Reading Harold and the Purple Crayon

Now Henni can read (recite) many books on her own. Here Scott got on the video Henni reading the entire book of Harold and the Purple Crayon. It is one of my favorite children's books, and I was surprised to see how well she can read for herself (alas, I wasn't there to witness it in person!). One of the funniest parts in the videos is in the beginning of the first clip, where she says "Harold and the Purple Crayon... by...Elmos and Doras." This is a habit she picked up from yours truly who always makes sure to say the name of the author(s) after reading the title.

Henni-isms 6

 

Henni still makes us laugh with everything she says.

Henni: (pointing at her knee) Dada, I got a boo-boo!!
Scott: (kissing where she has pointed) Let me kiss it and it will be all better.
Henni: (seriously upset) It is NOT better!
Even a couple of months ago, a kiss used to make every boo-boo "better" but not so anymore.

Me: (making a V sign with the index and middle fingers) Henni, go like this! It is for Victory!
Henni: That is not victory, that's TWO!

Scott: (pointing to Henni's big post-dinner tummy) What's in there, Henni?
Henni: (declaring proudly, with an obvious accent on "very") My very own baby!

Scott and I always spell out words that we don't want the kids to hear, like c-a-n-d-y or i-c-e-c-r-e-a-m. One day, we heard her say out of nowhere, "My name is b-a-n-a-n-a-s."

I made some clanking noise doing the dishes and Henni called after me with a tint of worry in her voice, "Try not to break the plates, Mama!"

After seeing cherry blossom petals falling on our backyard, Henni said very matter of factly, "It's snowing with flowers! What a MESS!"

Easter Egg Hunt 2009

 

Henni and Junjun got to participate in the Embassy's Easter Egg Hunt. Although it has gotten very warm in Seoul recently, because of the high yellow dust level, they rarely get to play outside. Today, the weather and the air quality cooperated with all the scheduled activities, and kids had a great time outside. It was Henni's first Easter Egg Hunt, because last year, it rained all weekend long around Easter, and all the activities were canceled. Henni liked finding eggs for the first 3 minutes and then lost all interest soon thereafter. She'd much rather ride the swing or play with sand. She got to have one out of about 15 eggs she found, and mom successfully hid the rest.

Playing the piano

Henni likes to express herself on the piano. Rarely does she bang on the keyboard as most 2 1/2 year olds would. Instead she takes care to find different ways to make music with each note, even if she is just playing "happy birthday to you" and "row row row your boat". Maybe she will become a concert pianist like her eemo.

Praying before eating

Henni now prays on her own very well before she eats. We caught her praying on her own, so we asked her to do the prayer again after she was done, just to capture it on video (yeah, we are crazy parents ;-). We think she is saying "Thank you for Lord" a couple of times before she starts thanking for the family and Helen, her babysitter, because we typically pray "Thank you Lord for..." We hope she will grow up to be a girl who can always talk to God before, during, or after any meal.

Henni sings to baby

Before I left for NY, I sang for Henni "This Little Monkey of Mine." I took the melody from "this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine" and changed the words so that it goes something like "this little monkey of mine, I'm gonna squeeze her" or "I'm gonna tickle her" etc., etc., to play around with her. After I came back I saw this video, taken by Scott while I was gone, in which Henni is doing to Junjun exactly what I do for her. Junjun likes it for the first two stanzas and then gets quickly sick of it.

The monkey fell off and bumped his head

Henni is (still) really into singing and motioning along with her songs, most often with a lot of enthusiasm.

Like father, like son

 

Don't you think they look so much alike??

Junjun has a loud voice!

