Our First Christmas and New Years

It's hard to believe that a new year has already started. In less than 2 weeks, we'll be celebrating the anniversary of Alex's homecoming (January 15) and much of this past year seems like it's a blur now.

We had a pretty busy December with getting ready for the holidays and some fun social events.

We got our Christmas lights up early, but didn't get the inside decorations and tree up until later in the month. My first effort at tackling a holiday task was to bake 10 dozen cookies for a cookie swap at the playgroup I take Alex to. I had it all organized and planned and was using a great recipe that made wonderful, soft sugar cookies in a spiral pattern.

Unfortunately, Chris accidentally put my cookie magazine away with his equine magazines and so I had to frantically find another recipe... and even more unfortunately, the cookies were utter cr*p. Sugar cookies are usually soft, sweet and melt in your mouth... not these cookies. Not only didn't they look all that great, but they were pretty darned tough. I just hope that the women at playgroup will forgive me for baking such little delicacies that should only have been used for paperweights or perhaps for propping up wobbly tables in restaurants.

Once I recovered from that debacle, we focused more on the holidays and shopping, shopping, shopping. We had fun putting up the Christmas tree (topped by an angel made for me years ago by my friend, Moe) and Alex was quite taken with a little decoration I got a few years ago that plays Jingle Bells when you squeeze the snowman's hand (pictures in the latest album).

We quickly learned that wrapping presents was much easier without a toddler tearing up paper and unwrapping things as we wrapped them, so most of our wrapping was done after Alex was asleep in bed.

For the holidays, we went to spend Christmas Eve with Chris' sister, Karen and her family in London. Alex loved spending time with his cousins, Amanda and Sarah and he flirted non-stop with his Aunt Karen and Uncle Lew. After a lovely afternoon/evening and a great dinner with the family, we drove to Toronto and tried in vain to get Alex to sleep. We finally did get him settled and then got organized for Santa's imminent arrival.

Earlier in the evening, we'd put out the cookies for Santa and the carrots for the reindeers. We'd all gone to a pottery place to decorate plates for Santa, and Alex did one as well so we used that on Christmas Eve and hopefully we'll keep it forever and use it every year.

Christmas morning was spent at Kathy's in Toronto with the whole family and we ended up staying overnight rather than drive home. Our plans all ended up changing, and the family all ended up in Kingston for a couple of days after Boxing Day, so overall it was a very relaxing holiday and we were home on the 28th.

We had a very quiet New Year's and stayed up watching a movie and then "jumped" into the New Year before going up and wishing a sleeping Alex a Happy New Year.

Things are now back to our normal routines with Chris back at work after having had a bit of time off, and Alex and I will be back at playgroup when their programs restart next week. I've also signed him up for a toddler storytime at our local library, so that should be a lot of fun.

Alex is still a delightful little guy. Other than a bit of a bug that we all had at the beginning of December, he's been very happy and healthy. He's into EVERYTHING now and is a great eater and sleeper. He's trying to say more words all the time and we can usually understand what he wants.

I've put a bunch of new pictures into a Christmas album in case you want to see the latest pics of the family.

All the best to everyone for a wonderful, happy and healthy 2006.

Winter Arrives

Another month has zipped by in our household. We're trying to get ready for Christmas, but so far we've only succeeded at getting the outdoor Christmas lights up.

I've continued to take Alex to playgroup at least once a week. It's an amazing program where he is dropped off with other toddlers to play and socialize have a snack. All moms/dads/caregivers have to stay in the building, but it gives us a chance to chat with other moms or do some reading, etc. It took me a while to get comfortable with the idea of leaving Alex out of fear he'd cry, but he's actually done really well with it. He loves going to playgroup and doesn't really cry when I leave. He plays, has a snack, does activities and has a great time. We've found that Alex is really being less shy overall - he's more comfortable with groups and with strangers and seems much more confident. Not sure if it's his age, or that he's learning to have fun with someone other than mom and dad, but it's been amazing to see the changes in him in the last month or so.

Chris or I often take Alex to the same facility for their evening program at least once a week. It's a "Family Playtime" where you stay in the room with the kids and it's mixed ages. Chris does it more often than I do as it's fun for them and gives me a bit of a baby break.

We've had a lot of fun with family lately too. We spent an amazing evening with Chris' sister and her family in London two weekends ago. Not only was the dinner one of the best I've had in eons (I had seconds even!), but it was so much fun to have Alex flirting and playing with his aunt, uncle and cousins. We had planned the evening to celebrate our niece, Amanda's, birthday and it was great to see them and hang out.

