The Im Family

mimi asked for cheese pizza for dinner.  i told her she could have it if she had it with one veggie.  when it comes to pizza, mimi is a purist...only cheese and nothing else.  but i guess she was really in the mood for some pizza because she quickly agreed.  after perusing the options, she grudgingly obliged to have mushrooms on her pizza. when the pizza arrived, she stared down at the dark brown shriveled masses on her pristine white cheese and says, i feel like the mushrooms look yucky and i dont want to eat them. i went over to her side, picked off a mushroom and popped it in my mouth, chewed thoughtfully and then announced that they were delicious.  and then told her that yes, i agree they dont look good, but sometimes things that look yucky actually taste good. to which she responds, the table looks yucky, would you eat the table?!  SLUGS look yucky!  WOULD YOU EAT A SLUG??!!  WOULD YOU?!  she screams.  HOW ABOUT A... i cut ...

Christmas came and went, and boy did i feel like it went especially fast this year!  rob was saying he felt like we only just put the tree up and already we are faced with the job of taking down all the lights and decorations...i hate that part.  and mimi wants us to put up even more lights and decorations next year.  she has decided that what our front yard really needs is a light up santa, sleigh and reindeers.  i missed the kids' expressions when they came downstairs and saw the presents :(.  rob woke up with the kids and brought them downstairs.  i heard their voices in the haze of sleep, and i sprang out of bed, afraid to miss out on seeing their excitement when they opened their presents, and stumbled down the stairs, eyes partially glued shut still with sleep, mumbling out loud, "wait for me!!!"   when i got downstairs and blindly grabbed my camera, here's how i found them.  i didnt adjust the camera settings to the low light of dawn, so ...

after much consideration, after clearly not considering how the hell i was gonna get that big honking truck from santa down to my parents house without the kids noticing before christmas, i decided that christmas will just have to arrive one day earlier in the Im household.  since we didnt do an advent calendar this year, i am REALLY hoping that mimi wont notice that it's not really christmas tomorrow.  (fingers crossed).  the other alternative was to just wait until we got home from visiting my parents and have them open them when we come back, but i really wanted mimi to be able to take her gift from santa with her.  it'll keep her busy in the car ride down there and back.  i showed mimi the video message from santa the other day.  if you havent seen it from a previous post , i've linked it here as well.  i told her santa got her letter and sent her a video response (on the portable north pole).  i thought she was gonna cry when she saw/hea...

we FINALLY got our santa pictures done.  usually i get it done in the week following thanksgiving, but since mimi started full day kindergarten, it's been very difficult to get the kids out there for pictures.  we tried to get it done the other weekend, but, unbeknownst to me, the person i spoke to at the mall when i called for santa hours gave me the wrong information.  so i scurried to get my five year old and one year old fed, washed,  dressed in coordinating outfits and ready to go early that morning and rob took them to the mall, only to find out santa wouldnt be there for another 3 hours! when rob called from the mall and told me this news, all that holiday cheer and crap that i had been feeling shot out of my ears with a burst of screaming steam and the fact that there was no one to yell at made my head implode.  i'm not usually a vengeful person, but this stupid mistake totally messed me up.   you dont just tell a parent a time that you THINK...

last night, i spent the evening with my camera, snapping pictures of the kids as we enjoyed the evening snowed in.  mimi can't help herself from striking a pose whenever the camera comes out -- so hard to get candids with this kid.  or to get a picture without her in it.  if i aim the camera at anything, she goes darting in between my camera and the subject.  if it's a close up shot that i'm trying to achieve and she suddenly jumps in, then all i get is a picture of her nostrils.  and then ozzy...that boy never sits still for very long so most of his shots are just a blur.  *sigh*  they do make life sweet, though.

when mimi was younger, we'd sometimes play hide and seek and if i didnt immediately see some part of her hanging out of her hiding place, all i'd have to do is go, "mimi?  are you in here?" and invariably she's yell out in a singsong voice, "noooo-oh"  and then giggle and i'd have no trouble finding where she was.  and if someone told her something in confidence, she come right to me and tell me what she was told not to tell me, explaining that she was told not to tell.  at that age, they just tell on themselves, but now, at 5 years and 9 months of age, she's gotten incredibly good at not telling me what i want to know:  like, what did you and daddy get mommy for christmas? when kindergarten first started for her this fall, mimi told me every day that she didnt like school because it was too long.  by october, she started to answer my chronic "do you like school, now?" question with 'yes."  but as recently as two weeks ago, s...

