It was a super low key Valentine's Day this year. Paul and Lillie had their parties at school last week - they decorated their bags at school which meant no craftiness needed at home. We decided to have our family Valentine's dinner out on Friday so we headed to Waterfront for some yummy sushi, soup and shrimp. It was miso soup all around for the kids.
Saturday brought basketball and Paul's pick for dinner. Ribs, noodles, potatoes and peas. Very similar to last year's Valentine's dinner which is funny. Sunday brought cold and snowy weather so we stayed inside! Lots of hanging out, watching movies and playing. Lillie picked dinner tonight so we had spaghetti and meatballs! Before dinner, we had to open all of our Valentine's Day fun stuff from GranJo and Auntie Jen. Lots of good stuff and plenty of smiles.
We ate our yummy dinner and then we each selected our favorite flavor from the Dairy Queen ice cream "cake" that Paul picked out. The kids were thrilled.
Happy to have spent the weekend with the family and sort of glad it was low key this year.
Last weekend brought this momma a whole lot of sickness which meant we didn't get a chance to get the kids decked out in their hanboks. So we made up for it today - a mere week late but who's counting? They clean-up pretty nice I think! Lillie and Peter are wearing the hanboks their foster moms gave us. Paul's is the same style and colors as the original hanbok his foster mom sent home. Love the tie back to our Korean families.
Getting to be such a big kid these days.
Our beautiful princess.
The sweet baby of the group.
There was some fun dancing......
And then it was time for our saebae bows. The kids wish their parents happy new year in Korean and then bow. Afterwards they receive money. Not a bad deal for anyone. Paul wanted to finish up as quickly as possible.
Lillie needs to practice a little more but she looks so sweet.
Peter clearly had practice from his time in Korea. He needed a little help with the words but he has great bowing skills.
I was going through basketball withdrawal after missing a few weeks of Paul's games. Today also happened to be picture day so I also wanted to oversee the picture portion of the day! His team was hanging out in the photography area waiting for the rest of the players to arrive. Lots of laughter and smiles.
Honestly, this was NOT a good game for Paul or his team. They just didn't look good today. But they had fun and I saw lots of smiles so I guess that is more important. Lots of concentration during pre-game practice and skill building.
They had a team meeting to talk a little strategy.
Pick me, pick me.....to be team captain today.
Paul was one of the lucky ones chosen for team captain. He got to pick who took the ball first and which direction they wanted to shoot towards first.
Lots of enthusiasm! And great hustle today.
Here's Paul on defense...clearly annoying his opponent which is not a bad strategy.
Taking a break on the bench.
Goofing off with his buddy Chase.
I don't even know what to say about the look on his face.
Peter continues to transition pretty darned well. His language has really exploded and while we haven't counted lately, I have to think he is up to close to 45 words now. Amazing. He is putting lots of 3 and 4 word sentences together now too. Double Amazing. He just keeps surprising us! He continues to eat well and sleep well. He is in a great routine at night and now is a super great nap taker at home. For the first 6 weeks he was solely a car napper and Jason finally got him to nap in his own bed! Hooray! He continues to learn how to interact better and better with the other kids. There is minimal hitting and pushing now which is a welcome change. He still needs to work on his listening skills but he is a three year old boy so we don't have extremely high hopes there. Ha. We saw the neurologist today for follow-up. We had good conversation and decided as a team to try to wean Peter off one of his medications. There is one anti-seizure medication that has some not great side effects primarily as it relates to his liver. So we have a 6 week plan to transition to hopefully just one med! I am excited but also apprehensive. We are hopeful that things stay on track as we make these medication changes but also know that if they don't then we can always put him back on whatever he needs to stabilize again. Interestingly, he has dropped almost a pound since his last visit. Probably not such a bad thing since he was 95th percentile on the weight chart! I need to check but I think he might have grown a bit in height too. So there you go. That's where we are. Things are good and we hope they continue. He challenges us every single day but he also makes us laugh. Balance is good.
