Matt, Stacey, and Ben Uhrig

We have a number of friends whose families are inter-racial whether by adoption or simply biological. Amongst many of our conversations - HAIR seems to be of importance...especially amongst our friends whose children are black. We've personally never had any issues with hair in our family per se. As a matter of fact, Ben's hair couldn't be more similar to Matt's. Dark dark brown, extremely straight, and somewhat thick.

Ben's hair grows quickly! As a matter of fact when we saw our first picture of Ben he had a ton of hair (at birth). By the time he came home he had a full full head and we definitely cut his hair prior to turning 1. Since that time, Ben has consistently had a hair cut about every 6 weeks. No product, no special shampoo, just wash and dry and we go! I KNOW this is a significantly different scenario from some of our friends.

So - what's the point of all of this? Well, this morning after having a nice breakfast with Ben at the island, we each separated for a few minutes. Ben was doing arts and crafts at the island with colored paper and children's scissors while I was arms length away at the kitchen table looking up recipes for tonights dinner. Every few moments I'd look back and ask Ben how he was doing - "Great!" was always the answer as I watched him snip snip at the colored paper.

Then we had the following conversation
B: Mommy I need a shower.
M: Huh??!?

And then it hit me....look! Look quick!!!

I turn around and I saw it - a mom's worst nightmare - cut hair! Cut hair everywhere! On the island, on the chair, all over Ben, all over the floor!Ok - now I can't get mad because I GAVE him the scissors. So I remained calm and the following convesation occurred:

M: Oh - honey....you cut your hair...
B: I did! Didn't I do a good job?
M: Umm.....well....you cut your hair....

Now granted there are huge clumps of hair - but this kid has sooo much of it - you almost couldn't notice. Is it possible he did a good job?!?! Do I have a hairstylist in the making??!?

So we showered - immediately. Ever tried to get cut hair off of someone in a bath / shower? Not easy. We clean up -and then I go downstairs to clean up the mess. And there is so much of it I'm laughing.

I go in to see Ben playing and I inspect his head. And seriously - he didn't do a bad job - it actually looks...OK?!?!

I tried calling to see if the Barber was open to clean it up but he is closed on Mondays...so we'll wait it out - maybe I won't even taken him later in the week....

I told him:
M: Ben - from now on, no more cutting hair with scissors..
B: OK
M: But I have to say - you did a pretty good job
B: Thanks - am I a hair cutter?
M: Not exactly....but maybe some day!
B: Yea - maybe when i'm an adult.

I have to say - we've been pretty lucky with Ben's hair. Simple to maintain, etc. etc. But one of my FIRST thoughts was - OMG - had this been Kyle and Owen I would have died! My girlfriend Heather and her husband Braydon have spent hundreds of hours over the course of their children's lifetime dealing with hair. They made the decision to dread their hair at the age of 1. The boys hair has never been cut and it looks awesome! Albeit it has been a TON of work for them. Hair products, weekly hair maitenance, etc. My inital reaction was - call heather and tell her - don't let the boys be alone with scissors! Ok - bad idea - what kind of mom leaves her kids with scissors - except for me (remember I was arms length away!). What if K&O cut that beautiful hair?!? What would they do?!?! Would they have to cut the dreads?!?! So Heather this one is for you - read and remember!!!!

Posted in: on Monday, October 08, 2007 at at Monday, October 08, 2007 2 comments  

Saturday it was pumpkin picking, etc....and SUNDAY was Apple Picking!!!!
We went apple picking with Grandpa Mike and Lala....it was so much fun and the apples were delicious! Ben was getting really good at grabbing the apples from the tree - and needed some help with the "apple picker"!

We came home and made some delicious apple pie! Super fun day!!!

Posted in: on Monday, October 01, 2007 at at Monday, October 01, 2007 0 comments  

Our favorite season hands down is Fall. Both Matt and I love love love it! We love the pumpkin picking, apple picking, Halloween, the weather, the colors, everything!

