Where's Tita?

Yesterday, I met up with Tay, Beth, Andrew, and JD at the food court at lunch time.  We got our food and went to our table and then after putting Tay in the high chair, Beth went off to look for some napkins and wipe down the high chair tray.  I sat with Tay and we had a little chat.  She looked around with a little concern and said, "A-ta?"  (which is what she calls Tita Beth).  I repeated her question and said, "Where's Tita?" 

 

Tay's response, with a very concerned look on her face, "Poo-poo." 

 

Hehehe...:)

Vacation and then some...

Well, on the 17th of October, Tay and I finally got our bags packed and made our way to the airport that rainy morning.  Once we arrived, Tay was very good as she sat atop our bags on the cart and held on as we went to check in.  We did get to go to the "family service" line, which was much shorter, and we checked our bags.  We decided to go ahead and go through security before we had breakfast.  No issues with security or immigration, and we were in.  We decided to get another little cart for our backpacks, so Tay got to take another ride.  We spent some time wandering around the airport to burn some time because we had about two hours to kill...but we did stop for some noodle soup (udon). 

 

The flight from Incheon to Atlanta was a full flight, and Tay and I had an aisle seat in about the middle of the plane.  We had a nice Alabama couple sitting next to us who were just with a tour group to Asia, so it made for a relatively pleasant flight...except I had to keep Tay from kicking the gentleman next to me while she was sleeping.  Other than that, we walked all around the plane and spent a lot of time in the lavatories.  I would have to say the first half othe flight was good, but the second half, I started losing my patience with Tay's constant demands to go "poo-poo," which essentially meant she just wanted to go hang out in the lavatory.  Exhaustion and very tight quarters with a toddler is not an ideal situation...anyhow, we made it through that flight, and just barely made our connection in Atlanta to Tri-Cities (Bristol). 

 

What a wonderful reunion when we got off the plane in Tri-Cities as we came out of the gate and saw Jeff...standing at the ATM machine with his back to us!  :)  hehehe...we landed earlier than scheduled, so we surprised Jeff with a kiss on the cheek and Tay yelling, "APPA!"  Halmoni hadn't even arrived at the airport yet, so we went to get our bag and then we saw her drive up with a balloon in hand for Tay. 

 

Anyhow, enough of traveling news.  Moving on...

 

The trip to Bristol was good for Tay and me, but very very brief for Jeff as he arrived on the same day as us (Saturday) and had to leave on Monday morning.  In the short time he was there, we set up the sling box, went to Mass, ate at Cracker Barrel and went to the Hands On Museum in Johnson City.  That was actually quite fun, but it was really cold...and maybe still a little too advanced for Tay.  Plus, we were still extremely jetlagged, so I guess that didn't help.  After Jeff left for Alabama for his conference, Tay and I spent more time with my folks.  We visited Virginia High to see Heather teaching, but the power happened to go off right before we went over to visit, so I had to hang out in the hallway with Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Collins, Mr. Locke and a few others before I could actually go see Heather.  It was great to see her again, although we didn't have much time to catch up...maybe next time.  I also swung by to see Ms. Neal in the library, but it was pitch black in there so we didn't spend much time there either. 

 

Sarah and I played phone tag for about three days before we finally got together (Tay and I kept falling asleep at odd hours during the day!) on the next to last day I was in Bristol.  She drove over with her cute pregnant belly and we (Sarah, my mom, Tay and I) went shopping at TJ Maxx!  Fun for me; maybe not so fun for anyone else...ah well. 

 

Other than that, not much else exciting happened in Bristol for us; it was just good time spent with Halmoni, Harabuji, and Hhhan (whispered, as Tay would say) for Tay and me.  Oh, I must mention that three Halloween costumes were bought for cheap-cheap!  Duck, bee, and ladybug!  Very exciting.

