Piano Man

We visited the BX yesterday to buy a birthday present for a party we have to attend today. While we were there John showed Caden a little piano and he fell in love with it, so it came home with us!

Sleepy Hair

Caden's hair is finally starting to grow. A few weeks ago we put him down for his Sunday afternoon nap and he woke up with crazy hair! I know this really isn't all that crazy, but it was the FIRST time my little man has had enough hair to sport this messy "do." I couldn't resist taking a few pictures, and he's just so darn cute I had to share them with all of you! :o)

Shooting Hoops

Caden has a new trick! John's been working with him on putting his little toy basketballs into the net in the bathtub and this week he finally started doing it on his own! As you can see in the video he's not 100% yet, but he's getting there! I think we scare him when he makes a basket with all our cheering. Let's just hope these signs of early athletic ability mean he got his daddy's genes in that department

More on the Korean Fok Village

My friend Lynn wrote a great post about her adventures at the Folk Village with us! Click here to read it!

I had a few more cute stories from the adventure to share:



John is really in to putting Caden up on his shoulders these days. Caden loves the view from up high and smiles the whole time. But on this day, he was very distracted. As all my faithful readers know, my son loves anything and everything that is round... and what will you find on top of a baseball cap??? A little round button! It kept Caden's attention for quite some time:
Here is a cute picture of Caden talking to Adeline!

And here is Caden eating a few bites of ice cream (his first time)! We gave him a few spoons of Dippin Dots!

And one last story (not related to the Korean Folk Village). The other day John was watching Caden in the living room. I walked in to find Caden standing at the window (one of his new favorite places in the house). Then, I noticed Caden was eating something. So I went over and did a little "finger swipe" of his mouth which revealed our son was eating a dried up, dead beetle! ICK!!! I only swiped the lower half of the beetles body so the head is either still in the window ledge rotting away or in my child's tummy...... don't really want to think about that anymore!

Water Park

John was off of work on Tuesday so we all headed down to the water park on Camp Humphreys (about 30 minutes away).

First, Caden ate his lunch in a "big boy" chair

And then it was off to let him crawl! He didn't like the way the concrete felt on his knees (I don't blame him, ouch!) so he crawled on his feet mostly!

And as you can see, he didn't like his first encounter with the water so much...
Poor Baby!

So, we brought him over to the Kiddie Pool area and let him explore. Everything was so new and you could see the curiosity about it all over his face...

And after all those new experiences, it was time for something more familiar to him. John got the idea we should bring his walker because he realized crawling on the concrete would be difficult. The walker was a hit. Caden was so proud and he walked, and walked, and walked and smiled at everyone! This was much more his speed than the water...

After all the walking we decided to take him to the Olympic sized pool. He loved it! He was laughing and squealing and kicking his legs. It was so cool to see him experience all these new things!

After the big pool, we headed back to the kiddie pool and this time he was just as curious, but less cautious. He quickly learned that his feet could touch and he walked all over the pool in his little floatie!

After all that playtime, our little man was beat! He was down for the count.

Before leaving for the day he took one more stroll with his Lion...

Here are the video clips from his adventures...

Korean Folk Village

Yesterday we headed out to the Korean Folk Village with our friends Patrick, Lynn, and Adeline. The Korean Folk Village is sort of like Korea's version of Williamsburg. There are 'actors' dressed in the traditional Korean clothing and there are different homes representing people of different classes and also different eras. It was interesting! I will be taking my mom back in July because I think she will really enjoy it!





The above video clip is from one of the shows we watched at the village. This is a traditional Korean band and I believe this is called a Farmer's Dance, although I'm not positive. They marched around in different formations with their drums and cymbal type instruments. A group of the guys had these long poles on their heads with ribbons attached and they did a lot of neat moves with the ribbons, swirling them about using their heads. The most impressive part was the little circle move they are doing above. I don't see how they do this without falling!

Here we are pictured with some Kimchi pots. I've mentioned Kimchi on here before. It is a dish of fermented cabbage or raddish (or other vegetable) that is quite spicy and is served with almost every meal here in Korea. Kimchi pots are often used as decoration, but they are traditionally used to store the Kimchi so they can eat it throughout the winter.

Here are some pictures I took at the museum depicting Korean women (in traditional dress) making Kimichi.

Well, that is about all of the interesting historical stuff we spent time on this time! We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the shows... and of course the guys found all the cool toys!

Here are some giant swings that the guys really enjoyed.

