Zoo Trip and Mopping

Woody took the girls to the zoo today (all three!!) and out to lunch. I stayed home and did some serious fall cleaning.

We're all very tired. I'm sure there were some memorable moments of the weekend but I'm too tired to remember. Morgan starts a 2 1/2 week fall vacation tomorrow. Woody's mom arrived this evening.
More later when I can think clearly.

Homemade Puppets

Surprised? There were even more toy recalls announced this morning. Unbelievable. There are predictions out there that we're not through with the season of recall.

This list includes, of all things, a puppet theater. A puppet theater!!! C'mon. Can't they make a safe puppet theater? With all these recalls, I will be watching the reaction of American parents and toy buyers to see how this toy buying season will shake out.

For us, our minds were made up in the last recall series. We're buying quality American and European toys, and much fewer. We are very lucky and blessed with my "toymaster" parents in Minnesota. Dad has already built the girls a fabulous toy kitchen refrigerator and stove, cradle, rocking horse, and doll highchair. Mom is a superb sewing star making the girls doll outfits that are unbelievable and downright beautiful. If my parents are the toymasters, then I think I can call myself the puppetmaster, based on our Christmas four years ago:

We were trying to get Morgan a "big"Christmas gift without spending anything. Traditionally, my family has had one present from Santa that was not wrapped. It was usually either bulky (like a three person toboggan) or looked better displayed (like a tea set or Lincoln Logs). We continue that tradition here in Arizona. On this particular Christmas four years ago, Woody and I had just moved the TV from the family room to the living room, leaving this empty "alcove" next to the fireplace. I came up with the late, but brilliant and cheap idea of turning the area into a puppet theater as a Christmas present for Morgan. We used a tension curtain rod and twin sheet fabric to make the curtains 3 feet up the floor. We put a shoe box shelf and chair on the inside of the alcove. Did I mention all this was done after church on Christmas eve? Morgan only had one puppet, though. By now it was nearing 11 P.M. when I came up with the idea of making family puppets for her. I found pictures of our family and photo-shoped the heads and printed them on heavy cardstock. Woody and I taped tongue depressers to the back and voila! Morgan had puppets. Truly imaginative, truly cheap. She was thrilled Christmas morning and we have some good video of Morgan imitating us and creating family stories.

Anyway, instead of the China made, lead painted, pricy puppet theater, here's an idea to make your own, for what it's worth.

We didn't have any of the recalled items:

Thomas The Train Wooden Railway Toys: recall here
Toby N.Y.C. Children’s Metal Jewelry: recall here
Guidecraft Puppet Theatre: recall here
Children’s Spinning Wheel Metal Necklaces: recall here
Jo-Ann’s Children’s Toy Rakes: recall here
Target’s Toy Gardening Tools & Chairs: recall here
Knights of the Sword Toys: recall here

"Me"

A Poem by Morgan J. Chung

Me!
I am cool!
I am beautiful!
I am fun!
I play spots!
I am funny!
I have friends too!
I have Josh, Gina, Mina, Margaret and Me!
I have fun.

"Sickness"

An Essay by Morgan J. Chung,

Wednesday, September 26, 2007.

Sickness!

If you are just lick [sic] I am, these things you will need. food, games, Drawing, Writting, play, nap, read, rest, color and that is it. If you fele like throwing up get a trashcan. If you are sick lay in your bed or If you have a headake, read or put a Icepack on your head! If you are very, very, sick go to your mom, Dad to tell you to go to the trashcan.

Mom, Dad: "I'm throwing up in the trascan!"

What.

Oh, no!

Ah, Agh, Ah!

Tonight's Reading

Ingrid is hanging in there, living on Pedialyte and determination. She went to sick kid care for a few hours today while Woody had a test. Our weather has been super cooperative and Woody was able to get Ingrid in the stroller for a little walk for a change up. Yesterday (Monday) she slept most of the day.


After dinner we read a book of cat poems and short stories. Not my favorite subject by any means but the girls enjoyed it. Frankly, I don't really remember much, I tried to read rather fast. The book is copyright 1970 and is out of print.

What's in your Bag?

At one time or another, most of you have spent time in an ER or Urgent Care waiting room. If you are my contemporary, you realize that the experience can range from the pleasantly surprised quick in quick out to the overflowing waiting room conundrum - do I stay or not? Whatever the case, we plan for anything.

