Welcome Home Leo

I think the family is finally over our jet lag. Today I felt like a normal person. It was the first day home alone with Leo while Nash and daddy were off to work and school. I have a feeling my blog posts might turn into a once a month thing (nap time is currently being monopolized by catching up on my shows! Priorities people). I'm sure people are wondering how the trip home was. As you can guess, it was exhausting. We were exhausted before we even set foot in the airport. More emotionally than physically. Leo and Nash were both troopers for the 10 hour flight to San Fransciso. Each slept a handful of hours and the rest is a blur. The hardest part proved to be chasing Leo throughout the various security and custom lines.  Leo has really attached to me.  As you might remember Nash attached to Bret first. So, part of me is happy that Leo has let me comfort him, but part of me would like to call In a bedtime reliever (a/k/a daddy). It will happen, it just takes time. Leo's transition into our family has been nothing short than amazing. To date, we have seen very little grief from him. I find this weird and complete different than our experience with Nash. So it makes our life a little easier right now but still wonder when we will see it. 

Leo is sleeping really well. We have him set up with a crib mattress on his room floor and either Bret or I will sleep in his bed. He only wakes up a couple times but just wants to check to see if we are there. He's not eating a ton. Mostly noodle soups, rice, scrambled eggs and milk. He loves milk! Refuses to eat any fruits and has some toddler undesirable behaviors that included spitting out and throwing any foods he does not like. And speaking of throwing......enjoys throwing toys at Nash's head. Like huge toys that hurt. Poor Nash. So many adjustments but I never thought fear of his little brother would be one of them. Let's hope we can quickly figure out a way to curb this behavior so the boys can start bonding. But when Leo is not demonstrating his javelin arm, he is so sweet. Loves to play with his toy cars, giving hugs and snuggle. Every day we learn something new about him. We feel so blessed to be safely home and finally just able to be a family of four. 

Special shout out to Des, Steve, and Simon. Who greeted us at the airport to capture our first moments home! 

Nash--Journey Back

Bret and I were totally on the fence about whether or not we would bring Nash with on either of our two trips. I seriously mulled over this decision for a year. We ultimately decided that we would bring him back on the second trip when we brought Leo home. I'm actually writing this post on our last leg of our journey home. Leo is sleeping beside me and Nash is complaining that Leo is using his stuffed duck as a pillow. Common theme over the past week. However, Nash has really been amazing (and I can say this when I'm completely exhausted and sleep deprived). Would bring Nash with again in a heart beat. Having him with has defiantly comforted Leo. Nash is slowly warming up to his big bro role. He is being so patient while Leo steals all the toys from his hand, or reaches in for what looks like a hug and ends up being a right hook. All of the sudden Nash went from being my baby to being the older brother. Life is hard for any older sibling when's new brother or sister comes into the mix. I might be biased but I think it's even more difficult in situations like ours. Nash has literally been thrown into the sibbling trenches and Leo has declared war. Into everything that was his, add a language barrier, and pining for all our attention, and not to mention Leo's current "free pass" on unruly behavior.  I'm just so proud of him (bah! I need to stop crying this guy who is sitting next to me on our flight is seriously going to regret giving me his free in-flight wi-if). 

Nash's journey back to Korea was special for so many reasons but the highlight had to be meeting with his foster mom and dad. They were over joyed to see him and it was wonderful to be able to have a meaningful dialog exchange (thru translator of course). We shared videos, pictures, and stories. Nash even let them hug him (gasp!). Nash's foster mom only ever fostered him. I wanted to ask her why this was. Was it too painful to raise a child then have to say goodbye? Or was it that Nash was such a handful that it proved to be too much? I guess we will never know but I think it was the first. The love they had for him is so special. 

Introducing Leo Richard MinSoo Larson

We are officially a family of four! We are all in Korea and Leo officially joined our family on December 1st. I've been super lazy with updating this blog. Due to other means of social media the blog has takes the most time and time to sit and focus is not something I'm finding a lot of time of! Leo is doing really well. We have not seen a lot of tears or grieving yet. Let's call it the "honeymoon period". Leo is enjoying having a big brother. Will follow Nash around and try to hug him all the time. For those of you that know Nash... He does not dole the hugs out to just anyone. So far my observations about Leo and Nash is they couldn't be more different. Our entire experience with adopting Leo couldn't be more different from Nash. I love this actually. Each experience has been amazing and wonderful and each have different stories. (Well there is one thing that was the same... Both Leo and Nash fell out of bed the first night while sleeping with us, oops hence why we don't typically let our kids sleep with us.  Nash loves to hear this story so hopefully Leo will too). 

Leo is so smart. Already saying English words and mimicking us. Loves to say "tunnel, chicka chicka boom boom, bumble bee, mommy, daddy". He loves playing with his toy cars and insists on loading up his arms with as many as possible when heading out the door or to bed. He talks all the time in Korean. We are learning some catch phrases to say to him but mostly doing know what he is trying to say. He is being very patient with us so far. Not getting too frustrated by the lack of communication. Leo loves playing with other kids and freely engages with them and shares his toys. He is going to be a little social butterfly and feel so lucky we have 2 boys in our neighborhood who are exactly the same age. 

We are all tired. Nash's sleeping schedule is as follows, 3-midnight. Thanks goodness for Grandma Sandy who has been getting up with him. Nash has been such a trooper. Really adjusting well. We had the amazing experience of visiting with Nash's foster mom and dad. The people that raised him from birth to 21 months. I'll dedicate a post just to this. 

Finally we can post pictures of Leo!!!! We are over joyed to be together with Leo and our family is complete (yes.....complete).