So it's been a few months since I've been here on my own blog and A LOT has happened since my last post! Too much to even remember! Which brings me to the point that it is for that reason that I should post more often: so I don't forget what memories we have built, especially with Eleanor!
She is a little over 16 months now and - oh boy! - she talks a lot! Here are the words that she uses (at least the ones I can think of right now):
Hi
Bye
Hello
Mommy/mom/mamma/umma
Daddy/pappa/appa
Oppa (big brother in Korean)
Unni (big sister in Korean)
Eemo (aunty in Korean)
Vovo (grandma in Portuguese)
Halmi (grandma in Korean)
Dodoi (doggy)
Eye
Nose
Ear
Head
Hat
Toes
Shoes
Cheese
Apple
Popo (Korean/her version for grapes)
Wawa (water)
Pang (bread in Korean)
Cup
Poon (spoon)
Up
Down
More
Please
Tatoo (thank you)
Open
No
Yup
Uh-huh
God
Bap (rice in Korean)
Bird
Flower
Owl
Towel
Teeth
Diape (diaper)
Signs "I love you" and "thank you" and "more"
Pease (please)
Cap (clap)
Oh no
Nie-nie (night-night)
Come
Ouch/owie/aya (Korean version)
too
One
Two
Tree (three)
Four
Five
Eight
Ni (nine)
Ten
Tree
Ball
Baby
Bee
Bug
Nana (banana)
Cheerio
Boo (books)
I gaw it doo (you got it dude)
Me
Most animal sounds (she refers to animals by the sounds they make, ie: "moo" is cow)
Amen.
That's it for now! :)
Thursday, December 01, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Where has the time gone?! And why hasn't there been any more posts?!
I cannot believe my last post was in February!
Well, as one can imagine, a lot has happened since...one of them being the death of my PC (again!) which made it hard for me to write or upload pictures. I could have used the hubs' Mac, but he uses it for work so that was a no-no. I could have used the iPad we got as a gift from our church family, but I am still learning how to use it (ha!).
Anyways, here are some major things that have happened since February:
1) End of March - Came back to the U.S. for our HMA (Home Mission Assignment) "kicking and screaming" (more on that in a future post perhaps). We are based in Irvine, California where my side of the family lives. Jim's side is in L.A. and we visit them as much as we can.
2) April - Spent most of it trying to re-settle into life in America, experiencing some "reverse-culture-shock", and getting Eleanor acquaitend with family and relatives.
3) May - Visiting and spending time with friends.
4) June - Jim's trip out of state, mainly to the GA in VA and a visit to MTW's office to participate as a speaker for their Vision Retreat.
5) July - I spent most of June and July planning for Eleanor's first birthday dinner. It was tough to try to do that on a budget and narrowing down our guest list to only a few families (we wished we could have invited ALL our friends,), but all in all, we were happy with the night and were so blessed by the friends and family who were there to worship and thank God for His blessing over Eleanor's frost year of life.
Now that it's August, we feel like it's crunch time to get our support in shape to be able to return to Australia in October. We need a lot of prayers for guidance from the Lord in that regard.
Well, that's the short version of whats been going on in our "jungle". Thanks for dropping by. Until my next post! :)
Well, as one can imagine, a lot has happened since...one of them being the death of my PC (again!) which made it hard for me to write or upload pictures. I could have used the hubs' Mac, but he uses it for work so that was a no-no. I could have used the iPad we got as a gift from our church family, but I am still learning how to use it (ha!).
Anyways, here are some major things that have happened since February:
1) End of March - Came back to the U.S. for our HMA (Home Mission Assignment) "kicking and screaming" (more on that in a future post perhaps). We are based in Irvine, California where my side of the family lives. Jim's side is in L.A. and we visit them as much as we can.
2) April - Spent most of it trying to re-settle into life in America, experiencing some "reverse-culture-shock", and getting Eleanor acquaitend with family and relatives.
3) May - Visiting and spending time with friends.
4) June - Jim's trip out of state, mainly to the GA in VA and a visit to MTW's office to participate as a speaker for their Vision Retreat.
5) July - I spent most of June and July planning for Eleanor's first birthday dinner. It was tough to try to do that on a budget and narrowing down our guest list to only a few families (we wished we could have invited ALL our friends,), but all in all, we were happy with the night and were so blessed by the friends and family who were there to worship and thank God for His blessing over Eleanor's frost year of life.
