So...it's been awhile

2011 was a very jam-packed year for us, as well as for me on a personal level. It's been hard to find the energy to blog in the midst of trying to tackle perhaps too many other goals and ambitions and simply find balance through it all.

Nehemiah is just incredible. I don't know what more could truly be said. He can be a little punk sometimes, sentencing either of us to timeouts if he wills (usually just to get a fun rise out of us), and he can be the most gentle angle. He really hurt my finger today by sitting on it while it was bent, and after I cried out in pain, he realized he was more-or-less the cause of it and started stroking my head gentle and saying sorry, also offering me plenty of kisses. This was in stark contrast to his father, who was sitting right next to us and didn't even look up from his notebook to see why I had cried out. Glad to see he's taking more after me. ^.~

He understands both English and Korean extremely well. At this point, he speaks Korean a little better, but part of it is just because many words and phrases are a lot easier to say in Korean.

He loves watching out favorite comedy program with us on Sunday nights and doing the skits along with the comedians.

Potty training is going very well, though we still have a way to go. We are not pushing him and are basically letting him set the pace and cheering him along the way.

He picked the bow and arrow on his first birthday, signifying that he would be an athlete, and so far, it has not been wrong. He jumps and runs incredibly well, and he amazes us with his throwing talents. He's also crazy strong.

He weighs about 14.5kg/32-lbs and is about 3ft tall (roughly 93cm). We are broken records when we see our friends' children and comment on how light they are. I love having a big boy, though.

Definitely knows how to work the iPad better than his father. His phone, too.

Sly as sly can be. Quite the actor and faker.

Loves the help with everything: cooking, cleaning carrying things, etc.

Professional Bug Killer. We have these tiny bugs I hear are called cigarette beetles that are just annoying, and when he spots one, he gets this serious and determined look on his face, runs to get me to grab a tissue, picks them up and flushes them down the toilet.

He has never watched anything with guns or Power Ranger-esque at home, but apparently all of his friends have, as he shows us his new moves all of the time.

Great with colors and getting there with numbers.

Knows all of the Blue's Clues songs and dances. Oh, yes. I'm talking original Blue's Clues, the golden stuff.

Other favorites, sometimes in varying degrees: Sid the Science Kid, Robocar Poli, Tayo the Little Bus and Pororo.

Not so fond of: Skippy Jon Jones, the siamese cat who wants to be a superhero chihuahua. Still working on that one, Ciotka.

He used to melt down when I leave the house, but he loves it now and pushes me out the door. Why? Apparently, iPad wins over mommy. He asks his Appa right away for it. Guess who's busted for being lazy when I leave to work on Saturdays?

The list could go on and on, but those are some highlights.

His 2nd Birthday




(Please don't mind the "watermark". I have a Korean blog I try to post in regularly to help develop my Korean. I know, it sounds lame that I would post there instead of here sometimes, but that's one of the bazillion things I have been up to.)

Christmas
(For the sake of speed, I just exported them "for email" in lightroom, which produces really low-quality results. Sorry!)





He loves elephants right now, so Grandma got him an elephant bank that makes noises when you put money in. She also got him the red Christmas pajamas and the Harajuku Mini outfit. He looks so hardcore in his HM outfit, but it apparently comes with attitude, as he will not let me get agood photo of him in it. I had to settle for TV time with elephant.

We've been blessed so much more than we could have ever imagined by Nehemiah. I am so grateful for each and every moment we have together. I love you, Monkey!

Big Developments

It's been forever and a day since my last post here, and I need to be up early for work tomorrow, but there are a few things that I just can't pass up noting recently:

He just switched to a new daycare and is doing really well getting used to it. He was cared for well at his old daycare, but there were just a number of things that bothered us about the owner that prompted us to search for another place. We put ourselves on the waitlist again for the center run by our district (the waitlist is about 100 people), and we got in within a few weeks, which is incredibly rare and a huge blessing. We have no idea how a space opened up, but the fact that I am considered a marriage immigrant helped bump him way up on the list. We had been offered a seat but declined at the beginning of the Korean school year (March) because of the huge effort it was to get him assimilated into his old daycare, and we knew we would be foolish to pass up the opportunity again. It is so much better. They are impressed with how much he eats.

The reason I detailed that is because in order to complete the admission process, he had to go in for a check-up. He is currently 90.9cm (~36in) and 13.7kg (30.14-lbs). That means he has stayed in consistent percentiles--95th for height and 90th for weight. That's my boy!

