Christmas Chaos

this christmas, we spent 8 days on the east coast:

-in nanuet, with the hur's
-in fort lee, with the lee's
-in randolph, with the pasquales
-in ridgefield, with the kaniuga's
-in mapelwood, with the hussey's
-in brooklyn, with the davis's
-in palisades park, with the kim's
-in jersey city, with the lee-marx's

then came back to chicago, and spent new year's with nana and bampi (where we opened a second set of presents)... and come to find out, santa visited our home in chicago while we were gone. we double-dipped on the "santa generosity". we love him. but we always remember the real reason for christmas, as stella would say, is to "wish baby jesus a happy birthday".

Halloween!

just your local neighborhood superheroes...

Family Vacation

a few photos from our vacation in the florida keys in early october. we had a great time. great, family friendly resort that we definitely plan to get back to one day..
















a few photos from our vacation in the florida keys in early october. we had a great time. great, family friendly resort that we definitely plan to get back to one day...

First Day of School!

Stella was very excited about her second year of school at Cardinal Bernadin. Dylan, as always, was a little confused : )

Summer 2010 Magic

a brief montage of our summer 2010: )

SPARKLERS!

Stellar's first encounter with illegal pyro-technics... and seeing the light show LIVE!

Bampi, Daddy and Stella went to montrose beach to watch the 15 minute show essentially from ground zero. Bampi and I don't think we scarred her for life...

Movers and Shakers

Summer of 2010 was nuts. it started off with a BANG!

moving... again.

after returning from Sydney (see previous video), we closed on our new place in chicago (our new address for those that don't have it below), moved 5 days later, celebrated stella's 4th birthday at fantasy kingdom, then i went to nyc for a week for work.

needless to say, susan is supermom/wife/real-estate tycoon/packer/unpacker/chef/nanny/maid... etc. etc. you get the idea. she did it all while i was away in sydney (there for work from may 3 to may 13). she met with contractor, made final decisions on all interior items (paint, flooring, kitchen cabinets, backsplash, etc), provided final bank documentation, dealt with each and every phone call and decision, all while i was 13 hours ahead and the kids needed to be fed and bed.

upon my return on may 13, we closed the following day on may 14. we packed our old home on may 15 and 16. the movers arrived on may 19. we celebrated stella's birthday on saturday the 22nd and i left for new york on sunday the 23rd. i returned on monday, may 31.

NUTS. but worth it :) so this video (edited entirely on flights) is in honor of our new home:

s3dk
3340 N. Damen Avenue #1S
Chicago, IL 60618

Kemper... Australian for Insane

this post sadly has no mention of any kemper other than scotty du. i put this edit together on the 22 hour flight back to the states...

australia was fun and very busy, but did have a day or two to see a thing or two. really wish i could have taken my family with me. but the fact that we were concurrently buying a new home and moving prevented us from both being on the other side of the planet while final preparations happened.

susan, thank you for kicking ass while i was screwing off in sydney : )

end of an era... again.

we enjoyed our 18 months on ashland... but we are moving again. below is a synopsis of our life there... we moved in december 2008, Dylan arrived 4 months later. it has been his one and only home... 2 going on 3 for Stella. there are definitely things we will miss about this home: courtyard, 2 car attached garage being the 2 biggest. the video starts in hoboken... and ends on ashland (just prior to move).

Dylan's Dohl

First birthdays are huge everywhere but especially in the Korean tradition. However big or small the party, there are three basic traditional elements, which are: 1) wearing the traditional garb of the motherland, 2) having a special cake made that is made of sweet rice cake, and 3) a game is played where several things are placed in front of the baby and the item he chooses determines what he will be in the future. We laid out a bowl or rice (means wealth), string (long life) and a pencil (academia). Stay tuned for what he picks.

Happy Birthday Dylan. We can't believe a whole year has gone by. There are so many things I want to say about this amazing little boy and how much he's grown over the past 365 days but I'll have to leave that for another time. Every day, he gives me a reason...to laugh, to love, to hope, to live.

We celebrated his birthday in two parts. We spent the weekend (also Easter) with Nana, Bampi, Jo and John in Lafayette. We also had a core family party for him on the day of at home where we did the Korean traditions. He was confused but I think overall, he had fun. He always has fun.

Finally Park Weather!!!

It's been between 45-55 degrees for the last couple of days. We've been to the park 4 times. Would've been more had it not been for the rain. Cabin fevered much?

Oh and Dylan continues to become more and more brave with the walking business. He let's go and stands by himself for seconds at a time. His max is probably about 5-7 secs. And as mentioned in previous blogs, he likes pushing things. One of his favs, his red buggy.

