Christmas 2019

I told Ian earlier today, "This may be the best Christmas of our lives!" and it feels so true.  There were so many good memories that I wanted to capture from today.  (And just in case you are wondering - the Best Christmas Ever was the very first Christmas when God the Son took on flesh - nothing can top that)

I think the reason that this Christmas has seemed so great is that Samuel is old enough to "get it" yet he has no expectations.  It results in a lot of joy.

Leading up to Christmas, people would ask Samuel, "What do you want from Santa?" and he would just stare at them blankly.  This blessed my heart so much! My husband grew up not really believing in Santa and that has been something we have wanted to pass onto our kids. So we talk about Santa but we don't do much more than that.  Samuel also has a speech delay that sometimes impedes his communication - I am sure this played a part as well. At some point Samuel will have a whole list of things that he would like from "Santa" but to have a seemingly content two and a half year old is amazing.  

This morning when we told the boys that it was Christmas, Samuel's first reaction was to run to the other room to see the nativity scene.  My mom wrapped up each piece of the nativity to correspond with The Donkey in the Living Room when they were here over Thanksgiving.  We have been unwrapping a piece each day and trying to talk about the different parts of the Christmas story (that means - Samuel likes to unwrap the piece and then has a 5 second attention span for any reading I try to do).  Total Mom fail - I thought he would be more interested in the presents under the tree that I did not have the next piece out.

Henry hung out in Baby Jail (a toy that holds him in one spot) and Samuel opened presents.  We decided to do Read, Wear, Want gifts this year.  I am sure we will do something different each year.  Henry got some special sock / slippers that weren't supposed to come off.  (Spoiler alert: he had them pulled off in less than a minute).  I didn't wrap Henry's gift as he doesn't really understand.  And if he can see Mom or Dad, he is happy.  

Samuel got a firetruck, the Jesus Storybook Bible, and waterproof mittens from Mom and Dad.  He got a gazillion other gifts from friends and relatives (and he hasn't even gotten some of the grandparent gifts yet).  He was thrilled with his toy firetruck and carried it all over with him.  He did a great job (for a two and half year old) of taking turns with Mom and Dad for opening gifts.  As far as I know, Samuel thought that today was just any other day and then instead, Dad got to stay home and there were presents to open.  There was no countdown to Christmas Day, no "I can't sleep because tomorrow is Christmas", no "waking Mom and Dad up at 5:30 because it is Christmas and I just can't sleep" (Hank covered the wake Mom and Dad up several times during the night thing - his second front tooth on the top is sooooo close to popping through that he was up a few times).

We had waffles for breakfast and Samuel did a lot of good pretend play with his fire truck.  Henry did a lot of peekaboo and "Praise the Lord" (what we say when he puts both arms above his head).  Two happy boys.

While Henry napped, we went outside and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.  Once he woke up, Brent came by with a gazillion gifts!  Oh my goodness - Mr. Potato Head, a police car toy, the Very Hungry Caterpillar game, Bible Word books, kitchen play cooking sets, and soooo much more.

Once he left, we tried to get lunch and kiddos down for naps.  We had a gourmet lunch of "eat whatever you want" (I had a bowl of cereal and Ian had leftover pork).  We try to do some conversation questions at meal times so that we can practice good conversation and not focus so much on what different people are deciding to eat or not eat (the Internet claims that this is supposed to help). Ian asked, "What was your favorite gift from today?"  Samuel (completely unprompted) replied, "Gigi" which is how he says Jesus.  (Did I mention that today has been the best Christmas of our lives!?!)  Such a great answer!  And such a great encouragement that some of the stuff we say does sink in.  We then sang (along with our beloved Alexa) Happy Birthday to Jesus.  And Samuel kept requesting to sing it again (the love of repetition is strong in this one).

The boys (all three of them) are waking up from naps now and we are headed over to hang out with some friends from church.  What a blessing today has been! Merry Christmas!

Samuel Cary - 21 months

"Uh-oh"

Our Samuel is 21 months old (on the 21st!).  Life with Samuel is challenging and fun - sometimes all in the same moment.  We had a really full month!

