Blue Whiskered Luna

My little Luna is now almost 11 months old!!  I'm so sad that each day is passing by soooo fast!  In fact, today, she walked about two feet with three steps!  It happened so fast that I couldn't even grab my phone or camera to take a video of it.  But it really wouldn't have mattered even if I had the phone in my hands because the memory is already full.  So today, I am spending Luna's nap time to transfer and burn the photos and videos onto a disc...instead of napping with her. :)

Isn't she the most darlingest thing?!? sigh. My little blue whiskered Luna...

This girl occasionally like to feed herself too. It turns into a giant mess, but what are we gonna do? Spoon feed her for the rest of her life?  

We've also been quite busy making new friends and going to play groups too! 

Annnd, we've also been taking selfies :) haha

Luna likes to say appa all the time but she says umma only when it really matters. for example, when she's crying. it's okay.  she can say appa all she wants but she only really knows umma and prefers me for all her woes and sorrows :)

So what else can Luna do?  She's discovering that just because I hid my phone under the pillow, it doesn't mean that is disappeared....that it's still there.  She just needs to lift the pillow.  Also, she plays peek-a-boo with me.  It's the darndest cutest thing in the world because she will cock her head to the side if I have had around the corner.  She will also squat behind something and pop up as I saw peek-a-boo!  I really need to get that on video but that one's kinda hard because it requires me to interact with her all the while not distract her with the phone. 

Our little princess has also learned to "read" a book.  Though the book may be upside down, or she may be flipping the pages the wrong way, she likes it :) It's fun watching her flip through her books and mine as well as long as she's not tearing them apart, which she is learning not to do as well.  Books, we have learned, are not always used for reading.  She likes snacking on them too!

That's just one of the five books she likes to snack on.  Yes, she only snacks on certain books.  lol  So those snacking books have been pulled from her library. 

Forgive this post-pregnancy brain of mine but I can't remember if I had shared how much I enjoy living in Jamsil.  Don't get me wrong, it's nothing compared to home and I would choose home any day over this horrendous country, but if I had to live in Korea, I really think Jamsil is the place to be, especially when you have kids.  Being that we're right across the street from Lotte World aka Korea's Disneyland, it's quite clean.  I think Lotte has a hand in that in the way that Disney has a hand in keeping Harbor Blvd spick and span clean with no drunkards, bums, or anything not family-friendly (like bars, strip clubs, and whatnot).  For shopping, I also have Homeplus (thank you Tesco!!) across the street from me, a department store, Lotte Mart (which is another huge all-in-one store), AND a TOYS R US!! Now, that's the selling point.  What in the world would I do without a toys store nearby?  And, folks, I am not being sarcastic here!  If I'm ever bored, I go to Toys R Us, look at the toys, test some out, and think about how Luna can be more stimulated as she is developing.  It's a good thing that I have a high level of self-control when it comes to buying things so I never ever buy anything at Toys R Us, but it does give me inspiration as to what kind of toys I can make for her at home.  Like really, I don't need to buy an $80 set of wooden blocks with screws drilled in for the wooden crane to pick up the wooden blocks with a magnet.  I'm sure I can find an alternative and drill in screws myself. 

Another reason I really like Jamsil is because I have the Han River near by if I ever wanted to go for a bike ride and a picnic by the river and there is also the man-made lake that surrounds Lotte World where I go for a jog twice a week with Luna.  There's also a nice baby cafe to visit if we're bored at home.  I guess the only downside is that because it is so nice here, the property prices are ridiculous.  Also to note, there doesn't seeem to be many foreigner families here.  It's ok though, we can travel outside of our little bubble to visit our friends though. 

Now, onto my baby products.

