We attended the annual Apple Tasting at a local nursery. Since Cal loves apples so much, this is his idea of heaven! The festivities included FREE: apple tasting from MANY varieties, crafts, face painting, apple cider. There was also apple streudel and bins of apples to purchase. The weather was sunny (blinding at times) and warmish. A perfect fall morning!
Our friend Lisa was watching Cal and Lissi for a few hours this afternoon. Mysteriously, Cal had a tolieting accident of the stinky variety (this is a first!). Because he had no replacement underwear, he was loaned little girl underwear to use for the nest of the afternoon.
So we can tell Cal's future dates that YES, he has worn girl's underwear.
Hardly suprising since two days before he started crying when all the girls at Home Group were wearing princess dresses and he wasn't. He was quite realived to find that there were still some lovely outfits for him to wear.
Although they might not admit it, the kids LOVE bathing together. Heaven forbid one get into the tub without the other! And, Lissi has helped Cal to deal with hair washing. How can he cry throughout the hair cleansing when his one year old sister takes it in stride?
This was "Take 3". Could he look less enthusiastic??? Yes! That's why I needed to try 3 times!
Chicken Dance
We have been stressed about finances for the last few months. In particular, we had some very large "one time" bills to deal with recently. Frequently, we'd talk about how to budget differently and how to avoid over-drawing our bank account. Then, in answer to prayer, Wink got a call a few days ago from a church that wants a huge web design project. Wink talked on the phone on Friday and went to visit with the leaders of this project today. They hired him! From no leads to a huge job in 2 days! Wow! What an answer to prayer! Now he just needs to find the time to work on the project... Please pray that he can be healthy so that he efficiently manage his time.
Just as he had almost recovered, he got hit again with sickness! We don't know if it's the same bug or another one. The poor guy has been sick for 3 weeks now! Please pray that he gets better soon. I don't know how he can take care of the kids, go to school, and work when he is sick all the time and gets horrible cluster headaches. :(
After spending Friday and Saturday at a conference, I get to enjoy my one-day-weekend with the annual beginning of the "rains". They start in mid-October and usually don't let up until next June. Occasionally we have an hour, half day, or day or sun. But we can mostly expect gloom, clouds, and rain for the next 8 months. :( In spite of this the kids and I took our weekly "coffee-cider walk" this morning. The kids got to try out the new rain-cover for the double stroller. I wore my (less than perfect) rain-coat and got wet.
She now walks more than she crawls so we consider her a "walker" officially! Notice that her gait still looks a little zombie like :)
Lissi has become an awesome walker:
Good Walking Girl
Walking and Balloons
As a classic daddy geek, Wink has hoped that Cal would fall in love with Legos, just as he did as a boy. I know that Wink not only wanted Cal to follow in his footsteps, but also wanted to have lots of excuses to buy cool Lego sets. :)
Cal has shown no interest in the Legos or Lego table that he's had since he was one years old until very recently. Now the engineering/architecture geometry-geekiness has set in! Look as some of his recent "creations" with something called "Wedgets" (way cool bday gift from his buddy Alex) and Legos:
We had an opportunity to get a fantastic vacuum at half-price. The timing was poor for us, but this was a limited time offer. So we sucked it up (pun-intended) and decided to give it to each other as a late anniversary & early Christmas gift. I'm sure my mom will be very relieved next time she comes to visit, since she did not like our old vacuum at all.
Cal thinks it's really cool and helped Wink to vacuum the house. You better believe that this will be one of his household jobs when he's older. :)
Wink has been sick for almost 2 weeks. The poor guy has been trying to take care of the kids while feeling miserable. He had a temperature this morning and a sinus head-ache for days. He finally went to the doctor today. Hopefully the anti-biotics will help.
e-i-e-i-o
Cluck-cluck-bak-bak
This is Cal's new Halloween costume. He insisted that he wanted this costume over mom's idea of a Train Engineer (which would have been free to do--of course). After trying on the costume in the story, he ran all around the store and made everyone there smile. He insisted wearing the costume home, in spite of mom struggling with the car seat and all that plumage. He showed the costume off to dad (and posed for a few pics), then wore it to Home Group. What a character! :)
Lissi is going to be Little Red Riding Hood. Pictures to come eventually.
back and forth quickly (see shaking heads movie below to watch this in action).
