2nd Time Around

October, November and December 2011

2011-12-23T19:13:00.018-05:00

It seems every time I sit down to blog I can't think of anything particularly interesting to say and so I don't. I think that's good. Life here is certainly not without its ups and downs, but they feel more and more like "typical" kid things.

In the last 3 months we have gone from studs to a new kitchen and dining room. We actually reused the cabinets we had - just rearranged them and put them in a different part of the room. Now we have a much larger kitchen, more counterspace, a larger dining room and an overall more open area. Without a couple of walls I can now keep an eye on what's going on much easier. When it seemed it would take forever to get out adoption tax credit refund we decided to go ahead and do the remodeling instead of adding on. We still plan to do the addition, but not until at least next spring. The kitchen still needs a little bit of work, but it's fully functional and we don't have to eat hamburger helper every night and wash dishes in the bathroom sink! Dan did a fantastic job. And we did finally get out refund about a month ago!

Since the boys came home they have always slept in the same bedroom. They have balked at being split up and so we have just let the three of them stay together. With Bethany now married (and therefore the other bedroom empty) and gone and the boys getting bigger we decided it was time to put Maicol in his own room. He's only a few feet away, but it was quite a big deal for him to not be sleeping in the same room. They have all adjusted pretty well, but Juan Pablo in particular misses having Maicol right there with him. Juan Pablo moved to the upper bunk and Andrew got the bottom. He had been sleeping on a trundle type bed and was very excited to have a bed with a little bookcase at the end to put all of his treasures.

One of the most exciting things for us has been the arrival of our first grandchild. Aidan Jack arrived in October. Our son and his wife aren't getting much sleep, but Aidan is. :) He seems to prefer to sleep during the day and stay up at night. They would prefer he do the opposite. He is a joy and the boys are very excited to see and hold him.

In November we celebrated Juan Pablo's 10th birthday. We actually had to wait a little after to have a cake and go to Chuck E Cheese. Hard to believe he's 10. He was just a little boy of 5 1/2 when we met him in Colombia. He has grown so much.

Here are some pictures from this fall. They are growing and changing so quickly. Hard to believe it's been four years since we were meeting them for the first time.

Maicol played flag football this fall and had a great season. His team made it to the championship game, but came up a touchdown short. He enjoyed playing quarterback. Initially he was all about playing soccer and not really interested in any other sports. Now he has completely changed. No interest in soccer - baseball and football are much "better". They all spend a lot of time playing football and baseball in the backyard with whomever they can find.

Dan's mom passed away in November. She had not been in good health, but it still happened quickly. We were able to be there and see her before she died.

School continues to move along. I have changed things a little, but still use the workbox system. It seems to work well for us. They still each have their own individual areas that are difficult, but they all continue to make progress.

Only two days until Christmas. The holidays have gotten much easier for them. The first year or two was miserable for everyone, but as they have grown and become confident that they are here to stay we are able to celebrate special occasions. Yeah!!!!

See you after Christmas!

Karen

Anniversaries

2011-09-22T21:34:00.027-04:00

It's annivesary time around our house. On August 27, 2007 we met our newest children for the first time. On September 10, 2007 we signed the final adoption decree - and they were ours and we were theirs forever. On September 11, 2011 we celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. And now on September 3 our daughter will be celebrating her wedding anniversary. In four years we have added 3 children, a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law and very soon a grandson. Wow. We need a bigger dining room table!

In four years they have gone from three little boys who were a little scared and had no real understanding of what was going on...

...to big boys who have learned to live in a new family and know they are loved.

In July we went to Chicago to the CHI Reunion. It was fun to meet other families in person that we have followed through blogs and some whom we had never heard of. The boys did very well and had a good time. We stayed an extra day and did a little sight-seeing. The boys wanted to ride a train, but we just couldn't work that out. Instead, we rode the bus downtown and went up to the top of the John Hancock building. We also went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Andrew looking down from the John Hancock Building.

And since we don't have anything else to do - we decided to go ahead and do some remodeling in our house. We took down a couple of walls to open things ups and rearrange our kitchen. Everyone thought it was great fun to take hammers to the walls and tear them up. The cleaning up the mess wasn't as much fun. :( We currently have the kitchen/dining room area completely empty and are ready to start putting things back together. Hopefully we won't be washing dishes in the bathroom for too long. (We had hoped to add a large family room, but it seems it may take awhile to get our adoption tax refund so that is on hold for now.)

Maicol's birthday was in July, but it took us a little longer to actually do the activity he selected - bowling. He invited a couple of friends and they managed to bowl 2 games in 2 hours! I really thought they would make it through more than 2 games. They had fun and my Groupon was put to good use.

One thing Maicol in particular has been wanting to do is go fishing. We had gone once when we were at Grandma's, but didn't catch anything. So, I took them to the reservoir in our neighborhood and we tried there. We went looking for worms, but ended up with only one and didn't catch anything. We were "lucky" enough to find a snake though. Everyone took turns playing with it before I made them let it go. We went fishing last week and Maicol did manage to catch two fish. Juan Pablo and Andrew haven't been successful yet, so I see more fishing in our future.

We are in the middle of flag football with Maicol. He was the only one really interested in playing. The other boys like to go to games to play with other kids and check out the dogs that come with their owners to watch games.

We made it through our daughter's wedding (sorry, no pictures yet). The same weekend we also had a family vacation/reunion with my family. We go to a state park and stay together. Lots of bike riding, eating and playing games. This is my sister and Maicol playing a card game. Maicol obviously isn't doing very well.

Andrew and his cousin Catharine saying good-bye. They don't see each other often and really look forward to being together.

Last week we took our third annual trip to Florida. The back seat passengers watched The Little Rascals and The Three Stooges all the way down and back. I don't know when they have been that quiet for that long. The weather there was fantastic. Warm and sunny during the day and cool and breezy at night. We couldn't have asked for better. We also got to meet another Colombia family while we were there. Kimberly, Yuly and Riza came to see us! It was so great to actually meet them. They brought us some Colombiana and Postobon soda along with some candy. The boys didn't seem to remember it very well, but once they tasted it their memory returned and they loved it! Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera out of my pocket, so I don't have any pictures.

A little wardrobe malfunction.

A jelly fish at St. Andrews State Park.

Maicol chasing the birds. I think they were glad to see us go. :)

The Time Just Flies....

2011-07-03T21:14:00.011-04:00

We made a trip to Grandma's in the spring and had a great time! The weather was good so we were able to get outside and burn lots of energy which is always good. Grandma lives on a farm so we went walking in the woods and fields looking for treasures. One of the "best" parts was finding animal bones. They wanted to bring them home, but I convinced them that they should leave them to dry and we would get them next time we were there. I did take pictures to "remember" them (in Juan Pablo's words). Hopefully they won't recall they are there to bring home. We already have one deer skull in the house - how many does one house need? :)

Maicol's new love is baseball. He lives and breathes it. Last year it was football. Before that it was soccer. Next year?

We found this dead and decaying tree in the woods. The boys spent at least an hour trying to knock it down. They were never successful, but had a great time trying!

Bethany is living at home until her wedding in September. The boys have done very well with her being here. In the past having her here has been difficult for them. That whole not liking change thing. This time it has gone very well. Andrew in particular was always stressed when she was here, but this time he seems to be doing much better. He even asked if she would read their bedtime story recently. That's a big change for him. So, of course I had to document it with a photo.

We were able to go to the zoo in June. It was a very hot day, but there was very little whining and complaining. I think we saw every animal possible. We were also able to see Grandma and Grandpa.

At the zoo. Are you sure they didn't hatch from giant eggs?

This is what Juan Pablo brought in to me a recent morning. He wasn't quite dead yet. You know it's going to be a long day when you have to say "Don't let that dragonfly loose in here!" at breakfast.

Last Saturday our friends the Beadles came to visit! Their boys are from Russia and very close in age to ours. We had been to see them a couple of times, but this was the first time they were able to come to our house. We roasted hot dogs, went swimming, the boys played and the Mom's talked and talked. It was great to see them!!

Maicol, Dima, Andrew, James, Juan Pablo and Pasha.

We took the boys on their first camping trip this week. We have been talking about going for a loooong time and it finally happened! It was only for one night, but it went very well! They helped set up the tent, went to sleep pretty well, didn't get up too early and just had a great time. They found some other boys to play with. Andrew rode his bike about a hundred miles I think! They also discovered that it's ok to ride your bike in your pajamas when you're camping. At home I forbid that. :) We hope to go again before the summer is over.

We found some berries to pick while we were camping.

Dan even helped do the cooking. He makes a pretty good sausage, potato and carrot skillet!

The big news at our house is Maicol's 12th birthday. We celebrated today although his birthday won't be for a couple more days. Hard to believe he is 12. It's been almost 4 years since we first saw his picture and wondered what he would be like. In his referral photo he looked like he had "attitude". He does have that sometimes, but he is also a big brother that looks out for his younger brothers. He's quick to learn and just soaks in information. He has a close relationship with his younger brothers. Our little boy is obviously growing up though. He still plays with the little brothers, but he is beginning to leave some of that behind. We knew he would grow up, but hoped it wouldn't happen quite so fast. :)

2011-04-24T22:24:00.021-04:00

Wow! Where did the time go? Last time I blogged was more than two months ago. Here's what has been going on.

