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.

Do you know your Bible characters?

Henni has read through her Bible twice already since September, and now is reading two chapters every night with Scott, one from the Old Testament and one from the New. She is recognizing some of the more well-known Bible stories and is remembering the names of the characters from each story. Scott often asks her questions at the breakfast table from the reading they did the night before, and Henni sometimes recalls what she had read. Here are some sample questions.

Scott: "Who lived in the Garden of Eden?"
Henni: "Sneaky snake!!!" (She yells out "sneaky snake" with such passion each time.)
Scott: "Who else, who else?"
Henni: "Adam and Eve"
Scott: "Who spent a night in the lion's den?"
Henni: "Ummmm, Daniel!"
Scott: "Who was Abraham's son?"
Henni: "Hmmmm.... Jesus!"
Soo: (laughing) "No, his son, you know the little guy who was.."
Henni: "Zacchaeus!"

Some of the stories are all mixed up in her head, I think.

(Do you like the way her hair looks in the video? It is her favorite hairdo these days. "Mom, I will put on my hairband. No, Mom, I can do it! No, I, I will do it!")

Sweet Tooth

 

I once knew these parents who caught their children squeezing toothpaste into their mouths in the bathroom. They strictly controlled the children's diet, and I think sweets were never allowed in the house. Henni gets very little sweets on a regular day. She may once in a while get 4 or 5 animal crackers as her afternon snack along with a small box of raisins. We bribe her with candies to get her to drink medicine if we have to, but for the most part, getting sweets is a real treat in our house. Scott and I are not real dessert people ourselves, and we don't see the need to indulge in a lot of sweets. Scott celebrated his 38th birthday about a week ago, and these are the pictures we got of Henni finishing up the leftover cake. I am afraid we've created a child who goes crazy whenever something sweet is offered to her. She scraped the container that had the icing from the leftover cake so clean we practically didn't even have to put it in the dishwasher. I don't want to find Henni hiding in the bathroom, eating her toothpaste for whatever sweet flavor she can get in her mouth. But then again, I don't want too much sweets to be part of her regular diet either. She certainly gets enough sugar from her fruit intake. How can I successfully help Henni to not perceive these sweet yummies as the exotic forbidden fruit?

The sound of their laughter

I love, more than anything else, the sound of my children laughing. From those little giggles under their breath to the all out explosive outbursts, I love them all. Junjun has the most contagious laugh of all--when he starts giggling (for nothing at all, really--in this video, it is just me acting "surprised"), I just have to start laughing myself too.

Today we had a dinner date with our friends Alex and Bea, and their two and a half year old, Alejandro. We were all driving back together in our van, and after someone said, "oh my goodness," we all started saying "oh my" and then added something, something silly. I think it was Alex, who said, "oh my applesauce," and it all started. Henni and Alejandro started cracking up uncontrollably and repeated "oh my applesauce" over and over again, all the while gurgling such joyous sounds. Of course listening to their happy laughter, we, adults couldn't help but follow along.

Oh, how I wish them to always laugh and laugh all throughout their lives. I hope they will always find reasons to laugh, even when, or perhaps, especially when things are not perfect. Even if those reasons are as silly and irrational as "oh, my applesauce."

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.