Category: Family

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May Day!! May Day!!

As wonderful as my kids are, they can be, and are, very taxing…
Here’s the rundown of my past 24 hours…

1. To relieve Soojin’s sleep deprivation, I slept with the kids and JJ woke up TWICE through the night crying for mommy.  Had to keep telling him to just sleep and leagve mommy alone so she can rest. 

2. Had to drive the family up to good ol’ Citizenship and Immigration Service building in north Houston through the treacherous downpour.

3. After working for few hours, I came home to two kids who soon managed to infuriate mom by making the Christmas tree fall down.

4. Even after the severe punishment of time out, we went to local Clear Lake United Methodist Church’s nativity presentation.  As good as that was, the smell and the indoor and heat made me dizzy.

5. After coming home, Anna and JJ still did not listen to me and I lost it.  I told them that I won’t play with them ’cause I’m mad.  I’m so tired and worn out…

Anyone wanna drop by and watch the kids for me so I can veg out or something?!!  May day… may day! 

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Conversation of the Week

So I was playing with my kids yesterday evening and they wanted to go inside the room and pretend no one’s inside… here’s the rundown of the conversation with JJ at the door…

Me:  Knock, knock.
JJ:  Nobody here.
Me: Nobody who?
JJ:  JJ.

LOL…  I cracked up… kids say the cutest things… half the time. 

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Gingerbread House

Well, I saw a good deal on a pre-made gingerbread house that just needed the icing and decorating done so I bought one for the family…  Today was the day to decorate it and here it is…

Not too shabby for a first time, eh?!    With JJ in front of it…

And then Anna…

And finally… the icing queen!! 

The million dollar question is…  How long will this house survive?!!   

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IKEA, oh how I love to hate you!

So it’s the Black Friday… I wanted stay far away from the malls and stores…
But we have to eat still and so with the day off, I suggested that we go to Komart.  After having lunch with my good friend, Paul Minifee at Pho Binh, we started to head off in that direction.  Half way there, Soojin suggests a sneaky one… “We could stop by IKEA since it’s on the way…”  Oh how innocent are those suggestions, eh? 

Well, so we get there about 1 pm.  Soojin is all lost in the “presence” of IKEA.  This is the one store that she said that she could either work at or live at!!    As much as I do like some of their stuff and how ingenious some of their stuff are, I do hate them for few other reasons…

1.  It’s freakin’ huge!!    It took us nearly 3 hours to get through the store at “relatively fast” pace!!
2.  Sure they’ve got some great stuff for real cheap… but when you get 20 to 30 of such things, they still add up HUGE!! 
3.  Did I mention that it’s big??!! 

I am not good at shopping… so needless to say, after 3 hours there, I was exhausted!  Soojin did notice that I was about to crash so she felt a bit guilty… but still didn’t stop her!    And after 3 hours with the kids, they also began to get very cranky and  irritating and demanding after all that…  At least, JJ was well distracted with those blue arrows for him to keep searching for. 

Whew… I’m tired…  IKEA… How I love to hate you!

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???? – The Island House Baby

??? ? ??? ? ?? ??
??? ?? ?? ?? ???
??? ???? ?? ???
? ?? ???? ?? ???

roughly translated:
When mommy goes to dig some oysters,
The baby is left home alone
And as he listens to the lullaby from the tide
He falls asleep lying on his arms.

This has been one of my all time favorite children’s song… something about it is so soothing and comforting… that I began sing this song to Anna and JJ…

Well, I begun the song again as I tried to put them to sleep… only to be stopped…  here’s the run down…

Me:  ??? ? ???
Anna:  ??, ? ? ????
Me:  Uh… it’s an island… anyway, ? ?? ??…
Anna:  ??, ?? ????
Me:  Um… ?? ?? ??…
Anna:  What’s ???

Well, you get the idea… with JJ, they both practically stopped me every other phrase of the song…    Oh well… the inquisitive mind wants to know…  It’s frustrating… but cute at the same time…  oh well… welcome to fatherhood! 

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Anna and Korean

Wow… I was very pleasantly surprised today…
Anna read an entire Korean story book by herself today!    Soojin has been teaching her how to read Korean for a while now and she’s proven that it’s very easy to read Korean!  I could also sense her sense of achievement and pride at reading it herself as well…

She definitely picks up that language ability from her mom.  Though I also took French and German, Soojin definitely seems to have the more natural knack for picking up languages.  I’m so proud of Anna… 

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JJ and Glass

My kids are acrobats.  Really. 

They sure proved themselves this week!  There’s this clock that Soojin got as a wedding gift from her friend that has a quilted background.  It’s covered by glass, of course!

Well, I was talking to my parents on the phone when I heard glass shatter!    Then I saw JJ on the clock with shattered glass!    He evidently jumped from the chair onto the clock!  Luckily, I was right next to him so I lifted him up before he even tried to move, sat him down on my lap, took out the big glass pieces off his feet before they did REAL damage, rushed him to the bathroom and washed his feet from tiny pieces…  Whew…  thankfully, he didn’t have any damage or bleeding… 

Who ever said that child raising isn’t full of excitement?!!     I still had to give him a good lecture and punish him for such behavior by not allowing him to play… boys are sooo much more troublesome!