January, week 4: 2 weeks in review

TheFry sports a new hat I made for him. Sorry for the poor picture quality.

So, I finally downloaded Windows Live (including Windows Live Writer) on my work computer, so I have managed to get [sort of] caught up on blog posts that have been on the brain.

Now I’d like to at least do a periodical recap of what’s been going on in our lives. If there’s something monumental or TheFry reaches a new developmental stage, I’ll post once a week. But if life is boring me to tears then I probably won’t be sharing any of that nonsense with you!

So here’s the last two weeks for you:

1. I got caught up on blog posts, yay! I feel like I might actually have the potential to keep family and friends updated regularly.

2. TheFry is almost walkin’ and pretty much talkin’. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to realize that there are a couple of words—in both English and Korean—that he knows fairly well. In English, he uses the expressions “oh” and “yeah” pretty regularly and with confidence.

He also sometimes cries “Mom!” and “Mama!”, but only when he’s upset or having a tantrum. He also often whines and cries “엄마!” (“eomma”, the Korean word for “mommy”) in the same instances. Therefore, I’m reluctant to say that he uses any of those words at all, since he only uses them in those instances and never to get my attention any other way.

He also has started saying “아빠" (“appa”, the Korean word for “daddy”) pretty regularly, although I don’t think he uses the word to call on PapaFish, but he seems to enjoy saying it, and pronounces the ‘ㅃ’ sound very deliberately.

Furthermore, PapaFish informed me today that when playing “peekabo”, he will say something that sounds like “까꿍!” (“gga ggung”, the Korean word for “peekabo”).

3. TheFry continues to stack blocks. His nursery school even wrote a note about it, saying that he pretty much likes to play with the wooden blocks all the time.

 

 

4. Last weekend we went to the ToysRUs near Guil Station. It was fabulous – way cooler than any ToysRUs I can remember in the States! The checkout lanes were shaped like big toy train engines, and they had to-scale models of tables in chairs that adults can sit in to see what it’s like to be kid-size at their age!

TheFry can’t walk confidently yet, so he missed out on a lot of things, but we found that the store has quite a number of decently-priced toys for infants and toddlers, and quite a few infant/toddler necessities that aren’t bad, either. Of course, everything we would consider “necessary” back home (car seats, strollers, and baby safety gates, to name a few) were way off the charts as far as reasonable prices go, we found the store a great place to stock up on things like sippy cups and the like.

The ToysRUs is on level B1 of Lotte Mart, a grocery store similar to HomePlus in that it carries non-grocery items (such as clothing) and also has a food court. We ate at the food court for cheap, and TheFry gobbled down his meal. It seems that any more these days he will only eat when he’s not at home. Apparently the meals we serve at home are for playing with…

5. Probably my favorite development thus far is TheFry’s participation in ordinary activities that we do as a family. Specifically, I am speaking of mealtime prayers. When we can manage to all have a homemade meal together, we say a blessing beforehand. We have been showing him how we fold our hands. He loves to participate in family prayers! He will sit in his chair with his hands folded and the biggest grin on his face, being very quiet but letting out cute little sighs. Most recently he has started bowing his head a little bit, but of course not for the whole prayer.

The thing that is so interesting about this development to me is that we haven’t enforced it very much at all. We never discipline him if he doesn’t fold his hands, but we encourage him to do it with smiles and soft words. He just loves copying his mom and dad and he loves doing things together as a family.

Further developing his participation in prayers, however, is this little anecdote that had me laugh/crying on the bus on the way to ToysRUs last weekend:

We were taking the bus, and as per usual, the driver was cruising along like a maniac. I was wearing TheFry in the Pognae carrier, strapped to the front, and for some reason I was not able to sit down. The driver hit a big bump, and as I almost lost my balance, I shouted “Geez!”

TheFry looked up at me with bright eyes and a wide smile, and folded his hands in front of him. He recognizes the name “Jesus".

It’s time to start watching our mouths then, I guess.

See you next time, folks!

Haircut Transforms Baby into a Little Boy

I was getting to love TheFry’s long hair.  It was curly in the back and all wispy-like.  It had a wonderful copper glow.  He was a real cutie.

See those curls on the side?  I loved them!

 

The long hair kept him looking like a baby for a long time…

 

Now he’s a little boy!  Yes, he did draw on his own face with a couple of ball-point pens!

 

Sorry for the poor picture quality – but I love his grin!

Bread on the Floor

So the other morning, I woke up to this:

It seems that when TheFry woke up, he went about his business instead of waking up myself and PapaFish.  He proceeded to roam about, playing and causing general mayhem for the better part of an hour.  Towards the end of it, he pulled a bag of bread off the kitchen table, opened it and pulled out some slices of bread.  Then he started tearing them up and eating them.