In February we did a one day study about snakes. My boys just love animals, and so much of our study of science involves animals. The more dangerous and likely they are to hurt or eat you the better! We read, talked, drew, made, did puzzles and pretended to be snakes. For one activity I put them in their sleeping bags and made them wiggle out of them without using their hands. Sort of like smakes shedding their too small skin.

Maicol painting his wooden snake.

In late February we went to spend a few days with the Beadle family. We love going to see them! They are our "twins". The boys love playing together and the moms love talking. They let us come and just hang out with them all day. The days spent with them are some of the best of the year for us. Too bad we don't live closer.

We went out to eat together Sunday after church. With their oldest son there that's 9 males and Phyllis and I. That's alot of boy!

Andrew and Dima.

Juan Pablo and Pasha.

One final shot of all of us.

Got milk?

We spent a day in March having fun for Andrew's birthday. He still loves Chuck E Cheese, so we went there. Everyone had a good time and the staff were generous in doling out the prizes. We also went to McDonald's for Happy Meals, playing and then off to spend a little birthday cash. It was a nice day off from school for everyone.

Juan Pablo playing the "gorilla" game. You hold onto the two metal handles which vibrate and a little puff of smoke comes out of his head. He and Andrew just love this thing and they always get a few tickets for holding on until the end.

Andrew and Juan Pablo.

Andrew and his Spiderman cake. He turned 6 in March. I can't believe we are now on our 4th "round" of birthdays with the boys. The big kids came over and we had dinner and cake. Andrew only really likes the icing, so I gave him a piece of cake, but ended up just letting him eat the leftover icing.

Jonathan and Kristin. Not the best picture of them, but I had to include it with this announcement. We are going to be grandparents! In November we will enter grandparenthood. I thought grandparents were "old" people. :)

And here is our other exciting news. Our daughter is going to be married! She and Allen are planning a Labor Day weekend wedding. So we're adding a son-in-law to our familiy.

We did the Easter egg dyeing thing yesterday. Whomever thought of using wire whisks to hold eggs to dip them in the dye was a genius! Those little wire things that come in the kits are useless. Only problem is I need one more. Got to have three of everything you know. The boys took turns coloring eggs and playing computer, so it worked out good.

It has been rainy, rainy and rainy here, so I was not planning on hiding eggs. It did at least stop raining in the afternoon and so after much begging and pleading on the boys' part we did put some eggs out for them to look for. Either we hid the eggs very well, or the boys weren't looking very hard because we had to help them find the eggs. Maicol never did find one of his. Guess it will show up sometime. The big kids came over for lunch and we had a good day.

Checking out the egg contents. We didn't really have much in the way of candy, so money ended up in the eggs. It's at least as popular as candy. :)

Andrew eating his peeps. He was the only one who asked for candy and what he really wanted was peeps. Not my favorite thing, but if you like marshmallows and sugar like Andrew does what could be better? He was on a sugar high for the afternoon!

An exciting thing for Andrew was a visit to urgent care for stitches. He and Juan Pablo were running toward the truck and he ran right into the edge of the open door. He had a good sized laceration and was the recipient of 5 sutures. I took them out yesterday. So now I think each of them have had some type of sutures, but no broken bones. I'll spare you the picture for this one. :)

I don't have a picture for this, but it is a milestone at our house. I have stopped rocking the boys before bed. Three and a half years ago when we brought them home I started rocking Andrew to get him to go to sleep at bedtime. With all the boys in the same bedroom it was trouble every night unless he or Juan Pablo were asleep when they went to bed. Andrew was the youngest and easiest to get to sleep by rocking, so that's what I did. Quickly the other two decided they wanted to be rocked too. It had been suggested to us that rocking them was a good thing to do, but I didn't start doing it for bonding and attachment reasons - it was for survival! :) But, as with anything we do with them - if you do it once they think it's a routine and want it to continue. So, for over 3 years I have rocked each of them before bed. Sometimes just for 5 minutes each, but nearly every night. Around Christmas it seemed like we were getting to bed later and it just got to be too late to rock and so we would just hug and kiss them and put them to bed. There was a little fuss about it, but not much. In the past if there was no rocking there was much complaining and attitude. So, we have just let it gradually stop. Dan still reads a book to them alot of nights, but no rocking. I guess that "need" has finally been met. Wow, that was alot of rocking! But, it was something I loved doing with our biological children and even tho these kids were older it was still time I treasured getting to spend with each of them. But, soon there will be grandchildren to rock and so the rocking chair will be put to use again.

Spring is here and that puts us outside to play. We have been jumping on the trampoline and playing baseball. Maicol has been getting some of the neighborhood kids to come over and play a version of baseball. With our three and 2 or 3 others they make two teams and play. Dan and I were saying it's a little like the movie Sandlot. Only there is no "good" player - just Maicol who thinks he knows everything. :) They have fun.

Life just continues to fly by. School gets done everyday. They are learning and growing. And so are we. Until next time....

Karen

The $80.40 Lego

2011-02-20T19:55:00.007-05:00

Catchy title huh? This is the Lego arm that cost us $80.40, two doctor visits, crying on Andrew's part and lots of aggrevation on our part. Andrew has put other objects in his ear, but this is the one that we couldn't get out. We tried and we tried some more, but it would not budge. We ended up at the ENT office where it was removed quickly. You would think he had learned his lesson, but no. He has since put a stick in his ear, but we were able to remove it. When, oh when will he stop this?!!

Lots of fun since our last update. In January we went to a state park for a couple of days. They have an indoor pool and "water park" which is of course the main reason to go. It was nice to get away for a few days, even though none of us felt great. Juan Pablo lost his lunch before we left, I was sick the night before and everyone was a little under the weather, but we went anyway and had a good time.

Dan and the boys working on a puzzle. Juan Pablo really likes doing them. This was a new puzzle we took to the park with us.

Maicol and his igloo. This started as a pile of snow from the snowplow and Maicol worked it into an igloo. He dug it out from the inside and continued to add snow to the outside. It was big enough for him to stretch out and lay down in before it got too warm. The boys all jumped on it to demolish it before it was melted by the sun.

Andrew doing the dreaded "putting the silverware away" job. He absolutely hates doing this job. We don't know why. It's a quick and easy job, but he really dislikes doing it. He will happily do the other boys jobs, but he will procrastinate doing his own job.

We have had a fantastic warm-up this week and have been able to get outside and play without spending 10 minutes bundling everyone up. We took a trail at a local park, played on the playground and of course had to take a few pictures. It was sooooo nice to be outside!

Maicol looking very cool.

Our little "tree hugger".

Maicol, Juan Pablo and Andrew.

School is going well. We haven't taken any days off since the first of January and they are doing very well. Maicol is learning to write book reports. Writing and spelling are a struggle for him, so this is quite a stretch and he of course is not happy about doing it. He would much rather do math.

Everyone is doing well. Lots more "Yes, Mom" 's. :) I was talking to Maicol recently and he told me that he now believes that he is here to stay. He has been thinking for over 3 years now that at some point we would be sending him back! He told us after a few months that he knew we would be sending him back. No amount of us reassuring him that we love him and would and could not do that helped. It seems that the passage of time (and maybe the reassurance from us) that has cemented this for him. Whatever it is, I was so glad to hear it. But, how sad that he has been thinking that for so long.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Karen

Family Pictures

2011-01-02T11:30:00.004-05:00

Back in October we had a friend of our daughter's take some pictures for us. We think they turned out great. Here are a few our my favorites.

Catching Up

2010-12-25T17:06:00.011-05:00

Lots of pictures and the "blog" at the end.

A snow "igloo".

Opening gifts.

Juan Pablo's birthday.

Maicol snowboarding.

Juan Pablo.

Maicol.

The monkeys.

Where to begin? Since I last blogged we have celebrated Juan Pablo's 9th birthday, had Thanksgiving, our first snow and now Christmas. Lots of pictures taken and lots of life going on. School continues to go ok - not great, but not terrible. The workboxes have helped, but they still would just rather play than work (imagine that!). They are learning tho - Juan Pablo is turning out to be a good reader. I must admit I thought he would never learn the basic letter sounds, but once he "got" it he has done very well. We have discovered that Maicol really likes history. While he generally doesn't like to read, he loves to read history and also the sports section of the newspaper. Football is the main attraction right now as the Colts try to make it into the post season. Andrew has started asking for the comics and will study them very carefully. I'm not sure he understands much and he can't read enough to actually read the captions, but he really seems to enjoy looking at them. He also seems to have the best sense of humor. He's our funny guy.

We spent as much time as possible outdoors in the fall knowing that it would get too cold to be outside on a daily basis. Being inside all day makes for long days sometimes. We have made one trip to a state park with an indoor pool and will be going to another next weekend. They love swimming and we like to get away a little when the weather is cold and we can't get outside as much. We also made a trip to see Grandparents.

