Clemyjontri Park

About a month ago, I found out about this Fairfax County Park located in McLean. Emma is a bit too young to really enjoy it so I took my cousin and her 2 kids, Yoon-A and Min-Sang, there. They loved it. I can't wait until Emma can start walking around so I can take her back there.

The park is called the Clemyjontri Park. It is named after Adele Lebowitz's 4 children: Carolyn (Cl), Emily (emy), John (jon) and Patrina (tri). Mrs. Lebowitz donated her 18-acre estate to the Fairfax County Park Authority in 2000. The park is divided into themed "rooms." The "Rainbow" room teaches kids the colors of the rainbow and is where all the swings are. The "Schoolhouse and Maze" room focuses on learning games involving geography, time zones, maps and clocks. It also uses sign language and Braille and accommodates all levels of physical ability. The "Movin' and Groovin' " transportation room includes equipment such as model helicopters, jets and fire engines. The "Fitness & Fun" room includes the largest pieces of play equipment along with various jungle gym components. The most popular spot -- and Clemyjontri's centerpiece -- contains an accessible carousel, with 14 animals and three chariots. The entire park is made of rubber flooring instead of mulch, and is made so disabled kids could play too. Clemyjontri Park...A Place for All to Play.

"We're here! I'm ready to play. I already have my sun hat on."

"Whatcha talkin' about Mommy? What do you mean I'm too young to play. I can do it! I didn't ride quietly in the car just so I can stay in the car seat and watch everyone else have fun. No fair. Wait until the car ride home."

"Yippee!! I get to play. Mommy put a different hat on me so I can play in this swing. This park is so cool."

"I also got to ride on the see-saw with Aunt Hea-Jung. I like going up-and-down. So fun."

"Mommy, is it me or do your arms look big in this picture? Maybe you need to workout on the monkey bars over there."

The "Movin and Groovin" Transportation Area

"Fitness & Fun" Area

(The one way street is a fake street for the kids to ride their bikes. It's not a real road.)

More "Fitness & Fun"

The "Schoolhouse & Maze" Area

More "Schoolhouse & Maze"

Yoon-A is swinging on another unique swing.

Yoon-A on the see-saw

Her brother, Min-Sang, on the other end.

hehehe

Min-Sang couldn't ride this swing by himself so he decided to ride it superman style...on his belly.

Time for school

haha...I'm on the whale.

Ok...I'm going to ride the frog.

Seung-Hoon decided to test his arm strength out on this swing.

Yoon-A and Min-Sang's mom decided to try the sliding handrail. See...it is a place for all ages.

The 4-person see-saw

How cute

Yoon-A is driving the big truck.

All aboard the Min-Sang train. Choo-choo.

Yoon-A and the Dolphin. Is it me or does she like to stick out her tongue in all her pictures?

Hey sis...I'll ride the yellow car...you ride the red one.

Can I ride the red one instead?

Min-Sang peeking thru while on the Fire Engine Truck.

Min-Sang on the plane.

Seung-Hoon testing out his physical abilities as well. I don't think young kids could do this one.

Another Play Date

We had another play date this week with my friends from work. Our play group is getting bigger and bigger. We were supposed have 3 other babies join us this week but only one made it.

"I'm going to take a nap in Nick's vibrating seat."

"I don't have an exersaucer so I'm going to try Nick's out."

Sydney: Emma, don't pull your shirt up.
Emma: I can't help it. I'm at that stage where I like to put everything in my mouth.
Nick: Isabella, pay attention. You're looking at the wrong camera.
Isabella: I want to look at Mrs. Park's camera. I'm the oldest...leave me alone.

(The babies are sitting in order from the youngest to the oldest (left to right). Sydney is 2 months old; Emma and Nick are about 4 and a half months old (6 days apart); and Isabella just turned 9 months old.)

"What's up there Nick?

"Mommy, is it time to go?"

Kristi and baby Isabella. Isabella was 9 months old today.

Melissa and baby Nick

"Grandma Paik came over after we got home from the play date."

Emma Tries Baby Food

At Emma's 4-month check-up, her doctor said that we should slowly start introducing her to baby foods. First, we started off with rice cereal and then a week later we gave her some carrots and sweet potatoes. Emma doesn't seem to like any of them. I think she still prefers formula in a bottle. I think I do too since it's less messy. She doesn't know how to eat from the spoon very well, so she ends up pushing most of the food back out with her tongue instead of swallowing it. She's getting better though.

"Here comes the 1st bite of rice cereal."

"That wasn't so bad."

"Here comes another..."

"Ok...I don't think I like rice cereal too much. Let me just pretend that I like it."

"No more Mommy. To tell you the truth, I don't like it. Note to myself...no good can come from lying."

"Hmm...carrots are ok. I think I got more on myself than in my mouth though."

"Yuck, maybe not. I hope this baby food stuff gets better or else I'm just going to stick with the formula."

"I'm going to play with my food now. Look at my orange lower lip."

"What Mommy? One more bite and I can have the bottle?"

Emma Hits the Big Apple~NYC

This weekend, we decided to take Emma to New York City since we were already up this way for Avery's Dol. We stayed at the Hilton at Fort Lee ~ George Washington Bridge. Song lived in Fort Lee for awhile several years ago, so he knew the area pretty well. We started the day off by taking a short drive over to Edgewater. Song wanted to show us the NYC skyline from the Jersey side. He was here when the World Trade Center buildings fell back on 09-11-01. After we took a few pictures, we went to Avery's party. We didn't actually get to the city until the evening. We had a quick dinner in Koreatown. A lot has changed since 2 of the restaurants Song and I were looking for were no longer there. After dinner, we walked over to Time Square and then called it a night.

"I feel weird. Is it me or is this bed HUGE? These pillows are nice and soft."

"Mommy, I don't need a nap. I'm ready to see the city."

"Daddy, is this where you saw the World Trade Center buildings fall? How sad."

"Don't we look cute? Me and my Daddy."

"Too bad Daddy, I'm still Mommy's girl."

You couldn't take this kind of picture with a regular camera. We love our new SLR digital camera.

Here's another cool picture.

Just a random picture of Time Square. There were sooooo many people out. The weather was nice and it was a Saturday night.

"Where's the famous 5th Ave? I want to go shopping there. Grandma Paik has taught me how to bargain. She gets discounts EVERYWHERE!! I want to see if I have the same skills. Maybe I'll just use my puppy dog eyes."

"Daddy wanted to get a picture with me in front of the Nasdaq sign. It would have been better by the Bull but we didn't go to Wall Street."

"That's it? I don't know what all the hype is about. Maybe I'll enjoy NYC more when I'm a bit older. I'm going to sleep now. It's past my bedtime."

No more than 5 mins. later, Emma was sleeping. She can sleep through a lot of noise. While she was sleeping, we decided to get a bronze sculpture done of her face by this street vendor. It looked pretty cool.

The guy said that the sculpture will be done in 20 mins. Look at how fast his hands are moving. haha. That's just the camera. :) He took longer than 20 mins.

He started with a basic face mold.

Then he started to add a little more clay here and there.

Is it starting to look like Emma?

There's the hair and the ears. I think he was a bit generous with the hair though.

He's smoothing out some of the edges while taking another look at Emma.

Emma woke up because a motorcycle drove by so he was able to do the sculpture with her eyes open.

This is the finished item. We don't think it really looks like Emma but it's still a keepsake to remember Emma's 1st trip to Manhattan by.