Blood, tears and chocolate

Why would I possibly title a blog that way? If you lived in our house, you would understand. My pictures got a little out of order so I'll just revisit our week in the order of the pictures, which is....backwards. On Sunday (yes, I know...we were supposed to be in church, but we all COMPLETELY overslept). To our credit, Henry asked at about 11 if we were going to church and we said we weren't going today. He and Charles were both very disappointed. Instead, we unloaded and stacked wood. The boys would load up their wheelbarrow and wagon and then we would go stack it by the fence. It looks like we worked them to the bone, but it was only our second trip. They weren't able to fit many logs in their wheelbarrow and wagon so we hadn't worked very hard. We were having fun though. The weather was gorgeous and the boys were helping each other by carrying each log together. Now, only if they could be like that all the time...wishful thinking.
We went to the park in the afternoon. Henry and I are at the top of the rock climbing wall. That's Min at the bottom. It helps put the height in perspective. It wasn't terribly tall...at least looking up at it. But, when we got to the top it looked a lot higher than it really was.

Actually, the 'blood' part of the title comes in at the park. I was going to go down this long tunnel slide, and as I was taking off, I said to Charles, 'Here I go!!" He jumped on me from the back and held on around my neck. At the bottom, it got a little steeper with a bump. When we bumped, he whacked his nose on the clip I had in my hair. Of course, he screamed bloody murder and got a bloody nose. This was shortly after we had watched another boy cough so hard that he threw up in a garbage bag.
The park we were at was right next to Soldiers Field Memorial Park. We walked over there and this is the boys playing on an Iraqi cannon. Doesn't that sound like a nice, safe way to spend a Sunday afternoon, playing on an Iraqi cannon?
This is Charles from today. His preschool went to a local nursing home to sing for the residents. They were all dressed up for Halloween and did a really great job. The residents handed out bags of candy afterwards and treated the kids (and parents) to juice and giant pumpkin cookies. No, I didn't start my diet today.

Here comes the tears part of the title. Last Sunday, we finally did Mins' toljabee, which is part of the first birthday celebration. It is where the child gets to pick from a variety of objects. The items he picks are said to predict his future. Mins' first choice was the pencil, predicting him to be a scholar. His second choice was rice which predicts prosperity. His third choice was jujubee's which, in Korea, are dried dates. We used raisins. This indicates many children. So, I guess our son is going to be a prosperous scholar with many children. Hmmmm....maybe he gets it from his smart, rich parents....Ha Ha Ha!!!!
Here he is a little happier and eating the raisins.
Our own Elton John. Charles found these somewhere and loves to wear them.

Now, for the chocolate part of the title. On Saturday, we went up to Minneapolis for an anniversary celebration and fundraiser for a magazine we subscribe to and love that targets the Korean-American community. First, we stopped at a Korean market in St. Paul to get some groceries. Of course, we had to buy some candy and a favorite of the boys is a long, thin cookie stick covered in chocolate. We left the market and drove to where the celebration was. When we were parking, Charles said, 'Who's going to help Min?' We said, 'Help him with what?' Charles, ' He has chocolate on his hands.' 'Oh. We can just wipe them off.' Well, little did we know what he would ACTUALLY look like. I guess it is our fault for putting him between his two older brothers who are both eating chocolate covered cookies.

This was what we found when opened the back door, and yes, his hands were covered in chocolate. Thankfully, his clothes were pretty good and I was able to wipe the chocolate off of them. We had a great time at the celebration but didn't get to stay as long as we had hoped. We DID get to eat a great lunch of Korean food and take in some of the traditional Korean drumming which the boys had been so excited for. We also ran into the lady who started the Korean adoption program at our agency. She even remembered us!! I couldn't believe it! We had seen her as we walked in the door, and when she turned around and saw us she came right over to visit. She waited at the airport with us when we were waiting for Henry. She was so excited to see the boys. She's retired now.
We were outside playing before we left the celebration and Min thought the leaves were so funny. Charles would throw them up in the air and he would laugh and laugh!!

That's the end of the saga about blood, tears, and chocolate.