We have been sledding a couple of times. We have been fortunate enough to have a decent amount of snow and it hasn 't been too cold. Dan isn't much for sledding, so I go and take the boys. We have a blast! I do hate getting up the next morning after I've climbed back up the hill 20 or 30 times. :) They have been playing "snow football" in the yard. This consists of using a football, rolling around in the snow and Maicol tackling and knocking the other two to the ground. Then when your snowsuit, gloves and hat are soaking wet you come inside. They have little headlamps they wear on their heads, so they mostly play this in the dark.

We had Grandma, cousins, Aunt Mary and Uncle Terre and the "big kids" for Thanksgiving. Lots of food and fun. The boys in general play together well and the adults get to play games.

Enjoy!

Karen

Growing

2010-11-07T20:40:00.004-05:00

What a difference a year makes! They have grown in so many ways. Physically they are growing quickly. Everyone is getting taller and gaining pounds. They are all getting too big to play as rough as they used to with Mom. They are doing well in school. Still don't really like it much, but they are learning. The workbox system has helped tremendously. We get more accomplished and they are slowly becoming more independent. In terms of attachment they are growing. There are no all day "unhappiness" episodes. Still some need to control things and some attitudes, but leaps and bounds better than last fall. I found these pictures from last year and this year. My how they have grown!

Fall 2009

Fall 2009

Fall 2010

Moths, Spiders, Grandma's and Football

2010-10-23T21:13:00.012-04:00

I have tired to blog a couple of times and couldn't get the pictures to load. I finally checked under the Help tab and it was an easy fix. Why didn't I do that sooner?

School has been going pretty well. None of them ever get up and say "I can't wait to start school!", but there is less complaining. We also seem to just in general be getting closer to "normal". More and more the behaviors we deal with are typical kid things and not so much attachment/adoption issues. There are still moments, but they are generally that - just moments.

So, here's what has been going on at our house this month. I have pictures for everything except one. Probably about 3 weeks ago Juan Pablo came running home from the neighbors house and said "Andrew ate a moth!". I wasn't sure if I should believe him or not - he does have a tendency to exaggerate. Andrew wasn't too far behind him. When I asked him about it he gave me a kind of sick look and nodded his head yes. Evidently he was trying to impress the neighbor boys. From what I understand he only ate about half of it. :) (and I was assured it was dead before he took the first bite) They really never do fail to surprise us.

We spent one day a couple of weeks ago learning about spiders. We colored spider pictures, made finger puppets to sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider to, did search a word puzzles, made a spider out of pipe cleaners, drew a spider web with cool metallic markers and learned about spiders. We also went out into the yard and looked for spiders and webs. There were lots of pictures taken of spiders, but I will spare you most of that. We did find a spider right in our front yard that had a great web. The boys actually found a couple of bugs for him (or her) and basically put them into the web. We got to watch him wrap them up and save them to eat later. Yucky, but cool also.

Juan Pablo with his activities.

Andrew with all of his things.

Maicol.

This is the spider we watched in our front yard.

We have had fantastic weather and have spent as many afternoons as possible outside. These are pictures from the park in our neighborhood. We went down to see how low the reservoir is and then played on the playground.

Juan Pablo

Maicol

Andrew

We made a trip to Grandma's house. As usual the weather was wonderful. We spent time playing in the yard and also walking in the woods.

Eating ice cream bars. One of their favorite things about going to Grandma's. :)

Maicol playing catch with Grandma. He has suddenly become very interested in baseball. Since I am from southern Ohio and followed the Reds he has become interested in them and has loved watching them on TV.

Walking in the woods. Not sure what Dan was pointing out, but they were certainly interested.

Today we finished Upwards flag football. Maicol is the only one that played. He absolutely loved it. They had a championship and his team came in second. It was a close game. He can't wait for next year. He had a wonderful coach. We hope to have him next year.

Maicol as quarterback. Getting ready to take the ball from the center.

Team picture. Maicol is on the far left.

Beach Vacation 2010

2010-09-24T22:02:00.017-04:00

We have had a wonderful time at Laguna Beach this week. The trip down went well, and really our 4 days here have gone very well. Some whining and complaining, especially as they get more tired and miss home and routine. All in all a good trip tho. We will start back tomorrow, spend the night in Alabama and get home Sunday evening. The boys have loved playing in the waves and searching for wildlife. The waves have been pretty big, which is fun, but very tiring. Dan has to go out with them and he is tired too. We haven't collected many shells. The waves are just too big. I'm not too sad tho - lots less "valuables" for me to bring home. We did go to a state park today and found several small sand dollars. They have also loved no school! I really had hoped to get some things ready to bring in order to make the most of our time, but it just didn't happen. Maybe next year....

Juan Pablo and Andrew at a rest area in Alabama.

Dan trying to keep track of everyone in the waves.

Maicol

Andrew making sand angels.

Andrew, Maicol, and Juan Pablo at sunset.

What's in the bucket?

A crab Mom scooped out of the ocean!

Off on a "mission" at the state park.

Maicol

Looking for sand dollars.

Small hermit crabs.

Then and Now III

2010-09-11T14:34:00.020-04:00

Our three boys at a street side park in Ibague

Maicol playing cards at Patricia's in Ibague

Juan Pablo and "Andres" in our favorite park in Ibague

Maicol - ThenMaicol - Then

Juan Pablo - Then

Andrew - Then

Mom and Andrew - Then

Andrew, Juan Pablo and Maicol - First Halloween in the U.S.

Bethany and Maicol - Now

Andrew and Jonathan - Now

Now

Now - St. Louis Zoo

Well, it's been many moons since I (Dan) have blogged, so on this, our 28th anniversary, I thought I'd give it a shot. Yesterday was our 3rd anniversary of signing for the adoption and adding three more gifts to our family. Sometimes it seems like it all happened just yesterday, and sometimes it feels like a lifetime. I wouldn't want anyone to think that adopting 3 children is easy, but I also have to say that it is totally worth it all. There are times that I'm on top of the world and enjoying my family so much. But there are also times when I'm really depressed and wondering if I was nuts to do this at my age. With 2 family anniversaries to celebrate and the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the U.S. to think about, my emotions are a bit close to the surface. I think I'll try this another time.

These pictures can't begin to show how far my three new boys have come in the last three years, but I hope you enjoy them.

God bless you all,

Dan

Where did June go?

2010-07-08T19:57:00.009-04:00

Not sure what happened to June - but I'm sure it was wonderful! I just can't remember. :) We have spent everyday at the pool after we have whined our way through school. I hate, hate, hate whining! But, it just seems that we "need" to do some everyday. It certainly decreases as time goes on, but it just won't seem to leave our house.

Maicol spent a week at church camp the end of June. I think he had only been away from home for one night a couple of times, so a whole week was a long time. He went knowing no one and seemed to have a good time. He wants to go back, but not right now. He said it was "long". His brothers really, really missed him. We took the week off from school and spent it cleaning out the garage and attic. It was so nice to get rid of alot of junk and we hope to one day soon get a car in the garage! :)

The biggest news is Maicol celebrated his 11th birthday. We were able to avoid Chuck E Cheese and went bowling instead. I think it is something we will do again. The "big kids" came too, and it was fun. Maicol was thrilled because he beat Mom one game. Of course he had help with bumpers, but he did still win.

We're off to St. Louis tomorrow. Excited to get away for the weekend and see some other Colombia families.

Karen

The birthday boy and his brothers.

Maicol

Andrew and Jonathan

Opening his gifts. We gave him a bow and arrow (suction cups). Hopefully safe enough for a boy who still has trouble controlling himself.

The brothers keeping a close eye on the gifts as they are opened.

Juan Pablo

Andrew

May 2010

2010-05-30T21:12:00.014-04:00

Here's the month of May (in reverse order) since of course I forgot to upload the pictures in the correct order. :) We have had great weather and have been able to do some visiting this month, so lots of pictures.

Our neighborhood pool opened this weekend and of course we had to be there the first day. As I recall, last year it was cool and cloudy, but the boys insisted it was fine for swimming and had to go. They shivered. This year it is nearly 90, sunny and no wind, so great weather for swimming. Juan Pablo could barely hold his head up to eat dinner tonight he was so tired from playing and swimming. They were very excited to show me that all of them can now all do a front flip off the diving board. I did get some video, but it wouldn't load for me, so here are a couple of action shots.

We made a trip to my Mom's this past week. The weather, once again, was fantastic. My sister and two of her boys came and we had a great time. Andrew managed to find an almost deceased butterly. And if it isn't deceased by the time he is finished handling anything it probably will be. There were other pictures of them holding various little creatures, but I decided to spare you. Suffice it to say Andrew and Juan Pablo love to pick up anything dead or alive and want to take a picture so - "we can remember". And I much prefer a picture to keeping the real thing. :)

We also made a stop at the church camp where I went as a kid. Dan and I actually lived there for a few months when we were first married. He worked there and I was still in xray school. It certainly has changed in the past 25+ years! We are hoping that Maicol might go to a week of camp there this summer. The pictures are of a rope swing that lets you swing across the stream that runs though the camp. All the kids loved it (including Dan).

