Let the New Year begin.....

As we close out 2009 we can only hope that 2010 brings half as many joyous moments......we are so thankful for the blessings in our lives! It's hard to imagine that at this time a year ago we were wondering when we would travel to Korea to bring our little man home. Who knows what 2010 will actually bring, but here's our top 5 for the New Year......

• We sell our home soon
• We buy a home that we love
• We safely move and get settled quickly
• We celebrate Paul's 2nd birthday in a super special way
• We spend lots of time with friends and family

We hope that your top 5 wishes for 2010 come true!

Paul's class at school made party hats to celebrate New Years Eve....he seemed more interested in destroying his party hat than actually wearing it.....

To celebrate New Year's Eve, we headed to our favorite (and only) local Korean restaurant for dinner. GranJo, Gram and Pa came along and we all had a wonderful time. Since Whitey's was closed, we had to settle for ice cream from the golden arches. Paul got to have a little bit of my strawberry shake when we got home.

Working hard to sip it through the straw.....

Momma - thanks for sharing your shake....this is YUMMY!

Have a safe and blessed New Year!

On the 3rd day of Christmas.....

......we had lots of fun celebrating for another day.....but we are exhausted! I must admit that we are about Christmas-ed out. We're fat and tired and full of joy - and ready to get back to "normal" life! Today brought a visit from my aunt and uncle - they drove through the snow to get here and we are glad they made it! We had snacks, opened presents and ate some serious CAKE!

Unfortunately, Paul did not have a very good night. He is a boy on a schedule and when his schedule gets messed up, he doesn't always respond well. He had trouble going to sleep last night (which NEVER happens) and then awoke in the night a few times - the first few times he cried but went back to sleep....the last happened around 3am and Jason had to sit in his room and rock him. I got up around 5am to relieve Jason....Paul and I ate a very early breakfast! A typical night for Paul is to bed at 7pm and up sometime between 7 and 8am.....this 5am business is for the birds!

The day was long and Paul was tired...but we made it through. He had trouble getting to sleep again tonight, but we are hopeful that a low key day tomorrow will help get the schedule back on track. It doesn't help that he is cutting 2 molars...man, I can't wait to catch a break from all of this teething! I swear that he has been cutting at least one tooth almost everyday since we brought him home!

One of Paul's new favorite games is to go find a pair of shoes by the back door and try to walk in them.....this time he found a pair of my slip-on loafers and shuffled down the hall dragging his chatterbox phone. The whole time, I am talking on the phone with Mimi - amazing what you can do while a toddler makes a ton of noise!






Paul finally warmed up to his new rocking horse. This horse has special meaning as it was made by my parents for my older sister and we both spent plenty of time playing with this rocking horse when we were young. She has now passed it down to Paul. He was a bit skeptical yesterday, but this morning was pretty excited to see his new horsey!

When everyone arrived this afternoon, Paul was awake but then quickly zonked back out again when we started opening gifts......pathetic little man.

Do you think we could fit one more person (or animal) on the couch?! Isn't it nice of Maya to squeeze up there and make herself at home.....ha!

Once Paul awoke, he opened his gifts from Uncle Chris and Auntie Bev.....a cool new easel. One side with a chalkboard and the other with a magnetic white board.

Check out the artistic genius......

Auntie Bev, check out my skills.....think I can spell my name?!

Look, the easel is fun to play UNDER too.....it's like a new fort!

And here's me and my big sis messing around......

It was a totally fun 3 days of Christmas and we now have 1 day to recuperate before I head back to work on Monday. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this weekend so special! Not sure how Paul will react tomorrow when there are NO presents to open....he will probably go through some sort of withdrawal. Jason and I are watching Star Trek (the movie) and will hit the hay early tonight....and yes, we are Trek nerds!

And, we see that our mysterious Korean visitors were on the blog again yesterday.....I am still hopeful that this means Paul's foster family is checking on our little man.

우리 한국 방문자를 위해, 우리는 당신이 누군지 알려주 코멘트를 남겨주세요. 우리가 그렇게 사진과 우리가 작은 사람의 동영상을 볼 수있어서 다행입니다. 우리는이 바울의 입양 가족의 희망 - 우리가 당신이 누구인지 알려주시기 바랍니다!

Our first Christmas.....

.....and what a wonderful day it was! We all slept until 8am and then had a nice breakfast of blueberry pancakes, bacon and sweet rolls. We got cleaned up a bit and then headed into the family room to see what Santa had brought........here's Paul's reaction........



Needless to say, Paul really enjoyed his train table.....he'll definitely grow into it which makes it the perfect gift for him! He immediately knew what to do!

Rascal is overseeing the train playing action.


Oh look mommy, there's more stuff in these drawers!

Then it was time to check out our stockings.....Paul was a little leery to reach his hand in there.

Mommy got a Snuggie in her stocking - and then the Snuggie monster got Paul.....too fun!


Paul was pretty excited about this whole gift opening thing.....


