Happy Independence Day!!

To all our friends and family, we hope you had a safe and fun 4th of July! We had a very fun day celebrating our first Independence Day together. So much fun, in fact, that it's now 7:30 pm, the baby is in bed, and we are exhausted. I promise I will write more later this weekend (with photos, of course)!

strawberries!!

It seems summer has finally arrived, the strawberries are ready for picking!! Last weekend we ventured out to Lone Pine Farms to partake in their beautiful u-pick strawberry patch. The weather was perfect, at about 72 and sunny... but for some reason, we had nearly the whole patch to ourselves! No joke, there were about 2 other families in the whole place. Crazy! Our little Kai did much better than I could have ever expected! He stayed right by us the whole time (well, minus one episode of running down the row, but he came right back when asked to), and just played in the dirt and sat in the bushes! One neat thing about Lone Pine is they allow kids to eat all they want for free (like you could stop them anyways), so we didn't have to feel guilty about letting Kai nibble on the berries as we picked. Here are a few pics!

Just the way little boys should be...DIRTY!!

My boys 

almost there

Today we had our final post-placement visit with our social worker! It was, as always, a delight to visit with her and have Kai entertain her with his latest antics. Some of you may be surprised to learn that we are still in the adoption process. Korea's guidelines state that the child must be in your home for 6 months before finalizing the adoption. (OK--I know what you're thinking, and yes, it's really been 6 months!!) So today was our final visit, now she will write her final report and submit it to Holt. Holt will then issue a "consent to adopt" (basically saying we're good enough parents for the child they have entrusted to us), which will be sent to our lawyer. He will then draw up the final documents, and we will sign to finalize the adoption. Seems like after over 2 years in process, mountains of paperwork, and endless emotional roller coasters there should be a little more fanfare, but, hey, it is what it is!

Needless to say, we are getting a little anxious now that the end is in sight. We just feel so blessed to have been chosen as parents for our sweet little boy, and we can't wait until he is 100% legally and forever our son!!

Father's Day Fun!!

We had a fun time last weekend to celebrate Father's Day. We were able to spend time with both our families, and Kai got to see both his Grandpa's and his Great Grandpa! On Saturday, we went to a BBQ at Gr.& Gr. C's house, where we celebrated Father's Day and Grandma Anne's 96th birthday!  It was a fun time, and Kai had a blast playing with his cousins. I think he's finally starting to feel at ease with the whole group, and by the end of the evening was letting his goofy side out. It's so fun to watch him with his cousins, when they're (older ones) all being loud and talking, he starts yelling, just to be sure he's not forgotten in the crowd of big kids! On Sunday, we had a nice brunch with Gr.&Gr. M, and Aunt Beth. Then, we hung out at their house for a while (until nap time), and drove home while Kai napped. When we got home, it was early enough (and warm enough) that we could take a dip in the pool! It was a fun, busy weekend.

Here are a few pictures from our time with family.

Bea and Kai...he was a little less than enthused to be "posing" for photos!

Ryan and Kai. I thought this was so cute, just wish Ry had his eyes open.

Playing Whac-a-mole, one of their favorite games at Grandma & Grandpa's!

Bubble fun with Peter

And adorable little Hayleigh (with her adorable crazy hair)!

Who doesn't love a Frosty??

A Good Treat for a Good Cause

This weekend, you can help support Foster Care Adoption just by buying a Frosty! Participating Wendy's will donate 50 cents from every Frosty purchased on June 14 and 15 to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Their goal is to raise $1.3 million to support the Foundation and Wendy's Wonderful Kids, which funds full-time adoption recruiters to match parents with waiting children.

Since 2004, Wendy's Wonderful Kids has helped 3,500 children in Foster Care, and more than 500 of those children now have finalized adoptions.

So share a delicious treat with your family, and help children in the U.S. Foster Care system find their own forever families!

Yum, yum!!

Spring photos!

