The Im Family

not easy to see the rash. it looks way worse in person. it's all over his forehead, sides of his face, nose, neck, ears, chest, back, abdomen) friday ozzy came down with roseola. we were at the pool for a party and near the end of the party i noticed he felt terribly hot. when we got home, i took his temp and it was over 103 degrees. then for the next several days, saturday, sunday, monday, it was nonstop rounds of motrin and tylenol to control the fever. even with the meds his temp would only get as low as 101 and as the motrin wore off it would scoot back over 102. by monday night at 12:45 a.m., ozzy's temp skyrocketed to 104.5, his body was literally radiating heat, i could feel it before my hands even touched his skin that felt too hot to even believe. when i got him into the light i saw his face and body were covered in a diffuse rash, covering his face, ears, neck, chest, back and the backs of his knees. these are moments i know panicking does no good, but it'...

while driving in the car today mimi tells me she likes riding in SUVs and minivans. why ? i ask. she answers, because they are high up . pauses for a second as if contemplating this further and then says, i like the view.

ozzy loves the stairs. he is so fast. i let him climb up the stairs whenever we come home, since our main level is actually our second level. he is very stable on the stairs, but even as i stand guard spotting him with my hands just inches from his solid little body, i can feel the fear literally vibrating out of every pore of my body and it's only when he makes it to the top of the stairs that i can feel remotely normal again. it is the same with watching him come down the stairs. we havent practiced on the big stairs much. he gets all his step climbing up and down practice from the step we have in our family room and from the little trampoline that he also has access to. he's really good at it though. it's quite the marvel. it's quite the stressor. i keep imagining him getting too confident and toppling down the stairs. ozzy has also figured out that you can get off the bed in much the same fashion as coming down a step. so it's even harder to keep him o...

while driving home from swim class this morning, mimi points to the Red Cross building logo and announces: "Mom, i know what that building is for. it's where people go when they fall down and die." i have no idea what this girl has seen or where she saw it.

ozzy has been eating a pretty big variety of foods now. he really enjoys his food to have some flavor, so whatever we eat, he's generally eating. i'm happy to see that he really enjoys his green veggies. so just when i think i understand his palate preferences, then comes the reaction to TriViSol, the infant liquid vitamin that you feed thru a dropper. it's this dark looking liquid... i have never smelled it or tasted it, but it doesnt seem appetizing at all. so it's a mystery to me why he acts like i'm pulling out crack cocaine whenever i take out that bottle. he gets all excited, doing his huhuhuh laugh because man, he just cant wait to get his fix.

dont ever ask me to, just off the top of my head, tell you when Ozzy started to do/say things...i have to think long and hard, go back thru my blogs, remember specific calendar holidays/events that i have aligned an action to, tunnel thru the swiss cheese holes of my brain to remember all the stuff that i can barely keep from spilling through my sieve-like mommy brain that cant hold a single thought, except for the day by day minutiae that i must remember to keep my children from starving or being left behind. this is going to be my ongoing list where i keep his language (spoken/signed or understood) development documented, so no one will ever have to ask me to remember when for them. (to see an ongoing chart of words signed/spoken by age click here ) 4 months makes raspberries, ahhhh and aye sounds. 5 months: when i say peekaboo! he'll grab his blanket and cover his head with it. when tapping his chin or mouth, he makes babababa sounds. 7 months: says baba, yaya, wawa can make cl...

mimi says she's been having lots of bad dreams lately. she has also been increasingly moodier and moodier every day, with periodic crying jags, feeling sorry for herself, saying she can't do anything right, and at night she wants me to stay with her when she's in bed. the other day she told me she had another dream about being in a car with no driver, and she gets in the car and the car takes her away from me and she can't control the car and she can't come back to me. pretty deep stuff for a five year old. somehow, i have a sinking feeling it's probably something i've done or not done. *sigh*. is it inevitable that one day she will be griping about 'mom' to her therapist?

