My Valentines

Happy belated Valentine's Day! It may be a sappy, pretend holiday but I have to admit to enjoying the celebration of it quite a bit this year. 

Thursday

Flowers arrived at the office. The front desk woman was giddy with anticipation, wondering who they might be from. After eight plus years of marriage, I knew (which was fortunate, as the card was unsigned!). A thoughtful surprise from my better half! 

The second surprise of the day was waiting for me at Oma's house. Oliver made Tony and I Valentine's cards! Oma said he put them together mostly on his own, and he was so proud. These handmade cards are quite possibly the best Valentine's gifts we have ever received. 

Friday

The day with Oliver was hectic but included a chance to catch up with a good friend while our kids played. Friday evening was a long-needed date night, just Tony and I. We went to see a movie -- the first we've been to in well over a  year. American Sniper. Not the most romantic movie but a great one to see in the theater. We followed that with a late dinner, adult conversation and an opportunity to just relax. Lovely. 

Saturday

Valentine's Day was all about Oliver. He's been begging to go swimming, so we went to the local community pool. He had a blast! We followed that with one of his favorite restaurants, Noodles, for lunch out. He crashed for an extra long nap (meaning we got a little rest too), then got to sample his way around Costco. Afterwards we surprised him with How to Train Your Dragon 2, which he loved. Tony made us a yummy dinner and we enjoyed a little Valentine dessert. A nice ending to a day of fun. 

Tomorrow (Tuesday)

The fun continues with Oliver's first school party. Parents get to join in the fun and I'm excited to be there. Afterwards we are taking Oma out for a Valentine's Day lunch. Can't wait!

Since my last post, a few other things have happened:

1. Oliver and I visited Opa's office. Oliver did really well, and Opa snapped this picture:

2. We can officially cross "stomach virus" off our parental checklist. The bug lasted five days and we felt terrible for Oliver. Thankfully he made a full recovery.

3. Sass. Back talk. It's official, his language is far enough along that we now hear a lot of: "me no like you" "me not want to" "I can't" (said when he doesn't want to do something) -- and he's learning how to use "but"

4. He's not just picking up on back talking, though. Some recent phrases include: "I have great idea" "love you" (not a new phrase but used more often) and the names, types and descriptions of all the dragons related to How to Train Your Dragon. Cute!

Here's a final photo -- pretending to be asleep on the way to Oma's today. 

My Little Chef

Oliver is such a joy. 
Yes, he pushes us to the edges of our sanity some of the time — I think that’s his job (and apparently it creates a lot of purple work for him to do). But most of the time he is simply a joy to be around. His imagination is incredible and fun, bringing me back to my own younger days filled with neighborhood or playground games of Spaceship, being pioneers, turning little spaces into forts or houses for our dolls.  

Naturally, we did not have this much joy, imagination and fun when we were home together last year. Too much adjusting, too many barriers. And even as we worked our way through summer, we still struggled with so much. Therefore, I am especially enjoying all of this happiness and love right now! 

This past weekend Oliver came down with a bit of a cold. Nothing serious, but enough for us to stay home and keep the germs contained. We had wanted to spend Saturday “doing something fun,” so I tried to improvise at home. One of the solutions: making pizza! We’ve done this before (and I’ve blogged about it before) — lightly toast an english muffin, then let him spread the sauce, add the toppings and cheese. I help out a tiny bit (cut the toppings up; extended his sauce and cheese to the edges some to prevent burning), but he did a terrific job on his own. He’s a natural chef! I mean, just check out this cutie pie posing for a photo before he gets to work.

Last night I was baking a cake for tonight’s book club meeting. Oliver sweetly told me that I am good at making cakes. And cookies. Wait, what?! A 100% unprompted compliment?! I don’t know if that’s a first, but it sure was lovely to hear. What a sweetie! As for the cake, I opted for a non-chocolate item that is said to be a “good keeper”. It’s a Swedish Visiting Cake from Dorie Greenspan’s book. Simple yet (hopefully) delicious. 

