New Puppy

Well we finally did it... we broke down and got a new dog. It had been almost 4 years since we'd lost Gulliver to cancer, so we felt it was time to get back to having a dog take over our lives and home and hearts.

We looked into a lot of options, and tried to find a suitable puppy/dog to have in a home with a young child, but we just couldn't find any that was the right fit. It's one thing to take on a dog with known issues if it's two adults in the home, but with Alex being around, we wanted a bit more security re. temperament and size, even though we know there's no guarantees with getting a dog.

We finally decided to get a Labrador Retriever, and I did some research and spoke to quite a few breeders within about a 3-5 hour drive of here. I ended up choosing an amazing and lovely breeder who lives about an hour from us. Christine runs Lonewind Acres and she has absolutely amazing dogs. While I wouldn't ever choose a puppy or breeder based on colour of the puppies, I was concerned about temperament and the overall "look" of the dog as labs can range from very stocky and short-legged to very leggy with a more pointed muzzle. When I first called her, one of her dogs had just had a litter of chocolate labs - once again, I would never choose a puppy solely for its colour, but all things being equal, I do have a soft spot for chocolate labs, so I was excited to go out and see them after spending a lot of time on the phone with Christine.

The puppies were only a week old and they were absolutely adorable. Even though I just loved getting to see the puppies and cuddle them (Alex got to cuddle a couple too!), I was more keen on seeing the other dogs she had, especially the Mom and Dad from the litter.

Sage is the Mom and she was absolutely adorable. Not only was her temperament very sweet, but she was simply a beautiful dog. She was doing such a good job with the puppies, and she was so calm while we fussed with them a bit and checked them all out.


We then got to see the Dad, named Tramp. Once again, he was a beautiful dog with a lovely boxy head and a calm temperament. He had such a nice build to him and I could just imagine how lovely the puppies would turn out to be with such great parents.


We waited till the puppies were older to select which one we wanted, and we chose a cute male and named him Strider. He came home with us when he was about 8 weeks old and he's been such a super puppy. He housetrained very easily and he has the most amazing temperament. He makes us laugh all the time and he's incredible with Alex - they're great buddies. The two cats aren't too keen on Strider, but he's learned to give them their space and respect their warning signs (although he does seem to like to bug them once in a while).

Here's a picture of Strider at about 7 weeks and a more recent photo of him as well as a small slideshow of pictures of him. Enjoy!





Here's some shots from puppyhood to more recent pics:

March Break Creations

Alex was on March Break this week, so I decided to take him and his best friend (our next door neighbour) to a pottery studio where you can paint your own items.

Both kids had a great time. Alex made a special bowl for Chris (for cereal) that had batman painted in the middle, and his friend made a very pretty dolphin.

Both kids really worked hard and did great jobs.

Celebrating Lunar New Year

Every year, the Korean Canadian Children's Association organizes a Lunar New Year's Celebration for the families with kids from Korea. It's a really fun event, with great food, fun things for the kids to do and lots of friends from the Korean community and other adoptive families.

In Korea, the Lunar New Year's celebration is called Seollal. The celebration usually lasts three days and it is a very important celebration in Korean culture. During this time, many Koreans travel back to their home towns to pay respect to their parents and ancestors.

Part of the tradition is a ritual called "Sebae", which is a traditional practice of paying respect to one's elders on Korean New Year. Children wish their parents a happy new year by performing a deep traditional bow and the words saehae bok manhi badeuseyo (새해 복 많이 받으세요~) which translates to may you receive many blessings in the new year~. Parents typically reward this gesture by giving their children new year's money (usually in the form of crisp paper money) and offering words of wisdom.

For the KCCA party, the kids learned how to do this deep traditional bow before some respected members of the Korean community. They were then given a small purse with some candy and gifts in it, as well as a crisp new $5 bill (courtesy of the Consul General from South Korea, Mr. Hong, Ji-in - I think???).

We also learned how to make a type of sushi roll, and got to enjoy some fabulous Korean food.

The Cake I Had Donated:


The Two Alex's with the Cake:


Learning How to Bow:


Doing the Traditional Bow:


Paying his Respects and Getting a Small Gift:


Making Sushi with Mom:


Dear Friends of Ours:


Alex's Sushi Roll:


Cutting the Cake:

Gymnastics and Trampoline

Over the winter, we signed Alex up for a second round of gymnastics, and decided to do the dual gymnastics/trampoline class.

He love it all - especially jumping on the trampolines (as you can tell from the pictures lol).

Here's a few pics from his last class when they got their awards for passing specific levels. Alex got two as he passed the level for both gymnastics and trampoline.

Sorry the quality of the pictures isn't any better... it isn't easy taking good pictures in an indoor gymnasium.

Christmas

We had a lovely and relaxing Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas that we celebrated Christmas morning on our own. With Strider being so young, it just made sense to try to simply things this year. We did see the rest of our families at different points over the holidays, so it was a wonderful time.

Santa came!!!


Alex and I on Christmas morning:


Chris and Alex:


Happy kid:


Venom opening presents:


Alex and Sarah Making Cookies:

KCCA Christmas Party

There is an organization in Toronto called the Korean Canadian Children's Association (KCCA). This non-profit organization was started by an incredible man named John Lim. John believed that Korean-adoptive families should have access to Korean cultural events so that our kids are exposed to the rich Korean culture, heritage and food. He built an amazing organization, and so many wonderful people from the Korean and adoptive communities volunteer to organize some incredible events.

