112 days

Hi

so its been 112 days or 16 weeks or so since eleanor has been a part of my life.

Its defintitely awesome. I have seen and experienced so much.

some of the highlights
1. Seeing my child come into this world. It gives me new respect for women who have children.
2. seeing my child smile at me
3. seeing my child roll over on her own
4. hearing my child laugh for the first time (that i've seen, what sora experiences is her own thing)

Some of the lowlights
1. seeing my wife go thru the delivery process
2. getting pee'd on by a girl who is going thru diaper changes
3. getting poop'd on (ok ok, i think getting pooped on is way worse... change 2 and 3)
4. clipping my daughter's thumb with a nail clipper and seeing her bleed and cry.
5. seeing my daughter get shots and bloodwork...


Eleanor is now kind of holding the bottle by herself. If we prop the bottle up and the right angle, shes hold the bottle.
She is more of an independent child. But very happy.

She is eating more now. She is really chugging and you can hear it when she drinks from the bottle.
Selfish girl... clutching 2 toys with each hand...


She has not tried solid foods yet... i am thinking SPAM for her first meal... cream of spam? spam porridge?

i will have to consult with sora.

Bowling Update
1. We are still in 4th place.
2. this week we were giving away 51 pins again.
3. Current average: 186, still in top 5 for overall avg, top 5 for overall series , and top 5 for high game scratch of 243.

This week, we won game 1 and 2, with a 55 pin, lead for the series, and just like last week, they took game 3 and the overall series for another 2 and 2 split.

Personally: 171- 199-215 = 585 series and 195 average, That should bump up the season avg... Game 1, I had 4 open frames, that really hurt. Game 2, the 199 did take a lot of workd i had to end the game with 4 strikes in a row. the 215 was pretty good, i started with 3 in a row, open, and something else, but lots of strikes.

Overall, things are good. We are still waiting to start chemo for my mom.

more cool pics on the osnap.com site!

Sam

Long post sorry!

Hi

Whoa, it has been way too long since my last blog post. Things got suddenly busier.

1. Eleanor is now 107 days old. Since I last posted Eleanor has grown in motor function. She can’t do somersaults or anything, but she can grab something with 2 hands and bring in to suck with her mouth. I found that most babies will try and put most things into their mouth. She seems to have a favorite ladybug with rattle inside. The ladybug has nice arms and legs to grab , and wings to suck on.
Eleanor has also gotten to the point of lifter her butt up while in sitting position. Rather than enjoy the nice seat or bumbo, she tries to lift out of the seat. It’s a little scary to us as parents, so we will have keep an eye on her at all times.



2. Eleanor is also much much more vocal. She has not formed words, but she does seem to want to say an awful lot.


3. We’ve found she is most happiest after sleeping and naps. (I think most of the planet is this way.)


She is sleeping well into the night. After the primary wake up, its 1 or 2 hour intervals.
4. When reading books, she focuses more. Before she just stared and sometimes , not even at the book. Hello bee, hello me is not usable!

5. Eleanor is eating more consistently. We found the latex gerber NUK nipples have worked the best for us. Good thing about this nipple is you can hear the air exchange while she is sucking. So you can tell if she is eating. Other good parts of the gerber nuk. Its usable with most baby bottle. So the expensive Avent or others are not necessary. I can even bring home bottles we sell at the kormans warehouse.

6. Wednesday night has been designated at Sora’s night off. Since Monday is bowling, Tuesday and Thursday is for school, Friday for volleyball. Saturday family night, Sunday night for rest… Sora decided that Wednesday would be her time. This week she didn’t actually go anywhere, just kept saying:”I’m not here” Imagine I am not here! So I had more time with Eleanor, bonding and stuff.

7. “AND STUFF” This can be a lot of things. And stuff… for a daddy, this is not easy. And stuff can mean, I don’t get to sit down at all while holding Eleanor, she likes motion. But variable. Not a swing or bouncing. I must move from room to room, and floor to floor. Not easy, but anything to stop the crying.