 

As Friday rolled around, it was time for Tay and me to pack up and fly once more to Atlanta.  We said our said good-byes and left Bristol with the promise to return at Christmas.  :)  From there, we went to Atlanta, and made our connecting flight to Los Angeles...not the most pleasant flight, but we made it.  When we landed at the airport, guess who met us at the gate?  JEFF!  Right when we got off the plane, there he was!  What a wonderful reunion once again!  From there, we got our bags, got our rental car, and drove (in TERRIBLE TRAFFIC) to northern L.A. where our hotel, Fairfield Inn, was located.  Although we had planned on meeting up with my cousins Esther and Judy that evening, we decided that a nearly-3-hour drive from the airport was too much and we crashed for the night. 

 

Saturday morning, we called up the Kunz household and drove over to meet them.  Thankfully, Tay took a liking to them quickly so it was a pleasant morning.  We went to breakfast at Mimi's, which was absolutely DELICIOUS!  That afternoon, we went to watch a football game where Lindsay was cheering, and then we went back to watch some football before heading to dinner with some other relatives at Romano's Macaroni Grill.  Again, delicious food, but we were all so exhausted...I felt badly that we couldn't spend more time with them after they drove all the way up from south L.A.  It was nice to see my cousin Duk and his little boy Charles and my Aunt again.  Sadly, Tay slept through the entire meal and meeting.  Hopefully next time we visit, it can be more of an actual visit instead of a drive-by eating. 

 

The next morning, we decided to hit Mimi's again for breakfast (yes, it was THAT good).  Mmm...pumpkin spice muffin...blueberry cream cheese french toast...corned beef hash...belgium waffle...yum.  Jeff and I ordered a little bit of everything we wanted to try because we knew it was our last day to eat there!  Yes, oink oink.  Ahem.

 

After breakfast, we went to visit a pumpkin patch (Lombardo Ranch) to pick out a pumpkin and get some pictures of Tay at the patch!  It really was nice there, but it was so windy and dusty that we felt like we had to hurry out of there.  Tay also hurt her right wrist somehow, so we decided to go ahead and leave instead of taking the little train ride.  Then we were off to the Kunzes again and spent the rest of the day there playing and chatting.  We took Tay swimming in the neighborhood pool, but we didn't actually swim...we sat in the hot tub and took brief dips in the duck-poop infested pool.  Fun reason why we went to the jacuzzi in the first place - I tweaked something in my neck so I couldn't turn it in any direction...boooooo.  Strange how these things happen when you're on vacation, no?

 

The boys cooked up a delicious BBQ dinner with steaks, salmon, brats, and all accompaniments...then we had some awesome pies for dessert (chocolate being the absolute best - chocolate satin! - with the banana cream pie coming in at a close second).  Tay ran around the back yard just in her diaper (yes, it was that warm), and later that night, my cousins lit a fire in their "porta-fireplace" and we roasted marshmellows and hung out until dark...a wonderful end to a whirlwind visit.

 

That night, we headed back to the hotel to pack, bathe and sleep a bit before our early morning drive back to the airport.  I was definitely not looking forward to the flight back alone with Tay, but she was very good on the flight and we enjoyed sitting bulkhead aisle...although Tay continued to ask to go "poo-poo" so she could play in the lavatory...again.  The trip was only an hour shorter than our trip from Incheon to Atlanta, so we were still exhausted when we got to Incheon, but we still had an hour wait before Jeff was going to arrive, so we wandered around the airport a bit before we started waiting for him...

 

Well, all in all we made it safely home through the Seoul evening traffic and crashed for the night...until 2am the next morning...when we were wide awake and ready to go...ah, jetlag. 

 

I really want to thank everyone for their hospitality and entertainment while we visited this last trip!  Hope we can meet up again in the near future!

