Like Father, Like Son

The top three comments when we take Ben out are these:
1. He's so cute!
2. He's just like his father!
3. He looks like a doll!
Sometimes we even hear all three from the same person. (Does that mean Colin looks like a doll?)
Number one - readily apparent! (No, no, we're not biassed. And anyway, all those comments prove us right.)
Number two - check out the above pictures.
Number three - a comment I never would have expected to hear as much as we have. The truth, however, is that most Koreans we meet have never seen a caucasion baby except on TV...or dolls.

Testing the Waters...

More from Grandma's Visit

Ben was delighted to have company in the backseat!

Downtown Pohang. The writing on the road says, "One way."

Benjamin lapping up all the love he can get!

Riding in the shopping cart up the escalator at Costco - our big "trip" while Grandma was here! Don't laugh, it was very exciting for us!

Ben wearing his new shirt from Grandma with the appropriate words, "I'm a sticky little critter!"

Since Grandma left Ben has already developed some new skills. He can now pull himself up and unlatch the child safety lock on our cupboard under the sink. (Not exactly the most childproof latch.) He can also pull himself up and get water from our water cooler. Colin was washing dishes yesterday when we suddenly heard the sound of flowing water - not coming from the sink! Ben was happily standing at the cooler while water steadily poured out!

Visa

Thursday we had our interview appointment at the American Embassy in Seoul. Our "appointment" was at 8:30 and I thought that meant our appointment, but no (Colin was right) everybody had an "appointment" at 8:30! We were let into a room with a bunch of other people where we had to take a number. Nobody could get a number at first though because the machine was broken! Finally someone fixed it and the line started moving. We were number seven so we didn't have long to wait. We gave a lady all our documents and discovered that they had changed the specs for pictures. Not to worry, they had a picture booth in the waiting area. The lady who interviewed me was very nice and the interview was brief. Of course it probably helped that the lady was due in August and Ben was flirting shamelessly!

We left with a sigh of relief, only to realize I had written our old address as the delivery address for the visa. Colin was unable to get back in as he no longer had an appointment...

The American Embassy is heavily guarded by Korean soldiers, a wire fence surrounds it, and we had to show our passports, appointment sheet and go through a metal detector to get in.) On the other hand, Colin's mom and I waltzed right in to the Canadian Embassy without anyone checking anything. No guards, no wire fences, no checks... even the doors were wide open!

We took the train back to Pohang formulating a plan on how to make sure the visa got to us safely. As it happened, we missed a call from the delivery company as we were sitting at our favorite coffee shop. I called the number back and the owner of the coffee shop talked to the delivery man for us. We were surprised to find out he was just down the road so she and I ran out to meet him. A few minutes later the visa was in our hands!
Here's Benjamin, Mr. Lee and his wife. Ben often sees more of them than us while we're at Id. Once I went to the coffee shop alone and was greeted with, "Where's Benjamin? Next time bring Benjamin!"

Red Mango

During Grandma's visit we spent a lot of time lying low around the house, venturing out for food and shopping. The weather alternated between pouring rain and energy-sapping humidity. On one trip downtown we were deposited by the taxi short of our destination because construction workers were demonstrating. We started out feeling enthusiastic but by the time we made it to the exchange bank to get money we had wilted. Instead of shopping we decided on iced coffee and pineapple yogurt from the Red Mango. Ben was delighted with this turn of events because at the table next to us sat a mother and two little girls. Benjamin hasn't had many opportunities to be around other children and up till now hasn't been interested in them. At first he just sat and smiled as the mother encouraged her youngest daughter to touch Ben's hand and chuck him under the chin. Then the little girls stood up on the seat and started bouncing. By this time Benjamin was thoroughly enraptured. He studied every move they made and became enboldened enough to stand up and try jumping himself. Without the Jolly Jumper, though, he couldn't seem to figure out how to get his chubby legs off the ground. The girls thought bouncing on the seats was great fun and the more the girls laughed the giddier Ben got!

Grandma's Here!

Actually, she's been here for almost a week now. Benjamin loves the shape sorter toy she brought and when she woofs like Midnight! I think he loves having Grandma, Dad and Mom all around to amuse him. Of course, it takes all three of us to keep him out of trouble! He's been soaking up the kisses and hugs from Grandma and holding out his arms to her.
It was Grandma's turn to occupy Ben while Colin and I made dinner. (Yes, that is a broccoli box!) Sorry the picture is blurry, but check out Ben's newest skill: clapping. He has also learned to wave and practices it every chance he can get.

More (and clearer) pictures to come soon.