Andrew was finally able to use his birthday present. A slip n slide race set. He and Juan Pablo had a blast! Anything that involves water and racing has to be fun.

We are coming up on the last week of Upwards soccer. Maicol and Juan Pablo played. Andrew has to be one year older, so next year they can all play. Although Maicol told us that he is considering not playing next year because the Saturday morning games cause him to miss cartoons! What kind of Colombian would let cartoons interfere with playing soccer?!

If I could only get them to do chores like this all the time! I think I sent one to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer and somehow they all got involved. They look awfully happy to be helping.....

We made a trip to the Children's Museum. We have a membership, but still don't go as often as we should. Can anyone explain to me why I have to drive 45 minutes to a museum so they can play video games?

This is from the Egypt exhibit. A crocodile on the Nile.

We also made a trip to see Dan's Mom and Dad. After that we went on to see a friend of mine. She lives on a farm and one of the things they have right now are baby goats. The boys had a great time playing with them and just playing outside in general. Once again we had nearly perfect weather to be outside.

We're still trying to get the usual stuff in too! School is going ok. I never accomplish everything I would like to for school, but I keep on trying. There has been lots of playing outside and jumping on the trampoline.

The traveling we have done with the boys has been much better. Even a year ago they still didn't handle going new places well. Anything new was always difficult for everyone. This spring they have done really well. Even going to see my friend (whom they had not met) went smoothly. Yeah!

Last week I painted their bathroom and the great room and hallway. Not a drastic change in color, but a change. Maicol's first words were "I don't like it". I know he doesn't like anything to change and that it wasn't the color he was unhappy with, but the fact that it had changed. I was able to gently point that out to him and it agreed, smiled and was happily on his way. Wow! He has come a long way! (and so have I).

Until next time.

Karen

Spring!!!!

2010-04-22T23:45:00.004-04:00

It is spring! We have been loving being able to get outdoors to play. Everyone goes to sleep easily at night and they even stay in bed in the morning a little later so that Mom has a little more time to get things done. We are back to bike riding, jumping on the trampoline, taking walks, playing at various parks and just being outdoors. We are back to roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in the backyard too.

We made another trip to Grandma's to visit and get to play with the cousins for a couple of days. It was a good trip. Not too much fussing about the ride and we had great weather to get outdoors while we were there. My sister has 3 boys with two of them being right between ours so it works out perfectly. I get to see my sister and mom and Dan gets to rest. Well, except for this time - he spent most of his time cutting down firewood and moving and stacking it.

Our other excitement was Maicol having appendicitis. He woke up one morning with pain in just the right place. We went to the ER at 9am and by 3pm he was in a room minus his appendix. He ended up staying two days. Quite an adventure for all of us. He is the most healthy of the three. Rarely even gets a sore throat, so this was a new experience for him. He did very well and is now back to doing whatever he wants. And now we know where that tax refund check is going! :)

We are having more and more good days at our house. Not perfect, but then we never expected that. But, there is much more desire to do what Mom asks, do schoolwork without complaining and just in general it seems they are more content. We still have our times of uphappiness, but they are fewer and even when things don't go well it is short-lived. When previously we would have had all-day problems, now they are just a few minutes to an hour problem and then it is over and we can move on. Not sure what it is - maybe enough time has passed that they feel safe? Whatever it is, we hope and pray it continues.

Nothing else very exciting. Here are a few pictures of our trip to Grandma's.

The Three Amigos.

Playing a very important game of badmitton on the sand volleyball court. At least there is something to do while you wait for your turn.

Maicol.

Juan Pablo

Andrew.

Andrew's Birthday

2010-03-28T22:14:00.004-04:00

We are almost finished with birthday month! We celebrated Andrew's 5th birthday today. Hard to believe this is the 3rd birthday we have celebrated with him. We still have the Chuck E Cheese thing to do, but that will have to wait until later. He had the cake and presents today. His brothers have been reminding him every day how many more days it is. It was so much easier when they didn't know their birthdays. :) Andrew can't read the calendar, but he does now know the date of his birthday.

Jonathan's birthday was last Monday. We had a Chinese buffet dinner with him. He and his wife decided to go south for spring break, (I can't imagine why) so we'll do his cake another time.

Here are a few pictures of the birthday boy. He enjoyed the day and so did we.

Karen

The Beginning of Birthday Month

2010-03-14T19:53:00.005-04:00

This is the beginning of "Birthday Month" at our house. Three of our five children have March birthdays. The first was today - Bethany. She requested BBQ chicken pizza and apple pie - so of course that's what we had. I'm not much of a pie maker, but I managed to peel apples and put them in a crust with a little (lot) sugar and cinnamon and it turned out ok. We did have one little candle in the pie, because it's a birthday and you have to have candles. And the boys all know that regardless of whose birthday it is they will get to blow out the candles at least once. We have Jonathan's birthday next weekend and Andrew is the next. Plus, my brother's birthday was yesterday! Let the celebrating continue.
And now a few pictures to make this post complete.
Karen

Andrew on our walk last week. It was warm enough to go out and we all needed to expend a little energy so Mom wouldn't go crazy! He is showing off his collection from the walk - a stick, a cork and 3 sweet gum seed pods.

"The Boys" on our walk. Don't you normally walk around your neighborhood with your Spiderman or Power Ranger outfit and dracula cape on?

The Birthday Girl. And her birthday apple pie.

New Discoveries

2010-03-03T21:00:00.008-05:00

Not much exciting going on here. Just life. School is going somewhat better. After you have to spend a few days doing your schoolwork in your room by yourself it does encourage you to be a little more respectful and do much less complaining!

We had to buy a new camera. It had disappeared for a few days and I had looked high and low for it. I finally asked the most obvious person (Andrew) where it was and of course he knew. He came out of the bathroom with it. Thankfully there were no "bathroom" pictures on it, but it won't focus properly and it makes a funny sound when you turn it on. So, one more thing Andrew has destroyed. Oh well...

Maicol has had many better days lately. I think that some of it is our reaction to his moods - quick consequences for being disrespectful. I think some of it is just more time being with us and very slowly beginning to trust. Last week he was interested in what time of the day he was born, so I pulled up the referral documents and was looking for it. He began to read over my shoulder the information that explains what events brought him to the point where he was declared abandoned and adoptable. He wanted me to read it and I did and explained some of the things he wasn't clear about. He remembers very clearly many of the circumstances described. While he has known some of this information before, some of it was new to him. I think that in the past he really had not seen any reason for him to be adopted. He felt like he was ok and didn't need a mom and dad. Going over some of this information has helped him to better understand where he was and why he is with a new family now.

Juan Pablo has become a "please Mom" and "thank you Mom" boy lately. Yeah!!! He has been spending less time sitting on his bed for refusing to do things. He has also been encouraging Andrew to be good too.

Andrew is fascinated that he has 10 fingers and 10 toes. I'm not sure if we just never mentioned that particular fact to him or it's that he can count and understand what 10 is. Whatever it is, he has been counting them for us recently. He didn't want to eat bologna tonight (which I have discovered they used to eat and love) because it's made of "guts". I also discovered that he has been putting Cheetos in the overflow holes in their bathroom sink. Why? He is just so funny! He is also learning the "2-vowel rule" in reading.

Nothing else exciting that I can think of. Thanks for reading.

Karen

Juan Pablo and Andrew being silly.

We made a cake one night last week just for fun. They decorated it with colored sugar and then we put candles on it and they took turn blowing them out. Whose birthday was it? We don't know - but I'm sure it was someones!

Juan Pablo's lego creation.

We have had about a month of snow. This was the beginning of it. Heavy, wet beautiful snow!

Update

2010-02-04T20:58:00.006-05:00

So, here's what we've been up to the past month.

Juan Pablo's Lego creations.

Light saber fighting. This was what we did for the "reward of the day" recently. I participated too, but since I had to take the picture you don't get to see me striking a pose. :)

Andrew decided to try out Dad's beard trimmer. He very quietly slipped it out of our bathroom and had cut a swath of his beautiful black hair before I knew it. Dad thought we should just give it back to him and let him finish the job. I prefer not to have him "buzzed". As many times as we have said "the only person in our family who cuts hair is Bethany" he still did it. And I doubt it will be the last time either.

Maicol stacking pennies. For family night last week we had Penny Night. We had a contest stacking pennies (which Dad won). We also tossed pennies. I placed a point value on the tiles in the kitchen and we tossed pennies and added the points. Andrew won that contest. The penny tossing was a huge hit. I'm thinking we'll have nickel night sometime.

This is part of our candy making fun. Maicol received a kit to make suckers for Christmas. We finally worked on it last week. There were only a couple of sucker molds to use and lots of candy left over, so we just drizzled it on foil and then ate it in pieces. It was really easy to make and everyone enjoyed eating it.

Dan and Maicol watching TV I just love pictures of the boys with their Dad.

