Sister time and the advent of cloth diapers

I am LOVING this.

My sister is visiting from Boston, and it's amazing. She is so good with Elijah, and he seems smitten by her too.

Kathy has been getting me out of the house too.

Her first day here, we went to HomePlus - only the 2nd time I've been grocery shopping since Elijah was born 3 months ago.

Yeah, yeah... I know. I'm a bit house-bound.

Elijah is pretty touchy and he gets grumpy quickly. I can't really take him out without fear of meltdowns.

Kathy and I went out for a LONG and very intense hike up the hills behind our apartments. We went all the way to the top where there's a pagoda, and you can see all the way to the sea.

It's really lovely up there - cool breezes and the wonderful smell of woods and wet pine needles.

We also did yoga yesterday morning. There's nothing like a sister to spur you on!

She is so caring and loving...back rubs, head massages, facials, encouragement, and reassurance. I don't want her to go!

Kathy also brought me an Ergo baby carrier, which is much cooler than the

heavy Sleepy Wrap I've been using. Elijah seemed to like it as well, and we went for a nice walk to the corner store. He managed to make it almost all the way home before breaking down.

She also brought so many new clothes and books (and cute cloth diapers)! Elijah is already in 6-9 month onesies (babygro), so he needed some new outfits!

[side note]

The cloth diapers are a big

step, but we're trying to switch over.

At the moment, he is in disposables

overnight and in the morning, until he poos. In the afternoon, he gets to wear the cute, modern cloth diapers. No plastic/rubber pants and complicated folding/pinning for us! These have snaps or Velcro, and are in nice colors or prints.

At the moment, we're mostly using bumGenius and Flip cloth diapers. I've staying away from the traditional flat diapers. I just don't think I'm ready for that!

[end side note]

I'm hoping that Kathy won't get too bored here!

We don't go out much. There isn't a lot to do in our small town, besides hike in the hills.

We could go to Daecheon Beach, but since it's summer, it's not only super hot, but the beach is full of university students and crazy stuff (it's not a typical western beach). . .crazy stuff like mad women on ATVs plowing down the boardwalk and almost running over our dog, tiny airplanes that fly 10 feet above your head on the shoreline, big groups of military guys having team-building

exercises, masses of students playing and drinking, horses running at full gallop down the crowded beach... it's all a bit mad! Entertaining, indeed. But with a tiny baby, not the best place to be.

We'll have to feed her some Korean food though, like bibimbap and mandu. She's already tried kimbap, and liked it. Kimchi is also on the list, of course.

Thanks for being here, sis! We love you!

Latest obsessions

What am I obsessed with?

SLEEP

Well, sleep for starters. Both for Elijah and for me. But I am also obsessed with how often Elijah eats. And poops.

My life has come to subsist on the excretions, imbibations (that's a word now), and plain old sleep patterns of my little son.

I track all those things on a website, noting down each time he pees or dozes off.

One of my favorite features on the site is the sleep patterns chart. They compile the data, and it reveals the probability of Elijah being asleep. Check it out:

The gray scale shows the probability (dark-most, light-least) of him being asleep. I like how the possibility of Elijah being asleep from around 9-7 is pretty solid.

Another feature I like is the one showing his average sleep/awake hours. Right now, he is averaging 7hours and 44mins awake and 16hours and 15mins asleep.

So anyway, today has been hard. Elijah didn't sleep well last night, and was up early. He napped poorly, and he just now passed out after a marathon screaming fit.So fun.

I tried everything to calm him, from bouncing, skin-to-skin, swaddling, shushing (from Happiest Baby on the Block). It still took 45min for him to finally succumb to sleep. But he will be up again. He hasn't eaten enough.

Well, this is an exciting post!

(Elijah at 2 weeks in the Sleepy Wrap)

I have been talking walks with Elijah these days. I strap him on in my Sleepy Wrap and we stroll around the apartment complex.

He seems to enjoy it most days, although it is so hot that it soon gets uncomfortable for us both.

(Elijah at 13 weeks)

We don't do a whole lot more. The day consists of him waking up, feeding, diaper, playing, then bouncing back to sleep. I then get an hour, tops, to myself.

He does get a bath before bed, and a walk in the afternoon. Otherwise, our lives are pretty simple.

I do wish we had a community here in town for moms and babies. It gets pretty lonely.

Well, in other news, Gary has signed his contract for another year at the high school. This marks the start of our 5th year in Korea. Wow. Time really flies. And how embarrassing that we still don't know Korean!

We've gotten our visas and Alien Residency cards updated (love how I'm an 'alien'), and re-signed the lease on our apartment.

God knows whether we'll stay longer than another year, or where we'll go next. We'd love to buy our own house.... where? No idea. If you have suggestions, please let me know!