On Friday, Oliver and I will be participating on a panel for families thinking of adopting (we did this in October as well, and Tony was able to be there). These classes are tough, lots of “Debbie downer” information, and the day ends with a panel discussion. I enjoy talking about our experiences, even the challenging parts, and remember the panels being the most engaging part of the day. Tony was with us last time, so I am very much hoping that Oliver is on his best behavior this time around!

Purple Work

Our life is full of new words! Oliver’s vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, and he is now putting together full sentences and questions. Every.Single.Day. we are caught off guard / impressed / blown away by the words he knows or the complexity of what he puts together. While he may not yet be fully caught up for his age, it feels like he’s sprinting to that finish line. Here are just a few of our recent favorites.

Purple Work.
Last night Oliver told Tony he needed the computer. When asked why, Oliver responded with “My purple work.” We take that to mean his paper work, though purple work sounds much more fun! There ended up being a lot of talk about how much purple work Oliver had to do last night, and how busy he was. 

Oh man. 
We hear this all of the time — it’s sometimes the first thing he says in the morning! He says it with the appropriate amount of disappointment / frustration, as the situation warrants. As if he has the weight of the world on him. 

Giraffes need to be warm, penguins need to be cold.
While we’ve talked about both giraffes and penguins, and what type of place they live, we’ve never put the two together. Yet Oliver did, in the car, randomly sharing that with us while we were driving to AWANA last night. 

Halloween is spooky.
The random statement we heard this morning on our way to Oma’s house. No idea where it came from, but it’s the “out of left field” kind of stuff he’s been peppering us with on a daily basis. He certainly keeps things interesting!

Needless to say, there is a lot of laughter as well as a lot of "where did that come from" looks for both Tony and I. He's still as sweet, cute and funny as ever:

Well, it's back to "purple work" for me. Have a wonderful day!

2015

Happy New Year! I hope that your new year is off to a great start.

Oliver, Tony and I had a great New Year’s celebration. On New Year’s Eve we played games, enjoyed yummy snacks, grilled pizzas (thank you, Tony), put on our jammies and watched “How To Train Your Dragon” and counted down the New Year with Oliver at about 9:00 (thank you, Netflix). After he went to sleep, Tony and I celebrated with some champagne, chocolates and the New York Times Square ball drop. A perfect way to ring in the new year!

The final family photo of 2014

New Year’s day is the annual Meyers’ celebration featuring an array of Korean dishes. We had japchae, bulgogi and mandu. Yum! Oliver wore his traditional Korean hanbook for a little while, though he didn’t want to pose for any pictures. This is the hanbook we received from his foster family over Thanksgiving. Here’s a summary of my attempt to snap just one good photo:

Cute, but he wouldn't look up!

Being shy

Being silly

Done letting us take photos, ready to move on to other things

On Friday Tony headed out of town to go ice fishing with his dad, leaving Oliver and I together for a special weekend. In true “holiday vacation” form, we kept busy with:

A trip to the car wash where he gets to squirt the cars:

He just *loves* this car wash!

An ice cream sundae picnic in our living room (he wanted to have an outdoor picnic, but it was a bit cold)

A pancake dinner at one of our local diners

A trip to the zoo with Oma (who treated Oliver to both lunch and a toy from the gift shop):

Look at me! I'm walking on water!

Oma bought me a toy! Now if only the Komodo Dragon would come out...

A daily viewing of his new favorite movie, “How To Train Your Dragon”

In addition to all the fun “stuff,” he also got to sleep in the big bed with me, something he otherwise doesn’t get to do. 

When asked what the best part of the weekend was, he said it was watching the movie. Of course, the one thing that took zero effort! At least he had fun.

He was such a joy and we had a terrific time, though he did miss Dad. Both Saturday and Sunday morning the first thing he asked was if Daddy was home.  After so much time together, returning to work (for me) and Oma’s (for Oliver) was tough on us both. 

With the start of the new year, I am especially thankful that we are now a COMFORTABLE family of three. Last year we were simply over the moon happy to just have Oliver at home. But we began 2014 as a family that didn’t know each other very well — and as two people who were in survival mode as parents. It was not an easy time for Tony, Oliver or I. As we embark on 2015, we are feeling more solid and steady, closer to one another, able to simply enjoy being around each other without constantly trying to figure everything out.

So with that, HAPPY NEW YEAR!