Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

I know it's been way too long, but today is baby Luke's Birthday! You are a master crawler, an eating champ, and a sleeping success.

Happy Birthday Big Boy. We Love you soo much!

awake with ocd

sophia - you're reaching a point where naps are getting more difficult and morning wake-up's are getting earlier and earlier - this morning, i was greeted with this picnic that you had set up -- all this was prepared by 7am.



you are showing signs of some really weird OCD-type behavior -- you can spend up to 15 minutes just shaking blanket after blanket over and over again to perfectly lay it down as flat as can be. it's pretty funny to watch but i am always curious to know what's in your little brain as you shake the same blanket over and over again..


your drawings are still mostly vertical lines up and down with colors all mixed up till they turn brown. once in awhile, you stretch yourself and draw a circle.



however, you've managed to use these chopsticks eamo bought you from korea... you eat all of your dinners with these things... it's pretty impressive.


you are so sweet with your baby bro and have been an excellent big sis.

food & flips

Lucas,
On Tuesday, your teacher told me that you finally rolled over. I assumed it was from belly to back, like your sister and most infants start with. But what I come to find is that it's actually back to belly -- maybe it's because of your size but for some reason, this seems to be easier for you. and you made it easy not to compare against your sister -- although your sister was flipping over at 3 months, i don't know when she learned to go back back to belly -- so we'll say that you're even.

you also had your first food - rice cereal. it was messy but you seem to like it. After a week of rice cereal, we moved on to avocado which made you gag so i quickly moved on to carrots which you LOVE. you are a champ eater -- not that i had any doubts, but you can eat your fair share of the orange stuff.







you're still waking up 1-3 times every night. i wonder when you'll stop doing that.

a few firsts...

baby lucas,

although you're baby, you are off the charts. at your 4 month visit, you weighed 19.3 pounds -- as big as some one-year olds. You're so heavy that we already switched your car seat from the infant one to the convertible.

You just finished your first 3 weeks of daycare and have fought off your first ear infection and second cold. you may have been in some major pain, but you also slept through the night for the first time!! you're back to full health and are waking up again, but thank you for a couple of nights of good sleep.

in the elevator of the children's hospital urgent care clinic.

thank you for being open on sunday afternoon.

this week, you also got your first taste of rice cereal of which you are not a fan of.

however, prune juice is yummy and finally did the trick after being constipated for 1 week.

and we did set the date for circumcision II. we are praying that everything goes smoothly 7/26.

Dear Sophia & Lucas

this is the google video that is mommy and daddy's inspiration for this blog.

i assume google and youtube will be around when you're old enough to read this. if not, you'll just have to take our word that it was a really cute, emotional and inspiring video.

we love you.

decisions decisions

lucas - although we are relieved you are a healthy baby boy, you've had your fair share of issues -- yeast infections, bacterial infections, eczema, and more...and of course your port wine stains that made me cry taking you home from the hospital. you were born with birthmarks called port wine stains (because of their color) all over your body - your left arm, your right leg, your back, your shoulder, and your groin. the doctor said we should be relieved that there's nothing on your face and that you are a boy and for that, yes, we are thankful, but i still wish you didn't have to deal with these stains covering your body- birthmarks that will be exposed when you wear a t-shirt or shorts - when you go swimming or when it's hot -- we've talked and met with tons of doctors to learn what the cause is, what might happen in the future, the treatment options, etc. last month, we did a test on your arm and leg to see if laser treatment might lighten your port wine stains. we revisit the doctor in 4 months to see if we'll take the next step of treating your whole body. based on what i can tell, it doesn't look like the laser treatment did anything, which makes me sad. but at the same time, the birthmarks are starting to look natural on you -- if only we knew how much these birthmarks would affect you in the future? no matter what we decide to do, mommy and daddy promise to raise you with strong self-confidence. the only unknown is that we can't control what mean kids might say -- i wonder what you would want us to do when you're 17...

the next health issue is your circumcision. your circumcision was not perfect, and you ended up getting an infection b/c of it. the urologist is recommending that we re-circumcise your penis which breaks my heart because i don't want you to have to go through that yet again. mommy and daddy decided to revisit the issue in a couple of months to see if you get more infections. the doctor says there are social impact issues, just like your port wine stains.. yet again, more social impact issues... i wonder why God has put so many obstacles in your way... part of me thinks that you are going to be someone who does something amazing because you will face so many adversities. i know that these things will not break you, but make you stronger. i hope we make the decisions that you support, when you're older...

new directions...

dear friends & family:

the pae blog is taking a new direction, inspired by a google commercial. the blog was originally created for grandma and grandpa kim to keep in touch with their grandchildren, but thanks to the amazing invention of skype, photo updates aren't necessary anymore. SO... this blog will now be dedicated and written for sophia and lucas to reminisce on major milestones and decisions made that impact their future lives.

May 11, 2011: the next transition...

T-1 day till mommy goes back to work which means sophia, you go to school and wake up an hour earlier. Lucas, you will start this new transition of going to school on Monday. I've been trying to prepare you for this new transition with semi-success.

- bottle feeding: you are now a master at this

- nap time with no swaddle: you can now go down pretty easily without a swaddle but you don't sleep for more than 40 minutes this way -- right now, you're actually crying your eyes out b/c you only slept for 30 minutes and i want you to be able to have one solid nap today

- sleeping at night: you are OK at this now -- you still wake up at least once during the night which is a huge improvement over what you were doing 2 weeks ago, but it still makes mommy exhausted.

what am i most scared of? i am not looking forward to you being sleep deprived during the day or getting colds and weird-named illnesses from daycare. but i am most scared that you will not got the attention you deserve and that you will feel like i've deserted you. after spending all day together and transitioning to 30 minutes in the morning and an hour at night, i'm afraid you'll miss your family. but i know this transition back to work will be harder for me than it is for you. here's to finding a new normal way of life, yet again...

this past weekend, you got your first haircut. you were the youngest customer the salon ever had. daddy was disappointed with the cut, saying it was too short, so he didn't leave a tip. he also discovered that you have daddy's hair and will have to mimic his hairstyle since he knows what looks best. i think you still look cute and at least now, your hair doesn't get stuck in the velcro of your bib anymore.