wow, it's been a while since the last update. didn't think the hollywood writer's strike would be affecting my blog. must be a trickle down effect. well, part of the break was due to illness. karen and kate went to tennessee sometime in december and both of them got sick, although karen didn't seem that bad. i kept joking that karen brought back "tennessee fever" and i was going to write it up and have it published in a journal. this was kate's first big illness. it started in the nose then made its way down to a little cough. it seemed like karen's symptoms started first so i was walking around the house with tissue in my nose and i tried not to get too close to her so i wouldn't get sick. she got better and i was still safe. kate's symptoms didn't seem that bad although it certainly affected her sleep that week. at times when she sneezed she had some thick, nasty looking snot coming out. talk about a sight to see, after she sneezes, just sitting there with a couple of big globs hanging out. then of course she'll rub it before you can wipe it off. anyway, around kate i wasn't very careful because she didn't look that bad and i didn't think whatever was causing her to be sick in her tiny body could do much to me in my manly body. it did cross my mind once that i should be more careful but i ignored that inner voice. i tend to do that frequently, much to my detriment. well, not surprisingly, i did eventually get sick and it freakin' hit me hard! i think it covered every inch of respiratory track from my nose down to my lungs. i even lost my voice for a few days which was a big bummer. fyi, there is some nasty stuff going around this year, even a particularly deadly form of adenovirus 14 in case you were interested.
kate got a visit from ol' saint nick this year on christmas eve. i have the video uploading on youtube as we speak so once it's on, i'll have a link. note the current video is unedited as you'll see toward the end. i'll get to correcting it one day. i had to work over the holidays but after work on christmas day my mom came over and karen made a turkey with all the fixin's. yum! my dad couldn't make it due to free golf. that's a big dilemma for a korean, take a free golf day or spend some time with your granddaughter on her first christmas. anyway, santa did leave some stuff for kate so i guess she was a good girl for the year (but she wasn't ex utero the whole year so that may have skewed the results).
"who is this bearded man?"
ah, christmas joy
merry christmas!
before i forget, karen ate her first taco (to her knowledge) last month when we had taco night. recently we met some friends and we were talking about karen's eating habits and she joked how she wouldn't believe it if you told her ten years ago that she would be married to a korean guy and eating the foods that she eventually would eat (did i mention the dose of foie gras she had in paris?). then i joked that i wouldn't believe it if ten years ago you told me i would be married to someone who had never eaten at taco bell.
over new year's, we went to cali with the whole family (including my parents). it was kate's first plane ride. she did really well on the way there. we left in the morning (when she tends to be better) and she wasn't fussy for more than one minute on the whole plane ride. every once in a while i would hold her up and she would take a look around at the people behind her. we were on a 777 on the way there and karen and i played trivia for most of the 2nd half of the flight. you could play against other people on the plane. i know, we're an exciting couple.
it seemed to take kate only a couple of days to acclimate to the time change but it seemed to take a week or more to get back on schedule when we got back to atlanta. while in cali kate saw the ocean for the first time and touched the pacific (proof below). she also saw her first "snow." my sister and family were going to go skiing (their holiday tradition) but since we were all in town, my brother had snow delivered to his house. a company dropped off several very large cubes of snow/shaved ice which we fashioned into a nice sledding runway. eventually we added a jump so the kids got some nice airtime. we took kate down it and when she first got in the sled she started crying but as soon as we pulled her, she calmed down and just stared in her somewhat curious/"what the heck is going on" look.
there's a baby in this picture somewhere
kate also made a little cash on new year's day doing her seh-beh. it's a korean tradition where you bow to your parents, wishing them a happy new year and they give you money. sounds like a good tradition to me. anyway, years ago my dad complained because we didn't do it too much and now he's complaining because he has to give too much money away. he was actually going to forego kids born last year (jordan and kate) because they were too young and couldn't bow but i told him i can just sit kate up and she'll fall on her face and that's pretty much the same as bowing.
"is this when i get the money?"
it was a quick trip there and back and kate didn't do as well on the flight back, mainly i think because it was a very long day. we drove down from my bro's place in the morning directly to the airport (about a 3 hr drive). she had a few crying episodes on the plane but overall it wasn't too bad. when we got to atlanta, the temp was in the teens so karen and the baby almost froze to death waiting for me to get the car (i picked up my parents car and it was in the next to the last section, about as far away from the baggage claim as possible). i think that was the coldest the kid had experienced to that point. it may have been that cold in tennessee but she definitely wasn't exposed to the cold that long.
the weather has been funny here. global warming, as they say. the week after we came back it was in the 70's, near record highs. then we had snow on two different days this past week! the second time it actually led to some accumulation. that meant the city shut down basically. and yes, there are some nice pics with kate and the snow courtesy of wife. kate didn't really know what to do with the snow so she's not exactly smiling in the pics.
matches the bushes in the background
kiddo's past the big 6.0 months so is into all sorts of stuff. she's gotten very adept at rolling around. she has also started taking in some solids which she seems to enjoy. she loves grabbing her feet when she's on her back and as expected, she puts her toes in her mouth at times and will even suck them. karen swore she was rolling her tongue like when saying some spanish r's but it turns out it's just spit in the back of her mouth that she sort of gargles, which she likes to do. she's also big on things that make crinkly noises. here's a nice video displaying her joy and what happens when you take it away. kate's developing a pretty funny laugh as well. she's a little ticklish and doing various other things will make her laugh at times. we got a good video of her laughing at some kisses i was giving her.
well, there's plenty more but i have to get to sleep so we'll update some more later with more pics. peace out!
"hmmm, i wonder what else these things are good for besides putting them in my mouth?"
showing her asian pride with a panda outfit
thanksgiving in tennessee
excited to get to cali!
look what i found in baggage claim
celebrating "limjaa" (we'll explain later)
"don't drop me, pops"
the folks with the grandkids
a new month wouldn't be a new month without a declaratory pic
first solid meal ... "this tastes like chicken ... i think"
