*one month home*

the three of us on our first Children's Day!

{so i had this big huge post about our last four weeks together as a family and all the things O has been doing and what's changed etc...i had tons of pictures to share and was almost done writing it when blogger decided to eat it. yup...blogger ate my post! three days i spent on that darn post...writing in between naps and night time...blah...blah..blah...ugh. oh well...that's life right?}

{let's talk about the reason for THIS post...it's been ONE month since Oliver came home! can you believe it? i can't. it's crazy. boy have we learned a lot about our little guy! now that he is getting more comfortable, he is showing us more and more of his personality. i have a lot of little tidbits i'd like to document so i totally understand if you want to just scroll down and see the pictures. let's see where shall we start...oh well...Oliver has opened up so much since his first day home. he sings, he screams, he dances, he babbles, he runs, jumps, climbs. he shows us lots of love by giving hugs and kisses. he smiles and laughs and giggles. he loves to be held and wants to know what everything is. he will point and do a little grunt...it's his way of saying..what's that?}

finishing a sample we got at whole foods...

{he eats and eats and eats. i don't think there has been anything that he hasn't tried and liked. he's very easy to please at restaurants and so far (fingers crossed) he's been super good. he just sits in his high chair and enjoys all the people. we went to a restaurant last Saturday for dinner and he just sat there staring at these three girls for about an hour....he didn't make a peep.

i'm sure he gave them the creeps. ha!}

the face he makes when we roll down his window...ha!

 {he loves car rides but wants to eat or munch on something while he's in his seat. see...he eats...all...the..time. he loves to explore and will get into just about everything. he loves being outside and going on walks...thank goodness we got the new stroller before b went back to work...}

{O really likes to go on walks and i can now take him and Arden together...which has been really nice. Oliver is still learning to be nice with Arden. before Noah passed away, Oliver really didn't bother with A. he was more interested in Noah and was actually really sweet with him. there were many times where we would find Oliver laying next to Noah on the floor or he would be gently rubbing his back. it was so sweet. With Arden though...i'm not sure why but he likes to slap her across the face, stomp on her feet and pull at her tail. Arden is doing a really good job at being a big sis and gives O lots of kisses even though O may not be nice with her. we know that one day Oliver will understand that he shouldn't treat Arden the way he does and he will be nice with her...it just takes time. on our walks, we will typically hit the local park...Oliver is in hog heaven when we do this! he has grown to love the swings and slides and has a thing for the mounted steering wheels.}

{b and i are so happy that Oliver now loves bath time...it took a little over two weeks but he now laughs and plays in the tub. it's even gotten to the point where when i turn on the bath water...O will run into the bathroom and want to get into the tub. he even lets us pour water over his head and wash his hair....huge accomplishment! he will giggle and wipe off whatever water spills onto his face. it's so much more enjoyable to see him happy and laughing.}

{he is fascinated with all things...trucks, cars, trains and airplanes...basically things that move. he will sit down with his books and go through the pages just to find these items and

then will show them to us. he points them out when we are driving, walking around the neighborhood or when he's looking out the window. i'm currently teaching him all the different types of trucks, buses and cars.}

his vintage coupe

at Green's Fine Foods

{he does like other toys...like his musical dog. his current favorite song is head, shoulders, knees and toes. he will touch his head and then the ground. i think it's helped him learn where his eyes, ears, nose and mouth is though. it's super cute to see him dance when music is on..he will bob his head and shake his booty. ha! he loves his cell phone...he cracks me up when he plays with his phone. he will walk around and babble on it and then hang it up. the phone will ring once he closes it and he will make this face like he's surprised it's ringing and run back to it to pick it up. ha!}

{as for his sleeping...well we've had great improvements. we also had to do a little transition last week. since Oliver hated his crib and didn't want anything to do with it (i know..i was a little sad to say goodbye to the custom bumper we had made for it...but what can you do?)..we had his crib mattress on the floor next to his closet. that's where he would sleep each night. we "boxed" him in with pillows and his padded toy chest at night so he wouldn't roll off his bed. after days of pushing his mattress out of the way in order to get to his clothes...i finally told b we needed to do something else. we decided to buy him a toddler bed. we felt it was too big of a transition to move him to a true big boy bed (full bed) so we got him this cute little bed...}

{it's turned out to be the perfect transition. he loves his bed and uses it for both night time and nap time. he likes to play on his bed too which makes me feel so good about the transition we made. we took down his crib so now his toddler bed is in the place of where the crib once was. what i also love about this is he is now sleeping under the birdies we made him and has took interest in these birdies.}

{Oliver now goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:00 and gets up between 6:15 and 6:45. he also naps around 1 to 2 hours each day. i can't tell you how happy i am to have him sleeping like this. this is the one aspect that i feared the most. i think what has also helped is his pillow from Korea (see picture below). it's super cute and matches his room..how about that??}

{O has learned some English words...his first word was "hot" but now he says hi, car and all done. we have also been teaching him a few signs like more, drink, milk, water, all done and help. he's picked up the sign for ball, car, dog and birdie from the baby signing times video we have for him. i really think this has helped us with the language barrier issue. there are still times where we have no idea what he wants and he will just grunt...but it's progress.}

{when we took Oliver to the doctor right when he came home, we were told that he was 34.5" tall and 22 lbs...he was considered 80th percentile in height and 5 percentile in weight (i'm thinking he heard this and that is why he has been eating and eating. ;)). the other day, i took Oliver to get some shoes and while i was there...i had his feet measured. we thought he wore a 5 1/2 but we were wrong...he wears a 6 1/2! our little guy has some big feet. he-he!}

{today not only marks one month home but it's also Oliver's 21st month!! We are so happy to finally have him home and to be able to celebrate these milestones with him in person!

Happy 21st Month Oliver Yu-hyeon!!!}