We are SOOOO close to walking!

It continues to amaze me how quickly the weeks can fly right by! Monday was a nasty weather day and Paul decided he needed to wake up at 4am...yes, you read that right....it was darn early. We didn't actually get him out of bed until closer to 5:30 - he sat in there and babbled for a while. Needless to say, I was TIRED that day! And the beauty of being on leave - I stayed in my pjs all day long!

Tuesday was much better - he made it until 6:30 which is much more reasonable. And Jason was such a nice guy, he got up with him and fed him breakfast so I could stay in bed a little while longer. What a keeper! Weather was better yesterday, but still windy and rainy. We went for a visit to our friends at First Midwest Bank (they do corporate banking for Trinity) who have been itching to meet little Paul. We hung out with them for about an hour and then ran a couple of quick errands before coming home. We all had a little dinner and then Paul and I hung out while Jason cleaned up the kitchen.

SOOOOO big (with a block in one hand and a puzzle piece in the other!).....

Check out my cool walker toy mom......

Thanks Easter Bunny for bringing me these cool blocks - they taste so darn good!

Hey mommy, I'm coming to get you!!!

Paul is getting so close to walking! He is a great "cruiser" next to furniture or walls, but he is also getting much braver and can stand on his own for short periods of time and take a step or two between pieces of furniture. Here's some video with Paul showing his walking skills - these walker toys are great to motivate kids to take steps. You can see how proud he is of his fabulous walking abilities.....mouth wide open and smiles abound.

Weather is looking up for today and the rest of the week....finally! It's so nice to be able to get outside for fresh air......

Happy Wednesday!

A rainy Sunday....

What we thought was going to be a busy weekend turned out to be a little more low-key than we planned....not such a bad thing. We hung out at the house most of the day on Saturday and then Gram came over to watch Paul so we could head out for some adult time. This was the first time that Paul had someone other than mommy or daddy feed him dinner, put on his pjs and put him to bed. Gram did a great job and everything went smoothly! Jason and I went over to Kathy and Don's for some great food, cocktails and good company.

We were planning to walk in the Gilda's Club 5K run/walk this morning....however the weather had other plans. We were up early and as we were heading out of the house, it started to rain. We were concerned about walking with Paul in the rain, so we decided to skip the race (bummer) and head back home to change clothes and head to church instead. We called Gram (Pa was out of town at a retreat) and the 4 of us went to Mass and then to breakfast.

This afternoon, our good friends Tim and Nancy and their son Jake came over to meet Paul. Jake was also adopted from Korea so Tim and Nancy have been a wealth of knowledge and support for us throughout this process. We spent several hours with them and had a great time.

Hhhhmmmmm.....what did they bring me?? I LOVE playing with gift bags.....

Jake was such a good sport to build towers for Paul to knock down! Check out Paul just staring at Jake - too cute!

We had dinner, a bath and got into our pj's.....here are the cool puzzles and puzzle holder that Tim, Nancy and Jake brought today....Paul loves, loves, loves them!

Paul says "I love pj play time!"

After Paul went to bed, we noticed Dylan settled into the dog bed amongst ALL of Maya's toys....too cute even with his devilish eyes. There was barely any room in there for him!

The weekend went too fast - as usual - but it was nice to spend some time together. We continue to prepare for Paul's first birthday (which is quickly approaching). We have several family members coming in town so it will be a fun weekend!

We're hoping for some better weather this week.....

Friday...and finally some great weather!

It's been another busy week....I so much prefer being on the go rather than sitting at home. Paul is such a great "luncher" that we frequently meet friends for lunches...of course he is typically the only MALE at the table. HA!

We made a trip to Muscatine to visit the finance folks at Unity Healthcare - they have been itching to meet little Paul. He had so much fun playing with a box of paper waiting to be shredded - who needs expensive toys???

Today was non-stop...we hit story time at the library this morning. It is a nice group with some other Asian children. I spoke to a very nice Korean woman today with an 8 month old boy - she is Korean and her husband is American going to Palmer College. She had lots of questions about Paul. I think we will try to continue to hit this story time given the diversity of the group. We ran home for a quick diaper change, grabbed a few things and then headed to lunch with Sue and Andrea from Trinity. We stopped by to visit Sue - since Paul had met her hubby Jon twice already, we needed to start to even the score!

