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.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...

...It's been awhile.  Where to start.

Nate loved Halloween.  He dressed as Ironman.  He was so excited.  The first time he tried on his costume and looked at himself in the mirror he said, "Do you know who I really am?  I'm Ironman."

He and Collin went trick or treating.  Nate fell at one point, from running down the sidewalk too quickly, and tore a little hole in the knee of his Ironman costume.  When we returned home, he tried to put a Band-Aid on it, ('cause those always fix holes, right?)

The other big thing that happened in October was that Brent became a falconer.  He has his apprenctice license and he's learning everything about bird.  This is Igor, his Harris's Hawk.  He lives in our house.

Let me say that again.

We have a BIRD OF PREY in our house.

Brent built an enclosure for him in the basement (I call it the "hawk condo") but he spends his days in the backyard and his evenings in the family room with, well... the rest of the family.

Not exactly a cozy pet.  Brent works with him every day.  A big part of faloncry is working with the bird with lures and (gulp) raw meat (don't ask where he gets it.  I don't want to tell you about the starling trap in our backyard.) to improve the bird's natural hunting instincts.  It's been pretty crazy to watch Brent get to the point that he can walk down the road and get the bird to follow him, swooping along from housetop to treetop.  Brent's pretty excited about the bird and Nate thinks it's pretty awesome as well. 

Nate thinks everything is a falconer.  His toys play with hawks and falcons now.  Even the Hulk is getting in on the game.

It's been interesting to see Nate's reaction to this.  He likes to hold the bird and Brent even ordered him his own glove.

Other things haven't changed.  

If you've been reading for awhile, you may remember the videos we had from visiting Nathan in Haiti.  He's always been a snuggler, and even if we're in the same room and he's playing, he'll come over to get a hug at regular intervals.  He just needs that reassurance that you're still there and you still love him.  Lately, as he comes for his hug, I find myself marveling that my little boy in Haiti has become this great big boy with so many dreams and hopes and opinions and...

I love you, Little Man.

 Mama

Prayers of the Children

May 2011
On the "I remember what it's like to be hungry" theme... here's a note from May 2011

Nate's prayer last night:
Tank you fruit snacks.
Tank you my blessings.
Tank you burritos.
Tank you another one burritos.

Hungry

We've had a food drive in our area and the local Scouts came around to pick up anything you left on your porch for donation.

I sat Nate down and asked him if he remembered what it was like to be hungry in Haiti and if he remembered how it felt to not have enough to eat.  Then I asked him if he wanted to go to the store with me to pick out some things that we could give to people that didn't have enough to eat here in America.  He thought that was pretty cool and was excited to go to the store.

Long story getting shorter.... a few minutes later he came out from his room with his piggy bank and said, "Here, Mama... you can use this to buy food for the people".

Sweet, sweet Little Man.

Preschool....

Sep 2011

Brent dropped Nate off for his first day of preschool.  On the way he said, "Miss Julie is going to teach you all sorts of things:  letters, counting, writing..."

Nate said, "and handstands??"

Apparently that was top on his list of "Things I Want to Learn".  Who knew??

Exasperation

May 2012
I was trying to get Nate to talk to me about this problem he's having with a little boy in his church class.  He didn't want to talk, but I kept trying different directions of questions.  I decided to switch it up and ask him about a boy he likes.  By that point, he was exasperated with me.  I said, "What do you think about J?" and he sighed loudly and said, "I don't know, Mama.... he has a beautiful face" (in a tone like, "what do I have to say to get you to leave me alone).

Old Stories...

Decided I need to catch up on some of the good stories that I've missed posting to this blog over the last couple of years.  Enjoy!

Nov 2011
Nate: "Mama, I want a new dragon toy."
Mama:  "Maybe you'll need to ask Santa for one for Christmas..."
Nate (walks to the closed window and yelled, "Santa!  I want a new dragon toy!" and then came back and said, "I asked him."

Hmmm... Mama must need to review her notes.  She seems to have missed something in the "Implementation" phase of the spirit of Christmas.

Wedding jitters??

Nate:  "Mama, am I going to live in a different house someday?"
Mama: "Yes..."
N:  "Like when I get married.... then I'll live in a different house?"
M: "Yes..." (still wondering where this crazy train of thought is going)
N: "But what will I say to her??"
M:  "Um... say to whom?"
N: "My wife!  Do most people say, 'Will you marry me'?"

Sweet boy.... You are only five.  We'll worry about that in twenty something years, OK?

Dissolving Bel Haiti

We're in the process of dissolving Bel Haiti.  We just don't have the resources to do what they need (manpower, financial or otherwise).

Haitian Roots has taken over the orphanage work.  Please consider supporting them here:  http://www.haitianroots.com/donate.php

Cowboy Vader

Weddings Happen

 The West has been plagued by wildfires this summer.  Hundreds of homes have burned and it seems that every time we check the news another place in Utah is burning.

