Foto Finish Friday...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

It's 6:20am on Christmas morning and I can't wait for the little guy to get up! The stockings are hung by the chimney with care,

and it looks like St. Nicholas surely has been here!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family! We are looking forward to a fun, busy next few days as we visit our families for Christmas. And let's not forget our Family Day celebration tomorrow!! 2 years... can you believe it??

Wishing you all a truly blessed holiday!!

The last thing Kai did before bed last night. He insisted on putting out chocolate milk for Santa, to see if he likes it. I think he did!

ABC's

Seemingly out of nowhere, Kai can now say his ABC's! We've been singing them for a while during hand washing, and I guess somewhere along the line it just stuck. Of course, when I pulled the camera out the cooperation level plummeted, and he wouldn't start from the beginning, but you get the idea! Hopefully you can hear him over the hammering. I guess it's not enough to just sing the song, you have to pound the board at the same time!

We have definitely entered the busy holiday season. That, coupled with having to work a little extra lately, I feel like I've had NO time to blog, much less attend to my Christmas gifts that are in desperate need of getting wrapped! Each night I say I'm going to do it, then somehow it doesn't happen. Pretty soon I'll be out of time!

Today we enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner with my family. More on that later... I'm determined to get some wrapping done tonight!

Foto Finish Friday

Kai's photography debut

Last Saturday we headed to one of our favorite local hangouts to try to get a decent family picture. Although it is a shopping area, it is decorated beautifully for the holidays, so we thought it would make a good background for pictures. The grounds were lovely, however getting our silly monkey to cooperate with a nice smile was another matter entirely. Our friend who's taken pictures for us in the past was busy, so we set out with just us and our tripod. Not too bad, considering... Here are some "out-takes" from our photo session.

Silly boy

Hmm...wonder why it's hard to get a good picture...

could it be because he never stops moving?

Aww...this one would have been perfect...

except for the large ball in the face!

This was one of the best. It very nearly made it onto the card,

but just didn't fit with any of the styles that I liked.

Foto Finish Friday

Cybershop- Help a child

I found out about this yesterday (or perhaps I've always known and forgot).

If you're going to do any shopping on Amazon... for the holidays or any time of the year, enter through this site, and shop as usual. 5-15% of the total of your purchases will go to this wonderful organization. To help me remember, I made a bookmark for my browser, and labeled it "Amazon".

Help a child by shopping... what could be easier?

(ETA: I've added this link to my sidebar for your convenience!)

Trimming the Tree

Yesterday we put our tree up. Big ceremonious event. Joe and I pondered in the living room for a good 20 minutes, trying to decide where to put it this year. We go through this every year. Kai watched us and kept saying, "What you doing?". Our final decision involved moving most of our living room furniture around to accommodate our green friend. Part of the problem is that we bought our tree 5 years ago, when we lived in a different (bigger) house, with a different (bigger) living room. Don't worry, our tree is not a bundle of dried twigs 5 years later...it's still green and beautiful.

Tonight we pulled out the boxes of Christmas stuff out and decorated our tree. I know some people have a very put together, matchy- matchy tree. I know some people have a different themed tree every year. Not us. We have a very homey tree. All (or most) of our ornaments have been gifts from friends and family. The only ones that match are because they're part of an ornament series. We have fake glass balls that are 11 years old and seem to make it through every holiday season. Best $5 we ever spent. I wouldn't have our tree any other way.

To me, our tree ornaments are like a history of our life together. One from the first Christmas we were married, one from the first Christmas after buying a house, one from the first Christmas with our little man. Part of the ornament fun is seeing everything that's been packed away for a year. I will inevitably forget about a few key ornaments, and be pleasantly surprised when I find them.

Last year, Kai didn't "help" us decorate the tree. Tonight he did.

I loved telling him about all the ornaments, who they were from or what had happened the year we got them.

He loved crawling under the tree and pretending to be a present.

(And at the risk of sounding like a total sap... he is the best present ever!)

Backlog

I did pretty good all month. I only cheated a few times and back dated posts. Until the holiday weekend hit. Now, I haven't blogged for 4 days, and I'm not going to catch up... so there. It's almost bedtime on the Sunday night of a busy, fun weekend away. I'm exhausted and have to work tomorrow (only 1/2 day though!). So, I will hit the highlights of each day.

Thursday: Heading to Portland to visit the fam. We were fortunate to be able to spend time with both our families, and everyone was on their best behavior. It was a delightful day.

Friday: Holiday Parade in downtown Portland.

Good times. Good weather...

what more can you ask for?

