Christmas in the Cox Home

The pre-Christmas love...say Kimchi!!!!!!




Christmas Morning...












Our photo seeing the Big Man in Red...




~Jen

Sibling Love

I thought I put up some evidence of some sibling love going on in our home:


Some sisterly love...










And some group sibling hugs!!!








~Jen

Thank you...

To those of you reading this blog...Kamsahamnida!!



I'm so glad that you are enjoying the blog. I was worried when the kids started it that they (and I) would have little to say. But alas with 3 kids now there is never a dull moment around here.



We love you all...

So this is Christmas...

Jeff and I are sending our children a big message starting this year that we hope to build on with each coming year.

Christmas isn't the season of getting but the season of giving. We are remembering those less fortunate than ourselves this holiday season.

We dislike the hustle and bustle of the shoppers and the traffic getting to and from the stores. We don't want to get a gift just for the sake of gift-giving. We want each gift we give to our children to be special. Whether that be something from Korea, something to get them to Korea, or something to remember those less fortunate than ourselves.

You too could probably find in your own home something that you could donate to someplace like Salvation Army for somebody else to use. You could probably find someplace in your hearts to donate time and/or money to various charities in your own backyards. We have our favorite charities here in our household both local, national and in Korea.

We hope that you are staying safe this holiday season and we hope that you will think of others not just during this time of year but all year round.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

Bella Has Been here for 30 days...thoughts are in Korea

It's hard to believe that Bella has been home for 30 days already. It seems like only yesterday we were in Korea touring the city of Seoul and seeing the birthplace of our children. It's hard to believe that one little girl was placed into my arms and we were whisked into the van waiting to take us away to the airport. She screamed half the time on our drive to the airport...she pushed me away. She finally cried herself to sleep and woke up at the airport where she screamed some more scanning the crowd for her Omma. She refused to take a bottle from us. She refused to take much more than a ounce from another passenger waiting for the same flight we were.

In flight, we had an offer from a Korean passenger to help us feed her. Boy were we ever grateful for that woman!! She talked to her and sang to her. It calmed Bella's nerves but she wasn't Omma.

Each airport we came to, she scanned the crowd again crying out hoping that Omma would hear and rescue her from us.

Today she is a happy little girl with her moments of tears and fears that we'll leave her. She's had many losses in her life at such a young age...loss of her First Mom, loss of any caregivers at the adoption agency in Korea, and the loss of her Omma. I won't take away what you called her...it's hers and hers alone.

Don't worry little Bella, Momma's here. I'll dry your tears, hug you tight and tell you that I love you very much.

I'm not leaving you...

~Your Mommy

A Visit with Santa

Mommy and Daddy took all of us to see Santa the other night. We dressed up in our Christmas finest and went out to see him. Both Katie and I forgot to tell Santa what we wanted for Christmas so we told Mommy as a go-between us and Santa...she'll have to call the North Pole for a direct line to Santa. Both Katie and I were afraid of Santa and didn't want to sit on his lap and Mommy was holding Bella so Daddy got to hold both of us.

Mommy and Daddy haven't uploaded the picture yet but we'll post it here once they do so.

Gotta go since I told Mommy I was playing upstairs!!!

~Ryan

Going to the Museum

We went to the museum today to see the trains. They had lots of trains set up for us to watch go round and round the tracks. We saw passenger trains and freight trains. We saw Mr. and Mrs. Claus on the pumper car and the passenger train that caught up with it pushing them around the track for a little bit.

We also walked around the museum and we played with the magnets and played with a kitchen set they had there.

After all of that we saw the Korean show that was there. After the dance portion of it, Mommy asked Ryan if he could dance like that. Ryan told her "No Mommy" (like what Mom are you kidding me??).

And to top the day off we got to spend it with our friends.

Tonight it's snow snow snow snow snow...

Santa unfortunately can't make it down from the North Pole tomorrow to meet us so hopefully this week we can meet Santa.

~Katie

Korean Celebration at a Local Museum

This afternoon we attended a Korean Celebration at a local museum. The museum had a month long celebration called Festival of Holidays with different cultures. They had a program that was put on by a local Korean church. We watched a film about Koreans celebrating the New Year. They had Korean fashion show with women dressed up in various Hanboks. They also cooked and served up for Beef Bulgogi. We got to listen to a men's choir sing Christmas carols in Korean. We also watched the church's youth group perform as well to modern version of Arirang and they were good. During this performance I got teary-eyed. It brought me back to Korea just hearing the song. I'm really glad that I saw this in the local paper and told Jeff that we should go.

~Jen

1st Meetings

Ryan went out to lunch today and met several people in our neighborhood (sorry I have Sesame Street's song running through my head right now).

First he met 2 Police Officers while we were eating lunch. Here's the conversation between Ryan and I:

myself: Do you want to go say hi?
Ryan: (incredulous that I would even ask a question) What????
myself: Do you want to go say hi to the police officers sitting over there?
Ryan: No (attitude was "no way mom what are you thinking??")

Later on during lunch Ryan is still staring at the officers. I have another conversation with him.

Ryan: are they eating lunch??? (incredulous that this would happen)
myself: yes they eat lunch...they are people just like me or you
Ryan: (still staring)
myself: Ryan, let's go say hi to the police officers, okay?
Ryan: okay (but scared to walk over there so I picked him up)

His conversation with the officers:

myself: Hi...I'm sorry since I know that you guys are eating lunch but my son wanted to say hi to you.
Officer Dave: oh no problem
Ryan: (dead silence and staring)
Officer Dave: so what's your name?
Ryan: (more dead silence and staring)
myself: his name is Ryan
Officer Mike: Hi Ryan. I'm Mike and that's Dave
myself: Ryan, you going to say hello?
Ryan: (dead silence and still staring)
Officer Mike: see Dave, I told you not to scare off the little kids
Officer Dave: we like to talk to the good little boys so be good, okay?
Ryan: (dead silence no head movement and he's still staring)
Officer Mike: (laughs a little since his partner scared Ryan)
myself: Ryan was surprised to see you guys eating lunch
Officer Mike: yeah we get to grab a bite to eat when we can
Ryan: (still staring at the officers)
myself: (slightly embarrassed with the conversation and lack thereof by Ryan) Thank you so much for talking with my son.

