Here Comes Santa Claus!!

That was the song that I was seeing when we took Kaiden to see Santa Claus. I know I was more excited than everyone. I had been waiting 10 years for this moment to share with my child and it just felt like a dream. Aaron and I both teared up while we watched him watch Santa come in on his helicopter. ( I know not so real to the story, but really exciting for the kids.)
Anyway, Kaiden pointed at the helicopter and smiled and laughed and we were both just giddy with excitement waiting for Kaiden to get to finally sit on Santa's lap for the first time. Here is our picture of the wondrous event.









You can see that Kaiden and Santa are probably not becoming friends anytime soon. He would not go anywhere near him without one of us holding him. Aaron got to be the lovely one in the pictures. Isn't it just precious though? I hope everyone is having a happy holiday!!

Time Sure Does Fly By

Well,if you are still reading my blog,I am sorry about not posting in forever.It seems like time is just flying by. Kaiden will have been here 5 months this Monday and we still can't believe how blessed we are. It has been a crazy month.
First, I have had to take Kaiden to the emergency room twice. Both times running a fever over 104 degrees. Needless to say, that was pretty scary for me. The first time he had a double ear infection. This visit sent us to a specialist and he also got tubes in his ears this past Monday. The second time he just had a virus. Luckily,crossing my fingers, the fever is gone for a while. Now we are concentrating on trying to get rid of his cold. It seems that my poor baby just lives with one.
Anyway,in better news, we got to take Kaiden to see Santa for the first time last Friday. Now Aaron and I both had tears in our eyes and we watched our precious poor point as Santa's helicopter brought him in. Then,the fun part started. We tried to get a picture of him with Santa,but he screamed like a banchee. Aaron ended up having to hold him by Santa while he screamed. Of course, we can't wait to show him that one day and see what he has to say about it.

Finally,wish us lots of luck tomorrow. We have our final post placement visit. We are so excited. We can't wait to finish our finalization and this brings us one step closer!! Yeah!!

4 Months Home!!

Well, As of today Oct. 30th, Kaiden has been home with us for 4 months. Man does time fly!! So to honor this occasion, I thought I would do a post that is to him to let him know what he has been doing these past few months.
So Kaiden,

You have been walking everywhere. It has been absolutely amazing to watch you grow and succeed more each day.

You call your Daddy, "Dada" and even sometimes "Daddy"

You call your Grandpa, "Ga" and point at his picture on the piano and laugh.

You recognize all your grandparents and love to go and play with them.

Your favorite toy is a cardboard box, or Mama's cup and a toy to drop in it and take out over and over. It is so much fun to watch.

You are finally fitting into 18 month clothes. 12 months are finally getting a bit too short!!

You still will not sleep in a crib, but you are sleeping all night next to Mama and Daddy in bed. You will also nap in bed by yourself which is a huge step.

You love going to daycare. Your favorite friend to play with is MacKenzie. She even waves and will try to follow you out the door when I pick you up.

You decided three days ago that baby food is for wussies and have started wanted big people food. Now we are going to work on using a fork and spoon.

You have the most amazing, loving, and fun personality. You smile and make everyone's frown turn upside down.

You love to play with your cousins. You are finally starting to learn how to really play with others and figure things out.

You love to watch the Wonderpets, Mickey Mouse, Special Agent Oso, and especially Baby Einstein. You watch this on your portable DVD player in the car all the time.

I could keep going on, but I will only add one more thing.

You are a social baby and absolutely love to have everyone's attention especially your Mama and Daddy's. I can promise one thing. You will always have our utmost attention because we love you so much.We can't imagine what life was like before you became a part of ours. Now our lives are full of so much love, because we have blessed by God with the gift of our wonderful baby boy.
We love you with all our hearts,

Mama and Daddy

Happy 4 Months Home Kaiden!!

Surprise Mail

I bet you can guess what this post is about, huh? Let me share with you this neat story. Aaron and Kaiden always go outside and get the mail together. it is usually the normal stuff. Well, today we got a pakage from Holt. Aaron handed it to me and I opened it up and there was a package from his foster family inside.

