Happy Birthday Party

October 27 12 B (40), a photo by nathan_katrina on Flickr.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the Bronx Zoo to help us celebrate. We had a fantastic time!

3 years

I honestly cannot believe that the twins turned 3 today!  How did this:

Turn into this?

 

Here a few lessons I've learned. 

• Toys and books being misplaced or misappropriated constitutes an emergency everytime. 
• They are literally sponges, except, of course, when it comes to absorbing liquids, they can spill those pretty easily. 
• They need to know everything, which is why they ask so many questions.  I can only assume they are preparing for their teenage years during which they will reach the pinicle of their knowledge and know everything, with a particular emphasis on all of the things we couldn't possibly know. 
• Time outs for kids are ok.  Time out for toys, even better. 
• They want to help but as they get older and wiser they want to actually help... which isn't as helpful as you'd imagine.
• The first President was George Washington.  Our President is Broccoli Omamma. 
• When in doubt, trust the Force.  "This is not the toy you are looking for.  You should move on." 

In all seriousness, these kids are wonderful and we love them so much.  They are amazing kids and great older siblings.  But I am hoping that the next 3 years involve more sleep!  :)

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: