First Mother's Day

Yes you are at the right blog. I've decided to do a blog makeover now that Bennett is home.

It's hard to believe that we celebrated our first Mother's Day as a family. It's also hard to believe that we've been together for almost 8 weeks. Time has gone by quickly, yet it feels like he's been home much longer.

Bennett finally got to meet family as my parents came down for a visit. He had a great time with them especially when he got to visit the aquarium and eat some yummy Korean food. We found a Korean grocery store in Dallas and bought some of Bennett's favorite Korean foods. It is great to be able to give him a taste of his birth culture right here in Texas. We also had excellent mandu and bipmibap as there is a Korean food court in the grocery store. We found out B LOVES pickled radishes and cabbage so we made sure to buy some before we left. It was great to see many Korean delicacies and to buy pastries from a Korean pastry shop. It reminded us of being back in Korea. However, the pastries were not as good as Paris Baguette (Pastry shop in Korea where there is one on every corner. We miss that place so much!)

As far as the transition goes, we could not have asked for a smoother adjustment period. We keep waiting for the grieving to hit, but it hasn't. He has had a very seamless transition to our home and family. We can only account this to his great foster family. Speaking of our foster family, a few weeks after we left Korea they received another foster child; a chubby 8 month old boy.  Please keep him in your prayers as he waits for his forever family. 

Although we have not had any transitional/adjustment issues we have had plenty of toddler issues. Bath time continues to get better, but tooth brushing has not been pleasant. He is a stubborn kiddo, but that's what we get. Lord knows we were both stubborn kids too. 

On another note, everyone tells you parenting is hard. This I know, but all the books and advice in the world don't prepare you for the emotional roller coaster that parenting can be. I had an idea of it, but it's different from reading a book to experiencing it first hand. I have never felt so much guilt and failure. It's hard not to blame yourself for every tantrum and parenting fail. There are days it's so exhausting and then I feel guilty for letting it all get to me. It's crazy that a two-year old can bring me to the brink of tears one minute and then to anger the next.  Alas, it's part of the parenting adventure, but one I wished people would chat about a little more. Before we brought Bennett home someone told me that it's okay to cry and to have regrets. There may be days that I regret becoming a parent and that it's normal to feel this way. These words have been of great comfort to me these past few months. No parent is perfect even though we all strive to be. Mistakes will be made and I need to learn to be okay with that.

In closing, this is the last week to shop our Thirty-One fundraiser. We are hosting this last fundraiser to make up for the funds we never received from our coffee fundraiser. Shop online: www.mythirtyone.com/duvall

A Week of Firsts

This week has been a week of firsts. This is the first week I am by myself with B-man as David has returned to work. Things had been pretty easy those first 3 weeks with us sharing the day-to-day tasks. However, I am exhausted this week. Thank goodness the weekend is almost here :)

We had our first doctors appointment this week. We left with 3 shots and one hysterical two year old. He was not happy to say the least, but honestly who is after 3 shots. He didn't like that he had to take his shoes off to get weighed (he has this thing with taking his shoes off) and it all went down hill from there. On another note, the doctor was great and Bennett is right on track.

We had our first round of sickness full of the first fever and the first time I've had to clean up puke! Ewww! Oh the joy of parenthood, right?! :)  Any tips to allow a two year old to take his temperature are much appreciated. They wiggle so much it's hard to get a good reading.

We also had our first bath with no tears. We have gone to great lengths to make bath time more relaxing. Who knew a few pitchers of water and a cup would make bath time better. I was pre-filling pitchers with water so he wouldn't have to hear the water run (this seemed to cause anxiety). We just used the water from the pitchers throughout our bath time. We also didn't fill the tub with water. We've now gotten to the point that he runs to the bathroom when he hears the water running and is excited to get into the tub. He's still not thrilled about having his hair washed, but many kiddos aren't. He even has wanted to stay in the tub to play; pouring water from pitcher to cup and vice versa. He even started pouring water on himself and on his head! It's been a great victory for us to see him happy and not terrified to take a bath.

Thank you to those who have ordered for our Thirty-One fundraiser (as a reminder we are still fundraising to make up for the funds not given to us from our coffee fundraiser). Here's the link to shop until 4/15 at noon CST: http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/catalog.aspx?eventId=E4413508&from=DIRECTLINK

Enjoy your weekend. We will be headed to our first Easter Egg hunt!