They sent us his umbilical cord and a beautiful Korean necklace. I am just in awe. It makes us so happy to know that his foster family loved him so much to keep that and send it to us. I sat here and thought today I wonder if his foster mom is thinking about him today and wondering what he looks like and how much he has developed. I am going to work this week on getting a photo album ready to send to her by this weekend. I want to share with her what a wonderful, adorable, caring, loving, and sweet little boy she helped guide and raise before we could get there. We just thank her everyday for taking such wonderful care of our little boy.

Kaiden's First Pictures

I got Kaiden's first birthday pictures done yesterday. He is such a busy little fellow that I felt for the lady taking his pictures. She had to work to get these shots. I think they are absolutely priceless. These are some of my favorites of the day.












There are not enough words to describe how much we love our little baby. We have been so blessed to get to be his parents. Honestly though, how could you not love that adorable pudgey face??? It is just too cute!!

Kaiden is 1!!!

Kaiden turned one yesterday. It is absolutely amazing how time flies by. It seems like just yesterday we were picking him up at the airport and giving him a hug and kiss for the very first time. He is just so wonderful. We threw him a Baby Einstein party and all our close friends and family came. It was very special. I will do my best to post pictures tomorrow as soon as Aaron gets them downloaded for me. It was just the best day.

Happy 1st Birthday My Sweet Boy!!!

3 Months of Joy!!

I can hardly believe I am saying this because it feels like just yesterday that we were getting frustrated with waiting for him to come home, but Kaiden has been home for 3 MONTHS!!! It has been the best 3 months of our lives. He is such a blessing!! I am not going to say we haven't gotten frustrated learning how to be parents along the way, but the rewards of getting to be his mom and dad outweigh everything else. He has got to be the cutest, sweetest, most wonderful boy ever!!!

Anyway that's enough gushing. Let me give everyone an update on my sweet boy. Right now, he is starting to walk. He will walk 10 - 12 steps. He gets so excited for himself that when he falls down he waits for you to clap for his accomplishment. It is so sweet!!

We also took him out for his first big outing. We went to the fair. We were a little worried, because he does prefer to be held, but he stayed in his stroller and just looked in awe of everything around him. We just sat back and watched him. We thought he might get dizzy from watching the roller coaster, but he sure did love it. We took him to the petting zoo. Now, he loves to pet and love on our dogs so we were really expecting him to love the petting zoo. We were wrong. He was not impressed with feeding the goats. He would watch me feed the goat, but there was no way he was getting near them without getting upset. I think it is just because he had never seen one before. I think next year when he is older he will like it a lot more. We did get him to touch several animals, but he still wasn't overly impressed. I will post pics of that later when I get them downloaded.

We do have one special day coming up next week. Next Friday, my baby will be 1!!!!!
We are having a cookout for his party out near a playground. We are actually going to do his Tol celebration the next day in a more quiet setting with just the grandparents. Now, just to make sure he was ready for his birthday, I recently made sure that durig his cousin's party we stood right behind her while they were singing, "Happy Birthday" so he won't get scared next week. Anyway, he bounced up and down in my arms during the whole song because he loves music and then when we clapped and said "Yeah", he started clapping louder than everyone else and said, "Aah." It was absolutely adorable. We all wish we had been filming it that day. The other thing I was worried about was whether or not he would even eat cake and icing. So he actually tried some. At first he tried to spit it out like he does with everything new,but then when he actually got a taste of the icing he just opened his mouth wide waiting for the next piece. He got unhappy when I said we had had enough. So my two biggest fears about his party have been solved. I can check that off my list. So now I am off today to finish getting things ready for his party. But first I just want to say again, Happy 3 Months Home Kaiden!!!!!

First Haircut

Kaiden got his first haircut yesterday. It was really fun for us to watch. The sweet little girl who did his cut did so well with him and was so patient. I had to hold him the entire time and his head squirmed from side to side so many times, but my baby looks like a sweet little boy. Check out the transformation!!! He is just the most handsome cutest baby in the world!!!

