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

Past Few Weeks...

Ah, the past few weeks have been a bit busy...rough, persay.  Not necessarily bad, but definitely not the greatest.  Work has been crazy and because of that, I have not been able to spend the time I wanted to with our little Tay...and it is showing.  I've never felt so distant from my little one as I do right now...which comes with the timing and the fact that I've been working crazy hours...Jeff says it's only a phase, but it really just means she's growing up and becoming more independent.  (I really am gonna have empty-nest syndrome when she goes off to college, aren't I???)  It almost felt like I was going through some form of post-partum baby blues...but so late in the game?  Really?  Odd.  Anyhow, although emotionally I've been a bit of a wreck these past few weeks, there has been some wonderful-ness that came of it all.

 

Well, here's really the breakdown of it:

 

1.  Since work's been so crazy, I've been getting home late, but it also means that Tay's been spending bunches of time with Daddy...which has been wonderful.

 

2.  Since work's been so crazy, the event that was making me crazy went off mostly without a hitch and the evening itself turned out quite nicely...minus the wrecked feet and exhustion.

 

3.  Tay has decided to start weaning herself.  For those of you readers who don't believe breastfeeding past one year is acceptable, I apologize if I am offending you, however, I am still breastfeeding and quite happy about it.  Tay nurses when she goes to bed (yes, I check her teeth constantly for decay), but the last week, she has just wanted to cuddle with me and it has been amusing and wonderful at the same time.  But...because I have not had the time lately to spend with her, this sudden decision on her part to stop this closeness that we had wreaked havoc on my emotions...after she went to sleep, of course.  After crying it out and Jeff consoling me, I felt a bit better and accepted the fact that I should be grateful that she is weaning on her own instead of me forcing it with much crying by Tay.  I don't think she's completely weaned, as she still wants to nurse occasionally in the middle of the night the past couple nights, but the process has begun and I am now emotionally ready to  handle it...

 

4.  Since work's been so crazy, Tay has become totally a daddy's girl.  :)  I was actually a bit hurt by this, because I was her #1 for such a long time, but it's so wonderful to see her hugging and kissing daddy and constantly looking for him when he's not around.  She gets the biggest smile on her face when she sees him and says, "Appaaaaaaaa" in the most excited whisper her tiny little voice can exclaim...it's beautiful.  It does make putting her down at night a little more difficult, though, as she'll be cuddling and thinking about going to sleep, and then suddenly, she'll sit right up in bed and yell, "Appa!" 

 

5.  Tay's to the point now that she'll let us know if she needs to go pee pee or poo poo, but she generally tells us as she's about to go, so it's been hit or miss whether or not we make it to the potty.  :)  Sometimes she thinks she has to go, and we'll sit her on the potty, and then she doesn't go right away, so she think she doesn't have to go...and then I set her off the potty and she walks over to get a new diaper, and she pees...oops.  So, we're still working on it, but she's not adverse to the whole potty training concept, so I'm not going to really start training or pushing the potty until she's at least 18 months. 

 

All in all, my family is just whirling on thankfully, and even though I am busy or back to a regular schedule, it will continue to whirl on beautifully.  I am finally over the whole emotional rollercoaster, I think, and much less sleep-deprived, so I'm able to start seeing things in perspective.  I'm excited (and a little sad) that my little girl is growing up so fast...I am thankful for my family, and the strides we are taking together. 

 

 

Fourth of July Weekend

This weekend, we celebrated the 4th of July!  On Friday, we took a trip down to the Humphreys Water Park and spent the whole day splashing and playing in the water.  Tay especially enjoyed the slides she could go down by herself...the slides were padded and not too long, so she could sit herself down at the top and slide down onto another padded area where we would catch her (so she wouldn't slide onto the cement).  She kept doing it over and over, and luckily, there were very few kids around when we were there.  It was like we had the resort to ourselves pretty much until later in the afternoon when it started to get more crowded.  The weather was beautiful and we had a wonderful time!  We also swung by and visited our friends who had just had their second baby...so amazing to see such a small baby and think of how my own little Tay was so small.  Tay loved seeing the baby...she kept saying "beh-bay, beh-bay" in a whisper over and over while she peered at the little one's face.  She didn't try to touch or poke the baby, but instead she held her hands out like she wanted to hug the sleeping baby. 

