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Birthday Bash

We had Gabe's birthday party this past weekend and it was quite a party. We had an open house with family, friends, neighbors, blog friends, and lots o' kids. Gabe did amazingly well. He had a great time with all the playmates and attention. It definitely helped to be on his turf and that he's so comfortable with his grandparents and aunt for extra support.
Of course we had his Tol table with candy towers, fruit, cookies and cake. At about the midpoint of the party, he got fancied up in his beautiful hanbok (a gift from his foster family) to predict his future. We had put out a thread (long life), spoon (good cook), money (wealthy), ball (athlete), guitar (musician). He went right for the spoon. Good thing, cuz mommy and daddy need a good cook around here :) His second choice was the ball. Looks like we'll have a well coiffed athlete that can cook.
Thanks to everyone who made Gabe's birthday a special day!!

Now you may remember that I broke my camera last week, and sadly the new one did not come in time. So...here are a few from the day, with more to come when I get the rest from those that had working cameras.

Chatting with Grandma before the party:


Walking around before the guests arrive:

Tol Table:

I know this is a tease...but a pic of the gorgeous Hanbok:

Someone is ONE!

Our sweet boy turns 1 today. We can't imagine our lives without him and hope he has a great year!

Here's an update on Gabe what he's been up to:
*He loves to play catch. He gets so excited when he throws the ball back to you.
*Books are his new BFF's. There are 3-4 that are in HEAVY rotation. We'll be playing then he'll find one of them, bring it to me and crawl in my lap to read it. We proceed read it about 10 times in a row :)
*He loves to put his face on anything soft...his blanket, a soft rug, a stuffed animal, and he tries to put his cheek to Posie with mixed results.
*He's walking! I'd say he's walking 80% of the time and crawling 20%. He's very proud of his walking abilities. He can also stand from a sitting position.
*He loves to kiss himself in the mirror :)
*He's beginning to explore body parts. He likes to find mommy's belly button.
*He says a few 'words.' "Tuh" is light, "bah" is bottle and then there is a lot of rambling babbling that I don't know what he means yet.
*He's a good little sleeper and likes his crib. He sleeps 12 hours a night straight through, with 2 naps during the day.
*He is still a good eater, but swings from adult food and baby food. Overall his favorite choices are yogurt, cheese, avocado, and squash.
*When mommy or daddy comes home or in the room from being away, his arms open wide in the air with a big grin, all of which means "pick me up please!"


You're probably wondering why there is no new picture on his first birthday post. My camera broke a few days ago, I hope the new one is here by Friday. Lousy, stinkin' timing on that.

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!