Our Little Pumpkin (and his big jack-o-lantern)

Ryan has remained fascinated with his pumpkin since we brought it home last weekend. He would go to the kitchen door several times a day to look at it while it was out on the deck. "Pumpkin" is also one of the first words we can tell he recognizes -- whenever we ask him where he pumpkin is, he points toward the back of the house, where the deck is.

He was excited when we brought the pumpkin inside to carve on Sunday night.

He wasn't quite sure what to think when it was all done....

...so he grabbed it by the stem to investigate further.

Ryan will be trick-or-treating (in a sense) in his Tigger costume on Wednesday night. We look forward to seeing pictures of all the little cuties whose blogs we follow in their costumes!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Still My Favorite Hangout!

More pictures....

Not so sure about these new cereal bars...





Checking on the pumpkin:







Posing on the couch:

More October Pics

Some more of our favorite pictures of Ryan taken this month...

Ryan on his actual birthday. Daddy came home from work early so the three of us could celebrate again, including more cake.




Ryan didn't eat any cake at all this time. I'm trying to convince Rob -- who thinks birthday cakes HAVE to have white icing -- that it's because Ryan wanted chocolate, and that we'll have to get chocolate birthday cakes from now on.




Then, at his cousin Dylan's birthday party the following weekend, he slept through cake time:



Ryan loves his "vintage" phone (one with a dial and a cord), one of his birthday gifts from Grandma and Grandpa R. He brings it over to me at least 10 times a day and holds the receiver out to me and wants me to pretend I'm talking to someone.



He also LOVES bath time:







Ryan always sits in his booster seat with his feet up on the table, so I told someone (I won't name names) that it's a Taiwanese custom for males to sit like that while dining, and they actually believed me for a minute.


He is the best little boy ever, and we can't imagine a more perfect way to have started our family!

Happy Fall!

Yesterday we took Ryan to a local farm/orchard to pick out a pumpkin for his first Halloween. After we brought it home, he took some time to inspect it.




We then put the pumpkin out on the deck until it’s time to carve it, and Ryan laughs every time he looks out the kitchen door and sees it.

Ryan's new favorite activity (in addition to throwing his toys and other objects over the baby gates) is climbing into his book basket, sitting down on all of his books, then pulling them out from under him, one by one, and flinging them across the room.







He also likes to sit in the basket and play peek-a-boo with his “napkin” (his little handkerchief-like security object that he’s had since he was in foster care), and stand in it while playing with his toys.





In other Ryan news, he is well on his way to walking –- he can take 3 or 4 steps on his own before losing his balance and diving into one of us. He also has 2 new bottom teeth (for a total of 4 on top and 4 on bottom). He weighs 21 lbs., the same size as my (very big) cat, Alby. I wanted to take a picture of them together while they're the same size, but I can’t get Alby to sit next to Ryan.



I noticed that Ryan is about the same height as our luggage, so I took this picture for reference instead. Now that we're noticing that Ryan is starting to look less baby-like, we're always comparing him to other things his size so that we can later remember how little he once was.



Coming soon, pictures of Ryan in his Tigger costume!

Birthday Boy!

Ryan is 1 year old today! We can’t believe how blessed and lucky we are to be the parents of this adorable little boy with such a sweet and funny personality. We celebrated his birthday with our families on Saturday -- and there will be more cake tonight, of course.

Some pre-party playtime with his cousins:







Cake time!


Ryan had his own "smash cake," but either didn't know what to do with it or didn't want to get messy :-)




After getting a taste, he figured it out (or decided it was worth the mess).






Not much of a mess on his face compared to the average first-birthday celebrant, but he did manage to get some icing in his ears and hair and all over the chair.

He seemed more interested in the presents than the cake.



There won't be many more birthdays where the presents are bigger than he is!





While Ryan's birthday has been a day of celebration for our family, we imagine that his birthmother must be feeling some sadness today and must often wonder how the beautiful baby she gave birth to 1 year ago is doing in his new home on the other side of the world. We are thinking of her today and hope that she will be comforted to see Ryan looking happy and healthy in the yearly pictures we’ll be sending her.