More holiday cheer....

Tonight was round two of the decorating extravaganza! After dinner tonight, we spent an hour or so putting ornaments on the living room tree.....the unbreakables on the bottom and my more special ones at the top. Paul was such a little helper and had so much fun!

Putting his new favorite ornament (a random red heart) on the tree.

Making it all perfect....."right there momma!"

And the view from the kitchen sink - the perfect nook to decorate in the kitchen.

Did I mention how much fun we are having decorating this year?!?!

The making of a Winter Wonderland

Since this is our first Christmas in the new house, we have both been pretty excited to think about where all of our decorations will go. We tend to go a bit overboard with trees and this year is no exception....there have been 3 more added to our collection. Jason really wanted to put a tree up on the ledge in our foyer and the one tree that he originally wanted turned into three.....and that's just how it goes around here. So today was the big day to start the decorating.


Step 1 - get the digital timer setup and calibrated. CHECK!

Get tree number 1 up and plugged in. CHECK!

All three trees up - almost done.....

And the finished product.....Paul was thrilled....and it looks pretty cool from outside as well. If I get really adventurous, I might just wrap some empty boxes to put under the trees.

Oh, and by the way.....this momma is seriously afraid of heights, but I was the one hauling the pieces of the tree up the darn extension ladder while Jason stayed up there to assemble it all. Keep in mind the ledge is about 2 feet deep so there isn't much room to maneuver up there. All in all, I am pleased with the outcome but we are both pooped out. We managed to get these trees up as well as the 3 foot foyer tree and the 6 foot tree in the living room (not yet decorated though). The 7-1/2 footer for the family room will go up this week and the rest of the decorations will be done soon as well. It is certainly exciting to get prepared for the Christmas season!

Paul got a special Tonka truck ornament today and had to put it on the tree himself. It only moved about 12 times after he put it on - we'll see where it ends up!

Getting ready to head to bed....long weekend that was fun-filled but exhausting!

Thanksgiving weekend - the food and the fun!

What a fun-filled weekend we had....and we certainly have plenty to be thankful for. We spent several days back in the QC with our days seemingly focused on food, food and more food. We were fortunate to have Uncle Chris to play turkey chef - he grilled our turkey with a little apple wood to boot......oh and did I mention that it was covered in bacon?!? Delish!

The before.....
And the after.....is your mouth watering?

In the midst of all of the cooking and preparing, etc. we had a pie incident. One of Auntie Jen's dogs took a lick out of one of the pies - needless to say, it became HER piece of pie! We all got a great laugh.

Paul was in a great mood for most of the weekend which always impresses me - totally out of routine, sleeping in a different place and lots of faces and things to do. Here's our happy boy playing with a Winnie the Pooh treehouse that I played with when I was younger.

There was so much choo-choo playing this weekend - it's always a hit and Paul was in fine form.

We broke out the turkey hats again this year....thanks to Mimi for our Thanksgiving fun! Here's our little turkey head......

Mommy and the turkey head.....and with his new Cars cup.......

Three turkey heads....

And a turkey head carving the turkey.......

Cheers Gran Jo!

On Friday evening, we decided to hit the local Korean restaurant. We really miss this place since we have moved. We have yet to find a good Korean place in the DM area. Paul had a great time watching the chef through the window. He was really showing off for Paul and the little man was loving every minute. Check out the FIRE!

Hey momma, check out my fortune cookie.....we all got great fortunes!

On the way back to Gram and Pa's house, we had to stop for Whitey's ice cream which is a QC favorite and we miss it for sure. Paul got his favorite "pink"...he doesn't realize its a color and not a flavor but we go with it. He also has his own Thanksgiving message for you too.....

Saturday brought a trip to the John Deere Pavilion to climb on the tractors which is always a hit! They had their Christmas trees up and we caught a nice picture of Paul with Gram and Pa.

Where does the key go momma?

Waiting his turn....such a patient little man.

Riding the Gator - this has to be his favorite. Notice that he is all buckled in!

Gotta love the Big Green tractor.

Playing with an interactive game with daddy.

