Number One!

After surviving a year "under the sun", we reward young humans with a party.

But really, we are rewarding ourselves for not completely losing our minds, whether accidentally or on purpose, in the past 365 days.

A co-worker was kind enough to lend us her apartment for a wonderful one-year bash, but there was a catch: we had to wear ridiculous fuzzy animal ears. TheFry, being the birthday boy, got to wear a bow tie.

We ate one of TheFry's favorite rarer foods: spaghetti. The noodles aren't difficult to find here, although they're a tad more expensive than you would find in the USA. The sauce was more expensive: a little less than $5 per jar. Still, it was a welcome treat.

We always get sauce on our face when eating spaghetti.

He likes the camera-lady.

Next, we opened presents from my very generous co-workers.

TheFry wanted to taste the shiny paper.

One of his favorite presents was a duck. It's got a string that you pull and then it rolls along.

It also tastes great!

Another present was a wonderful pair of winter pajamas. How thoughtful!

TheFry received many other really wonderful gifts, and we were all quite surprised. Among them were some winter shoes and a really great stroller. Thank you, everyone!

Finally, we had cake. I baked it at home. We also made the frosting at home by melting chocolate and butter together, then whisking in powdered sugar until the frosting became thick, but not clumpy. Delicious and simple! The cakes were cut in half and filled with either strawberry jam, persimmon jam, or more frosting!

Then, I helped TheFry blow out the candle. I wasn't expecting to look so conspicuous.

He may not have been able to figure out the whole "blowing out the candles" thing, but he sure knew how to eat the cake!

What would the event be like without a family picture?

Thanks to everyone who made this day really great!

Peace

TheFry has gone to bed before midnight for - wait for it - five days in a row. This is a major accomplishment, given that for the last month or two he's been staying up until nearly 2:00am and basically driving both myself and PapaFish insane.

There are two possibilities to this conclusion:

1. The last five days were vacation for me (Happy Chuseok, everyone!). I have been home almost non-stop, and he has certainly enjoyed all the cuddling and walking around together that we've been doing.

2. I've tried my darndest to have him fall into a bedtime routine. This was rather sporadic beforehand, given that I came home from work at different times, and also that PapaFish occasionally tried to put TheFry down early so he would be asleep when I got home. However, TheFry would always just use that extra snooze as a nap and get up around 11pm and decide to hang out with us for a couple of hours until we were so exhausted that we would just go to bed and let him crawl around until he fell asleep on his own (which he tends to do on occasion).

I hope it's the routine. I really, really hope it's the routine.

TheFry gives a few telltale signs that he's tired enough for sleep: he grabs his blanket and pacifier and spends some cuddle time on his bed watching TV with his feet wiggling around in the air, repeatedly hugging the blanket and rolling his eyes back. He pushes them back open with such a strong will to not sleep that it's almost aggravating, if it weren't so cute. Also, he can get very clingy and refused to be separated from PapaFish or myself by even a couple of feet. One thing that unfortunately happens quite often is that TheFry will be hyper as usual (or even a little moreso) and then start having really random clumsy moments. Usually the spills are not bad at all - but when he falls on his face from a crawl and starts screaming as if he's going to die, we know he's ready for bed, without a doubt!

That's when I scoop him up, toss the blankie and a book on the bed, change the diaper, bathe, lotion, and dress him in clean pajamas, and then we sit down to read a book! Lately he's had such a huge interest in books that it blows my mind. He loves them, to look at the pictures, to smile with his two-tooth grin the whole time, and to try and help me turn the pages (or close the book before the story is over). Then we might give him a cup of milk if he hasn't had one, or we might just go without and brush his [two] teeth either way. He loves his little toothbrush with duckies on it, but usually he just tries to chew on the non-brush end. Anyway, it's the exposure that counts! Mainly, I think he enjoys the bonding and social time that toothbrushing involves.

Afterwards, I fight him for a grand total of 5~10 minutes before he's out like a lamp. It usually includes 2 rounds of "Barges", "Jesus Loves Me," "Jesus Loves the Little Children", the "ABCs", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", followed by 3 rounds of "Edelweiss" to get him to ease into sleep. The fighting has been getting less and less, so I really hope the routine will stick.

