September 2008 Archives

Anna & I melted all of the crayons we had (these are the same crayons we've been using since Anna was one) and the girls and I had fun coloring with the new round ones. We seem to have had a lot of orange ones. The instructions are here.

Anita sent a box of Halloween goodies for the girls. They both had to wear their shirts (actually pajama tops) the instant they saw them since they had just seen Raisa in it on video chat this weekend. This weekend both girls have been running around yelling "boo" and cracking up when we act scared.

This morning, Sarah was hanging out on the bed with me and Craig (she woke up early and I suspect teeth as usual) and Chopstick started scratching the quilt. Sarah yelled, "stop!" and waved her fist down at him like we do when we snap at the cats to stop scratching stuff.

New spoken words: stop, help, duck, rock, boo

The whole family went to Costco today and while it was exciting for me to get up there (I haven't been there since I was pregnant with Anna) and see what they were selling, it was too stressful with Sarah along. We didn't get started shopping until right about nap-time so she was crabby and tired while were there. So we rushed. There were also some things I would have liked to get the girls for Christmas but couldn't because Anna was right there. I might have to go on my own next time around although the six hour drive really isn't something I'm into doing alone.

Anna's teacher sends home a letter to the parents every other week to let us know what they've been learning in school the last two weeks. In today's letter, Anna was recognized as a "great helper" of the week (a girl and a boy were chosen).

We had Njaal again this afternoon. I tried to send Anna to his house but she wasn't ready today (I had told her this morning that he was coming here). So she'll try that next week (after she's been to Kristen's). I wish good luck to Laurel and Ingeborg that Anna will at least respond to any of their questions!

Anyway, I tried to do less directing today since this is the third time Njaal has been over. I let the kids play in the office on their own and they were giggling together for a while and then went on to do their own thing. After another while they both kind of came out and looked at me like, "what should we do now?" and we decided to work on a puzzle together.

Njaal didn't correct my pronunciation of his name today!

Kristen came home with us after school today and she & Anna had a pretty good time together. Anna was so much more comfortable today than she was when we had Kristen over last winter/spring. Anna will go to Kristen's next week after school so I'm interested to see how this goes.

I told Anna & Sarah that if they cleaned up really well tonight they could watch some more of the Cars movie. Anna found an efficient way to clean up the cars in the office by stuffing them into her shirt to carry across the room to the box where they are stored.

I downloaded a season of Super Why for Anna to watch and she is now "Presto," Sarah is "Red," I am "Super Why," and Craig is "Alpha Pig." (The characters are Princess Presto, Wonder Red, Super Why, and Alpha Pig.). This is the first princess that Anna has expressed interest in and our magic wands are in high demand around here now (they are magic spelling wands and magic erasing wands). It's nice to have a break from the Strawberry Shortcake characters we've all been for a long time!

This was Sarah's first time painting with a brush. I love the intense look she has on her face in this shot!

The girls have had so many fights over the child-size sling lately! I should have brought one that my mom made home with me but since I didn't I decided to just make one myself. It as a quick project even though I haven't used my machine for months. The girls loved it but I think the thrill is gone now that they don't have to fight over it any more.

I downloaded Cars for the girls to watch tonight and I wish Craig had been home to see Sarah watch it (he was in Ulsan on a business trip). She was oohing and ahhing and ohhhhhing, laughing, and dancing the whole half hour. Anna was excited to get to watch it again, too.

I took the girls to a beach birthday party but we didn't go until almost the end since Sarah took a monster nap this afternoon. All was not lost though, we walked along the beach and collected seashells until Sarah started trying to eat the beach. That was my cue to leave!

Sarah can now undo the "child safety lock" we use to keep her out of the kitchen trash. She can climb up onto all of the beds (and I have to remember to push the side-rail on her crib or else she tries to climb up that to get pacifiers). She also likes to stand on the couch and in the middle of the coffee table. She can also open the doors all around the house.

A fun thing I can report on Sarah today is that this week I taught her to find crunchy leaves and stomp on them. Now she seeks them out whenever she's walking while we're out.

Something else that Sarah does that is endearing is when she says goodbye to Alfred (I'm not sure why, but this is something specific to him), she adds an "I'm sorry" to it. When I asked her if she was "sorry to see him go" she nodded yes. This seems kind of a complicated thing for her to express but she seems pleased when I ask her that (confirming that's what she means).

Yet another creation from the Fairies cookbook. I didn't space the eye-holes far enough for the "masks" though.

