Reflection on 2011

We can't believe how quickly 2011 has come to an end. We spent most of the last day of 2011 thinking about the year and the goals we'd like to set for the new year.

January

We celebrated Mommy and Uncle Steven's birthday at Ohgane.

February

We celebrated grandma's birthday at Red Lobster. We enjoyed a date night in the city thanks to grandma babysitting the kiddos. Daddy also made yummy creamy pesto with shrimp for dinner on Valentine's Day.

March

Ellie was born! Ever since Ellie has been born, our lives have been filled with so much more joy. Her smiles truly light up our lives on a daily basis. She is just so sweet and loveable! Aunty Eunice and Uncle Jonathan got engaged!

April

We went to Ellie's first Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco. Ellie met her grandparents when they came from Alabama to celebrate cousin Sammy's first birthday! Uncle Jae got married!

May

We celebrated Uncle David's birthday at Han Yang Kalbi. Aunty Sunny and Uncle JunMo got engaged!

June

We celebrated Daddy's birthday at home with his friends. We also celebrated Ellie's 100th day with family.

July

We celebrated Uncle Josh and Aunty Renee's birthdays. We enjoyed Ethan and Ellie's first Fourth of July fireworks with Uncle David and his church. We also went to McKenzie's "Ice Cream and Cake" birthday party. Ethan turned 2 years old! We went to ChuckECheese with Uncle Josh, Aunty Renee and Sammy to celebrate.

August

We celebrated Uncle Jae and Aunty JuEun's wedding reception. Ethan had a joint birthday party with Lucy and Brewce at SuperFrank's! We also had to say goodbye to Aunty Sunny and the Im Family. :( Mommy went back to work full-time. Daddy started serving RY, teaching Bible Study. We also celebrated Kingston's first birthday.

September

Uncle Josh, Aunty ;Renee and Sammy stayed with us for a couple of weeks before they moved to the East Coast. :( Mommy started serving our church on the LT.

October

We went to Ellie's first Blue Angels Show in San Francisco during Fleet Week. Ethan had a blast watching the airplanes go by. We also had to say goodbye to Uncle JunMo. :(

November

We went on an overnight trip to Lake Tahoe with Grandma and Uncle Steven. It was Ethan and Ellie's first time seeing snow! We celebrated Thanksgiving at Aunty Susan's new home in Redwood City. Mommy made pumpkin pie which she learned how to do from our next door neighbor. We also had to say goodbye to Aunty Elaine. :(

December

Grandpa and Grandma came from Alabama to spend Ellie's first Christmas with us. We also got to celebrate Grandpa's birthday together.

Through the ups and downs, we've experienced God's presence in our lives and are so grateful for all that He has blessed us with. We are so excited for all that God has in store for us in 2012. Happy New Year!

Ellie is Laughing!

It has been a couple of months since Ellie started to laugh, but we finally had a chance to catch it on video! Her laugh is so sweet and just this morning, Ethan had a blast making her laugh by being his silly self. :)

Untitled from Daniel Koo on Vimeo.

Ellie Tries Peas

After a week of rice cereal, I decided to introduce a veggie. Since we had some peas in the fridge, I used the Ninja to puree it for her. Ellie did great with the feeding and ate everything in the bowl! We offered Ethan some, since he isn't such a big fan of veggies, but he just shook his head and watched Ellie finish her meal. ;)

Ellie Tries Peas from Daniel Koo on Vimeo.

Ellie's First Solids

Since Ellie was going to start daycare soon, I wanted to start her on solids so that (1) she would have the first experience at home and (2) she would at least eat something to keep her full in case she doesn't take the bottle. She sat in her high chair right next to her brother, which Ethan absolutely loved, and enjoyed her food. She seems to like it so much that on the days after the first feeding, she would kick her legs when she saw me walk over with the bowl of rice cereal! :)

Ellie's First Solids from Daniel Koo on Vimeo.

Ethan Learning Korean

An awesome friend of ours sent Ethan a gift from Korean, a set of Korean flashcards! Ethan loves playing with them, especially since he recognizes the pictures. We've started using them to teach him more words in Korean. Here's a clip of him working on a puzzle and repeating the names of the vehicles in Korean:

Ethan Learning Korean from Daniel Koo on Vimeo.