Dinnertime Laughs

Rearranging

Enter the furniture rearranging phase. Dylan uses everything as a walking aid; chairs, tables, stools. If it moves, it's his for the taking. Stella gets annoyed every morning as she tries to eat her breakfast. As soon as we put a bowl of cereal in front of her, Dylan makes his way to her and pushes her table away. It's pretty funny watching him walk off with her table as she's left sitting in her chair, spoon mid-air. We don't have footage on that but here's an example of what he does.

LOL

No matter the abuse, as with all younger sibs, Dylan looks up to his big sister with love, admiration, and humor. She tickles his funny bone like no other. Stella plus air purifier provides a source of entertainment like no other. Don't ask my why an air purifier is so entertaining. For some reason, the air settings just cracks them up. It was almost 2 years ago in Hoboken when Oscar and Stella thought the same for this wonderous contraption. Ignoring all the toys in the apartment, they bee-lined straight for the air purifier laughing hysterically as they changed the settings. Weird dudes.

The Red Buggy

It was a temperate 30 degrees in Chicago bringing in the first day of March. With it being so nice, we decided to break out of our hibernation and treat ourselves to some outside activity. Our objective, to check the mail. Our means of transportation...scooter for Stella, infamous Step2 buggy for Dylan. He LOVED it. She loved pushing him (especially hard into the snow). Thank god for straps.

Fell in Love with the Drummer

Heavy Metal Drummer

I sincerely miss those heavy metal bands
I used to go see on the landing in the summer
She fell in love with the drummer
She fell in love with the drummer
She fell in love

Shiny, shiny pants and bleach-blond hair
A double kick drum by the river in the summer
She fell in love with the drummer
Another and another
She fell in love

I miss the innocence I've known
Playing KISS covers, beautiful and stoned

Unlock my body and move myself to dance
Moving warm liquid, flowing blowing glass
Classical music blasting masks the ringing in my ears

I sincerely miss those heavy metal bands
I used to go see on the landing in the summer
She fell in love with the drummer
She fell in love with another
She fell in love

I miss the innocence I've known
Playing KISS covers, beautiful and stoned
Playing KISS covers, beautiful and stoned
Playing KISS covers, beautiful and stoned
Playing Kiss covers beautiful and stoned

- Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Dylan Update: Bumper Walker

At close to 11 months, Dylan's been mobile for awhile. He excels in crawling on all fours and army crawling. He's also become quite proficient at using furniture (chairs, side tables, Stella's stuff) to walk. He'll literally pushes it across the room until he bumps into something, and then moves on to the next item to push across the floor.

He's been using the walker in the video downstairs in our playroom where it's carpeted. Today, I looked up, saw the mess of our great room, and decided he was ready to graduate to hardwood floors. He did great.

He's able to stand by himself for a few seconds at a time. He's one handed when cruising from one thing to the next. I'm in trouble. Once this kamikaze, fearless boy starts walking, I fear I will be constantly diving to put my own body between my son and the ground.

Stella Sings in Korean

well sort of...although I can get by with my Korean skillz, I am by no means perfectly versed. I think in English, therefore I speak English with my kids. I may pepper in a few words here and there but unfortunately, that and their limited dialog with my parents (on the phone or visits) are the full extent of their Korean language exposure.

Anyway, Stella's halmoney (grandma) and halahbugee (grandpa) have been trying to teach her some Korean songs. Stella, true to 3 going on 4, have been blatantly ignoring them. Seemingly though, she's been picking up on the sly as proven in the video. One day, the stars aligned, Stella was in a good mood, and knowing the camera was on her, began to sing.

It's not really correct but it's close. Considering that she's been pretending to ignore my parents, I think this is major progress.

She sings the beginning of two songs. First is called "nabeeya" (aka butterfly), and second is "san tokey" (aka rabbit).

And yes, that is a pen she's using to draw on her face. It did come off.

February Fun

clearly, we've not been very good at updating this site... and dylan gets little to no love... so here's another small update on stella.

at the pool on valentines day weekend with daddy:

Stellarina

The month of January is difficult everywhere. The month of January in Chicago is downright impossible. Add Dig Dug to the mix, and we don't go out much. Concerned that Stella kept choosing and viewed WholeFoods and/or Trader Joe's as her outing of the day, we promptly enrolled our very active little girl in her very first ballet class. When asked, she didn't hesitate. I mean a class where you dress in pink and act like a princess? No brainer. Watching Barbie's Swan Lake a gazillion times certainly didn't hurt.

Since day one, she never looked back. She looks forward to her class. She naps in her ballet gear. To us, we're still shocked at how much pink of everything she has. She has come such a long way from the days of matchbox cars and jeans. sigh* She is happy and that's all that matters.