Movie Monday - Buckethead and Beerman

One empty bucket = loads of fun

(same bucket that he has played in before; we get plenty of playtime out of it!)

Our little beerman...heehee!!

Half his life...

So today marks the time when Boo has been home with us longer than he was half a world away.  He spent his first 13 1/2 months in Korea and we are now hitting just over 13 1/2 months home as a family of three.  It seems crazy that, when we started the whole adoption process, our friends hit this mark when their son was about 18 months old, and new friends who started the process since we brought Boo home are going to hit that mark when their child is about 3+ years old!  (meaning that it looks like the kids are now going to be coming home around 20 months)  I was telling the Hubs recently that, knowing how impatient he is (of course, I can be also!), I don't think we would have had the will to start the adoption process now, knowing how long the wait can be.  I know I complained and cried and got ticked off during our process because it seemed so slow and I knew that we were, obviously, the only ones stuck in that mess (yes, that is how my brain works when I'm stressed), but I can only imagine how those who are going through it now are feeling.  Honestly, it is not somewhere I would wish to be right now.  I admire the strength that they have going forward in their journey and just want to let them all know that, regardless of when your little one shows up in your life, that will be the perfect time for it to happen...and it is all definitely worth it when you hold him/her for the first time.

And back to having our little one home for over half his life...can I just say, a-ma-zing!  So, to honor the 27 months of his life, here are 27 things that we have learned about and love about our son:

1.    the boy absolutely adores choo-choo trains

2.    he also loves trucks and buses

3.    oh, and anything with buttons or wheels

4.    he loves to give "ugs" (hugs)

5.    when someone gets an "ow-ie," he is right there to comfort you with a kiss

6.    he makes up his own "ow-ie's" so that he gets kisses too

7.    he still loves his binky at bedtime

8.    he is a great traveler

9.    he is a daddy's boy

10.  he is a mommy's boy

11.  he likes to chase his "Yexi" (Lexi) around the house (poor puppy)

12.  he is stubborn, stubborn, stubborn

13.  he hates getting shampoo rinsed out of his hair

14.  did I mention he loves his binky??

15.  he can drink from a big boy cup without spilling, most of the time

16.  he loves ice cream (definitely our son!)

17.  he asks for his vitamin in the morning (seriously, what child likes vitamins?!?!)

18.  I swear he thinks our older dog's name is NoJinx, since that's what he says to her all the time!

19.  he loves to dance to music

20.  he likes to get in the driver's seat and pretend that he's driving Daddy's truck

21.  he loves to be outside, regardless of the weather

22.  he loves to eat with a fork, just like Mommy and Daddy

23.  he can count to 20

24.  he can sing his ABCs (although not too clearly, but I know that's what he's singing!)

25.  he loves to be read to before bedtime, especially "Pajamatime!"

26.  he can tell us when his diaper is dirty (potty training, here we come, uh, sometime this year, maybe)

27.  he loves to streak naked after his bath

...and one more for the next month he's with us...

28.  he loves M&M's (which are being used during the above-mentioned potty training)!!

There are soooo many other things we have learned about him, things that make him him.  If we had had to come up with a list of qualities for the perfect child for us, we could not have come even close to the perfection that makes up our little boy.  Everything about him is the right fit for the three of us and changing even one thing would change who he is.  We have been honored and blessed with the gift of getting to know our son over the past 13 1/2 months and we cannot wait to enjoy the rest of his life and watch him blossom and grow.

We love you, Boo, forever and ever and always.

He's doing swimmingly!!

Short brag about swim class tonight...he made great strides (or should that be strokes? heehee) while he was in the water this evening.  After dunking myself under the water and having him pour water over my head, I said that it was his turn.  So he did!  He poured a bucketful of water right over his head...and then laughed!  It was great.  Then he proceeded to kick his legs when I told him to, which he has not done consistently in the past.  Finally, he let me lay him on his back a couple of times, getting the back of his head wet.  We are so proud of our boy!

Friends

A couple weekends ago, a friend of Chris' came to town with his family and stayed with us.  They have a little girl, S, who is 4 months older than Boo.  For some weird reason, the majority of the people we know with kids Boo's age have boys, so this is really the first girl friend he's had!  They were both into the "Cars" movie and we actually took them to see "Cars 2".  The hubs wasn't expecting much from them, but I thought Boo might do okay for most of the movie, considering that he sits through almost all of the first one without too much fidgeting.  He did great!!!  Started him with a snack because the previews were l-o-n-g; really, you'd think knowing that there are young kids coming to see this movie, that they would shorten the previews to, like, none, but I think there were almost 20 minutes of advertisements on first!!  Once the movie started he was awesome, with one more snack and a juice box and a very short potty break near the end.  He did better than kids older than him.  The movie was way more complicated to follow than the first one, but he liked watching the cars race and blow up.  So our first movie theater experience couldn't have been better; what a great kid we have!

Now for some pictures of Boo and his new friend, S.

Having a snack outside on the front porch after an almost 3-hour nap from both of them!

