December 2007 Archives

We celebrated with the kids tonight with New Year's Eve crowns (that Anna & I decorated during one of Sarah's naps), noise-makers (that, surprisingly, didn't bother either kid), and eating cheesecake (frozen, from Costco).

Sarah's hair is as red as ever but it's starting to get slightly longer and now has the ability to be messy. It is super straight so far and no signs of curls or waviness yet. I'm interested to see what happens with it!

There was a very slight dusting of snow on the porch this morning.

Craig found some Bob's Red Mill pancake & waffle mix at Costco this last trip so we've been enjoying that but we stopped over at "The Baking Store" in Gohyeon and they had some bags of Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour so we bought some of that as well. I don't know if there is whole wheat flour at Home Plus because I don't know what the Korean for "whole wheat" is! Now I can try to ask around with this bag that I have and see if Mijung or Amelie and tell me where to find it (it may also be available at one of the bakeries in town) or I'll just keep going to the baking store and get it there.

Today we decided to check out the coffee shop by Subway in Gohyeon and bring home some Subway for dinner (we haven't been there since we arrived in Korea this time since there is a Quizno's in Okpo—and both of these are new since we lived here last time). Turns out Sleepless in Seattle and Subway are the same place. So we got our coffee first and ordered the sandwiches later. (Craig had a cappuccino and Anna & I had hot chocolate since you can't get decaf here and I don't need Sarah to stay awake all night just for a coffee!) The barista/sandwich artist put little hearts in the steamed milk which is something Craig aspires to do (latte art) with his cappuccinos at home. The cocoa was good (and he made Anna's just the right temperature) and Craig said his coffee was better than he expected. So, I think we'll add this outing to our list of regulars as well. Maybe next time I'll remember to bring the camera...

Please note that Anna is wearing brown pants: by her request! Photos by Craig.

Anna has been really enjoying the slides and rope ladder at the playground at our apartment. There are a few playgrounds town so hopefully we can find some fun ones that both kids will enjoy when the weather warms up in the spring.

Craig put Anna on his back and I put Sarah on mine and we hiked up the Admiral today. We didn't go all of the way to to the top because we weren't sure about Sarah's thresh-hold in the Ergo and it was pretty chilly. Good thing we turned around because later on the day my sciatic nerve was killing me! I've only experienced this while pregnant so I was disappointed that it flared up now, too. I guess hiking with 20 extra pounds (Sarah) on your back is harder on your body. I need to put a Nike+ chip on my hiking boots because the other one is strapped to my running shoe pretty well and I don't want to mess it up. So, next time I'll have stats (we hiked for 50 minutes) and we're hoping to make this a regular hike.

I uploaded my pictures from December that belong on the blog to Picassa. I'll finish posting the links tomorrow night (click on the December 2007 Archives to see what I've already posted). This is a temporary fix (I hope) because it creates quite a bit more work for me than my usual method. The problem is that I cannot upload files to the US from here. This is at our apartment complex only. Craig can upload from his work. Apparently Google has servers for Picassa here or in Japan (where I can still upload at incredible speed).

In other temporary fix news, next month I hope to finally correct the layout issues I'm having with the Movable Type upgrade I did earlier. I have a huge list of things to do and this is at the top because I think it should be easy; I just need to sit down and do it.

This adorable outfit is from Raisa but I'm not sure Sarah has enough neck yet to pull off the turtle neck. I'll have to find my picture of Anna wearing it and post it here as well once I get all of my picture updating in order.

Playing "drinking games" with Anna in order to get more chances at success on the potty.

Monday morning we made the switch to underwear for Anna and marked our first official day of Potty Training. We've had a few accidents but today we had an awesome day. Overall Anna has been scared to pee in the potty. So she holds it and holds it and holds it beyond reason (and belief! this kid has a bladder of steel!). So then when it finally does come it is a lot and it comes fast. And that is scary. Repeat the cycle. Today we had no accidents, all the pee went into the potty (she wants to stand as soon as she feels it coming), and she pooped on the potty! I was really nervous about the pooping since she was so scared of the pee but that went much better than I thought.

