Kids in July

Pictures of 4th of July at my sister's house!





I guess I better post this month before July runs out. I am definitely keeping busy. I am really nervous for the kids to start school soon. I don't do well until I know they are settled, with a good aide, in a good classroom. We'll see. Ty will be in Kindergarten and Tia will be 2nd grade. There was no half-day Kinder at our school so I will be pulling Tyler out at 1:30 everyday. That way he can continue his therapies at home another year without rearranging his schedule. He's going to be exhausted for a few weeks but he's not much of a napper anyway. It will be fun to have only Max home during the day. I know he will really miss T&T though. He loves to follow them around and do everything they do.

So, I decided for this post I would tell a few funny things my kids have said. I have a journal by my bed that is specifically for "Tia-isms" and I need to get one going for Tyler too.

Tia is a singer! She sings morning, noon and night. She used to sing the correct words to songs but now likes to add her own. For example the other day she was singing, "Rockin Around In Tia's Room" and "Bring Back My Dolly to Me". She told me one day that she wanted to sing the garden song. I said, "What garden song?" She said, "You know mom, 'Oh My Garden, Oh My Garden, Oh My Garden Clementine."

Tonight as Tia was going to bed:
Tia: " Good night mom, good night Movers" (Imagination Movers TV show featuring 4 guys)
Tia: in deep voice "Good night Tia, have good sleepers."
Tia: in normal voice, "OK I will."

Tyler: "What's today?"
Me: "Today is Thursday. We eat breakfast, play, Heather comes, then after lunch Denise comes."
Tyler: "Oh. Eat breakfast, play, Heather, ice cream and cake, then Denise." (totally straight faced)
Me: laughing "Ice Cream and Cake!?"
Tyler: Curls up in a ball laughing so hard!
This from my son who frequently asks for pizza for breakfast.

Oh, Max has more words this month. One of which is (drum roll please) Mama!!!!! Yeah! Finally. He has added this month, "Please", "Fish", "Down", "Frog", "Car", "Up", "Help" (which is adorable by the way--"Hep Hep") and a few more animal sounds. He already had, Shoes, Ball, Go, Daddy, Daisy (the dog's name came WAY before Mama by the way!), Hat, Head, Eyes, Ears, Nose, Hair, All Done, and a handful of signs. I am super excited he is communicating more. He is very pleased with himself! I will try to record some of his words but he is pretty shy about performing for the video cam. We'll see.

"Birthday" Party for Max

Max's fun smile! Can't you just hear him laughing when you see this picture?!

Max on the bouncy slide in the back yard.

Since Max was born on Christmas Day, it is difficult to do cake, presents, etc. on his actual birthday. So, we decided to do it around his "adoption date". It is close to Memorial Day so we had a family pool party/birthday party. He loved opening his presents and playing with his new toys.

Max LOVES balls so I made him a soccer ball cake. He didn't eat any of course but he danced when we all sang Happy Birthday. He was much more interested in getting back in the pool than hanging out to eat anything.

Rub-a-dub-dub, 3 cuties in the tub

Tia and Tyler at the award ceremony for baseball. This was Tyler's first year and Tia's 3rd. They LOVE their coaches and teammates and are always sad to have the season end.

Tyler's graduation from pre-school. He will be in a regular Kindergarten class next year!

GOTCHA Anniversary

Friday, May 15th, 2008 was our official papers signed- Gotcha Day. Today is our Home One Year Day!!!!! How amazing to have our sweet son for a whole year now! He is just doing so wonderful.

His 2 big areas of challenge are language and eating. He has about 8 words and 8 signs but we haven't gotten much further with that in a while. I think he has been so focused on moving that he has put speech aside for a while. He walks everywhere now and loves to put his cool new orthotics on. Which of course I thought he would hate. What do I know?! He will pretty much only cooperate with his physical therapist if they are outside. He LOVES to be outside. Right now it is over 100 degrees here so we are in the pool almost every day and he is in heaven. Yes, my baby who hated the bath, now loves it and loves to swim! (Well, float.)

Max also loves to eat but only pureed food. We have been going to feeding therapy but he is still not into eating solids yet. Hopefully soon. Any ideas are welcome, by the way. He puts solid food in his mouth like he wants to like it but then immediately makes a face and spits it out. His therapist said he will just do it one day and never look back.

So who is Max at age 2 years, 5 months? Max is a handful who loves life. He is a climber and right now has a big forehead bruise to prove it. He is ALL boy! He loves balls and cars, trucks, buses and rocks. He has a laugh that is SO contagious it makes strangers in the store laugh. He is smart and loves to figure things out. He loves to take off all his clothes which is pretty funny but we hope the phase ends soon. He also likes to put stuff in drawers and other containers so you never what you are going to find where. Today I found the remote control in the clothes hamper!! I would have been looking for that for days! Lucky I came across it before it got washed! Tears come to my eyes as I think of all the blessings Max has brought to our life. What a fun little "wild angel" he is.

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO:

I know, I know I haven't blogged in forever!! Max has been sleeping in the den where the computer is and thus making the computer inaccessible when he is asleep. Well, since I usually blog when the kids are asleep I am out of luck for a while. The original plan was to have Tyler and Max share a room. The problem was that one kept waking up the other either in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. So, we moved Max for a while.

Max is walking great now. He walks a lot more than he crawls. I've been buried in paperwork to get ready for Tia and Ty's IEPs for school. An IEP is an Individual Education Plan. It determines the goals for the next school year and which classroom they will attend. So, Tia will be in a regular 2nd grade classroom next year with one hour a day in the resource room for help with math and reading. I am happy because that is what we really wanted. Tyler's IEP will be in a few weeks, I think. I hope his goes well too. They are both doing so great.

Anyway, we had a wonderful Spring Break. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's in Missouri. The kids had so much fun at the St. Louis zoo, Silver Dollar City, Branson, riding a horse, visiting an alpaca farm, meeting new friends, and so many other great things. The kids were really well behaved and did SO great even with a lot of time in the car and on the airplane. Tia and Tyler are at a good age where they play well together and can entertain each other in the car.

I will post some pictures of our trip later. I can't get it to work right now.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Max in May 2008 and now Feb 13, 2009



WATCH ME WALKING!!!! Sunday will be Max's 9 month anniversary of his adoption day!!!! Look at how far he has come. He is doing so amazing! Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Busy month

Wow! It's been a while. Here's the updates in a nutshell: Tia has mono and strep and has only been to school 2 half days since before Christmas Break. She had a fever of 102+ for 9 days!!! A few nights ago her tonsils were so big she had a hard time sleeping on her back. (Got steroids for that.) Max is on breathing treatments a few times a day for a respiratory virus but is finally finishing that up I think. I really hope the mono and strep do not spread through the house. The new puppy is cute as can be but...a new puppy. He nips and pees and poops and chews etc. Tyler seems to be the only one in good health right now. He just has a chronic case of Stubborn-itis. Holy moly that boy is stubborn!

Now for the good news:
We had a wonderful Christmas. The kids had a great day and just watching them enjoy it was fantastic.
Our family was made a forever family on December 26 and it was beautiful! I will post pics later.
Tonight Max took 10 STEPS!!!! He's been stuck at 4 for a while now but tonight he did 10 followed by several 8's. He is so proud of himself. (Not unlike his mom.) It was so great! I hope to video it and put it on here.