William's First Birthday - TOL

Our beautiful baby boy turned 1 today. We are so happy that we were able to have him home with us for this special day.  Only 1 week ago, we brought this bundle of joy home and he has turned our lives upside down for the good.  Seeing that it fall directly on Christmas Day made this day even more special.  To the birth mother who gave our son life, know that he is unconditionally loved and is in a happy home.  

Despite the snowy and icy conditions of the road, Grandpapa and Grandmaman were able to make it down for William's TOL.  An hour after they left Ste. Sauveur the roads became much more dangerous so the cousins were not able to make it even though they were full of anticipation to meet William the night before. No worries, we would see them in a couple more days when we go to celebrate Christmas in Quebec.

We were so fortunate to go out for dinner to celebrate his birthday.  Everything should have been closed, but Ohkee from Korean Palace said that she would open the restaurant for our party.  That made is super special.  Olivia loved it because she had the whole place to herself to run around the play.

After dinner (Korean BBQ), we got William dressed in his traditional HANBOK.  He was awesome sitting through dinner and now putting on this colourful costume.

Like Olivia, we did the traditional choosing of the items on a special tray. This would symbolize what lay in his future depending on the object he chooses.  For William his first item was the googles (another win for Papa), then a pair of scissors (will be a Scientist or a Doctor), and a pen (writer maybe).  All in all, very good choices.  The funny thing is i'm sure we'll do this ceremony again with friends when we celebrate his birthday again in the next few weeks. hahahha. We will see what he chooses next time around. I guess that's cheating, but it's all fun.

A Family Christmas Eve - 2011

Christmas Eve in Otttawa 2011.  What a wonderful feeling to spend our first Christmas here in Ottawa and as a family of 4.  

We started the day early in the morning.  There was plenty to do, so we decided to divide and conquer. I took William with me for adventures at the grocery store, and Papa took Olivia all around Kanata getting things ready for Christmas and William's birthday.  We all had "lunchdates", and everyone was down for a nap in the afternoon.  In the afternoon, Lola, Lolo, and Tita Melissa arrived with the minivan full of presents.  It would have put Santa to shame!  hahahha.  A family Christmas...how exciting for everyone.

While the kids slept, Papa made his delicious turkey.  True filipino style, we had rice AND mashed potaotes, and some pancit molo soup.  Olivia's favourite.  When the kids woke up, we got them ready for  Christmas mass. EVERYONE went.  Martin said he didn't want to miss this Christmas "gathering". Our first mass together. I was ready for a long mass, but came with some snacks and Olivia and William were great!  We came back home starving, and quickly sat down to eat our Christmas dinner.  That was at 8pm.  Goodness, how the heck were we going to keep the kids up. We decided to take pictures and open a few gifts, and leave the "big ticket" items for  tomorrow.

Once we put William down to sleep, Miss O got to stay up a bit longer to make cookies with Tita Melissa. "For Santa" she would say as she bit into the chocolate that was supposed to go in the cookies.

What a day, and tomorrow will be just as tiring.  More mess to clean up. :0) I guess that's what Christmas is all about. Good food, great company, and lots of paper.

Tis the Season!

So the Christmas holiday can't start without a Christmas concert. Before the most anticipated concert however, Olivia has her first haircut at Goobers Hairsalon the night before.  The whole family trekked out in the evening to see this big event. Sigh, the event took all of 15 minutes.  It probably would have only been a 5 minute cut if she was sitting still and paying attention to the hairdresser.  Too much distraction for Miss O, but the lady did a somewhat good job.  It's a bit crooked, but it's the best she could do considering who the client was.  :0)  I got to keep her first lock of hair too. I don't know why I needed to do that. It's not like one day when she's 18 she's going to want to look at it.  Oh well. It came in a nice card and poem. It's a keepsake for me than anything else.

Again, in true Olivia-style, she stole the show with her dynamic personality.  Her baby brother William took hold of the audience and captivated them with his charm and smiles before the show.  (Sadly..the blog won't accept my 3 minute long concert film of her...ugh)
Pretty much you're missing Miss O centre stage shaking her bells, then suddenly sees her Papa and starts crying for him (even with the principal told us to sit in the back so she won't see us). Oh well.  They redirected her and started shaking those bells and bopping up and down...then suddenly her bells broke and flew on the handle.  She reached for it and gave it to the teacher (who was off stage to fix it).  She stood there waiting patiently as the song continued, still bouncing away.  The applause time came and she did a dramatic bow - up and down with her newly cut hair.  She was doing her bow so well, that I was afraid she was going to fall off the stage.  Sigh, my little girl.  She definitely has the flair for drama. :0P  Quite the day for everyone.

