The Kimchi Kid Says The Cutest Things!

Showing off the dragonfly he caught.

After his bath today Thomas came into my room to say good night. He showed me his wrinkled fingers and said "Oh no! Look Mommy! My fingers are Grandmaed!"

Watching TV with his baby brother.

After he pooped I went in the bathroom to wipe his bum. He shouted at me "No Mommy! Don't look a my poop! Don' t look at my poop! It's a big dirty one!"

Super Thomas to the rescue!

Thomas wanted desperately to watch "Super Zero" on Youtube.
He said to his daddy " I want to watch 'Super Zero'! The flying one with the clouds! Like the new spiderman! And the many flying and airplane! 'Super Zero'! I want 'Super Zero'!"

After a few frustrating minutes of trying to find out what video he was talking about we realized he meant "SUPER HERO" and it was an X-men cartoon he'd watched.

When we explained his mistake to him he said "Oh, sowwie Daddy. Sowwie."

If you want the puppy to come to you, this is how you have to hold your hand! Words of Wisdom from the Kimchi Kid!

Thomas knows that his Daddy sometimes goes out at night. Usually they shower and get ready for bed together. If Daddy doesn't do it with him it means he's going out. Thomas doesn't like that so he tries to come up with a way to prevent Daddy from leaving.

"Daddy! You have to take a shower! Daddy you're dirty! Daddy you have to take a shower, take off your shirt and panties and 바지(pants)!"

After the shower when Daddy still isn't undressed and ready for bed.
"Daddy you have to take off your shirt! Daddy you have to take it off or you will be 아픈(painful)!"

He talks a mile a minute these days so I've decided to make a concerted effort to share some of his hilarious logic and quirky comments. Watch this space!

Happy 3rd(4th) Birthday Thomas!

The happy 3/4 year old opening a gift!

In South Korea when you are born you are generally considered to be 1 year old. So when we went to a local kid's cafe to celebrate Thomas' 3rd birthday, they put a "4" on the cake to reflect his age in Korea. Luckily he knows to answer that he is 3 in English, 4 in Korean but it was confusing for a lot of people! Hahaha..
East Asian Age Reckoning - Korea

Koreans generally refer to their age in units called sal (살), using Korean numerals in ordinal form. Thus, a person is one sal during the first calendar year of life, and ten sal during the tenth calendar year.

The 100th-day anniversary of a baby is called baegil (백일), which literally means "a hundred days" in Korean, and is given a special celebration, marking the survival of what was once a period of high infant mortality. The first anniversary of birth named dol (돌) is likewise celebrated, and given even greater significance. Koreans celebrate their birthdays,^[10] even though every Korean gains one 'sal' on New Year's Day.^[11] Because the first year comes at birth and the second on the first day of the lunar New Year, a child born, for example, on December 29 (of the lunar calendar) will reach two years of age on Seolnal (Korean New Year) , when they are only days old in western reckoning.^[12]

In modern Korea the traditional system is most often used, mistakenly even when talking to non-Koreans. The international age system is referred to as "man-nai" (만나이) in which "man" (만) means "full"^[13] or "actual", and "nai" meaning "age".^[11][14] For example, man yeol sal means "full ten years", or "ten years old" in English. The Korean word dol means "years elapsed", identical to the English "years old", but is only used to refer to the first few birthdays. Cheotdol or simply dol refers to the first Western-equivalent birthday, dudol refers to the second, and so on.

The Korean Birthday Celebrations by the lunar calendar is called eumnyeok saeng-il (음력 생일, 陰曆生日) and yangnyeok saeng-il (양력 생일, 陽曆生日) is the birthday by Gregorian calendar.

For official government uses, documents, and legal procedures, the Western age system is used. Regulations regarding age limits on alcohol and tobacco use, as well as the age of consent, are all based on the Western system (man-nai).

This system can be pretty confusing, so I always stick with just my Western age. What woman really wants to be a year or two older? Hahaha...

We're coming up on the baegil (백일) for Graham and I plan on doing it traditional style this time, especially since Grandma will be visiting us for the first time ever!

Here are some pictures from the 3rd/4th birthday! Enjoy!

The cafe served rice, salad, pork cutlet, chicken nuggets, french fries and orange juice for all the kids.

The Cafe supplied an MC for the party. Thomas got to sit up front and be celebrated by his friends!The MC released a confetti bomb that thrilled the whole crowd!

The lovely photos were courtesy of our friend Shane Lee of the blog Family Lee Together!
Thanks Shane!

Shutterfly Holiday Cards-Family, you may actually get cards this Christmas!!

Hello all! Mommy Cha here! I just found out about a wonderful site called "Shutterfly"!
Thanks to a great posting by Mama Seoul , I have found a solution that will work for me!

As many of you(family and friends) who live outside of South Korea may have noticed, I am awful at getting to the post office to mail gifts, cards, photos, etc. I actually wrote cards when I was pregnant with the Kimchi Kid, addressed them and left them in my office until after his 1st birthday when I mailed them out for Christmas! So bad, I know! To make things worse, they didn't even have a photo of the Kimchi Kid in them, so I am sure everyone was disappointed to not see his shining face looking out from a Christmas greeting!

This is where Shutterfly comes to the rescue!
They offer GORGEOUS, glossy, colourful and creative holiday cards for amazing prices! Cards you can customize and add your own photos to! Cards like these lovely Christmas cards! I just love the many different designs they offer! From this lovely traditional styled card :

*Obviously not our family, but imagine how GOOD we would look on this card!