At the doctor, she mentioned how some children are already speaking simple sentences at this age. He apparently took this as a cue to start, as he has really been trying hard to use them this week.

His first sentence: 이게 뭐야?? With the way he says it, it translates best to a very frustrated, "What is this?!" or maybe even, "What the heck is this?" He usually says it when he is upset for not getting his way.

Second: Appa go go! (As in, "Appa, go away!") Definitely my son.

Third: Kaka all done! (I don't know the spelling for it, but he mixed English and Korean here to tell me he had finished he snack.)

Fourth: 물 줘~ (Give me water~) He just said this tonight as he was fighting off sleep, and once he realized he nailed it, he kept saying it. I was especially proud when he said, "물 줘 please!" He has only recently started saying please instead of just "signing" it (we did not teach him signs), and I have a hard time saying no when he does. ^^

I am sure there are many more to come!

His buddy came over last weekend for a sleepover before going to a waterpark, and they had a blast together. They met up again today to play for a bit, and it's so cute seeing them with each other. They love to copy one another and just simply get along so well.

He has also been tumbling for awhile and does really well on his own now. He's able to consistently do good-looking somersaults. He must have learned this while watching a gym class at daycare. HS freaked out about it at first, worrying about his neck, but it didn't really bother me. He's a crazy monkey boy, that's for sure.

Oh, and at the beginning of July, we went to the beach. He likes sand but hated the waves with a passion. Seeing as his mom is not much of a beach fan, it's quite alright. The water was really cold anyway, so nothing really lost there.

Anyway, I couldn't pass up jotting these down. I must be off for a long day tomorrow (trying not to lament that it was supposed to be my day off) and need some rest.

Much love and many blessings to all.

Updates from the past few months

I have a ton of photos since about October that I am very behind on uploading. I hope to get to them sometime. Facebook is just kind of funny now, so I have to see if there is any easy way to upload them so that they are not high res without converting them all first. That would not be fun.

Anyway, the photo above is a recent one showing one of Nehemiah's new favorite activities--playing with pots and pans. Only relatively recently have we allowed him to openly roam around the house (minus the bathroom and "office"), so he has enjoyed being able to cling pots and pans around, as well as take the house phone off the charger and put it back on again. HS doesn't fancy this too much, but it doesn't bother me in the least.

He absolutely loves to walk around the house wearing our slippers, particularly his Appa's. He does a very surprisingly good job with it. I will have to make a video sometime and upload. I wound up buying him a pair of his own slippers, which he loves. However, he still likes to put the big slippers on over them. I don't mind it, but when going from room to room, there is a part of the door frame that is elevated. If your home is carpeted, when you go from the kitchen to the dining room, for instance, there might be a kind of gold bar that is in place to make the transition of carpeted to not look nicer. Korean houses are not carpeted, and our house in particular basically has door frames that really go all the way around and can be tripped on. It's hard to explain, but just take my word for it. He has learned to lift his feet up higher when he has the slippers on, but he still trips sometimes.

Nehemiah also loves to wander around with the hair dryer. It is simply amazing how fast he is learning nowadays. I told and showed his that when walking around with it, he needs to pick up the cords so that he doesn't trip, and he followed right away. Yesterday, he wanted to walk around with a small blanket, and I taught him the same deal. He was very proud to show me he understood, applauding himself after doing so.

Since November, he has sprouted 8 more teeth for a total of 16. He had been teething for ages with them (the joys of molars), so I was very happy when they finally broke through.

Around December, many of my friends got on the topic of when to wean their children off of pacifiers. At that point, Nehemiah was only using them to help him sleep at night. I kept wondering when would be best, but he suddenly weaned himself one day. And when I say he weaned himself, I mean he let us know that under no circumstances were we to even offer him one. I think he figured out that it made him sleepy, and of course, sleep is for babies. He's not a baby anymore, so fight the power, right? Something like that. Anyway, he positively will not take one.

Similarly, since he had not had anything from a bottle since about June, he will not drink anything from a bottle. He doesn't even like his sippy cup that much. It just has to be a bendy straw or straight out of the cup.

His communication skills have just sky-rocketed. From his daycare, which he is still attending only while I am teaching, he learned how to bow while greeting or saying thank you (in Korean). He's picked up a couple of other things there as well. When eating, he's very vocal about when he wants to drink in between bites. When he's in his playpen, he will say "Go" if he wants to get out. He often brings me his baby carrier and sits in my lap after I've strapped it on so that I'll pick him up and walk around with him.