Kai's reaction to the first band in the parade.

He didn't like the tubas.

Visit to OMSI.

Friday night: date night for Joe and I! My parents watched the little guy while we headed to Bridgeport for eating, movie and shopping. Fun times! (Sorry... no pictures!)

Saturday: Kai meets the big guy!

We also enjoyed a nice breakfast downtown with Joe's Mom. Kai was on his best restaurant behavior, and had a great time with Grandma!

Saturday evening: a belated birthday celebration for my Mom. Dinner out with the whole cousin crew and a trip to Zoo Lights! More fun memories!

We got home this afternoon, unpacked, put up the tree and decided on a whim to go to the tree lighting ceremony at a local shopping center. It's the closest thing we have to a "city tree" with a big lighting ceremony, and we could tell. I think everyone in town was there! All in all, the perfect Thanksgiving weekend to get us all in the "Tritmat" spirit!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in my bloggy world! I hope you all have a great holiday and safe travels. I hope you can find a quiet moment to savor your blessings and give thanks in the manner which you see fit. I know I will.

As most holidays are, I'm sure this will be an emotional one for me. After some strange stuff in my little world this week, I've come to realize how happy and sad these holidays can be. In years past, the holiday season has been hard because my heart ached for a child to share it with. Now, my emotions are on the other end of the spectrum... my heart overflowing with joy for the family we have.

Well, off to prepare for a weekend of holiday family fun. But first, my first run in over two weeks...since being sick. Gotta do damage control for later, you know!

Nearly Perfect

Joe put up our Chistmas lights today. As always, they are nearly perfect. In fact, if you ask me, I'd say they're perfect. Not if you ask our son. When we went out to look at them tonight, K stood in the front lawn, hands on hips, inspecting them. After a few minutes:

Joe: How do they look?

Kai: Pretty good, not dat yeyow one.

Joe: Which one?

Kai: Dat yeyow one...right dere.

Joe: What's wrong with it?

Kai: It turned da wong way. (While turning his whole body to demonstrate)

Gotta love the honesty!

Pick your battles

As you can tell, today was "one of those days". We actually had quite a pleasant day together, after the initial battle of the clothes. Obviously, he won. At least I got him to put long pants underneath. He is so totally Buzz crazy right now! He wears these shorts constantly; as soon as we get home or wake up, he takes off whatever he's wearing and puts these shorts on. And, heaven forbid, I should try to wash them...

I am finding myself picking my battles more and more as his ever-expanding independence, well... expands. I have to remember that as long as he's safe, warm, fed and healthy, nothing else really matters. I'm sure I got plenty of sidewards glances today as we were out running our errands (and getting a haircut!), but whatever, at least my son and I were not at war.

Doing everything...

...except writing!

Tonight I spent my whole free time making changes to my blog, but not writing! Bad girl!

Maybe tomorrow will be more enlightened.

Hey, nobody said it had to be a good post everyday!

The Motions

"This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break,
At least I'll be feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

'Cause I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?""

--Matthew West

This song has been my "anthem", if you will, over the past 6 months or so. It's on my playlist and I hear it every time I work out or run. I find it so uplifting, and a great reminder of how I want to live my life. It's so easy to just go through life, one day after another, without taking time to really experience it, and try to make a difference in this world.

So, what keeps you going?

Saturday

So, not a super exciting day around here. Kai had gymnastics this morning, then hung out at home with Daddy while I got a haircut. Later this afternoon we decided to get out and brave the mall. Since Kai had been hangin' in his Mr. Incredible suit, he needed to get dressed first. I asked him to put his clothes on. A few minutes later I went to his room, and this is what I found...a fully dressed little boy, he had even gotten a clean shirt out of his closet.

He was pretty proud of himself!

Sharin' pretzels at the mall. Pretty much the only reason we go there...hehe...
Nap time has been pretty touch and go around here lately. Today it was a no-go. So of course, he falls asleep in the car on the way home, at about 5pm. He looked so peaceful.
He stays asleep coming inside, and takes a little snoozer on the couch. Not even the football game and power mixer woke him up. I love how he still snuggies with his favorite dog.
Hope yours was wonderful, too!

Are you teaching him Korean?

OK, so this question makes slightly more sense than, "Does he speak English?" That one just gets an eye roll.