Funny Moments

This entry is dedicated to things that made us smile or laugh this week.  There are so many times I wish I remembered to record, but here are a few that put a smile on our faces.

Olivia singing to William when he was getting fussy (while she was feeding him in the highchair) - " You better not cry, you better not cry, you better not cry i'm telling you why.  Santa Claus is coming to town."

Above video was taken while in Korea - We were wondering what the heck she was doing everytime we went on the subway.

Below is a video of Olivia just being Olivia. Watch that poor tourist trying to avoid her.

William's First Week

It has been quite the adventure since we got back.  All this week we laid low and stayed close to home. On Saturday we did manage to make it to Costco (because we needed to stock up on some food).  Everytime we were in the car, both kiddies passed out.  Maman and Papa are somewhat adjusted back to Ottawa time, whereas Olivia took a bit longer to adjust. In fact, we think she's still adjusting somewhat because she wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to sing and play.  Little William, well I'm afraid it might take longer.

Yesterday was our first day together alone. I dropped off Miss O at school, just to get her back into routines (even there is a 2 week holiday coming up). She was still somewhat tired, but was ready to get busy.  She asked for her friends, she asked for her teachers, and we thought she needed to get ready for the upcoming Christmas concert. So she went, and I stayed home with William. Papa was home too, but went to work in the late morning.  I came home after dropping Olivia at school, and played with William until his morning nap. Great I thought!  We are somewhat on a schedule.  Nap, then lunch, then play and the afternoon lunch.  So I put him down at 10am.  Then 12pm passed, then 2pm.  What do I do?  Do I wake him?  But he's exhauseted, he's jetlagged. So I continued to unpack and do loads and loads of laundry.  6 hours later, William woke up at 4:00pm a happy camper. hahahhaha

Olivia and Papa arrived soon after he woke up and they kids were busy playing in the family room.  Olivia was exhausted from the days event, but she was such a trooper with her brother - making him laugh and playing with him.  It brings such relief seeming them like this.  It may not last for long, but I'll take it for now.

They are certainly different characters.  I keep looking back at Olivia's pictures and videos to see where she was at at 12 months.  Totally different. hahahah Olivia was busy eating solids and everything in sight. Sitting happily in her high chair and devouring anything we tossed at her. William, on the other hand, loves to play with his food and eat at his own pace.  Things still need to be somewhat mushy because he doesn't have all the chomping ability like his big sister at this stage.  Whole fruits seem to be a new thing for him. I keep throwing different kinds of fruit on his tray to see if he was curious to taste it.  He would take a piece hesitantly and put it in his mouth. As soon as it touched his tongue he spat it out. Ugh. Back to baby food jars we go. hahahhahaha  He'll get there eventually.  But when he's happy in the highchair, he's a goofball. Making sounds and babbling. Olivia gets a kick out of feeding him.  The thing the have in common though is they are both happy babies. Smiles and giggles all the time.  That's all the really counts right?

It is now 3pm and William has been down since 12 noon.  Obviously still adjusting or loving this cold grey day. Freezing rain and slippery roads are keeping us in again today. Maybe tomorrow I could do some Christmas shopping with him. Going to make my list now to be more efficient.  Efficiency that will be the key tomorrow for our first outing. Hopefully it goes well.  By the way, thanks Mich for the cupcake delivery to help get through this jetlag! :0P

Jetlag and Jell-O! Marty's take

Just a brief update on adjusting to our new life as a family of 4. As we are trying to get William into a sleeping routine..(in his own bed!..it really sucks to be number 2!) the crying has kept Miss O awake.

When we came back on Friday I insisted with Mel to get Olivia back in routine ASAP, and wanted to make sure she did not miss her gymnastic lesson on Saturday (which was the last one). It was a little rocky at the beginning as she was sleeping in the car on the way there. One of her favourite play is when all the kids sit on the small trampoline and the instructor goes around making them jump signing, Jell-o in a bowl, jell-o in bowl...Jello, jello, jello...well from 12:30 AM to 2 AM she decided to sit on top of me jumping up and down singing that freaking song! and obviously laughing hysterically.....and William's up!