We also had another Seoul-Mates get together with other adoptive families. It was a holiday party with a gift exchange and Alex had a great time. Right after that, we went up to Aurora to watch the Santa Claus parade. Alex had a lot of fun until he got a bit bored with sitting still, so we started to leave after about an hour... but then saw Santa coming down the road, so we were able to wave to him before heading back home.

The next day was Chris' company's family party. It was a wonderful day with Chris' co-workers and their families. Alex had a riot and didn't sit still for more than a few minutes, except when pizza and cake were served. At the party, we got to meet Santa and he gave all the kids presents... let's just say that Alex was NOT impressed with Santa, although he loved the toy (picture in the latest folder).

That same weekend was our first nice snowfall. The snow was so light and fluffy, so we bundled Alex up and got him outside for a bit so he could explore the backyard. Let's just say that Alex seems to really like the taste of snow.

Our other big event this month was the Christmas party hosted by the Korean Canadian Children's Association. It's a huge party for adoptive families and people from the Korean community and it's an amazing night with cultural dances, Christmas songs and lots of Korean food.

We're hoping to get Alex to the mall to see Santa sometime soon... and we hope this visit will be a bit more pleasant for all involved.

I've posted a bunch of pictures of Alex and us in the latest family album in case you want to check it out.

First Canadian Halloween and Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that another month has passed us by. The time seems to just fly now that we're so busy with Alex. He's doing wonderfully well and learning lots of new, fun, entertaining things and he's trying to communicate so much with us and you can see he gets so frustrated at times. Overall, he's doing very well with how many words he can say and how much he understands, so we're trying to work with him so he doesn't get frustrated too often.

I've put up a new photo album, but the pictures aren't in order. I put the Halloween pictures from last night at the beginning of the album, then went back to our Thanksgiving pictures and some of our outings with Alex this month.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We all ended up in Kingston as it was my Dad's 75th Birthday that weekend. He didn't know we were planning a bigger surprise party for him later this month, so it was fun to celebrate his birthday with him and the whole family.

Alex beat out almost everyone else for the amount of food he consumed that weekend. He loved the turkey, the sweet potatoes, the corn, the broccoli, stuffing, etc. He also got to have some birthday cake, and he had a great time eating that, even if he seemed to get more on him than in him.

That weekend was also exciting for us as we left Alex with Kathy and Grandma for an hour while Chris and I went out for a quick lunch, and then the next day, we actually got to go see a movie (Serenity - highly recommended if you like sci-fi/adventure!) while Alex was watched by his Aunt Mary.

A week or so later, we took Alex out to a local place called the "Yee-Haw Adventure Farm" so we could all get some fresh air and exercise. The day was actually colder than we anticipated, and the wind was really fierce at times, so we didn't stay too long, but Alex had fun walking around and checking out the animals and then playing a bit in the toddler section of the barn.

Our next weekend was really busy as we went out for dinner with Chris' sister, her boyfriend, Lew and our nieces Sarah and Amanda. Alex had a great time and it was wonderful to get a chance to see them and have some laughs.

The next day was busy as it was our monthly Seoul-Mates gathering where a bunch of adoptive families with children from Korea get together at different places. This month, we went to another outdoor farm called Kim-Glo and it was an amazing time for everyone. The weather was cold, but still very nice and Alex had a great time wandering around, going on his first pony ride and checking out the animals in the barn. It was so nice to see so many of the other families and their beautiful children and we cherish those relationships as we learn so much from the other families.

We celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary that night with a fun dinner for the three of us. Our actual anniversary was the next day, but we had Bob's surprise party on that day, so we celebrated a day early. For the party, we went off to Toronto to celebrate with family, including my Uncles and Aunt from Winnipeg and family from the KW area. It was a great party and Steve's cooking blew everyone away.

I'm still taking Alex to playgroup, and have now been able to leave him in the room twice! This is a HUGE step for all of us as we were waiting for him to be comfortable with the caregivers. He cries for a few minutes when I leave (I don't actually leave the building - I just go into a room with other parents/caregivers) but then he's happy to play with the toys and have fun until I come back about an hour later.

As I write this, it still surprises me how much our life has changed in one short year. Last Halloween was so tough on both Chris and me. Our file had been in Korea for 4 months at that time, and we'd heard nothing from Korea even though our agency had sent off faxes, e-mails and had called to find out what had happened to our application. I was convinced we'd been turned down, even though Chris was still hopeful. It was such a hard night for us as we dearly hoped no one would ask us about the adoption (I would have burst into tears on the spot), and although we had fun with the kids, there was still so much pain inside us from not knowing what was going on with our file.

