Catching up on Reece

Well, I'm terribly behind here, and things are about to get worse as Reece and I fly out in just 3 days. I'm so excited that we're going to be home for Christmas this year! I'm a little nervous about flying alone with him, since I've never flown with an infant at all, so I'm just praying that all goes well! We couldn't afford the direct flight this time of year, so it will about 24 hours of travel from door to door, but we only have one short layover. He will sleep much of the time, no doubt...those long newborn naps strapped to my chest!

This time of year is always busy, of course. Adding a newborn to the mix has added to the stress level, but we're plugging along. Just not at the same speed we were before...or with the same energy! So far, Cade has been in 2 Christmas programs. Kennedy's is still to come this week, and unfortunately, it begins an hour after my flight takes off. Did you know that it's usually cheapest to fly on Tuesdays? Yeah, we saved about $300 by having me leave before the concert. Eric informed me that it wasn't worth that for me to be able to see it. (Sorry Kennedy! He'll pay for the therapy bills for that one!)

When I told her that I wouldn't be there, I also told her that I was going to ask her music teacher if I could watch one of the rehearsals instead. She informed me that parents were absolutely not allowed to watch (and trust me, I believe it! there are a lot of Korean parents that I can see begging to come in and watch those, too!). But, I had to tell her that sometimes there are perks to being a staff kid. Her music teacher and I are friends, and I had no doubt that she would let me come watch, so I'm looking forward to seeing the unpolished version on Monday morning!

Remember how a friend and I were trading family photo shoots? Well, we finally got our turn when Reece was just over two weeks old. The leaves were starting to disappear already, and the weather was starting to cool down, but we were determined! She doesn't have an editing program, so she sent me home with her SD cards and over 500 photos to sort through! No surprise it's taking me awhile to get through them! (and whoops! I forgot to take off my watermark...I didn't take these!)

That afternoon, Kennedy got to feed Reece his first bottle. He's been a finicky eater since birth and sometimes he just wails when I try to nurse him. So, we have times where I just pump and feed him a bottle to reduce a few of the tears on both our ends. Kennedy was thrilled that Reece didn't want to nurse!

That evening, we had a friend and former staff member come back to Seoul to visit and celebrate her recent engagement. So we went to a party and Reece made his first YISS debut, meeting many of our friends and co-workers. Yes, everyone got to hold him, and no, he didn't get sick!

The following week was pretty low-key for us. Reece and I were content to stay home for much of the week, with the exception of a few trips to school. It was the middle school's Week Without Walls, so all of the 7th and 8th graders were off in Hong Kong and Indonesia, respectively. Because we had a newborn, Eric was able to get out of the trip, so he was responsible for the stragglers left behind and playing principal for the week. It was nice for all of us to have a more relaxed week!

On Friday, one of the middle school staff members and the mom to a couple of the kids' friends invited them over for a play date. She also provided us with a frozen meal for dinner and gave Eric and I the freedom not to eat but to go out on a date (with a third wheel, of course!). So, we headed out to a (not very) relaxing dinner without our oldest two kids. On the walk back to school, we were accosted by students as they left the high school basketball game, so Reece got to meet many of my former students that evening.

Saturday was my first official day with all three kids while Eric headed off to play a double header for the championships. My only comfort was that it was finally the end of the season. Yes, they were champions again. And yes, he got the MVP award again. He's not playing again until next fall, and we're all excited for a long break!

In Reece's fourth week, he started giving us a few real smiles, which was exciting for all of us--especially the kids. We celebrated Thanksgiving, and we went to Cade's Christmas concert. In his fifth week, we returned to the Embassy to request a new CRBA (which we still haven't received--yikes!), and he experienced his first and second snow (though I don't know that he was aware that he was out in the snow!). We also returned to the doctor where we learned that, like the other two, he still has not returned to his birth weight. He weighed in at 3.6kg (he was 3.79 at birth) and measured 54cm (52 at birth), so he's long and lean. As a result, I'm having to push the bottle a little more when he doesn't want to nurse, but thankfully, after a few really bad days last week, he's doing much better this week in that regard. And, we had one night where he slept 8 hours, going 7 hours between feeds, so he seems to think he's doing okay!