Interestingly enough, "Edelweiss" is the only song that really gets him to fall asleep - the others are just warm-ups that get his attention, perhaps soothing him until "Edelweiss" is the final push over the edge. Or maybe it's just the fact that it's the only song I sing to him in 6:8 time.

I'm anxious about tomorrow, but I'll definitely be more consistent about what time I come home so that this routine can have full effectiveness. Previously, only PapaFish had success with putting TheFry to bed but now I think I might have provided a comfortable alternative.

The Last Couple of Weekends

Note: I wrote this at least a week ago, but for some reason I didn't publish it.

The last couple of weekends have been rather eventful for us. Although there are no pictures, we did some cool stuff and had quite a bit of fun. We also have gotten really, really worn out.



The weekend before last (September 19) we went out of town. PapaFish went all the way to Camp Casey - a good 1.5~2hr subway ride from our place in Seoul - to play board games n' such with some guys. He had fun, but it was a long day.



TheFry and I opted out of this kind of gaming, and so we went to hike Soyosan instead. I was winded after about 20 minutes of climbing up the hill.



Soyosan was a little disappointing. To its credit, it had been largely destroyed during the Korean War and it looked as if there was a lot of renovation still going on. Nonetheless, there were plenty of piles of random crap on construction sites, intermingled with lovely statues, buildings and scenery in general.



The waterfalls are made to look much more impressive in the marketing, but they were still graceful and sweet.



The temple had been recently reconstructed, and included a gift shop. I understand that it's customary to sell candles and incense and other things necessary to make offerings at holy places in such locations, but there was plenty of jewelry and cellphone accesories alos, which was quite disappointing (along with the coffee vending machines, and big black plastic sewage pipe running down out of the waterfall into the cave of worshippers).



Furthermore, hiking a mountain on a weekend is like asking for advice from every Korean grandmother in town. There was plenty of advice to go around, mostly to keep TheFry from getting crooked teeth and a cold. I didn't mention that he already had a cold that weekend, and no one seemed to notice or care, either. They also didn't seem to care that I understood very little of what they were saying, but the power of miming pushed through.



I was thinking of going there later in October because they supposedy are having a red maple leaf festival, but I don't think I'll make it. It's not worth the 3,000won to go inside the park - the outside is just as lovely, as far as maple trees goes - but traveling that long and tiring journey with a toddler in tow just to see the outside of a park whilst getting parenting advice from strangers in a language I don't fully understand doesn't sound like a relaxing time at the park for me. I think we'll stick closer to home, and hopefully by then we'll have a camera to share pictures of all the wonderful fall goodness.



This last weekend (September 26~27) we had a full weekend of events. On Saturday we went to Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun (and wound up walking through Namdaemun in between destinations) on a hunt for yarn so I can make myself a fall sweater. I've shrunk my other fall sweater, and my post partum self is just not fitting anything I own properly anymore. I'm too cheap to buy clothes in Itaewon, so I'm going to be making my own sweaters and such come fall and winter. Since I hardly have time to get this stuff done anymore, I thought I'd start now.



I ended up buying yarn in Dongdaemun. I remember thinking to myself (and actually saying out loud once) that there was no decent selection of yarns in Dongdaemun. That's probably at least partially due to the fact that I have a tendency to show up at the wrong time on the wrong day(s), which can really happen to anyone. Also it is partially due to the fact that a number of shops only display their thinnest, thread-like yarns on the outside, keeping their wooly yarn of delicious heavenly goodness on the inside for serious browsers. It also seemed, the first couple of times I went there, at least, that the kinds of items people like to make are those fishnet-esque sweaters and caps with tiny yarns and tiny tiny hooks...I'm just not interested in that.



This time, it must have been the right day, the right time, and I actually carried with me a recommendation list of stalls to go to. I picked up 1000 grams of super-soft yarn (I think it was wool, but I'm not sure) for 24,000 won (sold in 500 gram increments). I know for a fact that you can buy yarn even cheaper than that at Dongdaemun; last time I bought 500grams for 6,000 won each, which is comparable to Wal-Mart! I think that kind of yarn only comes in fruity bright colors (I bought royal blue and a lighter shade of blue) but if you're doing something fun then it's worth it.