But, are we teaching him Korean?...No. At least not right now. We can't teach what we don't know, right? Actually, the whole concept of teaching him about Korean culture is a very thin line for us. Yes, I want him to be aware of his birth culture, and celebrate the wonderful things about it. At the same time, I think it's important for us to realize that he'll be raised as an American. I don't want him to feel alienated from his peers because of emphasis we might place on Korean culture. Having recently listened to adult Korean adoptees talk about how they fit into Korean culture, we learned they simply don't. In Korea, international adoptees are looked at as more American than Korean. So, they're lost somewhere in between. Not quite American, not quite Korean. It is all very sad for us. Everyone wants so desperately for their child to fit in. It breaks my heart that someday, our little boy may very likely have a racial identity crisis. I think the best thing we can do is align him with other international adoptees, from Korea and elsewhere. These are the people who will be his biggest support... the others who have BTDT (been there, done that). The other thing we can do is work hard now to create (and maintain) an open communication about how he feels about this. I know he's a little young to really get it, but I think it's important to practice now, so it all comes naturally when he's older.

OK, so I got off on a little tangent...sorry. But, this has been on my mind recently. And afterall, isn't that what this whole blog thing is about?

Was it hard??

I've been asked this quite a few times: Was the adoption process hard? My answer: No.

Long? Yes. Emotional? Yes. Difficult at times? You bet!

But, overall, is was not really hard. Sure, we had to fill out stacks and stacks of paperwork. Jump when the government asked us to. Fill out 20 page interviews about ourselves. Look at ourselves in a way we never had before. Practice patience. But really, it was not hard. Lucky for us, we're the kind of people who can follow directions very well. That's really all it took. We had a list of steps to complete, and we did it.

As we were going through our homestudy and interview questions, we started joking that everyone who wanted to be a parent should go through what adoptive parents do. If that were the case, there would be a lot less people in this world...

Probably one thing that made it a little easier for us, was that we'd been on this journey to our child for many years, but there had never been a finish line. When we started our adoption process, we finally knew we would have our child at the end. So, it seemed whatever we were asked to do was fine, because it was all part of realizing our dream. Whatever timeline we were given was fine, because we knew we would have our child to hold when we got there...

Any way you cut it, adoption is a crazy roller coaster of emotions.

But now, to get those Good Morning hugs and snuggies... it was worth every single second.

No, the adoption process was not hard. The parenting process... well, that's another story...

Why adopt??

If I'm being completely honest and frank: our decision to adopt was purely selfish. We adopted because we wanted a child. We didn't adopt because we felt it was a humane act, or that we wanted to "save a child". We adopted because we wanted a family, and adoption is one way to build a family.

For us, adoption was the easiest and least risky road to parenthood. As most of you know, we struggled for years through battles with miscarriages and infertility. I still don't know what took us so long to get the message that it just wasn't gonna happen that way! Once we opened our hearts to adoption, it just all made sense. Everything fell into place.

Oh wait, I do know why we went through all those trying years... because our baby just wasn't ready for us yet!

Did you know?

That November is Adoption Awareness month? If you're not directly involved with adoption (or even if you are), you probably didn't. Not exactly being broadcast on the evening news every night. Any how, I thought since I'm blogging everyday this month anyways, and it IS adoption awareness month, I might make a few posts over the next few days to talk about some aspects of OUR adoption. Things you may or may not already know. So, if there's anything you're dying to know, leave it in a comment and I might just entertain your curiousity.

In other breaking news today... I have decided not to do my half marathon this weekend. I am bummed. But, this virus (whatever it is... and it is NOT H1N1...I do feel a little cheated by that) has gotten the best of me over the past 6 days, and the best of my lungs. While I could probably do the race and survive, it's probably not the smartest thing for me to do. Oh well, I'll have another chance in the Spring. Hopefully life will be a less exciting then.

Happy Birthday!!!

To my wonderful Mom! We hope you had a good day, and many blessings for the coming year. You're a very special lady, to us and to everyone who has the honor of knowing you. We love you lots!

We tried calling, but the birthday girl was off partying with her Bunco pals. Kai was so excited to wish someone Happy Birthday, he kept saying it to Grandpa over and over. Since he was in such the spirit, I whipped out my camera to catch the moment on tape.

Weekend at Home

I don't have much to blog about. We've barely left the house since we got home from work on Thursday. I haven't been having any profound thoughts; between the medicine head and trying to keep up with K, I haven't come up with any. I think this is the most we've been home ever! Here are some random facts from our weekend:

- watched Toy Story about 10 times (I really wish this was a joke...it's not)

- had coughing contests

- K managed to get through the whole day today without putting real clothes on; he wore his jammies until 11am when he dawned Mr. Incredible, he wore that until about 3pm when he went potty, he was nakey for a while, then pulled his Buzz Lightyear swim trunks out of his dresser and wore those until bedtime. Now he's in bed, back in his jammies with the swim trunks on top...we're picking our battles right now.

