Project 365 - week 4

Wow, a whole month of photos! Now if only I could exercise as often as I remember to take my camera out...

Not only am I up with the sun, but with the moon as well. (And our homemade paper snowflakes will stay on the windows as long as the snow is falling outside... not Christmas-specific decor... right?)

During the blessed hours of preschool this morning, I journeyed over the rivers and through the woods to take Steve some Starbucks. (His new unit is not on the main post.) And for some reason, I really like seeing all of the tanks and trucks covered in snow.

He looks so sweet. But more than once today, I have contemplated full-time preschool for my little dueling duo.

Molly's new pink shoes.

I never said I made pretty cakes. In fact, this one is lopsided and broken, only held together by gobs and gobs of cream cheese icing. But you know what? When that cake is in your mouth, suddenly you don't care how ugly it is anymore. (How appropriate that the 26th day of the 365 project is Steve's 26th birthday.)

All of this turned into some really yummy juice. Even the anti-veggie toddlers drank it. (Hint- I think it was the super-sweet grapes that covered up the veggie taste this time.)

Fridge and freezer died. Molly is enjoying the spoils while watching the repairman work his magic.

Happy birthday Steve!

Steve celebrated his birthday like any other newly-minted 26-year-old man would- by being awakened with a toddler heavily breathing in his face, eating funfetti waffles, watching Thomas the Train, and bouncing around on trampolines and throwing bouncy balls at his kids.

MIRACLE OF MIRACLES- everyone staring (and sort of smiling!) in the general direction of the camera!

After breakfast, we headed over to a kids cafe so that the energetic little nuggets would pass out for a good long nap later. That was a total win. We came home, ate lunch, and Steve (and the kids) took a nap while I made his birthday cake. By the time that was finished, we started to get ready for dinner. The sitter arrived before Molly awoke from her nap (yesssssss) and we headed out. We thought we'd be eating with the senior citizen crowd since we left really early, but shockingly, there were a lot of people our age eating dinner at 4:45pm. We ate a ridiculous amount of delicious food at our favorite beef and leaf and then went on post for the most exciting part of the day- grocery shopping. Aw yeah. We really know how to party. After arriving home and trying to hold it together (because this was THE LAST TIME our beloved babysitter would be sitting on our babies), we iced the cake and sang a quick happy birthday before chucking the whiny children in bed. After eating a slice, we hopped in bed too, since a 4am recall loomed in the distance like the most beautiful birthday present ever.... (said no one)

Shockingly similar to the waffle photo, I know. Plus a few not-so-enthused faces.

I am not one to usually care much for white cake, but this was the birthday boy's request. White cake with cream cheese frosting. It was shockingly good. I sent the rest with him to work today because I don't need my jeans getting any tighter. And God bless the Koreans, they've probably never tasted a cake with so much actual flavor (read: sugar) in their lives. (Steve said it got a big thumbs up from them.) 

When asked before bed last night if he had a good birthday, Steve was kind enough to say yes, it was his best one yet. It certainly trumps last year's birthday (spent in Afghanistan), and I hope they only get better. Maybe next year we can do something more thrilling than buying diapers and groceries. Maybe.

*Special shout-out to my mother-in-law: Thank you for the gift of Steve! I am eternally grateful.*

xoxo

Project 365 - week 3

Minicar Molly

First smash cake session- the aftermath.

Date night to the most delicious beef and leaf. I went prepared with a winner's attitude and wore stretchable leggings. They came in handy, as I knew they would.

My cutest, almost-hairless, oldest child goofing around before bedtime.

Date day to Dongdaemun! We walked until we thought our legs would fall off.

Snow day! Molly enjoyed watching the guards quickly shovel the snow off the playground and sidewalks.

Post-lunch messy face and still chewing a fiber bar (he thinks they are "sheshal teets" - let's see how long we can keep that one going.)

Day trip to Dongdaemun

When our faithful sitter announced that her last days in Korea were upon us, I did what any normal person would do, and tried to book her for as many days as humanly possible. While this isn't what we originally planned on doing, we flipped through a book on Seoul after we got on the train and decided that this is where we'd go.