You may need to click on the picture to make it bigger, but Cal has streaks of saliva going across his face thanks to open mouth/shaking action.
This morning Cal asked if his froggie blanket and pooh Bear were with him in Korea. I said, "no, the neighbor gave you Pooh Bear when you come home and I made you the froggie blanket." A little later in the morning, Cal was wearing his froggie blanket like a sling this morning. He had "baby" Pooh Bear inside and was telling us to be quiet because of the baby. then he changed the story. He said that Pooh Bear was in his tummy in Korea and he's not born yet.... I guess this is the slow process that we'll be going through with the kids for teaching them about birth, adoption, genes, and different types of families.
Videos to download and enjoy...
God obviously handpicked our family members:
Shaking heads
Cal had the best time ever soaking himself with the water bottle:
A little wet?
For Lissi's birthday, she got a special gondola ride:
Row Your Lissi Boat
Since the camera was missing last week, and the backpack was missing on Thursday, I asked Wink to re-enact Cal's 1st day of preschool for pictures. Here is my smart boy getting ready for school! He loves his new Thomas backpack--even if it has nothing to carry inside...
Lissi is now 29 inches (50th percentile) and 18 pounds (15th percentile). Her little head is only in the 3rd percentile, but we figure it must be PACKED with brains. She has moved up in the weight percentile from 3rd to 15th, so all that solid food must be doing her some good. Heaven knows, she didn't gain that weight from drinking her bottles!
Ever since living in New England, we've had an annual tradition of apple picking in the fall. We have taken Cal apple picking each fall since he's been home. Today was Lissi's first time apple picking.
In spite of yucky noses and congestion, we enjoyed the GORGEOUS day (after a week of rain) and got a ton of yummy apples! :)
Lissi is still sick. She isn't eating much but is generally in a decent mood. Her nose has been leaking all week. It's amazing how much goop can fit in that little body. her cold is strating to move into a cough. The poor thing isn't sleeping well from her nose and cough. Now she's given the bug to Wink and he's feeling pretty gross himself. We are praying that Cal and I are spared.
These were taken last week. Aren't they the best brother-sister pair ever! ;) They do so well together. Cal is really learning how to work with Lissi to give her something (to keep her occupied) when she starts to play with his toys. They are both great (so far) about sharing. On Cal's 1st day of school he didn't mind that daddy was leaving, but got upset that Lissi was leaving him.
Cal had his first day of pre-school today. He wore his brand new Thomas the Tank Engine backpack (which he left at school of course). Other than the artwork he brought home (a yellow paper with letters stamped on it), I didn't get a lot of information from him. He said the teachers were nice. His babysitter, Auntie Lynnette, picked him up since Wink was in class. Our camera was MIA (there-by causing panic in the evening when we spent an eterminty trying to find it) so we didn't get any 1st day of school pics :( Hopefully we can re-enact next week.
Her total lack of sleep (at night and naps) and grumpy mood are now explained. My baby's sick :( She had a 101 fever this evening (that is an armpit reading, so I'm assuing it's actually higher) and hasn't eaten since breakfast. Poor thing spent most of the day crying. :(
Our happy little girl was NOT happy for the photographer today. Well, who would be after getting up for a couple of hours at 4:30am and not making up for it at nap time. We got a total of one (1) semi-smiling shot for her first year pics. Here they are:
To our dear Lissi,
Today you are one-years old. It is so hard to believe that my little baby will soon be a toddler. Before we know it, you will be getting ready to go to school! One year ago your birthparents made a very difficult decision. We are thinking of your birthparents often today and I’m sure they are thinking about you.
You have grown into such a big girl already. You can take many little steps (more than 10 at times) but still prefer to crawl or “walk” on your knees. You love to climb up and down and flop onto the pillows. You are rather fearless and try to climb into and out of the bathtub independently as well as plastic bins and boxes. Last week you climbed into our friends wading pool (with all of your clothes on-of course!).