Back Home - Friday, December 16, 2011.

Friday morning was a blur of events. Maybe because it's the fact the kids went to bed at 8pm and we stayed up packing till 10:30. We had hoped to sleep in till a bit. Didn't happen. I think both babies new something was up and so woke up around 5:00am - taxi didn't pick us up till 6:45am. Sigh. Oh well. It was good that we were somewhat calm and tired in the morning.

Even though we were pretty much packed, for some reason we were frantically running around just before we left. Kinda feel bad, we left that apartment in bad shape. I didn't have a chance to tidy things up.  Sigh. Anyways..we got into the taxi cab. Olivia excited because it was a very cool limo taxivan with a 32 inch flat screen TV and very cool "Christmas lights" around the ceiling.  :0)  William on the other hand, had no clue what was going on. He had no clue that we were on our way home, leaving his birth country to fly across the world to his new home.  He was nice and cozy in his fuzzy coat, he fell asleep for the entire trip to the airport.  Miss O fell asleep 15 minutes before we got to the airport. Figures.

We got to the airport and walked to the checkout line.  Good lord, the line was a mile long, weaving left and right. There was no way the kids would last.  It would be very tight too, leaving little time to relax and get a coffee on the other side.  A Korean Air attendent asked us if we needed help. Martin explained that we just needed to check in and she looked at all our gear PLUS the 2 babies in our arms.  She pointed us to the FAMILY line.  It was on the other side, and there was NO ONE!  WOOHOO!!!!!  We got checked in immediately, passed through the screening and got to the other side within 30 minutes.  It was great.  Time for coffee.

We remembered that the  Incheon airport was very kid -friendly.  So we asked where the Kid Zone was and they pointed us the right direction on route to Starbucks. Thank goodness, because we needed a double dose of caffeine.  We got our snacks, and headed up to the KidZone.  This place was amazing!!!!! If only all airports had this area for parents and kids.  Fortunately, there was noone there and we let the kids lose.  We burned up so much energy.  We gave them a good snack, changed diapers, we went to the washroom, and then walked to our gate.  When we arrived we saw a huge line already waiting to board!  We went to the front and asked if they were boarding families yet, and they told us to go ahead and board.  Yikes!  That was fast.  We checked in.  There we saw Jeanne and Andy and Baby Dawson.  SOOO cute!!!!  Both families eager to get home and get our life started with our newest memebers.

13 hours. Sigh. All I can say, it was a very long trip.  Let's just say as well, GRAVOL for kids didn't not help.  4 hours left on the flight and I was done.  Tired and done with the travelling. If I felt this, everyone did. William was awesome.  Yes, he wanted to be carried all the time, but he wasn't screaming. Well..not until the end.  Poor thing. With a fever, runny nose, and new people - he was not happy for the last hour of the trip.  We were both ready to jump off that plane. He was sooo not happy.  I felt the landing was never going to happen.  What happened if we had to circle around for another hour?  What would happen if they weren't ready for us at the gate?  But they were and we finally landed.  We were the pretty much the last to get off the plane.  We trekked to Immigration and got the stamp of approval from Customs. YAY!  Permanent resident card will be in the mail 4-6 weeks.

We our luggage and thankfully just transferred the luggage.  Because we were in Terminal 3, we had to transfer to T1. So exhausted we hauled ourselves to the monorail to transfer. At the first stop we got out and breathed a breathe of relief that we were almost home, only to find out we were at the wrong stop - AND - we had to wait to 7 minutes for the train to come back!  UGH!  If were we somewhat conscious we would have realized that we were at a VISCOUNT parking is not the same at TERMINAL 1.

Anyways, we got to the right terminal finally and met Lola, Lolo, and Tita Melissa. Our first family visit (at the airport) hahahhaha.  Since, everything ran smoothly with the check in and the lines were pretty quiet, we were able to have a nice lunch before we had to check in.  Tita Melissa got to help William and the grandparents were busy chasing Miss O around. Martin and I got to have a decent lunch (with at Starbucks coffee).  I felt kind of weird taking off again. They were home to me too. But it was it was good to know that they were coming soon for Christmas and William's birthday. Then it was time to check in.  We were on our way home - to start our life as a family of 4 in Ottawa.