Today, we took Ingrid to urgent care. She hasn't been able to shake whatever has been ailing her stomach and the ongoing symptoms of throwing up, diarrhea, fever, lethargy, was of great concern to us. She was dehydrating fast. We packed for the long haul - extra supplies, provisions for food, entertainment, comfort. We made the decision that we should both go which meant the older two had to come, too. Since I helped build this urgent care, I knew the waiting room was actually split and the outpatient radiology section would be empty. I still overpacked the supplies. Less than two blocks from our house (and still in the neighborhood), Ingrid threw up everywhere in the car. We turned around and headed home. I bathed Ingrid and Woody battled the car seat and car. We cleaned up as much as possible, jumped in the other car and off we went.

Three and a half hours later (with a dead Ipod battery, depleted snacks, finished books) we emerged. Ingrid was given Rocephin to help with the dehydration. Annika and Morgan were troopers.

Happy Birthday Brother

Today is my brother's birthday. If you think he's getting old, he's not. He's only 39. Uncle Todd drove over to Arizona while on assignment in Long Beach, CA a few years ago. He spent the night enjoying our wireless internet and board game challenges with Morgan. Morgan was a good opponent in Whack-a-Mole, but in the end, Uncle Todd still has good reflexes.

The second picture of Todd and Annika was taken during a visit to Minnesota in 2004.

Tonight's Reading

A.K.A. Midweek normalcy of a suburban family.

Today carried the typical trappings of a normal day. A reality show letdown - the kind where the producer screams, "make something happen. There's nothing exciting to show." And you know what? That's exactly how we like it: a normal day.

Work, school, daycare, grocery shopping at the health store, fish eye and curry dinner, baths, reading, teeth-brushing, toy car gripped carefully in hand, music and lights out. Wait, there was one exciting change: we got Annika and Ingrid to give up the Christmas CD they've been listening to for the last many months!

Here's tonight's book, The Pooh Story Book, by A.A. Milne, copyright 1965.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

We took the older two girls to the Arizona Diamondback baseball game this evening. They were playing the San Francisco Giants. The girls had a good time and the seats were down the first base line. A couple became engaged during the fourth inning shown on the Jumbotron. What a great celebration of life and happiness. The girls had hotdogs and bottled water and cheered at anything that looked remotely exciting.

Fun Family Monday!

19.3 Pounds plus clothes!

Ingrid is growing. She's growing proportionately faster than Annika. Why is that important? It's very important when your carseat inheritance program blows up. I anticipated Morgan and Annika hitting certain milestones by the time Ingrid turned one. The brilliant plan was to give Ingrid the new car seats that belong to Annika and give Annika the booster seats that belong to Morgan. Well, Morgan didn't gain any noticeable weight this year, therefore she still needs her booster car seats. Annika made only small gains and is ten pounds shy of the minimum weight for a booster seat. Wow. I was way off!

That means, no booster car seats from Morgan to Annika and Annika is fully in command of her carseats so nothing to transfer to Ingrid. Ingrid is getting ready to face forward. What all this means is a shopping trip, and, for one of our cars, careful measurements to fit three carseats.


This afternoon, after naps, we made the trip to Babies'R'Us to figure this out. They even have a model backseat to test your choices. We finally settled on a convertable model that will be used by Ingrid and Annika in the SUV and Annika's current larger sized seats will be used by both girls in the minivan.


We ate dinner and dessert and then began the careful harness threading and dreaded installation process of THREE carseats in each car after the sun set. It's now 10 PM and we're done with one car....

Tonight's Reading

From a very exciting, eventful, exercise-full day, the three girls mellowed out quickly. Ingrid went out at 7 PM for the night. We all watched Big Joe's Polka hour (a hillarious Saturday evening satellite TV tradition in the Chung household). The girls dance to the music and we laugh at the seriousness this show's producers used in creating a weekly show from the 80s. Big Joe looks like Al from Happy Days, only with white hair. A Chung confession: we all have"danced" to Polka.

After lasagne dinner and dancing (as if the girls didn't get enough exercise today) we settled on some old fashioned fairy tales for reading. Both girls wanted Rapunzel, Peter Pan and 12 Dancing Princesses.

Saturday Play Date

This afternoon we arranged a play date with friends of ours. They have two daughters close in age with our girls. Emily and Morgan went to daycare and preschool together. Now Annika and Megan attend the same preschool. Megan is a full 14 months younger than Annika but is the taller of the two girls.

