From one holiday to the next

Thanksgiving weekend is drawing to a close and the annual event of getting the house ready for Christmas has begun. CJ finally has his wish - a house with a window facing the street where we can display our tree. He even bought blinking lights this year!! (Technically they are "twinkling" but I'm looking at them right now & they look pretty blinky to me!) For those who do not know, I was raised in a family where the tree had multi-colored, multi-design, blinking lights. Any ornaments we made were proudly displayed, even the really bad ones. CJ's childhood tree? Non-blinking white lights, red bows and silver tinsel. Guess who won the Christmas tree design war? Hmmm... not me. Alas, now that the handmade ornaments are going to start coming, I have petitioned for my own tree. After the holiday we plan to purchase a second tree, and I have been preparing for next Christmas, when I will hang the most obnoxious lights I can find.

Paul's Greatest Hits

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

"ABC"

"Itsy Bitsy Spider"

Happpy KTA day!

Okay, I have decided (for now anyway) that the best way to describe today is to call it "Korea to America" or KTA day. Honestly, traveling is about all Paul did on November 8, 2006. He arrived in NYC at around 11:30 at night. We didn't arrive home until sometime after 4:00 am, making it technically November 9. And as I have stated previously, his official family status did not occur until the following October. (Although as far as I am concerned he was my son the moment that I saw his referral photo with his pouty little lips & punk rocker hair, but that's a totally different issue.)Here is my adorable little boy the morning after he came home. Honestly, could he be any cuter?

Here's Paul in 2007. It was a school day, so I wasn't able to snap a photo until he was getting ready for bed.

And here he is this morning. We have decided to celebrate by watching flaming onion volcanoes at a local Japanese hibachi restaurant. Onions are Paul's current favorite vegetable (no lie) - so it should be fun.

A rose by any other name

November 8th is quickly approaching. It is an ordinary day for most folks but a rather significant day for the van family because it marks the anniversary of when we went from two members to three. This particular day of celebration is called a variety of things in the adoption community, and I am struggling with what to use for our family. Here are some popular choices along with my views:

• "Gotcha Day" Okay, this one is pretty cute and all, but it seems a little, well, like we snatched our child out of a dark alley in the middle of the night. Yes, he did appear as if we had snatched him that first night we met - that look of "how dare you take me away from the only family I've known, send me on a ridiculously long plane trip and hand me over to these strange smelling people!!!" But when I think about that meeting, I try to forget that look. I try to forget the five hour drive home during which he screamed inconsolably. I try to remember instead the feeling of WOW. MOTHERHOOD. MY SON. Gotcha Day just doesn't seem to cover that.
• "Family Day" I like this one a lot because we did indeed become a family that night, although he was not legally a van until the following October. My problem, however, is twofold. I feel that CJ & I became a family the day we got married, and when we add #4 to the mix, what will we call his/her day? Hmmmm...
• "Adoption Day" Technically October 13th, not November 8th.
• "Homecoming" or "Coming Home Day" I don't know, Homecoming sounds too much like there should be a football game and a king and queen. And honestly, I'm sure Paul did not feel like he was heading "home" at the time.
• "Arrival Day" Accurate and doesn't hold any negative connotations, but not a whole lot of emotional bang to it.

I am open to thoughts/suggestions from any one out there with an opinion on the matter. Being the procrastinator that I am, I also need ideas for how to celebrate. Last year we took Paul out to dinner at the Olive Garden. He was miserable because he was coming down with a cold. Two days later we ended up in the ER after he had a febrile seizure. Hoping this year has a bit less drama.

Ahoy Mates!

Paul had a wonderful second Halloween. He dressed as a pirate (of course) and enjoyed two consecutive nights of trick-or-treating. Thursday night we went to the mall, and Friday night CJ took him around the neighborhood. Mom held down the fort, giving out candy and scaring small children with our spooky lights. They play the Mike Myers theme (very loudly) and are motion sensored, so when unsuspecting children knocked on the door they were surprised and often slightly mortified. The first two little girls ran screaming down the sidewalk. It was classic. Here are this year's pumpkins. Paul designed the one on the far right, CJ designed/carved the one with the eight million teeth, I did the one with the bloodshot eyes & the cat was one of those cut-out designs. It was a group effort - I poked all the tiny holes & CJ did the carving.

The full collection of halloween pictures will be posted in our snapfish album.