To these fun and funky Modern styled Christmas greetings:

*Cute kid, but nowhere near as cute as The Kimchi Kid! Right? RIGHT!?!

If it wasn't enough to know that I could order my Christmas Cards, I can also order them in 3 different styles! The cards are available as Folded Greeting Cards which allow you to put "photos and wishes inside and out", Flat Stationery Cards in "stylish designs frame your photos" or Flat Photo Cards which allow you to "send holiday love (for less)"!

There are so many choices, my only worry is choosing them in time for Christmas delivery! Luckily Shutterfly makes that easy for me too! They can stamp and mail my cards DIRECTLY! No more worries about me getting to the post office on time this year!

I wish I had discovered Shutterfly earlier, because it isn't just about Christmas cards, as awesome as they may be! They offer a variety of custom services, several of which I have used from Korean companies in the past. The benefit to me is that with Shutterfly I understand what is going on as it is all in English and I can ship it directly to my family instead of waiting for it to arrive here and then sending it on my own.

*Now no one will forget important days like Mommy Cha and The Kimchi Kid's birthdays!

One of those things is Wall Calendars. I have an adorable calendar on my wall of the Kimchi Kid in his Halloween costume from 2009. My in-laws in Texas also have one. Why doesn't the rest of my family? For the simple reason that my Korean future-SIL ordered and posted it to my in-laws and gave one to me. I would have loved to send a copy to everyone in Canada, but alas, my language skills failed me and I gave up. Now with Shutterfly I can send an awesome calendar to all my family members so they can enjoy the Kimchi Kid 365 days a year!

*Come visit us in South Korea and make YOUR OWN "Asian Adventure"!

The other thing I have done is created Photo Books for my sister and my nephew to commemorate their visit to South Korea in January of 2009. It took me hours on the Korean website to create the books and in the end, the whole process failed because I hadn't used Internet Explorer and the final submit button wouldn't display! I had written a personalized story to accompany the photos in my nephew's photo book and I had to re-write the whole thing! In the end the formatting and paragraphing was a little strange as well, due to the language differences between Korean and English. The saving grace was that he absolutely loved it, still does, and will gladly pull it out to read and pore over the pictures.
Customized Photo Books are awesome gifts for children, if you haven't tried it, I would highly recommend doing so! Be creative, write a narrative about the photos that the child can read on their own. Spice it up with some adventure or funny anecdotes! It will become a gift the whole family will love and treasure for years to come!

So now you may be wondering, why all the Shutterfly love?
Beyond making my life so much easier and allowing me to share the adorable Kimchi Kid with everyone, they have a great holiday promotion on right now!
Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow à http://bit.ly/sfly2010

How can you resist the lure of Shutterfly's awesome cards, calendars, books and more, especially when you can get 50 free cards just for writing about them?? I know I couldn't!

So if you want a gorgeous Christmas card from Mommy Cha and the Kimchi Kid, be sure to give me your address so I can send one your way!

Cheers!
Mommy Cha

Let's Play Catch-Up! Part 1

Who's that kid?? The Kimchi Kid, that's who! He's back and better than ever!

Hello everyone, so sorry for the delay in blogging! The Kimchi Kid and I have been very busy, and the Kimchi Kid #2 gave me the worst morning, noon and night sickness!

Showing off my burgeoning baby bump!

BABY CATCH-UP!
To start, I had to take time off work in September due to my morning sickness. I was unable to keep any food down every time I ate. A good day meant that 1 meal or snack didn't come back up, and those days were few and far between. I was also having trouble sleeping, so I had no energy for even the basic aspects of life like caring for my son let alone trying to teach rambunctious Korean kindergarten students. Luckily my work was very understanding and allowed me to take time off to rest.

Through the first trimester I was frequently reassured that I MUST be having a girl since my first pregnancy was nothing like this and so many friends who had girls had suffered morning sickness like this. Since a girl was what we wanted, this made us excited to find out the gender! Surely this would be the much desired daughter! My MIL and I both had dreams of me giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. Koreans have a lot of superstitions regarding pregnancy and this was considered a very strong sign that we were having a girl.

The only problem was the Kimchi Kid. Thomas was frequently asked about his sibling, and he always replied "형", which means "older brother" in Korean. We laughed and thought this meant that he wanted an older brother instead of a younger sibling. However when our doumi returned to us after her 6month long to China, she informed us that often Koreans believe the older sibling can identify the gender of the new sibling best. So she asked Thomas the morning of our scan, what was the gender of his new sibling. Thomas replied "남자" which means "male". We laughed and told the doumi he keeps asking for "형" and we were all sure it was a girl.

When we arrived at the doctor's we asked him to check the gender for us. Usually this is not done in Korea, but as I am a foreigner here, I was able to get the doctor to do so. At first he thought he wouldn't be able to find out, but he was able to get the angle right and showed us what we were waiting for.

The "bits"! It is a BOY! Surprise!

Can you tell what that blurry picture is? It was much clearer in the office and the original print of the scan. That is Kimchi Kid #2's penis. That's right, we were all wrong and only Thomas was right! We're having another boy!

After the doctor told us and showed us the news, he proceeded to check on the rest of the baby. I was shocked and asked him if he was sure it wasn't the umbilical cord. He laughed at me, moved the scan back and showed us again what was very obviously a boy. My first reaction was to cry, which caused a lot of laughter in the doctor's office. Eventually we realized this would be for the best, for Thomas and for us. We'll save so much money on clothing and toys, and the Kimchi Kid will have an awesome playmate which is why we always wanted to have a second child.

