Mommy's Tree

Once Zachary got to put up his tree, he wanted to help with Mommy's tree as he calls it. When we started on Saturday, we ran out of lights about 3/4ths of the way down the tree so we had to postpone until Tuesday to finish when we bought more lights. Zachary was so excited about decorating this tree and loved all the different ornaments. Patrick has always joked about our eclectic tree with so many different ornaments. I am not a theme Christmas tree person where all the ornaments are the same. My tree is decorated in memories, personality and love.

Decorating the tree with Zachary this year was so much more fun than previous years. He was so excited about the ornaments and loved to hear the stories about the ornaments. He was so proud of the ornaments that he had made last year when he was two or the ones mommy made when she was a kid. Of course, I am pretty sure he thought we had made all the ornaments when someone was a kid.

You can tell that Zachary decorated the lower part of the tree. He did much better spreading out the ornaments but the lower half is covered in Sesame Street, Curious George, and his special ornaments.

One special ornament that has come with us to Korea is a Winnie the Pooh swing that hung on my Nonna and Pop-Pop's Christmas tree as long as I can remember. I used to find Winnie the Pooh every year and loved to push him in the swing. A couple years ago, my grandmother passed Winnie the Pooh on to me. I was filled with joy when I got to see my little boy pushing Winnie the Pooh in the swing on the tree. Now why would any body want a tree with ornaments all the same?!

We are pretty proud of our tree and are ready for the holiday season. Once we were finished, Zachary decided he wanted to pretend it was snowing so we pulled out his winter pajamas. Lightening MacQueen and snow- who could ask for a better ending to a wonderful evening!

Her First Reading Group

Now that I have two kids, I can have my own reading group :). Ha! Our poor kids have no hope with two elementary school teachers. By the time they get to school, they will be expert retellers. The other night when it was time for Zachary to go to bed, Shelby Grace was actually still awake so she got to join in on story time. Zachary even picked two great choices for Shelby Grace. She was a pretty good listener too. Tonight when I started to read with Zachary he said, "We forgot Shelby Grace!" I look forward to many more 'reading groups' with my kids over the years. What a special treat to read with my kids!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas has arrived at our house! Since I am going home in just two weeks, I wanted to be able to enjoy the Christmas decorations here so we put them up a week earlier than usual. This year Zachary got a special treat, his own little Christmas tree in his room. We went to the one store here that carries Christmas decorations for Zachary to pick out some things for his tree. He picked drums and purple balls. I guess he's my son! He was so proud of his tree.

Daddy put on the lights.

Aren't they so pretty?
Zachary was so excited about the drums. He danced around the room with them and then decorated the tree with the drums mostly in one place. :) Daddy had to step in and make the tree a little more evened out.

Put the star on the top of the tree
Merry Christmas! Can I go to Grandma's house now?

Grandkids 2008

My mom put in charge of a project for my Grandmother for Christmas. In the process I made this really cool picture with my photo program. Included are all the Ervin family grandkids. We make a pretty handsome family!
First row- Dawson (3 1/2) & Silas MacLean (2 1/2 months), Zachary Pinho (3), Silas

Second row- Kenan MacLean (1 3/4), Kenan and Silas

Third row- Dawson, Shelby Grace Pinho (1 1/2 months), Shelby Grace & Zachary

Chats with Zach by video

It's been a long time since we have posted a video of Zachary. Here are a few things he's been saying lately. Enjoy!

Chats with Zach Episode #8

Today I was reminded of how many things we say as an adult that really make no sense to children.

Zachary was playing in the recliner which is also a rocker. He jumped in the chair and stood up to hang over the back. In fear that he might flip the chair over I yelled at him and said "Zachary, don't do that or you will fall and crack your head open!" To which he replied, "But what's inside?"

I wonder how many other things we say that make no sense and need full explanation. Today Zachary learned all about his brain and what it helps us do- walk, talk, play with toys, play Mario Cart and according to Zachary, "not hold Daddy's hand." Our brain is pretty important!

My Green Eyed Boy!

How many three year olds are this handsome? Check out those green eyes. Don't they just make your heart melt?

Too cute!

I may be biased but I think my little girl is just too cute not to post these pictures. :)

Of course, you gotta have some of sweet big brother too!

Chats with Zach Episode #7

Now that Shelby Grace is here, Zachary has so many new things to talk about. Here are a few phrases we've heard around here recently.

"Uh-oh! She's spitting up- burp cloth, burp cloth! Quick, quick!"

"Did her poop come out yet?"

In reference to her crying- "It's loud Mommy! It's loud!" (yelling with hands over his ears)

"Shelby Grace can't eat, she has no teeth."

I picked Zachary up from school one day and one of the teachers wanted to hold her. Zachary was ready to go and said "Ms. Kim, we have to go home now and take Shelby Grace with us."

And my personal favorite-When Zachary was asked who stepped on the cereal and crushed it into the carpet or who used his basketball stamp all over the doors and walls- "Shelby Grace did it." I guess no one has to be taught to shift the blame!