You have a very large verbal vocabulary for your age. You can say “mama, dada, doggie, more, ball, hi.” You have learned some ASL signs as well: “more, ball, eat, hi/bye, sorry/please, finished (sort of)”. You have a few expressions as well, “Wooah, wow, uh oh”. You can say “ooooooo” for a cow noise as well. ;)
You are a true water baby. You splash and splash in the bathtub, swimming pool, and buckets of water. Even when we rinse your hands in the sink you stick your finger into the faucet so that the water sprays everywhere. You love it! Mommy is slightly less thrilled.
You love to eat just about everything, especially fruits (our peach tree was a big hit) and some veggies (peas and corn). We’ve been to a number of birthday parties recently and you have devoured bits of birthday cake. You have learned to drink out of a straw, and enjoy stealing sips of your brother’s milk.
You are a very happy little girl. You love to smile and laugh. You love to make other people laugh as well. You are cuddly with adults, especially mommy and daddy. You want to be held when away from your parents (like at church or the gym). You love to play with your brother imitating each other, flopping in the pillow-pit, and chasing each other around on the floor. Your favorite toys are “ball ball”s. You are very good at sharing and passing the ball back and forth. You take the nubby blue ball and smoosh it on the floor and on your face.
Your 8th tooth is coming in right now. Your hair is long enough that you had your first haircut last weekend. You are still a skinny little thing, but you finally don’t fit in your 6 month size clothes!
You are a delight and a wonder and we are blessed beyond measure to be your parents!
Much love, Mommy and Daddy
Wasn't too traumatic for her (or me!). We just wanted to cut the whispy long parts off for her 1 year old pictures next weekend! :)
We are a wasteful society. I have always been aware of this, but even more so after reading my recent bookclub book "Affluenza". I have wanted to start composting since we moved in, but since the Rats of Nimh live under our yard, I've been discouraged from starting. I have always been a star recycler and am very good about re-using when possible, but we still generate a full garbage can weekly.
We usually remember to put it outside the night before garbage day, but occasionally Wink has been known to run down the street after the garbagemen before 6am. When we do forget, it is usually the worst timing. Like....after having a party of 50 people over to your house.
Wink pulled out one of our yard debris bins to be used as a secondary garbage bin for the week. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but I took the entire afternoon today to do yard work (read: whack, hack, cut every bush, tree and overgrown shrub in the front yard). 4 and a 1/2 hours of yardwork left me literally shaking in exhaustion. It also left me with a LOT of yard debris. Way more than our one remaining can could hold. So, now I have an overflowing can. The rest of my wreckage got thrown right back into the yard. I didn't know what else to do with it. I'm not sure it looks any better now than it did this morning. ;)
Let me start by stating that I loathe the game Candyland. Wouldn't you hate a game that you play at LEAST once a day at work for an annual total of close to 300 games? Additionally, many of my students are working on being a good sport. So I have to be the dealer for all the cards and the children fight and whine when they are sent backwards (the dreaded "Plumpy" card evokes tears at times).
On Lissi's birthday, a friend gave Cal and Lissi a joint gift of a new Candyland game. As much as this made me roll my eyes, I knew that this would be a great first board game and would be good for learning turn-taking and good sportsmanship. I had successfully avoided actually playing the game with Cal (although Wink and our new babysitter have not been as lucky).
I'll describe the differences between this new "modern" version and the "older" version that I use at school. The newer version is multi-cultural. It has 4 children of all different races in the game. There is no longer a dreaded "Plumpy", although there is a spot to be sent back to near the front of the game. Queen Frostine, beautiful and everyone's favorite at school, is now Princess Frostine, and is glamorous and old (and represented by an ice cream cone rather than a snowflake). When you get stuck in the molasses swamp, you now just lose one turn--instead of being stuck for an infinity waiting to draw a blue card. The cards and no longer just a square color, they have a 3-D feel just like a "button" in a computer game. The gingerbread men players are taller and curved (for increased aerodynamics?). Finally, the age old question, "Do I need to get exactly a purple to win the game?" is now answered since the last square on the board is rainbow striped.
