The Little Things

Sometimes the littlest things make me smile,

fill my heart with joy,

make me thank God once again that this little boy is my son...

like when I see him sitting and playing with his toys

with his tiny little feet crossed, as always!

No matter where he is

or what he is doing

his feet are crossed.

When he's eating, and sleeping...

and sitting, and playing...

and even in the bathtub :)

Maybe all babies do this and I have never noticed,

but now that it's my baby doing it...

I notice every time!

Today's Adventure: Running With a Baby

Don't worry, he wasn't on my back or anything - I did have a jogging stroller :)

Today was my first time venturing out with Matthew for a run! I have been trying to keep up with the running, but to be honest it has been a struggle. The weather is turning cold, and by the time Brad gets home from work I am just too pooped to even think about heading out for a run!

But this morning I saw that the weather was supposed to be in the 60's, and when I looked outside and saw how gorgeous it was, I knew we had to attempt it!

I used to think it took me a long time to get ready to go running...add a baby into the mix and it is an all afternoon affair! Finally we headed out to the park...

I was able to get in a 30 minute run, and Matthew was able to get in a 29 minute and 30 second nap (kind of wish we could have traded places!). I love my jogging stroller and I hope I get to go out for a few more runs before it gets too cold.

It seems like everywhere I go, I am reminded of a time when I was "in the waiting" and feeling sad that I did not yet have a child. I used to go to this park and see people pushing their babies and my heart would just break, wondering when it would be me. Today I was just praising the Lord as I pushed my dear boy in his stroller, thinking of all He has done for me. For those of you still "in the waiting"...just hold on! It is so, so worth it!!!!!!!!

To Sum Up the Weekend: We Stayed in Our Pajamas

When we first received Matthew's file to review before officially accepting the referral, there was one sentence describing our son that was our favorite:

"He is an easygoing baby boy without being fretfulness except during feeling hungry."

Now, obviously that was translated from Korean to English! I did not even know "fretfulness" was a word!

Since we have met Matthew, we would have to say this really is a fair statement. He is so easygoing, very mellow and happy. Although, we would have to now add something to this statement:

"Except during feeling hungry or when TEETHING."

Matthew arrived with no teeth and today his third tooth made its appearance. His poor little mouth! Combine that with the fact that he had some kind of stomach bug this weekend and you have one sad little dude and two worn out parents on your hands. And yes, I wore pajamas all weekend (except when going to the store briefly with a friend).

But whenever I am tired, or cranky, or feel like I just want to hide under the bed for a while, I look into these gorgeous eyes and know that I am so blessed to be taking care of this little boy. Even when it's hard. And when he says, "mamamammama" (which I pretend is him saying "mama"!) it is all just worth it.

Can you see his two little teeth? Aren't they just adorable????

Life These Days

Four weeks ago today, after standing anxiously in the airport for what felt like an eternity...I held my son for the first time. It is hard to believe it has only been four weeks, as I cannot imagine my life without Matthew now. It does make me wonder, though:

Before having Matthew, what did I do with all my free time?????

I feel like we are busy from the moment we wake up until the moment he falls asleep (which thankfully is around 8pm...about the time when I'm wondering if I am going to fall asleep first!). The days are full, but wonderful, and as time passes we are starting to see Matthew attach to us more and more. It is a wonderful thing to have him want me near all the time :)

This week, Matthew has received the nickname "Little Mister Crankypants" but truth be told it's not really his fault. I'd be cranky too if I had two teeth poking through my gums AT THE SAME TIME! Poor little guy. We are up to our eyeballs in drool around here.

Yesterday, naptimes just didn't work out as planned (ie I planned for him to sleep...he planned to be awake...he won!). So this was how he fell asleep at 7pm as we gave him his breathing treatment:

The weather has been beautiful the last couple of days so we've been enjoying the outdoors for as long as we can by taking walks and sitting outside. Daisie has been amazingly good walking with the stroller. I am shocked!

Today I went on my first all-day trip with Matthew. We went shopping in another city with my friend Katie and her two little ones. It took me an hour to pack Matthew's diaper bag and get him ready to go! No joke, I am so slow and so paranoid about forgetting stuff. But we had a lovely time out and by the end of it I think the kiddos were worn out :)

I just love being a mom. It is not an easy job, but it is wonderful. I am more tired than I've ever been, but so, so happy. This little boy blesses my life in ways he cannot imagine. I am so thankful that he is mine!

Wordless Wednesday

My Two Boys

Seeing this amazing man become a daddy has been absolutely incredible.

He is so strong, but so gentle.

The way he loves Matthew, and the way Matthew loves him, takes my breath away.

The way Brad is silly with Matthew and makes him giggle, the way he cares for him even when he is tired and not feeling well, the way he is already teaching him things...I see these things happening every day, and I find myself pausing and taking mental snapshots of these precious moments of a father and his son.

I always knew Brad would be a good father.

To see it happen has been one of the greatest joys of my life.

Oh how I love these two!

More Giggles

For those of you who can't get enough of a giggling baby (aka Matthew's Grandmas!) here is another video of lots of laughter :) This is from today - apparently me pretending to sleep and make snoring noises is funnier than my turkey call! Who knew?