 

Until recently, Junjun was kind of a passive little boy with a small voice. He was always very assertive with his sister, but in public, he was sort of on the quiet side, always happy to just observe what is going on around him. Not so any more. I don't know what changed, but all of a sudden he became a boy with the loudest shriek on the block! He LOVES to scream on top of his lungs (happy or upset). If Henni is laughing, he would follow along and makes himself laugh too. It is funny because it is sometimes the most obviously forced fake giggle. As you can see in this picture, he really likes this stuffed doggy I made him and likes to gnaw on its tail or its mouth. Junjun had to duke it out with his sister, because they both wanted the doggy. He also loves to headbang when he hears a handful of songs he knows. He is tired of playing peek-a-boo, but still loves to watch my fingers move when I sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." He hates any form of baby food, and only wants to eat what his sister eats (he only has 6 teeth, 2 of which are just barely peeking through his pink gums). His little eyes intensely follow what drops from my hands to his sister's plate, and starts whining and whimpering, nodding and twitching, clearly indicating that he wants what she is having. His favorite meal consists of steamed white rice and grilled mackerel. He is in heaven if it is followed by either honeydew or red grapes. He still likes mommy's milk the best the first thing in the morning, and if he had it his way, he'd love to have it as the last thing before he goes to sleep. This will have to change very quickly. His first birthday is just around the corner, and I am determined to wean him off by the end of his first year.

Henni-isms 5

 

Junjun: (refusing his food) waa-waa-waa
Henni: (throwing a generous amount of her pancake on Junjun's tray after seeing him refusing his mush) Baby, I am SO nice to you!

Me: (working on the computer) Henni, stop touching mommy's keyboard.
Henni ignores me and continues to press my keyboard with her little index finger.
Me: Henni, I am not joking. Please stop touching mommy's keyboard.
Henni: No, but I am joking!

Dad: Who do you like more, mommy or daddy?
Henni: Baby!
She never fails to answer this question this way. Don't ask me why we ask her this question--I swore I'd never ask this silly qustion to our children, but for some reason, it's hard to resist the urge to know the answer to this one. Of course, our smart daughter does not give us the satisfaction of knowing the answer!

We own two cars, a gray new station wagon and an old white minivan we purchased for $400 when we got to Korea.
Dad: Do you like the gray car or the white car?
Henni: The gray one.
Dad: Why?
Henni: (most nonchalantly, with the tone of a teenager's "you should know better") Because I like to listen to music! (our white van's radio and cassette player are all broken)

Henni-isms4

Henni: (after looking down at her own post-dinner tummy) Oh, I have a baby in my tummy.
Me: (smiling) oh yeah?
Henni: (looking alarmed)... but... I am a baby!

Me: (tucking Henni in for the night) What should we pray about tonight?
Henni: Let's pray about Panda bears.

Henni's favorite phrase of the month is "How can that be?" and she says this in a rhetorical (and not quite sarcastic, yet) sort of way. For example, Henni sets up her wooden tea party set nicely for us. She has put a piece of cake on a plate for me, but Junjun snatches it before I get to it and shoves it in his mouth. Then Henni says, "Hmm, baby got your cake, mom. How can that be?"

She is also experimenting with the superlatives these days.
Me: (washing this season's new strawberries) Hey, Henni, these are the most scrumptious strawberries in the world!
Henni: (after taking a bite, and mimicking the high and exaggerated tone I had just used) yeah, mom, these are the moooooooooost strawberries!

Along with the superlatives, she also loves to describe a noun with a modifying phrase using "that". "Mom, can you read the book that I love most?" (of course, the book changes every day) "Mom, I want to pick out the panties that I like best." But sometimes she is a bit off: (rejecting the pink spoon I set on her table) "No, mom! I want a spoon that I want!"

No more diapers!

Now Henni is completely potty trained except when she is sleeping! She peed for the first time in her red potty in October, but getting her to do her business in the potty, for the most part, was a rare treat for mommy for at least three months. Especially in December she got sick with pneumonia and we didn’t try to push her with the potty training at all during this time. Since she is exceptionally big (she is about 40 inches tall and weighs 34 lbs now, that would be above average for a 3 ½ year old on the growth chart—and she is not even 2 ½ yet!!!) many Korean people used to give me the dirtiest looks when they saw her in diapers. One random old lady even slapped me on my arms three times, telling me I need to get her off diapers “right now”. It is true, Koreans are very quick about training their children in this department. I don’t know how they do it, but as soon as they reach about 18 months, Korean children seem to get it. (But really, what good is having a diaper-trained 2-year old who is screaming and running around in public place, like restaurants or subway? I’d much rather take a pleasant and well-mannered Henni, even with her sagging diaper, over these repressed Korean kids any day!) All my American friends told me not to worry about it and that Henni would “get” it and do it on her own once she is ready. Well, just about a month ago, she started asking regularly if she can be taken to the potty. We did have to bribe her with 2 coins (for her piggy bank) and 2 M&Ms every time she peed in the potty in the past couple of months. Now her pink polka-dotted piggy bank is almost full, and she is not wetting her clothes anymore!