Andrew and Dad. I think Andrew is watching TV, but Dan is obviously watching the inside of his eyelids. :)

Andrew putting dishes away. Normally hs job is to put the silverware away, but for some reason he was helping with the dishes. Probably not the safest job for him to do, but he was very excited to get to do the older boys job.

School continues on - some good days and some bad days. It seems we need to constantly come up with new strategies. The latest is if you fuss or complain about your work, you have to do it by yourself in your bedroom. You must stay there until it is done and if you continue to complain you may be spending an extended part of the day in your bedroom. You also may get extra work to do in your bedroom. One day last week I had one in their bedroom and when the other one started causing trouble, in order to separate them, I put him in the bathroom. Maicol is finally learning to spell, math still remains a mystery for Juan Pablo, and Andrew is learning by leaps and bounds. There are days that it is so much fun to see them get something and other days it is almost torture to get though some things.

It was warm enough the past couple of days for them to play outside. I love it when they can get outside and play! We are hoping for snow tonight, so it may be sledding for tomorrow.

I've been on a cleaning, decluttering, and reducing quest this week. I was beginning to feel surrounded by stuff. So far I have cleared out two closets, reduced the amount of dishes I keep, reduced clothing and shoes, cleaned and organized the laundry room, etc. It is wonderful!! Now if I can just finish the job and keep it from happening agin. That's the real challenge I think.

Andrew is talking and thinking more about his life before he became our son. We were looking at baby pictures of our biological children recently and he questioned why we didn't have baby pictures of him. He really seemed to be upset that we didn't have any of him and wanted to know why we didn't get him when he was a baby. Maicol laments the same thing sometimes. He wishes we had pictures of him as a baby (and so do we). Knowing their background I doubt that such pictures even exist. Juan Pablo says at times he wishes he could go back to his real mom. So, we repeat how she wasn't a very good mom and couldn't take care of him and he needed a mom and dad and that is us. That's the simple explanation we give and it seems to be enough for now for Juan Pablo and Andrew. For Maicol we've gone into a little more detail. We've tried to be straight forward and honest and they seem to be satisfied for now. I'm sure as they get older there will be much more specific questions. Hopefully we're talking about it enough (and not too much) that it's a natural part of their lives and not a taboo topic.

Watching for the first snowflake.......

Karen

The Holidays are Over :(

2010-01-10T19:45:00.007-05:00

Tomorrow we are going to give up the "holiday" life and schedule and get back to school. We had a great time at my Mom's for our Christmas trip the week after Christmas. It was alot of fun to have all of the cousins together. They got along very well and had a good time. We took a picture of all of them on the same couch and in the same order as last year. Obviously mine are still the cutest! :)

We went to a state park last week for a couple of days. They have an indoor water park area, which was the main reason we went to that particular park. There was a big slide, small lazy river ride, splash area and a regular pool with a basketball goal and volleyball net. Plus they have a hot tub! It was fun to swim inside and watch the snow outside. We hope to go to another park in February - assuming attitudes are improved.

Enough snow has finally arrived to go sledding. Dan took the boys yesterday and I took them today. Andrew was complaining about his feet being cold, so today I spent most of the time sitting in the car with him so the other boys could sled and work on learning to ride their snowboards. Maicol is able to stand up all the way down the hill and Juan Pablo is able to squat down and make it down without falling over.

Karen

Oh boy, clothes for Christmas!

All of the grandchildren on my side of the family. Note the lack of girls!

Maicol and Juan Pablo

Juan Pablo

Andrew

The boys.

Christmas

2009-12-27T21:10:00.006-05:00

We had an unbelievably good, calm, happy Christmas. Their first Christmas was terrible and last year was better, but not great. This year was "normal"! They didn't get everything they wanted, but were happy. They shared. They played together and didn't argue or fight. They even let me take a nap on the couch! I haven't done that in 2+ years. It was wonderful! The weekend has been uneventful as well. Plus we got our first decent snow so of course they are very happy. We went out and played yesterday for awhile.

No school this week which makes for happy boys - and an easier week for Mom and Dad. We're off to Grandma's for Christmas this week with my family. Can't wait to see everyone.

Karen

Andrew

New PJ's.

Being silly in our new PJ's.

We did a quick "trying to calm them down and get ready for bed" activity Saturday night. I sat them all at the kitchen counter and gave them mini marshmallows and toothpicks to make things. They were more creative than I expected. Here they are with their creations.

Andrew - not sure what he was making.

Juan Pablo with his "human", house and a flower.

Our Week

2009-12-19T19:23:00.003-05:00

Just a post of our week in pictures.

This is the "train" that Andrew and Juan Pablo constructed yesterday afternoon. It consisted of pillows, "Tigger", a power ranger helmet, an electric keyboard, a Bible, some pieces of wood and a few other miscelaneous items. They were so very proud of themselves and although I didn't quite understand how everything went together and formed a train I of course told them how creative they were and how hard they had worked.

The next two pictures are the result of "The Reward of the Day". In an effort to try to encourage them to work more diligently on their schoolwork we have instituted this reward program. Each day it is something different - a bag of chips for lunch, computer time, a craft, make playdough and such. This particular day it was face painting. I had bought some Halloween face paint on clearance and since they love this type of thing I thought it would make a good reward. Andrew is a Power Ranger and Juan Pablo is a pirate. I still have a way to go in my next career as a makeup artist, but they were happy with the results. :)

This week I almost felt like I got to meet myself. Phyllis and her husband adopted a sibling group of 3 boys from Russia last year and we "met" through our blogs. The similarities are amazing! We are essentially the same age, have two older children the same sex and age, our boys are nearly the same age, we both homeschool and it just seems to go on and on. It was wonderful to meet someone else who has/is dealing with many of the same things we have/are.
My boys had a great time playing and wish we lived closer. Here we are with our boys.

Fall 2009

2009-12-09T19:03:00.011-05:00

Wow - I have alot of territory to cover! Maicol in particular has been wanting to play football in the backyard. This primarily consists of me throwing the ball to he or Juan Pablo and then Maicol either runs with it or knocks Juan Pablo down if he happens to get the ball. Then Andrew comes and gets the ball and runs. They really have no idea about the rules (and neither do I), but it does provide for fun and burns off some energy. Unfortunately it's getting to cold now to get out and play.

We celebrated Juan Pablo's eighth birthday in November. We had a family dinner and then gifts, cake and ice cream. Hard to believe he's had 3 birthdays since he became our son. We still need to go to Chuck E Cheese's, but we are patiently (NOT) waiting on a time that we can all go with his big brother. I think Maicol asks about it more than he does. I do not particularly care to go there (seems like it always gives me a headache), but they all just love going and I guess I can tolerate it 3 times a year. :) One of his gifts was a Lite Brite and I think the older kids enjoyed it as much as he did. I even broke down and bought a cake. I'm cheap, but Dan reminded me it is just once a year.

I worked over Thanksgiving, so we went last weekend to my Mom's to celebrate. My sister and her family came so there were plenty of boys to play with. We got out twice to take a walk to the woods. I miss living in the country. They had a great time and since it was cold there was a little pond that was frozen over. Not thick enough ice to walk on, but enough to poke with sticks and get their feet wet. Lots of playing with sticks, looking at leaves and trees and trying to be quiet enough to see deer. They have slept for 12 hours the last three nights, so I think they are about "caught up" now. When they are gone and don't go to bed on time it is really hard on them and also hard on their Mom and Dad to tolerate them.

We are still waiting on our first real snow. We had flurries today and lots of wind. They were so full of energy (loud, pushing and fighting, disobedient) today that I took them for a walk before I even tried to get school started. We were out when it started to flurry and they thought that was very cool. By the time we got back home the temperature had definitely dropped! The time outside running seemed to help and we were able to get school done with minimal problems.

Maicol still has trouble controlling his mouth, but has good days also. The upside for me is that each time he gets into trouble he has to do a chore for me. I have been the recipient of a clean bathroom and mopped floors today. Juan Pablo vacuumed and straighted up the living room for me. Andrew even got to help put the dishes away and put toys away. But I did also play hide and seek with them so they didn't have to work all day. They are doing good as far as learning, but their attitude towards Mom still needs a great deal of work. We just keep working on it.

There is lots of talk of Christmas gifts and they now understand that nearly every day in the paper their is another new ad to be checked. They are more anxious than me to get the paper each morning! We are doing a simple advent book each night. A short version of a Bible story and then a picture to find hidden items in.

We are still doing "Family Night" each Tuesday. The counselor we went to suggested this and so each Tuesday we do something together. Sometimes it's an all day thing and sometimes it's a shorter activity. Maicol (being the stickler for rules that he is) is unhappy if we do a daytime activity instead of a nighttime activity. He makes me crazy sometimes! Isn't an all-day fun time better than just a one hour night time thing? We think so, but what do we know?!

Lots of pictures with this post. That's what everyone wants anyway, isn't it?

Until next time....

This is how their version of football always ends up - one on the ground and the other two trying to wrestle the ball away.

Juan Pablo - he's usually being pushed to the ground by Maicol.

