My Big Girl

Everyday things change
Everyday Eleanor does new things

1. She is almost strong enough to sit up by herself. Right now mainly with assitance or some support, she can kind of sit like adults.


when i say almost, she leans and loses it...


2. She wears pants! Usually she is in Onesies or jumpers. But now she has these pants from baby gap.


3. Her hair quality is getting a little curly or wavy. I have to admit the curly waviness comes from my genes. I usually keep my dome short and spikey, but if i let it grow, i get this asian mans wave. Not cool. If i start to bald i could definitely do the comb over thing with the slightly curly hair. HAHA.



Hehe, so yeah the joys of parenting continue.

Eleanor has filled up one photo album totally, in terms of prints.
she is checking out her own photo album... is that kind of egotistical? Well not really because thats a staged shot.


She definitely likes to stare at her hands. "Whoa look i have a hand"



Other stuff...
Phillies lost
2 games back
3 to play.

CMON SF giants. I dislike bonds, i dislike the giants, but we need them in the worst way. Good thing i didnt get the playoff tickets. They'd be souvenirs of what could have been.

What a waste, 2 innings straight, leadoff man on base
2 innings straight, double played...
Whilst you have the dodgers putting up a 19 spot on the rockies. Some no name gets 9 RBIs! Burrell doesnt have 9 RBIs in september!

I think the Phight in the Phillies is Phreakin' over. say that fast for 23 years. (thats the last time we even got a sniff of the championships)

Some people have theories as to what happened to precipitate the jinx...
1. they moved the rocky statue in 1984. Bad move.
2. they built a building taller than William Penn's Brim of the hat. Before there was an old philly blue law. Nothing is to be taller than William Penn's eye level at city hall. (He's dead! how could he make relief pitching so bad and the sixers so sucky?)
3. The MOVE tragedy. Pretty much they tried to bomb out a cult in west philly and burned like 61 houses. And tried to cover the whole thing up. Not a bright spot. To this day those houses sit empty. A whole neighborhood dead.

But for real? Its about We havent had some bill buckner move between the legs or chip norwood wide rights... Freaks of nature you could say. But we have anguish and agony. Players not performing. Other guys on other teams getting so white hot and torching us like it was their birthday... why us? Why me?

I have to give my daughter something to cherish and folllow. I don't want her to be a hapless hopeless endlessly enduring philly fan with no memories of a parade down broad street... So please, sixers, phillies, flyers, eagles. Win one for my daughter. She can't grow up following losers. Runner ups. and she ain't becoming some bandwagoner either. So it's gonna have to be one of the teams...

So for eleanor. Win, Just win.

Sam

Cry Cry cry

Hey
not every day is hunky dory.

Tuesday eleanor cried a lot. Alot alot.

From the morning she was pretty uncooperative.

So i took some pics. I wanted a balanced view of the baby's first 365 days.
By the way we are on day 78. Awesome.

So, here she is really unhappy. there's little tiny tear bubbles. The lighting wasn't optimal so these won't make clear shots.


This is eleanor really really unhappy. I mean like devil unhappy... This is how i felt after the Eagles lost to the Buccaneers in the 2003 NFC championship game. Yeah it's like that bad. I mean mitch williams bottom of the ninth world series joe carter long bomb to end it bad.


This is my new desktop picture by the way. hehe

My sister asked if i made her cry on purpose to "get the shot"...
I am shocked she would ask that. I didn't ok. Some journalistic integrity...
She cries. babies cry, thats what they do... And daddies take pictures, thats what I do.
Real Estate Class: very inciteful, we learned about estates, fee simple, leasehold etc. Then Leases, eviction, all that good stuff. So many what if questions came up. hehe.

ttyl
Sam

Monday-Tuesday

Hi,
So Monday was ok.

Our Bowling team split the match 2- 2.
In most bowling leagues how it works is you bowl 3 games. 1 point per game, and 1 point for total pinfall. To each time you can gain 4 points. But its kind of a friendly league, then its sometimes it competitive. Like when you start people are all friendly, but as you get to the seventh frame... people start watching the score, and calculating ahead. Our team is setup with Ken as our anchor. The anchor bowls last and can be the difference maker. Even if the team slips up a bit, the anchor can account for a 30 to 40 point swing. Depending on how many strikes they end with.

