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.

That Crazy Boy

Mr. Nehemiah is a master at pulling himself up onto...everything. There is no ledge too high that he can't pull himself up with, be it his crib, the sofa...he even likes to use the window to get up. I had been all for having a baby that does everything early, but now I am wishing he would slow down a little! It's in his genetics, though.

He loves to talk and to hear himself talk. In the morning sometimes, I'll play around with him on our bed, and he'll just lay on his back making random noises just to hear himself. I'll have to try to get a video of him blabbing on because he is just hilarious. (I think hilarious has got to be one of the top five most used words in this blog.)

Separation Anxiety. Big time. Combine that with his newfound skills, and you have one heck of a time getting him to stay down for bed. He'll be utterly exhausted at dinner time, then I'll feed him to the point of him falling asleep in my arms, but as soon as I lie him down in his crib, if he's not completely out, he's doing a world tour of his crib.

Raspberries. He is the master. If you've got an open piece of skin, he's blowing raspberries on you. I do have a video of this and will try to upload it sometime soon.

He had a blast swimming for the first time. He was scared at first because it was a bit loud and because he feels more comfortable being able to touch the ground, but once we got to the baby pool, it was his territory.

A few photos:






The dinosaur tube is his, and the Pororo one belonged to Spa Plus. We thought he would love the Pororo tube more because it had a squeaky horn and whatnot, but he is very partial to his own. If I have the energy, I will do a separate post detailing our adventures.

I feel like I had more to type, but my mind isn't functioning very well right now. Nehemiah truly is the light of our lives.

Have a blessed weekend!

7 Months (and counting)

This might be all over the place, but I just want to highlight a bunch of things before I forget when they happened and whatnot.

Nehemiah is 7 months old and has 8 teeth now. Yes, 8 chompers that have all cut through. I can't believe how quickly he has been getting his teeth in. He has experimented with biting to let me know when he is done eating, but after a few no-nos!, he is starting to do it ever-so-gently if I try to get him to feed when he has decided he has finished.

He is still like a vampire, trying to suck our necks. It is so adorable, though--when I pick him up these days, he puts his arms around my neck and just hugs me so tightly. I love it. I'll never get tired of it.

He has been developing like crazy lately. Yesterday, he pulled himself up to his feet by himself for the first time. He can easily do it when someone is holding him, but this was the first time to did it all on his own. We're in big trouble now!

His balance is getting much better. He thinks it's hilarious to stand with the support of the couch and try to reach for objects that have been placed strategically out of reach. He is able to scoot by himself from side to side, but he definitely needs to be watched while doing so. Nehemiah also loves to stand holding his crib rail with one hand and reaching for his mobile with the other.

In addition, I've noticed that when he's playing in his activity center (his around-we-go), he doesn't always lean forward while walking/running anymore. He often looks like he is holding himself upright instead of always leaning. That boy is incredibly fast now, too. His new trick is running as fast as he can and then lifting up his feet so he can just glide some distance. It is just hilarious and simply adorable. I test his balance sometimes, and he does have some instances where he can stand unsupported or take a couple of steps, but it is nowhere near consistent at this time.

I cannot believe how smart he is. Just today, I put him in his crib to play around since his Appa was in that room (not helping) while I was trying to get something done, so I put his music on. As soon as I did that, he turned around and started whining at me because he knew I was going to leave the room. He has known "kiss-kiss!" for some time now, but he follows along so much better. His appa has taught him 뽀뽀~! (the Korean "kiss-kiss"), and he apparently does it for him, too.

We've been trying to get him accustomed to drinking from a cup. Apparently, some children are resilient to do so, but he certainly is not. I don't know if it's the taste/feel of water he enjoys or if it's the pride of being able to drink out of a cup, but he loves it. Even though we don't feed him his food when we eat out dinner, he sits with us in his chair. We give him his snacks, as well as some of our rice. When he doesn't want any more food and just wants to get out, the cup of water comes in to save the day. It's important to me for us to sit down for family meals, so I truly enjoy this time with him.

He loves being outdoors. We take him to the playground downstairs to walk around and so he can show off to everyone what a big boy he is. He sometimes feel a little intimidated by the presence of so many older boys and girls, but he later ends up wanting to run around to see what everyone is doing.

Nehemiah is still as happy as ever, if not even more than ever. He has his cranky moments, but he is just a genuinely and naturally happy boy. There are no words to express just how much joy he brings to us. It's so wonderful to come home after class to a boy flailing his arms and legs in excitement just because he has heard my voice.

For now, I had best be off. Because someone mentioned above was too involved in his own sleepy time (and still is at almost 12 noon), I was not able to get all that I wanted to accomplished this morning. I now need to prepare to head out for class. Tomorrow, however, we are using up as many of our hotel membership coupons as possible for a mini getaway. We'll be heading to Icheon Miranda Hotel, and for about $90, we'll be staying in a deluxe room (regularly closer to $300!), getting a free lunch and dinner, as well as a free breakfast buffet and free admission to their Spa Plus spa/waterpark. We bought an inner tube for him and can't wait to see how much he enjoys it since he absolutely loves water. I've been seriously lacking in the photo department this month, but I will be sure to take plenty while we are there.

Sending prayers for all who read this. God bless!

All I Want for Christmas...

On about May 20th, Nehemiah sprouted three--yes, three--new teeth. He's decided to be a rebel about it, however, and has skipped his two front teeth. As his teeth continue to grow, it looks like he has vampire fangs. They are the teeth that are next to the front teeth and not the canines, but still.

For those who know their teeth terminology, he has just sprouted his two upper lateral incisors and one on the bottom. If this is wrong, don't blame me, blame the chart I am looking at.

It's hard to say whether or not his front teeth are starting to show, but I noticed that his other lower lateral incisor (glad I'm typing that and not speaking it!) is starting to sprout. That means we've got five teeth right now with at least a sixth on the way.

When he was getting his three new ones in, it caused him to have a pretty runny nose. No fever or anything, just a runny nose. I share that for others who might be nearing this stage soon.

In other news, Nehemiah surprised us yesterday by pulling himself up to a kneeling position on the side of his Bumbo. He also was easily able to *try* to stand. He'll have it in no time now. We're in trouble, that's for sure!

I just wanted to type a quick one for now. I leave you with this photo of ridiculous measures of adorableness, though many have already seen it: