T-ball Awards Ceremony

Moving, Korean Style

The movers were here today! Hooray! We've had awesome weather up until this point and wouldn't you know it, today is POURING down rain. But, the movers were so great, they built this little tunnel so that our stuff wouldn't get soaked:It only took them three hours to get everything packed and crated. This left Ainsley and I enough time to have lunch together sans children which NEVER happens. So, I am most happy.

If you live in one of the high rise apartments around here, this is how they move you:

Granted, this is a picture of our neighbors moving and they only live on the fourth floor, but just imagine what this is like when you live on the 12th floor -- yikes!

Last Trip to Everland

I love Everland. This weekend we made our last trip to the funniest place on earth.

We began the day with the Christopher Columbus ride. It is one of those giant swinging boat rides and Andrew REALLY wanted to go on it. We missed it on our last trip so he was determined to go this time.

We walk right up since it is still early and there is no crowd. I chose the center seat since it is the tamest. Andrew's pumped and ready to go. As were watching the previous ride come to an end, Andrew gets more and more quiet. I ask him if he's scared. He says he's not but his face is much less animated. I tell him a few times that we don't have to ride this ride. We can skip it and do it another time, but he refuses.

We get on, get strapped in and the boat starts swinging. The first few swings he's completely enjoying himself. I see Ainsley down on the ground and wave at him and show Drew. But as the boat swings higher and higher, my little man gets quieter and quieter. I hold on to him and tell him that if he's scared he should either stare at his feet or close his eyes. He closes his eyes.

The ride stops and I ask him what he thought about it. This is when he begins to cry. It was so cute, I can't even tell you. "It was really scary." He is totally fighting back the tears. I console him and tell him to look around, he is the smallest kid on the ride and therefore, the bravest. I carry him down the ramp and he's feeling better but when he gets back to Daddy he starts to cry a little bit more. It didn't phase him, right after he was asking to go on one of the biggest coasters there, but we knew better :)

Then it was Mommy's turn to cry when she went on the BIGGEST roller coaster ever. It's called the T Express. The brochure describes it as "Picking and smarting sensation by world highest falling angle." I think it is referring to the way your neck feels the next day. It has the steepest incline in the world at 77 degrees. The initial drop is INSANE. Check it out:

My friend Maya and I sat in the very back and it was awesome. The g-force from the initial drop was so bad that I couldn't even hold my head up! It was so fun. I love roller coasters and this one is a monster!

Madeline had her first ride as well on "Flash Pang Pang." Who knows, but these seats just go up and down. Maddie and baby friend Curtis didn't like it at all. They both cried.

Everland has a giant rose garden in the spring, it is amazing as well:

While Madeline and Curtis napped in their strollers, we took turns on the Korean version of the roaring rapids water ride. It's funny because they have giant tarps to cover yourself with so you don't get wet. Isn't that the point?

It didn't work anyways, Josh even ducked underneath and we still got soaked:


At the end, the workers mop all the seats dry for you which is a lot nicer than America!

Oh, and, giant fans at the exit so you can dry off:


They also have a safari ride which takes you on a short trip around uncaged lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Most of the animals were sleeping, though.

Now for the funny stuff which all revolves around food amazingly enough. I ordered a hot dog for lunch since the ones we had last time were normal enough. This one, however, not so much.

It was inedible. I couldn't even look at it without wanting to vomit. I had to get something else.

Later for a snack, we had fruit on a stick. Here's the sign for that:

Farewell, Everland!

Memorial Day Weekend

We were busy little bees this weekend. The water park opened this weekend so that was our first stop.

Last year, Maddie was a little baby who just laid in the stroller under a big umbrella. This year she's pushin' it up like a big girl:

Her favorites: this dragon slide and anything else with a stair or ramp to climb (read: more work for Mommy and Daddy.)

100th Post: Paying it Forward

My little blog is growing up! This is my 100th post! Apparently, when you reach your 100th post, you are supposed to do something special: have a contest and give something away, list 100 things about yourself. None of those really appealed to me. But then I saw a "Pay It Forward" contest on a friend's blog and knew that would be the perfect thing.