So before we our practice time started i had a conversation with Ken. I think that things are going to be better this season. I have added the improvements from last season, and now it's just a matter of continuing. I have a good idea of how to string all 3 games together, etc etc. I know how to adjust and not have such bad games. I don't expect to have so many clunkers...

Game 1: 134. Clunker. Lots of splits, lots of missed spares.
It happens.
Game 2: 213 - missed spare on the 9th frame,but i was able to "strike out" the 10th frame. "Strike Out" is good for 3 strikes in the last frame.
Game 3: 203 - Ended with a couple strikes in a row. we missed catching the other team by 6 pins for game 3.
Overal 550 series: 183 AVG.

My goal is to get to 175 by season's end. I would like to shoot to attain 180. That would be awesome.

When we take Eleanor to the bowling alley, she loves it. She sees so many people, and so many love to see her. When i hold her on my shoulder, she looks around, scans the room, studies peoples' faces.
This week she was pretty good. She slept most of game 1. Needed some attention game 2, then slept all of game 3. So we were pretty happy. Sora was upset because this other team was clapping so loud. They are allowed to celebrate, but i guess not so loud around the baby.

Too bad. but Eleanor does sleep well.

Monday night.... Phillies lost a heartbreaker to the Astros fall into a tie with LA for the wild card lead.

Tuesday... Phillies lose another tough game to the Nationals. Fall back 1 game in the wild card.

5 games to play 1 back. Not the end of the world, but disheartening, none the less.

ttyl
Sam

Fly Eagles Fly!

Hey
Sunday was good.

Sora had to go back to church for a special PM service, but we didn't want to take the baby out again.

Also, there was a 4 pm Eagles game.

With baby in pink eagles outfit and daddy all prepped for the game, it was going to be a couple hours of just baby and daddy.

Things went well, all in all.

My technique or plan was
feed, make baby sleepy, watch game
Mostly it worked, when she wasn't sleepy, i brought the play gym thing upstairs and allowed Eleanor to be occupied with that.

She wasn't interested much in the Eagles smashing of the 49ers.
Phillies won on Sunday also.

They lost on monday, so they are tied for the NL wild card with the Dodgers.
6 games left.
Magic number = 7
If its a tie, there is a 1 game playoff in philly.

Random photo of eleanor in bath tub
She is a splasher...

Poppa Sam

Woops!

Hi,

Day 75, and I made eleanor cry. Really cry.

I was clipping her fingernails this morning. Since sora was worried about cutting her, so I thought:"this is a job for daddy"

Also yesterday, Sora cut her toe by accident. But because of a buckle on the swing.

When i got to the thumb on the right hand, it was the last finger...
I clipped her skin at the same time.

Bam! Super cry, like supersonic cry.
I got some tissue and tried to stop the bleeding, but it wasnt working

I took eleanor upstairs (she stopped crying by this point)
We got a bandaid on it.
No good.
Still bleeding

I called J. Park MD, and he told me direct pressure.
Direct...
So we wrapped a paper towel around the finger and tried to apply pressure.

No luck still bleeding after 15 mins.

So we took off the towel, and just applied skin to skin direct contact.
After we did that, the bleeding stopped.

So, parents
1. don't freak
2. Don't freak
3. apply direct pressure.
4. Don't freak

If direct pressure doesn't stop the bleeding, then it's time to call the pediatrician.

after the bleeding stopped, we got a bandaid cut it in half and applied it to her finger.


I think I am more traumatized than her...
ttyl

As we prep for the eagles game, eleanor is ready...


GO EAGLES!


Sam

Some cool socks

Hey

good saturday.
Eleanor Seemed happy...
Phils won. Eleanor can kind of sit up now on the futon at least.


So i wanted to post about these slippper/socks.
My sister must have discovered them from somewhere.

I could say these are pretty cute. see...



