nineteen months.

thank you so much for all your sweet words on my grandfather's passing. i'm working on what i hope will be a meaningful tribute post; i can't wait to tell you all about my amazing halahbuhjee.

with all that's been going on this month (and it's only the end of the first week!), i didn't have much time to work on a full post for choi boy's nineteenth month, so i'll just share a few tidbits about what's going on in cb's world. i didn't have time to take pictures, either, so this post will be peppered with pictures taken by my 16 year-old cousin while we were up in philly. :) p.s. cb was battling a nasty illness while we were there so he does *not* look happy in most of these pics. :(



*choi boy continues to learn more and more words every week. he mimics certain words we say and my current favorites are wait ("whaaay" -- yeah, he hears this word a lot from us. a lot a lot.), neh (korean for honorific "yes"), cheese ("cheee"), and ball ("boh!!" -- always said enthusiastically!).

*"ball" or rather, "boh!!" is always said enthusiastically because choi boy has a new found love of sports balls in all shapes and sizes. he recently "mastered" kicking and loves to kick balls (or anything that resembles one). he also loves throwing balls and has a seriously impressive arm, if i do say so myself. cb has the uncanny ability to find and point out anything that resembles a ball and then proceeds to screech "boh!! boh!! BOH!!!" until i acknowledge and agree that it is, indeed, a ball. my favorite example of this? those large red cement spheres in front of target!
you know, these:


*choi boy loves drawing with his crayons (held together in his awesome kimchi keepsakes crayon roll!) and uses either hand to work on his masterpieces. he will often invite me to partake in his drawing by demanding asking that i draw elmo or cookie monster. thank goodness those guys are fairly easy to draw. yesterday, cb asked me to draw ernie and my attempt ended up looking like a sad, strange orange alien. cb was not impressed and asked for a redo.



*daycare is going slightly better. cb still cries at drop offs, and will sometimes even cry as soon as we get off the exit on the highway, which is a good mile and a half away from our childcare provider's house (on the upside, i'm taking this directional awareness as a sign of genius - ha!). however, i am told that cb settles down more and more quickly and when i pick him up, he happily tells me the names (well, his approximations of the names) of his daycare buddies and insists on giving them all hugs before we leave. such sweetness!



*as you can see, choi boy is fascinated by musical instruments. he especially loves the drums and guitar, and has surprisingly steady rhythm for a toddler. i'm pretty sure cb and his fellow rockers, gabe, and spencer would make the cutest band ever. EVER. anyone else want in??



*choi boy is all about waving right now. he waves to EVERYONE and his wave is very cute and very enthusiastic. he is simply tickled when the wave is reciprocated, which most people are happy to do. it's a tiny bit sad to watch cb wave to all the passersby when we're driving in the car because they can't see him through the tinted windows. he might not show it, but, i swear, he gets a bit deflated waving to everyone only to have no one wave back. at least he gets a good arm workout!

*eating continues to be one of cb's favorite activities. his current favorites are: grapes, grape tomatoes, clementines (i think he could *easily* eat 5 of those delicious cuties in one sitting), cheese, yogurt, chicken (which he rather disturbingly calls "bok bok", as in the clucking noise chickens make), and meeyuk gook (seaweed soup). really, this list could go on and on, but those are the standouts (aka, snacks and meals from yesterday and today!) right now.


working off those pounds with grandma on a stairclimber. i know you're all totally jealous of my mom's zebra print house slippers.

*i mentioned in my last post that choi boy is into hitting lately. he's also into throwing things (that are definitely NOT balls) and throwing tantrums. it's SUPER fun. no, really, though, sometimes the tantrums are rather hilarious (the other day he cried for 5 minutes about wanting to take his socks off -- which he did, and then he cried some more), provided they're taking place on a cushiony, carpeted floor! it's hard to know how much of this behavior is choi boy's true personality coming out (remember, we were told by his FM that he *definitely* has stubborn streak); or how much of it is cb's continued transition to our family; OR how much of it is just plain normal toddler behavior. we tend to think most of it falls into the "normal" toddler category, but we don't want to rule out the other categories either. we're certainly learning more about parenting in these moments and we're also learning more about our little guy, whom we love like crazycakes...tantrums, throwing, hitting and all. :)

*more and more, choi boy is seeming less like a baby and more like a full blown little human. i know that sounds ridiculous, but seeing how much he comprehends and watching him run and climb and interact with people just makes him seem so much more...alive and full of life. he is capable of so much and seems to learn something new everyday. it amazes me and is so fun to watch! while i *am* a bit sad that we missed out on the first 15 months of choi boy's life, that is largely overshadowed by the fact that i am so loving watching him learn and grow and discover the world right *now*. this age is so much fun!

i have to end with this short series of photos. if you are fb friends with me, you probably already saw these, but i just adore them and find them hilarious. we were at my parents' store the other day and my mom insisted on giving choi boy a (very small) milkshake. after all, she reminded us, it *is* made with real banana and contains calcium. (oh, grandmas...) as you can imagine, cb went to town with this sweet treat!

at first, he was confused by what we were offering him.


but then he quickly realized the goodness before him and had a death grip on his cup while he drank non-stop for several minutes.


finally, he stopped to take a breath and revel in his good fortune.

but only for a short while, because he needed to finish his shake! true story: i asked for a sip and cb shook his head and offered me a grape with one hand while securing an even tighter grip on his cup.

:)

happy nineteen months, sweet boy!