Each year I seem to fall into a hibernation state that starts in early January and lasts through sometime in February. I am bad at responding to emails or phone calls, I get lazy around the house and I fall off the blogger radar. It is like clockwork and I presume has something to do with the lead up to Christmas and then a natural response to shut down for a bit to recover. This year had the added complexity of that little detail about bringing home our third kid. We are busy. Like really busy. And it doesn't help that I have been sick for almost a week now too. I have frequent thoughts about needing to do this or that and then I just sort of push them to the side and move along with the busyness. But here I am watching the results of the New Hampshire primary and downloading and uploading pictures and videos. So for now I am rising about my hibernation. I can't promise I will sustain it but let's all just enjoy that I am typing now! And here begins the randomness of our lives over the last several weeks. These kids love to dress up and act goofy.
Paul and I headed to his school for movie night in the gym. I took a beanbag to sit on so as to save my back and backside. Paul had fun hanging out on his sleeping bag with one of his buddies from school.
That sweet face.
Our first Sunday brunch out with the little man. He ate twice his weight in food that day and lived to tell about it!
Did I mention that they like to dress up and accessorize?
Anytime they ask, this momma is always willing to bust out the pots and pans to make a yummy Korean meal. We had japchae, bulgogi, mandu and gimbap. It is exhausting but oh so worth it. Luckily Jason offers to clean up my mess!
Some good friends gave us a nice gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings and we decided to use it on a fun lunch. These kids are goofy to the max.
Someone begged for a hat.....so daddy got him a hat......and then he didn't know whether he liked the hat.
Turns out that he did like the hat.
It was such a nice day (don't mind the lingering snow) that we decided to head to the park. It was nothing but smiles....and some wet pants from the melting snow.
My boys. Sigh.
And this firecracker can hold her own.
Three little monkeys sitting in a tree....oh wait......I can't believe I got them all to stop long enough to snag a picture of all three at once.
Some early Valentine's treats from Mimi.....yum!
One of my vendor partners at work flew over for a meeting last week and brought a nice gift bag filled with Korean treats and a Chicago Bears teddy bear too. They weren't excited at all. Ha!
Someone gave a big thumbs up for the red bean paste treats.
This is what happens when Noona tries to help little bro get dressed. It takes a very long time and it is fun to watch.
Look mom - I am finally dressed!
Unfortunately momma was super sick for the Lunar New Year celebration this year. We decided to divide and conquer so Jason took the bigs and Peter stayed home with me. Here are my sweeties before they left.
So while they noshed on yummy Korean food, we stayed home and had ramen and bagels. He didn't even know what he was missing - and he really loves his noodles.
He started saying "omma's bagel" while we were eating....so I tried to get him to say it on video. Of course he wouldn't completely cooperate but he thought it was funny to pretend to eat my bagel!
Paul has really enjoyed his basketball league this year. We switched it up and he is really learning a lot of skills. After the Lunar New Year celebration, Jason dropped Lillie at home and had Paul make a quick switch into his jersey and off they went. Paul had a GREAT game! He scored 12 points and was awarded a medal for sportsmanship. So proud of this boy.
It's the Mario Jedi....there's such a thing, right?
The kids are preparing for their Valentine's/Friendship parties. Lillie's party is tomorrow (not sure why so early in the week) and she spent tonight writing her name on all of her Valentine's. She did a great job and I can't wait to see how she flourishes in kindergarten next year. Did I mention that I went to kindergarten registration for her last week. How did that happen?
Paul decided to go a different direction and make paper airplanes for his friends. He got started folding tonight and tomorrow will plan to start decorating them.
Peter loves to go to HyVee grocery store. When we drive by he yells out HyVee like he owns the place. Love it!
This was taken on my very first day back to work a few weeks ago. Jason was a brave daddy and took all three kids out for frozen yogurt after lunch that day. Proud of that guy.
Lunch with daddy after some mall walking.
Ready to play some basketball. He looks so OLD to me in this picture!
Daddy took Paul to a hockey game a few weeks ago. I kept getting these fun pictures throughout the game. There was a lot of sugar ingested by a certain fella.
Great seats for the game.
It is fun to watch the kids play together in random ways. Here are some fun times with a mini soccer ball. Nothing like playing indoor soccer whilst wearing Cars slippers.
And with that, I think we are all caught up on the fun pictures and videos. Phew. I will try to rise above the hibernation but I make no promises.