Wow, I love this little boy so, so much! Enjoy!

Fall Fun

When we left church this morning we realized it was a beautiful day - the sky was blue, and it wasn't actually freezing outside (the weather here has been pretty cold lately - mostly in the 40s). Since we've been feeling so cooped up inside, we decided to head to a local apple orchard/fruit farm place where we go every year. They have a petting zoo, pony rides, apple cider and donuts, and wagon rides.

In past years, it had always been a fun place to go with friends, although I must admit a little piece of me ached because I so badly wanted to be bringing our child with us. This year, my heart was full of joy to be experiencing this as a family of three!

We were so glad that Brad's brother and his wife, along with their two kids, were able to join us. We had so much fun with them! We are so glad that Matthew has lots of cousins nearby who he can grow up with!

Emma had fun climbing on a fire truck...but she didn't want to show me her face :) Trust me, though - it is an adorable face :)

Ben is just a couple of months younger than Matthew. We're sure they are going to be buddies - don't they look like they're having fun hanging out together already? :)

Emma, Amanda, Matthew and I got to go on this wagon ride. Matthew was a little grouchy at this point and I was worried he was going to cry the whole time. But as soon as we got going, he was totally relaxed and almost fell asleep!

Which is what happened as soon as we got off the wagon ride.

Such a big day - I think we wore him out!

Buddies? I think so!

We were a bit nervous about how our basset hound, Daisie, would get along with the newest member of our family, but thankfully their bonding has gone very well and I think they are going to be best buds :) Matthew was not at all scared of Daisie, and Daisie has only shown a slight bit of jealousy (when we lie on the floor playing with Matthew she brings us a toy and tries to come between us and him). But she is always gentle with him and loves to sniff him and lay next to him. Every morning when I bring Matthew out of his room I ask him, "Where's Daisie?" and he looks around for her, smiling a huge smile when he sees her.

Daisie's favorite times during the day - anytime Matthew is in his high chair and there is the possibility that food will come flying off the tray :)

Matthew loves to watch Brad throwing Daisie's toys for her and Daisie bringing them back.

This was so funny - the other day I was making a funny noise trying to get Matthew's attention to take a picture of him (yep, there are frequently strange noises coming from this crazy momma!) and suddenly I noticed that every time I made a noise, Daisie (who was sitting in the chair behind Matthew) was tipping her head from side to side trying to figure out what in the world the noise was! It was so cute!

We're so glad that we are a happy family of four now :)

The Things We Do To Make Them Smile

Have you ever found yourself doing something ridiculous to try to get a child to smile for a picture?

On Sunday my parents came to meet Matthew for the very first time! It was wonderful to see them together at last and of course, the cameras were out a lot.

My dad had the camera out (not the video camera mind you!) and so my sister, Sarah, and I decided we would be helpful and act ridiculous in order to get Matthew to smile so that my dad could take a picture.

Not only did Matthew not find this amusing...

but my dad was actually taking a VIDEO!

Oops! Feeling kind of silly about that one...but of course I have to share it with the world! Oh come on, I know I am not the only person who does crazy things to try to get a smile :)

*Disclaimer - you may want to turn your volume down a bit before watching this due to some loud and fairly obnoxious turkey noises...and yes I am noting for future reference that these do not make my child smile for photographs!*

First Family Picture

It is hard to believe that Matthew has been part of our family for over two weeks already. It seems to have gone by so fast, but at the same time it is really hard to remember what life was like before he was here with us. For some reason, we had not yet had our picture taken as a family of three yet - so we thought it was about time we fixed that! My sisters did a great job acting nice and goofy to get Matthew to look their way :)

And they also captured what life is really like around here...

Brad and I are totally taken with this little boy!

I woke up today feeling pretty grouchy for some reason, but tonight as I was rocking Matthew to sleep in his carrier (well, he was supposed to be going to sleep!) he kept leaning his head back and staring intently at me. This little one truly has my heart...sometimes I am surprised by how deeply I love him. I knew it would be good...I just didn't know it could be this good.

I'm thanking the Lord for my precious gift tonight.

And also feeling thankful that he finally fell asleep!!!

Smiles

Ok, it's naptime here so I am trying to get a quick blog post finished before the little man awakens. It's a race against time!!!!

Yesterday went SO much better than I thought it would. Let me just say that I absolutely L-O-V-E staying at home! It is actually much less stressful than I thought it would be, and although I am sure there will be tough days and days when I want to pull my hair out, I feel so blessed that I get to be at home with my little guy. He is such a joy and I love being his momma!

After his morning nap yesterday, he woke up looking so much better! I was so glad to see a smile from him and to hear him sounding a lot less wheezy and congested. He even played a little which was great. We had a lovely day at home and when Brad got home he even let me go to the grocery store by myself so that I could get out of the house for a few minutes. Awesome!

Here's me and Matthew on our first day home together:

And here's my precious boy today - see how much better he is looking?!?! We had a wonderful morning and he's been babbling away, playing with toys, and smiling for momma tons. I think we have survived our first sickness!