-the only housework I did was 2 loads of laundry (yet to be folded) and dishes. Let's just say we're really hoping not to have to show the house anytime soon.

-we learned that coughing seems to be much like yawning...once one person starts, everyone gets a turn.

-tried to keep everyone's medication schedules straight

-had more snuggie time on the couch than we've probably ever had before

Enough is Enough

Still a bunch of sickos around here. K and I have Dr. appointments in the morning. J is still just coughing, and we're praying he doesn't get worse until I get better. Two sick parents would be no good. I really hope we have something that an antibiotic can cure. I'm starting to become a whiny sick person. WAAAAAHHH!!!

Sick Day

Yesterday I was sent home from work. For the first time ever. The jig was up when my coworker hog-tied me and stuck the thermometer in my ear. It showed a low-grade fever, even with all the Motrin in my blood. I'm sure I was running a fever at least all day yesterday and possibly longer. J picked me up from work early and we went to get K at daycare. There we got the report that he'd been coughing and not up to his normal energy levels. Last night I was banished to the living room so Joe could get a good night's sleep and hopefully not whatever I have. I had a less than restful night's sleep as I traded off between the "snuggie chair" and the sofa. All I could think about was J getting up and leaving for work with K, and me going to sleep in my own bed for a few hours. (I was supposed to work today so daycare was already lined up and I was fully ready to use it so I could rest) That plan went out the window the second I saw K, his bright red cheeks revealing his condition. The thermometer revealed 102.6... he gets to stay home, too. Great.

Both our temps have remained normal with the wonder drug. We spent the day watching movies and trying to keep things low key. He perked up a little after J got home from work (Daddy's have that effect on little boys, don't they?), and played harder than I would have liked this evening.

I tried to talk him into "sleeping in" in the morning, and he asked "What's that?"

My point exactly...

Easy Way

Yes, I'm taking the easy way out tonight. Largely because I feel like I've been hit by a truck.

Can't say much...

Seriously. This morning brought some random laryngeal virus that robbed me of most of my voice. It is accompanied by much discomfort with swallowing, talking and coughing (of which there is also quite a bit). All this equalled a really fun day at work. One thing I am thankful for...no fever. That means it's not the dreaded H1N1 (which I shouldn't get anyways since I got the vaccine). I know, things could be worse...

I used to think getting sick was bad when I just had to talk at work all day. Now that's coupled with talking (sometimes a little loudly) to a 2 year old at home before and after work. Luckily, my hubby performed much of the talking activities this evening. Needless to say, now that K's in bed I am absolutely done talking for the day.

I just have to say, this stuff has been my saving grace today. A coworker suggested it this morning (cause she had the same thing, along with a few other fellow employees...wonder where I got it?), so J brought me some at work (which may have earned him the hubby of the year award). After lunch my throat was so irritated, my ears were starting to get shooting pains. A few sips of this wonder tea, and my throat (and ear) pain were subsiding.

So now, my evening plans are to snuggle up with my herbal heat wrap around my neck, sip more wonder tea, pop a few nyquil and drift off to sleepy land.

Dog Tired

Tonight I am just dog tired. This afternoon I completed my second (and final!) "long" training run for my half marathon in 10 days. I ran 12 miles. Pushing a stroller. Containing a 35 pound kid. And some other stuff. Enough said?

Really, I can't complain since it's my own crazy idea. But, I am really glad I won't be doing that again for a while. The running is fine, it's the stroller pushing that tends to get me after about 7 miles.

At least my plan worked. Like a charm. My plan that I could pull off one long run a week, without it horribly disrupting our weekend life. My plan that I could have K nap in his stroller once a week while I ran my little heart out. Last week I pulled a (nearly) 10 miler which took me about 1:50 to run, and K slept for a good hour of that. Today my 12 miler took me 2:02 (I was paying closer attention to my clock), and he slept 1:30 of it! Yes, I know, a little shabby from our still very solid 2 hr napper, but truth be known, success of naps at home is dwindling by the day. So in my book, an hour and a half is better than nothing (which is what it might have been without the rhythmic motion of my trusty stroller).

I'm hoping to fit in another few 5-7 milers before race day and call it good. I'm thinking of another half in the Spring. Wonder what I can do if I actually train for it?

My Boy

I really hate to sound cliche, but I can't help myself, "My baby is growing up!".

Not sure when this all happened, but I'm thinking somewhere between the big boy bed and potty training. (Anyone interested in stats: we're currently looking at about 35lbs and 38 inches!)

