April 14- Spring has sprung!

Is there any more wonderful smell than clothes dried in the sun? We have a dryer, but I never dry any of the babies clothes...they grow to fast to even shrink their clothes the least little bit! Koreans don't usually have dryers; in fact, we're borrowing ours from Army Housing. They all use these drying racks to hang their clothes to dry. I've been hanging the babies clothes inside on the banister since we arrived, but today it was such a beautiful, sunny spring day, I took advantage of the opportunity to hang clothes in the sun. They smell so good! And I don't even want to talk about my new obsession with sunning their diapers. It's amazing what a stain lifter the sun can be!
Today Ella and I accompanied Mrs. Yu to pick up her daughter, Eun Ji, from her day school (at 5pm!). She was decided to skip her evening school (which she attends until 10pm) so we could all go to dinner together. I’m not sure who was more excited to see who. Eun Ji loves Ella and I do believe the feelings are mutual. Sterling stayed at home with Daddy, and they had a little “guy time”.
We ate dinner at Nantiy Town. They serve duck there. It’s funny. Restaurants here specialize in one food, and one food only. It’s not like Chili’s in the states where you can choose from a hamburger, grilled chicken, or even shrimp. Nope, it’s duck and only duck. Now it can be prepared in a variety of ways, but there is nothing else on the menu for picky eaters. Actually, as soon as Becky May stops birthing babies, we’re going to go on the Amazing Race show...I could certainly eat all the gross foods now! I’ve become very accustomed to eating all sorts of foods I would never let cross my lips back in the states. What’s worse is in Korea it is very impolite to not eat everything brought to the table…and they bring A LOT! I’ve experienced a whole new palette of foods. Tonight’s duck was actually really tastily prepared with a black garlic sauce. The soup after the meal was less than desirable. Actually, it tasted like the flakes you feed goldfish. Fish food, yup…they called it sesame soup.
Mrs. Yu’s sister, also Mrs. Yu, joined us for dinner. Another interesting thing. When you get married here, you don’t take your husband’s last name…so Mrs. Yu and her sister still have the same last name. Anyhow, the sister just loves the babies also. She’s been dying to see them since she last saw them at the birthday party. She’s very sweet, but she certainly had a few parenting tips to dispense to me. In Korea a 1-year-old baby would eat no more solids than just baby food and rice. One of the waitresses at the restaurant had given Ella some cookies, which I was told she shouldn’t be allowed to eat. Only rice. Also, I still let the kids have their pacifiers. I try to limit them to only the crib, but I do put one in my purse when we’re going out in public. They’re a very handy thing to have when one of the babies starts to fuss in public. Nope, I was scolded for letting Ella have a paci. And lastly, she got the biggest laugh out of seeing Ella sitting in her car seat before we left. She made a comment that she must be very dizzy riding backwards. Truly, I wasn’t insulted by any of her “advice”…she’s just a very well meaning person, and her culture dictates that she dispense her parenting knowledge, even if it's unsolicited, upon a younger mother. Actually, it gave me a bit of a chuckle!
Another thing a person could truly get used to here is the service in restaurants. It’s completely normal, and almost even expected that if a person shows up at a restaurant with a baby, for childcare to be given to that baby. It’s actually part of the waitresses’ jobs to scoop up a baby and walk it around the restaurant “so the mother can eat.” Now, almost all the restaurants I’ve been in are relatively small, and very open spaces, with the tables on the ground. I certainly wouldn’t have been as comfortable with this when the babies were smaller, but now I’m more okay with it. I can still keep my eyes on the babies, while actually getting to eat. Tonight when the ah-jee-mah took Ella, she came back with 2 fist-fulls of sugar cookies! And of course, as always, being a white American baby draws lots of attention. Ella had to go “visit” every table in the restaurant tonight. Have I mentioned they don’t have highchairs here?