Oprah talks about the "Aha" moment and I wait for my students to have "aha" moments every day. I now have my own "aha" moment which I'm claiming to be my "Mom" moments.
I can remember staring at the clock counting down the hours until the parents were due to be home. I would look forward to bed time after the hours of walking the child around to keep them from screaming crying or playing Candy Land 100 times and continuing to pretend I moved 4 spaces instead of the actual 2. Many times I would say to myself, "How on Earth will I survive with children of my own?"
Of course, all the mothers out there know that once you have your own it's not the same. Yes, there are times when you want to make bed time one hour earlier or pretend you've lost the game completely, but most nights you live for one more hour before they have to go to bed and that they will ask you to play the game one more time.
I've had several "mom" moments - the actual birth, his look into my eyes, his first giggles first rolling over, etc. But the last couple of weeks along with my the realization that going back to work as he is older and wiser than before is starting to sink in. Last night was a true testament to this. My "mom" moment tonight started with our routine. Ok, you caught me. The routine I like to think we have that I try to stick to but the routine that I normally can't really keep to 4 out of the 7 nights of the week. But tonight we got it - bath time, lotion, pajamas, brush teeth, story time and then bottle. Bath time was a blast with mom being more wet than Cooper by the end. Cooper loves getting lotion after his baths. He laughs and laughs. He laughs just as much then as he does when we are brushing his teeth. Most of the time I feel like I'm trying to win some competition to be the quickest 'teeth brusher' on the peninsula. (I can say that now that I live on a peninsula - how crazy!) He has 7 sharp little teeth that he enjoys biting on anything including my finger! We then read our books and got our bottle ready for bed. I was now at my favorite moment. We cuddled in and I gave my night time kisses, he gave his open slobbery 'kiss'. He was so exhausted he took his first few gulps like normal and not the wild 'act like mom hasn't fed me in 10 days' child. By the end of the bottle I cuddled him up and put him on shoulder to pat his back. He looked at me, laid his head down and gave me a pat on the back. A PAT ON THE BACK! Ahh...I could have melted right there. He then laid down and slept an entire 10 hours. This was one of my favorite "mom" moments. Up until now, I have loved him unconditionally since the day he was born, and I knew he knew I was his mom by the way he looked at me and looked for me as I left the room. But tonight - tonight I could feel that he knew I was his mom.
If there ever was a doubt before about "How on Earth am I going to survive with my own children?" That doubt is completely erased. I love, love, love my "mom" moments!
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Lessons Learned #1
I title this #1 because I'm sure there will be multiple follow-up posts as I have more experiences here. Last weekend we decided to venture out and go to Osan Air Force Base. They are approximately 30 minutes from us and within our distance we can go without having to have a pass. (Paperwork asking permission to go somewhere.) After our adventure out, here are few things I have learned:
1. To say driving here is crazy is an understatement. Andy is the only one with a license right now and I would be very okay with it staying that way! On post is very much like driving in America and in a way reminds me of New Knoxville as they only have one stoplight on post. Off post is a different story! Side note: We brought my Hyundai Santa Fe and it was like it was meant to be - she fits right in here :). The streets are much smaller than we are used to as well as the laws they have for driving. They have larger highways here that are no big deal, but when you get into a city, watch out! For instance you enter the narrow street cities where motorcycles (more like top-notch mopeds) rule the roads. They will come flying from behind dodging in and out of traffic to get to the front. In their way you think? Think again - they take the sidewalks! After dodging the cyclists we came upon a red light. We of course waited patiently for it to turn green. Apparently these are caution lights. People were turning left on red, turning right on red, going straight even! To blow my mind even more when the light did turn green, no one would turn left on green unless there was an arrow! So, you can do anything when the light is red but god forbid you turn left on GREEN? Ayiyi - I have lots to learn!
2. Korea is not very handicap friendly. Nothing but an elevator, if there were more than 3 floors in the same unit, to help those with handicap needs, strollers or trouble going up stairs. We walked some of the streets to get to the Nike Store and it is just store by store by store with only stairs available to get in. It was a struggle getting the stroller everywhere. I will be taking the baby carrier from now on! Below are pictures of the streets across from AK Plaza.
3. I have learned first hand part of their culture - not being very courteous. There were multiple times Andy and I were and had been waiting on the elevator at the mall. We stood there just back from the doors so people could come off when it stopped. Just as the doors opened people flew up from behind us, filled up the elevator and left us standing outside to wait for, yet another elevator. We also experienced the door policy. No holding open the door for someone here. If you so incline to be so generous you will be holding the door open until the person who turns the light out exits. Also, make sure to watch where you are walking so you do not walk straight into a door thinking the person who just opened for themselves will leave it open for you, not so much!
4. They have a neat system for their parking garages. They have several people who actually work the parking garage. As you enter you will put on your hazard lights signaling that you are looking for a parking spot. (We did not know this, so a garage worker had us put our window down to tell us to turn our "triangles" on! Cracked us up!) When it is time to leave, no hazards means you are just trying to exit the parking garage. Very helpful as you are searching for your spot. When you chose a spot, be careful! They do something called a "double-park." If you are double parking, parking in front of someone so they cannot get out, you will place your car in neutral so the person can push your car up in order to get out and then push it back when they have gotten out. CRAZY!!!