Now that it's August, we feel like it's crunch time to get our support in shape to be able to return to Australia in October. We need a lot of prayers for guidance from the Lord in that regard.
Well, that's the short version of whats been going on in our "jungle". Thanks for dropping by. Until my next post! :)
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Building Memories
January 26th was Australia Day here in Oz. It's the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet (11 ships which sailed from Great Britain on 13 May 1787 with about 1,487 people, including 778 convicts to establish the first European colony in Australia) at Sydney Cove. Obviously it was a national holiday with lots of celebrations throughout the country, and there was a lot going on in and around the great city of Sydney. In the past, we took part in the celebrations by going to the beach or having a BBQ with friends during the day. This year, however, it was WAY TOO HOT to do anything. If it hadn't been for our church's community group night, we would have gone to bed without a single "sausage sizzle".
But a week before Australia Day, Eleanor turned six months old! Now that we're a "new" family I felt like we should start new traditions to build memories for Eleanor to look back on with fondness as she grows up. So in celebration of her "First Half Birthday", we took her to the zoo. Yes, we know she's still too young for the zoo. But last month we came across this great deal for Taronga Zoo's Yearly Pass which was HALF OFF and I couldn't resist. Besides, not too long ago, Eleanor had been noticing Buddy more and more and even showed a great deal of interest in him. I thought, 'Hey, if she notices Buddy, she might at least look at the animals at the zoo, even if she doesn't understand what they are!'. So with that incentive, we took her to the zoo sooner than expected. To be honest, she enjoyed looking at the other children more than looking at the animals, but she DID look at some animals too. Here are pics of some of the animals Eleanor got to see.
But a week before Australia Day, Eleanor turned six months old! Now that we're a "new" family I felt like we should start new traditions to build memories for Eleanor to look back on with fondness as she grows up. So in celebration of her "First Half Birthday", we took her to the zoo. Yes, we know she's still too young for the zoo. But last month we came across this great deal for Taronga Zoo's Yearly Pass which was HALF OFF and I couldn't resist. Besides, not too long ago, Eleanor had been noticing Buddy more and more and even showed a great deal of interest in him. I thought, 'Hey, if she notices Buddy, she might at least look at the animals at the zoo, even if she doesn't understand what they are!'. So with that incentive, we took her to the zoo sooner than expected. To be honest, she enjoyed looking at the other children more than looking at the animals, but she DID look at some animals too. Here are pics of some of the animals Eleanor got to see.
Check out the view from Taronga Zoo,
set across the harbour from Sydney's CBD.
set across the harbour from Sydney's CBD.
Incredible view.
First we saw the giraffes,
which have the best panoramic view of the city.
Such beautiful animals!
We put Eleanor on daddy's back so she could see better.
Particularly the koala bears that were so cute.
Next, we saw the most popular animals at Taronga Zoo.
The Asian mommy elephant and her female calf named "Tukta" (Doll),
which was the first calf elephant born at Taronga Zoo.
Then we saw zebras...
orangutans...
kangaroos...
kookaburras...
crocodiles...
We took breaks in between for lunch and rest.
We saw a "train" go by...
and someone got really excited! Guess who?
We saw a "flower clock".
Then, daddy pretended to be a park ranger.
After looking at some more animals,
Eleanor took a much needed nap.
Zzzzzzz...
When she awoke, we took a family shot and left for the day.
"So long Taronga Zoo, see you again soon!" :)
which was the first calf elephant born at Taronga Zoo.
Eleanor took a much needed nap.
"So long Taronga Zoo, see you again soon!" :)
Friday, January 21, 2011
Happy New Year!
A few years ago I came across this blog - http://kimchimamas.typepad.com/. For those who don't know, kimchi is a traditional Korean dish made of pickled vegetables with varied seasonings. So as the name may allude, the blog is written by a group of moms who are either Korean-Americans, are partly Korean, are married to Koreans or Korean-Americans, or have adopted children who are Koreans. It's mainly about parenting, the struggles and joys of raising kids, and also about viewpoints and opinions on various other topics from the perspective of "Kimchi Mamas".