Click here if you want to see the video montage that Joe created of our Spring with our sweet little guy!

molar sighting

After over 3 months of drooling, drippy nose, gnawing, and a sometimes cranky baby...the molars have finally broken through! OK, well, maybe not totally, but there are definitely little patches of white that are coming out. Both of the upper eye teeth are also showing their peaks, so very soon, our little guy will have 4 new teeth! Not to mention the same bottom set of 4 that I know will not be far behind. It's gotta be painful, but he takes it like such a champ, and I know he's going to love having all those new chompers to eat everything!!

busy times

Well, we've been pretty busy again for the past week or so, and it doesn't look like things will quiet down for a while. It is almost summer, you know.

This past weekend, we enjoyed a nice visit from Grandma & Grandpa C. Well, it was nice for us because they watched Kai while Joe and I went out to a party on Saturday night! We had a great time, and they had a great time. On Sunday, we went to our favorite breakfast restaurant then visited Hendricks park to take in the beautiful rhodies in bloom. 

In our few moments of down time, Kai has been perfecting his dance moves. Bound and determined to catch it on video (cause, you know, the dancing only lasts for about 15 seconds at a time), Joe made it his mission to do this. He got some pretty good clips, but this is my favorite! I love the head banging that he's added to his routine (should we be worried?).

initiation into motherhood

I hate vomit. (OK, I realize most people do...) I mean, I really hate it. I think it is totally unnatural for food to exit your body the same way it enters. I pride myself on the fact that I have not done it for years, and even made it through a few rounds of morning sickness without having to... do "it".  I have such a weak gag reflex that even seeing my dog vomit makes me gag. This was, in fact, one of my most dreaded fears about motherhood... how would I handle myself when my child vomits? 

For the record... I think I handled it pretty well. 

And not just that he vomited... he vomited ON me. And not just that he vomited ON me... I caught it, in my bare hands. 

To my surprise, I took it all in stride, and was far more concerned with what was wrong with my baby, than the fact that we were both, ummm... soiled... at the mall.

Oh, in case you're wondering, I think he's on the mend now. He was pretty puny the rest of the day yesterday, and had a few more episodes once we got home... thus turning my 4 day weekend into a 6 day weekend... but so far today, we're vomit free and his appetite and happy demeanor seem to be returning. :-)

Holiday weekend highlights

Well, we pretty much succeeded in our goal of doing nothing this weekend. We've had a pretty busy past couple weeks, so we wanted to take advantage of the long weekend for some much needed R&R. Besides doing some chores around the house, running a few errands, and going to church yesterday, we basically just hung out at home.  

Waking up this morning with all his friends in tow

Going for a walk yesterday

Demonstrating our newest piece of furniture

And now, for the latest video presentation! Yesterday, he got the bright idea to take his magnets off the board and load them all into his Pooh car:

After he had taken every single magnet off his board, he proceeded to load and unload them in and out of the car, and entertained himself for a good 30 minutes! 

a first time for everything

Over the past several days, Kai has experienced a lot of "firsts". Last Friday, he went swimming in our pool for the first time. He was not too sure at first, but eventually starting warming up to it.  A baby's face does not lie:

On Saturday, we took Kai to Lone Pine Farm for the first time. For those of you who don't know, Lone Pine is our favorite local farm and growers of our beloved "bodacious corn". They have wonderful fruits and veggies during the summer, along with various attractions (animals). I think they'll see a lot of us this summer (free entertainment for baby)!

Kai enjoyed his first popsicle! 

(Don't worry, it's one of those 100% fruit juice ones)

It was pretty funny watching Joe "teach" Kai how to lick it!

Last, but certainly not least, today Kai fed himself Mac N Cheese with a fork for the first time! 

He's been doing pretty good getting thick stuff to his mouth on a spoon, so today I just gave him the bowl and fork and off he went!

As you can tell, he was pretty proud of himself!

OK, so he didn't eat the whole bowl with a fork. But he did give a good effort of about 3-4 bites before he resorted to his hands to get it done faster!

Honor Thy Mother

This past weekend we joined in with our fellow Americans to honor our Mothers.  We did this by letting one babysit for us, and letting the other one cook for us. Wow, makes us seem like great children, huh? Well, they both insisted, so we were really just honoring their wishes!

