Playing outside all day with Daddy + No nap= Falling asleep at the dinner table

Minnesota

We recently returned from our annual trip to Minnesota. Jordan survived the 10 hour car ride with very little whining. He did much better than last year thanks to a large supply of movies and my dad's DVD player!

This picture was taken at home, but I had to include it because of Jordan's cute smile. He loves eating nectarines!

Playing a game with Aunt Emily.

Playing with his cousin Alexa

Jordan's cousins Alexa and Logan

Jordan had so much fun with the Ford cousins!

Playing with his birthday present

This is a perfect birthday cake for Jordan!

Jordan's favorite thing to do at the cabin was driving the pontoon boat!

He also spent a lot of time swimming in the lake.

A rainy June and a sunny Fourth of July

This past June has been very rainy and gloomy and my spirits have not been much better. But Jordan has remained cheerful despite the weather and found plenty to do on the rainy days. One of his favorite things to do is to help us in the kitchen. Of course there isn't much he can do at age 2 so it takes a bit of creativity to figure out ways that he can help. He has become very good at picking grapes off the stems and then washing them in the sink, and he is a master at using the salad spinner. And believe it or not, he has learned how to crack an egg! This is all Luke's doing, not mine. I couldn't believe it when Luke told me. But one day I watched and sure enough, he was able to crack an egg into a bowl without getting any pieces of shell mixed in. Here he is adding seasoning to the breakfast he is cooking with Daddy. When he is helping us in the kitchen or anywhere else he will often say, "I'm helping my Mommy!" or "I'm helping my Daddy!" It's very cute.

A little rain doesn't stop Jordan from going outside! He loves being outside no matter what the weather. During the rainy June we had Jordan often went outside whenever it started to clear up a little bit.

One evening after it had been storming really hard Luke brought Jordan outside. They found Reily and his mom outside rescuing some baby birds that had fallen from our tree. Reily and Jordan had so much fun jumping in the puddles. I could hear them squealing the second I opened up the door!

After all the rain we had in June I was thankful to enjoy gorgeous sunny weather on the fourth. We went to the parade in Grandville which had more candy than any parade I have seen in my life. Before the parade we spent some time at nearby park.

Here's Jordan sitting on the curb holding the bag he brought for his candy. I was amazed by the amount of candy that was thrown out at that parade. The bag Jordan brought was overflowing by the end, and he consumed quite a bit while he was watching the parade. He probably had more candy than he received on Halloween and Easter combined!

I'm usually quite strict about limiting Jordan's treat intake, but it was almost impossible at this parade. Here he is enjoying a piece of licorice.

Here's Jordan showing off the beads he got at the parade. By the end of the day he was exhausted and slept easily despite the loud fireworks show at our neighbor's house.

Happy Birthday Aiden!

Today was Aiden's first birthday. We celebrated his birthday tonight with some cake, but there was definitely some sadness mixed in as I wish so badly that he was home with us. Jordan helped me bake the cake which was fun for him. Believe it or not, my little 2 1/2 year old already knows how to crack an egg! I can't take credit. His daddy taught him that one. Then this afternoon I was feeling pretty down in the dumps about not being able to see Aiden on his first birthday and give him his first piece of cake. It helped so much to see these pictures in my e-mail today! Thankfully our birthday package arrived on time and Aiden seems to enjoy his new phone. Good job, big brother! Jordan was the one to pick out that toy.

We hope you had a wonderful birthday, Aiden! We love you so much and can't wait for the day when we can hold you in our arms!

New Pictures!

I was so surprised to find new pictures of Aiden when I opened my e-mail this afternoon! Isn't he adorable? And he and Jordan have matching haircuts! He is 22 pounds, 30 inches tall and has 8 teeth. He's growing up too quickly!

Jordan's Summer Haircut

I love Jordan's hair. I think it is absolutely gorgeous and am often jealous of him wishing I had such beautiful hair. But today we cut it all off. I hated to have it done, but his hair is so dark and thick that it makes him very hot in the summer. We didn't mean to cut quite as much off as we did, but because Luke had never used the clippers on Jordan before and because Jordan was extremely wiggling during the whole thing, he ended up with a very, very short haircut. I keep telling myself that it will grow back and that it will help Jordan feel so much cooler this summer. Even so, I am sad that it is gone!

When Luke started using the clippers, Jordan started giggling like crazy! He kept saying that it tickled and moved his head all over. That sure made it challenging to cut his hair!



In an attempt to keep him somewhat still and seated we told Jordan that he could have a chocolate covered pretzel when he was all done. He loved that pretzel so much that he held it in his mouth instead of chewing it up and swallowing it. This made it hard to snap a good picture of him sporting his new haircut. Although I'm not a big fan of the new look, Jordan loved it! He couldn't stop looking in the mirror and staring at himself. When he first saw his haircut he said, "Haircut just like Grandpa Tim!" I don't see the resemblence there. Maybe more like Grandpa Dave's haircut.



When it came time to hose off Jordan's booster, he was right there to help. His new favorite sentence is, "Let me try!" This was no exception. His shorts were soaked by the time he finished "helping" to clean off his chair.

We found out last week that we will be able to send a gallon ziploc bag to Korea with gifts for Aiden. When the staff returns from their trip they will have more pictures, another update, and another video for us. I can't wait! Although I was excited to send Aiden more things, shopping for this was hard on me. I bought him some soft soled shoes for beginning walkers and I suddenly realized that I will miss out on Aiden's first steps. I don't know why I hadn't thought about that before, but it made me pretty sad. Hopefully his foster mother will take lots of pictures of him when he starts walking.

Here are all the items I purchased for Aiden along with a gift for the foster mother.

And here is everything crammed into the ziploc bag. I am still hoping to purchase a little toy for him before I have to mail it out on Thursday. It's amazing how much can fit into one ziploc bag!

Disappointing News

This week we received some disappointing news regarding the adoption. Due to the quota system that is in place in Korea, we will not be able to travel to bring Aiden home until sometime in 2012. We were sad to hear this as we were hoping to travel sometime in October or November. Before when people would ask when we were traveling I would always respond by saying that we hope to travel sometime before Christmas. In my mind I thought Christmas time would be the very latest it would be. But now I am hoping that we travel before Mother's Day next year. The waiting is very, very hard but we have peace knowing that Aiden is living in a loving foster home. Here is the most recent picture we have of Aiden taken back in March. He looks so cheerful! His birthday is coming up next month so we will be able to send him gifts at that time and will hopefully receive more pictures. We are gearing up for a long, long wait but know that the end result will be very sweet!