Catching up with the kids

The kids are growing so fast, and just lately, Ellie has picked up a lot of words. She's always been a chatterbox, but she's started to actually say words somewhat understandably. I remembered today, with Al, I used to blog almost every time he learned a new word, so I decided to write a little about Ellie's developments.

Let's see.. It's always so hard to remember all of them when I'm actually determined to think of all the words... She can say most of the basic words like 엄마 (mommy), 아빠 (daddy) and Daddy, 오빠 (older brother), 물 (water), 불 (light), bye-bye, hi, and 밥 (food). She learned to say 엄마꺼, 아빠꺼, 오빠꺼 (meaning, mommy's, daddy's and Alden's). This comes handy when she's helping with sorting the laundry or sharing treats. She can also say Amen after a prayer. Yesterday, she surprised me by saying 다시 (again), and she can also say 더 (more). She can say 까까 (snack) and 아오 (ouch). Today she said, "Uh-oh." she can say 발 (foot), which she interchangeably uses with shoes. She's really good at saying 안아 (hold me). She says 붕붕 (vroom vroom) when she plays with toy cars or wants to go out. Today she also said 주세요 (please) instead of just holding her hands out or mumbling three random syllables. She says Go! as she goes down the slides. She can say 딸기 (strawberries) and cheese. She can also say 붕 (sound of fart) to make us laugh. I am surprised everyday to see how much she understands.

I talk to her almost exclusively in Korean,and her understanding of Korean is comparatively better than English. Sometimes Joe has to translate what he said and repeat it in Korean to get her to do things. She's such a joy to have around, and she has such a mischievous personality that we sometimes wonder where it came from. She likes to tease and fool around, and she never lets her brother boss her around or win. She's really stubborn too and sometimes holds grudges. But she's mostly good and puts up with her brother when he purposely makes her trip or squeeze her cheeks really hard.

Alden is growing so fast too, and Joe and I can't believe he's already three and a half. It's hard to believe that he's not a baby anymore, even though he keeps reminding us that he's a "big boy." Today, in sacrament meeting, I gave him a copy of the friends magazine. He opened it to a page that had an article called "Lost in the trail." he started reading on his own, "Lost in the..." I was so surprised because I had never taugh him how to read the word, lost. Then we found another article and started to read it together. He was reading probably 70-80 percent of the words on the article without help, and I was so impressed by how much he knew! I'm starting to worry how I'm going to keep up with his fast learning curve. I might be teaching him calculus in two years at this rate!

I'm the ward librarian, and I was talking to the the other librarian today about the importance of the mother being home for the children. Her major was in early childhood education, and she was telling me about the research she had done in college about young children being left at daycare everyday. She said that when little babies and toddlers get left at daycare by their parents before they are old enought to understand the concept of them having to leave to privde for the family or going to work, the children only think that they are being left by the parents and do not learn to trust or love. They only see that their mother or father is leaving them woth strangers. They cry the ehole tome their parents are gone, and when their parents come back to pick them up, they resent their parents and are upset at them for leaving. This has an enormous effect on their lives, even whe they are older.

Earlier today, as I was trying to put Ellie down for a nap during sacrament, I was thinking about my kids and how grateful I am to be able to stay home with them to be able to witness them grow and notice the development they go through. After the talk with the other librarian, I was even more grateful for this chance to spend time with my kids and learn so much from them. I need to really keep up with them and teach them all I can so I can make this moment of our lives worthwhile. Speaking of being a stay home mom, Joe is going back to work starting tomorrow. It has been really wonderful to have him home for the last few months, and we had so much fun together as a family. It will be hard on the kids, and especially me, to have him gone during the day now, but that'll make the time spent with Daddy much more meaningful when he comes home from work.