I think I mentioned that I've started running again (there is a Nike Plus thing on my side bar where you can see my last five runs). I've been going up the mountain near our apartment and it is so much better than the treadmill. I'm not sure how long it will be light at six in the morning but I plan to stick to the trail instead of the treadmill until it's too dark. Unfortunately, I have taken to carrying a stick to hold in front of my face after hitting several large cobwebs each time I run (I guess the path I am running on isn't used much!).

Today was a big day for Anna: She spoke to her teacher for the first time! Her teacher asked her a question and Anna answered, "yes."

And just like that, she's gone! Where did Sarah go?

Ingeborg took Sarah for me this morning so I could go to the foreigner's club to check out the knitting circle. I was sent home with a pair of needles and a ball of yarn to practice on for next week. She said that she & Sarah had a good time together! I took Njaal again this afternoon and he and Anna had a good time again. I can't tell if Anna likes him because he can't understand her when she talks (he doesn't speak much English yet) or if she's just more comfortable around other kids these days.

Craig & I hired a babysitter and went out to Dehli to celebrate our ninth anniversary tonight. I wonder where we'll be celebrating nine years from now?

Anna says: "Don't I look fantastical?" when she tries on certain combinations of dress-up clothes. I'm sure she got this word from me but it's funny to hear her say it anyway. Craig says she is just a "little Becky" with most of the things she comes up with to say.

Sarah is adding new words like crazy! She is also a chronic liar. Ask her just about anything and she'll say, "no." With a little smile that says to me she knows she's not telling the truth! Occasionally (maybe when she is particularly passionate about something), she'll say, "yeah" with an even bigger smile.

Sarah's new spoken words: yum-yum, book, wrapper, eye, duck, apple

Sarah's new animal noises: bear, elephant, pig, and mouse

Sarah and the cats are often interested in the same toys...

Craig took Anna sailing today for the first time. Apparently there wasn't a whole lot of wind so they had a nice slow, smooth ride. I think this was for the best for Anna's first time out. They are both excited to go again (probably next weekend). I took Sarah swimming in the pool after her nap. There is no way she's ready for sailing yet: she'd be jumping in for a swim!

I'd love to post some pictures from yesterday and today at the beach but the (brand new) little camera jumped out of my pocket and sat in the salty water for an undetermined amount of time. We are attempting to dry it out but how much hope can there really be?

The girls had fun at the beach both days and we brought home enough sand to prove it! Today we collected a ton of seashells to bring home and admire as well.

It's pretty rare that I get to see Sarah sleeping so I've got to take a picture when I do!

And then put on her whole Hanbok.

Today is the first day of a four-day weekend for us. Tomorrow is Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) and Craig & Anna have Monday and Tuesday off to celebrate.

We had Mattias over this morning while his mom went for a run (I've been running three times this week, once with Ashild but she couldn't go with this morning so I volunteered to watch Mattias so she could still get her workout in today). He was pretty sad for about 10-15 minutes and I don't know how to say "your mother will be back" in Norwegian so I walked him around the house until we found something he was interested in (the cats and then the rocking moose). I asked Sarah if she liked playing with Mattias and she signed "more." I think that's a positive review of her time spent with him!

Sarah has figured out the parts of the walk to school where she is allowed to: walk holding hands, walk freely, or has to be held. This is a stretch where she can walk freely and she suddenly ran toward Anna and demanded to hold her hand. I think they both miss each other during the day but this was the sweetest thing I have seen in a while!

Trying on fairy wings and hats for the Halloween costumes.

We had Njaal over this afternoon (he is in Anna's class at school and lives upstairs from us) while his mom took a Korean language class. Next week I am going to try a knitting class in the morning and Ingeborg will watch Sarah for me. Njaal doesn't speak a lot of English (but he's learning a lot since he's in school all morning!) so we had an interesting time figuring out what to do together. He and Anna seemed to have fun though so I don't think he'll be a problem to watch again.

Some balls were left on the soccer field this morning so Sarah &I had fun running around with them for a little while.

Today Sarah & I came back to the house after school where she proceeded to create a mess faster than I could contain it so I ended up leaving the house in a bit of a disarray for the cleaning ladies today. Wednesday is going to prove to be a tough day for us. Next week I'll try to just keep her out of the house all morning and see how that goes.

I don't think I've taken a picture of Sarah in her sunglasses this summer. She likes to take them on and off and doesn't keep them on for very long.

