Where to Start?

Once again, I am behind on updating for a variety of reasons. There is so much to update about, though!

Nehemiah is just over a couple of weeks away from turning one. We are simply in disbelief. His party will be on November 14th, and I think we have just about everything prepared. First birthdays are traditionally very important over here, so it will be a pretty big event. We are both bery excited for it.

We are very blessed in that the studio that did photos for him for free when he was about five months has offered to do another free shoot! We were just going to go to a self studio, but how can I say no to free pro shots? We'll be going Wednesday morning to have them done. It's quite a distance away, but it will be so worth it.

Anyway, by the 11-month mark, Nehemiah learned how to stand up without pulling himself up. He still prefers to pull himself up, but he definitely knows how to do it without assistance. It is also very cute to watch him carefully crouch down (what many endearingly refer to as "the Korean squat") and then stand back up.

We finally figured out what his apparent "go, go, go" means. It is not "go" at all--it's actually him grunting like a pig! Koreans say "ggul, ggul" to imitate pigs, a sound which he has heard quit a bit from watching Pororo. That, and his Appa likes to say "goink, goink" to him, sort of mixing the Korean and American sounds. Last week, HS was making the sounds with him, and he kept trying to follow more accurately. That's when we realized that all along, he's just been grunting like a pig. It's so cute. He also tries to make cow sounds to imitate what he hears from one of his toys.

He is able to stay at daycare alone for a couple of hours now and really enjoys it. It is so much better for him to be there when I have class so that he's not so restricted in the house. I can't drop him off, though. It'll make me cry. I'm more than happy to pick him up, though!

We are starting to feed him more of our food. So far, spaghetti is a definite hit, and everything else seems okay as well. It's rare that he really doesn't like something.

Yesterday, Nehmiah was baptized at our church. It was a really wonderful ceremony, although he cried when the pastor laid his hand on his head with the water! He was just scared because he didn't really know who he was. He was a bit cranky because he decided not to nap at his normal time and passed out soon after it was all over. Regardless, it was a great time. We view it more as a dedication to God and will encourage him to receive a baptism (if he would like) by his own choice when he is older even though it isn't necessary. When we get the pictures and are able to format the video, I will definitely upload them.

There is so much else to be said but not a whole lot of time. We will be very busy until the end of the year, but I hope to be able to update more as time goes on. We are counting and living in our blessings each and every day. God is so good.

Getting Faster and Faster

Nehemiah is showing no signs of slowing down with his developments. He loves to talk more and more everyday and shows a lot more understanding as well. He can say "more" (sometimes sounds more like "wo") if he really wants more food, and he's got something he says that we are trying to figure out. Recently, I'm thinking what he is saying is "All done!" (A-da!) The possibilities are endless, though.

He is super fast. That boy is crazy.

We've been teaching him how to pat his mouth while making sounds like people often do to pretend like they are Native American Indians. This morning, he started doing it on his own.

He has this thing where he will sometimes squeal with delight and put his hand to his mouth. It's hard to explain, but to me, it is very Asian. Asian girl, to be exact. You know how girls often cover their mouths when they laugh? It's kind of like that.

Daycare is still in transition right now. HS continues stays with him to help him get more comfortable being there. Perhaps it is taking more time because we only take him there about 2 hours at at time. He is showing great signs of improvement with trusting other adults, but still, his comfort zone is us.

I cannot believe he will be one year old in a month and a week from now. It's just crazy to think about. This past week in particular we've been hauling to get everything ready for his dol, his Korean first birthday party. Maybe I will detail more of what that is all about later. We finally got the biggest time-consumers finished and just have a few more details to take care of. It's not that difficult to plan, but with not really knowing what we're doing, it has just felt like a big task at hand. Thankfully, we are down to the smaller details now.

Anyway, that's all I have time for right now. God is so good to us and continues to bless us incredibly each and every day. Sending lots of love and prayers to everyone!