My Rocking Cradle

Going to Jeju for a summer vacation should be planned weeks ahead, this I learned while hubby and I were looking for an accommodation for our summer vacation in Jeju. We were lucky to have found a good place in the tourist capital, Seogwipo-si. But we got Grand Ville for only 2 nights as the place was fully-booked. Our other 2 nights were spent in Natural Park Resort, a little bit far from Seogwipo where we spent most of our time. What’s good with Natural Park was that it was very near Hallim Park and Hyeopjae Beach.

Grand Ville offered a relaxing place to stay where we can cook food and had a facility for barbecue. It was a good place for our family to stay in. The place is near the Jungmun Beach and is also walking distance to several restaurants.

The place became more interesting when the manager of the place - the son of the pwner - introduced himself to us and offered to drive us to a nearby grocery store and spoke Tagalog. We learned that he graduated from Centro Escolar University. He also speaks good English so English-speaking visitors will be very comfortable in here.

Contact details are available in the Grand Ville website.

I enjoy breastfeeding - other than the nutrients and the emotional bond I provide to my baby, I get to multi-task. I could either browse the net or read. And I get to explore the world with reading!

Whether I’m sitting down or lying on the bed while breastfeeding, I make sure that a book is within easy reach. A page or two, or a hundred pages in one reading - it matters not. I read! And my baby loves to be distracted with whatever book I have. Result - a tattered book.

Jack - Straight from the Gut is the most tattered book I had read. It took me some time to finish and while sneaking in some reading time Baby Dynamo would reach out for the book. I did finish the book now plastered with scotch tape all over its cover.

The book is a good read for managers all over the world. Jack Welch is not called the “Manager of the Century” for nothing. But I was drawn to Jack Welch’s mother. Grace Welch mothered him with toughness balanced with a lifetime of warmth which the son felt all throughout his life.  Jack Welch credits his mom for being the “most influential person in my life”.

His anecdote of her when she stormed the boy’s locker room after losing a hockey game would be forever immortalized. She was aghast at his behaviour and she told him in front of his team mates:

“If you don’t know how to lose, you’ll never know how to win”.

Sometimes I feel that I am demandding too much from my 3 year old Little Dynamo. While I could be sweet and playful to him, I feel that I sometimes turn into a monster when he forgets some of the things we had previously studied. I always tell my own son, “Don’t forget the lessons I taught you. I am very angry whenever you forget them. What’s our study time for when you only easily foget?” I would immediately feel like a monster after that. My husband would bring me back to my senses and remind me, “How old were you when you started writing your name?”. At 31/2 years old, Little Dynamo can. Indeed, that’s a reality check to my otherwise demanding self.

But Jack Welch became the topnotch CEO that he was because her mother pushed her to excellence:

“From my earliest years in school, she taught me the need to excel. She knew how to be tough with me, but also how to hug and kiss. She made sure I knew how wanted and loved I was”.

I don’t delude myself into believing that if I mother my children the way Grace Welch did, they would become as great as Jack Welch, too. This is not about it.

I love the way the mother influenced her son’s life greatly and how the son recognized her mother’s influence. In building Jack Welch’s self-confidence, she must have done a great act of balancing on pushing to bring out the best in him and providing him with all the love and warmth.

While I have great admiration for the achievements and the success story of Jack Welch, it is to his mother that I was really drawn. Tough woman. Tough act to follow… you could only wish to be like her and produce a son like hers.

Ahhh… motherhood. There’s so much to do. There’s so much to nurture.

My Korean friends like my mother-in-law.

They see her driving Baby Dynamo’s stroller in the morning so I could prepare Little Dynamo for school and I can go to the gym. Some saw her with a garbage bag to dispose our trash - one friend remarked “it is unthinkable for my mother-in-law to do that!”. I blurted out one time that my mother-in-law prepares my coffee - breakfast and afternoon snack time - and she suddenly became a MIL ideal figure. LOL.

But, of course! mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relatiosnhips are never perfect nor ideal. I absolutely dread shopping with her - in the Philippines or here in Seoul - wuhuhuhuhu. Spare me! She could spend the whole day in a mall without getting tired. Bring her to an outdoor tourist spot and in 30 minutes she would be exhausted!

Still, I’m luckier than most, I guess, when it comes to the kind of mother-in-law that I have. She seldom demands, she always gives - her time, her effort, her pride.

I’ve been to shopping areas (Namdaemun and Dongdaemun are out - I can’t go there with an infant) with mother-in-law but always (always!) she comes home frustrated.

The clothes are too small for her frame - but, she isn’t fat at all. She’s taller than most halmonis but fat?, no! So, I can’t understand why she can’t find the perfect fit. Could it be because she looks for flaws in clothes all the time? Yes, she does but! So far, she has only bought 1 decent dress from Zara in Times Square in Yeongdeungpo. Shoes are too small for her. No exaggeration here. She ended up buying a 10,000krw shoes in Myeongdong after hours of looking around. I feel sorry for her - and for my husband (I always end up buying for myself, that’s why!). She can’t even proudly show-off that shoes, lol.