When we came home and told doumi, she also cried. She had just finished hand washing a delicate pink sweater I had worn as an infant. She was so proud of managing to remove the ugly stain on it and was so excited to see our beautiful baby girl, she simply couldn't believe she was wrong! Even now she is convinced our next check up will show the doctor to be wrong and that we are having the girl everyone longs for! ^.^

The Kimchi Kid waiting for our flight to the USA.

TRAVEL CATCH-UP!
I had introduced a friend of ours to my BIL almost 2 years ago. They had an MSN relationship that culminated in meeting in person at the Kimchi Kid's 1st Birthday party in May 2009. As my BIL lives in Texas their relationship was mostly long distance, daily Skype calls, e-mails and a few visits over the past 2 years. This Summer my BIL decided enough was enough and asked our friend to marry him. We were so excited and threw a good-bye/bridal shower for her! A whirlwind of paperwork ensued and she was on her way to a new life in Austin, Texas in August of this year.

Bridal shower cupcakes made by Gerry of Butter Sugar Cream! Delicious and gorgeous! Bridal bouquets, linked wedding rings and the couple's initials in white chocolate!

We were very excited for them and the wedding was planned for 10/10/10 (October 10, 2010) in Las Vegas. We informed the family that we'd be unable to attend, but they had other plans. As a result we had a whirlwind of planning of our own to do! Thomas and I had to leave Daddy behind due to his work, but we flew to Austin, Texas for 11 days. We then flew with the family to Las Vegas, Nevada for 2 days. I had booked tickets from Las Vegas to Victoria, BC, Canada to see my family as well. We stayed in Victoria for 6 days and then headed to Nanaimo, BC for 4 days before returning back to Korea.

One of the few outings in Austin, Texas. Zilker Park playground. He wore his Texas Longhorns jersey because it was a game day!

I was extremely sick for the majority of the time in Austin, Texas. My morning sickness was either aggravated by the jet-lag or some greasy Mexican food that caused me to have food-poisioning. I ended up in bed for almost 3 days, so sick and weak that I was almost ready to go to the hospital despite the cost. Poor Thomas was so upset by my illness that he became extremely clingy and terrified of his grandparents. It made for a hard visit to say the least.
Every time his grandmother tried to take him he began screaming, crying and shouting "할머니 무서워!" which means "Grandmother is scary!" The trip to Texas ended up being an exhausting round of hysterical toddler, draining shopping trips and hours spent on the couch watching TV.

To make matters worse, the wedding was canceled 5 days before we were due to fly to Las Vegas! My friend had been having a hard time adjusting to life in Texas and was very depressed. Her mother had also begun to pressure her to return to South Korea since she felt that my BIL was not a good person. This was due to the fact that he had not flown to South Korea to visit his future in-laws. Despite being offered airfare to come to Texas to meet the family, which they refused, my friend's parents were adamant that she not marry my BIL! This put her under a lot of stress and eventually she made the decision to honour her parents wishes. Since so many of our family had booked tickets and hotel rooms, the decision was made to turn the trip into a mini-family reunion!

Thomas checking out the scuba maintenance guys in front of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

Not having been to Las Vegas with a child before and knowing that we were staying at the Bellagio hotel, I thought it would be a nice trip. The day before we flew my morning sickness seemed to pass and I was excited to go. Thomas was excited to go on another "비행기", "airplane", and I thought we could spend time in the pool.

I was not anticipating the constant battles to drag him away from the slot machines with all their flashing lights and sounds. To get to any restaurant, exit the hotel or get to our room, you HAD to walk through the casino. I was also shocked to realize that all casinos are smoking areas, so we had to walk through clouds of cigarette stench at all hours. My BIL was great at chasing the Kimchi Kid down and carrying him when I was unable to. We had brought a stroller that worked at confining him but he would often cry "내려줘!" which meant "Let me down!".

Las Vegas was most definitely not child or stroller friendly. To get anywhere you have to walk over moving sidewalks or pedestrian overpasses. Escalators are everywhere and elevators were often out of service. The moving sidewalks often had signs posted on them saying "NO STROLLERS". Each Casino on the strip was huge, meaning to get from one to another required lots of walking in the hot sun. The sun was magnified by the shiny glass buildings and lack of shade on the sidewalks. All of this combines to drive people indoors to the dark and cool casinos where they will most likely gamble away, but if you have a child, it makes for a miserable time!

Thomas being cute inside the Shark Reef at the Mandaly Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It took us close to 2 hours to get to the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef on our last day. This was due to the convoluted route required to walk there and the fact that you have to walk almost 30min INSIDE the casino just to get to the aquarium! Despite the glowing advertisements and expectations, it was much smaller than the COEX aquarium here in Korea and we were all exhausted by the end. This was meant to be the highlight of our 2 days with Thomas in Vegas, so it was very disappointing.

In the end, I was very happy to leave Las Vegas and head to Canada to see my family!

More on that later, I need a break! ^.~ Catch-up part 2, The AWESOME trip to Canada coming soon!

Mommy Cha and the Kimchi KIDS?!

The Kimchi Kid got a stylish Mohawk haircut for the hot, humid Summer season!

