The Im Family

Mimi getting all her nightly necessaries ready for bed.  (mimi: "hurry up and take the picture!  i can barely hold it all!")

ozzy: mommy, where's daddy? me:  he's in California, remember? ozzy: oh, i want to go to California too! me:  you do?  what would you do there? ozzy:  play with toys. me: cant you play with toys in Virginia? ozzy:  oh, in Fairfax? (smiles and nods)  okay.

while on the computer this weekend, mimi discovered a new dora golf game online.  she comes scurrying over, saying, "mom, this is really funny!  there's a new dora golf game and it says (here, she puts her hand over her mouth to contain her giggles), 'move over tiger woods, cuz here comes dora!', (another attempt to control herself from totally cracking up), isn't that funny?!?!"  i agree and laugh, but more at her because she's so funny, then she happily trots back to the computer, quietly chuckling to herself at this bit of wit. i can't wait until the day i can introduce her to my favorite humorist, david sedaris.

The aquarium stand arrived on thurs afternoon from petsmart.  i assembled it that day, so i could finally move the fish tank to its permanent location, fill up the tank and let the fish finally stretch their fins.  mimi was quite thrilled with the stand and helped me move the fish supplies to the cabinets.  and then it was time to move the fish.  i thought i'd be able to move the tank myself if i drained out most of the water, but found out quickly that a 20 gallon glass tank, with 5 lbs of gravel, and approx 4 gals of water, and aquarium paraphernalia weigh a LOT. so, no, moving it by myself was probably not going to happen! hmmm.  what to do.  what to do.  the fish were getting frantic in the few inches of water i had left in the tank in an effort to lighten it.  i had to do something quick, either find a way to move it now, or fill it back up and wait four days until DH came home to move it for me.  thankfully, Friend Karen came to the...

just a couple more months before Ozzy turns 3.  of course he says he wants a train themed birthday party (again).  i do have to say i am pleased w/how much use we get out of the train sets though and it's nice that both kids, even with the 4 year age difference, can enjoy it together. i got this picture a few days ago, after mimi came home from school.  this was just minutes after the whole family room was just tidied of toys...the floor was toy free for all of 5 minutes.  once they have it all laid out, it is sad to take it apart to clean up. thankfully, but less amusingly, ozzy has gotten better about packing away the trains, almost a year ago, his reaction was very different...

since kaya passed, mimi has been asking for another pet.  another dog, a cat, a rabbit, a hamster...all of which DH and I vetoed (though, if it were just me, i probably would have caved sooner and gotten her a pet, but held strong only because DH was so vehemently opposed to any mammals joining the Im household any time soon).  so a few weeks ago, when mimi came to me to argue a case for why she should be allowed to have fish (and each week since then, brought home books from the library on caring for fish), it was hard for me to say no (funny how she knows which parent to work over to get what she wants).  she read up on what it takes to care for fish, took notes, and shared with me random bits of information about different fish and why she liked them.  here's some of her notes (i like the part about when a fish is sick, she wrote, "fish lays at the surface."  lol.  yeah, that's a clear indication that something's not good with that fish. and the fish...

here's her anniversary card for rob and me.  i like the way she drew rob's pants.  it's very, er...inventive. and this is her list of night time To Dos.  i was tickled by her "Note" to herself at the end.  at least i know she is really listening to me and making an effort, even if she usually forgets this anyway ;)    * the note translated:  "notes: make sure you save time to do stuff & do the important things first then see if you have time to play.

the first grade classes had their performance at school tonight.  the three piggy opera.  mimi was the mama pig (that's mimi in the dress and hat!).  i had her perform her part for me at home as practice and she was so cute.  she sang the Mother Pig's song so beautifully at home, but at the school production, all the kids sang it while she acted it out.  her part comes up at the 2:50 mark.  the opening song was really cute, too, so i got footage of that.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ91joR4RM0

here's the more recent video of him reading.  it's very very hard to get video as he is least willing to read when i'm trying to record him.  after appealing to his wishes to stay up later, which i said he could do if he read to me, i was able to get a little bit of footage . he also likes to play a little game with me where he's the teacher and i'm the student and he'll say, "what sound does buh buh bear begin?" and i say, "B!" and he says, "Good!  you did it, mommy!"  sometimes i'll pretend i dont know and say the wrong letter, and he tries to help me out, "no.  listen, cuh cuh car.  what makes cuh cuh cuh.  try again, mommy."  it's totally adorable.

Ten years ago, in a simple church in Fairfax Station, Rob and I promised our lives to each other.  I still remember that day as one of the happiest days of my life. it's funny to think back on that day now, ten years later and to realize how young we were still, even tho i remember feeling so dang-on mature that day!  and now with the wisdom and experience of ten more years together, to recall how simple and carefree our relationship had been then, but of course we didnt fully appreciate that then!  but looking back, it's interesting to see how simple our lives were.  we didnt have to work as hard at our relationship then as we did in the years that followed as jobs changed, children entered the picture,  lives became that much busier and we had less and less time for each other and more and more responsibilities burdening our backs.  and many times there were BIG arguments as we muddled through, trying to keep pace with our changing lives.  and someti...