Foto Finish Friday

OK, OK, I know it's not Friday, and I've missed the mark again.  Better late than never, right? We're in the midst of a busy week for us, and I just couldn't get to it yesterday. 

He made this drill all by himself this week. I left him for a few minutes with his blocks and he thought this up. :-) Check back soon for details on some of what's been keeping us so busy...it has to do with someone's birthday coming up!

reading

One of my favorite past-times is reading. Unfortunately, the only time I to read is right before bed. I can get through a few pages before I start falling asleep. Thus, it takes forever for me to read a book. Most of my reading material comes from my Mother-in-Law, who is an avid reader and has great taste in books. Most of the books I own were gifts from her, and the other books I read I borrow from her. I call her my library. :-)

I've added a book shelf to my sidebar so you can see what I'm reading or have read. The first book will always be what I'm currently reading, the rest are books I've read and have loved. I've also added some of Kai's favorite books as well. He gets his love of books from me, I guess. ;-)

If I've read something particularly moving or thought provoking, I just may blog a book review.

LARGER THAN LIFE

(Warning: this post lives up to it's title...it's LARGE!!)

This is the only way I know how to describe Las Vegas. We've been there several times, but every time I get there, I am in awe of how everything is larger than life. The buildings, the food, the entertainment, the cigarette smoke (OK, this is one disgusts me, but honestly, it is everywhere!!), the people; just take every aspect of life and multiply it by 1000. And yes, you got me, I'm going to write about our trip. It's not like we did anything in Vegas that we should "leave in Vegas"...Here are a few highlights:

Bellagio Garden: This place never fails to amaze me. There is always something beautiful to look at in here.

I'm not sure why, but my favorite part was the red lanterns from the ceiling.

At night:

Ethel M. Chocolate Factory and Cactus Garden: As to why they decided to combine a chocolate factory and cactus garden...you got me. I'll leave that one to Seinfeld. :-) This factory was opened by Mr. Mars of the candy bar business after he retired in the late 70's. They make fine chocolates here, and yes, they are delicious! It was all I could do to contain myself in the presence of such yummy looking carmel apples! These were going for $12 each in their store! (I love carmel apples, but not THAT much!)

In the "Garden"

These are the treats we 

got for ourselves!

M&M World: Honestly, I'm not sure how we've been to Vegas all these times without ever going in here before. Imagine...4 floors of M&M "stuff". Everything you can think of. We had a very hard time controlling ourselves here, and only got a few things for K. I could have blown a year's salary easily. 

Bellagio Water Fountain: Hands down, the best free entertainment in all of Las Vegas. We could have watched these fountains all day, and we know why they don't put any benches around...because we would have watched them all day if we could have sat down! The experience is only intensified at night.

Paris: This is one casino we haven't ever really spent much time at. We walked around it for a while, and explored the outside a bit. We took a journey to the top of their Eiffel tower (which is half the size of the original)...38 stories in all. These pictures give a pretty good idea as to the scale of things.

From "the Strip"

Yes, we went ALL the way up there!

View from the top

Joe at the base of the tower

New York: Where else can you visit New York just a few "short" blocks from Paris? We went to both in one afternoon! 

Their replica of the Brooklyn Bridge:

I think the scale here is 1/5 the size of the original.

Sorry, these two wouldn't allow pictures:

Mac King Comedy: This guy was hilarious, and did a good job entertaining in this "family show". Every person's worst fear came true; I was picked from the audience to help in his magic show. It wasn't as bad as I would have thought, and I had a few blonde moments up on stage which only made his show funnier.

The Beatles "Love": Each time we visit Vegas, we like to take in a "Cirque du S0leil" show. They are amazing. Definitely worth every cent. This one was no different, set to the familiar music of the Beatles, it was nothing short of fantastic. Of course, they wouldn't allow any pictures, but you can click here for a preview.

We had a fabulous time, and are happy to report the only money we left there was in the form of goods or food purchased.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH...

Lest you think we had all the fun, K spent the weekend getting doted on and spoiled by my parents. Actually, my parents do a great job of not spoiling too much, but grandparents will be grandparents afterall...

Coloring with Grandma

They took him to gymnastics and he got to jump in the bungees!

He got his birthday present early

By Saturday, we were all ready to be back together at home. K did great while we were away, and Joe and I felt refreshed and ready to tackle life with a 2 year old! (Which we got a good dose of the following day)

weekend get-away

Wish I could tell you all about our first trip away from baby, but sorry....

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!!!

the right words

What do you say to a woman you don't know, but gave you the greatest gift of your life? 