We popped out of the subway and behold, one (of the eight!) Seoul Gates was staring us down!

We passed a few food vendors and then crossed the street for the market. We didn't know anything about this place, other than a market existed here (we didn't know exactly where everything was), but we wandered around and found tons and TONS of vendors. Pop-up tents, folding tables, flattened cardboard boxes, opened trucks- you name it, people were selling stuff on it. Unfortunately, we are not in the right size bracket to shop for clothes in Korea (too "large-y" and tall), so we skipped digging through the mounds of clothes (usually selling for about a buck a piece!). We went through mazes of people and kept finding little alleys to explore, most people in the area selling similar things. We went down an alley to find nothing but shoes. Just a half-mile of shoes! We got Molly a pair of knock-off hot pink Converse sneakers for about $5.

A man passing by giggled at me as I took a picture of the thong mannequin. I mean, how could I NOT?!

Our Seoul book says that Dongdaemun comes alive at night, and while a lot of shops were closed, there were plenty of vendors out there during the morning hours. One section was selling all sorts of animals- rabbits, hedgehogs, chickens, mice, guinea pigs, a rooster, fish; they were all huddling together trying to stay warm!

Pay phone booths are everywhere here. Which blows my mind, so I take a picture of just about every one I see.

After we were frozen solid, we headed into a nearby mall (Doota- what a name) to get some lunch.

The ladies' bathroom ended up having a tremendous view of the gate, which led to me being that American taking pictures in the bathroom, which led to Steve growing concerned over what must be going wrong with my bowels. I assured him I was fine and that there was a huge plate glass window by the sinks! Boys' bathroom didn't have that. Heh.
We had a delicious Korean lunch and Steve got a coffee afterwards to get the kimchi taste out of his mouth. The coffee place was selling these crepes (plastic renderings of food are everywhere- very helpful for me) and I kinda regret not going for the nutella-banana crepe. It was probably fantastic...

We went up on the mall's outdoor deck area on the top floor, and I took this craptastic great panoramic photo of the area below.

Then we rode the escalator back down 8 floors....

Steve, holding our trash bags of loot. What a saint that man is.

Mini coffee- check! Off to see more!

We jumped back on the subway and headed to Yongsan, because we don't pass up the opportunity to browse the Class 6 without children in tow. Our time in Seoul was winding down and we took our achey breaky feet back to the train. Where there were no seats. A flying squirrel finally got up and told me to take his seat (I kid you not, I wish I'd snapped a picture) and I got to sit for the rest of the train ride back home. I'm feeling it today, but there's no rest for the weary- it snowed last night and is still coming! Off to shovel and scoop and rearrange gloves and wipe snotty noses and make hot chocolate.

**Edited to add that today marks three years of blogging! Wowza!**

That time I signed my kids up for Korean preschool

Recently the kids have been, how to put this nicely.... batshit crazy. Lots of screaming. Lots of crying. Lots of timeouts. While we play with friends and get out of the house regularly, I knew these kids needed something more. And I needed a break. So I looked into a Korean preschool that a few friends have used, and after accepting the fact that preschool costs a small fortune, decided that it was more than worth it. As Steve so sweetly said, "Your sanity is worth something." You betcha buddy. It's worth many many thousands of won per month.

Once again, I didn't get one of those Pinterest-worthy photos with a cute sign saying it was their first day of preschool, but I did try to snap a few shots in our (horribly lit) kitchen.

Currently they are scheduled to go on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-3. This past Thursday was spent in a flurry of activity and neurosis, trying to jam-pack every minute spent apart with productivity. I had my first-ever smash cake session to photograph just an hour after I dropped the kids off. That involved moving all of our living room furniture and rug, vacuuming everything that had been accumulating under said furniture, and taking practice shots of my teddy bear to make sure the lighting was ok. (To-do list: Turn into a nut job. Check!)

