crazy koreans and keeping up with the lims (limses)

i'm trying to keep up with my wife's blogging frequency but it can't be done. regardless ("irregardless" ... i still laugh when people say that ... if you don't know what i'm talking about then don't worry about it but listen for a chuckling asian man in the back when you say it), i think this is the most number of posts i've had in this short a time span in a long time. i hope that made sense.

anyway, i wanted to include a link to a new york times story. in case you have been behind in your asian politics (maybe you haven't been tivo-ing overseas news), the korean president has been trying to get american beef back into korea. there's been a ban for a few years due to a mad cow scare. i think one cow came down with mad cow and american beef has been banned ever since. well, if you didn't know, koreans tend to be a superstitious bunch. pardon the pun but there also tends to be a herd mentality--less individualism and more group-ism, i guess a result of the confucian influence. even though seoul is one of the most modern and technologically advanced cities in the world, koreans tend to be pretty gullible and naive. hmmm, interesting. i just thought, maybe that's why i tend to get suckered into things at times, like paying $10 for some dumb word of the day texting service. it's in my genes. i can't help it.

getting back to the story, in the article they mention how all these koreans are protesting (koreans love protesting things, too) the decision by the president because they worry about getting sick from contaminated beef infiltrating their country. what i found most striking was the accompanying slideshow. the third picture shows an amazing amount of people on the streets with candles protesting. unbelievable how many people are out there and it's funny how once you get people protesting, others will come out to protest all sorts of other things. others were out there protesting inflation. "nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd" as soul asylum used to sing. i love the flyer that's being passed around, "mad cow drives our people mad!"

here's another article in time about the fears. a separate wall street journal article also talked about how koreans think americans are even paranoid and don't eat american beef but instead import their beef from australia and other places. i wonder what they would think of me. there is a chance i will be involved in 3 meat buffets this month, 4 if you include baby's b-day party july 5.

tim russert

by now most of you may have heard about the unexpected passing of tim russert this past week. apparently he had issues with his weight (not a surprise), cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. it's interesting to follow the media (including the medical media) about his untimely death--so many questions about whether he was on the right medications, could his death have been prevented, should he have had more testing. by all accounts, it seems like he was getting the proper care. the bottom line is, no matter what you do, even if it's the right thing, people will still die. having said that, i did find something very interesting in an article i read recently. click this link to get to it. karen has a weekly celebrity post so maybe this will be the start to my weekly if not twice-monthly medical post. i call your attention to the last paragraph in the article. someone was performing cpr with mouth-to-mouth when the paramedics got there but it's unclear if anyone did chest compressions. regardless, obviously they did what they felt like they could.

new guidelines

BUT, the word needs to get out: if you see someone collapse with what is assumed to be a cardiac arrest, don't bother with mouth-to-mouth! please, spread this word. the guidelines have changed recently after much effort. once someone becomes unconscious (i.e., "witnessed cardiac arrest"), there is enough oxygen in the system to last several minutes. the most important thing to do is to start chest compressions to get blood circulating. DO NOT BOTHER GIVING MOUTH-TO-MOUTH the first few minutes! now if you know me, you know i hardly ever use all caps but this is that important. another reason the guidelines have changed is because mouth-to-mouth typically has been a barrier to people helping out. if that is removed, then people are more likely to do the chest compressions which is most important.

proper cpr

most critical is getting the blood pumping and that requires pounding on the chest at a rate of about 100 times per minute and pressing down on the sternum about 1-2 inches. incidentally, if you do not feel any ribs breaking then you are probably not pressing down hard enough. if the point of the ribcage is to protect the heart, then you realize that you have to break some ribs to have effective chest compressions. forget about the ones you see on tv, they are nowhere near how they should be (although i will admit i am a sucker for medical shows). the easiest form is to lock your arms and put your weight into it. this maneuver is very tiring and you can't last more than a couple of minutes so it's important to have someone ready to take over. if you don't lock your arms and just try to push down with your hands, you won't last 10 seconds. of course, the best plan is probably to take a cpr class but at least you have this info just in case. plus, the guidelines have changed only in the past couple of months so any books you use might still have the old info. hope this helps.

happy father's day!