They have so much fun together!

I wrote in the blog on November 23rd that, although Henni and Junjun are not playing together yet, I look forward to them having fun with each other some day. Well, 4 months later, they are playing so well together! They just can't seem to get enough of each other. Henni tries to include Junjun in a lot of her activities. Of course there are times when she doesn't want baby to mess up the pretty tea party she has set up for herself and mom. She gets frustrated if baby wants to take away the book she is reading. But we often find her talking to baby while doing something: "See, baby? I am making a tall tower." "Babe, this is how I wrap a present!" (She mimics those voices of children talking to Elmo's pet goldfish, Dorothy, from Elmo's World when she wants to demonstrate something to the baby.) Baby, too, wants to always involve himself in whatever Henni is doing. This afternoon, Henni walked out of her room still waking up from a long nap, acting a bit cranky. She found me nursing Junjun, and she started to say in a sad voice, "mommy, no baby, please, can you hold MEEEEE?" while leaning her limp body on top of Junjun's. He stopped suckling and started stroking Henni's hair, smiling and giggling. I love seeing them love each other. I really hope they will always care for one another and cherish each others' company as they do now. Seeing them together always makes me want to have another baby.

Henni-isms3

Me: (seeing how well Henni gargles her mouth after brushing her teeth) Henni, you are a gargle queen!
Henni: Yeah, I am a queen!
Dad: No, Henni, mommy is the queen. You are a princess.
Henni: NO! I am the queen!
Dad: What about dad? What am I?
Henni: You are Cinderella!

Henni: I love George Bush!
Me: (raising an eyebrow at daddy) You know who George Bush is?
Henni: Yeah! He is a Monkey!
Me: (chuckling) you mean like Curious George?
Henni: Yeah!

Dad: (trying to get the booger out of Henni's nose using a Q-tip) Hold still, Henni!
Henni: (crying) Noooo! Q-tips are for ears only!

Henni Loves Gymnastics

Henni is getting better at gymnastics. She is developing good upper body strength, and can do a lot of rolls by herself. She is still a bit hesitant about getting on the bars, but loves to walk and kick on the beam. She is definitely warming up to her new coach , and that helps her to enjoy gymnastics more.

Sledding again

We had so much fun the last time we went sledding, we went again on Monday. After sledding with me a few times, Henni decided that she HAD to sled all by herself this time. While I was dead against it, Scott thought that she should try if she wanted to. So he put her in one of those tubes, and voila! She came down really fast with her legs all the way up in the air. She loved it, and did it at least 5 more times that afternoon. I guess kids get to try new things when dads are around--I hear they also get their first set of stitches when they are with dads. Junjun also got to sled for the first time with daddy. He seemed to like it a lot. He would come down swinging his arms in the air with a very serious look on his face, and then as soon as I call his name, he would make an eye contact and throw me the biggest smile. What speed demons they are!

Happy Valentine's Day

 

I made this skirt for Henni--finished it just in time for Valentine's Day. She really liked it (although this picture was taken right after her nap, and in her dazed state, she doesn't really seem like she does). I didn't do anything for Scott or Junjun. I think boys don't really need anything special on Valentine's Day (or do they??). I am sure I will do something for Junjun from next year. (I actually did buy them cards about 10 days ago, but I can't find where I have placed them. Running around madly with two kids all day long, while still breastfeeding a child that would not take a bottle, I can barely remember where things are in this house.) Scott got me 15 roses, and he also got Henni two roses, because Henni is 2 (I am certainly not 15--I think he just didn't want to pay for 20 more roses). Scott says he will continue to get roses for Henni until she turns 18, "so she doesn't fall for the first boy who gives her flowers!" What a cute daddy. We put the two roses in a vase for her room, and whenever she sees them, she says "I got two roses from daddy because I am two!" It was kind of amazing how much she enjoyed receiving these flowers. She is such a girl.