Although I myself am of "Korean decent" (notice I didn't say "Korean" or "Korean-American" because I am actually one of those confused "third culture adults": born in Korea, grown up in Brazil, lived in the U.S. for most of my adult life, and have moved yet again to Australia in 2006), in the early days when I started reading the blog, I felt like an "outsider", almost like an "intruder" because at the time I was childless and felt like I was trying to get membership to a club I clearly didn't belong.
Nevertheless, I continued following and reading the blog on and off, but never leaving any comments. Okay, maybe I DID leave one or two comments, but when the writer(s) never replied to my comments I REALLY felt like I was intruding and never bothered to comment again. Until...
...about two weeks ago, on the last day of 2010, one of the writers did a "giveaway" which I participated in! Although I had been a silent reader for a long time, I no longer felt like an intruder since I have...
Although I myself am of "Korean decent" (notice I didn't say "Korean" or "Korean-American" because I am actually one of those confused "third culture adults": born in Korea, grown up in Brazil, lived in the U.S. for most of my adult life, and have moved yet again to Australia in 2006), in the early days when I started reading the blog, I felt like an "outsider", almost like an "intruder" because at the time I was childless and felt like I was trying to get membership to a club I clearly didn't belong.
Nevertheless, I continued following and reading the blog on and off, but never leaving any comments. Okay, maybe I DID leave one or two comments, but when the writer(s) never replied to my comments I REALLY felt like I was intruding and never bothered to comment again. Until...
...about two weeks ago, on the last day of 2010, one of the writers did a "giveaway" which I participated in! Although I had been a silent reader for a long time, I no longer felt like an intruder since I have...
...this little one in tow. :)
I have NEVER won anything in my life. The only time that I ever came close to winning anything was when about the first or second year of our marriage, Jim and I went to some boat show. Towards the end of the show, we sat through some kind of presentation at the end of which they were going to give away a week-long trip to Hawaii. There were only seven couples including ourselves sitting through that presentation. We were number 4. The winner was number 5! Yup! Even when the odds were low, we didn't score.
By the way, this was a very memorable boat show because Jim always cracks up and tells everyone the story about how much I embarrassed him when I spotted a celebrity and yelled "Look! It's Patrick Swayze!" as he walked past us, when in fact the actor was Kurt Russell!
So back to my original story! So I entered the giveaway just for fun, without putting my hopes too high. It was a fairly easy giveaway to enter. I simply had to comment on that particular day's post, by a certain deadline, telling them what are some of the traditions in my family when celebrating the New Year. Easy-breezy, right? So I did just that. Then, the day before the deadline, I noticed that only forty some people had left comments! 'Not bad!' I thought.
A couple of days after the deadline of the giveaway I get an email from the writer, and this is what it said:
Hi Claudia--
Congratulations! Your name was drawn for the ______ giveaway! If you still would like the girls size 2, please reply with your mailing address.
Thanks,
Julie from Kimchi Mamas
I was stoked! My FIRST time winning something! Yay!
Here's what I won!
This is a child's hanbok - a traditional Korean dress worn as semi-formal or formal wear during traditional festivals and celebrations such as New Year, weddings, or babies' first birthdays.
A Happy New Year indeed!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
New Year Resolution
Although I'm not much into making New Year's Resolutions, I decided that starting this month I want to post more on this blog. I follow a few blogs that are really interesting and I always wish I was as creative, articulate, interesting, and intelligent as some people out there in the blogsphere are...
But, it doesn't matter 'cause, more than anything, I want to be able to record some special memories we are making with our bundle of joy - aka Eleanor - in our lives (personal and ministry). I don't want this to be a baby-blog per se, but she is a HUGE part of our lives right now, and I don't want to regret not recording the sweet moments we will treasure forever.
There is way too much to catch up on what's been happening since Eleanor was born (maybe I'll update on my next post), so for now here's a summary in pictures. :)
December 2010
But, it doesn't matter 'cause, more than anything, I want to be able to record some special memories we are making with our bundle of joy - aka Eleanor - in our lives (personal and ministry). I don't want this to be a baby-blog per se, but she is a HUGE part of our lives right now, and I don't want to regret not recording the sweet moments we will treasure forever.
There is way too much to catch up on what's been happening since Eleanor was born (maybe I'll update on my next post), so for now here's a summary in pictures. :)
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
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