COEX Aquarium

On a nice Friday afternoon, we met some friends from Denver at the COEX mall.  Having been to the Busan Aquarium, we were not expecting much from the Seoul one, but we were pleasantly surprised at the size of the exhibits and the well planned out space.  It was not too crowded and we were able to watch many of the feeding shows.  Friend J and his much younger sister A were great company.  Thanks for taking the time to meet with us in Korea. -S

Elizabeth loves watching the fishes swim, perhaps there will be an aquarium in our home when she is much older, maybe a cool salt water one.

First Ear Infection

We credit Elizabeth's incredibly healthy first year of life as a byproduct of being exclusively feed breast milk.  Not one illness went by until she was weaned.  Even when Mommy was sick with a cold, she never caught it.  So, we were astounded when she developed so many illnesses this past winter.  We attribute that to being in a land of unfamiliar germs and the germ sharing playground, also known as preschool.  However, we still consider ourselves fortunate that no illness escalated to an infection that had to be treated with antibiotics, until now...

Yesterday, Elizabeth was diagnosed with an ear infection and we are now on day two of ten of Amoxicillin.  Luckily, she likes playing with the medication syringe and has had no trouble taking the antibiotic.  Get well soon my baby.  -S

Waiting for Daddy

After a long 12 days, the day of Daddy's return finally arrived.  It was the longest separation for Elizabeth and Daddy, but she handled it well, except for the few cranky nights where she woke up crying "Dadd-dddy, Daddd-ddddy".  For some odd reason, at nighttime, she calls out for her dad instead of mom.

When Tim left for the States, we dropped him off at the airport and watched some planes fly off in the distance.  I told Elizabeth that Daddy was going on a trip and would be back after a few nights of sleep.  I think she understood that he went away on a plane because every time we heard an airplane pass by our apartment, she called out "Airplane, Daddy!"

Last night, before we went to bed, I told Elizabeth that Daddy would be coming home tomorrow and when she awoke this morning, the first thing she yelled was "Daddy, Come!"  Usually, she is excited to go to preschool, but not today.  When repeatedly asked if she wanted to go to school, she enthusiastically answered with a "NOPE!"  So we ate a nice brunch, packed our bag of toddler goodies and headed to the airport.  We were so excited to greet him that we arrived an hour early.  To help pass the time, we walked around the stores and ate some snacks.  In the pictures below, Elizabeth enjoys her first Cold Stone concoction, strawberry ice cream with almonds and blueberries as mix-ins.

Welcome home Daddy, WE missed you! -S

My Favorite Oppa

We have our first crush...  uh-oh!

Easter Egg Hunt

We went to our first Easter egg hunt and only grabbed six eggs, but I'm proud to say that Elizabeth personally picked up each and every single egg and celebrated every one with a victory dance.  There were 1500 eggs total in the hunt with games, toys, and lots of other prizes scattered around, but all the big kids got them.  The hunt was open to all kids up to the age of 12 and most of the big kids left with their arms full of prizes.  Which begs the question, are 12 year olds really kids?  If your child was under the age of three, the parents could assist in the egg hunt.  However, in order to protect my child from getting trampled, we didn't run for the prizes.  Instead we went to a safe area and picked up the few eggs there.  Next year, Daddy will grab us a big prize! -S  

First Movie at the Theater

Daddy is in America for Uncle David's wedding so I took Elizabeth to watch her first movie at the movie theater on base.  Rio is about a pet bird from Minnesota who travels back to his homeland of Rio de Janeiro and all the new friends he meets there.  It is a good G rated movie and kept Elizabeth's attention the whole 90 minutes.  She sat through the entire movie without crying, whining, or being scared.  We were also joined by some friends that added to the movie experience. 

Friend kept feeding her popcorn so I bought a small one for Elizabeth to eat on her own, but she just kept pointing to his popcorn and demanding that he feed her his.

After sharing a seat for the first 30 mins, she moved to her own seat and sat there the rest of the movie. -S

Playground time is finally here!

Springtime is finally here and nearly everyday after preschool we go to the neighborhood playground.  It's become our daily tradition.  Upon exiting the school doors, we used to go right to walk home.  Now, Elizabeth automatically walks left to the playground.  Once in a while, she forgets and goes right and then after a few steps, mumbles "oh, oh, oh, playground" and turns 180 degrees.  On this lovely Wednesday, we decided to visit one of the many Osan Air Base playgrounds.  So after school, we got in the car and drove to base to play.

First time on an enclosed slide.  She didn't have the sides to hold onto, so she reached up and pressed her palms against the ceiling of the tunnel for stability.  

"Mommy!  Go stand over there!"  These days, she is always telling me what to do and where to go.  

After playtime, we visited the library to return two books and pick up a few more.  I tried to introduce an animal book to her, but she pulled this junior book off the shelf and started skimming through it.  After repeated attempts of trying to refocus her attention, I was told "wait, Mommy, wait". 

After about a minute or so, she finally finished "reading".  

Outside the library, Elizabeth poses in front of the Korean Forsythia (개나리), a popular shrub found all over the country. She demanded that I take a picture of her there. She put her thumb and forefinger together and said "Mommy picture, picture".

I am not sure where she learned this putting fingers on her cheeks maneuver, but it sure is cute! -S 

One last minute of playtime please

Elizabeth playing with her vegetables while waiting on mommy and daddy to pack the day bag. I think we need to brush her hair and wipe her nose again before heading out. -S

Nonsan Strawberry Festival

Korea has many, many different festivals throughout the year ranging from flower festivals to tea festivals to lantern festivals. There is a mud festival, a mime festival, and even one for fermented seafood. Well, one that sounded fun was the Strawberry Festival in Nonsan, which is about an hour and a half south from us...without traffic. Rosa and James came down from Seoul so that we could all go together. Traffic was really bad on the way down, but we had a van, which meant carpool lane for half of the way. That cut the time down a lot. After beating the traffic to get to Nonsan, the next part was finding a parking spot.  Street parking along every road within about a two mile radius was packed. We just happened to come up to a car that was leaving, so we got a spot fairly quickly. From there we walked towards the large, red, strawberry shaped balloons to what we naturally assumed was the festival.

The event was held by the river in a valley of sorts. As we crossed the main road and looked down the hill, we were amazed to see so many people and tents. People were walking around carrying boxes of strawberries and kids were eating cotton candy and different snacks on sticks. We all went down and started peeking into the tents. Some were vendors selling 떡 and 떡 moulds to create different shapes and designs. Some were food tents. Some were craft tents where people could decorate bags or make bamboo boats or other activities. Then, there were the tents selling the strawberries. We bought a few, of course, to eat on the way home. Elizabeth got to sit at the handkerchief painting tent with Sana and showed off her skills with a brush.

There were several spots throughout the area that were great photo ops. Naturally, we couldn't pass those up, so Elizabeth got to sit on different strawberries and pose for the camera. It was a lot of fun. -T

The view from the top of the hill.The large tent had an exhibit of different strawberry related items and a small garden.

These 떡 chefs were showcasing their strawberry themed creations.

 


This was the entrance to the large tent. It was a bit weird to walk through a large strawberry.

This was the handkerchief painting tent. Elizabeth was really excited to paint. But first, she had to trace out the strawberries to paint...with Mommy's help of course.

Elizabeth wanted to paint by herself.

"Look at what I did. Cheese!"

The final product.

Just hanging around eating some strawberries.

2011 Strawberry Festival

2010 Strawberry Farm

In April 2010, we visited a strawberry farm.  We found the same photo opp at the festival.  Our baby has grown, hasn't she?