This brings to mind a conversation with another Pinoy. His wife, who’s on the heavy side, had difficulty shopping here in Seoul. Clothes are really for the smaller frame. If you’re slim, you won’t have difficulty shopping around here. It will be your shopping paradise. If you’re big, just concentrate on the sights and the culture:-).

On those rare times I complain about Baby Dynamo totally rejecting the feeding bottle, DO NOT BELIEVE ME. I actually LOVE breastfeeding. In fact, I advocate breastfeeding.

When I received my regular updates from Babyfit.com today, I was filled with more confidence to breastfeed even in public - which I always do, by the way. Name it - the coffeeshop, restaurants, mall, supermarket, playroom - Baby Dynamo was never deprived of his feeding frenzy:-). With the article “5 Tips for Breastfeeding in Public“,  I learned and absolutely agree that I am “an earth mother goddess“. The best accessory I could ever have when breastfeeding is my confidence that I am allowed to breastfeed anytime, anywhere and the best response I could ever give to some probing eyes is my smile.

Take this:

“And remember, if you catch someone watching, smile. You’re nourishing the next generation. You are an earth mother goddess. I joke, but truly, people are less likely to be uncomfortable or nasty to you when you’re pleasant and confident. If nothing else, your smile might shame the ones who consider fussing about public breastfeeding into keeping their views to themselves.”

Was in Myeongdong last Monday to accompany mother-in-law for some shopping. It’s the Grand Sale Season, remember?

As hubby’s office is also in Myeongdong, he met us for lunch and treated us to a chicken feast. He brought us to a small alley, we went up a narrow stairway, and got into a small restaurant called “World One Curry”. In contrast to its small space, it serves a large platter of one whole chicken:

For 9,000-won, it is one very filling meal!

I stumbled upon this treasure in my email inbox. This was forwarded by a friend three years ago. Allow me to share this with you:

We are sitting at lunch one day when my daughter casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of “starting a family.” “We’re taking a survey,” she says half-joking. “Do you think I should?” she asks.

“It will change your life,” I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral. “I know,” she says, “no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations.” But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes. I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking, “What if that had been MY child?” That every plane crash, every house fire will haunt her. That when she sees picture s of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die. I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub.

That an urgent call of “Mom!” will cause her to drop a soufflé in her best crystal without a moments hesitation. I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood. She might arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important business meeting and she will think of her baby’s sweet smell. She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure her baby is all right.

I want my daughter to know that every day decisions will no longer be routine. That a five year old boy’s desire to go to the men’s room rather than the women’s at McDonald’s will become a major dilemma. That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a child molester may be lurking in that restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother. Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about herself. That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child. That she would give herself up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs. I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become badges of honor. My daughter’s relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way she thinks.

I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who is careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child. I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for reasons she would now find very unromantic. I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time. I want her to taste the joy that is so real it actually hurts.

My daughter’s quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes. “You’ll never regret it,” I finally say. Then I reached across the table, squeezed my daughter’s hand and offered a silent prayer for her, and for me, and for all the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this most wonderful of callings.

Please share this with a Mom that you know or all of your girlfriends who may someday be Moms. May you always have in your arms the one who is in your heart.

Shoppers who are always on the look-out for grand sales will want to be in Seoul from July 21 to September 23.  5,000 shops all around Seoul are participating in this Grand Sale and discounts of up to 60% will be offered. Coupons are available and can be printed online.  More information are available here.

Mother-in-law had a teleserye marathon today. And that, my friends, is why I love the internet:-). Pinoy Channel TV kept her entertained after spending hours (yes!) of taking care of my Baby Dynamo while I prepared my Little Dynamo for school and spent an hour in the gym. Don’t you just love grandmothers?

Watching her favorite telenovelas back home would definitely be a part of her daily routine here in Seoul. That’s something I could not deprive her of:-). Today, she finished the final week of Kung Tayo’y Magkalayo, episodes she wasn’t able to watch because she was already here in Korea. She still has backlogs for Magkaribal, Rubi and Agua Bendita. LOL.

Little Dynamo and friend had a great time watching the English musical, ”The Little Dragon”, yesterday afternoon at the LATT Children’s Theatre in Gangnam.

“The Little Dragon” is a production of the LATT Children’s Theatre, the only English repertory company here in Korea. The production’s last performance was today.

Baby Dynamo could not get inside the theatre as the show is only for kids older than 36 months. I waited with the other mommies in the waiting area just outside the theatre. Only a few of the mommies went inside the theatre as the tickets were priced at KRW30,000 per head. But no worries, the children were ushered inside the theatre by the company’s staff. Little Dynamo and friend were accompanied by mother-in-law who also enjoyed the show like a kid:-).

For those interested to expose their kids to English musicals here in Seoul, you can check out the LATT Children’s Theatre website. I am so looking forward to future productions for my Little Dynamo’s enjoyment.