mimi, who is allergic to peanuts, has had other nuts before, but no other nut butters because most of them tend to be processed in facilities that also process peanuts. as of 2007, Nutella stopped using peanut oil to make their spread. mimi had some Nutella on toast and was completely enamored. it made me happy to see her able to enjoy something as basic as toast with a nut butter, even if it isnt peanut butter.

ozzy jumping on the trampoline. he does little bounces...doesnt catch much air (yet). and when he's done, he turns around and comes down off of it carefully. ozzy is 11 months old! he's been drinking from a straw since late may (just ice water). he's eating less and less 'baby' food, preferring table food. he's drinking 8 oz of formula in a bottle, three times a day, and latches on to nurse 3 times a day, and then latches on several times first thing in the morning, mostly because he insists on waking up at FIVE O"FRICKIN' CLOCK AM, so i just keep latching him on, over and over and over again, until it's a more decent hour. usually he's had it w/breastfeeding and refuses to latch on for the 11th time around 6:45 a.m. and then i have to wake up and take him downstairs and fix him a real breakfast. he's enjoying a variety of foods...some of what he eats, just off the top of my head: soft cooked veggies, cubed, but must be seasoned: aspara...

see exhibit A, B, and C. all this happened in the span of less than 24 hours. A. he fell while playing outside and smacked his head on the concrete sidewalk. Rob was with him, but he falls over so fast it's hard to grab him in time. B. he fell while playing on the bottom step outside my bedroom. as he was trying to crawl down backwards, his left foot got stuck and he ended up falling off the step and bonked his head on the wood floor. i was right beside him, he looked pretty secure, so i looked away for one second to throw some clothes into the laundry pile and over he fell in that same instant. C. i put him down onto the family room floor to play, and was trying to rush back to the kitchen to tend to the food cooking on the stove. he didnt want me to leave and lunged for me as i was walking away, and instead of grabbing my leg, plowed, face first into the wooden ledge of the step up into the kitchen. there was a sickening almost splatting sound when he hit. it's been ab...

ozzy loves the remote control! t.v., fan/lights, blueray, etc. he esp likes it when he pushes the buttons and it makes it do something. he will purposefully point the remote towards the t.v. to see if he can make things happen, MUCH to mimi's displeasure. little man! he's 3 days away from being 11 months. this is the day after his haircut. Osten Jaesoon Im had his first sip of orange juice today. i tried to catch it on video but something went wrong and only the first FOUR SECONDS of it got captured. i was very sad because it was SUCH a fun, cute moment. rob was sitting in the family room eating a quick meal on the ottoman while watching some t.v. he had a glass of watered down o.j. to drink. ozzy came by, made the sign for 'drink' and reached for rob's glass of juice. since he's just a month away from being one year old, i told rob to go ahead and let him try it, figuring he wouldnt care for it anyway because 1. it was watered down and 2. acidic and...

so today, mimi tells me that she would like to have a baby shower. i told her you only have a baby shower if you're going to have a baby. she says to me thoughtfully, "sure, i would like to have a child. maybe four. i'll keep one and i'll give three to daddy. i'll just photocopy them for him." then she told me, "mom when i grow up i want to be just like you and take care of my kids. i know it's a lot of hard work, but it can be fun, too. when i'm a mom, i'm going to be just like you. you know, i'll do all that stuff... yell at my kids...make them good food to eat...give them baths...teach them stuff...put their clothes on, and all that stuff."

the other morning, as i was trying to get mimi to stop dawdling and get dressed, rather unsuccessfully, i might add, i could feel the lately all too common feeling of irritation rising to the forefront. i have been trying to be more understanding and patient with mimi, but ozzy's constant needs makes it so hard for me to slow down for mimi. i feel constantly pressed for time. time with mimi feels like a luxury i no longer have. and when i think about it, it's really sad for the both of us. so that morning, my patience wearing thin, i hurried her downstairs after getting dressed with just had her socks left to put on, all the while, chastising her for not getting dressed faster (i dont know why i can't just shut up about it) and telling her to just bring her socks downstairs to put on while i got breakfast ready. as we're going down the stairs, mimi is dragging her feet in the most painfully slowest way...down....each...step, and saying in her most forlorn voice, ...