They can be found at trumpette.com. They have boy designs as well.

They go well with outfits, and a little different that just socks.

hehe ok.
Have a good night.

Sam

Eleanor has discovered she has two hands

Hi,

I guess this is a revelation to newborns, but it seems that Eleanor has discovered that she has two hands.

Last night we went to TGIF. Sora was sucked into their advertising campaign for Macaroni Bites and Deep Fried Crusted Green Beans. Only $4.00 with purchase. I ordered the 100 calorie Brushcetta Tilapia and Sora ordered the Jack Daniels FlatIron steak.

Macaroni Bites, way too cheesey.
String Beans were good. A nice beer batter crust, green beans were flavorless. Came with some wasabi type sauce. I prefer ketchup.

Also have you noticed how wasabi is becoming more mainstream? I know in fru fru places wasabi is used with tuna dishes etc. I even saw some lady use a wasabi mayo on a salmon burger.

Maybe wasabi will be the next salsa. I honestly think the world would be a better place with a bottle of Sriracha was on every table.

ok, so. as we were watching eleanor chill in her infant seat... she sat there playing with her hands. Holding them together in almost a prayer type position. I think it's a little early for a confession of faith, but it was kind of neat.



Sora says that she is at the staring at her hands phase, which i think is true.

Eleanor is at the age where she should be drinking four ounces or more. She hasnt been. At least not in one feeding. She would drink 2 or 3 and quit. Then we would have to "top her off" with the last portion 30 mins later. Sora says she is getting spoiled and knows she doesnt have to finish her food.

As of yesterday, she has changed her ways some. She can take down about 4 to 5 ounces in one feeding. That is nice for everyone.

As her 100th day approaches, the rules and things will change. We probably won't pick her up everytime she cries.

We'll see. I really don't want a spoiled brat, know it all, show off, punkie daughter. That would not be fun.

Hehe anyhow , i am at work, i will ttyl
Have a good weekend

Sam

Winter Prep Alert

Hi,

As we start to pack away the A/C or put a cover on it, and prepare for the winter, i would like to recommend if you do not have already is a Carbon Monoxide Monitor

Why?

heaters and gas emitting appliances can emit harmful carbon monoxide.
Sometimes faulty equipment can be unsafe to children and adults.

The install is easy and safe.

So your child doesnt die in their sleep...

Let it snow, let it snow. It's a little early :)

Sam

What makes it all worth it?

Hey,

My warehouse manager is in LA for a couple days taking care of some stuff. So in his stead, i am resuming control of the warehouse. It wasnt easy.

Usually i wake up and take care of Eleanor some, and because of how bad things went yesterday, i really missed Eleanor all day. Also my wife.

So, when i got home today, luckily, my class was cancelled. Some emergency on 15th st.

So all day at home with the baby after work.

First let me recap work
1. Delivery to point breeze ave
2. reload for delivery to 60th & woodland.
3. While driving to woodland, truck runs out of gas. We drive on fumes and literally coast into the Sunoco. What a relief eh?
4. Finish delivery and come back to warehouse. Very tiring in deed.

So as I was at home, as eleanor was sleeping, she woke up. We went down to bring her up to the home theater. After i fed her some, i held on my chest, and slowly rocked her to sleep. usually, she is quite alert and not wanting to sleep. But on this night, she put her head down on my shoulder and fell asleep.

After a day like today, it's a small thing but so rewarding. To rock your baby to sleep. You hear her heartbeat. her small little nostril constricted breath... haha

It makes the whole day worth it.
It makes taking night classes worth it
It makes going to Bj's wholesale club to by three thousand dollars worth of toilet tissue worth it.

Because on day this little person will be greeting me at the door. Asking me how my day was. She will run from whatever she is doing to greet me at the door.

for now i will take the spittle, and saliva bubbles and incoherent squeals and whining.


Yeah, it's worth it.

Sam

Just me and the Baby?

Hi,

Last night we had a couple errands to run in cherry hill

1. Pickup 4-runner
2. eat dinner with parents
3. Sora had choir practice at church

So i was planning to come back home to philly with the baby.