Saturday we went to an amazing farm in Chester. There we went on a hayride, picked pumpkins right off the vine, picked raspberries, and Ben rode a Pony (though we think it was a horse - it was huge!).


Following the farm, we went to Ben's favorite playground in Ralston and finished the night with an awesome fall dinner of chicken pot pie, mac and cheese, and knockworst with sauerkraut at The Black Horse Pub in Mendham. It was a perfect Fall day!


At dinner Matt and I both agreed that though we love the Fall and have always loved experiencng the farm, pumpkin picking, etc - nothing compares to experiencing it with a child. Its always better when we're together!

Posted in: Fall on at at Monday, October 01, 2007 1 comments  

Yesterday was Matt's Birthday. He turned 34. We celebrated all weekend long with a visit from Chris and Sherry and a huge open house / house warming party! Though I work on Tuesdays, I typically work from home that day. Yesterday was not a normal day and I had to work a Microsoft Event. Matt was home for Ben by 3:45 but I didn't get home until 8:30pm....

Long story short - Matt got the short end of the stick...no cake, no candles, no singing! He said he didn't mind but it bugged me...so today Ben and I went and got a cake from Cold Stone Creamery (red velvet cake with cake batter ice cream yum yum!!!). After dinner we surprised Matt with the cake and of course candles and singing!!!

Posted in: on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at at Wednesday, September 26, 2007 1 comments  

Posted in: on at at Wednesday, September 26, 2007 0 comments  

Posted in: on at at Wednesday, September 26, 2007 0 comments  

I find that Ben and I have our most interesting conversations in the car. Perhaps its because its one of the few times during the day that he sits still enough to have a conversation - who knows...but lately our car talks have been cracking me up so I thought I'd share...

Monday
M: Ben I love you
B: Mom I love you too.
I love you from America to South Korea and then back to America...that's alot right?
M: Yes, Ben that IS alot!
B: Yeah - that's how much I love you mommy.

Wednesday
B: Mommy, do you see the horses?!? (note we were passing a horse farm).
M: I do! Do you like horses?
B: Yup! So much it hurts my heart (note - I say this ALL the time...) that's a lot right?
M: Yup -it really is.....

Posted in: on at at Wednesday, September 26, 2007 1 comments  

Ben's top 5 favs....

5. The cup / plate drawer!

4. The snack drawer!

3. His playroom! Note, no - ben is NOT playing trivial pursuit! But he thinks he is ;-)....

2. Our awesome new backyard!

1. Our home is the one with the open gate! We waited for this location for a long time! No neighbors behind us - just tons of land and an awesome bike path! We are loving our new space!

Posted in: on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at at Wednesday, August 22, 2007 2 comments  

Playroom (still being painted - ignore blue tape!)

My favorite space - the kitchen!

Posted in: on Thursday, August 16, 2007 at at Thursday, August 16, 2007 0 comments  

Back into the groove of things and what better way to get back into our blog than to start with Love Thursday?!?!

So many of you know - we moved this past week. What a feat! What a lot of work! But we are not complaining - we are beyond blessed with not only our new and improved space (lots of it we may add) but with our new yard and best of all our new community!

When we first purchased our new home, back in March, we asked the previous owners if the area was diverse. It was important to us that Ben not be the only person of asian descent in our new community. He said, "its diverse, and you shouldn't worry - Ben will fit right in". Little did I know - Matt and I would be the minority ;-)....

Our new home, albeit a townhome, has a huge backyard with a new playground about 100 yards out of our back door. On Tuesday Tara, our babysitter, came over for dinner. She needed a Ben fix and was missing him terribly (Matt and I have off this week so no babysitter needed!). After dinner Tara and I took Ben to the new playground. Tara and I could pass as sisters, both very Irish / Scottish looking. At the playground were 4 children and 2 sets of grandparents. Everyone was Chinese. Then about 10 minutes after getting there - about 5 more kids and 2 more sets of grandparents showed up. 10 kids (including Ben), and 5 adults - Tara and I being the only non-Chinese people there.

