The Month of May (and April)

It seems we are out of practice on the posts and need to do a major update. Sometimes it seems we aren't doing things that are news worthy, but even the little things are good to know. Since our last post, we've celebrated Easter, flown to Atlanta for a wedding, gone to the Georgia Aquarium (see photo on above), and enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day weekend (mostly because it was three days off.)

We'll start with the trip to Atlanta. A few weeks ago, Greg's cousin got married. Most of Greg's family lives in Atlanta (he has two uncles and an aunt who there along with the cousins). Greg's parents came as well. We were amazed at the urban sprawl of Atlanta and wonder how people deal with the traffic. We had dinner at a relatives house each night and I got to try new Korean dishes I had not had before. Greg was happy to get his Korean food fix.

The wedding was beautiful with a mix of Korean and English. Sarah and I had to miss a majority of the ceremony because she wanted to sing, dance and talk most of the time. However, after that she was the hit of the party. She tried to dance the first dance, get the first piece of cake, and just join in all of the festivities. She even took the cake topper with flowers and handed out some cake to people (what a helper!)

Since we were in Atlanta, we decided to check out the Georgia aquarium. We had heard about it on the Today show a few times and it was a really fun place to visit. They had Beluga whales, sharks, tropical fish, and, of course, Sarah's favorite--Nemo (or at least a look alike).

Before our Atlanta adventures, we celebrated a low key Easter with some friends of ours, Aris and Jill. They live close to Monument Avenue, where there is an annual Easter on Parade each year. We went to their house in the morning for brunch and then headed out to the parade. It isn't as much a parade, but a big 6-7 block party with people and dogs walking around. People who own the huge mansions on the Monument Avenue host parties (we don't know anyone who lives on Monument, so we just see the parties). It's a fun time and great to people watch.

There was a group of cross dressers out on the day of the parade that Sarah was fascinated with. Mostly because they had on very colorful dresses and pretty hats. Sarah kept calling them, 'the ladies.'

During the weekend, we also attended a Easter festival at a park nearby. It was colder that day, but Sarah had fun going on the little merry-go-round, getting a sticker 'tattoo' and petting the little baby goats.

Sarah dances with mommy at the wedding


Sarah carries the cake topper and some cake.


Sarah looks at 'the ladies' at the Easter on Parade

Sarah hanging out with mommy at the Easter on Parade

Sarah sits on Apa's shoulders while at the parade

Petting the baby goats at the Easter festival

Singing and Dancing

As I've mentioned before, Sarah really enjoys singing and dancing. On a daily basis, we get some sort of dancing show. I recorded one of her performances tonight to give you a feel of what we get.

Also, this weekend we went to my friend Ellen's wedding in PA. Ellen and I went to grad school together. She lives in DC now but catching up is hard. We were glad to be able to go to her wedding. It was a Jewish wedding and Greg got to wear a pink yamika. It was great fun.

Greg and I dressed up!

Ellen and other friends from grad school

Ellen gets a ride in the chair for the "hava nagila" song

Swimming Lessons

This weekend Sarah started swimming lessons. She was very excited about playing in the water, but soon had second thoughts when we arrived and had to actually go and play in it. After a little while though, she loosened up and started to enjoy the water. We're going to move back down a class to make it a bit easier. While we signed up for the correct age range (2-3 year olds), it appears that almost every child in the class had taken a prior swim class, so they were a bit more advanced than Sarah. We'll join the younger group next week and help her get used to water at a better pace.

The weather over the weekend was very rainy, which dampened our hopes of getting the yard work started. This year we plan to have a vegetable garden with lettuce, snow peas, tomatoes, and eggplant. Unfortunately with the bad weather, we were stuck inside. We improvised though and bought seeds to get started inside. Sarah and I planted some lettuce and flowers that she picked out for the back yard. We look forward to watching them grow in the coming weeks!

Snow-Finally!

We finally received our first heavy snow in about 5-6 years. Since the holidays, I've been secretly hoping for a snow day. We only had one day off, but it was nice. We received about 6 inches in the Richmond area. Unfortunately, we don't have much for Sarah in terms of snow gear--ie. boots and warm pants so we improvised with two pairs of pants and some wet sneakers in the end.