Hello everyone, Mommy Cha here again. I know, I know, I am an awful blogger. I am so sorry!! >.< I have a lovely draft blog post about family-friendly Bucheon I started last month, but I've been unable to continue with it. I have a very good excuse this time though-I swear! We're currently 8.5 weeks pregnant with baby #2! Yay! We heard the heartbeat and had a good checkup on Monday. All is well with baby and the due date is April 9th, 2010. I on the other hand am not doing so well. I came down with a terrible stomach virus 2.5 weeks ago and since then have been suffering greatly with morning, noon and night sickness! I've lost track of the days where I haven't vomited and my kindergarten gently suggested that I start my vacation time a few weeks early and rest. I'm hoping this means that baby #2 will be the much requested girl, but we really only hope for a healthy and happy baby, just like the original Kimchi Kid! We've tried to explain what is happening to the Kimchi Kid but the week after we told him about the baby in mommy's tummy, I got very sick with the stomach virus. He was then told by his daddy that mommy's tummy was "아프다", Korean for "hurt/pain". So the poor little guy thought the baby was hurting mommy's tummy and he wouldn't go to sleep for a few days without resting his hand or head on my tummy to comfort me! These days he seems to understand a bit better, but we're going to wait a bit more before getting into more discussion with him. We plan on taking him to the doctor's appointments with us in the future so he can see the baby on the ultrasound. With the Kimchi Kid we were clueless, anxious new parents and had ultrasounds performed every 2 weeks since our doctor was being overly cautious. We had no idea this wasn't the norm but will only have them every few months this time around. We've also learned that the Korean government provides a free credit card for prenatal visits, up to 300,000won($300) total. This will really help cover the cost of our checkups and is a nice incentive to try and increase the birthrate in South Korea. We can also get free multivitamins from the local municipal office, but I ordered from the USA instead. Too bad I keep vomiting them up, but hopefully this too will pass!

Playing in the water with Daddy, AKA "Tom teacher"!

Right now the Kimchi Kid is incredibly excited for our upcoming vacation to North America! The discovery of the long-awaited pregnancy plus my BIL's upcoming wedding to my close Korean friend(I set them up! How cool is that??) meant that we had to jump at the chance to take a trip and visit all the family. The Kimchi Kid and I have visited Austin, Texas to see the Korean family members the past two years. Last year my younger sister and nephew came to Korea to visit us, but we haven't been home to visit my family since he was 4months old. Since he is so different and wonderful now at 28 months, it is past due time to get home and visit! Not to mention that the new arrival next year will limit my ability to travel and visit for quite some time! The Kimchi Kid is already quite a fan of "비행기", airplane, and so we have been priming him with pictures and stories about airplanes. He is very excited to go and understands that he is traveling with mommy while daddy stays home for work. As he says "Mommy, Thomas, 비행기 같이(airplane together). Tom teacher, no! Stay home!"^.^ Hehehe..The Kimchi Kid is quite fond of calling his daddy "Tom" or "Tom teacher" since he teaches at the same kindergarten that our son attends and sees/hears the students refer to him as "Tom teacher" daily. We think it is very sweet that he understands daddy can't come because he has to be "Tom teacher" and work. We plan to take a family vacation for Christmas, hopefully somewhere warm, so that "Tom teacher" can get a break as well!

The Kimchi Kid has been making excellent language progress in both Korean and English and is comfortable speaking in both languages depending on whom he is speaking to. His teacher has a far better understanding of his Korean speech than we do as she is hearing it 5 days a week, 7 hours a day. Already his Korean has surpassed mine in certain areas but thankfully since we switched to pure English in the home, he has managed to become an excellent English speaker as well! He still mixes in Korean vocabulary on a regular basis but it is easy for us to understand. He also loves singing these days, and happily sings to himself in a mix of Korean and English. He has made a mash-up of the "Pororo Penguin" theme song as well as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "ABC". Heaven forbid if we try to sing along though, he will quickly tell us "NO! No singing PLEASE!". Such a little critic! ^.^ He has also almost mastered counting 1-10 in English and 1-5 in Korean. He will at times mix them up but it seems like the English numbers came easier to him. He happily points out and counts diggers, forklifts and other heavy machinery as we walk and drive around town. He is constantly surprising us with his keen observations, active interest and strong memories of the world around him. Every day he brings a smile to our faces as he shares some new discovery with us. We truly are blessed with happiness in our son!


It must be a male thing, being so comfortable on the toilet! ^.~

As for other developments, well the Kimchi Kid is 100% toilet trained and it happened so fast that I still have 1 1/2 cases of diapers in the house! He never wets the bed, is always vocal about needing to use the bathroom and except for 2 pooping in the park incidents things have been smooth sailing! The pooping the park came about when he had to GO and there was no toilets nearby. Thank goodness for bushes and borrowed wet tissue!

Mmm..yummy cake!

There is so much more he is doing these days that I constantly forget to write down! He feeds himself completely, even to the point of often helping himself to food and snacks in the house. He loves art and drawing and will happily sit and doodle on his own. He is a master block stacker and has become creative in making diggers, cranes and trains out of blocks. He has started to turn off the TV if something "Scary" comes on although so far this happens with 1 episode of "Pororo Penguin" and a dog scene in "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". He also managed to create his own "괴물" or monster out of a shape sorter that was arranged in a face pattern. It reminds him of the monster in "Pororo Penguin" and has caused tears more than once now! He walks so much we never use a carrier or stroller now, and have even walked more than 2km without him asking to be carried! He is such a happy and strong little boy, everywhere we go is surrounded with positive energy and interaction. No wonder he loves to go for long walks every evening! ^.^

Move over Jamie Oliver-The Kimchi Kid is the TRUE Naked Chef! ^.~

Since I am on vacation now and spending most of that time in bed, online or vomiting, I will do my best to keep the blog more regularly updated with stories about the Kimchi Kid. Thank you to everyone for your patience and hope to hear from and see you all soon!
Much love, Mommy Cha and the Kimchi Kid! ^.~

Long Time, No Post!