All of the grandparents were checking Ben out. I know they were wondering...Chinese or Korean? Adopted? Dad - chinese? They were talking but I had no idea what they were saying. We all smiled (the universal language of hi, bye, and more) and we went home as it was getting dark. About an hour later I hear a whole bunch of clapping outside my bedroom window. I look out and see all of the grandparents doing what I think is Tai Chi at the playground....it was BEAUTIFUL!!!

Took Ben back to the playground again this morning and again - the same set of grandparents were all there with the grandchildren. We all smiled again, but the language barrier prevented any lengthy conversations. Then a lovely woman, probably late 60s showed up. Her name is Yamin. She is Chinese but knows enough English to get by. She introduces herself, asks about Ben and strikes up a conversation with me. She tried teaching me a number of Chinese phrases and was very welcoming of me to their intimate community.

I've always been drawn to the Asian culture, well before adopting was even a consideration. The fact that this beautiful community of Chinese people congregates in my backyard was so exciting to me I wanted to cry.

I could blog and blog about how I felt regarding this new found community - but I'll save all of my thoughts for another time. What I will say is...

I LOVE my new home
I LOVE our new space, yard, playground
I LOVE our new community!

Each would be a wonderful addition to our lives independent of the other - but the fact that we have all 3 is so exciting!!! More to follow....

Posted in: on at at Thursday, August 16, 2007 0 comments  

Ben is officially done with diapers!!!!
We are sooooo proud of Ben.....

It started a few weeks ago when we took out a play potty someone had given us. He was super excited (he had lost interest in the potty seat on the real potty) but this was new and gave him new purpose! Once it came out he pretty consistently was going on the little potty about 75% of the time. Then he moved back to the big potty (thank god - I hate the small potty!)...

And it just happened. We moved from diapers to pull ups and within a few days didn't like the way it felt when he went in the pull up. Not to mention the fact, he didn't get a chocolate chip if he went in his pull ups ;-).

Rules of the house: 1 chocolate chip if he peed in the potty + put a sticker on a chart. 1 dum dum lollipop if he pooped in the potty + sticker.

Uhrig's law:
1. Once we instill lollipop rule: only poops at 9pm at night or right before a nap...ugh....
2. Purposely waits to go to the bathroom until I put him to bed so he has an excuse to get up!

Needless to say we have crossed some major milestones....

1. Friday was our first day away from the house during this week of potty training. We went to a friends for a play date and he stayed dry and peed at her house! Ta da!

2. Friday night we took a risk and went out to dinner (in his underwear not in pull ups) and he promptly told me he had to go to the bathroom. Well, thank god he did because it was not pee (if you know what i mean)! Sooo proud of him!

3. Sunday we made a trip out to Long Island to visit my grandmother. Question: underwear or pull ups? We opted for pull ups not knowing how predictable traffic would be etc. 5 minutes from my grandmothers Ben exclaims "I have to pee pee"! Quick....get off the L.I.E., get off the L.I.E.!!!!! We pull off, and put him on the portable potty we have in the trunk. Whew made it! He did the same thing on the way coming home. The boy stayed dry from 10am until 8pm! We were sooo proud of our Benny!

4. Then....last night - the biggest milestone! First I will preface that during this past week of training, Ben amazingly got up in the middle of the night, 1am, 2am, 3am depending on the day to tell us he had to "pee pee". Well, last night - he never got up so we were expecting a soaking wet pull up. But NO! He was DRY?!?!?!!? We are sooo proud of Ben and he is so proud of himself. He came running into me this morning - holding the Pull Up - "Mommy its dry!!!!".

Quotes during Potty Training:
1. I'm potty training mama!
2. Potty training is Hard!
3. Opps, I had accident, I'm sorry.... (too cute!)
4. What is that?!?! (looking at his poop)
5. Did I do that?!?!

Posted in: on Tuesday, July 03, 2007 at at Tuesday, July 03, 2007 1 comments  

• Ben's 2nd gotcha day!


