 27th Birthday on Saturday. We had wonderful time getting to know the street they live in and the town they call home, Richmond.
Soon upon our arrival, Amelia's cousin, Gabriel, greeted her with open arms:

Then, Kevin, Rachel, and her best friend Kasane, led us through the streets of Richmond to a cool, hip down town area called Carytown, where we had casual lunch. There was a funky house that captured my attention with their overzealous appreciation for Christianity:

Our kids were safely transported to and fro with the hippest red wagon around:

The boys and with their children:

Kids enjoying nice upper 60+ degree weather in Richmond:

My favorite picture to date during the trip. Thank you, Nikon D40:

After nice afternoon stroll and outing, Kevin and Rachel wowed us by treating us to home-cooked meal from the scratch. We also celebrated Rachel's 27th Birthday afterwards. Amelia must have sung "Happy Birthday Rachel" about 15 times. Here's to the happy family and a very appreciated mother/wife, Rachel:

After dinner, the children splashed around the tub:

And ended the night with lots of reading (courtesy of Rachel) and hugs and kisses from Gabriel:

On Sunday morning, we had wonderful brunch at Kevin & Rachel's favorite restaurant Buddy's. Again, the kids got to travel in the cool, red wagon:

After brunch, we went to the playground of Gabriel's future elementary school and let all the kids, including the two daddys, just run around and play.

During play, Amelia got herself an admirer who fancied her and followed her around.

...he followed her around a lot.

It was sad to say goodbye but we had to get back to our own lives in Baltimore. So we kissed everyone and Amelia got another special one last hug from Gabriel.

Seeing them together makes me want to have two kids more everyday. Thanks for the wonderful time, Kevin & Rachel.

Believe it or not, there are more pictures found here.

Tower of Love

2008-02-14T21:35:00.002-05:00

I got a very surprising Valentine's Day gift today. I know my lovely husband was going to get something for me even though I have told him that buying Nikon D40 camera was sufficient for me. My two-year old gave me her first Valentine's Day gift built with Legos.

Wow, I cannot believe she built this thing all by herself. I'm jut so impressed. I will proudly call this the Tower of Love. Next to Tower of Love, you can see a bouquet of roses and a box of chocolates Brian got me for V-day.

I love both of you! (Brian not shown in the picture since he's the one who took this one)

A Weekend in life of Amelia

2008-02-10T21:35:00.001-05:00

This weekend revolved around keeping Amelia entertained with activities that would not drive us completely nuts. My friend Binnie recommended Playwise Kids, a huge indoor gymnasium full of fun kids-friendly activities, so we decided to check it out over the weekend. I asked Brian to take her in and stay there a couple of hours while I snuck in a couple hours of my part-time work on Saturday (yeah I'm kind of working two jobs right now. But I actually enjoy the second job and the pay is good, so I don't mind it except I feel guilty about being away from Brian and Amelia). I met up with them after two hours, and Amelia was just tickled with fun.
Amelia got to climb through the tunnels and come down the slides on her tummy for 30+ minutes:

Then she got to draw on a wall of chalk board.

Amelia contemplates whether she is responsible for erasing all her drawings on the wall as well:

She also got to shop her heart out in a mock grocery store area:

There was also a big area where she could shoot basketball and such:

All in all, Amelia and Brian both had a great time I did not feel so guilty working on a Saturday morning.

On Sunday, it was my Dad's 70th Birthday. We had a great meat at Mongolian Grill to celebrate the occasion. Then we ate great cheese cakes. Amelia was just dying to bury her face in the cheese cake.

After we were done doing all the fun stuff, the weekend was finally coming to an end. And our most dreaded hour of the evening was coming up, which is an hour before Amelia's bed time. Usually around this time, both Brian and I are usually tired from all the days work and just want to sit on the couch and do nothing. Amelia, on the other hand, gets a burst of energy and tortures us with her endless demands of entertaining her before she retires for the night.
Like in this shot, she looks cute, but she's actually getting ready to bite Brian's poor foot:

Then she demands Brian to continuously dangle her over and over again:

Then when Brian finally give up dangling her because his arms are about to come out of sockets, she demands that I chase her and she chases me for next 15 minutes or so. With last 15 minutes to bedtime and desperately out of things to entertain her with, we pull out our last card.