8. Eleanor can now fit into some of the cuter clothes she has received as gifts. She looks real cute in overall sets. She has received a lot of pink gifts. Yellow is ok too, and light blue is acceptable. But we don’t have much of that.
We have a tub of clothes she can no longer wear comfortably. Craziness.
Some outfits didn’t even get worn. Too bad.


9. Eleanor laughs and giggles a lot. She frowns too. She gets angry too.
Sometimes she laughs and cries at the same time!


Eleanor is still very curious. When she is in a new place, she won’t sleep at all. She has to look around and check everything out. That makes sleeping and feeding way slower, but I am not in a rush…
Bowling Update.
After last week’s sweep we pulled into 4th place overall.
This week we faced a good team, we were spotting them about 68 pins.
Game 1, game 2 we bowled well, and got a 2 game lead, and coughed up a huge game in game 3 to give up game 3, and the overall pinfall. 2 and 2 this week. Problem, team we bowled was in 3rd place, so we didn’t gain on them.
Sora bowled pretty well all 3 games. She got a lot of spares and lots of strikes.
Personal bowling. Things were ok. I did average 185 again. But by the grace of God. Game 1: stinky, I think 150 something. Game 2: Started off with 7 straight striked, left spares on 8 and 9, then finished with 2 strikes and six pins for a 243. highest single game this season for me, and salvaged a 560 series across the 3 games.

Since the beginning of the season I said I would be happy with 175 avg… I should be satisfied with 185 average for the year… The only thing is I think I can do better…

We’ll see next week
Eleanor is making new faces. She purses her lips

Also she can now hold her knees. She looks like a sumo when she does it…
(no documentation of this holding of the knees but she does it , for real!)

Sorry about the delays on the posts, but photos have been uploaded, during the week



PoppaSam

Sat-Mon Update

Hi

Sorry about not posting since the weekend.

Photos have been published online from the party however…

Saturday: Eleanor’s 100th day. It was a really great time. So many friends and close family came. Some saw Eleanor for the first time. It was kind of a good family reunion in a way.

We also saw some other relatives with their new additions.
Overall the party was great. I think it’s great to celebrate with people the wonderful milestone for Eleanor. I wanted to thank everyone who came. Thank you cards are coming for each of the guests as well.

Party notes. My sister did a lot in terms of setting up, and preparing. The jelly bean bags were her special touch. She’s excellent for that sort of thing. I highly recommend her services for things. Even wedding planning. As long as you can have a meeting of the minds with her.

Eleanor was kind of sleepy at her own party because Sora gave her a bath before. So Eleanor was faked out of her routine. Usually she sleeps right after her bath. So I guess she put 2 and 2 together… It happens.



We had 2 part of the 100 day on Sunday at church. There was a cool rice cake with “Happy 100th day” spelled out with raisins in Korean. I didn’t even get to taste it, but its pretty bland.

All in all good weekend. Friends, family, food. The 3 F’s all good.

Monday: Bowling. We have been doing better, but my anchor says to me. “I’ve been bowling bad, so don’t depend on me” Uh oh.. Usually Ken is good for 5 strikes in a row to end a game to save our team. This week we bowled a good team. We were only spotting them 6 pins. They have a new member of the team this year. Timmy. He’s the son of 2 of the other team members. Left handed really powerful hook.
Lucky for us he wasn’t really on.

We bowled well, and swept them. That moves us to 14-10 for the year.
Personally, I did not have any 200 games. Not even a 600 series, but I did bowling my average: 185. I am in the top 5 in average for my league however. We will see how long that lasts.

Eleanor found some new friends at bowling. We took the bumbo so she could see more of the action. She was squealing and laughing and having a great time.

Tuesday-Wed update coming in the next post…

Sam

100th day Partay

Hi

so the day is here. eleanor's celebration of her 100th day alive.
We have lots of stuff planned.

