Louie Loves his tummy tub

Louie had his first bath about a week after he was born. The midwife came back for a postpartum check up and gave him his first dip in the tummy tub. It was love from the start. And since then, any time he's feeling fussy, a dip in the water always soothes him.
The tub is meant to mimic the womb in it's snugness. Now that Louie's rounded out so well it must feel like the snugness of a womb in it's 9th month, but he still loves any opportunity to get in for a soak.

Dinner: Pad Thai

socialization!

Louie had his boys group meeting at our house today. He hasn't had much socialization with other babes and he's definitely not jumping in with both feet, but slowly he's coming around to appreciate his friends. These pictures show his progression...it comes in waves like this but the smiling is lasting longer and longer. It's just so intense!

sleeping tiger

The Squash is sprouting ...

...and the Tiger is sleeping.






























Dinner: Fermented soybean stew, roasted seaweed, salad and rice

Natural Building Weekend

A couple of weekends ago, we took the train to Gwangju then borrowed Seungwhans parents car to drive to Jangheung. We were meeting with some people who teach natural building and appropriate technology.

Seunghwan helped lay bricks for the thermal mass heater and did a coat of lime wash on the exterior walls.

I hung out with Louie, took pictures, harvested shitake mushrooms and did some wild herb foraging for our lunch salad. Louie enjoyed stretching out on the forest floor and observing the shifting bamboo canopy.

Our hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Kim prefer to go by the nicknames Fish and Fat Dog respectively. They are wonderful soulful people interested in starting a community to teach about simple living. Jangheung is the perfect spot for this as it's already been designated a slow city. http://cittaslow.kr/new/eng_sub01_01_01.htmlme

So far they have completed their own family home which is steel frame, earth bag walls loft style building using many reused materials. and which they say was their first work of art. indeed it is.

oops...should have taken more pics of the main house.

They have also begun a round, wood frame earth bag common room just across from the main house that still needs a last coat of cob on the exterior and interior finishing...floor...rocket stove heating. It's going to be beautiful when it's done. Fat dog, Louie and I had a cup of tea on the built in earth bag bench and talked about flowers. again..too caught up in the moment for pictures.

The building just up the hill that we came to help with will eventually house volunteers. Wood frame, light straw clay walls, thermal mass heating in walls and floors. Lucky volunteers...this is going to be one cozy spot.

They also work on their lovely garden, and try to incorporate permaculture techniques where they can including what looked like a grey water system for watering. Behind the main house is a row of shitake inoculated logs that will produce for 5 years! yum!

Our hosts were so generous to have us stay when they were so busy preparing for a group of architecture students coming for a workshop the next day. they fed us fresh organic food and interesting conversation about natural building, reconnecting with nature, coffee, anarchy and love. Because the was no room at their place we stayed at a nearby building that was formerly an elementary school but that is now used to teach herbal medicine workshops. it was COLD! but we were brought new radiant heat technology to keep us warm. it was a paper thin sheet of plastic that you unroll and plug in. voila! instant portable ondol!

It felt so good to be out of the city and to wake up with the mountains, unobstructed. space.

We will definitely be returning here*

Lunch at the build site: seafood stew, rice and namul.

what a boy! what a joy!

Back from the doctor today. Louie has gained 1.1 kg in 1 month ! It's from all that snacking!




SeungHwan has been feeding him pureed rice and loves it but he is still primarily a milkavore. A great trick would be to get him to consume my milk from a bottle on occasion but so far the answer has been a definitive "no"...actually it's more like " are you out of your mind? no!"
And I understand... who wouldn't want a warm breast over a synthetic nipple, but just for the rare occasion that I need to be away for more than a couple of hours...
hmmm...well some new nipples came in the mail today. Perhaps these will be "the ones".

His knock off Bumbo arrived at more than half the price of the original. The brand name is "Jelly Mom" which is sometimes the condition of my brain after working on our immigration sponsorship application!

But sweet Louie ventilates all that jelly with joy...like this:

Dinner: cold soba noodles with wasabi sauce and veg, roasted acorn squash.

Louie models his EC fashion

This ragamuffin look is perfect for ECing ( elimination communication) http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/

We've been doing it for about 3 weeks now and Louie has had all of his poops on the toilet for the same amount of time! He has about 50% of his pee there and the other 50 is in the diaper and sprinkled through the house.

We're getting better at reading his signals and he's getting better at recognizing cues.

Dinner tonight: Potato leek soup, salad, brown rice with gogi berries