Camille was suffering from a Christmas hangover.

Since I was using a tripod and a timer we got together for a few test shots before Suk arrived.

I love this one, and would frame it and put it on the wall, but Suk would kill me if I put up a family photo without her in it!

Hang in there, Harrison.

Jaws and Camille (Harrison actually referred to her as “Jaws” the other day. It was cute.)

OK, we finally had everybody there and took the group photo.

Then Jaws and Bruce played with the kids while dinner was prepared.

Go Camille!

Harrison shows off his soccer skills.

Out comes the food!

That’s Harmoni throwing up the “V” sign.

Haraboji relaxes with some whiskeyy.

Dinner time.

Oh boy!

Camille took a nap while we began to open presents. Harrison took some pictures, just like his dad.

Harrison helped everybody open their presents.

Whoah… Haraboji has a big present!

We velcroed our photos to the wall instead of using nails. I didn’t use enough velcro.

Goofballs.

Harmoni got me some sweats.

Harmoni got a framed picture of Jaws. They are her school picture. I assumed she meant High School and was shocked that she hadn’t aged a bit. She took them this year, she is a teacher. Haha.

She must have had quite a few left-overs because they made their way onto the christmas wrapping as well!

Then it was time to have cake and sing happy birthday to Jaws.

Harrison helps blow out the candles, as always.

It was a fun day.

Part 1:

Part 2:

I particularly enjoy the dance sequence at the end of Part 2, especially the finale when Harrison does a somersault right into Camille.

Then I heard Harrison wake up. I went in his room to check on him. He didn’t want to leave his bed because he could tell it was still dark in the living room and he was afraid. He thought Santa was still out there. I laid on his bed and talked with him for a while. Harmoni was in there laying on her bed. He told me the plans for the day:
“Daddy. You go in your office and work on your computer. Close the door.”
“What will you do?” I asked.
“I will hold hands with Camille and play with her.”
“What will mommy do?”
“Mommy will go to work.”
“What will Harmoni do?”
“She will cook in the kitchen.”
“What will Haraboji do?”
“He will watch TV a little bit.”

Then he asked me if I would get any presents from Santa. Maybe, I said. What should I get?
“Tools”, he said.
“What should Haraboji get?”
“Also tools” He said.
“What should Harmoni get?”
“More sinks.”

Mommy came in to join us, having finally gotten Camille back to sleep. Then she asked if Harrison wanted to go look in the living room…..

Oh boy! What’s that under the tree?

Can we open them? Not yet…. Camille is sleeping and Haraboji is sleeping….

We had left 2 brownies and a little bottle of water for Santa last night. HJ ate the 2 brownies but didn’t touch the water, so I pounded it when nobody was looking and then showed Harrison more evidence that santa had been there; the empty plate and water bottle.

Camille was awake and it was time to open presents.

Who is this one for?

Go, Harrison, go!

What’s this?

Mommy explains that it is luggage, but you can also sit and roll around on it.

It’s “Rocket” from Camille’s all-time favorite show, Little Einsteins.

Oh cool, a drump truck!

Harrison is happily talking about something.

The kids take a break to play with the dump truck.

At some point the kids just started playing with their new toys and stopped opening presents. “Kids, we still have more presents to open!” Mommy said. “That’s OK, I have enough toys” Replied Harrison. It made us smile.

Mommy let me play Santa for a little bit and she took pictures.

Opening some more books for Camille.

The Three Bears. I got this for both kids, actually. Later on, when I read it for the first time, Harrison kept burying his head in my arm. He kept trying to flip to the end of the book. It turns out he was scared about what the bears were going to do to goldilocks. Hahahaha, poor kid!

Camille is always sitting on Harrison’s car box, just to make him mad. So we got another car box, just so she could have one to sit on. Of course we can put cars in it too, but really just so she can sit on it. Harrison opened it up and said “Where are the cars?”

Don’t worry, santa brought lots of new cars, too.

Mayhem.

Harrison likes to line things up and organize them. It is interesting to watch. The bad news is, when Camille sees it she likes to destroy it.

I took some video of Christmas day, but I haven’t uploaded it yet to youtube yet, so the next post will have that.

As always, they found ways to amuse themselves.