Lots of people have helped out with the prep. Mainly my sister and my wife. My sister is the creative one in the family when it comes to arts and crafts.

I am not that.

But we designed a slide show for viewing pleasure, as well as DVD version of that for our relatives.

ok well, still busy, but lots of new pics should be up on sunday after the festivities...

Sam

Cool business cards or party favors!

Hi,
I wanted to introduce a new service to you guys.

www.moo.com

In conjunction with www.flickr.com

Moo.com is place showcased on coolhunting.com a couple weeks ago.
Me and sora decided to make mini business cards. But we wanted to make them as a part of the favors for eleanor’s 100th day.

They use biodegradable paper and some other earth friendly mumbo jumbo.

Flickr.com is another photo website. It’s pretty good to import pictures into moo.com

So, 19.99 for 100 cards. 20 cents a piece for custom photo cards. They are printed on heavy card stock and arrived in about 8 days.

See my example: the 5 dollar bill is show size. Not that I am running off Lincolns in my spare time…(click photo for larger example)



They're almost the size of bible memory cards.

I highly recommend this service for personal business cards, for artsy people, or designers.

Enjoy!

Sprint battles

hey

So the previous post about jumping ship from Sprint. They are going crazy with the lies

The most common line Sprint customer service reps are using is that text messages are an "add-on," and therefore not covered in the original contract.
This is a blatant lie.
You can still cancel without paying a termination fee, but it will take persistence and tenacity. One successful canceller threatened to file a letter with his Public Utilities commission, and then did it. He received a letter confirming he got out of contract without charge a week later.
The reps may try to tell you the change only applies to people with special text message plans, or only to people who signed up after Oct. 1. These too are bald misrepresentations.
Be firm. Be in control.
Some customers report being offered service credits or free text messaging to stay. Be aware that if you accept these carrots, you will have accepted the new terms of service and not be able to cancel over the text message rate hikes.
Canceled Sprint successfully under these terms? Trying to and failed? Share your thoughts in the comments or tips at consumerist.com

all info taken from consumerist.com

I hate utilities, telco, and liars...
DOWN WITH THE MAN! DOWN!

Sam

Mumbo, bumbo, humbo

Hi
i saw this item at BJS wholesale club a couple weeks back
It looked intruiging, but not enough to buy

At the recommendation of Eleanor's Aunt: Susan, i tried one out.

BUMBO BABY SEAT

At BJS its on sale for 32.99 plus tax = 35.20 or so.
Online 39.99

You can always click thru to amazon, or my Astore in the links.

Bumbo review

Nice!
Soft.
Great design.
Eleanor likes it.

See...



It works well for feedings too. Because she is sitting at a good angle for bottle feeding.



see the bumbo site for more info about the features. Even helps for kids with Gastro Esophageal Reflux. Kids get that? Who knew?

Its pretty good, and it allows eleanor to look around. It develops her spinal strength and development too. Pretty soon she'll be kicking free kicks and corner attempts...? maybe a little too early for trying to bend it like beckham.

Anyhow, it seems like a good item

BJs wholesale is the best price i've seen.

Amazon.com is very fast also.

ok

Sam

kill your sprint deal...

Hi,
new laws allow you to get out of sprint pcs contract.
If you use Spring for wireless and are unhappy, here is a way to break your deal without cancellation...

read this on consumerist.com

(CBS 13) Sprint is hiking its text message fee to $.15, which means that you can get out of your contract.And it's all thanks to the fine print in this service agreement! Sprint states they can raise your rates at any time. But it also says if they raise rates you can cancel your contract without a penalty.If you use Sprint's service or make payments on or after the effective date of change, you have accepted the changes. If Sprint changes a material term of the agreement and that change has a material adverse effect on you, you can terminate the agreement without a fee by calling 1-888-567-5528 within 30 days after the change goes into effect. The fee hike just went into effect October 1. They say you only have a month to get out of your contract.

Sam

Tuesday update!