A week ago Friday, I got a call at about 3 in the afternoon from our friend, Jamie.  She was in tears.  Their daughter, Shantel, was married that morning, and the golf course clubhouse they'd booked for the reception was now in the Dump Fire fire zone and under evacuation.  She wondered if she could use our backyard as a new location for the reception.

"Coincidentally", a few weeks before, I'd asked Jamie at church how the wedding plans were coming.  As we chatted, she said, "You know, what?  At one point, Shan thought she wanted an outdoor reception and when we were talking about it, I kept wondering if we could use your backyard.  I know Brent always does such a good job on his yard." I said, 'We could have done that for you!  That would have been fun!" and we kinda moved on with our conversation.

Little did either of us know that Heavenly Father was planting a seed of an idea, so that in a few weeks, when fire was literally raging and Shan's big day seemed to be going up in smoke, she knew she could call me.

I called Brent and said, "Hey, we're gonna have a wedding in our backyard tonight, OK?" and he said, "Excuse me?" in a tone that made me think he was wondering if I'd started drinking.  I explained what had happened and he was pleased that they "liked his work" and would want to use his yard.

I stopped at Home Depot on the way home and bought a car load of flowers.  The guy at the checkout counter looked at my carts, looked at me (I must have looked stressed) and said, "What do you think you're doing?"  I explained we were moving a reception from the fire zone of the Dump Fire to our backyard and that I was going to get these planted in the next 3 hours.  He gave us a 10% discount and said, 'It's not much, but it's all I can do.  You tell the happy couple Home Depot wishes them well."

Neighbors showed up and helped us plant.  A neighbor, Layne Downs, had this amazing antique digger thing and he had trenches created for flowers before I could even get the flats laid out.

 

 
Miraculously, within 3.5 hours, we had a reception ready in the backyard!  People were calling guests to let them know of the new location; a table rental place had the right number of tables and could deliver them immediately; the original location was able to get their linens and decorations out of the fire zone and got them to us; canopies were rounded up; flowers planted and the ice sculptor located and redirected to our backyard.

And the guests found us.  The bride was glowing.  The wind died down.  Everything came together.


Congratulations, Shantel and Kai!  We're so happy we were able to help out!

Shan and Kai

Flowers were beautiful!

If you build it, they will come!

 

Nate was so patient.  He loved playing with all the new kids that showed up and he, of course, loved the food.  He commented a couple days later that we had "ten thousand people at our wedding at our yard."

Tired, but happy to help

The grooms cousins licking the ice sculpture as we cleaned up in the dark.

Ice sculpture held up awesome in the extreme heat.

One of my favorite moments, was later, as we were cleaning up.  Someone tied this bundle of balloons to Nate's wrist.  "Mama!" I heard him say.  I turned and saw his little arm stretched as high as he could reach, his eyes bright with wonder.  "Will these balloons carry me up to the ceiling of the night?"

Sweet, sweet little man

Mama's been insanely busy with work, work and school.

I need to write a couple of these things down before I forget them forever, so here's a quick post.

Nate's very shy.  He was in his preschool class for 6 months before he made a random comment and Miss Julie said another little boy exclaimed, "I didn't know that kid talked!"

He's had some troubles going to Primary class at church on Sundays.  He has some very... confident... kids in his class and it makes him uncomfortable to be around so much confident noise.  (how's that for being polite).  I was trying to feel him about about what was going on in Primary and it seemed that no matter how I asked the question, he'd respond with "I dunno."

 This mama is a project manager and business analyst by trade, so I'm used to getting at the root of a problem, so while we were doing something I started asking him questions from various angles, trying to get him to tell me how he felt about this situation.

All he'd answer with was. "I dunno... I dunno..." 

Finally I asked him about a boy that I knew he liked to be around.  By this point he was exasperated with me and just wanted me to STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.  So when I said, "What do you like about J?" Nate responded with, "(loud sigh)... I Don't Know, Mama... He has a beautiful face" (said in a tone like, "THERE.  I said something nice about him.  Now LEAVE ME ALONE.") 

So hard not to laugh.

Nate's also very worried about not having a sibling, lately.  He knows Mama's body doesn't make babies, but he knows that you can get children through adoption (obviously).  Here are a couple of the comments he's made lately:

"Mama, when you get a baby, its butt will stink,  but that's OK because I will love it."

"Mama, when you get a baby, make sure you get one that's afraid of the curvy slides so I can teach it not to be scared because I'll be the big brother."

This is why Mama calls him Sweetness....

Dis-lee-land!

This last week we went to Disneyland with Aunt Tia and Colly.

It was so much fun and I'm so glad that we were able to go with them.  The boys definitely had more fun together than they would have had we taken separate trips.

The boys both got chipmunk hats and wore them the whole time.

They also seemed to have near-boundless energy, and were often running or dancing ahead of us in their chipmunk hats.

 Nate didn't really get into the whole Disney scene.  He kept asking why everything was fake or why everyone was wearing crazy costumes.  He did like the rides and being with his best buddy, though!