One day we decided to drive one of Colin's bike routes through the mountains. We stopped at a rest area to stretch and take this picture with our little white Kia Pride in the background. We bought the car more than two years ago for about $500 and it's still getting us where we need to go .

Camelbak Boy

Recently Colin purchased a Camelbak so that he could keep hydrated on his long rides. Colin was pretty excited because the weather has been so hot and humid. Little did he know that somebody else would enjoy his purchase just as much.

Playdate and Reunion

This past weekend three of the teachers I used to work with came to visit. Because of the hot weather we were forced to turn on the air conditioning and eat the Baskin Robbin's ice cream that they brought.

Just after Ben was born Ally moved to Seoul to find work. She recently changed jobs and is now working for the Bank of Iran.

Anna just returned from a trip to Europe. Here she is laughing at Ben trying to eat his toes. Tanya's daughter Yoon-Seo was born one month after Ben. Tanya is expecting another baby next year!

Yoon Seo and Benjamin face-off.

It was Benjamin's first time to get down and play with someone his age so I was curious as to how he would react. At first he was hesitant but he soon became braver, even daring to touch Yoon-Seo's hair.

The two babies had a lot of fun with Benjamin's expensive toys. (A water bottle filled with popcorn and the tupperware cupboard were the hits of the day!)

Colin claimed there was too much estrogen in the apartment and made his exit, but not before charming Yoon-Seo. Although Tanya says she usually takes a while to warm up to people, Colin had her giggling moments after meeting her.

It was great to catch up with these ladies. They all taught at Catherine during the time Colin and I both taught there, and we loved working with them!

Weapons of Mass Consumption

While we were up in Seoul for the visa interview we ate at Bennigan's...more than once. Would you believe more than twice? We ate there as soon as we got off the train, stopped in for dessert one night, and also ate there after getting the visa! The "Death by Chocolate" dessert really did almost kill us - although two desserts between three people didn't seem excessive when we ordered them. (No, we're not counting Ben as one of the people - Grandma was still with us at that time.) On our third trip one of the waitresses helpfully gave Ben two balloons. Ben was delighted and proceeded to see how much of our meal he could pick up by whacking it with the balloons. We usually leave a precautionary swath of empty table around him because he manages to reach much further than it looks like he should be able to. Unfortunately the balloons extended his reach so that there was no safety zone. Needless to say, one of the balloons didn't make it back to the hotel, and the other one mysteriously missed the train.

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!