Hello Kitty Castle...and other less than exciting events.

This weekend, we took the girls to Hello Kitty Castle in the Kintex in Ilsan. It was a lovely set up with fun activities for both girls to do including a train ride, hand-paddle boats, bumper cars, "viking" ship ride, bungee trampoline, and various bounce houses. They also had a small "museum" of sorts set up with the history of Hello Kitty and a special "Hello Kitty Room" completely with furniture and even a mock bathroom with a Hello Kitty in the tub. :)  Cute.

Tay really enjoyed riding all the rides and wandering around the place as did little Ri, but she was too little to ride on any of the rides by herself. I took her on the bumper cars, which she seemed to enjoy, and we rode the little train, but I started feeling nauseous because I was riding backwards to take photos of Ri...ugh.

Ri's been unusually clingy lately, too, but I think it's just the second round of separation anxiety that's coming into play...she just wants me to hold her all the time...and funny thing is, as tired as I get, I admit that I am loving every minute. I just wonder when she'll hit the point of wanting to do everything on her own.

Anyhow, great fun was had by all, and after a quick snack, we headed home and Tay knocked out in the car while Ri just zoned out. That girl just doesn't sleep very much...hm...

On a less eventful note, I got food poisoning and got very sick that evening and got nothing done that I needed to before Monday. I barely woke up Monday morning to make Zuppa Toscana for Superbowl morning, packed Tay's lunch for school and weakly made my way to work. I didn't eat anything all day for fear of getting sick again, but by the time I got home after picking up the girls after work, I was so famished I had to eat something, so I ate some rice and water (rice soup), and then a small bowl of the left over zuppa...and then some broccoli that Jeff made. I was just so hungry...and I got a little nauseous again, but am now feeling better. I felt well enough to knock out the dishes and clean the kitchen after it had been a wreck for two days! Thank goodness. That was really stressing me out...

I'm feeling well enough to blog if that tells you anything. Well, I do need to get to sleep, so good night to all. Work call comes early in the morn...

Must Write!

The girls are just...hilarious. Learning so much, growing so much, learning to love each other...simply beautiful. They share their own giggles already, without any of us adults interfering or initiating. They make each other giggle when they're supposed to be going to sleep. When they first wake up in the morning. When they're eating. Even when they're crying.

There's just so much to write about it seems these days, but I can't seem to get it written down. Why do I have such writer's block???

Tay is her usual sweet self as always. She is having a bit of a struggle because it seems she really wants to push away from me, at the same time, she really wants my attention so she acts out if I'm busy doing something else (like the dishes or taking Ri to the bathroom). She has also been Daddy's girl a lot lately, and I am okay with that, except that sometimes I wish I could spend some one-on-one time with her. Must schedule a mommy date with Tay.

In other Tay news, we have been working on some sight words with her and she is really doing a great job. Usually I start too late in the evening with her so she's exhausted by the time we're partially through reviewing them, but she's up to about 20 words and we've only been doing it for about a week, missing a few days in between. I'm not sure how exactly to go about doing it effectively, but what we are doing seems to be working okay so far. Little minds are so amazing. Her favorite words to read are "elephant" and "gorilla," and she is now also identifying the shorter words like "dog" and "hi" in her reading books, which is very exciting for her!

With the new semester of school that started in January, we decided to enroll her in ballet and Korean class for after school activities. She was very excited about ballet because her two best friends, Jianing and Shiri, are also in the class with her. She was a bit apprehensive about the Korean class and said that she did NOT like the class even though she had not been to one class yet. Well, we told her to try it at least once, and so she went and she had a great time. I think she may have been a little nervous about going to a "class" on Korean when she could not speak Korean comfortably yet. Anyhow, after the class, she even "taught" her Daddy some of the phrases she learned to include, "Anyeong-ha-sae-yo" and "Gahmsa-hamnida" and how to count to ten. She also told us her teacher taught her how to say "no" in Korean when one of the Korean children in the class was trying to hit her. What? I don't think that little boy means any harm, but is just over excited, but she does need to tell him to stop if he's getting a bit aggressive. Luckily, she's actually much bigger than he is so I don't fear that she's getting pushed around or anything. They're actually friends and she wants to invite him to her birthday party. Anyhow, I'm pretty happy that she likes her Korean class and I hope that once she gets a little more comfortable, she will want to practice with me. They're supposed to teach some culture in that class, too, so we'll see what she learns...:)

Also, in the last month, I've merged my two blogs so I will write about Tay and Ri both in this one.