 

Not wanting him to get sick from eating bread on the floor, I put him in his highchair and proceeded to pour him a glass of milk.  When I turned around, I saw something like this:

 

…followed by this:

 

Okay, so I guess I can’t put him in the highchair without buckling it anymore.  I get it.

 

But, even after strapping him in fairly tightly, how do I wind up with this:

 

?!!!!

 

    

Cute, but naughty.

Seoul in White, Part Two

As I mentioned earlier, on January 4, 2010 Seoul had the heaviest snowfall since 1937.  I didn’t get that many great pictures, actually.  I took these early in the morning before PapaFish and TheFry got up.

Trees from our window

The tops of various businesses and apartment buildings across the street from us.

 

 

Looking down at the bus stop right across the street from us.

 

 

A close-up of the bus stop.  The snow was ankle-deep already.  It was 8:00 in the morning and it snowed past noon.  The flakes were big and fluffy, and the snowfall was soft.  Not a blizzard in any sense of the word.  It was wonderful!

Developmental Review

Some new developments have been unfolding in the Fish Bowl, especially now that TheFry is finally over all the miniscule illnesses he’s been struggling with since Thanksgiving:

1. TheFry has started taking steps. He will only take one or two at a time, and then drop to his knees. Then he will either start crawling like a madman to his intended destination, walk on his knees for a little bit before crawling, or collapse altogether into a desperate temper tantrum. Usually it’s the first or second option, though.

2. TheFry recognizes himself in the mirror. When I showed him his reflection, I said: “Who is that? It’s Dexter!” He responded by saying “Deh-ter.” I said, “Yes, that’s Dexter!” He responded again by saying “Deh-ter.” The other day I showed him his reflection in a little toy mirror we have and he said “Deh-ter” immediately. He only appears to be interested in this activity about half the time, but I think he’s catching on!

3. TheFry continues to love to read. Now he really wants to help turn the pages. His current favorite book is 곰돌아, 어디가니? (Little Bear, Where Are You Going?"). I am not very good at reading it but about 60% of the time he waits patiently for me to stumble through the words. It’s really helping my Korean reading skills improve a lot!

4. TheFry began to “play pretend” about two weeks ago. This really moved me, watching him imagine scenarios. His favorite game by far is feeding. He still will not feed himself at the table – he thinks it is a game and he will just end up scraping all the food on the floor – but he will feed himself (and others!) imaginary food. If I give him a cup and plastic fork he can play pretend for hours. The other day I woke up in the morning to him dipping a fork in an empty cup and then “feeding” himself.

Another play-pretend game he plays is crochet! If he has a crochet hook he will look for yarn and he will try and stick the hook in the yarn. He’s watched me so many times, I guess, it’s one of the things he knows about best!

5. He has started really getting interested in sorting objects. He will pull all the plastic bowling pins out of his toy box, for example, and line them up. Or he might spend quite a bit of time figuring out how to stack a set of plastic nesting barrels he has.

One particularly new development in this area is that he has become interested in building towers rather than just knocking them down. About 80% of the time he is building he will hand the blocks to me or PapaFish and then we will build the tower. However, on my dinner break this evening I was handing the blocks to him and he was trying to stack them up in a tower by himself! I am really excited about this one.

The down side of these developmental heights we’ve been climbing are the temper tantrums that have come with them. He just really screams and throws little fits sometimes. Also, he’s learned how to wiggle out of his seatbelt in his highchair and stand up in it, which makes me pretty nervous. I can’t take my eyes off of him for a second!

And now, the Stages of Tantrums:

Oh, Hi!

You have the camera!

Give me the camera!

Why won’t you give me the camera?!

Alas, cruel world, how will I survive?! My life is MISERABLE!

Does no one understand my pain?!

Fine, I give up—but I’m not looking at that camera EVER AGAIN.

Seoul in White, Part One

Last week, Seoul got the most snow it’s had since 1937. However, I am so behind in posting that I only have a few pictures of the light dusting we received just after Christmas:

McDonald’s near our house.

The building where I work.

A walkway dusted with snow.

Cart belonging to “The Snack Man” (yes, that is his official name – given by yours, truly). In the summer he sold fried spiraled potatoes and in the winter he sells those yummy fish-shaped cakes stuffed with bean paste or custard.

Bicycles lined up at a neighborhood building.

Belated Christmas Tree!

Gmarket Products We Love!

There are a few things we have bought on Gmarket recently that I really have enjoyed having around.

