First Day of School

Calm Down

As I'm sitting here, catching up posts, I'm reminded that one day several months ago, I was sitting in the living room and I heard Nathan say, "Calm down, Nathan.  Just calm down."

I looked up and he was standing on the countertop, facing the couch in the living room (it's a great room sort of thing - there's only a walkway width between them).  He was trying to convince himself that he could jump from the counter to the couch successfully.

He did end up doing it, but it was really cute to hear him talk himself through it.

And here's a more recent picture.  The night after school pictures, Brent gave him a mohawk of sorts.  He was so excited.  We went over to my parents' house to show them and he has one of my dad's chameleon's on his head.

 And, here's a picture of his school picture.  He's a handsome boy.

Robot Hand

Took the kids to the store.

When we got out of the car, Nathan was  wearing one winter snow glove.

"Nathan, what are you doing?"

"Mama, shh... I want people to see me and think, 'Oh!  That boy has a robot hand."

Who can argue with that opportunity?

Sure enough, a few times as we went through the store, he's whisper, "Mama, that guy's looking at me.  I'll bet he's thinking I have a robot hand."

Yeah, something like that...

Baby Doll

Miss S has a baby doll that's her favorite.  I need to get her to hold still long enough to take a picture, but that's not the point of this story.

The point of the story is that she named her baby doll "Disney Jr." which means that she rocks it in her arms, while singing, "Dis-Nee- JR".

We might watch too much TV 'round here.

Broken

.... Three weeks ago, N and Miss S were jumping on the trampoline in the backyard.  They do this daily and they really do take joy in playing together.  They've invented a game where our two dogs are bad guys and they laugh their heads off jumping on the trampoline while squeeking a dog toy to make the dogs bark and run around and around the trampoline.

This time was different.

Nathan soon came rushing in, yelling that Miss S was hurt.

When I reached the backyard, she was SCREAMING.

I'll note here that while I was carefully lifting her off the trampoline (she didn't fall off - we have a surround... she landed on the trampoline strangely), Nathan went in the house, got a Ziploc bag and filled it with ice.  He's a good helper.

Long story getting shorter, she broke her ONE ARM quite severely.


We ended up having emergency surgery at Primary Children's Medical Center later that night and they put three pins in to put the head of her humorous back into place.

She looks so tiny in that big bed....

This was after her surgery as I was getting her settled into her room.  The sweet nurses gave her a little kitty with his arm bandaged, too.  

She had a very rough night.  Didn't fall asleep until like 4 AM.  But, after a few hours of sleep, she was back to being herself.

In the mirror the next morning, "That's me!", she said as she sang and danced with her reflection - just like nothing had happened.

A few days later, she had her hard cast put on.  It's PINK and she loves that.

She's been a trooper.  Can't feed herself or do anything really.

"Tan you feed me?  I tan't do yit".

(As a side note, Nate just saw the above picture (with him in the background) and said, "Look.  I'm making her sling into my pretend satchel".  I'd already forgotten that.  Sometimes the words he uses... )

If she's healed well when she sees the surgeon this week, her cast will come off (a concept that she was very worried about because she remembers that the cast made it feel better).

Pop

Miss S has had a rough time of sorts.

Mind you, she's still happy, busy and did I mention, happy.  She sings.  She dances.  She loves gymnastics class (Nathan goes to gymnastics, too and is getting some mad kick-over skills).

Sometime mid-summer, I picked her up by her ONE ARM.  It's one of those things that you know you're not supposed to do, but you have something in your hand and you think it will be fine.  You know what I mean.

There was a cry in pain.  Lots of crying in pain.  It was awful.

Took her to the Instacare and they checked her over and determined that I'd probably popped her elbow out and said all was well now.

She was still terribly uncomfortable.  I gave her a bath later that evening, and was gingerly patting off her arm.  I very careful wrapped the towel around her arm and, in the process of drying her off, I rotated her wrist and it POPPED.

She jumped in surprise and then said, "OH!  Thank you, Mama!".

It hadn't been her elbow that was popped out - it was her wrist and now it felt much better.

I felt terrible about it.

She seemed to know I felt terrible about it.  She kept bringing it up.  At dinner, she's say, "Guess what!  Mama pick me up and, 'POP" my wrist hurt."

