Medium With A Pinch Of Fast

Tonight at dinner, Olivia was telling me about her ice skating skills.  She has gone skating with Brian a few times this winter and not only can she skate by herself without assistance, she can also turn and skate off the rink.  Not slow, either.  Nope, in her words, she skates "medium with a pinch of fast".  Very impressive.  I thought that description also fits Joe's recovery from his surgery.


Today was a great day for him.  We had to wake him up to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house as Brian and I needed to get fingerprinted (for the third time) as part of the process to finalize Joe Sung Min's adoption.  He was in great spirits and was playing with and looking at his toys as if experiencing them for the first time.  We are already seeing a difference in his eye alignment, his vision is definitely improving and he is standing (without holding on to anything) for longer periods of time.  We're pretty sure his stint as a professional crawler will be ending soon and he will be walking around "medium with a pinch of fast."


It was a beautiful day so while Joe was napping, Liv and I spent time outside with the rabbits and then with the chickens.  She is definitely an animal lover and is thinking about being an animal doctor - and a people doctor.  At any rate, she loves the animals and they love her.  Even the chickens follow her around and let them pet her!

Brian is expanding his Korean cooking skills and made hoddeok for lunch.  They were so delectable!  I could really get used to eating all this great food.  Liv enjoyed helping her papa and said they were the best.pancakes.ever.  Even better than johnnycakes.

After we ate, we played and played.  Of course, as soon as I pulled out the camera, he stopped what he was doing and speed crawled right up on me ... that's ok though, it gives you an extreme close up of his cuteness.  We had another great day today and can't help but think how blessed we are that Joe is part of our family.  We are so thankful that he was matched with us.  We can't imagine life without him and thank God for our little man.

Our little trooper!

What a day.  Poor Joe Sung Min must have had a sense of foreboding last night - he had a horrible night sleep, a rarity for the "Dozer".  He was up twice last night and not too thrilled to be getting up at 5:30 so we could get to the Cleveland Clinic by 6:30.


His was the first surgery of the day and things couldn't have gone better.  No lines, no waiting and a relatively quick stint in the recovery room.  He was a real trooper who quickly won over the hearts of anyone he met. In fact, he was given a new nickname by the registrar that confirmed our insurance information.  She looked at him and said, "Mmmm, mmmm, that boy is JUICY.  Just LOOK at those cheeks."  And so, "Juicy Joe" was born.  We also added "Dos Equis" to the mix since they marked his face with two x's, one above each eyebrow.  


I'm happy to report that Joe is doing very well.  He had a three hour nap this afternoon, wasn't too thrilled with his dinner of crackers, teething biscuits and rice (especially since Brian had made some delicious bulgogi, more kimchi fried rice and pajeon, a Korean scallion pancake - each with their respective dipping sauces.) He was ready for some real food!!  After dinner we played for a little bit (he sure loves Charlie Brown!), gave him his eye drops and he was ready for bed early.  He was definitely in good spirits and chatting up a storm.  By tomorrow, he should be back to his usual energy and personality. 


We appreciate all your prayers and well wishes - things couldn't have gone better and we look forward to what the future holds for our little man.

The little patient

Dos Equis

I rocked the little man to sleep for his nap

Giving Charlie Brown some love

Breaking News: He Isn't Always Smiling (and has many nicknames...)

It's true.  We can't deny it.  Joe Sung Min isn't always smiling.  He has been known to fuss, to whine, to get angry and cry.  Even still, he is pretty doggone cute.  And we're on to his tricks.  He'll whine and make high pitched sounds (we sometimes call him "Beaker" from the Muppet show) and as soon as we move to pick him up, he is all smiles and giggly.  Don't let the sad face below fool you.  He's really fine...

