For the love of donuts

We are lucky enough to have a very a good bakery four houses down from us. One of their specialties is donuts. They are dipped in cinnamon sugar so they aren't too sweet and they taste wonderful with a cup of coffee in the morning. They are the next best thing to my mother's homemade donuts and can't even beat a Krispe Kreme hot donut (although those are good as sometimes).

We've had several snow storms this year and last week was one of them, but that didn't stop Sarah and Greg from going to get some fresh donuts to make us happy. I know up north, this would be a normal adventure, but for us southerners, it is very different for us. Hard to believe we could have even more snow next week!

Splish Splash

David continues to grow and is two months now! When he was born he had skinny little legs (a Brown family characteristic) and now they are turning into nice chubby baby legs. He is already wearing 3-6 month clothes and is almost 14 pounds.

He has some trouble with acid reflux (at least we think) and he started some prescription medicine last week. We saw a noticeable difference in him and he actually has some calm moments now. We are happy that he is more comfortable. His next big adventure is starting daycare next week. I spoke with the caregiver there and she is very excited to have him. She also took care of Sarah for part of the time and Sarah loved her. It is nice to know that he'll be in loving hands when we aren't there to take care of him. Unfortunately, David still is not a fan of bottles and loves to sleep on his stomach (which is not allowed a daycare), so I think the first week will be tough for him. I am planning on doing shorter days so he doesn't come home completely exhausted and hungry. Hopefully he'll adjust quickly and enjoy his time there like Sarah.

Our evening routine is starting to go a little smoother as David gets older. Bathtime is one of our calmer moments since both Sarah and David enjoy it. Sarah likes to help bathe David and David just likes to sit in the warm water. It's a nice time that we get to enjoy as a family. Even Brody will join us in the bathroom. We are so happy that we renovated the bathroom over the summer. Now we can all fit comfortably in the bathroom and the heated floor continues to be a treat with the cold winter nights!

Sarah and David enjoy their evening bath

Finally some nice weather

It has been very cold in VA for the last few weeks, which makes getting out and enjoying the southern mild winter weather tough. The cold finally broke this weekend, so we had a chance to go to the river and enjoy a nice walk as a family. Sarah had a great time walking and Greg carried David in the sling. Brody was very thankful to be able to run around and visit with the other dogs. Despite the cold water, he still went for a dip in the river.

Sarah is adjusting well to being a big sister and wants to help with David. She likes to see how he is in the morning, when he is awake, and when he needs to be fed. When he cries, she will go and talk to him. At first she was upset when he cried. Now she seems to tune him out--particularly when he cries when we bring Sarah to or from daycare. He is following in his sisters footsteps and doesn't appear to be the baby that calms down when he is in the car. We hope this phase doesn't last too long.

Walking by the river

Sarah singing "a hiking we will go..a hiking we will go..."

Sarah and David

Sarah enjoys a new hat she received for Christmas

Winter Storm

We had our first winter storm of the year. I think this is the first time since we've been in Richmond to have snow before January. We had to run out an buy boots for Sarah right before the storm. We got the very last pair of rain boots in her size that day as it seems everyone else was doing the same thing. This is understandable since many years we don't get snow, so buying boots seems to be a last minute purchase if it does happen to come. At least the rain boots will work well in the spring.

Sarah had a great time running and falling in the snow singing "ho, ho, ho" the whole time. After that she built a snowman with Greg. The snowman is an official Tarheel in honor of UNC basketball (although they are not doing as well as Duke this year :). What Sarah enjoyed most of the whole experience was coming in to have hot chocolate with marshmallows and warming up after having fun playing. For our little non-sleeper (she dropped her naps at 3 and usually will stay up singing and playing in bed past 9 or 10 at night) we finally found something to wear her out! She was exhausted by 6:30 that night and even said she wanted to go to bed!