When i got into the driveway, i realized i didnt have the car keys. I called sora and asked her to skip item number 3 above and come home.

The baby had slept the whole way home and woken up as i stopped the car for good. Amazing, how she knows, but she knows.

While sora was observing the speed limit the whole way home... i was sitting in the back seat of the car trying to feed/soothe/console the child.

Not the easiest. I am thinking my neighbors are going to come out and see if I am ok.

Wonder why I am sitting in a parked car with a crying, NO wailing baby.

If i was inside the house, i know i would have been fine.
I was planning to give Eleanor a nice bath. Then calm her to sleep and catch the end of the phillies game.

Didnt work out as planned.

so this is how sad the baby was...

Another day and another time.

Sam

Mid week report

Hi,

things are going great. Eleanor is growing everyday. Its cool that she is now outgrowing some of her clothes. Before she was swimming in them, now, she has to graduate to her new size. She is still on the small side.

So sunday was pretty good. She sleeps well in the house of God. i hope when she is bigger she will be able to stay awake. hehe

When i was growing up, my dad used to mainly take pictures on Sunday before church. Since we would usually have our best clothing on.



Mommy with Baby


Somehow Eleanor knows what the camera is, and to smile when she sees it. She doesnt do as well with the camcorder though...

Oh well.

She cried thru the Eagles debacle at the hand of the NY football giants. So sad. I had that sick feeling, like someone kicks you in the stomach and kicks dirt on your when you're on the ground. Giants better enjoy this one, because we are coming to the Meadowlands for Revenge.


Monday night. BOWLING.
Sora: 160, 118, 145. She is still getting into the swing of things.
Sam: 190, 186, 184. I missed some easy spares, and had 1 or 2 bad splits, but overall a good night. My goal is a season AVG of 175 or better. I am getting good revolutions on my ball now.
Overall bowling is good. Lots of people love the baby. We use her as a distraction to mess up other teams... hahaha


I think this is a case of obsessive mothering, but Sora has bee force feeding Eleanor with the books. see...


I have child services on speed dial...
haha

Eleanor does seem to show more interest in the books that when we first bought them. I will be releasing my first childrens book soon. "Real Estate Easements and Encumberances in the Commonwealth of PA." I think the title has a nice ring to it. Can maybe cut it down to R.E.E.E.C.O.P. haha just kidding. I did learn about zoning etc during my licensure class on tuesday.

Tuesday was hard. I didnt see eleanor for much of the day, and when i got home from school... she was sleeping.

I spent a good time with her in the AM today. She did well.

Eleanor is no longer consistently sleeping 9 hrs. It varies. But still better than when we first had her.

I think these days Eleanor is looking more like Sora everyday. Thats cool. I like Sora too. haha

Ok, well one of my main manager is going to LA for vaca. so i will be in the kormans office way more. I hope i can blog from there, but i have to read and do other work.

ttyl folks

Sam

Baby smells like Mac N Cheese

Hi,

i don't know about yours, but sometimes our baby smells like Mac N Cheese. Not her poop but the smell of her pee pee in the diapers.

at first i thought it was when we did some deep frying in the house last week, that some of the smell came thru to her clothes. I thought hm... Eleanor smells like tonkatsu...

I asked my wife. She said no.
Then a couple days later, she said its not Tonkatsu, but Mac N Cheese.

I think its the chemical that makes pee pee gell up in the diaper, but i can't be for sure.

Eleanor is growing each day. She actually has interest when i read her those books i bought a couple weeks ago. She is still not very impressed with Hello Bee, Hello Me, but she does follow along.
I try to add a little more commentary about the pictures, but i dont want to shape all of her opinions.

I guess one opinion is ok: "Cowboys stink, and Giants and Redskins too"
If I don't pass anything else to my children it will be a hatred and fervent dislike for the rest of the NFC east. I will have done my fatherly duties.

I sing her the eagles fight song, when she is awake. She seems to like it.

In terms of other growth, we have to crank up the baby swing a little more now, since she is heavier, the mechanism has to do more work to get her higher.