Paul had so much fun with Sue in her office - a fellow CPA, so you know she is COOL!

We have tried to do some toy rotation to keep things feeling fresh. I pulled out his cool baseball toy (thanks Angie!) this week. Paul had a great time with it. He loves to beat things with the bat and hasn't totally figured out yet to hit the ball with the bat. We'll work on it.....

One of Mimi's friends (Judy) sent along a very cute t-shirt for Paul. And, since today was SUCH a nice day, we busted out short sleeves for the first time. Paul wasn't really into taking pictures today, so I struggled to get a good one that actually showed the saying on the shirt. So you will need closed captioning to get the full hilarity of the shirt....

"I Appreciate the Muppets on a Much Deeper Level Than You"

Here is Paul hiding the shirt with his favorite laptop computer. Little stinker.

Hey, there are googley eyes on my shirt and they keep looking at me funny.....

Check out my tongue...I thought I would mess with mommy's mind today and keep sticking it out rather than smiling!

Overall, it was a wonderful week. Paul had a cold so we dealt with lots of drool and snot. He seems to be feeling a little better, but we'll see. He hasn't slowed down much so we know he wasn't feeling too terribly bad.

He is so close to taking his first real step....we are excited to experience one of Paul's major firsts since we have missed many of them so far. At story time today, he stood on his own for a good minute and I don't even think he realized it....as soon as he did, he promptly plopped down on his tushie.

We hope that you all have a wonderful weekend - we have some fun plans and are hopeful that the weather stays nice (even though the weathermen seem to have other plans).

Easter Sunday....

We had a wonderful Easter - it was busy, but wonderful. We started our day by heading to Mass...there were SO many people there that we didn't even make it into the sanctuary - we sat in folding chairs in the gathering area. At least we had seats - some were standing the entire Mass.

Check out Paul's cute Easter outfit.

After Mass we headed home so that Paul could take a nap (he never did!) and I could whip up the food I was taking for Easter dinner. We grabbed a quick snack for lunch and headed out to GranJo's for the rest of the day.

As soon as we arrived, we went over to visit Lois and Ed (my mom's neighbors and good family friends). They have a grand daughter named Katie (she's 10 years old) that was adopted from Korea. When Jason and I found out several months back that Katie was really interested in her Korean heritage, we knew we needed to pick up a few things for her during our trip. Since she and her parents were in town for Easter, we made arrangements to stop over.

Katie and Paul are buddies now - she was SO thoughtful and brought a few gifts for him to welcome him to the US. Here's a book she chose for him.....
And a bubble blowing lawn mower.....how thoughtful!

We headed back to GranJo and Gram and Pa joined us for Easter dinner.

Here's Maya in her Easter scarf....such a PRETTY girl!

GranJo gave Paul a cute little bunny hand puppet book - check out the grin on this kid!

And here we are with Paul clapping - it only took 14 pictures to get EVERYONE looking at the camera at the same time! Jeepers.

Overall it was a wonderful first Easter for Paul. We feel so blessed to have him home and that he is so happy and adjusting so well to his new family.

And a non-Easter photo, but it is too cute not to share. This is seriously Dylan's new favorite sleeping place in the evenings.....how comfortable does THIS look?

Much love from the thankful Marchik family

A wonderful Saturday....

Alright, so I fell off the daily blog posting wagon....it's been since Tuesday since my last post! Here's the recap of the week....

Does this pose look familiar? This is our favorite afternoon nap location - big sister looking after little P. Don't worry - I don't leave him alone sleeping on the couch like this!


Hey Maya - I'm coming to get you! Don't mind my bald spot.....

Hmmmm....that bone look interesting, would you mind if I just took it from you?

Cool - thanks Maya, but now what do I do with it?

Yeah, so the moral of the story is that Maya is the best big sister a little guy can have. She was totally fine with him crawling up and grabbing her bone. He even bonked her on the nose with it as he was trying to return it. I was closely supervising the entire exchange - no worries - but it was a darn cute little interaction.