Juan Pablo - the very happy birthday boy!

Juan Pablo - 8th birthday.

Opening his presents.

The "big kids" playing with Juan Pablo's new Lite Brite.

Playing on the trampoline with Dad. He doesn't jump or play on the trampoline very often, but when he does they love it!

Andrew

Maicol

Juan Pablo

Andrew, Juan Pablo and Maicol

Juan Pablo

Maicol and Andrew - listening to Dad read for Family Night.

Fall

2009-11-01T19:42:00.005-05:00

The weather has been good for being almost November, so we have been trying to get out and take advantage of it. Two weeks ago we packed up a suitcase and went to a state park for a quick overnight trip. It took me three hours to get the boys around a 1.7 mile trail! I told Dan with the boys a trail is to be "experienced", it's not a matter of going from the beginning to the end with them! They have to stop a look at everything, pick up everything and ask about a thousand questions (most of which I don't know the answer to).

We went to a hayride/wiener roast at an old friends house. This is the third year they have gone and now that they know what's going to happen they are excited to go.

I took them to a park near our home that we had not investigated yet. It has a nature center, playground and trails. The trails were closed that day, so we spent a good bit of time in the nature center. Lots of aquariums with turtles, snakes and lizards. Animal puppets to put on shows for Mom and a bird watching area. We went again today to walk (experience) the trails.

School is going ok. Maicol still complains everyday about what he has to do. He still has to complete all of it, so I don't know why he hasn't given up complaining. Maybe someday. He is at the point where so much of his work involves reading and while he can read, there are still so many words that he doesn't know which frustrates him. Juan Pablo still prefers reading to math. He is starting to write sentences and doing well with that. Andrew is learning to read. He is able to blend consonants and short vowels. I think very soon he will be able to sound out words himself. He does well with numbers too.

We are quickly approaching another birthday. Juan Pablo will be 8 in two weeks. Now that Halloween is over this will be the topic of conversation. How long will it be til the event, when will we go to Chuck E Cheese, what will the gifts be, etc. Everyday, many times a day we will have to answer the same questions. Ahhhhhh!!

Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

Karen

What did we do before?

2009-10-15T20:32:00.005-04:00

What did we do before we had 3 boys? It must have been really boring around here! The past week they have:

1. Climbed on the computer desk and managed to tip it and send everything on it sliding, but fortunately just alot of noise and nothing really broken beyond repair.

2. Ran through the house and pulled the silverware drawer out onto the floor. The drawer glides are bent, but it does still work.

3. Spread styrofoam beads ALL over the living room, down the hall and into the bathroom. Took forever to suck them all up with the vacuum cleaner.

4. Covered themselves in sidewalk chalk. Hair and skin. Took their shirts off outside to really do the job thoroughly.

5. Emptied a bottle of bodywash into the bathtub because they wanted bubbles.

Illness is visiting our house today. Maicol and Juan Pablo started getting sick yesterday afternoon and Dan and I are getting it today. So far Andrew is fever free and has way too much energy. We're hoping this is short-lived. Maicol is already better, so that's a good sign.

Not much else going on. I'm home more now that I have quit my part-time job and Dan has been busier. They are going to school on Mondays and seem to be liking it. We've been able to play outside this week except for yesterday and today. That's always good.

Since I don't have anything else exciting here are a few more pictures of our beach trip.

Karen

Beach Vacation

2009-09-27T09:08:00.009-04:00

We have been talking about going to the beach for 2 years now, and we finally made it! The boys had never been to a beach and this was one of the things we really watned to do. I don't think it would have been possible before now, but their ability to handle new things (and a van borrowed from some friends) have made it a pretty good trip so far. We spent most of Thursday driving and finally arrived on Friday afternoon. We did make a stop at a dinosaur museum, so that slowed progress, but everyone had a good time and it certainly burned off some energy running from one dinosaur to the next. We're staying at Laguna Beach at a Christian Retreat Center. We have a cottage - bedroom, living room/kitchen combo and bath. A pool right outside our door and a place to do laundry - all for about $55 a night. We just walk across the street and down a short path to the beach. What a deal! The weather has been great. We had a little rain last night, but otherwise dry and sunny. The sand is white, the waves are perfect and there is hardly anyone else on the beach. There is a motorcycle event of some kind this weekend, so there have been hundreds of them on the road making driving anywhere very slow, but the boys have enjoyed looking at all of them.

We have spent hours in the morning and late afternoon at the beach playing in the water, looking for shells, letting little fish nibble on our legs and looking for hermit crabs. The boys have all had a wonderful time. They weren't too sure about the waves at first, but very quickly found that they love them. The salt water was a surprise. I think Andrew has swallowed gallons of it. Maicol is looking for a shark tooth, but has had to settle for one purchased at the dollar store unless we find one in the next 2 days. Juan Pablo wants to bring home the hermit crabs but I think we've convinced him to leave them here so they won't die. Andrew is fearless in the water (and therefore scares me). He can't get enough of playing in the waves. It has been a good trip so far and we now think that it might be possible to do this again! The real test will be going home - a long trip with the goal at the end being back to the usual (work, school, chores, etc). For Dan and I that's a good thing (routine and sleeping in our own bed), but for them I don't think it's as appealing as a trip to the beach. :)

We have picked up lots of shells. Andrew will pick up anything and put it in his bucket. Juan Pablo isn't that interested in shells, but loves collecting the hermit crabs and chasing the birds on the beach. Maicol is looking for a shark tooth, but is content with interesting shells. I remember as kids we would go to state parks on summer camping trips and collect rocks. There is an entry in my baby book about bringing back "pockets full of rocks" from somewhere. I think we are going to be bringing back buckets full of shells.

Here are a few pictures of our trip thus far. I need to get some more of them at the beach and will add them later.

Karen

Of course we stopped at McDonld's on the way. Where else can you get a quick, cheap meal and let the kids play?!

At Dinosaur World.

Andrew being swallowed by a dinosaur.

Juan Pablo being swallowed by a dinosaur.

Maicol being swallowed by a dinosaur. You'll be glad to know we were able to save them all. :)

Watching the hermit crabs.

Playing in the ocean with Dad.

A hermit crab.

Another Anniversary

2009-09-19T20:46:00.008-04:00

Our two year anniversary has come and gone. We went from a family of four to a family of seven two years ago (really eight now because we have a wonderful daughter-in-law now too). We've all gotten older and boy do some of us really feel like it! :) Maicol has grown physically, but he is still afraid to believe that his Mom loves him and isn't going to go anywhere or do anything bad to him. He wants to so badly, but it's so hard for him. Juan Pablo I think finally believes that he is here to stay and it's ok to relax and love this new Mom, but he really, really wants to have his own way and do his own thing. This can make for some difficult moments for him (and the rest of us). Andrew is growing so much in every way. He has learned to love his new Mom, but I think he is still having some "terrible two/three" behaviors. And just this past week I think he has finally decided to stay dry at night, so no more diapers! They are all doing well academically. We have learned we didn't know as much about parenting older adopted children as we thought we did and that while we can still jump on a trampoline, we shouldn't do it too much at a time!

The boys have started going to a couple of classes on Mondays with other home-schooled kids. Andrew is going to 3 hours of preschool and the other two are taking a PE class and a writing/literature class. Last week was their first time and it went pretty well. At least well enough that they haven't refused to go back. Dan takes them and so he gets a break and they get to have someone else for a teacher and get to meet some other kids.

We celebrated our two year anniversary by going to Steak n Shake for half price milkshakes, to a park to walk on the trail (and play in the water) and then to KFC for $2 meals. We're big spenders! After the initial (typical) whining from Maicol about how it wouldn't be any fun we all had a great time.

Dan finished their treehouse last weekend. It had been in the works for the past few weeks, but we were able to finish it last Sunday. It really is a treehouse. It is anchored by three trees and has a ladder to climb up and a slide to go down. He also built a wooden climbing wall. We're still working on getting a very long, very heavy pole for a "fireman's pole". There is even a hammock underneath for the Dad! They have had fun so far playing there and I think it will provide fun for many years. We had talked about this with them for a long time and we're glad to finally have it done.

We have had many fires in the firepit. Roasted many, many hotdogs and marshmallows. Dan and I have spent many evenings out there after the boys are in bed - enjoying the great weather and a chance to talk. Our firewood is split and stacked for the winter. The trampoline has been repaired and is being used daily. I have started going to MOPS. I am the oldest mom, but I have enjoyed it so far. We celebrated out 27th wedding anniversary. On September 10th Maicol, Juan Pablo and Andrew became Bakers and on September 11th I became a Baker.

October 7 will be my last day at my part-time job. I will still be working basically full-time, but will only be working 24 hours one week and 32 the next and that cycle will just keep repeating. We have known for a long time it would be good for me to be home more, and so I have finally decided to stop worrying and just do it.

Here are a few pictures. Enjoy.

Karen

"Charlie's Angels"?

Juan Pablo - they like to "do" their hair.

Andrew with his "'do".

He fell asleep like this - how do they do it?