When we give her baths it easier sometimes because she kind of sits there on her own without our help. She splashes a lot though! She knows she is doing it. I think.


Even during the shampoo phase she is quite happy. And really it is "no more tears"


Even after all that cleansing... baby smells like Mac N Cheese.

have a good weekend friends!

Sam

Wegman's Discovery

So
we were on a family shopping trip the other day, and i spotted this...

http://www.spamgift.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=1380

Single serving spam!
Available in turkey too

http://www.spamgift.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=1381
i thought of my single friends. People who open a whole can of spam, only to worry about it drying out before they finish the can. NOTE: if you eat a whole can by yourself... seek professional help. Sorry it had to be said.

Now, you can have 1 slice. its a large slice, so it wont' fall out of your spam and eggwich.

Very nice indeed

and the site. www.spamgift.com
lots of cool spam thingees.

We eat spam in the Chon house, but low sodium spam lite.

Enjoy!
Sam

Friday update

Hi,

a couple things, eleanor is now consistently sleeping thru the night. Amazing. Sora still wakes up and checks on her, but i think better sleep is on the horizon for the wife.

Eleanor has now graduated to number 1 diapers. No more newborn. The main factors were poop seepage. We found that with Newborns, she squeaked a little out the back on a big one. With number 1's she has a little more room. Since she eats more, she poops more.

So after 4.5 boxes of newborn diapers, we will commence using 1's. I will put the N's in storage for our next child.

So after 66 days, eleanor will move into a new phase of life. I think she is still in the 50 percentile.

Here is a child that is in the 100% percentile. Delivered via c section. 14 lbs and something. I wonder if the lady knew she had a record breaker in the oven... She wasnt surprised. well I Am. haha

Anyhow, here's some pics of Eleanor.
Sporting the turtle hat again, that shadow is me taking the photo.


Here she is with a toy. I think that is chewing of the hand on the toy. thanks to Dely & Art our bowling teamates for the toy



Here we are at Lonestar Steakhouse.


A note on lone star steakhouse. I used to never go there because i thought it was a little cheapy. Wow, i was wrong.

Steaks were done well. I had the rib eye.
Sora ordered the baby back ribs. WOW. So tender and easy to eat.

They have a all you can eat rib special on monday nights.

hehe

ttyl
Sam

9 hours! baby! 9 Hours!

Hi,
big update: Eleanor has achieved nine hours of sleep, without sedation!
My Wife is happy as well.

Last night we came back from Cherry hill, and gave eleanor a nice bath, with soap and shampoo. We used a new swaddle me. This one is made of a velux type material, less elasticity than the original swaddle me, but still nice.

The baby went down at 9:30 pm and woke up 6:30 am. Craziness.

And she just fed and is sleeping again.

I am watching her on my slingbox right now. Hehe.

I dont know what else to say, ttyl
Sam

A good weekend

Hi

Overall we had a good weekend.

1. Eagles won. It was over a rebuilding houston, but "every win in the NFL is a good win." Andy Reid.
2. Phillies split with Florida. No gain, and trailing in wild card still.
3. We had a wedding on saturday to attend in philadelphia. It was the first chance for most relatives to see Eleanor.
Eleanor does well in public places, but sometimes, we use her as an excuse as to why we have to leave early. Sometimes we dont go to places because of the baby.



Mommy with Eleanor


We have still found that weird thing:
When a woman sees Eleanor, they say "She looks just like Sora"
When a man sees Eleanor, they say "She looks just like Sam"

I wonder what it is.
I think she looks like me some days.

Eleanor is growing so much. This weekend, eleanor has also acheived 7 hours of sleep consistently. Thats pretty good. Eleanor slept until 5:30 am today. Sora is pretty happy about that fact.

Another thing that happened is Eleanor is on the verge of moving up in diaper size. If she doesnt soon, then she will spew poop out of her diaper. I hope she moves up soon. Mainly because i have a case of number 1 diapers that i want to use.