The afternoon went great. The girls jumped in the indoor jumper, played dress-up and boogied down on the piano. Later, they went outside and rode bikes in the cul-de-sac. I thought I might have been crazy to go from three to five girls in the house but it worked out great. Emily and Megan's parents will be reciprocating in the future.

Let's Just Say...

T.G.I.F....

Did you see our earlier posts this week about fevers? Wednesday was Annika, Thursday was Michelle and Thursday evening was Ingrid. Tonight?? Woody starting to get something. We'll see what Saturday brings - I'm just glad I'm not juggling work and "sickiniss" for atleast the next two days.

Fevers, Etc.

Short posting today. Annika has a fever, again. Our house has become the poster house for Lysol, Dial, and assorted antibacterial wipes. Earlier today, she was transferred from her preschool, a.k.a. Well Day Care, to Chandler Hospital's Sick Day Care for mildly ill children when they reported a fever of 102. Annika is the queen of funny fevers.

Once again, our house is divided with "sickiniss" on one side and welliniss (I made that one up). Woody gets the well kids, I get the sicki one.

More updates tomorrow.

Attention! Sickiniss!

Attention All: Morgan is announcing that she is sick. Not just normal sick, but stay-out-sick! That's right, the formal name for her illness is stay out sickiniss.

I don't want to diminish Morgan afternoon stomach ailment, at the same time we couldn't help but chuckle at the sign we found hanging on Morgan's door. The notice is short on symptoms of this strange malady, it certainly contained a long list of treatment requirements.

To help you out, here's the entire document typed out:

Sickiniss!

Stay Out!

I am sick!

Needs?

Helthy food, toys!, drick, coloring book, meedosen, bathroom, Icepask.

Well, I'm pleased to report Morgan is much better this evening and we didn't have to build a master bathroom off her bedroom. I really admire Morgan's ingenuity: the sign was placed on the door using a safety pin and a hairband. Way to use the noggin, Morgan!

Pressure Birthdays

Morgan went to a birthday party of a classmate this evening. As far as I understood, the entire class was invited. That was very generous. The party was at a place called, "Pump It Up", located in the autopark/industrial area of Tempe. Pump It Up is an ingenious indoor jumping party concept, otherwise known as outsourced warehouse entertainment. It is run like a well oiled machine. Two parties happen simultaneously for two hours each. The center starts at 10 AM and goes until 9 AM - 5 shifts of two birthdays each day, or ten total parties. You arrive in the lobby at your assigned time and place your host (the birthday child's) gift in the appropriate rolling bin. The two scheduled parties watch a safety video and then retreat to room A or B where they jump on the equipment for 40 minutes. An overhead announcement is made and the parties are led out different hallways and back into the opposite room for another 40 minutes. Two separate party rooms are set up with a throne and two teenage workers to dish out pizza and drinks to the now sweaty, hungry party goers. The workers light a cake for the birthday child and also make record of the presents and their giver's names for future thank you's. The presents and leftover food are rolled out after the 20 minute room time into the family's car and the party is over. It's very, very mechanical and very expensive.
While mentioning this, I do believe the children had a good time. Morgan and her classmates were smiling away. This was the third party to which Morgan has been invited at Pump It Up. However, I have a strong opinion about these ueberparties. The one-upping is getting out of hand at times. In the Phoenix metro area, there are several grand places where you can have your child's party. There's a monthy magazine devoted to the topic. The ultimate mega location is the princess castle. It is truly that, a grand castle, with a entrance big enough that a horse drawn carriage can enter the castle. It was built next to a wedding reception building and is known for hosting dream weddings. During the week, little girls with big credit cards can experience the same, including the cake, horse and carriage rental and limo to pick up your little guests. All this is less than 5 miles from our home.
There's a website devoted to those parents who want to say, "enough is enough". It's called http://www.birthdayswithoutpressure.org/ and describes the simple parties. Our girls already buck the trend of the credit-card-parties by leaving their birthdays to the family. Instead, Morgan has an annual (this year her 4th annual) Christmas cookie party. Annika has a Valentine's Art party and Ingrid will have a backyard carnival style party. The beauty of this plan is that the decorations are already in place. The supplies are inexpensive. There are no presents to worry about. And the girls find it fun!

More Poses from the Portrait Studio

Here are three unedited pictures from Sunday's visit to Portrait Innovations. I love the picture of Ingrid!

Kickoff Sunday...on a Thursday

Today is the start of the 2007 regular season for the NFL. It's Thursday. Hmmm. I feel old, because I can only remember Kickoff Sundays. Honestly, in the last ten years, I haven't had the opportunity to watch much football. I married someone who used to think footballs were round and black and white. I have kids. I have chores.

