The New Addition to Our Family!

The Kimchi Kid loves Eddie!

Meet Eddie!

Tom and I decided to enjoy the mild Fall weather and freedom from Thomas on Saturday. We went for a nice hike up wonmi-san, Wonmi mountain. The leaves were gorgeous, the air was crisp, we had a lovely conversation and enjoyed ourselves immensely.
When we came down the mountain we had to walk along the road to get back to our car for about 20 minutes. We came across an old man selling birds on the side of the road. They were very pretty and we stopped to look at them. Under all the cages, tied with a ragged piece of red ribbon was this adorable little puppy. His fur was matted and dirty, he had no food or water and children were poking at him, screaming and laughing.
I felt so bad for him! He was so happy to see us and so friendly, it broke my heart to leave him behind. As we walked back to the car I started to cry thinking of him. Tom and I discussed the pros and cons of taking him home as we walked. Eventually we decided we would drive by and ask how much he was selling him for. I pulled over and Tom hopped out to ask.
After about 10 minutes Tom came back with Eddie in his hands! I burst into tears, I was so happy! He was only 20,000won so Tom couldn't not give him a better home. We have wanted a dog for Thomas for a while, and we had agreed to wait, mainly because our doumi was not interested in having a dog to care for. But we just had to give this sweet little face a home!
We immediately took him to the vet to get checked out. They gave him the once over, bathed him and clipped his nails. He was so upset to be separated from Tom. We could hear him yelping from outside the office! Once we got home with all the supplies we could need he was 100% devoted to Tom.
We've been working to teach him paper training but so far he prefers to hold it and go outside. We've had about 5 accidents in the house each day, but most have been outside and really, we've only had him 1 day! He comes when we call him, responds to his name, sits on command, and doesn't whine or bark much once we leave the house. So far he seems to be a loving, intelligent and energetic little puppy and a very welcome addition to our home! We hope to keep you updated with all the future antics of Eddie and the Kimchi Kid!

Tired out from his first day at our home, he fell asleep with his head in his food dish.

Happy Fall!

The cutest bumblebee in town!

Well the leaves are changing colours, the weather is cooling down and Halloween is past!


Seo Young, Thomas and Ji Oo enjoy the colourful leaves in Jungang Park.

Looks like Fall is here! We hope everyone had a great Halloween.
We did our little Kindergarten parties and had a fun time.

Thomas was the cutest bumblebee around, I was Minnie Mouse and Daddy was Frankenstein.


Baby Bumblebee and Mommy Minnie Mouse!


Scary Frankenstein Daddy! This mask made and still makes Thomas cry!

I also made Jack O'Lantern cookies for Halloween day.

Frosted with vanilla buttercream and topped with chocolate chip faces!

Hope you all have a lovely Fall and enjoy the colourful leaves!
HUGS!

The Kimchi Kid lives up to his name!

Thomas and SeoYoung sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

These days I barely have time to sit down, let alone write a blog! The Kimchi Kid is a never-ending ball of energy, and even with reducing my work schedule I am hard-pressed to keep up with him. The best I am able to offer are brief snippets of our daily life and the occasional photo.
Thomas has developed several new and amusing habits/tricks recently.

1. Using a light stick, turkey baster or toy golf club he will repeatedly turn on and off any light switch in the house that he can reach. During this time he will repeatedly say "Wow!'.

2. When he gets tired, he will take either Daddy or myself by the hand, sometimes both of us, and say 'Night-night!" and walk us to the bedroom to go to sleep.

3. Anytime he wants something to eat, drink or play with, he will also take us by the hand, lead us to said object and point to it, saying "Kaka" for snack, "Mool" for drink and "Eego" for any other item.

4. He has discovered trains, and calls them "chee-chee" whenever he sees them. "Chee-chee bo-bo" is the sound Koreans say trains make.

5. When he has a wet or dirty diaper, he will bend over to look at it or point to it and say "Gi-gi" which means dirty. He will also make the sound "Sssshhhhhhhiiii" when he pees or daddy pees.