19 Months Old...

My not-quite-so-baby-anymore Baby has turned 19 months old. She is now closer to two than she is one. These days it seems that every time I blink another day goes by and my baby is growing more and more into this beautiful and independent girl who can do so much for herself and express herself. Just last night as we ate dinner, she was chattering away in her own language when suddenly, she began her chant of "hana, hana, hana" as she picked up the peas off her plate and put them in her other hand. I just watched her thinking, "how cute, she's counting her peas..." when she put all the peas back on her plate and started over. "Hana...dool.......set!" I sat there with my mouth open as the camera filmed on and she proceded to pop all the peas in her hand in her mouth. My "Baby" just counted to three! In Korean! Who knew all that talking to her and counting off for her stuck somewhere in her brain and suddenly it made its way out...

If anything I thought she might count in English because I tend to default to English on most things, but I do try and make an effort to talk to her in Korean as much as possible. I do want her to be able to speak Korean at least as well (if not better) than me. I had the benefit of learning from my parents and grandmother who were "professional" Korean speakers (I guess "native" would be the correct term) whereas I am merely a...1.5-generation speaker of Korean. Although I am comfortable communicating my needs and understanding mostly other's needs in Korean, I can't say I fully grasp the language like my parents or my grandmother. So, how will I be able to teach a language that I myself am still learning?

Well, here's how. Just using it. Non-stop. Clearly, her young mind is able to just pick up and utilize at the appropriate times what she hears...even if it is only every once in a while. It seems the most imortant thing is to never be silent around her...just keep up my chatter and listen to her responses, whether or not I understand her or she understands me. It's hilarious to me when I say something to her and she looks at me with a slightly cocked head and goes, "eh?" It means she didn't understand what I just said to her...so I repeat myself and she either acknowledges understanding or looks at me puzzled again. Adorable. I guess I do that as well when I don't understand her.

She's such a "mini-me"...maybe not in appearance, but definitely in action these days. She does everything I do and wants to do things herself as she watches me do things. For example, this morning, I was putting on my socks, so she goes to get her socks, sits down next to me, and proceeds struggling to put them on. I told her I'd put them on for her and she goes, "no, eee (me)." And continues to grunt and roll around as she tries to put her socks on. Then, she sits up, hands me the socks and says, "ock (sock) Umma (mom) ep (help)," with a frustrated look on her face. Poor thing. She also has been working hard at putting on her own pants. She can get her legs in OK, but frequently, she'll get both her legs in the same leg hole and she can't figure out what it doesn't seem right...but she knows it's not right. She'll take them back off and try putting them back on again. I got a video clip of that as well. She rolls all over the bed trying to put on her pants. Well, I just let her at it until she asks me for help because she'll get it eventually and she will be so proud of herself. She sure is persistent! I've been letting her practice with shorts because they're a bit easier than pants, but she is fairly successful with getting one leg all the way into the pant.

For the past week or so, Jeff has been in Okinawa conducting some training for his program. Since it has been just Tay and me, we have been staying busy by taking lots of walks and visiting some fields so we can chase around some birds, jog around a track, investigate some cones, and play with imaginary umbrellas and hats (leaves).

I also must mention that we spent Chuseok with our relatives; we went to our "keun-jip" for the breakfast ceremonial events and then we went to the gravesites of our great-grand parents and grandparents on the mountain for some more family time. Tay studied the adults and other children bowing very hard, and when we got to the mountain, she finaly gave it a go herself.

Her first attempt was a bust because she ended up on her belly, but her second and third attempts were much better and she had finally gotten the form...somewhat. :)

We also enjoyed spending some time with Malia, Jasimen, Aiden and Elijah at the Fall Festival after we watched the parade go by. Tay had fun picking up a lot of candy thrown by the parade marchers, but was really only interested in eating one of the Dum-Dums. We donated the rest to the other kids.

Tay also got to try her first chicken skewer, which she greatly enjoyed...it was almost as big as her, though, so I had to help her hold it. Then, she got it all over her shirt, so we had to change clothes after that. She also got some of Umma's chocolate ice cream...(she definitely knows that word: i-keam)! We decided to skip the fire works because we were both exhausted and needed to go to bed early, but as we laid down to sleep, we could hear the booming of the fireworks from our apartment. It didn't seem to phase Tay at all, though, because she drifted right off to sleep...zzz.

