To pass the time...

We try to limit the amount of TV we watch at home, especially when Elizabeth is awake.  Thus, we are constantly looking for things to do to occupy our time.  Toddlers need lots of supervision and joint play time.  They are curious and want things explained to them, so Elizabeth does not play well on her own.  On this particular uneventful day, with all the reading and drawing done for one afternoon and plenty of time still left  before dinner time, we decided to go and walk the aisles of our neighborhood Home Plus. -S  

Toys "R" Us

It's the little things that remind of us home that keeps homesickness at bay.  It's been almost a year since we moved to Korea and though it was not a difficult transition, we still dearly miss our home in Denver.  Due to the Westernization of Korea, many American things or American-like things can be enjoyed while abroad.  Recently a new Toys "R" Us opened near our home and we spent three hours exploring and playing there.  We found many of the same toys that can be found at home, but also a plethora of Korean and Japanese toys.  The store is quite large, by Korean standards, but probably half the size of a US store.  An interesting supply chain question: Do you think all those toys made in China are sent to the US and then shipped back to Korea? -S

We ended the night by going to one of our favorite restaurants...Todai.

"Soju the dog" and his parents visit

We are utterly amazed that Elizabeth is not scared of animals.  Even when they jump on her and knock her over, she just laughs and thinks it's funny.  Fortunately, Soju is a kind dog so we let them play without too much intervention.  When she is feeling compassionate for Soju, Elizabeth will pet him and other times when he's being naughty, she will give him "mehm, meh" (a spanking).  Auntie Rosa, Uncle James and Soju came over last night for dinner and ended up spending the night with us.  It was a joyous time for Elizabeth as she was the center of attention from not only her Aunt and Uncle, but also from Soju.

This is my best attempt at a fake smile. Watching the Mickey Mouse Playhouse together before bedtime.

In the morning, before heading off to school. -S

First pee-pee

Potty training is such a stressful event for the child and parents, so we decided not to do it.  Elizabeth is a bright girl and we figured that at some point she would notice that only babies wear diapers and mommy and daddy do not.  We hoped to not make a big deal of potty training until it became a genuine issue in her toddler years.  Luckily for us, it doesn't look to be that way.

Two months ago, when Elizabeth turned 20 months, we bought a training potty and put it on the bathroom floor.  In the beginning, we didn't even mention to her what it was, it just became a fixture on the floor.  Slowly, we started to play with it, showing her how to take off the lid and put it back on and also how to sit on it.  For weeks, she sat on it backwards and it became a chair to brush her teeth on.  Then we started pouring water into it and calling it pee-pee.  Elizabeth is familiar with the terms pee-pee and poo-poo, because we always ask her before changing her diaper if she made a pee or poo.  So we hoped that she would make the connection between the two.

Occasionally before bath time, we would have her sit on the potty and then pour water into it and do the pee-pee celebration dance.  Well for the last two weeks, every time we undressed her to change her clothes or sometimes even just a diaper change, she wanted to sit on the potty for fun.  In the beginning, we used to follow her into the bathroom for every fun potty but then we started letting her go by herself and come out on her own a second later.  Then yesterday, she went to sit on the potty and came out yelling pee-pee.  Occasionally, she yells out pee-pee because she wants us to do the celebration dance with her, so I got up and waved and clapped my hands with her, but this time she was insistent on doing the dance multiple times and kept saying pee-pee.  So I went into the bathroom and sure enough I found pee in the potty.  So for the next five minutes, I picked her up, swung her around and we ran around the house doing the pee-pee dance. -S

Plus one

Guess who's going to be a big sister? Sana is pregnant with numero 2 and we are excited. To mark the event, we created a video for the baby announcement. We aren't planning on finding out if we'll have a boy or a girl, so it'll be a surprise for all. -T

Teaching "Clean Up" and a New Dryer

One thing we are trying to teach Elizabeth is to "clean up" once she's done with something. She likes to pour out her building blocks or her crayons and then run off when she's done. It's proving to be quite difficult to get her to commit to picking up her things. At least if one of us is helping, she'll come over and clean up a little before running away. It's a start.

