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.