Roman William Meverden - November 17, 2015

Our fourth grandson was born yesterday afternoon, Roman William Meverden.  He was a week later than his due date but he knew when he wanted to come. He gave his mommy a 30 hour labor including hours of pushing. I  can't even image what she went through. My children were born by C-sections for both of our children due to  my suffering with toxemia which included extremely high blood pressure. Poor mama was so exhausted from the ordeal but she is a trooper.

Here is a photo of the new family.

Grandma (me) totally smitten with Roman. I held him for over an hour in which we just stared at each other. He would glance around the room and then back to me. I wondered what he thought of it all and if he had any idea how much joy he has brought to us. I thought about how I held his daddy just the same way and marveled at where had all the time gone. But knowing that as we do as grandparents, we know that every moment spent with them is so very precious.

I found out that things had changed a whole lot since I had his father in 1987. Back then, the babies were brought to you to feed whether by breast or bottle and then returned to the nursery. They didn't like to keep the newborns in the room with you very long, germs and all. Roman stayed in their room the entire time.

The decision of circumcision is totally your decision with no pressure one way or another. When I had Luke, I was given a three page report on the importance of not having your child circumcised. Then a social worker also spoke to me encouraging me not to have it done.

They offer things like aromatherapy and massages. Wow, that would have been great.

Rocketman and I were treated to a steak dinner in the hospital in celebration.  No such luck for my son and his wife.

The nurses did all the changing of the diapers. They wouldn't even allow me to change one. My son and his wife did all the diaper changes.

I must be sounding really old. My mother told me that when she was in labor with me they gave her ether and it made her totally out of her mind as to what was going on and also very, very ill. Yuck. So change is good.

Happy Birthday, Roman!!

South Korea Vacation - Part 4

A Sunday afternoon must for me is the Hope Market in Hongdae. You never know what you are going to find but everything is handmade and you get to meet the artist. It's one of my most favorite things to do. This year was the first time I saw that had a sign.

The graffiti is always evolving in the children's area.

Anyone can register for a space and I heard the fee is nominal at least it used to be.

Even the puppies are dressed so cute. One of the biggest worries of some of the older Koreans including my Mr. Choi you can see in the photo. See how the guy in the red is squatting. It's a tragedy. His feet should be firmly planted on the floor but a lot of the younger generation is squatting in this manner. It's quite upsetting to some usually Koreans over 70.

                                          There were quite a few booths doing caricatures.

But if you look closer at this particular booth, we read this. Apparently if you want to look more beautiful than you actually are, you can pay extra for it. I'm not sure how he would sell this, "Hey, you could use a beauty up."

This baby was so good. She sat there for quite awhile while the artist drew her. I don't think either of my kids would have sat for so long at that age.

Since the Hope Market is in Hongdae, we walked around sightseeing. We came upon these two comedians that were doing a photo op.

There wasn't a huge crowd around them.

Always dressed to the nines in Korea.

Even couples coordinate their looks.

We ran into this balloon artist who was amazing.

He had his boom box going and was so personable.

I wish I would have taken a video of him.

He drew quite the crowd.

 

This is what Hongdae looks like on a Sunday afternoon. It's crazy how many people crowd the streets. It also helped that it was a glorious day.

I did buy a few things at the Hope Market. This is a keychain holder, handmade and stitched. I found it adorable.

 

Even the back is cute.

                                                        The inside ready for your keys.

   These hens were just too cute. They are refrigerator magnets. These were made by the same person.

                                She also threw in this keychain made with half a nut shell.

Here is my magnet on my refrigerator.

South Korea Vacation 2015 - Part 3

 

I am still amazed at what we see being worn on Korean television. In a way, some things haven't change. Rocketman told me once that one of his young Korean co-workers worn a shirt usually once a week with the "f" word all over it. He asked him if he knew what that word was and what it meant. He did know and didn't care. Rocketman's company in Korea apparently didn't care either. It would be a totally different story if he wore that same shirt here in the U.S.

This was the strangest thing. This guy was clearly recording and taking pictures of us. He would peek around the phone to look at us and returned to his folly. At first, we thought his sight was impaired but when he would turn the phone so we could see, it was a screen of the subway car. So I took a picture of him. We never understood why he was doing it but it continued for two subway stops which was four minutes or more. It was awkward to say the least.

Monday, we went to Suwon to visit one of my favorite people in the world at Dollhouse World. This is where I would go to do Korean clay miniatures. She had a new book out featuring her work and some of her students. She gave me a copy and of course I had to have it autographed.

We had a lovely time. Her sister who owns the coffee shop next door was in Canada the same time we were in Korea so we missed out on spending time with her.

We had lunch at my favorite buddae jjigae restaurant, Nolboo near Home Plus. I have known this lovely lady since 2007. She always gives us extra banchan and we love her to pieces. She doesn't speak English but her sister in Daegu does so the smart phone acts as an interpreter for us. She also gifted us with three or more pounds of homemade kimchi, some marinated pork and Korean nuts. It weighed a lot but you know someone truly cares for you when they give you some of their homemade kimchi. She used to give me kimchi all the time when we lived there.

 A visit to South Korea always involves a stop at Etude House. It is one of my favorite places. I bought these hand creams. Seriously, are they not the cutest!

 Another reason I love Etude House is the free swag they give you. 

 

I had never heard of a foot mask. I love Korean face masks so I had to give it a try. 

In addition to a copy of her book, my dollhouse teacher also gave me this ceramic photo holder. It is so cute.

South Korea Vacation 2015 - Part 2

During our second day in Korea we discovered a festival at Gyeongbokgung Palace. There were so many things to see and do. This photo is for pet adoption. I didn't notice until looking at my photos that the dog on the far right was missing a front leg.

                    There was a booth where you could try on a hanbok and do a photo op.

We also saw a string of booths where it looked like people were selling their things like you would find in a garage sale.

                                                    Rocketman was busy taking photos.

                            We arrived before lunchtime and it was already pretty crowded.

Here is another photo of someone selling used clothing. There was booth after booth similar to this one.

                               Another area was showing children how to be firefighters.

                                                       We also saw children learning CPR.

                                                         The had a few food booths too.

                      Only in Korea have I ever seen eggs stacked like this and I've seen it often.

                                      This little guy was dressed so cute.  I loved the hat.

                              This photo was just so cute. They had been trying on hanboks.

                                                 And so were a bunch of their friends.

                     They had so many things for kids to do. It was a great place to bring your family.

Then I saw a booth of calligraphers. Oh boy! 

 They had a book of sayings even one in English. I picked out 144 and they had a calligrapher that spoke some English.

                                 Rocketman took this photo of me trying to choose a saying.

                                                      This was my calligrapher.

 After she was finished, they pointed to the end of the booth where my saying was carefully folded and placed in an envelope. The total cost - FREE!

Here is a video I shot of her finishing up my calligraphy:

They also had an area where kids could use chalk to color. It was fun to watch these kids having so much fun.