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.