Kaiden's First Day of School

That's right. My boy has officially had his first day of school or daycare whatever you want to call it is fine. I prefer to call it school.

Anyway, I am still off on leave for 3 more weeks, but we decided that we needed to start transitioning him into school. We don't want him to be scared going everyday or upset. We also really wanted him to get to know the workers there and of course vice versa. Well, this Thursday I decided was the big day.

I guess I was more nervous than he was. I just knew he was going to cry and pitch a fit. Maybe I was hoping for it, who knows?? But once again, my darling surprised me. He is such a social butterfly that as soon as I set him down on the floor with the other kids, he was fabulous. He LOVES to play with other kids. It is probably his favorite thing to do.

So I left him for 3 hours that day thinking that he would probably get upset later when he realized I was gone, but no again. They said he just played and laughed with the other kids until he got tired. When I walked in, one of the workers was holding him while he slept. When I reached for him, he smiled in his sleep like nothing had happened.

The next day the exact same thing happened. In a way, I wanted him to really be so attached that he would be extremely upset when I left, but I truly think this is better. So far he actually likes to go!!! I guess I couldn't have asked for more!!!

Now when I pick him up, he is still all mine and loves on me and wants me above all others. So I think our attachment is still working strong!!! I am so proud of my boy!!! He is just the most wonderful addition we could have ever made to our family!!! We have truly been blessed beyond all measure!!!

WOW!!! Has it already been 2 months??

Yep that's right, it has been two months since we brought the love of our life home. All I can say is it has been a wonderful two months. I know I haven't blogged in a while, so I will catch everyone up on what has been going on the past few weeks.
Well, I am a teacher first of all so naturally it is time for school to start back. But since Kaiden has only been here two months, we felt he needed a few more weeks at home to bond with us and transition slowly to daycare.But as any teacher will tell you the first week of the year is critical for your year to go smoothly so I didn't want to miss it. Well, as a family we worked it out. I have been home with Kaiden for 7 weeks by myself and it has been wonderful. He has really attached to me and is just growing more comfortable in his house and with us everyday. His daddy hadn't really gotten the chance to bond with him so he took vacation for one week and my sweet mother-in-law and her wonderful twin sister helped us out for a few days as well.Now, this is the first time I have been away from him for any length of time so I was really expecting tears and my heart to break because I was making him so sad. Naturally, Kaiden surprised me. Since he was still at our house and with his daddy, or his mother-in-law who he knows, he was happy and just did his normal routine throughout the day. Now, when I got home he made me feel better because he reached out and smiled and wanted his Mama but I am still in shock at how wonderful he is doing. Also, he has really bonded with both his daddy and his Grandma Sandy which is a fabuous thing.

So what is Kaiden doing since my last blog???

Well.....

Kaiden is such a happy baby. He will laugh out loud for no reason at all other than to hear himself. The only time he gets upset is when he is in the car to long. So for those fun car rides, we got him a portable DVD player. Kaiden loves his Baby Einstein videos, so now we can take it with him so he will be happy. It has already been such a life saver. He actually enjoys the car now!!

The newest thing he has learned is his own voice. He has recently started screaming. Not a sweet deep scream, but an ear piercing shrill scream. Now, he is not upset just talking, but when we go out in public I am really starting to feel that other people don't appreciate it. But he is just a baby and will grow out of it soon enough, so I am not too worried about what others think right now. He is just communicating. Right????

He is also starting to stand on his own and is walking across the floor with his Step & Ride. It is so cute watching him. He gets so excited and laughs.

Finally, Kaiden has really started dancing. He LOVES music. Yesterday he turned on the big radio and started bouncing up and down to the music. Then, he decided to grab the side of the radio and dance with it. We truly wish we had had the video camera out, but we couldn't quit laughing long enough to get it. Our little boy will definitely put A BIG SMILE ON YOUR FACE!!!

