Soccer Mom

BedHeadSid (BHS) is getting the hang of teamsports as this is his second year in the local soccer league. He really loves the goalie position, I suspect because it doesn't require running the field and has a short but intense role of defense. Now if we could get him to stop doing kung fu poses on the field....


Kicking the soccer ball around and just having some fun at the local park: BHS using StinkyHeadMonkeyToes (SHMT) as a shield. Amazingly, SHMT has starting dribbling the soccer ball too. He'll kick it across 20 feet or so and loves tossing it around the field. Very athletic baby.

Being soccer parents works out for us too. Every Saturday, we get to yell at kids to our hearts content with near impugnity, and let me tell ya', it is very cathartic indeed! Oh, and nothing is funnier than seeing otherwise 'nice, normal, and well-mannered' parents screaming/cheering their kids on.

'Oooooooohhhhh!'

SHMT has been expressing delight and wonder with a certain exclaimation that reminds me of an old TV actor's signature soundbite. Remember Freddie Fillmore (Frank Nelson) from the old I Love Lucy shows? If you do, then you'll remember his estatic "Ooooooohh!" he'd squeal like a little kid and of course his trademark 'mmmm, yeeeessssss!' Well, I swear that SHMT is channeling this guy! When SHMT is pleased or suprised, he lets out this 'Ooooooh!" and his open wide with wonder. It's so cute! i might just have to draw a mustache on him and video tape him.

What's not so cute is his screaming with emotional exactitude:

Get the hell away from me! = aaaah! said once loudly over his shoulder as he scrambles to get away.

I said give it back to me mother f***ker! = aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! said in a prolonged high pitch that renders all dogs unconscious within a mile radius.

Get off my jock, mother f***ker = ah-aaaaaaaaaah! often accompanied with a nervous laugh.

This is soooo mother f***king cool! = oooooooh! or ahhh! and a quick look to me for approval or clarification, or maybe it's just his way of confirming someone is witnessing the coolness of his shit. Very sweet.

I can't wait for him to starting talking. Just like his big brother BHS. I figure they should be able to hold a steady conversation until they're at least in the twenties. If we're lucky, we'll just stand back and watch the fireworks fly.

I love my boys

I am amazed at how big my BedHeadSid (BHS) is now. I become humbled when I think of what he's endured at my inexperienced hands and yet continues to be bright, funny, and at most times my sweetheart. I'll say it till i die, this boy has taught me that I am not as patient as I once thought I was, but that, with his love, I will be.

When I wrap my arms around him, he feels like such a big boy now. He even wriggles away from me like I've always heard boys will do once they cut the apron strings. I hope I can keep from cutting the strings myself too soon as I also know some mothers can do. It's hard to imagine him at the next stage of boyhood, where his body will begin to grow awkwardly, the voice changing, the insatiable appetite, the growth spurts, the carefully guarded cocoon of privacy.

I hope I have the patience of Penelope then because I know I'll need it. I can't imagine how I'll be at his next stage of boyhood, especially when I've been so frustrated lately and he's only six! I hope I can remember him as he is today: bright, articulate, sunny, effervescent, curious - totally in the why, what, how stage. I hope I remember this part of him if he shrugs me off and rolls his eyes at my efforts to connect with him as a teenager. I hope I can think of this and appreciate him more today.

I love you my son, my first born. You were the reason why I stopped smoking, drinking and carrying on; you're the reason why I turned my emotional life around and began healing. You've made me take a good, long look at myself, and you've made me confront my past, and most importantly, get over it. You saved my life. For that, you will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you my son.




I can't believe it's been over a year since StinkyHeadMonkeyToes (SHMT) was born. He's walking and on the verge of talking and is actively playing with everyone around him in games of chase, tag, catch/toss, and even 'psych-out' (picture someone squealing exclaimations while looking like their about to chase you then stopping abruptly and ignoring you only to start up again).

He's even sympathizing with others when they're sad. He cries along with BHS when BHS is upset and has completely captured our hearts when he plopped his head down on Auntie P-chan's lap, looked deeply into her eyes smiling, and allowed her to pet him when she had been distraught over her sister's death.

SHMT is at a whole different milestone: a sweet, incredibly sensitive nature and oddly funny sense of humor has surfaced and his efforts to produce words will soon make sense of his adorable warbling and emoting.

i love being a mother.

Gone, Daddy, Gone...

Pooks and Auntie P-chan flew into Baltimore today for Aunt P-ko's funeral. I hope they'll be survive the maelstorm that's a-brewing there and receive compassion, support from Aunt P-ko's true friends. But mostly, I hope that Grandpa R and Meji-MIL can bear surviving their child, it's a hell I wouldn't wish upon anyone.

Hurry home Slesickis-O's, the warm hearth of home awaits you, and the time for healing has begun.

Apple Hill

We had a great time today at Apple Hill. Thanks for inviting us Good Mikey, Uncle D, Margarita and Not Your Average Joe. NaNa Lucy is hilarious and so full of life, little alexander is lucky to have such a doting grandmother. Seeing the kids play together and share the magic of the High Hill, Abel's Acre, and Boa Vista was the highlight of our trip, and nothing could have been more perfect than topping off the busy day with those delicious Z Pies and the walk around the Placerville block. Wasn't that vintage VW gorgeous?

