Christmas card from Juney

This might be the cutest card ever!

Ripley and Santa

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We board a plane for the United States in 18 hours.  So excited to be home for Christmas for the first time in five years!

Story About Teddy

One of the second graders, Louie Park, wrote a short story about Teddy.  His teacher made a copy for me.  Enjoy!

Ripley's Sick Day

11 Month Photo

Ripley's First Birthday Doljabi

Since Ripley was born in Korea, we wanted to have a (somewhat) traditional first birthday party for him. In Korea, the first birthday party is called the Doljabi. This is a ceremony in which the baby will choose an object that symbolizes who they will become when they grow up.

In order to set the stage, we, of course, had to have the right backdrop. Good thing you can easily rent most things in Korea! The partition behind the tables has the same picture as the one behind the King's throne in the palaces in Korea.  The round tables symbolize our hope that Ripley will become a generous person.  The red table cloth is used to keep away misfortune.

On the larger blue table, there are many different types of food.  We have dates which symbolize our hope that Ripley will have many children.  I was fortunate to be able to travel to the Middle East before Ripley's Doljabi and I was able to buy Iranian dates to pull in a little bit of the country where Michael was born.  Also, on the table is stacked fruit in the hope that Ripley will never go hungry, rice in the hope that Ripley will always be wealthy in money and food, and seaweed soup to remind him of what his mother went through when she gave birth to him.  There are also paper flowers as a symbol of celebration, but in Buddhist tradition it is wrong to kill a living thing so we weren't able to use real flowers.

This is Ripley in his traditional Korean hanbok with Mommy.

 

We gathered all of our friends together and explained all of the different parts and symbols of the traditional Doljabi.  We even had Ripley's Godparents, Bob and Carlee Kowalec, on Skype to watch the ceremony.

Although Ripley was supposed to choose an object from the table in front of him, he really wanted that pomegranate on the other table! 

On the table, he could choose from the following six objects:

 Thread symbolizes a long and happy life.

Coins symbolize wealth and abundance in all one undertakes.

A ball symbolizes athletic prowess.

A book symbolizes a life-long love of learning.

Paint brushes symbolize a love and/or talent in the arts—from painting to music to performing.

 

A bow and arrow symbolize bravery and strength.

 

After looking at the fruit for a long time, Ripley put his hand down on the book for a few moments and then went for the baseball.  We were told to record the first two things that he chooses, and may guests thought that he might write a book about baseball some day!  In any case, we are thrilled to have a life-long learner who loves sports.

 

Ripley and Cora

Ripley was driving his girlfriend Cora around at daycare!

Teddy's First Published Book - 1st Grade

Asia Pacific International School has a wonderful Writers and Readers Workshop program that has children reading and writing their own stories every day.  I'm so proud to share with you Teddy's first published piece.  He wrote the story himself and drew the pictures.  We are so proud of him.

Teddy's First Published Book

Halloween Teddy and Michael

A soccer star and a silly Daddy!

Cub Scout

We had a great afternoon on Yongsan Military Base starting Teddy's training as a Cub Scout! He participated in lots of fun activities and met some great kids. Tonight, Teddy and Michael are sleeping out at the base. It's their first camp out together! I can't wait to hear all of the wonderful stories in the morning.

High Socks

Just a little photo of Ripley from daycare today. I'm sure they were trying to figure out why I put him in long socks. That is exactly what I meant!

Walking!

Well, it's official...Ripley is walking. He has taken a few steps over the past two weeks, but today we got word that he took four steps at daycare. We can't believe that just shy of eleven months our little guy is walking. I really thought we had more time with him crawling. Overnight our baby has turned into a toddler. Hope we will be able to catch a few first steps on video to share with you all soon!

Bad Hair Day

Speaking in Korean

Today I asked Mrs. Park at day care if Ripley speaks Korean. She said he knows two words - oma which means mommy and ye gay which means that (he will point while saying it). He knows two English words, momma and dadda, so he is tied between Korean and English for first language. How fun!

10 Month Photo

Should have posted this earlier. He is so close to walking! Has taken one small step but more are soon to follow.

Um, yes, he is holding a knife!

This is what Ripley did at day care today...

Best Korean greeting card ever!

APIS Fall Carnival

Yesterday was the annual APIS Fall Carnival.  All four Russell's had an amazing time but, of course, Teddy was the most excited.  In order to earn tickets for games and the bouncy castles, students had to donate books to be sent to a school in the Philippines.  Teddy did an awesome job of going through his books to find ones to donate and he ended up with 80 tickets!

Teddy loved the games, especially the water gun games.  Check out this kid's concentration!

Teddy is with his friend, Elliott, and one of the senior boys.

 

Michael and Teddy also got their faces painted. 

 

 

Boy Scouts and the Rain Gutter Regatta

Today was Teddy's very first day of Boy Scouts. He participated in the Rain Gutter Regatta. We worked hard all week to build his boat and he did a great job at the regatta. He came in third place overall and only lost to the top two racers. He is the youngest Scout by a whole year. We are so proud of him!

Phuket, Thailand

Since it was my 35 birthday, we decided to do something really special by spending a week (it was the thanksgiving holiday in Korea) on the island of Phuket.

We spent tons of time playing in the pools!

Teddy with his spiderman face paint.  It didn't last long in the pool!

We stayed with our friends, the Stapletons (Kinsey, Ashley, and Chris)

We also spent a ton of time on the beach swimming in the surf, building sand castles, and swinging.

Michael and Teddy playing in the water.

Our brave little Ripley enjoying the sand and surf.

We found an old swing on the beach during low tide.  When we went back during high tide, the swing went right over the waves.  Teddy loved it!

We did get off the resort a few times.  We found a fun beer garden where we could play Uno (our favorite family travel game) and when we ordered coconut shakes, the waitress picked coconuts right out of the palm tree in the garden.

We had a great week with great friends!

Happy birthday to me!

Mrs. Park

A cute little selfie of Ripley and his day care "oma," Mrs. Park.

Alabama BBQ in Seoul

We actually found a true American BBQ joint in Seoul! We enjoyed a totally awesome afternoon out with our good friends, the Beatty family.

Prisoner

Teddy is Six!

Space Cake

About six months ago Teddy said he wanted a "space cake" for his birthday. When I asked "what's a space cake?", he told me to go on Pinterest and type "space cake." Oops! Looks like I've been on Pinterest too much lately. In any case, I did go on Pinterest and this is what I found. Teddy approved and I can't wait to see his face tomorrow at his school birthday party. He shares this birthday week with another classmate so they are going to celebrate together at school tomorrow.

Class Birthday Party

Teddy had an awesome birthday party with his classmates. Here is his space cake with candles.