Since we finalized K's adoption, I've been wanting to write a letter to his birthmother. It's taken me months to find the right words (they probably still weren't the perfect words), muster the courage to put them on paper, and have them translated into hangul. Not sure why I found this to be such a daunting project. I am more than happy to brag about my adorable son and can talk about him for hours on end. Part of the reason is the utmost respect I have for her and the decision she made. Perhaps another reason is that I can just gush and gush about how much I love this little guy, what he means to our family, and how grateful we are that she chose an adoption plan for him, but I didn't feel this would be well received with our cultural differences and was sure much of the emotion would be lost in translation. 

With his birthday in the near future, I was feeling an urgency to get this done, in the event that she checks his file on his birthday. We will most likely never have any direct contact with her, but we can send letters to his "file" and she might check it. 

I am happy to say, the task is completed. The letter and photos are in the mail, and we will never have a "first" letter to write to her again. The letter ended up being much more factual than I would have liked; telling her about his personality, what he likes to do, some of his developmental milestones, and of course, assuring her that he is a happy, healthy, well loved little boy. I don't expect to ever hear anything back from her, that's just not the norm in Korea, but I feel good knowing we've done our part, and if she does decide she would like to know more about him, the letter will be there waiting for her.

Happy Lunar New Year!!

Kai practicing his bow

Lunar New Year, otherwise known to us as "Chinese New Year", is one of the most important holidays celebrated in Korea. Similar to Christmas celebrations for us. The tradition is to make lots of food, visit your ancestors and pay respect to the elder of the family by performing a traditional bow. The elder reciprocates by giving away money. :-)

Yesterday we attended a Lunar New Year celebration at a Korean church near our house. We had a great time, learning to play some traditional Korean games and a little more about the Korean culture. The members of the church were so welcoming and couldn't stop doting over Kai. We all got the opportunity to dress in a Hanbok, and I took advantage! Then we learned how to perform the traditional Korean bow, and let me just say, it's WAY harder than it looks! I could barely complete it without stepping all over the lovely Hanbok I was wearing! As you may be able to tell, K's Hanbok from his birthday last year still fits him, it was only a little snug through the belly and the sleeves a little too short. Probably won't be able to squeeze another year out of it, though. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment. :-)

See, he really did play the games!

Takin' a break

Kai and Emma 

Me and Kai

Foto Finish Friday X 2!

I was a bad, bad blogger last week, and didn't keep my end of the bargain. Here's a pic from last week. Let me just say, our little guy is getting to be quite the ham! (Of course, the stickers were placed strategically by him!)

And here's this weeks:
He wouldn't wear these sunglasses last summer to save his life. But, of course, this week we couldn't keep them off him. Doesn't he look like a super hero??

time for a change

What do you think? I decided it was time to change things up a bit on the ol' blog. The main reason being, our "Seoul baby" is no longer a "baby"! :-(  Where has the time gone? 

I've also decided that I'd like to use the blog to do a bit more journaling, and hopefully in doing such, be able to provide support for those going through the same stuff (good and bad) we've dealt with. Don't worry, I'll still post every single cute thing that our little guy does (like it or not!), and if you don't want to read the other stuff, you don't have to!

Oh, and please notice, the web address has not changed, so you don't have to change your bookmarks!

Gymnastics!

This past Friday was Kai's first gymnastics class! He had such a blast! We had gone on Wednesday to sign up, and he was so sad that we couldn't stay and "play". And by sad, I mean he threw a big-ole 2 year old tantrum when we had to leave. I tried to explain that we would be back in 2 days to play, but he didn't quite seem to get it.

When we arrived on Friday morning, he greeted his teacher with a huge hug. (He's turning into quite the little hugger) True to form, after only a few minutes, he was running around the gym screaming and playing with the other children. As you can imagine for a class of 18-36 month olds there was not a lot of structure, but there was a lot of FUN, and a lot of happy giggles! We had  a short period stretching (in which I only had to run after K and bring him back to the appropriate area once or twice), everyone lined up and made their way through the obstacle course. I was pretty impressed with some of these little kids' skills, and hope after a few times in class K will catch onto what the equipment is used for. 

But mostly, I was happy he enjoyed it, and it helped get A LOT of wiggles out!!

Little chef

I'm not sure, but this may be a sign we've been watching too much Ratatouille in our house. K entertained himself (and me!) for a good 15 minutes this morning playing chef.

First, chop, chop, chop...

Then, put it in the bowl...

Then you mix, mix like crazy!

Time for Bee-Bim-Bop (or a huge banana mess)...

Oh, the stories he tells!

With K's vocabulary growing daily, he is beginning to tell us "stories", and it is so fun! The first story came a few weeks ago. Upon arriving at his daycare to pick him up for the day, he greeted me with saying, "toe...bug...loud" (really, it sounded much cuter in his words "toe...buu...youd"). Our daycare provider filled me in on all the details, and he was telling me the "bug" (their new roomba) got his toe and it is loud. If that wasn't enough, he proceeded to recount the story for days. It is so fun to finally hear all those thoughts in his head, and see things a little more from his prospective! He's also telling us more about things he's done, and things other people have done. We're realizing we better watch out, he's about to start spilling all our deep, dark secrets!

