My birth experience with Emily was the polar opposite of my experience with Isaac. Since we all learned that Tim and I make gigantic babies, we decided not to take any unnecessary risks of tearing my lady-bits apart for a second time (plus Isaac had to undergo physical therapy for a ripped-up shoulder from all the pulling) and had a scheduled c-section.
Tim and I dropped Isaac off at daycare a little early that morning, and arrived at the hospital at 6. I was given an epidural, and everyone involved had a relaxing experience, took their time, no unnecessary gushing of body fluids. We were all chillaxin' like potheads on April 20. Oh, actually, there was one gushing incident: when they split open the birth sac, apparently some amniotic fluid flew out and hit a nurse square in the eye. She freaked out a bit and was immediately kicked out of the room for killing our buzz. Emily was pulled out at 9:53 am and immediately burst into very lusty cries (she still is the world's loudest crier). Later that day the nurse I squirted had to take care of me and I assured her I didn't have HIV or anything nasty in my blood. She took very little comfort in that.
Anyway, here is Emily's debut video. She was such a cute little shrimp dumpling from the very beginning:
And here is 3-year-old Isaac meeting his baby sister for the first time:
To celebrate her 2nd birthday, we headed over to my parents' house and had a leisurely Korean BBQ dinner with some banana custard cake and homemade kettle corn. Just chillin' like villains to celebrate a very welcome no-drama birth. But if you know Emily even a little bit, you know she paid back all that drama very quickly with her picky little ways and penchant for getting into emergency room-requiring mischief.
So here is a recent video of Emily and her firecracker-going-off-in-your-hand of a personality:
What a goober!
I love the videos, as I'm sure you knew I would.
The kids are so cute. I love how your Dad is with her, that is my husband with Josephine.
What the hell did we ever watch before we watched our children's children.
Love the videos. xoxoxo
Love Renee
Posted by: Renee Khan | January 05, 2009 at 02:32 PM
Aw... Happy Birthday, Emily! She is hilariously adorable!!! You're right, SO MUCh personality!
Posted by: Mama Nabi | January 05, 2009 at 05:03 PM
Happy Birthday to Emily. Love the dance moves.
Posted by: Rachel | January 05, 2009 at 09:42 PM
Thanks so much, ladies!
Renee: When I tell my college buddies all I do is stare at the kids do crazy shit, they look at me with such pity. If they only knew how entertaining kids are, especially when they're mirrors of the quirky parts of one's own personality.
Mama Nabi: Yes, Emily was born with very precise ideas on how the world should work and how people should treat her. You'll notice in the first video, she was born a couple minutes prior, but she HAD to stick her right hand out of the swaddle. That is some nerve right there!
And Rachel, I keep telling my dad to stop with the disco moves so Emily won't be the only kid at the 6th grade graduation dance busting out to "Saturday Night Fever." And I have no idea where she picked up that Apache Rain Dance footwork. Maybe it'll catch on.
Posted by: Julie Kang | January 06, 2009 at 10:02 AM
So cute! Happy Bday to Emily.
Posted by: Asianmommy | January 08, 2009 at 06:21 AM
I was reading the comments left on Renee's article about the Gaza disaster and got completely blown away when I saw yours, the most intelligent of all. You have a very good understanding of the true nature of the conflict over there. And I'm not saying this as a pro this or an anti that. People are people, and they have the human right not to be bombed and assaulted like this when they simply try to assert their own existence. Bottle rockets is exactly right.
Posted by: Gil Avineri | January 13, 2009 at 01:00 PM
Oh wow, I hope you're being sarcastic because I totally was kicking myself after I looked up "bottle rockets" in the dictionary and realized the term doesn't mean what I thought it meant (it seems like bottle rockets are fireworks, when I thought they were small rockets). I definitely deserve rebuke for that.
That said, I definitely agree people should not live in fear, and the same goes for the Israeli people. But I still maintain my opinion that the use of force is ridiculously skewed towards the Israeli army and government.
Posted by: Julie Kang | January 13, 2009 at 03:14 PM