The people at the Wegmans photo counter know who we are now. And they know who eleanor is. I think we have printed over 300 prints since she was born. Its pretty crazy. haha.

So after 62 days, eleanor is still doing well. Growing, laughing, and making life so pleasant.



I will ttyl
Sam

2 month Doctor's Visit

Hi,
we just came back from the 2 month doctor's visit.
Here's the stats on the baby so far

here she is in the waiting room with me



Head 15 inches - 50 percentile
10 lbs 3 oz - 50 percentile
22 inches long - 50 percentile

So when it comes to physical things, the baby is in the middle of the pack. I don't want her to be some outlier...
But does this baby look average to you???



The visit went well. The Nurse Practioner gave us some good information.

From what she can see the baby is doing well for 2 months.

No solid foods until 4 months.

Just momma's milk and formula.

At the end of the visit, eleanor received 4 shots for immunization. She cried a lot when she got them. She got em in the thighs. She now has 2 weird colored bandages ont he spots
I was getting a little teary eyed too.

Then she calmed down.

For a doctor's visit its good to put the baby in a kimono type thing because they ask you to take the baby's clothes off for weighing and examination. And when they do shots usually in the legs or feet, its good to have access to them without having to undress the baby.




Again on the co pay thing. DO NOT PAY CASH.
Use a personal check so you can keep the images.

I think medical practices have a little scam going.

overall, we are all doing good.

Current baby hairstyle
Magwa from last of the Mohicans

A little bushy like her dad's


Sam

59 Days 14 hours ...

Hi,
I have to say that sometimes each day seems the same.

then some special days I learn something new , or observe something new about eleanor.

The other day, i was staring at her as i was feeding her. Wondering what she is thinking and i noticed.

Eleanor has eyebrows. Not a unibrow, but a faint line of hair above each eye.
see...


No shaping or plucking yet. I will let Sora teach her how to do that...

Eleanor's arm strength is growing. last night we swaddled her, and she still continuted to try and get one arm free. She got it free without the velcro loose. So the fabric from the swaddle me/straightjacket ... was all up in her face.

Another friend said he was thinking about duct tape next...

So yesterday was my first day of school. A night class in the real estate institute. I am taking a class called Real Estate Investment. Despite the trend in the economy and real estate inventory, now is the best time to make money. The wheat becomes separated from the chaff thru sound real estate principles and proper analytics. So, now may not seem like the best time, but I am not going to wait around when everyone else is jumping in.

As i was in school, i thought about Eleanor. looked at her photo on my phone background. I thought about her when i was coming home on the subway... It was pretty crazy.

Eleanor is averaging about six hours when she sleeps. I think that is pretty good.

Yesterday we went bowling, and eleanor slept thru most of our practice session. She seems to be soothed by the sound of the pins crashing.

I took pictures of Eleanor beside other items. Just so that we could see a perspective of how much she has grown.
So i call this segment: "Monkey and Me"


we will continue to feature the monkey over the course of her life as a point of reference...
this shot just put in because it seems that eleanor enjoys chilling with the inanimate monkey toy...


Oh yeah, we let her hands free yesterday. I wanted to see if she tried to scratch herself and stuff. She did well. So we have more options available to us in terms of outfits.

She sucks on her hand though...




You know... i tried to sit up Eleanor yesterday. She doesn't quite have all the strength yet... But she almost stays upright, but not yet. The tummy time pics were getting a little played out... so i need new photo angles...


Hehe.

To the doctor's today, so official weight and length numbers.

at the 2 month appointment it is good to prep infant tylenol drops because they administer some vaccines today, and she could get a little fever.

ttyl

Sam

just like daddy

is it possible for our little eleanor to already take after her daddy?
it's really funny when i see eleanor doing some of the same things her father does. of course, he doesn't mention them on this blog. well actually, he sometimes doesn't get to see it.
let's see...
1. she farts just as loud and smelly as he does
2. she has a sideways smile
3. she can sleep through anything and...
4. she whines just like him when she doesn't get her way...heehee jk

but luckily she has my toes and hands...
i'm sure as time goes on i'll see more of me in her. it's so amazing to see her change day by day.
she has new sounds and i think she already laughs. but of course, i'm the only one who has heard it...

i love being a mommy
sora

Eight Weeks! 56 Days 1 hour 58 seconds

Hi,

so today is 8 weeks for baby eleanor. That makes her approximately 2 months old. Totally amazing.