And oh, the TV. The TV.

It's adorable in essence. He climbs up onto the sofa very excitedly and points to the TV when he wants to watch. Failure to respond immediately has him standing on the sofa, searching the back of it for the remote since we often put it there. If he finds it, he will put it into our hands and point to the TV, telling us what he wants (Sing-along with Pororo). If it is not there, he turns to lean over the arm of the sofa to search for it on top of the microwave. It's adorable how excited he gets about watching, but he is definitely a little bit addicted. I've been along with him this weekend, so we've been working on not always asking for the TV.

Allowing myself to get a little sidetracked, I really enjoy when he and I have long stretches of time alone. It's just different when HS is home. Yesterday, he was being cranky, so even though it was starting to get dark out, we went out for a bit. Of course, he fell asleep right away and woke up when we got back home. When HS is here, I suppose he sometimes protests us going out because it's too cold or some other excuse. I'm not saying he's bad for doing so, but it's just kind of nice to not have that extra nagging voice. But don't tell him I said that. At any rate, I think I'll encourage him to go away on more weekend trips with his friends...

Back to developments, I've started teaching him how to use a spoon. When he's being defiant and refuses to eat, it helps to give him a spoon so he at least thinks he's feeding himself. He's catching on very quickly. I like to let him spoon-feed with foods that will stick to the sppon, such as sweet potatoes, so that there isn't a huge mess all over the place. Many parents are happy to let their children get food all over the place, but that's just not for us. As always, he loves to cheer himself on when he is doing well. It'll still be awhile before he gets complete freedom to self-feed, as he enjoys mashing his food between his fingers and then rubbing it in his hair.

Ah, I almost forget! We went in this week to get him his first MMR shots. I was very against getting the varicella vaccine, but we wound up getting that as well. If we were in America, I would not have gotten it. Here, however, parents tend to not worry about the well-being of others, and I was just concerned that if someone at daycare exhibited signs of it, the mother would just send him anyway instead of keeping him home. I think this resounded in my mind because of one particular day when we were coming back home from being out somewhere where Nehemiah had a cold (I think this was actually right before he came down with Roseola) and ran into the mother of another child at the same daycare. We mentioned how he wasn't going to daycare because he was sick, and she thought we were so strange because she'd send her child anyway. I know many people still send their children even if they have a cold, but the impression she left was very strong.

At any rate, the doctor said a lot of people have it in Korea right now, so I asked if there was mercury/thimerosal in it (nope) and we just went for it. He got them in the arm and was such a champ. Didn't cry at all. He voiced his complaint and was then over it. I fed him afterward, but the people there tried to tell me I had to wait at least 30 minutes. I had never heard of such a thing before and said that I was going to feed him anyway. They just walked away unhappy. I couldn't even find anything online to support not feeding him right after.

Nehemiah definitely has a temper, but I still think it's far less than that of other children. He knows when he is in trouble and often acts sweet and cuddly after he has been reprimanded.

I still receive weekly updates about development milestones, and the one I got this week said that many children start going from two naps to one around this time. While he sometimes takes a quick nap when he gets home from daycare, he has been on a one-nap schedule for a long time. I was pretty surprised when I read that.

I'm sure I am leaving something out, but my time is limited since he sometimes naps for just one hour instead of two. I will update more as time permits.

Always sending lots of love and prayers everyone's way~

Nehemiah's Birthday Video

For many reasons, I haven't been posting recently. I'm going to try to start doing so again, so I figured I'd start off with sharing the video we made up to show at Nehemiah's first birthday party. It still causes my eyes to swell with tears.

~Happy Birthday~

It is now 2:12am, just 10 minutes after Nehemiah was born one year ago. He's been on this earth for one year, with us for about 21 months, in our hearts much longer and known by name by God since creation.

Though he is sleeping, we went by his side and spent his "birth moment" with him. I can't even think of typing without tears swelling in my eyes.

He is an absolutely amazing little boy loved so dearly by so many. We are so, so very blessed. There truly are no words.

When emotions settle a bit, I will try to reflect and type more. For now, I can at least laugh and say that I feel as though I deserve an award for not dropping him once.