Wink had told me that he had yet to beat Cal. I had difficulty believing that Cal could actually play the game. I mean, he's 3. But, cal proved that he has mastered the game. He takes turns appropriately, he knows how to move to the next colored square. He moves forward and backwards without too much complaint. He even tells you that, "I have bad news for you...." when his opponent gets a "bad" card. When I won the game (woo hoo! I never win this cursed game!), he was even a good sport about it. My three year old is a gamer?!
Movies from Lissi's birthday party (these are big files so grab a cup of coffee while they are downloading):
Singing Happy Birthday Video
Lissi's Tol table trauma Video
And a day in our life....Cal attempts to entertain Lissi so we can get some pictures:
Cal the entertainer video
Lissi is learning her sound effects. She says "wooooooooah" when flying her brother's helicopters or airplanes, "wow" when she sees something cool, and "uh-oh" when something falls down. She also grunts when she is lifting my 1 pound weights. She sounds just like a weight lifter (even though she can actually lift these with ease). Wink swears he doesn't know where she learned to do this!
Cal has decided that "I have a question...." is a good way to introduce a comment, such as "I have a question for you [pause] If a tree fell down on the house or the fence then that would be really, really horrible." Where's the question?????
We made it through the big party. We had over 50 people there (including our family). My mom even flew up from California to be there for the event (which we held about a week before Lissi's actual bday so that my mom could be there).
The weather was VERY hot (for this area). Low-90's was quite sweaty for an outdoor party. But, luckily the party could be outdoors because there is no way everyone could fit in our home. This was a potluck party, so we had many tasty dishes. I made several Korean dishes including a cucumber salad, sweet soy-sauce potatoes, and crockpot bulgogi. The dessert included banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for the kids and a fabulous Harvest Apple Cake for the adults.
About an hour into the party we dressed Lissi in her traditional hanbok, given to her by the Reception Center. We asked all the guests to make predicitons as to what she would choose during the toljabee ceremony. For the toljabee ceremony we held Lissi up to a platter containing a variety of items. The first two items that she chooses is said to be predictive of her future. The first item she picked up was a plastic knife, indicating that she will be a good cook. 
The guests were cheering (and making strong suggestions as to what she should choose next), the weather was hot, and Lissi was not a happy camper. I think choosing was a little too stressful :) She almost chose the pen (indicating that she would be a scholar) and almost chose the thread (indicating long life). But ultimately, the stress and heat got to her and she broke down in tears. So we've concluded that she is just going to be a REALLY great cook. We had promised a prize to whoever was able to correctly guess both items that she picked up from the tol table. Because she only chose the knife, I wanted to give prizes to each person who chose the knife...but I had only bought 4 Korean treats and 7 people were winners. So I asked for volunteers to not take a prize. This idea, however, backfired, and everyone (except for Cal) graciously said they didn't need a prize. Then I had to change my tactic and ask people to be greedy and take a prize!
All together it was a great celebration. Cal had a terrific time opening all of Lissi's gifts. He is pretty sure that the gifts are for him and only shares them reluctantly.
Lissi has become quite the communicative little gal. Mama has taught her well :)
She is verbally saying: "mama, dada, ball, more, doggie, nai-nai (Chinese for milk)"
She is signing: ball, more, please/sorry, milk
She also has her 8th tooth coming in.
A few minutes after Cal and I returned from the gym (my last day at the gym since I'll quit now that work is starting again....) I heard Felicity was awake in her room. I told Cal that we'd have to get up Lissi and daddy (yes, daddy has been sleeping until 11:30am). Cal said that he'd get Lissi and I could get daddy. I asked him how he was going to get Lissi, since she was in her crib. He said, "Don't worry. I'll sing to her." And he went into the room and began singing "Jesus Loves me". Isn't that the sweetest! :)
We were witnesses to Levi's homecoming today! We had never witnessed a baby being escorted to his forever family. Today Jen became a mommy and Seth a big brother. I think he looks like a big teddy bear and the escort said that he was so sweet on the plane. Hurray! I'm so glad we got to be a part of this and hope that Cal remembers it later. He thinks that babies all come from Korea. When I told him that our friend was having a baby (she's pregnant, but her first child was from Korea), Cal asked if we could go to the airport. :)
I just barely got a picture of the 3 homecoming buddies and now big brothers...