You know, not to put pressure on her, but i was thinking what if she doesnt do something new today? I mean she makes new sounds, and new movements with her hands and arms, but what if on this day.. she doesnt show up?

Well... i was wrong.
We were able to capture in a photo a totally new expression.
This is the smile without teeth smile. Still happy and still very cute...



I was able to clip most of her overgrown toenails and fingernails today. Usually she is quite fidgety, but today she was calm. Like she knew not to fear. Last time i drew blood from one of her fingers, but she seemed to forget all about that little incident. We needed to clip her nails because we were taking her out in a short sleeved shirt today.


Today was a good day off for us.

I read about this place called arnold's go karts in oaks pa. It was rated as a top place to go in Philadelphia Magazine. It is a 1/3 mile indoor go kart track. The Karts are electric instead of gas. Pretty fast.

One race costs 15 bucks mon-thu, fri sat sun 20 bucks. There was a special buy 2 races get a 5 dollar discount. So, we bought 2 races per person.

for 30 dollars 2 races was pretty worth it. Each race last for 10 minutes. I found that rather than just a race down a straight away, the key was driving the right lines on the course and wait for your chance to pass. No power steering so doing some muscular activity before may help with the driving.

Here are some pics of the place.

Brian and Bryce



My uncle and cousin


Then we went to minado sushi buffet for lunch. Very very good indeed. about 16.95 per person lunch, 25 for dinner. I think it is close to quality of Todai. When we were at the buffet we met a family with twin girls. Double trouble man. They had a double stroller. Like the F14 Fighter pilot setup.

Then i came home to watch another nailbiter between the phillies and the astros. In the end Chase Utley came thru with a walk off homer in the 11th. Ryan howard also had another homer today taking his total to 53 HRs. That leads all the majors. Thanks to other players dropping off and even david ortiz going into the hospital for irregular heartbeat, Ryan howard has stepped up.

They are still not out of the woods in terms of the wild card. Florida who will be in for a 4 game set this weekend is playing fast and furious also.

So, i can say that the baby has really grown.
She makes new noises, not just crying, but high pitched screams, little whines, cool noises.
She is on the verge of moving up to the next size in diaper too.

Here are some more photos of Eleanor on her 56th day
Arms up

Arms down

a good close up


ttyl
Sam

Do you like baby carrots?

hehe

she was wrapped in the orange flannel blanket, and thats what came to my mind.

Yesterday night, close family friends came over, and we decided to treat them to dinner. They were in south korea for the summer. They brought back some baby stuff for us too.

I asked for a specific baby carrier for the back. And they brought 2. Pink and blue. for our many children we hope to have.

I haven't used it yet, but i looks pretty good for what we need.

They also brought us some Korean Soccer Jerseys and Kia Tigers baseball jersey. Cool!

Eleanor is definitely gaining strength in her arms and neck now.
she almost always can stay up on her arms and look around . By the way, my wife bought that hat for Eleanor


Another good thing happened. We figured out how to make good ice cream in the cuisnart. By reading the directions! Good , no GREAT thing about the internet is that you can find downloads of the instruction manuals for most legit products.

So the key to making he ice cream fluffy and good... blend the items in the blender first, so the ingredients dont separate. I used polaner all fruit strawberry 1 whole jar, and 3 cups of lactaid whole milk. No sugar needed. I think you could go with 3/4 of the jar of polaner allfruit to have it just right. Blend in blender for 3 minuted, then pour into ice cream maker. Go for 30 minutes, then toss into freezer to "cure" for 2 hours. BAM! Good ice cream. NO GREAT ice cream. this serves 6 people. so ratio down for 2 people.

i have to find a concentrated mango nectar to make good mango sherbert. The mango juice in the juice box was not good enough.