Futility

We learned the meaning of the word futility on Sunday as we tried to get one decent picture of the boys to use for a Christmas picture. We've decided that maybe we've set our expectations too high. These were a few of our favorites. Charles getting ready to hit Henry with a stick.
Charles after he hit Henry with the stick and now listening to Dad say that he's going to take the stick away. Henry is pretending to be mad because Charles didn't really hit him that hard. Notice Min who seems to think its a little bit funny.
And, Dad taking the stick away.
Charles trying to feed his baby brother a pine needle.
And, Andrew crying because he didn't really want to eat a pine needle.

No other news here. We've been leading very boring lives the past few weeks, but have been so busy with daily things that it's been hard to blog. People really just want to see the pictures, so I'll try to be better about posting those ; )

Finally...blogger is letting me upload pictures

I've been trying to upload these photos for a couple days, but something was wrong with Blogger and I haven't been able to post any until today. This was us last Thursday at Andrew's finalization court hearing. Yes, the poor boy is stuck with our family forever and ever. Little does he know that he's become a member of the family who hopes to post a sign at the door that says...nope, not 'The Paul Family,' but 'Where the Wild THings Are.' It is a family joke, and when we go down to our unfinished basement in the winter so the boys can ride bike, inline skate, etc....we say, 'Let the wild rumpus start!!' Now, everyone is going to have to go out and read the book, 'Where the Wild Things Are.' Anyway, the court hearing was pretty short and sweet. We answered questions from the judge, and Henry would whisper, 'Ugh,' every time we answered 'I do,' because it made him think of people getting married.

This is Min at our traditional finalization supper. I'm not sure why we ended up at this particular restaurant after Henry's finalization, but the 'Hunan Garden' is where we have celebrated all finalizations. This is Min with a spoon in his mouth.
On Friday, I drove the Paul Bus to their preschool so I could transport 3 other kids to Tweite's Pumpkin Patch. Their preschool tries to do this every year or two. We had a really great time. We had never been there before, and it was like a kids paradise. There were so many things to do that we didn't get time to do them all before having to go home. This is Charles peeking out of a little door on a castle tower.
Henry pumping water on an old pump. Both boys loved this, and I told Travis we should have one at home. Charles absolutely adores any running water and would happily water the trees, grass, and sidewalk all day.
And, this is our very curious, just 1 year old who thinks climbing into the refrigerator is a lot of fun. I hesitated putting this one up because then everyone can see the inside of my fridge, but I couldn't pass up on showing you what a little monkey he is. He also loves it if I hold him up so he can stand on the window ledge to look outside. Thankfully, he hasn't tried the stairs yet.

The boys and their (borrowed) Hawg

Just a few photos to post tonight but not much news. Min in his new winter cap. Who can resist a cap that looks like that? It was pretty chilly today and I realized that I don't have a winter coat for him. Though he came home in the winter, he was younger and smaller than the other two. Their first snowsuit will fit him this winter, but I didn't want him to start wearing a snowsuit now and sweatshirts aren't quite warm enough. I ordered him a coat that, hopefully, will be here in a couple days. A good friend let Travis borrow his Harley for a few days while he was out of town. The boys have been begging for a ride so Travis took them around the neighborhood this evening.
Charles was pretty excited to go. He loved it when Travis revved up the motor. Andrew was not so impressed. He cried.
Travis and Henry riding around the neighborhood. Henry has been wearing Darin's helmet all week when he rides his bike. He pretends its his motorcycle.

Henry was all prepared. Note the welding gloves he's wearing on his hands : ) He's also wearing a black, Jolly Roger adorned dew rag that he got from his friends' pirate birthday party.

These boots (I mean slippers) are made for walking...

HI'm sorry!! I saved this video in the correct orientation (so he's not sideways) but it switched back when I downloaded it and I don't know how to switch it back. Oh well. Here is a video of Min walking. I guess you'll just have to tip your head to the side or imagine that he can walk on walls. There is sound too though he isn't saying much. Yes, we have a walker!! Min has reached that huge developmental milestone of walking. The one that strikes fear into the hearts of most parents as they envision their child falling down the stairs (it can happen even with gates. In our old house, Charles just climbed through the stair rails and would make his way into the entry), climbing out of their crib (Henry used to help Charles out of his crib. Actually, only once because when I asked him to show me what he did, Charles started to cry.) or finding electrical outlets. However, he is very happy and so proud of himself. So are we. I still get very surprised when I see him walk into the kitchen. Or, today when I was putting his clothes away, he walked into our spare bedroom and got a book off the bookshelf. He's quite a repeater when it comes to words. Now, whenever we're in public, he says 'Hi Da,' to everyone we pass.