Summer Fun

2009-08-16T20:29:00.016-04:00

We have been trying to get a little summer fun in. We managed a trip to Kings Island last week. It went pretty well, considering they don't like new things or riding in the truck for any distance. It turns out that Juan Pablo is the most adventurous. He went on the roller coasters with Dan and begged for more. Andrew had fun riding all of the "kid" rides. Maicol just wanted to be glued to my side all day, so he ended up riding with Andrew. My sister and two or her boys joined us, so I had a good time talking to her. All in all a good day.

The creek pictures are from a park we like to go to. It was pretty busy in the actual playground, so I took the boys to play in the water. I foolishly told them they could wade in the water, but not to get their clothes wet. What was I thinking? For some reason they suddenly had a terrible time standing up. We spent a little time on the playground in the sun drying them out before we went home.

They all went on their first overnight visit Friday. We have had them for almost two years and this is the first time they have stayed overnight without Mom or Dad - and the first night alone Mom and Dad have had. Jonathan and Kristin kept them overnight and then took them to a waterpark for the day (as a reward for doing their appointed tasks in their wedding). Everyone seemed to have a good time and we didn't get any calls, so I think it was successful. They were all a little anxious about being gone. Andrew was very quiet when he came home, but today he seems to be his old self. I think he wasn't quite sure if he was coming back.

We did some decorating in their room while they were gone. They all like animals and Maicol in particular likes cheetahs, so we went with that theme. We put some leopard print wallpaper on part of one wall and topped it with a border of elephants, tigers, lions, giraffes and zebras. I added some paw prints of cheetahs on the side rails of their bunk beds. We put a new curtain up and changed their lamp. I think it turned out neat. They all liked it, I think, but seeing as how they don't like anything to change, it will take some time for them to get accustomed to it. Andrew in particular didn't really like it and said he wants the white wall back. We realize more and more how much they really do not like things to change. They love routine and even if we prepare them ahead of time, there are a million questions and general unrest until they get used to the new thing. They notice if I wear a new clothing item or even change my earrings and want to know all about the item - where I got it, why I'm wearing it, did I wear it before, etc. I guess the good thing about this is they will certainly notice when their wives get a new hairdo or wear a new outfit. :)

They swimming season is winding down for us. They have all improved their swimming skills and still just love to go swimming. Maicol has become a much better diver. Juan Pablo has learned to do a front flip off of the diving board. Andrew has learned to swim well enough to jump off of the diving board. We have been trying to teach him to dive, but so far he's mostly a belly flopper. There's a video clip of each at the end of this entry.

Our next post will be our two year anniversary. We met them August 27, 2007 and none of our lives have been the same since.

Karen

This is what happens when you give two boys a bucket of sidewalk chalk and they begin to run out of sidewalk.

In front of the fountains at Kings Island.

Dan and Andrew on their way to the Eifel tower at Kings Island.

This is Maicol's favorite ride.

The Call - Two Years Later

2009-07-30T09:26:00.004-04:00

I meant to get this done sooner, but.....
Anyway, two years ago Monday - July 27 at 4pm we got the call we had been waiting for. We had three new sons! We had requested 3 children ages 0-7 and had not specified boys or girls, so we didn't know what we would be assigned. I think we were a little surprised and maybe a little disappointed there were no girls, but now we love the fact that they are all boys! Our lives have not been the same since that day. We went from being empty-nesters to parents of a 2, 5 and 8 year old. We have learned that we didn't know as much as we thought we did. They have grown and so have we. We have had so much fun seeing them experience so many things for the first time. It has been a joy at times and really frustrating at time. We are so glad we chose to expand our family.

Then:

Now:

2009-06-28T21:22:00.008-04:00

So, what have we been up to for the last 6 weeks?

1. Finished Upwards soccer for this season. Maicol and Juan Pablo both enjoyed it, although Maicol is much more competitive and much more serious about it. Andrew will be old enough to play next year, so maybe we'll have all three with games on Saturday mornings!

2. We've been doing alot of swimming since our neighborhood pool opened. They all still love to go swimming and are doing very well. Maicol and Juan can both dive. This week Andrew was able to swim the width of the pool. He loves to swim underwater, but couldn't figure out how to come up for air and then swim more. This week it just "clicked" for him and he is so proud of himself. With a little more practice he should be able to jump off the diving board without his lifejacket.

3. We became in-laws. Jonathan and Kristin were married May 30. It's starting to balance out a little more in the daughter department. It was a beautiful wedding and we really enjoyed having both sides of our family there. Most of Dan's family and mine haven't seen each other since we got married 26 years ago, so we took pictures of everyone and are excited to see them. Andrew and Juan Pablo were ring bearers. They really wanted to be the "flower boys", but we talked them into the more traditional ring bearer job. :) Maicol was a groomsman. They all looked very handsome in their suits and in the end did their jobs well. Juan Pablo initially refused to walk up the aisle because he didn't get a boutonniere, but we were able to get past that and he and Andrew made it up the aisle before the bride (barely). I had to go to the end of the aisle and tell them to "GO!".

4. We spent a three-day family vacation with my side of the family. We try to get together every year and spend 2 or 3 days together. This year we rented a house at a state park and stayed together after the wedding. We had a good time playing games, playing with glow sticks at night, riding bikes and letting the cousins play together and get to know each other better. The boys spent as much time as possible playing Gameboy and such. Andrew and my niece spent as much time as possible being pulled behind the bicycle in a cart. They could have done that all day I think, except for the fact that the parents legs won't last that long!

5. We're still doing the usual things. Riding bikes, roasting marshmallows and hotdogs as often as possible, doing schoolwork, etc. We're also still trying everyday to convince Maicol that he is here to stay and that this Mom will never leave him. While I think he logically can see that I love him and will not leave, because that's not his past experience with mothers he has a very hard time believing it. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to not feel sure that your mother loves you and will never leave you. I grew up with a great mom and dad and I never questioned their love and devotion to me. I don't know how to convince him that I won't leave. We repeat the same conversations with him about how we're different, we haven't left our older children, he can see what we have done since he came to our family, etc., but it really does try my patience to have to go through the same things over and over.

Enjoy the pictures.

Karen

"Sleeping Beauty"

The Wedding Rehearsel

"The Cousins" (I love this picture - the boys were fascinated with their cousin)

Maicol teaching Andrew how to play Gameboy

Dan still reads to them almost every night before bed. If they're lucky he'll read up to 3 books.

Love the watermelon!

They all love mangos. They would prefer them to any candy or other sweet treat.

The Adventures of Juan Pablo and Andrew

2009-05-13T09:46:00.004-04:00

I don't have any pictures, but I really wanted to get in writing the things these two have been up to so I can embarass them when they get older. :)

Last week Juan Pablo told me he had a "good idea" for he and Andrew to do. He just needed a cup with some water. Upon further investigation I discovered what his "good idea" was. He was going to take Andrew's little plastic tricycle (which has a storage compartment under the seat) out to the street, put dirt in the storage compartment, add water and make "chocolate milk" and offer it to people driving by. I nixed that idea (or so I thought). When I went to check on them, he had indeed put dirt in there and talked Andrew into getting a glass out of the kitchen for water and was getting ready to mix the "chocolate milk".

On Mother's day as we were eating dinner at home with everyone Andrew went to the bathroom. Knowing that if it takes him very long he is up to no good I went to check on him. He had evidently "finished his business", but for unexplained reasons (at the time) had had his hand in the toilet. I proceeded to flush the toilet and scrub up his hands. On the way back to the table he told me he "wanted his pennies back". You know where they are - don't you? Flushed with his "business".

Also on Mother's day Andrew came in very proud of himself because Juan Pablo was helping him be a clown. Juan had opened the empty ash bucket (from emptying the wood stove) that was outside (but still had a few residual ashes in it) and rubbed white ashes all over Andrew to make him white and then found a red marker and colored his nose red. They were quite proud of themselves. At least it washed off pretty easily.

Yesterday I had put some things out on the kitchen counter for them to smell as we are working on the five senses in science. I didn't get that done, but had not put things back away. As I walked past the front door I thought I smelled maple syrup. Sure enough, Andrew had found the small bottle of maple flavoring, poured it out on the front porch and proceeded to make hand and footprints on the porch and had smeared some on his body also. Juan Pablo had joined in the fun too. I gave them a bowl of water, soap and toothbrushes to scrub it off. They had a great time doing that and of course wanted more and more water.

What are they thinking????

Monthly Update

2009-04-26T21:48:00.017-04:00

This seems to be becoming a once-a-month update. The days do just seem to fly by and before you know it another week is over. Shows my age, huh? Anyway, so what have we done in the last month? For Easter we managed to color eggs, hide plastic eggs to hunt and make it to the early church service. Pretty good I think. For the plastic eggs we put candy in the larger ones and change in the smallest ones. Before we started I limited them to 20 each and told Andrew I would help him if he needed it. Maicol immediately complained about that and so I just ignored him and went on. As they were looking for the eggs Maicol began giving his smallest eggs to Andrew and made a big deal about how nice he was being to his brother. In reality, he thought "bigger is better" and if he gave the little ones to Andrew he could keep looking for all of the bigger ones. He was quite surprised when he opened all of his eggs and found only candy and no money! Ironically, Andrew really has little interest in the money and wanted the candy. Guess next year we'll have to put the money in the big eggs!