Outing

Recently Benjamin and I went on an outing with two friends: Timmy and Munju. We ate lunch at a great Korean restaurant and walked around taking pictures. Munju brought along her dog which delighted Ben to no end. He kept waving his arms and legs and shrieking with excitement. Usually when we're out we hear people comment on how cute Benjamin is, how pretty he is... With Munju and her dog instead of "What a cute baby!" we heard, "That dog is wearing shoes!"
The restaurant keeps a peacock, a peahen and a rabbit outside in a cage. Benjamin was very interested in the animals and so was Ye-gang (Mun-ju's dog). Somehow the rabbit worked up enough courage to come over and touch its nose to Ye-gang's nose, but then it got spooked and tore around the cage, startling the peacock which let out a honk I never dreamed could come from a bird. The flurry of noise and activity set off Ben and resulted in this picture... poor little guy! We took pictures at a random person's house because it was so pretty! Timmy has a great eye (and a great camera) and took most of these pictures.

The building in the background is an educational repository for a nearby Buddhist temple.

Curls

As Benjamin's hair has gotten longer and more abundant, it has also become curly! It's hard to see from the front because his hair is shorter there, but if he has a bath or it's humid he has little curls all over his head.

Moved

We moved down the hall to a new apartment last Tuesday, so no more leaky ceiling! Colin's school arranged for people to come and move our belongings so we just had to do the packing and unpacking. They were unbelievably efficient! At one point they had to take off our door to get the wardrobe out and it took all of 15 seconds. (This is somewhat scary because the screws are on the outside. We've heard that a popular method of robbery is simply to remove the door, take any valuables and screw the door back on.) Benjamin had a couple of frustrating days as he tried to get his hands on everything we were packing. We'd put something in a box and he'd crawl over and start dragging it out! If he wasn't upset because I was taking some dangerous item away from him, then he was upset by the sound of packing tape being unrolled! Poor guy- there was just no winning. The layout of this apartment is the same as our old one but we decided to do some rearranging. The smallest room has become, quite literally, a bedroom. We fit the mattresses on the floor, and the bookcase by one wall. There wasn't room for anything else - not even enough room to close the door! But, Benjamin can crawl around to his heart's content and if he goes off the edge of the mattress he won't have far to fall!

And They're Off!

On Sunday I ran in Pohang's annual "marathon." The longest distance is actually 20 km, so basically a half marathon. Two of our friends, Tim and John, ran that and lived to tell the story. Grace and I ran in the 10km race. My goal was to finish without walking and I did that - not including a few steps at a rest stop to gulp some water - so I'm pretty proud. (I think it's actually the farthest I've ever run.) And only three days later I'm almost able to walk normally again! My official time was 1:07:26. Grace finished in less than 54 minutes and then came back and ran with me to the finish line.

I wasn't the only one going places. On Tuesday we suddenly heard a thump from the bedroom and ran in to find Benjamin lying on his back on the floor crying. He had woken up from his nap, crawled across both beds (we have 2 singles pushed together) and fallen off. He had a mark on his forehead where he hit the ground but seemed otherwise unscathed. Yes, he is officially on the loose!

The Little Pianist

8 month Escapades

I finally managed to put together some video clips of what Benjamin is doing these days. For some reason the program kept crashing just before my final edit, so I never did get it quite the way I wanted it. Also, now that I've finished it, he began to really crawl yesterday. Guess I'll have to post another one soon!

Playing it Cool

Here are the guys hanging out at the church picnic. Ben borrowed his sunglasses from Grace so he could be just like Dad.

More teeth!

We've been waiting and waiting for Benjamin to cut his top teeth because he has been waking around 5 times a night. Last weekend we were relieved to finally see the tips of his top two front teeth. He slept well for a couple of nights and then went back to his pattern of waking up every hour. Today as he was laughing with his mouth wide open I found out why - he has another tooth! This one is to the right of his top two teeth. So, now he has three on the top and only two on the bottom! And he's found a new hobby...grinding his teeth together. I don't know how to stop him except by giving him something to eat. I hope he doesn't start to connect the two or everytime he's hungry he'll start grinding his teeth! If you look closely you can see his top two teeth in the above picture. And here are two more pictures just because he's so cute.

Fun in the Tub

These days Benjamin has a blast in the bath with his three nesting plastic penguins with holes in the top and bottom for pouring and sprinkling. Though he doesn't actually pour or sprinkle with them, (he mostly tries to eat them) they serve as a good distraction while I try to find his neck to dislodge the various foods that have found their way into his many creases. And if the penguins have floated out of reach, the shampoo bottle does just as well.