The next day, we ended up going to the 8am Mass and the 11:30 Mass to do some campaigning for the children's choir we're getting ready to start. After all that, Tay went down for a quick nap, and then we ventured out to the Children's Grand Park. My intent was to go see some animals, but we ended up not seeing any animals (except a few fish and some birds) because Tay was content running around the park. We did make a quick stop at the playground, but she wasn't too fond of all the sand getting in her shoes. Nor did she like being pushed around by the bigger kids on the playground equipment. (I wasn't too fond of that either and had to put an end to that nonsense - sometimes...::hmph::...the angry mom in me came out...only for a moment).

A nice old man came up and gave Tay a piece of candy, too, but it was this really strong ginseng candy, which she did not particularly care for, but she thanked him anyway...phew. :) On our way home, she was so exhausted she refused to walk and made me carry her the rest of the way...I WAS BEAT! Luckily, we made it back safely, washed up, and went to bed.

One more week to go before Tay and I head to the states where we'll finally meet up with Jeff again! Yay!!! Can't hardly wait...

Love,
Rosa

18 Months...how time flies...

My baby girl has turned 18 months old already.

 

Tay had her 18 month well-baby check up yesterday and got a couple shots.  She weighed in at 12.4 kilos (27lbs. 5 oz.) and measured 84.4 cm (33.2 in).  She grew 4 cm since June when she had her last check-up!  She only gained .4 kilos, though, so I guess all her running around is keeping her weight down. 

 

At the beginning of September, we went on a quick family vacation to Cebu, Philippines for Labor Day weekend.  Tay's little friend Aiden and his family came as well so we had a wonderful time playing in the warm waters and relaxing.  Tay got some color on her white white skin so she even has tan lines!  Lucky for us, though, she didn't get burnt, so no painful moments to report.  She did break her first glass, though, on this trip (and nearly put me in a panic).  The room we stayed in had a little "step" in the living room area.  She kept walking around and around holding a glass of water, but she wasn't paying attention at one moment and fell off the step!  I heard the shatter of glass (as she fell off behind the couch) and I ran over to pick her up, only to see a litt shard of glass stuck in the palm of her hand.  I dusted the rest of the glass off her her and picked the glass out of her hand.  Luckily, the cut on her hand was only superficial and stopped bleeding shortly thereafter.  We cleaned it out, called for hotel crew support for the glass clean-up in the room, and put her down for the night.  Other than that little mishap on the first day at the resort, the rest of the vacation was fun-filled and a learning experience as Tay began swimming and floating on her own with the help of her puddle jumper.  We got a great video clip of her just floating and learning to kick her legs...check it out here on youtube.  She has also lost the fear of jumping into the water without one of us catching her; again, see on youtube where she is just hopping into the water and the adorable pose she strikes before she leaps in!

 

The weekend after we got back from the Philippines, my mom - Shingil's Halmuni - came into town for a visit.  Tay took to her right away...luckily because we have talked to her on the phone frequently and occasionally even video-conferenced with her over the internet.  Tay calls her "Noh-noh" and puckers her little lips when she says it...I'll try and capture it on video and post on youtube when I can. 

 

Yesterday, we went to dinner in Bundang with my mom's friend so we got home very late (later than Tay's normal bedtime).  We washed her up quickly (no bath since she got shots), said our good nights, read a story, said our prayers, and I laid down with her to put her down...well, after about 10 minutes of laying there, she heard her Halmuni's voice talking to her Appa.  She sat up straight in the bed and looked in the directly of the door and shouted "Noh-Noh!"  Then she crawled off the bed and went running out into the living room to find her...

 

Needless to say, she slept in this morning...ah well.