You guys are so fun and such intelligent company. Thanks again for a lovely, spontaneous Saturday excursion. We're looking forward to more!

Giant Girl Doll

very cool and yet very sad. check out the Royal De Luxe page in wikipedia for info on the puppet production company. apparently there's also an elephant giraffe, and they're all supposed to work together to tell a story!

Rest In Peace Auntie P-ko

tonight we are sad to say goodbye to Auntie P-ko who died this evening on the other side of the country away from family but in the midst of good friends.

dear sister, may your final journey be light and carefree; may you find your peace and, if an afterlife exists, may the great spirits who inspired you to swim the great oceans and sing from the heart, may they guide you to your final desitination and party with you like it's 1999.

Here's to your life and to the joy you brought to each of us. We know you're rockin' the heavenly kasbah with all your love and beauty.

Today was a good day for Halmoni and me. Seems like the older I get, the more we're getting along. Weird, but good. Weird because we're as different as my father and she were. Good because as she's aging, we need to mend fences quickly and i guess because we're both getting lonely for family.

Halmoni left her mother at bayonet gun point when the Korean War broke out in Kesong, Halmoni's native village. She was only 13 when a North Korean soldier stormed into her room and screamed at her to leave the family compound. She never saw her mother or most of her brothers again. Halmoni recalls joining the mass exodus of her village as it flowed south over unpaved roads, deserted buildings, and an overburdened bridge teeming with refugees, some of whom fell into the frozen river below. She remembers a particularly vivid scene involving a cow struggling to free itself from the river's broken surface of ice. She can still feel the confusion of the moment, she still hears the cacophony of men, women, and children desperately searching for escape from the impending terror of the communist North.

I picture Halmoni as a little girl frantically looking for her family all by herself.

At 13, I experienced my own separation from the family, so Halmoni and I seemed to have more in common than we expected. If it weren't for the boys and Pookers, I don't think I would have ever had the opportunity to understand this.

On their good days ...































which is usually every day!




Here's some BedHeadSid (BHS) pixes. Some old, some new. He's such a big boy now. I can't believe how much he's grown, my little man.










our little cowboy's about 2 here. so long ago it seems.

I'm just going to come out and say it: TWO IS NOT AS EASY AS ONE!

Don't believe when people say (like my mom Halmoni) that raising two children is like raising one. They're full of shit or don't know what they're talking about. I look my mother in the eye every now and then and snort, "Two like one!" just to get her going.

It's more exponential and the politics get dirtier.

I was that PC mom with BedHeadSid. You know, giving him that there 'self-esteem' nurturing and unconditional love. Now, we're in a whole new level, he and I, and I no longer know who he is nor who I've become. The word 'Battle' comes to mind though.

I know he loves his little bro, but there are times that he just undermines the little one - tripping, pushing, taking, etc - that breaks my heart and reminds me of my own childhood of fending off my older brother (Uncle R that I barely speak to).

I know, I'm projecting my own childhood neuroses on BedHeadSid. That would explain my reaction to him, but I'm still at a loss as to how to handle him when he mistreats his brother this way. Time-outs (and i'm not adverse to a quick smackbottom during dangerous situations) are my current 1st choice of resolution, but I'm thinking there's more needed here.

I'm hoping to spend more time with him alone, hoping these special 'mommy & only me' playdates will give him back the sole attention he once had.

Wish me luck.

okay a few more SHMT shots. I can't help myself!

looking dapper in gappers...

looking mad!!!

just his sweet ol' self!

Bundled up like the cute little munchkin he is!

Looking coy with his flirty leaf thing....

Here are some photos of StinkyHeadMonkeyToes (SHMT).

Just glad to be free!














a new stage: Stuffing things where they don't belong

Future plummer indeed! I dunno why, but I especially like this baby buttcrack one.

















The spoon in the mouth, though, that's too cute.

About Us

I'd like you to meet his royal highness BedHeadSid and his little brother Sir StinkyHeadMonkeyToes. The picture above was taken at the local zoo, and they're both hopped up on snowcone goodness. They're the reason why i keep coming back to my current occupation(domestic goddess). That and the fact that their father (a.k.a. Pooks) has a really nice ass.

I am the Dispenser of Nourishment, the Keeper of the Hearth, and the Chauffer of Family Business. On occasion, I moonlight as Executioner but only on my night off from the role of Entertainer. You can call me MaNams (short for 'Mommy Lovin'). They do.

Other family members include Halmoni (my mom) Haraboji (my dad) and his 2nd wife Wei-Halmoni, Uncle R (with whom I am not speaking), and Uncle R (with whom I am speaking, barely); Grandpa R, Mejii-MIL (because she's too vain to be called 'Grandma N'), Auntie P-chan and Aunt P-ko (Pooks' sisters). I have a huge clan, so be prepared to be confused at times...

Sightings and doings of family friends will also be observed under the protection of cute and fitting pseudonyms.

We are the Flying Slesickis, and this blog is about the circus that is our life.