Tuesday - Happy Birthday

Today was Aaidan's Birthday...and also the first day we enjoyed sunrise as a family!!

After everyone going to bed at a reasonable time, Aaidan woke up around 1:30. We gave him a night-time bottle, but after that he was "ready to go", likely due to jet lag.  We tried rocking him, reading books quietly, Daddy taking him out for walk in our carrier...but to no avail.  Annabelle was also up helping, and we finally decided to bag all attempts at going to sleep and went down to play.  Here are some good pictures of our 2AM-6AM play-time.

We all went back to sleep and slept from 6:30-10:30.  Again, Annabelle was super with Aaidan, and we all had a good (and leisurely start to the) day.  Here are some play-time shots in Aaidan's room.

Later in the day, Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner and cake for Aaidan's birthday.  Did we  say we're remodeling our kitchen?  We got a later start than we had planned, and we got an earlier travel call then planned, so our kitchen is mid-way through a re-do.   So dinner was the always yummy slow-cooker ribs (since we had no stove/oven) followed up later by birthday cake and ice cream.  Check out the shots of Aaidan...once again we know why he got daily (or twice daily) baths in Korea!  We took Aaidan directly to the tub (which he loves), and Annabelle joined in the fun.  After massaging some lotion on Aaidan, he fell asleep on the floor...so we put him in his crib for the night (first time) at 8.  This gave us some one-on-one time with Annabelle  where we gave her some of the goodies we picked up for her in Korea, and had a chance to read stories in our bed like "the old days".  She fell asleep also before 10...giving Mommy and Daddy to catch up on stuff around the house (and catch up on the blog)!  (Shouldn't we be sleeping??!!)   Stay tuned for more as we can.

"Cookin' up some Love?" - Grandpa and Annabelle where our oven used to

Monday - First Family Day!

Monday morning, Grandma and Grandpa brought Annabelle back over to our house after her long, but very fun stay with Grandma and Grandpa (along with long visits by Grandpa's cousin Andi and Annabelle's Aunt Goga!)  Here is one of the first shots of the four of us...we were all happy to be back together!  We all had a great day, and Annabelle was wonderful with Aaidan...and Aaidan loved her too.  Mommy and  Daddy are quickly "regrouping" and "rediscovering" what a 1-year old is like (it's definitely interesting and challenging with having an instantly mobile addition to your household), and Annabelle (and Daddy) are adjusting to the fact that daddy time is no longer "dedicated".  Overall, though, you couldn't ask for a better start!!

 Sacked out for an afternoon nap!

Sunday - our first 37-hour Mother's Day!

Our day started out with a walk in the middle of the night outside our hotel in an attempt to settle Aaidan down.  We finally got him quieted down, and then he slept til...yikes...11:30AM.  Good thing we had late check-out at 1PM.  Here is one last shot of him eating his last meal at the hotel.

After checking out, we had lunch down at one of the hotel restaurants...we both had pasta and shared a salad.  While we were waiting for our lunch, Daddy and Aaidan walked around the courtyard outside.

Stay tuned for more updates....we're looking to recover some photos...but the rest of the day included walking around a cool buddha's birthday street fair, the ride to the airport, Aaidan playing at the indoor playground at the airport, the long flight home, and arrival back home just after midnight!

Here are some pictures of us that night we arrived home.  We all hit the sack around 3AM!

Saturday - Out and About with Aaidan

After going to bed ~11 last night, Aaidan only woke up twice to be fed, and otherwise slept until 11 AM this morning!!  (few hour past his usual 9AM wakeup)  Aaidan was a big eater when he got up, and enjoyed some korean rice porridge, along with bananas for breakfast.  At our meeting with the foster family yesterday, we asked how often he got a bath....they said 1-2 times a day, and that he loved it.  We're finding out that Aaidan loves to play with his food....so daily bath time will likely be required.  As you'll see below....we gave him his first one today....and he loved it!

After breakfast, we headed out for a walk again, going through Insadong down to the park we passed with the fortunetellers last night.  Along the way, we enjoyed seeing some men play music on korean traditional instruments.  After finishing his bottle at the park, Aaidan fell asleep while we were walking back to the hotel.  Along the way Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a 2,000 won lunch of street food (kimbap and seafood pancake)....which works out to ~90 cents a person! (And it was good!!)