The clincher was when she walked into the room one day, holding her baby doll by one arm.  She lifted her up and said, 'Look, Mama, I'm hurting her wrist."

Delightful.  I get it.  I was stupid,  I"m ten thousand times sorry that I was stupid.

But that was only a small thing compared to what was to come....

Birthday - N turns 6

Nathan turned 6 this past summer.  He was so excited to be growing up and could hardly wait for his birthday to come.

A couple of things I want to remember about this birthday for him:

The night before his birthday he said, 'Tomorrow, I'm six.  Does that mean my hands are going to get bigger?"

Somehow over night, this concept solidified with him.

When he woke up in the morning, he stumbled to the bathroom and I heard him exclaim, "I can see more of me in the mirror!" (because he was obviously taller overnight.  Then he came down the hall and stumbled again and I heard him say, "My balance isn't good yet because now I'm taller."

For his birthday, he received several Legos and he was thrilled.

Mama took the day off and Nathan and I rode the train to Salt Lake together.  Daddy and Sophia met us at the Children's Museum and we spent the afternoon there.

Then we came home to dinner with Grandmas, Grandpas, TiTi and Colly, and our neighbors.

And one point during the day, Nathan looked at me and said, "This is the best birthday ever!"

Symbiosis

N: "Mom, what does symbiosis mean?"

Me:  "Symbiosis?  Where'd you hear that?"

N (incredulous): "Where'd I hear it?  I just said it!  Listen and I'll hear it again: symbiosis"

Leg Bone's Connected to the WHAT?

Nathan's favorite food is "chicken with the bones in it", as he calls fried chicken.

We had some KFC the other night and he had a drumstick with something sort of tendon-y on it.

"Mama, is this the chicken's crotch because it tastes disgusting!"

Silly Kids

 (he was actually mad here, by the way)

Special

A few years back I wrote about my dad telling me that Stevie Wonder had written his classic "Isn't She Lovely" about me.  I still recall the feeling of sitting in the backseat of our family Pinto, hearing that song come on and having my dad say, "Here's Lori's song!"

A few weeks ago I was snuggled up with Nathan, and I was showing him this post from our very first trip to Haiti where I had documented all the things I loved about our Little Man and all the things I have loved about him since the very first time I met him.

At the end of that post, is this paragraph:  "Our last night in Haiti, as he was putting Nathan to bed, Daddy broke down and said, "Daddy's going to miss you something terrible, Little Man.  You are definitely someone special."

As I read that, Nathan's eyes got wide and he said, "Will you tell me that again?"

I read it to him again.

He said, "Mama, is that true?"

I told him it was.

He said, "Are you sure?"

I said, "Yes, it is.  Do you want to go ask Dad if it's true?"

He said, 'Yes, but you have to come with me!"

We went down the hall to where Brent was.  Nathan was half-bent over behind me, and I could see his face frozen into that look he gets when he's trying to prevent his smile from bursting out.

Brent said, 'What's going on?" (because Nathan's posture was so weird) and I said, "Nathan would like to know if something's true."

Nathan said, "You say it, Mama."

Brent looked more puzzled.

"I was just reading on the blog about our first trip to Haiti and how that first night in Haiti, as you were putting him to bed, you started to cry and you said...", I said, mentally willing him to remember.

Realization dawned in Brent's eyes and he said, '... I'm going to miss you something terrible, Little Man.  You're definitely someone special."

Nathan leaped from behind me clear into Brent's arms and squeezed his neck so tight.

And as tears welled up in our eyes, I recognized the look on Nathan's face and a flood of emotion washed over me as I remembered what it felt like to be a little person in a big person's world and to know, for a brief moment, that the adults in your life thought you were special.

If only I could bottle that feeling for him.

Isn't He Handsome?

He picked it out.  He loves to dress nicely.

Do You?

Sophia's English is improving every day.

Last month, Nathan was in the citychildren's parade.  It was over 100 degrees and miserable, but we made it.

Afterward we went for an ice cream cone.  I think it was the first time that Sophia had a cone - I had to show her that she could eat it.

"Mmm", she said, "Dat Dood! I dad dood.  Do you dat dood?"  ("That's good!  I think that's good.  Do you think that's good?") 

