milestones – Page 3 – thosecoolkims

Rubyisms

This kid is growing.

And changing.

SO. FAST.

And sometimes, it’s just so hard to keep up. She’s been blowing our minds lately with some of the things she says and does. She’s so funny. And so smart. Here are some of the latest Rubyisms:

“Mom, look. I put booger on you sweater.”

“Mom, you play Sesame Street wif me. It’s good for you.”

“Hi. I Dr. Ruby Kim. I listen to the heart now?”

Dinnertime, mid-tantrum:
Ed: Ruby, you can sit here and finish your dinner with us, or you can go to your room.
Ruby: THOSE ARE NOT GOOD CHOICES, DAD!!!!!!

After explaining to her that Ed is Korean, and I am Caucasian (and she is both):

“Daddy is Kahweeean. Mommy is Cockcajun.”

Singing sweetly to herself:

“A,B,C,D,E,F,G. Q,R,S,T,U,V … W,KISS,Y,N,Z!
Now I know my A-B-C, next time won’t you sing wif me?”

Holding her baby doll, and talking to her other giant stuffed toy:

“Look, Muno. This is my baby sister.”

FAVORITES AS OF LATE
Music. Can’t get enough lately. The request of, “Mom, can I have a song?” is multiple times daily, while we eat breakfast or lunch or when we’re in the car. And of course, no matter what volume it’s at, she asks “How about loud?” Her favorite bands are Django Django, Sonny and the Sunsets, Jack White and Cat Power. Fortunately for us, she still rejects most pop music.
TV. She is slowing down on the Yo Gabba Gabba, but is becoming more and more obsessed with PBS Kids’ Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
Foods. She has been digging green beans lately (to our delight), and she likes Beef with Broccoli. Well, she makes us take the meat out. “No meat! I don’t want meat!” She is also a huge fan of “strawbubbies”, “bluebubbies” and pears. And, so far, she’s never met a frozen yogurt she didn’t like. Look out if you plan on sharing with her, she’ll bogart the entire thing!
Play: She loves to pretend to talk on the phone. She loves playing “Dr. Ruby”. She lays her blankets out on the floor, lays her babies down, and takes their temperatures, listens to their hearts and gives them “medicine”. She also adores Winnie the Pooh and Piglet (pronounced, “Piguhlet” in Ruby speak). She kinda loves anything Disney as a matter of fact. She especially loves Lightening McQueen and Mater from the movie Cars, and she loves Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy. She can name just about any character, thanks to all the Disney stuff at Grandma and Papaw’s :)
Activities: She loves going to Miss Suzi’s music class and she likes her swim teacher, Harrison.

I’m sure I’ll think of more, but I just don’t wanna forget this stuff. Everything is so new to her, and so exciting. I just can’t believe how much she’s changing …

Two Year Photo Shoot

Right before Christmas, we were so lucky to have the opportunity to do a photo shoot with the VERY talented Michelle of Monarch Lane Photography. Michelle suggested we head up to Pacific Palisades to take some pics of Ruby, and what a magical spot it turned out to be! We’re so in love with these photos. Please enjoy and look at more in our photo album (It’s so hard to pick favorites!).

Thank you SO much, Michelle for capturing such gorgeous shots of our two year old!

Officially a walker

We just realized that there is no evidence here that Ruby is officially a walker! She has been going since Thanksgiving, but now definitely prefers walking over crawling, so now it’s for real.

Here’s a clip of her on the move, while desperately trying to get her daddy’s attention:

And one more, so you can see that proud little face. :)

p.s. We think “Baba” means “Daddy” in Ruby speak. She calls him that all the time.

Handmade and Homemade just for Ruby

This post is sooo tardy, but it’s a week later and we’re still recovering from Ruby’s 1st birthday party! Of course, it was a lot of fun, but a huge reason it was so special was because of all the loving preparation that went into things from both sides of the family! This post is to honor all of the handmade and homemade special details of Ruby’s birthday party!

#1: Go-ims

Go-ims are traditional decorative “towers” that are usually trimmed with hard candies and/or beans for a Korean 1st Birthday Party (dol). Ed, his mom, and dear friend/”grand uncle” Wonil lovingly spent days and hours working on these for Ruby’s party! They used white beans, black beans, kidney beans, red/white/pink chocolate spree, black m&m’s and mentos to decorate all 3 of the go-ims. Ed designed all 3 of them first – he found an awesome tiger template to use in honor of Ruby being born during the year of the tiger, and he then he put together a retro-looking one with Ruby’s name and starbursts. Finally, he mapped out a patterned design with all red, pink & white candies to look more pop-ish and modern.

Halmoni decided she’d like to work on the tiger and Wonil worked on the one with Ruby’s name. Here they are hard at work!