Here's a portrait of a Desperate Dad trying to entertain his daughter with silly face. He's my father of the year. My hero:

Brian, does your face hurt after you do that?

Goodbye and Hello

2008-02-05T20:25:00.002-05:00

Dear Fuji,

You have served us well for past two years. You were there to capture Amelia's birth and all the countless memories for past two years. Unfortunately, you are getting older, and your life span/bettery is getting shorter and shorter. We give you full 10 hours to rest/charge but you are only able to perform optimally for maybe 10-15 minutes. It was sad for us to see you degenerate as much.

So we decided to go bigger and better and find you a partner who can take over your most important duty. Say hello to NIKON DSLR D40.

Fuji, you should be proud. You took a picture of Nikon beautifully although you couldn't help controlling your nearly-too-bright flash going off. You are a fine point-and-shooter, but you just aren't DSLR. You were the best small camera we've ever had and we promise to occasionally use you still. Especially when I'm carrying a cute, smaller purse and Nikon won't fit in there. You will always be our most slender camera to date.

Nikon was able to capture this beautiful portrait of Amelia. Nikon seems to really know its stuff.

Unfortunately, Nikon was also there to capture the very sad moment in history from the first day on its job...yes, it was there to capture the most unfortunate defeat of the Patriots against the Giants on Sunday night. Here is the picture of our sad, sad cake commemorating Patriot's perfect record during the season.

For the record, Brian, aka the Super Patriots fan, is doing alright. He was a bit shell-shocked but he will live. I felt his pain when he muttered, "I would have traded 4 losses during their regular season to see them win.."

2 year old portrait session: Sum of All Fears

2008-01-29T21:23:00.003-05:00

Since Amelia was too sick to actually take an official 2 year old portrait during her Birthday weekend, we figured we would get it out of the way last weekend. Brian and I had not been particurally fond of taking Amelia to get her formal portraits done. Except for when she was at the studio for her 100th day portrait, all the other ones have been pretty difficult. It was difficult in that Amelia never seemed to want to cooperate and take a picture in the camera. This was like that for her 1st Christmas Portrait taken with extended family (Dec 2006), her 18-month portrait (Aug 2007; we never even got one salvageable picture), and 22nd-month fall portrait (Nov 2007; although she somehow turned it around last 5 minutes and we got amazing photos). So needless to say, we were dreading it. But we were armed with all the bribery. First, we gave her a "horsey-ride" on the merry-go-round in the mall. She loved it. Then we fed her ice cream. She was tickled with her love and appreciation for us (or at least we like to think so). Throughout these events, we kept reminding her the reason we are doing all this is to get her to take some good pictures in the studio and all she had to do was smile and do a little "cheese." She nodded encouragingly and really seemed to understand us. So we enter our studio and Amelia just happens to remind of us what we had been forgetting all along. That she is TWO and she was going to let us know how TERRIBLE that could be.

(*details edited for grotesque realism of terrible Two behavior. We don't want to scare away all the budding parents to be who have not experienced it yet. Those of you with older kids, you probably already know how bad it is. Yeah, it was that bad).

..in the end, 38 minutes later (which felt like an eternity).. We walked away with two beautiful portraits.

I do not know how a child so angelic in these photos could have been testing sum of all parents' fears just moments before. The photographer, Jesci, who worked with her was wonderfully patient and marvellous. I wanted to give her a hug afterwards. As we were walking out, Jesci the photographer said that working in a children's photo studio is like THE BEST BIRTH CONTROL EVER. Oops, I guess she doesn't love it as much as she prentends to.

2 year old portrait session: Sum of All Fears

2008-01-29T21:23:00.002-05:00

Since Amelia was too sick to actually take an official 2 year old portrait during her Birthday weekend, we figured we would get it out of the way last weekend. Brian and I had not been particurally fond of taking Amelia to get her formal portraits done. Except for when she was at the studio for her 100th day portrait, all the other ones have been pretty difficult. It was difficult in that Amelia never seemed to want to cooperate and take a picture in the camera. This was like that for her 1st Christmas Portrait taken with extended family (Dec 2006), her 18-month portrait (Aug 2007; we never even got one salvageable picture), and 22nd-month fall portrait (Nov 2007; although she somehow turned it around last 5 minutes and we got amazing photos). So needless to say, we were dreading it. But we were armed with all the bribery. First, we gave her a "horsey-ride" on the merry-go-round in the mall. She loved it. Then we fed her ice cream. She was tickled with her love and appreciation for us (or at least we like to think so). Throughout these events, we kept reminding her the reason we are doing all this is to get her to take some good pictures in the studio and all she had to do was smile and do a little "cheese." She nodded encouragingly and really seemed to understand us. So we enter our studio and Amelia just happens to remind of us what we had been forgetting all along. That she is TWO and she was going to let us know how TERRIBLE that could be.