ozzy has started "reading" a few common words.   we find it endlessly amusing to hear his little voice say the words.  he can't sound out anything, but he has memorized a few words. here's a short clip of him 'reading' the words.  i think he recognizes more but has a hard time saying them.  here he won't say 'him', even though i have heard him say that one, but he's not sure about it this time and refuses to say it. he's really saying so many more words now that i can no longer keep track of them all, but he is probably still unintelligible to most people outside of our family, since we hear him all the time and have gotten used to his Ozzish. he's been saying thank you to me every time i give him something so much that now as he takes something for himself he'll thank himself and then tells himself that he's welcome.  still throwing and bashing everything in sight...when does this testosterone induced cave-man tendancie...

here's the gauge mimi made to measure the snowfall on our back deck.  this is the snow as of 11:30 am.   maybe if we're feeling really productive we'll chart the snowfall.  we went outside to play in the snow earlier.  mimi had fun, but it wasnt so great for ozzy because the snow was so high, he just kept falling over.  the first step he took into the snow, he does this massive face plant and then couldnt get back up.  of course the heavy layers and thick snow boots didnt help matters!

strung some more on the lights in the dining room.  if i had more time i would completely bedeck my home with lots and lots of cranberries all around the windows.  sadly, the first ones that i strung have started to shrivel...but they are still a lovely organic red color. 

the daisy scouts got their first badges this week.  the girls were all so cute.  they were also given these pretty little daisy necklaces as well.  mimi wanted to hang hers up on the wall in her bedroom when we got home so she could "just stare at it." cookies sales have begun!  please let me know if you would like to order some girl scout cookies from mimi!  she gets to earn a badge if she sells enough cookies as well as other great prizes.  cookies are $3.50 per box.  (yes, woo, i will ship them to you.) top :  mimi with her friends.   top right: receiving her badge. bottom :  the necklace and mimi with her mouth full of the new thank you berry munch girl scout cookie.  white chocolate and cranberry.  very very tasty!

a friend of mine send me this link to get a message from santa for mimi.  i thought it was so cute i had to do one.  mimi has lately been questioning the validity of santa...how is he able to deliver presents in one night being the top question.  the other question is exactly where does santa live...is it canada?  one of the options on the Portable North Pole that you can choose from explains how santa is able to do it all in one night.  i'm not a big fan of the explanation the provide, but maybe she'll buy it.  i hope she doesnt remember the books on volcanoes we read that explained about the inside of the earth. 

ozzy likes to wear mimi's stuff, like these fairy wings and her winter hat.  of course, when it comes to headgear, he likes to put just about anything on his head: mimi's headbands (that's really funny), half of his shape sorter toy, a butterfly net, etc.

we strung fresh cranberries this year, which i really really LOVE LOVE LOVE.  i think it's the rich, earthy red color that i love so much.  i also thought it was a wonderful holiday activity for mimi.  so i made some pilot holes in a bunch of cranberries for mimi so she could string them easily.  i found that if you string them along the cores, it's very dense and hard to pierce, esp at the top, but it's stronger that way.  you can pierce them slightly diagonal to the center, which makes it easier to pass a needle thru, but the skin tears easily without the woody top edge to hold the string in place.  i tried using needles and a small drill bit and ended up preferring the needle.  it's easier to pierce thru with a very large sharp needle than a regular small thin one.  i also decided a small cranberry wreath would be nice to hang over our family room mirror.  at first i thought a large one would be really nice, but a small...

ozzy: always up in mimi's business.  btw, he can finally say mimi correctly.

ozzy is just over 16.5 months old and he amuses me to no end.  i dont know if i had quite this much fun with mimi at this age.  i honestly dont remember.  i am inclined to say that mimi didnt really start getting to be fun until more like 18 months of age.  maybe it's because ozzy has mimi's influence.  whatever the case, he's so damn cute that i have to try really hard to be stern when i discipline him when all i want to do is scoop him up and hug on him and rain kisses all over his sweet face.   his antics are just too funny to me. the other day, after drinking voraciously from his sippy cup of orange juice, he suddenly flings it aside, at the same time yelling at it: 'Bye-bye Juice!"  in a tone not unlike one you'd use when you scream, "later, bitches!" he's now into jumping and the way he throws his whole body into jumping is hilarious.  on a good jump he can lift both feet clean off the floor a good 2-3 inches...once i swear i saw h...

what the kids do when they have unstructured time: Mimi:  when mimi has free time she usually draws and writes.  most recently she sat and wrote the lyrics to a 'subtraction song' about ducks swimming away.  (today she is writing a story about her family.  she has decided that she would like to be a author/illustrator when she grows up).  Ozzy:  when ozzy is left alone to his own devices, he draws and makes stuff too... here he's making a mess with tissues.  how do you like that piece stuck to his cheek? and here's a collage of his other handiwork with markers, which are MUCH harder to keep out of reach with mimi around. the first is markers on the fireplace.  the second is markers on the couch.  and the third, he vandalized mimi's artwork on her dry erase easel.  at least he used a dry erase marker on it. yesterday, i changed him out of four outfits because each time he kept demanding a drink and then would purposefully dump ...

