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!

What a week!

What a crazy, busy week it's been! Not bad, just busy! We're all adjusting well to my return to work. This past week was our first "full" week of me working.

Last weekend, we went to Portland, where Kai was able to spend time with all his grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and he even met Gr-Grandpa Howie, Gr-Grandma Tee, Gr-Uncle Josh and Gr-Aunt Candy for the first time (well, technically he met Grandma Tee at the airport when he came home, but didn't really get to spend any time with her then). We enjoyed brunch at Grandma and Grandpa M's house, and Kai really enjoyed playing the piano there too. Then we went to Gr. Howie and Tee's house for Easter (and Christmas) festivities with my family. Kai had his first Easter egg hunt, and enjoyed playing with his cousins.

We got home late Sunday, then we headed straight into the work week. Wednesday was spent catching up on laundry that didn't get done over the weekend, housework that didn't get done over the weekend, and a few errands. Not to mention my little boy who was worn out and had a wacky napping schedule. 

Today, finally, it's the weekend again. We can breathe!!

Today was also super fun, Aunt Beth came to spend the day with Kai and I. We had fun playing at home, and even managed to go out to lunch after nap time. After lunch we played outside for a few minutes since it was between snow showers (yes, I said SNOW...nothing stuck...).

Oh, Wednesday was also Kai's 3 month anniversary of being home with us. This amazing little boy is still constantly impressing us. I may be biased, but I think he may just be the smartest baby ever! He is learning so many new things every day, and talking (OK- babbling) more every day. This week we've heard him say "HI" (without us saying it first), "bye", and "na-na" (night-night). About two weeks ago we started a new bedtime routine (which doesn't include a bottle, another amazing feat), and during the routine we constantly talk about how it's time for "night-night". Well, tonight as I was bundling him up after his bath (step one of bedtime routine), he said "na-na", totally on his own. Amazing! He's also definitely entering toddler-hood, and all the glories that come along with it...tantrums when he doesn't get his way, testing our limits, voicing his opinion...oh, it's so wonderful!  Did I mention the climbing? Yes, today we had to have our first "toy time-out". He wouldn't stop standing on his snail rocker, so it had to have a time-out.

Today Aunt Beth taught him how to dance a jig, and it's so stinkin' cute! Joe really had him going with it this evening, and I was laughing so hard my abs hurt! 

Well, if you've made it this far, you deserve pictures!

Playing the piano on Easter

First day home with Daddy while Mommy's at work

More box sitting, this time it's Willie's toy box, notice how he's sitting on his doggie.

Our little comedian

Our little guy thought he was quite the funny man today. First, he has nearly mastered getting onto his riding toys by himself. Now he thinks any toy with wheels, doesn't matter how many, is rideable. Last weekend we watched him try to "ride" his xylophone and his ball popper, which each have two wheels. Well today, he decided to try to ride his VeggieTale school bus. That might sound alright...until you see the size of this thing.

Of course, by the time I got my camera ready to go, the riding session was over, but from this picture you can probably get a good idea of how it looked.

Later, we were playing in the living room, and I watched him accomplish this feat:

He did this totally on his own, the basket was even pushed under the table! I could not get him to turn around to look at the camera, so when I moved to see the front side and asked him to smile, this is what I got:

Is he proud of himself or what?? 

Kai and I also had our first giggle war today. He's been giggling so much lately, it's usually at Daddy doing something silly. This afternoon, he was standing in front of me (I was on the floor with him), and he made a funny face. I started laughing...he started laughing...I laughed harder...he laughed harder...need I go on?? We probably had a good 30-40 seconds of pure laughter before he dropped his toys and hugged me. 

It was a good day. :-)

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to work I go!

Yesterday was my first day back to work. Everything seemed to go very well. I wasn't a complete mess, and in fact, most people were pretty surprised at how well I was "handling" it. It felt really strange being there, knowing I would go home to my baby. When I first walked in the building, I felt like I'd entered a foreign country. A foreign country where I lived long ago, but haven't visited or spoken the language for a long time. By the end of the day, the sights, sounds, smells, and lay of the land started coming back to me, and it didn't seem so foreign anymore. I expect it'll take a week or so for me to start feeling "into" it again. I kept pretty quiet about my return yesterday, but next week I'll start being more vocal and letting people know I'm back. 

I know the one thing that made yesterday go so smoothly was knowing Kai was in good hands. He did wonderfully during his first full-day of daycare (he went last week for a couple half days, and did great then, too).  He had fun playing with the other kids, ate well, and even took a 3 hour nap! Melinda was amazed at how well he put himself to sleep for his nap. So far, it hasn't seemed to stir up any feelings of grieving for him. I know that he'll be well cared for at his daycare, but my biggest concern was if our separation would cause any attachment issues. It's probably too early to say, after only one day, but so far he seems to be doing very well with it.

This may sound strange, but we feel that my returning to work has finally made his arrival feel very real. Since he came home, it's felt so surreal. But now, with me back at work, and our lives pretty close to how they were "pre-baby", we're finally convinced that he's really ours... forever! :-)

Cousins are FUN!!

Yesterday Kai and I took a day trip to visit his cousins! They were so excited when we arrived, they came to the front door to wait for us to get out of the car. Then, Kai was greeted with hugs and kisses by all. :-) These kiddos waited with us for so long, they kept asking when our baby was coming home; it's so fun to finally get them all together! This was only the second or third time they've had to really play together, and they all seemed to have a lot of fun! Since the older cousins are...well...older, they've forgotten what it's like to have a toddler around (ie, someone who doesn't look where they're walking and likes to knock things over), but once we convinced them that Kai was not really trying to sabotage their games, they seemed OK with his clumsiness. We also reminded them that their little sister will be doing the same things soon, and in about a year, Kai will probably be getting upset when she knocks his lego towers over!

 :-) 

Kai is so lucky to have such wonderful cousins (and aunt and uncle!), and I think we're all looking forward to watching these guys grow up together!

As you can imagine, it was quite hard to get them all in the same place for a photo op, but the one above is from a while ago when we met for Dan's birthday (I think Hayleigh was busy being snuggled by her mom).

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!!

Date Night!

Yesterday Grandma & Grandpa C. came to town to babysit so Joe and I could go for a date! We had a great time, and didn't have to worry (too much) about our little guy since we knew he was in great hands! This was our first night (err...afternoon) out since Kai has been home; we went to see "Juno", then out to dinner. As for what happened at our house while we were out...they all seemed to have a great time! In fact, Kai didn't even udder a peep when Joe and I left, but when Grandma & Grandpa left he cried! 

Thanks again, Mom and Dad!!

get out your kleenex

You're going to laugh to tears!! While I was filming this, I was trying REALLY hard not to laugh on camera...didn't work...sounds like I'm crying. Our little Kai is such a music lover and dancer, his moves are getting more extensive everyday! We always loose composure when he starts hitting his belly! Of course, this video is so much cuter just because he doesn't have any clothes on. He is so adorable in only his diapey! (In case you're wondering, no...he wasn't just running around in his diaper. I was getting him dressed, in his room across the hall. He heard the music and ran to the computer...where it was coming from, luckily the camera was right there on the desk!)

On a side note, I am so excited that through the power of the internet, I have been reconnected with one of my best friends from high school! We lost contact almost 10 years ago, and have been searching for each other ever since. To make it even more exciting, she is also newly a mother, her son is now 8 months old! Congrats again, Christy...I'm so glad we found each other!!

Just for fun

Hello, Mr. Frog

Where does this go?

 Imagine his surprise when he turned the corner and found Willie in the dog run!

See the plane?

Wind chime...how fun!