6. We've been trying to raise him so he isn't a cry-baby like a lot of children here seem to be. Anytime he falls down we tell him in English and Korean "You're ok!". This usually works well with him. He will get up and continue to play with few tears and an occasional hug. He has become quite the sturdy and strong little boy as a result.

7. He has mastered the art of standing on his ride-on truck to reach things he normally wouldn't be able to reach. Any time he gets quiet, I KNOW he is getting into trouble! I caught him in the kitchen trying to get snacks from the counter by the sink.

He is constantly surprising us with new vocabulary and abilities these days. We feel really blessed at how strong, active, healthy and intelligent he is becoming.

In other Kimchi Kid news, here are a few of the fun and funny things he has done in the past while!

* During lunch prep, the doumi placed a dish of kimchi on the table. Thomas has become taller, quicker and stronger so he took the bowl of kimchi off the table, ran into his playroom and started eating it before the doumi even noticed it was gone! This was plaid old kimchi, usually most people consider it spicy, but Thomas just munched it down!

*While playing with Daddy, Thomas managed to stick his finger up inside his nose high enough to cause a monster nosebleed! Then he ran away laughing, while Daddy and I laughed with disbelief.

* During bath prep time, I took of his diaper before going into the bedroom to get his towel. When I took it off he said "Ssshhhhiii". I just laughed and said "No, bath time." When I returned to the living room I realized he had said it because he had to pee! He had peed all over the living room floor and looked quite proud of himself!

* Thomas seems to love golf. On his first birthday he picked the golf ball off the tray of items at the party. He had never seen one before, so it really surprised us! Then while we were in Texas he was obsessed with Harabeogi's (Grandpa) golf clubs and golf balls. So once he came home to Korea he had no golf clubs or golf balls to play with. Instead, he took a spatula off of the kitchen counter and started hitting a basketball around the house with it. I ordered him a golf set shortly after I saw this! ^^
Basketball-spatula golf!

Well, the Kimchi Kid is ready for bed and tugging at my hands, so I guess I have to wrap this up! Hope everyone enjoyed this brief post! Cheers!

Sweet Home Gyeonggi-Do!

Yes, we're back in Korea!
Yes, it is earlier than expected!
Yes, there is lots to share!
Yes, we are jet-lagged!
Yes, I am staying home for 1 week in case of the dreaded SWINE FLU!
No, I don't think we are actually sick.
No, I am not writing more now because I am tired and cranky.

Enjoy this photo for now.

CHEESE!
Cheers!

Headed to Texas!

Well looks like we figured things out! Thomas got a new passport in a mere 3 business days, I applied and received his E-Visa online and we changed our tickets to TODAY! So in a mere 8 hours we should be happily flying to Texas! If so, this blog may not be updated for a few days/weeks again.
If not, it will be update with my rage and frustration. Hehehe.....
So watch this space! If there are no new posts be happy for us since we are in Texas!
I'll update about our trip as soon as I am able!
Cheers!

NOT on the airplane!!!

Ok, so Thomas's Canadian passport expired in June, we were just too busy to go renew it and his citizenship card JUST arrived last week. I figured that it would be easy to just use his Korean passport.
When our friend went to Singapore Air to verify her 3rd party payment for our tickets (my husband has no idea how to register his Korean credit cards for online shopping!), they told her Thomas would need a Visa for travel to the USA with his Korean passport.