Today

Today was...challenging. Today we got to see a different side of parenting. We started the day with Brad and Matthew covered in puke (Matthew's) and ended the day with me and Matthew covered in puke. In between was a lot of crying (Matthew...and me at times!). Poor little boy is not feeling well. Please keep praying that he feels better soon!

Tomorrow is my first official day as STAY-AT-HOME mom!!!

Yep, tomorrow Brad goes back to work and I'm flying solo.

Relying on God's strength because I'm a bit stressed out.

Hoping that tomorrow involves less puke and snot and crying than today did :)

Poor Baby :(

The last few days with Matthew have been going so well. He is such a joy to have around and we are getting into a routine. He is just the sweetest little boy!!!

Unfortunately, today was a bit of a rough day around here. Yesterday afternoon, he started acting fussy, which is not normal for him (at least from what we know of him so far!), and just cried a lot. He slept through the night fine, but when he got up today we noticed his cough had changed a bit. He had been congested and coughing since he arrived, but today he sounded like he'd been smoking a pack of cigarettes! We were fairly certain that was not the case, so we kept an eye on him as the morning went on :) His nose was running like crazy by lunchtime, and so we called the doctor. Thankfully we have a wonderful pediatrician and they got us in for 4pm today. As the afternoon went on I was so thankful that we'd set up the appointment, as he started to sound worse and worse. By the time the appointment came around, my poor little boy was wheezing and sounding terrible. He couldn't take a bottle because he couldn't breathe.

The doctor was a bit concerned when she listened to his chest and heard how much he was wheezing. He has a history of respiratory problems because he was born early. His ear infection is also still not cleared up - I'm sure he was feeling just lousy! They gave him a breathing treatment with a nebulizor (we just hold this tube thing in front of his face and a mist comes out for him to breathe), and we had to get a nebulizor and will be giving him breathing treatments every four hours for a couple of days. He did start to sound better after the second treatment, which made me feel a lot better. I know this is not super serious or anything, and I think it's pretty common, but it is scary to hear your little one working harder than normal to breathe.

I never realized how difficult it would be when my child was sick. When he cries and I know he feels terrible and I don't know how to fix it...it is just awful. I'm learning a lot about love from this little one.

And now I must go to bed...because I have to get up again in 2 hours!!!

Korean Culture

Today marks the last day of Chuseok in Korea (also know as the Harvest Moon Festival, it is Korea's Thanksgiving). Chuseok is one of Korea’s most largely celebrated holidays. It is a time when families and friends gather to share food and enjoy their time together, giving thanks for the year’s bountiful harvests and remembering their ancestors.

Brad and I are very excited to continue to learn more about Matthew's birth country and the beautiful Korean culture. I must admit though, with everything going on lately I have not been too focused on this. Now that he is here, I really want to keep learning about the Korean culture, foods and traditions. It is important to us to keep this as part of our family, just as we keep some of my British/Canadian culture as well :)

{As a side note - if anyone knows of where to find good Korean recipes online, I would love to know about it! Thanks!}

What am I thankful for today? I'll give you three guesses!

Bonding

Bonding is such a talked about thing in adoption. Before we brought Matthew home, we wondered how it would go, if he would attach to us, how we would know if we were bonding. It's kind of funny to think about it so much, because in other relationships, it's not something you plan, it's something that just happens as you spend time together and care for each other and get to know each other. I am realizing that bonding with our child is no different, and that has eased a lot of the anxiety for me.

It's been very interesting to think about this last week, though. I would have to say that before Matthew even came, I felt a bond with him. I prayed for him, thought about him (all the time!), wondered how he was doing...but I had not even met him yet!

And then I met him, and I felt a strong, immediate bond. He is my child, and I am his mommy, and to me that brought feelings unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Strong feelings, immediate feelings of protectiveness and love and a desire to take care of him the best that I could.

Over the last few days, though, a different kind of bonding is starting to happen. I am starting to get to know him! For me, the bond has changed already, deepened, as I spend time with him and find out who he is. I pray that he is starting to feel attached to Brad and I, and that he feels safe and secure with us.

Here are a few of the things melting my heart these days as I get spend time with my little man:

I love the way he puts his hands on my face and stares at me while taking his bottle.

I love the way things randomly make him laugh...like when I was opening the curtains yesterday and they wouldn't open all the way and I said, "Oh no, they're stuck!" and he just cracked up! So of course I said it 100 more times to hear that laugh!

I love the way he stops crying as soon as I pick him up out of his crib in the middle of the night and falls right back to sleep.

I love that he is ticklish on his toes but only if you are pretending to pick sock lint out of his toes, not if you are really trying to tickle him!

I love it when he reaches his arms out to me.

I love that when I get up in the morning, I realize that I have missed him, even though it's only been a few hours!

And I love love love seeing this smile!

We are so blessed!

Look Who Is 10 Months Old!

Our sweet boy is such a joy!

We are so happy to have him in our arms at last!

Lots of Laughs

If you need a laugh today...this video should help! We have one happy little boy on our hands! My sister Sarah had him cracking up yesterday! I love his little laugh!!