Just before we got back to the hotel, we passed by the temple, and saw even more lanterns and got to catch a concert.  We saw several groups of kids perform in traditional Korean Hanboks...the music and dancing added to the party atmosphere....we all really enjoyed it.

Later that evening, after we went to Lotte-Mart to pick up a few things, we relaxed at the hotel, and also went down to the kid's playroom, where Aaidan had a blast playing with the balls. While we were there, 2 elementary school girls (Japanese and Korean) came in - they spoke great english, and Aaidan had a blast watching them and trying to join in on the fun!

Aaidan was exhausted by the end of the day - he crashed around 10PM, allowing Mommy and Daddy to pack and catch up on the blog!

We're checking out of the hotel at 1PM, and leaving for the airport at 4 (flight at 7:30)....so this may be the last blog til we get back.

It's been a great trip, and we're off to as good a start as we ever imagined...and now we're ready to get home so Annabelle and Aaidan can meet!!!

Friday - Out and About with Aaidan

After Aaidan woke up from his afternoon nap, we decided to go out for a bit.  We took Aaidan out in our baby carrier, where we had him riding in the back like the foster parents did.  We went all the way down the main street of Insadong where we came to a park (which was closed) lined with fortune tellers.  We took some side streets back exploring, and picked up some food from street vendors (soup with noodles, and rice cakes).....since we're not up to heading out to a restaurant with Aaidan yet.  Aaidan loved going outside and checking everything out!  We had a great night, but did have trouble around bed-time - we ended up having to take him back outside, where he fell asleep while Mommy gave him his bottle and he watched the fountains and buses go by - he fell asleep ~11PM!

All rested after his afternoon nap!

 Snack time with Mommy

 Hitchin' a ride on Daddy's back, looking at some of the lanterns

Walking past some of the fortune tellers 

Exploring at Night 

 Rice cakes...yum!

Friday - GOTCHA DAY!!!!

Well, today's the BIG DAY!  Daddy was a bundle of nerves, and Mommy was ready-to-go!  Our hotel got the taxi for us and we were off to meet Aaidan, his foster parents, and the social workers at Holt.  We had toyed with taking the subway, but glad we didn't, especially because the location has moved since we were there last. Here are some shots of us heading out.

We got there a little early, and got to chat with one of the newer workers there.  At 11 AM, we me with Mrs. You and the foster mom and foster dad....and Aaidan!  It was a great visit....it was wonderful to finally meet Aaidan, and it was equally wonderful to meet the foster family, who clearly had much love for Aaidan who they've raised for the last 9 months or so.  We met for about an hour, and got to share stories and learn a lot about him and his likes/dislikes.  He's full of smiles, and very inquisitive.  He loves the outdoors.  The foster dad says that he's....yikes?....a daddy's boy.  We thought Annabelle goes to be late at our house...he goes to bed at ~11!  Here are some pictures from our meeting and the last doctor's check-up.

It was tough leaving the foster family, and we were braced for the worst when we hopped in the cab, but Aaidan was great all the way back to the hotel (~15 minute ride).  He enjoyed watching daddy play with the handles and lights in the car.

Once back at the hotel, he was great for awhile, all smiles and checking things out.  Then he started to upset, which we'd expect after leaving his foster family.  We did our first diaper change in awhile, and decided to take him outside to see if a changen scenery might help.  We took him for a walk along a path to the temple area where they have all the lanterns for Buddha's birthday.  Along the way he enjoyed playing with the flowers, statues, and peekaboo with Mommy.  Near the temple, he enjoyed watching the birds and checking out all the lanterns.  Daddy tossed him in the air, which he enjoyed, and he liked watching the buses. 

We went back to the hotel, where we picked up a few sandwiches (teryaki chicken, which somehow had mustard and jalapenos?) and went up to the room.  He got real fussy again - we got him a little to drink and a few baby puffs, and then he fell asleep in daddy's arms and ended up on the bed (hence daddy has time to do this blog update now!!!) Not sure how the rest of the day will go once he wakes up again  or when my next blog update will be, but we're off to a good start and we have a wonderful brother for Annabelle to meet in a few more days!!!