We decided to crash the Holt picnic at the zoo today.....I was convinced when I heard how many of our friends - real and virtual - were coming. So even though we aren't a Holt family, we decided to go and enjoy the day with fellow Korean adoptive families. We met up with two families that we spent time with at KAMP back in August to run around the zoo before heading to the pavilion for lunch. Lots of cuteness in the dino eggs....
Hanging with the wallaby photo op.
Showing fierce climbing skills.
Hey mom, I climbed a rock.
Feeding the ducks and koi fish.
And then we fed the goats....and llamas......
Our super fun group for the day.....minus me and Vince who were snapping the pictures. The kids had a great time together and we will most definitely get back together with these fun families.
Our learning center held their annual family picnic on Friday night....it was beautiful weather so we headed to check it out. First I might mention why we love this learning center so much. It is where Paul attended before heading to elementary school and is where Lillie attends now. On Friday when we had a scheduling issue, they graciously welcomed both Paul and Lillie come to hang out for a few hours to fill the gap....at no charge. They are like an extension of family. When I picked them up on Friday afternoon, we ran into Paul's friend Dean and were excited to find out his family was coming to the picnic too.....and then we got there at the same time. So we raced to catch up....
And they let the kids share the bread for the ducks.
After the feeding of the ducks and some fun on the playground, we headed in for dinner and some other fun. One of the highlights is always the balloon animal makers. Paul selected a balloon ball in Hawkeye colors.
Lillie chose a pink ninja....
And then the balloon ball turned into a weird mask like thing.
This year the new fun was the addition of a DJ. It was complete chaos but the kids loved it. Paul ran around with the boys and Lillie decided to bust a move. If you are a Seinfeld fan, her dancing skills look a lot like Elaine. Hilarious.
We were "lucky" to be blessed with the hand, foot and mouth virus this week. Paul likely picked it up from school and started to feel cruddy on Tuesday but we didn't really realize what was going on until Tuesday at dinner. He spiked up a fever and has some nasty sores in his mouth that made eating a horrible thing. We put him to bed knowing he wasn't going to school the next day - he woke up with sores on his hands and his feet. He even ended up with sores on his bottom which I didn't even know was possible until our pediatrician warned me that it could happen. This was clearly a very strong strain of the virus - much stronger then he has ever had it. He ended up staying home on Wednesday and Thursday while having lots of juice and popsicles and yogurt smoothies. He was spoiled with lots of movies and games with daddy. Still had a sore mouth on Friday but was ready to head back to school. And no surprise when Lillie started to complain about her mouth hurting on Friday evening. She has only had a few sores on her hands with nothing on her feet. Thus far, she appears to be fighting it off a bit better than Paul. But it is NO fun for both of them to struggle finding things they can eat. We were in survival mode for the weekend - no big plans which worked out well. Lazy morning with some hot chocolate for the Little Ladybug. She was excited for that treat and it clearly made her mouth and throat feel a tad better!
The weather was great so we spent some time outside since a little natural vitamin D never hurt anyone when they aren't feeling well. The kids wanted to go to the park so we grabbed the bikes and took a ride. The park seemed to take their minds off that annoying virus. We got plenty of smiles.
Our kids obssess about the swings. And Lillie left her helmet on the whole time. I guess she was being super duper safe!
Our new church being built....will be less than a mile from our house and we can't wait!
I love to listen to her laugh.....
A running start to make it up the steep slide.
Big girl on the monkey bars. She made it to the second one by herself and then needed help. She is STRONG.
It didn't take long for another adult tooth to start poking up behind his string of baby teeth....and another baby tooth to get wiggly enough to want to come out. And once again, mommy dug deep and made that tooth come out of there! Paul was thrilled of course and anxiously anticipated the Tooth Fairy's visit.
He asked if he could write the Tooth Fairy a note....and it was so sweet. "Can I keep my tooth? Thanks for the money. What time do you come? Love, Paul". Short, sweet and to the point.
