Christmas 2008

 

Christmas 2008 has come and gone. On one hand, it was kind of lonely to spend it without the extended families around, but on the other hand, it was a great time to bond, just for the four of us. It was the first Christmas that Henni was really able to participate in some of Christmas activities and it was very enjoyable. We've started on some of our own Christmas "traditions" this year and we will continue with them as kids get older. Henni and I made Gingerbread Man cookies and read the Gingerbread Man stories together. She learned to chant "Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I am the Gingerbread Man", and it was so much fun. She certainly enjoyed getting to eat more cookies than she is normally allowed. We received a very nice Advent calendar from my sister, and Henni was able to do it throughout the month of December. She was able to just do one day at a time, and I was very impressed with her self-control. I feel like she really learned to be expectant of Baby Jesus' arrival, and that is a big accomplishment for a 27 month-old. Next year, we will start reading the Christmas stories in the Bible together as we do the Advent calendar. Of course, Henni loved opening all the Christmas presents on the night of the 24th. She was too eager to open not just her own presents but also Elliot's, and she had to be reminded that not all presents are for her. We attended the candlelight service on the evening of the 24th, and Henni really enjoyed all the music, and especially lighting (and blowing out) the candles. Early on the 25th, we drove out to the mountains in Kangwon Province with our friends, Heidi and John and their children, to join some of our friends for a Christmas party. It was beautiful out there--so calm and peaceful. It was great to get away from Seoul for the Christmas Day. I am reminded of Noel Piper's Treasuring God in Our Traditions, a great book on how to worship God in everything we do in our home, and hoping that our Christmas traditions at home will ultimately guide our children closer to Christ. I am so looking forward to doing many of these things with Elliot too.

Junjun is here!!!

 

Someone who saw my blog recently commented that there isn't much of Junjun in it. It is true I have more video clips of Henni here because she is doing a lot of new and more interesting things than Junjun. I do have some video clips of Junjun eating corners of books and crawling away from the video camera, but they are not all that interesting to watch. Here are some really cute pictures of Junjun instead.

Singing Christmas Songs

Henni learned to sing some Christmas songs. I like her singing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus in Korean a lot.

Voracious Reader

I always tell Henni she is a voracious reader. She must like the sound of it, for she always repeats proudly, "I am a voracious reader!!!" She really loves reading. She used to like books that sound fun, such Dr. Seuss books, and books that rhyme and repeat sounds. Now she is beginning to enjoy books that have clear plots. Her recent favorites are William Steig's Pete's a Pizza, Kevin Henke's Wemberly Worried (she really likes just about all Henke books), and Emily Jenkins' What Happens on Wednesdays. We borrow about 20 new books from the library every 2 weeks, and she will eventually have me read and reread about 2/3 of those we get. Some things I think she would really like end up being not so popular with her, and some things that I think might be too hard for her would be her favorite. She certainly has her own likes and dislikes. (I didn't think she was going to like and understand What Happens on Wednesdays as much as she did. But now when I try to kiss her, she will tell me "today is not a kissing day," just like the main character from the book!) Now she is also into "reading" on her own. She reads to herself some of the books I read for her since she was about 3 months old, like a lot of Eric Carle's boardbooks. It seems that she doesn't really memorize the books I read her word-for-word, but rather understands them in her own way, as we can see her retelling it in this video. It makes me laugh to hear her copy some parts the way I read them, like "POP" or the munching sound I make. On the other hand, things that do not make sense to her, such as a "pickle" which she has not had yet, she changes to cucumber, an object that she knows, even though she heard me read "pickle" ten thousand times. I hope she will always love reading.

Sweet and Strong Junjun

Kids change so much in the first few years of their life, and it is far too early to tell what kind of man Junjun will become. But so far, he is a sweet sweet boy, who loves to kiss, hug, and smile. He has been quite sick with the flu that has been going around here in Seoul. Every other child I know is sick, and both Henni and Junjun had their share of fever and runny noses. Henni got sick first, with fever over 102 for 3 days and lots of coughing, and eventually it turned into pneumonia, and now she is on antibiotics. Junjun also caught the same cold, and had to visit doctor's office three times this past week. For good three days, he vomited every time he had his coughing fit, throwing up everything I had labored over to feed. But he is so remarkably sweet-tempered, even when he is so ill. While his nose is completely stuffed and his breathing is accompanied by an audible wheezing sound, he still is all smiles and happy giggles for the most part. (I am so thankful neither Henni nor Junjun is very whiny. Grumpy, yes, sometimes, but not whiny.) Junjun has reached some important milestones in his growth this week while fighting the cold. His first two teeth on the bottom have pushed forth; he started to pull himself up to sit up; and he is now crawling quite well. All these things happened together, all last week. What a strong boy he is! Now he just has to fight the lingering cold and get better.

Do the Penguin

My three children play well together. I don't know who the cutest one is in this video.

