New York -Part 2

The catalyst to going to New York was visiting with Mi Yeon...but we also got the added bonus of staying with our family too. As regular readers know, we visited Dave's family there last December. They are great hosts that always have lots o' fun stuff planned. This visit was no different.

First up was visiting an aquarium in Riverhead, NY:

Feeding and petting stingrays:








The butterfly and bird room:



See the bird on Dave's hand?

Strolling the grounds:

Next up was visiting an apple orchard:



Lest you think Gabe is all fun and smiles:





My cute husband:

A Special Reunion

This past September, we hopped a plane to NYC because Gabe's foster sister, Mi Yeon, was visiting from Seoul. Mi Yeon's mother was the wonderful woman who took care of Gabe from the time he was 6weeks old until he came home at 9 1/2 mos. Mi Yeon and her family took wonderful loving care of him and we couldn't wait to see her again!

We spent the morning together at the Bronx Zoo. When we first met up with her, Gabe was predictably very shy and buried his head into my shoulder. He doesn't warm to new people easily anyway and I think the added pressure that this was a very important person, made him even more shy. Mi Yeon was such a good sport, even though I knew all she wanted to do was pick him up and squeeze as hard as she could. We started to look at some animals and that helped him warm up. Mi Yeon is smart and good with kids so she started to play hide and seek with rocks...that game speaks no language. The two of them ended up spending a lot of time hanging out under a tree playing with rocks and acorns. Whenever I mention Mi Yeon or see a picture of her now, he always says "we played with acorns." We really didn't care if we saw one animal, all she (and Dave and I) wanted was for her to just BE with him. I was so proud that he warmed up and really had fun with her.

Before we made the trip, we talked a lot about who Mi Yeon is and what the visit was about. I'm so glad we prepared him that Mi Yeon would be going back to Korea and the 3 of us were going back to Chicago. Towards the end of the day he kept saying "Mi Yeon, back to Korea." He wasn't saying it in an anxious way but a reassuring way. Around 2pm, Dave wisely said that he was going to fall asleep and she should start to say good bye to him. We headed to the exit, exchanged some gifts and had a very teary goodbye.

The take away feeling for Dave and I was the undeniable, unrelenting, true love that she has for our son. I can't fully describe the overwhelming sense of pride, luck and love that we felt that so many people love our son and will always be in his life. In all my years, I will never adequately be able to thank Mi Yeon and her family for giving our son the great start in life that he will reap the benefits of his entire life. We are so blessed to have them in our lives and as our family in Korea. We can't wait to for Gabe to be reunited with Mrs Park (his foster mother) when we travel back to Korea to bring Levi home!

A Rockin' Good Time!

On 11-11-11, we celebrated Gabe's third birthday with the very appropriate theme of Rock n' Roll.

The guest of honor getting his groove on before the party:


My friend Christine did the awesome graphics:


As the guests arrived they got a 'backstage pass' to get the party started:

There were stations set up where they could 1)get their "Rockstar Look" 2) "Rock On" with a tattoo or 3) "Watch a Jam Session"




Rockstar Accessories:


Jam Session Accessories:


Some Rock Stars:





Cupcake time!:








After the party, some family stuck around to open gifts.

Grandma gave a card with a cheetos taped to the inside to match the picture on the outside:

My little cleaning helper:

Playing with the loot with Aunt Bari later that night:

Happy Happy Day!

Overall it was a fun little party. Gabe seemed to have a blast with all his friends at his home on his turf, doing his favorite activity. The party goers seemed to have fun too. Some of the reports from their moms since include: insisting on wearing the backstage pass to church, sleeping with the guitar, turning every song into a rock song, saying 'rock on', older brothers stealing the guitars, glasses and passes from the younger siblings that did attend.
Happy Birthday to my little RockStar!!

November's Care Package

When Levi JeeHo went in for his well baby check around November 12, this is what his foster mother would have gotten:

Included are some clothes, lotion, a toy and "The Snowy Day" in Korean.

Big huge Seoul Sister thanks goes to 2 of my bff's: Kelly (who brought the package from Chicago to WA) and Kris who brought the package from WA to Seoul. It warms this mom's heart when my care packages are delivered with love the whole way!

Birthday Love from Seoul

You know what's great? Getting a box like this delivered to your house:


And finding awesome Pororo loot inside:


Thank you to Mi Yeon (Gabe's foster sister) for making Young Min's birthday all that more sweet!

Three Is the Magic Number!

The Gabester is 3 today! And there is all sorts of magic going on. Here is a glimpse into his personality these days...

*"What you doing?" is in heavy, heavy, heavy rotation these days. Another big one is "what's that?" even on things that he knows what they are and what we are doing. Sometimes I think he just wants to see if we'll come up with a creative answer. Both of those questions are also usually followed up with the ever present "because why?"



*His imagination is in total overdrive these days. Laundry baskets are birthday cakes, we hide under the covers from the coyotes we see on Diego, a change sorter can be a scary ghost, etc. It's so fun to see what little scenarios he dreams up and what sticks in his mind from the day.


*He's big on compliments. He'll say 'nice dinner, Mommy' or 'nice cleaning, Mommy.' And for the record, every meal is 'dinner.'


*This Halloween season we were really big on 'scary yards.' We'd drive around town and rate them as 'no scary,' 'little bit scary,' or 'big scary.'

*Preschool is going much better. We had tears every day until the 7th class. Then we started letting him bring his trusty boo-ba and said that mommy couldn't go but his blankie could. Now boo-ba just hangs out in his backpack in case he needs it. He loves preschool and is a total chatterbox when I pick him up.


*Gabe is *obsessed* with baseball. I will say (cuz this is my blog about my kid) he is quite good for his age. Tees are for losers...we only pitch the ball and he hits about 18 out of 20 pitched balls and some have gone over our garage and many many have hit our windows. His throwing is very good too, complete with body twist. We watched the playoffs and needed to act out all exciting plays.


*He's a polite little boy. In addition to 'please' and 'thank you', he'll say 'excuse me' to anything in his way... 'excuse me arm' or 'excuse me paper.'


*He has a set of made up words that he uses randomly such has 'bomba, hingy, mombee, momba.' You could ask him what he played with today and he'll say 'bomba!' We don't know what they mean but they are nouns and seem to have a positive connotation and seem to be used when he wants to be silly, doesn't want to answer, or doesn't know the answer.


*Gabe will rock his charades team one day. If I can't understand what he's trying to say he'll act it out or give me another type of clue. For example he drew some snakes one day and I thought he said stripes and he said 'no, hissss.' Another day he was talking about a bridge and I couldn't understand him and he said 'not a tunnel.'


*He's big on the "I'm sorrys" these days, when he knows he does something I don't like and it usually comes a bit later. He'll all of sudden come up and say "I'm sorry I threw that (fill in the blank), mommy."



*Another big activity is music. He plays the drums every.single.day. He totally mimics the people he watches on you*tube. Someone just may have a special gift under the tree this year.



So there you have our little boy at 3! He is such a sweet, fun, smart, active little boy. I always say to him "Mommy must have done something pretty darn great in her life to deserve you" and that's the truth!
Happy Birthday, Gabriel YoungMin!!!!

Smile for the Camera

A few weeks ago we did our second round of professional family photos. The first was in October 2009, right after Gabe came home. We used the same photographer, Amanda Hein. She did another great job! Gabe was a bit cranky that day but she still got lots of good shots. Now, comes the hard part of picking ones to frame without our house looking like Amanda's Gallery. Here are a few of the shots, but you can check them all out HERE.