Seeing that couch reminds me…. the other day Camille had wandered into this room and I figured her granparents were in there so I wasn’t really paying attention. Until I heard a loud crash and a shatter. She had grabbed my favorite pyrex measuring cup, the one I use to make oatmeal every morning, and smashed it against the counter. Glass went everywhere. The next day she silently walked off into our bedroom and closed the door (one of her new hobbies) and I don’t know how, but she managed to get the humidifier to fall off the dresser and on to her head. She started screaming and crying and we all rushed in to see what had happened. Luckily there was no water in it so she was not hurt, but man, we really have to keep a close eye on her these days.

Anyways… Mommy yelled “Who wants to open presents???” and the kids bolted into the living room.

Oh boy!

The toy frenzy has begun.

More more more!

What’s this?!

Good teamwork, kids.

Microwave!

Is this how you play with it?

The kids love books.

This 8 Silly Monkeys book was an instant hit. Both of the kids love it.

Camille checks out her new Itsy Bitsy Spider Book (upside down).

Hello, what’s this?

Opening presents is serious business.

Mommy helps.

Sometimes opening these kids toys is not as easy as you would think.

But the kids wait patiently…. yeah right.

Woooah!

Coool!

Camille had fun with her baby stuff (she was feeling sick for most of Christmas, though. poor thing.)

Camille doesn’t wait for mommy to finish reading the instructions before she starts playing.

Camille liked this crib.

The gears in Camille’s head start spinning. If these toy babies go in here….

…THEN I CAN GO IN HERE TOO! WEEE!

Stinker!

The kids check out their new books.

They had a lot of fun with their new toys and then it was time for bed. I helped Harrison go to bed and he wanted to hear the story of Santa Clause. So I told him and he fell fast asleep.

dee da da dee…. play with some cars….

la la la… somebody said something funny….

It is Christmas yet? No? OKay.

Sigh… back to the cars…

Ho Hum De Dooo…. make some tracks….

Camille has a good idea. Lets play in the cabinets again!

Eating brownies and reading this blog, no doubt.

Camille wants a brownie too.

Just squeeze a little bit o’ this stuff on there….

Perfect!

To her credit, she licked that green stuff off the brownie once before smearing the rest of it all over the table and walking away.

Harrison and Camille play together at Free Play at Gymboree

Harrison and Camille play together at Free Play at Gymboree.

Free Play is non age specific so the can both play together. And boy did they have a lot of fun together.

They were amped up and having a blast.

At the 2:19 mark Harrison tries helping that little baby by pushing him up by the butt (Harrison says “I like babys. I like to hug them.) Then he gives the mother a smile and a shrug (his classic move) and walks off.

At 4:10 Harrison does a prison break move and scales to the top of that barrell.

Spending a morning in a Pasadena Target

While we were in Pasadena for Hyun Ja’s wedding we had a morning to kill and nowhere to go so we went to target to let the kids run around. And they did.

“We making a mess!” Declares Harrison.

“Why are you making a mess, Harrison?”
“I love it!” He says.

Camille hums and rearranges all the socks.

We got a few dirty looks from the target employees. I said “Sorry!” a few times. I cleaned everything up.

Running up and down hotel hallways

At a hotel in Pasadena where we were staying for Hyun Ja’s wedding. The kids had lots of energy but nowhere to burn it except the hallways. Which was good enough for them.

A while later HJ was letting them run free in the halls and somebody complained. I can’t say I completely blame them.

Camille is almost 2 and Harrison is 3 and 1/2.

Harrison sings in hotel room

In the hotel room where we stayed in Pasadena for Hyun Ja’s wedding. Harrison found a spot on the table and started singing “Angela Surf City” by the Walkmen at the top of his lungs (it is one of his favorite songs.)

Here is Camille singing in the car.

Here is Camille singing in the car.

ad-libbing, I guess.

Then Harrison reaches out his hand, and Camille grabs it, and they hold hands.

Then the singing continues.
Camille’s desire for the bottle is torture

It only took 2 days to completely break Camille from the bottle. This must have been the first day. She really loved that bottle. Now she refuses to drink it. She won’t even drink milk, period.

Table songs

The kids are singing and chanting at the table.
“Wanna go peepee!” Harrison yells (this is the result of Ikea Lady and the play area shame that resulted in him being perfectly trained.

While Camille is squeezing herself you can hear the roar of harrison’s pee all the way from the bathroom!

Then Camille sings ABCs and Harrison comes back.

I may have already posted this, but I don’t care, it is a classic!