The potty-training book I liked mentioned that once older kids are out of diapers and into underwear their self-confidence increases and your perception of them changes rapidly that they are so much more mature than they were. This is true even though we're on day four. Today Anna was climbing the rope ladder and going down the slide by herself (she was previously too nervous to do the big yellow tunnel slide by herself). She is wanting to do more and more "by herself" and she's doing a great job with most of it!

Anyway, I hope that tomorrow goes as well (or better, we still have some room for improvement, mind you) and I am so glad that we didn't wait any longer to get started. The only other real hurdle we have is school which starts on January 7. Hopefully another week at home will give her confidence to go at school as well.

Oh, and one thing that seemed to work like magic for her (and she asked for it) was a random mouse that Sarah got in one of her Christmas gifts. She brought the mouse into the bathroom and she was able to go. Whatever works, I guess!

I'll try to not make too many posts about potty training but will update after some time has passed to report back on Anna's progress/share major success stories.

Sarah fell onto a puzzle while we were opening presents so she has a nice mark on her chin.

I'm a little late doing Sarah's portraits this month but I did do them today and she's still only seven months old until next week. I tried a new spot today instead of dragging out the background paper this time. I wish I had done it in the morning instead of the afternoon though. Sarah's newest thing is that she is clapping her hands.

She's still army-crawling every where but she's getting faster. She is highly attracted to cords, curtains, tassles, tissues, teeny-tiny bits of lint, and anything posing a choking hazard or other contraband. Anna didn't have a long-lasting crawling stage so I'm curious to see how Sarah differs here. Sarah climbs up in her baby bathtub and Craig said she got to a standing position there. I guess we need to arrange some climbing areas in the apartment so she can practice pulling up.

I also keep forgetting to update on the Sleep Through the Night Campaign: Mission Accomplished! The first week she woke up and cried for 45 minutes to an hour and then had about four quiet nights and then had a few nights where she cried for 45 minutes again but she hasn't done that for over a week now. She's getting up a little earlier than she used to but I am so much better rested that this is fine. (She was getting up at 7:30 and now she gets up between 6-7.) I'm hopeful that as she gets older she'll sleep in a little later again but I don't really need her to now anyway since she naps at 9 regardless.

We got our last Christmas present today: our new piano! It's a digital Yamaha (I hope this doesn't make Greg sick!). I haven't had a chance to check it out because Anna & Craig were piano-hogs this afternoon but I'm off to warm up my fingers after this post. I need to get music for "Oh My Darling, Clementine" as this is Anna's favorite tune to sing songs and play air-piano to (we sing "Found My Strawberry/Butterfly/Mouse/Anna/Sarah/etc.").

Now that we have kids of our own we need to start some of our own holiday traditions. One that I wanted to be sure to do was go to the Christmas Eve service at church like I did when I was a kid but there was no service at the English-language church in town. One fun thing we did last year at Christmas dinner at Craig's co-worker's house was to have Christmas crackers. We had to wear the crowns that came in the crackers throughout the meal and then everyone gets a fun little surprise gift. I ordered these from Sur la Table but surely I can figure out how to make my own in future years; it's the how to make the crackers "pop" that I need to figure out. Hopefully we can add some other things to our list of traditions for Christmas, other holidays, and every-day stuff as the years go by.

Sarah & I got up first this morning and woke up Craig who then woke up Anna so we could have breakfast and start presents before Sarah had to go down for her morning nap. Between her nap and Anna's potty breaks it took much too long to open presents! But Anna stopped in the middle to work on some new puzzles and enjoy some of the gifts so I guess it was fine in the end. Santa's gift was a pretty big hit (Fur Berries) and Sarah really liked (laughing out loud) one of the books I got her; Anna says (after some prodding, she first said that all of the presents were her favorite) that her favorite is the hobby horse but all of the toys got some good investigating today (including some that were Sarah's).

One thing Anna got was a Fisher Price camera so I'll put a link to her photos on Flickr and you can check out her photography there. I'm not planning to blog about any of her photos for now.

This was a tri-fold card so on the left is the front of the card, the middle is the back, and the right is the inside flap when you first open it.

This is the inside of the card from left to right as you would see it when you have it fully opened. ... I might be tempted to do a card like this every year because it was so fun to get to choose a few photos from each month!

I decided to do a photo-review of our year for our card this year so I picked two or three photos from each month to show what we've done. I wish I had put the two generations pictures we took this summer (with Opa and with Great-Grandma Eldora), but it's too late now!