• Lots of playing with our neighbors


• Tons of time at the lake in Mtn. Lakes


• Lots o' time at Grandpa and Lala's pool

Life is busy with a 2.5 year old. Lots of questions being asked...answering the age old question "Why?" about 100 times per day....Our latest answer..."Why Not?"

Over all the past month has been hectic and busy...but a lot of fun!

Posted in: on Sunday, June 17, 2007 at at Sunday, June 17, 2007 0 comments  

I've been tagged by Heather!

Here are the rules: Each player starts with seven random facts about themselves. Then they list seven other people to tag. My problem is that I really only read Heather's blog and work related blogs...so I don't have anyone else to tag. But here it goes....seven things about me:

1. Born December 29, 1971 I'm the oldest of 4 children (Dave 31, Becky 23, Matt 21).
2. I always knew I would adopt and thought about it often in my early 20s.
3. I don't consider myself a mushy, gushy, touchy, feely type....but the feelings I feel for my husband and my son overwhelm and sometimes even shock me.
4. My favorite colors are Orange and Red. For me they represent inspiration, peace, and energy.
5. I'm incredibly inspired by Buddhism and the Dali Lama (and apparently so is Ben - i'll discuss in a separate blog).
6. I'm addicted to LOST
7. I believe in life after death, know that I have "seen" the loved ones in my life, that have passed, through others and I think about them everyday.

Posted in: on Thursday, May 17, 2007 at at Thursday, May 17, 2007 1 comments  

Being a mom is a complex thing. This is a conversation I have had often, with my friends. The complexities of working, being a mom, being a wife, etc....oh - and being good at all of it ;-)! Can we "have it all"??


I don't know that answer to that question. But what I do know is that I'm super fortunate to be in the position I am, creating my own hours, being a part of my family business yields a lot of great rewards - one of which is flexibility. This summer I'll be working 3 days / week...2 in the office and 1 from home. Tuesday was one of my day's "off". We went to the beach and had a great time!

Posted in: on at at Thursday, May 17, 2007 0 comments  

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MOM.....

Posted in: on at at Thursday, May 17, 2007 0 comments  

The craziness that is our life, has prevented me from having a free moment to blog....but as my little boy lays down for a nap - I have time to let everyone know that I had a GREAT mother's day!

My Mother's Day actually started Saturday evening. We went out to dinner and to my surprise, Ben and Matt gave me a great mother's day gift early...a NEW camera! Those who know me well know that photography is a major passion of mine and one I haven't had a lot of time for over the past 2 years. I really wasn't expecting anything giving our purchase of new house (closing in august) and selling our current one- so I was super duper excited about this BIG SURPRISE!!!

Mother's Day, as is most holidays for us, is a day of trying to visit with a LOT of different people. We spent our morning together as a family, just Matt, Ben, and I. Then we got dolled up and went out to Brunch with my family; Step-mom Lorraine, Dad, Brother Dave and his wife Julia. We then went home and prepared for a 3pm BBQ with our "other" family consisting of Mom (my mom), step father Bob, Brothers Dave and Matt, SIL Julia and my sister Becky.

Though it required some running around - we wouldn't have chosen doing it any other way. We had a really lovely day with lots of wine, sangria, food and family!

Posted in: on at at Thursday, May 17, 2007 0 comments  

If you've read our blog in the past, you'll know that Kyle and Owen are very special friends of Ben! All 3 are adopted and came home within months of each other. It is always so special to us when these guys have a birthday! To me, Kyle and Owen are the definitions of strength, perserverance, happiness, and engergy all rolled into one!!


We had a great time at their birthday party - Ben is still talking about it!!!

Posted in: on Sunday, May 06, 2007 at at Sunday, May 06, 2007 1 comments  

Ben spent Saturday morning hanging with his cousins Payton and Jack! We are really lucky that we have family right in our own town and that we can just drop in on a t-ball game when our schedules allow!

Posted in: on at at Sunday, May 06, 2007 0 comments  

Posted in: on Friday, May 04, 2007 at at Friday, May 04, 2007 1 comments