special friends

I am so thankful that Marc and Emmalyn get along so well.  

Emmalyn tries her hardest to keep up with Marc... 

and will get herself into some interesting situations.

Marc has learned the benefits of a younger sister...

I heard Marc saying "to Mommy's area!".. and Emmalyn would oblige and pull him into my bedroom. Then he would say, "to my room!" and Emmalyn would turn him around and pull him back the other direction. I had to convince him that she needed a turn, too! ;)

It is so fun to see how Marc and Emmalyn have developed into such good playmates... especially as I am busier these days.  I am curious to see how Alaina will fit into the mix.. but so thankful for these three silly kids who evidently love each other so much!

1 Month old!

Hooray! Alaina turned 1 month old! Hard to believe she is already one month - we have thoroughly enjoyed the sleepy newborn stage, but are now seeing her eyes open more in the daytime.  She has been able to distinguish day and night - sleeping a 6 hour stretch consistently.  She would be happy to be in our arms all day (and night!), but when we put her down, Alaina likes to be swaddled and has also discovered a love for the car seat, which puts her to sleep as well!  She is starting to track with her eyes, and is interested in looking at her black and white book!  Alaina is loved by all - but especially her doting big sister who would love to hold her and help care for her as much as Mommy allows, and her big brother who is concerned when Alaina cries and  has some advice for Mommy: "Mommy, she needs milk!... Mommy, change her diaper!".

 She is not a huge fan of tummy time, but will tolerate it in short spurts with appropriate distractions.

Alaina had her first "play date" with her closest in age friend, Kaleb, who is just two and a half weeks younger than Alaina!

Happy 1 Month, Alaina!  We are so glad you are a part of our family!

Alone...

My mom arrived in Seoul on the night of October 6th, less than a day before Alaina was born.  It was wonderful having her here to help with so much... meals, dishes, early mornings with Marc and Emmalyn, advice, company, etc. She left last thursday - giving me a two day week before the weekend.  Two days alone with three kids while Jarrod worked.  I was glad for the weekend! Now I am facing a whole week! alone (and.. well, the rest of our time in Korea since we are not officially expecting more visitors) and feeling my mom's absence acutely.  

Marc and Emma's grandma made a special treat for playgroup!

the classic three generation picture!

Enjoying our Korean restaurant tradition! 

Miss you, Mom! And your base access!  Wanna come back?!   ;)

ok, so about the no more visitors this year thing... let's work on that! who's coming to visit? I have some cute kids that I can dangle as bait!

Reverse Trick-or-Treat

Marc has had a keen awareness that Halloween was coming up - he remembered it as a fun time to dress up as some character (...I'm glad that candy wasn't necessarily associated with this memory!).  Since we didn't have any parties or plans to do anything that encourages dressing up - I began to think about what other options we could do that would be fun and out of the ordinary in Seoul.  

While my mom was still here, she got us a lot of delicious chocolate candy... and while I would've liked to consume it all.. I am no longer pregnant and need to see the numbers on the scale going down!  I decided that we would go "reverse trick-or-treating".

Marc, Emmalyn, Alaina, and I got dressed up, and with candy in hand, went to knock on our neighbor's doors to GIVE the kids candy.  It was fun for Marc and Emmalyn to dress up and visit our friends - and great to see the delight on everyone's face when the kids offered up hard-to-come-by candy.  Some even gave them candy in return.

 Trick-or-treat!