We're not doing anything particularly special for Christmas Eve (no service at the English-language church in town) and we're opening presents on Christmas morning.

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008!

Anna wouldn't touch the Santa hats when I tried them on the kids a few weeks ago but she happily put on the "Christmas Hat" today. She is getting excited to open presents. When we first set up the tree last month I asked her what she'd like for Christmas and she said a "star cookie." Then she added a mouse. I've suggested that maybe a book, a toy, a puzzle, or a game might be a good Christmas present. She has spilled the beans several times on what I'm getting for Christmas but hasn't told Craig what he is getting yet.

Another of Sarah's favorite places to crawl is under the coffee table.

I had to go back up to Lotte Mart to get the Minnie Mouse that Anna wanted for Christmas ("from" Sarah) today. I was a little panicked when I got to the stuffed toy aisle and it was pretty cleared out but there was one lone Minnie so I grabbed her. I got a little nervous there as I think Anna really was hoping for this doll. It makes me wonder which gifts will actually be the biggest hits with both kids. I know Sarah doesn't know what is going on but she is a magnet to the tree: she's always crawling over at high-speed and trying to unwrap/eat the presents or yank down an ornament. I think I'll be taking the tree down on the 26th at this rate so I don't have to worry about her pulling the tree over on herself.

I volunteered to work on the Playschool web site in September and finally sat down to update it today. Take a look for me and let me know if anything looks goofy on your operating system/browser set-up.

Anna & Craig went to Costco today and they took my car so Sarah & I were stuck at home. I thought we might try to take a walk but by the time I got Sarah on my back in the Ergo we had run out of time to really do much. So we went up and down the stairs a few times and that was it. I'm not loving the Ergo but I'll see if I can live with it so I don't have to buy another Babyhawk (I might just email the company and ask for a new strap that I can sew on myself, actually).

Anna has eight more diapers to use and then she's moving into underwear. She has had a few successes on the potty but it is obvious that if she's wearing a diaper she'll go in that instead of on the potty. I've talked to her about it and she is prepared. I can tell she's nervous about the change but also that she understands that it's not a choice: it is what is happening when the diapers run out. She is excited to wear her "Hello Kitty-Driving-a-Car" underwear first.

Wish us luck!

I made Craig's iPod Touch cozy today following this tutorial. I had to make the thing three times due to faulty measuring/wrong seam allowances. It's not perfect but Craig says he'll use it (even though I think he's just being nice... let's see how long it takes for him to "misplace" it.).

One of Sarah's favorite activities is to take down all the books off of the shelves and then try to eat the most interesting titles.

Anna has earned a lot of stickers on her chart for sitting on the potty this past week and she earned a stuffed pig and a magic wand for pooping on the potty (I won't go into any more detail than this, don't worry). No pee yet but I'm learning when her best chances are and I think it's just a matter of getting used to the routine and being relaxed enough to go. I ended up not really liking the No-Cry Potty training book and I'm not sure why I bought it because I didn't like the No-Cry Sleep training book by the same author. I really do like the Diaper-Free Before 3 by Jill Lekovic though and am going to figure out my plan and implement it.

Right now is a great time because Anna is out of school for a couple of weeks. However, I noticed over the weekend that we had a harder time being consistent when Craig is around but now I know this so will be more aware of it. My feelings are reminiscent of making a plan to wean Anna from breastfeeding and the pacifier-elimination plan we did last year. Both of those were not nearly as bad as I had imagined (both went really well, actually) so I'm hopeful that this will go smoothly as well (of course I expect accidents; I'm not naive!).

This morning is the second time in the last month I woke up with "Tambourine Hand." Norae Bang at Carmen's going-away party a few weeks ago (both hands hurt the next day). Last night at Mijung's birthday party I took it easier and just used one hand. I think it is actually bruised. The norae bang (karaoke room) we went to the last two times is a lot nicer than the one we went to when I lived here before but the music is so loud that you've got to play the tambourine pretty hard to be heard!

Sarah made three trips through this tunnel today and thought she was pretty cool doing it! She's really moving along (although she's not lifting her tummy off of the ground; she hasn't figured out the hands & knees crawling coordination yet). She moves fastest for contraband so we've got to be extra careful of what is left out.