Min had his 1 year well child check on Thursday and he's doing fine. We had to postpone his vaccinations (which reminds me that I need to call back and schedule them) because Henry was with me and got so sad when he found out Andrew needed shots.

Henry learned to tie his shoes...a huge milestone for him. I forget what a big deal that is. But, he needed new shoes and insisted he have the ones that tie. He's also close to losing a second tooth.

Today is my 9th transplant anniversary. Yaaay!! We were trying to explain to Henry what that meant. And I told him that I wasn't able to make any blood so Uncle Lance gave me some of his bone marrow so that I could make blood. Then I told him that now my blood is really Uncle Lance's. I think that was a little too much information because he gave me a really funny look and then said, 'That's gross!'

We go to court on Thursday to finalize Min's adoption. And, we'll have his tol on Saturday. I"m going to make bi bim bop, which our family loves. Of course, the boys insisted on mandu. Kimchi is a must-have, and we'll see about anything else besides cake. We bought a tae gukki, a Korean flag, on Friday. The boys have been wanting one for a long time. We got it onto the pole and carried it outside to hang up and Charles grabbed it and hugged it! He loves to come home and see the tae gukki.

Happy Birthday, MinSeong!!!

I am posting a day late, but we were all so tired last night that I couldn't get any pictures posted. We actually had a pretty quiet, family day. Andrew had been up coughing for about 4 hours in the night. We tag-teamed with Travis on first duty. We were so tired we didn't even make it to church. Yesterday went a little better for him, and we found out today that he does NOT have whooping cough. Apparently, just a bad cold and cough. He slept better last night and has had another good day today. We postponed Min's tol party to the 13th. The boy's had fun making cake, as you can see below. Henry was stirring and, as a 6 year old boy, was making faces as he imagined all kinds of unmentionables having to do with brown cake batter.
Andrew getting his hands messy. He wasn't very impressed with the frosting, so we gave him a piece without. Charles was the same way. Charles and Travis went to the store to buy the cake mix, and Charles chose chocolate cake with triple chocolate frosting. (Charles favorite cake is chocolate. Henry does not particularly care for chocolate so he had an orange pop float instead. )
Andrew's present was a push-toy/ride on car. He LOVED it. I tried to download the video but it was taking so long I cancelled. I'll save it for another day. He's really on the go and can cruise the furniture and walls all around the house. We put up the stair gates the other day so we should be safe.

Getting into the toy basket.
Andrew was so cranky when he woke up on Sunday, and we were talking about him being mad and sad. Henry said that he thought he was sad. I asked him why Andrew might be sad, and he said that he was probably missing his family in Korea. I asked Henry if he missed his family in Korea, and he said yes. On your birthdays? Yes. Do you get sad on your birthdays? You guessed it... yes. I was aware that this was common. Henry didn't want a birthday party last year or the year before. Isn't that interesting from kids that some people say shouldn't remember/grieve the loss of their parents?

Reflections

We decided to throw a couple old pictures in just to throw everyone off. This is Henry at about 18 months in our old house. He'd climbed up the couch and onto the ledge so he could look out the window. This picture is of Charles the day we brought him home. He's still wearing his travelling clothes. It's one of my favorite pictures.

We've actually had a hectic week. Andrew has been sick since Monday with a fever, cold, and a terrible cough. I took him in on Thursday to see our doctor because his fever had been so high and he would cough so hard that he would vomit. It's likely just a bad cold, but the doctor tested him for whooping cough. We have no results yet so we're keeping him quarantined until we do. This also meant that we had to cancel his birthday party for today. We were going to celebrate his tol, which is a Korean first birthday party. In Korea, the first birthday is a big celebration. His birthday isn't until tomorrow...well, I guess technically it is today since it's the 30th in Korea. Hmmm....maybe we should start having a Korean birthday the day BEFORE their birthday since that's actually when they would have been born, and an American birthday on the day. I'm sure the boys would LOVE that!! We decided to have his party on the 13th since we also finalize his adoption in court on the 11th. It will be sort of a double celebration. So, we were disappointed that we couldn't have his party, but the day of rest has done him well.