Sharing his toys. S did a great job pedaling the tricycle; I won't be able to keep up with Boo when he's able to finally reach those pedals!!

holding hands after their daddy's softball game...so cute!  Future DIL???

relaxing in the dog bed together while watching "Cars" one morning

Mommy with the two kids...not sure I could handle this all the time!!!  LOL!

We had a great time with their family and hope to see them next time they come through town.

Movie Monday - Random camp events

"ready...set...go!"

he loves being tickled...to the point where he invites it!!

not very good quality, but this is how well his binky settles him down and how happy he is to get it.  don't let the last image fool you, though, he was awake a LOT longer that night!!

"North for the Fourth"

Not that we knew we were doing something special at the time, but we found out that Wisconsinites go "north for the fourth" and we followed in that tradition unintentionally.  We went up to our land to camp over the holiday weekend.  We didn't actually take a lot of pictures, but it was a fun trip nonetheless.  We met a friend of Chris' on the way up for lunch of Friday; first time I had met him.  Very nice guy and I hope we can see more of him and his family in the future.  Got to our land that afternoon and the hubby cut down a tree that was leaning before we got the camper set up; he had been anticipating doing this because we are leaving the camper there for the summer to save gas costs hauling it back and forth.  I can honestly say that it was the hottest up there it has ever been since we've been camping there for the last 5-6 years.  He was absolutely drenched in sweat by the time he was done.  Unfortunately, it had also rained up there a couple days prior and with the heat was just steamy, which made for good breeding grounds for mosquitos and humongous black flies.  :(  I know I've mentioned before that  our camper is pretty much an apartment on wheels and hardcore campers will scoff at us calling what we do camping, but I'm really okay with that.  At this point, when they would be outside trying to fend off the flies and bugs, I stayed in our camper and turned on the air conditioning.  Laugh if you will, because we certainly did!!  Never did we think that we would actually use what we thought was going to be a miscellaneous piece of equipment that came with the camper.  Between that and the indoor shower, it just paid itself off as far as we were concerned.  That is the only time we used it during the trip, although it was so hot after we turned it off for the night that I thought I was never going to get to sleep!  I eventually did, although I don't think I slept well the entire time we were there because a certain little someone likes to flop around during his sleep, so I kept getting either kicked or hit in the face...a lot.

Boo did great, whether we were inside or out.  Before we left home, we found out that there is The Choo-choo Store (yes, that is the name of the store) about 40 minutes from our campsite.  So we drove down there on Saturday morning and let him play in the kid's playroom for a while.  And of course, he came away with some goodies to add to his collection of trains, all of which we took with us on our trip.  We went out to lunch at a little mom-and-pop shop where Boo proceeded to charm all the women around us, including actually climbing up in a chair at one table with two ladies who had been saying hi to him towards the end of our meal!  What a social butterfly.

That night, we had friends come camp with us overnight.  They are fellow adoptive parents, waiting to travel for their son in Korea.  At one point, I had called Jessie, "C_____'s mommy" instead of by her name and from then on, Boo called her C_____.  It was adorable!  And I could not get him to say her name at all after that.  I look forward to more camping trips with them and their son when he comes home.  It will be so much fun for Boo to have a friend his age up there.  Again, I didn't get a picture of all of us, but have one where Boo is showing C's mommy the stones he collected.

Sunday we just stayed around the campsite after Jessie and Jay left and didn't do much of anything.  Oh, I think that's the day I actually took a nap while Boo and daddy went for a walk.  It was cooler with a little breeze going through the camper and so quiet.  On Monday, we went to a national park/campground nearby and played in the water at the edge of a lake.  Boo held his first crayfish and Daddy was unbelievably proud!  We hadn't put him in a swim diaper before letting him get his feet wet and by the time we thought about it, it was too late.  Let me tell you, those regular diapers can hold a lot of water!!!  I think the thing was a good 5+ pounds by the time we were done there and got it off of him.  It was kind of funny because you could tell he was kind of walking bowlegged to make room for the extremely soggy diaper he was wearing!  But he was having such a good time, that I don't think he even noticed it.  We then walked around their campground and headed back to the camper.

Drove home on Tuesday, meeting Chris' parents on the way for dinner so they could see their grandson. He had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa and got some new toys to play with, of course!  We were all happy to be home that night, though, and sleep in our own beds.  Boo had fallen asleep around 8 (his normal time) and we got home around 9.  We thought he might wake up completely and want to play once we got home, but decided to try to put him down in his crib right away anyways...so glad we did.  He did awesome!  Changed his diaper, got him in his PJs, rocked with him for maybe a minute and then put him down, awake, tiptoeing out of the room.  He went right to sleep and didn't fuss at all.  I think he was glad to be back home in his bed that he doesn't have to share with two big bed-hogging parents!  Home sweet home.

Chris, Boo, and Mike

C's mommy

dinnertime

chillin' with his M&M cookie

bathtime in the camper 

(another reason we like this because he hates showers!)

reading the free train catalogue he got at the store

holding his first crayfish

notice the soggy diaper??

going to eat with grandpa and grandma on the way home

Yeah, so I took more pictures than I thought while we were up there.  And video (to come on Movie Monday).  Guess I'll always be a shutterbug when it comes to our little man!!