Craig & I went to the driving range again for date night. We got there at 7:35 and they closed at 8 so Craig convinced the lady at the front desk to give us a two-for-one price. We might start doing date-night twice a month. Since we didn't spend as much time at the driving range as we had planned we decided to drive to Gohyeon and go to Starbucks instead of going to the local coffee house. While there we did a bit of shopping (I got the last super-stale baguette for French toast—really, Home Plus is not the place to buy bread—in the morning and we got a new side table for the family room to better store our laptops).

Sarah is still really into music and requests to turn on the stereo often. She dances every chance she gets but isn't trying to sing along just yet (although she says "row, row, row" when she wants me to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" again so that might count as a singing attempt).

When I sneeze (fairly often as I'm readjusting to life with cats), Sarah will bring me a tissue for my nose. She also likes to get herself a tissue when she sneezes and pretends to blow her nose as well.

She is obsessed with washing her hands. Sometimes she signs "toilet" so that I'll bring her into the bathroom (we keep the door closed). She has started signing "wash hands" because I've started asking if she actually just wants to wash hands and the answer is usually "yes."

Whenever we eat Sarah will make a sign that we have made up to mean "where did (something) go?" and she wants me to ask her "where did your food go?" and she'll point to her mouth, then down her throat, and end at her tummy. This is a tireless game as is peek-a-boo at meal-time and diaper-changing time.

Speaking of diaper changes: we have been really happy with the cloth diapers and I'm so glad I gave them another try!

Sarah is walking more and getting carried less. Partly because she's just getting too heavy for me to carry her long distances any more. She is now saying "walk" (which sounds like "ogg") and pointing down whenever she wants to walk. She is getting better at holding hands when we go which really helps a lot. She's walking more and I'm using the sling less (although I still bring her down the stairs in it when I have Anna) but I'm using the stroller more. It is a strange feeling for me to not have her connected to me when we're walking through town since I'm so used to having her on me. Definitely easier on my back though!

She is so adorable and has the best smile. She smiles so easily, too. She signs please and thank you a lot which is a wonderful thing, too. She misses Anna during the days but I think she also is having fun on her own with me. I am really enjoying the time we're spending together so far.

Her timing on waving hello and goodbye is getting better (so people actually see her doing it!).

New signs: wash hands

New spoken words: walk, shhh (shushing)

Sarah had fun picking fallen leaves on our way back to the car after dropping Anna at school in the morning.

When one girl is in the car the other inevitably ends up in the swim ring.

Anna has been singing along to the songs we listen to for our afternoon dance parties and really getting into dancing along, too. She has been singing "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, "Burning Love" by Elvis, and the Strawberry Shortcake theme song on her "radio" in the car outside. She totally cannot interpret the lyrics to these songs though and insists that Stevie Wonder is singing: "a beras-do-persition... nothing on your way" (instead of "very superstitious.. writing on the wall"). She also really likes "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers and "Don't Bring Me Down" by Electric Light Orchestra. Another favorite is "San Francisco Bay Blues" by Eric Clapton because it has a kazoo in it. A favorite to dance to is "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees (she also is singing along on this one). I'm glad I decided to make a random sampling of music CD for the car because it has really broadened our musical horizons!

When Anna used to wear the pajamas Sarah is wearing in this picture, Craig used to call them her "Stars & Bars" pajamas. I told this to Anna and now she is calling Sarah "Stars & Bars" all day long.

(Sarah is 16 months and Anna is 15 months in these pictures).

Two:
Today was the second morning (Thursday was the first) that Sarah woke up with a dry diaper! Anna woke up dry consistently after 18-19 months so I'm hoping this is the beginning of that trend for Sarah, too.

Million:
The cats were staring at the wall this morning and as I woke up I realized they probably weren't staring at the wall. Memories of Gertie staring at roaches on the wall in Houston woke me up pretty fast. You should have seen Craig leap out of bed when I screamed for him to wake up as a five to six-inch millipede was climbing down the air conditioner right over his head. It was hard to kill but we did it (we had to take apart the entire bed to catch it). Thanks to Clementine & Chopstick for scouting that out for us.

Today was Anna's first day at OIS as a Ladybird. She did great. There is a dress-up box there with some high-heeled shoes which sealed the deal for her. She was in heaven wearing those shoes and didn't care when Sarah & I left. She was so excited to tell us all about her day when she got home and talked about it the rest of the afternoon.

Sarah & I had a good morning on our own. She is transitioning from two naps to one right now but she woke up early this morning so took an hour nap today. We did sticker art, solved puzzles, sorted shapes, read books, and had a nice quiet time together. I really hope to have her stay home with me this whole school year and send her to Playschool next fall but we'll see how this goes. If we're bored come January I might send her a couple of days a week (she is eligible to go in November).