mimi's new thing is spelling words.  she is really getting into spelling.  our day is a smattering of "guess what?  i know how to spell ___." and then she'll spell it for me. even before she started kindergarten, she had a few words that she could spell correctly-  love, from, mom, dad, mimi, ozzy, kaya, happy, good and most three letter words and common sight words.  but once she started kindergarten, her teacher started to teach her about word study and how when they are writing they can, in mimi's words, write it "any way they want to."  so one day i see her writing and she writes "love' L-O-V and then says out loud to me, "mom, i'm going to leave the E off the word because my teacher says to stretch out the word and write the letters you hear and you dont have to worry about it being spelled correctly." riiiiiiight .  when i was a teacher, i had come across that bit of confusion before.  so i corrected her and said, yes, IF...

ah, dear ozzy, you are sick again.  fever 103 and lots of congestion.  what a way to end 15 months and begin your 16th month.  but you're so damn cute and sweet i totally forgive you for making me stay up several hours at effing 2 am until 4 am with motrin, bottles of water and juice, cool washcloths, saline, tissues and nose bulb syringe.   at least it means you are finally sleeping until 8 am instead of 6 am.  so even tho i'm not getting much sleep at night, at least i kind of feel like i got to sleep in.  here's one of my favorite things about you:  i love how you'll ask so sweetly, "mama?  baba?"  and when i give you your bottle and ask if you'd like to go night night, you answer in that same sweet voice, "nigh nigh" and nod your head, and then turn around and back up into me so that i can scoop you up and carry you upstairs while you nurse on your bottle of milk. but as soon as we are upstairs and in bed, you, tossing your bottl...

this is not my idea, but it's one of those things that when i heard about it, i couldnt believe i didnt think of it myself.  calling cards for mommies/kids.  perfect for setting up playdates.  how many times have i been without paper and pen when meeting someone and the words "we should set up a playdate" came up?  although, i have to admit that since getting my iphone, it has been really easy to take down another person's info, but not everyone is so equipped, so i'm sure these will still come in handy!

we had mimi's kindergarten parent/teacher conference last week, but it's taken me awhile to synthesize my feelings on it all before posting about it.  initially, when mimi started kindergarten, it was a stressful time for both mimi and me.  i won't lie...it was really, really hard to let her go.  in my mind, i was looking forward to full day kindergarten for mimi because i felt like i could finally give ozzy some attention, so i wasnt really prepared for just how long of a day a full day K would be.  it was a big adjustment for us.  not only that, but there were so many activities that mimi wanted to participate in or that i wanted for her and trying to fit it all in has been another big stressor.  going in to kindergarten i had all kinds of apprehensions about the teacher, friendships, etc.  i met with the principal in the summer before school started and shared my concerns and feelings about what i wanted for mimi and based on what i told her about...

so mimi started daisy scouts (girls scouts kg and 1st grade level) this fall and we finally got her uniform and badges.  i was a kind of disgusted with the cheesy blue polyester vest that is the daisy level uniform.  after we got it, i started to wish that i went with the other option, a tunic, which looked kind of like a preschool art smock.  not that much of a improvement over the vest, really, but this vest...when i saw it, i immediately thought it looked like a walmart uniform.  i tried not to show my disdain when i presented mimi with her uniform.  she was totally thrilled.  one day i will teach her to snub cheap polyester, but for now i will let it slide.  anyway, her knowledge of scouts is all from the cartoon Max and Ruby, a show about two bunny siblings.  Ruby is a Bunny Scout and many episodes of the show revolve around her trying to earn a new badge.  mimi loves the idea of earning things:  points, stickers, money...but bad...

ozzy was eating dinner the other night and i kept seeing him scoop up rice/soup with the spoon held in his right hand, followed by a swipe across his mouth with his left hand, and seeing him getting increasingly incensed as his hand got covered with soupy drippings,  i gave him a napkin and he spent the rest of dinner periodically wiping his mouth with the napkin. so the following night, i offered him a napkin again and taped it.  if he seems distracted, it's because the t.v. is on, tuned in to his favorite channel (noggin, recently renamed nick jr.).

mimi says to me today while eating her dinner, "do you know what i'm going to name my child if i have a daughter when i grow up?" 'what?" "olivia.  and do you know what i'll name my son?" "i dont know.  what will you name him." "brendan." "olivia and brendan?" "yup." "those are nice names." "thanks." and i really did think they were nice names, but  i miss her naming creativity from her earlier years.  when she was 2.5 years old she named her bear "Pendle" and her pink dog "Amigo."