5. I need to lose about 50 pounds and make my feet shrink before I will fit into any of their clothes or shoes. We entered a Nike store and I loved a pair of shoes. Only problem - the largest size for shoes was 6.5 and on occasion they have an 8. haha. I will need to do a lot of online shopping! I also looked at some very cute clothing they had in the mall and asked the sales clerk if she had a large. She smiled and kind of giggled while saying, "Oh no ma'am, we only have small or medium." This may be my final motivation to get in shape!
These are the things I have learned so far. I'm sure there will be a lot more to come and I look forward to figuring them out! We are starting to fill our calendar up with trips to Seoul, Thailand, Taiwan and China. Can't wait :)
Here are some more pictures of our trip out:
1. To say driving here is crazy is an understatement. Andy is the only one with a license right now and I would be very okay with it staying that way! On post is very much like driving in America and in a way reminds me of New Knoxville as they only have one stoplight on post. Off post is a different story! Side note: We brought my Hyundai Santa Fe and it was like it was meant to be - she fits right in here :). The streets are much smaller than we are used to as well as the laws they have for driving. They have larger highways here that are no big deal, but when you get into a city, watch out! For instance you enter the narrow street cities where motorcycles (more like top-notch mopeds) rule the roads. They will come flying from behind dodging in and out of traffic to get to the front. In their way you think? Think again - they take the sidewalks! After dodging the cyclists we came upon a red light. We of course waited patiently for it to turn green. Apparently these are caution lights. People were turning left on red, turning right on red, going straight even! To blow my mind even more when the light did turn green, no one would turn left on green unless there was an arrow! So, you can do anything when the light is red but god forbid you turn left on GREEN? Ayiyi - I have lots to learn!
2. Korea is not very handicap friendly. Nothing but an elevator, if there were more than 3 floors in the same unit, to help those with handicap needs, strollers or trouble going up stairs. We walked some of the streets to get to the Nike Store and it is just store by store by store with only stairs available to get in. It was a struggle getting the stroller everywhere. I will be taking the baby carrier from now on! Below are pictures of the streets across from AK Plaza.
3. I have learned first hand part of their culture - not being very courteous. There were multiple times Andy and I were and had been waiting on the elevator at the mall. We stood there just back from the doors so people could come off when it stopped. Just as the doors opened people flew up from behind us, filled up the elevator and left us standing outside to wait for, yet another elevator. We also experienced the door policy. No holding open the door for someone here. If you so incline to be so generous you will be holding the door open until the person who turns the light out exits. Also, make sure to watch where you are walking so you do not walk straight into a door thinking the person who just opened for themselves will leave it open for you, not so much!
4. They have a neat system for their parking garages. They have several people who actually work the parking garage. As you enter you will put on your hazard lights signaling that you are looking for a parking spot. (We did not know this, so a garage worker had us put our window down to tell us to turn our "triangles" on! Cracked us up!) When it is time to leave, no hazards means you are just trying to exit the parking garage. Very helpful as you are searching for your spot. When you chose a spot, be careful! They do something called a "double-park." If you are double parking, parking in front of someone so they cannot get out, you will place your car in neutral so the person can push your car up in order to get out and then push it back when they have gotten out. CRAZY!!!
5. I need to lose about 50 pounds and make my feet shrink before I will fit into any of their clothes or shoes. We entered a Nike store and I loved a pair of shoes. Only problem - the largest size for shoes was 6.5 and on occasion they have an 8. haha. I will need to do a lot of online shopping! I also looked at some very cute clothing they had in the mall and asked the sales clerk if she had a large. She smiled and kind of giggled while saying, "Oh no ma'am, we only have small or medium." This may be my final motivation to get in shape!
These are the things I have learned so far. I'm sure there will be a lot more to come and I look forward to figuring them out! We are starting to fill our calendar up with trips to Seoul, Thailand, Taiwan and China. Can't wait :)
Here are some more pictures of our trip out:
Streets along our route to Osan.
AK Plaza - shopping center
At the top of AK Plaza they have a rooftop view. It was a gorgeous garden area where you could see the city.
A large duck statue on top of the roof. Not sure exactly what it was for?!
Cooper with Daddy with the view of the city behind them!
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
There is a first for everything
Blogging. The word is scary, yet exciting. I am scared of the task of keeping up with a blog. Besides my marriage, I haven’t been very good with sticking to things in the past. For instance, I’m really good at saying I’m going to start a diet on Monday, print off the best healthy recipes, buy new work out clothes to be inspired and end up in a McDonalds drive-thru line by Wednesday ordering the double cheeseburger and diet coke. On the other hand, the blog is also exciting! Since joining the military lifestyle, I have felt very distant from everything I knew before this journey. Going home was always something I looked forward to, but felt very out of the loop from everything. Life really does go on, and I not only realized it the longer I was gone from home ,but I felt it as well. I am excited to use this as a means to keep up with family and friends back home. To feel connected to them. So here is to something new. A fresh start. Please help me stick with it!
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