instafriday.

it's instafriday time! really, this is my excuse to instagram just about everything. ;)

phew! we have had a busy, busy week! there are several chicago recaps to come (we are having a total blast!), but for now, here are some snippets of what we've been up to that won't make it into individual posts. be warned, it's long. ;)

are you lucky enough to have a rita's in your 'hood? we are. and we la-la-la-LOVE it. it is some serious yums.
and i love the cheeky little phrases on their cups.

yup, it's true. the world does need more rita's. especially this yummy new cantaloupe flavor!

the hubs keeps a football in his car. and any time we ride the hubs' car, choi boy insists on holding the football. the other day, he fell asleep in the car like this:

doesn't he look like a sad, sad quarterback after a major loss?

cb got another haircut. and apparently, the third time's a charm because there were no tears this time. yay! rather, cb sat and looked at himself in the mirror throughout his cut.

i'm pretty sure he's saying, "just a little off the top, please."


i was secretly hoping we'd bypass the whole train obsession, but it looks as though it's inevitable. sigh. one of us left this train table with a bit of kicking and screaming.
'twasn't me.

when we booked our flight to chicago, we booked it around nap time, hoping cb would sleep on the plane. of course, our flight was delayed and choi boy fell asleep in the security line and woke up as we approached our gate. perfect, huh?
but, i decided to take advantage of cb's nap and got one of those 10 minute manicures. it was actually more like a 15 minute manicure. meh.
and then i took this picture:

and then i got sad because my hands don't look so youthful anymore. and because this color wasn't as pretty as i thought it would be. i should have stuck with boring pale pink.

as for the actual plane ride?

cb was a total rock star. he got lots of high fives and fist bumps as we were exiting the plane. :)

once we arrived in chi-town, choi boy and his cousin bonded over an impromptu drum session.

notice the blur of fast-moving hands and molly's hilariously adorable face!

cb and i went exploring and i snuck into a stranger's yard to snag some shots of my two favorite summer flowers:

hydrangeas...sigh...so beauteous.

hibiscus...dreamy.

choi boy continues to work on his "cheese"...

...and it slays me every. time.

this picture makes me both smile and feel a bit sad.

cb was happily munching on his PB&J, watching the world go by and probably daydreaming. so cute. but it also reminded me of those kids that sit all by their lonesome at lunch time. sniff. :(

check out this CRAZY dandelion!

it's like it's on steroids! gross!

lately, choi boy has been throwing his arms behind him when he wants to run really fast. it's awesome. and it cracks me up.

i'm pretty sure he does it because it makes him more aerodynamic.
people, we have a future rocket scientist on our hands.

and finally, cb has been sleeping in a pack-and-play while at my sister-in-law's. i suppose the pack-and-play is not as comfy and squishy as cb would like. so, my little stinker pops up and pulls/steals a pillow off my bed (which is right next to the pack and play) and lays on it instead.

when i went in to snap this photo, i thought he was sleeping, but i thought wrong. he saw my phone and said, "CHEEEESE!"
what a sillyhead!


will you join the party and link up?

cousin love.

it has been a year since we have seen my sweet and adorable niece, molly. she is just two days younger than choi boy. and in fact, my sister-in-law's due date when she was pregnant with mollypop is choi boy's actual birthday. how cool is that? love it. :)

choi boy and i are in chicago visiting my sister-in-law and her family. one of the best parts about this trip has been seeing molly and cb together. such.ridiculous.sweetness.
i die.


yup, i just keeled over. mmmhmmm.

it's funny because even though they are only two days a part, they are different in so many ways. first off, choi boy is a good bit taller than his cousin, though she clearly wins in the chunk department.

which is absolutely acceptable when you are not even 2 and this cute:

ohmygosh i just want to bite those cheeks!

molly is also a total chatterbox and talks in near complete sentences. i am in awe and could listen to her talk all day long. she is a genius. and i'm her aunt, so i can totally show her off and say that with no qualms. ;)

mollypop uses her extensive vocabulary and language skills to be a total bossypants to choi boy. it's hilarious. and cb is fine with being bossed around. or, so it seems, because he doesn't have the words to protest. ha!

we've been joking that molly and cb are like pebbles and bam bam.

(source)
molly is cuteness and smarts and choi boy is all brute force and slightly caveman-ish. ;)

regardless of their differences, they've been having such a blast together...they even wake up asking for each other. or, rather, molly wakes up and clearly enunciates cb's name while cb wakes up and goes, "ah-ee!" :)

look at all the fun they've been having!




this is what happens when you get two toddlers to look at you and say, "cheese!" -- no small feat, for sure.

and here are some stinkin' cute shots of molly directing cb in their play.


all i can say is, girl power. :)

one thing choi boy and molly do have in common, however, is their love of food.

i think they could both easily join adam richman's man vs. food nation team. don't you?

and their crossed feeties could be their trademark:

love it!

so thankful for cousin love...can't wait to see these two grow up together!


lots more on our chi-town adventures to come!

ham.

no, not as in the deli meat.

no, not even as in the honey-baked kind.

ham.

as in my son.

the ham:


when my cousin came over to watch choi boy (while the hubs and i had a date with mr. potter), she showed him the self-portrait mode on her iphone's camera. cb, being the (somewhat vain) ham that he is, LOVED it and brought his best material to the camera.

there was the scrunchy face series:


the let's-see-what-this-crayon-tastes-like series:


the OMG-what?-NO-WAY! progression:


and my personal favorite, the let's-practice-our-cheesy-cheesin'-cheesersons-smile! collection:



i love my little ham.