He Is Smarter than a Fifth Grader

I don't know if I have mentioned this in other posts but my little Kaiden is really smart. He amazes me everyday with all of the things he can already do.
For instance,

1. He can mimick what you do.
2. He has learned how to put and pull things out of objects.
3. He has been learning new syllables and we are slowly teaching him how to put them together as words. We taught him how to say Bye Bye last week and wave his hand. it is the cutest thing.
4. He knows the word "No" and will look at you when you say it, stop, and then turn around and try to go get the object anyway.
and finally my favorite one is

He LOVES his Mommy and Daddy. My baby is 100% in love with our family. He is the absolute perfect fit and I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful baby.
God really knows what is best!!!

I Feel Lucky

What can I say other than I feel like the luckiest person in the world. It has been 5 weeks since Kaiden has been home and he is doing so wonderful. He is still VERY attached to me, but he is also becoming extremely attached to his Daddy who he loves so much and also loves to play with. He is so social and absolutely LOVES to play with other children. He will play for hours with my nieces and nephews as long as he can still see me in the room. He really cracks me up with how he watches out of the corner of his eye constantly to make sure I haven't left the room.
We had our first post-placement visit on Saturday and everything went great. Our SW asked if we thought he was regressing. I know the look on my face was, "Are you crazy?", but we talked through all the 10 month developmental skills. Now, Kaiden will be 10 months in a week and can already do everything on the list plus some on the 11 month list. I am such a proud Mama!!
The only thing I would definitely prepare other first time moms like I am to get ready for is teething. When Kaiden got home, he had 6 teeth. He cut two more teeth simultaneously and didn't really have a problem. But now we are on the first molars. I feel so bad for him. His drooling kicked up about 300% and looks like he is just slobbering out his mouth constantly. We have to change his outfit at least twice even with a bib. He is also in such terrible pain and tries to bite on EVERYTHING to make himself feel better. Unfortunately, that also includes me. Yesterday, my sweet boy actually drew blood with a bite. I am slowly working on putting his pacifier in his mouth when he tries to bite and telling him "No Bite" in a firm voice. I will blog later and let everyone know how this went. Hopefully, it will go well.
Well, my baby boy is starting to wake up from his nap so I will have to blog more later. I also want to congratulate my bloggy friend Joanna and getting sent to the P3 Lounge. Hopefully it won't be to much longer until your sweet Gabe is home.

Pictures!!!

I have been promising pictures every post since he came home, so here are some of my favorites. I hope you enjoy.


Here is one of Kaiden when we took him swimming. He had so much fun!!

This is Kaiden and Daddy all dressed up for our first church visit.

Kaiden all dressed up for church,


This is one of my favorite pictures of Kaiden. Isn't he just adorable?


Here is Kaiden playing in the dog bowl. He insists that this is one of his toys.

2 Weeks

I still can't believe it, but Kaiden has been here for 2 weeks tomorrow. It really seems like forever when you are waiting and then WOW!! The 2 weeks that seemed to drag on forever before just flies by.
Right now, I think Kaiden is doing really well on his bonding. It took him a while, but he finally is starting to turn to his name when you call it. We worked for hours on peek-a-boo and saying his name over again. Every sentence we directed at him had his name in it. I think it is finally paying off. He is also starting to get really comfortable. He is still extremely clingy to me, but we expected that in his early days. We are actually extremely happy that he is so bonded to one of us. He waves bye-bye and laughs and plays a lot. He still can't sleep in a room alone, but I can now lay him down on the bad and sit beside him while he is sleeping. I think that is definitely a step in the right direction on that. Also we took him to church for the first time yesterday. He did really well. We held him the entire time, but with all the people coming up and talking to him, he was exhausted and passed out before we left the parking lot.
I will post pictures as soon as Aaron gets home to download them.