(*details edited for grotesque realism of terrible Two behavior. We don't want to scare away all the budding parents to be who have not experienced it yet. Those of you with older kids, you probably already know how bad it is. Yeah, it was that bad).

..in the end, 38 minutes later which felt like an eternity. We walked away with two beautiful portraits.

I do not know how a child so angelic in these photos could have been testing sum of all parents' fears just moments before. The photographer, Jesci, who worked with her was wonderfully patient and marvellous. I wanted to give her a hug afterwards. As we were walking out, Jesci the photographer said that working in a children's photo studio is like THE BEST BIRTH CONTROL EVER. Oops, I guess she doesn't love it as much as she prentends to.

Congratulations and Bouncing Pigtails

2008-01-26T21:10:00.002-05:00

We had a very busy Saturday. First, we went out to have lunch with our friends Seth and his wife Kim. Seth and I've known each other since 9th Grade. Every time we met them, we were always wondering when they would have a child of their own because we thought they would make such cool parents. And today, they broke the news: THEY ARE EXPECTING THEIR FIRST CHILD IN MARCH! We were so happy for them. They are going to make it a surprise on the sex of their baby.
Congratulations, Seth & Kim! You guys are going to make such wonderful parents !

We were all chilling at Barnes and Noble's children's book are and Amelia made friends with a 4-year old boy named Frankie. He was so sweet to her and tried to teach her how to jump properly.

In the evening, we headed to Airmana to attend our friend Binnie and Marcus's daughter Natalie's second birthday party. Even though Amelia has just been there last Saturday to attend Alyssa's party, she was again shy for first 10 minutes. But then she started bouncing around and her pigtails would not stop bouncing.

Here's us with Birthday girl, Natalie:

Natalie's little brother Andrew was content on watching the party from the sideline:

And Natalie was just having a time of her life!

Her "boyfriend" Cayden wanted to hold her hand but she decided to be coy:

But she was OK with posing with her mama:

Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!

Our Saturday was once again filled with laughter and too much fun. Who's complaining?

Alyssa's Birthday Party

2008-01-20T21:41:00.001-05:00

Amelia is now completely over her cold and has been healthier and happier child than ever. We missed our happy daughter so much. I wouldn't have to tear up watching my daughter suffer anymore. Since Amelia got better, we were able to keep our schedule of attending my co-worker Dave's daughter Alyssa's Birthday Party at Airmania. Airmania was an indoor gymnasium full of crazy moonbounces, slides and all around bounce around zone. Being a kid at heart, Brian and I immediately took a liking to this place which was also very fun for adults as well. Our more precocious daughter; however, was a bit more reserved than us since she's never experienced such place.

Amelia took a very careful step inside the bounce zone:

And even wondered what she was really supposed to do here:

Then Dad showed her how to bounce (check out him bouncing with one-hand hold!):

Amelia began to warm up to the idea of bouncing and all..

Then finally, we pulled out the big guns and showed her to come down the big, bad slide:

And then, the rest was a fun 1.5 hours filled with sliding, bouncing, and jumping. We definitely had so much fun (perhaps more so than Amelia) and we are also glad Amelia came around and liked the place too.

Thank you Dave & Amanda for inviting us! Happy Second Birthday to precious Alyssa.

Amelia will be lucky enough to head back to Airmania this Saturday because she got invited another Birthday Party. We are actually glad to go back as well. More bouncing fun! Better cardio exercise than sweating on an elliptical for an hour.

Happy Birthday Amelia!

