Ellia's 1st Hop-Scotch Attempt

Longest Week of My Life!

I thought the first week of adjusting to two children in the house was the Longest Week of My Life - but oh no, no, no. The "transition" back to work started on Monday, April 13th. UGH! Our daily life is so hectic:
MORNINGS = Claira's night-time feedings & then up for day at a soul-sinking 5:00am, Ellia's up & needs potty/vitamins/apple juice/clothing, parents need to shower/dress, Claira needs to be held/breastfed/entertained, Mommy must leave for work after spending 2 hours with Claira and 1 hour with Ellia.
EVENINGS = Mommy must weave through 5 FWY traffic with NASCAR precison to get to Ellia's school before 5:00pm so that Grandma can be relieved of Claira-caretaking at 5:10pm, Mommy feeds Claira, Mommy gets dinner going with one hand while jostling Claira with the other, Mommy doesn't want Ellia to watch 1 hr of Sesame Street but usually gives in to get dinner on the table, Mommy tries to get Ellia & Claira out the door to go for a walk, Daddy home just in time for bathtime (usually), Mommy gives Ellia bath while Claira cries with Daddy downstairs, Mommy and Daddy put kids to bed at 8:45pm.

Whew! This wears me out more than taking care of Ellia & Claira around the clock during maternity leave. Now, the foot is always on the gas pedal-go go go, next next next.

It's proving hard to stop and stare in awe at my two precious children and just soak them in for a precious moment...

Happy Easter!

"1st Annual Cousin Easter Bash"
Egg Hunt / Egg Decorating / Dinner
Cousins: Ryan, Lauryn, Issac, Ellia, little Ben and little Claira

Ellia kept her adorable furry rabbit ears on for as long as the shutter on the camera took to take this photo. (sigh)

"More! I need find more!" is what we heard from Ellia the entire time.

The expression on Ellia and Lauryn's faces were a mixture of adrenaline and panic as they despirately tried to claim eggs.

Ah, the beauty of a dyed Easter Egg. It was such fun to relive this time honored tradition through the eyes of these little kids! The had a great time while also concentrating very hard on the coloring and stickering process.

Of course, no cousin reunion would be complete without a game of "CHASE ME! CHASE ME!" Oh do they love to go round & round and squeal. Thanks Dooro and EJ for opening up your house to us and hosting this 1st event (of many)

100th Day (122nd Day, actually)

We finally recognized Claira's Korean tradition ceremony of the 100th day milestone. A bit late, but we're doing everything a bit late since she's arrived! The Pek il tradition is to give thanks that the baby has lived 100 days. Boys are photographed nude (as many of you might have seen Jimmy's 100th day photo in our wedding slide show). Baby girls get the modesty of the diaper. Claira, obviously, was thrilled to have the special attention and recognition! 100 days - way to go Kitten Face and like Great-Grandma Timura says "Oh, you've got a long ways to go..."

Adventure City here we come...again!

We held Ellia's 2 Year Birthday Party at Adventure City in Anaheim, CA. Now a bit older, I thought it would be a good place to revisit and see how differently she reacted to the rides and attractions. Her train obsession still in full swing, Adventure City had just what she craved. We rode the big train ride around the park and she could have stayed in the Thomas & Friends play area forever re-picking out which trains to play with. No glitter-butterfly-fairy-princess interest yet...it is all about trains and cars.

Before Adventure City we stopped by Ellia's hair cut salon. I had the stylist cut Ellia's bangs much more 'severe', shall we say, this time. She is forever swiping at her face to get her hair out of her eyes. Not to mention when her allergies act up and her hair sticks to her face after she's smeared her runny nose across her cheek! Thanks for sharing, I know. So basically we repeated the exact day of her 2nd birthday party - haircut followed by Adventure City. "Gam-Pa" and "Gwam-ma" came along for the ride which had Ellia so excited ("so cited!")
Thanks for the special day out!