My parents came to visit last month and brought two costco boxes of Huggies diapers.  I didn't ask but they offered so they troubled themselves with the maximum capacity of checked luggage and hauled it all the way to Korea.  They really shouldn't have troubled themselves BUT I am oh so grateful!  No, really, I am.  In my mommy group on fb, many moms have been griping about the fact that Huggies "upgraded" their standard Snug and Dry diapers.  Many mommies didn't like it because it wasn't holding out on the blowout poos and was leaking and whatever.  I didn't take note of it too much because Korea manufactures their own Huggies so it didn't apply to me.  I don't usually use disposables anyways and even if I do, I don't buy Huggies, so who cares?  But Mom bought them, brought them, and I was thinking, how in the world I was going to use up all those disposables, but boy was I wrong!  Luna must've known that we had too many diapers because she went through a diarrhea phase.  It was not fun!  It lasted almost two weeks and we experienced our first and hopefully only bout with diaper rash!  Those new Huggies did blowout on me, but I realized that you have you really pull the elastic bands tight around the baby and those elastic bands are fabulous!  The elasticity is way awesome and it is super stretchy!  It totally does not compare to any of the diaper brands I've seen here in Korea.  Too bad I can't remember what the old Snug and Dry Huggies were like so I can't compare but I like the new ones!  Also, the cut and shape of the diaper itself is wonderful because those babies that have thunder thighs now can be nice and snug without cutting off circulation to the toes in these new Huggies.  LOVE IT! Luna's thunder thighs fit in nicely into these Huggies.  Now that she's done with diarrhea, I gotta use them sparingly or else we will be back to the cruddy Korean diapers before we can get a refill in November.  :)

The other thing I wanted to re-review was my Baby Trend Expedition ELX jogger.  I've recently started running again so I took the jogger out for a spin.  It does add about three minutes to my overall run of 1.56 miles but it does fine.  I have to fix the wheel so that the entire jogger doesn't go into convulsions but I'm not running on the street but on a track around the lake so I can do the large bends and turns quite well without having to unfix the wheel.  Overall, I'm satisfied with the way the jogger jogs on the running course.  

Now, to leave you with a little cuteness....

This was on the 10th month day....Sept 5, 2013.  She really likes that puppy and smothers it to death.  it's freakin adorable. that's another picture I need to take too.

well, TTFN my friends.  I'll try to be back soon.

BPA Free?

Since I started the research on plastics with the baby play mats, I decided to go a little further and dive into the topic of BPA.  In Korea, I think generally the term 환경호르몬 refers to BPA but technically, it is actually a very general term that can refer to phthalates or any other harmful chemicals as well.  BPA stands for Biphenol A and it is usually used for hardening plastics.  So those unbreakable, shatterproof extra hard core mountaineering water bottles?   Yep, those types of things.  But since BPA-free has come into the spotlight in the recent years, there have been alternatives to BPA in hardening plastic.  After all, all that negative media coverage on BPA and the inability to slap on a gigantic "BPA-free" image on product packaging will affect the bottom line.

BPA is also found in epoxy resins. Simply put: the plastic lining in canned foods.  It can also be in your dental work, thermal paper (like your receipts), some plastic bags, and a host of other things you never knew about.  Ahh!  I swear, we just all need to go live in a plastic...no, a glass bubble.

So why is BPA bad?
BPA mimics certain hormones in the body, which can be disasterous for those who don't have hormones raging just yet: our babies. The FDA is okay with having a very low level of BPA in products, but still, low levels just isn't acceptable when it comes to our flesh and blood, now is it?

So how do you avoid BPA?  You really can't avoid BPA entirely, but you can still try to cut a lot of it out of your lives.  The first thing would be plastics.  This website, 3 Simple Ways to Tell BPA free, sums it up pretty well.  (1) Polycarbonate is not BPA-free (2) How to tell if something is made of polycarbonate (3) Don't count on the plastic classification numbers.  Go visit the website.

The second thing would be to avoid buying canned items in order to avoid the plastic lining.

The third would be go with alternatives to plastics. Mayo Clinic


One thing that really ticks me off sometimes is when companies label their products BPA-free when that product would not normally contain BPA anyways but they slap it on their packaging so that it would sell better.  It would be like saying a watermelon is BPA-free.  Well, duh!  Watermelon is not plastic.  For example, if you walk into the zipper bag aisle in Korea, one of the Korean brands has "BPA-free" on their box.  Which got me thinking, omg, have I been putting all of Luna's foods in BPA laced zipper bags all this time?!? While some plastic bags do contain BPA, Ziploc brand zipper bags do not have BPA and I don't think zipper bags generally use BPA so it's not something to worry too much about.  I was really irritated by that stupid Korean company because that little box of bags probably caused another few gray hairs. ugh. unnecessary stress!

