September 2008

A picture update from September. Unfortunately, they are backwards. I guess it's been so long since I updated that I forgot how to load the pictures on. Anyway... Min eating cake on his 2nd birthday, September 30th. We were so lucky to have my sister, her husband and son with us. When you're the birthday boy, you pretty much get to eat however and wherever you want. This includes sitting on the table in only a diaper eating your cake out of the pan with your hands. Wearing only a diaper also makes it so much easier to clean up....you'll see more on that a little later.

Blowing out the candles on your 2nd birthday may actually be done with spitting instead of blowing. That is the case in this picture. I can't remember, but I think that a couple people chose not to eat cake after that.

He really does enjoy wearing his hanbok. He ran around saying, 'hanbok, hanbok.'

Henry walked in a parade in a local town with Park Institute. He LOVED it. Here he is breaking boards.

First trip on the big yellow bus.

Min after eating cake on Charles birthday. This was why he didn't wear clothes on his own birthday.

Charles 5th birthday on September 3rd.

First day of school. Min not at all happy about having to take a picture with his brothers. Who would be...they're scary.

Hello Mr. Hwang!!

To anyone who is not Mr. Hwang...this video will likely not be very interesting. Henry is sending him a message. We tried to send it to him via email but it was just a little too big. The next video is much more entertaining.

Min in motion

Just a short video that we took of Min today.

Summer in pictures

Finally my computer is letting me get on and finish this blog. Our computer is having a terrible time with a virus right now I haven't been able to get into the blog. Here is a quick run-down of our summer in pictures.



We spent two weeks of swimming lessons for Henry and Charles as soon as school was done, and then went into Camp Moon-Hwa, our local Korean culture camp. The boys LOVED it!! Here is Min eating mandu....I think he ate about 8 or 9. I can't believe he didn't have a stomachache. But....it is so good...and, as Charles say...'Mom, your mandu isn't as good as it is at camp.' Thanks, buddy!! Of course, I've never made it homemade. I buy the frozen kind at the store. So, he's right...it isn't as good.
Charles at camp with...I'm not sure, but I think it's a piece of a game. He actually got sick at camp and had to stay home on Thursday. He got Fifth's disease.
Henry's birthday fell on the Tuesday of camp. Our president called Henry and another boy whose birthday is the same day up to the front. We all sang Happy Birthday and then K.C. asked Henry what he was getting for his birthday. My wonderful, oh-s0-honest boy said, 'My mom hasn't gotten me a present yet.' I still haven't lived it down. Yes, he did get a present.
Henry at bowling. On Wednesday of camp, we loaded all the kids onto two busses and took them bowling...Extreme bowling. COmplete with disco black lights, loud music, and about 80 kids.

A picture of Min just because he looks so cute in this towel.

We went to ND on the last day of camp. Spent some time at the lake and with family.
On the way home, Min was eating a donut...and he was so tired.
Here he is...asleep with sugar donut on his face and the rest of it clutched in his hand.

Henry got 'paddled' at TKd the day of his birthday. Everyone in the class got to give him 7 swats with a paddle. This is his instructor giving him a paddling.

Min absolutely loving corn on the cob. This cob is still raw.
Downtown. I'm not sure what Min was telling..or showing Henry. But, they were having a great time.
Charles downtown. He was posing for me.
Charles when we were camping. I'm not sure why he decided to wear the bandana and sunglasses, but he sure gave me a nice smile.

We took the bus downtown one day to have lunch with Travis. CHarles had pancakes and then wanted to take one with when we left. He carried it around with him for awhile, eating every so often. I had to take this photo with the pancake on his knee.

Highlight camping trip of the summer was going to TKD camp in Wisconsin. We went a day early to swim and hike. After camp started, we saw very little of Henry.

Min got a great hairstyle from Mr. Hwang.
Henry getting ready for ninja training. Wow...did he love that. Pitch dark, inthe woods, weapons, every 7 year old boys dream.
Here he is!! All ready to go with his dok bo (bamboo sword).
Charles playing in the water near the waterfall.

Charles colored the water fountain with pink chalk. It looks so creepy this way...like something out of a horror movie.

Henry breaking his board at TKD testing. He advanced to a blue belt with a red stripe.
I took this of Min at the TKD testing. It is edited but turned out so well. I really like this one.
Min with his water gun. He had to wear it like the big boys...in his 'pocket.'
Henry getting his red stripe.
Min was on the cupboard eating rice out of the rice cooker. What a funny boy!

The computer, hopefully, will be done tomorrow. I had to come to the coffee shop to finish this....makes a very nice time-out for mom!! I have a lot more to add though...Henry and CHarles first days of school.

We're Baaaack!!

Oh...it has been so long since we updated. I couldn't believe that it had been over a month. I just dumped a bunch of pictures that we've taken over the past couple weeks. There isn't a lot of news from here. Henry has 4 days left of kindergarten. We're all excited for summer break. I'm mostly excited because I"m so tired of having to get everyone up, in the van, drop Henry off, pick him back up.... Ugh!!! We're ready to just play. I'm sure I"ll be ready for school to start again by,.... July, but we'll enjoy ourselves and try to have a lot of fun. Charles took swimming lessons and LOVED them. He and Henry will both take lessons again once school is out. Min is still a wild man and is hard to keep up with. He's still a talker and wants to do whatever the brothers are doing... which is really scary. In the backyard. I've been trying to get some pictures appropriate for his 18 month photos. However, he's too fast.
I really like this picture of Charles. I just wish the sidewalk wasn't in the background.
Our silly boy. He has such a variety of facial expressions. It's funny to watch him.