Hello everyone! So sorry it has been so long between posts lately.
What can I say? The Kimchi Kid is growing up so fast, Mommy Cha rarely gets the chance to sit down and blog. Facebook is about as good as it gets these days, anything that takes longer is more likely to be forgotten. As it is, I am writing in bed, while the Kimchi Kid drifts off to sleep next to me. We're working on separate beds but he still needs Mommy or Daddy next to him to fall asleep! Which I don't mind, as I can't believe my baby is growing up so fast!! ㅠ.ㅠ
The Kimchi Kid has so many new developments daily it is hard to keep track. I'll do my best to try and post more often! For now, here are some tidbits and anecdotes to tide you over! ^.^

The Kimchi Kid modeling his new underwear!

1. The Kimchi Kid began potty training just over 1 month ago. After the first day, he never peed or pooped his pants at school again. The few accidents he has had were due to us forgetting to take him to the bathroom. Now we no longer need to worry-he tells us when he has to go and has graduated from the potty to the potty seat on the big toilet, and no seat when peeing! This took us and the kindergarten completely by surprise! He still can't pull his own pants down fully, but he doesn't even wear pull ups anymore, just thin cotton underwear! Fantastic!

2. The Kimchi Kid has begun adjusting well to the only English approach we are taking at home. He has almost complete understanding of anything you say to him although he often will choose to not answer beyond a few words or in Korean. He can be negotiated with, offering him options works wonders! He can fully understand the choices presented to him and respond with the choice he prefers. This leads to much more pleasant outings and time together for us all.
Recently he has even begun to make English sentences which is a great step for him! Since he has so much more exposure to Korean he speaks it more easily, but is showing a good grasp of English now that we have decided to focus on it more in the home. Our first approach was 1 parent, 1 language. But when Daddy was speaking Korean, as well as Doumi, neighbours, strangers around him and his school, Korean was all he would use. Now he is learning that we respond to English and people around him respond to Korean. ^.^

3. The Kimchi Kid has gotten even better at feeding himself. He has trainer chopsticks that he uses like a pro! He even picked his own meat off the grill in a restaurant with them! He is very good at telling us what he would like to eat, although at times that has meant he requested "cheeseburger" or "ice-cream" for dinner. But what kid doesn't request things like that? ^.~

4. The Kimchi Kid has become extremely fond of song and dance, drawing and painting. I credit his kindergarten for inspiring this creativity in him, but some of it surely must be genetic! (The drawing and painting, not song and dance! Neither Tom nor I are good at that!)
He loves to sing little songs to himself, sometimes they seem to be real songs that we can identify, other times he makes them up. He also loves to clap his hands, dance and bob his head in time to music. I caught him singing along and dancing to the opening song in the movie "Wall-E" the other day.
As for the art, well he only tries drawing on paper, but it can be magazines, books, sketch pads, tissue, anything! Despite having lots of lovely crayons his weapon of choice is a ball point pen. As long as he doesn't draw on other surfaces, I suppose it isn't too bad. He really loves tracing his hand or feet though and can do so endlessly. I think it is adorable!

5. The Kimchi Kid is polite! Yay for Canada! ^.~ He is very good at using his "please" and "thank-you"s. He is fond of saying " Help me please!" if he can't do something on his own. He loves to ask for "Money please!" or "Candy please!". He is just so cute when he does it is hard to say no!
He is also very good at greeting Koreans politely, bowing and speaking the polite form "안녕하세요!" (Ahn nyoung ha seh yo). The people in our building, in the shops and restaurants all know and love him. He gets so much positive attention everywhere he goes and he is always polite and happy.
He has even been given money by older men who said that he reminded them of when their children were young! ^.^ The first time it was 1000won($1) but twice now he has been given 10,000won($10). He is also frequently given toys, candy and snacks by his adoring fans! ^.~ I'm getting tired of the candy thing, but we are weaning him off it.

6. The Kimchi Kid is currently obsessed with baseball, bugs, birds and diggers! During the recent construction in front of our building there was a large orange backhoe at work almost every day. There was no way you could tear him away from watching that machine at work! He talks about diggers all the time, looking for them and pointing them out to us. The same goes for bugs and birds. He is always hunting for them when we go for walks and will chase either one happily for hours!
As for baseball, he calls it "야구" (Yagu). He can spot a baseball, bat or glove a mile away! He will run into the park searching for older boys playing it and try to play with them. Luckily everyone is charmed by this precocious little sports fan and they are more than happy to toss him the ball a few times. He has also learned "strike", "out" and "home run" which he happily shouts while watching people play!

7. The Kimchi Kid has learned the difference between "Good Boy" and "Bad Boy" and will tell us when he is being a "Good Boy". We have worked with time outs and now counting down from 5 in terms of discipline. We also explain to him now that if he is a "Bad Boy" he will be punished, either by forfeiting a treat or reward, returning home or by making us angry. He has learned that these are things he doesn't want so if we tell him that is what will happen, he reassures us that he will be a "Good Boy"!
At dinner the other night he was being restless while we were still eating and refusing to eat his meal. We told him that if he did not eat, we would go home and have no walk in the park. Since he loves walking in the park so much, he responded "No no! Thomas Good Boy!" and ate all his food! ^.^ Daddy and I were so surprised and utterly charmed that it was all we could do to stop from laughing out loud!