Accomplishments:

A few more words - Samuel has started saying, "uh-oh" (it doesn't sound exactly like uh-oh, but it is pretty close).  He says, "um!" for food he likes (or food he wants). He also makes a "mmmmmm" sound for cows and "art, art!" for a dog barking (it sounds NOTHING like a dog barking but that is what he is communicating).  He is still "vrooming!" all day every day.

Imaginative Play - Just in the last week or two Samuel has gotten so much better at playing imaginatively.  He will act out stories happening with his toys.  The story lines are very short.  And then we repeat the same story 10 times in a row, but it is better than it was.  His favorite stories right now are about farming.  He likes to drive the tractor in the barn, have the tractor take a nap (for three seconds), and then wake up.  He also likes to feed his animals and give them drinks of water.

He likes to wear his farming hat while playing farm

Attention span - I also feel like his attention span has leaped into longer time frames.  He will sit and play or read for much longer (10 minutes maybe?) than he used to.  A year ago at this time, I was going crazy trying to entertain him all day.  He would go through and "play" with all of his toys (or pull all the books off the shelf) in 15 minutes.  And then we still had 9 hours and 45 minutes left in our day.  There are days now when he will only play with one basket of toys.  He has been slightly better about looking at one book in the car for a whole 5 minutes instead of tossing it aside after 30 seconds.

Watching TV independently - Glory, glory, hallelujah! Samuel is getting better at watching TV by himself.  Typically he likes to sit on my lap to watch TV, but every so often he will sit and watch it for 10 minutes and I can get the dishes done without being interrupted 800 times.  

Being silly with Dada

Braver around Dogs - I am not sure if this is something that has happened this month or last month, but Samuel is doing so much better around dogs.  I completely understand why dogs are overwhelming and potentially scary to Samuel as they are the same size roughly.  On several different occasions, Samuel has done great around dogs.  He likes to throw their toys for them and feed them 500 treats.  (Now Mom just needs to relax when Samuel is around dogs...)

Likes:

The Wheels on the Bus, Father Abraham - Since we can only sing, "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock" so many times a day, we sing other songs to Samuel.  Every other week or so, he decides he likes one and then he wants that song on repeat for days.  He also likes, "This Little Light of Mine" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children".  Samuel especially likes it when Bunny does the hand motions for the songs.

Funny Story - we would sit and sing around the table after supper while visiting MamaG and PapaG.  Samuel loved it.  If someone would sing and not do the hand motions, he would call them out.  It cracks us up that he is so opinionated about so many (seemingly small) things.

Making Waffles with Dada on Christmas Morning

Coloring with Big Boy Markers - I have been hoping that Samuel would take a liking to coloring as it is good for his fine motor skills (and it involves sitting still).  He is mature in his choice of coloring utensils.  He won't color with crayons.  He prefers markers, pens, or pencils.  Of course this means that I have to sit with him when he colors, but it is okay. He gets tickled when I draw a tractor or cow.  And he recognizes what the pictures are so that boosts my self-esteem.

Christmas lights - Samuel really liked seeing Christmas lights (which he calls, "Jesus") when we would ride in the car at night.  He would get annoyed that there were not continuous lights to see.

Christmas gifts - Our boy got so spoiled over Christmas.  He got so many trucks or tractors that by the end of Christmas, if he saw a wrapped package, he would say, "Vroom!  Varoom!"  Christmas was definitely more fun this year with Samuel than last year.

Walking "fast" - Samuel likes to walk fast and do laps.  He made up a sign for "fast" and he especially likes to walk fast when other people participate.  He is getting pretty close to running (just in time as Momma is big these days).  I remember so many people cautioned us, "You don't want him to walk, he will be running three days later."  Maybe that the experience for some people, but I love that Samuel can walk.  It has been six months since he started walking and it has been great!

Reading Cars and Trucks and Things that Go with Grandpa

His Own Coffee Mug - Last Sunday someone at church (Jill) gave us the cutest little coffee mug.  Samuel has been thrilled to drink out his own coffee cup in the morning like Mom and Dad.  He has also been pouring the water out or putting his food in the cup, so he rarely keeps it the entire meal.  It has been good practice for him to drink out of a regular cup.