The days around their birthdays are always a little sad for us. We think about their Korean moms, dads, and families every day, but especially around their birthdays. And, ESPECIALLY around their first birthday. In a town in Korea today, there is a very sad mom and dad. And, of course, it makes me sad that she's sad. It's also made me think about how much sadness and grieving sorrounds adoption. Oh, yes....it's wonderful and we've been so truly blessed through adoption with 3 amazing boys. And, there is a lot of happiness in adoption. However, there is sadness for every person involved. Imagine their Korean moms' and realizing that you wouldn't be able to parent your child and having to hand them over to someone and not knowing where or with who they would spend their lives. Wondering everyday if they were happy, well, and thriving with their family. Missing their first words, steps, going to school. Not being able to comfort them when their sick? Yes, they can be happy that their children are living a life they may not have been able to give them, but the sadness is still there. What about the kids? Oh, yes... people say, 'They were just babies. They don't remember anything. They're not sad about their family.' I know that they ARE sad about their families. They DO remember. I've brought them home and held them while they cried for their foster families. I've listened to them ask me why their moms gave them away. 'Didn't they like me?' they say. Sometimes they're sad on their birthdays, Gotcha Days, their brothers birthday... And, then the questions start because they're thinking about and missing their Korean families. I feel badly for the kids because they have no control, and they're expected to be 'grateful.' They don't get to choose who to live with. They didn't choose to leave their homeland, their birthculture to join a family who looks nothing like them in another country. They didn't choose to live as the minority in their city, school, and church. My children are generally very happy, but they have/do/will greive their loss. And, yes, even we, the parents who gained so much, feel sadness because of adoption. For many, their sadness starts because of infertility. Thankfully, that wasn't the issue with us because, in all honesty, we could have had biological children. We chose not to partly because it wasn't that important to us. Our sadness stems from that of our children and their Korean mothers and dads and families. When our kids are sad, we're sad. We're sad for their moms and families because they are missing so many wonderful things. I was sad when I left Korea with Andrew. I felt like was robbing him and his brothers of a truly beautiful and amazing culture and country. I was taking them away from so many people who loved them. Oh, I know they're not at a loss for love. They're loved by so many I can't even count them all. I realized in Korea, that they're loved by people I have no idea even exist. But, I can't teach them to be Korean, and that makes me sad. Because, I truly believe that they need to know how to be Korean and what it means to be Korean. Thankfully, we have been blessed with a number of amazing Korean mentors who are making a huge difference in our lives. So, in spite of the sadness, we have experienced so much happiness and have been so blessed. We have the 3 most perfect boys, and we couldn't be happier.

Chaos rules at the Paul house!!

Just posting a few pictures and a quick update from the past week. I can't believe how chaotic our life has become with the addition of kindergarten. And why? It's just dropping off one 6 year old boy for almost 3 hours in the morning. However, it's amazing what a difference it makes. On the days Charles goes to preschool, we leave the house at 8:15, drive to his preschool and drop him off. Of course, Henry ALWAYS wants to go in so he can see his friend, Mikka, so that adds a few minutes. And, then we visit a little with the preschool teacher. We leave her house by 8:40 so I can get Henry back to the school and dropped off so he can play for 10 minutes before the bell rings at 9:10. Min and I go home so that he can have his morning nap. I manage a few minutes of cleaning, laundry and the like before he wakes up. We play or run errands before having to be back to pick up Charles at 11:30 so we can make it back to the school to pick up Henry by 11:50. Then home, lunch, quiet time so Min can have a nap. The hard part.... Charles daycare is on the other side of town. Henry's school is about 3 blocks from our house. Usually, by Friday, I am so tired of the van that I wish I could just walk or bike wherever I need to go. The good news is that we are settling in.

