Category: E.

On Family

My mom really cherishes the memories she has of us kids when we were little. She’ll tell us stories of cute things we did (sometimes rather repeatedly 🙂 ). Because I’ve heard these stories so many times sometimes I kind of have flashes of déjà vu when E does something my mom told me I used to do as a child myself.

his weekend E ran unprompted to the corner of our yard set aside for a garden (but which is currently only growing dandelions) and carefully picked a bright yellow flower. And then he ran back to me and proudly thrust his little flower up at my face and said “Flower for mama!” It was very sweet.

I did the exact same thing when I was two or three. My mom relishes retelling the story, delighting in the toddler sweetness. I’ve heard it recounted so many times that sometimes it feels like I almost remember when it happened, fist clenched tightly around a yellow weed as my chubby little legs pump across the grass.

Like most people, my family is of essential importance to me. My religion teaches–and I believe–that families are able to be together after this life. The more I live and I experience the same things as a parent that I did as a child the more I feel like a link in a gleaming chain that stretches on and on.

Sometimes it’s hard


E came down with a stomach bug over the weekend which I also caught. I’m better now but E still has a low fever and a cough. He’s been spending a lot of time draping himself over the couch and/or bursting into tears.

My stomach still isn’t back to 100% and I have been eating very much but for some reason this morning a fried egg (with a deliciously runny yolk) over rice sounded good to me. So I fried up an egg on the stove.

E loves helping to cook and dragged a chair over to the stove to watch. While I let him sprinkle some salt and pepper on the egg I reminded him that “This egg is for Mama; E can’t eat eggs because they will make him sick.” He’s usually pretty good about listening when we tell him that certain foods will make him sick and doesn’t insist on eating them.

But today, for whatever reason, he really wanted to try the egg. I gave him a few bites of rice but he kept pointing to the egg and saying “try it!” He had a full-blown sobbing meltdown and I ended up scraping my food into the trash because I felt horrible for eating it in front of him. And then I felt like crying.

I know that his food allergies are a minor thing as health issues go but I really wish he could eat eggs, drink milk, and have a peanut butter sandwich like a normal kid.

A Dirty Little Secret

I’m a little embarrassed about it, but I still bathe E in the sink even though he’s almost two-and-a-half. Granted, I special ordered this deep sink when we were finishing our bathroom because I thought it would be handy for bathing babies/puppies. I like how E’s up at waist level and how I save water compared to filling a tub. But I do think it’s starting to become a tight squeeze.

It seems a little weird to me that he still bathes in the sink but I’m probably being hypersensitive. As long as I switch to the bath tub before he’s three his psyche should survive without any permanent damage, right? (That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.)

With a Little Help from My Friends

Do you remember how much I loved this band jacket Stella McCartney did for Gap Kids? Well, my super seamstress sister-in-law Miranda did. She made E his very own marching band jacket for Christmas! And she didn’t just make one, she also made a jacket for her son L (I know, I know–her sewing skills are insane).



Aren’t these cousins cute together? L is two months older than E to the day and they love playing together. L’s coming over for a few hours today and I’m sure the two of them will have a great time tearing apart my house. E loves L so much that whenever it’s time to say goodbye E cries and cries.

But at least now he can look stylish while he cries.

Family History

The weekend was kind of a mixed bag. Saturday was great: N and I took E to a dim sum restaurant we had heard about and it was really good. I love dim sum! While we were there two grandmas sitting next to us who made a point of complimenting us on how well E was behaving and how cute he was. We assured them that it was entirely the luck of the draw (as it usually is with two year-olds; sometimes E can really be a monster at restaurants) but it still felt nice to have strangers go out of their way to compliment E. Then the grandmas asked us about dim sum and how ordering it worked and we explained it to them and then basked in a parents-of-a-perfect-child/cosmopolitan-foodie glow which lasted all of about one minute until E started yelping and I couldn’t bring myself to order the chicken feet even though I was kind of curious. But then that evening we went to visit some good friends and stayed until entirely too late talking and laughing and watching our sons play together.

Sunday was okay except that I woke up feeling under the weather AND we totally spaced the time change so we showed up for church an hour late. (I know, I know–we felt like morons.)

At chuch N and I are attending a Sunday School class on family history. My church is very big on family history because our doctrine teaches that family members can be sealed together for eternity though covenants we make with God inside temples. So the church is working on an online database system that helps people find their ancestors.