Every since Lissi learned the word "ball" that is all she ever wants! All day long "ball, ball, ball". And she chases after them whenever she sees them. Do I forsee sports in our little girl's future?
She added "ball" (more like /ba/) to her verbal vocabulary today! My little genius girl!
Do you think he had fun? ;)
What was in those Cracker Jacks???
The boys joined A and dad for a baseball game. They figured that they'd only make it through part of the game and then get bored and leave. No no no. They watched the whole game and had plenty of energy to spare at the end. Cal is continuously talking about the man who played the drums backwards from the roof and the remote control cars racing during the 7th inning stretch.
After our June bike ride ended with an irrepairable tricycle, we tried again today. Luckily, the bike did well and we all enjoyed the walk, the boats, and the airplanes descending right over our heads.
Korea requires that children be followed-up for 6 months after they leave Korea and enter their new country. After 3 visits from the Social Worker and a letter stating that the child is doing well and the legal adoption can proceed, a lawyer can be called and the legal aspects taken care of. Today was our 3rd post-placement visit. It went very well and we have really enjoyed working with our Social Worker. Now we need our lawyer to call us back (on vacation?) so that she can begin the next stage of paperwork... Until the legal adoption, the child is under our temporary guardianship, but the adoption agency actually has the legal guardianship. After the adoption (which could be the beginning of next year?) she will be legally ours forever. Hurray!
Cal and his friends Jace and Jacob had a BLAST together. The energy and adrenaline could have powered a small city. At the end of throwing, jumping, and running, they called enough to form the "Cal and the twins" boy band. We have great hopes for them.
Lissi, on the other hand, thinks they need a lot more practice...
At a moment of relative quiet, Lissi and Jade waited for the noise to begin again.
Dear Lissi,
11 months old today. Only one month away from a year. Wow! You are hardly a baby anymore and we’re already preparing for your toddler years.
You stand without holding on all the time now and have begun to cruise around the furniture. You’ve attempted one step, but haven’t tried again since then. You easily crawl up and down stairs, crawl one-handed, and even crawl on just your knees with no hands. You love to dance by shaking your head, bouncing up and down, and shaking your bottom.
Your dancing always comes with plenty of vocalizations. You squeal with delight when dancing. You continue to make silly growling noises, but many of your noises now are more understandable. You are saying three words, “More, Nai-Nai, Mama” and sign “more”. I was thrilled to discover recently that you understand that the word “more” is not just for food, but for anything that you enjoy. An example was when you were watching a neighbor’s cat and every time it moved away from us you started saying and signing “more”. You have started to imitate a few more words and today enjoyed imitating the inflection and vowel sounds in animal noises while reading “Moo Baa La La La”.
Your comprehension of language continues to develop as well. You understand stated and unstated common rules and will look to us with a twinkle in your eye when contemplating disobedience. You race crawl down the hall to us when your name is called and are getting the idea of looking for people when their names are called out.
Your eating continues to astound us. You eat more than mommy and Cal combined for some meals. You love all finger foods, but have started getting sick of bananas. Some of your favorite foods include noodles, cheese, peaches, cereal, waffles, lunch meat, and bread. You don’t like to drink your bottle very much, but have learned to sip from a straw and are always trying to drink everyone else’s drinks.
This last week you have been taking your first swimming class. You are obviously very cold in the water and shiver often. However, you are doing a spectacular job of playing in the water, floating, and being comfortable in this environment. If the days were just warmer then I think it would be a perfect activity.
You are a beautiful little girl and we are so proud of you and filled with love for you. Happy 11 months!
Much love, Mommy and Daddy
We finally downloaded our pics from last week. Here are pics of our family with Wink's parents:
Pictures of the pillow pit that the kids had a blast in between the beds and Cal's amazing and spectacular "Superman jump" between the two beds.
And finally of the false alarm emergency that had the hotel evacuated at 7am and which still haunts Cal every minute of the day (I am not kidding that he won't go into any room without holding my hand for fear of the smoke detector going off since this incident).
Lissi is cruising like crazy today. Out of nowhere. She never really cruised at all and today she's using the couches, tables, etc. to get all over the place. She is finally getting the one foot then the next idea!