We headed home this afternoon and had a pretty low key dinner (leftovers of course) and then a bath and some Dora watching. I picked up a fabric Christmas tree for Paul's room - I wanted something that he couldn't completely destroy and that didn't plug in or light up. I got a great deal and he seemed happy with his new tree.

The sign of a great weekend.....and clearly someone was so tired he fell asleep within 10 minutes on the road....with his sunglasses on....monkey in one hand and cars in the other. I think they call that Heaven in the eyes of a 2 year old.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We certainly feel very thankful to have spent so much time with our family....oh, and the food wasn't too bad either!!

Random thoughts from Paul's momma

This blog has many purposes - it's not only a great way to keep in touch with our friends and family and give you all a peek into our family life but it is also a wonderful way for us to document and maintain all of our precious memories. As a full-time working momma, I do not have time (or the patience) to scrapbook or make something clever and artsy to commemorate all of the special (and not-so-special days). Instead, I find it easiest to bang out a blog post, upload a few pictures and videos and use this blog as the Marchik scrapbook.

Our posts are typically uplifting and light, but one of my ramblings for today is a little more serious. You see, the news of world hits much closer to home since we have a son who was born halfway across the world. When I arrived at work this morning and checked the morning headlines, I was very disappointed to see that tempers have flared and skirmishes have escalated on the Korean peninsula. Several years ago, I might have seen the headline and quickly scanned the article before moving along to the next....but that was several years ago. Now, I have a connection to this far away land. My son was born there. His birthmother lives there. His foster family (omma and appa) live there. My daughter will be born there. Bottom line is we have a lot of very important people in our lives that have a strong connection to this beautiful country. So when I read that North Korean had attacked a small South Korean island and there were deaths and injuries of both South Korean military and civilians, I wanted to cry. The war that never ended is sadly rearing its ugliness again. It happens from time to time. I remember when we were getting ready to travel to bring Paul home, the North Koreans decided to do a little missile testing. Bottom line is that the situation between the North and South is very tense and unstable. There is much speculation about what will come of today's events and whether this could turn back into a full blown war. I pray for the Koreans that died or were injured today. I pray for the people that we love in South Korea that might feel unsafe today. I pray that Paul will be able to return to his home country and see the beauty that we saw when we visited. Most of all, I pray that cooler heads will prevail and the latest skirmish will be yet one more blip on the radar rather than the beginning of something much worse.


We have been anxiously awaiting this holiday week. We have so very much to be thankful for and are really looking forward to spending the holiday with family and friends. Thanksgiving is such an overlooked holiday - people move straight from Halloween to Christmas and forget about this little innocuous holiday in the middle. Now, that's not to say that we aren't also getting geared up for Christmas, but we certainly like to eat a little turkey and cornbread dressing before we start thinking about peppermint sticks and hot chocolate.


I am not sure why, but last Christmas I did not bother to get everyone matching personalized stockings. We used the hodge podge that we had and I think we were so darn thankful to have our son home with us for our first family Christmas....things like stockings didn't really matter. This year, I was on a mission to remedy this issue. I found these precious stockings - each with its own jingle bell - and had them personalized. Paul even picked his own from the list of choices and selected a reindeer. Daddy had to be Santa - there really is no other choice! I picked the nutcracker because I thought he was super cute. The stockings arrived today and I just have to share! I am in love with these and cannot wait to hang them on the mantle as soon as we decide to decorate the house.


You might have noticed a 4th stocking without a name. Some of you may know and some of you may not that we are in the process of adopting our second child. We have been on the list waiting for a girl for one year now. It's amazing how much faster that time went this time around since we have Paul to keep us entertained. It certainly doesn't make the wait any shorter, but the distraction is certainly nice. We are slowly working our way through the homestudy process - we are in no rush because we know we still have some time before we are close enough to get excited about a referral. I did confirm today that we are in the top 10 on the girl list. We have been blessed to see many of our adoption friends receiving little boy referrals of late. I can't tell you how beautiful it is to see the cute little faces of the children in the famous red chair. The only thing more beautiful will be the sight of our daughter sitting in that same chair.


