Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Settling In

It has been a great first ten days at home with Kiana!  She is starting to have lots of fun playing with her big brother:
She enjoys building and knocking down towers:
She's getting more comfortable on her Princess Ride-On...
... and she continues to show off those dimples!
Here Kiana is playing with the 'Look Book' (full of family photos) we sent in our first care package to Korea  - we were very excited it made the trip back home:
Kiana seems to share Mommy's enthusiasm for cute baby girl clothes - in rifling through the laundry basket, she picked out some fun items to showcase - first, a jacket we sent in our second care package:
Next - a gorgeous dress that was a homecoming gift from some neighbors - thanks Julie and Keith!
...and a cute summer outfit from her friend Baby Amanda:
Zander continues to be all sports all the time - here he is playing baseball.  We think he is right-handed, but he continues to wear his glove on his right hand, so is developing a 'mean' left-handed throw:
Catching:
Daddy adjusting the seat on Zander's new bike:
What a big boy!
We've enjoyed introducing Kiana to our yard and driveway.  I mentioned before that she's not yet that steady on her feet, so adding a steep driveway to the mix can make things interesting!
Whoa!!
So fun watching big brother play hockey!
Careful on that follow-through, Zander!
On Saturday, Zander received a birthday gift from Grandma Marie - a 'real' hockey goal!  He is very excited that the goal matches his new bike (red).  Playing goalie:
 Stick handling moves:
 Going in for the score!
Number one fan:
Zander received a few more sports-themed gifts on Saturday afternoon when Baby Amanda came to visit.  Here he is in his new Twins baseball cap and 'big boy' Vikings jersey (you may have noticed that the one he wore on his birthday was getting a little snug).  What great gifts, thank you so much!
 Zander was all smiles dining with his little sister and Baby Amanda - what a crew!
After a delicious dinner and dessert, it was adorable to see the girls sit down next to each other in the family room!  Both were born in 2011 - Kiana in January, Amanda in May.
 Hello Amanda!
 Hello Kiana!
We've been excited to see Kiana showing signs of being a great sharer... sparkling water anyone?
 Oh, you prefer still water?
 Daddy, you must try these delicious Cheerios!
We've so enjoyed seeing the kids giggle and play together.  One of Mommy's favorites is when Daddy plays "Super Kiana," running Kiana through the house in a Superman-type position:
You may remember seeing "Super Zander" shortly after he joined our family in June 2010:
An exciting new dimension this time is that "Super Kiana" now chases Zander - both kids giggle and laugh!
The look of sheer delight on Kiana's face is priceless!
These first ten days have been an incredible adjustment for us all, we are having a blast and can't wait to see what lies ahead!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Party of Four

We are all busy settling into our new normal - 'Wilson, Party of Four,' as Daddy described it.  Here is our first photo as a foursome, compliments of Zander's teachers during his birthday party on Tuesday:
Mommy and Daddy are adjusting pretty well, still running sleep deficits, but getting readjusted to the timezone.  We're getting a little better at managing two pumpkins - so far using a straight man-to-man approach, with Daddy getting Zander ready in the morning, and Kiana ready at night.  We still have plenty to learn about how to juggle everything, but feel we are making good progress!

