Family

Guest Blogger: Home, here we come!

Once again, my wife has written another excellent journal entry to post on World Adventurers.  Although a few weeks old, it captures some of best moments of our trip to the United States in May.  I will return again tomorrow.

We just returned from our vacation in the United States.  It was an absolutely wonderful trip and so nice to get away from our daily routine.  The clean air, green mountains, blue lakes of Northern Idaho, and the prairies dotted with horses and cows under the big sky in Montana were breathtaking.  We lived in the Pacific Northwest for over ten years, but we never appreciated it as much as we do now.  “That’s why the Congress mandates home leave every two years,” I thought to myself, “So you can appreciate how great a country U.S. is and represent our country proudly overseas.”

 

However, it was the gathering with long-time friends in Seattle that became the highlight of our trip.  Due to our time constraints, we were able to stay in Seattle just overnight with our best friends and then enjoy a breakfast (dim sum) with many others before we headed to the airport.  My friend has been very busy, being a mom of a five-year-old and a two-year-old while pursuing her Ph.D full-time and working part-time.  We did not really keep in touch regularly in the last two years.  But you know you are good friends when you can just pick everything up right where you left it.  And that’s exactly what we did into the early morning hours that day.  We talked about many things – life in Korea, life in the Foreign Service, her school, her family, how to juggle between kids and work, etc.  Our three-year-old son also played very well with her children.  I kept thinking that if we had stayed in this area, they could have become the best of friends.  Honestly speaking, with the convenience and modern life in Korea, I have not missed the U.S. very much.  Nevertheless, nothing here in Korea came close to replacing the friendship that we have built up over the years back home.  When it was time to leave, I hugged my friend and told her, “you know, I really missed you guys!”  I tried very hard to hold back the tears.

 

I am truly grateful that behind our life adventures that brought us to far-away places, we have a place where we had put down roots and can call “home.”

All Revved Up for “Cars”

My wife and I took our son to his first full-length movie.  On Saturday, we saw the movie "Cars," the computer-generated animated feature from Disney and Pixar.  I believe it’s also the first animated film my wife has seen.  We all enjoyed the film.  I enjoyed "The Incredibles" a little more than "Cars," but "Cars" is also a very good movie.  My wife grew up in China and had limited exposure to animated features, and she never developed an interest in animation until she became a mother.  Our son, well, he was just too young to watch movies at the cimena.  He’s been watching videos at home and has his favorites, including "Thomas the Tank Engine," "Bob the Builder," and "The Wiggles." 
 
Some of the full-length animated features my son has watched have been too scary at times.  Call it the "Bambi Syndrome"–one of the first scenes in the beloved classic show Bambi’s mother dying from a hunter’s bullet.  "Shrek," "Brother Bear," "Chicken Little," and "The Lion King" all have scenes that frighten small children.  "Madagascar" was passable.  Most of these scenes include the villian–the evil vermin out to get the protagonist.  "Cars" was a joy because there were no villians other than an obnoxious race car named "Chick Hicks" with a penchant to run his competitors off the racetrack.  Other than that, it was eye candy for a young lad such as my son.  My son sat through the entire movie with his eyes riveted to the screen, chomping on popcorn as if Alfred Hitchcock had directed the film.  He didn’t ask to go to the restroom or wander the aisles.  He didn’t get out of his seat.  He sat in the theater seat, his legs dangling down, engrossed in the movie.  I had fun watching him watch the movie.  He had such a good experience that he is now a "Cars" convert.  Left unchecked, his room may soon be filled with "Cars" memorabilia.  As it is, we’ll probably order a couple of "Cars" movie posters, frame them, and put them in his room.  Then he can relive his "Cars" experience virtually every day. 

Guest blogger: Our son and dogs

My wife chimes in tonight with another blog entry (edited a bit by hubby, of course):
 

When we stayed with my in-laws for two weeks in Idaho during our vacation, our son had his first experience of living with dogs.  Grandma and grandpa have not just one or two, but three big dogs.  Before we went, we had tried to prepare him as much as we could about dogs, putting up pictures of the dogs on the refrigerator, saying hi to the dogs that we meet while taking a walk, etc.  Despite these efforts, when we first arrived, our son was still nervous around them.  You can’t really blame him.  All of the dogs are bigger than him.  So we were protective of him and tried to keep the dogs at a healthy distance.  However, he got to watch how we–especially how grandma and grandpa–interacted with them.  We patted them, played with them, fed them, and loved them.  And the dogs showed their affection by sniffing, licking, or just laying next to us to receive a tummy rub. 

This “easing-into” method must have worked, because after less than a week, our son was much more relaxed around the dogs and developed a special liking to Patches, a female sheep dog with long white hair and back patches.  He loved to have Patches lie next to him and pat her gently.  Mazy is the biggest of all the three dogs, but the most timid, so our son knows that she will stay afar and not bother him.  Gradually, he learned that you can order dogs around, saying things like, "Stay there, Shadow," or "Lay down, Patchie," which was kind of fun.  Our son started to imitate the dogs and would crawl on all fours with a toy in his mouth.  He would lie on the floor and demand you give him a tummy rub, or would not stop licking your hand and arm.  The most memorable moment was when he sneaked out of the house while his dad was taking a nap, and when nobody was noticing, and did his business in grandma’s and grandpa’s backyard, just like the dogs.  Then he got stuck pulling up his underwear and had to call grandma to rescue him.  Mazy tried to help too by giving his buttocks a lick or two.  Now that he is not intimidated by the dogs, he chases them or pulls their tails.  The table turned, and we spent the last part of our time at grandma’s house trying to keep him away from the dogs.

All in all, we are glad that our son got some much-needed exposure to dogs, much to his father’s relief.  Now if he could just learn how to swim.