Hi

Sorry about the delay in updates, it was kind of a hectic weekend.

Things are going pretty good. We are busy preparing things for Eleanor’s 100th day celebration. I am not totally sure if I explained this before but, in Korean culture, people used to keep the mother and baby inside the house for 100 days. Just to make sure the baby was safe, and also the mother had enough time to recover and get back to her normal self. Sometimes they would not even give a name to the baby until the 100th day, I think its because in the old days babies didn’t all survive past the 100th day. Some people think of the 100th day as the 1st birthday. If we do the math backwards, this was right around the time when Eleanor was conceived. And as our family believes that life starts at conception, this is like the 1st birthday for Eleanor.

We have relatives coming in from VA, NY, LA, WASH, all over. It should be a nice time.

Eleanor is doing to well. She is developing more and more. She is also learning to form new sounds with her mouth. She’s quite loud at times. I got some recorded on the video camera. So I can’t wait to convert it over to DVD.


Eleanor is at the point now, where we have to decide to pick her up everytime she cries. We are doing our best to resist. But it’s not easy.

Also, she watches TV. If she is sitting on my lap, while I am watching the Eagles game, she zones in on the screen too. That’s a sign to me that I am going to have to cut back on the TV. I think my sister told me Kelly Ripa’s kids are not allowed to watch TV on weekdays, and just 1 or 2 shows on the weekend. That’s really “must see TV” I don’t know what I would watch if I could only watch 1 or 2 shows. I think some of my nostalgic favorites would not make the cut: Smallville, Cold Case, Sorry…


Eleanor is doing great focusing on objects. I think she can see colors now too, but I won’t know how she will tell me when she sees RED or something…

Overall being a father is fulfilling.


Oh yeah, Eleanor has now graduated to swaddle me size large. She has outgrown her small size straight jacket.

Bowling Update
We split 2-2 with a new team. They have a lot of beginner bowlers so we were spotting them like 165 pins. It took a lot to just catch them , let alone beat them.

My score
199-210-236 : 645 series for a 215 average across 3 games. My new average is 179 (before adding in this week’s 215). So now the goal is to keep things above 179 every time I bowl. 236 Is my personal high for this season, but for documented personal high is 256, last year on my 31st birthday. I was having little flashes of… hm 200 average for 2 years… and maybe I could be in the PBA… haha.

Sora did pretty good in her last 2 games and helped us get over the hump for 2 points out of 4. we almost made it 3 and 1, but we missed a couple spares in game 2.

I think I am getting back into my bowling groove. I felt this week, I had the right mix of velocity and hook. The last couple weeks, I was not controlling my speed as well. I think this week, I got a lot of strikes due to the velocity and pin action. Overall, I know there’s still a lot to learn, but the progress is taking off from where I ended last year.

Speaking of athletic endeavours… (bowling is athletic? Hahah)
I got back into volleyball last week. WOW, I am sore. I was sore the 1st day after, but even more sore 2 days after. That never happened to me when I was in my 20s. I am doing better today. I hope to get back into shape, and maybe try to join a team by 2007.

I will leave you with some new pics of Eleanor


Wanna see a baby sneeze...


Eleanor faking to be asleep...



Here's Eleanor a little less diginified with the crab spit bubble, and combo drool...




Poppa Sam.

When good parenting is key...

Hi,

i would like to tell a story about one of the members of the Korman Brothers Team.

Arnet "Murphy" Benson. Age 36 or so... not exactly sure, but he has grey hairs. 2 Kids. Daughter and Son. Very nice children.

About age six, so 30 years ago, while young Arnet was forced to play electric football with his older cousin: Who shall remain nameless...

I never played, but apparently in 1976 this was enough to entertain the young'ins back then.


Loads of fun...

Now a older cousin and younger cousin playing a friendly game is good stuff right?
yeah well how about for the next 4 years being forced to be the cowboys, while the older cousin is always the eagles?