or is it fathers' day? i guess it could really be both but probably fathers' if we're including everyone out there. i mean, it's not just one father out there who has the holiday, is it? if so, that's one cool dad. i have had a nice and relaxing day watching various sporting events while my wife has been tending to the babe. kate got me a nice card with $50 stuck inside! i guess with the high gas prices and the weak dollar karen has been upping her allowance lately. incidentally it's the same amount i asked karen to get for me from the latest bank run.

last night we had the graduation for our residency program. over the past few years the residents have recorded a skit making fun of the attendings and even other residents. now that i'm on the "other" side, we rallied the attendings together to film a skit. i would post the link but there are too many inside jokes to be funny for the general populace. anyway, it was fun filming and editing the thing so it rekindled my interest in making a movie. i have already pitched a few ideas to my sister and one day do want to write a real script but i could start the process at home with a tv show or movie starring kate. the show would be called "one and a half asians," kinda like the charlie sheen show "two and a half men." we could have kate getting into various shenanigans--spitting food at us, reaching into drawers and throwing everything out, clips of us accidentally whacking kate's head against various things (as recently as this morning i accidentally hit her head on the car frame putting her into the car seat ... in my defense i had a bloody nose this morning, worse than usual (and i didn't even pick my nose to instigate it) so i wasn't feeling the most normal), her laughing at me when i do pushups and how she tries to grab my hair as it goes up and down. so many stories we could share. could probably get a couple of seasons out of it before it gets cancelled.

on another note, at the risk of completely embarrassing my whole family, i have to share how i got swindled out of $10. interestingly, at times i don't think through things completely and in certain vulnerable moments i tend to throw away money (fortunately not a frequent occurrence). well, somehow i got to a link to check my i.q. online in less than 10 minutes. since i'm korean and bred to compare myself to other people, i thought i'd check it out. i must have really been bored or delirious. the test is like 10 questions and actually multiple choice but truly easy multiple choice questions so i automatically thought this was a gimmick. after finishing, it tells you to text a code to a number and it will text back your i.q. by this point i've already invested 2 minutes out of my day to do this so i'm not going halfway at this point. i text the code and i get back a text saying my i.q. is 10. not 110 but 10. now i'm thinking what a waste of time that was (imagine that, wasting time on the internet) but oh well, no harm no foul, right? next thing i know, i'm getting a text like 2 or 3 times a week with a word of the day. i don't have unlimited texting on my phone so i'm getting annoyed at these texts so somehow i get back to the website after a search. of course when i initially texted the code i didn't see that i was signing up for this service that costs $9.99 a month and i get a word of the day texted to me. the ironic thing is that the page talks about the greek origin of the word intelligence and how words of the day can make you smart, etc. yet you have to be a complete moron to actually sign up for this dumb service and probably even worse not to realize that you're signing up for the service by texting something to them. you live and you learn.

pacis, pacis everywhere

so we have this new trick where we put a couple of pacis in the crib when kiddo goes to sleep. until she actually falls asleep, she'll stand, roll around, sit, stare at the wall, do whatever kids do in cribs and frequently the paci will end up on the floor or stuck behind the crib against the wall. then, of course, she'll cry and we'll have to go in there to plug her back up. this trick, however, increases the likelihood that she will find another one on her own without us having to go back in. well, needless to say, the pacis start piling up in and around the crib. when she woke one morning i couldn't help but take this pic. can you guess how many pacis are in this picture??? (you may need to click on the pic to get a larger view.) answer below.




the answer is 3. one in her mouth, one in her right hand, one on the floor.

surf, sun, walking and contests

we just got back from surfside beach (just south of myrtle) yesterday after a trip with karen's side of the fam. of course she has all the pics and pertinent details so check out her blog. my memories are of getting sick deep sea fishing and getting sunburned. karen has some great pics of that. i swear i did use lotion but either not enough or stayed out too long. it has been a while since i actually "laid out" so i guess i forgot how quickly one can burn or just forgot how long i was out which, incidentally, is pretty easy to do when you fall asleep. i'm a nice shade of red, particularly in some odd places--left lower back, front chest and stomach, top of the feet, right bicep/shoulder, both knees. somehow the lotion karen put on the top of my back withstood the water and time but the rest of me got burned (or is it burnt?).

