Wahe's World

A Busy December

We hope that everyone has had a happy and safe holiday season.  Alex, Michelle and I have been very busy over the past month.  We have moved Michelle’s business, we have had two family Christmas, I celebrated my birthday, we found a day care provider for Alex.  But … most importantly we have finalized Alex’s adoption and started the process to adopt his brother or sister (also from South Korea). Alex actually had a very busy morning the day before Christmas Eve.  He visited with a judge, social worker and a day care.

We have posted two new photo galarie.  One shows pictures from the Rutta ans Wahe Christmas celebrations.  The second is an assortment of pictures from December.  Check out the ones of him playing with the bin of yoyo ballons. You can view the albums at https://wahe.us/wahepics/main.php.

We all with you a great start to 2009.  I know I told a friend today that I was not making any New Years Resolutions, I will state that ,y resolution for 2009 is to learn how to post video clips to our blog!

Happy New Year!

Time Flies……

Michelle Here.

So sorry for the lack of posting.   I feel like I’m just recuperating from Thanksgiving, and it’s already Christmas!

Alex has had a lot of ‘firsts’ in the last few weeks; most notably…..HE TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS!!

He has consistently been taking 3 steps at a time.   Life as we know it is no longer.   Our busy little boy will be running around the house before we can say.

He also is jabbering up a storm.   I’ve noticed that his sounds have been sounding more like English syllables.    Maybe it’s just my Mommy Imagination, but in my mind, it’s real.    His first words were ‘ball’ (what a surprise, right), and ‘book’.   He often looks at us and jabbers, like he’s telling us something.    We speak back at him, and he jabbers and points some more.

His comprehension is amazing to us.   We can now speak to him in sentences, and he can understand us.     Along with this, he is pointing like crazy.    Whenever we walk into a room for the first time together, he is pointing at everything he notices.    Also, when a new person walks into the room, he immediately points at an object (usually a ceiling light) while he looks at that person.

He has also been eating finger foods, and will refuse to eat his pureed kale and beets (wink) unless he has something he can feed to himself.   Now it’s my challenge to find healthy foods that are ‘whole’.   It was easy to hide healthy stuff when I was pureeing.    I just mixed the dark green stuff with the yummy orange stuff (sweet pototoes, squash), and woola, he ate it instantly.

We celebrated the Rutta family Christmas this past weekend, and it didn’t take him long to learn from his cousins…..how to open presents.    It was fun to watch him watching the older kids.   Then he would try to do what they were doing.      Later this week we’re going to visit with Stefan’s family, and he’ll get to learn a lot from his 4 year old cousin………

Our future snow shoveler

So I was looking through the pictures that I posted of little Alex more closely.  In this one I found something very interesting and hopefully a little foretelling.  Notice what he is holding in his hand as he is watching the snow fall.  I guess he did want to come out and help his Dad shovel.

Looking to shovel snow

Thanksgiving Weekend in Review

Alex and his Turkey

Alex hosted his first Thanksgiving Day gathering.  Between Dad’s side of the family and Mom’s side of the family, Alex had 16 people to keep entertained. And he did just that.  He was a gracious host who prepared a great dinner that included cranberries, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, ham and a giant turkey as well as a whole lot more.

Alex played well with his cousins.  He even took a few great pictures with them.  He visited with his Aunt Stacy and Uncle Jim.  He kept both set of grandparents entertained with babbles and play. He visited with our friends Adin, Yealyes, Helene and Adrian.  The only thing he didn’t do was to take he afternoon nap.  But as you can probably guess, he was too excited not to be with his guests.

While Alex was entertaining guests Michelle and I were both being very thankful to have Alex in our lives.   We are thankful that Alex is a happy, healthy little guy. We are thankful for every inch Alex grows and every pound he gains.  We are thankful for every time he goes to sleep and wakes up with that big grin on his little face.  We are thankful for our son, our family and of course each other.

The day after Thanksgiving was our annual visit to Millers Christmas Tree Farm in Rio, WI (http://www.treerex.com/).  This year Alex was there to help remind me that we didn’t need a giant tree.  He, and Grandpa Rutta, kept me in check.  Alex got to walk through the field of light snow and he got to see Santa from a distance.  He got to see little ponies eating grass and big dogs chasing balls.  He got to see his Dad and grandpas strap a tree to the tops of the car.  And he got to eat cheerios all the way home.

The third day of Alex’s big four day holiday weekend was dedicated to his first photo shoot.  We had an appointment with Funky Monkey: Photography with a Tale (http://www.funkymonkeyphoto.com/).  The photographer was great with Alex.  Or should we say he was good.  He was not as full of smiles but was still a delight.  We hope to have gotten a few real good photos to add to our walls and share with our friends. Alex also treated Mom and Dad to a little sushi dinner.  He was the hit of the restaurant.  He even made friends with another little girl also treating her family to a non-turkey meal event.

And on this, the fourth day, Alex will be getting a good amount of rest.  He seems a little board with Just Michelle and I. However, later today, he will be helping us put up his first Christmas tree.

