2010 in 12 Pictures

January:

February:


March:


April:


May:


June:


July:


August:


September:


October:


November:


December:

Pearl is One!

One year ago today, our dear Pearl entered the world! It has been a sleep-deprived but quite a blessed year. Here are some pictures from today. I will type up a one year performance review sometime very soon.

If Pearl Could Split Herself Into Multiple Bodies...

...this is what life would be like for Harmony. In case you cannot tell, there is one baby on each breast, one baby pulling at each eye, one baby pulling at the corner of the mouth (looking like it wants a turn for milk), among others.



This picture is SO Pearl! Fitting then that it was taken at a Korean park.

Flowers

It's time for another IHeartFaces challenge. This week the theme is flowers. I had to pull out this picture of Pearl holding one of our home-grown zinneas. Now tell me, which is prettier: the flower, or the baby holding it? ;-)

Celebrating Mom

This week, IHeartFaces is celebrating moms. Here we have our Pearl snuggled up close to me in her Aunt's mei tai.

Smiles

Smiles are the theme in this week's IHeartFaces competition. Here Pearl and her Granddaddy show off their lovely smiles. Don't they make a sweet pair?

All Bundled Up

Pearl wasn't quite so sure about the snow at first. We have proof that she eventually enjoyed herself, but I can only post one picture for the contest. :-) Be sure to visit I ♥ Faces for more lovely pictures!

Hilarious Outtakes

A silly face...



A pinch at just the wrong time...



JunkMale says he's deleted all the other outtakes we have, so you'll have to be happy with just these two. If they don't satisfy your need to laugh at funny faces, go to I♥Faces to see more hilarious outtakes.

I ♥ Baby Hands

Pearl on day one, looking almost too tiny and beautiful to be real.

The theme for the I♥Faces contest this week is hands. Be sure to visit the link below to see more lovely pictures taken on much better cameras by much better photographers, but probably not of so cute a baby. ;-)

Pearl's 8 Month Performance Review

Wow, 8 months...



Our Pearl is becoming more and more mobile every day. She has started crawling within the month. At first it was more of a shambling type of move-every-part-of-the-body-so-I-can-move-a-little-forward crawling, but she is now starting the traditional hands-and-knees crawl.

She is doing some form of pulling up to standing. If she has something low to grab on to, she will do it. She LOVES to practice her walking.

She definitely knows what "milk" means, both sign and word, but I'm not sure if she understands that she can request it herself. When we say it to her, she just starts smiling and laughing in a sort of "haha yes pleasegiveittomeNOW" manner. I think she understands what "dirty diaper" and "get down and play" means. Either that or she just smiles whenever we make hand motions at her.

I think we trained her a bit too well on not taking anything but a real nipple in her mouth. She still isn't eating much solids, but we are planning to give her a few items every time we sit down to eat. She is not really too enthused and is probably thinking "Why eat this when I can just have milk whenever I want...?" She is definitely not losing any calories though, as she is about 20 pounds now, which is very near where her cousin is, who is 8 months older than her.

She has been vocal for a bit now, but only recently has actually started making some consonant noises, as you see later in the video. Sometime last week she actually did say "abba" (Korean for "dad") as clear as we say it, but we don't think she actually knew what it meant. She tries to say "mmaa" but apparently those brain connections have not quite been made yet, poor dear.

With the advancement in physical milestones yet being slightly behind in verbal, you'd think she was a boy or something ;) But no, she is my little girl (I know, I change a lot of diapers) and I loves her forever :D

New Year's Pictures

My parents and sister were in town for New Year's. We dressed up in traditional Korean clothes (hanbok) and took some pictures. Unfortunately any picture that has me in it was not taken on our SLR camera, since I didn't know if my parents would understand how to use it. But the one I included below is good enough.




The blinking timer on the camera was enough to hold Pearl's attention, but not Luna's. We tried to get Luna to look at the camera, but saying "Look!" to Luna usually indicates that someone is here and that she should run to either the front or back door and bark. In the last picture she is on alert looking toward the back door.

Picture Highlights

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the past few months.






I liked the 4th picture so much that I printed out a big 8x10 of it. I consider it one of the best pictures I've ever taken (I still consider myself to be a rather poor photographer, you don't see all the under/overexposed blurry pictures that don't make it onto the Picasa album, for those who have the invitation). The wooden teething ring in the 3rd picture has since been gotten a hold of by a certain Luna, who apparently still considers herself to be teething.

I still don't think she really looks much like me, but all of my non-Asian friends and acquaintances say so. These people probably have not seen too many Asian babies before. I don't think she really looks half-Asian at all, but her mother is comforted to know that she has passed on her sensitive gag reflex and big mouthed toothless grin that she apparently possessed when she was Pearl's age. Oh, and one X chromosome.

If Only...

Don't look too closely, you'll see a messy house, bad photography, and bad editing. But if there were really three of me, the house wouldn't be as messy, and I would have more time for photography and editing.

Baek-il Pictures

The Epic Life

I have now entered the epic life. I have a camera that helps me produce pictures like this (with help from GIMP):



(I expect and hope that my photography and image editing will get better with time)

And music like this, which can make the most mundane tasks feel like you are saving the universe. Not just any kind of music can make you feel like you are at the center of the fight for the continued existence of mankind while you are loading the dishwasher. (skip to 1:58 if you want to hear the best part)

(I bought the whole album from Amazon and it is worthwhile purchase if you like movie trailer-ish music)

A very late thank-you

Connie sent us that adorable bonnet, which suits our Pearl so well. :-) Thank you, Connie! You do such beautiful smocking! I can't fully explain how grateful we are that you - who have never met us and only know us through blogging - took time out of your busy life to make a hand-made bonnet for our baby. Someday we hope to reciprocate, although neither of us are nearly so talented as you are!

(The dress she is wearing in the picture was my grandfather's. He was born in 1916 - when boys and girls both wore dresses as babies - so that makes it 93 years old. I need to learn how to properly store century-old clothing, and soon.)

(The picture was taken by me, which explains why it is blurry.)

From Our New Camera