Speaking of fast, this is Min when he got into the tub with Henry.... in his jeans.


This is what happens when you let your 6 year old watch the last 15 minutes of Rocky III. He immediately began trying to box everything. His tae kwon do pads served well has boxing gloves. Charles wasn't very happy when Henry tried to box him...so he chased him around with a plastic sword.
This is a typical day at our house. Henry is 'walking the plank.' Charles had been waiting at the bottom of the ladder with a plastic sword but decided to fix the swing instead.

We filled up Min's little pool on one of our warm days. They would fill up the bucket and Henry got stuck when he tried to sit in it. As you can see, Charles thought it was pretty funny.
I really liked this picture of Charles. Too bad the strainer is in the background.
Wrestling in the front yard.
Sword fighting on the deck.
Charles and Min helping Henry get out of the bucket.

Those pictures are pretty typical of life around here. Pure chaos most of the time...loud almost all of the time....some crying and lots of laughing. I've pretty much given up on ever getting my house in order. I feel very productive if I manage to get everyone dressed and fed. I'm always behind on laundry but feel okay that they always have SOMETHING that is clean to wear. I'll try to do better about updating more often!

Fire Trucks, Ambulances, Emergency Rooms....Oh my!!

I wasn't even sure where to begin with this entry. It has been so long since I've posted, and SO much has happened. I decided to start about 2 weeks ago and work myself forward. Just to forewarn you, there are A LOT of pictures....
Thursday, March 27th...
Henry had tae kwon do. This is a picture of Min when we got home. He had been given a green sucker and ate it on the way home. You can't see it on his coat, but it's covered with chewed up sucker bits. If you look closely at his face, you'll see green sucker all around his mouth, on his foreheard, by his left eyebrown and cheek, and even some in his left ear. We just laughed at him....and took a bunch of pictures. Friday, March 29th...
Our day started out normally. Travis had taken the day off so we took Henry to school, Charles to preschool, and then had a date (with Min) at Panera. Andrew was running a little fever (100 degrees) when we got home, so we gave him Tylenol. That was at about 10:30. At about 1 p.m., I was rocking him for a nap and he started seizing. Travis was downstairs giving Henry a haircut. Min was having ineffecient breaths and was starting to turn gray. We called 911. By the time the fire truck got here, he was breathing but not responding to much. The ambulance came and we took him to the ER. His temp. still wasn't very high...about 101. They did a chest X-ray to rule pneumonia. When we got back, he had another seizure. THe doctor was right there. It only lasted about 2 1/2 minutes, but seemed like forever. He had an oxygen mask on and then they started an I.V., took blood, and admitted us to peds for the night in case he had anymore. They also stuck a monitor onto his toe to measure heartrate, oxygen sats, etc. Of course, this meant that he was actually attached to a machine by a long cord...However, he was not pleased and kept saying, 'stuck, stuck.' Thankfully, he didn't have anymore seizures. But, he did start running a high fever needing both tylenol and motrin to keep in check. He also decided that he did not really like any medical professional who came into his room. He would cry and say, 'no no no no.' Our resident just started standing on the other side of the room. He was also coughing so we were restricted to our room. Min wasn't at all pleased about that. He would stand at the door and say, 'out, out.'

Coudln't resist a few pictures in those oh-so-cute hospital jammies.
Playing with the buttons on the bed. So...we were restricted to our room...came in by ambulance so didn't bring any toys...and, nobody brought us anything to play with. So the buttons onthe bed helped....a little.

Then we had to move on to the telephone. I'm fairly confident he wasn't able to call any foreign countries. You have to dial 9 first, and we haven't received a telephone bill....yet. We made it home the next day (Saturday). Min and I were tired because though he slept fairly well...I did not. Every time he twitched I thought he was having another seizure. The nurses came in every 4 hours to take vitals, but I had to ask for extra medication to control his fever.

He started having a terrible cough when we got home. We started giving him albuterol on Sunday night which seemed to help. Took him back in to peds on Monday because of his cough. Had another chest x-ray, prescription for albuterol.... On Tuesday, he was working hard to breathe. STILL had a terrible fever...took him back to peds. Albuterol by nebulizer. Started to come around a little Thursday. At least we could control his fever with only TYlenol. Needed albuterol until about Saturday.

This pictures must have been from Wednesday or so.
Eating Dad's birthday cake. He HAS to use a fork and...well....he doesn't always get the food to his mouth. His fingers work really well as a second resort.
Charles playing t-ball. This picture was taken out the window so a little hazy. Min wasn't feeling up to going outside.

Henry told me he had found a rat in the little shed under the slide. I refused to leave the deck. Travis went over there and saw that it was only a mouse. This is the Great Mouse Search party.
He loves to do this. Today I helped him do a somersault. Wow!! What a thrill!! He had to do it about 100 times....okay...maybe more like 15 : ) The boys in the Gator. Min learned to like it, but isn't quite as fond of it as the other two.
Min and The Brothers going for a ride. If you enlarge the picture, you'll see that he isn't really that happy. And, he's got really great hair.
And, this was from yesterday. He was very sick for a few days. But finally, we see our little Min coming back to us with his smiley, expressive face, funny words, and activity.