Eli's Baek Il

For those of you who are up on your Korean (or Lee family) traditions, the Baek Il means that the baby is 100 days old!  Congrats Eli!  I stole this from Noah and Ava's post about their Baek Il (http://www.noahandavalee.blogspot.com/2010/02/happy-100-days.html):

A Baek-il is a Korean tradition to celebrate the child's health during the first 100 days. It is a tradition that stems from times when healthcare was not widely available and children were not introduced to friends and extended family until they were 100 days old. The celebration and feast is supposed to give the child luck and signify a long, healthy, prosperous life. They wear traditional han-boks as it is their official introduction to family and friends.

Thanks to the hanboks we'd gotten before from Uncle David and from our family in Korea, all the kids got to dress up for the occassion.

As with the twins, I thought this would be a good time to explain Eli's full name.

Eli: we could not decide on a name until we were hanging out in the hospital with Eli and Nathan said, "what about Eli?" and it just seemed to fit him.

KilSun: Kil means journey or path and was his Grandfather's name.  Sun means good or virtuous and is also the same as Ava's name (SunMi)

Dimitri: Dimitri was my grandfather's brother who lived in Cyprus.  My mom was christened 'Demetra" after him.  We wanted to incorporate my grandmother into his name since she so recently passed and was such a big part of our lives but Helen for a boy's name just didn't seem fair.  Instead, we chose the name of a man that we all know my grandma loved and respected.

Ava's First Boyfriend

Ava saw Liam Hemsworth's picture on the cover of Men's Health and told her Appa that he (Liam) was her boyfriend.  Who told her about boyfriends or Liam Hemsworth???  Whoever you are - you're in big trouble!!!  I gotta say though, she's got good taste!

Eli rolled over!

He did it!

Playgroups

Since Noah's blood tests haven't been as bad and since there are fewer colds and flus in the summer and because our kids really need some friends their own age, we've been trying to bring them to storytimes and playgroups.  It's been fun but nervewracking!  Keep Noah's immune system in your prayers.  Here's Noah playing with instruments at our first ever music class!

More summer adventures

We've tried to be very active this summer to take full advantage of the little time we have left when Eli will sleep anywhere and we don't have to pack any extra food for him. So we've been to:

New Jersey:

The Aquarium:

The Park:

And creating lots of fabulous artwork:

Bon Voyage!

Our good friend Nekesa just moved to Chicago. The kids still ask when Auntie Kesa is coming over - hopefully soon, I tell them!


Uncle T'Errance also just left but he's moving to Saudi Arabia and then to Jordan. Ava found his boarding pass and was very concerned about him not having it.  She said we better take it to him in Saudi Arabia but I think we'll just hang on to it until he gets back! 

I can't even explain how sad I am about all these changes but we are thankful for all of our great friends from NY and from CO.  We are very lucky!

Eli caught the monkey!

Ok, I'd love to create an awesome 80's style video montage for Eli, but let's face it, I have neither the time nor the skills for that! So here you go, Eli laughing and Eli catching the monkey. For those of you who have followed our blog at all, you know that the monkey catching is a developmental milestone in our house, so good work Eli! We are so proud of you!

A wardrobe fit for royalty

We are very lucky to have friends that travel the world. They bring back amazing stories and amazing gifts that we get to play with and talk about. It's such a neat way to start exposing them to different cultures.

Ava's sari and Noah's sherwani were brought back by Uncle Daniel when he did Semester at Sea. They fit perfectly right now but they did not seem to understand the idea of just sitting still and taking a picture... I guess they never do...! But either way, it was a lot of fun! Thanks Uncle Daniel!



*Noah had a scratch between his eyes... we weren't trying for a bindi! :)