 

Tay's vocabulary is expanding ever so rapidly!  Her latest additions are hello (hewo), anyong (anong - Korean word for "Hi"), Aiden (aieee), Donald (nonal), Malia (ya-ya), oatmeal (no-nea), egg (ee), open please (ehpee pees), spoon (boon), cup (petka), noon-koh-eep-qui-tuk-mori-eemah (noon-koh-eep-qui-tuk-mori-eemah - Korean word for "eye-nose-mouth-ear-chin-head-forehead"), slide (ide), crawl (kaw-kaw-kaw), uh-boo-bah (uh-oo-AH - Korean word for "piggyback")

 

Also her favorite dances and songs lately are the Hokie Pokie, Singing in the Rain, Itsy-Bitsy Spider, 5 Little Monkeys, "Gom seh mari" (3 Bears), and "Jeul-gup-gae, choom eul choo-da-ga" (Happily Dancing).

 

And in other good news, she's poo-potty trained!  She still can't tell when she needs to pee early enough to make it to the potty on time every time, but sometimes she makes it.  But with poo, she goes running to the potty after telling me "poo-poo" and patting her bottom.  The next 4-day (Columbus Day weekend) will be the training weekend for pee - full force.  Underwear or bust!  :)  I'm prepared for a lot of clean-up...

 

I love my growing baby girl...so sweet and just so funny... 

Corny...

My little Tay is such a ham. Her funny personality is just bursting to get a giggle out of anyone she meets. She's particularly playful with me, though, especially when we've had a good day of playing on the playground and we're home eating a tasty dinner.

I always notice how similar and different Tay is from us, as well as other members of our extended family. I noticed today as we ate our corn on the cob how she eats just like her dad and clearly not me. I tend to eat corn by the row, not just any which way...I eat like a squirrl all the way across and then back again to start another row. If I get crazy, I go for two or three rows at a time, but still...always in rows.

Tay, on the other hand, goes for right in the middle. As you can see here:

I love my funny little girl...she's trying to share her choatic corn with me after she took a bite...then she resumed eating.

Giving Child...

My sweet sweet girl...


Today, I took Tay down to the waterpark at Humphreys for some fun in the sun while Jeff was working. We met up with some friends of ours who had a two-year-old son and a three month old daughter.

On the drive down to Pyeongtaek, which was about an hour and 15 minute car ride, Tay was chattering away in the back seat pointing things out (mainly cars - "cah, cah") and giggling while asking for more peas (I had some frozen sweet peas with me in the front seat as a snack). About half way to the Hump, she fell asleep and slept until we arrived at the gate, where she promptly told me "aiye" to get out my ID to give to the guard. Funny little Tay..

After we met up with our friends, we let the kids play on the water slides and run through the spraying tunnels and fountains. It was a super-hot day, so we made sure to cover up thoroughly in sunblock. After the first round of water-play, the kids sat down to take a snack break, so Tay was munching away on her mini-rice cake snacks. Chan-hee, the two-year-old boy, was peering over her shoulder hoping to get a piece of her snack, when Tay decided to simply share. She picked one up and handed it to him. When she saw that he liked it, she then reached into her little bag, grabbed a handful and handed it to him! She then returned to eating herself. That was a relief because she has been starting to get into the "mine" phase, so I didn't think she'd share on her own accord...children will surprise you...

My sweet giving child...I love her so very much. We had a fun time at the waterpark, and Tay slept the whole way home, even through traffic. No sun burns for either of us, too! :)

What a beautifully successful weekend.

17 Months Today...

My baby girl is 17 months old today. 

 

I've been looking through her book and reflecting back on my huge pregnant days and the first moments of her life outside the womb and I wonder...where has the time gone?  It's like I blinked and my baby girl went from being a beautiful little being in my arms to this beautiful independent little lady who can ask for things, go down the big slide by herself and tell me "no-no" if she doens't want something.  

