Baby jail and noisy neighbours

This big hunk of plastic is great! I was originally going to buy a traditional playpen, but foreign brands like Graco and Fisher Price are so expensive here in Korea. I couldn't find anything under $150. So I decided to look local. I found this strange looking thing on gmarket:

It was only $50 and ended up being a better choice because it's much bigger. Whenever I have to do something like shower, laundry, dishes, etc, I throw Grace in here with some toys and books and she's usually good for a little while, maybe 20 to 30 minutes. I try not to put her in too often so she doesn't get frustrated with it or feel cooped up. Anyway, I love good buys.

It was a rough early morning today. Grace went to sleep last night at 7:00 pm but wanted to get up at 4:00 a.m. We've been back a week now, so I think it's time to start "guiding" her onto a suitable sleep schedule. She really wanted to get up at 4, despite being obviously still tired, so it began. It took me about an hour to get her back to sleep. There was a tantrum. But in the end it worked out because she got up at 8:00 in a much better mood. I think we might be getting somewhere now. She's down for a nap now. Fingers crossed that this jetlag is behind us.

The apartment is slowly shaping up. An online friend lent me her nanny for two days and that really helped. She did some unpacking and cleaning for me, watched Grace while I did some organizing, she went to the market to get me some fresh food and even did a bit of cooking. I'm starting to finally feel like this place is coming together, although there is still a lot to do.

Now, if I could only get the people upstairs to move out, things would be even better. This apartment is old, and noise travels through the walls/floors very easily. There are obviously a number of children upstairs, because there is constant thumping, piano playing, etc. I can deal with that to a degree -- I certainly can't ask them to stop living their lives just because I'm downstairs! But last night things got really out of hand. There was some serious rough housing going on, running, pounding, screaming...it sounded like the kids were fighting, except it went on and on and on. Finally I went upstairs and rang the doorbell -- three times. They would not answer because they knew who was there and for what reason. Finally, I had Sejin call the maintenance office to make a complaint. Shortly after that, the maintenance office called me and said don't worry, they will be quiet now. Hmmm, perhaps this isn't the first time they've had complaints about them. Anyway, after that, things quieted down a bit. Hopefully it doesn't get like that every Friday night!