Since then she asks "Do you..." quite often.  It's kind of adorable.

Oh, and Nate thought "dat dood", too.

He Says It's the Sorting Hat

This Is My View

This is often my view.

Miss S likes to sit on my lap and play with my hair.  

Isn't that a sweet face?

Because Every Creature Needs Love

The other night when I arrived home from work, Nathan met me at the door saying he had a "surprise" for me.  He carefully led me down the stairs and into the basement.  

Tada!  A snake!

Nathan and Brent caught a garter snake in the yard.  Nathan was so excited!  

That first night, Nate and Mama went on a grasshopper hunt, trying to find what we thought the snake would eat.

 We caught a few of the right size and put them in the box with the snake and sat back to watched what happened.

When one of the grasshoppers started crawling on the snake, Nathan said, "And now he's saying, 'Ooh, baby!  Grasshoppers!'"

The snake didn't budge.  We watched for a few minutes and when it became apparent that the snake didn't care about the grasshoppers, Nathan exclaimed, "Mama!  The snake is not going to keep the GRASSHOPPERS as pets, is he??"

The next day, he was so excited to show me that he'd put a branch in with the snake.

When I looked in the box, I said, "Nate, what's with the shoelace?"

"Ssh!" he exclaimed.  "I want him to think it's a girl snake!"

We discovered that garter snakes aren't insectivores - they eat worms and other meat.  Nate and Brent did some digging and once Nathan was reminded that worms are kind of.... moist... that was it.  Deal-breaker for him.  He didn't want to have to dig up worms to feed the snake, so he let it go.

Surprisingly, the snake didn't take the shoelace with it on its next adventure...

Other milestones

Just reading back through notes to friends and remembered that Sophia was home 4 weeks before she dared get out of bed in the morning.

I'm not sure how things worked at the orphanage, but the flatness of the back of her head and the scarring on her wrist tells me she was tied down on her back in her crib - we've read many accounts of this happening in Chinese orphanages in rural areas due to lack of help on the overnight shift.  The way she is very flexible at her waist, but her back moves as one unit reiterates that.  I think she could reach her toes, but not lift her head the way she was restrained.

Now when she's in Gymnastics, they tell us she has great core strength for someone her age  I think it's because she's used those muscles to pull her feet up to her face so often to keep herself entertained when tied on her back.  However when she tries to do a somersault, it's more like a front flip because her back doesn't "roll" the way you'd expect.  She smoothly bends and puts her head on the ground and then her whole spine flops over together, without rolling or curling

Anyway, on the morning that she'd been home 4 weeks, she got out of bed by herself and came in and stood in the doorway and said, "Hi!" and it was a big deal for her because she'd been afraid to get out of bed on her own prior to that.

It Was a Science Experiment....

 Nathan wanted to hear the rain on his umbrella again.  I didn't have rain, but I did have a shower.

 So they danced and played in the water and experimented with the different pitch of the sound as they moved the umbrella closer to the water and further and further away.  I love the little look on his face as he listens to the water in this one.

So much fun playing with sound and water!

Handsome Children

This is Sophia's Cheongsam that the other family brought home for her from China.  She's grown so much that she can wear it now, so put her in it for Sunday.

 Nathan also dressed "to the nines".  He likes to dress like "a Hogwarts student" (from the Lego Wii video game) and wear a shirt, tie and vest.  So both were looking handsome for Church.  (in this picture he's singing and dancing for me on the porch).

Several people kept stoppping Sophia and saying, "You look so pretty!' and Nathan would say, "Hey!  What about me??  Did you look at what I'm wearing??"

Sweet, beautiful kids.

"My Nae-nin"

Sophia loves Nathan.

She calls him "my Nae-nin".  "Where my Nae-nin go?" is a common question, as she tries to follow after him.

I took today Friday and went to watch them at the gymnastics classes.  Sophia loves her teacher and her class, but she still wanders off to go talk to her Nae-nin and has to be rounded back up.

I can't tell you how many times I've found them playing together outside, with the hose turned on high and Nathan spraying her down and Sophia laughing her head off.  Whatever Nathan wants to do, she's all in.

