Catching Up is Hard to Do

In case you hadn't noticed, it's been awhile since I blogged. Life right now is filled with lots of catching up on sleep, cleaning up, laundry, playing with and loving on two little boys. That doesn't leave much room for blogging, but I'm going to try my hardest! In fact, I've written this post about three times without publishing, only to come back and rewrite it a month later.

Overall things in our family are going really, really well, considering we've been home about five months. We're all settling into our new roles and taking it one day at a time. Eli is doing great! After his bottom eye teeth came through, we have seen a big change for the better in terms of sleep and tantrums during the day. This makes life better for everyone! Most of the time he's a happy and fun little guy, and he is getting so affectionate with us. He gives us hugs and kisses throughout the day, which we just love. He says six words consistently: mama, dada, uh-oh, bye-bye, hi, and hot. Just in the last week, he's also added E-di (Eli) and da-ga (doggie). He also says thank you in Korean, kamsamnida. It sounds more like kang-da, but we know what he means. :) Joel was the one that encouraged him to say it, and now he says it all the time. We love it!

Joel and Eli are having more fun together, too. Some of this fun involves getting into trouble, which I secretly find funny and cute. :) They love to get into our dog's water bowl and make a mess, climb on tables, and play with toilet paper in the bathroom. They are always looking for ways to make each other laugh, and sometimes this includes bad manners at the table or making farting noises. I'm just accepting that this is part of life with boys! We're happy to see them getting along and it's hard to be mad sometimes. They also really like to build together, ride around the house on their four-wheelers, and play with trains. I really think they're going to be best buds when they get a little older, and that makes this mama very happy.

Joel is accepting his role as big brother better and better. It was heart breaking to see how much he struggled at first, but he's starting to be kinder and more loving, and sometimes taking on the role of teaching him new things. We're trying to be more intentional about special Joel time, and this seems to help.

Joel goes to preschool two morning a week and is taking a swimming class, and Eli and I are doing a Music Together class as well. Besides this, we keep busy with play dates, trips to the library, Nana time, and playing outside as much as possible. I think we will all be so glad when spring and summer come! It's hard to find activities to keep them occupied all.day.long.

We had some pretty good snows in the last month, and both boys loved playing in it! The first time we put Eli on the sled he didn't like it much, but the next time we took both of them down a hill and he couldn't stop smiling.

Eli and our Godson 

The boys ride all around the house on these!

Doughnuts at Nana and Papa's

Joel at swimming lessons

Thanks for continuing to read this blog and for your patience with my lack of posting! You may see quite a few catch-up posts in the next week. :)