Korean Doctor Visits

I have been meaning to write for so long about my Korean hospital experience and now our first trip to the Korean pediatrician as well. I am very thankful that we are in a country that does have good medical care. Our experience has not be bad- just different- enough to make us laugh. It's easier to laugh at the differences instead of stressing and getting worried. Here are a few differences.

The Birthing Experience

• Never being "measured" by the OB- ultrasound at every visit
• Chest x-ray and EKG one week before scheduled c-section
• Learning to park your car in a 'lift' the day of surgery (Many places have an elevator lift for your car instead of a parking deck.)
• This baby hospital is the same building that I visit the doctor. 2nd floor- doctor's office, 3rd floor- delivery, 5th floor- private rooms and nursery- Korean buildings don't have 4th floors
• Translations of forms to sign before c-section- The nurses used the translator on google to ask us important questions like "Would you like to buy your husband a little Korean?" or to tell Patrick that "The c-section is the cause of your wife's death."
• Nurses don't wear gloves to take your blood, insert IV's or even a catheter
• Prep for surgery with a dry shave a cleaned up with a roll of packing tape
• Walking into the operating room carrying my own catheter bag and climbing onto the operating table
• Not being able to understand any of the nurses and doctors talking to me in the operating room
• No daddies in the operating room
• Hospital gowns that are two pieces- a shirt and a skirt
• Fun Korean robes and slippers for visitors to wear to visit me in recovery- No slippers to fit my dad's feet :)
• All babies spend three hours in an incubator after birth to regulate body temperature
• Babies are rinsed off in a kimchee tub after birth but not given a full bath until that evening- Poor Shelby Grace had gunk on her all day but mom and I just HAD to take a washcloth to her hair after awhile
• Weights and heights in kilograms and centimeters- fun to convert. The anaesthesiologist did ask me for my height in centimeters so he could put the epidural in the right place- I had not idea, it was his turn to convert :).
• Private room options at the hospital- Room #1- small room with bed, bathroom, tv, and a yo (Korean mat) for daddy to sleep on- no window: 70,000 won ~ Room #2- small room with bed, bathroom, tv, and a yo for daddy to sleep on- one window: 90,000 won~ Room #3- larger room with patient bed, guest bed, full size crib, bathroom, refrigerator, microwave, flat screen tv on wall- large window- 150, 000 won~ We picked Room #3 :)
• Nurses who speak little English and we speak very little Korean but they take awesome care of you- Need a new blanket? Let me run down the hall to get it for you.
• No hand sanitizer or even soap in our room- nurses never use gloves to change bandages, take out my spinal block, or do anything else
• No showers allowed- Korean women don't believe in taking a shower for a long time after birth. They don't want to catch a chill. They have to be covered up at all times.
• Beauty salon chair to get your hair washed in the hospital- Communal hair brush provided if you wanted to use it :) I chose not too.
• Hospital bed that was harder than a rock.
• No hospital food- unless I wanted to eat seaweed soup and rice. Food had to be brought into us.
• Baby baths are given at 11:00 pm or 12:00am every day
• Nurses believe in feeding babies glucose water almost constantly. We actually got in an argument with the nurse over glucose water.
• I had to walk down to the doctor's office for check ups with the OB, entering a doctor's waiting room in just my hospital gown.
• Check-out was done on our own- no final instructions except one piece of paper. We just walked out when we wanted to after we paid, with hospital bands on and all. No one checked to make sure we were taking the right baby.
• Waiting for our car to come out of the lift with everyone staring at our car seat. Taking the baby home a car seat- optional.
• Cost- surgery, hospital stay, check ups- $2500.00 BEFORE insurance
• One beautiful baby girl- priceless

Shelby Grace's one month appointment at the pediatrician

• No appointment needed- go when we please
• Take your shoes off at the door and put on provided slippers
• Fun trying to explain to the nurses our names
• Baby weighed on a table fully clothed. Table weighs the baby and then digitally measures the baby's height as well. Pretty cool actually.
• Baby is examined in doctor's office- her actual office/exam room
• Examining table as the same sheet from the previous patient
• Clothes are never removed just lifted
• No checklist on developmental milestones
• Tongue depressors are metal not individually wrapped
• Vaccine time- move to the next room
• Vaccines given by the doctor with clothes on with only arm and leg sticking out and wrapped in the blanket
• Shelby Grace received the Hep A vaccine and BCG- vaccine given in Asia for tuberculosis. She will be like every other Asian with a square of dots scar on her arm for the rest of her life.
• Move to the third room for BCG vaccination to dry
• Little Korean boy has now followed us into the third room
• Nurses give us the little book that will include all of Shelby Grace's documentation of growth and vaccines
• I know realize they have her name as Jennifer Lynn and had to figure out how to write Shelby Grace in Korean to change her name.
• Total doctor visit time- 20 min including wait
• Cost- 80, 000 won before insurance and most of the cost was the vaccines

Shelby Grace's record book

My Girl!