 

As of late, I have been asked many times when (and if) we're planning on having a second.  If you had asked me about a year ago, I probably would have said hopefully sometime soon and that we were thinking of three or four kids.  You ask me today, and I'm actually hesitant on the answer because in my heart, I know I want at least one more, but I just don't know how soon.  This year even seems too soon...I just want more time with Tay before I have to shift my focus to a new little being.  The question still remains, though...will I have enough energy and love for a new baby?  I am told by many many other moms that love just multiplies...it's not an exact amount that must be divided from a whole.  How will I be sure that the love that mulitplies, then, won't be redirected to a newborn or away from the newborn (if there is a newborn, God-willing).  I guess the reality is, I shouldn't worry about such nonsense until Jeff and I are faced with the possibility of a new addition in our lives.  In the meantime, we should just shower Tay with the love that we have in our hearts and enjoy that time with her.   

 

Tay learns and adapts so quickly these days...it's absolutely amazing to watch her.  Her vocabulary is increasing at an incredible pace...she has a few new words every day.  She doesn't seem to go through the repetative phase much anymore with single words, but she does practice frequently at every opportunity of the new words she has acquired.  As of late, it has been her body parts such as 'koh' (nose), 'ghee' (ear), beh (belly), 'bah' (foot) and 'bot-bot' (bottom).  It's funny because she has known these words for a while by hearing them, but she wasn't able to actually say them until recently.  Now she points to said body part and says the word over and over again. It's absolutely adorable...and amazing.  Jeff and I have also reached the stage where she knows she can communicate with us by talking, but 50% of what she says, we can't understand exactly, so she gets a little frustrated if we can't figure it out quickly.  For example, we were at the pool yesterday with Tay and after swimming a bit, we were resting by the pool and she kept pointing to my backpack and making hand gestures and chattering away, and neither Jeff or I could figure out what it was she wanted...quite interesting.  She clearly wanted something from the bag, but nothing we pulled out was what she was asking for so she was getting quite irritated...poor thing.  If only I had a toddler translator near by...

 

Speaking of the pool, we have been taking Tay to the pool almost every day for the past couple weeks because the weather has been so unbearably hot these days.  We'll just swing by the pool after work for about 15-20 minutes so she can get a little refreshed and relax a bit before dinner and wind down for bed.  After work, obviously, we haven't needed sunscreen, but Sunday, when we went during the day, the sun was so hot, I was thankful for the sunscreen I did have for her from California Baby because she (nor I) burned at all and it has no strong fragance like many sun blocks today.  It's pretty thick, but Tay and I make a game of it - while she smears my face with it, I cover her legs and belly, and then I cover her face while she points out the parts of her face and body that have been missed.  She's a sport about the whole ordeal because rubbing a second layer of sun-block on an impatient toddler next to a beckoning pool is not an ideal situation...

 

In other news, Tay's favorite show these days is Pororo (bo-bo), and I think after her afternoon naps at Beth's she watches Elmo.  I kept telling myself that I didn't want TV to be a constant in Tay's childhood life, but that fight has been more difficult than I suspected.  I just keep trying to keep her engaged throughout the show so that she doesn't get into that "glazed over" look...luckily, her attention span is still too short for her to really get into a show for longer than 10 minutes at a time...maybe that's a good thing...I dunno.  I still want to reduce the amount of TV she's being exposed to at this age...::sigh:: 

 

As for me, I am psyching myself up to get restarted on my Master of Education program.  I have been out of it since the month before Tay's arrival, but now I feel like I am ready to start back up again.  I was thinking of starting this month, but then realized that in two weeks, I'll be in traveling on vacation for about a week and then my mom will be visiting, so I decided to set my start date for 21 Sep.  Here we go!

 

Well, I believe this is enough rambling for one day.  I want to celebrate Tay's 17 month birthday...maybe we'll have dessert at dinner tonight.  :)

 

Love,

Rosa