If you've seen the movie "Pay It Forward," then you get the general idea. You do someone a favor without expecting anything in return. They return the favor and "pay it forward" by doing something nice for someone else. The way it works on a blog is the first three people who leave a comment and decide to Pay it Forward to three people in their own way will get a prize.

Here are the rules: I will send a gift (a special Korean one, of course) to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this "Pay It Forward" exchange, and who make the same pledge on their own blog. The only thing you have to do in return is PAY IT FORWARD on your own blog.

(If don't have a blog but still want to participate, then you have to be one of the first three people to leave a comment describing what random act of kindness you did for someone since reading this post. For example, did you pay for the person behind you in the drive thru line? Did you let the person behind you in line at the grocery store go first? Did you babysit a couple's three adorable children so they could have their first date in a year? You get the idea...)

So, if you want to get Korean goodies, let me know!

Black Market

Korea is the land of knock-offs. Everything from Coach purses to Disneyland, this place is making a killing with all their 'not quite right' replicas.

You can get bootlegged DVDs for $5. This was a Seinfeld episode, but there are people that take their video cameras to movies, record them and then sell the DVDs for $5. Does it matter that people in the audience sometimes stand up and walk in front of the camera to go get popcorn? Of course not.

There are your basic assortment of clothes like Ambercrombie and Fitch, Victoria's Secret Pink collection, and professional sports jerseys and hats.

Then there are the purses. Louis Vuitton, Coach, Kate Spade, the list goes on. The way it works: You go to a purse store and the lady asks you what you want. You tell her and then she locks the door, moves some shelves aside and presto, a secret door in the wall! Down some creepy steps into a basement, where there is yet ANOTHER secret door. Through the wall again and into a storeroom of sorts that looks like it's been used for many, many illegal things. And there you will find purses galore. It's bizarre as it sounds. And lots of fun, too!

When you have Big Brothers...

they teach you how to make funny faces:

Korean Lifestyle News

I am conflicted about posting this at all, because you can't believe everything you read and I don't know anything about these websites so you can decide for yourself. Recently there were new outbreaks of bird flu nearby so I went to a couple of online Korean newspapers and found some interesting stories.

One was about how a lot of Korean men are going abroad to places like Vietnam to find women to marry because there aren't enough Korean women to go around. Interesting.

But, what caught my eye after that was disturbing. Before you continue, let me warn you that you won't like what you are about to read and you REALLY don't want to see the picture if you are an animal lover. So, consider yourself warned. It appears as though the "Dog Days of Summer" refers to something very different here in Korea. I tried to confirm this in another paper to make sure it was true and I did read elsewhere that summer is the most popular time for "boshintang" (traditional dog meat soup).

Here Comes Trouble

Move over Andrew, there's a new deputy in town:

I caught Madeline in her room playing with the electrical outlets. She was trying to plug in the space heater!

Party with the Koreans

This is the one thing I will miss about Korea: the people. They have shown the Americans here some amazing hospitality. A couple of weeks ago, the Koreans working with Ainsley's division hosted an afternoon at the Korean Folk Village. They took them on a tour, gave them LOTS to drink and took them out to eat Korean food. Their tour bus even dropped off an intoxicated Ainsley right in front of our apartment building.

So, Saturday was our turn to return the favor and host a little party in their honor. The afternoon started off with bowling. We LOVE to bowl. We really suck at it, but we love it. The kids enjoy it and the bowling alley is loud enough that it drowns out the din of our unruly children. The Korean families were pretty good at it, too. Here is a super fun lady helping Andrew with the ramp. (I couldn't pronounce their names and they couldn't pronounce ours, so we're even.)

And, I have mentioned before that they LOVE kids, especially babies. These people were ALL over Madeline, in a good way. They fed her when she was hungry, took her out of her stroller to play with her when she was bored and gave her LOTS of hugs and kisses. This poor girl won't know what to do when we get back to America and no one gives her any attention!

Here the Korean kids are teaching the boys how to play pool.

Later, we went to Ainsley's commander's house for a little dinner. It was a Mexican food theme, so we had a taco bar and margaritas. Watching the Koreans try margaritas for the first time was HILARIOUS. I'm pretty sure they didn't like it by the faces they made. Too sour maybe? It was so fun.