I was sitting in his room with him tonight, watching him change his clothes...yes, all by himself... and it just dawned on me, he no longer looks anything like a baby! He is a little boy through and through. With this growth comes the ever increasing need for independence, and his constant reminders that, "I no need help". He is even starting to take himself to the bathroom, all on his own.

This is all just happening too fast...I'm not ready for it.

But then again, it is really nice to be able to have him help me with things. Getting things for us is one of his favorites, a close second is closing doors for us. He's learning to help unload the dishwasher and loves sorting the silverware (after the sharp objects are removed of course). He knows how to put the plastic dishes into the dish drainer to finish drying (heaven forbid I should dry a dish...that ranks close to ironing on my hideous chore list). During bathtime tonight, he spontaneously counted to 13, all by himself! I jumped in and helped him finish to 20.

And if that's not enough to prove it, just look at that picture! (He's even learning to keep his eyes open for pictures). He is pretty incredible! (The suit he put on about 30 seconds after getting out of bed that morning. I went in his room as soon as I heard him and found his jammies off, and Mr. Incredible half way on.)

Yahtzee!!

Tonight we were playing Yahtzee after dinner. Surprisingly, it is a game we've been enjoying playing as a family. K pretty much has no clue what's going on, but he likes to roll the dice for us and help us count the dots. Tonight, he rolled a Yahtzee! I haven't even done that in years! Next, we'll have him scratch our lottery tickets!

Heavy

Today J and I attended an adoption conference. It's really the first kind of thing like this we've attended, except for our required Parents In Progress (PIP) class we took early in our adoption process. It was filled with wonderful and useful information, ranging from attachment issues and what can happen in older children (more from a foster care point of view) to issues of racism and how our internationally adopted children will fit in culturally (or lack thereof). Needless to say, the whole day was filled with pretty heavy stuff. Besides gaining a wealth of information on things that may or may not be an issue for us in the future, it was great to meet some other adoptive parents in our community. We even met a couple who we've seen at the park near our house a few times. Their daughter is a little younger than K, and we had our own little session of a 2-year old support group. It's so reassuring to hear other kids are doing the same things...must be normal, right? We also learned about 2 local groups which focus on building the adoption community and hold social gatherings (for adults only and families), as well as educational opportunities for adoptive parents. (I will add their links to my sidebar for anyone interested)

What I came away with: we may need to tackle some things sooner rather than later, such as talking to K about race and the differences between us ( I know, seems a bit much for 2 and a half), and working hard to create open communication about adoption and how K fits into our family. We've always talked about how he was born in Korea and we met at the airport, and how his foster Mom took care of him in Korea, etc... But today, when I actually pointed out to him that he is adopted, just like the little girl in the book we were reading, he said, "I not dopted". Hmmm...guess we've got some talking to do.

As we were leaving the conference, I told J that if I had attended this conference 2 years ago, it would have sent me running the other way. But now, I am honored to be the mother of a Korean adoptee, and I think I just may be up to the challenge of raising him... we'll see.

life is fragile

Today a close family friend passed away. Their family nearly mirrored ours; their son about the same age as my brother, their daughter about the same age as me. Our parents were friends; we spent lots of time together. Now their Dad is in heaven.

This loss came as quite a shock. He had a major stroke a few years back, from which he never fully recovered his speech and independent mobility. Still the heart attack that took him from the earth this morning was a shock.

Our thoughts and prayers will be with the family in the days to come. He left a wife, two children and three grandchildren. Also, with my parents who lost one of their best friends.

It's a loss like this which brings into focus just how precious and fragile life is.

Another good reason to live every day like it's your last.

Nothing exciting...

Nothing much going on around here today. It was a work day for me which means nothing else happens. I did manage to sneak out of work an hour early and hit the pavement for a 4 miler before Joe came to pick me up. Came home, cooked dinner, bathed the kid, played with the kid, put the kid to bed...you know how it goes. Now I'm off to do a little bathroom cleaning, showering and laundry folding before The Office starts in an hour. Then the real party starts!

I'd go on, but I'm afraid you might not be able to handle all the excitement.

Just a normal day, but I wouldn't trade these days for anything!

(I am officially caught up!)

How I roll...

I guess I thrive on chaos. At least that's what my husband would say. I typically tend to overbook my schedule and end up racing wildly from activity to activity. A few weeks ago I decided I would run a half marathon just before Thanksgiving. I am also short staffed at work due to a nurse on medical leave. Not to mention trying to keep up the house and entertain a 2 year old. Now, I decide to do this blog-a-day thing...all at the same time.