Looking at pictures of himself on phones - Lord have mercy!  I am not a big technology / screen person when it comes to my kid.  I would rather have them never watch TV or be on technology than to teach them moderation.  However, I think moderation is a better choice (although not easy).  My mom let Samuel look at pictures of himself on her phone while they were here over Christmas and now he is obsessed.  It is so hard for me as a parent.  Anytime Samuel sees a phone, he wants to see pictures of himself.  It has made it so hard to get pictures of him as he is always reaching for my phone now.  But moderation it is, so I indulge him once or twice a day and we look at pictures of Samuel.  He, of course (of course!), is opinionated about which pictures we look at (pictures of Samuel and Dada are his preference).

Still likes:

Muffins, cereal bars, Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks and Things that Go, "driving" aka sitting in the driver's seat and steering, baths, bubbles, cracking eggs, stirring, helping cook, playing in water, all of Mom's and Dad's attention, truck videos on youtube, being outside, testing limits (not in the calculus sense), alternating between kissing Brother and blowing him raspberries, climbing on anything and everything, tape and stickers

Still dislikes:
Being told, "No", sitting in his own seat for meals, not having his paci all day, sitting in the car seat, not being allowed to drink coffee, playing by himself

Proud Moments:
The other night we went out to eat.  I grabbed one of Samuel's new favorite books from Christmas and a car for the diaper bag before we left.  Samuel did so well!  Samuel typically has a hard time being patient (the kid has ants in his pants - which is probably developmentally appropriate) when we go out to eat.  It felt like it took forever to get our food, but Samuel did such a good job looking at his book and playing with his car.  He did a great job eating food once it came.  No meltdowns (even though it was getting close to bedtime).  

Reading with Dada at the restaurant

On our way out of the restaurant, the (old) couple sitting next us mentioned that is had a pleasure to eat near us.  I think I replied, "You caught us on a good day!" which is 100% the truth.  But at the same time, I was proud.  It was one of the first times that all of the hard work of the last 21 months actually felt like it paid off.  The hours of gritted teeth, training, correcting, loving, and digging deeper for patience resulted in good behavior for the hour or so that we were in the restaurant.  Don't get me wrong - Samuel has plenty of good moments - they are not usually all in a row for 60 minutes though.  And when I spend pretty much all day, every day with him, I experience all of his high and low moments. I, of course, expect my kid to be well behaved 24/7 (because expectations seem to be my biggest enemy in life).  It gave me hope that we are doing okay as parents and that some day going out to eat will be normal part of life again.

We participated in the Chamber's Chili Cook-off again this year.  Samuel tagged along for the first hour or so (until nap time).  As people filtered in, he recognized (and greeted) everyone that came from church.  A year ago, I left him screaming with Jane Nice while we did the cook-off.  This year, he screamed when Dave and Jane left the cook-off.  It was so fun to have him know "his people" and not to be overly shy.  

Samuel got his haircut this month (his hair grows so fast) and he did great!  He sat in the chair all by himself and did not scream once.  He has "talked" (in sign language) about getting his hair cut so many times since then.  He was really mad that the next time we went to Meijer he could not get his hair cut again.  I was really proud of him for not freaking out (like he has done in the past).

All of Samuel's driving dreams come true at PapaG and MamaG's house

Family Time:
Samuel got to spend time with Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Jared, PapaG, and MamaG this month!  He had a blast with my parents and brother when they came out for Christmas.  I don't think he had one tantrum the entire time they were here.  He always had someone catering to his needs.  

We had fun with Ian's parents too, but Samuel had his first tummy bug (that struck in the middle of the night but was short lived thankfully) and then he caught a brutal cold.  So he had fun but it was a bit subdued. One of the advantages of this age is that Samuel is easily amused - being able to "drive" MamaG's car, going down the big slide by himself, throwing sticks off the porch - all fun things that don't take much effort.

I will end this with a Dada quote, "Samuel has had more opinions in his 21 months of life than I have had in 34 years of life."  - I eventually told him that he had to stop saying it as it was discouraging me.  But it may be true - he is his mother's child.

