Parkour!

Jin has become a serious climber in the past couple of months. The child can scale anything in mere seconds. Jungle gyms, trees with low branches, our Subaru... anyway, I was bathing Bae Li and Jin yells at me to look. I turn around and he is clinging to the door frame in the bathroom. I was shocked! He is fast!! The camera happened to be in the bathroom - I honestly do not know why- but I suppose it was meant to be. When Sun Li saw Jin climbing she took a stab at it, too. For being only 2 1/2 this little girl is physically amazing. Here are our little monos.

Half Is Good Enough, Right?

As you all may know, I am very flaky when it comes to a lot of things. Motherhood has made me less so, but I think I am still rockin' an 80/20 split. Hopefully my high school/college friends have forgiven me by now, and my family has to just by the law of genetics and Ravi married me, so he has obviously found a coping mechanism.

Anyway, I was talking to a couple of the neuro wives about getting back into running. (I was never a "runner" but I always enjoyed recreational runs. Nothing more than 3 miles, ever). They are hard core into it and do marathons and run for pace and all sorts of scary stuff, but they were able to convince me I could do it if I tried. The YMCA here is awesome and offers kid care that is amazingly affordable. Who was I to say no? I joined when Bae Li was 4 months old and got on the treadmill. It was horrible. The worst feeling ever. I made it less than a mile at like a 12 minute pace or more, and felt the diarrhea churning in my pudgy stomach.

That was it. Day 2 was a bit better. I think I made it a mile at a solid 11. Day 3 was the same... so on and so forth. My friends convince me that if I start TRAINING for a race then I will really see some cool results. I believe them, and decide to take a big step. "I am going to train for a half-marathon," I told Ravi. I don't remember what his face looked like but I do know he laughed in a yeah-right kind of way and said something about "first things first" and blah blah blah. I know what he was thinking, and what some of you are thinking. "No, Chosun, you are not running anything." I thought that myself when the words came out. It was a sickening feeling. Saying it out loud to someone other than my soft-bodied reflection was horrifying. However, I would like to let you know, I am on week 5 of a 10 week training schedule and am doing very well. I run 4 days a week and rest 3. One of those runs is a long run and I have been able to do it. I am not fast, but am getting faster. This weeks long run was supposed to happen today but I had to postpone until tomorrow. It is 8 miles. I am nervous, but we will see what happens! I will update my progress if it is not embarrassing.

UPDATE: I ran that bad boy like a champ.

Kitchen Remodel

Here is an update on the kitchen: It is still not close to done!! Surprised? I know, neither am I. It seems like it is always 2 steps forward, one step back. I am not sure if it's just me and Ravi or the fact that we have little time to work on it or if it's just the nature of an IKEA kitchen, but this is just getting ridiculous.

This is after the floors were put in and the soffit removed and the gas line and plumbing and electric updated.

This is the bathroom after the floors were put in, but it is still gutted.

This is the kitchen after the beginning of the drywall repair is being done.

The bathroom, after I steamed and scraped wallpaper off of every surface, including the ceiling and primed and painted "Crab Apple". Wellllllll, I hated crab apple and felt it was too pukey looking in such a small space. I didn't want to go to Lowes AGAIN so I used "Toasted Pear" which is what we had on hand. It is a very dull color but not overbearing. So, more painting. 2 steps forward, one step back. We put up the beadboard. It was difficult with plaster walls.

We actually have a pedestal sink in too, but I guess I haven't taken a picture of the bathroom presently. It is nice to have plumbing downstairs again!! We still have to finish painting the beadboard and trim and caulk some things and I have to cover the ceiling with something but we are getting there. It has taken a back seat now that the essentials are in it.

Both sides of the room were done as far as the uppers go, but then we realized they were too low to have a nice 18-19inch span between the cabinets and the countertops so we had to take them all down and raise the rails and put them all back up. 2 steps forward and 1 step back strikes again!!

This is what it looks like now. Just like it did on Monday, only a little higher. What did we get ourselves into.

Funny Things The Kids Say

The other day we were watching a Winnie the Pooh Halloween cartoon and at the end of it there was a caption that said, "stay tuned for more special features" and Jin began to call out the letters he recognized... "P, lower case p, s, r, 4, lower case 4..."

Jin and Sun Li were playing with a fake phone and Sun Li was holding it. Jin said, "Hold on Sun Li! I need to talk. 'Hello, uh huh, yes, that's right, the world is going to explode? Okay.' Here you go, Sissy." And he gave it back to her.

"What kind of bedtime story do you want tonight Sun Li?"

She replies, "a pink one!"

"What book do you want to read Sissy? A princess story or Go Dog Go or maybe Fancy Nancy?"

She replies, "Deadliest Animals!" (We have Nat'l Geographic Kids Books, that's one of her favorites).