Forming Identity

Henni has a bad Anglo accent when she speaks in Korean. This song cracks me up, because, with Henni's bad accent, it sounds like it should be sung by a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, but alas, it is our girl, who was made and born in Japan and raised in a US military base in Seoul. Why does her Korean sound so bad? Scott and I certainly don't sound like that when we speak Korean... I need to speak to her in Korean more consistently, but I keep failing to do so. I just enrolled her in some mommy-and-me classes run by a Korean culture center in the neighborhood, but she only speaks to me in English there too, making all the Korean moms in the class turn their heads (and sometimes roll their eyes).

Henni started doing another interesting thing this week. When someone who looks Asian asks her what her name is, she says "Henni," and when a Caucasian person asks for her name, she replies "Annelise"!!! What does she know about her two names, and more importantly, what does she know about race?!?! I thought kids were supposed to be color-blind when it comes to people's skin color until they were much older...

Daddy Dearest

 

 

 

Scott just got promoted and is now a Commander. I'm proud of him for all of his professional achievements, but most of all for being a caring and generous father to Henni and Junjun. Maybe I am just a sappy soccer mom at heart, but I was always moved by seeing footages of Palin holding her baby or Obama interacting with his two young daughters during the last election, because those pictures made them more human, not just politicians. (I am sure that's precisely how their campaign managers and media wanted to influence voters like me.) This was important to me because as I became a mom, I realized there was nothing like your own children that humbled you to your core, and humility definiltey was one of the traits I wanted to see in my elected official. There isn't any other book or program that has taught me the life lessons my children have so far--like how to be kind, patient, hopeful, and honest--and I've only had them for less than three years! I hoped that whoever was elected as the next President, would be the person that have learned some of these important lessons of being a real human of integrity as I saw pictures of them with their children. This is certainly my hope for Scott too--that he would be a man, deserving of the two beautiful children and shaped by the lessons they teach us, both at home and at workplace. Congratulations!

Cookies and Muffins Rock!

After coming back from Hong Kong, we tried to get Henni to say she loved Disneyland or boat ride or something like that. But when we asked her about her experience in Hong Kong, she said she liked cookies and muffins the best. We usually ration sweet things to Henni in very small portions, but when we are on vacation, we sort of let it all loose and give her whatever she wants to eat (partly because she refuses to eat anything different, and we can't always order her a $20 mac-and-cheese through room service, which we did when we were in Thailand).

Funny new words

Henni likes to make up her own words. She is calling our video camera "battery picture." I don't know why.

Mickey Mouse conundrum

 

We couldn't pass the chance to go to Disneyland in Hong Kong, so took the kids there, all the while wondering if Henni was too young to enjoy what Disney offers. She absolutely loved it!! When we were going through "It's a Small World" she could not blink or close her mouth for a second, looking at all the dolls and animals that sing and dance. She still talks about it and sings the theme song all the time. She equally enjoyed her Dumbo ride and the Pooh Bear's Storybook ride. The most surprising thing about the whole experience, however, was how instantly she developed a true love for Mickey Mouse. She was never formally introduced to any of the Disney characters (she only watches Sesame Street on TV, and she has not read any Disney-related books yet), but for some reason, she decided Mickey Mouse was her favorite almost the very minute she laid her eyes on him. Mickey IS the most ubiquitous character there, but she could have easily preferred Minnie, Pooh, or any other creature. At the end of her day at Disneyland, we told her she gets to have one gift from Mom and Dad, and she immediately picked a Mickey doll among thousands of things they were selling at the store. On the way back to the hotel, she adoringly stroked every part of the Mickey doll, repeating "I love his legs, I love his nose, I love his eyes, I love his ears..." People in the subway couldn't stop smiling at her. I am so curious as to how her little mind selects and prefers this one character over other things. Is it simply having seen this character repeatedly all day long while at Disneyland or is there something more profound about the Mickey Mouse phenomenon? The allure of Mickey Mouse to Henni (and to thousands of people regardless of their age, gender, race, and religion) is still a mystery to me.

Turkey Day where?

 

We spent our Thanksgiving vacation in Hong Kong, and got to spend the Thanksgiving day aboard the USS Blue Ridge, "The Navy's Finest Flagship" which happened to anchor out in the HK Bay over the holidays. Henni, having been born in Yokota Air Force Base and spending her toddler years in Yongsan Army Garrison, has become quite the military brat. She can hear the sound of flying helicopters from miles away, and is fascinated by any big flying object. She not only got to eat her Thanksgiving meal on this monster ship (it accommodates over 200 officers and 1200 enlisted!) but also got to sit in a real helicopter. It's true, she didn't get to spend this special holiday with her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents back home, but how many kids get to eat their Thanksgiving meal aboard a huge Navy ship and play with a real helicopter afterwards? Count your blessings!