now, about the hurling. being the adventurous kind of guy that i am, i would like to believe the main cause was a few too many adult beverages the night before since i've never gotten sick on the high seas or in any outing involving lots of motion. plus, i actually did fine on the hour ride out which was in very choppy waters and didn't get queasy until we started fishing. let's just say i had a lot of company by the time the trip was over. there was even this poor girl, about 10 or so with a dad who probably wished he had boys (he was with 2 girls). well, she wasn't feeling good and he is really getting on to her (maybe giving her a pep talk?) saying "well, what do you want me to do, tell the guy to turn the boat around? do you know how long it's going to take to get back? you're just going to have to tough it out." now hit the showers, i thought. i'm sure the girl felt much better after the talk.

regarding the vomitus (as we say in the medical world), it's funny because i was getting a little paranoid when i noticed some red stuff on the second expulsion. as a free medical tip, it's usually not good to see blood while throwing up. i thought i was bleeding but then remembered it was probably the flaming hot fries discoloring things. i love those flaming hot products as an aside--fries, fritos, cheetos. yum.

i was reminded today about some of the odd competitions i have entered in my life. in case you didn't know, i used to be a very competitive person; still am but not as much although my wife might disagree. i like and play many sports--tennis, basketball (probably favorite to actually play), baseball, softball, football, golf, karate. didn't play much soccer as an adult but did love spending hours with the ol' hackey sack. remember those?

anyway, i told karen i was going to use a coupon we just got for some new basketball shoes because the current ones i have are probably 10+ years old and a bit worn. how did i get them? back in the days when my parents had a dry cleaning business, a new shoe store opened up nearby so i checked it out. it turns out the atlanta hawks dance team was there and they were having a contest to see who could do the most number of crunches against the team. the winner got a new pair of shoes. heck, that was all i needed to hear to get me in. well, after probably 30 minutes, the team had all dropped out (probably more out of getting bored and wanting us to hurry and finish than actually getting tired) but this other guy and i were still left. eventually they just made us stop and declared us both winners. i think we stopped at 1200. granted, our technique wasn't the best but we were both winners and got some shoes! must be the shoes. i even got a poster of the team signed by the team. i remember one wrote "to the ab-master." ha! i actually kept it for a while but it got thrown out way before we got married. that's right.

reminds me of another contest, a jalapeno eating contest at a mexican restaurant for cinco de mayo when i was in college. if you ate only 5 jalapenos in 5 minutes you got a free t-shirt so i figured, hey, free t-shirt. i figured 5 was within reach. my friend actually bet with this guy next to him (they were behind us watching) that i would beat his friend who incidentally was next to me. well, what my friend didn't know was that that guy won the contest the previous year with 29 jalapenos! anyway, that guy was off to a flying start and it took me some time to get through the first few, not only because of the obvious hotness (i love hot food by the way) and taste but it was also the first thing i ate all day and it was already dinner time. plus, you had to eat the whole thing except for the stems. after the first few got down, i started getting in my zone and by the last minute, i was putting those suckers down while the other guy was slowing down big time. i probably ate 8 or 10 in the last minute and wouldn't you know it, ended up eating 29. unfortunately, i guess i pushed that guy enough and he ended up eating 35 or so and won some sort of restaurant tab. one more minute and no doubt i would have overtaken him. oh well. but hey, i got the free t-shirt.

you may have been wondering, did you have any "after-effects" from the contest? interestingly enough, the day after the contest, i had no adverse gastrointestinal sequelae. it's almost as if my body was in such shock that it shut down any pain fibers and it was smooth sailing in the bathroom.

other things i used to or still compete in: video games (favs of all time--donkey kong, centipede, ms. pacman--fast version), other various eating contests (won a free jacket from subway once for eating a sub with no hands, second place), team trivia at restaurant/bars around town, first place in a junior high dance contest with my breakdancing partner in 7th grade, various solo and family singing competitions and many others to be named.

as for the walking, baby kate is starting to take some steps! karen's uploading some videos so stay tuned. she started standing stationary for a few seconds last week and today was able to take a few steps but she has to be really motivated, like going after the keyboard or remote.