Guess that's just how I roll...

NaBloPoMo

Is it too late to join the bandwagon?

Apparently, November is National Blog Posting Month. I found this out last night, and finally decided today to join the fun. (Guess I have a little catch up to do...oops) This means I will be making a blog post everyday this month...yes everyday. This also means you will probably be hearing about stuff you could really care less about.

So there you go, there's #1. Or should I say #3?

Zoo

(Catch up post #2)

Today K and I took a spontaneous trip to the zoo with my Dad. It turns out, Monday morning is a great time to visit the zoo. There was no crowds, and most of the animals were very frisky in the brisk morning air. Turns out, it's also little boys club around there. We were surrounded by little guys K's size, all running wildly from animal to animal. We had a great time. And for the first time, K asked to have his picture taken with something. The trip was so spontaneous that I didn't have my camera, but luckily these days, if you have a cell phone you probably have a camera!

Halloween!

(Catch up post #1)

K and Captain Jack, our "scary" pumpkin

K and Daddy at our church Harvest Party

Decorating cookies, he did it (pretty much) by himself!

We had lots of Halloween fun this year. So much fun that by the time the day arrived, we were pretty partied out! It started last Thursday with Kai's daycare party. It was so fun to see him and all his little friends in their costumes! Friday night we attended our church party. Kai was much more into the games (and subsequent candy distribution) than he was last year. He also visited both of our offices in costume and was greeted by many people offering candy. On *the big day* we pretty much just stayed at home, after his Saturday morning gymnastics class and BUNGEES!! We decorated cookies and watched the big football game on TV. No trick or treating for us, and we turned out our lights too. I know, we're such Halloween humbugs, aren't we? We really did consider handing out candy this year; we thought Kai would enjoy greeting people at the door. Then we discussed the logical side of it: a 2 year old with a large bowl of candy, a howl-happy dog... you know where this is going... We'll probably start in with the trick or treating next year. It just really freaks me out, especially this year when there's no telling if your candy is laced with H1N1. I know... we're horrible.

Almost forgot...

The only full body shot I got...

As promised...

Our Disneyland slideshow/video!

Joe did an amazing job as always, and Kai loves this! We've watched it about 10 times a day (no joke) since Joe finished it. Kai cannot get enough of the Happiest Place on Earth! It's a little long, but we did lots of fun stuff and have the pictures to prove it! :-)

(Sorry about the repeat text...Joe stole it from here)

Disneyland Video

Disneyland!!!

We just got back yesterday, and we had a BLAST! My whole family went to celebrate my Dad's big 6-0 in style! Actually, we've been discussing a trip like this for a long time, and decided about a year and a half ago that we'd do it for Dad's 60th, since he'd never been. We spent 3 fun filled (exhausting) days at the California Disney parks with my parents, brother, sister-in-law and their kids. In all... 6 adults and 5 kids. Everyone behaved themselves very nicely, and there were minimal melt-downs by the 5 very tired kids. Experiencing Disney through a child's eyes was an interesting experience. I realized that most rides are way scarier for a small child (although for ours the scariest parts were dark and loud...not fast and curvy!), and for the "Happiest Place on Earth", there sure were a lot of crying kids around! (Not ours so much, thank goodness) We are actually very proud of Kai and how he conducted himself there. He was totally mellow and had a great laid back attitude (at home he can tend to be a bit stubborn). He was in "cousin heaven", and loved spending time with his family.

I could probably fill a whole website with all the gory details of our journey, but I won't bore you with all that. Lucky for you, I'm short on time. :-) So, I'll just give you the highlights.

1. Kai LOVED meeting the characters. I'm not sure why I thought my friendly, outgoing son might be frightened by them. He was NOT! He ran up to each one and hugged the heck out of 'em! Here is just one example:

2. Joe and I got stuck on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This is my absolute favorite ride, and I can't imagine going to Disneyland without going on this one. Thanks to the rest of the fam taking our little guy for a while, we got to go on it not once, but twice...well three times, I guess. Our second time through, the ride came to a screeching halt as we were ascending a large hill. There we sat, and sat, and sat. Finally the announcement was made that the ride was being suspended, and we would all be evacuated. The ride lost it's magic as the mood lighting was turned off and the service lights went on. Not to worry, we were all evacuated safely. More importantly, the ride resumed operations later that evening and we were able to complete our ride, while watching the fireworks. It was great!