Since I am also a week late posting this, we've already seen record high temperatures of 80+ degrees since! Always interesting following the winter weather in the south.

Brody enjoys the snow

Sarah helps clean off the cars

Greg shovels the back walk

Sarah has fun trying to make a snow man.

There's duck again -he wanted to see the snow as well

Growing Up

About two weeks ago, Sarah decided that she didn't need her diapers and wanted to start wearing underwear. We enjoyed the change but soon realized that it brought on more work like asking "do you need to go" all the time and doing more laundry as a result of accidents.

We think she is on track to being diaper free at night soon and we are very proud of her (although I don't think she realizes it--it's just another part of her growing up) As you can tell from the photo, she's adapting well to practicing on the toilet and we found it amusing when she decided to read her 'magazine' while using it.

It's really fun to hear her talk and how she uses words like 'actually' and 'of course'---as in,

Q: "Sarah, is the flower green?"

A: "Well, actually it's red."

Q: "Sarah can you help me clean up?"

A: "Of course!"

Her current favorite activites are hide and seek, dancing/singing, and building with her blocks.

She's been very good and were still wondering when or if the "terrible two's" will hit.

Learning to Eat with Chopsticks

Last week Sarah started her chopsticks lessons. After watching Greg eat with them so many times, she really wanted to give it a try. His parents have showed us a way to make "training" chopsticks by using a rubber band, but we couldn't find one. Greg helped and she practiced picking up carrots, oranges, and toast. It made eating lunch interesting and entertaining for her, which is always a good thing.


Sarah practices picking up carrots

Hold on tight!

The weather in Richmond has been colder than normal. We even had a day where it didn't get above freezing. Unfortunately, we haven't had any snow yet. Sarah likes bundling up for the cold and wearing her hat and gloves. It's also led to more indoor activities and games like hide and seek, flashlight tag, and making music. Sometimes it involves mixing all these activities together, where Sarah hides with a head lamp on (yes, this really makes it easier to find her) and then dances with her maracas in between episodes. At least she's entertained.....

Flashlight/hide and seek/dancing tag!


I love to pose for pictures. Say Cheese!

Happy New Year

I've been pushing off writing because I have so much to put down since I seemed to have skipped the month of December. I went by so quickly but I'll try to give a quick summary.

The first weekend, Greg, Sarah and I went with friends of ours to the Richmond Grand Illumination. Each year the city lights up an area downtown with trees and reindeer (obviously fake). In addition, the companies in the area, outline their buildings in lights for the holiday season. They kick off the lighting ceremony with bands and activities. It was our first year attending and we've decided to go back again. The picture above is us at the event. Unfortunately, it does not do any justice to showing just how pretty it is.

The next week, I headed to western Virginia for our annual work conference. Greg was working, so his parents were nice enough to drive up and spend a few days watching Sarah. After they left, my parents arrived from Florida and stopped for the weekend. We went to my friend Violet's church on Saturday for a breakfast with Santa. If you've talked to me, you know my story about how I'll bring Sarah to see Santa when she asks me to do it. However, I figured this would be a way for her to watch what was going on and decide if she wanted to see him. While she did eventually sit on Santa's lap, she wasn't too thrilled and was more interested in making crafts after. My parents jumped in and helped her make a paper frame for her picture with Santa and ornaments.

Sarah making ornaments with my dad

My mom helps Sarah make a snowman

Sarah proud of her crafts!


As the weekend came to a close, Sarah and I got in the minivan with my parents and continued up the coast to MA. We stayed a week and had great visits with family and friends. We also got to see my brother's new house in Falmouth. Unfortunately, I was very negligent on that trip to take pictures.

Sarah and I flew back from MA a few days before Christmas to join back up with Greg and head to Northern Virginia to spend Christmas with his family. His sister and her family live up there now and his parents and brother drove up as well. It was a great day with kids and dogs everwhere!

Kelly and Lauren

Sarah singing and dancing (she does this a lot)

Dad tries to capture the moment of opening gifts

Sarah and mommy opening presents

Greg's mother and his brother's dog Maximus

All the kids together (Sarah, Noah, Alex, and Lauren) and Brody checking things out on the side