Sarah takes ornaments down and then Anna is right behind her putting them back up in a different spot. We're playing more in the office lately because it's not so much fun having to keep re-directing Sarah's interest.

I started handing out some of our cookies today but I realized I need to make another batch or two in order to fill all of the boxes I want to give out. We gave out caramel corn, chocolate thin mints, gingerbread men, peanut butter blossoms, and vanilla pretzels. I'm not sure if I'll make another batch of any of those or just make something new for the rest we're giving out.

We also mailed out some cards last week and I'll go into town to mail out the rest tomorrow.

I did a Secret Santa gift exchange with the ladies on my March 2005 message board. Anna was thrilled with the "strawberry" ice cream cone, mouse mug, and purple butterfly ball she received! Thank you, Sophia & Alex!

Sarah laughs and laughs when Craig sings Brick House by The Commodores. I really want to get a video of this but am always up to something else when it is happening (usually when he's getting her ready for bed). Anna also often requests to hear the song on the stereo so you can have fun imagining our family dance parties to that song.

I finished Anna & Sarah's cats tonight. I tend to lose steam when it comes to detail-work but, overall, I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. I got the pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. I made Anna's first because I knew which fabric to use (she just fell in love with one I got in my Sew, Mama, Sew shipment). I made Sarah's a little bigger because, as a new sewer, I had a little difficulty with the small size of Anna's. I messed up Sarah's cat's head a little because of this though and I kind of wish I had just stuck to the original sizing. Oh well; I like Sarah's cat's eyes more than Anna's cat's so I guess it all evens out.

I am planning to make an owl for Sarah and a bunny for Anna for Christmas and also an i-Pod cozy for Craig (he knows this, obviously). Hopefully I don't run out of time/drive to complete them before the 25th!

Another potential sign to add to Sarah's list is "milk."

Lights on one of the main streets in town.

Anna was pretty impressed with this pink Christmas tree in the window.

We went out to Quizno's for dinner tonight and got to see some Christmas lights. I'm kind of sad we didn't get to drive around looking for lights this year like we did last year but I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for that later on. We ran into one of Anna's friends from school at Quizno's and I think it was one of the few times that she has seen someone from school elsewhere so it was kind of like running into your teacher at the grocery store and realizing that they are a real person. I don't think it occurred to her before tonight that Gwenn had parents and they need to eat dinner, too.

The parent with child sign is also on the men's room so I assume it's the same set-up in there.

Boxes off to the left and a table with tape and scissors. There is another table off to the left here so plenty of people can pack up their stuff at one time.

Anna & I drove up to Lotte Mart to check out what they're selling these days (nothing too terribly exciting or different than Home Plus but they do have the nice Daiso (Japanese dollar store) section that is always fun to go through. I helped Anna pick out a Christmas present from Anna to Sarah and to Craig from Anna & Sarah. She pointed out several things that she would like and I told her I'd take Sarah later to pick out something for Anna. It's just too bad that the thing she wants most is a giant Minnie Mouse. I'm not excited about it but I guess it's not for me. What's really too bad is that I haven't seen it at Home Plus so, if I decide to be nice and get that for her I'll have to drive all the way back to Lotte Mart (45 minutes away).

In an Anna-update we have been dabbling in potty training this week. I bought her a cute book called Time to Pee by Mo Willems and a few books for me (Diaper Free Before 3 and The No Cry Potty Training Solution) since I don't have a clue what to do here. We've had quite a few false starts so I hope this time we can get right. I think the Time to Pee book helped because there are a lot of mice in it and potty chart with mice stickers (although they are running out and I got some, apparently, equally-exciting star stickers at Lotte Mart today).

Right now Anna is getting a sticker every time she sits on the potty because that's just where we're at. She has peed a few times in the past (in March and October) and gotten rewarded but nothing has stuck. I'm remembering to ask and trying to make it part of our routine. It's frustrating because I feel like we could have done it last fall but I didn't want to because of our moving around. In hindsight, it would probably have been worth it to risk back-tracking a bit because of our move. (She's been waking up dry for over a year now and I think she's just set in her ways now as far as going in the diaper...)