 

Saturday, the weather started off not so great with some rain and dark clouds, but as the day progressed, the rain let up.  I actually got called into work for a bit, so Jeff and Tay went over and roamed the festival grounds while I did what I needed to do, and then I headed over to see the festivities with them.  After a short time or perusing the booths, we decided to wander over and see the "dog park," but we weren't sure exactly where it was...but then we ran across some batting cages!  Jeff and I each ended up batting a rotation (40 balls!) and we wandered back to the festival grounds.  Note:  Batting in flip-flops, not a great idea.  After getting some soft-serve, we decided it was time to head back home, have some dinner, and rest up before the fireworks.  Well, after dinner, Tay just seemed so tired that we decided to go ahead and give her a bath and put her down for the night.  She went right to sleep, so Jeff and I shared some ice cream and watched the fireworks through our window from the comfort of our living room.

 

Sunday, we went to church then breakfast...and E-mart (a Korean version of Wal-Mart).  After all the running around, Tay was quite tired and went down for a nap.  While she napped, Jeff and I cleaned house and discussed what we should do that afternoon...and Jeff found a children's museum on-line that seemed fairly close!  So, after Tay woke up from her nap, we went out in search of the Samsung Children's Museum.  It was actually quite easy to find, luckily, so we spent a couple hours playing there with Tay - she particularly enjoyed the water-room where she could splash and see the balls go down a "water slide" of sorts. 

 

Monday morning, Tay felt a little warmer than usual, so I took her temperature and it was 99.3F.  She was also coughing a little, but she still seemed in good spirits, so we decided to go ahead with the plan for the day, which was Lotte World with the Cortezes.  We may have been pushing our luck a little, but she held up like a trooper and had a great time riding the Carousel and playing in the ball-land.  She did get a bit cranky around lunch time, so after she ate a little, we put her down for a nap, visited the Toys R Us store there, and headed home. 

 

Poor thing, as the evening progressed, she must have started feeling a little worse because she was very clingy and kept asking for ma-ma, so I nursed her a bit after dinner and she fell asleep for a short while.  She really needed a bath, though, because she was sticky with yo-baby yogurt and dinner...so Jeff prepped her bath and when I went to put her in, she started crying so hard because she didn't want to be detached from me...so I ended up getting in the tub with her and holding her while we bathed her.  This is highly unusual because she usually loves bathtime, but I guess it's because she wasn't feeling well.  Poor baby.  Anyhow, after the quick bath, we wrapped her up in her towel and when I laid her down on the bed to put her diaper on, she calmly lay there with her eyes closed and bundled in her towel.  I thought she was asleep, until I put her diaper on her...when she slowly opened her eyes to look at me with that little mischievous sparkle in her eyes and a smirk on her lips and took both hands and unstuck both sides of her diaper tabs!  That little stinker.  :)  I yelped and grinned at her, and she let out a little giggle as I put on the rest of her pjs...and put her down for the night. 

 

What a beautiful little girl with a funny funny sense of humor.  :)  Even when she wasn't feeling well, she still wanted to play...I love her so much.  Well, she slept OK through the night with no fever, and this morning after I dropped her off with Beth, she texted me that Tay ate well, so I'm hopeful that the bug she got will pass quickly. 

 

Until next time...

Motherly Thoughts...

Part I.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about being a working Mom and I'm quite torn about whether or not I like it.  I see my little girl growing up so fast, and being with her nanny while I work has been wonderful because my nanny is really great and teaching her things I never would have thought to teach her, I don't think...but what if I were to stay at home with her?  I would probably speak more Korean to her than I do now.  I worry that she might not understand me because she spends over 50% of her "awake" part of the day with the nany...so I resort to the easy way of talking to her in English - which is easier for me, too, anyway - but then I feel bad that I'm not teaching her Korean, so I speak to her in Korean, but now I think I'm just confusing her.  Also, lately, I feel like I'm losing that closeness I had with her...except when I'm putting her down for the night...and maybe on weekends.  It's because she's becoming so much more independent and less dependent on me, (and this is really a good thing), but sometimes I wish she were still that helpless, dependent little girl who would always want me to be with her and sit with her and play with her...and then I realize, if she were actually like that all the time, I wouldn't be raising her to be self-sufficient...and in this world, she must be self-sufficient. 