You can view photos from Thanksgiving at https://wahe.us/wahepics/main.php?g2_itemId=791&g2_fromNavId=xb1bbad63.

A Note from Dad

Play time!

I  can’t believe how long it has been since I last wrote in this blog. Thankfully, Michelle has been doing great at keeping you up to date.  But since little Alex is napping and Michelle is grocery shopping for Turkey day, I thought I would write a couple of quick lines and give you the link to the new photo album pics.

Michelle and I are having so much fun being parents.  And to speak for Alex, he is having so much fun being our son :-)  Alex is so happy playing with all those toys that have been given to him from family and friends.  He is lucky that there were so many boys who had some hand-me-downs for him to play with.  He can go from toy to toy to toy for hours upon hours.  We are very thankful for the kindness of others.

Alex has been practicing his long throws.  He tosses the ball and chases after it.  He is a very proficient crawler.  That is why we think it will be awhile before he take those first steps.  He does well standing and playing with his toys on the coffee table and foot stool.  He will cruise along the couch.  He will even stand on his own and clap if he doesn’t think about it.  But when going from point A to point B it is drop, flip and crawl at light speed.

We are very excited to have his grandparents, aunt and uncle and his cousins come for Thanksgiving.  I’m looking forward to seeing how he interacts with everyone being here at the same time.  Both sets of grandparents have been staying with us off and on while Michelle spends a few days at work.  He has been very good for them.  Eating well, sleeping well and playing well.  He has enough smiles to go around and invest the extra for later.

It has been a few weeks since we posted pictures to the gallery.  So check out the latest album at https://wahe.us/wahepics/main.php?g2_itemId=704.  There are pictures from a trip to Michelle’s parents house.  Pictures from a visit from my parents.  And odds and ends from birthday parties, dinner time and play time.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

I’m in Love

I have an additional love of my life, and his name is Alex.

I so much love being his Mom.

I miss him when I’m away, and I feel grateful when I’m with him.

I love the way he eats his teething crackers…every dainty bite carefully ‘chewed’ with his 6 teeth.

I love the way he teaches me to live in the moment.   My new life with him no longer consists of how many emails I’ve answered, how many phone calls I’ve made, and how much sales revenue is coming in.   It simply consists of the joy we are living…..now.

I love witnessing his love for his father, my husband, Stefan.

I love the way he examines every inch of each of his toys.    Over and over again, day after day.

I love the sounds he shrieks out….sometimes in happiness, sometimes in contentment, and sometimes to get my attention to say ‘hey…..I need another Cheerio’.

I love the little smile he gives me when I say ‘no’ to him when he reaches for the dog’s water bowl.

I love the extra little breaths he takes when he gets excited over discovering a new piece of lint on the carpet.

I love to see him when he’s in public.   He loves to watch everyone and everything around us.

I love his CONFIDENCE.   He exudes it.    He has a confident energy coming from him, and it is often preceded with peace.    Chaos can be happening all around him, and he remains calm and collected.  His ‘being’ is all about who he is, and not what’s around him.

I love the smile he gives me when I come into his bedroom after a nap.

I love showing him off to friends and strangers.    I love telling people of our journey.

He is teaching me more than I would have imagined.

I love being his Mother.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Yes, us……but what’s keeping us busy?     Our busy little boy!   Alex’s foster mother described him as ‘busy’, and she really meant it!

Alex is a busy little boy.     You may think that means we’re going lots of places….well, that’s true.     But the busy part is when we’re home.  When Alex is awake, he is always on the move!    He isn’t happy unless he’s exploring the house.   He crawls everywhere, nearly constantly!    His favorite past time is taking a ball (or any round object), throwing it, and crawling after it.   He then rejoices in getting the ball, and the sequence starts over again.    It’s so fun to watch.    We’ve tried to contain him to the living room and sunroom (about 400 square feet mind you), but he’s always escaping into the rest of the house.    He’ll get himself caught in our baracades……we’ll hear him grunting, and we know he’s in the process of squeezing, crawling over, or maneuvering through  whatever new baracade we’ve devised to keep him contained.     At that time, Stefan and I exclaim to ourselves……Alex “1”, Mommy and Daddy “0”.

Alex and I were taking advantage of the nice weather yesterday.   While I did fall cleanup of the garden, he sat in the grass and explored the dirt, the blowing leaves, and blades of grass.   I soooo much love to experience life through his world.   Everything is a new experience, waiting to be explored.   There’s shear joy when he discovers something new.

Well, gotta go.  Our busy little boy is done napping.   He’s been recharged by sleep,  and I have to go and get my running shoes back on……

New Pics again!

Stefan has posted new pictures in the Picture archive.

They are in Pictures Archive, “Alex, Week 5”

It’s hard to believe that Alex has been with us 5 weeks already.    When I think back about how far he has come, and how much he has grown in such a short time…..I’m amazed.

Enjoy the pics, Michelle