2 Years Old

My little ESK is growing up so fast. I recently looked back at ESK's infant pictures and couldn't believe how little she was.


At 2 years of age, my ESK is into:

- Anything "Dora"
- Drinking out of cup
- Her tricycle
- Her miniature stroller
- Eating cantaloupe
- Pointing out rude bodily functions ("burp" & "tootie")


I'm looking forward to the challenges and joys ahead. She sure has changed my life for the better....

We Love Julie

Since we're far away from family and friends, we've had a hard time finding a babysitter for the occasional nights when SK and I want to go out. After a weird incident with a previous sitter, we signed up for a sitter service that is a bit on the expensive side. The service does extensive background checks for us and provides experienced caretakers. After a few months of meeting a wide variety of sitters, we have finally found one that we LOVE and ESK feels pretty comfortable with. YAY!

Julie is a full-time nanny who is working extra hours to save up for a workspace for her striving-artist husband. When we come back home, ESK has been put to sleep, dishes are cleaned and toys are tidied. She also leaves a long written summary of the night's events, i.e. "ESK thought it was hilarious when I made her stuffed pig dance." SK and I feel comfortable leaving the house and have no problems forking over the money because we know it's going toward a great goal AND a great caregiver. I feel so blessed.

Spiritual Gifts
After attending a church here in Portland for the past year and a half, we are finally becoming official members. (We tried attending a class last year, but couldn't finish the classes because of scheduling problems.) It is a very large church (1100 regular attendees?) which was very disconcerting at first, but since getting plugged into a small group less than a year ago, we've really grown to love our church community.

So, at the membership class, the pastoral staff shared with us their spiritual gifts, i.e. leadership, faith, mercy, administration. They asked us to think about our spiritual gifts and as part of our homework we were assigned the Wagner-Modified Houts Questionnaire, aimed at discovering our spiritual gifts. You respond to 125 statements on a 0-3 scale (0=not at all; 3=much) tally up your scores and bam: your spiritual gifts. It's kinda like a holy version of those YM surveys I used to love as a teenager. Some examples:

"People have told me that I have helped them learn biblical truth in a meaningful way."
"I have verbally encouraged the wavering, the troubled or the discouraged."
"Sometimes when a person speaks in tongues, I get an idea about what God is saying."
"I enjoy being called up to do special jobs around the church."
"I am single and enjoy it."

My gifts (drum roll please): Exhortation (gift of counseling, comforting, encouraging), Hospitality (providing an open house and welcome), Administration, and Service.

Things that I scored low on: Prophecy, Tongues, Voluntary Poverty, Celibacy and Exorcism

I have to say, I knew I wasn't given the gifts of Voluntary Poverty or Celibacy. HA! Without taking the questionnaire, what do you think your gifts are?

Holiday Pics

2 Cousins Cheek to Cheek

A Bath of Her Own

Cozy Times with Halmi

Christmas Morning Frenzy

Sittin' Pretty in Front of Tree

Poopy Potty Time!

Yes, it is toilet training time in our household. ESK so far has successfully done #1 and #2 in the potty a handful of times. The goal is to have her trained by the time baby Numero Dos comes around. So far, lots of praise and rewards of watching Super Why! (her fave show on PBS) seem to be working. ESK will do just about anything to watch Super Why! and dangling an episode as a reward has come in very handy during very difficult situations.

Also, speaking of all things in the nether regions.... Did I ever mention that Portland is kind of a kooky city? Apparently, Saturday afternoon is "Pants Off!" day on the public transit here in Portland. I doubt this event is something actually supported by mass transit authorities here, but it is the 8th annual, so whoever is organizing has had some past success! Needless to say, we will not be taking any kind of public transit on Saturday afternoon...

Post-Christmas Void

I was going to post some pics of our Christmas in Philly, but blogger is acting weird. So that will have to wait.

Christmas in Philly was a whirlwind as usual. Satisfying the grandparents' insatiable appetite for time with ESK as well as doing all the things on my list while back in my hometown is darn near impossible. So, for those I didn't get to see while I was back.... Sorry! Again! Next year? I know, I stink.

Is it me or does the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas just fly? This year was especially hectic for us since a lot of our energy the week before Christmas was spent navigating the icy and snowy Portland roads. Apparently, we got out of Portland in the nick of time as a snowstorm hit the day after we left and folks were stranded in the airport for three days! And then another major snowstorm hit on Christmas Eve. They say this is the worst stretch of winter weather Portland has seen in 30 years.

Now that we're back to (thankfully, snowless) Portland, things are eerily quiet. I felt like I ramped up for the two holidays and now there's a void. No people to see, no shopping to do, no church-related activities....

Not that I'm complaining. Now that I'm finally done unpacking all our luggage, including the two extra suitcases of Christmas presents, I'm finally getting around to long-term projects like my honeymoon scrapbook (fyi: married in June 2006) and organizing our mail/cellphone-charging area in the kitchen.

One of my biggest resolutions for the new year? Budgeting! So despite all the post-holiday sales, all we've done so far is some window-gawking and online browsing. Sigh.

However, I did come across this site: Little Seouls. Lately, ESK has been a sponge with her vocabulary and to capitalize on her growing brain, I've been looking around for items to teach ESK the Korean alphabet and Korean words. Check it out.