Starting our daycare transition

Little man went to grandma's today for 1 1/2 hours.  It was torture for me, but he did great!  I miss him so much.  I miss his smiles when he's away and just watching his cute little self crawl around.  I figured he'd do fine since he's so social and he knows who she is and we've visited, but it's always harder on the mom.  He was excited when I came to pick him up which makes me feel better.  Tomorrow we'll do it again, but a tad longer.  :(

I hope we don't lose any of the bond we have.

Lisa

Baseball 2009

We're finally done with ball and we lost every game.  :)  We were the youngest team out there since at least 75% of the boys were playing up.  My friend took some pictures of Chase at a game since I didn't get to go to very many and my hands were pretty full with a certain little boy.  Funniest thing though last night.  Poor Chase has struck out the majority of the season.  I really don't think he was giving it his all.  So Brian thought it was a sure thing to promise to take him frogging if he got a home run on the last night....thinking he barely gets on base, what's it going to hurt.  Sure enough, his last hit of the night and season was a home run!  I cheered that boy 'til he crossed home plate.  And I just had to laugh when I reminded Brian of his bet!  Chase was telling all the boys he was going frogging when he made it in.  Great night for my boy.



Dad actually watching the game and being a quiet coach for once.  :)

I love this BOY!

My boy.  What can I say....I am firmly ATTACHED to this sweet baby boy!  We've been on this road for 5 weeks now and he's awesome!   He's so much more comfortable now.  When he's tired, he just goes to sleep, on the floor, on me...



He's happy the vast majority of the time now.



He is the so awesome.  He actually slept all the way through the night last night.  Not even up for a little butt pat.  Then he didn't wake until daddy left around 6:30.  He's so punctual about the morning nap too.  He fell asleep on my lap at his usual time.  Don't get me wrong, he has got a temper on him, but he's a little lover boy.  He has my heart and I'm done!

Now, if I could find a way to have enough money to not go back to work or work part time and be with him more. :(

Happy 4th 2009!

We didn't do anything major, but the kids still enjoyed it.  We actually went to town to watch the 4th parade.  We've never done a parade and the kids LOVED it!  Chelsi was VERY outgoing and would ask anyone who walked by, in the parade, for candy.  She was NOT shy at all which is a little odd.  We had met our friends and their kids to watch together and they all enjoyed it.  I don't think the two youngest, ages 2 and 3, stopped waving their flags once!  They had to be the two cutest girls at the parade!  Afterwards we went to their house to watch some fireworks we bought and they bought with some other friends.  It really was a nice evening and the kids loved getting to play and be together.

At the parade.

The dads...



The two little girls



The 6 year olds.



The 8, 12 and 9 year olds...in that order.



Me and my baby.



Our little spectators.



4 of our sparklers.

My baby boy/Miracles

seems to really be becoming "my little boy".  I pray this stays when I have to return to work and he goes to daycare.  I'm so thankful I can work part days for a bit to be with him more.  He's starting to really snuggle and trust.  Trust is HUGE!  There's probably a post somewhere in here about that back when Chelsi arrived home.  I can hold him for a bit in his room while we listen to Brahm's and lay him down awake and rub his head, face and bottom and he'll go to sleep shortly after I walk out.  He never even fusses now.  He knows if he does I will come back and rub some more.  He trusts.  Makes me feel SO good!  Even his grumpy isn't as grumpy as it was just a couple of weeks ago.  He's been home 5 weeks now which totally amazes me.  It's starting to feel like we've known him forever already and we only found out 3 1/2 months ago we were even having a baby.

It's amazing the changes a family can go through in a short period of time; good or bad.  We had some rough and rocky last year and some mind-blowing amazing this year.  Trust mind-blowing, amazing miracle.  That's what this feels like.  Even thinking back to visiting Korea last month to get him.  It all felt so surreal and felt like a miracle.  I mean it's a miracle this other Korean agency found us and our two little ones are together as their birth mother wanted.  I so hope she reads our annual letters one day and knows this so she can feel better they will always know each other and love each other.

