who let the dogs out?

All day today, sophia has been singing a version of this song by The Baha Men. She started singing it in the bike trailer when she went out to Stagg Field with Greg and Nicholas this morning. She was singing it when she came home and throughout the day, a different version:

"Who let Naomi out? Who? Who? Who?"

"Who let the babies out? Who? Who? Who?"

"Who let Nicholas out? Who? Who? Who?"

In a poll by Rolling Stones, this song was apparently ranked third in a list of 10 most annoying songs.

beijing 2008

I will say that I have been addicted to the Olympics since they started last Friday. While waiting for Greg to pick up my sister and her family from the airport, I was glued to the Opening Ceremonies. Loved the torch lighting--it was super cool. I also happened to find an Olympic channel that's broadcast from Korea on Dish Network. Love it. It has events that you'd never really see on NBC that are a bit off the beaten path--like archery, handball, pistol-shooting, and fencing--mostly events that have Koreans competing in them...and it's commercial free! And as much time I spend nursing Naomi these days, I'm happy to have a reason to sit in front of my TV without feeling too bad. It does help that Nicholas is about as fascinated with the events as I am. I love the Olympics - it's the rare occasion that I can watch something and root for Korea. In fact, the last time I checked the medal count, Korea had the third highest number of medals after China and the U.S.--pretty cool.

naomi's blessing

We blessed Naomi at church today. She wore a beautiful blessing gown and bonnet that my mom made for her with lace that matched my wedding dress. She hand-beaded the lace on the bodice and the bonnet--they were so pretty. My mother made wedding dresses for my sister and me, and she also made blessing gowns and suits for all her grandkids. While we were all content to share one outfit, or to have her make one for each family, my mom thought that it would be nice for each of our children to have something they can save for their children and grandchildren. Isn't my mom the bestest??

It was sweet of our family to come into town for Naomi's blessing. Hyeson and Curtis and Emma flew in from Arizona on Friday night and our kids are always excited to see them. They adore Emma. Curtis had to fly to Las Vegas tonight for a meeting tomorrow and he'll fly back tomorrow night so he can fly back to Arizona on Tuesday with Hyeson and Emma. Did you catch all that? My parents drove up on Saturday and will (hopefully) stay with us until the end of the week. Greg's parents came down for the blessing and we all had a great dinner together afterwards. Melanie and the kids had planned to stay in the US until later this week, but had to leave earlier than planned because they had to renew their resident visas. Apparently, with the Olympics in China, they are being super strict with visas.

I am so grateful for our family--we are blessed to have Greg's family nearby that we are able to see them fairly often, and we also enjoy the time that we are able to spend with my family, even though they are farther away. While we'd love to be able to see them more often, it's nice to have reasons like new babies and blessings to get together.

And I realized as I was going through some of the recent photos we have taken, including the ones from today, that these are the first pictures of our family of five. Sweet.

have i told you i love you today?

Greg and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary today. It was a little crazy since we are still trying to figure out Naomi, but we did manage to go out for dinner while my in-laws babysat all three kids last night and we are headed to Kauai in two weeks (with our children, but since his parents are also going, maybe we'll be able to work in a date night somewhere--even if we don't, you can't complain too much about being in Hawaii, right?)

Anyway, a few months ago, a friend of mine who used to work with me and I were reading an article about how many couples today don't make it very long married and that many don't even make it to what used to be the 7-year itch. She asked me if such a thing existed and if Greg and I had that. I told her that we had a baby about 2 months before our 7 year anniversary, so if we had an itch, we were too sleep-deprived to notice. But honestly, seeing what some of my single friends go through while dating makes me all too thankful to be out of that scene.

It is kind of neat that we've been married 10 years, since we dated for 4 years before that. I mean, I've known Greg for 17 years--that's almost half of my entire life. I feel very fortunate to have found him and to have married him. We have a great time together, even if it's just running errands together like going to Costco (no, really). Anyway, I can gush on and on about how my husband can beat up your husband, but I won't. He already knows I think the world of him. Love you.

seriously?

We woke up this morning to really LOUD thunderstorms. I mean really, really loud thunder. I was hoping that Naomi wouldn't wake up to them...which she didn't. I shouldn't be too surprised since my kids aren't bothered by the fire trucks going by all the time with their sirens, right? But when the toaster dinged downstairs in the kitchen, she woke up. Seriously??

where has the time gone?

It's hard to believe that it is already August. It's been a very hectic, although a relatively good summer. Here's the Cliff Notes version of the past few weeks:

• Sophia finished up summer camp at Akiba - she was in the Purple Room and loved every minute of it. She wore purple almost every day because well, she was in the Purple Room.
• Nicholas has been loving his camp days at the JCC - aside from just being excited to go everyday, he has become a really great swimmer. We saw him at swim class this week and he was great--diving off the deep end and swimming like a little fish. Makes me feel good about him swimming in Hawaii later this month.
• We went to New Buffalo, Michigan last weekend for a Muse family get-together. Naomi met Great Grandma Marion. Nicholas and Sophia ran around with their cousins and did what kids should in the summer - eat ice cream, go fishing, catch fireflies and frogs, and go to bed late. I took a camera, but somehow, didn't take a single picture. Nice.
• After teaching his class at the Graham School, Greg is now trying really hard to get going on his work and write. I depend on him for a lot and like the good man he is, he always puts everyone else first, usually resulting in late nights and early mornings to get his work done.
• I spend most days and nights nursing Naomi and she is definitely starting to chunk up. She clearly has two chins now, and her cheeks are getting chubby. Her arms and legs are still skinny, but they have lost their old man wrinkles. We have decided that she cries a lot more than Nicholas or Sophia did, but we also realize that we clearly remember very little about how we got through the early weeks with our other children. I suppose that if we remembered it all, we may only have one child.
• Next week, Greg and I celebrate our 10th anniversary. Time flies.

sophia's sharts

Someday, Sophia will be mortified that I posted such stories about her, but they are kind of funny. Well, in our current sleep-deprived state, we find much entertainment in them. Judge for yourself:

Yesterday, we were all sitting on the couch watching TV and something smelled. I asked no one in particular, "what stinks?" Greg and Nicholas promptly replied, "Not me." I then asked Sophia, who was sitting between Greg and me if she had farted. She said, "yes." I looked over at her and noticed that she was holding her nose pinched with her fingers. I then asked her, "is that why you're holding your nose?" "Yes."

Then tonight, as I was getting her out of the tub and drying her off, she let a couple of 'em rip. I laughed and said, "what was that?" Sophia said, "my sharts." I said, "holy cow." Laughing, she says, "did my sharts scare you?"

I have no appropriate photos to share with this post.