Monsoon season started today. I'm glad I bought goggles to swim in a month ago, cause if the rain keeps pouring at this rate, I'll need them to swim to work. Don't worry, don't worry. Logan has a little floater ring and water wings. He'll be FINE. He loves the water.
We've been busily plugging along. The weather has gotten rather sticky and warm. The average high is somewhere in the 90s. After a long day of work a few weeks ago, we went home and instantly changed Logan from his play clothes into his swim trunks. We took him to the indoor pool at the gym on post. He had a blast! Unfortunately, the indoor pool is a bit cold for Logan. Despite shivering really bad, he wanted to keep swimming. The next day TJ and I got him a little blow up kiddie pool. We fill it with the hose outside and it gets nice and warm in the sun after about an hour. He thinks it's awesome. Logan has a bubble machine that we bought for like, $5, that blows out bubbles at a mad pace. Hands down that was the best $5 we've spent in a while. So we've got the kiddie pool and the bubble thing - it's a summer wonderland down in our little cement parking/sitting/grilling/not-a-yardarea. Passers by, especially the kids and the 20-something-yr-old women stop and gawk at our fabulousness. $5 bubble machine + $10 kiddie pool = envy of the entire neighborhood.
Friends of ours got married a couple weeks ago. He works with us and she is a Korean. They got married in her hometown which is a few hours south of here. The entire family got all dressed up and took the bullet train down to Daejon. Logan thought that was the neatest thing ever. It didn't hurt that there was a little boy a year or so older than him that was seated in front of us. They played with together between the seats, trading toys and taking each other's pictures. The train ride took about 45 minutes total instead of a 2 1/2 hour car ride. Logan did well at the wedding up until the point where we passed his normal nap time. Then he lost it. Luckily it was at the end of the wedding and we bribed him with fruit loops and cookies. He fell asleep on the taxi ride from the wedding hall to the train station and stayed asleep the entire train ride AND car ride home. My back and arms hurt the next day from lugging him around.
The past few weeks Logan has had several growth spurts, both physically and mentally. He's put on some much needed weight and gotten taller. How do I know? He's really heavy to carry and things he never used to be able to reach, he now can. Scientific and stuff right there. Mentally he is growing in leaps and bounds. He figured out a day or two ago that my eyes were blue. He names everyone's body parts and in the process of naming mine, he looked really closely at my face and pointed at my eye and said, "Eye? Eye? Buuuue?" He was stumped for about 5 minutes as to why in the world everyone else had brown but mine were different. I'm all for learning and stuff, but when it involves repeated pokes in my eye, I hope that it sinks in quickly. In addition to knowing red, blue and green, he now knows yellow, purple and orange. He makes great attempts to say those, but isn't quite there yet. When he starts learning a word he usually only says the end of it. Close enough. I know what he means. When he really concentrates he gets the whole thing out. Like when he looks out the window. It used to be "doe" but now he usually makes the effort to squeeze the "win" in there. Same with "outside", "bottle", "daddy" "mama" and "doggy". If you ask Logan what a doggy says, he says "Woof!" and if you ask what a kitty says, he says "Meeeow". So. Fricken. CUTE. Logan does a "thumbs up" now. 'Cept he can't get his thumbs up. It took us a solid two weeks to figure out what in the world he was doing. He just makes little fists and waves them around. I took a picture. (<---Click on the blue letters to see it.) Check out our Flickr account. It's full, I mean really full of new pictures. There are dozens of other new and exciting things he does, but I can't remember them at the moment to tell you all about them. Sorry.
We happened to catch the movie, "The Incredibles" on our cable movie channel the other night. Logan was entranced. Totally and wholly consumed by this movie. We've never seen him sit through an entire movie fully engaged before. He laughed, he cried, he jumped up and yelled "GOOOO!!! RUUUUNNNNN!!!!" when the bad guys were coming. He gasped when something blew up or something cool happened. I mean, he sits and watches cartoons, but not like this. TJ and I went to the PX to purchase this wonderful gift from God. They didn't have it. It was CLEARLY playing on the TVs in the electronics department, but they didn't have a copy. We went back like five times looking for this DVD. I contemplated going up to the DVD player that held the precious disc, pushing eject and sneaking it home in my purse. But I didn't. We broke down last night and bought it on iTunes. Sure it doesn't have all the bonus-y perks that a DVD has like "out takes" or extra scenes. Logan doesn't care. He only wants the movie. We can tell that his favorite character is the little blond haired boy that runs really fast, Dash. Every time Dash starts running, Logan runs back and forth and back and forth in front of the TV. Hilarious. Logan will sit and watch all 2 hours of this cute cartoon. I'm not sick of it. Yet.
