Cake time!

I'm really not a crafty person (let alone a baker) but I wanted to honor Grant's birthplace on the cake I made for his birthday.  So here is my attempt at the South Korean flag.  There wasn't enough room for me to write "Happy Birthday," woops!  As always, a big thanks to Duncan Hines for making their chocolate cakes dairy-free so I could actually enjoy it too!  I'm cheating on the no public pictures rule (which everyone seems to break) and below is a picture of two recent pictures of Grant with his cake:-) 

We celebrated his actual birthday (Korean time) at our monthly neighborhood wine club night.  And Nana and Pappy just drove into town and were able to join the little celebration too.  We sung happy birthday (which is kinda bizarre when you are singing to someone not there) and blew out a candle for him.  All our neighbors, who we are close friends with now, are so excited for Grant to come and join the neighborhood crew. 

Happy 1st Birthday Grant!

Well, it's officially the morning of the 20th in Seoul right now so I can say HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANT!  It's so hard to be away from our baby on his first birthday but we know his foster family will be having a nice celebration for him.  We can't wait to see pictures.  Speaking of pictures, we got great pictures of Grant this week!  He is wearing Auden's sweatshirt and hat that we sent in two of the pictures which meant the world to us.  He is SOOOO adorable.  And to see him in his big brother's clothes that I've washed dozens of times makes it feel so real.

Instead of a birthday letter to Grant, I decided to write a poem for him on his first birthday (excuse the rudamentary rhyming skills). 

My Wish for My Baby on His 1st Birthday

I want you to know

On this special day,

That we are celebrating you

In our own special way.

I want you to know

That your birth mother had it rough,

She was so brave one year ago

When she gave you up.

I want you to know

She wished the best for you,

Hoping you would always have inner peace and strength

Is what she dreamed of too.   

I want you to know

That we are going to do our very best,

To teach you about South Korea

The beautiful birthplace you left.

I want you to know

It is nothing you have done,

The loss of two mothers will be great

My heart already aches for you little one.

I want you to know

How very loved and wanted you are,

It is because of the love of your first two mothers

You are coming into our arms.

I want you to know

That you are such a handsome little guy,

You have the most perfect lips

And beautiful dark brown eyes. 

I want you to know

That I dream about our family of four,

Walking along

With Auden’s hand in yours.

I want you to know

Despite all that we missed,

We can’t wait to share some of your firsts- 

Boating on the lake, sledding and tractor rides are on the list. 

I want you to know

We are so happy we can give you and Auden a brother,

Although I know there will be fighting

I can’t wait to see the love you have for one another. 

I want you to know

That our dreams for you are quite simple,

We want to fill your world with love and happiness

For it is family that makes life meaningful.    

I want you to know

The waiting is so very hard,

But soon the day will come

And at last you’ll be in our arms.   

We love you Grant. 

1st Birthday Care Package

A couple of weeks ago we put together Grant’s 1^st birthday care package.  Even though his birthday isn’t until April 20^th, the agency requires the packages 6 weeks or more in advance to make sure they reach them in time.  They also “reminded” us that technically we can only send one Ziploc bag per month (I’ve been bending the rules a bit sending 3 every 2 months, woops).  Let’s be honest, there is nothing we can send in one Ziploc bag that conveys the importance of this special day that we can’t be there for. 

We found a cute little first birthday hat and bib…and a little cake that unzips and has little stuffed things inside.  I also threw in a spring/rain jacket and pants that Auden got a lot of use out of, hopefully Grant’s fostermom likes them too.  Lastly, Cody picked out first birthday card and we wrote Grant a little note that my friend translated to Korean for us. 

The letter said:

Dear JoonHyeok,

We can’t believe you are turning 1 year old!  Happy Birthday sweet boy!  You have grown so much since we first laid eyes on your pictures taken at 5 months old.  We know you have been standing up for a while now and we wouldn’t be surprised if you are already walking by your birthday.  We cherish every picture we get of you and we look at your cute smile every day at our desks.  We cannot wait to one day hug and kiss you and never let you go!  We are so sad to miss this important day but we know your foster family will make it very special for you.  Your Mommy and Daddy will be celebrating thousands of miles away from you, dreaming of the day we can be with you.  We love you!