I missed my "weekly" trip to visit Trinity friends last week, so we definitely made up for it this week. We spent 2-1/2 hours visiting various coworkers. Paul was SO good for the trip. He let all sorts of people hold him and was high fiving like crazy.

This is photographic evidence that he let Katie P hold him and she isn't even wearing a name badge for him to play with (take that Tammy!)...ha!

Paul wore his John Deere outfit hoping we would get to see Jon since Jon and his wife Sue were so thoughtful to pick out the cute JD gear! I was a little worried when Jon started to tell Paul all of his entrepreneurial secrets. He even let Paul wear his Trinity name badge....the beginning of our little executive!

Today we loaded up the Highlander with the 3 of us and Gram and Pa and headed to DeKalb to meet Jason's brother Dan and his wife Julie and 2 boys Jon and Jake. We were so blessed to have Dan home for a few days before he ships off to Iraq. He has been in Washington state for the last few months and this is the last time we will see him for quite a while - and the first time he and his family got to meet Paul.

Here's the group at lunch (except for Jason who took the photo)...nice bunny ears Julie!

After lunch we headed to a local park. The weather could have been a bit warmer, but the sun was shining and we enjoyed ourselves.

Paul's first experience in a swing - this one was deluxe and with these straps there was NO chance he was coming out of that swing. Thanks cousin Jon and Jake for pushing him so nicely!

Jake wanted to take Paul down the small slide - it was cute, but Paul wasn't thrilled!

Here's Jon climbing the "rock wall".....check out the beautiful blue sky.....

Here's Jake in action too.....
This is one of my favorites of the day. Look at our cute little man.....

We tried the more traditional kids swing a little later - I was getting all sorts of smiles and giggles.

And cousin Jake to the rescue again coming to push little P.

Since we didn't eat nearly enough at lunch (yeah right) we decided to hit the local DQ for a frosty treat. After eating half of a grilled cheese sandwich, fries, crackers, a few bites of soup, some chicken and who knows what else (did I mention that Paul is a good eater) at lunch, we bought Paul his own little ice cream cone. He ate that but wanted to eat my strawberry shake too. His straw usage skills are top notch!

Tomorrow is Easter - such a blessed day. We will be sure to post plenty of pictures from our day tomorrow.

Blessed Easter weekend wishes from the Marchik family!

On a roll here.....

.....rock star mommy is blogging 3 days in a row! Whoo hoooo.....

Today started with a trip to the vet for Dylan - nothing serious and it is all resolved now. Paul did well - I just put him in the Moby Wrap to keep the wriggly little fella in check so I could carry Dylan in his carrier bag. On the way home, we stopped quickly so that I could cast my ballot in the location elections.

The afternoon brought a LONG nap (Paul missed his morning nap today) and then a LONG walk with mommy, Maya and Paul. The weather was only mid-50's but the sun was out and the winds died down a bit - it was nice to get outside.

I did NOT feel like cooking tonight, so Jason brought home take-out. We were bad, bad, bad and decided to have chicken fingers from KFC. This was Paul's first chicken finger experience and he was thrilled. And for each piece of chicken that went into Paul's mouth, another ended up on the floor so Maya was thrilled as well.



Big sister watching over little P while he was crashed for his afternoon nap.

I LOVE my new Thomas the Train - thanks Katie P!

What's in the back of my truck? This is another big win from Katie P.....

Look, the kitty likes to play with my toys too!

Here kitty, kitty.....

Paul hasn't expressed much interest in his Scooby Doo chair yet, but Dylan sure made himself comfortable today.

We were all smiles in our pj's tonight.....these are the set that glow in the dark!

Much love from the finger lickin' good Marchik family!

Fun with spaghetti.......

Tonight was spaghetti night at the Marchik house.....and Paul's first experience with spaghetti noodles! It was an absolute hoot!! We all took turns with the dangling noodle picture.....

Here's Paul with a thoughtful look.....

And Maya with her tongue out......

And Rascal joined in as well (although he didn't get to eat his noodle).....

And here's daddy.....with Paul supervising in the background.....

And mommy got into the action too...sporting her ball cap today!

Dylan was sleeping in the back bathroom so he missed all the fun!

Here's Paul in full noodle action......

Much love from the noodle slurping Marchik family!