If only you could see and feel my heart right now. Nehemiah, we love you. We love you, we love you. Giving my life would still not feel adequate enough to thank God for sending you to us. You are such a Godsend, and we are blessed so, so far beyond measure.

You are so incredibly and dearly loved, Nehemiah.

Still There

I'm home right now for the purpose of eating cereal, showering and grabbing more wipies to take to the hospital. There's a shower there, but the thought of using it creeps both of us out.

It looks like we'll be checking out tomorrow instead of today. It's our choice in the end, but in this case, I do agree that it's best to make sure the fever stays away at least 24 hours. It appears to have been a virus after all, seeing as they have not found anything else in his blood or urine.

Tons of Koreans we have spoken with have said in response, "Why do babies always get sick when it's their first birthday?" It could just be an old wives' tale, or maybe there is something to it in this country. I don't dismiss that possibility because of the "traveler's cough" pretty much everyone who comes here ends up catching (I had it myself, though it was awhile after we moved here).

Whatever it is, it had better not shine its face around these parts again.

Anyway, he's been in better spirits since yesterday. He's not as terrified of people anymore. (He was utterly traumatized by them taking blood and putting the IV in.) He's been clapping, talking, trying to rip his IV out and all of that good stuff.

It will be a miracle if I don't get checked into a psych ward before the end of this.

Feeding him solids has become a challenge because I think he's afraid of throwing up. For a few nights, he would throw up when we tried to feed him dinner. It's hard to say why. I thought it might have been tofu, but he threw up last night sans tofu. I think we might have given him one spoonful too many. ;~; Poor little guy.

Let me quickly tell you about Korean hospital food. It should make you love American hospital food. It is always soup, rice, white kimchi (the not spicy one) and a few side dishes. Sometimes, the food contains shellfish. Sometimes, it contains peanuts. Our first day there, they served spam. There's plenty of tofu, seaweed, this root, that root... It's sometimes okay (I happen to love seaweed soup), but even HS won't even touch it most of the time.

Anyway, since being admitted, the leaves have changed so much. This area is incredibly beautiful--plenty of roads lined with now yellow ginko trees. It's amazing.

Oh, I must announce this as well. Once thing that makes me a little happier through all of this:

I had to go to Homeplus to pick up a few groceries to take back to the hospital, and I gasped quite dramatically when I saw Cheetos, REAL CHEETOS, in stock there. I just munched on some. Oh, yum. It's been years. Korean Cheetos are awful. "Steak." "Bulgogi." "Spicy." They are nasty. But these Cheetos...so savory...so yummy...yum...

That's all for now. Thanks so much for all of the thoughts and prayers. Hopeully, Pooh Bear will be at home playing when I update next.

Much love and many blessings to you all~

In the hospital

Nehemiah was admitted yesterday after we decided to take him to the hospital instead of his regular doctor because his fever climbed up to over 40 degrees. There's much to be said about how long and drawn-out this is getting, but I'll spare everyone for now. This is just certainly not how I envisioned spending the week before his first birthday.

We're not sure what's going on yet. He got sick last Tuesday, just a simple cold, then developed a slight fever after a couple of days. It went up over 38 on Saturday, which prompted me to take him to the doctor to confirm my suspicions that he had an ear infection. Monday, he had no fever, and the other night, it went up to about 40.4. His fever still went up to that last night, despite being in the hospital trying to get treatment. No UTI thankfully, but it might be bacterical. I have no idea. HS is terrible at getting information. Some mucus is apparently a little backed up in his lungs, but nothing very serious.

We'll see. Please send prayers if you can.

Lots of love~

Where to Start?

Once again, I am behind on updating for a variety of reasons. There is so much to update about, though!

Nehemiah is just over a couple of weeks away from turning one. We are simply in disbelief. His party will be on November 14th, and I think we have just about everything prepared. First birthdays are traditionally very important over here, so it will be a pretty big event. We are both bery excited for it.

We are very blessed in that the studio that did photos for him for free when he was about five months has offered to do another free shoot! We were just going to go to a self studio, but how can I say no to free pro shots? We'll be going Wednesday morning to have them done. It's quite a distance away, but it will be so worth it.

Anyway, by the 11-month mark, Nehemiah learned how to stand up without pulling himself up. He still prefers to pull himself up, but he definitely knows how to do it without assistance. It is also very cute to watch him carefully crouch down (what many endearingly refer to as "the Korean squat") and then stand back up.

