Familiar Story, Surprise Ending

Yesterday was a super busy, but I confess not atypical day. This is what I did:

Dropped Koji off at school
Stopped back at home to pick up forgotten items
Swung by mailbox, inserted letter
Returned item at Target, bought replacement items and then some
Delivered dinner to friend who recently had a baby (Welcome to the world, Lily Kathryn!)
Went to church for pre-schoolers playtime, chatted with friends
Picked Koji up from school
Visited another friend at home, had lunch, caught up, only had to break up two? fights between Koji and Ben
Hauled us over to a western suburb for a birthday party at Jack A. Claes Pavilion, which has a great carousel and indoor play area (Koji rode the carousel by himself for the first time!)
Made a final stop at Mitsuwa, where we met up with Aogu for some ramen (now that Aogu is working in Schaumburg, he'll never eat American food again!)
Rushed home to get kids in bed

The point of this list is to show you that I'm certifiably insane...I mean, to lay the background for the little incident that follows:
I hustled Koji in bed, and when I shut his light off, he wanted to read a book. I said that we weren't going to do that because it was too late, but because he seemed ready to throw a huge fit, I compromised and said I would just tell a story. So he named several friends and himself as characters that should appear in the story. But I wanted it to be a Bible story, so in Veggie Tales fashion, I thought it might be OK to change things up just a tad. So I started in on the story of the feeding of the 5,000, thinking it would be perfect to put Koji in as the boy who shares his lunch.

Bad idea. By the time I wrapped up the story (and I'm sure reading a book or even two would have been faster!), though I tried to reassure him of Jesus' good intentions, Koji was left sobbing, "Jesus took my lunch! Jesus took my lunch!".

Please pray for the spiritual formation of my son.

3/4-Year-Olds Can...

That's right, Izumi is eight months old today. Unbelievable. Sappy mom thing to say, but it's simply true: the second baby grows up WAY too fast. I know, it's not like she's going off to get her driver's license tomorrow. Nevertheless, I truly feel that the first eight months of her life have gone by much more quickly than the first eight months of Koji's life did. Maybe it's just that I'm not so freaked out by everything that happens. Not that I'm an expert on taking care of a baby now, because I'm not, for sure (and that's why she still wakes up two or three times per night!). I just feel more able to enjoy watching her grow, and since I'm enjoying it so much, I wish the whole process would slow down a bit!

Exhibit A~as if she somehow knew that today was a life marker kind of opportunity, here she is pulling to stand for the first time:


Here's a back view, which allows for admiring not only her standing prowess but also the fun and attractive bald spot she keeps up by rubbing her head vigorously on whatever surface is available when she's sleepy.


Last but not least, here she is enjoying her accomplishment:

Make Your Summer Plans Now

Though 25 degree weather is not ideal for rock climbing (I say, as if I know much of anything about rock climbing, though I have tried it before) it wasn't bad for taking in the view at Smith Rock today. My sister and family vowed to return during the summer. I'd like to take the same vow, but there are SO many things I want to do, I better sort them out before I started making promises. Guess there are still a few 25 degree days with which I can plan for warmer weather.

Picture taken with Aogu's new Katana (you're right! you can't take a picture with a sword, but I didn't name Sanyo's newest phone)

Resolute On Resolutions, Sort Of

So I had this crazy idea that I would resolve to post to my blog every day in 2007. Funny how it's the 8th and this is my first post...yeah. Well, I have a pretty legit reason for my lack of posting (which only covers this year; I really can't explain that December 7--27 silence).

For one thing, we went on a road trip. We left Skokie on Dec. 27th, destination Charlottesville, Virginia. You may wonder why we would choose somewhere so seemingly random. Well, along with Rich and Jenny, we had initially planned to visit Brad & Kath, and it was very sad when we had to admit that trying to drive to ANYWHERE --even if it's a place of great friends and warm beaches -- 30ish? hours away from home with four children ages three and under was clinically unstable. So, though we had to give up the beaches and time with B & K, which would have been great (I'm so sorry we didn't make it!!) we didn't want to give up visiting friends. Which is why we settled on Cville, the new home of Jim & Meg who have founded the Charlottesville Vineyard there just this year.

Gotta speed up here. OK, so we did that and it was fun and I'll put some pictures up maybe sometime.

After that we were home for one day, and then on the 4th we flew out to Oregon for our annual pilgrimage to visit my parents and sister's family. We were with them and my longtime (nearly half my life now!) friend from Biola, Rachel & family, for three days at my parents' house.

Next (are you following this?!) we came out on a family vacation to Eagle Crest. Wow. It is spectacular out here in Central Oregon, from the condo we're staying in to the views and even the marvelous weather. Today we were out for a walk and Koji got so overheated that he had to strip down to his undershirt (his jeans etc. were still on, not to worry)!

However, internet access is NOT a feature of our condo. That's probably good for us, but it's preventing me from carrying out my so-called resolution for 2007. We'll see how I do from Jan. 17th on...

Happy New Year, friends!