Catching up (Again!)

I feel like all I do is write catch up posts! 

SNOW! Here are some pictures from our first sizable snow storm this season.  We got about 10 inches a couple of weeks ago, earning the boys three straight days off school.  When added to the two days they already had off for teacher work days plus the weekend in between, they ended up with seven straight days off.  We all needed a break from each other after that stretch! 

A little frozen hoops...

 

19 Months and a visit to the ENT. L turned 19  months on the 2nd, which we celebrated with a trip to the ENT to get her drooling/ears/palate/speech stuff checked out.  I really thought it was going to be a simple quick check in her ears and mouth and we'd be out of there, but no such luck.  Turns out, Asians tend to have very flaky ear wax that gets all caked up and blocks the ear drums.  The doctor couldn't see her ear drums and had to perform ear wax surgery.  Okay, so "surgery" may be a bit overly dramatic, but a nurse and myself did have to hold her body and head down on a table while the doctor removed copious amounts of ear wax from both ears, all the whilst L screamed at the top of her lungs and stared at me with daggers in her eyes (oh, and the doctor suggested we come back for ear wax removal at least twice a year!).  Seriously, how can such a petite little girl have that much wax in her ears?!!  But that wasn't the worst of it.  After the ear drums checked out okay, we moved on to the adenoids, which required me holding her in a straight jacket-type position on my lap while the doctor threaded a spaghetti-shaped camera down each of her nostrils.  Needless to say, I'm relieved that everything checked out okay because neither L nor I ever want to see the inside of that office again!

At 19 months, L is little Miss Personality.  She is so bright and intuitive that it truly amazes me sometimes.  Her favorite things at 19 months:  dancing, Elmo, books, the dog, and cooking in her kitchen.  If she hears anything resembling music, she immediately starts to dance and, let me tell you, that girl has some serious rhythm!  She is a girlie girl through and through - she models her dresses, wants to pick out her own bows and shoes every day, and loves to put on her butterfly wings and matching heeled, feathery shoes.  She gives lots of hugs and kisses, especially when she knows she's in trouble!  She has the most contagious and joyous giggly laugh.  She loves watching Elmo on TV now and will pull her chair in front of the TV, bring you the remote and point and whine at the TV until you turn it on.  She is hungry ALL THE TIME.  Seriously, I don't know how she can possibly eat as much as she does and not weigh 30 pounds.  I can't eat anything in front of her without her wanting it, even if she has just finished eating.  And she is very good at feeding herself with a spoon and fork, and oh so proud that she can!  But probably the single word that best describes L now is JOY.  J and I were watching her flit about the family room the other day (and "flit" is the perfect way to describe it) and we couldn't help but smile at each other because she is just so full of happiness and joy.

 

Lunar New Year.  Last Thursday (Feb. 3rd) was Lunar New Year, or Seolnal, which is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays.  The Korean New Year holiday lasts three days and is a time when many Koreans return to their home towns to visit with their families.  According to traditional Korean beliefs, everyone ages one year on Seolnal by eating Korean rice cake soup (dduk guk), which is always served on New Year's day.  In Korea, when you are born, you are considered one year old and you don't age on your actual birthday.  Everyone turns a year older on Seolnal.  So, according to Korean tradition, L just turned three! 

I had big plans to celebrate Seolnal with a traditional Korean meal and celebration, but life got in the way (i.e., C's Lego exhibition at school was rescheduled for that night (see below) because of snow cancellation from the week before (reference above) ;-)), so I settled for taking cute pictures of L in her hanbok and teaching her to perform Sebae, the deep traditional bow that Korean children perform for their elders on Seolnal, accompanied by the words saehae bok manhi badeuseyo (which translates to please receive many blessings in the new year).  Oh.my.word. how I wish I had gotten her on video performing Sebae.  She really got into it and was bowing and saying "blah blah blah blah" and totally cracking herself up!  I might have to reenact it just so I can record it!

Legos!  As I mentioned, C had his Lego exhibition at school last Thursday.  He was in an after school Lego League last quarter and really enjoyed it.  I was naive going in - I thought it was just going to be a bunch of kids playing with Legos after school, but it turns out they have actual kits for school use and an accompanying science-based curriculum.  There were several teams and each team had to work together to build a Lego exhibit centered around an ocean odyssey theme, including coming up with a habitat, working vehicle, imaginary ocean creatures, etc., and an accompanying written and illustrated presentation. This all culminated in the exhibition last week where each team had to get up in front of everyone and present and explain their exhibit and poster. 

C turns 9 - well, almost.  C's birthday is this Thursday and we celebrated with a small party/sleep over this past weekend with a couple of his closest friends.  C was upset at first that we nixed a big party this year and told him to keep it small, but in the end, he told us it was his "best birthday party ever".  C wanted an ice hockey themed party this year, so we took the kids ice skating and I made an ice hockey and puck cake.  The boys had a lot of fun, we survived the sleep over, and most importantly, C was very very happy little man!

The evening kicked off with some pre-ice rink pizza eating

At the ice rink.

 

 

 Post-skating s'mores

 The basement bday party/sleep over venue.

 Basement hockey.

My hockey skate cake

  

Singing happy birthday.

 

We also had a Minute to Win It game competition that was SO MUCH FUN, but I didn't get any pictures because we were focused on video.  I will post some video when I get a minute.

I think I'm all caught up now!  Until next time...