It was the very next day (November 1st) when we go the call from our adoption agency telling us that they'd received an e-mail from Korea (finally!) that said they'd lost our file and had located it and would match us up to a child as soon as they could! I remember calling Chris over and over again (he was away in Sarnia/Windsor on business) to give him the amazing news and then telling close family and friends.

It was only a week later that we actually got the call about Alex (November 8) and got to see his pictures, so both November 1 and November 8 are big days in our household!

This Halloween was obviously very different for us. We took Alex into Toronto and had a quick dinner with Kathy, Jenny, Steve and our nieces, and then took Alex out to a few houses for trick or treating. He looked adorable in a little puppy outfit his Aunt Jenny had bought him, and we all had a great time.

Adoption Day!!!

It's now the end of September and our biggest news by far is that we went to court this morning to witness the judge finalizing Alexander's adoption. For people who aren't really familiar with the Korean adoption process, I'll briefly summarize things. When you adopt a baby from Korea, you actually bring the baby to Canada as a Permanent Resident through the same immigration process you'd use if you wanted to sponsor a family member from another country. Once the baby is here, your social worker does follow-up reports 2, 4 and 6 months following placement and it's only after that period has finished that you actually go to court for things to be finalized. Some families have to wait a long time for a court date, and some have their adoption orders signed by the judge without even appearing in court, but since we live in such a small community, the judge fit us into her schedule on very short notice and also allowed us to take some pictures!

We've put some photos in a new family photo album and included some pictures from this morning's court proceedings as well as some other pictures from the past month.

We saw my family to celebrate Anne's birthday in Toronto at Benihana and then spent the next day with our extended family celebrating two cousins' birthdays.

I've been doing a fair bit of scrapbooking if and when I have time, so it'll be nice to finish Alex's adoption scrapbook now that everything's finalized (it'll be the last page in the scrapbook and then I'm done!).

Another fun thing we were able to do was to celebrate Chu'sok, which is the Korean Thanksgiving/Autumn Moon Festival. This festival is based on the lunar calendar and is celebrated in different ways in countries like China and Vietnam. We integrated some Korean traditions by going to the gravesites of my family here in Cambridge and paying our respects. We then went and joined a group of other families with children adopted from China (and a few from Korea) and had a fun time playing in a park and sharing a pizza dinner before the full moon came up.

The next day, we got to spend a wonderful but bittersweet afternoon with Chris' family as we scattered his parents' ashes. It was great to see all of them, and we shared a lot of funny and sad stories about Chris' parents, so it was a really special day for all of us.

We had a lot of fun last weekend going to our monthly Seoul-Mates playgroup where a bunch of families who've adopted from Korea get together at different places for the kids to play and the parents to get caught up on things. It was so amazing to see all of the new babies, and also see how much the other ones have grown since we last saw them a couple of months ago. We included a couple of pictures of that gathering in the most recent family photo album here on the site.

We also go to share in the joyous homecoming of the newest son of friends of ours. They already have a little boy (another Alex) from Korea and this is their second adoption. Their son Derek came home on Wednesday night with two other beautiful babies so it was lots of fun at the airport - everyone was full of smiles and laughter and tears of joy and it was so nice to be able to share that special moment with our friends as they were there for Alex's homecoming as well as so much of our adoption journey.

We'll be sure to post more sometime soon as we've got lots of things planned this month with Alex's first Canadian Thanksgiving and his first Halloween!

The End of Summer *sobs*

It's hard to believe that it's already September. The summer just flew by, but it certainly is nice to have some cooler nights as well as days that don't make you feel like you're going to melt.

We've had a wonderful month with Alex. He's trying to say lots of new words, but mostly he's learning new sounds. He understands EVERYTHING we say and is great at following instructions, and he's obviously trying to communicate with us more and more as he gets older.

Over the past few weeks, we've had lots of fun doing different things. We began to take Alex more regularly to a local playgroup and he's having lots of fun there, but wasn't ready at first to be left with the caregivers, so I've been staying in the room with him so he gets more comfortable with things. He's probably ready now for me to drop him off and go participate in other activities in the centre (you drop the kids off in their playrooms, but have to stay on-site in case you're needed), but we're waiting until the re-open the playgroups in a week or so before we take that step.

