Foto Friday (and a lot more)

***WARNING:  This is LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG post.*** 

I think I left off on Friday of our trip…or did I leave out Thursday morning?

Thursday AM

In last minute, Corkum fashion, we had left gift buying for the foster family until Thursday morning.  We headed back to Namdaemun and Shinsegae in an effort to secure gifts for the foster mother (FM), brother, sister, and 2 van drivers. (We ended up using the first van driver gift we had bought in DC for the foster father and really only having one van driver…better safe than sorry). 

Why all the gifts you may ask?  Gift giving is a tradition of the Korean culture.  More on cool Korean culture things later.

We ended up with food for the brother and bath stuff for the girls.  The father received a long-sleeved tee with Washington DC printed on it (at the suggestion from our new Korean, coffee-shop-owning, friend, H.  They seemed like such pathetic tokens in light of all the Hanboks the FM had gifted us AND all the phenomenal care she gave our son.

 Ty slept great through the first night.  We’re figuring out now that it was because we were sleeping with him.

Friday

Friday morning I realized that all the clothes that we had brought with us for Ty (with the exception of pajamas) were too big.  The shirts would work but the pants were about 3 inches too big around.  Fortunately his FM had sent a couple changes of clothes for him.  We spent the morning shopping more in and around Namdaemun (we were there 4 different times and still didn’t see all of it).  Then we headed to Deoksugung Palace.  This is where I decided for sure that we would need one of those leashes cute monkey backpacks with a harness and tether for Ty.  He would be merrily walking along when he would suddenly, without warning, take off surprisingly fast for a clumsy kid with feet too big for his body.  Not only does he not respond to his name or any loud verbal call, he often faceplants from tripping over his too-big feet.  Oh, and he doesn’t like to hold hands.  So, even though he would be perfectly happy riding on my back in the Patapum everywhere he went (that’s his Korean coming out), I have decided it’s acutally more humane to institute a leash so he can run around and get some exercise. 

 at Deoksugung Palace

Patrick was again repeatedly approached by school children who were enthralled at meeting a real-life American.  Some wanted to try their English out on him.  One group of giddy girls wanted their picture taken with him.  I wish I had my camera out too, but I was too busy chasing Ty.  While we were at the Palace, it started to rain…again.  You would think by now, we would do as the Koreans do and always carry an umbrella, but we didn’t (I may have packed the kids come to think of it). 

Anyway, we were pretty wet by the time we met up with the mothers.  Oh yea, did I mention that they had Grandma/Nana shopping time while we shopped and did the palace?  It’s actually more notable that we were able to reunite without the use of cell phones (ok, we did cheat and bring walkie talkies) or that my mother didn’t get hopelessly lost.  We reunited at Namdaemun (you really can’t enough of this place) to shop for hanboks for me, Tim, and Lindy (and Patrick). 

 Hanbok=traditional Korean outfit

By the time we got back to the hotel after another trip through Shinsegae, we were pretty wet and tired.  With the help of the front desk, we were able to order Papa John’s pizza.  Their two larges were more like our mediums but everything in Korea was smaller.

Saturday

Everyone had his “must do before we leave” left for Saturday so we jammed a lot in.  The morning started with a little panic when we realized that one of the room safes had failed…like we couldn’t get it open.  More on this later.  The grandmothers went off again to shop (and apparently detoured through a buddist temple) at Insadong Street.  The kids wanted to head to the children’s museum portion of the Folk Museum we had been to on our Seoul City Tour. 

  at the children’s museum

Before heading back to Insadong ourselves, we stopped by our room to drop off some packages and discovered security had brought in another professional to try to fix our safe.  Turns out the grandmothers stopped by later than we did to also drop off packages and, by then, there were multiple guys with drills…so glad the safe decided to malfunction Saturday and not Sunday when we checked out at 7AM.

Back at Insadong, Patrick, the kids, and I had lunch at a great local place for under $12.  What I woudn’t give for a great Korean place around here (Purim Oak R.I.P.).  Then we happened upon a martial arts competition of some  sort (not Tae Kwon Do).  PJ cozied right up to an older old, wrinkled, Korean man who made room for PJ’s stool next to him and seemed to be explaining the competition to him albeit in Korean.

  Unfortunately I didn’t capture PJ’s new friend but you can use your imagination 🙂

Then we all met up to head to the Millenium Tower at Patrick’s request.  Turns out it was anti-climatic since you couldn’t go up to the top floor unless you wanted to eat at the pricey grille.  The bottom was a Bandi and Lundi’s bookstore (suspiciously decorated and labelled like Barnes and Nobles).  By then, it was raining again.  We split up so that the girls (minus Mrs. C) could catch traditional Korean tea and the boys (plus Mrs. C) could catch a glimpse of a Catholic church.  The boys never made it to church b/c it was so rainy and we were underprepared with umbreallas…again.  Nana, Mia, and I had a delightful (yet mostly silent) tea with some local tea shop owners right around the corner from our hotel.  Apparently you can walk into any tea room and get served complimentary tea and that’s just what we did.  I’ve never seen tea-making as an art form until then.  From the dainty teapots and cups, to the ceremonial pouring, to the tongs, and the bottomless pots of boiling water…it was amazing!