There were also a fair amount of stalls that had boxes of miscellaneous yarns for 1,000~1500 won apiece outside their stores. I thought about sifting through some of those but I decided I'd spent enough time already.



Last night (Sunday) we went to the Grand Finale of the Seoul Drum Festival in Seoul Forest Park. It was an interesting show. The announcements were made in both Korean and English, to our surprise. There was a fusion group combining Korean traditional drumming and Peruvian music, a group from Mexico that mostly danced, and several other groups fusioning traditional Korean drumming techniques and modern music. It was interesting, but we could have done with out the techno beats in the background. Furthermore, every time the audience applauded, TheFry started freaking out and crying. It would have been sad, but after the 10th time or so, he wasn't crying anymore, he was just screaming, as if that's how he felt he was supposed to react. It was hilarious.



The weekend was long and exhausting, but we got to do some free stuff, so it was not all in vain.

One-Year Photos!

Today we got TheFry's One-Year Photos taken!

We took them ourselves at Igloo Self-Photo Studio. PapaFish actually took all the pictures, and I was on distraction duty. The studio lent us a DSLR, lighting, props, and a large choice of outfits, and we did the rest ourselves!

We took over 200 photos in one hour, and got to keep all of them on a CD. There were many outfits available for free, but we chose to use mostly our own clothing. We did pay an extra 5,000 won for TheFry to wear hanbok (Korean traditional clothing). In the end, the total bill came to just over 50,000 won, around $50 U.S.

Of course not all the photos were spectacular, but at least half of them were very, very good. Here are the best photographs from each set we took:

The first set was a bakery. TheFry loved the bread and all the other props. He looks the happiest in these sets because, well, he's not as tired and hungry as he would be an hour later!

The second set had this really cute mini telephone booth. He loved standing by it but his face was always "behind bars". There were some cute shots, but this was probably the best one. He's got that signature smirk on his face - the same one he wears when he's about to pull a plug from the wall!


He didn't like this set much. This was basically the last time we could get him to sit down on anything for the rest of the hour, and that's only because we bribed him with grapes. Puppy tagged along for shoot.

The clouds was one of his favorite sets. It was soft and bright and he could sit down comfortably with his back propped up against something stable. There were a number of classic shots taken with this set but this is my favorite, because he's being himself.

My favorite set was the toy car. This is my favorite picture: dude in a red convertible, wearing a scarf, windswept hair, and a dog along for the ride!

At first he was wearing a cute little red hat, but he hates hats, so he figured out how to rip it off and throw it to the floor. Then the person who was running the studio thought it would be a great idea for him to wear this:


This is by far my absolute favorite picture out of the whole set. It has so much personality, so much emotion. I laugh a little every time I see it. It never gets old.

Finally, it was time for TheFry to get dressed up in Hanbok, Korea's traditional costume. The first birthday is actually a huge deal in Korea, with a formal party and the baby wears hanbok.

This hanbok features cherry blossoms and it is definitely for boys. Pink is a very stylish color in Korea for both men and women, and pink on boys' and men's Hanbok is in fashion right now.

This is probably my favorite photo for photographic value of the whole set:



And I really, really love this one also:



After the shoot, one of the photographers thought it would be a great idea for us to do a family shot. I had no idea this was coming. I had skipped a shower and makeup application because we had been running late, I was sweating profusely, and I had been puked on in transit to the studio. Nonetheless, we managed to take a decent one:



And another one which was a little more honest:



After getting TheFry back in his more comfortable clothes, we took a pretty good one:

We couldn't have managed all this without the assistance of some terrific friends who translated the directions on how to use the camera, assisted us with getting TheFry's attention during the shoot, changing clothes, cleanup, and taking a few pictures of their own! In the end, I would call it a success.

A Toddler's Breakfast

(excuse the crappy resolution...these were taken with my webcam; it's all I've got for now)

As I type this blog post, TheFry is shoving bites of breakfast in his mouth one right after the other.

He is eating a scrambled egg and a piece of bread smeared with persimmon jam.

He does not wait until chewing up one bite to cram more in.

If it's in front of him, he will undoubtedly reach for it and shove it in his little face.