The Tooth Fairy wrote him another note....and politely explained that he couldn't keep his tooth (because really why does he need his nasty little tooth anyway). She supplied him with a $1 coin (used to be a silver dollar and now it is a gold color - who knew?!). He said he got up at 4:00 to check for his letter and money and then went back to bed - I don't doubt that he did.
No additional loose teeth at this point so the Tooth Fairy might get a little break in the action.
Hard to believe that we are sending our 7th package to Peter. It has been 266 days since we saw his face for the first time. We wanted to make sure that his second birthday presents arrived in plenty of time for his birthday so we sent them for his September visit to Eastern. The package was a little fatter than normal but the traveling family gave us a little leeway since it was a birthday package! In keeping with our Midwestern locale, we chose a John Deere tractor theme. The perfect plastic trucks with movable scooper and dumper. These can go in the tub or outside. And these are the culprits for the fat package!
A glow in the dark book.....lots of tractors in there!
The custom t-shirt that we had made specially for our special boy....including his Korean name and his American name!
Not completely John Deere tractor but a cute outfit nonetheless.
And finally a tractor balloon. It came in a two-pack so we kept one and will use it for our Peter party in October.
All packed up and then shipped off to Florida.
This package is certainly bittersweet....but we knew he wouldn't be home for his second birthday so it comes as no surprise. We can only hope that he can feel how much he is loved from clear across the ocean! I am certain his foster family will help him celebrate like a proper 2 year old should! We hope that we are at least halfway through our waiting process but it is so hard to tell. We can only pray that things start to speed up a bit. We have done everything that we can from the US side and are just waiting on the Korean Ministry of Health to keep moving forward with processing of Emigration Permits. Let's get moving Ministry!
We were fortunate to receive a few special emails over the last week. The first was the answer to our prayers - a response to the letter we wrote to Peter's first foster family. We are so thankful they took a moment to review it and respond to it. We still don't know if we will get any photos or other memory box items from the year he lived with them but we tried as hard as we could to get whatever information we could. We had received some sneaky photos of our little man back on August 28th from another family that was visiting Eastern when he was there. It was so much fun to see his face - the first time we saw a photo since he changed foster families. He looked healthy and happy.....and the family that snapped the pictures told us that their older son played with Peter for about 15 minutes and he was giggling the whole time. Bless! And then last week we received the more official pictures and updated statistics. So we ended up with 3 more pictures and got the following key stats from his 22 month checkup: - Almost 30 pounds - A whopping 34 inches tall - 12 teeth total (6 on top and 6 on bottom) To put in perspective, Paul and Lillie were about 29 pounds and 34 inches when they were 24 months old! He's a big boy for sure! And then to round out the fun, we received an actual developmental report. Here are some of the highlights from that report: - Still taking formula 3 times per day (pretty culturally normal) - Likes rice, seaweed, bananas, grapes and both bean sprout and soybean paste soup - Sleeping at night from 10pm to 6am with a short nap during the day - Walks well and runs - Walks up and down stairs - Kicks a ball - Goes up and down a slide - Holds a crayon - Builds a tower from 4-6 blocks - Activates mechanical toy - Matches object to picture - Helps put things away - Imitates housework - Comforts others when they are distressed
In the absence of having him home with us, this is the next best thing. We did just received hard copy photos of Peter with his new foster mother. Nice to see her sweet face but hard because he was clearly crying in the picture. Hard to know if he was crying because he had just said goodbye to his first foster family or maybe because he had just come from the clinic or maybe both. Regardless, it made me sad to see his puffy eyes and sad face. We will continue to pray for his little heart.
We were so thrilled to head to Cedar Falls to attend Jessica's wedding. She and Kurt were engaged earlier this year and planned this wonderful event in 5 short months. They have both waited for their true love and it was awesome to see them come together as husband and wife. The weather was sketchy but Jessica really wanted to have the ceremony outside at the wedding venue.....and so she did.....and it turned out perfectly. Jason and I sat in the back row so we had the perfect view of the beautiful bride heading out with her dad.