went to the govt center today for h1n1 vaccines for mimi and ozzy.  it was WOW!  amazing how efficiently they handled the masses.  from the streets leading into the govt center there were police to guide the traffic, to several people standing at the entrance holding clipboards with forms, which i filled out as i walked down the corridors, lined with people in green vests that would check your forms as you walked thru.  we were directed to a doctor in a red vest since mimi had an allergy and ozzy was under two, but they okayed the forms quickly since neither posed much of a concern for the vaccine.  and we were moving on towards to the many, many, MANY stations where shots/mist were being administered.  it was a long walk thru and up and down stairs, but we never had to stand in a line, we were pretty much kept moving and processed along the way.  the only time we were ever still for any appreciable time was while the kids got their shots.  mimi...

while putting ozzy to bed last night, he sat up, shaking his head and giggling, and then said in a singsong laughing voice, "no-ohhhhh"  and there it begins. this morning, ozzy grabs his shoes and slaps the front door, his way of demanding to play outside.  while on the swings this morning, i could see his eyes starting to get heavy, so i said, ozzy, down?  he shakes his head vigorously, "no-ohhhh"  and giggles, and even as he's shaking his head, the shaking becomes sluggish and his eyes flutter shut.  so i stop the swing and take him out and he resumes shaking his head, but with much less energy,  before his head droops onto my shoulder.  zzzzzzzz. right now those little 'no's' are so fun and sweet.  i am enjoying them while i can.  because you know, once they get bigger, that stuff that used to be so cute isnt cute any more and those big kid "no!"s are enough to drive anyone to look for pharmeceutical means of relief.  of the ill...

the first of many toy catalogs to come arrived in the mail yesterday.  mimi sat perusing the pages and then sat down and wrote out her christmas wish list (also the first of many to come) and since ozzy couldn't write, she thought santa might like to know what would be some good toys for ozzy, so she made a list for him as well. 

today, as i went about my usual way of naming things and requesting that he try to say words, instead of nodding at me, shaking his head, or just flat out ignoring me, ozzy was making real concerted efforts to repeat what i was saying.  say, "ozzy" i said, and he said, "ahhhzzee" say, "haba" and he says, "haba" say, "mimi" and he says "nee nee" in response to a circular block that he kept showing me and tapping with his finger, i said, "it's a circle."  and he said, "cuhco" gosh, i felt like anne sullivan to helen keller today!

this was the first im family halloween without kaya, and her lack of presence was heavily felt.   every halloween, we'd all be doubled over in laughter as kaya padded around the house in her costume, clearly not thrilled to be wearing it, but, in her usual accommodating manner, would sport the costume benignly. this year, there was the same harried flurry as the costumes went on and photos were snapped, and ozzy crying yet again this year because he didnt want to be still for the pictures.  but this year, there was no gut-busting laughter over the way kaya looked in her costume. i dont know if it was the drizzly rain that dampened the mood, but even the walk from house to house was lack luster without kaya trotting along patiently from house to house. it was a less stressful halloween though, since i wasnt scurrying to sew kaya's costume.  ozzy's costume was only available in size 2-4T, so i did have to adjust his.  i sat and stitched by hand and wa...

(picture:  mimi holding her pumpkin at the Pumpkin Playground field trip her class took last week) mimi told me that fall was her favorite time of the year. she loved the leaves and wishes we had a yard with lots of leaves so she could jump in it. for her decorated pumpkin, last year she drew faces with sharpie markers. this year, she wanted to paint an owl on her pumpkin: she had been begging to go apple picking all month long and her grandparents finally took her last weekend. she made me promise that when she came back with all the apples that we would make an apple pie. so i kept my word and using some of the bazillion apples she picked with her grandparents (god love them, they let her pick two gigantic grocery store bags filled to the brim with apples, many of them were bruised, worm holed, and smashed up) we made an apple pie together. mimi's contribution was measuring the ingredients for the pie crust and then later cutting the pie dough into small leaf shapes ...

here i am late AGAIN to post ozzy's monthly update. things have still been busy, and honestly, i'm starting to think that maybe it's not going to ever slow down. ozzy had hives since oct 8th. the majority of it has cleared up as i write this, but a few small red bumps that resemble little mosquito bites still linger here and there. after the first week of ongoing hives, i started to worry that it was a food allergy, so i called to set up an appointment with the allergist, but the soonest we could be seen by mimi's allergist was another two weeks out. so i called a different allergist and got an appointment for the following week. in the meantime, i started to track what he was eating and try to eliminate them. the hives persisted, and at this point it was going on two weeks with hives. the only thing i had not eliminated thus far was dairy. so i tried that and the hives seemed to go away, not entirely but he was no longer a swollen mess of hives so large that h...