A Long Time.....

Sorry, it has been some time since I updated this page. I’m happy to report our time in Korea is winding down. James and I fly out August 1st; I’m so excited. I was lucky enough to find a direct flight from Seoul to Las Vegas. It departs late at night, so I hope James will sleep a majority of the flight. We will spend a week in Vegas with the Drews. I plan on lounging poolside, shopping and most importantly catching up with my favorite nephew and niece Kaleb and Maddie. This reminds me, a BIG congratulation needs to go out to Kaleb. He won two awards at his end of the year assembly. Kaleb has deftly mastered Kindergarten; he goes on to conquer First Grade in late August. Maddie is off to Kindergarten and will have the same teacher Kaleb did. It’s hard to believe they are both in school.

Kaleb helping Steve with his drag bike.

Maddie (left) after her dance recital.

James passed another milestone two weeks ago. He ate his first solid food, rice cereal. Jason and I made some rookie mistakes. First, James ate without a bib. Second, I gave James a bath BEFORE he ate. I was cleaning rice cereal out of his crevasses for a good 24 hours. The cereal under his chins went on to form a sort of paste…. Here is a little video from the momentous occasion.

We are off to Seoul tomorrow. James has his four month appointment; he will be getting four more shots. Poor baby, last time he had four Scooby Doo band aids on his little chubby thighs. He is a great baby and he continues to sleep through the night.

Lounging in his pajama pants.

Showing off his chubby pigs.

The day he discovered his "squeal."

P.S. If you had a voice message from a squealing baby, it was James.

Just a happy baby.

Jason’s sister Carin is making her final preparations to move as well. She has been in the Peace Corps for the last two years. She and Jason arrive in the States on almost the same day. Carin spent her Peace Corps time in Senegal, West Africa.

Other than that there is nothing too exciting going on. Everyday I get more and more excited to come home. Jason also has less then a month in Korea, he will fly out August 19. We are planning on baptizing James August 30th in Pueblo. We will probably move to Texas the following week.

Happy Father's Day!

It has been a pretty big week for James. On Friday he went to his fist softball game. Jason was on the team for a few games, but realized that he was more valuable to the team as a heckler. So much so, that he even came up with a "heckler outfit."

Everyone agreed that the cutoffs need to be a

few inches shorter next week.

(Jason said this is the photo he is going

to show to James' prom date.)

James at the game.

After the game we went out for authentic Korean "beef on a leaf." They put burning coals in the middle of the table and you cook your own food. It is one of my favorite Korean meals.

Enjoying a little Soju.

It was about three hours past his bedtime.

Saturday was an even bigger day for James-

1. He rolled over for the first time.
2. He giggled for the first time.
3. He played with his rattles for the first time.
   

The giggling was so cute. By the time I found the camera most of it was over, but Jason was able to get a little video of it.

James and Jason

This week I snapped a few cute pictures of James and Jason together. I think James gets bored hanging with me all day, he get excited when his Daddy comes home.

This James giving his "judging" look.

I get this particular look often.

I think they were checking out the latest news....

This week I also tried to take a picture of James in one of Jason's combat boots. I thought it would make a cute picture and Jason has a couple of pairs of new boots. Unfortunately, I should of taken the picture a month ago. Only his little chicken legs fit in the boot. This is the picture.....

not quite what I had in mind.

A few weeks ago James started trying to carry on conversations. Usually, he likes to talk from about 6 to 8 in the morning. He doesn't yell or cry, just lays in bed and blabs. Most of the time I have to get out of bed and talk to him, it is just too cute. I hope this video works!

A few weeks ago I ordered James a Baby Einstein video. He loves it! This particular DVD plays music from Beethoven. He watches the DVD and coos the entire time.

Our Inaugural Post

Hello from “The Land of the Morning Calm.” I really don’t think that is a fitting name. I would go with “The Land of Eternal Stench” for obvious reasons. Jason came up with “The Land of The Not Quite Right.” Instead of 911, in Korea you call 119. When you order a pizza, they include a cup of sliced sweet pickles. Corn is a common ingredient on a pizza. Salt in the pepper shaker, pepper in the salt shaker. Instead of a plumbing gas trap, they just put ice in the urinals to make the stench sink. Who needs a toilet when you could just put a hole in the floor? I guess you can tell we are ready to come home!

On that note, we recently found out that we will be moving to Fort Hood, Texas in mid-August. Jason and I are very excited to be coming home. We can’t wait to show off James to anyone and everyone. He is a wonderful baby, we feel so lucky to have him. On an odd note, at his last doctor’s appointment he was only in the 10% percentile for height. I guess he takes after his mommy.

We took James to the pool for the first time today. He was pretty cute!

He loved lounging in his crab.

Here are a few other pictures that I thought were pretty cute.

James in his bear suit.

Spending some quality time with Bonnie!