lastly, as an afterword on the name thing, the greatest name blunder i have experienced was probably at my wedding. yes, at my wedding by a pastor who actually did know me. maybe it was nerves, maybe something else but for some reason he called me "hannah" the first two times he said my name. the first time i'm like, "hmm, did he ... " and then the second time, "oh yeah, he did." if you've ever seen my wife try to get kids' attention when taking pictures by making weird noises, then you can picture the noises she was making to get the pastor's attention when we got close to him. she was making all these noises and then whispering loudly but discreetly "tanna, it's tanna!" then he says "i know" and that was that. ha ha. still funny after all these years.

more names and such

oh yeah, i also get tanya sometimes.

another thing i didn't mention but i guess in part due to my name, people frequently confuse me with a woman on the phone. i just got off the phone with the computer (or "computor" as one of the signs in our building says) help desk to reset my password and he kept calling me ma'am. now i know my voice can sound a little high at times but come on. i've been a little self-c0nscious about that in the past because growing up, i never really hit puberty like a brick wall like most mens. my voice very slowly seemed to get a little lower over some time. it was kinda weird because i wasn't sure if the process ever finished. heck, maybe my voice is still getting a little lower. second phase puberty. i'll look it up in the medical books.

in your face

apparently there is some trash-talking going on in the blogosphere about the delinquency of my posts. bets were on that i wouldn't blog today but in the words of ub40, here i am baby! as you may know, my dear wife (dw?) is on the cusp of hitting the bigtop in the blog world. her site has appeared on celebrity baby blog and she even has readers that we have never actually met. i think karen might be the only one actually still reading this. anyway, she's also a bit obsessed about the visitor tracker for her site. every once in a while i'll get a "someone from brazil (or enter country of the day) visited my site today." of course, her fairly frequent posts keep readers coming. since i'm not posting everyday, i think that has hurt the readership (if that's a word). most have also migrated over to her site since she has all the pics and her "celebrity saturday" column. that's what i need, a gimmick to boost the numbers. always giving the readers something new, that's how you keep 'em coming. new coke, diet coke, coke zero, same idea. i don't mind dw and dd getting the limelight though because i'm counting on her or kate hitting it big with some modeling deal to be our ticket to stardom.

karen has a recent post about us going to barnes & noble (it took me some time to get out of the habit of saying "barnes & nobles") for the jenna bush book signing. what she didn't mention was that after she got in and went to the cashier to buy the book, i had to get kate out of her stroller and hold her up while the secret service swept her with the security wand. the one time i wanted karen around to get a pic but she was already gone! it was a hilarious site. i know she can have some potent poopies but i guess not enough to make the wand beep. and i'm talking about kate, not karen.

well, karen has still left me the task of notifying people of new videos. we were at a friend's b-day party recently and kate had her first experience with a balloon and boy did she love it. take a look yourself here.

well, gotta go heat up some food for karen.

habla ingles?

karen's been getting on to me for being so delinquent with my blog. of course her blog is taking off now with people all over the world and web-famous people viewing it. if you're looking for pictures of kate, most of them will be probably be on her blog since they're on her computer and not mine. i will include an occasional pic, especially if it's a funny one that karen doesn't find as funny and won't put on her site like the one of kate with formula all over her face.

i guess i never mentioned that we bought an imac, my first venture into the world of apple. to this point we still had the gigantic monitor i bought six years ago with so many cords and things running from it to the hard drive. now we have a pretty elegant looking machine, monitor and hard drive all in one flat screen. steve jobs oughtta give me some money for this promo but it did free up a lot of space.

so as karen mentioned on a recent post, i was in las vegas recently, coincidentally for a friend's bachelor party and also my brother's surprise 40th b-day celebration. quick story about my brother, he's not exactly the most talkative person at times unless you get a few in him. he recently told a funny story recently about how a lady in his neighborhood was talking to him or something and in his annoyed sort of look he just kept staring at her without saying anything which inevitably brought up the age ol' question from her "do you speak english?" he was so taken aback that all he could blurt out was a convincing "yeah." of course later he thought of many other clever things to say but the moment was lost. well, like brother like brother. on the flight back home from vegas i was in an exit row so the flight attendant was asking a few questions, do we feel comfortable opening the door, etc. and we were all nodding our heads. then she asked something like "do you know you're on an exit aisle and we wanted to make sure you didn't have any more questions?" basically whatever she asked, the first part of the question was meant to be answered yes but the way she phrased the second half, the answer "no" or a shaking of the head would have been the proper answer. kinda like when people ask "do you mind if ... " and most people say yes, meaning yes go ahead but really the answer is no, as in no i don't mind. well, when she finished, i was shaking my head as in "no, i don't have any more questions" but then she looked at me and asked, "do you speak english?" i had flashbacks of my brother yet as fate would have it, all i could get out was "yes." then she tried to cover it up by saying "you know, a lot of people who don't understand just nod their heads to all the questions." not surprisingly, i did think of many other clever things to say like "que?" or go off on some other spanish phrase but sometimes the ol' reaction time isn't fast enough. the more i thought about it the more i felt that was such an ignorant thing to say. of course if i was white she would not have said that although there are plenty of white tourists who don't speak english and plenty of asian americans who do. what can you do.