Mommy & Daddy

Korean version:

사랑하는 준혁이에게,

너가 벌써 한살이 되었다니, 믿을수가 없구나.

사랑하는 우리아들 생일 축하한다!

너의 5개월때 사진을 처음본 날을 생각하면 너는 너무나 많이 컸더구나.

우리가 알기로는 무언가를 잡고 서있을줄 안다고 들었는데 생일이 되면 걸을지도 모르겠다.

보내주시는 한장 한장의 사진이 너무나 소중하고 우린 사진으로나마 우리의 책상위에

놓여진 너를 매일 본단다.

이렇게 중요한 날, 함께 하지 못하는게 너무나 슬프고 아쉽지만,

돌봐주시는 가족분들께서 이날을 특별히 만들어주실거라 믿어.

엄마 아빠는 몸은 멀리있지만, 너의 생일을 축복하고 꿈에서나마 늘 너와 함께할 날을 기약한다.

보고싶고 사랑해!

엄마와 아빠가

Unfortunately we are still waiting for his 11 month update and pictures, I'm hoping we get them soon!

What's Cooking?

This weekend Cody and I made our first Korean meal.  It is a dish called Japchae and although it's traditionally made with beef, we substituted for chicken.  It required a trip to the H Mart (Korean grocery store) to get the special noodles for it but everything else could be found in Giant/Whole Foods.  We enjoyed making it together and it turned out really good!  I was the biggest fan, Cody added a little more spice and unfortunately Auden didn't warm up to the clear noodles, ha.  I look forward to trying more Korean recipes...especially because most are non-dairy so they fit perfectly with my diet. 

In other news, we received update pictures of Grant!  They were taken 5 days ago on his 10 month birthday.  He is getting so big!  His fostermom is in one of the pictures and she is looking so lovingly at him with a huge smile, that makes us so happy.  His hair is getting so long, cheeks are so cute and although we may be biased- we think Grant has the most perfect lips.  They are the kind of lips kids draw in pictures because his upper lip has a perfect indentation in the middle.  It's amazing how much love we have for this boy that we have never met.  Again, please email me if you would like to see the pictures as I am not allowed to post on the blog yet. 

Happy 3rd Birthday Auden!

A letter to Auden on his 3rd Birthday- February 12, 2013

 

Dear Auden,

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet boy! This year you had a fun birthday celebration at school and we had a birthday party for you at Grammy and Grandpa's house in Philadelphia. We let you pick out the decorations for your party this year, so when we showed you all the choices in the party store...very predictably, you wanted a "truck party!" Mommy and Daddy had fun putting together goody bags and you helped Nana bake the cupcakes for your school party. Here are some pictures of the celebrations.

 School- Kidsdom Montessori



Mommy got to join in on the fun 

 Ready to party at Grammy and Grandpop's house!

 Grandpop's turn getting spun and playing "pin the smokestake on the Thomas train"

 Yeah! Truck cake!



Auden with his cousins and his best bud Nate 

Happy Birthday Auden!

You went through a lot of changes this year Auden. April brought a new house, June brought a new school, July we converted your crib to a toddler bed, November you began potty training, end of November we successfully said goodbye to your heart medication, January you were fully potty trained and just recently you got a big boy bedroom set with a full size bed! It really feels like you are growing up right before our eyes. Slow down little man! You are always full of surprises to keep us on our toes. For example, since you loved the soccer class we put you in when you just turned 2 we thought we would try again this past fall. Well, I'm not sure if it's because there wasn't a cute female teacher- but you had absolutely no interest in playing soccer at all! We recently took you ice skating for the first time with your buddies Jack and Hartly and we prepared ourselves for you only wanting to be on the ice for five minutes. Well, you surely surprised us, you absolutely loved it and by the end you had enough balance to stand up on your own and even push Daddy a few times.   

Some of your other likes and dislikes: you love puzzles and currently you can put together 48 piece puzzle by yourself...I'm not sure what other kids your age can do, but you certainly amaze us with your puzzle skills! You really aren't into arts and crafts, painting and coloring. So we definitely have to work on your drawing skills, ha. You love playing with your trucks, cars and trains (like most three year old boys).