After all of the gift opening, we had to take a quick snack break. This was Paul's first chocolate covered pretzel and he really enjoyed it!


And just what I always wanted, a swimming pool in the backyard....unfortunately, Mother Nature gave us lots of rain for Christmas and it didn't have anywhere to go. As the temps dropped, this pool turned to an ice rink and is now covered with snow. We had a WET and then WHITE Christmas today!

After lunch and a short nap (shorter than we would have liked), it was time to celebrate with the rest of our family. GranJo and Auntie Jen came over to open presents and then Gram and Pa joined us later for dinner. Here's Paul playing with the farm animal toy that we bought for him. Our little Santa had such a great day!

We had a lovely dinner with lots of great food and wonderful company. We even had birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus....I think Paul thought we were singing to him!
And because you haven't had nearly enough cute Paul coverage - one more new thing he learned today....THE TOAST! He toasts with his sippy cup of milk and we toast with our adult beverages of choice! Too cute....

We are so thankful to have our little man home this year for Christmas. We are thankful for his birthmother who gave him life and his foster mother who gave him such great care for the first months of his life. We are blessed to call this boy our child.

Christmas Eve fun.....

What an exciting (and busy) day.....Paul woke up a little moody but we made the best of it! The morning brought a visit from GranJo and Auntie Jen. They stayed for lunch and then Paul went down for his nap....sort of. We hit 4pm Mass with Gram and Pa (it was PACKED) and then back to their house for dinner, presents and dessert. It was a fun, fun, fun day!

I am sure that tomorrow will bring even MORE smiles and laughs and we feel so blessed to have Paul home to share them with us this year! It certainly changes perspective to experience Christmas through the eyes of a child.

Paul checking out the presents under the tree at Gram and Pa's house. Hhhhmmmmm, I wonder if this one if for me - if only I could read the name on the present.....
Eating a banana at dinner!

Paul just LOVES to sing songs and knows quite a few hand motions to go along with them. Here's a new one that he learned at school. How cute is this?!?

And also just as cute is this bib with a squeaky duck on it. Paul learned how to squeak himself and it cracks him up when he does it!

The very first present of the season.....an Elmo book!

Having fun with wrapping paper - he really got that present opening thing down pat!

Delivering a gift to Gram...what a little helper!

Check out my yummy white chocolate snowman from Lago's.....

It was a late evening for Paul - he stayed up until almost 8pm.....we're hoping he sleeps in a bit tomorrow! Jason and I spent some time finishing up Paul's train table. I can't wait to see his little face in the morning when he sees this cool new choo-choo.......we'll be shooting video for sure! Here's a sneak peek at the train table that Santa brought for Paul. He's a little young for it, but will grow into it for sure......he is in LOVE with choo-choo's right now!

Can't wait for Christmas morning......

Visitors from Korea??!?

We have been tracking the location of visitors to our blog and I see that recently we had a few visitors from Korea....we are SO excited and hoping that these special visitors are Paul's foster family. But, we have no way to know for sure unless they tell us (we just know that someone from Korea has viewed the website). So, please, please, please post a comment to let us know.

This is such a great Christmas present for us....we would be honored to have Paul's foster family watching our little man grow up through the blog.


Translated into Hangul (depending on your language settings, you may or may not be able to see it correctly):

우리는 블로그에 방문자의 위치를 추적 해왔는데 나는 최근에 우리는 .... 한국에서 몇 방문자를했다 우리는 아주 흥분하고 이러한 특별한 방문자 바울의 입양 가족이 희망을 참조하십시오. 하지만, 우리가 확실히 아는 방법은 그들이 우리에게 말하지 않는가 (우리는 그냥 한국에서 누군가가 웹사이트에 많이있다) 알아요. 그러니, 제발, 제발, 제발 저희에게 알려 의견을 게시 알아요.

이것은 우리와 같은 훌륭한 크리스마스 선물입니다 .... 우리 작은 사람의 블로그를 통해 자라보고 바울의 입양 가족 영광 것입니다.

Let the countdown begin......

.....just a few days until we celebrate the birthday of Baby Jesus....we have actually heard Paul say Jesus (or something thereabouts) a few times and when you say Baby Jesus, he knows where to point in the nativity. Too cute! I'm excited to have a few days off....we will have plenty of family time!

Well, we've got big news around the Marchik house.....Paul now has to eat in his booster seat strapped to a chair since he figured out how to remove the tray on his highchair all by himself. This is one of those situations where I am so proud of him for figuring something out but it sure was nice to have him eat in his highchair. The booster is going to work just fine and he won't be able to remove this tray for quite some time (at least that is the plan). So, these will be the last photos that you will see with Paul in his highchair. As I post these, it has occurred to me that we tend to post a lot of eating photos and videos. I guess that's because Paul tends to be in such a good mood when he's eating.

And, you will also notice that he tends to be naked (his top half anyway) whilst eating. This has really become convenient when we know he will be really messy - even with a bib, he still manages to get pretty messy. Wiping him down is much easier than pre-treating his stained shirt.

