The new shhhh machine

Last night, we pulled into the parking of the gospel meeting place and sat for a few minutes until nearly start-time since little girl had fallen asleep in her car seat.  We managed to time it perfectly so that we scored FRONT ROW SEATS!  Gulp!  That would be the first time ever in the front row with an active little girl.  Amazingly this child who will startle at any commotion and who refuses to sleep when there are people and excitement around her just in case she'd miss anything, slept on my shoulder for the first 15 minutes through the singing and all.  She must have been dazed or something because she sat fairly still the rest of the meeting on my lap, looking at books and of course at other people.  Fortunately, we found this awesome quiet toy at Ollie's the other day which kept her entertained very well, also. 

The electronic umbilical cord

This recent CNN article raises interesting points (most of which everyone already knows, probably) but it's good to be reminded that we could potentially become addicted to our gadgets.   Pretty soon, the U.S. will have as many detox centers for electronically addicted people as there are in Korea.

Charleston SC

Getting away for a couple days proved to be a welcome break from the daily routine.  We appreciated the beautiful scenery, old but well-maintained houses, history, parks, water, palm trees and lowcountry cuisine.

Walking along the hotel lobby

Chairwoman of the "bored" directing us where to sit, etc

The lone Korean restaurant

at which we did not eat, but found funny signs!

oooh, horsies!

Art gallery display

At the end of Broad Street

Three generations

Rockin'

Beautiful architecture

More old buildings

At the Battery

Overlooking the ocean

"hear ye, hear ye"

Sitting on a cannon

Stoll's Alley

Daddy are you coming?

Me and my Halmoni

We both love to have fun.  We both love collecting leaves.  We both love hanging out with our friends!

Feeding the ducks

Oooh, watch them swim and fight for the bread

I don't like that scary one!

Ducks swimming for food

Scary one!  No clue what it's called....

My and my friend

Me and my Halmoni

Me and my Halabuhgee

We both like Starbucks.  We both like to smile.  We both like being outdoors.  Life is good!

Every kid should play in the leaves

Both Troy and I reminisce about how much we loved raking leaves and then jumping in them!  We have loved the noise of crunching leaves while walking on the greenway lately.  When Lucia wanted to play in the big pile the other day, I gulped down my instincts to keep her from the branches in there and just let her romp and throw the leaves around.  I think she had a blast!

Thankful Day

Today's celebration of gratitude (and food!) is always a favorite.  Our list of items for which to be grateful extends beyond mere words.  We shall count our blessings with a full heart.  Happy thanksgiving to everyone!

Almost a word a day

After my suspicions of our girl having a slight delay in expressive speech (although she clearly understands very well) were confirmed through the online developmental questionnaire before the last pediatrician's appointment, she is now talking more and more.  Since her friends her age all speak more than she does, we happily welcome this turn of events.  Most of the new words started spilling out in the past week or two.  So far, her words include:  dada, mama, hi, me me me me (as in "pick me up"), cracker, baw (ball), yeah, wa wa (water), cheese (as in smile), ha-mi (halmoni), ha-ji (halabuhgee), done, car, whoo whoo (dog or any animal), and tickle tickle.

Ninety percent of her communication is through pointing and babbling (with much expression!) and some signs.  She is exhibiting her bossy skills by pointing to wherever she wants us to sit, stand, lie, play, eat, carry her, etc. She uses her hands to say please, thank you, more, all done and baby (the newest one which she learned by herself from the DVD - no kidding!).  She bows after we sing the grace, and also bows when we say "thank you" and "hello" in Korean.  Her daddy taught her the Korean bow, ironically.

Hopefully my Konglish won't confuse her and her grandparents speaking Korean with her will help teach her both English and Korean.  We are excitedly awaiting more words.

Also, one of the funniest moments occurred the other day while we were at Pullen Park.   We have been encouraging her to shake hands with people after meeting, so when she spotted two children at the park, she wandered over to the grassy area where they were and stuck out her hand to shake theirs.  The other two children looked rather confused, and I was rather amused.

Lady in red (Sunday)

If it weren't for the pacifier, munchkin might look like a big girl.  She only recently started to become more attached to it.  I was hoping we might get away with not having a traumatic separation from the paci.  Uh oh!

Impromptu fun

Typical for us, our plans for spending a few family hours together came together at the last minute.  We decided Friday night that going to Saturday's parade might be fun.  After a late breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs, we hustled out the door by 9:45 for the 10:00am parade.  We made it downtown before 10 but traffic halted at the two exit lanes.  While trying to detour around the back streets, then being blocked by the police car parked perpendicular to prevent any traffic encroachment near the parade route, we turned to loop back around.  Quickly, we realized that we couldn't exit where we thought we should, and decided to forget the parade.  We remembered that one of the downtown parks, which was renovated over the past two years, was to reopen that day and opted for exploring that new park.  Our morning turned out to be a blast!  All of us enjoyed the clickety-clack train ride, found the carousel mesmerizing (or scary if you are a little girl!), and soaked up the sun while walking around the pond in search of ducks.  At the playground area, we even ran into a girl from Lucia's art class.  Her mom told me that she used to go to that park when she was young.  The entire park was full of smiling people of every age!  Can't wait to go back!