May 18- Fry Guy

Contemplating the French fry.
Chocolate Milk Grin.
Michael’s garden 2009.
Michael’s garden is starting to sprout. He grew everything from seeds this year, so it’s been lots of fun watching things come up. I’ll keep putting pictures up as it grows. If last year’s bounty was any indicator, I’m sure this year we’ll have plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs to feed the whole neighborhood!

May 17- Lazy Sunday

Spending a rainy Sunday morning coloring with your best buddy. How sweet.
How quickly that angelic moment turns into an “uh, oh!” moment. Talk about being caught red handed!
What a boy! He literally turned the marker on himself in a matter of seconds. Michael and I were BOTH sitting less than 5 feet from him when he decided to decorate his face! This boy is going to be our wild card!

May 10- Happy Mother's Day!

The following is not my own writing. I wish I could take credit for writing something that describes motherhood so perfectly, but I can’t. It’s actually one of those emails that circle around, forwarded from one friend to another. I read it a few months ago, and it literally brought tears to my eyes. It so perfectly hits the nail on the head. So to all the mothers, grandmothers, and mothers at heart who may not be actually holding a baby of their own today, but instead hold all of our children in their hearts, Happy Mother’s Day.

With Love, Courtney


FOR ALL MOMS (PRESENT, PAST OR POSSIBLY FUTURE)

We are sitting at lunch when my daughter casually
mentions that she and her husband are thinking of
"starting a family."

"We're taking a survey," she says, half-joking. "Do
you think I should have a baby?"

"It will change your life," I say, carefully keeping
my tone neutral. "I know," she says, "no more
sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous
vacations...."

But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my
daughter, trying to decide what to tell her. I want
her to know what she will never learn in childbirth
classes. I want to tell her that the physical wounds
of child bearing will heal, but that becoming a
mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw
that she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again
read a newspaper without asking "What if that had
been MY child?" That every plane crash, every house
fire will haunt her. That when she sees pictures of
starving children, she will wonder if anything could
be worse than watching your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish
suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she
is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the
primitive level of a bear protecting her cub.

That an urgent call of "Mom!" will cause her to drop
a souffle or her best crystal without a moment's
hesitation.

I feel I should warn her that no matter how many
years she has invested in her career, she will be
professionally derailed by motherhood.

She might arrange for childcare, but one day she
will be going into an important business meeting and
she will think of her baby's sweet smell. She will
have to use every ounce of her discipline to keep
from running home, just to make sure her baby is all
right.

I want my daughter to know that everyday decisions
will no longer be routine. That a five year old
boy's desire to go to the men's room rather than the
women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma.
That right there, in the midst of clattering trays
and screaming children, issues of independence and
gender identity will be weighed against the prospect
that a child molester may be lurking in that
restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will
second-guess herself constantly as a mother.

Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure
her that eventually she will shed the pounds of
pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about
herself. That her life, now so important, will be of
less value to her once she has a child. That she
would give it up in a moment to save her offspring,
but will also begin to hope for more years -- not to
accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child
accomplish theirs.

I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny
stretch marks will become badges of honor. My
daughter's relationship with her husband will
change, but not in the way she thinks. I wish she
could understand how much more you can love a man
who is careful to powder the baby or who never
hesitates to play with his child. I think she should
know that she will fall in love with him again for
reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will
feel with women throughout history who have tried to
stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.

I hope she will understand why I can think
rationally about most issues, but become temporarily
insane when I discuss the threat of nuclear war to
my children's future.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration
of seeing your child learn to ride a bike. I want to
capture for her the belly laugh of a baby who is
touching the soft fur of a dog or a cat for the
first time. I want her to taste the joy that is so
real, it actually hurts.

My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that
tears have formed in my eyes. "You'll never regret
it," I finally say. Then I reach across the table,
squeeze my daughter's hand and offer a silent prayer
for her, and for me, and for all of the mere mortal
women who stumble their way into this most wonderful
of callings. This blessed gift from God . . . that
of being a Mother.

For Mother’s Day we headed towards Osan Air Base for fine dining at Chili’s. Ha! Sterling drove. He’s advanced like that.
Sterling and Ella munched on some corn on the cob, a favorite around our house!
After lunch we hit the PX to see if they had anything good. They didn’t. They never do. But somehow we still never managed to get out of there without spending money. Michael and I have recently found a joy that we’ve never known before…shopping with only one child. We have started splitting the kids up into two carts, then dividing and conquering. We love it! It’s actually a lot of fun and oh my goodness super duper easy to shop with only one kid. Who knew how easy one kid could be? (I realize that might be a rhetorical question for parents of singletons.)
This little girl just got her first tricycle and already she thinks she’s ready for training wheels! Not yet young lady. She has a few more inches to grow before she’ll be on a big girl bike.
Our kids the anti-socials. This is not good. Not good at all. Our kids have become a little antisocial lately. Large groups of kids seem to be intimidating them. I don’t know what’s going on. Usually they run straight for the playground but in the past couple of weeks they’ve become a little afraid of large groups. They’re good with other kids one on one; it’s groups that seem to be the problem. They do eventually warm up and join in the fun, but they’ve started doing this things where they sit off to the side, side-by-side, observing all the other kids playing before they’ll join in. It can last up to 15 min., but eventually one or the other will be enticed into joining the group, then the other will immediately follow. After that they’re fine, but leading up to that point is a little embarrassing. When they start doing this we get lots of, “oh, look at the twins”, “wow, do they always stick together like that?”, “what a special bond” blah, blah, blah…. It’s embarrassing.