:)

thanks, liss for these awesome shots and for letting us get away for a bit! we love you!

instafriday.

i had such fun with last week's instafriday post, i'm linking up with jeannett again to show you our week in instagram goodness! and why is it that our life looks so much more fun when it's in instagram? magic, i tell you. magic.

we went to an AWESOME park last friday. similar to the all-access sprayground we visited, this park is run by our county and is built for children of all abilities. there are full-backed swings for children who need extra upper-body support; swings you can ride in with your wheelchair; a carousel that is recessed to ground level so it is accessible by wheelchair; and every play structure has ramp access. so cool. the ramps and padded, non-slip surfaces on the ground make the park perfect for toddlers, as well. needless to say, choi boy had a total blast.

he hopped in a plane with his favorite co-pilot, his beloved kate.

cb also had his first carousel ride. he was really nervous at first,

but once he realized how cool it was, he shared a reaction that rivaled his infamous train ride scream.

cb and kate ended their visit with a romantic tire swing ride.

kate gives cb this look a lot...it's so cute. i call it her "pleased as punch" smile. :)


look at them coyly touching hands! so smooth.

(all of that probably could and should have been a separate post in and of itself, defeating the purpose of instafriday, but it seems i am a lazy blogger. oh well.)

i love seeing my parents as grandparents.

they absolutely adore choi boy and he is quite smitten with them, too. oh, and he totally has them wrapped around his little finger.


the yummy (and so-bad-for-you) dinner (chilli cheese dogs and cheese fries!) we had while visiting "brigadoon". see the handy dandy wipes in the back? i tell ya, that's one of the best things about being a mom: you always have baby wipes on you! and knowing how clutzy i am, this is a true bonus.

the other day, i pulled the laundry out from the dryer and as i was taking wet laundry from the washer to put in the dryer, choi boy ran off, pushing the basket of clean clothes to his room. when i found him, this is what he was doing:

what a little helper! (who was really making more of a mess than helping, but is so super cute, it's okay.)

my sweet cousin offered to babysit so the hubs and i could sneak off and watch HP7.2

we were SUPER excited. can you tell? ;)
it was SO good and probably the only HP movie that met my expectations from the book. i cried like a baby throughout the movie.
yes, i am *that* person.


we brought our own snacks to the movie. yes, we are *those* people.
it was green tea hodduk. YUM. (from a mix with instant yeast, baby. take that, delayed gratification!)

it is HOT here.

oh, 97* doesn't seem too bad? how about this was 9:00 in the morning?
sorry mom, i'll clean and dust my car tomorrow.


one of the things i miss most about nj/nyc is the pizza. thankfully we have an amazing neighborhood pizza joint that really is almost just as good. delish! pizza is my desert island food. that and bagels and sushi. apparently, my desert island has a buffet.

choi boy has come to really love drawing. or rather, "drawing".

he has such concentration while he works on his "pieces" and could do it all day long. so sweet.
we're working on one thing, though...choi boy insists that once the crayon tip has been used and the crayon part has become even with the paper part, it's "jee-jee" and needs to be thrown away.

i don't really blame him. who likes flat crayons?!


happy friday!

share your cell phone pics and link up!

brigadoon.

back in middle school, we had these classes called cycles. each cycle lasted for 2 months or so and you "cycled" through them until you had completed all five cycles. they were designed to expose us naive middle schoolers to different electives so we would be better educated on which electives to choose in high school.

one of the cycles was "music appreciation." i appreciate music very much, but the class was pretty dumb and, if anything, made immature middle schoolers less appreciative of music. we had to draw pictures while listening to peter gabriel and do other similarly weird stuff. but occasionally, our teacher showed us old musicals. the kids in my class groaned and thought they were lame and i pretended to think they were lame, too. after all, what kind of middle schooler are you if you're not a lemming?

but, secretly? i LOVED them.

when our teacher brought out brigadoon, it was over. and thus began my love for gene kelly. :) and old musicals.

a few miles from our home is a tiny historic town affectionately nicknamed our local "brigadoon." i had been there once before many years ago, but decided the bring the hubs and choi boy by to explore the town a bit more. especially when i visited the town's website and saw its musical moniker!

we were not disappointed...it was magical. main street and many of the little side streets are lined with historic homes that are over a hundred years old, all kept in beautiful shape. of course, i was too busy admiring all the lovely homes and buildings to take pictures of them. and i was also keeping a watchful eye on things because i was half expecting post-civil war era folks to come out of the houses while breaking into choreographed song and dance. that would have been AMAZing. ;)

i did do my job as mamarazzi, though, and snap away as cb enjoyed his time playing at the town playground. so, just imagine lovely late 1800s homes surrounding this adorable park...



choo choo!



that nerd shirt is one of my most favorite items from cb's wardrobe. :)

we explored main street a little further and stumbled upon this adorable ice cream and hot dog stand, tucked away under trellises of climbing vines.



it wasn't open yet, so we decided to come back for dinner with some former youth group students. turns out, it was so worth the return trip. :)

see that face on cb? that's him doing, "cheese!!!" not bad for a fake smile. ;)

one of my favorite things about the little town were the beautiful gardens each little house boasted in both the front and back yards. many of the gardens featured gorgeous roses of sharon, which also happens to be the national flower of korea.

so beautiful!


i didn't know this about these flowers, but they close at night. so when we returned that evening for dinner, all of these flowers were closed.

and for some reason, it seemed like the perfect last detail to notice in a tiny town that compares itself to the mythical brigadoon.

love.