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.