Ainsley particularly enjoyed watching them at the taco bar. One guy was looking at the beans like it was a pile of you know what which is usually the face Ainsley tries not to make when he has to eat Korean food.

We made lots of broken conversation. Koreans love to ask you your age, which offends a lot of Americans, but I don't care. This guy, can't pronounce his name but he was 41, was trying to tell me about meeting Ainsley. One time, this guy told Ainsley that he was very handsome and should be a movie star! But all I could gather from him was that Ainsley is very tall and childlike. I really don't know if that's what he meant, but not too far off the mark, huh? And, he was also commenting on the beautiful view from the deck. "It is original." I still have no idea what he really meant, but there you go!

Fun Website

Just in case you can't get enough of the translation issues, there is a web site dedicated to funny signs, etc:

http://www.engrish.com/

My brother told us about it and we looked at it again the other day and spent about ten minutes just laughing...

Girlie Girl

Thank you, Lord, for giving me a baby girl!

At 14 months, Madeline LOVES shoes and purses! She is always playing in my purse and even grabs one as I get ready to leave the house. When it's time for shoes there is zero fussing from her. She will toddle on over, grab her shoes and bring them to me. She will turn around and sit on my lap and sigh like she's just had a cool drink of water. Yesterday, she put her shoes in her stroller seat and pushed them around the house. She says, "shuz."

And, she will let me change her outfit as much as I want. She has even started going through her closet, pushing the clothes around like she is looking for something to wear. Sometimes I find her walking around the house with an outfit on the hanger. The boys NEVER did this. Drew wore one of my nightgowns once but that was pretty much it. I could barely get an arm in a sleeve with them before they were running away from me.

Last week I even took her with me when I got a pedicure with some friends. She was mildly entertained and actually very well behaved until she fell asleep!

Don't forget the dancing. Lots of dancing and twirling...


So, yes, still enjoying every minute of this pink girlie girl world!

Portrait of Mom by Andrew

This was hanging up in Andrew's class for Mother's Day:

Madeline's One Year Photos

Finally! Note the Korean flair...

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommies! I had a great day that would've began with breakfast in bed, but I got up before the food was delivered :) Still, Ainsley makes the best pancakes! I got some great cards and a beautiful black pearl necklace. Then, I decided to take the family on a field trip to the Flower Market that was unfortunately closed in honor of Buddha's Birthday so that was a bummer! But we spent some time in a mall and Emart, so the morning wasn't a total loss.

We headed home where Madeline and Daddy took a nice long nap. (Hmm, pancakes is tiring work I guess!) Then, for dinner I chose to go to Happy Terriyaki (Japanese.) Ainsley really doesn't like eating at restaurants off-base, so I knew Mother's Day would be my chance to make him go. I even made sure to take a picture as proof:

Here is a picture of the stroller we bought for Madeline at EMart. It is the PERFECT size for her and she LOVES it. Shocker.

Joshua

In case anyone is wondering, yes, Josh is STILL obsessed with patches and flight suits and jets. He wears his flight suit EVERY day, without fail. He even wears it to the bus stop to pick up Drew. He owns about 25 patches and changes them at least that many times in one day. And every week for show and tell, what does he bring? Jets. It doesn't matter that he's already brought every single one, he's pretty sure the kids want to see them AGAIN.
He has no idea that this patch is even caught in his hair! So funny!

He now accosts every man he sees in a flight suit. The interaction goes something like this:

J: Hey, Mom, that guy's wearing a flight suit!

M: Yes, honey.

Then, he walks right up to the guy (it doesn't matter if he's talking to someone else or otherwise engaged). And he stares at their nametag and starts sounding out their name. And, then once he gets it, announces it loudly.

J: John Smith! You're name is John Smith!

At which point the guy looks down and is like, hey, a cute kid. Then said guy gets more than he bargained for because Josh starts hammering him with questions:

J: What plane do you fly? What squadron are you in? etc.

At the park last week, he was trying to get one of his new flight suit friends to watch him on the play equipment. It's pretty funny to watch. "Hey, John Smith, can you do this?"

Josh hasn't had a regular naptime in quite sometime. But every once in awhile, it all catches up with him and he falls asleep around dinner time.