Get Your Motor Running...

Crawling is too slow. Benjamin is ready for his learner's permit - if he could just reach the clutch!

Pre-crawling Calisthenics

Benjamin is becoming increasingly mobile. A few weeks ago he discovered how to scoot backwards when laying on his tummy. Now he is practicing getting his knees underneath him. He tries to move into a crawling position from sitting, but one leg always gets stuck. In order to pull it under him he has to rock back and forth. The problem with this is that he gets so much momentum he usually ends up flat on his stomach! If he is on the bed he can then pull his knees up, but the living room floor is much too slippery. He has two choices : scoot backwards, or frantically wave his arms and legs like a turtle on a rock until we come and rescue him. Benjamin is so intent on mastering crawling that he even practices pulling his knees up in his sleep. I went in to check on him the other day and caught him in this position with his little bum in the air!

New Cousin!

Introducing Benjamin's new cousin Ryan Gordon! With only 7 months between them, I'm sure Ryan and Ben will find all sorts of ways to get into trouble together as they get older.

Wiloughby Wallaby Woo

Wiloughby wallaby woo, an elephant sat on you! Willaby wallaby wen, an elephant sat on Ben!

Ah, Raffi... I don't recall owning any of his records and yet I seem to know all his songs. We may have to download some. We wouldn't want Ben to grow up having never heard Baby Beluga or Six Little Ducks!

It's a Boy!

My brother and sister-in-law have added an 8 pound 1 ounce baby boy to their family of three girls! Mother and baby (who shall remain nameless) are doing well. No pictures yet, and there will eventually be a name... but it is still to be decided.

Mmmm, books!

Benjamin used to sit quietly and look at the pictures when someone was reading a book to him. These days he gets so excited he bounces up and down and then grabs the book and eats it! It doesn't matter how big the book is, or how determined the reader is to keep it away from him. If he doesn't succeed in pulling the book to his mouth he throws his whole body toward the book with his mouth open wide...

Yellow Dust Photo

I took the first photo on April 8th at 12:17pm when there was a lot of yellow dust in the air. (It's the view from our apartment balcony.) I took the second photo today at 11:02 am -just a regular day. Check out the difference! Neither picture has been retouched or edited in any way.

Busan

Last Wednesday night we drove to Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. Early Thursday morning I had an appointment to get a medical check - part of the U.S. visa application process. The map I had printed off the internet didn't look much like the real thing so we spent a fair amount of time driving around in the area where we thought the hotel was, trying to find it. Finally we gave up and hailed a taxi. In my broken Korean I explained where we wanted to go and that my husband was going to follow in our car. It turns out the hotel was still quite some distance away. The taxi driver and I had a nice chat - he thought it was very clever of us to use a taxi to find our way to the hotel. Needless to say we would have felt more clever if we had been able to find it using the map!

Since the 11th was our three year anniversary and the 14th was Colin's birthday, we decided to live it up and stay somewhere nice. The Commodore Hotel, (designed by an Australian!) resembles a Korean palace and was a 2 minute walk from the hospital.

This was the view from our hotel window.

Since check-out time wasn't until noon, Colin and Ben hung out at the hotel where they were more comfortable, while I tried my hardest to convince a lady that I didn't need a chicken pox vaccination. I had the chicken pox when I was five. (This bitter event is etched in my memory because I was absent for a whole week from kindergarten and missed the chicks hatching out of the eggs we had been keeping in an incubator in our classroom.) Unfortunately, the only way to prove that I had had the disease involved having a test done and returning in person 1 to 2 weeks later. Since the hospital is about 2 hours from our house I reluctantly submitted to the vaccination.The rest of the medical check consisted of me running all over the hospital having various things checked. Each check (blood pressure, vision, chest x-ray etc.) was performed by a different person in a different room. Luckily the lady who insisted I get the vaccination assigned some poor guy to direct me to the right rooms. I had a moment of panic when the person drawing my blood told me that after the chest x-ray I couldn't breastfeed for three days. (That would have been nice to know in advance.) I had been at the hospital for a couple of hours and pictured Colin at the hotel trying to calm a baby screaming with hunger. Two other doctors reassured me that breastfeed ing was perfectly fine so I went with the majority. And Colin and Ben survived with the help of some yogurt.

We went to a Thai restaurant for a fabulous lunch, and then it was back to the hospital to pick up the chest x-ray. The paperwork was signed by perhaps the only doctor in the hospital I hadn't yet seen, and then it was sealed and stamped.