As soon as we passed through security, it was lights out for William (all the way to Ottawa). We were a bit worried because of the last flight, but he slept through take off, turbulence, and landing.  Thank goodness.  Another great thing...Olivia fell fast asleep too for the entire trip to Ottawa.  We landed in Ottawa and looked at the two monkeys and  had to think about what to do with the sleeping kids and all the gear.  Decision - wake them up. LOL.  At least they were in somewhat good spirits.

When we got down to get our luggage, a familiar and beautiful face approached us.  It was a super suprise to see Maria greet us at the bottom.  I can't even tell you how wonderful it was to see such a great friend to meet us there after this 24 hour journey.  Not that she could do much with our kiddos, but it was great just knowing there was someone who knew what we were going through at that very moment.  She helped us with our luggage. We took our first Ottawa pictures, and then Maria left to pick up her kids.  Just like that. It was only about 15 minutes of her time, but it gave us the energy and courage to go home and start this wonderful life with our 2 kids.  She was the boost that we needed to keep it together and get home quickly. Thank you Maria!

We got home.  I cant' believe within 10 days we got the call, made travel arrangements, left for Korea, and now we are back with William.  Craziness.  We walked into the home, and William was silent.  This was not the small 2 bedroom apartment he was used to.  We stayed in the hallway a bit to let him settle and take it all in.  Miss Olivia made it to the family room and started playing with all the toys she had missed.  William, as to be expected, was not too sure.  Then we started showing him all these toys - gave him room and time to explore the family room.  I have to say it was a bit overwhelming. He went from 2 or 3 toys that made sound to 20 toys that were making sound and blinking with lights.  Totally "a deer in headlights" moment.

Exhausted everyone did very well. We made some dinner (instead of ordering out again). A huge thank you goes to Alison who came the night before we left with some homemade prepared dinners for when we got back. She knew that we would be totally exhaused to think about food. She was right. Ali, you're awesome! All I had to do was boil the pasta and defrost the spaghetti sauce.  Our first meal together. William was great.  He did pretty well with the spaghetti - he gagged at first because he didnt' know how to eat it. It took us aback for a bit, because Olivia at the age was eating everything in sight properly. It was one of those learning moments as a parent - Don't compare your kids. Each child is different. We definitely learned a lot of things that night about his eating habits and temperament.

After dinner, we took both kids in the bathtub.  I am happy to report, we have 2 WATERBABIES.  William loves the water!  Phew what a relief for Papa.  We got them dressed for bed. I took Miss O down to sleep, and Papa took William down. They were down in 5 minutes.  Yay!  We decided to go down and watch the final episode of Biggest Loser. Why?  I have no idea we needed to watch it then and there. I argued with Martin that there was tons of stuff to do, but he insisted that we take time for ourselves. So I agreed.  We were in the show for 10 minutes and all I hear is Martin snoring.  That went well. I guess tomorrow is another day.  As we were getting ready to go up and sleep, William started crying.  He went to his room, and I went to Olivia's to make sure she didn't wake up from the crying.

This is our reality now. We were dead tired but we pulled through.  We have 2 perfect little ones. Our family is now complete.  I don't know why they call it the "million dollar family", but feeling like I have a million dollars doesn't even compare to what I am feeling now.  It goes beyond anything I could ever imagine. Life is wonderful.  Did I mention, that I saw a rainbow on the drive back home. There wasn't any rain, there was hardly any clouds out. It was 3pm.  I guess we found the pot of gold at the and of the rainbow.  They were both sleeping in the car.  How lucky are we?!

Does it really get better then this! Marty's "really quick" take

Hi Everyone we are back home! WOW what a trip. Not only for the obvious reason, but to be able to be the 3 of us going trough Seoul was just so special. Olivia was so amazing all week just following everywhere (Mel will go in details, but it came at a cost...a 13 hour one! but well worth it)
William is just....well amazing, with the same tendencies as is Papa which is usually to whine until he gets his way..LOL
Anyway on cloud number ...well not sure we can count that high; and it all started with my soulmate
Thanks baby for making me see something that I would have miss. Thank you for giving me our amazing children and this life that is beyond my wildest dream.