#j2is1

Thank you to everyone who came from near and far to help fete our little boy for his 'stache bash! There's not much to say except that a good time was had by all and we are so grateful for such a healthy, happy little guy.

The party prep ...

 

And the pre-party ...J2 didn't smile once while wearing his hanbok.

 



 

would be great except it looks like J2 is sitting on J's head. typical

 

 

 

 Party on!

 

 

 

 

 

America's next K-pop star! His second choice was the string.
Rock on, J2!

 

CAKE!

 

 

 



 

15 minutes later, he finally started smashing the cake

 

Some photo booth action ...

 

no props for Carl Rove.

 

 

 

 

And just a few more of the birthday boy!

 

 

playing with his new toys

 

drum is made out of rawhide
Carl Rove is particularly interested

 

 

Happy Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Boy!

 

 

 

 



 

 



 

 

J2 is (almost) 1!

 

My dear sweet almost 1 year old boy,

 

You will be one year old tomorrow! Twelve months ago, I was in the hopsital with contractions every 4 minutes and your Appah and I were strategizing how we were going to get the nurse to check us into the hospital and not send us home.

 

Perhaps if I hold you tight enough you can stay mommy's little baby and as Little Miss J says, "today is[n't] tomorrow," quite yet. Not only are you walking, but you've got quite the bowlegged little run going on. It's a bit drunken sailor, but I'm hoping you'll get that worked out shortly.

 

 

 

You were/are the perfect addition to our little family. You're laid back and chillaxed to balance out your sister's high-strong attention whore-ish behavior. But since you are doing everything for the first time, you tend to get the lionshare of the attention simply for being adorably cute the first time you do anything. You play with balls and cars and anything that your sister is playing with. You are still such a good sleeper. You go down between 8-9 p.m. and don't get up until 5-6 a.m. Please do not ever stop doing this. Well, you could stop doing the getting up at the crack of dawn, but if you are going to keep sleeping all night I will let it go for now.

 

 

I was unsure about babies in general and baby boys specifically, but you came out (much more easily than your sister, I might add) and completely and utterly stole my heart with your perfect little baby face. As a sidenote, your face was so perfect that all the nurses thought you were a C-section baby. That face and the fact that you actually slept in the hospital and in the swing at home unlike your female counterpart, who screamed so much in the hospital, Appah asked anyone who would listen what was wrong with our baby. He was not impressed when someone suggested that this might just be Little Miss J's personality, but as it turns out that person may have been correct. But anyway, the past twelve months have been a complete joy - and after returning to work not a week went by when I didn't wish I was still on maternity leave hanging out at home with you. Again, partly because you slept quite a bit during that time and I got to watch three seasons of Kiefer Sutherland in 24. You were just what my exhausted mommy soul needed.

 

see! not kidding about the perfect face!

With the newfound mobility, however, you are one busy busy boy - running around the house climbing on things. You love to climb - on the couch, off the couch, on your sister's bed, off your sister's bed, off our bed, etc. Climbing seems to be your thing. This is rather unfortunate for your overly protective, tad bit crazy, faint of heart mama.

 

Tonight as a snuggle you to sleep, I intend to pay special reverence to the impending end of your babyhood. We will giggle and smile and I will kiss your chubby little hands and hug you oh so tight! Because no matter how much I wish you could stay a baby, I am equally as excited to continue to see your personality develop and do things (all the things) for the first time. Looking forward to more peek-a-boo, kisses, smiles and giggles and all the other amazing things I anticipate you will do as you grow up!

 

Love you 'til the end,

 

Your Umma

all-star weekend

We had a bit of a sports-oriented Saturday. Little Miss J had soccer in the morning.

 

 

Then we went to see the Jesuit Junior Marauders and cheer on Davis! Davis had his own personal cheerleader.

 

 

 

After which, we had dinner at Jack's with Auntie Rachael and Uncle Randy. There was a little girl sitting at the table next to us and when she asked if Little Miss J wanted to be her friend, Little Miss J replied, "I can be your friend, but I want to stay in my own family." Fair enough.