We walk back to the table and I have another conversation with Ryan:

Ryan: (after we get to the table) I talked with a police officer
myself: (thinking the following but didn't respond to him about it) YOU??? YOU talked with the police officers???



~Jen

Big Kamsahamnida to Jeff's Co-Workers

We got a surprise baby shower gift from Jeff's co-workers on Monday. And it's something we can definitely use...gift cards to Babies r Us/Toys r Us.

So if any of his co-workers are reading this...

Thank you so much for the gift or Kamsahamnida (thank you in Korean)!!!!!!!

~Jen

Do my kids sleep ever??

Okay I admit that I knew there would come a time when each one of the kids would stop napping and then I would stop getting laundry done during the kids' naptime for awhile. HOWEVER, I didn't think that Bella age nearly 10 months would be surviving on one 20 minute nap during the day like she did today. She was dancing, playing and laughing most of the day. I tried several times to get her to go down for a nap with no luck so I got nothing done. I have two loads of laundry to fold and can't fold them with a 10 month old crawling all over it. So it'll have to wait. I did manage, although I'm really not sure how right now, to get dinner on in the crockpot so it's Spanish Rice for the kiddos tonight--well at least most of us will be eating that.


Ryan, as soon as his clock says that it's after 4 pm, will come with blankie in hand down the stairs very quietly and will not utter a sound until I say "well good afternoon Ryan...how was your nap??". It's then that he'll talk to me.


Katie is fighting me because she doesn't want to take her naps at all but she really needs to take one. When she doesn't nap for me, she is miserable, clingy and crying. When she does nap, she wakes up a good, happy girl.


Of course, I prefer the miserable, clingy, and crying child. Wait, wait, wait, I need to change my mind on that answer...I need the good happy girl answer instead. Can I change my mind on this? Did I mention that I'm sleep deprived?? Can I take that test over again, please????

Okay now I remember when the kids sleep, only at bedtime. Gotta go to get some stuff done...

Wonderings...

Tonight I've been sitting here wondering many things:

(1) Who is reading my kids' blog on here? I know a few of you who are who are lurking and that's fine...I'm just wondering how many.

(2) How are my kids' foster families doing and what they are doing? We love you and miss you deeply.

(3) When can we head back to Korea?

OMG did I just type that in????

That means I got to fly again and after that horrific flight from Incheon to Atlanta you probably thought that I wouldn't do so...but alas no we want to head back to spend more time in warmer weather to see the sights, to visit again with the foster moms, to see more of Korea than what we have seen in a small 1 week trip. We need more time there...we need more time there. God help Jeff before and during the flight however.

(4) When can I head to bed before 1 am??? Looks like not tonight. And I'll be woken up in the girls' room (yes we're still sleeping in there) at 7 am. Until we have a moment to clean off our bed from our trip, we are sleeping in the girls' room on the floor.

(5) When will our kids stop getting colds and passing it on to us?? I'm tired of dealing with runny, stuffy noses.

(6) And Did I mention when can we head back to Korea?????

~Jen

Nicknames

I tend to use nicknames here in our home.

Our Ryan doesn't really have one but he is constantly told that he's a very handsome boy (잘생긴 소년).

Our Katie is 땅콩 (peanut) or 호박 (pumpkin) and now also 작은 엄마 (Little Mommy).

And last but not least, Bella is 공주 (princess).

But with the two girls, they are both our princesses. And my handsome boy is our little prince.

~Jen

Our family...

Here are some more pictures of our family...

Bella and Ryan sacking out with Mommy.

Bella stylin' a drool bib...I bet you wish you had one.

Katie "reading" a story to Bella.

Mommy napping with Bella...both getting some much needed rest.

Ryan stylin' Mommy's baby carrier...he had to have a doll in it to look just like Mommy did at the airport.

Not to be outdone but here's the Little Mommy with "Big Mommy's" baby carrier.

Big brother playing with his little sister showing her "how to play with the toy".

We hope that you've enjoyed looking at these pictures.

~Jen AKA the "Big Mommy"

One jar per meal...

Well Bella's eating is doing much better the past two days. She has been eating one 2.5 ounce jar of baby food per meal mixed directly with 2-3 tablespoons of infant cereal and drinking roughly 4-7 ounces of formula. Now you probably aren't as excited as we are but she is sleeping more through the night than before when she was just on formula.

She is also holding up her own bottle!!! Now you may not be as excited as we are but she wasn't doing this in Korea or when we first came home. I had tried to get her to hold her own bottle but our little princess would flatly drop her hands down absolutely refusing to hold her bottle. Now after some persistence on my part she is holding her bottle all by herself. Now the big question is, when should I switch her over to a sippy cup???

~Jen

Helping Mommy Feed Bella

Today I got to help Mommy feed Bella her Banana Cereal (cereal mixed with banana without any formula for those of you who don't know). She loved it. I liked feeding her as well. She ate pretty well today for Mommy and I and then again for Mommy later...2 tablespoons worth of cereal mixed directly with 2.5 oz of banana.

Unfortunately Bella is miserable on her medicine. She cries and wants to be held and then cries some more. Mommy says that things will be getting better...I hope so since I need my sleep too.

~Katie