Happy 21 Months Samuel Cary!  We love you, Momma and Dada

Thankfuls 2012

Every since I was like 10, I have written a list of 100 things I am thankful for on Thanksgiving. The tradition began one year when I was bored while riding in the car to Grandma and Grandpas. It is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving now. (Thanks Phumi for joining the fun this year - you rock!)

You would think with 28 hours (24 hours of driving and 4 hours of gas/food/etc breaks) of traveling this past Thanksgiving season, we would have had more than enough time to write out our thankful list.  Alas, we did not.  But better late than never.

A thought I had several times this past Thanksgiving season: Whom are you thankful to?

For me, the answer is easy: Praise God from whom all blessings flow.  

But what if you do not believe in God?  Then whom?  I mean in saying, "Thank you" there is clearly a someone referenced...so who do you reference?  Just my two cents.

As always, this is no particular order.

Here we go: (the ones in blue were stated by Ian - p.s. he was in the middle of something and I started with the "what are you thankful for?")

1. God is good.
2. and He is faithful.
3. My Love (that would be me)
4. Jesus
5. family
6. a big oven
7. Emily P. Freeman
8. Kakao Emoticons
9. Christmas lights
10. a good, patient, funny, husband that eats whatever I cook with only compliments
11. a vacuum
12. spell-check
13. M, B, & C - the kiddos I nanny for
14. G & K - the amazing parents of the kiddos I nanny for
15. books
16. computers
17. Seminary
18. warm blankets
19. big closets
20. gift cards
21. towels from the dryer
22. 908 lovely and fabulous days of marriage - and many more to come!
23. pretty authentic Korean restaurants in America
24. coffee
25. coffee creamer
26. Tsh
27. starting AND finishing cross-stitch projects
28. the ability to run
29. American grocery stores
30. God provided, God is providing, and God will provide
31. cereal + milk
32. warm (or cold) running water
33. being able to own and read the Bible in my language
34. Christmas music
35. Grandpa + Kathryn
36. treasured memories of my grandparents who have already finished the race set before them
37. America
38. cookbooks
39. pizza
40. making potato cakes
41. sex
42. Colorado weather
43. running club
44. friends (there is a lot here I could say, but I will keep it short - friends.are.vital.)
45. hamburgers
46. meatloaf
47. meatballs
48. our car
49. being part of the Church
50. the freedom to vote
51. World Vision
52. treadmills
53. checking the mailbox to find it is not empty
54. ice cream
55. paper snowflakes
56. grace
57. Facebook
58. the view out our window
59. libraries
60. those who have gone before me in high-altitude baking and left a record
61. slippers
62. smartphones
63. GPS
64. electricity
65. ranch salad dressing
66. lazy days
67. our Korean adventure
68. the Holy Spirit - our seal and guarantee
69. being done with the "I am adjusting to the high altitude" phase of running
70. candles
71. Laura
72. going on dates
73. Skype
74. touchscreens in the back of airplane seats
75. the change of seasons
76. the hubs making amazing, delicious food
77. the space heater
78. early birthday presents
79. the Word became flesh and dwelt among us
80. good health
81. places to pass along items that we no longer need (Goodwill/Salvation Army)
82. Google
83. beer
84. airplanes - getting us from point A to point B quickly
85. jokes
86. Therefore now, there is no condemnation for those of you who are in Christ Jesus...
87. discount grocery stores
88. online sermons
89. things that make running more fun, mainly my Garmin and the Zune
90. being able to get-up and go whenever we want, where ever we want (cough, we don't have kids yet, cough)
91. time to reflect
92. cheese
93. board games
94. staplers
95. my memory
96. alarms, timers, and watches
97. music
98. Ian giving me sips of his coffee or bites of his food
99. Advent
100. knowing and being set free by Truth

Interview with {no other than} Alissa!

I can't believe that we have been in America for over 2 months!  I also can't believe how sweet my friends (dare I say, 'community'... a word I never thought I would use post-Greenville) have been with checking in on how transition to America is going.

Instead of emailing everyone individually, I thought I would interview myself (I am pretty sure that all the cool kids are doing it).

Here are some of the most popular questions that we have gotten over the last few weeks/months.