Our Kitchen Woes

When Ravi and I saw this house, the first thing we knew it needed was an updated kitchen... one year, a tax return, and a few trips to Ikea later and let's just say that we still need an updated kitchen. Right now all we have is a gutted room of ugliness. It has been that way since the middle of July. This is just not how I imagined it in my head. I had a specific budget, a specific plan of action, and a specific time table. None of those were accurate. I don't think I correctly factored in Ravi's 80+ hr/wk work schedule or the fact that the kiddos are counterproductive to anything being done in the house or that Ravi would want to gut the half bath and hallway floors as well. Go big or go home, I suppose.

I will update as we make progress, but we better be done by the end of September when Ravi starts a horrible time in residency.

Our poop brown tile coordinates nicely with our avocado kitchen and bathroom

Here is a list of accomplishments:

Dumpster rented

Kitchen gutted

1/2 bath gutted

Things sold on Craigslist- made a sweet c-note

Tile chipper rented

Hallway, closets, bathroom tile chipped away

Asbestos tile mitigation in kitchen

Kitchen soffits removed

Electric updated and moved in kitchen

Recessed lights put in, old lights removed

Gas line put in for new range

Toilet pipe cut down below new concrete floor level

Demolition of mortar bed, metal lathe, and concrete bed in floors

New poured concrete floors, stained and taped off to mimic 24"x24" bias-laid tile

Opening of pocket door into dining room

Accidental destruction of front door

Purchase of new front door

Tearing out of Berber carpet in finished basement area

Cursing the day we brought Mister Francis home and let him into the basement

And now we are on day 3 of drywall repair... there is so much more to do.

Happy 4th Birthday, Jin!

Jin turned 4 on August 8th. Ravi and I are so pleased at how much progress he has made over the past year! He is becoming a very respectful, polite, and creative little man. Jin LOVES to build things and take them apart only to create something completely different and imaginative. He has been taking swimming lessons and is kicking butt! He loves being a big brother to Sun Li and Bae Li and tries very hard to share his things with Sun Li. They can tease each other relentlessly but they can also play so nicely together that it makes me tear up! Jin wants to be a superhero and a neurosurgeon and a transformer. He still likes Star Wars but we banned the series for being too violent and they are now collecting dust on the mantle. Ravi and I would not be surprised if Jin became an inventor or scientist or engineer- as he has the mind for all of those things! He might be 4 now, but he is still as cuddly and snuggly as he was when he was a newborn! He is our sweet little boy who can never get or give too many kisses or hugs from us and I hope that never changes! We love you, Binks!

So, since we have no kitchen and no bathroom downstairs and no table or chairs, Ravi and I decided to host a little bbq party out on the back patio to celebrate. This was Jin's first "friend" birthday and we had quite a few kids running around outside. This was also Jin's first store-bought cake, as I have no oven to create a masterpiece, which I typically would. No problem! Target had the perfect cake. Jin requested a metal, cherry, lemon transformer cake. Pretty specific, huh? I purchased a metal icing, vanilla cake with Bumble Bee and Optimus Prime figurines on top. Now, there was no cherry or lemon but Jin let it slide. That cake was a huge hit with the kiddos. We grilled hot dogs, had chips, soda, watermelon and juice. The kids played in the trampoline (Sun Li fell out of the unzipped net 3 times), observed the chickens, and played on the slip-n-slide. They popped balloons and chased each other. It was chaos and fun! Jin was in a state of stimulus overload! Poor baby. He even asked whose presents were on the table, and how do you open the presents... I had to tell the other parents that we have given our son gifts before and he is familiar with ripping away wrapping paper. There were some skeptical looks. After we cleaned up, Jin looked subdued. I asked if he had a fun time and he said yes. I said, "Are you sure? You looked a little overwhelmed." "Yes, mama. I was overwhelmed. What does that mean?" "Overwhelmed means there was a lot going on all at the same time and it made it hard to focus." Jin thought for a second, "Yes, mama, I was overwhelmed." I said, "Okay, baby, next year do you want just a family party?" "No, mama. Next year I want a zero party with zero people. No people." I told Ravi what Jin said and he laughed, "Like father like son," said Ravi. I replied, "Okay, next year you and Jin can have your coveted hermit Unabomber party out in the woods by yourselves then." To be continued...

Like Father, Like Son

About a week or so ago, I attempted to cut Jin's hair for the 4th time in his life. It was just going to be a regular trim, you know, just tighten it up a little, but the scissors I used were dull and tugged some of his hair with the first "snip" and after that Jin was not going to let me go near him with those things. What to do? He had a chunk of golden hair missing from the front of his head and wouldn't let me cut anymore...

"Want to look like Baba?" I asked.

"Yes, I do!" Jin replied.

Cue the shaver. It went quickly and easily. Jin even helped shave his own head! It was a shock to see him without hair. I think this is the least hair he has ever had. Fresh out of the womb he had more, and he was pretty bald then. People are so floored to see our little surfer boy without his blond mop bouncing around. Sun Li woke up from nap and cried when she saw him. It freaked her out! Strangers give us warm smiles and pity tilts of the head. I'm pretty sure they think he is sick. Oh well, it will grow back.