With the medical check out of the way, we are just waiting for the fingerprint check from the RCMP. Then we can set a date for the visa interview.

Ben's Favorite Website

www.kneebouncers.com is a site where young children can pound away on the computer keyboard to their hearts' content. Pressing any key will make musical instruments play, colorful characters jump in the air, or fish swim across the screen. Ben's favorite is the train! Unfortunately, one of us has to keep a hand on the mouse in order to get out of the start menu and other functions as he accidentally pulls them up. One time he managed to activate the text-to-speech translation and suddenly Microsoft Sam started reading to us in his best computer voice!

He ate a banana!

The child who up to this point vehemently refused to be fed mashed bananas attacked the banana in the mesh feeder with an eagerness heretofore unheard of! The entire banana - in three installations - was consumed completely. Well, maybe not consumed. There was a great deal of it smeared on himself, the Bumbo chair and the floor, (I literally had to peel the Bumbo off the floor!) but perhaps he does want to eat solid food after all - he just doesn't want to be fed!

There's a saying: Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding. Apparently if you give a boy a mesh feeder with a soggy banana he reaches the same conclusion.

Yellow Dust (Hwangsa)

When we first heard that the yellow dust was coming we thought it was a joke. It sounds like something out of a bad horror movie: people running from the village, mouths open wide in screams of terror as the cloud of yellow dust descends upon them. However, it's an actual meteorological phenomenon that takes place when dust and sand from the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts in Mongolia and China is picked up and carried to Korea and Japan courtesy of the prevailing westerly.

On the days that there is a lot of yellow dust, ("hwangsa" in Korean) people are advised to keep their windows closed, wear masks and long-sleeved clothing if they go outside, and wear glasses instead of contacts which could get scratched by the dust particles.

Korean meteorologists closely monitor the level of yellow dust in the air. If you look here and click on the fourth set of characters across the top and it will take you to a graph showing the dust level at the current time. The normal level of dust in Seoul is about 70 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

To combat the yellow dust Colin has a cycling mask which filters out particles. Sometimes on his way home from work he takes a route through the mountain trails. It's usually an uneventful ride, but occasionally a grandmother picking herbs or getting some exercise doesn't hear him approaching and gets the shock of her life! When wearing the mask he is rather sinister looking, but surprisingly, he startles more people without it. With the mask he's just some guy on a bike. Without it, he's (gasp!) a foreigner on a bike - apparently quite a bit more shocking!

Teeth!

Benjamin sporting his new toothy grin.

Adventures in Solid Food

For a long time now Benjamin has been watching us eat. His unwavering gaze enviously follows the path of our food from our plates to our mouths. Accordingly, we thought it time to try some solids. We put Benjamin in the Bumbo seat and velcroed a bib around his neck. His eyes lit up as he saw the spoonfull of sweet potatoes coming toward his mouth. He opened his mouth to sample the delicacy... and then a look of horror came over his face. You could see his mind racing. "What are they trying to feed me? You mean this is what FOOD tastes like?" Out came the sweet potatoes.

We've tried a few different food with varying degrees of failure, and more recently, a modicum of success. He seemed very excited about eating tiny shreds of cheese, but he can't seem to maneuver them to the back of his mouth to swallow. Inevitably the soggy, gummy blobs find their way out to their final resting place on his chin.

(This picture must have been taken at the beginning of a feeding, because he's much too clean!)

A typical "feeding" goes something like this:
Spoon one: open mouth, let most of the food ooze back out.
Spoon two: open mouth, bite the spoon and make a mess.
Spoon three: open mouth, bite the spoon and blow bubbles.
Spoon four: open mouth, push food back out with tongue.
Spoon five: open mouth, take food in, purse lips, squirt food out.
Spoon six: open mouth, stick fingers in and smear food all over face.
Spoon seven: close mouth until parents open their mouths really wide and say "Ah!" while making a silly faces, then choose from the above options.
Continue until parents give up or all of the food has been relocated to face, bib and floor.

On the weekend we bought some teething biscuits and a little mesh feeder with a handle. The feeder is just big enough to put a chunk of apple in, and he can hold it himself and chew on it without us worrying about him choking. He absolutely loves it, so that's a step in the right direction. The teething biscuits dissolve even if the baby doesn't have teeth - they're the consistency of styrofoam. Ben is not sure what to think of those. We gave him a rice flavored one and he looked like he found it even less appetizing than sweet potato - yet he kept chewing on it! We laughed at him because he had a very baffled expression like he couldn't figure out who kept putting that disgusting thing back in his mouth!