Foto Finish Friday

This was all his idea. 

The cushions on the floor, he got his hat out and put it on,

 then he got the crazies! 

Foto Finish Friday

Inappropriate use of new toys 101 

I'm not sure what is worse: the fact that he did this, or the fact that my husband was standing there with camera in hand, waiting for it to happen. Honestly, the theme of this week has been realizing that our baby is not a baby anymore. Everyday he is having more of his own ideas and lets us know when they don't match ours.  His vocabulary is growing daily, and he copies everything that we do (a good reminder to set a good example...). This week he seemed to acquire an Italian accent somehow. We think it's because he's trying really hard to pronounce his "n" sounds, but they always seem to have an "o" sound following them. Thus, many words end in -o. Here's a little example, with a little example of a toddler tantrum as well. :-)

Christmas in pictures

(In no particular order)

One Year Ago...

One year ago we became a family. One year ago our dreams came true. One year ago we held our sweet boy in our arms for the very first time.

Wow! What a year it's been! It's been probably the most difficult, yet most rewarding year of our lives. One year ago, our son did not like us. He only wanted his foster mom, who he had been abruptly taken from. He slowly began to accept us as care givers, and somewhere along the line he actually began to like us. He's been through such an amazing transition, it is hard to put into words. But today, to feel his hugs, how he melts into our arms makes it all worth it!(His hugs and snuggies still bring tears to my eyes...) We know that attachment is a process which will never end, and just as we think we're doing "pretty good", he takes it to a whole new level which only makes us feel more securely bonded. It's amazing how far we've all come this year!

To celebrate our first year as a family, we took the MAX train to PDX where we watched planes and had lunch. I can assure you that we were the only people there for the thrill of being at the airport (the day after Christmas). K didn't really "get it", but we kept telling him about the day we became a family, and he thought it was cool to ride the "choo-train" and see "pare-planes".

SFO- 12/26/07

PDX- 12/26/08

OK, so in this years photo K looks about as happy as he did in last years. Trust me, he is a happy guy, just not when asked to sit still for a photo! That's life with a toddler, and we love it!

Merry Christmas to All!!

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!! I hope you all experience the peace and joy of Christ during this blessed holiday! 

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of tomorrow morning, when we will share our first Christmas morning with our sweet little boy! I don't think I've been this excited for Christmas morning since I was a kid! He has no idea what's coming.  He did get to open one gift tonight (his new pj's) and after he opened it he found some other gifts in the back room (for other family members...his have been securely hidden...), brought one to me, and said "MORE"! Oh boy!!

This afternoon we got to attend our church's Christmas Eve service. It was wonderful. We've attended our church for about 6 years, but this is only the second time we've been home on Christmas Eve to attend their service. It's a big to-do at our church, they offer three services and really aim to reach out to the community, even offering treats and coffee/hot cocoa afterwards! I think it works because the service we attended was packed, and I'm sure the other two were as well!

We are still hoping to get together with our families as we've planned, but mother nature is making it difficult with all this crazy weather! I hope anyone who is traveling arrives to their destination safely! 

Christmas Blessings to All!!

Foto Finish Friday

Where did my baby go??

Seriously, I just took this picture this morning, he looks like such a "little boy"! Don't think I'll be able to call him "my baby" for much longer!

footprints

How very softly

You tiptoed into my world.

Almost silently,

Only a moment you stayed.

But what an imprint

Your footsteps have left

Upon my heart.

by Dorothy Ferguson

SNOW!!

We're enjoying a rare treat...snow! OK, it's only a treat if you can stay home and play in it. The first snow fell on Sunday night, but there was still some left yesterday for us to play in. Well, we tried to play, but it is the driest snow I've ever seen so we couldn't even throw snowballs at Willie. About all it was good for was throwing it up in the air and making it "snow" again, which K tried to do (mimicking me of course), but only ended up dumping it all over his head and becoming horribly upset at the situation. Despite the cold temperatures (we topped out around 25, which is cold for here!), I could barely get him to come inside and had to resort to some bribery. Here are some pictures of our snow fun.

Luckily, in the recent weeks we've acquired snow boots and snow pants for K, both of which were put to good use yesterday!

Foto Finish Friday

Last weekend our friend came over to take some family pictures for us. K was fairly uncooperative, and not really in the picture taking mood, or rather, he wanted to be taking the pictures instead of being the subject of the pictures. Here are a few of my favs, some "posed", some "out takes".  Our biggest obstacle was the tripod, which K really wanted to play with. We finally gave in and let it be in our pictures, and we were able to get a few decent family shots. Enjoy!

Our future photographer

He loves looking at the ornaments

It wasn't all smiles...

There's a decent shot...

Foto Finish Friday

Our Snuggle-Bug!