Full circle

 My intentions to blog once a month didn't come to fruition. Good life got in the way – pleasantly. Since the last time I blogged, Wiggly has turned two; we said goodbye to his green card and said hello to his certificate of citizenship and social security card. And there ends our paper chase for Wiggly's adoption. We've since been potty training Wiggly with much success and I hope to do another post on that, one of these days. We've attended our first birthday party invitation from a friend we met at story time. Wiggly has finally met all but one of my siblings at a family reunion we had just a few weeks ago in South Carolina.

At two years old, Wiggly is just as wiggly as ever – if not more so. The only time he isn't, is when he is buckled up in his car seat. He sits better at church now but only for a period of time. Then whoever is holding him usually gets pummeled.

At two years old, Wiggly LOVES trains especially Thomas and friends. He loves playing with his wooden blocks and loves being read to. His favorite books: trains and vroom vrooms and animal books. He can spot a choo choo book a lot quicker than I can at the library. He knows which "book" is his Bible! Yay! At about 26mo, the word explosion has come around for him. Which makes him even louder than ever before. That is if he's around family. He's learned so many words now, I've lost track. He now attempts to string 2, and very rarely 3 words together. The 3 words come out in a jumble most of the times – sounds hilarious at times and yet cute. He has mastered calling for Papa Dohn and calling everything that looks like a tractor, Papa Dohn's vroom vroom (tractor.) I'm still amazed at how quickly he was able to say and recognize “Lolo and Lola” - my parents. 

Spreading some dandelion love :)

At two years old, he now says a resounding AMEN as soon as he hears “in Jesus' name.” He asks for either Mommy or Daddy to pray when he goes down for naps or night-night. At two years old, he asks to sing along to a few children songs we've learned. He knows the general tune to the songs but can't quite say the words except for the last word or syllable. Example: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple: colors of the rainbow a beautiful sight. His version to this: ed ,uh, low,uh, wu, ple uh uh uh bow, uh, uh, ight. The alphabet song: his version: uh, b, u, e, ep, b, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, m, ah,p! But he has the tune down. He recognizes the alphabets for what they are and goes: “Mommy, e, ep, b” when he sees signs or even letters on shirts.

Some down time on top of the hay bales.

At two years old, he has learned to jump. He counts 1,2,3 and then he jumps. The count at times goes: 1,2,1! Hilarious. I wish I can get it on video one of these days... his counting sounds so cute. The jumping I'm not so excited about – he is getting more and more adventurous and tries to jump down from higher places now. Heart attack waiting to happen. He picked up the phrase “watch this” from his cousins and goes: “Mommy, wat di!” and then jumps. I can feel more gray hair coming on!

At two years old, he's renamed his cousins with as follows: Nay-nay, Tam/Nam, Dohn, Doe, Atah, Ta, and Babye. And yet he can say “Ate” (pronounced as Ahtee) just fine for his cousin from my side of the family. We've been working on saying “grandma” but it's just not coming yet. Sometimes though, I think I can hear an “uhma or mama” when he attempts to say grandma. 
 

Happy one year homecoming!

I am sure I am missing a few other details but the biggest thing is, we've now come full circle with being home with Wiggly. Our first family day anniversary (May 22^nd) was spent driving – our last leg drive home from South Carolina. Gave me plenty of time to reminisce about our days in Korea a year ago. We are just so thankful for this gift we have in our arms. I thought I had enough time to process and write about our time in Korea and actually being home with Wiggly for one year now... but I can't quite wrap my brain around it. Suffice it to say that our first year with Wiggly has been very pleasant to say the least and would love to have just as pleasant time in the years to come. I cannot imagine life without him at this point in time. I love being able to stay home with him; watching him grow into a toddler has been a very interesting blessing. Daddy's unbiased opinion of Wiggly is: he is strong willed with a dynamic personality. This makes for a very strong combination to say the least. He is really making us hone in on our parenting skills – what little we have and what we don't have, we're having to learn really fast. Oh but the “true lip kisses” and the “true arm hugs” we get from Wiggly make everything so, so worth it! And just to hear and watch him laugh while Daddy plays with him is just priceless! He gets such enjoyment out of having airplane rides on a laundry basket; having vroom vroom rides on a toy wheel barrow, or being “tickle bombed” by Daddy – just simple Daddy fun.

Helping Mommy blow her candles.

What's been so heartwarming and so pleasantly noticeable is the cousins just embracing Wiggly as their own. And this year Wiggly is fully returning the favor. He loves his Ahtee just as much as well. 
 We are now (graciously I hope) settling into the background as aunt/mommy and uncle/daddy. Example: When we go to visit the cousins or the cousins come to visit, the cousins call for Wiggly first thing instead of UD and AC. It just makes my heart smile! Is there such a thing? And after sleepovers, Wiggly wakes up and looks across to an empty bed and asks for the cousin who was just there a day or so ago.

One year ago

One year later

In short: I cannot believe we've been home a full year and yet we have!!! It's been such a fun ride! Praying for more to come! We love being Wiggly's mommy and daddy. We are so grateful for him and just love him to pieces. Praise God to all whom blessings flow!

                                                                             AC