31 Dec -- Playtime and Bathtime

No big plans for New Year's Eve, but we're looking forward to Penn State's game on our Friday morning and are hoping to gather enough Penn State fans to make it a good time

While it appears that they are sharing nicely, Charlie wasn't happy with Jane touching his tower of blocks

Our first successful joint bath

Daddy did Jane's hair

Jane looks sassy in her cheetah shirt!

Dan taught Charlie to stick his cold hands in his pockets

Charlie explores some great hide-and-seek spots

Jane loves her ball popper

25 Dec -- Christmas Card Poll

There is a poll on the right column. Please take a moment to complete it because we are curious as to what people did with our Christmas card. If you did not get a card, you take the poll anyway. There is a copy of our Christmas card below. Merry Christmas!

25 Dec -- Merry Christmas!

Here is a quick post with some pics from Christmas morning. Charlie and Jane loved all the stuff. That means Charlie loved all the trains and cars and Jane loved eating the wrapping paper.

18 Dec -- Twiddling Time Over!!

So we had a tantrum almost as soon as I hit "post" on my last blog. Charlie got a new car at the BX today (Filmore, from "Cars") and decided to take it to bed with him. I gently reminded him that we did not take toys to bed, which he loudly disagreed with. Then it became a battle of wills in which my half pot of tea kept me calm through the ordeal. It's 10PM and all's well...for now.

18 Dec -- Twiddling My Thumbs

Nothing like a toddler who won't go to sleep to make you kick back and do nothing during the evenings!

Charlie has been delaying bedtime for a week or so now. He's gotten good. He's quiet, he stays near his door, and he obeys when we walk him back to his bed and then he ever so persistently gets out of bed and comes to the doorway again. This goes on from about 7:15, when we put him to bed, until 8:30-9pm.

I try to keep things as quiet as possible. I avoid dishes, mopping, going past his doorway on any errand. It's actually not a bad thing. I have a great excuse not to clean the house in the evenings, since I don't want to keep him awake with my noise or actions.

So tonight, I'm sipping my sleepytime tea from my tea cup that I won at the coffee this morning, watching "Little Women" on TV and occasionally getting up to lead my son back to his bed. Hey, it's better than doing laundry, anyday!

14 Dec -- Jane, Drummin', and Singapore

Just some pics from the past few days.

Since my head was shaved in November, Jane is trying to make up for my lack of bangs.

Charlie had a blast playing the drums.

It did take a bit to get Charlie not to play the bass like a drum because the sounds either way were very rewarding to him.

Obligatory "group photo."

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I went to Singapore for a one week planning conference and enjoyed the 85' weather and slightly reduced word hours...

Salty puffy tubes of fried cheese...you gotta love 'em!

Finally...a 7-Eleven with a Slurpee machine!! Korean 7-Elevens do not have slurpees so the store name is basically a lie.

That is a real picture of a girl in a giant bubble in a giant wading pool along the road.

Meaning: if you stand right outside the doors of the subway as they open, people will laugh at your dead trampled body.

At the Night Safari, they had an amazing buffet. I love Kung Pao!

12 Dec -- Maybe It's Maybelline

As I was getting ready for my spouse's coffee last night I left Jane in her room as I went to gather up my things. Everything was quiet and going smoothly. A little too smoothly. I heard Jane laughing and saw Charlie come running out of her room. His face was marked with something black and my first thought was a pen. But as it turns out he had put mascara on both Jane and himself. She didn't seem to mind, but I sure did! I rushed around trying to figure out how one gets waterproof mascara off of a baby's eyelid and face. After much scrubbing with a baby wipe, I got the majority of it cleaned up. Although Jane did get a few comments about having a black eye at the coffee. I tried to take a picture, but as I said before Dan has our new camera in Singapore. Our old camera was less than stellar so below is the best I could get. I did manage to video tape it for posterity's sake.

Charlie and his milk "Happy Face". He has an obsession with making happy faces wherever he can...guess there are worse vices!

Jane's finally standing up! Oh, and those are not teeth, just white gums

So innocent...

After the mascara clean up occured, but you can see a little bit under her right eye

The accused...

Crummy camera attempt to capture the full effect

Pretty much any dark spot on her face is mascara

11 Dec -- What Are You Doing, Mommy?

This has become Charlie's favorite question and he asks it about 15,000,000,000,000 times a day. I've gotten into the habit of saying either "Nothing, Honey" or "I'm just hangin' out" because if I have to say "I'm feeding Jane" for the 15,000,000,000,000th time, I might just rip my hair out. Unfortunately, now "Nothing, Mommy" "Just hangin' out" have become his favorite answer when I ask him what he's doing. Usually it's related to something that he's doing that he is not supposed to be doing.

Jane has now started standing at her activity table, which is so exciting and scary at the same time. She's growing way too fast for my liking. I can't believe how much has happened in the last 8 months. Crawling is just around the corner for us!

Dan took the camera to Singapore with him, so I'll post some new pictures soon!

7 Dec -- "P"-Free Home

So we are into Day 3 with no pacifiers for Charlie and it's going fairly well. Night one we suffered 52 "Back to Beds" in about an hour. Each night has gotten a little better. I never thought I'd have a child with a pacifier addiction past the age of 2, but when you're a parent all your ideas of being a parent go out the door. Sometimes you gotta go with what works for you. Now if we can just master this potty-training situation, I will be the happiest Mom on the block!

1 Dec -- Weekend in Seoul

We spent the weekend in Seoul and had a good time. We stayed at the Dragin Hill Lodge we rode around on the Seoul City Tour bus. It was a great deal. 10,000 won ($7.15) to ride the bus all day long. While in Seoul we went to the Seoul Tower, Itaewon Shopping District, Dongdaemun Market, CheongWaDae (the Korean President's House), and Gyeongbokgung Palace.
I have the rest of the week off and we hope to make a trip to see some of the Buddha's on the mountain sides.

That is CheongWaDae, or the Blue House--the Korean President's house.

Anna and Jane getting mobbed by some tough guys in Itaewon.

This is the playground at the Dragon Hill Lodge. It was real nice.

Charlie with his concentration face on.

Wandering the grounds at the Gyeongbokgung Palace.

The view from Seoul Tower.

There were a ton of locks attached to each other and then the fence. Most had a name and a date etched or written on them. It is said the people put them there to remember their trip to Seoul Tower.

You can see more locks in this picture.