So Much To Say....No Time To Say It

I have a million posts in my head, however, when I try to steal a few minutes on the computer to write them down, well, you know, it just does not happen.

Having seven kids has been a definite adjustment.  Not to much free time on my hands.

I have been trying to keep up with this little girl who crawls everywhere now.  It's more like a run crawl. She can also climb the stairs and is only a few days from her first steps.  She is so cute, but busy, busy, busy!

Levi and Paige started playing baseball.  Levi loves it, Paige not so much.  She's just in it for the social benefits.  Levi loves to wear his sisters headbands.  He is such a charachter.  He is doing great.  We had his physical with the doctor this past week and there were no tears and he showed no ill effects from the blood draw incident.  I am so thankful for that.

Garrett is still playing basketball for another week so we are trying to juggle baseball practice and games for four kids as well as the end of his basketball season.  It has been kind of crazy but we have friends helping us out so I can stay home and Levi and Amelia don't have to experience the full force of sports crazyness in our house for another season. 

Paige and Levi set up a restaurant in our front yard a few days ago.  The neighbors were good sports and came over for a bite to eat.  They each decorated their own tables.

They raided the box of 4th of July decorations in the garage to decorate with.  These two sure do enjoy playing together.

Levi even decorated  his bike, which he just learned to ride, with them.  He loves to make funny faces.

This little girl has been such a good sport about sharing all of her toys, and more importantly, her mommy with two new siblings.  I had a friend visit yesterday who hadn't seem Paige for a few months.  She told me she has seen such a transformation in this sweet little girl.  Not so whinny, more grown up.  Yes, this whole process has really been so good for her.

Paige asked me the other day if Amelia and Levi could stay with us forever?  "Yes", I told her.  They are your brother and sister just like Zach and Samantha.  They will be with us forever!

"Yippee" she yelled, and then ran off to play.

Yes, adoption truly is a beautiful thing.  Not always easy, but so so worth it!!!

p.s. Yes, they do fight and get on each others nerves sometimes.  Just like all siblings:)

The Doctor's Visit

We took the kids to the doctor when we got home from Ethiopia.  Levi is very nervous about the doctor so he wont have his "official" physical until next week.  He went with me today because Amelia has a yucky nose and it turns out an ear infection.  Amelia has had all her tests, i.e. blood, stool, etc., but Levi has been so afraid I have not pushed it.  Today we went back to the lab and he did the urine test.  Yippee! 

I'm not sure why he is so afraid of the doctor.  Any other CHI families out there with older kids who encountered this?  When the doctor came in to look at Amelia he bolted out of the door, terrified.  Yikes!  Our doctor is so sweet and he spoke with him so nicely.  He calmed down but was still very uncomfortable.  Makes me wonder what the heck happened in Ethiopia when they took him to the doctor for his tests.

The doctor really wanted a blood test from Levi.  I took him to the lab, for the third time, to see if I could talk him into it.  We have Kaiser and they found an interpreter who spoke Ahmaric to explain it to him.  That was so great and they are going to have this available to him again next week when he has his "official" physical. 

Levi told me he understood and that yes it was ok he would do it.  However, when we got in the room with the tech he freaked out.  I wasn't sure what to do and he is having a few small issues that we really need to check out.  The blood needed to be drawn for his sake in case there is actually something wrong.

I told the tech I would hold him tight and for her to take the blood.  Lets just say that didn't go to well and it ended up taking four of us to hold him so they could get the blood.  I felt like the worst mother ever!!  Luckily it was quick and didn't seem to hurt him.  I asked him after if it hurt and he said no.  Just scary mommy.  I feel so badly that we had to get it that way.  I took him out for a treat and kept hugging him and telling him I was so sorry and that I loved him.  We came home and watched t.v. snuggled up together.  He seems fine now and we are off to the park for some fun. 

I feel so sorry for people who have chronically ill children and have to go through this all the time.  I am just so glad that is over.  Now, we just have to explain the stool sample to him.  He keeps telling me, no, gross mommy.  To funny.  He also refuses to wear chapstick insisiting it is only for girls.  He could care less that his brothers wear it also.  Everyday I put vaseline on his lips instead. 

It's a beautiful day.  We are off to make some memories, and hopefully forget the trauma of the morning.  Sometimes it is just so hard being a parent!

