You've got mail.....

......or UPS to be exact! I have wanted to order a certain something from Pottery Barn for quite some time, but have shown restraint....until it went on sale and then I just couldn't help myself! When we arrived home, this HUGE box was on the front step.

Mommy, I don't know what's in here, but I like the look of such a big box!
Mommy, don't worry, I can get this thing open......

Wow, I still don't know what this is, but it has my name on it!

After a little assembly, someone got to climb on in and check out his new monogrammed chair! He was spelling his name for me.....cute!

Cheese!

Aaagggghhhh.......relaxation!

I am super excited for my purchase.....his fancy new red chair looks great in the living room with OUR red chairs. I must admit, the large size of the chair was a bit larger than I had pictured.....but it will fit him for a while and it is so darn cute! Not sure where we might fit one for Miss Lillie, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Much to be thankful for....

We had the great pleasure of spending a couple of days with our family to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. We are definitely blessed that we can combine family celebrations and avoid having to rush between two separate dinners. I didn't take many pictures this year as I must have been having too much fun actually participating in the activities of the day.

Paul was quite the helper this year - he took my favorite job from my childhood and helped make the cornbread stuffing. It was cute to watch him help with this dish since I have such vivid memories of it always being my job! First up is the crumbling of the cornbread......he took his job VERY seriously.
Then he had to stir in the celery and onion.....and eventually the bread pieces......

In the midst of the cooking, the Fresh Beat Band came on the Macy's parade and he had to rush over to check them out. He really likes the FBB so we might have to look at buying him a CD or DVD with their music as a stocking stuffer.

Later, he got to help GranJo un-mold the orange jello. He loves, loves, loves this orange jello recipe.....and what's not to love - it has mandarin oranges and orange sherbet mixed in with the orange jello packet. A family tradition for sure.

First we have to test the water to make sure it isn't too hot or too cold.

And then we soak the pan for just the right amount of time.....and then GranJo flipped it out of the mold like a champ. Can you tell how excited Paul was to see his beloved orange jello?!?

We had just started eating our meal and Paul decided he was tired and wanted to lay down for a nap - can't really blame him since he had been playing all day with no rest. With a house full of people (and dogs), the best place to put Paul so he couldn't get into trouble was the hallway. We pulled out a cushion and he quieted down for just a few minutes.

The weather was so nice and unusually warm for a Midwest Thanksgiving so on Friday we headed to the park. We still bundled him up because it was windy and we had all been sick the week before. We had a lot of fun for the first 15 minutes or so......

Our fun was cut short by an unfortunate fall....GranJo was playing with Paul and took a bad spill. We thought she might have broken her ankle so the guys carried her to the car and we took her to the emergency room. While we were waiting, we noticed that Paul's eye which has been slightly pink that morning (we thought maybe he had just poked himself) was now turning into a firey red. Since we were at the hospital and knew we would be there for a little while, I walked Paul down to the pediatric group to see if they could squeeze us in. Turns out that Paul had a sinus infection and it had spread into his eye. Doctor prescribed both an oral antibiotic as well as antibiotic eye drops. We spent about 3 hours at the hospital and walked out with Paul's prescriptions and a hobbling GranJo. Turns out that she didn't break her ankle but just had a very bad sprain - an ankle brace and crutches along with a few prescriptions and off she went.

The irony of it all - we put Paul in his Trinity sweatshirt that morning not knowing we would be spending the day at the hospital. But, I am proud that they treated us all so well. Here's Paul waiting for the pediatrician - can you tell he just got a drink at the drinking fountain?

Paul really wanted to help GranJo use her crutches.....

We headed back home midday on Saturday which was good since I woke up with a super sore throat on Saturday morning - it got progressively worse as the day went on so I was glad to be home. After a terrible night, I woke up Sunday knowing something was really wrong. I ran into a walk-in clinic and was quickly diagnosed with strep throat. I just can't make all of this up....we were destined to be medically challenged this weekend. Since I was contagious until at least 24 hours of antibiotics, I worked from home today. There is something to be said for working in your jammies! Paul and I will continue to faithfully take our amoxicillin - his is yummy bubble gum flavored liquid and mine is a caplet. Hopefully we will all be on the mend very soon.....

Even with all of the health issues, we still had a great Thanksgiving holiday and enjoyed our time with family. Hard to imagine that we will likely have another little one running around at Thanksgiving next year. I find myself having that thought a lot these days - so many likely lasts of celebrations with just one child in tow. Fun to think about what the next year will bring.

Happy Feet!

