Cy You Are Almost 3!

Cy you are almost 3 and what time has gone by since you have come home to us. You have changed, grown and come into your own. I do have to say you crack me up everyday. I started this blog with you in mind and I figured I would chronicle you miles stones for you to look back online.

Favorite Color -> Orange
Favorite Movies -> Dumbo, Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, How to Train Your Dragon, Polar Express
Favorite TV Shows -> Dinosaur Train, Diego, Thomas, Curious George
Favorite Apps -> Lunchbox Monkey, PBS Kids, Trucks, Monster at the end of the Book, Itsy Bitsy
Favorite Food -> Pizza, Soup, Risotto, Manchego, Pasta, Blueberries, Mangoes, Pears and Apples
Favorite Vegetables -> CARROTS, cucumbers, onions, bell peppers -- You love to juice veggies with Mommy and really enjoy drinking our mixtures!

You still don't sleep through the night and mommy and daddy only can count the days until you do. Milk or in Korean "uyu" is still your #1...you LOVE the stuff. If you are not drinking milk it is lemonade or fojiotos. You have a curious mind and love to figure stuff out. Recently you are into riding your Strider bike with your helmet. You love playing with your Brio train track too. You love all Thomas. Mommy and Daddy's friend Erin's son Nick gave you a Thomas flashlight that you really enjoy! That was super nice of Nick to share his toy!

I would say that you have an amazing ear for rhythm, pitch and tone.  Natural ability to keep a beat and follow the music amazes me every time. You LOVE the drums! Friends of ours gave you a drum and you play with it often. Fort Collins Discovery Center has this great music sound room where you play the drums every time we go, needless to say you impress all the workers/volunteers that you can actually play and don't just bang away.  Your musical taste range is abstract as us. Daddy will play anything from White Zombie, Henry Rollins, Irish Music or the Grateful Dead. Mommy has John Butler Trio, Katy Perry, Kanye, Rihanna, Bluegrass, etc. However, your absolute favorite song right now (aside from Christmas music) is Some Nights by Fun. You request it often and I think you are catching on to the lyrics and chime in perfectly! I promise you no matter how much or how little money we have we will always encourage music in your life.

You enjoy reading and being read to. Don't get to excited as you can't read...but you do memorize books surprisingly well and are able to recite.

Favorite Books:

• But No Elephants - Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Nelson
• Circus Ship
• Thomas the Train Picture Book
• The Fire Engine Book

We feel so lucky everyday that you are our son! I believe that everything is meant to be...and you are meant for us. One thing that is still constant is your love of Bear. Bear came with you from Korea and you don't leave home without him.

Peace and Love! Always remember that Mommy and Daddy always love you so much!

PS. Daddy wants me to remember that he loves how you randomly and most importantly at the right time will say, "Thanks Daddy" or "Thanks Mommy"

November is National Adoption Month

With it being National Adoption month I hope to do various post about Adoption. I know this year Larimer County is doing it's first ever National Adoption Day Celebration at the court house. It is really exciting how in recent years adoption has been so mainstreamed. I feel so fortunate every day for my son Cy! I believe VERY strongly in adoption/foster care.  

One thing I hope to bring more to light are some things that I found very important and personal to me.  Throughout this month I will highlight some of our struggles and wins. We went through extensive training before Cy came home preparing us for how we might feel, attachment, grieving, etc...However, we weren't really prepared for a toddler. Don't get me wrong as the date continually changed I was aware of his age...just not really a toddler. There wasn't much for resources on Toddler Adoption and the Weavers Craft can freak anyone out. I remember reading information on the Internet saying you shouldn't leave your child for 6 months, don't do this and don't do that. I wanted desperately to do the right thing. I literally freaked out and finally called my social worker crying because I just didn't know what to do and they didn't really know how to help as we were the first group to bring Toddlers home from Korea. Her advice, make sure to take care of you and Jeremy. So we did that. We sat down and wrote out what we wanted to do. I lost some people close to me for my decisions as even though we might make those decisions...it doesn't mean they are easy.  I mean we kept thinking...shit what do we do!

I know my husband and I felt very lost as everything we read was for babies. I even remember thinking...in training they told us to sit on a yoga ball since the babies would be heavy (to protect our backs) and my son is climbing the kitchen cabinets and running all over the place. Frantically flipping through my resource books I was told to read and really finding nothing. Cy was 22 months when he came home, he wasn't this tiny baby. He was this mobile kid with a voice, opinion and he was moving!  I have to be thankful for some friends who had two kids who said if we went from 0 to this we would freak out. I was like thank god I am not crazy because this is insane! Not because we didn't love our son because we were so unprepared.

It is kind of funny but literally around six months it got easier or we just got used to it, who knows. It was literally like stepping outside and everything was crisper. I got it. I am not afraid to share that I went through a little depression or that my family struggled in the beginning. I am not perfect. It wasn't all ice cream and suckers after two weeks. What I feel is important that every adoption is different and I want people to know how you choose to handle the transition doesn't make you a bad person. One piece of advice I can give is to always to what is best for you and your family.

I hope this month to try and post as much information on Toddler Adoption as possible to be a resource for others. Especially now Korean Adoption all children coming home will be toddler or older.

Peace and Love!

Strength of Soul, Strength of Mind

I seriously have been hitting a wall at 2pm everyday since we have had Cy. It doesn't matter if it is during the week or on the weekend...it is like clock work! I have decided that the biggest thing missing from my life is exercise. I literally haven't done anything in six months and it is really time to get back on the horse.


Plan of Attack:

1. Run for 30 minutes twice a week during my lunch. I feel like it is really the best time to go and I could use the break from work. I find that I suck at waking up earlier to go for a run and I just don't do it regularly enough to be doing it after work.
2. A cup of Green Tea in the afternoon.
3. Yoga on Sunday! I got away from this and I truly believe that for my self and body needs yoga. I am welcoming it back to my routine with open arms.

It starts this week, so I will keep you posted!