25 random things

I got tagged (by three different people) with this "25 random things" that's going around Facebook. I thought I'd post it here too.

1. I love reading in bed, but I always fall asleep.

2. I think a really good navel orange is one of the best things in the world.

3. I've done laundry every day since Andy was born.

4. I like doing things with people but I'm not good at initiating stuff.

5. I've painted five murals. One is in an Italian restaurant and one's in a closet.

6. I crave stability and spontaneity. It's a conundrum.

7. I have a collection of books in Korean. I've even read some of them.

8. I love sorting, but I'm not an organized person.

9. I'd like to be a foodie, but generally I just don't make cooking a high enough priority.

10. My husband has more shoes than I do.

11. Lois McMaster Bujold is my favorite author ever.

12. My 20 year high school reunion is this summer. I've realized I'm not really interested at all.

13. I love feeding animals, and have a particular fondness for ducks and squirrels.

14. I always notice grammatical errors, but I think the "no ending a sentence with a preposition" thing is a purely artificial rule based on Latin and has absolutely nothing to do with English.

15. We have a TV but it's not hooked up. We just use it for watching videos.

16. I do a lot of diaper-changing on the bed. I like to live dangerously.

17. I love Atlantic Canadian dialects.

18. My hobbies have a way of turning into obligations. This is occasionally frustrating.

19. I'm interested in words and language, but I'm not very good at Scrabble.

20. I wish I lived closer to my family.

21. I enjoy listening to DVD commentaries (some are more interesting than others, of course).

22. I want to go to North Korea some day.

23. I have a low amusement threshold but I don't enjoy "dumb" movies.

24. I fear I may not be very successful at teaching people to crochet.

25. I have too much stuff and nowhere to put it. I need a garage.

Andy at 4 weeks

(I'm behind on posting.) Andy is doing well. He's not doing those four-hour stretches at night any more. I can't really say how long he sleeps, though, since I'm usually too out of it to do the math. He's starting to get a little more expressive and responsive, and tracking on faces and stuff. He's very attracted to light and will just stare at the window for the longest time. His nose is still pretty stuffy. We got a humidifier, which probably helps.

I'm wondering if he might be a redhead. There's not really enough there to tell, but his eyelashes are very light. Practically invisible.



(This is hard to do when you're the one taking the picture.)




More soon!

New Year and Needles

I've been trying to think of something to post that wasn't about kids (or pictures of kids), but I haven't really been doing anything else. At least not anything interesting. Playing Cubis? Watching episodes of Monk on hulu? (Gotta do something while nursing....) This post is about kids, too, but there aren't any pictures.

So Monday was Chinese New Year. Doug was down at Paldo World on Saturday and picked up some kim (laver seaweed) and dduk for us (as well as a slightly overripe chamwae). Kate wanted some kim right away. Doug opened a package and gave her a piece (this was the kind with the little individual packs with pre-cut small sheets), and then she took the whole package and proceeded to snarf it all down. I get a kick out of the fact that she likes it so much. That and miso soup with tofu.

I was going to make dduk guk but didn't get around to it till last night. It wasn't quite as good as last year's, but not bad. I was also going to make a Year of the Ox digital kit, but I just didn't get it done. I didn't even start on it. A lot of things aren't getting done right now.

Monday was also Kate's four-year checkup and shots. They had us fill out a sheet of developmental questions--physical and cognitive stuff. Some of Kate's answers were a real hoot. One section had questions like, "What do you do when you're hungry?" ("Eat food!") and "What do you do when you're tired?" ("Go to bed!") But for "What do you do when you're cold?" she said, "Play in the snow!" Ha. There was also a section of defining words. I remember her explanation of "curtain" was "You open and close it to see the sun and the sky and the whole world!" and for "banana" she said, "It looks like a moon and you eat in your oatmeal."

Kate had to have five shots. We told her that it was going to hurt but it wouldn't last long, and then Daddy would take her to the bookstore afterward. She didn't even blink at the first one, but by the fifth she was crying pretty hard. Ouch. But she got to pick a little toy out of the treasure box, which cheered her right up. She chose a little pink octopus, and then after we got home she was struck with a case of buyer's remorse and wished she had picked the green crab instead.

Doug took Kate out today, too, for everyone's sanity. My afternoon naps have been less than successful the past couple of days. I was in a pretty bad mood yesterday. Today was better.

little brother (and sister, too!)

I took these when I did Andy's three-week photos, last Saturday. I dug out my black cloth and hung it up on the bookshelves behind the kitchen table. The table is right by the window, so we get some nice light coming in right there. (This necessitates having the kids sit on the table, which I hope they won't make a habit of.)

Aren't these sweet?







And some of just Kate! I wanted to get a new picture for my sidebar, since the one I had there before was about a year and a half old.





I stuck the googly eyes on my camera again and got some giggles!



(She wasn't really posing here, just lifting up her hand to brush her hair aside.)



What cute kids we have!

Andy at 3 weeks

Some cute faces:







Andy's got a bit of the baby acne thing going on. I looked it up--Dr. Greene says it comes from hormones left over from mom. He also says, "It tends to occur at about the same age as the baby's peak gas production and fussiness....(This all coincides with parents' maximum sleep deprivation.)" I can relate.

