Gabe's First Halloween

Gabe really enjoyed his 2 days of Halloween. On Friday, we went back to visit all his friends in Grammie's first grade class. We weren't sure how he'd like the chicken that makes an appearance each year, but he loved her. I think he thought it was like a big puppet he could hug.

Meeting the chicken:
And of course he loved being taken around with Grammie:

On Saturday we trick or treated on our block and watched all the kids pour in to our house. Gabe was thrilled to see all these big kids come to HIS house.

Before we went out:

Hitting a neighbor's house with Dad:

Walking with Mom:

After he got his loot:


Eatin' the loot with Grandma:
Banging and throwing the leftovers:

Prayers for Fellow Eastern Families

The Korean government issues an Emigration Permit or "EP" for it's citizens that leave Korea. They only allot so many each year for children being adopted internationally. There are four adoption agencies in Korea that Americans adopt from, and each agency gets only so many EP's each year. Our agency in Korea, Eastern, will not receive any more EP's this year. Which means that the last babies to travel were 'referred' in early May. So any baby referred after May will not be coming home until February. Gabe's referral was April 20, had it been a few weeks later we could be in this same situation. My heart just breaks for all the people this will effect: the families waiting for their children to come home to them, the babies waiting in Korea to join their forever families, the foster families that will have some of these babies for 14 months and get even more attached to them, and the social workers and staff at Eastern and the U.S. agencies who are surely as sad about this as we are. Please send a little prayer, good vibe, warm thoughts, etc for all these people that will have a hard couple of months ahead of them.

From 1-100

Gabe loves his great-grandfather, Papa Harry. He always goes to him, and likes to sit on his lap. Pretty cool to have a 1 year old baby and his 100 year old great-grandfather hanging out.

The New Yorkers

Dave's relatives from New York made a visit to see us, but mostly to meet Gabe this past weekend. We adore them and it's always so great to hang out with them, which we do a few times a year. They brought Gabe tons o' gifts...he'll be changing clothes 3 times a day just to wear all the stuff! He had a ball with them and we all had fun the whole weekend.

Friday at a local children's museum:



On Saturday, Gabe's entourage headed to his local playground:

Sunday, we hit Grammie and Pops for brunch:

Fun with Grandma

Working with Daddy

We took a visit to dad's office this week and Gabe made him self right at home at dad's desk. He'll be expecting his commission check in about 2 weeks :)




After he 'booked a few loads' my boys got serious about some grub...

I-L-L

for you non-Illinois folk, the response is: I-N-I.
We headed down to Champaign this past weekend to visit some friends of ours that we met through the blog world. Gabe's friend came home this past May and is a few months older than him. We all had a great time wearing our orange and blue and getting to finally meet in person. After we hung out, we all went out for Korean BBQ. Dave and I have been dying to get some good Korean food since our trip, and B Won did not disappoint. Our friends are regulars there and we all (especially those of Korean descent) got the royal treatment.

We were screaming at how cute they looked in their orange shirts...



After the tasty lunch we were all smiles...
Happy Illinois family...
Thanks for the hospitality to the "H" family, we'll be back!

Baby Gabe Goes to School

This past Wednesday, we visited Grammie's first grade class. Gabe had a ball. He likes to check out new places and he loves kids...so an elementary school was a fun day for him. The first graders were so cute and shouted with joy "Baby Gabe!" At one point I was on the ground holding him and they all swarmed me like bees to honey to hug and 'pet' him. You would think he would get overwhelmed, but he smiled and giggled at all the attention.
Since last year's first graders knew all about Baby Gabe from his referral, we had to visit the second grade classes. We couldn't leave the kindergartners out, so we had to visit them too. One little girl told me she couldn't stop staring at him because he was so cute. Gabe was a good boy and hung on to Grammie as she beamed while showing off her new grandson to all her co-workers and students.


Thanks to all the Dolphins for a fun day...see you at Halloween!

Say Kimchi (or Cheese)!

I have not taught him this, but today when I whipped out my camera, Gabe got this BIG smile. Maybe he just knows the 'camera' drill...




Or, maybe he's just giddy and happy from meeting a new lady friend today who has been home a few weeks...




These two had such fun playing today. They are both determined and strong-willed little buggers, and that seemed to work just fine for them both.

Fun at the Zoo

Saturday was our first visit to the Brookfield Zoo, which is about 15 mins from our house. We met our friends there for an afternoon of fun. Gabe loved meeting his new friend S, and they seemed to be very interested in each other. Gabe liked looking around and getting some quality weekend time with dad.

Feeding the goats...
Can I touch them?

Buddies...

Checkin' out the chickens, before they made loud noises that scared him...

Just general cuteness at the zoo...