They told her we could apply online at the ESTAS website. What she didn't realize was that we didn't have an electronic passport, and Singapore Air never mentioned that the ESTAS online Electronic Visa ONLY worked if you had an Electronic Passport!
I went on ESTAS, got Thomas his Visa and that was all. There was nothing on the main page to let me know that with a Korean Passport you needed it to be Electronic.
At the airport Singapore Air told us he could NOT fly with an E-Visa and old style passport. We either had to have a paper visa in his passport or an e-passport. I was furious! They refused to budge, stating that even though he had received his ESTAS Visa, we could not travel to the USA. I begged them to let us go and try our luck with the Customs official in the USA. After all, he has dual Canadian/Korean Citizenship, he is 16 months old and he was approved for a Visa! How hard would it be to convince someone to allow him in?!
They point blank refused, and when I demanded to speak to a superior, I was given an e-mail address to contact! At that point, I gave up and started crying. We left the counter and I called the main office in Seoul. When I spoke to the woman who answered, she told me that due to our tickets being purchased on an online special sale, they could not be changed!!! I lost it!! I started yelling and crying at the same time and told her how this was Singapore Air's fault. She asked for my number and said she would speak to a supervisor and call me back.
I then called Tom to come and pick us up and we went to KFC for a late lunch. Doumi was with me, thank goodness, or I would have completely lost it being denied boarding with a stroller, 2 suitcases and a cranky 16month old who just wanted to walk all over! singapore Air called me back after an hour and said as long as I flew before September 30th, I could change my ticket.
We came home, got new passport photos taken and we are applying for his e-passport tomorrow morning. We have been told it should take around 4 business days.

Unfortunately my brother-in-law had booked connecting tickets for us and may be out some money due to having to cancel them at such short notice. Not to mention the extremely disappointed grandparents and other family members who now have to wait a week or more for us to come. As well we had to have a notarized letter of consent for me to travel without Tom to the USA, to ensure I am not kidnapping him ins a custody dispute. That cost $100 to translate and notarize, and will now have to be re-done since the dates are wrong. This also messes up my work schedule and our plans for Chuseok when I returned.

I have always been such a careful planner, I had everything printed, notarized booked and filed for the trip. I had no idea that Singapore Air's advice would not be right! Goes to show with travel it is important to double-check everything in advance, even your passport validity and visa validity! Hopefully all will go well with his passport and we will fly next week. I'll keep everyone posted!

Almost Texas Time!

The Kimchi Kid rocking Mommy's hat!

Hello everyone! So sorry for the delay in updates. The Kimchi Kid has been a busy little boy and is thriving! He loves to go out for walks every day and will even hand us his clothes and shoes as soon as he wakes up. He gets so excited, full of laughter and smiles, when he walks outside. Lately he has started showing strong interest in children and will happily wave to them or walk up to them as if to introduce himself. He is such a charmer that when we walk around our area, many people call him by name to say hi! Everyone remembers our gorgeous little boy.
We have been busy ever since the baby fair ended, which is great. Sales are increasing even with the price increase. It is really fantastic and we are so glad that our hard work is paying off! Soon I will be taking more time off work to stay home with Thomas and I am really looking forward to it.


The new dish set Thomas has is orange but otherwise looks the same!
Thomas has made huge advances in self-feeding and cup drinking. I bought him a wonderful dish set at the babyfair and he loves to eat with it. It has an anti skid base so he can easily scoop his food up without the plate sliding everywhere!

The exact colour and style that we bought!
We also bought him a new chair that he can climb into on his own. If he is hungry he lets us know by climbing up and asking for "mama"(food) or "kaka"(snack). He is a very strong minded independent little boy and we are so proud if him.
Daddy has started to take Saturdays off and will also take off some weeknights as well. We hope to have lots of family time together, going for walks, playing at Little Bear Cafe, drawing pictures, etc. Thomas has started showing some definite need for Daddy-time! He has left my bed to sleep with Daddy, cried for 10 minutes at the door when Daddy left for work, and even refused to be held by me upon waking up one morning because he wanted his Daddy so badly! This was a sign to us that Daddy needed to work less and play with Thomas more.
Wednesday, September 16th, Thomas and I will be flying to Austin, Texas to visit Daddy's family. We will be there for 2.5 weeks and while I am apprehensive about the long flight, I am sure Thomas will be a champion and it will be fine! We will miss Daddy very much while we are gone, since he has to stay behind and work. Hopefully we will talk to him everyday and have lots of great pictures to share when we get back! During our time in Texas we will be limited in our internet access, so it will be a while before you see another update! Sorry!
Hope that everyone had a great Summer and we plan on doing lots of playdates in the Fall!
Cheers!