Our Last Month in Eight Bullet Points

A belated Merry Christmas and a belated Happy New Year, dear reader. Doubtless, you have surmised that we've abandoned blogging and you've stopped visiting couple of weeks ago. No, we haven't given up blogging... but life has been full. Besides, a little fast from Unblocked Writers Syndrome is not a bad thing once in a while (not that we're all that known for blogorrhea). As a way to make it up to you, let me offer you an overview of our past month (has it been a full month since our last entry? for shame!) in eight bullet points--not unlike how TV shows offer 6-minute recaps of the story so far, to get you caught up.

• We didn't send out any Christmas cards or end-of-year family newsletters. Could never quite get around to it. We're shooting for a Christmas in March or April (or July) communiqué instead. Thank you to those of you who didn't procrastinate as badly as we did, and sent us your Christmas cards. We are in awe of you.
  
• Theo was sick for about a week with a pretty bad respiratory infection around the time of our last entry. He had a fever that kept coming back, and his wheezing and coughing seemed interminable. Amoz had never been sick like that, and we were pretty worried about the little guy. When he was finally himself again, it was such a relief. We are blessed to have healthy kids; many parents don't have as easy a time.
• The Lee Fam drove up to Mt.Top for our annual Christmas pilgrimage to C's parents', and Amoz made out like a bandit. Matchbox cars, trains, Tonka trucks, a remote-controlled transporter, a three-wheel scooter... All that anyone else got from us were lousy gag t-shirts (for Dad W: "Del Boca Vista Retirement Community: where older people come to die"--he's a big Seinfeld fan). From now on, every Christmas will be this way: all about the boys. During our Christmas stay, Amoz also had the first sled-ride of his life and threw his first snowball ever. He tried to make a snow angel (the first thing he did on seeing snow--too much TV), but it was too hard from the freezing rain the night before. Ah, Christmas is indeed a wonderful time when you're a kid.
• We were in the Big Apple between Christmas and New Year's day, visiting with Joseph and Theresa in the Morningside Heights. They hooked us up with a visit to an amazing train model display at Citigroup Center (which, believe it or not, was free), and free tickets to the (amazing) Museum of Natural History to see dinosaur skeletons, a life-size model of a blue whale, and stuffed African animals (picture Amoz walking around on all fours imitating a gorilla). We visited with old friends Steph, Debby, Arthur, Esther with her daughter Madeline, and ate really, really well. "We don't always eat like this," Joseph told us, but we don't believe him (check out all the crazy food on his blog). After all the hedonistic eating over Christmas to New Year's, we needed to get back to our regular Korean food diet, pronto.
• Traveling with small kids is a lot of fun, but it's also pretty hard. After we got back from all the schlepping around, C saw that the Facebook statuses of her friends with small kids were along the lines of, "OK... back on the wagon with the schedule after the holidays..." Good to know we weren't the only poor sobs struggling with kids.
  
• G.Hope held a talent show on New Year's Eve; lots of fun. Amoz had an entry; he marched right up and in front of all the people, grabbed the mic with both hands and belted out "Jesus loves me this I know" as clear as a bell. We never had any practice for this; I simply started him off on the first line and he was off. C and I got ourselves a performer. He sometimes takes a bow after doing something laudatory (like pooping in the potty), and says, "Thank you!"
• Speaking of which, here are a few lines from Amoz: During Christmas, Amoz had a whole bag of cashews to himself while watching TV. Uncle Steven said, "Boy, I sure would like some cashews. Amoz, do you know where I could get some cashews?" Without taking his eyes off the TV, Amoz replied, "Grocery store." The next two, I wash my hands of. When the "Elmo's World" (Sesame Street) theme song came on the other day, he said, "Ooh, that's my jam!" And during a recent "Funky Friday" broadcast on WXPN, he was like, "Shake your bootie!" Yes, yikes. OK, these next ones are cute. At Joseph and Theresa's when were were getting into the elevator, he said, "Ride the alligator?" He shuts us out of the bathroom when it's time to go potty--"Close the door, I be privacy." And the last one for now: When we are leaving him and about to go out the door, he says, "I better hug you."
  
• Thanks to the Freemans coming over to babysit, C and I had our first date-date in aeons... like since before Amoz was born. Every other time, we had one of the boys with us or we were at a wedding or something like that. We took in Northern Liberties and poked our heads into the opening for a photo show by a Flickr friend, Laura Kicey (here is her website; here is her Flickr stream; her show, "Living Rooms" is at Café Estelle through January). We could have stayed out until 11PM, but we came home at 9:30. We were too tired to stay out any later. Pathetic! We are so boring and old.

Hey, thanks for reading this far, and for checking in with us on a regular basis, even with all that dead air. We'll be blogging more regularly... the boys permitting.