New Favorite Game

Where is Simon???


Peek!!!

Waiting for Anna

Simon adores his big sister, Anna, and gets very excited when she comes home from school. He has recently been very interested in watching for her from the front door. He starts bouncing up and down and yelling at the school bus when he sees it coming.

Look, Mom, no hands!!!!

Simon is getting better and better at standing by himself for long periods of time. He can even get up and down without holding on to anything. As for walking....well....he has taken 3 or 4 steps on several different occassions, but still prefers crawling as his main means of getting around. He tends to take steps when the rest of us are in the middle of doing something else. He promptly sits down or lays down and has a mini tantrum whenever we try to coax him into walking. He is definitley becoming a "I will do it when I feel like it" kind of kid :-)

And so it begins......

Joel built a little ice rink in our back yard last winter. Anna has been learning how to ice-skate. She is getting pretty good and they both enjoy skating in the back yard. He was determined, in typical guy fashion, that this year it would be bigger and badder. Last year, he duct taped two tarps together to be the base of the rink. This year, he wanted to just have one large tarp, so he ordered one on-line. While waiting, not so patiently, for it to come, he decided to build the frame of the rink, which is what is seen in these photos. When finished, the rink will be about 18 x 24 feet. Now, for those (most of the normal population) who have never made a back yard ice rink, let me just tell you that they are NOT maintenance free. If it snows, he must, of course, shovel off the rink. And after a snow or after skating on it, he must pretend that he is a zamboni and clean the ice. This involves hauling the hose out of our basement, where it is kept in our basement shower stall, so it stays unfrozen and ready for use; then filling the rink with a new layer of water and doing whatever he does to make sure that it fills smoothly. And, he must check the rink nightly (I believe that 10 or 11 pm is the best time) to make sure that it is still there and in good working order. Honestly, I really am not sure what he is doing to the rink out there at that time of night and I am not sure that I really want to know. So, I will just leave him to his ice and anticipate how much bigger the rink will NEED to be next year :-)

Playing in the Snow

IT WON'T STOP SNOWING HERE!!!! I don't particularly like it, but the kids - all three of them, Joel included - LOVE it. Joel took them outside to play and sled. We have a toddler sled that we can buckle Simon into, which he liked, but he much preferred being on the big sled with Anna.









Poor kid can barely move with all his cold weather gear on




What happened when daddy stopped pulling the sled :-)


My snow angel...

The Child Who Will Sleep Anywhere......

Anna has taken to falling asleep awfully easily when she is tired - no matter where she is.

This was at the end of December when she was "playing" in her room.


This was today at dinner. She had a "pajama party" with Grandma last night. I think they were up late - what do you think? :-)

Simon's Tol

In Korea, a child's first birthday is a BIG deal. Historically, because of health issues and medical care, many children did not live beyond their first birthday; so, when a child did live to be a year old, it was a big celebration. Nowadays, in South Korea, health care is about as good as it is here, so children get better health care and a child not living to his or her first birthday is not so much of a concern. However, the first birthday is still celebrated as a big deal and is called Tol. The child dresses up in a hanbok, a traditional Korean outfit still worn today for special occassions and a feast of Korean food is prepared. The parents set up a Toljabi where various items are set before the child and which item he or she picks up first supposedly predicts his or her future. There is also a traditional rice cake that is served for a first birthday.

Simon actually turned one on December 15, but we decided to put off his Tol celebration until around Christmas when we knew more people would be around. And with little Olivia choosing to make her appearance the day before Simon's birthday, this turned out to be a VERY good decision. So we celebrated Simon's Tol on December 27 with Grandma and Grandpa as well as Auntie Karen, Uncle Ryan and baby Olivia. We made Galbi (a marinated and barbequed beef dish); Pork with Red Bean Paste; a Shrimp, Crab and Jellyfish salad; Mandu (Korean dumplings); smoky eggs; Spicy rice cakes; kimchi; pickled radish and various Rice cakes with red bean paste filling. We also had the traditional rainbow rick cake, which was very pretty, but not so tasty.

For the Toljabi we put out some traditional items - Korean money (wealth and prosperity); a ball of string (long and healthy life); a ruler (being good with ones hands); a pen (a scholar); rice (wealth and prosperity); a paint brush (artistic). Joel added a hockey puck - for obvious reasons and Jen added a camera - also for obvious reasons. Simon picked up the money first and the hockey puck second (as you can imagine, Joel was more than thrilled!). So Simon will be a wealthy and prosperous hockey player :-) Could be worse, I suppose :-)

Some photos....

Simon and Anna in their Hanboks


All of us


The table set up for the Toljabi


The money


The hockey puck


Simon at the table


The food


The presents.....

The bigger the car, the better :-)


He had the most fun with the ribbon


Something to bounce on


And, it tastes good too :-)