Super Bowl Sunday

We started out the day doing some chores.  We havn't gone to Church since Levi and Amelia have been home.  I think we will try it next week.  I just didn't want to overwhelm them with people for a few weeks.

Today, Levi got chores for the first time along with the other kids.  Zach taught him to vacuum and he seemed to enjoy having a job and being part of the whole family working to get the house cleaned up.

After we cleaned, Dave took the kids out front for some baseball.  Paige and Levi are going to play on the same Rookie team.  Practice starts this week.  Dave is going to be the manager and we hand picked the other kids on the team.  We hope Levi will enjoy this experience and it will give him a chance to interact a little with some kids his own age.

Even Samantha took a few swings.

Dave took Levi to Sports Authority where they got some cleats and baseball pants.  They went to lunch together first and made a little father/son date out of the ritual.  He was very excited to show me all his stuff when he got home.

I didn't know we were going to have a Super Bowl party.  Tyler had spent the night at a friends house and called in the morning and asked if they could come over to our house.  I had been keeping everything pretty low key with not many new people around, however, Tyler is our child who rarely asks for anything so I agreed.  I didn't know that three other boys had also spent the night at his friends house, or that he wanted them all to come over.  It ended up working out fine and Levi and Amelia both did great with a house full of strangers.  Samantha ended up having a friend over also so it was quite a party.  I made a snack run and we had a fun time watching the game together.  Levi was our official photographer and enjoyed walking around snapping pictures of everyone.  I'm not so sure the boys thought it was so great though.  However, they were good sports about the whole thing.

Tyler is in the middle.  The boys all got a kick out of Tyler's "cool" new brother from Ethiopia.

Levi loves to take pictures of mommy and Daddy.  Here we are with Amelia while watching the Super Bowl.  She was so cute.  Every time we cheered for the Saints (yeah Saints!) she would clap too.  When the two Colts fans would clap she would clap for them to.  I guess she is an equal opportunity supporter.  All the kids thought she was so cute, and she really is. 

Here's the little stinker trying to grab the camera out of her brothers hand. 

I had a little scare with her the other night.  I gave her some Tylenol and the next morning she woke up and she had hives all over her face and back.  At first I thought it was chicken pox but then I realized it was some sort of allergic reaction.  I had given her some Cheerios in the evening also, however, the doctor feels like it was most likely the Tylenol.  This morning she looked much better with only a few sores.  I felt so bad.  I'm going to take her in to the doctor tomorrow just to have  him look her over again and discuss what it is I should give her for fever if I can't use infant Tylenol.  She has been running a low grade fever and is teething really badly.  Poor thing still does not have one tooth but you can see the tops of them just breaking through the gums on the bottom.

I hope you all had a great weekend with your family.  Our kids are off school tomorrow so I am going to try and clean of my desk and get some organzition done around here.  It's amazing how fast things can get out of control when you are not on top of them.  Having a little baby to care for (not to mention her brother who likes mommy with him at all times) has thrown my daily routine out the window.  I havn't opened mail since we got back from Ethiopia.  Yikes, I better get on that!

The Buddies

When we started on this adoption journey one of the questions most people would ask us was how we thought Paige would adjust once we brought a new child(ren) into our home.  If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you know that we have had our ups and downs with Paige.

Paige did not walk until she was 20 months old, didn't talk at all until she was almost four, and had some pretty severe developmental delays.  We took her to a neurologist who told us she was most likely autistic but we would have to wait and see what happened and do some more tests when she was around six.

Thankfully we did not give up on this little girl and went with our gut instincts instead of listening to the so called "experts".

I have prayed and cried and worried over this child for so many years.  Recently we have seen such a change in her.  Her vocabulary has exploded, she is acting more age appropriate, she interacts well with her peers (though she still acts more like a 4-5 year old than a 6 1/2 year old) and is doing very well academically.

As far as the addition of two new siblings....she has blown us away.  She has been helpful and excited and kind.  Her and Levi play together for hours at a time and she seems to be enjoying having a sibling close to her in age.  I have seen no jealousy or any other kind of acting out since we went to Ethiopia.  She was wonderful on the rip and lived for 9 days on Cheerio's and water without ever complaining.

I'm not sure I would actually have believed all this if I had not lived it and seen it with my own eyes.

Here they are having their before bed snack together.

Building a fort together.

                                                            Acting silly.