Anyways, these are the websites I found pretty helpful in learning about BPA, so check them out:
http://shine.yahoo.com/green/3-simple-ways-to-tell-if-plastic-drinkware-dishes-and-reusable-bottles-are-bpa-free-1561327.html

http://nutrition.about.com/od/ahealthykitchen/tp/bpa-free.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bpa/AN01955

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/221205.php

http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/718/1/ 

The last website talks about how BPA-free doesn't guarantee plastic safety.  I think it is worth reading and getting to know more about the technical/scientific aspect of the health issue.

Baby Play Mats

I've been meaning to write about the baby play mats for a while but I kept forgetting about it whenever I sat down in front of the computer.  We bought ours a couple months ago after visiting the play mat aisle at Homeplus every week for a month and also looking at different retailers to see if they offer other types of play mats, we bought the biggest (i think 140 x 250 cm) and thickest (1.5 cm) PVC mat online at about 90,000 won.

In Korea, Parklon is the main manufacturer of the play mats.  Yes, at Costco and Toys R Us, you will see Fisher Price play mats but if you look at the mat itself, Parklon is still embossed onto the Fisher Price mats.  When it comes to baby play mats, it either is made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) or PE (polyethylene).  I know PVC has a really bad rap with it containing carcinogens, but apparently PVC can be safe.  What makes PVC dangerous is the phthalates (I kind of like saying that word.  It reminds me of Daffy Duck sputtering his spit everywhere :) and the other different metals that can be used in manufacturing PVC. It's like nearly impossible to avoid PVC altogether but there are alternatives (click here for those alternatives), and thankfully, the mats made by Parklon has been certified to show that there are very little to no phthalates or other harmful metals in their mats. For their certificate, click here.

The play mats made out of PE are actually cheaper than the PVC, but there are some tradeoffs.  While PE is "safer" in terms of plastics, it isn't as dense as the PVC to protect your little baby's head from impact.  Squeeze PE and PVC and you can tell the difference right away.  PVC feels more like a memory foam, while PE feels like a packaging sponge.  We were thinking that it might be cheaper to just buy two of the PE mats and lay it on top of each other but I was afraid that it might be a problem when Luna starts to run around and the mat might slip...like you know how rugs can be super dangerous when you don't put down a grip under the rug?  Also, with two mats on top of each other, it would be like 3 cm tall and I didn't know how much I would like that.  I already have problems with tripping over Luna's toys; I don't need another thing to be tripping over.

I think the other alternative to the mats would be the puzzle mats which I think are made of EVA or ethyl vinyl acetate.  There seems to be some past issues with the use of EVA but there isn't anymore? Something like that.  I don't know too much about EVA because I wasn't looking for puzzle mats.  I felt like puzzle mats would pose more as a choking hazard when my Luna decides to bit a piece of it off so I didn't even consider the puzzles.  Besides, if Luna figures out how to pull apart the puzzles, that would turn into a nuisance too. But you can read about EVA on these websites
http://toxicfoammats.com/
http://www.healthybuilding.net/pvc/SortingOutVinyls.html
http://healthychild.org/easy-steps/find-safe-foam-mats-for-toddlers-to-play-on/

So much to read, huh?  I tried to sum it all up for you here but you might want to do some of your own reading too.

Here are additional reads:
http://www.parklon.co.kr/parklon_eng/matstory/sub_matstory02.html
http://www.parklon.co.kr/parklon_eng/products/sub_products.html#2
http://www.parklon.co.kr/parklon_eng/service/sub_service03.html
http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/the-vinyl-debate.aspx#axzz2bLoQE5eL

If you're not gonna read any of them, at least read this one: http://www.green-4-u.com/2009/02/02/why-plastic-is-bad/

My one last concern for the mats is this: during the winter, Koreans turn on the under floor heaters which I do love but I hadn't thought about how the heat would affect the play mat.  The FAQ on the Parklon website says to avoid direct sunlight/heat and that it should be fine in room temperature but nothing about heated floors.  It does say not to clean with a steam cleaner too.  I also read the FAQ in Korean too just because their English was a bit funky.  I'm thinking that I will probably lay out a rug under the play mat in the winter to avoid overheating the mat and possibly melting the print onto the floor permanently.

I hope this helps you in choosing your floor mats and good luck!  (As always, you should know that whether you are in Korea or the U.S., it is generally cheaper to buy online)

This is when we first got our mat so the ends were curled a little bit.

It was really cute how Luna would try to "grab" the bird printed on the mat. She doesn't do that anymore....