on another note, i forgot to mention in a previous post about all the girl names in addition to the boy names i've been called when people are trying to get my name straight--tina, tammy, dana. i was actually in an elevator at work recently and a lady was in there with her daughter and the mom kept looking at my name tag and asked what my first name was and i said "tanna." the lady was so excited because her daughter spelled her name the same way except she pronounced it t-on-na. ha ha ha.

video

not sure how long the link will work but you have to see this video. to give a little background, there's been some controversy with this mayor in a nearby suburb. she apparently has also claimed the police roughed her up. my favorite quote: "and they just basically took me to the ground, tussling my arms are bruised, uh, my neck, i have a lump here, um, my knee, uh ... was hurt." ha ha! it's like she had to think about what got injured.

ALMOST as funny as the miss teen south carolina quote during the competition about maps and iraq: "and i believe that our education like such as south africa and the iraq, everywhere like such as ... " ha ha ha!

what's in a name?

okay, karen's been bugging me to write about my name--how i got it, what it means, etc. well, first of all, my birth name is dae hyun, which means something to the effect of "wise" and "strong" in korean. i think the names are actually of chinese origin, which is a common style of naming but i can't exactly remember which name correlates with which word. anyway, if you say my name in korean (e.g., when my parents would call out to me when i was a kid running amuck in the neighborhood), it sounds a little like tanna. if you say "dae-hyun-na" quickly over and over, you can see how it might get to tanna. the "na" is just an added syllable to the name. so, the neighborhood kids started calling me tanna and now so does karen and everyone else. i actually have "dae hyun aka tanna" on my citizenship certificate. yes, that's the same one where i'm wearing a bugs bunny t-shirt in the picture. i'd like to say i was like 3 years old but i think i was a little older than that.

little did i realize later in life around junior high that tanna was a girl's name. the first similarly spelled name i ran across was actually on an episode of "the price is right" and there was a lady contestant named "tana." heck, it could have actually been spelled the exact same way but all i remember was that it was a lady. she actually made it onto the stage. then i met a lady at our church who was a visiting friend or speaker or something who, you guessed it, carried both x chromosomes. as if that wasn't bad enough, there was even a newscaster here on channel 5 in atlanta not too long ago whose name was tana. she pronounced it tahn-a (like don-a), not tanna like manna. you know, it's okay if there's a tanna running loose here and there but when it's a tv personality, then everybody realizes tanna's a girl's name, not just those select acquaintances. not like they needed a tv personality to figure that out; tanna doesn't exactly sound like a man's name to begin with i guess.

because of the unusual nature of the name, no one could ever tell what i was saying when i introduced myself, particularly in loud settings (e.g., bars and clubs, you know, in college mostly ... in college when i was over 21 that is). i got people calling me tom, tim, tanner, tan, you name it. funny thing is, the guy who sat behind me during junior high and part of high school even pronounced my name wrong all those years. he would pronounce it tahn-a. i found that so odd. here's a toast to you, robert love, wherever you are.

speaking of love, our love-child is getting into all sorts of things these days. she's gotten pretty adept at pulling herself up to a standing position. she can't quite figure out the "cruising" thing yet so once she's up she stays put in one position until she falls down and then goes to a new location. frequently there's a head-bonking episode somewhere in there, usually on the way down while falling so we have to wait for the 10 second breathless pause while she builds up her steam and facial redness until she lets out her wail. i keep telling karen the kid will learn one day but it doesn't seem like she has so far. you know kids, they're so young and naive. concepts like gravity and mass are still foreign to them. she'll be at least 2 before i teach her about gravitational force so i guess i should expect more bonking episodes.

