Many Hands Make Light Work

Brad had made some dry-rot repairs that needed to be painted. The kids LOVE helping with these projects so we happily put them all to work.

It was a nice quick Saturday project.

Adoption Updates

I have so many things to record about "the boys." Advances, milestones, and progress all around.

Jacob: Baby Bear seems to be changing by the day. It seemed like we would never be able to shake Jacob's most deeply ingrained orphan behavior: rocking. But since the New Year I am so excited to see him finally making major strides with self-soothing. Jacob no longer rocks when he wakes. He consistently calls to me from his bed in the morning and after nap time. I need to find some wood to knock on before I say it, but, since the New Year Jacob has not woken once in the night to rock himself. He has stopped bumping his head rhythmically in his car seat and rocking in his high chair. We rarely see rocking anywhere anymore.

Jacob is not just increasing his vocabulary, he is eagerly searching for opportunities to communicate. The light bulb of speech has come on. Jacob has also finally gained control of drooling. We now notice him wiping his own chin or smacking his lips and swallowing as we have taught him. But the majority of the time now his chin is dry all on his own.

And I am finally noticing some physical indications that Jacob is ready for potty training. Oh Hallelujah! We have tried more than once over the past months to introduce the potty. And each time it has become immediately clear that he is just not ready. Catching up developmentally in so many areas means that some times we just need to give new developments time. Jacob may finally be ready. 

Ty: Seven months home. We are on the second half of our first year together. Oh it feels good. Last month I said it felt like we had finally turned a corner. I was right. Ty is still working hard to trust and rely on us. Many times he cannot describe feelings and he often does not recognize his behaviors. We still have so much work to do. But months 4 and 5 were hard. And this just feels so much better than that.

Ty continues to be a master student. He is eagerly reading everything he can. He wants so badly to complete his homework independently. And he is close. I am so glad that academics have been so smooth for him. We are still working on classroom behavior. But both his teacher and I have noticed consistent improvement. Everyone still loves his goofy, active personality.

This month we are working hard on practicing "still and quiet." This is not a concept that comes naturally to Ty. And we are still a wildly active family. But we are practicing facing front in the car and using an inside voice or even sitting silently while riding, sitting reverently in church and whispering when appropriate, and playing differently inside the house than we do outside. Ty is doing well with this practice, but it will be a long work in progress.

Our Teenager: We are approaching the end of our paper chase. We hope to send everything to Ukraine in the next 2 weeks. We are only waiting on one document from immigration. Once the documents are submitted we should have about 4 weeks before travel. So, conceivably, we could be going to Ukraine in the next 6 weeks!

So many exiting things going on over here!

Boys and Bikes

We took a walk along the bike trail and decided to head off road a bit by the creek. We ended up finding a great little trail for some off-road biking.

This little adventurer makes me smile.

Brad can never pass up a fallen tree over water. Now he has a follower.

Throwing rocks. We must always stop to throw rocks.

I love how adventurous our kids are. Our girls will do things most other girls will not. But to the boys it just comes naturally.

Oh What Fun

February has been a short and busy month. I didn't realize how many holidays there would be this month. From Presidents Day (5 kids home from school, but daddy still working) to Valentine's Day to Chinese New Year, it seemed like this short little month was packed full.

Choosing valentines for his class. This took way longer than it should have...

But he was SO happy.

Money for Valentines Day! Grandparents...

And candy. When did Valentines Day become the Halloween of the Spring? I have been smuggling boxes of heart shaped antacids to the trash all week. Fortunately there has been enough other candy they haven't noticed yet...

Then Chinese New Year. We celebrated at Ty's school first. Just like last year all of the classes performed. Ty enjoyed sharing this experience with his buddy PJ from China.

 Then on the eve of the New Year we had Nana and Papa over for dinner.

This young man was pretty excited.

I can't believe I made all this myself. And it was good!

Red envelopes were a hit.

This year we kept it very simple. Each year we will add a new part to our celebration. Next year we will add a few fireworks reserved from 4th of July. This year was just dinner and red envelopes. We are looking forward to building on this tradition.

The Great Outdoors

We love to be outside. It is our happy place.

Folsom Lake

 American River

 Hidden Falls Trail

I love where we live.

A boy and his dog

I have mentioned before how much Ty loves animals. Bella is not allowed on our furniture with the exception of a rare invitation into our laps. Apparently Ty has never noticed us doing this because he was both surprised and thrilled.

Kids in a candy store

After our visit to the train museum we took a little walk through old Sacramento. There was a candy store I wanted to take the kids to.

We never pass up on an open field to run through.

Ty REALLY wanted to go for a horse and carriage ride.

Too... much... candy...!

Everyone got to pick one candy. Ty was the last to pick and had the hardest time narrowing his search. He has a very expensive taste for candy. In a store where the average item is 10-25 cents, he kept managing to find items over 4 dollars. We finally compromised on a box of mini butterfingers that he agreed to share with all the adults.

Rocks must be climbed.

After our walk we used one of our gift cards that has been collecting dust in the drawer. We had never heard of Buckeye Grill, but I would go again. We even brought our Texas size cards to help the littles wait for food.

I love all of our little adventures. This was a great free outing. (Except for the candy)

Jacob's heaven

This past weekend was a free admission day at many of Sacramento's museums. Expecting rain, we planned to go down to the train museum for a quick visit after nap time. Jacob was so very excited. To say he is a fan of trains is an understatement. He woke up from his nap charged. He could not wait to get there.

From the moment we walked in, Jacob was amazed.

 Watching a film on the history of the rail road in California.

Jacob could have played here for hours. But we were only there 2 hours before closing.

We went inside the sleeping car, dining car, and mail car.

 Drew and Ty pushing all the levers and dials in the engine.

This museum has changed a lot since the last time I was there. It was a lot of fun. We definitely could have spent more time here. Jacob has asked every wake time since if we can go see more trains. Sorry buddy, we have to wait until it's free again.