Well well well…time flies and here we are half way through October. Life is full in every way. There was that 3 week stint about a month ago where I was certain someone was trying to kill us between 2 ER visits with the kids and me being actually sick above and beyond the normal pregnant sick…but yet, we prevail.
For those of you that don’t know, I’ve been coaching the varsity girl’s tennis team. It has been a blast, and winning a lot doesn’t hurt either; we are currently second in our division, but needless to say we are all looking forward to getting our afternoons and weekends back soon. We have two weeks left in the regular tennis season *praise hands*, and then next month I take my top 4 girls to a week-long tournament in Okinawa, Japan. Everyone seems very concerned about me going “in my condition”, but they don’t realize I am crazy/stubborn/travelled at 37 weeks domestically when pregnant with Judah and 35 weeks internationally with Asher.
Isaac is doing well. Parent teacher conferences are Friday, which is quite the event for a math teacher in Korea. It will consist of anywhere from 40-50 ten-minute parent meetings between 7am-6pm, where Isaac tries to convince parents that their kids are actually very bright and gifted.
He is also doing his typical get-in-super-great-shape-while-his-wife-is-getting-big-fat-pregnant thing that I just love him for. As my ankles swell and my shirts become too short he’s all like “look at my muscles”. God love him.
I’m over here like:
The kids are great, making us love and hate life at the same time. On to a bit about them.
Judah
Judah is growing in spades. He loves to do all things adult including washing dishes, pushing the stroller, blow drying his hair, getting dressed complete with belt or tie, and trying to shave or style his hair like dad.
He has also taken up the awesome habit of throwing things out our 6th floor window. We obviously discourage this due to the risks it poses to our belongings as well as the passerbys down below, but the stubborn toddler persists. The other day Judah threw his baby doll out the window, so after a recon mission Isaac and Judah came back with a the doll, a spoon, crayon, and a piece of our laundry drying rack. I do take great comfort in the fact that our real baby coming-soon, won’t fit through the bars…
Remember that time he threw a glass tumbler (pictured: bottom left) out our sixth floor window and it didn’t break? So fun.
Last night, I let Isaac know I was headed home from practice to which he responded, “Grab the whisk on your way up”. Cool, Judah. Here I am like a creeper in the bushes looking for our dang whisk and a neighbor walks by and stares, so we exchange awkward hellos, while I’m sure she wonders what the h I am doing lurking in the bushes. Little does she know I’m not being weird, just retrieving my kitchen utensils from the bushes… carry on.
Judah loves to help these days, as any parent knows, the help of a toddler is NOT help. But he is learning. He loves to take the trash down with dad. I assure you Isaac loves it, too, and it in no way makes taking the trash out take 5 million times longer.
Also, Judah has decided he hates sleep (ignoring compulsory comments from our parents about how they have no sympathy). On average, Judah has been taking around an hour and a half to go to sleep after the usual bedtime story, bible, songs, prayers, and milk. Please note that this frequently makes an unnamed pregnant lady an hour and a half late for bed, also.We have only casually looked at getting new locks for the door…It was hilarious though the other day when Judah began speaking about himself in the third person during one of his nightly last-stands after what was likely the third book, 4th cup of milk and 50th kiss, saying through his tears “Judah crying”. Ha, yes he is.
Our tortured child, in his warm cozy bed, with a sippy cup of milk, alligator and baby doll all covered up, and tucked in with extra love, songs, and stories by both his parents. LIFE. IS. TERRIBLE.
I think one of our most challenging evenings with Judah, after putting him to bed, Isaac ran down to the corner store and I jumped in the shower. I was fully aware that Judah would likely get out of bed, but I was thinking if I hurried, that I would be out before he came out for the first of many times. Wrong. So here I am, having just stepped in the the shower (our shower is a shower head mounted on the wall of the bathroom with a drain in the floor) when I hear Judah crying “mamaaaaaaa” outside the door. Knowing Isaac was gone I figured I would just ignore Judah, quickly take my shower, and then put him back in bed.
But the crying didn’t stop, it just continued to get louder until, with my back to the door I hear Judah open the door. I decided “I am not even going to look at him. I am just going to take my shower and deal with him when I am done”. A few moments later, as I turned around to rinse out my hair I now see that Judah has come in, shut the door, and is standing dripping wet, still whining “mamaaaaaaa”. Well played, son. I rinsed out my hair, shut off the water, grabbed a towel to dry off Judah’s hair, stripped off his wet shirt, and repeated our nightly motto. “Judah, it is time for bed. When you get out of bed you are disobeying…”, as I hauled our semi-bathed child back to bed. It is ALWAYS interesting around here.
And some of the sweeter things that have kept us from putting him FREE TO GOOD HOME:
-lately whenever Isaac or I cough or sneeze Judah asks, “you okay daddy/mama?”
-when we call for Judah to come he responds loudly with “I’m gummingggg”
Asher
No longer “baby” Asher, this boy is also growing like a weed. He has been walking since June and is always on the move. About two weeks ago his vocabulary exploded, and now he is surprising us with new words daily. Good pictures of him are about as likely as a picture of Big Foot since he never slows down. It took 2 months and serious illness to catch these two. You’re welcome.
He has a fiery temper (no comment) which seems to have developed as a defense to fend off a bossy older brother. Also, like all my precious spawn, he hates to be held. As soon as I sit down, he eagerly runs over to crawl in my lap which seems sweet and always gets my hopes up, but then he just crawls all over me, ends up punching me in the face and kicking me in the uterus, and then slides off my lap. Little baby jerk.
He loves to eat and is always happy to clean his and Judah’s plate. He also has a friend in Judah, who is always willing to sneakily score snacks for the two of them when mom and dad aren’t looking.
yogurt for two = massive mess for mama.
He is officially off formula and we are working towards losing the nap time bottle of soy milk, Lord help us all. I am fully confident that he would happily give up Isaac and I for life before releasing the death grip from his beloved bottle. I figure as long as he is weaned before college.
And here is this picture again from our last post about kid’s cafes just because I think it’s hilarious and I can.
Baby numero tres
This little one is happy, healthy, and growing. I will be 27 weeks on Saturday. Despite the consistent daily nausea and a grocery list of other pregnancy ailments, I still enjoy being pregnant. The fact that we grow can humans still blows my mind. While I feel all warm and fuzzy about feeling like crap, I know Isaac must be growing weary of conversations like “hey, what’s for dinner”, to which I respond “do we really need to eat dinner every night??”. My pregnancies are never easy breezy, but Isaac is a trooper and we get some pretty awesome kids out of the deal so we press on.
Baby one: Weekly hand drawn chalkboards
Baby two: Periodic bump pictures
Baby three: First picture taken is a doctor’s office selfie 25 weeks
And just to ensure we never run out of stories to tell you guys, we started potty training this week. May your prayers be with us.
Our Southern Seoul 