We finally figured out what his apparent "go, go, go" means. It is not "go" at all--it's actually him grunting like a pig! Koreans say "ggul, ggul" to imitate pigs, a sound which he has heard quit a bit from watching Pororo. That, and his Appa likes to say "goink, goink" to him, sort of mixing the Korean and American sounds. Last week, HS was making the sounds with him, and he kept trying to follow more accurately. That's when we realized that all along, he's just been grunting like a pig. It's so cute. He also tries to make cow sounds to imitate what he hears from one of his toys.

He is able to stay at daycare alone for a couple of hours now and really enjoys it. It is so much better for him to be there when I have class so that he's not so restricted in the house. I can't drop him off, though. It'll make me cry. I'm more than happy to pick him up, though!

We are starting to feed him more of our food. So far, spaghetti is a definite hit, and everything else seems okay as well. It's rare that he really doesn't like something.

Yesterday, Nehmiah was baptized at our church. It was a really wonderful ceremony, although he cried when the pastor laid his hand on his head with the water! He was just scared because he didn't really know who he was. He was a bit cranky because he decided not to nap at his normal time and passed out soon after it was all over. Regardless, it was a great time. We view it more as a dedication to God and will encourage him to receive a baptism (if he would like) by his own choice when he is older even though it isn't necessary. When we get the pictures and are able to format the video, I will definitely upload them.

There is so much else to be said but not a whole lot of time. We will be very busy until the end of the year, but I hope to be able to update more as time goes on. We are counting and living in our blessings each and every day. God is so good.

Getting Faster and Faster

Nehemiah is showing no signs of slowing down with his developments. He loves to talk more and more everyday and shows a lot more understanding as well. He can say "more" (sometimes sounds more like "wo") if he really wants more food, and he's got something he says that we are trying to figure out. Recently, I'm thinking what he is saying is "All done!" (A-da!) The possibilities are endless, though.

He is super fast. That boy is crazy.

We've been teaching him how to pat his mouth while making sounds like people often do to pretend like they are Native American Indians. This morning, he started doing it on his own.

He has this thing where he will sometimes squeal with delight and put his hand to his mouth. It's hard to explain, but to me, it is very Asian. Asian girl, to be exact. You know how girls often cover their mouths when they laugh? It's kind of like that.

Daycare is still in transition right now. HS continues stays with him to help him get more comfortable being there. Perhaps it is taking more time because we only take him there about 2 hours at at time. He is showing great signs of improvement with trusting other adults, but still, his comfort zone is us.

I cannot believe he will be one year old in a month and a week from now. It's just crazy to think about. This past week in particular we've been hauling to get everything ready for his dol, his Korean first birthday party. Maybe I will detail more of what that is all about later. We finally got the biggest time-consumers finished and just have a few more details to take care of. It's not that difficult to plan, but with not really knowing what we're doing, it has just felt like a big task at hand. Thankfully, we are down to the smaller details now.

Anyway, that's all I have time for right now. God is so good to us and continues to bless us incredibly each and every day. Sending lots of love and prayers to everyone!

Walking

Nehemiah took his first steps at 8 months, and since then, he has been unstoppable. His daycare (which we are still very slowly getting him adjusted to) has a much more open space for him to run around, so I asked HS to make a video today. ♥

Nehemiah's Game

Nehemiah made this game up himself. He's a little sleepy here, but sometimes, he just goes wild with it (especially right before bed). He particularly enjoys doing this when his Appa chases him.

10 Month Stats

Height: 79.6cm/31.3in - 95%
Weight: 11kg/24.2-lbs - 88%
Head Circumference: 45.9cm/18in - 60%

10 Months

The resized clips of my photos always look so low-quality, so click it to see his adorableness super-sized.

I cannot believe Nehemiah is 10 months old now. In order to spare myself of waterworks, I won't look into that any deeper for the moment.

His babbles are becoming more complex as he mixes different types of sounds instead of just repeating one over and over. He understands more and more everyday, with great understanding of "bath time!" and "diaper!" recently. I suddenly decided to start trying to teach him to nod and shake his head for yes and no, and since he already knows how to shake his head, he just thinks it's a good idea to shake it all of the time now. I'm trying to teach him the association, though. It's so funny and cute.



He can take so many steps now. It's hard to say how many since our place isn't a wide and open one, but he can really do it. He loves to walk everywhere, though the leaves on the playground have him wanting to crawl so he can try to pick them up.