Josh is also growing out of that stage where he makes up his own words for things. They are usually a combo of his mispronunciation and some family jokes. These are the things that make me laugh now but ones that I will someday forget. More for my personal entertainment than yours I am sure.

majantic: a cross between majestic and gigantic

Valentinezy: used to describe a heart shaped item, like a lollipop "Mmm, this tastes Valentinezy."

hooker: piece that connects two trains "Drew, can I borrow your hooker?" (our personal favorite)
panacake: pancake

baker: faker "Don't be such a baker."

Madeline's Brave New World & Walking Video

All of the sudden Madeline is doing some very big girl things. Like, playing at the park. She LOVES the freedom and will just run around and around. She especially likes to push her stroller. At home, she'll push furniture around. Chairs, her highchair, things that are not supposed to move, she'll push. This is a picture of her pushing a dining room chair into her bedroom.

Last month was her first trip to the pool. Last summer she was just the baby in the bucket, but this summer, watch out!
Yesterday, Madeline had her very first day of school. She was in the "pre-toddler" room. Josh sees "the baby class" all the time and kept telling me that she would get to play outside. I didn't believe him, but sure enough, today she played outside at school and Josh got to run over to the fence to say hello. (And true to form, she woke up this morning with a runny nose.)

When we came to pick her up, she cried when she saw me walk in which reminds me so much of Andrew who did the same thing. Well, it was lunch time and there she was, sitting in the teeniest chair ever, eating lunch from a plate! No highchair, no straps! And, apparently it was her second plate of food! Who's kid is this?

But, the biggest thing that she JUST accomplished is CLIMBING UP ONTO THE COUCH. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, my life is officially over.

And finally, here's the walking video for the Grandmas and Grandpas and Uncles who have been dying to see Madeline walk. She started walking on St. Patrick's Day. (Yes, I realize it is May.) But as you can see I have spent a majority of my time chasing Madeline...

Snack time with Madeline

See, I promise you, we do feed Madeline. This happened awhile back (February) but I am finally getting around to downloading it off the video camera. One day while online shopping (hey, I was on a break!), the boys get out the box of Cheerios for a snack. No worries. So, when I here the bag rustling, I think nothing of it. When I finally pry my eyes away from the screen to make sure the children are all present and accounted for, this is what I find:



I thought it was the most hysterical thing ever to see Miss Madeline munching away on Cheerios, straight from the box, like it was something she does everyday....

Muffins for Mom

Today Andrew's class put together a wonderful morning performance just for the Moms. It was beyond precious. When we arrived, we got to sit our child's tiny seat where there were an assortment of goodies. This decorative plate, a homemade card and each child filled out an information sheet all about their Mom. This questionnaire is all about me according to Andrew:

My mom is "31" years old. (Close! I couldn't even remember how old I was! The answer is 32)
My mom weighs "2.50" pounds. (He DOES pay attention)
My mom likes to eat "rice and maet." (meat)
My mom's favorite show to watch on tv is "American Idl" (I think that's the only show he's seen me watch!)
My mom's favorite animal is "kittin" (okay...)
My mom's favorite thing to do is "feed Madelin" (See! I feed her!)
My mom's favorite place to go is "BX" (I wonder how many other kids put that one down. It's the only thing we do around here!)
When my mom goes to the store, she buys "wofls" (waffles)
My mom always tells me "don't walk akros the road"
I love it when my mom watches TV with me (the popular answer was buy me toys, so I'm glad I didn't get that one!)

There were hilarious portraits of each mom drawn by their child hanging on the wall. When that one comes home I'll be sure to scan it in, it's not one to miss ;)

I also got this letter from him:
Dear Mom,
Thank you for takeing me to the OClub. You are Pretty.
Love,
Andrew

Then they performed a special song just for us. Here is a clip of their performance. Although I am not a Celine Dion fan, there was not a dry eye in the house! Poor Mrs. Alcott couldn't even get through the introduction without choking up.






We ended with a yummy breakfast of muffins, fruit, sausage, breakfast casserole and the ever popular: breakfast sushi. The kids were practicing their manners and made sure that the Mom's had the very first bite. And, little Drew, ever the gentleman, stood up to eat and let everyone else have a chair. I just love my little guy! He's always so thoughtful. He's been so excited about this, he's been talking about it for days. What a great Mother's Day!