Ellie Rolls Over!

Last week, Ellie rolled over from her back to her stomach! :)

Untitled from Daniel Koo on Vimeo.

Ethan is 2!!

For his birthday, Uncle Steven came over and we all took a trip to Target so Ethan can pick out his birthday present! We gave him a few choices and, of course, he chose the biggest box... He played with it until bedtime and then, ran to it first thing the next morning! :)

We sang "Happy Birthday" to Ethan at church during Fellowship and he blew out the two candles all by himself. He seemed to like that part, not so much the cupcake, though. He didn't even want a taste of it!

After church, Aunty Renee and Uncle Josh treated us out to Chuck E Cheese's, where Ethan had a blast on the rides and playing different games.

He was so excited when he saw the birthday cake with Elmo and Big Bird riding on cars!

I can't believe two years have gone by already! Ethan has become such a sweet, funny, little guy. He is so full of energy... never walking... always running around wherever he goes! Here are some new things he can do:

1. He can recognize familiar places. When we exit the freeway for church, Ethan says "dawhada!" (we're here!)... and he says it when we drive into the parking lot at home!

2. He can jump with two feet off the ground. He actually had been practicing this for awhile and when he finally got it, he was so excited that he kept doing it over and over again! We felt bad for our neighbors downstairs that day... hehe

3. He can kick a ball. He also takes his toy bat and tries to hit the ball with it midair.

4. He recognizes some numbers and letters. He definitely knows the number 2 wherever he sees it. (And now that he's two, he knows how to answer the question "How old are you?") He also knows how to say the number 9... and recognizes 8, and 10. While working on his alphabet puzzle, he will say "A" for A... "Ball!" for B... "quack quack" for D (duck)... "E" for E... "Fish!" for F... "House" for H... "I" for I... "Moon!" or "M" for M... "N" or "nest" for N... "O" for the letter O... "Ring!" for R... "ssss" or "S" for S... and "Y" for Y. Ethan will also point out these letters when he sees them around and about... in books... on signs... on shirts... etc.

5. He can follow along with motions to songs! He likes "Itsy Bitsy Spider," which he'll ask for when working on his insects puzzle... He also likes "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," which he'll ask for whenever he sees a star... He also knows "Wheels on the Bus" and "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."

6. He has added to his vocabulary... He can put 2-4 words into phrases now... such as "I want this please"... "more water please"... "baby night-night" (when Ellie is sleeping)... "baby mam-ma" (when Ellie is nursing)... "there it is!"...

7. He knows his animal sounds, especially while working on his animal puzzles
cow - moo
duck - quack
sheep - baa
pig - oink
horse - nay or "horse!"
dog - "mungmungyi"
cat - neow
elephant - bbooo
monkey - ah-ah
snake - sssssss
lion - roar

8. He no longer cries when he's put in the crib for naps and bedtimes! We're planning to transition him into the full-size bed in the the other room when Ellie turns 6 months old. It will be a big change for us all as we're going to move Daniel oppa's desk into the master bedroom and move the crib back into the second bedroom so both Ellie and Ethan will be sleeping together. We'll see how that goes!

9. He likes to say "mess" and lets us know when he's created one. He'll also notice the mess Ellie makes when she spits up and will even try to clean it with a washcloth!

10. He's slowly learning to pull his pants up and down to prepare for potty-training. He also knows how to undo the velcro on his shoes to help get them on and off.

11. He associates names with people... he can point out umma (mom), abba (dad), baby or Ellie or Hyunji, gomo (aunt), gomobu (uncle), Sammy or Heeman, halmuni (grandma), halabuji (grandpa), samchon (uncle), Christian, Aiden, Belle, Lucy, Brewce, Jaide... He'll also get excited (pointing and exclaiming) when he sees familiar faces at church.

12. He has learned to open doors... and being so observant, he has picked up how to unlock the front door! These days whenever he hears something outside, he'll run to the door, open it and look outside. He also gets really excited and runs to the door at the sound of the doorbell. :)