A beautiful setting.....even with the cloudy skies and threatening rain.
The bride and groom in the receiving line.....I think I caught Kurt mid-sentence!
Ready for a party!
And here are the fun folks we got to spend the evening with......
The entire group from our college house at 1024 West 3rd.....not everyone lived there at the same time but we all have a crazy landlord and a fun house in common!
Jason and I made it until about midnight before calling it quits.....our view as we drove out of the parking lot.
Since the kids were hanging with Gram and Pa back at our house, we had planned to stay an extra night to give ourselves a little adults only time. We took our bikes and after we slept in a bit, we headed our for a fun ride. Here are the smiles before we hit the trail.
Cedar Falls has such a great trail system. We chose a nice path through George Wyth State Park.
At one point we chose an "alternate" path that was a little bit of off-roading.
Here is a view from our lunch spot.....a nice calm lake.
Still smiling.....although I had to take my sweatshirt off at that point (it was chilly when we started out but got warm as the morning went along).
Time to finish up our ride....the bikes were calling.
We only ended up riding a little over 6 miles......we made several stops to "check out the scenery".....or possibly because I was getting tired and needed to rest! We had a nice time just checking it all out and spending time together. Still smiling at the end....but a bit sweatier and ready for a shower!
We went to a late afternoon movie and then a nice dinner out. Another quiet night in the hotel and a late sleeping morning before we packed up, grabbed breakfast and hit the road for home. What a fun weekend! Thanks to Gram and Pa for watching the kids! And a big congratulations to Jessica and Kurt on their marriage.....thanks for letting us be a part of it.
I cannot tell you how ready we were for Paul to lose his first tooth. It seems like every single one of his friends have lost at least one tooth and some have lost several. He has been obsessed with losing a tooth for months and months. Our last visit to the dentist confirmed that the later you lose teeth the better and it means his adult teeth will likely be strong. We also found out that two of his lower teeth were a little loose and the dentist thought he would lose at least one of them before he returned for his next 6 month appointment. This only fueled the fire of our tooth obsessed little man. About a week or two ago, one of the teeth the dentist had pointed out started to get wiggly. And once again, we heard nonstop about that wiggly tooth. Constant wiggling with his tongue and his fingers. The last two days have been nothing but talk about teeth, the Tooth Fairy, etc, etc. And finally right before bed tonight I was able to pull that darn thing. The irony is that while both Jason and I have our strengths (he is good with puke, I am good with the other end)....neither of us are good with teeth. Jason tried to pull it last night but it wouldn't come out easily. After another day of Paul messing with it, I was able to get that sucker out! Paul was surprised and then super excited. Sidenote - his new adult tooth has already been growing in BEHIND his baby teeth. We have been assured this isn't unusual and have been calling it his shark tooth. So, we rushed downstairs to take pictures.....SO happy to have a gap up front now!
Closer shot of the gap and the adult tooth behind the gap.
The tooth.....
He can't wait to see what the tooth fairy brings!
This was so cute - he asked if he could take his own pictures of his tooth and the gap in his mouth on his Nintendo DS. Here is his selfie.
Back upstairs to brush his teeth.
With his Tooth Fairy pillow - thanks Mimi!
The Tooth Fairy pillow has to be set RIGHT by the door to make it easier on his parents.....er, I mean the Tooth Fairy.
Once he was put to bed, I ran downstairs to see what kind of cash we had on hand. Pretty sad that we knew this was coming and the smallest bill we have in the house is a $20. Good grief! So Paul will be getting this note and cash tomorrow morning when he wakes up.
And this is what a kid who just lost his first tooth looks like about 15 minutes after he is put in bed. Crashed out!
I can't wait to sneak in later tonight and then see his face in the morning. Glad to have this milestone under our belts!