It is so fun to see the kids play together - here they are Monday morning hanging out in the play hut:
Kiana really likes to be held, but once she enters 'play mode,' she is quite comfortable and independent, cruising around checking things out:
We can hardly believe that we've only known Kiana for one week!  She continues to be a delight and is quickly warming up to things such as her car seat and highchair (after lots of protesting at first).  She does well in the baby carrier (although sometimes fusses if you are standing still!) - we have not yet tried the stroller.  We still have a long way to go with bathing - Kiana screams and cries in the toddler tub, so we bathe her as quickly as possible.  We look forward to her warming up to bath time very soon!
When we picked up Kiana last Friday in Seoul, we received a brief travel report that provided helpful information on her eating, sleeping, and bathing routines among other things.  The report was translated by our social worker who asked Kiana's foster mother all sorts of questions at our first meeting last Thursday.  We loved the comment that "Kiana likes to push buttons."  We are still wondering whether or not this was strictly a literal description - smile.  Here she is pressing buttons on Zander's laptop:
Back to Zander's birthday on Tuesday... Mommy was excited to get a turn wearing the silly hat in Zander's classroom:
Nana Pat joined us for Zander's birthday dinner.  We let Zander pick the menu - he requested his favorite, shrimp!  Not yet being fully unpacked or settled, we opted for takeout from our favorite local Chinese restaurant.  Here's Zander showing off his Pororo chopsticks during the meal.  We saw a lot of Pororo (Korean Penguin cartoon character) in Seoul - he is very popular with children!
After dinner, Zander's cousins joined us for the festivities.  Zander's sport-themed birthday party was supposed to have been last Saturday, but unfortunately we had to postpone since we weren't yet home from Korea.  Zander received many wonderful gifts on his big day - here he is opening a fun Nerf basketball hoop (which has somehow already worked its way into his bedtime routine) - thanks Nana!
Zander loves hanging out with his cousins - he studies their every move and looks up to them.  He was delighted to sit between Brady and Luke (in their fun baseball hats) when it was cake time:
Zander had requested cake with strawberries, so Mommy tried to deliver.  And speaking of delivery, we received the lovely (and scrumptious) edible arrangement pictured in the lower left corner below as a 'Welcome New Arrival' gift from Zander's school - how thoughtful!  We think Zander ate about 2/3 of the pineapple in the arrangement (in one sitting) - unbelievable!
The boys had a hearty wrapping/tissue paper fight - we were amazed by how unfazed Kiana was by the all of the laughing, yelling, and commotion:
Zander having a blast:
Zander is off to a great start as a big brother!  He happily shared the spotlight with Kiana who received some adorable welcome gifts that evening - here she is with her first baby doll from her cousins:
Zander was the first to test drive Kiana's new 'Princess Ride-On' - a very generous gift from Aunt Heather's parents who are in town visiting and joined the festivities:
Everyone has told me, and it couldn't be more true, little girl clothes are SO MUCH more fun than little boy clothes!  I previously mentioned how generous some of Aunt Heather's friends have been in making sure Kiana had plenty of clothes to wear on such short notice.  Although it was really fun to wash/sort the cute clothes, nothing compares to seeing the little outfits on Miss Kiana!  Here she models one dress in front of our Learning House (recently moved out of storage) - she really enjoys it!
Showing off her belly in some cute heart PJs:
No, she's not always smiling!  Sporting some sweet hot pink ruffles:
Kiana was used to sleeping on a mattress on the floor in her foster home, so, to make her comfortable, we started her on her crib mattress on the floor in our bedroom.  We learned that she moves around - a lot!  She fell of the mattress several times, into crevices between her mattress and our bed and dresser.  We found her a few times with her head on the mattress, but her body off.  My favorite was when Daddy checked on her at one point, "It took me a while to find her," as she had migrated to another area of the floor.  The crib mattress was not working!  So we progressed to a Pack N Play in our room, what a great decision!  The past two days have been much smoother.  Here is Kiana snoozing at nap time:
Kiana's Foster mother was wonderful, and we so appreciated the clothes, toys, and food that she sent home with us to ease the transition.  For the trip home, we received a few servings of rice porridge, yogurt, cheese, snack puffs, and, most surprising to us, a box of Kiana's favorite cookies which came from the bakery Paris Baguette.  (We visited Paris Baguette several times during our first stay in Seoul, and once this trip as well.)  Here is Kiana enjoying one of her 'brownie' cookies:
Trying out Zander's chair - love the cute pink vest!
Zander has been doing fantastic on his green Strider bike, and has started asking for a 'big boy bike' with pedals.  So that was his big birthday present - he picked it out himself at Target. Daddy had to negotiate with our little guy a bit at the store - Zander was insisting that he wanted the 16" pink princess bike.  Here is his 12" Cars bike - he is still learning how to use the pedals:
Making 'spaghetti' with his new Cookie Play-doh set from Uncle Ryan and family:
We've enjoyed taking the edge off of our fatigue and jet lag by laughing with these sweet children.  We love them dearly and they mean the world to us!