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.