what we're reading

Both Meris and Matea are budding bookworms. Meris finally can read on his own, which means that soon enough I'll be reading children's chapter books again. But for now, we are deep in picture book territory.

This week, we've had multiple readings most days of Ponyella, by Laura Numeroff and Nate Evans with illustrations by Lynn Munsinger. As you might be able to tell from its title, this is a Cinderella-inspired tale about a pony. I picked it up on a whim at a Scholastic book fair, but turns out that both kids love it.

As for my own book shelf, I am almost finished with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I've been reading it for a book club meeting (which I missed--it was last night!), but it also had been recommended to me by a friend. It's a fascinating look at Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cancer cells have been an essential part of medical research for decades. However, the narrative includes way too much repetitive detail about the author's adventures reporting the story with the Lacks family.

And that's what we're reading!

~jkg

still pregnant....

Here I am at 40 weeks, 3 days pregnant.... Just for fun, I've got photos from the tail end of my previous two pregnancies.


This is a belly full of Meris, taken just days before he was born (as far as I can tell/remember).

Matea was born less than 12 hours after this photo was taken.

I'm not sure we'll take any more belly photos this time around unless I hit 41 weeks. I'm ready for some newborn pix instead!

~jkg

Pregnant women can jump!

So it's apparently been about one year since my last post. Quite a bit has happened since then. For one thing, I'm expecting baby #3 in about three weeks. As a last-blast family trip, we enjoyed 10 days of February warmth and sun in Florida. This included a visit to Disney World, complete with a jumping shot in front of Cinderella's castle. (Yes, jumping at 31 weeks pregnant is painful.)

Meris had a good jump here. Hopefully Matea will be able to jump on command by next year....

Matea's favorite activity these days is "triking." Here she is, raising money for Beth Emet's Early Childhood Program, one of the two preschools she attends. This is also an opportunity to point out her Cinderella costume, a hand-me-down she wears at least 22 hours a day, 7 days a week!

And last but not least, here we have her blowing out candles at her third birthday party. (Note that she is again/still wearing the Cinderella dress, just over one month after the trike-a-thon!). Matea requested strawberry cake with strawberry frosting for her party, so I dutifully found and made the recipes in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. I decorated them with dinosaur toppers from ShopBakersNook.com--cute enough for a little girl's birthday celebration! The sheet cake base is Grandmother Whitehead's Famous Texas Fudge Cake from Birthday Cakes: Recipes and Memories from Celebrated Bakers by Kathryn Kleinman. My husband, who normally turns down chocolate cake, says that this one is a keeper. He also loved the frosting--but then, who wouldn't love mascarpone frosting (tinted green), also from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book.

The cupcakes were a hit with both the kids and adults. Personally, I think I need to break out my pastry bag and improve my frosting technique before the next birthday party baking project. Another project for the list of things to do with all my free time!

~jkg

home at last

We have been all over the place lately, and I am glad to be home!

Our most recent trip was to Virginia for a family wedding. The fashion highlight (for us, at least) was Matea's dress, hand-smocked by Imo Kim!

And here are the requisite shots of the two kids, and the whole fam.



More on this and other recent trips next time....

~jkg

At long last, birthday season is over! We celebrated Matea's first birthday Korean style, complete with "toljabee" ceremony. She chose a wooden knife, which means that she is destined to be a good cook!

Take a look here for more information on the "tol" event.

After the oh-so-serious ceremony, we had a regular ol' birthday party at our place. We feasted on Korean food (courtesy of my mom, of course--some day I'll learn to make everyone's favorite dishes!), the kids played with every single toy in the apartment (including the ones hidden away in the closet), and generally had a good time.

Here is a photo of the cake I made for Matea's big day. I think she even got to try some! (I made enough little bugs so that all the kids could have one, and we still had a few to spare). I'm a sucker for those novelty cake pans!


Next up was Meris's birthday. Here he is, showing us that he is now four years old.

We had a BBQ in the park to celebrate both his and Ariel's birthdays. I think we had more kids than adults at this one. The weather was perfect--warm and windy. I had planned some super simple games for the kids, but they just decorated butterfly/fairy wings with markers and glitter (great idea on a windy day!) and ran around like crazy.

Here is Meris, getting ready for cake. And then I've got a close-up of the butterfly swarm I created, inspired/instructed by Hello, Cupcake! (yes, I have the book).


~jkg

hello, spring!

Just a quick post this month....

Here is a full family photo, taken during our Passover trip to Portland, OR. By some miracle, all of us are facing the camera!


And then I've got a long, long overdue photo of a sweater I finished April 2008. It is the Norah Gaughan ballet wrap pattern from a somewhat recent issue of Interweave Knits. Turns out that the pattern is available at the Interweave Store. It is the first sweater I made for myself. I used the yarn listed in the pattern, but in a different color.


I may as well post one more photo that shows the nursing sweater I just finished this April. It's a nursing sweater from Louisa Harding's Natural Knits for Babies and Moms: Beautiful Designs Using Organic Yarns. I did not use an organic yarn, and the buttons I chose make it look kind of like a marching band uniform. But it works wonderfully as a nursing sweater!



~jkg

family fun at (gulp) disney world!

Guess where we went to escape the cold weather at home? And as a bonus, our kids got lots of practice identifying the Disney brand and characters!

Fortunately, Meris is old enough (and game enough) to get on any and every ride. Here we are on the Kali River Rapids ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Meris got soaked both times he rode.

We spent the week with our cousins, so Meris had an especially great trip. Nothing like a good sword fight to keep you occupied while waiting for dinner.

And last but not least, here's one of the whole family, posing in front of the big hat at Disney's Hollywood Studios (I think).

More to come soon.

~jkg