Another soccer season

C's soccer season wrapped up quite awhile ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting these pictures.  He really enjoys soccer.  And he's good at it...when he's focused on playing soccer!  We lucked out and had great coaches this time around.  They really pushed the kids and by the end of the season you could see such a difference in their skills, especially the teamwork.  It was so sad that just as they had finally gelled and come together as a team it was over.  The team set-up is random so he'll be with different kids and different coaches come the spring.  We'll definitely be sticking with soccer as his "thing" until he decides otherwise.

 

This casual arms slung over the shoulders thing kills me.  It makes me think of a group of guys goofing around at their high school graduation or something!  It's terribly cute though.

Proud of our boy and all his hard work this past season!

A lil' update on lil' peanut

Lil' peanut is not quite so little anymore.  He will be three and a half soon and is growing up in lots of ways!  He can engage in more lengthy conversations, accomplish tasks like putting on his own shoes and getting undressed, and let's not forget he is perfecting the art of teasing his brother with comments ranging from "you meanie kerker" to "your fault!" and "you smell."  Lest you feel too bad for C, I'm sure lil' peanut's knowledge of all these insults comes from enduring them himself.  Ah, brothers.

 

He is still my little helper.  Unlike another child in this house who has never enjoyed helping, lil' peanut is always eager to jump in.  "I help you" is a very often heard phrase around here.  His favorite things to do are throw away trash (especially in the new flip top trash can in my room) and put the laundry in the dryer.  He always exclaims "I big helper!" after he completes a job. 

 

He is generous with his things and his affections.  Whenever C asks nicely for something, lil' peanut will almost always comply.  I don't know where he got it, but he calls me beautiful all the time.  "You bewful mom."  Precious.  He gladly gives and accepts snuggles, hugs and kisses.  Lately he has been seeking out more cuddles (I'm sure baby brother has something to do with that) and will maneuver his way onto my lap while I'm nursing pumpkin.  There's not a ton of room and he is usually hanging halfway off, but we make it work.  He tells us he loves us often.  "I love you Mom."  (Seriously, Mom?!  What is he 16?) ;)  Whenever anyone is leaving he always says I love you.  He'll say it even if he is just leaving the room. 

 

As far as attachment goes, we are coming up on a year and a half home and it still often feels like a roller coaster ride.  Up and down, up and down.  He doesn't seem to struggle in any way with Daddy, so that has been difficult at times for me.  To deal with the hard stuff, and to feel so alone in it because when hubby walks in the door, lil' peanut seems to instantly transform into a different kid.  If he has spent all day raging at me you would never know it once Daddy is around.  It was like that in the beginning too though.  It came easy with Dad, but he's made me work for it.  Which is ok, and understandable (he had his umma and it is probably a lot harder for him to give up that role to someone else since he was much closer to her than his foster dad) but it's not easy.  It can be exhausting and frustrating that I still feel like he's making me earn his affection/approval.  We have more good days than bad and he does know without a doubt that I am mom.  I tell him often that he's my special boy and I'm so glad I get to be his forever mama.  He just nods his head along with my words and smiles.

 

He has shown a lot more interest in his story of joining our family lately.  He likes to read the story book that we made for him.  Usually he just skips to the page of the Korean air plane and says "Mommy Daddy ride airpwane Krea!"  He talks about his foster mom too.  I don't know how much he truly remembers and how much is what he knows from us talking about her ourselves.  He will point her out in the pictures around our house and in his book.  Yesterday he randomly looked at me and said "I wanna go Umma Jae's house."  When I told him that I wish we could go now but we'll have to wait until he's bigger he insisted. "I bigger now."  Breaks my heart to think he is missing her.  I hope it's not too many years before we can go back.  I still get daily page views from Korea so I know even now she is checking in on him.

 

Lil' peanut has brought a lot of fun into our family.  He can be stubborn and sassy but is usually sweet and agreeable.  We think he has the quirkiest little personality.  His expressions and tone of voice just crack us up!  He laughs often and still has such a zest for life about him.  It's the simplest of things..."What are you doing buddy?"  "I spin in circle!"  And then he does, and he squeals and laughs like nothing on earth could possibly make him happier. 