i'm also trying to get kate to feed herself. it's hard to work the remote and feed her at the same time unless she's helping. she can feed a few wheat puff type stuff to herself but she's still getting the hang of it--just look at our floor. she tries to shove her whole hand in or put her palm in first and half the time the puff thingie just falls on the floor. she's getting decent at holding her bottle by herself at times. however, if you leave it to her, usually she'll drink for just a few seconds and then she'll stop and look at the bottle and play with it.

the standing thing has become somewhat of a problem for naptime as well. frequently it takes her some time to get to sleep. she'll just stand on the crib with her hands on top of the rail and sometimes gnaw on it with her 2 lower and budding 2 upper teeth. i expect her one day to have a tin cup to run across the rails like she's in prison or something. we have a few pics of her standing in her crib during what is supposed to be nap/bedtime but they're on the main computer and i'm on my laptop right now so the pics will come later. sorry!

speaking of which, in case you didn't know, karen is back on the blog saddle. she is much better about updating her blog and i'd like to think it's because the pics are on the desktop where she mostly works and not because she's on the internet all the time. ha! i have a link to her blog on the right.

in other big news, i ordered an imac last week. it should be coming in the next couple of days. yes, the lim family has made a big change. don't get me wrong, i will be running the parallel software so i can have windows up at the same time but otherwise, this is definitely a big step for me. the current desktop is 6 years old, ancient in computer years. it has a whopping 40 gb hard drive memory and the new imac will have 500! yes, halfway to a terabyte. way too much info for this blog i guess. it will be nice to have a computer that isn't so slow like the current one.

in other news, karen posted some pics from a recent visit by my bro and fam. there are a few videos we shot while they were there. here's one with kylie and eric singing "jesus loves me."

here's another hilarious video of the two talking about my brother and his hair obsession. yes, my friends, it actually takes my brother more time to settle his hair in the morning than most women. he also used to get very upset when we would try to mess with it growing up. the video gives the kids' perspective on things.

lastly, thanks to kate for the last post on doctor's day. it commemorates the first documented use of anesthesia (ether at the time) in surgery by georgia's own crawford long, back in the late 1800's. he was actually an obstetrician. anyway, it caused a little bit of controversy because he never published the event in a medical journal so others took credit but that's another story. that's it for now, hopefully some pics next time.

Guest Post from Baby Kate

Hi, Ah-pah! Happy (day after) Doctors' Day! I love you, and I can't wait to see you when you get home today! Love, Kate (with a little help from Mommy)

Here are a few photos Mommy took of me in my "Future Doctor" outfit from Aunt Robin. Sorry it's not an official "Doctors' Day" bib, but don't I look cute?

Here I am just out of surgery.

Checking some x-rays for a patient

You're my most favoritist doctor ever!

march madness

yes folks, it's march madness around the lim household. i'm watching basketball these days, mom and kid have their own madness going on with malls and shopping and such. as you can see below, there's been some st. patrick's day madness going on as well. i think karen has a "baby's first ... " bib for all occasions. there might even be a "baby's first arbor day" bib laying around somewhere. incidentally, doctor's day is in 3 days (although observed at our hospital today). i wonder if she has a "baby's first doctor's day" bib and if not why not.



kate's been getting into all sorts of things these days. if she could, she'd like to get into her little aquarium toy. she keeps trying to get her head into it but it just won't fit.



one thing i haven't gotten a good picture of is her teeth. yes, her lower ones popped up a few weeks ago and now a couple of the top ones are coming in. as you can imagine, it's a little hard to keep her still enough for a picture of her teeth. the kid does not like having her face messed with. she still doesn't like it when we mess with her nose trying to get the ol' boogs out. she can bite hard, too. as a warning, do not stick your finger in her mouth without expecting some damage.

the babe's pincer grasp as improved. at first she would play with puffs but now she'll eat them up if they're around. i don't know about karen, but i also sort of make her feed herself at times by holding the bottle up herself. tough love as i see it. i need to get a good video of that. the coordination isn't completely there. sometimes she'll almost poke herself in the eye with the bottle.


"i think i will eat this puff"

here's kate hanging out with some friends.