2008-01-12T22:32:00.001-05:00

Dear Amelia,

We just cannot believe you are two years old already. You are our joy and pride. You make us smile and love you even more everyday. You have changed us for the better and we cannot imagine lives without you. I know you will continue to bless our lives because you are our miracle child. We were going to throw you a big party tomorrow with all your little friends, but you got sick yesterday so we decided to scale back the party. You will still have all your family there to celebrate and your favorite cousin Gabriel would be there too. We promise to reschedule your party. Perhaps we can invite your Church friends too?
Please get better my dear. When you smile, we smile, and when you are sick and upset..we still try to smile, because we want to stay strong for you. But inside we ache so much when you are in pain. Can you make me one promise and be better tomorrow? We love you so much.

Hugs and kisses with all our hearts,
Mommy and Daddy

Our Little Artist

2007-12-19T20:37:00.002-05:00

Amelia's favorite activity nowadays isn't reading books much to our dismay. She's really into doodling. Everyday, she asks "Mommy, Crayon ju-se-yo (which means "Please give me" in Korean)"and just goes to town on a large sketchbook as you can see here for at least an hour. She sometimes does get carried away and start doodling on the walls and stuff..but that's what Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is for! Thank God for that little handy device to undo our little artist's masterpiece "not" on her sketch pad.

Since I was an aspiring artist myself, I wonder if Amelia has indeed inherited my genes. I used to just doodle and draw for hours as a child too. I'm already done Christmas shopping for her, but I am thinking I want to get some artistic tools for her for Christmas...she needs new box of crayons and at least 1 smaller sketchbook. Speaking of drawing..I'm still not done with Amelia's pencil portrait. I'm not procrustnating, I'm just tired these days.

Amelia Love (Blogs from 2006 - 2009)

Ode to My Daughter's Talent

We moved..and here is why.

Getting Squared

A journey of three

A life that I want

Being mommy-tracked could actually be a good thing

Who's afraid of the big, bad wave?

Why does a man's immigration status have anything to do with this story?

Preview of Christmas

It's very apparent Amelia LOVES the Grinch

Festival of Trees

Thanksgiving Wind Down

Being thankful for a kind heart

Big Fish Little Fish and Big Mammal

Dora and Diego: My virtual babysitters

Our next moves

Super Scary Experience

A-ya vs. Ouch

Son of Rambow

Sunday afternoon bliss: Lake Waterford Park

I've made up my mind

Halloween: Disney Princess On Ice Show

The Best of In-laws Visit

My Water Lilly Nymph (Korean dream interpretation)

*Eek* OK, I'm officially freaking out due to the economy

Little coughs, Big laughs

Where's my pig -- pottery painting.

Health is the most important thing

Best portrait taken at Andrew's birthday party.

Rainy Day Playdate

Procrastinating sucks but gaining "me" time was worth it

I did it! I mowed for the first time ever

I love my husband - I mowed

Zooing in August

Viva La Vida - My Favorite Song; My New Motto for Life

Time to Get Wii Fit

Her Story - Essay on my neighbor's plight

Her Story - Essay on my neighbor's plight

Amelia does not take herself too seriously

Sunday dinner with friends

Lesson from Amelia: Just let go and have fun

Escape to Pittsburgh: Big City, Small town friendly

The cousins reunion at Potomac Mills

It's a fun day for a playdate

Will I succeed? YES...98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed..

Mini-reunion at Aunt Linda (and the late Uncle Scott)'s House

Road trip ahead

Thanks, Auntie Jieun!

Bedtime Rituals

My Dancing Muse

Father's Day

She..

Very Brief Trip to the Beach

A girl's gotta have fabulous shoes and love (an homage to SATC)

Captain Scott B and Captain Bobby B

A Day at New Smyrna Beach - Sand, Wind, Salt Water and Eczema

Disney Rewind - Day 3 at Old Key West and Downtown Disney

Disney Rewind - Monday through Thursday

Memorendum of Third Mother's Day

Something to Brighten our Rainy Days

Ms. Carrie Bradshaw, Jr.

Carrie Bradshaw, Jr.

One and a Half Days of Change

Hello Nathan

For Uncle Scott

31 Cent Bliss

Happy Birthday Mom

Saturday at Celtic Festival

All I Want Is a Rock Salt Lamp

All I Want Is a Rock Salt Lamp

What's In Her Face?

Playing with Photoshop Express

My virtual role model - Carme Chacon

Swinging

Taking It Easy

Fear Factor: Lawn Mowing and Vaccuuming

Backyard Bliss

First Family Movie Experience

Amelia and the Tree in Full Bloom

Eek OK, I'm officially freaking out due to the economy