The lazy days of summer are here in Korea! It has been hot and muggy everyday the past couple of weeks. Thank God the air conditioning was finally turned on at work last week. The main air conditioning switch at the Department of Public Works (DPW) on Yongsan wouldn't get flipped until they have 10 days of 70+ degree weather. Just ourluck, every 8th day or so it would rain and get back down in the 60s for a couple days, then the heat would crank back up and bake us all. We have some geniuses over there running the heating and cooling on post. We have the same issues over turning on the heating when it is cold out.
You've probably noticed S. Korea (and N. Korea for that matter) in the news more frequently as of late. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gi9iJqFaT85uil84-xnL-CMCnLXQD98FKGU01 The former president of S. Korea (2003-2008), President Roh, committed suicide on 17 May. He was under investigation for taking money while he was still president, and well, I guess the pressure of the investigations got to him. The country became instantly divided. Honestly, S. Korea has been more intensely focused on his death than on the N. Korea threat. Seriously. The mourning proceedings took 7 days. On Friday the entire downtown of the city was pretty much shut down for his public funeral. The traffic was so bad because of the influx of people from around the country coming to Seoul to pay their respects. Crazy packed with Koreans.
Now, about N. Korea. Here is the official word from the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates:
"Gates told reporters traveling with him that there are no plans for military action against North Korea and that diplomatic measures are the first option for dealing with the country’s developing nuclear threat."
See? We're fine. Actually, we've had more time off in the month of May than we've had in a L-O-N-G time. Nothing to do with the political climate of Korea. It's just how things worked out.
How is Logan doing? Good. He is getting more and more independent. Annoyingly so. I mean, the kid smirks while we yell at him. (Don't say it. Don't say it!!!) He is throwing all out fits. Thank goodness mostly those happen at home and in public he is really, really well behaved. Parents always comment on how mild, happy, obedient, and quiet he is. Logan is talking up a storm. He adds more and more to his vocabulary everyday. He adds things that he hears in books. Logan is picking up a lot of Korean. He uses it when a Korean talks with him. I have no idea what they are saying, sometimes. It's funny to watch him easily go from interacting in English to interacting with the Koreans. He is too smart for his own good. Other parents constantly comment on how advanced his thinking and behavior is. Why is he good out in public, but at home when he doesn't get his way, he loses his mind. He hits and throws things when he is angry. We don't spank or swat at him when he's bad, so I have no idea where he is getting this. We are trying to be patient and work it out, but holy cow.
I'll end with this funny Logan story:
Logan and TJ were at the Starbucks near out house at about 7:30pm. (I was getting a much needed break.) While TJ was ordering his coffee, Logan was standing next to him. Logan started looking at the young woman in line behind him. She was wearing a mini skirt, a nice shirt and had on high heeled shoes with sparkly rhinestones on them. Logan began to point at her shoes, and after a bit, bent down and touched the rhinestones. She was very good looking, according to TJ. (Logan only seems to go after the REALLY pretty Korean women. I'm already dreading what his teenage years will be like.) The young woman carefully bent down and smiled. She said hi to Logan. He beamed, and did a little wiggle. The next thing he said with a smile, "Boe-Poe??" (In Korean, it is a kiss, a peck.) She giggled and after a second, gave him a little kiss on the cheek. Logan was elated! He danced around and ran circles around her while she was in the store. TJ was proud, I'm sure.
Check out our Flickr page. New pictures have been posted and more will be posted this week.
