Category: E.

Hooray For Tuesday!

I can’t remember the last time I was this happy to see a holiday weekend end. N has been out of town at a music festival since Friday but is coming home tonight. I originally had all sorts of grand plans for when he was out of town: the main thing I wanted to work on was piecing my rainbow quilt. But I came down with the bug that E’s been fighting for almost two weeks and consequently got nothing done. Instead I moped around the house in a fog and went to bed early every night.

I did get to see a few friends but other than that we just stayed home. With E being cranky and me not feeling well there were more times than I care to admit when my patience wore thin. But happily there were some lovely moments too. Exhibit A:

Anyway, we are all really looking forward to having N home tonight. E cried and cried when we dropped N off at the airport and has asked when his dad is coming home every day. I’ve really missed spending time with N and chatting with him about our days every evening.

Potty Time

After several weeks of having E use the potty but still wearing diapers I bit the bullet yesterday and just put him in underwear. (We had three accidents.)

I hope today goes better.

On a more positive note, I took a couple of pictures with my Polaroid–using it is so much fun! I’ll post them as soon as I scan them.

Racing the clock

E sitting down to dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Pusan.

A while ago I bought a Groupon for A&I Books, a California company that prints high-quality photo books. This morning I checked the date on my voucher and saw that it expires oh, next week.

So now I’m sifting through the hundreds of photos I took on our Korea trip and editing them for printing. (Why oh why is it that I seldom get anything done unless I’m working against a deadline?–argh!) Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing how the book turns out.

Pajama Time!

My sister-in-law Mindy sent us these cute matching pajamas. I wanted to take some pictures of the kids wearing them before Mimi outgrows her (size 6-months!) pair. Mimi’s little football-shaped torso cracks me up.

I know I’ve been posting a lot of photos of the kids lately, but their grandparents comprise a significant voting bloc of this blog’s readers and I feel obligated to give the people what they want. 🙂 I hope I’m not boring everyone else.

I want to take some more creative, non-kid photos but right now I seem to be lacking both inspiration and time to do so. Maybe once spring is here in earnest (it’s snowing outside at this very moment!)

I’m excited about our weekend: Mindy and N’s brother Ken and their kids are in town and going to stay with us. They are two of my very favorite people (I have several) but we don’t get to see them that often so I’m really looking forward to it.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Big Brother E


After people ask about how the baby and I are doing the next question they usually ask is how E is adjusting. He’s been doing great.

It seems like it only took him a day or so to figure out that Mimi was here to stay. Now if he doesn’t see her around he asks me where she is. And sometimes when Mimi cries he’ll go up to her and tell her that it’s going to be okay or “helpfully” try to cram her pacifier into her mouth.

I think the hardest thing for E has been being stuck at home these last few weeks. He’s been watching entirely too much TV while I mostly sit on the couch trying to recover and keep our giant baby girl fed and happy. Sometimes he DOES gets antsy and I feel guilty about him being stuck at home. Before Mimi was born we usually left the house to do something at least once a day and when E gets bored he can act out a little.

But all in all he’s taken Mimi’s arrival in stride and in his usual easygoing manner. I’m just grateful that he hasn’t decided to resent the baby (yet!) and that he’s adjusting so well.

Christmas Recap

We’re finally getting back into the swing of things. E came down with a cold over Christmas that morphed into what I think was Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (SUCH a charming name). Last week he developed a few little sores around his mouth but other than that seems to have been spared other symptoms.

As soon as the sores appeared and I suspected HFMD we quarantined ourselves at home so as not to spread it around so New Year’s was pretty quiet. N and I watched The Wire on DVD and snacked on cheese, summer sausage, and a shrimp tray from Costco. When we kissed at midnight I realized that it was 10 years ago exactly that N purposed which made me feel kind of warm and gooey inside (ten years!)

Even with being under the weather E had a nice Christmas. We got him a few things and our family and friends sent him some thoughtful gifts that he had a lot of fun unwrapping. He has been really into robots lately so this Alphie robot that my parents sent was a big hit.


Watching E’s face light up when he saw everything in the morning was a lot of fun.

N really outdid himself this Christmas…he got together with my thoughtful SIL and BIL (who works at Adobe) and got me a copy of the Adobe Create Suite Master Collection! It’s amazing to have a copy of the latest full suite of programs like Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash, etc… I like to tinker with design programs but since I’m just an amateur I could never afford the $$$ it would cost to purchase the suite retail. So I was really thrilled and grateful to N and Miranda and her husband for setting this up. I can’t wait to dig into it and see the updates Adobe’s made to the programs.

As awesome as that gift was N had an even bigger surprise waiting for me under the tree. (But it deserves its own post later.)

Letting go a little

I think I’ve mentioned before how easily I get sucked into “the idea” of things. I get a picture in my head and then inevitably feel disappointed when things don’t work out as well. This habit has only gotten worse since I had E because while I see so many opportunities for Magical! Childhood! Moments!, E is not always predictable or more accommodating than you would expect from a three year-old.

After seeing Santa at our church Christmas party was a big hit I thought I’d try and take E to the mall today to see Santa again and take a photo. I had a vague goal of getting to the mall around 10am but by the time we actually there it was already noon. And the line for Santa was a hour long.

I actually stood in line with E for a little bit and while he was good he started to get antsy after about 10 minutes. I did a bit of soul searching (“But we’re already here and he’s dressed in a cute outfit that will coordinate perfectly with Santa’s suit!” vs. “There’s NO WAY he and I are going to be able to stand in this line for an hour–it will get ugly.”) and then we got out of line and I took E to have a ride on the little train that chugs around the mall instead.


He loved it. And then we left the mall, went grocery shopping and came home–the end.

So, while we didn’t get an overpriced photo with Santa this year I think I might finally be learning to let go a little and sincerely put E’s interest ahead of the craving I feel to create and document Magical! Childhood! Moments!

(I also learned that if I want to do Santa photos next year I’m going to take the kids in November.)