She is a funny one even when she is pooping

When we catch one of our children in the middle of doing their business, Scott and I always exchange a look and say "somebody is pooping" (mostly to urge the other person to go ahead and change the soiled diaper). Today after lunch, Henni stooped over while holding onto a chair with a bright red face, barely managing to utter the following words very very slowly, "some...body...is...pooping!"

"My brother"

 

It just tickles me to death to see how much the two love each other. Although they aren't really playing together, they interact constantly, laughing at each other, crying together, hugging, and kissing each other. These days, Henni is fascinated with everything Junjun is starting to do, and I often tell her that she used to do the very thing that Junjun is doing when she herself was a baby. "Oh, Henni, you used to love that giraffe toy when you were a baby." "Henni, you used to giggle just like that when you were a baby." Today, she said to me after Junjun had a little spit up, "Mom, I used to be a throw-up too, when I was a baby?" I couldn't stop laughing. "Yes, you used to throw-up but you were never a throw-up." She seemed puzzled for a second but was quite satisfied that she used to throw-up just like Junjun. She calls him "my brother" or "my baby brother" rather than calling him by his name, and I find it so endearing.

Henni-isms2

 

In this picture, Henni is sitting around with girls that are either 3 or 4. Doesn't she look like she is one of them? Yet she is only 28 months old! This was at a mother-and-daughter tea party. All the girls were asked to bring their favorite doll along. On the way to the birthday party, I asked Henni what her doll's name was, and she said "I don't know." (It is her favorite phrase to utter these days.) I suggested, "How about Sophie?" "Okay." After the party was over we were packing up to come home, when Henni remembered her doll. "Where is Sofa?" It took me a long time to figure out that she was looking for her doll. I laughed and laughed, and said to her, "Ha ha, Henni, her name is Sophie, not sofa!" She thought about this for a minute, and realized the mistake she made. She sheepishly said, "I like couch! hehehe.." I couldn't believe this! She was making a clever (for a 2 year old) joke out of her error using a word play! I just had to give her a big squeeze.

Reciting a Korean Nursery Rhyme

I used to say this when I was a little kid... Every self-respecting Korean child should learn this one.

"Monkey's bottom is red
Red is apple
Apple is delicious
Delicious is banana
Banana is long
Long is train
Train is fast
Fast is airplane
Airplane is high
High is Mt. Baekdu!"

Henni-isms

 

Henni is verbally advanced. She speaks quite well for her age. I think it’s because I stay home and read and talk to her a lot throughout the day. Recently she has said many things that just made us laugh and laugh. Sometimes, what she says are quite shocking because they are long and perceptive. Sometimes the tone in which she speaks surprises me because it seems so grown-up. Sometimes it is disturbing, because it sounds just like what I’d say to her, and I realize she is listening and absorbing EVERYTHING I say (scary!!). Here are some recent Henni-isms.

Me: Hey, Henni, look at the airplane in the sky!
Henni: (nonchalantly) Mom, when you go to the airport, you can see many airplanes.

Henni: (giving her toy thermometer to her babysitter) Why don’t you use this and see if I am hot?
Babysitter: Oh, you have a high fever. I think you might have to go to the hospital.
Henni: (quickly snatching away the thermometer) Gimme that. You are NOT a doctor!

Junjun: (pulling on the DVD player) bah bah bah bah.
Me: Hey, baby, get away from there. Come back here.
Henni: (rolling her eyes) Mom, Junjun is not listening.
Me: I know. Hey, Junjun, come back here to Mommy.
Henni: (feigning mom’s voice) You get back here, or else you will make me very sad!

Junjun’s Babysitter: (calling out to Henni who is just going out the door to go to her ballet class with mommy) Henni, have fun!
Henni: Oh, Helen, when the baby wakes up, give him two pears and a carrot, okay?