In that last video I posted (Sophia spinning in front of the fireplace), she says her name as "Zeh-fee-AH".  Her Chinese name is "Zifei" (which she says as "Zeh-fee") and so the first family that adopted her named her "Sophie" because it was close to the original Chinese name.  An old family friend looked over the Chinese paperwork we have and he says her name, Zifei, means "to flutter", and that's very fitting for our happy little bug. Who doesn't feel better while watching a butterfly? And I guess there really isn't a word for "lights up room with her joy", but that's what she does.  She lights up.

So, the night before that video was taken, I was rocking her to sleep and talking to her.  We named her Sophia, but she still calls herself "Zifei", so I asked her if she wanted to be "Sophia" or "Zefei".  Without hesitation, she said she was "Zeh-fee-AH".  So for awhile there, she was adding that "-AH" to everyone's names.   "Daddy" became "Daddy-AH", and "Mama-AH" and "Nae-nin-AH".  It was as if she was trying to explain that she knows we belong together as a family.

In our early days together in our nighttime routine, we've talked a lot about her family and I use her fingers to explain that we have 4 people in our family and I'd pick out "This one is Daddy, and this one is Nathan, etc." She loved that image, and she's "carry" her family around with her on her little hand.  She often stops what she's doing and says, "This one's Nan-nin, and this one's Daddy..." and I've noticed that she always picks the little pinky finger as "Sophia".  She likes being the baby sister.

Reflections

Have I told you that I love our fireplace?

We never use it.

I'm so glad we have it.

My children love to watch their reflections in the fireplace and we've captured some awesome moments that way.

Here's Nathan, last Christmas.    Nathan wants to do anything Brent does.  For Christmas, he wanted to be "a Seattle Seahawk" (which is Daddy's favorite NFL team).  So his big gift this last year was his very own NFL uniform.

He unwrapped it and immediately wanted to put it on.  

Then he stood, admiring his reflection in front of the fireplace. 

Seriously, how cute is that.... You can see we weren't even done with presents, but he was so excited to be a Seattle Seahawk.

Miss Sophia, who is a happy, cheerful child, loves to wear pretty dresses and LOVES to watch herself spinning in the fireplace reflection.

Here she is on Easter, loving her new dress.

Every time she gets dressed in the morning, the first thing she does is run down to the fireplace to spin in front of it and giggle at her reflection.

Love my fireplace and the glimpses it gives me into my children's hearts.

Camping with Cousins

We just went camping with Brent's siblings.  First time camping for either child.  They both did great and had so much fun with their cousins.

The first morning, when Sophia woke up, she looked around the tent and said loudly, "Why not my house??" She'd forgotten where she was and Mama and Daddy were happy that she knew where home was.

They had a great time on the boat and just playing around with each other and in the dirt in general.  They were so filthy but that's how you know you had a good camping trip, right?

We even went on a little hike.  Sophia is so determined.  She fell a lot because her balance isn't the best, but she kept going.  She wants to do everything that her brother does - no questions.

They both take gymnastics right now and Sophia is right in the bunch and learning with the rest of them. Nathan is having so much fun.  The night of his first gymnastics class, after he had learned how to do a backbend and had demo'd it to everyone he could find, he was asleep in bed next to me and I woke up because he was moving strangely.  I rolled over to find Nathan trying to do a backbend in bed IN HIS SLEEP.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Dinosaur Museum for another cousin's birthday.  Nathan decided he's fascinated with the Woolly Mammoth.  He later told me, "Mama, I used to like trains but that was before I knew they had woolly mammoths."  He wanted to learn more about them so I looked up some things on the internet for him. After a few minutes he said, 'Mama, this is boring.  Can we look at movies of live mammoths instead of pictures of dead ones?"   (and then we went over the definition of "extinct" again...)

"National" Competition

Driving in the car.  From the back seat, Nathan says, "Mama, Haiti is bigger than China, right?"

"Umm... no, sweetness.  No.  China is much bigger than Haiti. Remember how we talked about Haiti being an 'island'?  China is much bigger than the island that Haiti is on."

[Pause}

"But Haiti has more people than China, right?"

"No...  China definitely has more people than Haiti"

[Pause]

"But Haiti is further away than China, right?"