In all reality, we had a very fun weekend spending time with both our families. On Saturday, Kai got to play with Gr. Sue and Gr. Tom while we went out to dinner at The Melting Pot (yumm-o, by the way). Kai did great while we were gone, and even greeted us at their large picture window in the dining room when we came back. He was standing there in the window, waving at us with a huge smile on his face! On Sunday, we pretty much just hung out at Gr. Nancy and Gr. Dave's house. The rest of the "C" family, along with Joe's parents, came over for a nice family dinner.  Kai had lots of fun playing with his cousins, and his grandparents!

On our way to P-town, we met up with my brother to get all the cousins in a photo shoot together. One exhausting hour later...

OK, so I may be a little bit bias, but isn't this about the cutest bunch of kiddos you've ever seen?? 

Korean Children's Day

Today was Korean Children's Day. When our friend from Japan was visiting us recently, she brought some gifts for Kai for "Boy's Day" in Japan, which is also today. We were lucky enough to be able to spend the day as a family, since I just happened to have this Monday off! We had a fun day. Well, it didn't start out too fun...Kai had to go for some shots this morning, but now he is caught up with the US immunization schedule! We went to our favorite Korean restaurant for lunch, then after a nice (long) refreshing nap, Kai spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside. Here are a few pictures from his outside fun. The cute outfit he's wearing we got from Costco yesterday, and the shirt and shorts are UV protected SPF50!! Needless to say, he'll be wearing this little ensemble a lot this summer!

Another stylish outfit fallen victim to the "diaper ruffle"! 

Our little Jedi

True joy is dumping the sand from the sandbox!

Kai's newest favorite backyard discovery...wheels on the wheelbarrows!

frustrated baby

Last Sunday, Kai was having fun pushing his Pooh car and trying to load various items onto it. He was having a hard time "stacking" things, probably due to his lack of finesse. Here is what Daddy helped him load up (notice the nice variety of items...ranging from my flip-flops to kitchen utensils).

This is what happened when he attempted to go mobile with it!

Poor guy...but it did give Mommy and Daddy quite a chuckle!

4 month update

Today our sweet boy has been home with us for four months! Wow! It’s hard to believe it’s gone by so fast. It’s been amazing to watch his transformation, adjustment, and attachment to us. He is really an easy-going little guy, he’s adjusted very well with my return to work and going to day care. And, he’s so smart! We can’t get anything by him anymore! He no longer screams at the sight of his sippy cup, and even embraces it. We have not used a bottle in well over a month! Oh, did I mention he’s a dare-devil? This kid has no fear! Although, I’m happy to report he’s learning how to properly get off the couch. He is learning new sounds and words everyday, and babbling constantly! Often, he really sounds like he is telling us something very important, and we really wish we could understand. It wasn’t a huge surprise that one of his first words was “dow” (down), since he hears it about a million times a day! (As in..."Willie, get down....Willie, get down....Willie...DOWN!!”) He’s nearly an expert walker, and went for his first “outside walk” last night. He loves to be outside, and when he feels the cool breeze on his face, he just smiles and takes a deep breath in. He’s going to graduate to the next class at church tomorrow! My baby is no longer in the “baby room”, now he’ll be with the “runners”! Oh, man, he’s growing up so fast!

Also, a million thanks to our close friends and family, who very kindly gave us our “family time” during his first weeks home. We can see that it really has paid off, and helped him bond well with us. 

OK, enough of the Mommy gush...here are some pictures over the past 4 months!   

Family Day~12/26/07

1/26/08

2/26/08

3/26/08

Today~this is what we get now when we ask him to smile!

The next Picasso?

Kai drew this all by himself! We've had a couple tries at coloring that lasted all of 30 seconds before he started eating the crayon. A few days ago we gave it another shot, and he played with the crayons and scribbled for nearly 5 minutes before he started eating them! 

Can you tell I'm proud of my boy??

SUN!!!

Finally!! We have been enjoying unseasonably warm weather for the past two days. Today our patio thermometer topped out at 80 degrees! Kai has been having a blast playing outside; running around the back yard, blowing bubbles, and doing what boys do best... digging in dirt!