Q: How do you like Colorado?
A: We LOVE it.  The low humidity is amazing.  And it is sunny a lot.  One thing that we are still adjusting to is suburb living.  It is a whole different beast.  I can do city living (like Daegu) and I can definitely do small town or rural, but suburbs are...interesting.

Q: What do you miss from Korea?
A: the.people. No doubt about that.  We do miss some of the food, the simplicity of non-American living, and I miss the financial stability/security of having two incomes (but God IS good and He DOES provide, so we are okay, I just like to feel security in earthly things like a paycheck.)

Q: What do you do?
A: Currently, I am a nanny.  I get paid to hang out with three pretty cool kids (ages 8, 5, and 2.5).  Most days are pretty fun, some days are not so much (those days I come home saying, "we are NEVER having children"  When  you have kids, they live with you ALL the time, like, the parents never come home and you get to leave...yikes!  I think it is a huge blessing that all humans are born as cute, helpless infants.   So glad that no one accidentally pops out a teenager....or a two and a half year old.)  Anywho, it is a pretty good part time job.  I will get a full time teaching job (eventually).

Ian goes to class.  He learns cool stuff and tells me about it.  He seems to like classes and is doing well! 

Q: What do you like about living in America again?
A: the.people.  It is SO great to be near family again.  We love having a car again and being able to communicate easily with people around us.  Our grocery bill is considerably lower as well :-)  There are a lot of little things that are nice too: not needing a proxy to watch Hulu or listen to Pandora, being in similar time zones to most of my friends, knowing that we will have Thanksgiving and Christmas off (YES!), seeing other women out running etc, etc, etc.

Q: How do you like your apartment?
A: We love it!  Usually we do a video tour of the place we are living, it is coming...eventually.

Q: Are you still running?  How is running in Colorado?
A: Yes, I am still running.  I thought I was going to move to Colorado and have about 23,489,302,948 insta-running buddies...not so much.  Running has taught me endurance, so I am trying to endure until I can find someone to run with.  I do go to a running club on Wednesday nights.  They write really hard workouts - which is fun, but the demographic is a bit different than what I am looking for.

I think that is about it...anymore questions?  Ask away and I will be more than happy to answer :-)

Merry Christmas!

Here is our 2011 Christmas video!  

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas ya'll!

Christmas Letter 2011

Here is our Christmas letter.  Just in case you are wondering, I got the idea from here.

And here is our Christmas picture.  Not too bad considering we do not have a fancy-smanchy camera and we just used the self-timer.

Christmas Home Tour

Hey ya'll - want come over to see our cute apartment Christmas-ified?  Even if you an ocean away, you can come on in and see our cozy place.

 The front door...paper snowflakes and a Christmas potholder

Magazine Christmas Trees

These might look difficult to make, but they are SO simple, all you need is a magazine!

This blog shows each step for the Christmas trees with pictures.  I did have a few problems getting the tree to end up a circle, so I just put the back towards the wall and no one can tell what the back actually looks like. I used magazine that were different lengths to add variety.

This is the back of my shorter Christmas tree - not perfect, but that will  be a secret !

My friend Gabi, recently taught us how to make a mosaic using pictures.  (Thanks Gabi!)  So here is my snowflake mosiac....

white snowflakes on a white wall...(obviously I am obsessed with paper snowflakes)

 I tried to make a Christmas tree.  It is, uh, a little Charlie Brownish (to say the least)  It did not come out perfect, but it definitely better than no Christmas tree at all.  We also have a designated place to put presents.  I will save ya'll from actually having to see it!

What is your favorite way to decorate for Christmas? 

Right now...

...I am listening to Christmas music, addressing Christmas cards, and enjoying a nice glass of warm water.  The kiddos are taking their final exams, thus I have nothing to do (desk-warming!).

I have about 10 blog posts in draft, and I promise to get working on those soon : )

For now, you can enjoy the photos that did not make the cut for the Christmas card.

This is one is okay....

Oh man!  This one reminds me of the video we made last year!

Next week, I will let you see the one did make the cut!  Speaking of Christmas videos....here is ours from last year.  I still crack up when I watch the end of this video.