Older cousin is very selfish and didnt realize the type of scarring that was done on our young lad. eventually he thought it was ok, as a young boy growing up in North Philadelphia to be a cowboys fan. Trading in his eagles logo for that stinkin' white star... he was forever lost into cowboy land. Forever unredeemable to root for a team that allegedly calls themselves america's team???

America was born in Philly. Declaration of independece , philly
Liberty bell: Philly.
(i will entertain rebuttal from people from Jamestown VA, or Plymouth MASS)

How does dallas become america's team?
Don't mess with texas? Don't mess with philly.

I mean just a little relenting, allowing young murphy to understand the pride of playing with the eagles team for once could have saved this young man a lot of punishment and scarring. Long term vision folks, long term...

So as each Dallas V. Philly NFL game approaches we try and reason with Old Murphy.
If I only had a time machine...like in quantum leap fixing the wrongs of the past...

This year was especially more exciting as the most hated former philly player returned to town

T.O. Terrell Owens. Accidental Overdose, broke up with Hot Model Fiance, Childrens book Authoer. the Bane of phila's 2005 existence returns.

Other List of most hated former philly players
1. Eric Lindros: Concussion waiting to happen, never stepped up
2. Glen Robinson: Somehow got a ring with San Antone...
3. Scott Rolen: good 3rd basemen, but never better than Mike Schmidt.

So, yesterday was an exciting game. Lito Sheppard stepped up big time, and Bledsoe coughed up the ball...

The Wager: If the cowboys won: Sam Chon Gm of Korman Brothers would wear a cowboys hat or T shirt all week

If Eagles Won: Murphy Benson would wear Eagles shirt all week... see below.

Let the fun begin at Korman Brothers.
and please pray for Murphy, he will be getting a lot of abuse this week...
(if you can't read the shirt: "I have 81 reasons why DALLAS SUCKS"

Sam
FLY EAGLES FLY!

Memory Stick Update

Hi,

so you guys know i take a huge amount of pictures. Usually at highest resolution possible for my camera.

Well, i found not all memory is created equal...

I originally had this model:

ok memory, but 1 GB doesnt do as much as it used to.
Also other thing.. you can't toss stuff from your computer onto the card for mobile storage. Also if you want to add other pics taken on another card or another pc...

So the search began for new options. TADA...



What's the difference? Not just black color, but Ultra II.


Since i know i am going to continue to take lots of pics, i decided on the 4GB option. The writing speed is very fast. So more photos without the wait. Also i can copy things onto the memory stick for later use. This is key if you want to make photo albums, calendars or other stuff...

Then you can take pics like this...


More updates coming...
Sam

Are you Ready for some football?!

Hehehe

Last night was monday night

1. Bowling night
2. Eagles V. Packers 8:30 pm

Eleanor was all eagle'd up


Monday Night football
First comment. the Pregame HYPE is out of control. how much pregame can there be? They run out of things to talk about so they get deep into the color of Donovan McNabb's boogers?

Second comment after the first half we were all feeling like this...

Eagles gave up 2 fumbles inside the 5 yard line. Packers booted a 54 yard kick, and David Akers tried some fake field goal.. only no time left on clock...

Second half another story

Mcnabb was good.. 2 TDs by his own feet
2 TDs by air to Greg Lewis. And lots of people been hating on G-Lew..but he got 2 TDs.

Win
Favre 2 INTs...

Bowling update.
We are climbing in the standings.
Since it is still early in the season, last week's 550 series, bumped my average up to 175 already! So i am at my end of season goal.

This week... 569 series. And another 203 game in the course of the three games.

We took 3 out of 4 games and moved up in the standings.

Baby does not want to sleep during bowling
She stays up, and when she gets sleepy, she snaps herself out of it.
Kind of like when adults nod off in class...

I guess theres so many people to see, and so many new things there.
Its cool i guess.

She slept well.
Eleanor has been making totally new sounds. Its pretty cute when she does it.

I think its going to be a good week.
We'll see.

Sam