Yesterday afternoon we had a nice play session outside. It was nice and toasty warm, but still cool enough to require long sleeves and pants. Today we had a down and dirty play session outside. No joke, that little boy was outside from about 2pm until bedtime, only coming inside for a little while once! What started out nice enough, ended with a little boy who had to take his clothes off outside because he was so dirty! He also ate his first meals outside today. To add to the fun of  a beautiful day, Grandma & Grandpa C came for a visit! He had so much fun with them, we went to the park and swung on swings, played with his new sand table, blew bubbles from the "bubble gun" they brought him, and ate dinner outside. He was also giving them both lots of loves and hugs which was awesome to see! So far, a totally fun and beautiful weekend, but looking forward to a little down time tomorrow! Here's a few pics from our outdoor fun!

Enjoy!

What happened to my baby? 

He looks like such a "little boy" here!

Kai decided he didn't like the taste of dirt...

Eating snack outside today

This is where things started going down-hill. 

Notice the sand he's dumping on his head...

 

After attempting a new fashion trend, called shirt-a-la-sand, 

we just gave up and took the shirt off!

Yuka!

This past weekend we had a very special visitor. Almost 5 years ago, Yuka stayed with us for 3 months while she was here on a student exchange program from Japan. Over the past week or so, she has been on vacation with her family in the US, and last Sunday she came to see us!! We've stayed in touch through Christmas cards and email, and she especially wanted to come meet our sweet little Kai. We had a great time visiting with her. She really enjoyed playing with Kai, too! She wanted to visit the University, go to Cafe Yumm to buy some yumm sauce, and go to Costco. So, that's what we did. She had a wonderful time as we walked around campus, and she reminisced about her days there. Kai did great while riding in the ergo for nearly 2 hours! He started to get a little tired of it by the end, but he did fabulous overall! This is what it looked like towards the end!

After our adventures around town, we went home and had pizza for dinner. She said our pizza is much better than the pizza in Japan...imagine that! She also had fun looking at pictures of our family. When she was last here, Ryan (our nephew) was Kai's age...now he's 6! 

After Kai went to bed, we showed her some of our pictures since Kai's been home and watched a bit of Ocean's 12 before we all started falling asleep. She liked watching the movie since she just visited Las Vegas before she came to Oregon. 

It was really nice to see her, and she kept saying that maybe she'll come back to visit again in another 5 years!

Kai is wearing his Japanese "happi", which Yuka brought for him. 

It is the traditional Japanese festival attire. He looks so cute in it!

Yuka and Kai!

How sweet it is...

...to be loved by Kai! Our little guy is really starting to show us affection! On Monday after I got home from work (btw, the day Joe buzzed his hair), I picked him up to hug him. He wrapped one arm around my neck, and snuggled his head on my shoulder. After a few seconds, he pulled back, looked me in the eyes, then snuggled some more. He did this 2 or 3 more times before he was done. He did the same thing last night when I was getting him out of his high chair after dinner. Talk about melting your heart! He's also been leaning his head in and bumping heads with us. I'm not sure if this is a sign of affection, but it seems like it is. 

On another note, today we had our first encounter with a curious child. We were waiting in the check-out line at Costco. Kai was in the cart, and I was on the other side of the belt, waiting to pay. I was talking to him across the belt, and there was a little girl behind us (probably 8 or 9 years old) who was talking to Kai and playing with him a little. When she noticed me talking to him, she started asking questions. The conversation went something like this:

Girl: "Do you know him?"

Me: "Yes, he's my son."

Girl: "Do you like taking care of him?"

Me: "Yes, I love it!"

Girl: "Why does he have different eyes, you know, like this... ?"(and she made her eyes almond shaped with her fingers)

Me: "Because he's from Korea."

Girl: "How can you be his Mom if he's from Korea?" (very puzzled look on her face)

Me: "Because I adopted him."

Girl: "Oh."

And she happily went along playing with him until we were finished in line. It was pretty cute.

No jokin'

BABY GOT BUZZED!!

Needless to say, I'm a little nervous to leave "the boys" home alone again!