 

The first is our oven, which I mentioned in a previous post.

 

It sells for about 88,000 won on Gmarket.  It’s a convection oven so it cooks things super quickly.  It is portable and runs off of electricity but it still is large enough to bake cake rounds.  Like what you see?  You can purchase it here.

 

The second are the wonderful baby legs that TheFry has been sporting these wintry days.  I don’t have any great pictures of them so far, so I’ll probably have to come back and post some later.

 

Here is TheFry, wearing his striped leggings that a friend  bought for him on Gmarket:

 

Here you can see the picture on the bum (a lion playing the piano!):

 

One not-so-great thing about the leggings is that after several washes they get a lot of fuzzies on them.  If I can manage to get my hands on an electric razor I can make those go away.

The leggings are great for kicking around the house, wearing them as a second layer of protection against the cold, or wearing them with a long-sleeved onesie for pajamas.

There are also leggings that are not like tights (think leg warmers, only for the whole leg).  Those, from my experience, do not wear out as quickly.  However, I prefer the leggings that are like full pants because the seem more comfortable and they have cute pictures on the booty. ^^

Anyhow, they are all super cute and come in many different styles.  You can see them or purchase them here.  They generally cost less than 5,000 won each.

 

The third thing that we are really, really loving right now is our Gmarket highchair.

 

Remember when TheFry used to sit in this rickety old thing?

 

He was starting to tip it over by rocking back and forth, the chair was difficult to clean, and he could reach almost anything on the table.  It was completely not toddler-proof!

 

Look how much we love our new highchair:

 

 

I believe it is good through age five or six.  Right now he is 15 months and about 9 kg so we have a while to go!  The supports that run along the bottom and connect the legs (not pictured above) have anti-slip pads on them so the chair can’t be pushed around.  The best part about this chair was probably the price – about 26,500 won!  Interested?  You can purchase it here.

 

Gmarket has made our lives incredibly easier as items for baby are often too expensive for us to buy in stores.  Aside from that, there are some items on Gmarket that have been pretty much impossible to find in stores, such as:

 

1. Settlers of Catan board game, found here.

2. Non-old-lady bras that are larger than size B, found here.

3. Reasonably-sized cribs that cost less than 200,000 won, found here, here, and here. (we almost bought the second one, but decided against it due to the size of our apartment).

4. Razbaby pacifiers, which lack the chisel-tip that every other pacifier I’ve seen in Korea has, found here.  My son hates chisel-tip pacifiers, and although I haven’t ordered these yet, I will definitely keep this place in mind for the future.  They also have pacifier clips, which I have not seen in Korea, either.

5. If you search Gmarket in English, you can find a variety of larger but non-old-lady-looking clothing in “plus-sized clothing”.  The range of how large the sizes get depend on the Gmarket store.

 

Some of the pages listed above were actually found by searching Gmarket in Korean.  Gmarket can be a little tricky to operate if you don’t know any Korean, so here are some general hints about operating Gmarket:

 

1. the Korean site is gmarket.co.kr.

2. You can search in English and navigate the payment system in English using english.gmarket.co.kr.  However, not all items available on Gmarket in Korean are availalbe by searching this site.

3. Even if you search Gmarket in English, the pages will still have a lot of information in Korean.  The pages have a lot of information in general, so scanning is recommended.  Look carefully at items for numbers and measurements, which of course you won’t need Korean to interpret. 

For example, if you are looking for a crib, look to see a diagram of the crib with the measurements drawn in.  If you want to know if the crib is adjustable, look at all the pictures and see how it is used.  Some Gmarket stores make this easier than others.

4. Clothing items are listed in Korean sizes, so make sure you’ve looked up a size chart and you know the Korean conversions before shopping around.  Also keep in mind that most standard measurements in Korea are metric.  Knowing your measurements in millimeters/centimeters will help a lot.

5. The names of many items are English words written in Hangeul (the Korean alphabet).  Knowing a little bit of Hangeul will enable you to order most things on Gmarket yourself.  Of course, you could always get assistance from a friend, relative, or coworker who knows Korean well!

6. You can pay for your purchases via credit card, bank transfer, or PayPal.  I usually use PayPal and it is pretty quick and painless.

7. You can ship many purchases domestically within Korea and also internationally.  Make sure that when you are looking at your shopping cart your items are going to the right place!

8. Gmarket stores, as with many stores in Korea, are amazing to do business with.  Their items are often discounted, shipping for small items and clothing is never over 5,000 won (as far as I can see) and is quite often free of charge.  Also, I almost always get coupons and little freebies with my purchases!

9. Need something from Gmarket and are still confused?  Just drop me a line!