Sledding

 

We went sledding over the weekend, and had a great fun. At the end of the afternoon, both kids were completely knocked out in their stroller. As soon as Henni woke up from her nap, she said, still half asleep, "can we go sledding again when I wake up from my nap?" That means she really had a lot of fun.

Look what I can do!

Junjun is starting to do a lot more. He is an expert crawler and he is into everything. At 9 months, Henni used to sit in one place for a long time just playing with toys in her reach. But this little boy is so different. He always wants to go away from where I situate him, and just wants to explore. Two joysticks for Scott's old PS2 have been in the bottom drawer of our entertainment unit, and in the last year and a half since we lived in Korea, they never left that drawer, because Scott stopped playing video games since Annelise was born (what other forms of entertainment do we need when we have a fun little girl) and Henni never went into drawers and cubicles if we told her they were off limits to her. I suppose Henni was the "unusual" one but Junjun is relentless when he wants to get something. The things he prefers to play with are anything with electronic cords, such as these joysticks, anything with lots of buttons, like cell phones, remote controls, and DVD players, power strips, and electric outlets. I never understood why people put those plastic covers on the outlets because Henni never touched them. I bought those and put them on just in case, but I always thought they were one of those gimmicky inventions people in the industry came up with for those overly anxious moms. But now that I am a mother to a crazy little boy who sucks his fingers with that teething, drooling mouth before or while he goes for those outlets, I am so thankful for these inventions. Junjun is so different and so fun.

SNOW!

 

We got about 2 inches of snow here on Friday. Henni had a great fun in the snow, mostly trying her hand at shoveling; Junjun sat on the snow for about 5 minutes until he had to go back inside after scooping snow off the ground and stuffing it into his mouth. Our street in an otherwise boring neighborhood looked really pretty with the snow.

Banned Words

 

Two S words are banned in our house now--Scary and Shy. No one is allowed to say those two words in our house because of Henni. I made a mistake of declaring "She is shy," when she hid behind my legs instead of saying hi to one of our neighbors a few months ago, and now, whenever she doesn't want to meet someone, she just says, "I am shy." She also says something is scary a lot, even though it is just a little bit out of ordinary. When she sees a mean shark or a talking camel in Sesame Street or when she hears little sounds from our air purifier, she says "it's scary!!" It caught me by surprise that she would use these two words so often because she is very independent and adventurous when it comes to exploring new things or trying a new experience. She is extremely inquisitive and always very curious (like George!). It is a bit odd because these combinations of traits are not often found in grown-ups. I don't want her to trap herself into thinking she is shy or scared and decide for good that's who she is. I may be blowing out of proportion a stage in a child's normal development, but still, those two S words shall never be uttered in our home until the kids are 7!!! (Now, I act as Pee Wee Herman did when he heard the secret word of the day at his Playhouse whenever Scott says those words--maybe I should worry more about myself than Henni...)

Pictures to words, words to pictures

I wanted to be many things when I was little. When I was 5, I saw my 20-year old cousin playing the violin, and thougtht for the longest time, I'd become a violin player. I loved making clothes for my paper dolls in my early teen years, and I thought I should become a fashion designer. I wanted to be an architect when I was in high school, but after realizing that one needed much training in math and physics to become one, I gave up the idea quickly. I also wanted to be a children's book illustrator at some point, and I still think it must be one of the most fabulous jobs. (I know nothing about how an illustrator gets connected to publishers or authors, what kind of timeline they are given to finish work, how much artistic freedom they have, or how good/bad the pay is--for all I know it could be a very sucky job, but I just idealize the work from the end results I see in printed books.) Henni certainly pays equal attention to both the pictures and the words to the books I read for her. I think that at this stage in their development where words are still such a new realm in their brain, what they are able to see must supersede what they are able to understand through words in some ways. In this video where Henni is reading the all-too-familiar Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See, I see her acting out some parts (about the purple cat) and adding different words that are not actually in the text, based on what she sees in the pictures. When I read Henni a new book, it is clear that sometimes she likes it because of what it says and sometimes because how it is pictured. As adults we have grown accustomed to reading books solely based on the quality of texts. We think we are cool because we can "imagine" on our own the worlds the books describe without anyone else picturing them for us. But I think it would be fun if books for grown-ups also had some illustrations. (This must be the art historian in me talking.) Obviously the pictures in children's books are not just straight-forward visual descriptions of what the authors write, but rather an interpretation or an adjacent mode of story telling, and they make the texts richer and more enjoyable. How fantastic it is to be able to put pictures to words and words to pictures. I always read the title as well as the author of a book before I start reading for Henni now, partly because I want to instill in her the idea that all texts have owners (this is the academic in me talking--I am far too sensitive about plagiarism). She is now always asking, "mommy, who wrote this book for me?" when we start a new book. I am considering if I should also mention the name of the illustrator for her, because pictures certainly have owners too. To think that these writers and illustrators are shaping the world in the minds of my children along with me! Salute to all writers and illustrators!