Spaghetti night at the Marchik house....mommy, I think I have a noodle stuck to my hand?! And that fork looks menacing!
Sweet! I love food that I can eat AND play with at the same time!

Check out all my noodles!

I love to slurp my noodles! (And check out the noodle stuck to his chest - classy!)

Here is some cute video of our little man....it's long, but cute. And check out the noodle still stuck to his chest! HA!

We had professional photos taken a few weeks back and were blessed to have 2 really cute outfits for Paul to wear (thanks Mimi). One of the outfits was the cutest little Santa outfit....so while Paul does not LIKE to visit Santa, he doesn't mind dressing up like Santa - go figure. We liked the "look" so much that we decided to take a few shots at home so that we could use them for our Christmas cards.

Our little Santa with his favorite monkey.

Making sure that monkey is comfortable.

That devilish grin....wonder what's on his mind!

Another cute shirt (thanks again Mimi).......Paul can't wait to see his Auntie Jen for Christmas!

The next few days will bring much holiday baking, preparing for Christmas dinner, getting the train table setup (Santa brought it for Paul), completing the wrapping of gifts.....the list goes on. Good thing that Paul is headed to school tomorrow so that Jason and I can get lots done!

I must admit that I am pretty excited to be able to post pictures and videos from Paul's first Christmas at home with us...stay tuned!

Santa picture....no, no, no!

Boy how I wish I could be posting a really cute Santa picture right now....but alas, our cutie pie wanted NOTHING to do with the big fella. I couldn't pry his little fingers off me enough to even sit down NEXT to Santa - let alone sit on Santa's lap. He would even let me sit in the picture with him.....it was so pathetic and sad.

Here we are in line to see Santa - Paul's checking him out from afar and doesn't have a very happy look on his face....a sign of things to come!

This is the last smile that we saw for a little while after our incident with Santa.

We quickly ran from the Santa area and hit Old Navy - we needed to pick up a few more gifts for our Angel Tree children. Man, that place was a zoo today. Paul got cranky since it was lunch time so we grabbed a bite at Habaneros in the mall. Once he had a full belly, Paul was in a much better mood.

Sitting on the choo-choo on the little toy carousel in the mall - that thing was probably covered with H1N1 germs, but it made Paul smile so we went with it. I can't get a shot of him sitting on Santa's lap, but I can get him to smile sitting on a choo-choo.

We had something fun planned for this evening - we loaded up the Highlander with the 3 of us as well as Gram, Pa and GranJo (it was a tight fit). Our plan was to drive to East Peoria (about 90 minutes away) and grab a bite to eat and then head to the magnificent Christmas light show that they put on each year. Paul is SO into the Christmas lights this year, we thought he would really enjoy it.

Here we are on the way to Peoria.

We had a great dinner at a little Irish Pub down by the river. But, by the time we made it through traffic to get into the park where the light parade is, Paul was asleep! Poor guy missed the whole thing....but the adults really enjoyed it! The drive home was a little dicey as it had been raining and the roads were starting to ice up. Jason was our master driver and got us home safely!

Here are just a few of the cool displays at the 2 mile light parade. It was really cool!

And here is the little man as we were leaving the light parade......konked out! We knew he would fall asleep, but had hoped he would see some of the lights. It's SO great that we have such a regimented little sleeper (goes to bed every night at 7pm) but it stunk that he had to miss all the fun. At least we brought his pjs so we could just scoop him out of the car and put him to bed when we got home.

Everyone else is sleeping, so maybe I should do that same!

Oreos and snowy days....

We don't typically let Paul eat a lot of sweets....but last night we decided to let him try an Oreo. He knew just what to do - twist, lick the middle and then eat the cookies. He clearly enjoyed himself!

Big smile with cookie in hand!

Mommy, do I have something on my face?

This cookie is GREAT!

This is one of the funniest videos that we have of Paul (in our opinion). I had tears streaming down my face while we were recording this and then again when I watched it today. Enjoy!

The Midwest was hit with a pretty big snow storm. I was supposed to be headed to Des Moines today, but they got over 15 inches of snow so I stayed put and worked from home. We only got about 7 inches here but it was pretty windy today so it blew the snow quite a bit. Paul went to school today and then Jason picked him up a little early so we could have our first romp in the snow.

Here's Paul's snow gear....too cute and quite the bargain (which makes it even cuter!).

Here's Paul when he got home from school and before he got in his snow gear. I love his toothy grin!

The little man checking out the blowing snow. I'm not sure he could put his arms down!

Big smile....although he did have some trouble walking in his snow boots.

Checking out the snow on a bush in the backyard. It is very wet snow, but very pretty when stuck to the branches.

Mommy and Paul staying warm.....

Maya just LOVES the snow - she gets so prancy in even the lightest snow dusting. She loves to catch snowballs and run and play. She had a ball today! Here's video from our snow outing....

Happy times from the Marchik house!