Participating in this Sunday School class has sparked an interest in family history in me. When I was at my parents’ house I took the opportunity to scan some old photos. Are these great?

My mom with my grandmother.

My grandmother (Halmoni) at her house in Korea.
My aunt and her husband on their wedding day.

I really enjoy looking at old pictures. My mom has all our family pictures in a cardboard box but I would love to get them all scanned and put together in a book.

Quarantined

So…yesterday after his nap I noticed that E’s eyes were getting kind of goopy. Greenish-yellow gunk was collecting in the corners. I talked to my doctor’s nurse and she said he had an eye infection and prescribed some eye drops. It must be going around because when I went to the store to pick up E’s medicine the pharmacist told me they had had a run on the drops and they were totally out of stock.

Eventually I found a pharmacy that had the drops in stock and last night N and I held down a protesting E to get the drops in his eyes. This morning I had to get E the drops by myself and uh, it didn’t go as smoothly. I explained to E that I needed to put the drops in his eyes for his own good but somehow that didn’t seem to make a difference–go figure.

But E seems to be feeling better already. The nurse said that after 24 hours of being on the drops he wouldn’t be contagious anymore. So today I had to keep E home from preschool and also apologize to Miranda for unknowingly exposing her kids to the bug yesterday morning when we took all the kids to IKEA. Oops. (Sorry again, Miranda!)

So today is going to be a low key day of doing laundry and cleaning up the house which after a busy week sounds fine to me.

We’re Back!

We’re back: a little tired but happy (and behind on laundry). Poor E was so tired that he sacked out shortly after take-off and didn’t wake up until descent.

It was a wonderful trip and now I feel energized, happy to be home, and ready to tackle my goals re: spring cleaning and getting in better shape. And I have lots of pictures and things to write so I’m going back to daily posting.

It’s great to be back!

Puppies!

E has been in heaven this week playing with my parents’ two Maltese dogs. They’ve been really good with him and will accommodatingly follow him around as he runs from room to room shrieking with delight. It’s pretty darn cute.

Right now the house is full of dogs. My parents’ dogs had puppies on Christmas day and they’re now ready for new homes. Malteses are good for allergy sufferers (even though E is very allergic to dogs he’s been doing fine so far).

Aren’t they cute? It’s been a lot of fun cuddling with them while watching the Olympics on tv. I’m going to miss the little guys when I go home. I’d love to take one home with me but it’s not really the best time for us to add a dog to our family right now. *sniff*

Well, that wasn’t so bad

Success! E and I arrived safely and in more or less one piece on Monday. I (of course) put off packing until the night before and so I was up until 1:30 am doing laundry and lethargicly shuffling stuff in and out of suitcases. And then I took a shower and lay in bed, wide-eyed and exhausted until I finally dropped off around 2:30. I’m normally pretty mellow but the combination of packing at the last minute with the anxiety I was feeling about travelling alone with E get me worked up. But everything went swimmingly.

E was a trooper on the plane; I didn’t even have to break out his little dvd player until we were over halfway there. The plane was completely full but people seemed to be passing by the seat next to us (not that I blame them) until a mom with a 4-week old (!) plopped herself down. Hypocrite that I am, I had a flash of “Oh great, why do I have to sit next to the crying baby” but then I instantaneously quashed that sentiment and tried to be helpful and nice.

Both the baby and E were great on the plane so there wasn’t really anything to worry about. E loved looking out the window as we took off and giggled like crazy as we went “in the sky.” He was surprisingly easy to entertain. He seemed like such a big kid compared to the newborn on my other side.

And now we are at my parents house out in the middle of the woods. My mom took E with her yesterday to run some errands and so I took a luxiourous 3-hour nap. When I woke up I even had that that heavy-headed feeling you get when you’ve slept too long. Ah, sleep headache–how I’ve missed you, old friend. It’s been too long.

Very Polite

Good manners are pretty important to me (probably because I grew up with a Korean mom and a dad from the south) and I’ve been trying to instill them in E. He has saying “thank you” and “please” down pretty well so now I’m trying to teach him how to introduce himself.

This morning it kind of seemed to click. During breakfast he looked me in the eye and announced, “Hi! I’m eeeott!” I praised him effusively and he beamed.

But my parental pride promptly dissolved into giggles when he continued on: “Hi, I’m Mama!…Hi, I’m cereal!…Hi, I’m milk!…Hi, I’m bowl!…Hi, I’m chair!…”