But in honor of kickoff Thursday I have some pictures of Ingrid taking a few steps as a Purple Lady. I don't have a lot of hope for the Vikings getting out of the middle, but my Korwegian Kids still recognize Grandpa's purple team. "We want the purple to win, right Mom?"

P.S. We still have and use the green bowl and cup given to Annika from my wayward cousin. (hint: she's the one living directly EAST of the Mississippi and dresses her daughters in green [GASP]). My girls still don't quite understand the chuckling everytime Grandpa ends up with that bowl, but we do...

Toy Recall, Again

Well, I didn't think it would happen, but Mattel announced another recall late Tuesday. This time it was Barbie accessories. We don't have many accessories, and our clothes are handmade from a known source [smile], so I thought I would read the announcement and shake my head.

Then a picture caught my eye. Oh great, I knew we had the puppy set. I almost wanted to set up a perimeter and run some of Woody's old crime scene tape to find the dog. It was more anger than fear. How can they do this to our toy? The plastic dog invariably has been in Ingrid's mouth and has gone to bed with Morgan on more than one occasion.

Thankfully, there's a process where the die lot or whatever number, determines when the toy was made. We did buy the toy late 2006 like the recall mentioned. But it must have been from an earlier run because it was not included in the recall afterall. So now what do I do with it????

Anyway, on my quest to buy quality American and European toys and continue the joys of online window shopping and list making, I have discovered another website.
www.toysmadeinamerica.com This website captures a lot of mom and pop toy making sites from the U.S. I have looked at all of them and frankly, it was nice to see a venue for these hardworking manufacturers to display their products. For a consumer, it was nice to look and gather ideas. Morgan has two wishes for Christmas thus far. She wants a locked diary with a horse picture and a chess set. That's going to be easy. I saw a few nice chess sets from this website and I'm sure there are more if I look.

"Charlie, meet Pengu"

In another installment of the life of Charlie, a praying mantis, Annika did the formal thing and introduced the new boy to her ever-present plastic mascot, Pengu. Her introduction speech was eloquent and short and included a notable warning about not eating Pengu. Annika was ever brave and took Charlie on a tour of the house with the best view - from her head. She showed Charlie where Morgan sleeps. We were sure they were visiting the fairy green hokus room from the full lung screams we heard from Morgan. Such is our Labor Day.

This evening we watched the repeat of the Vikings-Cowboys game on NFL network. It is not often that we will be able to watch an entire game without significant interruptions. I pulled out the 12-18 month clothes for Ingrid, admiring the cold weather items and wondering if we'll get to use them before she outgrows them. I was wishing for some cold fall breeze to try out the fleece jacket and pumpkin sweatshirt. These belonged to Annika only you wouldn't realize it because they still have their tags! At 95 degrees average, it was not possible for Annika to wear her Halloween sweatshirt before the big day. Afterward it didn't seem right and then she promptly grew. We get another shot at it with Ingrid. That the beauty of handmedown clothes. Want to go shopping? Just head to the attic and find the right container.

Our day ended with baths and the goodbye ceremony for Charlie who gained his freedom after a day he'll never forget. How many praying mantis' do you know that can say they spent a day in a jar with a penguin?

What a Great Sunday

Hello All. Today has been a fun Sunday in the sun. On top of our fun day was our portrait studio experience this afternoon. All three girls were great and we ended up with some great pictures. Here's just one of the 130 poses taken of the girls. This time, the photographer was right. If he did his job well, my job would be difficult - and it was. Picking the best shots took quite a bit of doing and review. However, the job was done and we have a great set of portrait pictures of the girls in the traditional hanbok dresses.

So enjoy this one picture. I'll post more later after I send some to the grandparents. I don't want to "spoil" it for them.

Is it Autumn Yet?

Another Saturday spent indoors with excessive heat warnings outside. Oh Joy. Actually it was good to stay inside today. The older girls cleaned the toyroom and painted with watercolors. Ingrid was a little on the whiny side. (Read: All day).

Today is my aunt Mary's birthday. It's an easy day to remember. September 1. Here's a picture of Mary and Annika from a surprise trip to Arizona two years ago. Happy Birthday Mary. Hope you had a fun day.



Today is also the birthday of my friend Kate. Kate is Annika's godmother. She has been an inspiration to me for many years. Happy Birthday Kate!!!