Sleep Training

If you are a parent, the names Ferber and Sears are probably very familiar to you.  From the day our baby is born, we are instructed on baby sleep.  At the hospital we are told, do not co-sleep with your baby and make sure your baby is placed on his/her back.  At home we have well-intended parents, grandparents, and friends all giving advice on how to get your child to sleep.  You get on the internet and there are books and experts all sharing their theoretical, biological, psychological, sociological, and clinical theories on sleep.  And all you can personally think about is how you wish you could get some sleep yourself.  So, you take in all this information and start the trial and error process (cause seriously lets admit it, a lot of parenting is trial and error and making educated guesses).

Thankfully, our sweet Evangline was a good sleeper.  In the beginning you had your day and night switched but with bright lights and loud noises during the day, and darkness and quiet during the night, you quickly got your day and night corrected.  Otherwise, you went down quickly, you slept on your own well, and when you woke up, you would just play in your crib until someone came to get you.  We were very blessed in the sleep department.

We actually transitioned you into a full-size bed early because you were so determined to crawl out of your crib.  Again, you transitioned well and we had no major problems.  But we always emphsized the importance of sleeping on your own, learning to fall asleep by yourself, and being an independent sleeper.

Interestingly, about a few months ago, pappa bear and I would wake up and find you in our bed.  Neither one of us would have any idea how you got there, especially since when you're awake our bed is too high for you to climb into.  Although I totally assumed pappa bear was lifting you into our bed, he denied it.  Since you've been born, you've also sleep trained me into being a slightly lighter sleeper.  I used to sleep like a log but now I am at least consciously aware when you cry out.  Well, now you do it every night.  Between 2 AM and 4 AM, you quietly sleepwalk into our room, and somehow you climb up into the bed, and snuggle between pappa bear and myself.

My first inclination was to tell you when you were awake that you need to sleep in your own room, but you don't seem to have much memory of coming into our room.  Then I tried stopping you in your sleep, but then you just cry and cry and all any of us want is to just get some sleep.  Then my mom said something interesting, she said, "Why is it in American culture you try to train your babies to be independent sleepers at such an early age?  There's value in kids sleeping with their parents, it helps them feel secure and loved.  I bet kids think that it's so unfair that parents get to sleep together but they have to sleep by themselves."  That got me thinking--I only get EV as a baby for a little bit of time, especially since she already acts like a teenager sometimes.  I also really enjoy waking up and seeing EV snuggled between Jimmy and myself.  Plus, I don't have the energy to convince her to go to her room at 3 o'clock in the morning.

So, I may be undoing all those efforts to get her to be an independent sleeper, but we've decided to leave her alone when she comes into our bed.  Well, we'll see how things go after the renovation and our master is moved to the first floor.

Thanksgiving Traditions

This was the first year where we didn't have Jimmy's parents here and it was noticeably different. It's amazing how traditions form and become a way of life. That's why I want to create traditions with EV so that she has cherishable memories and things she can pass down to her kids.

One tradition we have had every year is to make Thanksgiving cakes the Friday after Thanksgiving. A very simple recipe:

1. Take all your leftovers and put it into a big bowl
2. Add eggs, mix thoroughly and make little (or big) balls
3. Coat it into seasoned flour, egg wash, and panko
4. Deep fry and serve

There are so many things I'm thankful for this year. As I reflect on the many blessings, trials, and challenges I've had this past year, I count it all as blessings as they have helped shape me into the person I am today and more importantly they have allowed me to grow in my faith.

Weddings

This past month, we have had the privilege to attend three weddings.  They were of friends from three very different stages of my life.  Interestingly, Jimmy was unavailable to go with me and so I had the honor of having EV as my date for all three events.

I am not a very emotional person but I can get very sentimental.  Interestingly, at these weddings, I choked up and held back some major tears at the very same moment--when they bowed and hugged their parents.  This never happened before, but that's when I realized it's because one day we will have to give EV away.

The last wedding I went to was a friend of mine from middle/high school.  It definitely brought back memories of sleeping over at her place and talking about boys all the time.  She looked absolutely stunning but I would not expect her to look any other way.  She was always very pretty--shy and pretty.  Well, I was trying so hard not to break down when her dad gave her the biggest and sweetest hug a father could give his daughter.  Maybe it's because I have known her for so long; maybe it's because I used to be so scared of her dad and seeing him hug her like that showed his soft side; maybe it's because one day Jimmy will give EV a hug like that; maybe I'm just a big softy now that I have EV. Either way, it was touching and it made me want to cherish every moment I have with EV.

EV on the other hand has had a very different perspective after attending these weddings.  She now associates weddings with dduk (Korean rice cakes).  It's so like my daughter to associate everything with food.

Congratulations, friends!  I wish you all the best as you journey into the next chapter of your lives together.  May God bless your marriage and you grow with more love each and every day.

The Holidays

Wow, I can't believe it'll be Thanksgiving this week and soon after that Christmas and New Years.  I feel like once August came around, we hit the ground running.  This may sound a little vain, but I really enjoy getting my picture taken and I really like taking pictures of EV even more.  We also have a very near and dear friend who is more like family who is always so willing to take photos of us.  So, in preparation for our holiday photos this year, I made a few items, including EV's holiday dress, ruffle pants, hairband, and Jimmy's neck tie.  I didn't want to be too matchy matchy but I did want everyone to have some pop of red in their outfits.