Fun with play doh and big brother

So, in answer to all those who are dying to ask.  Yes, Paige is adjusting wonderfully.  She and Levi are upstairs playing with dolls and horses right now and having a grand time.  It seems God provided the perfect playmate and friend for her and Levi seems to feel the same way. 

Here I had thought we needed a little girl for Paige to play with.  God's ways are ALWAYS better than our ways. 

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The Ethiopian Pout:  That is what I call it.  The lip goes out the whinning starts.  I am going to confess to the fact that when the pout is pulled out it always makes me smile.  Firstly, its not going to work with me and my sweet little boy has pretty much gotten that message.

Yesterday, we had a little temper tantrum because he couldn't have ice cream for breakfast.  When he figured out his little pout wasn't going to work it ended just as soon as it started.  After we read a book he gave me a big kiss and hug and then asked "ice cream"?  "After lunch" I told him.  He smiled and said O.K. and then skipped off to play with his sister. 

Levi can be care free, intense, and extremely stuborn all within a very short amount of time.  I really think he thought that he was going to come to America and everything he wanted would be handed over.  He has been a little surprised at how often he hears the word no. 

In the last few days he has learned to write his name, learned his ABC's, colored me some beautiful pictures and read me Bible stories in Amarhic. 

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The serious look.  The one she gets when she can't figure out why I am not holding her.  This little girl makes me smile every single day.  She is so sweet and happy.  Poor little thing is having some constipa*ion issues due to her new diet.  She cries and it breaks our heart.  When she is done doing her business she will stand up and clap for herself.  She just melts all of our hearts.

Life is good.  She loves her new ball and her big sis.

One Week Home

We have been home for one whole week so I thought I would share some of the good, the bad and the ugly with you all.

Firstly, let me start by saying that my baby slept over 11 hours last night so I finally feel like a real person this morning.  She had been insisting on getting up in the middle of the night for a few hours to "play" since we returned home.  I was pretty tired, and with the added stress of dealing with a newly arrived 7 year old as well, I was about to lose it.  It's funny how everything seems so much brighter with a good nights sleep under your belt.

Amelia is a complete joy and such a happy smiley little girl.  She rarely cries, unless mommy leaves the room, is a good eater, takes good naps, and now seems to be getting the hang of sleeping through the night.  She can blow kisses and loves to clap her hands when she does something we think is wonderful.  Just like all babies she seems perfectly content as long as she is fed, changed and loved.

Levi continues to be a smiley, happy (for the most part) affectionate and very active 7 year old.  He has started testing his boundaries a bit, something we were waiting for.  He wants to eat everything in site and does not like to wait when he announces that he is hungry.  I have explained to him that we eat three meals and day and he gets two snacks.  He seems to be happy knowing what to expect and and when the food is coming.  Yesterday I took him to the  store with me and he got very excited when he saw an avacado.  I bought a few for him and he ate them both with dinner.  I guess we need to plant an avacado tree in the back yard.

Levi wants to immediately go out front to play in the morning.  When I explain to him that he has to wait until Mommy is ready he will say no and start to cry.  If he doesn't get his own way he will pout or cry.  I usually give him a hug and place him in a chair next to me where ever I am.  Usually I am cleaning up the kitchen, etc.. When I am done I say, "Ok, time to go outside, and the tears immediately stop".

Yesterday he got mad at Paige and gave her a little hit on the bottom.  I told him that we don't hit each other (very calmly and softly) but he still got upset that I corrected him and sat on the curb and pouted.  Zach had been throwing the ball around with him and he refused to play ball anymore.  We left him there to have his pout and a few minutes later he came over wanting to join in the fun again.

Overall, I think he is adjusting wonderully and is acting very normal for a child that has had his world turned upside down.  He says please and thank you (most of the time) and he and Paige have a very sweet relationship and really enjoy playing together.

Levi loves to draw and work on writing his letters.  He is eager to learn and has a very sweet disposition 95% of the time.

Yesterday he wanted a treat out of the muffin case at Henry's.  I told him he could get a snack but could only pick one kind of muffin.  He didn't like that and kept saying No and crying a little.  I had to pick him up and carry him out without giving him the treat.  However, when we got home and I told him he could have one kind of treat, he picked one, with no tears.  I guess he figured out the crying and whining dance isn't going to work with mom.

Overall, I would say we have had a good first week.  I know each day we get to know each other better and form attachments it will get easier.  No one said it was going to be easy, however, I am so happy both of these kids are now a part of our family.  Temper tantrums and all!