I'd love to say that the first drop off was a breeze. But it wasn't. Sam trotted straight off into his classroom, eager to meet new "frans", but Molly noticed that I didn't take off my shoes when everyone else did, and that must mean that I don't plan on staying.... So she clung tight and asked to be held. After asking her a bajillion times if she wanted to go play with the kids/toys/slide, the teacher reached for her and gave me the look like, "It's now or never." So I passed her off and ran out. The door must be made of about 1/2 cm of plywood, because you can hear EVERYTHING going on in there. I stood outside the door to see how long (or IF) Molly would stop screaming. Apparently they thought that seeing Sam might calm her down, so they took her into his classroom. That backfired fairly quickly. He saw her crying, grew concerned, wondered why she was so upset, then realized that I had left. Cue his crying too. And then, cue my crying.

After the waterworks seemed to die down, I wiped my eyes and headed to the car. Didn't take long for me to accept my freedom and bask in it. I photographed the smash cake session (you can see some of the photos on facebook), went and had lunch with Steve (and I um, ATE IT ALL and didn't have to SHARE or pick up food off the FLOOR or wipe anyone's mouth! Or hiney!), hit up the PX, commissary, shoppette (freedom to roam the (one!) booze aisle in peace!), went home, edited photos, marveled at the quiet, then raced off to pick up the kids.

I was met at the door with a grumpier-than-usual Sam, and was told that he didn't nap. (They have them lie on the floor together for an hour.) I was also told that Molly ate more Korean food for lunch than anyone could have imagined (not a surprise), and she napped perfectly. They both said they had fun, and Sam enjoyed "paying wif frans!" I assume drop-off will be rough for Molly for a while, but knowing that she enjoys herself once I'm gone makes it easier (for me, at least). Since Sam didn't nap at all, and Molly only napped for an hour (she still averages 2-2.5 at home), they were both more than a little psycho once we got home. Steve, being the saint that he is, bathed the kids and let me go out to dinner with a friend. My day of freedom was so special- it felt like my birthday.  Amazing things that I did, in no particular order of awesomeness:

• cleaned without distraction
• spoke with adults
• used the bathroom 4 times without spectators
• grocery shopped
• booze shopped
• listened to music in the car without making verbal note of every digger (FYI- there are zillions of diggers here. ZILLIONS.)
• smiled when the gate guard said, "No bayBEEZ tuh-day?" No sirree.
• used the bathroom at the PX (this is kind of epic, folks)
• continued to admire that the house I had previously cleaned was still.... (wait for it)... clean
• ate rice with chopsticks while sitting on the floor of a beef and leaf and wondered whose amazing life I was living (but seriously?!?!?!?!)

All in all, I gotta say, I really really like preschool.

Project 365 - week 2

It appears that this week quickly turned into the Molly show. I swear I didn't mean for that to happen. I felt like I posted too many photos of Sam on my Facebook business page (<-- shameless plug), so I guess I was subconsciously trying to make up for that on here. More photos of Sam next week for sure. But for now, enjoy the photos of the one who is responsible for my drinking a large glass of wine nightly.

A little light reading during Daddy's lunch break.

If you so much as mention shoes, she'll run and get her cute little boots.

New (to us) kids cafe. Molly hugged and kissed this larger-than-life blow-up dog.

Another kids cafe. They're a little spoiled, but to be fair, it's kinda freezing here, so indoor play is a must.

This is what happens when I forget to thaw out meat for dinner. Sometimes I make very delicious mistakes. (That's a "large" drink, by-the-way, the equivalent to a small/medium in the States. Whatever. It's a Coke product and it comes with ice and through a straw.)

Here we have Molly finishing off the last few rice Chex, straight from the bag. And by "finishing them off" I obviously mean, sprinkling them all over the floor like she's feeding birds.

Oh say it ain't naptime! Yes, sister, indeed it is.

Project 365 - week 1

In an attempt to post about something other than barf, poop, and hospital visits, I have decided to make an effort to complete a photo project that requires me to bust out my big girl camera more often and catch the little moments with my family. I find myself starting to think that pulling it out and adjusting the settings and uploading and editing are too much of a hassle and I can just snap a quick (horrible, grainy) photo with my iphone and call it good. But it's not. How can I expect to get better at photography if I never use my camera outside of photographing clients? So while I won't be uploading a photo here every single day, I will be taking pictures with my camera daily, and maybe uploading and editing in one batch and then posting here weekly. I think that's more doable for me. So without further ado, here is week 1.