Four weeks worth of updates

So, people, I have not gotten much true blogging done in the last month or so.  Warmer weather + a child who absolutely loves to be outside + life = not much time for Mommy to write!  And the time that I do have free available (read: naptime for the 2-year-old), there is so much other stuff to get done around the house that the blogging has been taking a back seat.  My computer's desktop is full of pictures that are a constant reminder of what I need to share about the goings-on in my little Boo's life.  Since this is the main record of things we do, I need to try to keep it updated.  So here goes with a quickie update of our last month before the 4th of July!

On his Gotcha Day, we spent the day doing things that Boo wanted to do.  We played with bubbles, we played with play-doh, went back to the bubbles, watched "Cars" (like a gazillion times!!), wheeled around the cul-de-sac on the tricycle, and of course, blew some more bubbles.  When Daddy got home, we went out to dinner and I was able to get this picture of Boo holding both our hands; a completely different atmosphere than one year ago on that day.  I love this boy!

His new Th*mas the Train PJs, which he has to wear...every. night.  

God forbid if they're in the laundry!!

At the beginning of June, the hospital I work at had a huge outdoor "workshop" called Playing it Safe for kids and their parents, pretty much a small festival-type thing geared towards kids to promote safety.  Boo loved checking out all the different vehicles that were there:

the ambulance

 the fire truck

the helicopter

and the MTD bus

This was a HUGE hit and I actually had to carry him off the bus kicking and crying because he wanted to keep sitting there.  But not only was it time to go, that bus was stifling hot!  We'll have to go riding on the bus around town some day; he can sit there to his heart's content and Mommy can read...sweet!

fishing

keeping cool with his friend, J: 

(this was before getting on the bus, good thing I had taken an extra set of clothes!)

We spent a short weekend with friends in St. Louis who have a boy Boo's age.  We took them to the zoo, which was pretty neat.  Boo is getting to the point where he is actually looking at and watching the animals.  And he wants to walk most of the time rather than be pushed in his stroller or carried.

I know it's dirty water, but the hippos were so graceful when they were in the water.

These huge creatures are amazing!

very yummy ice cream cone!!

I love this photo with my boy's profile and the elephants in the background.

I could have stayed and watched the elephants the whole time; one of my favorite animals.

Then we decided to take a ride around the zoo on the train.  Someone was watching for it very closely once we told him it was our turn...

...still waiting...

...Yes!!  Our turn!

And look who had to be carried off of it once our tickets ran out:

He was NOT happy about having to get off the choo-choo when our turn was over!

Back at our friend's house, he got to play the piano with both Daddy and Mommy:

I am looking forward to someday getting my piano from my parent's and sharing my love of making music with my son.  As it is, he already likes to play one whenever he sees it!

playing with his friend H's train set

On the way home, the hubs and I wanted to see how it would go getting Boo to take a nap without his binky...oh.my.god.  The tears, the wailing, the pitiful cry of "bin-ky!"  Yet it took him all of, oh, maybe 5 minutes to stick his finger in his mouth before he fell asleep sucking on that!  Argh!!!  But so damn cute!

Breakfast with Daddy on Father's Day

kisses for Grandpa on Father's Day

 Mommy and Grandpa on Father's Day after meeting for lunch

We started Boo in parent-child swim classes at the local university this summer.  Twice a week for 30 minutes.  He is not too sure about it quite yet, but does love getting into the water by pushing himself off the side of the pool into my arms.  He would do that the entire 30 minutes: climb out, sit down at the edge, and fling himself towards me or daddy.  The instructors have other things in mind though, and he has started to kick a little and reach for toys that he has thrown in front of him.  I have gotten him to lay on his back once and look up, therefore, putting the back of his head in the water, but he is not too keen on that yet.  He loves watching us blow bubbles in the water in front of him and purses his own lips to blow, but won't put his lips under water yet.  That's okay, for this being the first swim lessons, he's doing great!!

Playing around with Aunt Julie:

Finally, June 26 marked the 7th anniversary of the day that I married my awesome husband.  We didn't do much, partly because we had out-of-state friends here for the weekend and partly because I was supposed to work (although didn't end up having to go in; yeah!).  Mostly, though, it seems like things (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) have had a tendency to creep up on us this past year without us realizing it and, by the time we do, it's too late to really put anything together in order to celebrate.  So we decided that we are just going to count the many, many blessings that we have received over the last 13 months.  Every single second we have been able to spend together as a couple and with our son is cherished.  More so after the heartwrenching news of a former colleague's husband being killed in combat less than two weeks before he was scheduled to come home on leave to celebrate his first anniversary and his sister's wedding.  After hearing that news, I hugged both my guys a little tighter and a little longer.  This reminds me not to take anything for granted: time, love, family, friends.  I love "my two boys" with all my heart and couldn't ask for a better gift than knowing that that love is reciprocated.  So, happy belated (at least for this post) anniversary, my love.

I love you, forever and ever and always.