One of the highlights of the year is the annual Christmas Party/Cultural Night that is held every December. I recently joined the KCCA's Parents Committee and so it was doubly important for us to attend the party this year as we'd missed it the last couple of years because it conflicted with Chris' work holiday parties.

Also, John Lim passed away not too long before the party, so I volunteered to do a video tribute in his honour. While it was wonderful to see so many families we hadn't seen in a long time, it was also very sad as it was the first big event we celebrated without John being there with us.

Even with the sadness of having just lost Mr. Lim, the evening was still wonderful, and Alex had a super time with the other kids. He was given a hanbok by a lovely Korean gentleman that I didn't even know who had heard through someone on the KCCA organizing committee that I was looking for a new hanbok for Alex. I was so grateful for this man's generosity and Alex looked simply adorable in the hanbok.

Chris had fun playing with all of the kids at our table (they seemed to gravitate towards us *laughs*), and Alex loved the magician, the food and the different songs and dancers.

We look forward to attending this again next year and hopefully for many years to come.

Alex in his new hanbok:


Chris and the two Alex's playing at our table:


More of the two Alex's playing:


Some of the dancers:


More Korean dancers:


Kids having fun at our table:


Watching the magic show:


Alex and his friend, another Alex:

Fall Fun!

Well, we survived another Halloween! It’s been a crazy, busy week but tons of fun.

Since my last update, Alex has been busy settling into his new school. He seems to love JK and his teacher and he’s making amazing strides with learning his letters and recognizing words and phonics and other fun stuff. It’s incredible to watch how quickly things change at this age - only a month ago, his drawings were still mostly indecipherable scribbles, but all of the sudden, he’s making more efforts to make things look more clear in his drawings, and add details, etc.

We celebrated Chu’sok this year, which is a big annual harvest festival in Korea (almost like a Korean Thanksgiving). It’s a big three-day festival in Korea, and one of the big parts of this tradition is for Korean families to return to their hometowns to pay respects to their ancestors, and thank them for a good harvest. For the past three years, we’ve tried to incorporate a bit of this tradition into Alex’s life by going to the graves of my grandparents (Alex’s great grandparents, and my mother, Anne’s parents) to pay our respects and tidy the graves a little bit. I don’t think Alex really understands the significance of doing this, but my hope is that it will help him feel a connection to his extended family in Canada, but also to his Korean roots.

We also had fun going to the St George Apple Festival, and Alex had a great time playing on the bouncy slides and riding a pony. We try to do this every year as it’s quite easy to get to and it’s lots of fun. We also went apple picking for the first time ever at a local farm owned by the family of one of my friends. It was a great place, with lots of varieties of apples, and the weather was amazing for getting out and enjoying the sunshine.

We also went down to Bronte Creek (a beautiful provincial park in Oakville) for a walk to enjoy the Fall colours and just get out while the weather has been so nice. I’m not looking forward to the Winter, but they’re saying it will be milder than normal - I’m just hoping that also means less snow than last year!

One bit of big news in our house is that we’ve finally decided to get another dog! We lost our Jack Russell, Gulliver, to cancer in early 2005 and we’ve been dog-free ever since then. Alex has finally reached an age where I’m comfortable having a dog in the house again, and after much research and discussions, we decided to get a Labrador Retriever from a great breeder about an hour from where we live. Two of her dogs just had a litter in mid-October, so we’ll be bringing one of those little guys home sometime in the middle of December. We don’t yet know which of the 8 pups we will pick, but we know we’ll get a male, and our biggest concern will be temperament. We went to visit the pups when they were a week old, and we’ll go back one or two more times before we go to pick ours up in December so it’s fun seeing them grow up over time.

We had a great weekend visit with my parents when they came out to Cambridge to see us. Alex had an incredible time with them, and we really loved that they were able to come and see us.

I also got to head into Toronto to go see a dance show of the US Tour from the TV show, “So You Think You Can Dance”. This was our second year going and it was just great. Jennifer came with two of her friends and we all loved the show.

That brings us to Halloween, which was this past Friday. Alex and I went to buy our pumpkins the day before Halloween (we’ve never left it so late before), and we had tons of fun carving them. This was the first year that Alex got to design his own pumpkin, even if he wasn’t allowed to actually carve it.

As in past years, we went to Toronto to go trick or treating with my nieces. One of Kathy and my friends has a son close to Alex’s age, and they’ve played well together before, so we decided to have them go together. We got them all dressed up for pictures, and then they split up based on ages so we took Ian and Alex with us and they had a fabulous time.

We then drove back home to Cambridge, and were back on the road again the next day to take Alex back to Kathy’s for his first sleepover as we had a work party for Chris’ company that we were going to in Whitby, and we knew it would go late so we stayed overnight and picked Alex up in the morning. He was very excited to go for the visit, but wasn’t that keen on the idea of the sleepover, so we weren’t sure how it was going to go. Thankfully he had an amazing time, and when I called him early the next morning, he told me he now loved sleepovers, and didn’t like them before because he didn’t know what they were *grins*.

Well I think that’s it - I’ve put a bunch of pics into a new slideshow that will hopefully work for this blog. I think you can watch them on the blog or actually click on them to pull up the full-sized image. Hope you like them.