"i'm outta here guys; call me when you're ready to roll ... and i do mean that literally. i love rolling around."

the easter bunny hit town recently as well ... or is this an imposter???



oh yeah, i guess that was preceded by palm sunday. kate's first palm branch. i think she tried to eat it. pretty much anything around will go in her mouth.



by the way, karen's obsessed with smart cars. they're all over europe but there were some issues getting them to the u.s. but i think mercedes has started importing them. here is a recent sighting.



in other news, my dad went out and bought a sax and keyboard. here's "david g" grooving. he's too old for a midlife crisis so i guess it's like an old man crisis?



we went to a park recently and kate loved crawling around the grass and putting things in her mouth. karen would keep taking them out but hey, it's nature, grass is good for you. isn't it? anyway, the kid can crawl like a champ. for some reason she loves crawling into the bathroom. she also still loves crawling to cords and putting them into her mouth. the way she's drooling, probably not the safest thing in the world. oh well, "she'll learn" as i say. ha!





here are some of those easter pics. again, they had live animals there. kate's obviously more interested in other things than getting pictures taken.







karen had some sort of picture session set up here. if you have all three of these pics set up and bring them up quickly it looks like she's busting through the animal barrier. you better watch out, nothing will stop this kid.







i'm not exactly sure what's going on with the camera angle here but when kate falls asleep in the car seat these days, she's out big time. such an intense look in her sleep face.



she also has a new toy, straws. this will definitely keep her occupied for a while when at restaurants.


"how does this thing work?"

karen has the kid dressed in all sorts of outfits these days. here's a happy giraffe.


"see ya next time!"

it's over

yes, the little one is crawling! watch out world. we're gonna have to lock down everything now. she loves pulling on cords and she can track down that froggy pacifier like a missile. in case you didn't believe me, i actually have a video of it here. we should have the froggy paci on bin laden and then we would finally catch him. karen left a couple of weekends ago for tennessee and before she left she was almost starting to crawl (as shown in an earlier video) but when she came back a few days later she was scootin' around like crazy.

here's a pic in her borrowed duckie tub and an action shot with the water splashing. she still loves the baths.



we've also been to the zoo a couple of times. karen signed up for a family membership which i think is a great idea. we can go anytime all year for pretty cheap and we have discounts for friends/family too so if you're in town and want to go, let us know!



i was scanning the photos and i found this one deep in one of the folders. i think karen was trying to hide it from me. really, at what point do you call the authorities for child neglect? ha! just kidding honey, love ya!



i couldn't resist this one below either. getting the cousins together has never been funner! actually, riley is smiling pretty well but the rest of the gals just aren't interested.



this was also from the tenn trip. it looks like an early trying-to-crawl pic. this could be a poster for a "do not drink and crawl" campaign.




"he guys, i'm hittin' the art gallery later. come with?"

we were in savannah recently for a medical meeting. as soon as we get in the hotel room karen puts the kid on the bed for a photo op. karen notified me that it was her first hotel stay as well.


"ahh, nice fresh linens and so soft!"


kate's first boat ride. she ain't afraid.

okay, i'm gonna get yelled at for this next one but it'll be worth it. i had to put it in. here's mommy and baby not quite awake yet. look how karen's arm is up by her head and kate has her hand on her head. like mommy like baby.



here we are y'all at paula deen's restaurant. i ate the buffet on consecutive days for lunch. actually, including the buffet earlier in the week at a mongolian bbq, i had 3 buffets last week. almost like the med school days.


"i'm ready to chow down on some gourmet formula y'all!"

yes, babe is now eight months. not much of an update since the seven month point i guess. here's what kate really thinks about being 8.


"man i'm getting old. i guess i'll just eat this paper."

this next pic looks like kate is auditioning for cult follower of the year ... cutest cult follower of the year i have to say.