These photos show him in summer wear, but it has cooled down quite a bit since then. I placed and order for some baby legs and other items yesterday, but I'll detail more of that later. I went to H&M on Saturday to try to get a few pairs of pants and some long-sleeved onesies for him, but most pants were denim, and the onesies were a little pricey for me. I wound up buying a long-sleeved onesies set, spending a bit more than I would like to admit, but I feel better knowing that he's got more long sleeves now, just in case.

We made a big decision to enroll him in a daycare that is right next to our place. Our plan is just to send him for about 2 hours a few times a week so he can make some friends and get used to other adults. He's fine when meeting others if we are around, but not so much otherwise. Because of some more urgent dental care HS needed done and a limited schedule for the dentist, we wound up having to leave him there for the first time last Friday since I had classes. He was all fine for about 90 minutes, which included a short nap, but once he woke up, he sort of paniced. He would cry and then stop, cry and stop. I was in the middle of a Skype class, but they called thinking it would be better if I went and got him. He wasn't crying when I got there, so we played a little while I was there. During that time, he wound up crying again, and it was definitely the cry he has when he's scared and afraid he's lost me or something. HS will be taking him today and staying with him, so we're just taking it slowly. The teachers are wonderful, and the time we take him has fewer students, so it's a perfect number for him. The time also allows him more freedom to play in the main room where he can climb all over everything (he loves climbing these days), so it's really great. Like I said, we just don't have a very big open space for him to just have at it, so we think this will be great for him.

Anyway, the rain has stopped for now at least, so we are hauling to get the little man's laundry done. Sending lots of love from all of us here~

Since the last post...

At the time of my last post, Nehemiah favored communicating by means of variations of "da". All day long, it would be, "Da da da dai dai da dai." He nows prefers oohs and ohs, and it's hilarious because he makes his mouth so small and flares out his nostrils a bit.

Once he turned nine months, we started hardcore training on clapping. We've just been trying different ways to get him to do it, and he surprised me yesterday morning by suddenly being a pro. Now, he claps all the live-long day. It is so incredibly adorable and can definitely turn any frown upside-down.

He's much braver now and is taking more and more steps, feeling more comfortable letting go of whatever he is holding onto to just go for it. He just loves the freedom of it.

Those are just some quick notes as I head off to class. Definitely plenty keeping s busy here! What a blessing it all is, though.

Video for a contest

This is a video from a contest we entered for Seoul Milk. Well, we're not sure yet if HS made the cut-off time (long story), but either way, it's way adorable, if you ask me. We cut it down a little for the contest, so this is it in its full-length "glory." The concept was him passing up his toys for the company's baby cheese instead. Let's just say that this was not the first cut!

9 Months

Nehemiah is 9 months (and then some) now. It's been very difficult to find the time and energy to update because of a very busy August schedule and other aspects of life, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been anything to update about!

Some highlights:

By 9 months, monkey boy...

-started taking a few steps on his own. The most he has taken to date is 5. He is getting more and more confident by the day.

-started saying "Eomma", "Appa" and "Up".

-figured out how to blow air.

-found that he loves to be chased.

-decided Pat the Bunny is his favorite book. (He knows how to do every page.)

-shown interest in vehicles. He has a wood block vehicle puzzle that he received while in America, and he just loves it. He loves it when I make the sounds, too. His apparent favorites are the train and ship. He has mixed feelings about the fire truck.


Since turning 9 months, he has...

-truly discovered his temper.

-shown that he definitely has preferences.

-shown more and more interest in books.

-gotten closer to clapping. He does it with toys (well, not clapping, but crashing them together), but for some reason, if he doesn't have toys in his hands, he can't figure it out. Since yesterday, actually, he has started putting his hands together and shaking them up and down. He'll have it in no time now!


There is more to add to that list, but that's all that comes to mind currently.


Trauma

His halmeoni (Korean for "grandmother") still scares him very much. He's okay (most of the time) if I am holding him, but otherwise, he just screams. She means well, of course, but I think her face just isn't the smiley type that he is used to. Her voice doesn't help either. After another visit with her, HS now clearly says, "I can't leave him with her. ::head shake::"

When we tried to eat dinner, we put him in his playpen. He always whines for a minute and then goes off to play. She wanted to pick him up, so we had to repeat the process of putting him back down several times. While we were eating, he played happily. "Let sleeping dogs lie," they say. She wanted to get his attention and make him smile or something, thus causing him to realize, "Oh, wait, I want them to hug me. ::fuss fuss fuss::"

She also wanted to let him have the freedom to go wherever he wanted in the house. Our house is not 100% babyproof. "Babies need to fall and bleed a little sometimes." . . .