 

Little Miss J has been complaining that we go too many places and that driving far makes "her head freak out." So on Sunday, with the exception of church/Sunday school/brunch, we stayed home. Gus ran and Little Miss J rode her bike to the park and later in the afternoon she rode her bike around with Karly. My friend, Jenn, pointed out that this really does not count as "not going anywhere." Ha.

 

 

The last noteworthy thing about our weekend was that J2 got his first pair of shoes, which he hates. He screams when you put them on, tries to take them off, and refuses to walk while wearing them. Here he is tolerating them, but that's probably only because Uncle Randy is talking to him.

 

For the next three weeks, we'll be in full-on birthday party planning and partying mode!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

eleven months

Dear J2,

My sweetest little baby boy! You are 11 months old! Why do you insist on getting older? Last night when I came home from tennis, you sprint crawled down the hallway and stood up in front of me so I could pick you up and smooch your cute little baby face. If you weren't so damn heavy (23 lbs), I'd carry you everywhere all the time. Last Friday you took your first steps and luckily I was home to witness them! You consistently sleep about 10 hours through the night. So yeah, you're my favorite.

 

You eat pretty much anything we give you and you want to eat pretty much anything anyone else has. At Costco the other day, you snatched Little Miss J's meatball so I had to get you your own.

 

One of the absolute most adorable things you do is cover your face and play peek-a-boo. I love seeing your little smile, when you show me your face. You wave bye-bye when I leave for work and when you want something you point at it, hold your hand out, and make some sort of grunting noise. It certainly gets the job done. You definitely take after your sister in that you love to tip over the dog's water bowl and shove little handfuls of dog food into your mouth.

You love the water - swimming or bathtime you are a splashing machine.

Your favorite shows are Bachelor in Paradise and the Real Housewives of Orange County. You sit and watch both very attentively.

watching Bachelor in Paradise.

You love your big sister and you are a lucky kid because she is very good to you. We have indoctrinated her and she knows that you are the baby and that she has to take care of you. She has learned share with you and does so less and less grudgingly. The other day you wanted to play with her brand new toy and she let you with little to no protest.

Pretty much once every two or three weeks, I wish you were still a little baby and I was still on maternity leave with you. But of course I love seeing you grow up and it's pretty adorable when you wave bye-bye, give a high five or come barreling down the hall on all fours to greet me.

I'm so glad I made such a cute and sweet little munchkin! Look at how smoochable that little face is!

baby bedhead

There are truly no words to describe just how much I love you! You, without a doubt, make me happy when skies are gray.

Love you to infinity and beyond,

Umma

peace out summer

The Chunglund family crushed the last weekend of the summer. I'm not even sure so much fun can fit into one blog post, but we'll give it a shot.

 

Our friends, Wendy and Steve, invited us to their cabin for a couple nights so Friday night we packed up our little car and headed to Tahoe. J2 set a lifetime record by crying for nearly the entire drive there - about 2 hours. After how much I praise him for being the world's most chillaxed baby, you probably don't believe it, but trust me. It happened.

who would have thought this
happy little kid could cry for
2 hours straight?

We had such a fun time playing in the lake and on the beach. Little Miss J is my little fish and no matter how cold the water is she just jumps right in. She even got to "kay-yak" for the first time (emphasis on the "yak"). J2 ate a few bucketfuls of sand, but seems to be none the worse for the wear. Thanks to Wendy, Steve and Co. for a super fun weekend.

 

 

Sunday night Gus's parents came over for a little grill and chill. As soon as we arrived home from Tahoe, Little Miss J ran around the house yelling, "let's get this BBQ started!"

Monday we went to Vacaville for a little outlet shopping and J2 got his first carousel ride. Notice how he looks pretty ambivalent about the whole thing, but when he got off and saw his big sister going for another spin, he was excitedly waving his arms and legs as if to tell me that he wanted another ride too.

 

 

Then we hurried home and packed up again for swimming and BBQ with our friend, Biagio, and his family.

 

Summer is over (although it's still awfully warm here), and next up is planning some birthday parties for the munchkins. Looking forward to some cooler weather and maybe a pumpkin spice latte (or two).