One of the "extra" programs that they offer at Paul's school is called Happy Feet. It is a soccer program that teaches the basics of soccer, team work and overall fun! Of course they come to the school for a few weeks of free classes so the kids can whine to their parents how much they love Happy Feet and the parents feel obligated to enroll the child and shell out a little more money! That sounded pretty negative and I certainly don't mean to be about this particular class....but there are lots of other opportunities just like it to add lots of money to you already expensive child care tab if you so choose. Of course Paul fell in love with the program and would come home each Wednesday talking incessantly about Happy Feet. We plan to put him into a soccer program next year and since he seemed so thrilled with the class, we decided to enroll him on an ongoing basis. It is nice that they go directly to the school during school hours which makes is very convenient for the parents.

I have always wondered how a Happy Feet class would go - how on earth could a coach keep handful of 2 to 4 year olds focused long enough to learn anything?!?! I had a great opportunity to sit in on Paul's class today - I was working from home this morning and decided to run over to his school to check it out. When I arrived in his classroom, his teachers informed me that he had been anxiously awaiting my arrival - which means he had been telling EVERYONE that mommy was coming to see his Happy Feet class today. I am sure they really enjoyed hearing it over and over! We went into the room they were using for his class and he very politely introduced me to Coach Chris. He is from Scotland and has a thick accent - the kids seem to love him but I am not sure they can always completely understand what he says!

The premise of the Happy Feet program is the ball - they call him Bob the Bobcat. All of the activities are focused on Bob. It really is very well done - I was quite impressed! I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible so I didn't interrupt the class...but of course I had to snap some pics! Some are a little blurry since they were really moving around and I didn't want to use the flash. Let's walk through a class of Happy Feet.......


The kids knew right where to sit and what to do to start the class. Coach Chris went through roll call and explained that the kids would get their special Happy Feet stamp if they listened through the whole class. Paul was clearly paying attention - not so sure about his friend sitting next to him!

Then it was time to take a journey to a far away land. Coach Chris asked the kids where they wanted to go - one kid said he wanted to go in a cage (incredible little minds, right?).....Paul said he wanted to go pick up his baby sister in Korea......insert SIGH and a melting momma's heart at this point. It was too cute and he was clearly proud of himself for saying it. The other kids didn't have much to add. So, they took off like airplanes on their journey.

Once they arrived, it was time to pick some apples and put them in a bag for Bob to eat. I only caught the tail end of it, but here is a short video of them wrapping up the apple picking (and counting lesson at the same time).

Once the apples were all picked, it was time to bring out a Bob the Bobcat for each child. They are cute little soccer balls with a smiley face on them. Paul immediately assumed the "tame Bob" position which is to rest your foot on him. He looks just like Coach Chris!
Then they had all sorts of fun touching various body parts to Bob.....this is a picture of them touching their noses to Bob (sorry for the picture of your backside in the air Coach Chris).

Proud Bobcat tamer!

They played red/yellow/green light with their balls - this was to teach control (which they had very little of) and listening. He set up orange cones which were carrots for Bob and the kids had to kick their balls to knock down the carrots. Everything was very cleverly done in a purposeful way.

The 30 minute class went very fast! At the end, they all have to show Coach Chris their strong soccer muscles and their fast soccer feet.....and then he gives out the hand stamps. Each child gets their hand stamps and then has to give Coach Chris a high five as hard as they can. They all crack up as each other are slapping Coach Chris' hand. It was too fun.

I am so happy I decided to pop in for the class today - it was so cute and so nicely done that we will most definitely be keeping Paul in Happy Feet for some time to come.....and since their website allows you to order your very own Bob the Bobcat, I think it might just go on Santa's list this year!

Strike!

So the little boy who was so terribly frightened of Santa in prior years is now officially obsessed with the big guy. He talks about Santa ALL THE TIME. The Santa visiting counter is now up to 3 and we are still almost a week before Thanksgiving....I can only imagine what the count will be by the time Christmas rolls around.

Today was the 3rd visit to Santa in a week's time. The local Bass Pro Shop has a cool Christmas setup and offers free photos with Santa. So, we headed out for a little Christmas cheer (alas, begrudgingly before Thanksgiving). Paul had a nice chat with Santa....and we got our free 4x6 photo (and snapped a few ourselves). Another tease - I am sticking by my rule to keep the Christmas photos under sequester until at least we hit December.

They have a restaurant at the complex called Uncle Buck's Fish Bowl.....it's a casual restaurant that has a bowling alley inside. We've never taken Paul bowling before so we promised him a round if he ate a good lunch.....which luckily he did!