We also refer to Joe as "Linus" because he absolutely LOVES his blue blanket; he'll smile when he sees it, hold it up to his cheek with one hand while sucking his thumb with the other.  It is too cute.  Do you see the resemblance?  As you can see he is all cozy here in his crib.  If you look really closely, you'll see our cat Lucy curled up in the bottom right corner of the awesome quilt his Auntie Jen made him.  Lucy and Joe both like to sleep.  Today we christened Joe "Dozer", which works on two levels: his ability to sleep and his bull in a china shop tendencies.  He has a knack for razing things around him...

Brian made kimchi fried rice for dinner. Delicious!!

We had some fun playing up in his room.  What are his favorites?  His comb, random pieces of train track and some train cargo.  Good stuff!

Tomorrow morning is his surgery.  These may be one of the last pictures of his eyes before they are corrected.  How exciting!  We'll have even more to smile about in the coming days.

Joseph Sung Min - then and now

I thought it would be fun to show some pictures of how Joe has changed over the past year or so.  All I have to say is he was the cutest little peanut in the first pictures we saw of him, taken when he was just 6 weeks old.  And after spending a few months with a loving foster family, there was definitely more of him to love.  What a cutie!  Enjoy the pictures!

October 1, 2010

October 3, 2011

October 3, 2011

October 1, 2010

December 24, 2011

December 22, 2010

December 25, 2011

December 22, 2010

Another day, another doctor's visit (and fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house)

After our late night last night, I was so glad that both of the kids slept until 8:00 am.  When she wasn't playing with and entertaining her brother, Liv was quite the helper as we made some cinnamon rolls.  As you can see from the picture below, she was very happy with the finished product.

I took Joe Sung Min to see the doctor this morning to see if his ear infection had cleared up.  Since he is having surgery on Friday, we wanted to make sure that his ear infection was gone the procedure can go on as scheduled.  We had our first big snow storm of the season so it made the trip that much more interesting (for me at least, Joe slept most of the way there!)  We were relieved to find out that his ears were fine and we have no concerns at this point.  Yay!!

So we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's for more fun and relaxation before heading home for the night.  Another great day in 2012!

I love this picture. So sweet.

Hanging out with Grandma

New Year's Eve part II

We wanted to share some more pictures of our (early) New Year's Eve party at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Photos courtesy of Grandpa. :-)

We wish you and your families a happy and healthy 2012!!!

Baby Steps!

Today it happened ... a moment we were anxiously awaiting, but not expecting until after his surgery on Friday.  A day he has been working up to for the past few weeks.   Aaaaaaand I missed it.

I was in Olivia's room packing up her suitcase for our sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house and she went in to Joe Sung Min's room to play with him and Brian.  Joe was standing up by the window, heard Liv come in, turned, said "Hi" and then stepped towards her - without holding on to anyone's hands.  He took two steps, reached out to her, she reached out to him, he grabbed her hands and walked to her.  I'm so glad Brian was there to see it!  Livy is, of course, so proud that he walked to her.

The kids and I headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house in time for lunch and nice nap.  We're letting Liv stay up for the season premier of "Finding Bigfoot" since she doesn't have school tomorrow - on the condition that she sleeps in today and takes a good nap.  So far, so good.  She is SO excited about it - and the preceding marathon.  It is going to be a long night!

We had lots of fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and just hanging out.  It is so nice to have such laid back days!  I absolutely love seeing how well Joe and Liv get along.  She is really coming in to her own as a big sister and we couldn't be prouder.  He smiles more broadly and laughs louder when she is around.  

May I help you?

Liv getting ready to kiss Joe's belly

...and the resulting laughter

I wasn't sure if we'd do it, but we did.  We made it up until the new episode of "Finding Bigfoot", where the team is investigating the location of where a "Baby Bigfoot" (i.e. some sort of an ape) was videotaped 15 years ago.  It just so happens that this is very close to the part of NY that I grew up in, so I was trying to find out exactly where they were since they weren't giving a specific location this time around.  This is how we were for most of the marathon, Liv on my lap snuggled up under some blankets.

:

 So far, 2012 is starting out as the best year ever.  I can't wait to see what else is in store!