New Favorite Game

Where is Simon???


Peek!!!

Waiting for Anna

Simon adores his big sister, Anna, and gets very excited when she comes home from school. He has recently been very interested in watching for her from the front door. He starts bouncing up and down and yelling at the school bus when he sees it coming.

Look, Mom, no hands!!!!

Simon is getting better and better at standing by himself for long periods of time. He can even get up and down without holding on to anything. As for walking....well....he has taken 3 or 4 steps on several different occassions, but still prefers crawling as his main means of getting around. He tends to take steps when the rest of us are in the middle of doing something else. He promptly sits down or lays down and has a mini tantrum whenever we try to coax him into walking. He is definitley becoming a "I will do it when I feel like it" kind of kid :-)

And so it begins......

Joel built a little ice rink in our back yard last winter. Anna has been learning how to ice-skate. She is getting pretty good and they both enjoy skating in the back yard. He was determined, in typical guy fashion, that this year it would be bigger and badder. Last year, he duct taped two tarps together to be the base of the rink. This year, he wanted to just have one large tarp, so he ordered one on-line. While waiting, not so patiently, for it to come, he decided to build the frame of the rink, which is what is seen in these photos. When finished, the rink will be about 18 x 24 feet. Now, for those (most of the normal population) who have never made a back yard ice rink, let me just tell you that they are NOT maintenance free. If it snows, he must, of course, shovel off the rink. And after a snow or after skating on it, he must pretend that he is a zamboni and clean the ice. This involves hauling the hose out of our basement, where it is kept in our basement shower stall, so it stays unfrozen and ready for use; then filling the rink with a new layer of water and doing whatever he does to make sure that it fills smoothly. And, he must check the rink nightly (I believe that 10 or 11 pm is the best time) to make sure that it is still there and in good working order. Honestly, I really am not sure what he is doing to the rink out there at that time of night and I am not sure that I really want to know. So, I will just leave him to his ice and anticipate how much bigger the rink will NEED to be next year :-)

Playing in the Snow

IT WON'T STOP SNOWING HERE!!!! I don't particularly like it, but the kids - all three of them, Joel included - LOVE it. Joel took them outside to play and sled. We have a toddler sled that we can buckle Simon into, which he liked, but he much preferred being on the big sled with Anna.









Poor kid can barely move with all his cold weather gear on




What happened when daddy stopped pulling the sled :-)


My snow angel...

The Child Who Will Sleep Anywhere......

Anna has taken to falling asleep awfully easily when she is tired - no matter where she is.

This was at the end of December when she was "playing" in her room.


This was today at dinner. She had a "pajama party" with Grandma last night. I think they were up late - what do you think? :-)

Simon's Tol

In Korea, a child's first birthday is a BIG deal. Historically, because of health issues and medical care, many children did not live beyond their first birthday; so, when a child did live to be a year old, it was a big celebration. Nowadays, in South Korea, health care is about as good as it is here, so children get better health care and a child not living to his or her first birthday is not so much of a concern. However, the first birthday is still celebrated as a big deal and is called Tol. The child dresses up in a hanbok, a traditional Korean outfit still worn today for special occassions and a feast of Korean food is prepared. The parents set up a Toljabi where various items are set before the child and which item he or she picks up first supposedly predicts his or her future. There is also a traditional rice cake that is served for a first birthday.

Simon actually turned one on December 15, but we decided to put off his Tol celebration until around Christmas when we knew more people would be around. And with little Olivia choosing to make her appearance the day before Simon's birthday, this turned out to be a VERY good decision. So we celebrated Simon's Tol on December 27 with Grandma and Grandpa as well as Auntie Karen, Uncle Ryan and baby Olivia. We made Galbi (a marinated and barbequed beef dish); Pork with Red Bean Paste; a Shrimp, Crab and Jellyfish salad; Mandu (Korean dumplings); smoky eggs; Spicy rice cakes; kimchi; pickled radish and various Rice cakes with red bean paste filling. We also had the traditional rainbow rick cake, which was very pretty, but not so tasty.

For the Toljabi we put out some traditional items - Korean money (wealth and prosperity); a ball of string (long and healthy life); a ruler (being good with ones hands); a pen (a scholar); rice (wealth and prosperity); a paint brush (artistic). Joel added a hockey puck - for obvious reasons and Jen added a camera - also for obvious reasons. Simon picked up the money first and the hockey puck second (as you can imagine, Joel was more than thrilled!). So Simon will be a wealthy and prosperous hockey player :-) Could be worse, I suppose :-)

Some photos....

Simon and Anna in their Hanboks


All of us


The table set up for the Toljabi


The money


The hockey puck


Simon at the table


The food


The presents.....

The bigger the car, the better :-)


He had the most fun with the ribbon


Something to bounce on


And, it tastes good too :-)

Belated Merry Christmas!

Things have been so busy around here that I have been very delinquent in posting about our Christmas. It was crazy busy, but a VERY merry Christmas was had by all in our house. We spent a quiet Christmas Eve in our house making a gingerbread house, eating yummy food and watching the Polar Express. Thankfully, my kids are not extremely early risers, so we weren't up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning:-). Anna was very excited to come downstairs and see all the presents. Simon just wanted to play and was excited about all of the open floor space that we had cleared to have room to open everything.

Anna is at a great age where she gets excited about everything she opens, no matter how big or small it is. Simon wasn't all that into the actual opening of the gifts but loved playing with his new toys once we had pried/cut/chiseled/mined them out of their packaging and countless twist ties (those of you with little ones know the packaging I am talking about).

Some photos from Christmas morning....

The kiddos (notice the pj's - keep an eye out for the same pj's in different colors later on)


Anna desperately wanted a bath robe for Christmas and was thrilled with one she got - she would wear it all day, every day if we let her :-)


Simon loved his new set of mini sports balls - the soccer one seems to be his favorite; although the football is better for chewing on as it has more pointed ends suitable for putting on ones mouth.


Another one of Anna's favs - she just calls it her mermaid head :-)


Simon really just wanted us to let him have at the tree. He got a good couple of pulls in while we were distracted.


The above mentioned pajamas (there are still more photos to come). It did take a good deal of convincing to get Joel to wear his, for obvious reasons.


Later on Christmas Day, we headed over to Jen's parents' place where Karen, Ryan and baby Olivia were already waiting. We had a yummy lunch/dinner, opened lots of great gifts and took lots of pictures (Okay, I took lots of pictures).

With baby Olivia


Grandma and her grand babies. Yes, the pajamas again. Actually, the entire Koli clan has them. None of the guys were thrilled with our purchase, but they did wear them, if only briefly for a family photo. I do have a really great shot of the entire family - the brightness of all those pj's together is overwhelming! I have been threatened with a nasty computer virus if I post it here, so you will have to just imagine how colorful it looks :-)


Simon opening a gift from Auntie Karen and Uncle Ryan. They always buy great gifts - the kids love them. However, they are rarely small or quiet. I have already begun my quest for the biggest, noisiest thing I can find for Olivia for next Christmas - Look out Auntie Karen!


One of Joel's most favorite gifts (the jersey, not the hockey tape)


Anna got to buy her own gifts this year at the "Santaland" store at school. She was very proud to give out her gifts and explain why she bought them.


No, that is not a doll Anna is holding. It is baby Olivia, who pretty much slept through her first Christmas.


And, lastly, the monster that we have created. We got Anna a little hand held video game and this is how we found her the day after Christmas when we came downstairs - the princess, in her robe, engrossed in what is sure to be her first of many hand held electronic toys.