Hey daddy, check out my cool bowling shoes!
This is a pretty hi-tech bowling alley - it programs the bumper rails based on each player and they have the ramp for kids to use as well. Paul had lots of fun and even carried his own 6 pound ball and put it on the ramp.

After each roll of his ball, he would rush back to the shark mouth to wait for his ball to return.

Here's our final score.....Jason didn't bowl and Paul decided not to bowl his 10th frame for some reason. I must admit, I was glad to have scored higher than my 3-1/2 year old! He did pretty well for his first time.....although the bumpers and ramp certainly help.

It was a fun day and now Paul is watching Frosty the Snowman.....it's cute that he loves the old school holiday cartoons.

Take 3....a success!

This will be a little bit of a tease since I am not sharing pictures, but I just have to share the story of the day.

For the last 2 years that Paul has been home, he has been completely and utterly afraid of Santa (and the Easter Bunny for that matter). We never pushed it and forced him to sit on Santa's lap but gave him plenty of opportunities if he wanted to take them. Nope, not one time did he want to get within 100 feet of the big guy.....that is until THIS year. On Friday, daddy and Paul were at the mall and saw that they had setup the Santa train (never been afraid of that, of course) and Santa's workshop area. It wasn't open yet, but it was there.....yeah, like 2 weeks before Thanksgiving, lovely.

So today, Paul woke up and wanted to go to the mall to see Santa. Like wouldn't stop talking about it and there was no way that we couldn't go to the mall today. So, we played along and put Paul in a cute outfit and headed to the mall. I must admit, I thought this would be a big tease and in the end he wouldn't want to sit on Santa's lap and instead would just ride the train and we would be done. Of course there was no line when we arrived - it is 2 weeks before Thanksgiving for heaven's sake and no one really needs or wants their picture taken with Santa THIS early! Paul marched through the little scene they had setup and played with some electronic books and then walked right up to Santa and climbed right up on his lap. No joke. I had the camera out and got plenty of cute pictures.....and the whole time I had tears in my eyes. I don't know why it meant so much to me to finally see him sitting on Santa's lap, but it certainly did. Paul hung out with Santa for a few minutes and then reached up and gave him a big hug.......and yes, I had a tear running down my cheek.

Paul was pumped for his Santa visit and then was super excited to ride the train for the first time this year.....the first of many I am sure. Annoyingly, they have doubled the price of the train ride from $1 to $2.....wouldn't be a big deal, but Paul loves to ride that train and it was always so nice to let him ride a few times whenever he visited the mall (usually once per week). This might just break us! HA!

Can't wait to share some of the photos but you will have to hold tight until it is at least after Thanksgiving!

Bee Bim Bop, Mandu and Boo Boos

Someone took a header into a nightstand while playing hide and seek this morning....pretty pathetic. I know it smarted - right on the bridge of his nose. We got him calmed down and applied his Elmo Boo Boo Buddy......
....and then a Spiderman bandaid to make him feel better. Has anyone tried to apply a bandaid to the bride of a little boy's nose? Not easy.

We pulled out all the stops today and decided to have bee bim bop and handmade mandu. Tastes good but is a LOT of work....and dirty dishes.

Jason likes his with sriracha....hot, hot, hot!

And my labor of love.....handmade mandu. Looks weird in the picture, but tasted darn good.

Hey mommy, I love bee bim bop!

And for dessert.....no, nothing Korean....some good old fashioned apple crisp. Paul "helped" me make this one too - and by help, I mean he ate slices of apple as I cut them up.

We spent part of the weekend celebrating a belated anniversary/birthdays in Galena. Paul hung out with the grandparents and mommy and daddy got some adult only time. On the way back, Paul was so pooped out that he slept the entire ride back in the car. I couldn't help myself when I peeked in the backseat and saw him using his lion as a pillow. Hilarious.
One of Paul's favorite songs has always been Wheels on the Bus....he can sing it all by himself now and we caught him in the act tonight. He wasn't quite on his game tonight as we had to prompt him a bit......funny nonetheless.

Updates rule!

We are so excited to have received an update on our sweet Lillie today. I opened up my email after having sent a check-in email to our social worker this morning.....and there it was! Here are some highlights:

- She weighs 22 pounds and is 30 inches tall
- She has 4 teeth...2 on top and 2 on bottom
- She is saying 4 Korean words....mom, dad, food and piggy back ride (not unusual since her foster mom likely carriers her on her back)
- She is cruising but not walking unassisted yet
- She is eating and sleeping well
- She is learning to drink from a cup
- She picked the stethoscope at her Dol

They indicate that pictures from her Dol will be sent by mail....more anticipation!! Isn't it amazing how an email can change your entire day.