6 Months

Whoa! If you blinked, you missed it and Archer has been home for 6 months. Yikes! Can you believe it?! I can't. He has done so many new things, and almost always with a smile on his face. What a trooper.

To mark the occasion, we went on a little pizza lunch date at our beloved Pizzeria Lola. If we haven't brought you there, ask us to bring you there. Yaaaaaa-UM.

And because Lola is just that much fun, they have a photo booth.

(and really good ice cream)

The last couple of months Archer has really soaked up some good times, and almost all activities end with "More (insert whatever we just did)? More (insert whatever we just did)?" Here are some highlights.

We went to the Peanuts movie, which I'm assuming is the first time Arch has been to a movie based on his total glee when it started. I actually wasn't planning on bringing him, and thought I was just going to bring Simon on his own for some special alone time. But he insisted Archer not miss it and so we all went. Archer will watch shows, but he's more take 'em or leave 'em so I didn't think he'd care that much about the movie. I was wrong, the lights went out and the movie started and he was excitedly yelling about everything on the screen. Pointing yelling, pulling at me to make sure I was looking at what he was excited about. It took several prompts to get him to whisper. He liked it. 

We also made it to our first Gopher hockey game as a family of four. He did really well and was happy to be there and watch the action and eat ice cream. When the game was over, he wanted more.

We also made it out for our first ice skating experience. He had fun and wants to do it again, but I think he liked playing hockey in his boots more than the skating! But he looks cute in a helmet.

We also got away for a long weekend to the Wisconsin Dells. We stayed at a nice resort that had a large indoor water park, a little 4D movie area, a game room and everything we needed right there. We didn't walk outside the hotel doors for 3 days. We hear a lot of "more waterslides? more waterslides?"

After 6 months of "Archie do it? Archie do it?" at all of Simon's activities, we finally let the kid be in an organized activity! We've had one week of soccer and it went really good! He ran right out onto the field and enjoyed his 45 minutes of running and kicking. Simon has soccer at the same time, but they are in different groups because of age. It was fun to see how much Simon has grown, how fast he's gotten and his understanding of the game as well as how his skills have advanced.

First time sledding. They both insisted on going down the hill by themselves, which only gave me mild heart palpitations. But they did good and had SO much fun. 

What can we say about Arch right now...he still REALLY loves robots. Robots are anything from actual robots, transformers, any sort of industrial looking machine or vehicle. It's a diverse group. But he is also getting more and more into Super Heros, especially Batman. These interests have caused some difficulty in his everyday dress as he has preferred clothing items and will try to wear them every day. Sometimes successfully. We are on to him now. He has a particular robot shirt that was worn to school two days in a row since he put it back into his clean clothes drawer and so in the morning put it right back on and Steve didn't realize it. I picked him up at school and thought he had worn that shirt recently, but didn't put too much thought into it. I got him home and then at bath time he tried to hide it in his drawer again, and thats what we caught on to his program. It has now started with a particular pair of Batman underwear...and I'm not sure where he hid them. 

He is a total clown. Has some go-to practical jokes. One morning I got out of the shower and could hear him laughing and laughing and Steve say, "Yeah- that was a good one". Steve came back to our room and says "Put two pairs of socks on, thinks he's hilarious". Another day I found that the soap dispenser in the boys bathroom was filled with water. I looked to Simon and said, "I think a 3 year old is playing tricks on us" and emptied it. A few days later we were all eating lunch and Simon excused himself to the bathroom and we hear, "ARCHER! Did you fill the soap with water again?!" Steve and I both looked at him and Arch dramatically tilts his head and squints his eyes as though he is thinking and then looks at us and shrugs and smiles. So of course I bust out laughing. We have since had a talk about how we are not doing that anymore and so now he just points to the soap and says "No water, Archie listen." 

He is a lot more vocal around here in all ways. He's decided to start throwing his weight around more with Simon. But they also seem to be finding a better balance and appreciation of each other. They do sweet things for each other like finding their favorite toys or stuffed animals for each other if one of them is hurt or sad, they offer up comfort and hugs or just go right to being silly to make the other laugh. Don't get me wrong, they still yell at each other about who is playing with what when and how and everything else, but there are also moments of love. 

I think we are all doing very well for just 6 month into our new family. Steve and I just got done looking at Archer's Korea pictures with him and it was really fun to see how much he can share with us now that his language has advanced. Luckily, he always looks at his foster family with a smile on his face. We've seen some ups and downs in grieving, which isn't always really clearly grieving but after the fact it more occurs to us that that is probably what those weird few days were or whatever. A couple of weeks ago he was telling me his full name, so I added his middle name. When he heard JaeWon he said, "Baby JaeWon in Korea". I said yes, you were a baby in Korea. He sat silently for a second and then said "Archer watch  TV Power Rangers Appa". His sentences are mostly a little broken up light that but I was stunned and like, oh my goodness, he just told me a memory from Korea. It's like his language caught up with his memories. It's happened just a few other times now also. The other day he was very adamant in telling me that Nuna put on his jacket when he was cold. He must have repeated it 25 times and was acting out putting on a jacket and putting the hood up like he was all bundled. There have been a few things like that, it's awesome.

We are feeling very blessed to have him here and for all of the positive ways he has changed us.  

XO Archie JaeWon.