Agabang in Anyang

Dan has this real-type job now and is on a real-type business trip, so it's been just me and the teething Grumperstiltskin for the last couple days. This poor baby is the slowest teether I've ever known (never mind the only one), but I think I saw proof today. Today when he was up for the day at 5:30. Today when he slept for less than an hour between that 5:30 and 1 in the afternoon. Today when he was down for the night before 7, and I was sad to see him go. I had some good e-mail correspondence with my mom that really set me up for success on a day like today. Also, I made myself some ice cream to cope. I forgot to put my freezer bowls in the freezer yesterday, though, so it didn't quite set up. It's kind of like eating a bowl full of hot fudge, but there are worse things.

The hardest part of Danlessness is solitary long-distance subway riding. On Friday, we had to go to Hapjeong for our weekly playdate. Joash attracts a lot of attention. When he has two parents, we can share the brunt of the labor-intensive inquisition. Without Dan, I am left alone to fend off the ajummas, both bossy ("어, 추워!" He's cold!) and well-meaning ("인형 같에, 인형" He's a doll!), the college-aged girls ("어, 귀엽다!" He's cute!), and, oddly enough, the older gentlemen who mostly cluck at him and demand that I sit down.

[Dan just came home as I am typing this! Hoorah!]

Yesterday was the busiest day of it yet, I think because Joash was awake the whole time. He got a paper fan from a girl who had just donated blood. He got to chew on someone's cell phone. He was given a free vitamin juice sample (which, obviously, lady, I'm not feeding to my child, especially not right here on this crowded subway train, so you can stop your gesticulating). And then, he was physically removed from my person and held for a couple stops. Maybe that is shocking to you, but, yeah, no it was shocking to me, too. Strangers do hold people's babies here, but, I don't know, maybe don't pull him up out of the wrap that is strapping him to his mother. We survived, though, didn't we?

What kind of face is this? Goofy baby face.

And here he is crawling his clothes off. Yesterday, I dressed him to go see Joonsoo. I went to get something and when I came back he had crawled his pants off.

King of the blocks, and he'll prove it by maliciously knocking down your block towers. He got this crown last Saturday on Children's Day when we walked through the local Children's Day event.

I made him some gruel out of oats. Per his reaction, I will better use the rest of my oats for granola.

He helped Dan pack before he left on Thursday. Maybe he wanted to go, too.

Oh, and then he suddenly learned how to clap.

I wanted to take some Spring baby pictures with the rhododendron bushes on the roof. He thought we were there to eat sand. He won't eat oats, but he'll eat sand.

The most usable of the flower pictures. His pale skin necessitates much squinting.

Otherwise, this is what we were working with.

And then, he was like, "Look, lady, I don't care."

Mimicking foliage.

Booty shaking, and it's not even Friday night.

His old, American teeth.

Nose and eyelashes.

Teeny Korean pine cones, less than two inches long. I want them all. I settled for one so far.

Washing up after play.

I've had many important realizations lately, possibly chief among them this one I had about his rat tail. I mean, this is how those things get started, those things where your school-aged kid has a rat tail containing all the potencies of his pageant power and you think it's cute. So, anyhow, I'm letting Dan cut the rat tails if Dan wants to cut the rat tails because I cannot be trusted to look at my son with a discerning eye.

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