Charles is doing great going to preschool alone. He is becoming such a big boy and a really great big brother. He's participating more in preschool activities, and has become so much more grown up at home. I got to drive Charles, Andrew, and two other boys from Charles preschool to Sekapp Orchard on Monday. Ja Neal was taking everyone and needed an extra driver. I actually really like doing this because the kids are hilarious. When you drive, you are essentially invisible and they talk as if you aren't there. You hear the funniest comments from the kids. I had 3 4 year old boys and Min, and the conversation was hilarious. Henry is really liking school and has made a couple good friends. I feel much better since I've gotten to know the teacher and a few of the other moms whose kids are in Henry's class. Henry started running on adrenaline on about Wednesday because he was testing for his yellow belt on Saturday. He could hardly go to sleep at night and was up at the crack of dawn every day. The test went well, and he found out the he passed so now....he's a 'yellow-belter.' Of course now it's...'when do I get to test for my green stripe?' We've created a monster!! But, a good one. He's doing really great and absolutely LOVES tae kwon do. We camped on last time before the winterizing the camper. The boys vegging in the camper. Actually, it looks like only Henry is since Charles has that 'look' in his eye, and I KNOW that Min isn't vegging.
Cruising around a boulder. Min is cruising around like mad. He can go from lying to sitting, and is getting very good at going from sitting to standing without holding onto anything. He can walk as well holding with one hand as he can with two....except on grass...and is occasionally taking 2-3 steps alone.
Here he is taking about 3 steps. The grass is not such a good choice, but he managed. New word of the day...'apple.' He LOVES apples. Not much other news from here. Andrew turns 1 on Sunday, but we're having his party on Saturday. Actually, his birthday techinically is on Saturday.... we're planning a smaller version of a Korean tol. In Korea, the first birthday is a huge celebration. So, we'll have a very traditional meal that people who aren't very familiar with Korean cuisine will like.... for Korean food lovers out there, you guessed it... bulgogi, rice, mandu, kimchi, kimbab, and I'm going to try my hand at a Korean salad. I'm going to try to make bibimbap on Sunday for just our family. But, we'll see how that goes.

I had to leave you with a link to this video. I really hope it works because it is hilarious!! I laughed through the whole thing. Unfortunately, I think I need to post before I can actually click on the link and have it take me to the video. Hopefully, it doesn't take me to something horrible. I'll let you know....

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=203514

Is Vanicream nontoxic?

I better first clarify the title of the blog. Last night, after Andrew was done in the bathtub, I had taken him out and was putting lotion on him. Henry and Charles, who are still in the tub, start yelling to come see this...I know, scary... They explained that they were playing Mulan. For anyone who hasn't seen Mulan, there is a part in the movie where Mulan goes to prepare for a test to see if she is worthy of marriage. In this part, she is in a bathtub and a lady is washing her hair. So, Henry is Mulan and, when I get into the bathroom, Charles is pouring shampoo over his head. About 1/4 to 1/2 of a bottle which is A LOT of shampoo. Once we got it rinsed out, I returned to Andrew who had managed to sneak the lotion lid. And, since apparently lotion is VERY tasty (I can't confirm it since I've never tried it....that I can remember anyway...but Charles used to like it too) he tried to lick the lotion off the lid. He managed to get a little, but at least some...thank goodness... made it to his face.
Just a few other pictures from the weekend.

Andrew is getting VERY good at cruising. I had left him at the chair so I could finish supper. When I turned around, he was gone. He had gone under the desk and was patting the wall.


The past week has been very busy. Henry is really enjoying school, and Charles is settling into preschool without Henry. We had various appointments and meetings last week which served to make a very tired, stressed-out mom. Thankfully, I already had plans to meet with a couple friends on Thursday which was a great stress-reliever. This actually followed one of those days when I seriously thought I must be raising wild animals. Andrew had an appointment in the afternoon so I took the Brothers along since Travis was working. We had a very nice discussion before the doctor came in about letting Mommy talk to the doctor without interruptions, and sitting quietly on the couch while I visit.... HA!! What was I thinking? Once I finally got them to sit on the couch, I was interrupted with...'Mom! Charles spit on my book!' Then, when the appointment was nearly over, they start trying to wrestle and Charles starts to pull Henry's shorts. Oh my...at least the doctor found it funny.

