Halmoni & Astrid bonding

Halmoni is "Grandma" in Korean. My 4 year old niece calls my mom "Hommi", so my mom has started to call herself that. That's a 180 from the days when my mom said she didn't want to be called grandma because it made her sound old. Now I'm trying to get my mom to say the entire word "Halmoni" so that Astrid can hear & learn it, but my mom says it's too difficult for a baby to say halmoni and it doesn't matter anyway because Astrid will learn how to say the real word when she's older. I say it does matter, because Astrid needs to hear the proper Korean word or she'll just get used to saying the made up nickname instead (and grow up thinking that "hommi" really is the Korean word for "grandma"). My mom bonded with Astrid today. When we first got to my parents' house, Astrid didn't want to look at either of my parents. She would cry every time they tried to interact with her. Then my mom brought over some Korean bread and fed some to Astrid, and she was okay in Astrid's book after that. Little by little my dad was okay too. Astrid just needed some time to get used to my parents and being in a strange place. But one of the things Astrid loved was hanging out on my mom's Korean futon/sponge bed with its pink furry Korean blanket.Then my mom held Astrid and walked around with her. First she took her into the backyard where she picked a tiny lemon off a tree and let Astrid hold it. (Later she told me Astrid doesn't put everything in her mouth like she used to...like the lemon..she just held onto it and looked at it). Then she took her into the front yard and walked up and down the sidewalk with her.It was sweet to see my mom pointing out things to Astrid and both of them enjoying each other. So I asked my mom if she'd like to take Astrid for a walk around the neighborhood. I had to work on my dad's computer testing stuff out anyway (the main reason why I went over there) and it was a nice day. My mom said yes, she'd like to...so out came the stroller and she took Astrid to the park where they watched other children play and a dog run around. My mom said that Astrid kept saying "papa". (Astrid has been saying "papa" much more frequently since Uwe's been out of town.)

It was windy out so my mom said while they were at the park she held Astrid inside her jacket and Astrid wasn't moving so she thought Astrid was sleeping, but every time she opened her jacket to look down at her, Astrid would say "pea" and point to something.

There's a park nearby so I thought they'd only be gone for half an hour, but they came back an hour and a half later. We completely missed Astrid's 3:30 feeding, but Astrid was having such a good time being outdoors with my mom that she didn't seem to miss it. She was all smiles and in a great mood when they got back, even though it was an hour past her feeding time.As soon as they got home my dad fed Astrid some baby food and my mom and dad watched Astrid for an hour while I got my nails done. My parents both really enjoyed that. Astrid was lovely with them. She was smiling and clapping and flipping through her books. My parents also brought out a big teddy bear that Astrid loved to play with. My mom pointed out the teddy bear's nose and eyes and mouth. Astrid loved sticking her face in the teddy bear's white, soft fur. (I guess it's time to start letting Astrid play with some of her stuffed animals that she received as gifts from friends and family. Now that she doesn't stick everything in her mouth, she can play with them and enjoy them now.)

On a side note: my dad thought Astrid would like to play with Curious George (a stuffed animal monkey that my brother loved and was very attached to as a child). But instead of wanting to play with it, she was scared of it and almost started to cry, so my dad quickly put it away. The face is a tad scary. Years ago when my mom put the Curious George doll through the laundry cycle to clean it, his face washed away. My kid brother was hysterical when he saw what happened. So my mom spent hours sewing on new eyes, a nose, and a mouth using brown thread. Being older I thought it looked weird, but my kid brother was satisfied that his favorite doll had a face again.