Dear AJ,

You’re 16 months old today. At your last doctor’s appointment, you weighed almost 24 pounds and were 32.5 inches tall. You’re certainly taller, but havent put on too much weight (we suspect its because you’re always on the go). Almost all your baby fat is gone, and you look much more like a little boy than a baby. I’ll admit I miss your chubby face. You now have 14 teeth, with 2 more expected any day now. All those teeth certainly contribute to your older look. I’ve trimmed your hair a little, just around your ears and above your eyes, but your hair is still very thin and short. The fold in your right eye has disappeared, though it did return when you were very sick. You are still eating well, though you easily get distracted, or demand certain things. You drink lots of soy milk and recently started drinking rice milk. You drink out of sippy cups with straws. You have stopped drinking from bottles. You can feed yourself oatmeal with a spoon, but you are still working on your fork skills. Yesterday you tried kiwiberries for the first time and really liked them. Most days, you scarf down blueberries and grapes. But its the salty snacks that you love the most. I wish you would drink more water and eat more vegetables. You still babble a lot, but have a few words and signs. You mostly communicate by pointing at what you want, and grunting a few “uh uh uh”s.
You still havent mastered sleeping through the night, and I’m most often very tyerd because of it. Last night, you were asleep by 8pm, but woke up before 10pm. Daddy tried to get you to go back to sleep, but you cried and cried until you joined us in our bed. Then you quickly fell asleep and slept till 2:30am. At that time, you suddenly sat up in bed and it scared me. When my eyes adjusted, you signed for milk. I thought it was kind of crazy, but if you were thirsty enough to do that, I figured I’d take you to get some milk. Unfortunately, you were also wide awake and remained that way till 4am. Then you slept from 4-6am, but tossed and turned quite a bit. I really wish you could sleep better. Short of just leaving you in your crib to cry all night, we’ve tried every trick in the book.
Despite the lack of sleep, you smile and laugh a lot. You often get really excited about things, which makes you shout out loud. You love to be chased around the house by Mommy, Daddy and Grammie. You love to be tickled. You really like music and dancing. Recently you added a spin to your dance moves. More often than not, you prefer to be in someone’s arms for dancing. We dance to Farmer Tad’s songs, Moose’s songs and Ellen. You still enjoy reading, playing with your plastic stars and your musical table. You love to splash in the tub. You know all the motions to “The Wheels on the Bus.”
You are very settled at daycare and rarely cry when I say goodbye for the day. You are learning a lot there, and love to do crafts and play outside.
But you are still a Momma’s boy. Saying goodbye in the mornings is a routine, but you cry any other time I have to leave, even if its just to go upstairs for a minute. When we are together, you want me to hold you and you get upset when I try to do other things. I’ll admit it can be frustrating, but I’m also thankful that you like me so much.
Daddy gets jealous of that, but I can tell you love him and know he’s special to you by the way you say his name. Your “dada” (with the sign) is so sweet and loving and you are alway so happy to see him.
We both love how you lean your forehead towards us when we ask for a kiss. You are very generous with your kisses.

But its never enough,
Mommy

One year ago today, my dreams came true. It was a Monday afternoon, and I had just finished blogging about God’s perfect plan and timing and finally being okay with all of that when the phone rang and a woman I had never met told me there was a baby boy waiting for us in Korea. It was the most emotional moment of my life, by far. I cried uncontrollably in front of coworkers. I was bursting with joy I had never felt before, and utter relief, and insane praise for God’s faithfulness. Moments later, I received a few pictures of my sweet son, and information about him. It was definitely love at first site (unless you want to argue that I loved him long before that).
A year ago today, I found out I had a son! Kunyoung Park was mine!

I think I finally have a system. Every night, I prepare 3 meals for AJ to take to daycare the next day. Every meal has a fruit (at least two of which are fresh), two meals have a veggie, two meals have whole grains. One meal is protein focused. All meals are low as you can go in sugar and only one meal has more sodium than I’d prefer (cause I’d prefer little – none, but I’d drive myself crazy trying to achieve it).
Every night,  either  right after AJ goes to bed, or as soon as I get home from whatever I had to do that night, I wash his lunch and dinner containers (which are purple and blue, for my enjoyment) and then get started on prepping the meal. I rinse blueberries and grapes, slice them up, and put them in their respective containers. If I’m lucky, there is a pasta and veggie dish already made in the fridge, and I just put a serving into its container. Sometimes I slather some sunflower butter on wheat bread and add kiwi or a fruit spread. Sometimes I cut up an apple (with the blessed apple slicer/corer from Pampered Chef), shake it in a bag with cinnamon and microwave it. Every other day I make some oatmeal. The last two things are breaking up a slice of whole grain cinnamon raisin bread and putting it in a baggie, and my favorite thing, the container of snack. He has no idea, but I think “maybe I’ll give him an extra veggie cracker today” or “peach fruit puffs would be a nice treat, even though we’re not done with the cherry ones.”
After the meals are ready to go in their containers, I rip up a serious amount of masking tape to label eat container. Then, they go in the fridge.
I’ve gotten so good at this system that I can now do it in 45 minutes. It used to take 2 hours. Occasionally I’m lazy and opt for applesauce (no added sugar, of course) instead of a fresh apple. Or I’ll go for something extra high in sodium, just because its in the fridge. But most days, me and the system get down to business, often accompanied by some music from Sylvester.
I’ve also let myself off the hook a little bit. I dont prep his meals on the weekends. And if I dont feel like cutting up grapes at meal time, then we dont have grapes. I’ve also given in to the food industry and we eat out a little more. AJ really likes french fries, and I’m okay with it. I was disappointed (with myself) at first, but I’m over it now. I tell myself that he eats so well during the week, we can afford a little something special on occasion. Everything in moderation, yes?
My point is. I have a system. And I’m much happier with a system.

I knew about this earlier in the week, but I didnt want to blog about it till I had the paperwork in my hand. And, in my hand, I hold, a lovely notarized Decree of Adoption from the State of North Carolina. Which declares “Now Therefore, it is hereby ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the Court: That from the date of the entry of this Decree herein, the said minor is declared adopted for life by the petitioner(s) and that said child shall henceforth be known by the name of Andrew James Kunyoung Australie, the State Registrar of Vital Records shall make a new birth certificate for said child in accordance with the provisions of G.S. 48-9-107.”
Which, if you aren’t a CourtTV fanatic, means “Right now, clap your hands and shout woo hoo! AJ is totally and officially yours (adopted for life!) rock on!”
Though nothing will change in our house, since AJ was 100% adopted into our hearts the minute we laid eyes on him, its nice to have this official piece of paper and be, like, done with the adoption process. Done!
We still have some paperwork to fill out to get his new “birth” certificate, a social security number and an official Certificate of Citizenship. But the adoption part, done!
Say it with me “Hooray!”