We had a great weekend with wonderful weather. We watched the demo team from Henry's tae kwon do school perform on Saturday morning at a Kid's Fair. Andrew took 3 steps unassisted, got his only 2 teeth, and added a couple new words to his vocabulary. This week looks to be much more manageable.

A few pictures

Min and Dad on the first day of school. He's doing very well walking with just one hand.
Picking up dandelions. As always, he tries to eat them. We say, 'ick.' He spits it out and say, 'ick.' He's saying a few more words. 'Ouch,' 'ball,' and just starting to say, 'puppy.' He doesn't quite have both syllables down in that one, but he's getting it.
His first mandu which he loved! We had to steam them since he has no teeth, and won't eat anything except big people food. He won't let us feed him either, so it has to be something he can pick up.


My two tough guys. Henry went to a birthday party today with a pirate theme. He thought it was great!!! Charles, who has never been one to dress up very scary, except when he wears the Darth Vader helmet (a very funny sight, by the way) decided to dress up like a pirate. He was even able to swing a mean pirate face. I managed to catch this picture before he started to laugh. And, Henry of course, has no trouble making a mean face. He LOVES to dress up like scary people and make this face for us. He's our little actor!
Henry still likes school and seems to be excited that he gets to go again on Monday. He hasn't quite figured out that he will go everyday for many months. But, he's enjoying it so that's good. Now, he wants to ride the bus. I told him we needed to get settled with just going to school first. I think we'll try to ride our bikes on the days Charles doesn't have preschool. By the way, Henry's party was over by the school where Camp Moon-hwa is held. As soon as we got close, the boys started talking about camp, when does it start, we want to go everyday....as soon as we turned the corner and could see the school they were cheering...'We LOVE Korea camp!' Too bad we couldn't go more often.

Kindergarten!! Here I come!!

Congratulations, Henry, on your first day of kindergarten!!! Here are a few pictures of the day. I had a really hard time getting ANY pictures at all of him standing still.
On the monkey bars before school starts. We've been here before, and he's very proud that he's been able to do the whole thing.
Coming out of the school at the end of the day...actually, 11:50 a.m.

Henry did awesome today. We were a little worried because yesterday morning he had a few meltdowns over nothing. We went to visit his teacher in the afternoon, and he was fine ever since. He woke up this morning and said, 'I get to go to school today!' He hopped out of bed, got dressed, and was downstairs in hardly any time. We got in the van and dropped Charles off at Ja Neal's. I almost felt worse for him. We hadn't really worried about Charles since he'd be going to the same place he always does. But, Henry wasn't going to be with him. Charles asked in the van if Henry would be going to Ja Neal's, and I said he was going to school instead. Charles response...'Well, if he isn't going to Ja Neal's, then you're fired!!' I'm not sure what I was being fired from, but I just said, 'Okay.' Charles didn't cry when I dropped him off (he hasn't done that for at least a year), but you could tell he was close. Ja Neal (she's so amazing), just took him by the hand and brought him to breakfast and he was fine. Henry, Min and I picked up Travis and went to breakfast. Henry asked, oh about 100 times, if he was going to be late for school. We got there at 8:50, and the bell rings at 9:10. He played on the playground and when the teacher cam to call them to line up, he ran off to line up with everyone else. Not a good-bye, not a hug, nothing. We were feeling a little relieved. Yes, a hug would have been nice, however, Henry has notoriously had a very difficult time starting new things...Sunday school...tae kwon do...etc. We've had a great deal of leg hanging, crying, running away from the tae kwon do instructor... (also a very amazing person). So, we were able to give up the hug for a boy who was excited to line up with everyone else. Of course, I cried as we left the parking lot....and again after I dropped Travis off at work....and again as I drove back by the school on my way home.... I couldn't believe my baby was old enough to go to kindergarten. We picked him up after school and had a picnic before picking up Charles. We managed to make it Ja Neal's just in time to see his oldest and best friend, Mikka, get on the bus. She started kindergarten today, too. And, what did Henry's mom do? She cried!! Thank goodness Ja Neal cries at everything too, so I didn't feel too foolish. But, it didn't seem that long ago that Mikka and Henry started at Ja Neal's together. They were 14 months old. In the newsletter, Ja Neal would write that they managed to find the toilet paper and it was strewn all around the bathroom.