I think about my life and some of the pain; real pain; loss, fear, anxiety.  But, how many people get to witness these kinds of miracles in their life.  I witnessed a man paralyzed from the neck down walk again.  I witnessed 2 beautiful children born of my husband and I.  I witnessed 3 beautiful children travel all the way from another country to allow us to love them.  I witnessed God putting all of this together and orchestrating all of it regardless of any mistakes we made along the way.  I know there will always be pain in our lives, but I will try so hard to remember these miracles every day of my life.  I know there will always be days when I'm at my wits end due to stress of being a working mother, but I will always try to look at my family and thank God for these incredible miracles.  How on Earth did we get so lucky and deserve to witness this and enjoy these miracles in our lives?  I feel incredibly blessed to have them here with me and feel little fingers around my neck and being hugged by yet another child God has bestowed on us.

Lisa

2009 Weiny Roast

We went out before Brian got home, so it was still pretty darn hot.  We got everything out there and ready to go and the kids went ahead and started swimming.  Then the kids ate their hot dogs, chips and juice and swam again.  After that we roasted the marshmallows and swam again!  :)  We had chocolate covered graham crackers to put the marshmallows on.  Not the greatest idea.  They were pretty melted by the time we got to them and the kids had chocolate from head to toe.  :)  Kaelin finally stopped putting hers on graham crackers and just kept eating the marshmallows.  I have no idea how many that girl ate!  I was surprised at how much all of them ate tonight.  Jaemin liked the graham crackers too.  He likes the pool, but needs breaks getting out, so we finally got him this gate today.  Now we can do more outside and not worry about where he is.

First a picture from a night earlier this week, it was just too sweet when they were sitting there.



And the roast.





Chocolate and more chocolate....all over the body for some people.









Marshmallow Champ!



Break Time!



Swimming!









Ice pop anyone?



I just liked these looks she puts together.

All's well

Jaemin's attaching quite nicely.  We spend a LOT of time on the floor all day, then dad takes over part of the night so I can get some stuff done and feel productive still.  Then, when he can't I carry him on my back.  When we make our Walmart runs he rides on the front and falls asleep in the store every time.  :)  We're somewhat getting on a schedule.  At least he takes a decent mid-day nap now and sometimes takes a 20 minute here and there on either side of that nap.  He gets in bed at the same time every night now, which is nice.  Just shortly after the others go to bed.  I think it helps him to see everyone else go to bed as the house goes dim.  He doesn't fight it like he did.  He cries, sometimes, but not often and doesn't hit and scratch like he was in the beginning.  You could definitely tell the first two weeks or so were full-on grieving.  When he was tired, I think that's when he missed his foster mother most.  I heard him say omma over the weekend.  Omma is mother in Korean.  I wasn't sure if he was saying it to me or not until we went to visit grandma's daycare.  She had him and he reached for me and was repeating it.  He finally called me omma.  The girls never did, but coming home 3 months younger they were barely even saying it in Korea.  He was already saying a couple of things.  I've heard him says mama from time-to-time too.  That's not me.  It means eat!  He doesn't say that any longer, you just have to read his mind when he's hungry.  :)  He's sort of picky, but for the most part likes orange veggies.  We're moving onto solids as soon as the baby food is gone.  He wants what's on our plates anyways, so we've been trialing some things here and there.

He really has become a huggy boy.  If I pick him up and put him against my shoulders, he hugs me and then sits there and plays with my hair very sweetly.  He likes to lean his face to mine or lay his face to my lips while I give him little butterfly kisses on his cheek.  He's become very cuddly, which was definitely not the boy I came home with.  He pushed to get down and roam.  Really didn't want held too often.  I thought he was just busy at 9 months and crawling, but held him a lot anyways and now he likes to be held.  I think he's really beginning to trust.  Now we just have to keep building and keep that trust.  He still wakes a couple of times a night, maybe more.  It's usually not too bad.  Usually you just have to go put paci in and he nods back off.  This morning he was AWAKE at 4:30.  Wah, that was rough.  Hopefully, tomorrow is better.  But, I've been working on his schedule.  We're trying to get more on a schedule that will work when I return to work.  So he's not used to me getting him up by 7 am.  That may have thrown him yesterday.  We'll see, I guess.

Anyways, that's my little man for now.

Lisa