Here's a preview of our photograph session:

Things to look forward to:
--Thanksgiving with family
--Beginning of home renovation
--Christmas and New Years in Maryland
--Visiting friends in New York
--Holiday food, traditions, smells and festivities

Adventure Time

Jimmy told me about this cartoon called Adventure Time that has a talking Rainbow Unicorn called Ranicorn and get this she talks in Korean!!  The show is completely American and everyone speaks English except for Ranicorn.  I am very intrigued and will definitely check it out.  Click here for youtube clips on Cartoon Network:  Adventure Time

I'm not going to lie, it looks a little hocky but I can't help to be proud that the weird Ranicorn thing speaks Korean.  So, tell me what you think!

BINGO

Before we had EV a co-worker of mine told me that she would let her kids have a few Halloween candies but gave them the option of turning in the rest for a toy.  I thought that was such a great idea and was excited to try it out this year (since the last two years we just told EV that her candy were "treasures" and were just used for sorting and playing).  Well, it worked out beautifully!  As per our Halloween tradition, we went to our dear friend's neighborhood to take pictures and go trick-or-treating.  The kids were dressed as one of the three little pigs (EV), the big bad wolf (Weston), and little red riding hood (Madelyn).  The kids did great and got tons of candy. 

Once we got home, EV was excited to dump it all out and sort it.  She was also very excited to eat it.  So, at first I told her she can have 5 and turn in the rest for a toy.  She started counting but would grab a handful and call it one, another handful and call it two.  So instead we decided to give her a small bag and told her that she can fill it up with all the candy she wanted but once the bag was full that was it.  Then we told her in a very excited and full of anticipation voice, that she also had the option to turn in the rest of the candy to mr. candyman and get a new toy or book.  (We use this MISTER (ajhushi in Korean) to help us with lots of things, like Mr. diaperman came and took her diapers away, but I digress).  So EV got super excited, she handed over the rest of her bucket and asked when we can go get her toy.

The next day we went to the toy store and out of all the options, she picks this BINGO game and a book of stickers.  EV has a love for puzzles and things that require her to figure things out, so I thought this would be a good addition to her collection of games.  Yes, to say that she loves this game is an understatement.  She wants to play BINGO morning, day, and night.  It's a bit scary how obsessive complusive she can get.  I guess it's better that she plays BINGO than wanting to eat all that candy.

Home Renovation 101

We have been living in our current home for 6 years now.  A year and a half ago, we made an attempt to sell our house because we thought my parents were going to move in with us.  Circumstances changed and my aunt was able to help my parent's out.  At the time we were sad because we actually really liked our house.  After putting the house on the market and falling in love with another house, when things did not work out, we found that there are many things we do not like about our current home anymore.  However, we love our neighborhood, our back yard, and the memories we have made in our home.  So, we have decided to renovate and make the changes we want instead of trying to find the perfect home (which isn't as easy as you would think).  There has always been little things I wanted to change here and there, but this is a complete make-over.  We are only 1 month into this process since we have made the decision and this is where we are/what we've learned:

1.  Find a bank.  So, when you decide to do any major home renovation, the bank will have to be involved unless you have lots of money saved up.  The problem is a bank will not loan you the money until you have a blueprint that they can appraise.  You can't have a blueprint until you know how much money you're going to have.  You don't know how much money you're going to have until you know what your new home is going to appraise for.  You can't get an apprasial until you have a blueprint.  Then you're back at square one.

So what's the solution?  You make a lot of assumptions.  You assume that you can remodel your house to appraise for a certain amount so that you can get 80% of that to do the remodeling.  It's a vicious circle and a lot of gambling.

2.  Find a contractor.  There are many options out there and many types of contractors.  Intially we were going to have a friend who does general construction to help us piece everything together but then after we went to the bank we realized that we may need someone who does this regularly.  So, through a co-worker we got introduced to a really awesome family business that will be the project manager for this whole process.  They take care of everything!  From helping us identify the right bank, to building the blueprints, to finding sub-contractors to do the work, to supervising the remodeling, to helping pick out materials, to keeping us within the budget, everything!  We also found out that we have mutual friends which made it all the better.

3.  Build a blueprint.  Now we are getting into the meat of things.  Although the nerve-wrecking part is that you don't know how your finances will work out--again you are basing everything on several assumptions.  But this is the fun part.  Based on our current blue-print, we start moving this wall here and that room there.  You can really start envisioning what your renovated home will look like.   This is also the part where you start developing real hopes and expectations, you start day-dreaming about your renovated home, and can't concentrate.  Now that we have a bubble design of what we want, the architect is going to draw everything out to scale with all the details.

We are just getting started but we are super excited.  We have cut back on eating out, buying clothes, and going out.  Life will be a little messy and we'll even have to find a place to live temporarily when they actually start construction, but since we plan to live here long-term, we think this is well worth it.  I'll try to take pictures and document the process as we go along.