 The little clear cup on the right are the cups we were served.

Sunday

Our van driver picked us up at 7AM Sunday morning.  I give him mad props for fitting all 7 of us plus our luggage in his van.  I think we’re the largest party Holt has ever seen to pick up a child.  We ate BK for breakfast at the airport.  When we boarded our flight for Tokyo, we were pleasantly surprised to have been upgraded to Economy Plus.  We were not so lucky blessed from Tokyo to Dulles.  Five extra inches has never felt so big!  Everyone (even Ty) did extremely well on the flight home.  I acquired the Japanese version of Dramamine at Narita Airport…something I should have gotten at the beginning of the week…that stuff is amazing!  Ty was a little fussy after a couple hours but once we got him to sleep, I think he slept 6 or 7 hours until we landed.  Thanks to 100+ mph tailwinds, we pulled into Dulles an hour and a half early.  Clearing customs and immigration was surprisingly smooth.  The grandfathers (Grandpa and Pops) greeted us at the house when we arrived and everyone had a lot of catching up to do.

 At Narita on our layover.  Notice the Big Brother, Little Brother, Big Sister tee-shirts.

Answers to popular questions.

How is Ty doing? adjusting?

Ty’s arrival into our house can be described as curious, all-boy, and destructive.  He emptied toy bins, pulled things off of shelves, and just generally explored.  Fortunately, he is very trainable and has settled in much quicker than I expected.  I didn’t even have to buy extra childlocks.  He is starting to respond to English and his name.  His first words were “uh oh” (on Monday) and his first signs were “more” (Thursday) and “please” (Friday).  Also, in Korea he pickedup on high-fives and the fist version (pound-it).  He is all boy and doesn’t seem to be bothered by falls, bumps, cuts or bruises.  He laughs easily and sometimes  finds himself in his own world, hands over his mouth, head back, laughing hysterically at something only he understands.  He also came with the ability to throw a “Korean bullfit” as my grandmother coined them.  He loves to be outside.

 Korean bull-fit

Does he understand English? Does he speak Korean?

He’s getting there.  He only had a few Korean words anyway and the only one we hear consistently is “uma” (mom).  I am not bilinguil as some have asked so he is hearing primarily English at home and will probably understand most of what we say in a couple weeks.  We are signing with him (as we did the other kids) in an effort to expedite his ability to communicate his wants and needs to us.

Are you sleeping?

It was a rough couple of first nights back on US soil but we’re getting there.  Ty was co-sleeping with his FM and co-slept with us in Korea.  He’s in a crib now and sleeps best when I’m laying on the floor next to it holding his hand.  So if anyone has any experience in artificial limbs and wants to donate a replica of my arm to our cause, my sore body would appreciate it.  Everyone else seems to be sleeping fine now.

How are PJ and Mia?

They were champs on the trip.  I love that we have flexible kids that sleep almost anywhere and are used to us dragging them all over creation.  They both claim their favorite part of the trip was bringing home Ty.  They are huge helps…especially when it comes to bossing.  PJ hasn’t really missed a beat but he’s been there, done the big brother thing before.  Mia is finding all of a sudden that she can’t get dressed or go potty by herself.  Oh wait, she did that before Ty.  So all in all, they are doing great.  Our normal crazy routine resumed on Tuesday and we haven’t looked back.

How old is he?

He was born in Dec. 2006 which makes him almost 2 1/2 but you would never know it by looking at his skinny 23 pound self. 

Other notable things

1.  He got his first entire-head haircut on Monday.  Before he had only had his bangs trimmed.  Before you’re too critical, please note that I was the one that cut his hair and I’ve never given the kind of cut he got.  Actually I lied…it wasn’t an entire-head cut…I only cut the back.

   Before

 During

 After

2.  He had his first US doctor’s appointment on Thursday.  We waited 2 1/2 hours for him to provide a urine sample (and that was after water and a half bottle of orange juice!).  Poor Mia missed preschool but she was a great sport through the whole ordeal.  Turns out he needs an inhumane amount of testing and blood work to satifsy the government agency that will finalize his adoption and grant him citizenship.  Also turns out he had an ear infection of which he was asymtomatic. 

***For all you picture-hungry readers, there are a lot more pictures in the 2009Spring AND the 2009Korea galleries.  I have not tagged or captioned them yet.  You know the drill…make sure you refresh to get the latest additions.***