Wow, this month has been crazy. Harrison got potty trained by Ikea lady. Camille refuses to drink out of a bottle (or even milk, which we want her to drink, but she refuses.) Hyun Ja got Married. Christmas just happened. Some lady lost control of her bicycle and crashed into the tree across from our house. I called 911. She had a concussion, a few broke ribs and a broken shoulder. That was weird.

I have so many pictures and videos to go through for xmas it might take me a while to get through it all….

Hyun Joo told me to take my camera since as soon as Haraboji woke up and found out he would go straight out there and fix it (she called it, he did.)

We thought it was that old gopher that used to haunt our back yard, but to my suprise there were no holes under where the grass had been peeled back. It looks like it was peeled back from the top!

Strange, right? Haraboji thinks that it was feral cats clawing around and marking their territory.

Our neighbor Laura thinks it is… actually I cant remember what animal she thought it was…. Moles?

Anyways, Haraboji took one look at it and stomped our grass squares back in place. I had to laugh at HJ’s accurate prediction.

Hello there, back yard.

Why lay around the house?

Let’s go to Gymboree!

All dressed up, strapped in, and ready to go. Even though these pictures are only 1 week old, they are already out of date, as Camille no longer drinks out of the bottle (We offer her milk in a cup, but she refuses.)

A good bottle of milk was such a sweet delight though… sigh….

Camille was such a good participator last week. She has gotten used to Gymboree and has started to have fun. First thing you do in Level 5 is grab a color on the color rope.

Then the go in a circle and everybody says what color they have. Every color (and every shape, for that matter) is “blue” to Camille right now.

What Color does Camille have? “Blue!”

That’s not Blue, Camille. Pfffffft, says Camille.

Then they make the circle really really big.

Now make the circle small.

Now everybody stand on your circle! (Camille is not there yet…)

Picture time! Camille is excited to see the pictures.

Camille climbs on one of the obstacles. She looks like a bobble head in this picture.

The kids are supposed to be looking for “pizza dough” but its just an excuse to jump on the mat.

Looks pretty scary up there!

Looks like somebody is having fun!

Hello, young man. Would you like to try this?

It looks yummy.

Oh, it is just plastic after all.

Bumpy mat time! This was Harrison’s favorite part. It really is a lot of fun.

Weeeee!

Around she goes!

Time for bubbles!

Better go up here again….

Hello up there.

Camille rocks.

Bonk.

Everybody off and let’s go under, everybody off and lets go under, underneath our parachute.

Mayhem!

Class is over, and Camille gets her Gymbo stamps. She likes them on her hands, feet, and tummy. She had so much fun she passed out in the car on the way home.

Ikea Lady wouldn’t budge. Harrison bawled. Tears streamed from his eyes and he wailed. Snot came out of his nose. I stood in front of the play area so that Ikea Lady could hear the torment and anguish that she had caused. HJ returned a minute later and we left and went next door to Lowes. Harrison was still crying. He had so been looking forward to playing in the play area. We went to his favorite part of Lowe’s, the Fan Section. He still loves looking at the fans.

We sat on the floor in the middle of the fan section while I tried to make him feel better. Finally I asked if he wanted to write a letter to the Ikea Lady. A mean letter. We could do it on my iPhone. He thought that was a great idea. So he dictated the following letter to me:

Dear lady.
You’re not nice and you made Harrison cry. That was not nice. That’s really not nice. I’m gonna sing you a mean song. We want you to cry. You have a mean fan. You have a mean house.
-Harrison

This seemed to make him feel a little better. He at least had calmed down and stopped crying. He asked about the Ikea lady the rest of the day and the next.

That was almost 2 weeks ago.

He hasn’t peed or pooped in his diaper since. In fact, he started wearing underwear and hardly wears a diaper anymore. As angry as I was at Ikea Lady for upsetting my son so much, from that moment on he was potty trained. None of us could hardly beleive it. As each day went by we waited for the shock to wear off and for him to forget Ikea Lady and start going in his diaper again, but it hasn’t happened. He doesn’t mention Ikea Lady anymore, but he tells us when he has to go potty.

We had struggled to get him interested in going in the potty. We took away toys. He would get cute and invite us to take even more of his toys. He just didn’t care.

All that changed after Ikea Lady.

FA LA LA LA LAAAAA LA LA LA LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Oh, look at these!

Peek a boo!

I wonder what these taste like?