There is so much more I could write, but the Kimchi Kid has fallen asleep and it is time for me to steal away into the night...
I will leave this post at lucky #7 and do my best to write more soon!!

Much love from us all, Mommy Cha, Daddy Cha and The Kimchi Kid! <3

Language and Respect!

As many of you may know(and if you don't know, why don't you read my blog??!!), we are trying to raise the Kimchi Kid in a bi-lingual environment. The reason we do this is mainly out of respect for my husband's culture and heritage but also since we are living and raising him in South Korea.
My husband left South Korea as a small child, around the age of 5. His parents whole-heartedly immersed him into the American lifestyle, culture and the English language. He very quickly(6 months he says!) learned to speak English and FORGOT all his Korean language abilities. As he grew older he realized that he was unable to comunicate with his grandmother and that saddened him. He attempted to re-learn Korean so that he was able to at least thank her and ask her how she was doing. Upon his return to South Korea he studied Korean in an academy and then joined the Korean military for his mandatory service. Adult Korean males must serve at least 2 years(it may be less now) in the military. My husband became fluent in speaking Korean during that time, and he STILL remembers how his grandmother cried after speaking to him on the phone, in Korean, for the first time! As a result he was determined that his children would NOT forget their heritage and their language. I agreed with him that it was important for our children to be aware of their cultural background and learn the language of their country of residence. The Kimchi Kid has been progressing well in both English and Korean, but since Korean is more prevalent he is stronger in speaking Korean than English.
I read and talked to several people who have raised bilingual children and we chose to follow the 1 parent-1 language approach. That means I try to speak only English while my husband tries to speak only Korean to our son. At times I do forget and speak in Korean to him, but I always try and say the English word as well.
Beyond just learning a language however, there is a question of respect. I was raised to always say please and thank-you especially to those older than me. Teachers, friends' parents, doctors, grandparents, relatives, etc. all of these people I was unfailingly polite to. So when I came to Korea I was shocked at how rude I found people could be! Once I had spent some time here, and read more about the culture and history of the country, I began to understand more. Korea was strongly influenced by Confucianism and still is today. This teaches the Korean people that elders should be respected, as well as teachers and scholars above all else and this is reflected in their language as well. Asking your age or job when meeting someone new is not considered rude, but it helps them determine what language to use with you and where to place you in their social hierarchy.
I quickly learned that strangers where not so much being rude to me, but more likely uncertain of my status in their life and instead choosing to ignore me. It was like I simply did not exist in their world until I was introduced. The older woman ramming me with her cart at the store, or pushing past me to grab something, would often change her attitude and apologise if I called her on it. Usually I would just ignore it as it was not worth it to me. Staff in stores and coffee shops where I became a regular who at first may not acknowledge me would start to respect me the more they saw me. Slowly I became "someone" in their view. This has led to me forming good relationships of mutual respect with many different people here, including teachers, doctors, students and their families. Our local store owner would often give the Kimchi Kid a free candy when we shopped for produce.
Since I was ever mindful that as a foreigner in South Korea, I paid special attention to my pleases and thank-yous in Korean. As part of the culture of respect, Koreans have formal and casual language, the formal of course being the most polite and suitable for elders, teachers or scholars. However, I frequently used the politest form of "thank-you" for anyone who served me or helped in stores or restaurants, as that was simply how I was raised. My husband was actually told by my favorite sandwich lady that she ALWAYS gave me extra toppings on my sandwich because I was the ONLY one who was always so polite with her! Not even younger Koreans would thank her like I did, they simply ignored her. She was so impressed that I spoke the most polite Korean to her, thanked her for my food and always said please and I was a FOREIGNER! This made a big impact on me, because it showed me that by simply respecting her and her language/culture, she would never forget me and treated me better than the average customer. A little respect can go a long way sometimes!
Once I made the decision to marry a Korean, I threw myself into language lessons. Despite the fact that my in-laws live in Texas and speak fluent English, I knew that I wanted to be able to communicate with them in their language. This was a sign of my respect for them, as they were my family now. I tried my best to learn the polite forms of please and thank you, as well as greetings and compliments for cooking for my MIL. They were very happy and touched that I made the effort and it helped them to understand that while I was not Korean, I respected them and their culture. The Kimchi Kid has been raised the same way and he already knows how to say "please" in English, bow his head in respect for greetings or thanks in Korea, and to use both hands as a polite sign when asking for a treat or toy. This is important to us and we hope to raise a bilingual child who is well-mannered and respectful in Korean and English.
I have often read postings in online forums from the ESL community and gotten angered by those who have no respect for the country or culture that they are currently residing in. I understand that you may have no intention of staying in Korea long-term and therefore have no need for the language, but is it really that hard to learn your please and thank-yous? I find it even more difficult to deal with people who marry into a different culture and live and raise children in that new country or culture. The very least you could do is learn to respect your in-laws in their language, especially if they do not know yours. Afterall if they moved to your home country, can you honestly tell me that you would NOT expect them to learn YOUR language especially if they plan to be there long term?
Respect is not given, it is earned. If you don't respect the people around you, why on earth would you expect them to respect YOU?

Time Moves So Swiftly!

The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades!


This laundry basket is much more comfortable since I removed the dirty clothes!



Toilet paper rolls are fun toys, especially once you remove all the rolled up paper!


Why won't you help me climb up on the sofa to press the intercom? You're so mean Mommy!


Hey, what's that?

