Springtime at Last!

The weather is finally starting to warm up here, and we are enjoying every minute of it. Last week, we were able to go to the beach twice and just soak up the sun (still in jackets, but that's no problem!). We met a few new American families with young kids, and Sophie really enjoyed watching the other children playing. She also loved crawling around on the sand. I think it's wonderful for her to have a huge open space to explore without walls or furniture in the way. She can really motor around pretty fast, and dips and hills in the sand are only minor inconveniences. Mommy just has to keep an eye out for the old firecracker casings and bits of seashell that head oh-so-quickly into Sophie's mouth.

This past weekend we took a trip to Mokpo to visit Nathan, Eliza, and Marriet, who is now almost four months old. Despite Sophie's difficulties going to sleep at night and Marriet's struggles against taking regular naps, we managed to enjoy some time with our friends and the change of scenery.

Sophie and Marriet check each other out.

On Saturday evening, I had a chance to go for a brief jog with Sophie in Marriet's BOB stroller. I am horrendously out of shape, but I did enjoy getting out for exercise with Sophie. The stroller was great, and Sophie seemed to enjoy the (very slightly) higher speed transportation. She let out little high-pitched squeals when I picked up the pace. On Sunday, we went to a toy store and had an absolute blast picking out some new toys for Sophie. We got some alphabet magnets (Korean alphabet, Roman alphabet, and numbers), a push toy for the upcoming pre-walking stage, a shape sorter, a dump truck, and another set of wooden blocks. So far, Sophie likes the magnets, the dump truck, and the push toy. Mommy and Daddy have spent a lot of time playing with the blocks and the shape sorter.

In other news, Sophie has gotten much more interested in "helping" around the house. This involves unfolding the laundry after Mommy folds it, unloading silverware from the dishwasher and flinging it around the kitchen, and taking groceries out of our shopping bag.

"Hi Mommy! Ready to help!"

"This spoon needs to get out of my sight!"

"Don't worry, I'll unpack the peppers."

I think Sophie is also getting much more communicative. She's expanded her repertoire of sounds to include "d" and "g," and she babbles a lot more these days. She also noticed that she gets a good echo in the hallway outside the apartment, so she likes to make short, noisy squeals while we wait for the elevator. But she's really getting better with gestures. Just today she held her arms up to Keegan when he got home from work, asking him to pick her up. And she has started to offer us things that she is holding. She will hold a toy or her spoon out to us and place it in our hands, but she doesn't quite get the last step and usually refuses to let go of the object. We'll keep working on that. Seems like so much is changing so fast these days - who knows what she'll be up to by the time we head home in just under five weeks.