Also, we got a brand new dryer. We figured it was more convenient to have a dryer to go with the washing machine in the pseudo-laundry room. Plus, Sana's been wanting one for awhile too. Oh, and yes, the dryer is in the kitchen where the kimchi fridge used to be. This is so that we can vent out the window. When we want to use the dryer, we have to open the window and put the vent tube in place. Engineering at its best. -T

Playdough fun in more ways than one

We got Elizabeth a set of Playdough with a bunch of "tools" to use with the dough. This has become one of her favorite activities. She'll run over and grab the storage bin, open it and pull out a container to play with. The thing she likes the most is the shape squeezer. She likes pushing down on the handle and seeing then clay come out shaped like a star or a bunch of noodle-like strings. She's also learned to flatten the clay and use the shapes to make clay people and animals. When she's done with the clay, she finds fun in stacking the containers and then knocking them over like Godzilla. Playdough was indeed a good investment. -T

Cheonan Galleria (천안 갤러리아백화점)

Mommy and daughter visited the new Cheonan Galleria department store, which is about 40 minutes away, with a few friends.  We would have taken the train, but it was just easier to be warm in the car and go from the underground parking lot at our home to the underground parking lot at the Galleria.  The newly built Galleria is in a developing section of Cheonan, surrounded by residential and commercial towers currently being built.  It is a very clean, architecturally beautiful, modern area of Korea (with low traffic) and if we had the option to live anywhere, this area would be a top contender on my list.

I never imagined that Elizabeth would see her first Andy Warhol in Korea and not in a reputable museum, but inside the Galleria department store in Cheonan.  The pop art was near the women's clothing section, adjacent to a casual coffee shop.  When I first saw it, I thought it might be a replica but the label and the condition of the aged art led me to believe its authenticity.  Nevertheless, I still Googled it when we came home and found it to belong to a famous art collector in the area.  The salespeople and women shopping in the area must have thought this weird lady was taking a picture of her kid and the soup cans.  Little do they know, Andy Warhol is credited for created some of the best pop art in American history and his top selling pieces go for $100 million.  He also coined the phrase "15 minutes of fame".  I cannot believe it is sitting under bright shining florescent lights all day, while people like me can take flash photos of it or possibly run into it with a baby stroller.

Smile!  Your first of many art influences to come into your life.  Hopefully, you will see more of it without the influence of brand name clothing on sale five feet away.

"I need to have this...please buy it for me!" By the way, I didn't buy this Hello Kitty pencil box for her.  Instead I distracted her with smiley face stickers and bought those for her.  The cleaning ladies were probably furious picking them off the ground.  It took me a good while to pick them off the stroller, her stroller blanket and my purse too.  Good practice on finger dexterity though...every day is a learning moment, for mom too.

Mommy and daughter date time.  Whenever we go to new places, she likes to take her "blankie" along.  It also appeared for snack time.

Trying to get some of the whip cream out of my mocha.  Sorry!  It's all gone and not for toddler consumption. -S

It's cold outside...

This winter is the coldest in Korea in decades according to the news and it definitely feels that way.  On the weekends, Elizabeth and I stay indoors all day to escape the bitter, biting cold.  Luckily, we live in a brand new apartment with some of the neatest home gadgets, one of them being a fresh air intake to bring in filtered outside air without having to open the windows.  Also a spring necessity when yellow sand fills the air.  

On the weekdays, when we take Elizabeth to preschool just across the street, this is how we bundle her up.  She has been using her snowsuit very well this winter.  Unfortunately, it has only been for practical reasons and not for fun ones.  Tim keeps talking about taking her sledding soon so hopefully she will be able to do that with her winter gear.

We miss Denver and the warm, dry, non-windy winters (in comparison to Korea).  You don't know how good you have it until you move somewhere else and have something to compare it to.  It's a good thing we didn't go somewhere like Hawaii or we would never go back home!  -S
 

Happy Birthday MOMMY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!

I'm a little monster at times but you still bear with me. Honestly though, how can you resist a face like mine?

For Sana's birthday, we had a nice dinner consisting of 삼겹살 and 뒈지갈비 with a family we're close with. It was a great time to celebrate and eat a lot of good food.

Afterward, we had cake and the blowing of the candles. Elizabeth was mesmerized by the candles and wouldn't blow the candles out with mommy.

But, she did want to cut the cake.
"This is for you, Mommy." -T

Lunch with Uncle Joseph at the COEX

Elizabeth and I trekked all the way to Seoul on the subway to meet with Uncle Joseph, a cousin of mine.  We struggled on the way up due to a subway shutdown, two subway transfers and a dead cell phone battery.  We finally made it to the COEX after two hours and spent the afternoon together walking around the COEX mall while eating lots of delicious foods.  We were so tired at the end of the day that we didn't make it back down to Osan, instead we took a cab with Auntie Rosa to her house and Daddy picked us up in the morning. -S  

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  We celebrated at home by eating traditional rice dumpling soup.  Usually we do New Year's with a bunch of family, but in Korea they celebrate it according to the Lunar calendar.  So we ate yummy soup by ourselves.  Wishing everyone a wonderful start to 2011! -S