3. Kai did not freak out about any rides, and we pressed our luck with some pretty crazy ones. The most roller-coastery one he went on was the Matterhorn. He covered his eyes with my hand the whole time, but gave it two thumbs up at the end. I think his favorites were the Astro Orbitor (the only one he asked to go on again), Pirates of the Carribean, and the Toy Story rides.

4. It was way hotter and busier than we expected. Apparently, Halloween is a big deal there. It was decorated amazingly, but did draw the crowds. We could not imagine going there in the height of vacation season, when both would have been worse.

5. Last time we went to Disneyland, we were deep in the throws of the infertility battle. Just being there with our miraculous child was more magical than I could have ever imagined. I kept telling him how happy I was to be at Disneyland with him. His response was, "Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho... a pirate's life for me!!"

As you can probably imagine, we took way more photos than I've displayed here. Sorry...the rest will have to wait. I hope to get some on FB soon, but as for here... it'll probably have to wait until Joe completes his Disney slideshow. :-)

Foto Finish Friday

Not afraid of a little lion...

sleeping in

If you want to call it that...

Early this past summer Kai decided he was going to become an early riser. We're talking 5-5:15 AM here, folks. We typically get up pretty early, but having to be coherent at that hour is another matter entirely. We tried everything from shorter naps to later bedtimes...nothing changed it, and all we had in the end was a grumpy, over tired child. So, we conceded that he is just an early riser and there's nothing we can do about it (except making his bedtime earlier). One habit that started out of this is him crawling into bed with us. At least this way we could wake up a little before having to help him with anything, or worse yet, pick him up. (Not sure how many of you have tried picking up a 35 lb child right after waking from a deep sleep...not pretty.) He never went to sleep, he'd just lay in our bed, wiggling around until the wiggling turned to poking or tickling and things got so rowdy one of us had to get up with him....

Until Monday...

He crawled into bed with us and fell right back to sleep! And slept for almost another hour!! I never thought I'd call waking up at 6AM sleeping in, but it's fabulous! The past 2 days he's done the same thing. I know it's probably not the best habit to get him into, but we're just so happy for a few extra minutes of sleep (for him and us), which, I am certain he needs.

And we're hoping if going back to sleep in our bed becomes habit, perhaps eventually he'll just fall back to sleep in his bed...or this could just be wishful thinking.

Mowin'

"Someone's got to mow this yard!"

We planted (laid) new grass in our backyard about a month ago. As you can tell, it's growing beautifully. When we went out to play this morning, I mentioned how it needs to be mowed. K promptly grabbed his bubble mower and went to town; even using the same pattern that Daddy uses to mow!

The first time Joe cut this grass, we made a big deal of it. K and I sat in the patio chairs watching Daddy work and cheering him on. Of course K wanted the same treatment Daddy got, so he told me I had to sit in the chair and clap for him. It was pretty stinkin' cute!

**Might I add...Joe is fabulous about keeping up the yard, and the only reason it's gotten so long is that I had him out of town all last weekend celebrating my birthday. Oh, and I'm not allowed to touch the real mower. :-)

Fall is Here!!

Yay!!

I've come to realize over the past few years that fall is definitely my favorite time of year. Around here we have crisp, cool mornings (a runner's dream come true) followed by warm, sunny afternoons. It's absolutely fabulous. I love the rich colors of fall, and watching the leaves change. I love that college football starts, and the spirit of it in our community is just amazing. I don't actually like (or care) about the actual football too much, but I love that you can feel the excitement of it in the air. Our family fondly refers to fall as "birthday season", as we celebrate 5 close family birthdays starting in early October (mine :-o) until the middle of November, and this means lots of family time, which I very much enjoy. I love that fall contains what I'm pretty sure is becoming my favorite holiday. As an adult, I've come to really enjoy Thanksgiving for it's true meaning, and love that when we gather with family, being together is not overshadowed by other things (such as gift-giving on Christmas).

And now, a few pictures from our afternoon jaunt at the arboretum last Friday:

Happy Fall Everyone!

Foto Finish Friday

A few pics from last weekend, and a visit from

Grandma Sue and Grandpa Tom...

The first meal Kai has EVER slept through!

He fell asleep in the car on the way to the restaurant...

Never mind that it was nap time.

I thought for sure he'd wake up getting out of the car...

He slept for nearly an hour while we enjoyed a nice, relaxing lunch!

The proper way to eat gelato!

He thought it was pretty funny!!

Foto Finish Friday

Silly bath boy

This is huge from the kid who HATES to lay back in the tub! He did this all himself, not even a nag from me to lay back and rinse his hair. Doesn't he look angelic?