Another big highlight in August was the annual Korean Culture Camp that is run by the Korean Canadian Children's Association. This annual three-day event takes place north of Toronto and is an amazing way for adoptive families to get together and learn a bit more about Korean culture and for the kids to play together. Unfortunately, Alex had a fever from two vaccinations he'd had two days before the camp, plus he had two teeth break through that very day, so he was simply not himself. We went for a few hours, but when his fever came back and he was obviously not feeling great, we went home early and he had a really rough afternoon and night from the teething pain. Alex now has 7 teeth, but I'm sure lots more will be coming through soon. It must have been hard on him to go from having only four teeth, to having three teeth come through almost all at the same time.

On the day after Culture Camp, we went to Chris' company picnic and had such a good time there. It was wonderful to see all of his co-workers and their families and all of the kids seemed to have a great time.

The next day (August 22 - Our "Threshold Day") was a very special one for us as it marked the day that Alex had spent more of his life with us than without us, so we met Chris for lunch and celebrated with a Korean meal at a local restaurant. Everyone in the restaurant fussed over Alex and he flirted a lot with people and stuffed himself with bulgogi and rice.

Another fun time was when we got to spend some time with my sister, Kathy and her daughter, Sarah at the African Lion Safari. Alex and Sarah had lots of fun, and the parents did too.

With the cooler weather, we've been going more often to the park at the end of our street, and Alex has such a good time there. He seems to hate the swings, but he loves the slides and digging around in things, and he's also discovered the joys of running down hills.

Well, that's it for now. We'll be sure to post more pictures in the coming weeks and keep this site updated as often as possible.

Summertime Fun

It's been another busy few weeks in our household, but we've been having lots of fun. The weather has been unbearable some days, but overall we've been enjoying the summer and getting out with Alex to visit family and friends.

A few weeks ago, we had a wonderful afternoon in London for our niece, Sarah's birthday. We met them at a park in London with a great splash pad and Alex had a riot running through the water with his cousins and us. It's amazing how much he loves water... he'll get right into the thick of the spray and giggle his little head off. People kept watching him and laughing as he'd run up to some of the posts with the water spraying him right in the face, and he'd turn around and giggle and then run back over and over again.

We were also able to get to Kingston for a few days over the long weekend and had lots of fun there. Alex enjoyed spending time with his grandparents and everyone else, and he is also getting more comfortable about us leaving him for a bit with family members (I think the longest we left him with anyone was about 20 minutes... one day we'll get up the nerve to actually go see a movie or something). Of course, no trip anywhere is complete for Alex unless he gets to play in water, and he got to do lots of that in Kingston, both at the beach and also at a local splashpad.

Alex is also clearly focused on feeding himself instead of having us feed him, which is a challenge to find foods he can pick up himself, but that he can actually eat with only four teeth. I think my family was amazed, not only by how much he could eat at times, but also how much of it could get on his face, in his hair, down in his chair and often spread around the general area where he was sitting.

I've put up a new family album with photos from the past month in case you want to see what we've all be up to.

Fun with Food (or How to Survive on Air)

It's been a little while since I've had the time to do an update, so I've added a new album with a few pictures from this past weekend.

Alex is doing really well. He's trying to talk a bit more, and is signing a few things as well, so it's fun to see him trying to communicate a bit.

We just finished our six month updates with our social worker, so now we wait for the final bit of paperwork to be processed before Alex will officially be ours. It's exciting to be moving onto these final bits of the process before Alex's adoption will be finalized and then become a Canadian citizen.

This past weekend we went to a big picnic hosted by another family that adopted a child from Korea. They've hosted this picnic each summer for the past five years, and it gets bigger each year from what I was told. This year, there were over 100 adults and kids there, so it was tons of fun and we got to meet some truly wonderful people. Alex had a great time, and by 7:00 he'd collapsed in his Dad's arms after a bottle, so we packed him up and took him back home and got him into bed.

We got a chance to visit today with Alex's Great Uncle Joe and it was a lovely visit. Alex warmed up pretty quickly and was soon toddling around the house and trying to look in drawers, cabinets and cupboards.

It's also interesting to see how much Alex's personality is beginning to change a bit. He's showing a bit more of a temper if he's frustrated or denied something, and his eating habits vary dramatically from day to day. In talking to other parents, we're learning this is very typical for kids his age, but it is distressing to watch him push away meals he loved only a few days before, so we're doing a lot of trial and error to see what he feels like. One thing that seems to be happening is that he really wants to feed himself, or use his own spoon, so that's changing the types of food we give him, but it's a normal expression of his emerging independence, so it's a natural change for him to be going through.