Anxiety

I don't know if it's because of his halmeoni or what, but Nehemiah's separation anxiety doesn't seem to be getting any better for the time being. In fact, it might be getting a little worse in some ways. We read that it is better to say bye than to sneak away, so when I leave for class, HS always brings him to the door to say "Bye-bye." Sometimes he gets upset, sometimes he doesn't. The biggest effect it is having, though, is on his sleep. He sleeps fine when he finally goes down, but putting him down can take such a long time these days. He has recently changed his napping schedule, though, so that might also play into it. I just keep remembering the sage advice of other moms out there: This too shall pass...


Stroller

Since we don't have a car, the Capella stroller we won really wasn't all that convenient. It was very nice, but it just wasn't convenient to carry around. We decided to sell it and buy an umbrella stroller, and we both absolutely love the new one! We got a great deal on it, and it's pretty deluxe as far as umbrella strollers go. The handling is great, and it's so much easier to take along with us when we go out. We really tested it out yesterday with going to the baby fair, and it worked out so well. We still carry him a lot, but with him getting so big and with it being so hot, it's great to have a stroller we can get more use out of.

Otherwise, all is well. I feel like we never really had a baby, that he's always just been a little boy. That, of course, isn't true, but from very early on, he has shown us just how boyish he really is. I love it, though. Many parents get caught up on how short the newborn period is, and while it's true that it goes by so quickly (and may or may not get me choked up at times), I love looking forward to life with our little boy.

I will try to post some videos and pictures soon. I havn't even gotten many up on facebook recently. The big Mr. Cranky Pants is up now and is wondering why I haven't done "anything." Well, should I make a list of all that I've done in the past 3.5 hours while you slept? Oh, well.

God is so good! Thank You for blessing me so greatly when I am hardly worthy.

Practice Makes Perfect

Ever since Nehemiah started to say "Appa", we've been working to try to get him to say "Eomma" (sounds like "Ummah"--the Korean word for mom) as well. As mentioned before, he's said it, but not very consciously.

Today, he was determined to get it down. He practiced all day long, watching our mouths to try to copy the sound. For the greater part of the day, he would be able to manage only "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm", sometimes opening up the sound to make "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmma". Be the end, however, he had it down and didn't want to mix himself up by throwing an "Appa" in there anywhere. He just wanted to keep saying "Eommmmmmma" tonight, so I did not object, of course.

There were a few times he got in an "Appamma" to get us both in there. ^.~

Needless to say, I am very thrilled at this new development. I love that boy's determination!

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In other news, after several days of no-shows when she said she was going to come, my mother-in-law stopped by for a visit today. Nehemiah is still not particularly fond of her. He loves the older ladies at church, but for some reason, he just doesn't want to be around her. He sometimes smiles and likes to talk to her, but most of the time, she just scares him. She was talking to our nephew explaining how to do something, and with one swift arm movement and relatively loud noise, she had him terrified and in tears. I feel bad that he's like that with her, but I think I understand where he's coming from. She's great and means well, but she might be just too tough for him.

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I've increased how much food he gets per meal. It's sometimes a challenge to get him to eat when there is no fruit mixed in, but we get through it. We started fish, and my goodness, I don't think I'll be preparing fish for a long while after what I went through today. I thought it would be easier and faster than chicken and beef, but I was very sorely mistaken. I put it through the mixer, only to end up finding that contrary to what I had been told, there were indeed bones in there. I spent so much time basically looking for needles in the haystack. Oh, it was just not fun. I also didn't get my nap in today (I need one on Tuesdays), so I was just ready to throw the whole batch out.

Anyway, the increase is for two reasons: 1) He definitely shows he can handle it, and; 2) he's growing length-wise faster than width-wise. This may not be a problem, but he hasn't gained a whole ton of weight while gaining height. The weight he has gained is more due to getting taller and not due to getting more chub. I am not concerned at all, but I just figure he can handle more of mommy's love-filled creations. ♥

When we moved to our apartment in April, he was just barely able to touch the ground in his activity center, the Around-We-Go. He could walk in it, but just on his tiptoes. Three months later, we found ourselves adjusting the straps underneath because he was just too tall for how it was. I knew he had definitely gone through a growth spurt. (If the measurements are accurate, he's just over 77cm, which is about 30.5in.) Silly boy.

