Northern Flicker

A lot of times, my dogs are a pain in the butt to walk. One of them pulls in one direction while the other one goes the opposite way. One wants to greet every stranger while the other is terrified of anything that walks on two legs ("Four legs good, two legs bad"). They are incredibly good at finding random chicken bones (seriously people, find a trash can), and they are obsessed with chasing squirrels. In fact, when Farrah stopped abruptly during our walk on Sunday to point at the base of a tree, I figured it was her noticing a squirrel waving a half-eaten chicken wing at her. To my surprise, when I looked back I saw this cool looking woodpecker just hanging out. I watched it for a while before continuing on our walk.

After Farrah finally found the perfect spot to do her business, we walked back by the tree and to my surprise the bird was still there. I decided to hustle back home to see if I couldn't return quickly with my camera and snap a few photos. Jen and James joined me at Garfield Park as I looked for the bird. It wasn't where I left it, but I found it sitting in a hollow part of a different tree a few minutes later. I thought it might have an injured wing because it spent an awful lot of time hanging out on the ground and let me get some nice close ups. However, according to the internet, the Northern Flicker mainly eats beetles and ants on the ground. After posing for a few pics, it did indeed fly away without problems. As usual, the rest of the set is on flickr.

After that, we took a few portraits of James in our favorite park. A new pic of him should be up soon (I hope!).

Haircut #3

James was born with a lot of hair, and it has not stopped growing since! A lot of people told us to prepare for when it would fall out, but this never happened. This is actually his 3rd haircut since he was born less than 5 months ago! The first one was to get rid of the mullet. The second one was a trim of the sides. Finally, we decided to give him a proper cut all over because it was way too long. I love the expressions on his face from this experience. See the rest here on flickr. In this one, he looks very concerned, but he was great the whole time.

Family Fun

James' great aunt was visiting from Korea during the holidays. Here they are together on New Year's Day.

The End

It's been a while since my last post. I never got around to posting any pictures from my summer trip to Berlin, so I figured today is a great day to do it. Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. 1989 does not feel like 20 years ago! This is a picture of the East Side Gallery. It's a 1.3 km section of the old wall that has been painted by artists from around the world. Right now, it is undergoing restoration, so there are sections that are obstructed by fences and scaffolding. You can see some other photos of the East Side Gallery and some others from my trip to Berlin here at flickr.

Regal Wings

Jen and I were walking back from having lunch in Eastern Market when I spotted this monarch butterfly. This site helped me figure out that this one is a male because of the spots on the hind wings and the thinner webbing. This makes me wish I had a nice macro lens, but the trusty nifty fifty will have to do for now!

Introducing James

Baby James Min-Hyuk was born at 0047 on September 12. He was almost 2 weeks past his due date, and it showed! He weighed in at 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 22 1/4 inches long (tall?). The doctors and nurses at Sibley were wonderful, and we couldn't have done it without you. I highly recommend them if you are looking for a hospital. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes, visits, gifts, and food! I hope you all get a chance to meet him in person soon.

I'm sure Jen is ecstatic now that I have someone else at home to take pictures of. :)

Start Em Young

This is one of my favorite things in James' room. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood was watching Skins games with my dad. I can't wait to do that with my son!

He was due on September 1, but he is taking his sweet time. I hope we get to meet him this holiday weekend!

By the way, you can get your own here. You know you want one.