As you can see, each individual candy and/or bean was glued to the paper towel roll (which was covered with poster board to make it smooth) one at a time. Patience and determination prevailed! I wish we had remembered to take a picture of the back of Halmoni’s, because during her quest for perfection – she couldn’t get the mentos to line up evenly in the back! So, she decided to use the beans and m&m’s to put Ruby’s birthdate (11-02-10) on the back to even things out.

This is the only pic we have where you can see part of it – but it looked great!

Proud and happy here on evening #2 as more progress is made:

The go-ims were beautiful, and we’ll always have memories of special bonding time with Ed’s mom and Wonil during the time these were made. I love this one of Ruby with her Halmoni on the day of her party:

#2: Cherry cookies

I wanted Ruby’s party to have a “retro cherry” theme. I saw a birthday party online that was a big inspiration, and it had these perfect cookies with cherries on top that I was dying to re-create (with my own spin on them of course). Since my parents are known for their masterful baking skills (they made 150 bride cookies and 150 groom cookies for favors at our wedding!), I asked if they’d help me out. Mom baked 48 sugar cookies and whipped up a batch of her own buttercream fondant, and Dad set out to cut out leaves and cherries to decorate each cookie.

This was at the beginning when he was using royal icing to “glue” the fondant base to the top of each cookie.

Moving on to adding the duo of cherry pieces …

Then, he took the extra leaves that were left over to cut stems for each cherry (he’s meticulous!). It really made them look all that more polished … and they tasted as good as they looked!

I can’t thank my parents enough for this … there’s no way I could’ve pulled off this impressive array of cherry-themed treats without them!!!
Red Velvet cupcakes with a cherry-on-top:

Mini-Cherry Cheesecakes and Chocolate Cake Balls:

The entire spread in all of its glory!

#3 Favor jars filled with Cherry Sours

I had been saving baby food jars for awhile in hopes of using them somehow and decided to use them for favors at the party. Pretty simple, but made with love nonetheless. What can I say, I’m a stickler for a theme …

#4 Ruby’s Retro Tunes Playlist

Ed & I sorta have a reputation when it comes to mix CDs. However, since the actual process of burning CDs seems so wasteful these days with folks using MP3 players and all, we decided to ditch the actual CD and just post our compilation for download (You can download the playlist here, if you want). The mix is simply songs that make Ruby smile, with a retro slant (of course!).

More party blogging to come – but all the details deserved their own post!

Our Baby is ONE.

How did this happen? Ruby Alice is a one year old. We’ve always loved this girl, but wow – these days, she is just the most entertaining, hilarious, curious (and strong-willed!) kid! She is really the third person in our family now, making her mark and adding her own charisma into the mix.

She’s dancing, high-fiving, eating lots of food and playing peek-a-boo. She cruises around the furniture, shakes maracas and stands up on her own. She’s got 4 teeth up top and two on the bottom. She’s been saying “mama” and points to things when she wants them. She can copy sounds we make and she chugs water out of a sippy cup. She likes beans, Patsy Cline, puppies and balloons. Actually, she LOVES balloons. She’s a bright-eyed, petite, smart little girl … and we can’t believe she belongs to us!

On the morning of her birthday, we brought her into our room and presented her with a few special birthday gifts. Daddy just HAD to get her a car … a stylish, Swedish, pink little car of her very own. It was especially from Daddy. She loves it!

She was also pretty stoked on her new set of blocks.

That afternoon, we headed out to Pretend City in Irvine. Its a pretty cool place for kids, and we know Ruby will only enjoy it even more as she gets older. It really is a pretend city … complete with a grocery store, a post office, gas station, library, doctor office, dentist office and so much more. I’m not sure who had more fun … Ruby & Daddy were equally entertained!

At the store:

Shopping for groceries:

Riding the tractor – this was her favorite!

After our fun at Pretend City, it was time to head home for a little party with the family. As Facey tradition goes, there’s a layer cake for your 1st birthday, and baby gets the top layer all to themselves! My mom always bakes the cake and my dad always decorates. I asked if my dad could replicate the same cake for Ruby that I had when I turned one. My cake had Raggedy Ann & Andy, and was red, white and blue. Since no one knows who Raggedy Ann and Andy are anymore, I had my dad make the cake red, white and pink. He never disappoints!

Ruby got to celebrate with all of her grandparents, her aunt and uncle and all six of her cousins. Here she is with Papaw and her newest cousin, Evan:

We all had a great time, and Ruby scored some amazing loot. But unfortunately, her cake didn’t go over all that well …

After all of the presents, Ruby enjoyed some quality time with her cousin Ella:

It was an amazing birthday and our hearts are still swelling from all the love! Now we’re preparing for the big party this Sunday … stay tuned!