Congratulations, Henry!! We're very proud of you!!!

Look Mom!! Red Licorice!!

Thought you might like to see what it looks like when you're 11 month old gets hold of red licorice. Mmmmm!!! Yes, the stains came out of his shirt, and he LOVED every minute of it. He actually confiscated it from the coffee table. Henry had made Charles a gift by putting a variety of treat foods in a brown paper bag. Charles accidentally left the licorice on the coffee table with the rest of his presents, AND....well, you can see what happened to it. Since Andrew found it fair and square, I let him have the glory of eating as much of it as possible.

He had a very nice bath afterwards, too. He LOVES the tub, but I"m not so crazy about his 'cruising' in there. He seems to think the faucet and soap holder make great handles, (and my hands... since they are about 1 inch from him when he cruises the tub). Thankfully, he hasn't decided to try the stairs.

Tomorrow is the big day for Henry. This morning started with a few meltdowns over the most ridiculous things. We went shoe shopping (for Henry), and this afternoon had a visit with his teacher. What a boost that was!! She took Henry into the room for a few minutes to assess him, and we filled out paperwork. He was completely at ease. She took us on a tour, told us where they would line up in the morning, and where I would be waiting when it was over. He's been great ever since, and this evening wanted to make sure that we would look through his backpack and make sure he had everything. We'll cross our fingers that tomorrow will go well.

Todays questions from Charles.... 'Why did God make us with butts?' Ummmm.....

Happy Birthday, Charles!!

Charles turned 4 on September 3rd. Actually, it was September 2nd, US time, since Korea is a day ahead, but we decided long ago that we wouldn't get into the technicalities. We went to Grand Forks to spend Labor Day weekend with Travis' brother and family. His parents drove over on Saturday. We left on Friday morning. It's about a 6 1/2-7 hour drive. We made a couple stops for some running and playing. All in all the boys (and mom and dad) did fairly well. We were all tired from being sick all week, but were feeling pretty good. We got to GF in the afternoon, and spent a very relaxing weekend visiting with family. The boys played with their cousins, who are 7 and 9, and practically fell into bed each night. We returned on Sunday evening. The return trip didn't go quite as well. Everyone was tired. The boys were crabby, and after our last stop in the Cities, Min decided that 6 hours strapped into a car seat was all he could take. My word!! We still had an hour to go. He cried and screamed for the next 1/2 hour. He did stop intermittently when I broke the law by unbuckling myself and leaning into the back seat to try to comfort him. The boys did their best by attempting a pow-wow which didn't really go over so well.

Charles and Andrew driving around in the Gator. It had belonged to their cousins who have outgrown it. They gave it to Charles for his birthday. He was ecstatic!! They've been driving it ever since.
Henry, Charles, Georgia, and Ella (the girls), in the the Gator in Grand Forks.
Peek-a-boo on the way to Grand Forks.
Charles eating birthday cake in Grand Forks....his favorite, chocolate.
Min on the way home. He'd had enough!!

We celebrated Charles' birthday on Monday. He picked out his own cake, and as is the tradition in our family, a restaurant to eat his birthday supper. Charles' choice....Red Lobster. Yes, we love Red Lobster. But, it was a little humorous that my 4 year old chooses that for his birthday dinner because he loves shrimp but then chooses chicken strips. What if he chooses the Broadstreet for his 6th birthday? I'm going to need to get a new job!!

As always, the boys' birthdays are bittersweet for me. Yes, I'm very happy to have birthdays to celebrate, and that these particular boys happen to be mine. But, their moms' in Korea are never far from my thoughts. The boys' birthdays must be difficult for them as well. I know that every year near the time of my transplant, I begin to relive the days sorrounding that anniversary. Our Korean mothers' must also be doing the same. I imagine they must be feeling sadness as they remember having to place their babies with another family...wondering if they will ever see them again. I wish that we could have contact with them so we could share these important days, and so they could watch their babies grow.