 

My little Tay is growing up so fast that I can't keep up emotionally.  I love her so much and I want to spend more time with her, but I already feel like I'm cutting out as early as I can from work and I think I'm playing with her enough after work...but why can't I just get enough of her?  I miss her during the day, and I miss her at night.  It saddens me that I can't play with her on the playground every day; I can't make her delicious healthy food like I want to; I can't sing to her and have dance parties with her...just because I don't have the energy after I get home from work.  Why?  I should have that energy.  I want to take her on walks in the sun and in the rain...so she knows what falling rain feels like.  I want to let her help me do dishes and help me fold laundry.  This weekend, she helped me strip all the pillows to wash the pillow cases, and we just had so much fun just pulling them off like in a tug-o-war.  Then, we rolled around the mattress with no sheets on, tickling each other and giggling.  After they were washed, she "helped" me put them back on by crawling on them as I tucked them in...she just loves helping me with whatever she can.  She knows every time after she gets a diaper change, there is a dirty diaper that needs to get thrown away.  (By they way, the "potty familiarization" period is going very well...she's already in the routine of going #1 in the big toilet right before bed, and when she needs to go #2 - although she doesn't tell me, persay - when I think she's about to go, I ask her if she needs to go "poo-poo" and she'll nod her head, take my hand, and we'll walk to the bathroom together).  My goal is not to get her out of diapers anytime soon...my goal is to have her be able to let me know she needs to go and we make it to the bathroom.  No time limit...just looking for a gradual end, hopefully. 

 

Part II.

It's already July and in just a little over a week, Tay will already be 16 months old.   It seems like it was just yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital.  It was just yesterday that she was this tiny little thing that I felt was so fragile that I thought I might break her.  Now she's going to tumbling class where she's learning how to do forward rolls and walk across a balance beam.  Unbelievable.  Part of me just wants it all to slow down, but another part of me is really excited to see her growing up and I can't wait for when she is able to talk to me and express her feelings and I we can go on hikes and maybe even go star gazing.  She'll learn how to ride a bike and start going to school.  She'll be going on her first date, and I'll be in tears.  I can't believe how quickly time just flies...

 

I should be home to enjoy every moment with her...but instead I'm out working.  Is this really what I should be doing?  ::sigh::  I miss my little girl when I can't be with her...

 

 

Tay's First Potty!

My little Tay is growing up so fast. 

 

I have been thinking about starting potty training in the next few months, so we bought a couple different types of potties, and while we were at Toys R Us today, I got a on-the-big-toilet mini-seat for Tay to sit on.  I didn't think anything of it except to get her familiar with the seat.  I let her play with the seat in the living room and then I showed her how to sit on it with her diaper on so she'd feel comfortable. 

 

Later in the day, she was running around, and she got that look like she was about to go #2.  She always sort of hides behind something before she actually goes lately, so we knew she needed to go when she started to hang out behind Jeff's Lazyboy.  I followed her back there and asked her if she needed to poo-poo.  Surprisingly, she nodded so I took her hand and walked her over to the bathroom.  I placed her potty seat on the big toilet, took off her shorts and diaper, and sat her on the seat.  I kneeled down in front of her and made a "hnnnn" sound to tell her to push and she just laughed at me and squirmed to get off the seat.  I handed her something she hadn't seen before to play with to distract her so she'd sit still a little longer, and kept making the silly sound.  Soon after, she started making the same sound and suddenly, plop!  She had gone #2.  I clapped my hands and cheered for her, and she clapped for herself, too!  :)

 

After cleaning her up, we continued to cheer as we went to get a new diaper and put her shorts back on. 

 

I know all of you fine readers wanted to know about that...or maybe not, but it was my baby's first use of the big potty and she did so well I HAD to write about it!

 

I'm so proud of my little girl...she's growing so fast.  It was the best Father's Day present for Jeff (he says!).  :)

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day, otherwise!

 

Love,

A very proud Umma