9 months old and Here

Well, I just want you let everyone know that I wrote a really long post the other day about Kaiden being home for a week. Well, now that we are almost into 2 weeks I decided to trash it and gove you another one.Yesterday, Kaiden turned 9 months old. It is still a shock how big and productive he is.
He loves to pull up on anything and is starting to let go.
He is teething extremely bad. He tries to use me as a chew toy often.
He seems to be bonding very well. He has chosen me above everyone else and gets exremely upset when I leave the room.
He really loves his Daddy too. He laughs and lights up when Aaron comes in the room.
He is the biggest ham!! He loves to entertain everyone with his laugh and smile.
He does not like to be in a room by himself and will not sleep in his crib.
He has made his own sleep schedule for us to go by. He loves to nap in the morning and afternoon.
His sleeping is doing pretty good. The first few nights he went to sleep between 8:30 - 9:00 and woke up for comforting at around 2:00am then slept till 8:00.
For the past two nights, he goes to sleep at 9:00 and sleeps until 6:00am. He still wakes up for comforting about every 3 hours, but after I hug him for a minute to let him know we are still there, he falls right back to sleep. I honestly think he would sleep all night if we could move him to a pack and play, but he is just not ready for that move yet.

Needless to say, this has been a surreal week and a half. Every time I look at Kaiden, it just blows my mind that he is really here and he is mine. I also know what people mean when they say that time moves fast. This time with him has just flown by. Here are a few more pictures of our boy. Happy 9 Months Kaiden!!

Kaiden and I making funny faces

Kaiden Playing

Daddy and Kaiden

Kaiden Is Here!!!

I don't have time to post much, but here is some pictures to tide you over. I will put the whole story on my blog later, I promise, but it has been a whirlwind of a day. All I can say is he is absolutely precious!! I don't think anyone could resist loving my boy.

Only 3 More Days Left!!

The countdown to Kaiden has finally begun. I honestly can not believe our good luck in getting him so quickly. We have truly been blessed by how fast several things have moved in this adoption. That being said I will say this for anyone who is waiting, this last month was true HORROR!! It seemed like everyday was a week and it just kept dragging on and on and on... Anyway, I think you get my drift.

Now, I am working on the list that I waited to do until we got this call. I have to get everything ready for my baby. I have been cleaning and scrubbing, etc. I am getting a play area in our den set up for him. It seems that these days have just flown by so far. Only 3 more days and we become a family of three.

Well, off to do the next item on my list....

My Baby Is Coming Home!!!!

Hooray!!!! Happy Day!!!!

I got the phone call at 11:08am. This is the call that is going to permanently change our lives for the better!!! Kaiden is coming home!!!

That is right!! You heard me!!! Kaiden will be traveling from Seoul and will get here Tuesday June 30th at 10:05pm. I am still in awe!!

Honestly, I almost didn't answer that phone call because I didn't recognize the number. Aren't I glad I did now???

Now I am off to make final lists to make sure everything is ready for his arrival!!

YEAH!!! Thank you God for this gift!!!

To The Dad-To-Be on Father's Day

Aaron,

I just want to tell you that you will be a wonderful dad. I can't wait to get our son home so that you can love and cherish him as much as you have cherished me over the years.
You will be that awesome dad that everyone talks about because of the love you will have for Kaiden. I wish he could have been here for your first father's day, but he will be here for many more to come.
Congratulations on becoming a dad!! You are going to be the most AWESOME one ever!!!

I LOVE YOU!!

Jennifer

Changes

Kaiden will be our very first baby. We are so very excited about him getting here that of course it is very sad and frustrating that he is not here yet. Anyway, while I was dreaming of all the fun things we will do when he gets home like swimming and playing, etc., it dawned on me that we have watched our nieces and nephews overnight but never more than two days at a time. And of course when we got really tired, we brought them back to their parents and we took a nap.
So after 10 years of it just being the two of us and having a routine that just suited us, we will be adding a wonderful baby boy to that routine. I will tell you it does scare both of us. We were discussing how we are set in our ways like an older couple that has been married for 50 years. It is going to be a huge adjustment for both of us. But you know what? Every time I think about getting to celebrate Christmas with him, his first birthday, just practically every day with him, my heart expands. I know that it might be hard when he gets here the first month or so, but I know that our lives will be richer with him a part of it. Our lives have been led toward him.
Our new goal in life will be to love him, care for him, and to teach him what he needs to be a productive responsible citizen later in life. I KNOW we are up to challenge!!!