That cute little face! (yes, that IS a washing machine under the gas range [it's a two-top, ugh...] in our kitchen)

This season--the end of summer, that is--is the season for all kinds of ripe fruit. Persimmons are some of the cheapest fruits to come by, with a pack of 6 costing 3,000 won (or less, depending on which neighborhood you live in. We live in a fairly wealthy part of town, thus the more expensive...everything!).

You can usually choose between ripe-enough-to-eat persimmons and ripe-enough-to-be-disgusting persimmons. We bought a pack of the latter.

(thank you Google Image Search)

These persimmons can barely be eaten. They cannot be sliced. Once you peel them, a few clumps of fruit fall apart in a stringy, gooey mess.

Furthermore, the persimmon is not the sweet, tart fruit that spoils us in North America. They are barely sweet (even though they are very ripe), and their flavor is reminiscent of pumpkin.

So what do you do with a fruit that you can't eat straight-up? You make jam, of course!Our big challenge was to find some kind of thickener. I believed that Pectin would be impossible to track down in any location within walking distance from us, and I was correct! I even joked with PapaFish that we might just have to boil a chicken and scrape off the gelatin if we couldn't find anything else. (eww)

We did find gelatin in with the German food at our local HomePlus. However, gelatin does not behave like pectin exactly. Even when the jam cooled, it still seemed runny, so we added more gelatin. In the end, the jam hardened, and it was as stiff as jelly candy.

So we added more persimmons!

At last, we had wonderful persimmon jam, and now that the fruit is sweet and able to be smeared on the most delicious dainties, we can rest well.

On a side note: PapaFish has been working like a madman in the kitchen the past couple of weeks. He single-handedly made the persimmon jam. Additionally, he has prepared kimchi with both radish and cabbage.

Next week, for TheFry's first birthday, we will be making spaghetti and probably having another cake adventure. More details to come!

Baking a Cake without an oven...

...or a rice cooker, toaster oven, microwave, crock pot, etc...

Whether you use a cake mix or you make the recipe yourself, here is what I did:

1. Take a pot and pour in a little bit of water (1~2 cups).

2. Insert a metal steamer (one of those ones that folds up really small and then expands). It should be expanded as far as it can go. You are going to do this double-boiler style.

3. Grease and flour a cake pan that is small enough to fit in the pot. I used one of those disposable foil pans that you usually make banana bread or poundcake in.

4. After greasing/flouring the pan and pouring in the batter, cover the pan with aluminum foil, shiny-side-down.

5. Place the covered pan in the pot and cover the pot. Cook on high for the first 5 minutes, then turn the heat to low so that the water keeps simmering. Cook until done (it took me about 45~50 minutes) - when a toothpick (or a chopstick!) inserted in the middle comes out clean.

6. Remove from the pot, cool, and remove the cake.

As for a recipe? Well, I kind of winged it so the ingredients aren't exactly right, but here's what I did:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1.5 cups cake flour, 1/2 cup sugar (or more if you like a sweeter cake), 2 teaspoons baking powder, and a dash of salt.

2. In a separate, smaller bowl, beat 2 eggs, 1/2 cups milk, 1/4 cups vegetable oil (or margarine or butter), and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (we didn't have this, but it was definitely missing in the flavor of the cake later on).

3. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture all at once and mix just until it is moist. If the batter is too thick and doughy, add a little more milk.

4. Pour in a greased and floured cake pan and cook as above!

We hope to try a chocolate cake for TheFry's first birthday next week. I also want to try and make some frosting or some kind of filling. This week, PapaFish made persimmon jam, but it is still a work in progress as it got a little too...hard. Maybe when that problem is fixed, I will make a layer cake with persimmon jam and chocolate frosting.

Until then, eat and enjoy!

Sharing

TheFry has started sharing things.

Sometimes he shares things he likes, such as his pacifier. He will pull it out of his mouth, and with a big grin and a few meaningless utterances he will shove it in your face. As soon as it gets to your mouth, he giggles, and then you can give it back to him successfully. The process is repeated several times until he gets bored.

Usually, however, he shares things he doesn't care for too much. For instance, as breakfast is drawing to a close, he suddenly becomes extremely generous with his eggs. He still manages to stuff his face with crackers, though.

I still can't decide if that glint that shines in his eye before opening drawers, doors, and reaching for electrical cords is pure naughtiness or just delight at my funny reaction. All I know is that my son is irresistably cute.