"I have an idea!  Let's play another game, OK, Sweetness?"

Preschool Graduation

Nathan graduated from Preschool a couple of weeks ago.  He's such a shy kid.  The little program was in the teacher's family room.  The kids all sat facing the parental audience and sang songs and she introduced each kid and what she loved about them.

She had little paper graduation hats for them.  All the other children wore those.  Nathan wouldn't do it.  It just held his.

I asked him later why he wouldn't wear his hat and he said, "I didn't want to look STUPID, Mom!"

He also wouldn't really sing and do the actions.  I asked him why and he said that he didn't want to be doing the singing; he wanted to be sitting with him Mama watching the other kids do the singing.

I Love You Me

Sophia's language skills are growing rapidly and it's very sweet to see her explain things.

Last night, she was telling me about something Brent did for her.

I said, "Did Daddy do that because he loves you?"

and she said, "Yeah... Daddy 'I love you' me"

Let Me Translate That For You

It is so fun to watch Sophia learn to speak. She picks up new words every day,  One of the issues the other family had was that she wasn't learning to speak  - really she just needs time to figure out things. Every once in awhile she says something and Mama's not sure what it is. Nathan will translate for me and say, "I just spend more time with her, Mom" in that all-knowing tone that only a child can do.

At night at bedtime, Mama rocks her and sings.  She "orders" the songs she wants to hear:  "Sing 'Twinkle Twinkle'"  Her favorite right now is "Give, Said the Little Stream".

I love watching her talk to my parents on the phone. My dad came to the airport to meet her the day they flew home.  It was the night of a massive snowstorm and the flight was pretty late.  Nathan and I nearly spun out on the freeway driving up - so because of the conditions only Grandpa made it up with us to meet their flight.  She has had a special place for "Bampa" ever since.  When we call them at night she likes to tell  them what she did that day, followed by acting it out so they can "see" over the phone.  "Bampa, I jump." [on the trampoline] (she starts jumping up and down).  "Bampa, I slide." [on the slide] (she drops to the floor and starts scooting across the ground in her bottom).

It's a 3D phone experience on our end of the phone.  Pretty cute.

Happy Girl

We went to a wedding reception and she's playing with the bubbles in the backseat.

And this is how she sings the "I love Mama, she loves me, I love Daddy, Yes-sir-ree" song.  It's just a lot of "yes-sir-rees"

Sweet Moves!

For reasons that are too long to explain, my son thinks he can dance like Michael Jackson.  

My favorite is the little "clap" thing he does randomly.

And THAT'S Where He Draws the Line

From Feb of this year:


So "Finding Nemo" was on last night.  Nate was watching it and had no problem with the talking fish, etc, etc.   
Then it got to the point where the whale swallows Marlin and Dory and then blows them out his blowhole into the Sydney harbor.

Nate said, "Mama, could that really happen?  Could they really blow out a whale like that?"

I told him I wasn't sure how that worked for whales. 

He said," Ahh... just in the movies, then" and turned back to watching.

A few minutes later, the pelican picks up Marlin and Dory in his bill and it shows the two fish positioned in the pelican's craw with their "heads" above the water in the pelican's bill.  Both fish are screaming and holding on for dear life.

Nathan threw his hands in the air and said, "Fish don't breathe air! That couldn't happen! This is unbelievable!" and stomped out of the room.

Somehow he was OK with the fish talking, as long as they were doing it underwater... we all have our limits within which we can suspend disbelief, I guess.

Riding in Cars with Boys??

This was taken 2 weeks after Sophia came home. ,

Nathan adores his little sister.  He loves to play with her.  This was a box that he commandeered and named "Sled" and used it for days to push her around and around the living area of our home.

This was the first night he tried it and he'd been pushing for a good long while.  He came to me and said, "I think Sophia would be more comfortable with some juice." So they both got juice boxes. 

Sophia was hanging on with her one hand and squealing with delight as Nate pushed her.  Then I heard him say, "Sophia, you can let go with your other hand.... you know, like you're waving at a boy or something..."

No idea where he gets this stuff.

Nathan loves Lego Harry Potter and Lego Star Wars games on the Wii.  He and Brent got into a little water fight in the front yard last night and, obviously, Nathan didn't win.  He came in the house dripping wet and crying.  I said, "What happened?" and he said, "Mama, Daddy belongs in Slytherin!" (which is the worst thing he can think of right now).

