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