You love going with Daddy to the indoor pool on Daddy's Fridays off...and Daddy loves it too, especially because he gets so many compliments from the moms about what a great Dad he is! You are still scared/don't like a lot of tv shows and movies. You ask us to change the channel (and these are cartoon shows) when something is a little scary, when someone does something mean to someone else or when someone is going to get in trouble. So, I guess you could say you are pretty sensitive, but that is okay sweetie:-)

 After the discontinuation of the heart medication, had to do a holter monitor for 24hrs- all okay!

Sledding over the Christmas holiday at Nana and Pappy's in NY 

New bed!



Our little ice skater

You are talking in paragraphs now, hard to believe I was once scared you were never going to say a word! You make us laugh everyday with your expanding vocabulary. Pronunciation is still a work in progress...for example, "gee in the no" has to be translated to "ski in the snow." Of course Mommy and Daddy aren't helping things by loving the way you say "let's nuggle on the couch" and have started to say it too, haha. You made Mommy's heart melt last week when I told you that you were my little monkey and in response you told me that I was your princess. And everytime Mommy gets dressed up for a night out and wears heels, you say "you look so beautiful Mommy."  I'm trying to relish all these moments because I know soon you will be "too cool" to say such things.  You are such a sweet boy with such a beautiful heart Auden.  We can't wait to see what this next year brings and are so excited to tell you that you are going to be a big brother.  I know you are going to be the absolute best big brother ever!  We love you dearly Auden.  

9 month progress report

Last week we got a progress report from Grant's 9 month birthday on January 20th (unfortunately no pics with this one).  But lots of good information.  He is 19.5 pounds now, 28 inches and I believe it says two teeth.  He is eating formula 5 times a day in addition to- porridge, rice and apples.  He doesn't like taking a bath any longer, ha.  He has two naps a day and sleeping through the night from 9pm-7am.   

Next it has a checklist of 11 items for his developmental age range and all are checked...so in other words, our little boy is perfect!  He is:

- imitating speech sound "umma" "mamma "appa"
- responds to name
- rolls over
- crawls
- gets to sitting alone
- pulls to standing at furniture
- plays "peek a boo"
- uses pincer grasp
- lowers to sitting from furniture
- walks holding onto furniture
- responds to "no" 

Of course it's hard knowing we are missing all his "firsts" but it is so wonderful to know he is thriving with his foster family:-) 

update from Korea

Yesterday we got an update on our baby Grant!  Not sure what took so long because the pictures and measurements are from a month ago, Dec. 24th, when Grant was 8 months old.  He is growing great, 19 pounds on the nose putting him at almost 50th percentile.  His height is 60th percentile and his head circumference is 50th percentile.  So nice and average all around:-)  

The pictures were awesome, thanks to Grant's fostermommy.  As warned, the two pictures that the social worker took at his agency check-up were poor.  He was sitting on a table looking down so you could barely see his face (just his awesome hair, ha).  I would have been so disappointed if these were the only pictures we got.  However, it was amazing to see him with our 1st care package we sent.  He had one of the toys that we got him in his mouth already in one of the pictures.  Feels like a little piece of us is now with him in Korea as we know he has the blanket, toys and storybook with our voices.

Grant's fostermom came through for us big time, she gave the social worker three more additional pictures that were likely taken on her phone since two were a little blurry from Grant's movement.  It was cool to see her house in the background of the pictures to give us a little glimpse into his life.  One of the pictures is an adorable close-up with a smirk on his face and the two other pictures are him standing up (holding on to things).  This tells us he is doing amazing developmentally considering the pictures had to be taken when he was only 7 months old since the social worker got them on just about his 8 month birthday.  My little smarty pants.  I love the one picture as he is standing on the couch with a mischievous smile on his face like he knows he is doing something wrong/dangerous:-)  These pictures tell us he is happy, healthy and doing great.    So thankful to his fostermom for providing them!  Hope she continues to send her pictures along with the social worker's pictures.

If anyone would like to see the pictures, feel free to email me since I can't post them on this public website yet.