We now interrupt your regularly scheduled programming

Attention all yea, Greetings and Salutations this is Michael, yes I am the husband of the SUPER BLOGGER. I have refrained from posting on this blog for two years now but I feel this year I will deviate from the norm and add a little to this intellectual property of my wife. I have chosen Mother’s Day 2009 to let all those blog stalkers know how much I have been blessed with this wonderful person who is my wife and known by two little angel’s as Mommy. So I make the following statement on this day we all stop to celebrate the unsung hero of our household. My words are few but I am sure those who read this will be able to understand the scope of my statement. So without further delay I leave the following:

How does one come up with the word that expresses the appreciation for someone who has given you everything you ever wanted? I think you might agree that the written language could not do justice to the way I feel about my wife every day. How many people can truly say, God has sent you an angel and two beautiful children? I am without a doubt the luckiest man I will ever know.


Happy Mother’s Day

I love you always and forever

Michael

May 9- Sterling’s hat

Love it! So does he!
Do you think I should refill the water table now?
This afternoon Ella and Sterling had a very special friend over to play. Heather and Luther’s mother watches her niece, Sue Bean, during the week. In the past Ella and Sterling were just too little to be a playmate to her. When we first moved here the babies weren’t even walking, so a 2.5-year-old playmate wasn’t very compatible. Now they’re on a more even playing field, so today Heather and Luter brought their cousin over to swim and play. Little Sue Bean will be 4 in July. The kids were not sure what to think of each other at first, but 3.5 hours later they were all running around screaming and laughing. I’m hoping we can invite Sue Bean over to play again very soon.
I think we may have too many options for play around here. No one knew which toy to play with first!
How precious is this little girl? I think she’s just beautiful! This past week Luter was telling me that he and his younger sister have been teaching their little cousin certain key phrase in English. He told me he wanted to pick an English name for her, and did I have any suggestions. I told him I thought the name Bean was just adorable, and I’d stick to that. The next day he told me that he would not call her Bean, but instead he’d like to call her “Sausage”. No way can a little girl as cute as that be called “Sausage”!

May 8- Empress Myeongseong and more ceramics

We joined Michael’s company today on their trip to the Yeoju Ceramics Festival. I love this festival, so I was more than happy to tag along! The kids have become slightly obsessed with “the wheels on the bus” song lately, and were beyond excited to see a real bus. They were even more excited to actually get on the bus! Sterling even got to practice “the driver on the bus says move on back…” Watch Sterling and Ella singing the wheels on the bus at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyuQyDEZozM
Our first stop on the way to the festival was at the last empress of Korea’s birthplace. We stopped at Empress Myeongseong’s (also known as Queen Min) birthplace in Yeoju. Empress Myeongseong was the wife of King Gojong during the Joseon dynasty. In 1895 under Japanese attack assassins entered Gyeongbok Palace and killed then burned the empress’s body. The empress was only 43 years old. Pretty horrific, huh?
I must confess, I love that we have all these pictures of the kids in all these historic places. What fun their baby books will be to reminisce over!
The birthplace.
A princess entering a princess’s garden.
Empress Ella.
Well, I guess that’s one way to use the stroller. I guess the kids were getting tired of riding and felt the need to help Daddy push their stroller.
I was about to put a sign on the stroller that read, “Yes, we are boy/girl twins. Yes, we are American. Yes, we have blonde hair and blue eyes. Thank you for saying we’re beautiful. Have a nice day.” Seriously, we couldn’t walk 3 feet without having to stop and answer the same 3 questions again, and again, and again, pose for pictures, and generally let people fuss over the kids. It’s flattering to a point where it’s annoying. I’m sure we’ll miss this one day, but today it was starting to drive me slightly insane.
Taking a little break from all the breakables to stretch our legs and play on the grass.
We took a ride on a horse drawn carriage. What fun! And what a great way to cool down in the mid-afternoon heat.
Both the kids loved watching the horse trot along. They spent almost the entire ride saying, “awww, cute horsh” . And finally! A semi nice family picture with both babies facing the camera and not strapped to our backs! Hooray!
I’m so excited about this hat! We all have these matching hats now (even Michael and myself)! They’re the Columbia Omni Shade Bora Bora Jr. Booney for Kids. I’m such a copycat. I didn’t stumble upon these myself; actually, I found them through another blog! I think they’ll be perfect for us this summer. Last summer we spent so much time tromping around Korea slathering ourselves in sunscreen. This year we’ll have the added protection of our booney hats! My only complaint about our fantastic new hats is the level of UPF protection. The adult version has a 50 UPF protection level, but the tots only have a 3o UPF protection. What sense does that make? Protect the little one’s perfect skin before you protect mine! Anyhow, that one small qualm aside, I love em! I’m hoping we can make them part of our going outside ritual. Before we go outdoors the kids run to the mudroom door and say, “coat on?” They just came to expect that we put our coats on before heading outside. With the warmer weather I’m hoping to turn that into “hat on?”
They prove to be perfect hats for playing peek-a-boo too!
After a long day it was nice to unwind at home on the deck with some barbeque and a beautiful sunset. Gawd I love summer and look forward to many more of these evenings.

May 7- Bathing beauty

Ready to go for a swim. Have I ever mentioned ho much I love having such a girly girl? It’s terrible, I know, but I always wanted a girl to play dress up with. So I couldn’t be happier that this little girl of mine calls hair bows “pretties” and likes to accessorize! She’s all girl, and she’s all mine!
And now I know that little boys are equally as fun!
She’s obsessed with this little float. It’s been inflated in our mudroom all winter because she just likes to sit in it periodically. Dreaming of the beach? Who knows. Now that it can actually serve its purpose she loves it even more. She’s actually squatting in the kiddie pool in order to wear the float around her waist!