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.

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!