But i think the next thing will be coconut ice cream.

I wonder what the baby is thinking in this picture. Quite serious. Maybe something like "May I have another cookie please?" seems more of a pleading expression.

This is more of a "If I have to come back one more time, i won't be alone"

I think in this photo she is thinking "Whoa, that doesn't smell good, Who farted?!!"

When the words to come out of her mouth, be sure i will be there to capture it on video.

I am going to get her ready for church soon.

ttyl

Sam

Road Trip is over

Hi

we are all safely back in Philly now.
Luckily we missed the hurrican driving up 95.
It was a little dicey in VA, but after we got into MD it was cool

Eleanor is a true road warrior. She sleeps like a champ. No motion sickness or anything.

Tips from the trip
1. pack extra stuff so you dont forget
2. Pack n play really comes in handy once again.
3. feeding back in infant carrier while driving is ok, but without burping baby seems to spit things up.

We pulled over and Sora burped Eleanor, she seemed better after that.

We had a nice dinner at a Korean BBQ in centerville. Very nice food. We had a side room, so it was nice. My cousins Hong & Christine along with my aunt stopped by as well. Their child is 8 months old. He is big! 23 LBS and not even 1 year yet. I picked him up for like 3 minutes and that was all i could handle. He looks like his mom. It was nice to see them and allow them to see eleanor.

Other friends who came
Julie Choi: She was the Matron of honor at our wedding. She was very happy to see Eleanor.
Sora actually convinced her to ditch a night class to come to the dinner. It was a world religion class so, I think buddha, et al will be ok with it.

Bobby & Julie (moon) Suh. They are very good friends of Sora from her days helping out with servants in GMU. We are praying that they will have their own little bundle of joy soon as well. (Good luck! and have fun!)


Big Brother James
He got a new tmobile phone. Very slim. Super Slim. Samsung X20. But apparently tmobile coverage in VA stinks. I have not heard good things overall about TMO... but it works well in my warehouse. Verizon and Cingular are doing well down there. Honestly i dont even get TMO in my moms house in cherry hill, i have to use the nextel. Once we sell that building i think i will switch to sprint to cingular. Since my phone is an unlocked GSM phone i can drop in new sim cards from other carriers.
For all cell phone owners I recommend EGrips. They can be purchased at the Shack! Radio shack. you can toss phone on dash and it doesnt slip off. No need for some in car holster etc.

James is a good brother in law. He has given us the most hand me downs of baby stuff. We recently ransacked his garage and took the baby mattress. Eleanor seems to have out grown the bassinet my parents picked up at a garage sales in cherry hill.

Speaking of getting good bargains... how about free? Well some tree hugging environmentalists who want to minimize trash and people buying more junk created a website/community.
www.freecycle.org this site has listings of geographically based recyclers of anything. all free.
like craigslist but better. in the ritzy areas people give away nice stuff. Like baby bjorns. Thats and 80 dollar value, FREE!

One of my sister's friends boasts she has never purchased any baby clothes. Aside from gifts she gets everything from freecycle.

Why buy when you can scavenge?

Anyhow it was a good trip

1. I am not going to shilla bakery anymore. Punks! Cant even calculate change. Also their crap is overpriced. Chinese bakery: Roast Pork bun 60 cents. Sesame Ball: 50 cents. 24 inch round birthday cake 44 bucks.

Korean bakery: Buns: $1.50, cake $100.00

Why? I am not hating on my own people. but the sense of priveligedness or lack of effort, people will come thing.. is really ticking me off. the economy is not so good for people to be spending 4 dollars on a 6 pack of madelines!

2. korean christian bookstore. Also very rude. Unwilling to search by author name! What bookstores doesnt cross reference titles , authors and subject? Another case of there isnt much competition, so i will be a punk to customers who need help! THat is why i buy all my curious george books from garage sales or freecycle.

Sam I am! I like green eggs and ham, but people who do business with a sense of apathy, kill me!
Anyhow i like spam. low sodium kind.

I need to do some turbojam work off this anger.
ttyl
Sam