Andy's Tol

After opening presents we had Andy's Tol. This is a Korean custom for a child's first birthday. (Doug doesn't see much point in doing this, since we're not Korean, but I think it's kind of fun.) In case you missed it, here's Kate's Tol.

Here's the table, laid with various items representing different things:



The book was one of Andy's presents that I didn't wrap up but saved out for this, so he hadn't seen it yet.



Andy gets pointed in the right direction...



approaches table...



It looked like he was going to go for the food, but he didn't actually pick it up.



He took off after Kate's dinosaur, so Doug steered him back to the table,



whereupon he immediately picked up a coin and put it in his mouth.



Doug rescued the coin, and Andy moved on and picked up the knife.



And then back to the food!

The first and second items a child chooses are considered significant. I don't think Kate had a second item at all--after picking the food she just climbed up on the table and sat.

Money represents financial aptitude, and choosing the knife is supposed to mean that he'll be a good cook. Perhaps a culinary career?

첫돌축하해요!

돌 -- Korean first birthday kit

I've been working on this kit for a few weeks, and finally finished. It's uploading to NDISB as we speak. (Which is going to take a while--the kit just kept getting bigger and bigger, and topped 100MB. I had to break it into three zip files.) I've been kicking around this idea for quite a while now, and was really pleased with the way it turned out, especially the "tancheong" style borders and elements. That was fun. I ended up making three separate previews, just because there was so much there, and because there are a few different styles in the kit.



Tol (also spelled Dol) is the Korean first birthday event, which includes the tradition of placing the child in front of a table with various items on it to see which one they pick. (That's what we did for Kate's birthday, even though she's not Korean.)

While I was at it, I also made some blog banners for Eva. I've been enjoying reading blogs of people in Korea lately (and Kimberly in China). Though it aggravates my travel bug, which may not be a good thing. Alas!

Update:  Since NDISB has closed, this kit is now available here.

Happy Birthday Kate!

There's a special Korean tradition for a child's first birthday--kids are offered a variety of items to see which one they pick up first. The item chosen is supposed to reveal the child's path in life, or innermost character, or something.

Here's the table as we laid it out:



bowl of food The traditional item is a bowl of rice, but we used Unburied Treasure (the Trader Joe's version of the snack called Pirate's Booty), which is one of Kate's very favorite things in the whole world.

piece of string representing long life

mechanical pencil representing a scholarly interest (or perhaps a mechanical one)

Prismacolor art sticks representing an artistic bent

money representing financial aptitude

Doggies book representing... err... books. Or dogs, maybe.

And here's what happened:


She went for the food! I read afterwards that the bowl of rice is supposed to symbolize wealth. Perhaps choosing Unburied Treasure means that she'll be a pirate.