I had been neglecting Ri's health check-ups, and I blame it on the fact that every time I remember to schedule an appointment, she seemed to be sick, so I would just post-pone and not reschedule. Anyhow, finally, she went to have a check-up today and got some immunization shots. She weighed in at 11.2kgs (24 pounds, 11 ounces) and she measured about 80cm (31 inches), but she didn't stand still very well, so I'm not sure how accurate the height measurement was. She was very cooperative for most of her check up, except for when the doc wanted to look inside her mouth. When we told her to say "ah," she did, and as soon as the doc went to put the tongue depressor in her mouth, she'd clamp shut. She squirmed a bit and fussed, but eventually she had to be forced to open her mouth to get checked and she did NOT like it. Oh well...it had to be done. All is well, though, so she did not put up much protest after the fact. She was also distracted by some stickers on the doctor's table. She was also not a fan of getting her two shots, but the crying ended quickly when she saw some toys. After we left the office, I think she remembered that she got some shots and was upset again briefly, but then got distracted once more and was happy again. Yay for short attention spans?

In other Ri news, since about 15 months, she has been picking up about a word a day...the rate that she is retaining these words and utilizing them to meet her needs is just stunning. She's up to about 30 words she uses regularly. She still uses signs and hand motions to get most of her needs across, but now she is starting to include the words and/or phrases, too, so she's putting things together. Children and cognitive development...absolutely amazing. Here is her collective list of words I could come up with at the moment:

Mom - moMEE, umma, mama
Dad - BBA BBA, DAD, dada, appa (she's always very excited to call him...it starts from the elevator when we're coming home and doesn't end until he has smothered her with kisses)
Unni (Tay) - Unna, anna
Tita (Beth) - Tata, Toto
Tito (JD) - Toto
ball - boh
hi - hi (with hand wave)
bye - bah bye (with hand wave)
turtle - tuttle
bubble - bubBUL
water (mool or any drink, really) - mooooah
blue - boo
bath - bah bah BAH (if "bath" is EVER mentioned within ear shot of her, she goes running to the bathtub shouting "bah bah BAH!")
balloon - baoooon
juice - djuce
strawberry (dalki in Korean) - aki
noodle - nooodu
peepee - peepee (grabbing and tugging on her diaper in front)
poopoo - nnnnn (grabbing her tummy and tugging her diaper or patting her rear)
up - uppa (with arms up)
down - oun (like, noun, but no "n")
out - ow (pointing or running toward door)
ouch - ow (with hand on booboo)
cup - ptka (odd, but this is exactly how Tay used to say "cup," too...)
banana - nana
cat - yow!
monkey - ah ah ah
one more - moh moh
this - dis (pointing)
that - dah (pointing)
milk (ooyoo in Korean) - oo oo
help please - hep pee

Speaking of peepee and poopoo, Ri's gotten very good with letting us know when she has to go to the bathroom, and she can almost always distinguish between the need to go number 1 or 2, but she usually confuses just gas and the actual need to poo, so we have been spending a lot of time going to the bathroom for false alarms. She's still hit or miss sometimes with pee because it depends on what she's doing whether or not she tells us with enough time to go or if she tells us as she's going, but she tells us, nonetheless. :) At home, we usually leave her in training undies, and when we go out, she wears pull-ups. Maybe I'll get lucky again and have an early potty trained child. Just have to figure out this night-training business...:P

Well, I think this entry is long enough...don't want everyone to be bored to tears half way through...right?

Thanks for reading this far...:) Here are some photos, too, with the hopes they load properly.