New Year's Day trip to LotteMart (the Korean version of Walmart, I guess). Their escalators are ramps so you can take your buggy up and down the different levels. (The wheels on the buggy lock into the grooves of the escalator so you don't get carried down the incline.)

Sick day at our house (again)- Molly still in her pj's and it's late afternoon. I asked her to say "kimchi" and give me the peace sign. I got a grunt and the shush sign. Close enough.

I got my Christmas present in the mail! Santa thinks highly of me, apparently.

A quick stop at the shoppette to get a going away gift and Molly found a few things she needs.

A trip to the 5-day market in town for some fresh produce. Sam keeps asking for the tuh-pay-toes.

Molly recovered from a quick (although messy) case of the pukes and poops yesterday. Back to her usual sassy self. I'm ready for a beer. And a babysitter. And maybe another beer.

Left the kids with a sitter and hopped on the train to Myeong-dong to go shopping with a friend for her birthday. This little Snoopy fella was advertising a dog cafe. There was also a cat cafe, because Korea is equal opportunity when it comes to crazy. ((Notice Seoul Tower in the background- it was a little hazy, but you can still see it!))

That one time we went to the Korean Disney World

Recently, there was a lady on post selling ridiculously discounted tickets for LotteWorld in Seoul. We snatched up a few and went with some friends a few days after Christmas. Despite not really knowing where it was, we lucked out and found it easily. To say we were overwhelmed would be an understatement.

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Obviously those pictures are not mine. My pictures are all horrible cell phone photos that I snapped while trying to wrangle coats and a backpack and squirmy little people.

Riding the monorail that ran above the indoor theme park.

LotteWorld is the world's largest indoor theme park, and I think you can see why we were all standing around with our mouths hanging wide open. There was just. so. much. There were plenty of helpful employees that spoke enough English to help us get to where we wanted to go. We arrived as they opened and found the bumper cars. That was one of the main things that Sam wanted to do. Unfortunately he couldn't reach the pedals himself, so I sausaged myself into his car while Steve rode with Molly. Two minutes of pure fun! We went on a few more kiddie rides before the lines started getting a bit outrageous and it was time for lunch.

Tight.

I'm not sure if you're allowed to bring in food or not, but no one checked my bag or said anything when I pulled a picnic out for the kids.

Naturally I positioned us right underneath the train. Entertained long enough to eat something!

We got lost in the Folk Museum section where many signs attempted to explain to us the origins of Hangul and then attempted to make art out of it.

There was also a little trick-eye museum. We wanted to go through more of it, but clearly the kids were not going to cooperate and pose for each photo like the creators intended...

Fail.

We wandered around and realized that the kids were about a foot too short to ride anything worth waiting for. We happened upon a group of bagpipers (Korean, of course) and wondered what this place was. (?) There was also a marching band and dancing characters. There were shops and vendors and restaurants (even a T.G.I. Fridays!) and a few other levels that we never even got to. There was also an outdoor amusement park, but it was kinda chilly that day (you wouldn't have been able to tell by the amount of sweat dripping down my back though!), and we knew the kids wouldn't be tall enough to ride anything there. There was also a giant ice rink with lots of kids practicing ice skating, speed skating, and some form of synchronized skating.

Mesmerized.

We knew the end was near by the time we got in line for the carousel, but Sam insisted that he wanted to do it, and since we were standing in line with friends, it went fairly quickly and the kids were entertained by each other. Once we all got on though, it was a different story...

Fuh-reeking out. And Molly is half-asleep in my lap.

In hindsight, I think they would really enjoy a place like this when they're about 7 (although I'm still glad we went to check it out). They were too overwhelmed (so was I) and honestly, they really get their kicks on a trampoline or in a sand pit right now, so I think we're just gonna stick close to home and hit up our usual kids cafes. Cheaper, easier, and we can always be home by naptime.

Sweet, blessed naptime.