Random April Post

WELCOME! Griffin Campbell Soong : April 9th - 6lbs. 10oz. - 17in - Little brother to Jackson

ELLIA CONDUCTING CIRCLE TIME READING

CLAIRA ENTHRALLED WITH HER SISTER

"DO I LOOK LIKE MY DADDY?"

My Claira

In one of my earliest postings I detailed how similar Ellia and Claira seemed to be. Well, Claira is definitely showing how different she is now that she is out of Newborn-dom. Sure, she has no choice but to "go with the flow" most of the time. But the fact that she does still warms my heart. She doesn't freak out when I have to cut her cozy feeding off to assist in a 'potty demand'. She is getting so much better in the car inside her dreaded carseat. She smiles and giggles and guffahs everyday. She seems to know just how to fit in, already. She looks at us with such love and adoration, as if she's fallen madly in love with us. And we return the gaze and count our blessings.

The Last of the Mommy & Me Days

La Mirada Park : Brandon & Miki
Sadly this was our last playdate with the Suzuki's (for now). Ellia and Brandon became better and better friends with each outing together. This park was really big and had lots of stuff we didn't even get to - so we can definitely go back for some more. We decided upon a picnic this go-around. I hauled 10% of Ellia's pretend food and tea party-ware. Brandon's guest was Giraffe. Ellia's guest was Bear. Bear and Giraffe digested about as much as Ellia and Brandon did. Oh well, Miki and I dined on gold fish, cheerios and teddy bear shaped jelly sandwiches.

Norwalk Library : Ellia, Claira, Mommy & 6 other kids
This was my last official full day with the girls as their full-time caregiver.
The 3 of us had a great time together as always!

Super Fast! Ellia channels the "Little Einsteins" when she swings and we exclaim "SUPER FAST" as she zooms higher and higher and we sing the theme song to the show.

1st Easter Egg Hunt!

Isn't this the cutest thing ever?! We had no idea if Ellia and Brandon would "get" the concept of hunting for hidden, magical, colored eggs. But they loved it. At one point I looked over at Brandon and boy was that boy on a mission - he had one thing on his mind and it was to systematically find every egg out there!

We couldn't have chosen a better place to hold our small, private Easter Egg Hunt.
It's a corner of the Cerritos Park East (where Ellia's 1 year birthday party was held). I distracted the children with one arm and juggled Claira with the other while Miki brilliantly hid the eggs among the foliage.

The word we heard the most during the hunt was "More!...More?...More!...More?"
Ellia & Brandon have enjoyed their play times together. Hopefully we can continue having them.
Thanks for a great outting Miki and I hope the deep level of concentration that it took to search for eggs resulted in an extended nap time for Brandon! Ellia's was 3 hours - score!

This Week's Outings

Play Date with Brandon : Hullaballoos Playhouse.
Here is Ellia telling others when and how they should climb the stairs.

Last time we went to Hullaballoos Ellia didn't want to brave the big jumpers but this time she was all about it! It was so fun to watch her going all out on the big "scary" stuff!

You'd think all that jumping would've worn her out like nothing else but her nap was only 'bout an hour...go figure.

Cerritos Mall : "Truck Slide" (Ellia's name for the location)
The weather was a bit unpredictable so we headed out for some indoor play. This is a photo Ellia took of a friend she made named Ian. I love that she is still too young to know how to take a photograph... (Although, she has graduated past the phase of thinking you take a picture by sticking the camera against your forehead!)

Here is Ian leading the pack in a game of "Monster". At first I thought they were being mean by pretending that another boy was a bad, scary monster; I thought, gee, I hope this kid doesn't know he's the "monster" they're running from. Then I got a look at him and he was completely on board with the whole idea - complete with the Hulk stance and grimace. He was very convincing if I do say so myself.

Ian was a very nice boy and Ellia followed him over every square inch of the place until they parted ways and said their "good-bye friend!" It's fun to see her begin to truly interact with other kids. She acts very affectionate towards the kids she knows are younger than her & she looks up to the kids who are a bit older than her. She doesn't try to make friends with everyone & for the most part plays on her own but when a 'connection' does strike the giddiness on her face is priceless.