The Kimchi Kid has delighted in showing us all his new skills and more over the past few days! Time seemed to move so slowly while pregnant, now each and every day he is demonstrating new skills and comprehension.
Some days I miss that precious baby I held in my arms, but other days I rejoice at how blessed we are to have such a happy and healthy son keeping us on our toes!
His vocabulary is constantly growing and these days he seems to be trying even harder to repeat after us. We have always tried to speak to him, even when he was in the womb, but now he is trying to speak back to us.
This week he spoke English for the first time(if you can call it that!). We have a CD of children's songs that the doumi brought us and the first song is the Alphabet song. I asked him if he wanted the ABC song and he replied "ABC!" . We were so surprised and thrilled! He also has started repeating Korean words after us. He says "Banana" which is the same in Korean and English, and "Seureggi" which is garbage in Korean. That word came about because after changing his diaper, we would always throw it in the trash can and tell him that it was "Seureggi". These days he takes great delight in throwing his own dirty diaper in the trash and repeating "Seureggi" after us.
He has now mastered door opening and if he is not tired, he will not hesitate to open the door and leave the bedroom. This can be good and bad. It is good because now when he wakes up he can come out and find us, no more crying in the room waiting for us to come in and get him. It is bad because twice now I have been so exhausted I have not woken when he has, and instead I wake to the sound of dishes crashing in the kitchen as he searches for his morning "mool". The other bad side is he has apparently learned how to unlock the house door and open it, inspiring great terror in me that he may run away and be hurt! Fortunately he is fond of us and the doumi, and reluctant to leave us. He will try and follow Tom if he goes out to smoke, but usually I am here and can prevent him.
With the lovely Summer weather we have tried to take daily walks as a family. If not as a family, one of us will take Thomas for a nice walk around the area. Before we would put him in the stroller and then let him walk at our destination. Now we will walk with him, often with Thomas wearing his leash/harness, and he happily walks for 30 minutes or more on a daily basis. He is very active and loves being outside. He doesn't often run from us but he still tries to pick up trash, leaves and sticks and that can make for slow going.
Reading is still his favorite quiet time occupation, and he appears to have lost interest in his Pororo DVD. I can't say I mind that he no longer zones out with the TV, but when I am cooking it can be a pain to have him underfoot! I recently bought him a new book, "I Love you Forever" by Robert Munsch. Reading it to my son for the first time brought me to tears. I remembered this book from my childhood, and now reading it as a mother drove the sentiment home even stronger. Last night when I curled up in bed next to him and watched him sleep, I kissed his forehead and held him in my arms. I whispered the words of the story to him:

"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."

I'm actually crying now as I type this. Never did I imagine I would feel so much love for someone as I do for my son. I would do anything for him and I am doing my best to be a good mother for him. The words from the story remind me that although he is growing so fast, changing from my baby to my boy, no matter what, he will always be my baby, and I will always love him.

Another Week Has Flown By!

The boys enjoy the 3 Bs- Beef, Beer and Bonding!

I can hardly believe another week has flown by!
It has been a hectic one to say the least, and I am blogging now at 2am, my first real chance to get online this week!!
Thomas has made some remarkable new discoveries this week. The major one is he can now reach and open any door in our house, except the front door! That was a big shock for us! I had ran away to the bathroom while Daddy was playing with him when the door opened and there, with the biggest toothy grin possible, was Thomas! I was so surprised, I was sure Daddy had opened it for him just to bug me. I closed the door and he proceeded to open at close it 3 times in a row, just to show me that he DID do it himself! Take that Mommy! Hahaha..
Thomas has also learned to jump off of steps on his own. We're undecided as to whether or not this is a good thing! On the one hand, he enjoys walking up and down stairs now, but on the other, he jumped off a large foam block at the play gym today. Luckily the floor was padded when he landed badly, but it will not always be so. We're trying to watch him even more carefully now. Hopefully he will learn without leaping off a dangerous height!
Next he has learned how to climb on the sofa and into his highchair if he wants to eat. He is not shy about letting us know he wants "mool", so now he gladly notifies us of his desire for "mama" as well! He continues to eat spicy Korean foods much to the amusement/shock of Koreans around us. They alternate between pride in his true Korean nature and concern over his potential stomach upset from the spiciness. We try to feed him bland foods but he demands it! He climbed on the chair and started eating my bibimbap(rice topped with various vegetables and a spicy red pepper paste) yesterday!
His last major discovery is that he can climb onto the back of the sofa, teeter precariously on the edge, and reach the built in video intercom/house phone! He has learned by watching us that you can press a large button on it and shout at people. So he presses the large button and shouts at it, usually when we are not nearby! When he does it though it simply goes to the landline and we hear a loud dial tone. The problem is he is so shakily balanced on his tiptoes to do so, and has fallen head over heels once already!

I'm hoping we make some more developments in the quiet, thoughtful, self-amusement area in the next month or so. For those of you not aware, we are going to Texas to see the Grandparents and Uncle Gary in the end of September. Daddy has to stay behind and work, so I am not looking forward to the flight with the ever-energetic Kimchi Kid!
Thomas has become fond of screaming lately so we have been following the Dr. Sears Discipline book. So far the recommendations have been practical, useful and effective. I hope to finish studying it before the trip so we can travel without being the people everyone likes to complain about on long flights!
Does anyone have any tips for the energizer toddler on a 10 hour International flight?
Cheers!

The Kimchi Kid and his new discoveries.

