Moved by the Music

Leah got so excited when John let her in his music room and started playing a trumpet cd that she just had to get up and dance. This went on for at least half an hour. She even dragged Beppe up on the dance floor! There's no doubt we're signing her up for dance classes as soon as we can.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our First Christmas

We had a nice, relaxing Christmas here. It was a lot of fun watching Leah open her gifts and get excited about each one. It took just about all day for her to get around to opening everything since there were so many play breaks. After the major haul she received, she now definitely knows the word "present" and when we say the word, or when she sees a picture of a wrapped present, she points to underneath the Christmas tree!

Her little play kitchen (which took John and Beppe 4 hours to put together!) was a major hit and she has been having so much fun with it. It's so cute watching her busily stirring in the pots and pans, turning on the stove burners, shaking salt and pepper into the pots, asking what the play food is and then pretending to eat it, washing her hands in the sink, putting things in the microwave and fridge, and bringing us plates of food. She also loves playing with the cash register and credit card machine, and scanning the food and putting it into her shopping bag or shopping cart. Speaking of which, she just loves pushing around her new shopping cart around and filling it with just about everything and everyone (all her dolls and stuffed animals).

She drags us very forcefully by our fingers over to her kitchen and pulls us down onto the floor so we will sit and play with her. And once we're there, we ain't goin' anywhere! Luckily, there are three of us here so we can each take our shift sitting with her on the kitchen floor!

The other "big" things she really loves are her new little vacuum and her new play tent, but she basically loves all her new stuff and it's definitely going to keep her very busy for a long while.

Oh, and she also loves her new, soft teddy bear that her foster family sent and now sleeps with it and gives it lots of hugs and kisses!

I'll put up some pics later, but you can see what we've been up to in the slideshow....

Beppe op bezoek

We're spending the holidays this year with John's mom and have been having a really nice time. We call her Beppe (the Frisian word for Grandma).  The Dutch word for Grandma is Oma, which is so similar to Omma (mother in Korean), and we don't want to cause any confusion.  Leah has been having a great time entertaining Beppe and showing off all her new skills. Leah has changed and grown so much since the last time Beppe saw her at her birthday party in July. Beppe speaks mostly Dutch to her and we're amazed at how much of it she actually understands. Leah's been getting a bunch of her presents early since we figure she's going to get overloaded on Christmas day anyway, and what does she know, right?