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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Stella's got one too now!

Janine very kindly sent one of her Amber teething necklaces for Stella, who has been having a very tough time with her top teeth :( The necklace is too cute for words, especially when it's on her. Stella loves it, and even Daddy does too! Whenever I put it on her, she stands dead still with a look of pure concentration on her face, and then beams proudly :) We only got it yesterday, so I'm still monitoring her moods to see if it's helping. She slept a bit better last night than she has in ages, so I think it's helping!


Check out those toofies!



Monday, March 26, 2012

Happy birthday Gogo!

Dearest Gogo!
We wish you a very very happy birthday, and we are too sad to be so far away from you on your special day. I remember planning your 60th last year when Stella was still in my belly. What a pleasure it would have been to see you two together on your 61st!
May you have a wonderful day, and get spoiled by everyone around you.
Thank you for being the best Mom and Gogo we could ever hope for!
We love you to the moon and back :)
Us2 xxxx

Gogo and Stella have had a very special bond since she was born. Actually Gogo has a very special bond with all her grand children. That's just the kind of person she is I guess...a lot like Granny Grog. Talking about Granny Grog, I bought Stella some powder yesterday, and when I opened it, it smelt JUST like Granny Grog and that house of hers in Stella Street in Vryburg! Memories came rushing back...what a happy moment!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

St Patrick's day

My days of hectic St Patrick's day partying are over, but I still like to celebrate in some way. So Stella and I headed into Seoul on Saturday for the St. Patrick's day festival held each year. It was amazing to see these two cultures so well integrated at this event. The Irish announcer could speak Korean fluently, and the Irish band and all the Gaelic dancers were Korean!! As to be expected form the Irish, the atmosphere was very jolly, plus there was lots for the kids too, like face-painting, a clown blowing up balloons, and even some dancing for those old enough! Also, the weather was gorgeous...just for those few hours of the afternoon that we were there :) The luck of Irish must have been on our side ;)
Somehow through all the noise, Stella managed to pass out!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Prayers for Toddlers

Stella loves to page! We try to spend some time every day 'reading' books. She is still too young to be really interested in the stories, but recently she's become obsessed with paging through books, leaflets or any papers she can get her hands on. Her favourite at the moment is the book we read before bed each night, called "Prayers for Toddlers'. It has cute little prayers for all occasions (morning, bedtime, meal times, thank you etc), but I think the main attraction is the lovely, colorful pictures on every page. It's very cute to watch her doing her thing...I hope she'll grow up to love reading, like her cousins!


animated gif maker
Animated gif maker


Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Dinner tricks

Look what Little Miss Naughty is doing while she is SUPPOSED to be sitting and eating her dinner!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Library play group

Somehow, through my lack of Korean, and encouragement from some very nice Korean moms, I got roped into joining a play group at the library! We meet once a week, and each week one mom gets a chance to lead the kiddies in an activity. Today we had an art activity, where we messed around with flour - lots of fun...maybe more so for the me than Stella. She's the youngest in the group, so I think some of it just goes over her head, and she's happy to wander around and explore.

The calm before the storm...





Flour pictures ~



Our art work displayed at home :)



Next week it's my turn to do an English activity!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Little Miss Naughty




Stella is my most favourite person to hang out with at the moment. She is absolutely mischievous, silly and adorable. She is very, very naughty at the moment too! I think she drove Megan crazy in Ulsan, and put her off having kids, possibly for life.
I wish I could get a photo of her pulling her little sideways pout (like Popeye with out the pipe) while raising her eyebrows at me, but getting her to do anything for the camera is a trick beyond my capabilities.

I could also call her Little Miss Chatterbox...she babbles away at anyone who will listen: The ladies in the supermarket (who think she is too cute), the kids in the street (who think she's an alien), and Sangyeon and I (who think she's too funny!). She can say just about every variation of 'daddy' - appa, dadda, pappa...but only recently started saying mamma. She 'quacks' every time she sees her duck pillow, her bath duck, or ducks in her books. Sometimes she quacks at birds too, so I think she doesn't quite have it all figured out yet. And she's definitely a Korean baby, because she says a lot of stuff that actually sound like comprehensible Korean words (maybe all babies speak Korean before the learn their first language?). And she sings too...she loves music! When she hears a song that she recognises, or these silly Korean ads on the radio, she waves her hands around in the air and goes 'walalala".

As I'm typing this, I realise how fast she is growing up and I get so sad!
Can't believe this was my little schnoek 10 months ago - look how tiny she was!!



There are no truer words than: "Appreciate each stage of your baby growing up". That's the advice I would give to any new mom. That, and "Take LOTS of photos!"

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Thailand: Part 2

So the thing about Bangkok is, I actually really loved it! Most people don't. They think it's too 'hectic', but words I can think of to describe it are colourful, vibrant (busy yes, but in a good way), shopping paradise, rich with culture. The people we encountered were all lovely and genuine (although I suspect not all Thais in Bangkok are that way). The food was the best I had in Thailand, the way I really expected Thai food to be. I didn't take too many photos, which I regret on one hand, but on the other hand (as Naas always says), I'm glad I just forgot the camera and immersed myself in the experience!

My favourite I think was the floating market. It was interesting taking the little gondola-type boat there, and haggling with the old ladies for souvenirs. This is the perfect place to bargain for stuff....we were told by our guide to try for 50% discount, but I managed to get some stuff down from 900 baht to 300 baht! Everything here can also be found in the markets in Bangkok for much cheaper, but the experience was fun and we also had the most delicious noodles and coconut ice-cream here :)



Stinky showing off her 2 front teeth (before the other 2 came)





Stella looked mighty cute in all the hats. If she actually kept the hat on for 5 minutes, I would have bought it for her!


Everyone commented on Stell's shirt (made by Janine) and asked where I had bought it! So Janine, if you're thinking of going international...I'll be your business partner ;)






This huge, scarey snake was lying randomly in front of a stall selling dresses....not sure if it was supposed to attract customers or not?


We rode some elephants...this was really rather expensive, sad and disappointing. If you go north to Chiang Mai you can bath with elephants in the forest...all we did was ride these poor, abused-looking ellies through some stinky swamps (right on the highway) for 20 minutes. And the 'driver' had the cheek to try and sell us some jewelry he claimed to be made from ivory!



We stopped off at a little souvenir village. Stella was trying on hats again and charming everyone in sight. All the old European ladies were snapping away! That was our 5 minutes of fame ;)




This graffiti was on a wall in the street where our hotel was. I took this picture because it reminded me of my favourite graffiti artist, Banksy.


Dr Fish is all over Korea, and I've always wanted to try it. So finally I did, in Thailand! Well, I tell you, I was squirming even before I stepped into the water, and when I finally did I giggled like a mad thing for the first 5 minutes straight - imagine ticklish x 10000! After that it became quite bearable, but I must say, I was happy to step out 15 minutes later. My feet looked and felt great though, so I'll have to give it another go here in SoKo!



We visited the King's Palace on our last day in Bangkok. Sadly, I didn't pick up much of the history behind the place. It was teeming with tourists and I think Stella's top teeth were coming out right about now, so she cried most of the time we were there :( It's a magnificent sight to see though. The buildings are all decorated in bold colours and plated in gold, so it was great eye-candy if nothing else.











I swear, Stella almost made him smile :)


There's a whole lot of other things waiting for us to do in Thailand, so I feel safe in saying we'll definitely make it back there one day!