Do you know your Bible characters?--part 2

During one of our conversations about characters in the Bible, I asked Henni if she knew who the sons of Issac were. She seemed clueless, so I said, "Remember, Jacob and Esau, the twins?" Henni said with sparkles in her eyes, "Oh, yeah, Isa the Iguana." This is a character in her Dora book! Talk about being confused!

Children's birthday parties

 

Children's birthday parties are an entirely new and different world to me. Henni was invited to a party over the weekend where the theme was "snowflakes." Rachel, who was turning two, is really into ballet these days, and apparently loves to watch various performances of different ballet theaters on TV. So her mom made tutus and prepared matching tiaras and wands for all the girls that got invited. All the girls, dressed in pinks and purples (Henni happened to wear all black, but her purple tutu still looked pretty on her dress) were so cute, sharing their pink toys, eating nicely with their forks (for the most part), and just fluttering about like little fairies. They got to eat snowflake-shaped PB and J sandwiches and a yummy cake with pretty sky-blue icing with marshmellows on top. It was a very nice and wholesome party with lots of attention given to what kids enjoyed doing. Henni played with the wand and the tiara for many more hours even after we came back home, and continued talking about the party. I realize one could get really creative with children's birthday parties, and I am sure I will get accustomed to this new world real fast. Thank you, Rachel and Rachel's mommy, for inviting us to a nice party!!

We've been to and have heard of all kinds of children's parties by now, some that are quite extravagant and not necessarily focused on the birthday child. Growing up, I never got birthday parties like the ones we get to go to with our kids these days. I only remember one birthday party from my childhood days, and that was when I got to have 5 friends over for a special lunch at home. I felt a little guilty, after having been to Rachel's party, because Henni's 2nd birthday was not as nicely thought out. She just had a store-bought cake with Elmo on top, with some Elmo balloons and Elmo stickers strewn around. Then I wondered whether or not Henni will even remember this party down the road. My earliest memory is from about when I was 5, and even that is with the aid of some old pictures. People keep saying I can't compare what I got and got to do as a child to how I am going to do things with my children because they now live in a different world altogether with different audio and visual overloads. Perhaps they will remember more of their early childhood days than what I am able to. I still don't want to be one of those over-the-top parent who has to give my child the best and the most fabulous things and experiences in everything. In the end, what they will cherish about their childhood will be whether or not they were loved unconditionally and consistently, right? (Some aspects of mothering is not at all about parenting, but about self-imaging, especially when things get competitive and cliquish between a bunch of (well-educated, stay-at-home) moms, but that is another topic for another day.) I hope I will stay vigilant in getting the important things right as Henni and Junjun get older and I am required to parent in the community of other parents and kids with all kinds of different ideas and standards for things.

Bye-bye Christmas

 

We saw the Christmas decoration being cleared away from the streets this morning, and Henni was alarmed at the sight of snowmen getting loaded up in a truck. So I told her now that Christmas is over, we will have to put away our Christmas decorations at home too. Then Henni asked nervously, "Where is Christmas going, mom?" I know, I wish it was Christmas everyday too, but we have to wait to welcome a new Christmas in 2009, dear.