So, we've been, uh, well, not updating the blog obviously. Specifically I haven't been updating the blog. We've been working a lot. Still. We're still going to Colorado. Nothing has changed in that department. I'm still getting out of the Army in October. Logan is still getting bigger and bigger and cuter and cuter. I have no idea how he's able to become cuter than the cutest, but he's doing it. Update on his stuff:
He can count to five. All day long, counting with his fingers and out loud to five. Oh. My. God. How many times do we have to count. He uses our fingers, his fingers, stuff, the cats, lights, anything. Not so good at actually getting fingers to stay up or down, though. He's got the pointer finger under control and can do 4, and sort of the thumb by itself. Two and three are pretty hard. Five, easy. Singing is something he loves to do along with dancing. He hates slow songs, loves rock and roll and kid-style songs. Logan is very funny. He loves making us laugh by doing goofy things and calling something the wrong thing and making a face like, "Oh that is so not the right name, aren't I funny!!?" and using things in a way they shouldn't, like his diaper for a hat. (I assure you the diaper is new and clean, unused.) Logan now has 12 teeth, and is working on sprouting all four of his eye teeth, making his mouth almost completely full of teeth and the teething phase drawing to a close. THANK GOD. Would you believe me if I told you that Logan is potty training himself? No? Well, he is. We weren't even going to try and do this until after we got to Colorado because moving, traveling and change aren't really conducive to potty training. But he has shown a lot of interest, so I bought a potty. He goes. He pees and poops. Yes. Unbelievable. But! he only does it when he feels like it. So, no consistency. The down side to potty training is that he now LOATHES having his diaper changed. I'm thinking its because he isn't "doing it himself". Which is very important to him right now. Wrestling a poopy butted toddler is NOT FUN. Did I mention that Logan wants to do EVERYTHING by himself? He won't eat unless he does it. Not much makes it into his mouth. And he won't let us do it, so he gets frustrated. Also he has this thing that if the article if food has a bite out of it, or isn't perfect, he won't eat it. If a chip has a bite out of it. He wants a new one. Everything. This is the way it is with everything. I'd say that most of the time we can talk him into eating the remainder, but there are times, like 25% of the time that he just won't. It isn't a perfectly round cookie, so he won't eat it. So Frustrating. Talking. He's talking all the time. He is practicing his "B" words this week. Last month it was words beginning with G. Logan says the name of and can identify three colors: red, blue and green. Red = Ded. Blue = Boooo. Green = Gweeeeeeeeeeeeen. In the car he yells at the green lights. He says "Gweeeeen!! Gooooooooooooo!!!!!" (we tell him that green means go) This shouting is accompanied by an emphatic finger pointing, nay, demanding we go forward. He gets very angry if we don't go as soon as it turns green. Didn't we hear him telling us to make the car move? Who cares if the car in front of us isn't moving. He told us to GOOOOOOOOO!!!! I think he likes saying green because it is fun, like saying wee! like he does for the park and slides and swings. Obviously, red means stop. He says, "Dop" He really isn't as into that one as he is the go. He says go all the time. It is his favorite verb right now. He says go all the time. He almost never says no, which is what I thought every toddler used as their favorite word. Not my kid. His is go. Our kid is an adrenaline junky. Anything that gives him this rush, he does over and over if you'll let him. Consequently he has had several bruises pop up. He really can take a licking and not cry for more than a second, if he does at all. If the activity was fun enough that gave him the mark, then he really doesn't cry, he just wants to do it again. Very difficult explaining to a toddler why they can't do that really, really fun activity that gave them a big lump on their head, again. Logan says Thank You all the time. Can't get him to say please yet, but I think it's going to be soon. We don't even have to prompt him to say thank you. He spontaneously says it, and always at the correct occasion. At first I thought this was a coincidence, but he's really consistent. He says it when he genuinely is grateful for something. Like you helping him with something or giving him something. I swear it's shear luck that this one stuck. As a parent you repeat things over and over and over and most of them don't sink in. But manners have. He says sorry if you are hurt by him biting or scratching, or hitting. He even gives hugs and kisses if you just seem down or upset or have a headache and he can tell. I love how empathetic he is. My little guy is just so awesome. I can't believe how incredibly lucky we are to have such a great kid. Everyone comments on how good he is. We can take him in public and he behaves, we can take him to people's homes for dinner and he behaves. In almost every social situation and at home, he is just a good kid. He's a charmer and an entertainer. Rarely does he have a meltdown in public and if he does, it is easily remedied. One of the moms at work tells me that if Logan didn't have the rare bad mood, she would demand to take him to a doctor to be checked out. Or that he's a robot. She grumbles that even his teeth have grown in perfectly straight. So, I can't think of anything else to update you on. Please send emails if you want to know anything specific. I'm going to do my best to upload pictures in the next couple of days since I haven't done that lately. Sorry. We've been at the park.