Thomas has been working hard this week. He's introduced a new word into his speaking vocabulary and has learned to respond to a new word when we say it.
His spoken vocabulary now includes "Kaja-let's go".
Ohma = Mommy
Appa = Daddy
Ahboba = this is used when the doumi wants to carry Thomas on her back
Mama = food or milk
Mool = water or drink as he uses it
Mong Mong = puppy in child-speak, and he is so in love with dogs!
Kaja = Let's go.

Since Thomas has always loved to go outside we would tell him "Bagata Kaja - Let's go out." when it was time to go. He responded to this buy going to the door, climbing into his stroller or getting his shoes. While that was exciting for us, it was even more exciting when he started saying "Kaja" back to us!


Reading one of his favorite Pororo books.
He still hasn't spoken any English words, but he does respond to us when we speak them. The newest word that has a strong reaction is "Check - Book" We use the Korean(Check) and English (Book) together whenever we say it. As part of his night time routine, we always would read a book with him and tell him we were going to.
Now, if we ask him to get a Check or Book, he will go into the playroom and look for a book which he will then bring back to us. Usually he will also then climb into our laps in preparation for story time. This makes me so happy, as I love reading and have actively tried to instill a love of books in Thomas. Since he was born and even before I have read to him and surrounded him with books to read and play with. While we have had a few incidents with destroyed pop-up books(he is too curious at times!), overall the books have fared well.
When he was younger he had a love for paper, eating paper that is! So my books were often tasty fodder for a teething toddler. He also delighted in the sound and sensation of shredding pages from magazines. This has thankfully passed and now instead he loves to sit and leaf through a novel of mine if he can reach it.
The other day Doumi showed me a book I am reading now, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and told me how Thomas brought this book to her to read but she does not have the skills to read so much English! She tries hard to read him the small baby books in English and said she was grateful to have a job that she enjoys so much and where she can learn new things at 61 years old. But a full on novel was just too much of a challenge. I thought this was too funny and I was so proud of Thomas. He knows there is more to the book than pictures and he wanted to experience what I do.



Dinner was curried lentils and vegetables mixed with rice. Sticky enough he could scoop it and feed himself.


So proud of his new spoon skills.


Another new development is his desire to feed himself. He has been eating finger foods for a awhile but recently he has started trying to use his spoon to eat. At first, he would turn it upside down on the trip to his mouth but now he has mastered the spoon to a the degree that he can convey the food to his mouth without turning the spoon upside down. It helps that he likes to eat sticky rice and it sticks rather nicely to the spoon. He is very Korean in his food tastes, in the food department we have discovered he loves anything spicy or spiced. Curry or kimchi, he loves it all.
I contemplated buying him a toddler spoon and fork set, which are shorter utensils than normal, but he eats fine with the free pink spoons from Baskin Robbins. Saves me money and they are easy to replace if he tosses or loses them! As part of the self-feeding we are now working on scooping the food out of his bowl with his spoon. So far I scoop it and give him the spoon as he will often try to pick up the food with one hand and place it on the spoon in his other hand. It also looks like he is becoming right handed, but he can switch it up at
times.


Doumi put his blocks in this jar. He really, REALLY wanted them out.
He followed me around begging for it to be opened as I took pictures!
He has also figured out that packages can be opened and often they contain tasty treats like crackers or dried fruit. He will bring us any package, bag, jar or bottle he can carry in the hope that we will open it and share its contents with him!


Showing off his basketball skills for Doumi and Mommy.

As for his basketball skills, they are getting stronger by the day. He is very eager to have people come in the playroom so he can dunk a ball or toy through the basketball net. He was so excited when Daddy came home last night, he ran into the playroom and got a ball so he could show him what he could do! Daddy was of course thoroughly impressed and a rousing game of "throw anything through the basket" ensued!
Thomas has continued to a show a strong interest in animals, too strong at times perhaps! He was walking in the front of our building with our Doumi a few days ago and a rat ran in front of them. Now it ran away quickly and hid in some flower beds, but Thomas saw it, tracked it and pointed it out to Doumi with great interest. She of course was horrified by the dirty, dirty rat but Thomas was thrilled and tried to follow it around the garden. He also likes to follow dogs, dirty pigeons and birds around. When we visited Steph and her son Will last week, Thomas got to interact with her lovely cats. He was so excited by them, it makes me think he needs a pet. But our Doumi has said it is a pet or her, as she is not an animal person. Right now, we need her more than a pet!
We're so happy that he seems to becoming such a well-rounded little boy and glad we can share him and his experiences with you! Thanks for reading!

The Kimchi Kid's amazing vocabulary!

Making the sign for "more".
As many of you may know, my husband Tom is Korean. We made the decision before Thomas was born to raise him bilingually. Tom speaks to Thomas mainly in Korean and I speak mainly in English. However, we have had a doumi ajumma(nanny/housekeeper) since Thomas was 5 days old. As a result, he has begun speaking, but ONLY in Korean so far! He is getting better at communicating by the day, and so far his vocabulary consists of:

Ohma = Mommy
Appa = Daddy
Ahboba = this is used when the doumi wants to carry Thomas on her back
Mama = food or milk
Mool = water or drink as he uses it
Mong Mong = puppy in child-speak, and he is so in love with dogs!

We also tried to teach Thomas some baby signs, but we only managed to keep up with it enough to teach him "more" and "all done".
He does seem to understand when I ask him things in English, but so far he is definitely only speaking Korean!
He also understands a lot of spoken Korean and will react when we ask him or tell him things like where is mommy or daddy, let's go outside, put on your shoes, etc.
Hopefully he will keep on learning new words and try out some English ones soon!