 

And we really couldn't be happier with the precious little boy that made our lives and hearts so much fuller.  We love you lil' peanut.

Just some pictures



Hubby starts his half day holiday schedule this week.  Yay!  We have some fun holiday things we'd like to do so I'll be posting about those adventures soon.  (That is if we can all stay healthy!  C has been complaining of a tummy ache the past couple of days and asking to sleep with a bowl.  Ack!  So far the pukies haven't struck but this morning hubby offered to get him a treat from Starbucks on the way to school and he declined!  This could be serious people.)

 

For now, some random photos from our days...

 

Happy baby!

Happy boy!  (Who is looking so BIG to me these days...definitely losing the last bit of baby-ness in his face)

This was one of the mornings hubby had to be in to work super early so I was doing the morning routine/school drop off solo.  C and lil' peanut got going with the toot humor (always at the table!) and baby started smiling.  Oh boy, did that encourage them!

They think they're so funny. ;)

C's school had a holiday gift shop last week.  I think he had fun choosing gifts for the people on his list (which I did not make it on, by the way!  I didn't mention it and he realized his oversight after he had given out all the gifts, for Daddy, lil' peanut, and pumpkin.  It was like it suddenly occurred to him and he looked genuinely remorseful about it.  He was like "I didn't get a gift for everyone" and looked at me all sad eyed.  "That's ok buddy."  "I'm sorry mom.  I'm really sorry.  I meant to get you something, I just forgot.  I'm really sorry!"  "I'm not upset, it's ok.  And if you really want to get me something I'm sure Daddy will take you to a store and you can go shopping."  "Oh yeah, like toys r us!"  "Oh?  Do you think they have something at toys r us I might like?"  "Of course they do."  Ha!  Here he is helping lil' peanut open the car he got for him.  Which he almost decided not to give to him after lil' peanut spent the whole ride home from school calling C a fart head.  Oh yes, that happened.

10 weeks old already!?!  Man, they grow so fast.  Soaking up the baby stage while it's here.  Before we know it he'll be all grown up and calling somebody a fart head!  :)



Christmas Tree Day 2013

The night before we planned to get our Christmas tree was when pumpkin ended up in the ER.  So, the next evening hubby took the big boys to pick out the perfect tree.  Baby was so miserable that night. :(  He slept through most of the tree trimming.

The tree was wrapped up when they picked it out so we weren't sure how it would look once all the twine was cut.

It's a great tree! 

Daddy and lil' peanut working on the Christmas train.  Sadly, the train has already been put away.  They could not figure out a way to share it and I was done breaking up that fight all day every day.

Posing with his Baby's First Christmas ornament.

I wanted to start a new tradition this year of having an ornament for everyone to open up on Christmas tree day.  With everyone being sick, I didn't get the ornaments in time for tree day, but I still got them.  Lil' peanut has been all about the snowmen this holiday season.  He was excited to have his very own snowman for the tree.

I got C the deer to remember his first time going hunting at the farm with Daddy.

Our tree is all done, we have an actual mantle for our stockings this year, AND it's been chilly enough to have fires in our fireplace the last few nights.  Enjoying this Christmas season.



Cousin time

The big siblings trying to get their little brothers to cooperate for picture time.

My parents watched lil' peanut and my niece Michaela so we could go with my brother and his wife to take the big kids to see the ne movie Frozen.  (so cute, by the way!)  Our little pumpkin baby came too.  He's been to three movies already in his short life and he's done perfect every time.

I told them to make a Batman face.  Haha!

Doing some crafts after Thanksgiving brunch.

Baby Love

People just can't resist a baby! :)  Pumpkin got plenty of snuggles while we were back in Kansas.

 

My brother's girls were so excited to get their hands on their new baby cousin.

The baby whisperer.  Papa has some serious skills.  My sister and I decided that his hands must be coated in some kind of magical substance that children can't resist.  Like catnip for kids.