There was a group of Ajummas at the "play" area jumping on the seesaw. It cracked us up! Here is the video from it:





Caden impressed everyone again with his stroller-pushing-abilities...



And then we found the amusement park area:

John rode his favorite ride by himself...and when I say that he rode it alone, I mean it very literally. He was the ONLY person on this ride! :)

John, Caden, Amanda, Lynn, Adeline, and Patrick

The best part of the day for me, was seeing my sweet little boy get tickled at all the farm animals! Here is a video clip of Caden laughing:

View Lynn's post about the trip here.

A Day with Friends

Caden and I joined some friends of ours last week for a "Burger Burn." They had free goodies, raffles, and tons of activities for the kids (plus free food). The kids had an especially good time on the moon bounce/bouncy castle. It was his first time! Here are some pictures from our day:

Trevor, Parker, and Amanda pose on the moon bounce

Caden on the moon bounce

Caden in his fire hat

Parker peeks out from under his fire hat

Isn't Miss Adeline such a cutie?!?

MaMa 10 months

I've mentioned before how Caden is just not interested in mimicking/copying me. Ever since he was an itty-bitty newborn I would make silly faces at him and wait with anticipation for him to try to copy my facial expressions and he never would. Time went by and I knew at "this age" he was supposed to be copying the sounds I make.... but he never did.

Well, on Friday I was sitting in the car at John's work waiting for him and Caden was in the back seat of the car looking at himself in the mirror and talking up a storm. He does this often. He especially likes to do it in the car where he can see himself in the mirror. I pulled out my little "point-and-shoot" camera and flipped the dial to Video Mode and started filming my cute little guy and all his babbles. About 2 minutes and 30 seconds in to the video I decided to try and get Caden to say something else other than 'Daaaa, da, da" so I prompted him with "Mmmmmaaa, Ma." I was not expecting a response. Why would I since he is 10 months old and has never participated in this game before.... but to my surprise, he purses his little lips together and says, "Mmmmmma, ma!"

Here is the video clip. You have to listen to 2 minutes and 30 seconds of babbles before he says mama, though.




If you are impatient and can't wait for 2 minutes and 30 seconds to hear my sweet little man's MaMa sound, then try this video. This was Saturday (day 2) and I was (again) waiting on John while he was getting his hair cut. So out came the little camera and my best attempts to get more Mama's on film. Caden obliged within the first 5 seconds of this clip!!!! The rest of it I try to get him to do it again...and he doesn't. He's just too distracted! Enjoy!

Sleeping 10 Months

I snuck in to Caden's room to wake him (which I rarely ever do, but we had somewhere to be). The few times I've been in there I've noticed he sleeps in the funniest position... When I put him in his crib to go to bed, he usually always sits up and talks to himself for a few minutes before falling asleep. Well, it appears that when he gets tired, he literally just collapses over from the sitting position and falls asleep that way. EVERY time I've gone in his room he's sleeping in a position similar to this....

And here are some pictures from another trip to the flower market yesterday. I tried to take a picture or two to show you just how big it is!

Korea Funnies

So, on a trip to the flower market today I realized I had taken some pictures of some funny Korea 'things' that I never got around to sharing with you! Many of these have been sitting on my computer for months! :)

So, I think I may have mentioned before that almost all buses and cabs and many cars have "Navigation Systems" in them. But the unusual thing is that these are all somehow or another wired to cable (is that possible?!?). You can watch movies and TV while you drive... YES, while you DRIVE because these are on the dashboard!! John and I were behind an SUV where they were all watching a game show of some kind. Here is the picture I snapped of it....

I've also mentioned Ajumma before...(the respectful term for an older Korean woman)... Here is a picture of a little 'herd' of Ajumma's crossing the street... Not really funny, but thought I'd share anyway....

I've mentioned before how many scooter/motorcycle type vehicles are on the road. Mainly because food delivery here is HUGE and the delivery men all drive these little scooters. Well, in the winter it is mighty cold here! So they have these special "gloves" they wear in the winter to protect their hands... the first time John saw these he thought a guy was driving while wearing boxing gloves (a logical assumption of course).

Do you have a large load you need to transport from Point A to Point B? No truck or car? No worries!!!!! (We see this sight OFTEN...and some times instead of a person pulling the cart, they will use a four-wheeler.)

Did I mention to you guys about the week the pollen came in? It was hot inside, but cool and breezy outside. Perfect weather to open the windows, right? Ah, so that is exactly what I did.... and this is what my house looked like afterward.... it was EVERYWHERE... ick!