Wandering Browns

Pension mother was THE ABSOLUTE BEST, if you haven't already deduced that. Although she spoke limited English, she was always thinking of ways to make our lives better, and things to entertain the boys. During harvest time in early October, she asked me using a mixture of words and hand gestures if I wanted to go sweet potato picking. I was not sure what to expect, but at the appointed day and time, house mother and grandmother piled into our car with the boys and we drove inland for a few miles. When I was putting the boys in their car seats, both mother and grandmother wanted to just hold Owen, but I made sure to put him in his car seat even though he was screaming like crazy. Beloved house mother! House grandmother sat in the front seat, pointing the way I should go. It was a little nerve-wracking trying to figure out the way, but we made it. When we got there, house grandmother's husband was in the field digging, but they soon left us to our digging. In order to g...

How can my little baby Owen possibly be one?! Here he is as a brand-new little baby. His hair was so thick and dark for a newborn. It started to lighten up in Chicago, but it really lightened up in Korea to be a very improbable shade of strawberry blonde/auburn by his birthday. Since he looks so different from Landon, I thought that he looked just like a Livengood baby. Now, looking back, at pictures from his first year of life, I see both Livengood and Brown features. It will be interesting to see how he looks as he loses his baby fat and grows up. Owen never lost his hair completely, just had some bald patches along the way. I did not cut his hair until two days before his first birthday. I was not planning on having it cut, but Landon asked for a haircut and I at least wanted Owen's evened out a little. He had hair, at that point, that was long enough to get in his eyes and get caught in his eyelashes. Koreans thought he was a girl. So it was time. Owen's eyes are still mo...

 Going into the month of November, I had no idea where we were going to be for Owen's birthday. For awhile, it was looking like we were going to be back in California, and then as we got further into the month, that we would still be in Samgilpo, Korea, but leaving shortly thereafter to go back to the United States. Then, we got staffed to go straight to Vietnam, and we had to be all packed up and ready to leave Korea two days after Owen's birthday. Needless to say, it was a hectic time and I'm just happy we did SOMETHING for his birthday.  First off, though, we took a bunch of passport-style photos to try to get one acceptable enough for our visas to Vietnam. It was a process, and we took way too many pictures. The website for visas kept saying our photos were unacceptable, but not telling us why. Very frustrating, but we got some really cute documentation of Owen's funny faces, so enjoy: Pre-hair cut bangs in his face... Cute, happy boy! Look over...

We loved this last assignment in Korea- the crew was awesome, the customer was pretty good, and our living arrangements were perfect for us. House mother spoiled us rotten (more on that in another post) and I was so looking forward to going back to the United States after Austin finished this assignment. Most of all, I was looking forward to getting a little break from being full-time mommy/caregiver with trips to my parents' and in-laws' homes. Austin and I could actually go on a date! I could leave the kids with someone for a few minutes during the day to do something else! Yay! Although Korea was a great assignment for us, I was/am exhausted. Between trying to take care of the boys and not really having a break for months on end, coupled with a few weekends where Austin was working or getting eye surgery (more on that in a later post), and then less helpful because of eye surgery, I was completely spent. If we stayed too many days in Samgilpo without going on excursions, La...

We lost the 11 month tie during our move from our house to the road, so the 10 month tie got turned into an 11 month  Owen is 11 months old! I feel like this month, I have learned so much about Owen. I am around him 24 hours a day,  7 days a week, but I still am learning new things about him. He keeps me on my toes, for sure. This month, Owen is motoring around our room even more. He climbs the stairs fast, and can open and close doors and drawers. The worst thing he learned how to do this month is open the refrigerator. AHHHHH!!!!!!! Two times this month, I ran downstairs to get an onion or potato from the pantry items house mother provides, and came back upstairs to see Owen sitting in a puddle of broken eggs. Yes, Owen pulled a flat of eggs on himself twice, while dinner was cooking. He was so happy to be sitting in a puddle of eggs, though. So now, our eggs go high enough in the refrigerator so he can't reach.  Taking off his tie Owen loves to take t...