On Tuesday we departed for the Cherry Blossom Festival in Jinhae (Gin-hay) to participate in a Military Tattoo (Marching Show, Drum and bugle type thing) for one week. We are here 31 March through 6 April. We are going to be home one night and I'm off to perform in another city, don't ask me where, to play somewhere else for three days. Then I come home, celebrate Easter and the next day, I have 24 hour duty. Meanwhile, Logan is in the very capable hands of his nanny, Thess. Most of the time they stay at her house so she won't have to travel back and forth or pack bags for herself. Logan's things take up a lot less room than her stuff. He loves it there and gets spoiled rotten by the Filipino community that she is a part of. I guess it is like going to Grandma's except he has to follow Thess's rules all of the time. I have a feeling that she is a bit stricter than we are. She loves Logan as if he were her son. It's great. I never worry.
This will be a long couple of weeks. But, BUT! after these two weeks, I'm pretty much done at work. Supposedly. Allegedly, when I return, my main focus will be on attending all of the out-processing/getting out of the Army stuff that I need to take care of. The Army has a program called ACAP (Army Career and Alumni Program). ACAP helps you transition out of the Army and prepare you for being a civilian. They assist in resume writing, job searching, VA benefits eligibility, your final health assessment, disability, gathering of all of your military records and more. There are several seminars to attend, videos to watch, interviews and classes. In total, I think I'm signed up to attend about 80 hours worth of stuff. Insane. TJ is also supposed to be training and transitioning out of his dozens of supervisor roles over the next few months. I'm really excited about the idea of getting out of the office before 6 o'clock like 75% of the band does. If you have any real responsibility like TJ and I do, we have to stay an extra 3 hours to get things taken care of. I'm so over that.
TJ and I are looking to take a week long vacation to the Thailand maybe, around the first week of June. We're looking into it with a couple other people from our unit. Most likely we'll have Logan stay with Thess so he won't get sick or screwed up from all of the travel and lack of routine. That's one of the reasons we didn't take Thess and Logan along with us to Jinhae. It isn't home, it's living out of a really crappy dorm style facility, not even hotel like at all, in the middle of no where. She would be bored out of her mind and miserable. Logan always seems to get the sniffles when we travel, so it's best for everyone all around. Not to mention that with all of the activity of being away on tour, TJ and I are stressed out by having Logan in the back of our minds and trying to take care of him and Thess. TJ and I get to leave all of the parental worries and responsibilities and can just focus on the task at hand. Not to mention the short time that we get to be "TJ & Melissa" and not "Mommy & Daddy". Don't get me wrong, we LOVE being parents but it is nice to be able to take that hat off for a bit of a breather.
Final tid bit before I sign off here. We have waited for this day to come, and were shocked when it did. We showed Logan a laser pointer for the first time last week. He thought it was the neatest thing. We showed him how to press the button and aim it at the ceiling and the floor to play with the cats. After pressing the button for the first time and seeing it shine on the ceiling his eyebrows raised up, his jaw dropped and a smile dropped across his face. Then, just as TJ does when he sees a really expensive sports car, Logan said,"Awwwww Sshhiiiiit, coool." Plain as day, he said Aw, shit! Cool! Just. Like. His. Father. TJ and I looked at each other and laughed so hard that tears were coming out of our eyes. Logan now echos things back to us. We never know what will come out of his mouth. But now we know and have witnessed him mimicking our bad habits of cursing. TJ has vowed that he will be much more careful about what he says around Logan. I have been for a while and TJ has blown me off saying that Logan doesn't understand or that it won't happen. Well, it did. Ha Ha.