Foto Finish Friday

A visit to our favorite farm

Feeding goats with Grandpa

Hmmm...the chocolatey goodness of it all

In his very own words: "Yum, chockite ite team my fabite".

(Translation: Yum, chocolate ice cream my favorite)

Foto Finish Friday...a few days late...

I've been a bad blogger, missed my Friday post by a few days. We've been busy entertaining Grandma and Grandpa this weekend! Here is Kai watching the clock, waiting for the time that G&G would arrive. He asked where the clock would be when they got to our house, and he sat and watched for the time to come...

When he decided it was not moving fast enough, he gave it a little nudge. :-) He couldn't wait for Grandma and Grandpa to get there!

Foto Finish Friday

What kind of mother am I? This is the only picture we have from this week. I meant to take one of his new haircut he got today, but it didn't happen before bed. Maybe next week...

Doing Nothing...almost

When I found out a few months ago that I was going to be having 5 days off (our day care provider took a long weekend for her birthday), I decided it would be perfect timing to give potty training another go. "They" say summer is the optimal time for potty training...I'm sure you can guess why, and we had no exciting or out of town plans. This, combined with the fact that he was showing more signs of training readiness; namely hiding from us to produce a #2, then not listening or coming to us when asked to after said production, being more able to dress himself, and more importantly able to undress himself. I was bound and determined to go into it this time with more knowledge and feel more prepared to handle toilet aversion and other potty disasters. I started researching and reading up on the latest and greatest potty training (or to be PC...potty learning) techniques. With each approach I read or heard about, I could find at least 5 reasons why it would NOT work for us. Having attempted this feat once before, I sort of knew what I was up against in terms of cooperation from the little guy. The more I researched, the more I learned how NOT easy it was going to be to potty train a brilliant, stubborn, head strong child. With D-day (or P-day, if you must) growing closer, I splurged on a book, which has given me to most insight into the process. After reading through the pros and cons of the different approaches outlined in the book, I decided to go with the one that I thought would work best for us. The "Do Nothing" approach. Basically, you just let the kid figure it out for himself, on his time, when he's ready. The runner up was the "Have someone else do it" approach (self explanatory).

So now, I've got this time off work in which I would LOVE to train K to use the toilet, but how can I accomplish this in 5 days by doing nothing?? I couldn't exactly just do nothing, but I tried to do very little. If you're interested, here is what I did do:

--A few days of prep work in which we spent long periods of time outside, nakey from the waist down and downing tons of fluids (who knew he'd LOVE grape gatorade?), and talking about what is going on when things start flowing.

--When he "goes", mention how it felt just before and how he should listen to his body when it says it's time to go potty. Only mention, not repeated a million times and tattooed across his forehead.

--Try not to ask him every 10 minutes if he has to "go". This is probably the hardest of all. My tongue is scarred from biting it all weekend, but I think this might have been the best piece of advice gained from reading an entire book about potty training.

--Wait patiently for him say those sweet little words, "I have to go potty".

--Make a potty sticker incentive chart for success in the toilet. (My outdoor prep work got me closer to housebreaking than potty training and K told me that going on the toilet was "not fun", so I had to up the ante for going in the toilet.)

--Stock up on cleaning supplies and laundry detergent...

Now, we're at the end of our 5 day weekend, and I think things are going in the right direction. He's definitely putting it all together, we've only been having about one flooding accident per day. He really has a stronger bladder than I would have ever imagined; yesterday he held it for almost 3.5 hours...before making his deposit in the proper location.

Foto Finish Friday

Givin' the Love Bug some lovin'.

This car belongs to our church's high school group and is on display at our mall during a Back to School Denim drive. It usually sits outside our church and Kai loves to say "HI" to it every Sunday. We happened to be at the mall earlier this week and saw it there, so we just had to say "HI"! I had totally forgotten it was there. (Sorry for the poor picture quality, I took it with my cell phone)

Two years ago today...

We saw this sweet face for the first time...

...And we've been in love ever since.

Foto Finish Friday- Vacation edition

Playing in the beautiful (and not too cold) Pacific Ocean

Walking the cranberry bogs with Grandma and Cousin

Carousel with Daddy

We found a beach we could actually drive our car onto!

It was awesome, and one of the highlights (for me) of our trip.

(I may be a little too easily entertained)

More ocean playing...

No, he's not surrounded by birds...that's sand he was throwing.

Watch out world, he's got a chainsaw!

Being an eagle in the nest at the zoo.

Horsey riding

Train watching

Cupcake eating

I won't go into how hard it was to get a picture

before he tore into that thing. :-)