Welcome David Kang

On December 9th we welcomed the fourth member of our family, David Eu-Jin Kang. At 39 weeks, he came out at a whopping 9 lbs. 3 ozs and 21 inches. He beat his sister who was only 7 lbs 6 ozs when she was born. We were expecting a bigger baby because I was carrying heavier in the front (may be 8 lbs), but we didn't expect him to be so big! He is a healthy baby and solid eater. Sarah was very excited to meet him, but unfortunately with the flu season, H1N1 and hospital regulations, she had to wait until he came home. So far so good, but we've had plenty of people around to keep her company while mom is busy feeding the hungry boy. My mom came in the day before I was scheduled to be induced and stayed the week to help out.

The whole family together in front of the Christmas tree.

Nanny and Sarah making a Gingerbread House together

Sarah gets to meet her baby brother

Sarah gives her baby brother a kiss and hug the day before he is born.

Halloween and November

Halloween was fun for Sarah this year. She had a great time dressing up as Eyore. We also carved pumpkins with friends and ended up making a Winnie the Pooh pumpkin using a carving kit. Sarah had fun dressing up three times in her outfit. The first was the fall festival at daycare where the kids come in the evening and make crafts, have a cake walk, and get to play. The next time was the Halloween parade at daycare and finally trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

Sarah eats a cookie at the daycare festival.

Decorating cookies with her friend Nina.

In November we started to get ready for David to arrive and were working on pulling out all the old baby stuff from the attic. We also enjoyed the nice southern weather. We had several days in the 70's. Sarah had a great time one day playing in the leaves while Greg worked on picking them up.

Sarah plays in the leaves.

Brody enjoys the leaves as well.

Fall

It's been a busy August and September with us working on a major bathroom renovation. I've started to put the photos together but thought I would try and do one big post on that from start to finish. We've finally got cooler weather in Richmond and it is so nice to enjoy the cooler days. Sarah has switched to a three year old class, which is Montessori and just loves it. She asks everyday if it is a Skipwith day (name of the daycare). When I say yes, the gets very happy. Within weeks of moving, she is already recognizing letters and numbers much better than before. We really like this new structure and class and look forward to how she'll do in the coming year.

Between the bathroom renovation, Sarah and I made a quick trip up to Massachusetts for a long weekend to see everyone before baby number two arrives in December (yes, for anyone that reads this and doesn't know, I am 7 months pregnant as demonstrated in the photo above). We had a fun time. While the weather wasn't nice enough to enjoy the beach (there were remnants of a hurricane passing through), we did go to the beach to see the waves and watch the surfers enjoy the high winds. Sarah got to play with her cousin, Abigail who has grown so much since we last saw her in December.

Sarah watches the waves at the beach


My mom and Abigail


Sarah running all over the beach and letting everyone chase her

Sarah enjoys dressing up in play shoes at my friend Chom's birthday party for her children in Massachusetts

Aunt Melissa and cousin Abigail

While the bathroom renovation has taken up a good deal of our weekends for the last few weeks, we have had a chance to do a few things. A few weeks ago, we went to Field Days of the Past just about 20 minutes outside of the city. I was amazed at how country (OK, I'll say it --redneck) it was given the proximity to the city. Never had I seen so many confederate flags for sale. Still something I have not gotten used to living in the south. Regardless, we enjoyed the day, ate kettle corn, watched the pig races (this one included swimming as well), and petted the horses, goats, llamas, chickens, etc.

Greg and Sarah eat Kettle Corn

Lastly, Sarah got to see her friend Emma this weekend who is my friend Kat's daughter. Kat and I lived in Australia together when we did a semester abroad in college. We watched Emma so Kat and her husband could go out dinner together. Next weekend, Greg and I will get to have a nice night of dinner together as well. I am looking forward to a nice evening of good food! The next day, Sarah and I went with them to pick pumpkins and take a hayride (photo at the top). I think the girls had more fun running around together in the pumpkin patch than picking them.

Sarah and Emma dress up as princesses