Anyway, as we walked in from the parking garage I noticed the bathrooms and pointed them out to Anna, took her in and showed her around the public bathroom. Lotte Mart has a little potty seat you can use which is really nice. They also have a kid-level sink for the kids to wash their hands. Anna said she wanted to try the potty when we were shopping so we did a dry-run in one bathroom. Then when we packed up the car I said it was her last chance to try before we went home and she tried again. I was just really surprised that she was willing to try in the public bathroom, actually, but I think it helped that the seat was pink.

I'll report back after we've made some more progress.

I got out Hi Ho, Cherry-o! to play with Anna today and it was pretty big hit. Sarah caught Anna's cold (and is also possibly teething again) so we stayed home all day and took it easy.

I saw this felt gingerbread house and thought I'd try it myself; Anna had a lot of fun decorating & re-decorating this morning. I made pockets and put cardboard in between the layers of felt. I had a tough time getting that roof on with hand-sewing because of incredibly awkward angles but for the most part it has been pretty quick & easy! I followed the gingerbread house design from Joy of Cooking. I hope to spend some more time making nicer decorations but I have a few other projects to complete before Christmas as well and Anna's having fun with these decorations as-is. I originally thought I'd leave one roof-side not attached but ended up sewing a button on the bottom so I can store the decorations inside the house.

[video will be posted later, I promise]

Sarah is going forward now! She's creeping but still working on the traditional crawl as well. babyproofing will be complete this weekend. I think she also wants to pull up but isn't quite as advanced with that yet. We have already moved her crib mattress down to the lowest level.

Sarah can finally handle eating O's (halved) now so I can stop buying the Gerber Puffs and we can start moving on to more finger foods in the coming weeks.

My friend Laurel has been giving us some nice hand-me-downs (she has four daughters!) for Sarah but today there were some directly from Kristin (the butterfly-wearing girl that Anna really likes) that had butterflies on them. Anna actually put on the pants right away which is the first time she's worn pants since last spring. Of course her skirt was on right on top, but that's OK. She also loved the little flowery, fur-lined vest that happens to have Mickey Mouse on it. She kept saying that she was "Minnie," one of the teachers from her school (she is the one with the red sweater helping Anna with her art project in the holiday party pictures). Apparently Minnie wore a blue necklace today so Anna was really happy when I put one on her. Anna was Minnie until bedtime. I think this is the first time she has pretended to be a real person (other than me or Craig)—she is often a mouse or Lily Bunny or Fluffy Squirrel or Chicken Licken, etc.—which says a lot about Minnie.

Top row is a gift, bottom row is for Anna & Sarah.

(I made one as an ornament for the tree with pink "frosting" around the edge because this year has been all about pink around here).

I finally got the embroidery floss to finish these gingerbread men this morning. I went to the Cross Stitch Store three times last week (and also tried to go to the two in Gohyeon) and it was closed every time!

Craig says I got the recipe for the pretzels right but the shape is "off" because I used a store-bought cookie cutter and not Opa's one-of-a-kind hand-made cutter. Oh well!

So far this year I've made sugar cookies (all gone, we didn't save any for gift-giving), gingerbread men (I couldn't use my grandma's recipe but I did use her cookie cutters; her recipe called for ingredients I can't get here), and vanilla pretzels (Oma & Opa's recipe). I plan to make chocolate mints, caramel corn, chocolate chile pretzels, and possibly another cookie (all to give out).

Sarah is signing "more!" I don't think she totally knows what it means though as she signs it constantly (although maybe she is always wanting more of whatever we're doing!). Hopefully she'll get it soon and pick up on some other signs as well. It's super cute and I'll get a video.

The girls had their first Korean babysitter experience last night. Craig's work Christmas party was last night so we put the kids to bed and Sunghee watched TV while both kids slept. Anna met Sunghee and knew that she would be there and we'd be out. I was a little worried she'd freak out when we said goodnight but I think she was too scared that Sunghee would be the one to come into her room so she stayed quiet. (The last time Anna had a non-family member babysit her aside from the time I used the co-op in Texas was the time she screamed the entire time while we were at a museum exhibit downtown.) Since this went so well, we might try to get out once a month (to start) and take it from there.

The party was really nice and it was held at the Samsung Hotel in Gohyeon. It was smaller than any of the other holiday parties I've been to for Craig's work which was kind of nice.