While the big boys were at the farm with hubby I had some time to myself.  I spent one evening catching up with my sweet friend (little sister) Hannah!  It's hard to believe she wasn't much older than pumpkin when I would ride my bike down to our pastor's house and "babysit" her while her mom caught up on housework.  So neat to see the lovely woman she's grown up to be.

 Of course I had to get my own snuggles in too. :)

Meeting the cousins on hubby's side of the family.

My other little sister, Lizzy.  She will also be my daughter-in-law someday if C has his way.  He has said on numerous occasions that he hopes she waits for him until he's old enough to get married.  Haha!  After our last visit to KS he told me "Mom, I used to think Kaylee was the one.  But, I forgot what Lizzy looked like."  Oh my! 

Thanksicklings 2013

Oh man, what a time we're having!  We started our trip back to KS for Thanksgiving with one boy with a cough.  Over the course of our visit all three big boys ended up at urgent care clinics and on antibiotics (one diagnosis of an ear infection, one sinus infection, some bronchitis, and plenty of all around crud)  I was so hoping the baby and I wouldn't succumb, but trap us in a car for 15 hours with each other and there's bound to be some germ sharing.  I felt awful Monday night and most of the day Tuesday but turned the corner faster than any of the boys had.  Then yesterday morning baby started coughing. :(  He went downhill quickly.  By that evening he was burning up and I had to wake him to eat (after a 4 hour snooze!).  The fever combined with lethargy in a baby that young is cause for concern so our peds office advised us to head to the ER.  I was already on my way to the hospital when the nurse called me back.  She called ahead and the hospital was expecting us.  When I walked in I thought, oh no here we go.  I have spent my fair share of time in the ER and it is always, always a last resort-hubby is telling me to get up off the floor and go because even he is concerned kind of a situation.  I don't take up space in an EMERGENCY ROOM when I have a cold.  If your child can chatterbox it up with fellow patients and jump off of chairs GET OUT!  Ok, rant over.  But, I was seriously questioning my judgment in going to the closest hospital versus the children's hospital farther away.  The waiting room was full with people chatting, taking smoke breaks outside, and laughing.  Oh, I forgot, if you are laughing in the emergency room, get out!  The screen said the ER wait time was currently 86 minutes.  We actually only waited about 10 minutes to get back to triage where I was glad they seemed to share my concern about pumpkin's high fever.  We went straight from there to the pediatric section of the ER.  I was surprised and very happy to find that they had a separate peds area where they already had a room ready for us after getting that phone call from the doctor's office.  The two nurses were wonderful throughout the 4 hours we spent there.  They wanted to do lab work to rule out some more serious conditions like RSV and the flu.  Which meant urine and blood and mucous samples.  We both cried our way through that awful ordeal.  All his labs were negative so we came home to ride out this nasty virus (in all likelihood it's the same virus we've all been sick with but it is much, much more terrifying to feel your tiny infant's skin burning up against your chest than it is to put your toddler to bed early because his fever is making him mean and cranky.  Pumpkin's congestion is bad and it's causing a lot of gagging/choking which is all part of clearing the gunk out, but man it scares me!  I've never had a sick baby before so this is new to me.  I'm probably overreacting but that's just what's gonna happen until he kicks this thing.  We followed up with the pediatrician today and he agrees it's just a nasty virus.  The only concern is that with the little ones what starts as a head cold/congestion can move to the lungs and cause breathing problems or other complications.  So, we're keeping up with the tylenol to keep his fever under control and watching him closely.  I do hope he turns the corner soon.  It is so sad to see those classic red rimmed, watery fever eyes on my little baby!

 

In the meantime (he is sleeping the day away right now, by the way.  I want to wake him just to ensure that I can!  But, I know that when I feel like crud I just want to sleep all day too, so trying to let him rest)  we finally got some pictures of the five of us while we were back in KS.  These are from the morning we had pastor Joel dedicate lil' peanut and pumpkin...more pictures and a pretty great story from all that to come.