Anyway, I am beyond exhausted from a long day and should get all the rest I can.

Sending lots of love and prayers to everyone. God is so incredibly good.

Ta-da!

Grandma sent a package full of gold last week, which included a variety of yummy snacks. She mentioned how some parents keep the bottles that some of the snacks are in and sometimes fill them with things to make shakers out of them. All I can say is that they had better be filled with food...

Here, Nehemiah would like to show off how a baby should really use his chompers.

Walking Around

I'm getting ready to teach, but I figured I would let this upload in the meantime.

Before the time gets any farther...

I am so behind on updating, largely due to Nehemiah just constantly keeping us on our toes. I came on to check something for someone that I have forgotten about for about two weeks, but seeing as I was not able to get the information I needed, I think now is a great time to catch up a little before recent developments end up being old news.

Yesterday, Mr. Nehemiah demonstrated how truly brave he is as he attempted to stand without support many times. He did very well a few tries. Today, he's been letting go of whatever he uses for support and trying to take a couple of steps. He was successful a number of times. I don't need to hold both of his hands to walk with him anymore. I can just hold one (usually his left), and he just takes off all over the place. We went out to the playground in front of our building to let him run around (while holding hands), and he just had a blast. He absolutely loves his "independence" and will definitely be walking in no time.

I noticed him sort of bear crawling yesterday (trying to, at least), but I later realized that he might be trying to stand up on his own rather than pull himself up.

It's pretty much official that "Appa" is more of his first word, and he definitely loves to say it. He only says "Eomma" sometimes, and that's usually when he's crying. I think it's both a combination of "Appa" and "Up". He seems to be able to slightly distinguish between the two, but definitely not 100% yet.

His first bilingual word is "kiss" (뽀뽀). I say, "Kiss, kiss!" to him, and he knows to give a kiss (nothing new there), but HS was a bit envious and set out to teach him the Korean: 뽀뽀! (Bbobbo!) He has that down now as well. Nehemiah appears to understand several other words as well, particularly "no" (usually obeys pretty well, though often protests) and "milkies" (which I say to him to see if he's hungry for milk).

He eats three meals a day, usually close to 2 oz. (~30mL) per meal. For breakfast, he gets oatmeal and a fruit. Lunch is usually either chicken or beef plus a fruit, but right now, we are doing it with buttercup squash. Most of the time, Nehemiah seems to prefer beef over chicken, which was exactly how I was while I was pregnant with him. For dinner, I usually give him rice and a vegetable. Sundays are still usually my food prep days.

Any time he is harder to feed, we give him yogurt on the side. We usually only have issues when he's tired of the taste or because he wants to get out of his chair or rip off his bib. The other magic trick is to allow him to eat from the side of his bowl. He absolutely loves to have the bowl to his mouth and just eat that way. This might be because of him watching us eat our cereal or soup since we have most of our meals together. Either way, it doesn't really bother me, as I am happy that it helps him get it down more enthusiastically.

Two weeks ago, we tried out a new church that we received a pamphlet from in our mailbox. It showed they have English sermons, so we decided to give it a go. It's definitely the best we've visited yet. The worship music is CCM style (which I love), and there are a few couples there currently expecting. A couple of families also have toddlers. After we go to our service, we grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria and head over to Nehemiah's service.

They have a service for babies during every main worship hour. We could have one of us go with him during English worship, but then one of us would be missing out. We could also try to leave him with the helpers there, but we're just not comfortable with that with being just 8 months old still. They sing cute songs with plenty of hand movements, have a short sermon with lots of videos and pictures and then have either arts and crafts time or story time (we've only been twice so far, and that's what they've done). Simple snacks are also provided.

As you can imagine, being the only non-100% Korean baby, Nehemiah is simply adored there. The helpers' faces light up when they see him, and they definitely know him by name. It actually makes us feel a little sorry for other parents because the workers don't dote on their children the same way. However, I've been around many parents with their young children who will focus more on our baby than their own child as well. Ah, Korea. I'm sure, though, that after a few weeks, the novelty will wear off.

Anyway, I've got two taxing days ahead of me, so I need all the rest I can get. I hope to post some videos and photos soon.

Sending many prayers for blessings and lots of love to all who might read this. God is so good.