Anna's school had their Christmas party today. As expected, kids were screaming in terror when Santa arrived (he had a really creepy mask on so I can't really blame them!). Anna did OK (better than I expected) but wouldn't get too close to Santa and then wouldn't unwrap her present (Sarah did that and then tried to eat the paper).

Sarah is seven months old today!

The Gymini has been put away for a few months now but she's still enjoying the MegaSaucer (a lot of jumping going on there). Sarah is sitting very well (although occasionally will fall back or to the side so I don't trust her completely yet) and still getting up to rock on her hands and knees. Every now and again she moves forward but backwards is the typical direction of motion still.

She is still drooling a ton and chewing on everything. Her favorite foods are carrots, mango, and apple. Oatmeal seemed to cause an eczema flare-up so we'll try that again later.

Sarah's favorite toys right now are blocks (she likes to knock down the stacks I make for her) and she plays with the Little People barn, bus, and zoo a lot (mostly just tasting each animal or person to determine which one offers the most chewing satisfaction).

She does not do well with others holding her, especially once she sees me and realizes that I'm not holding her. She also reaches out for me to pick her up when she sees me coming for her.

She is in a great routine right now and is just a lot of fun. She still is figuring out how to get back to sleep in the night without my help but I have not fed her in the night since last week and will not go back to that. It takes anywhere from 45-60 minutes for her to get back to sleep but I know she'll figure it out though becaus last night she didn't cry until 6:15 AM (she very rarely fusses for a nap or bedtime so I know she can fall asleep on her own without our interference!). She goes to bed for the night between 6:30-7 and her normal wake-up time is between 6:30-7:30 AM.

Anna has taken a sudden interest in helping me wash dishes lately. This is coming just after I was talking to my grandma and she was reminiscing about how I used to love to "wash" dishes at her house when I was little (Anna did not overhear this conversation).

Sarah's room. It's small, but it's also the darkest room which makes it perfect for all of those daytime naps. I think want to move her to the office/playroom sometime next year so she'll have more space and we can have a real office/storage area. Her closets are filled with Christmas & baby storage items (and her clothes, of course!).

Every Wednesday I think, "I'll take pictures this afternoon after the cleaning ladies leave." Every Wednesday after the cleaning ladies leave, it seems like the house is a disaster within three minutes of their shutting the door. So, excuse any messes you see. I feel—especially in the office & laundry room—like I still haven't had time to really organize the way I want. Maybe someday...

Photos by Craig

We decided to have some hot chocolate tonight (or warm chocolate in Anna's case) and I was so happy that Anna decided to have a go at drinking directly from the cup. She has not tried this since probably April in Doha and she dumped a bunch of water on herself. She actually did pretty well for someone who hasn't done it and I hope she is encouraged to keep at it because, really, she ought to be able to do this at this age.

Julie & Macayla came over today and I remembered to take a picture. Julie is behind them because Sarah was feeling tippy and Macayla wanted to climb on Sarah. Macayla is two weeks younger than Sarah and Julie is my friend from when we lived here last time. We met a little girl named Esther who is just a month older than Sarah last week but, unfortunately, Esther is leaving for Sweden in January and Macayla will probably be leaving for Dubai or Doha early next year as well! Hopefully a new wave of expats will come and we can make some new little friends for Sarah that will be here as long as we are.

(I should note that Rachel used to call my friends my "little friends" and it drove me insane! Sorry, Sarah, but your friends are little right now!)

Craig took Anna on her first has today. She rode in the backpack from Rachel & Mat (thanks!) and says she had fun. They hiked for 1.5-2 hours and saw cows, dogs, and chickens. Craig did Anna's "down-down" (they sang Frosty the Snowman and he dumped beer on his head (of course they're not going to make a 2.5 year old dump anything on her head!)). She got her Hash patch and if she goes two more times she will get a hash name. I'd like to take Sarah as well, but the timing really doesn't work out if I also want her to take a nap (they leave the club house at 11 AM and don't get back home until 3 PM or so). Maybe sometime next year we can all go together.

"More is More." Photos by Craig.

Anna & I made some sugar cookies (Martha Stewart) today with quick lemon frosting (Joy of Cooking). She helped count ingredients, make the shapes, mix the frosting, and decorate.