"whatever you say i will do master."


look at that smile. she still loves grabbing her feet, too.


just hanging out. "hmmm, what should i do now?"


easter's right around the corner in case you couldn't tell!

quick update

just wanted to upload a video. i have a whole bunch of pictures to upload, even from the last post but that will have to wait. karen and kate are actually in tennessee for abigail's b-day. it's weird how boring/mundane it gets when they're not around. on the one hand i'm like "oh yeah, i get to do stuff on my own, play b-ball, go out, party, etc." but after the first night i'm so lonely. poor me. anyway, i caught a nice vid of kate when karen was out one day. it shows kate trying to crawl, in her infant (pun intended) stages, but it includes many nice features such as her flailing her arm and leg around, slapping her feet against the floor, talking, pulling on her sock, etc. the girl will actually stand on all fours trying to figure out what to do but then her knees will drop but she can't figure out what to do with them then she'll either cry or just roll on her back. so funny. anyway, here's the link to the video.

happy b-day, kiddo!

yes, kate turned 7 months yesterday, the same day my dad turned 71. no, i don't have pics of kate with her obligatory "i'm 7 months old today" sign courtesy of karen. it's still on the camera i think. there are actually a lot of pictures from significant events lately (zoo, family visits, etc.) that will be posted later, unfortunately. that's what happens when you fall behind.

these days she's rolling around like crazy. can't quite crawl yet but she's almost there. wow, once that happens, there is no keeping up with the kid.

the girl loves to kick, too. she inherited a duckie inflatable bath from her cousins and she will kick her legs like crazy and splash water everywhere. also when she's trying to get to sleep we'll hear loud thumping in her room where she's pounding her feet against the mattress.


at a friend's baby shower. girl's so fashionable thanks to mom.

here's a pic from a christmas party with our church sunday school group. there was a prize for whoever wore the ugliest christmas outfit. karen picked up some stuff for us from goodwill. you can't tell but i'm actually wearing black cotton sweatpants. they were actually mine but i haven't worn them in years. really. kate's wearing her now famous gymbofriends camouflage onesie.



a couple of more pics from the seh-beh in california.


"am i doing this right, mommy?"


"ah yes, payday is mine." note mystery arm delivering money.

didn't mention that my brother has become a big raiders fan and the mens took a roadtrip up to oakland for the last season of the game against the chargers. dad's looking stylish with the raiders cap.


left to right: dad, me, bro-in-law ted and bro mike


another pic at the airport all decked out in her fancy hat


just enough hair to get a couple of bows in

karen's mom came to visit for a week. there are several other pics i'll put up later but here's one with the three ladies. you do not want to get in a staring contest with this baby.



we were watching kate roll around here and there when she started posing in the style of the old breakdancers. here is her first pose, could be coming off of a nice backspin. definitely taking after daddy.




relaxin' with with her pillow


LOOK at this girl! she is going to break some hearts one day, that's for sure.


yeah, this was taken in the dead of winter. never too early to get ready for the beach in today's global warming environment.


one day this girl was so tired she fell asleep just like this.


quick visit with uncle norman and aunt mary. looks like kate's staring down some hoodlums stirring up some trouble somewhere.

oh yeah, we had a live nativity at church and some animals running amuck on the property. didn't stop kate from getting in there for a good photo op.


hmmm, not much resemblance to the camel


houston, we have contact ... with a sheep. i believe this is kate's first contact with livestock.


happy with pacifier and cousin riley


getting a few walking lessons from cousin rebekah who started walking pretty early herself.

okay, in case you didn't know, karen has this fascination, dare i say obsession with groundhog day. she was even in punxsatawney, pennsylvania for the "phillennium" on 02/02/02. no, i am not making this up. anyway, in true atlanta (metro area, at least) fashion, we have a knockoff groundhog ourselves, general beauregard lee. after a 3 am fire alarm in our condo, we all got up at the gluteus-crack of dawn in ungodly cold weather to see this rodent prognosticate about the weather. karen stayed up all night doing various things, including making many signs, some of which actually ended up on the website of the place hosting the general! see if you recognize the kid on the website as well. click here to see it. not sure how long it'll be up but make sure you also go to the other pics to see some of karen's work and relatives. i'll post more pictures from the event on here later. as an aside, they are a lot more cordial here and wait for general lee to come out instead of dragging him out like in pennsylvania. hey, southern hospitality. well, needless to say, this year he decided to take his time and a lot of people ended up leaving before he came out because it was too cold. many children were out there complaining of digits and phalanges and such going numb and i think we all missed his big moment too. in case you were wondering, he did not see his shadow. interestingly, the very next week it was in the 60's for the high. coincidence? i don't think so.


kate in her groundhog bib and hat. "daddy, where am i?"


"what's all the ruckus about?"


"mommy, help me. i can't feel my body."

more updates later!