Merry Christmas!!!

 

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:8-12

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Somebody Has a Woobie...

or a lovey, blankie, or whatever you want to call it.

And it is absolutely not the one we sent to him in Korea, you know the one I have 2 of.  Nor is it the little frog lovey we bought 2 of, one to send and one to keep. Nope. I had put some blankets around the edge of his crib because he rolls around a lot when he sleeps and smooshes himself against the sides of the crib (probably need to just buy a bumper since he is no where near being able to climb out of his crib). Out of those blankets he chose this one, not sure why. But he is not parting with it, that is for sure. It's pretty cute actually.

This blanket was a gift we received at our 1st baby shower. I think I need to make a trip to the store. :-)

Christmas Fun

Joshua loves to play with things around the house. He seems to have more fun with "toys" that aren't really toys. Here is some of his Christmas fun.

Moving the Christmas tree candles from the table to the chair is lots of fun!

When John was growing up, his parents collected Hallmark ornaments for each child, several of which are the lights and sounds ones. Those particular ones are a bit much for me, so if I put them on the tree I don't plug them into the light strand. This year I decided not to put them on the tree at all and just let Joshua have some fun up close with the ornaments. Plus that way the rest of the tree doesn't get destroyed. :-)

I never did this as a child, so I definitely wanted Joshua to have the experience.

We are enjoying our first Christmas together so much, though I don't think Joshua understands much about it yet. My heart is still very much with those of you who are waiting on your little ones to come home. I have been praying for you guys often. Remember it is okay to be sad. And remember next Christmas is going to look very different for you all!

Camels We Have Heard on High?

Oh wait, that was the angels.

Look Who's Starting to Walk!!!!!

This was yesterday. Joshua has done this several other times, but this is the first time I managed to capture it on video. I am so excited to see him taking steps.

I have to confess that I have struggled a bit with Joshua not walking yet, not because of wanting a perfect child or anything like that, it has more to do with expectations. It is one of several things I have struggled with since bringing Joshua home, most of them having nothing to do with Joshua or adoption (John's work situation and moving to Tucson - posts for another day), but much of it has been about expectations. Our adoption agency did a very good job of preparing us to reset our expectations for bringing home a toddler after the delays in the adoption process were announced due to EP situation. I prepared myself for a toddler and researched things to do with a toddler in Tucson. The toddler age is probably my favorite age and so the fact that we were going to be bringing home a toddler was something I was actually very excited about. However, I underestimated the effect Joshua's prematurity and possibly other things would have on him. When we went to Korea I was surprised at how much Joshua still seemed like a baby to me. Thankfully, a forum friend had shared a video of her son, who was similar to Joshua, with me. Otherwise, I would have been completely shocked. Crazy as this sounds to me now though, I thought he would start walking his first month home. And when that didn't happen, I was caught off guard a bit. I felt completely unprepared and have struggled a bit with what to do. You don't realize it until you are in the situation, but many toddler activities are geared for walkers (makes sense since most toddlers are walking). Not being able to do those things has increased the feelings of isolation and loneliness that I have already been feeling from living in a new city far away from family and friends with a husband that is gone for 12 hours a day. It has been surprising to me though how many people (strangers in the store) tell me how lucky I am that he is not walking yet. I get it on one level, chasing around a toddler is I'm sure challenging at times, but I don't think people realize how limiting and isolating it can feel when you aren't able to be a part of many activities. I hope this doesn't sound too "poor me," I don't mean it to sound that way at all. Walking or not walking, I am glad to finally have my little boy home and I love him with all my heart. But I did have to go through a process to reset my expectations again, ironically back to a much younger child, and I want to be honest with my readers to share both my joys and struggles, even those that are a result of my own wrong thinking.

I had been preparing myself to start physical therapy in the new year when Joshua will reach 18 months adjusted age. But he may not need it after all! He is quite strong willed and determined and trying to make him do something in physical therapy would probably be a disaster. I am feeling so hopeful that we may not have to put him through it.

I must also say that it is absolutely wonderful, amazing, thrilling, exciting, did I already say amazing to get to see one of his important firsts!

November Recap

I don't know how those of you who blog every day manage to do it. If I even try to get on the laptop while Joshua is playing he will immediately come up to me and try to push all the keys on the keyboard - it just doesn't work. During his nap is when I eat lunch (if I haven't eaten with him), shower, and often just recharge. I end up reading other peoples blogs for some downtime, but completely neglect my own. Anyway, I really want to do better! The month of November was such a busy month and just flew by for us. Since this is basically my place to chronicle our lives (and for now Joshua's baby book), I want to do a recap of our month.

In November we:

-Celebrated 8 wonderful years of marriage and our very first anniversary as parents. Since getting a babysitter is not an option at this point, we celebrated by having dinner out as a family.

-Celebrated 2 months as a family of three. I really could feel how much we were settling in as a family once we passed this milestone.

-Had a family outing by taking a hike/walk through Sabino Canyon and I discovered something to like about Tucson. :-) Up until this point, it had been too hot to really enjoy doing anything outside.

 

-Had a couple of playdates, our  first with Titus and the third one with Noah. Noah's mom Michelle works with John and has become a good friend to me - truly a blessing because it has been very lonely here.

-Discovered that riding in a laundry basket is lots of fun...

...and decided that Scout was our best friend.

-Celebrated daddy being home on Veteran's Day by having another family outing, this time to the Desert Museum in Tucson, and we attempted to get a family photo. It is part garden, part museum, and part zoo, and definitely a place we'd go back to.

 My eyes are closed and Joshua is looking away (sigh).

A javalina - we actually had one of these come to our front door and eat our pumpkin at Halloween.

-Took care of Michelle's dog Georgia. This picture cracks me up.

-Went to our 1st kid birthday party. Joshua played on the slide with daddy and enjoyed a rare sight here in AZ - grass! We also got to meet another family with a son from Korea.

-Fell in love with High Five with Julius and Friends and high fives in general. Here he is high fiving the pages.

-Became a little comedian. Joshua has started to do things just to make us (and himself) laugh.

-Had some fall fun.

-Got sick for the first time since coming home and gave mommy a very big scare. When our pediatric nurse practitioner sent us for the chest x-ray, she told us to make sure we got a CD of it. That's when I knew how serious it was; she thought she was going to be sending us to the hospital, which is why we would need the CD.

-And as a result of the sickness, we got a new friend, Roscoe, the nebulizer dog.

 

 My poor little bub :-(

-Looked cute in camo, ate some Korean snacks, and tried to turn on some music.

-Celebrated my 37th birthday - yikes! Since Joshua was still recovering we celebrated with delicious take-out tamales and birthday cake.

He likes to share his snacks with me, and apparently his cake.

-Celebrated turning 19 months old by having lots of fun in the kitchen.

-Celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a family of three, giving thanks to God for blessing us with such an amazing little boy. And we got a family photo, not thrilled with it, but its an improvement over our past attempts.

-Took a much needed after Thanksgiving day long hike to the top of the paved trail at Sabino Canyon.

-Put up our Christmas tree over Thanksgiving weekend.

-Had some fun with oatmeal. I had heard about sensory boxes using oatmeal and wanted to give it a trial run before investing the money into a plastic bin, large amount of oatmeal, and other supplies. He was so engrossed in it I really couldn't get a good picture.

Overall, a pretty great month. I felt like things began to click for us a bit more as far as settling in together as a family of three.