Wink and I have been married 9 years today! To celebrate...we went to swim lessons, dropped Wink's father off at the airport to fly back to Asia, and took a nap. After our nap I started having a huge stomach ache that has been making me miserable.
So much for a celebration. But, Wink's parents did take our family and Em's family out on Monday night to celebrate our anniversary, so we can at least say we did something.
It was actually a fluke. Lissi was taking a bath with Cal and her friend Gi-Gi (after swimming lessons) and started acting all funny. I joked that making she was going poop (but since she never goes, I didn't really mean it). Sure enough, Cal announced that she was indeed going poop and so we sat her on the toliet. She was very unhappy to be sitting partway on the huge toliet seat while doing something that was obviously uncomfortable. BUT, we were so glad that we didn't have to clean up the mess and that it didn't get into the bath! :)
Lissi is standing ALL the time now. She still uses something to help her get up, but then she can stand for up to 40 seconds! Wowzers! Today she even attempted her 1st step (unsuccessfully) to me while a clown entertained Cal at a bday party.
She is growing up sooooo fast and it is hard to believe that she will be running around before we know it!
Here's our gorgeous little girl in her Korean hanbok (given by the Reception Center staff) as I had her post for early bday pics: 
And Lissi modelling her independent standing at the church picnic:
Wink's parents have been visiting for the last week. At their request, the 6 of us drove to Seattle yesterday to see the city and visit with Wink's aunt and uncle. It was a long trip for 6 people and a 3 year old who refused to sleep, but we made it without incident. When we checked into the room Cal was in heaven. He created a "pillow pit" between the two beds and threw down all the pillows (12?) and he and Lissi jumped, flopped, and stood on the pillows. They had so much fun. Cal was so excited about going swimming as well, but because he didn't nap I had to use it as a bribe for good behavior during dinner. Wink's aunt, uncle, and cousin met us at the hotel, only to discover that they did not have a hotel restaurant (menu but no restaurant). We walked a block to an Italian place and ate there at almost 8pm. Consdering the time and the non-kid-friendsly atmosphere, the kids did fantastic. When Lissi melted down at about 8:15, I took both kids back to our hotel room and Wink followed me a few minutes later.
Wink put Lissi to bed and I took Cal to his promised swim. He quickly (and wisely) decided the pool was to cold and he wanted to be in the hot tub. He stuck his cute feet inside and played with all the bubbles. He prenteded that they were soap bubbles and he "cleaned" me, himself, the railings, etc. Then he pretended that it was "mousse" and made his hair and my hair look beautiful. After all this fun, and a bath, he went to sleep extremely late.
Cal woke up at 7am to use the bathroom. Right after I asked him if he wanted to go back to sleep (everyone else was asleep) the hotel fire alarm went off. It was so loud and rather scary. I grabbed our shoes and the diaper bag (purse was inside) and Wink did the same, and we rushed to the stairwell. We were one of the 1st people outside and we waited in our jammies to find otu what was going on. Ten minutes later, fully clothed people emerged, some even with suitcases. A fire truck and ambulance showed up. Wink's dad eventually came out of the building, and his mom was seen sticking her head out of the 3rd floor window waving to us. What?! A few minutes later the alarm was turned off (false alarm) and we began to tricle back into the hotel. It was a very abrupt beginning of the day, but I am so thankful that Cal woke me up and not the alarm! Also, I am greatful that Cal seemed to have a good hotel experience and doesn't seem to associate the hotel with the fire alarm (as he did with my school for a number of months).
After our extremely cranky girl refused to have her bottle in her mouth for almost a day, her 7th tooth finally broke through the gum line. Unfortunetly, it looks like it is coming in very crooked. I hope that is just an illusion since it is still so tiny.
Cal was petrified by a mal-functioning smoke alarm tonight. He remained scared when he went to bed and asked me to lie down with him. After we lay there for a while he said, "Can I change aisles with you?" When I asked him why, he said, "Because that side has bugs, and spiders, and ants, and ladybugs, and butterflies. So I need to change to that side."
Very creative. And yes, he afraid of butterflies and ladybugs.
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