Catch-up Post #4 - Local Outings

We recently took our new canoe out to a nearby lake.  This was the first time we had Boo in a canoe; yes, people, we bought a canoe without knowing how our little guy would do once out in a body of water!  He loved being in the canoe while it was on the ground and ever since we bought it, he kept calling it "my geen (green) boat" or "my ca-new."  But we had absolutely no idea what his reaction was going to be when push came to shove and we were on the water.  We were hoping for the best, but also knew it might a very short-lived canoe trip, if we even made it away from the dock!!  Well, he did not disappoint:

"I'm ready to go!"

Safe in daddy's arms.  He was a bit skeptical about the whole thing when we first went out...

...but soon was very. comfortable. with the whole thing!  He leaned over so far he got his hair wet.  And Chris had a grip on him the whole time; it may have been our first, and last, trip if he ended up taking a dip overboard!!

He was even adventurous enough to crawl forward, away from daddy, and sit by himself.

Some pretty scenery we saw:

We also went to our local apple orchard to get some yummy apples, apple donuts, apple fritters, apple pie, apple cider...you get the picture.  They have some children's activities there as well, one of which is a bounce house obstacle course that Boo just had to go through.  Since he is too small to do it himself, Chris and I decided I would go through it with him.  Of course, once we got into the thing, he didn't want to do any of it, at all, by himself.  And it's really for bigger kids anyway, but oh well, we were in it.  (There wasn't a height requirement at the front, which there probably should be.)  So I pretty much lifted him over, carried him through, and climbed up this thing with Boo attached to me like a monkey.  You can see in the following picture that he has a death grip on me with both arms and legs!!

This was not easy!

But a very good picture at the top.

Kisses in the oversized chair.

Doesn't he look so small???

Guess what??  We're all caught up!  We took a last(?) camping trip for the season this past weekend, but that will be for another post.  Hope you enjoyed our summer...we certainly did!!

Movie Monday - Dancing (again)

 Boo just loves to dance!  Wait until 20 seconds into this and then he busts-a-move!

(I know I have a lot of video of him dancing, but the kid is so dang cute at it and has some pretty cool moves.)

Hanbok

A couple weeks ago, I put Boo in the hanbok his foster family bought him for his first birthday that he celebrated with them over in Korea.  I wanted to capture a few pictures of him in it to send to them with a letter I've been working on and I thought I'd share one here as well.  Doesn't he look adorable?!?!  And it's still a little big on this 2.5-year-old!

This one is from last August; you can tell he's filling it out much better these days!

Catch-up Post #3 - Family Trips

At the end of August, we visited my grandfather, aunt, uncle, and cousin for the weekend.  Boo had a great time getting to know these extended family members a little better, and they seemed to really enjoy having him around as well!!  We had a bit of a surprise as Chris was hospitalized while we were there; it made our stay a day longer and my family spent a lot of time babysitting Boo while I was at the hospital with Chris.  We were extremely proud of our little guy that weekend for so many reasons.  He didn't fuss over us leaving; he seemed so relaxed and at home from the time we got there and was talking non-stop. His great-grandpa really enjoyed listening to him, I was told!  He also allowed my aunt to put him to sleep, both at nap time and at night.  This is pretty big for him, and for us, as the only people besides us who have put him to sleep since he's been home (15 months at that time), have been his grandmas!  She was also able to take some pictures of their activities that weekend.

Boo absolutely LOVED their cuckoo clock!  They also have a grandfather clock that would chime right before the cuckoo clock, so we knew when to look for that little birdie coming out.  We would count how many times he chirped before he went back inside to go to sleep.  Entertaining and educational!  :)

He went for a bike ride to the park.

Ice cream time with great-grandpa!!

Maybe another reason why he didn't mind having Mommy and Daddy gone?!?!

Cousins (with a once-removed in there somewhere!)

Spending time in their pool.

Labor Day weekend, we visited Chris' family and again, Boo was feeling right at home as soon as we got there.  We ate a lot of good food and saw all the boys.  I kid you not, this family is made up of pretty much all males: Chris is one of three boys, and Boo only has boy cousins.  Chris' dad only has brothers and they both only have sons as well.  And man, was I taking a lot of ribbing during the Notre Dame game that weekend because they all know I'm a die-hard fan and the Irish didn't win...but you know what?  Bring it.  :)

Chris, his brothers, nephews, and Boo

Grandma, her sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons (we were actually missing three guys from this picture)

Two boys missing from this one (I'm not sure who the other lady is in this picture, but she wanted to be in it...no problem!)

Trampoline jumping

Sunset at the lake

Tubing.  Obviously, I don't go tubing a lot; after this picture was taken, I was informed that we should probably lay down on our bellies to make it easier to hold on.  Thanks for the tip!

I am getting closer to finally being caught up with our activities.  Up next: our first outing with the new canoe and a trip to the apple orchards.

Movie Monday - It's all about...you!

It's all about talking up a storm here these days.  And because of that, some pretty funny things have come out of our son's mouth.  What I've noticed most is that Boo is using "you" instead of "me" in command sentences: "pick you up," "help you please!"  So cute.  I just love listening to him talk and having conversations with him!

Oh, and everything IS all about him!!

Movie Monday - Pororo

A couple months ago, Boo's foster family sent him 4 books to commemorate his Gotcha Day.  One of them is a Pororo book where you can push the buttons to say the Korean words as well as a couple of songs.  Boo is absolutely loving this!!  (Pororo is a Korean cartoon that the kids just love!  Wish we could get it in the States because youtube does not have too many episodes available...and we have watched the ones that are available countless times.)  Here is how I found Boo last week just before taking him up for a nap:

Thank you to his wonderful foster family for continuing to think of him and keep him in your heart!!  