So, until that time, she has a Christmas stocking to match and we will have it personalized as soon as we know what her name will be.

Here's hoping that you all have a fun and food filled Thanksgiving.

Inaugural chili night!

It's that time of year when the weather turns colder and we get an hankering for some chili.....today was the day and it was Paul's first chili experience. I am not sure he loved the chili, but we was quite pleased with the corn muffins that go along with chili in the Marchik house.

First bite......Loving the corn muffin!

After dinner, Paul got some fun "naked" time. Every time we undress him, he has to announce "I naked!"...it's too cute. He was naked train conductor with the whistle in his mouth the whole time.

As we were wrapping up the massive cleanup efforts after dinner, Paul decided that he needed to feed Maya....he's such a helper like that! So he went to the cabinet and grabbed her food container all on his own. Smart little man knew all of the appropriate steps.....

Step 1 - pull the measuring cup off the top.

Step 2 - attempt to pour food into said measuring cup.

Step 3 - dump the food into Maya's bowl. You will notice that it took him several tries to get it into the correct bowl - the first try landed in her water bowl which is not a good mix.

We found out the reason that Paul gets so much of what he wants....in his words, it's because "I'm cute"!!!

Oh, and we are now on a first name basis with our kid.

Japchae and somersaults!

Life just seems to spin faster and faster these days and I don't imagine things will slow down now that we are headed into the holidays. This past week was a busy one and I had two business dinners this week. I typically try to limit them to one per week because it means that I miss so much Paul time but this just couldn't be avoided. So on Friday, we decided to head out for dinner - just the 3 of us - to a Korean place that got good reviews. It was a little bit of a drive and while the food was good, it wasn't quite as good as the Korean place back in the QC. We definitely miss that place since we've moved and we haven't been able to find a Korean place to fill the void! We did have a fun dinner and then grabbed some ice cream before heading home.


Like a baby bird.....the little man was digging the soup! I think you can almost see his epiglottis in this picture......
Checking out his japchae noodles....and the remnants of the rest of the meal.....

We had ordered mandu as an appetizer which came with small dishes of soy sauce. Paul just LOVES to dip everything so he decided to start dipping his noodles in the soy sauce. Not a big deal since there is soy in the japchae to start with......but then the boy decided to take a swig of his soy sauce. I was so stunned that I couldn't even react and instead just had to laugh. I can't imagine drinking a shot of soy sauce, but based on his smile we think he clearly enjoyed it. Here's some great noodle slurping and the now infamous soy shot all caught on video.....

We had a little incident after dinner - and by "we", I mean Paul. It resulted in some foul pants, a cold diaper change in the back of the car and a ride home with the heater blasting because someone had to ride without pants! Here's the look he was rocking when we got home. Goofball!

We spent some time playing choo-choos this morning. I swear it just never gets old around here. The conductor had his whistle out and was directing the choo-choo traffic!

Paul has just started to embrace the somersault.....and he's pretty darn good at them. Here's the before shot.....

And after.....pure joy!

And the video to prove how much fun he is having....our little tumbler is pretty stinkin' cute!

Fun with playdough!!

We got a little artistic today with 2 projects....the first is a little something that each kid in Paul's class was asked to do (more on this later).....the second is getting our groove on with a little playdough. We typically don't do messy projects in our house because let's face it.....I am a bit OCD about messes. But, I threw caution to the wind and brought home some playdough for the little man. I figured that after the whole time change thing had totally screwed up his schedule, the least I could do was get him something fun to play with, right?!?

Clearly he was intent on watching me squeeze green "hair".....which later became green "boogers" but I am not sharing that photo!

Big boy squeezing his own red snake.....

I made a green snowman.....

And then Paul SQUASHED it....and check out the pure joy on his face while squashing my masterpiece!

It appears that a nap might not be in his future today - he's been up there messing around for about 90 minutes now. He's perfectly content, but chances are good that his room will be a complete wreck when we go in there. The time change really does mess up all semblance of our schedule - it's just an hour, but it doesn't seem to matter.