Alden's walking!

Okay, so in the two weeks we have been here I guess Alden has decided that he wants to walk and is going to do it.  He now walks a lot of the time but, until today, had never stood up on his own without assistance.  So, if he starts walking and then falls he crawls or if he is really tired he goes back to crawling but otherwise he is walking.  I am really excited that he is growing up and developing but it is also a little sad to know that he isn't just my little baby boy anymore.  I wanted to share this landmark point with everyone so here are some pictures and videos from the last few days of what Alden has been up to.  The videos below are numbered in chronological order.

Video 1: So when we first got here he was just trying to start walking.

Video 2:  This was taken at iPark mall.  Alden got sick of the carrier and wanted to walk for a bit but he was still too unstable to walk without holding Daddy's hand. (I'm sorry about all the background noise in this one)

Video 3:  Alden was trying to walk around and stand up as Dad played with his hacky-sack.  He started getting better at walking so quickly.

Video 4: This was just a couple days later.  He found my iPod and carried it around all morning listening to music and trying to walk.

Video 5:  This was taken just a couple minutes after the previous one but it was when I realized that Alden will really be getting in to everything soon and going wherever he wants.  He stood up on his own for the first time and I got it on video!  I am so proud of my little boy!

So those are the videos that show the progression of Alden's walking skills.  He is growing up so fast and it is fun to see the new things he is learning all the time.  I have a few more videos that I will post the links to of things that Alden has done around the house that I thought were cute or funny.

Alden climbs in a cupboard:  Alden was playing around in the kitchen with a bunch of cardboard and then discovered this empty cupboard and decided to go exploring...

Alden dancing and studying iPod:  Okay so on the morning that he found my iPod and wanted to play with it he would occasionally dance to the music and you can see that at the beginning of this video.

Alden trying to find Daddy:  So Drew and Alden were playing and at first Alden was just chasing Daddy and then Daddy hid so Alden had to try and find him.  You can watch the whole thing in this video. (I'm sorry some of the camera work is bad)

Alden watching dance performance:  So I put on the youtube video of Alex and Twitch's dance from So You Think You Can Dance and this is the video of Alden watching it.  The cutest part is at the end.

Here are some more photos of Alden around the apartment that I thought I would share.

 Playing with the swiffer again.

 Alden decided it was more fun to be in the box than to put his toys in there.

 He likes playing with his sunglasses.

Alden is getting tall and trying to figure out how to get in to everything...it is very exciting!  Yay for my healthy, strong, growing little boy!

National Museum of Korea

So over the weekend we went and saw about two-thirds of the museum of Korea.  It is about a 15 minute walk from where we live and it is free to visit all the permanent exhibits.  It was really cool to go see their museum and see how everything started the same pretty much everywhere in the world and then over time different cultures emerged.  It was cool to learn more about the history of Korea and their culture.  I took a ton of pictures and it is too many to put in this blog so I will create an album on facebook with all of the pictures.

 All areas of the world pretty much started in the same place.

 Alden enjoyed looking at everything and jabbering. We called him "our little tour guide."  Here is a couple videos of him at the museum.
Alden at the museum
Alden likes the museum

 I thought the jade was really neat partially because it is more unique to the area.

 Duck shaped pottery was apparently really popular....there was a lot of it.

 The crowns from Korea were made of gold pressed really thin like in this photo.

 This are examples of things painted on the walls of tombs (sorry about the reflections)

 Drew was having fun!

This pagoda is 15 stories tall (I'm not sure how they are measuring that)  but it was really cool.

 Typical portraits that were painted in Korea.

 This is a replica of stone chimes they used to use.

 A replica of a throne room, very similar to the one we saw at the palace that we visited.

 The beginning of books in Korea

 I love the paintings of all the blossoms!

 Some things don't seem to change anywhere...

 The museum had a whole section on calligraphy.

 I thought this was really cool because it showed the stages to how they used to do portraits.

Pretty scene and a cute  dog with it's puppies.

 Okay this was interesting.  It shows the symbolism to different animals and flowers...who would have guessed that a butterfly represented an 80 year old man?

 This was a demon that had another statue stepping on it originally.

 Alden enjoying looking at the exhibits and having Daddy explain!

 We thought this table was really pretty.

 Lots of turtles and animals in art.

 Okay if you think this looks like a helmet from Greece, that is because it is.  It was given as a gift to the first Korean Olympian to win an event in the Olympics.  He competed under a Japanese name and with their team in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and won the marathon.  His Japanese coaches blocked the presentation of the helmet to him so it sat in museum in Berlin for 50 years until it was finally presented to him in 1987.

We walked through Yongsan family park again on our way home.