Catch-up Post #2 - Certificate of Citizenship

So where did we leave off?  Oh, right, the beginning of August.  Wow, that was only four weeks ago, but it feels like it's been waaaay longer than that!

After we got back from camping, we finally got our notice in the mail for our appointment to pick up Boo's Certificate of Citizenship in Chicago.  We applied for this back in November, right before Thanksgiving.  To clarify, Boo has been an American citizen since we finalized his adoption at the beginning of November and he got issued his Illinois birth certificate.  But he was still considered a permanent resident by the government until/unless he obtained this Certificate of Citizenship.  This means, if we did not get Boo's certificate and he has his passport stolen while traveling outside of the US, it may be more difficult for him to prove his American citizenship.  Scary, huh??  Because of this, we felt that it was never an option not to get this important piece of paperwork for our son.

So in the middle of August, nine months from our application date, we drove up to Chicago and met a good friend of Chris' for lunch, who took this great picture of our family before proceeding to our appointment:

Once we got to the federal building for the appointment, Chris couldn't come inside with us.  He had automatically put his pocketknife in his pocket that morning like he does every morning, not thinking about the fact that we would have to go through a metal detector and, of course, you can't bring a knife, no matter how small, into a federal building!  So Boo and I went in and, after being directed to the wrong floor along with another family, finally made it to the correct window after about 20 minutes.  We then waited...and waited...and waited.  We probably sat there for about 45 minutes before getting our paperwork.  It really wasn't that bad, but I was expecting about a 10-15 minute wait after hearing about other family's experiences.  We did very briefly get to meet another family I "know" from the online adoption community who was there picking up their daughter's Certificate of Citizenship as well.  In the meantime, poor Chris had been told that he couldn't even wait in the air-conditioned lobby, that he would have to go outside, in the 90 degree weather, to wait for us.  There is no cell phone use in the building either, so we couldn't even let each other know what the other was doing.  Regardless, Boo and I got his paperwork, but no picture in front of the federal and state seals to commemorate the day; he was close to a meltdown and wouldn't stand still for me, so we went out to find Daddy and show him the certificate.  

He looked so handsome (as always!) and sooo grown up!!

What a special day for a special little boy!

Movie Monday - Down South

Some video of our weekend down south with family:

Boo's first tubing experience.  He did okay but was ready to let someone else have a turn pretty quickly!

His first time on a trampoline also.  He got more comfortable with others bouncing on it each time he got on it himself.  So many new experiences!

Catch-up Post #1

Okay, so I'm so far behind on blogging about our summer, that I'm going to break it up into a few shorter blogs - which may not be short by the time I'm done with them!  I will try my best to show you what we've been up to without completely boring you with a whole lot of details.

End of July - we got together with my family at a halfway point between all our homes.  We rented a large cabin where we all had our own rooms and the place itself was awesome!  The kids loved it, although in a couple years, we'll probably need to be at a place closer to children's activities, with all the boys getting older.

Love this picture!

Mommy and Boo

had fun playing pool by rolling the balls while sitting on the table!

reading a Notre Dame book with Grandpa...Go Irish!

picnic time...look at all those smiles!!!

We tried to get a good picture of the boys.  Four of them.  Three and under.  Ha!

"What's the problem, J?" asks E.

almost had it here...

Yikes!  Are we almost done yet??

Story time with grandma...

...attracted another grandson...

...and then another with revolving seating!

Awesome picture of Grandma and Grandpa with their four grandsons!

Beginning of August - Back up to our land to camp; we rented a pontoon boat for a day with friends of ours and had such a great time, even though we had to head back to the rental place early so as not to get stuck in the middle of a downpour!  We actually stopped at a restaurant on the river halfway back to escape the storm and had a great view of the rain from a corner window seat.

buying a life vest for Boo for the pontoon ride.  Of course, he's thrilled because it's got "Cars" on it!!  The picture is fuzzy because he was so excited and wouldn't stay still for a good picture.

Daddy's second-in-command

Our little skipper

Naptime on the pontoon boat.  I've seen pictures of other kids who've fallen asleep on a boat and thought that Boo would never do that; he would be too excited.  Boy, was I wrong!  He fell asleep so quickly once he was wrapped up (the temp started dropping before the storm) and had his binky...wow, what a great kid!

Keeping the four adults entertained during the storm with Mommy's ballcap and Daddy's sunglasses.

A deer feeding her fawn on the road to our place. 

(Obviously, we couldn't get closer for a better picture or else we would have spooked them.  You can tell mom's already alert to our presence: her ears are up and she was starting right at us!)

Dinnertime at camp.  All the fresh air makes for a good appetite for Boo.

Ice cream treat.  And, I'm sorry, but look at all the ice cream in the dish in front of my son...that was what they called a small cone!!  Perfect for me (heehee), but for a two-year-old...no way!  I wanted him to actually sleep sometime in the next few days!!!

Wading in the lake near our land...why do I always think we won't get in the water when we go to the lake???  So, therefore, I never take a swim diaper and the poor kid ends up walking/slogging around in a 15-lb diaper!  And I found out that they get really tight around the legs when they're waterlogged.  Whoops!  Sorry, little guy.

Chris put up a motion-sensitive trail camera facing our campsite to see what kinds of animals wander through.  We got quite a few pictures of deer...

...and he was absolutely ecstatic about capturing this bear in one of the pictures.  We know they are up in the area, but have only seen one once from the safety of the truck as we were driving along a highway less than 5 minutes from camp.  I think Chris would like to see one from the camper.  Me, I'm very content to look at the picture, thank-you-very-much.

So now you're caught up to the beginning of our August.  Whoo-hoo!  I will try to get the next post out after the busy holiday weekend coming up.  Here's hoping the temps are going to drop a little so we can be outside the next three days without falling over from heat exhaustion!  Stay cool.