I never thought I would enjoy getting to dress a little girl so much. The fun has only begun too! Today Shelby Grace got to wear a dress for the first time. Well, she wore a dress home from the hospital but that was for maybe an hour and no one really saw her but us. Today I got to dress her for church- dress, tights, bloomers, sweater, and even a hair piece. She was pretty adorable if I do say so myself. I can't wait for next Sunday!

Somehow we managed to get a pretty good family picture today. Mostly because we bribed Zachary with chocolate. :)

Zachary had to join in on the girl fun!

Daejon Zoo Land

Patrick had off today because he had a workshop at school all weekend so we decided to adventure out to the Daejon Zoo. It's hard to believe that it's taken us over a year to get to the zoo. I am most proud of myself because I drove us to the zoo WITHOUT getting lost. Go me!

The zoo here in Korea is nothing like the NC zoo. It cost us a total of 9,000 won (less than $9.00) for us all to get in. Of course, we didn't realize that you had to pay for the African Safari seperately and ride a tram to see the animals. That will be our next trip. You can see all of the animals in a couple hours. Sadly, the animals and their habitats are not taken care of very well and they are so small and confined. It's amazing how close you can actually get to a lot of the animals. We even saw one couple throwing food to the baboons. The baboons could catch it in the air. That would never happen in America! It's also called Zoo LAND because there is a small amuzement park there as well. We didn't brave the rides this time except for the little coin opperated ones which Zachary said was his favorite part of the day. He's a boy- cars over animals!

What fun park is any good without a live show. It included animals and dancers. Of course we have no idea what they were saying or singing- we just know it was loud. Of course, we don't have any clue how these ladies fit into the show. They were wearing what looking like nighties and dancing with fans. They weren'te even Korean. There danced in between the large dancing animals. Only in Korea!

These are some sad pictures to you how poorly everything was kept. This is the polar bear habitat which in between the black bear and grizzly bear habitat with no climate difference. He was a pretty dirty bear too. This poor camel must not be getting enough water. His hump didn't even stand up.
All over the park, there were statues of animals. Zachary had a hard time distinguishing between the real animals and fake ones. When I wanted to take a picture of him sitting on the alligator, he wouldn't go close to it. The only way he would sit on it would be if he sat on my lap.

Daddy got real close to the alligator. Shelby Grace visited with hippo. Patrick and I wanted to get a picture of Shelby Grace in the alligator mouth but Zachary was so insistant that the alligator was real, he did want us too. He is a wonderful protector of his little sister already! Of course there were playgrounds throughout the park. Zachary would only slide on the slides that weren't 'dirty.'
Shelby Grace got to visit the park and ride her stroller for the first time. We got double the looks from the Korean visitors due to one- being American and two- pushing a baby around in a big travel system stroller. Koreans don't use car seats so they have no need for these big strollers.

Here is one more picture of Daddy and Zachary on the elephant slide. Zachary would not go down it because as he said "he didn't like elephants." Once again he thought it was real. He would only take a picture on daddy's lap.

Zachary's favorite part of the zoo was riding in the cars at the park. We didn't brave any big rides but actually let him put money in the little cars. I know- we spoil our child!

What a fun family day!

Mommy's Little Pumpkins

Having two babies in October makes for two cute pumpkins at Halloween. What do you think?

Shelby Grace- October 31, 2008

Zachary- October 31, 2005

Trick or Treat!

Our second Halloween in Korea but Shelby Grace's first. This year I actually came prepared for Halloween, well almost. Halloween is not really celebrated in Korea so you can't buy costumes here so you have to buy in advance. I found Zachary's costume this summer, in the clearance section of Party City of course, so he was ready to go. However, I didn't think about a costume for little miss who was inutero at the time. Luckily, through the clothes that were given to us, she had a little Halloween outfit and then I decided about three days before Halloween to try and crochet a pumpkin hat which I didn't start on until the day before and finished about 4:30 Friday afternoon. That's me, the procrastinator!

Since Koreans don't celebrate Halloween, we can trick-or-treat in our neighborhoods so staff at the school usually set something up. This year families setup in different classrooms at school. We were celebrating All Hallows Eve and the request was given for your children to be dressed up as saints but Lightening MacQueen had been bought and precious luggage space used for it, so Lightening MacQueen was going trick-or-treat. Honestly, there were very few 'saints' running around as most people were in the same boat. Never the less, we had a really fun evening.



The Pinhos setup shop in the Elementary school workroom. Patrick handed out the goods while I walked around with the kids. The night started at 6:00 and by 6:30 Patrick had to run out to the kagae (little store) and buy some more candy. Whoops! Zachary had so much fun 'zooming' around as Lightening MacQueen. I couldn't slow him down. And once we found Seth buddy, there was not stopping him!

Posing at our post before trick-or-treating

The finished product!

Our adorable little pumpkin

Side view

Ka-Chow! I am speed!

Life is so much more fun when you have friends to share it with!