Andy continues to be very gassy, and he also has a stuffy nose right now and is having trouble breathing. After a very bad night and another session with the snot-sucker this morning, he's finally resting more comfortably. I foresee naps for everyone this afternoon.

Grandma time

Doug's mom left on Thursday. We enjoyed having her here. Kate especially enjoyed having someone else around to play with. I enjoyed having someone around to hold Andy while I took a shower. Here are a few pictures from her visit:



Grandma and Kate play with Play-Doh on the kitchen table.




Reading Elephant and Piggie (note the stuffed animals).



Thanks for coming to see us, Grandma! (Maybe next time it won't rain so much!)

Kate on the graphics tablet

It's a gorilla. With spots.

Andy at 2 weeks

(Taken Saturday)



I'm still trying to figure out where to take pictures. Our lighting situation in this apartment isn't the best. I'll get something worked out.



Andy has a goopy eye right now, and I think he was feeling gassy and uncomfortable when I took these, so he looks kind of worried.




Big yawn!

Andy had his two-week checkup yesterday. He weighs 7 lbs 8 oz now. In spite of all that spitting up, I guess he must be keeping something down! On the way to the doctor he was quiet as long as the car was moving. Whenever I had to stop for a red light he would start complaining loudly, and then he was quiet again as soon as I started moving. I remember Kate doing the same thing.

And look--I caught a sneeze!




Baby sneezes are so funny. Bless you!

Getting Out

We finally got our tree taken down--on the 8th, I think it was. It's still out on the back porch. In the stand.

I've mentioned before that I'd like to celebrate Christmas for the full twelve days, but wasn't really sure how to maintain a festive atmosphere once Christmas day was past. This Christmas ended up being rather drawn out, since some of the things that I'd ordered were delayed due to bad weather. So we got to keep celebrating as things arrived. (One of Doug's gifts almost made it for Twelfth Night but ended up an Epiphany present.)

I was feeling a little cooped up, being home with the baby all the time, but managed to get out a few times. I took Andy to book club last Wednesday. I did want to go, particularly since I picked the book (Catherine, Called Birdy). It was stormy out, but I put a blanket over the car seat and off we went. Andy slept almost the whole time.

Friday we all (me, Doug, Grandma, Kate, and Andy) went to I Love Bento for dinner. Yum. Andy slept through most of that, too.

We all made it to church on Sunday--yay! I hadn't been for three weeks, which felt pretty weird. We just moved to the 9 o'clock schedule (we alternate starting at 11:00 for a year and at 9:00 for a year), and we'd been trying to adjust Kate's schedule to get her up and ready in time. (She's a night owl.) Last week I stayed home with Andy, and Kate had a bit of a cough so we kept her home too, to see if it would turn into anything else, and Doug went to church by himself. But this time we all made it! And yes, Andy slept almost the whole time.

Mimi stopped by after church and brought us a darling little "baby's first year" album that she made, and got to hold Andy for a while. And we didn't get a picture! I didn't even think about it till after she left. Phooey.

Kate went for a walk with grandma this morning, all bundled up in the stroller. I was thinking how nice it'll be when the weather warms up, and we can spend more time outside. Now that the snow's gone, we're ready for Spring to come.

Andy at 1 week

I'm a bit late posting, but these were taken on Saturday. Kate was born on a Monday, and I did Monday pictures with her, so I guess Andy will have Saturday pictures.




Andy is now the cordless model and had his first bath at home last night.

He's sleeping four-hour stretches at night. Monday night, this was unfortunately followed by four hours of not sleeping, but we did a little better last night. We must get this boy's days and nights straightened out. I've been trying to do that "sleep when the baby sleeps" thing and get some good afternoon naps. It helps.

Kate has been acting out a little, so we've been trying to give her lots of attention. I think she's warming up to the idea. She does like to snuggle Andy, and helps me out by getting a new diaper when I need one. Doug's mom got here Monday evening, so Kate should have enough people around to keep her well-attended.

I have to say I am so glad to have a washer and dryer. When Kate was born we were living in a one-bedroom apartment where we had to haul our clothes downstairs to the complex's laundry room. That was difficult, with a new baby. I feel like we've got it pretty easy now!

Draw!

Kate has, quite suddenly and out of the blue, starting drawing things that look like things. As Doug said, "One day it's squiggles and snakes and the next day it's actual giraffes." I took some pictures of a few of her creations last week.



This is a giraffe on a cliff. (See his horns?)



Kate tells me these are dinosaurs. One of them is eating grass.



This is a giraffe with a big head, and a baby giraffe.



Here we have a big giraffe (with many legs) and a baby giraffe, both eating grass; a snake, and a fish. That big lobed thing with the spikes is a cactus.



Still more giraffes. The big giraffe has a turtle on his back, and Super Giraffe on his upper back. We think Super Giraffe is wearing a cape. The thing down in the corner is their house, and they all have lines connecting them to it, showing that they go into the house.



She did this one a couple of days ago: Mama Crab and Daddy Crab. Aren't they cute? We are impressed.

Sleeping Like a Baby

I was right about this little guy being a good sleeper. He is such a good sleeper that it's kind of alarming. We have to keep checking on him to make sure he's okay.

And here's the "waking up and rooting" portion of our program:















Yep, we think he's pretty cute!