Da Havs

OH MY GOODNESS! What can I say? We have the cutest little boy in the world!! He completely captured our hearts today.

But let me start at the beginning. Because I got up so early today, noon took FOREVER to get here. The longest morning of my life. We finally got on the road (sans water bottle, which was filled but left on the counter!) and headed for Seoul. It wasn’t so bad a drive, lots of things to see on the way. The bustling city, which reminds me of every big city I have been in. Unlike Kuwait that had mostly large vehicles, this country has all size vehicles and everyone drives crazy.

We got to ESWS at around 1:20 pm and went directly to Mrs. Park’s office. We got Ryan’s passport and papers for Immigration. Then we waited 10 minutes and went up to meet Ms. Sung. She had cut her hair since the video and looked extremely cute. We then went down to the observation room where we met Ryan for the first time.

It was so very hard for me not to cry, but I think I did a good job. His hair still looks funny, with half of it fallen out. It is kind coarse too, which I didn’t expect. He was in good spirits and drooling as usual. He chewed on the Elmo and Cookie Monster train, and Mrs. Cho said he was starting to teeth a bit. She said he was a very easy going baby and I can see why. She is an amazingly calm spirit and I felt very reassured by her presence. We spent about 10 minutes with Ryan alone (with Ms. Sung and Mrs. Cho) then we asked Mike’s mom, aunt and cousin to come in.

They oohed and ahhed all over him too. Kunimo insisted on stripping him naked to inspect his whole body. He didn’t mind at all, just kept trying to kick and roll. Ryan is already rolling from back to front and trying to crawl! He is such a happy baby, and responded to everyone that held him and talked to him. Mrs. Cho said he is very social.

Mike and I both got to feed him and he is so cute. He will hold his hand up, turn it around and admire the back of his hand while he eats. It is the funniest thing. So I started kissing his hand when he held it up. So then he started holding it to my lips to be kissed. I would make smacking noises and he would smile. He is a very messy eater!

He finally got tired after the hour of intense inspection and play. We started to say goodbye and he was content to just be held and rocked. He made sure to drool all over my shirt. Mike held him last and I got some great pictures of Daddy and Son. They look so cute together. He was really getting sleepy by this point and rubbing his eyes and nose against Mike’s shirt. Mrs. Cho pointed out that he usually does this when he is tired.

It was very hard to say goodbye, and Mrs. Cho knew this, so basically left the room quickly. Afterwards, we toured the children’s hospital and looked at all the newborns. She said there were currently 35 children there at the moment. When we were through, we were headed upstairs to meet the Drs. Kim and Ryan was in his podegi on Mrs. Cho’s back, sound asleep. I made sure to take pictures!

We met both Drs. Kim and a couple from Australia that were leaving in the morning with their son. They were around our age, from Perth and had been married 11 years as well, first child. Was nice to share a few moments with them, two pairs becoming families at the same time.

This all occured from 1:30-4 pm, so we had alot of time to go shopping! Mike and I forgot to change our $ into Wan, so we weren’t able to shop for gifts for friends and family yet, but Hyung Nim said she would take us to a different market tomorrow.

Traffic was so bad from Seoul to Incheon that it took us almost 2:30 hours to get home! I slept the last hour, moving car and all that ;P All in all a great day for the Havs! We see Ryan again on Tuesday for a home trip. Looking forward to meeting Mrs. Cho’s children and seeing where he has lived his first 5 months.

Anangijumashipso