Miss S has entered the "Why" phase.  I hope we all make it out alive from the "why" phase.  

I haven't posted a lot because there's a whole other aspect of Sophia's life that we've never had before.  Out there, in the world covered by the internet, is another family that brought her home from China and then relinquished her.  They felt she had Reactive Attachment Disorder and rage issues.  

I know how easy it is to find this blog and they do know our names (obviously).  There's a whole family (grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunts, uncles) that lost a family member with this disruption and I'm a bit worried about them finding this and seeing that the rage issues aren't with the child.  Sophia is doing great.  She's a joy.  She's happy and bouncy and perfectly, wonderfully three.

Thus while I want to shout it from the rooftops that we're so in love with this little girl, I want it to be a quiet roar while another family heals from their loss and ordeal this last year.

BYU Women's Conference

I spoke at BYU Women's Conference today.  It was quite an adventure.  One of those experiences where you have 4 months to "prepare" (which means stress, second guess yourself and wonder if they know that they're doing by asking you).

Several weeks ago, I told Nathan I was 'worried about this big talk I had coming up where I had to speak to a lot of people".  He reached out, rubbed my arm and said, "Mama, if you're nervous, you can just talk to me..."

So today, I told him I'd finished it and he explained, "See, Mama!  I told you it wasn't that bad!"

I think it went well and I'm grateful I had the opportunity.  Once in a lifetime for sure.

And, to make up for not posting for weeks and weeks, here's a video of Sophia telling the gripping story of Goodnight, Gorilla.

Yes, my kids are THAT cute.

Dream a Little Dream of Me

Running errands.  Sophia fell asleep in the car.

Nathan:  I wonder what she's dreaming about?
Mama:  Maybe she's dreaming about playing with her big brother because that makes her happy.

(pause)

Nathan:  Yeah, she probably fell asleep just so she could dream of me!

Family Pictures

Playing With Nathan in the Truck

This was the 3rd day she was home.  Sophia and Nathan are getting along really well, all things considered.

Nathan Explains Sophia's Adoption

We spent a lot of time explaining to Nathan about Sophia's last circumstance.  This was his finger play about how we were going to fly out to get her. 

Yes, She is THAT Cute

And... my Star Wars fan son tried to put his Darth Vader glove on Sophia's stub to give her a "robot hand"... you know, like you do.

Introducing.... Miss Sophia

So, we've been holding out on all y'all.

Last summer we had a reunion with some of the children from Nathan's O.  While we were there, Mama talked to Auntie Chareyl about adopting again.  We didn't have the funds or the stomach for another international adoption, but we decided we'd put our papers back in with Wasatch and "see what happened".

Fast forward to a few days before Christmas....

Auntie Chareyl, the woman who matched us with Nathan and the woman who made it possible for Nathan to come home from Haiti after the earthquake, was at work and realized the woman at the next desk was speaking to a family that wanted to relinquish their daughter that they'd adopted from China a few months earlier.  Auntie Chareyl remembered that six years ago, when we put our papers in with Wasatch the first time, we applied for "a boy from Haiti and a girl from China".  Long story getting shorter .... here she is!

It's been a rollercoaster getting the paperwork approved and getting her home, but considering it all happened in two months... we'll take it.

Her story of getting from China to here is hers to tell and since she doesn't talk much yet, we'll just leave it at that.  She's a tiny, petite little thing with a squeaky little voice, but she's a sweet, delicate little angel with a cheerful disposition.

Nathan has been so sweet.  We've talked at lengths about what was going to happen over the last couple of months.  Due to the quick turn on flights, only Daddy went out to pick her up.  When Mama and Nathan picked them up at the airport on Saturday, Nathan was very sweet to her.  He said, "Sophia, you don't have to go back to that family.  You're part of our family now" and then as we were loaded into the car to leave,  he said, "Sophia, you can be anything you want to be."  (His first bit of big brother advice)

She's doing well and so is Nathan and Mama and Daddy are still trying quit smiling.

Two points for the Lord and a big "Thank you" to Auntie Chareyl.