Upwards soccer has started again. They had their first game Saturday. Juan Pablo is doing much better this year. Last year he had alot of trouble understanding what the coaches wanted him to do and was afraid to even play. This year while I know he still doesn't understand all of the words he knows what is going on and seems to have a good time. He scored 2 of their 3 goals and he really does put alot of effort into it. Maicol plays really hard and of course thinks he should be the coach! He does try to tell the other kids on his team what to do and they listen to him at least some of the time. Dan has been taking them to practice since I work on Mondays, so this past Saturday's game was the first I had seem them play.

We have had beautiful weather the last 3 days and have really enjoyed being outside. Our asparagus is growing quickly - we've picked some the last 3 days and if the weather continues like this we'll have plenty. The strawberries and raspberries are growing well too. We took a walk today near our neighborhood and spent part of Thursday at a park too. There are so many nice places to go.

Bethany is finally feeling back to her old self - minus the sore throat and constant stuffy nose. She was able to lead worship at church today. We stopped in to see her after we had attended an earlier service at our church. Jonathan is counting down the days til the wedding. Not much more than a month to go.

All of the kids are doing well. Maicol still struggles the most. I realized this week that he still isn't sure that I will come home after work. He likes to stay up to see me on Wednesdays when I get home between 9 and 10pm. This past week he fell asleep before I got home and didn't see me until the next morning. He was grouchy and rude to me all morning and when I finally talked to him the basic problem was that if he didn't see me come in he is afraid that I might not come back home. Based on his previous experiences I understand that, but sometimes it seems like no matter what I say, do, or how much time passes he just won't let himself believe it is true. I talked to him again today and reiterated the fact that he has to decide that he is going to believe what I say because I can't make him do it. I told him that I know that is not the way it was in the past, but the past is the past and once he decides to leave it there and relax he will be a much happier little boy. Oh how I wish I knew that I was saying and doing the right things! While there are similarities in parenting these boys and our older children there are also very great differences. The other two are still trying to learn that they need to do what Mom says even if Dad isn't there, but it is still a struggle sometimes. But on the other hand, we have so many wonderful times where we do things together, see them grow and mature and are just amazed at the things that have taken place in the past 18 months.

Enough of that - on to the pictures.

Karen

They still love the merry-go-round. In Colombia they could go for hours and it's still that way.

Andrew's blue candy tongue.

What do you think might be in there?

Our handsome boys. Why is it so hard to get the three of them to smile at the same time?

Maicol.

Juan Pablo going in for a goal.

Andrew and I enjoying the games.

At Holliday Park.

Maicol.

Andrew.

Juan Pablo

Andrew coloring eggs.

Maicol coloring eggs.

Juan Pablo and his orange egg.

Three Birthdays and a Surgery

2009-03-29T20:54:00.014-04:00

The title pretty much sums up the last three weeks at our house. Three of our children have birthdays in March. We start with Bethany on the 14th, then Jonathan on the 22nd and finally Andrew on the 28th. So, we have had a birthday dinner or lunch three Sundays in a row and cake (or in Bethany's case pie) three Sundays in a row. Jonathan's fiance Kristin said today we were going to be going through "cake withdrawl". For Andrew's birthday we went to Chuck E Cheese's. This is all the boys talk about when it comes to birthdays. We went for the first time last year on Maicol's birthday and now I think it will be a requirement for a few more years worth of birthdays. We just went to play the games and then out for ice cream afterwards. We did the cake and present thing the day after his birthday since that was when the other kids could be here. He has been very excited about having a birthday and being four. So we now have children from the age of 4 to 24. What a range!
Bethany had her tonsils out last week, so she had been hanging out at our house for about 3 days. Mostly sleeping on the couch, taking her pain medicine and eating slushies. She's slowly getting better, but is still pretty uncomfortable. But, she is back in her apartment and so we are a little more back to normal here.
That's the big news. We continue to go the proverbial "two steps forward, one step back" with Maicol. Just when it seems things are going well for him, he has a day where nothing seems to go right. Oh well, we are making progress. Juan Pablo is still slowly becoming more comfortable. I have always kissed and hugged him when putting him to bed, but he never reciprocated. Recently he has started hugging and kissing me before bed. And he has started hugging me spontaneously - something he didn't do before. Before we met them, we were told they would probably be very affectionate and want to be near us and touching us all the time. It took Maicol about a year to start that and now at the 1.5 year mark Juan Pablo has become more affectionate. As I sat reading to them before bed last night one sat on each side of me with their arm around my neck listening to the story. So, it seems we are still moving along in that attachment thing. It has been a slow, but steady process.
On to the pictures...

Bethany's Birthday and her pie. Andrew looks pretty excited too!

Jonathan's birthday - with Kristin trying to stay out of the picture.

Juan Pablo and Maicol at Chuck E Cheese's. I love this picture of the two of them.

Jonathan helping Andrew feed his tickets into the counter so he can get a prize.

Licking the blue icing he requested off of the beater. Is there anything better?

Andrew blowing out his four candles.

A very happy birthday boy! He is not only excited about his birthday, but he loves cake!

Worms, Trees and Houses

2009-03-05T21:28:00.004-05:00

What a fabulous day! It was finally warm enough to get outside and play! Everyone is so much happier (and ready for bed at the end of the day) when they have had a chance to run and play. They managed to get their schoolwork done right after lunch, so we had the afternoon to go outside. I cleaned up the yard some and the boys did boy things - climbed trees and dug for worms. Maicol and Juan Pablo are trying to teach Andrew to climb a tree. Not sure if that is a good idea or not, but they had a great time together working at it. Then they moved on to looking for worms. Digging in the sandbox and looking under things for them. I'm not sure what they were going to do with them once they unearthed them and fortunately I didn't have to find out. :) We were hoping to have a fire outside tonight and roast marshmallows, but it was just too windy.
Enjoy the pictures of our first outside play day in way too long! I need to explain the last picture. Juan Pablo is into building houses. He started one in the backyard and was going to sell it to us for the bargain price of $6.00. He never got it above about 4" high before we made him put back the boards he used, so then he moved on to a brick house. That's the last picture - he and Maicol standing in his brick house. Unfortunately it had to be disassembled recently too. Who knows what he will build next.

2009-02-17T21:30:00.003-05:00

Nothing new and exciting, but it's past time to update so here goes.

Last week we went for a 2-night, 3-day trip to a state park. Of course they have an indoor pool which was one of the main reasons for going. There was also a hot tub which they loved. I just wish the pool water were about that warm! It wasn't bad, but not as warm as I'd like. We also played some ping pong, watched movies and cartoons, played games and ate alot. We stopped to see Grandma and Grandpa Baker also. So, lots of things in one trip.

We haven't had anymore snow, but there is hope of some this weekend. We did have quite a bit of wind while we were gone last week. It blew our trampoline from our yard, over our neighbors fence, through their yard, over the fence on the other side of their yard and into the next neighbors yard and against some trees. It will need some work, but Dan thinks we can salvage it. If we can't the trampoline will be sorely missed. We have spent alot of time playing on it and have burned alot of calories since our neighbors were so kind to give it to us.

School - Juan Pablo is doing well with reading, but the math thing still leaves him a little puzzled it seems. He is able to sound out words and mark the vowels, but can't figure out how to write the number before or after another number or add without counting objects every single time. Maicol still hates to have to write any kind of sentence, but his ability to do it is improving. Math doesn't seem to be difficult for him. Andrew knows all but maybe 2 or 3 letters of the alphabet. I had no idea he knew so much - watching Word World and Super Why has helped him (and listening to us work with Juan Pablo). Now we're starting to work on the letter sounds.

Behavior - Maicol seems to be improving. No all day stints of him being angry and if he is it's only for a short period of time. His big problem now is learning "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything". He loves to point out any slight error you may have made (or thinks you may have made). Because he is still learning English he sometimes doesn't completely understand what is being said. We have so many ways to say the same thing and I now realize how difficult it is to learn English. They understand most of what we say, but certainly not everything yet. Juan Pablo still dislikes schoolwork and that seems to be where alot of his getting into trouble comes from. He asks every night if there will be school tomorrow - and then sighs when I say "yes". They all still listen better to Dan than me. If we're both here and I tell them to do something, they will look around to see if Dan is watching and let that determine if they will do it or not. That makes me crazy!! We're still working on that, but it is certainly better than it was.

I think that's it for now. We'll try to do some new and exciting things before the next post.
Karen

Reading one of Andrew's favorite books - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Dan has read it enough that they can now quote some of it.

Juan Pablo

Andrew, Juan Pablo and Maicol

It Finally Happened

2009-02-01T21:37:00.009-05:00

It finally came. After weeks of watching and waiting, hoping and praying, faithfully checking the news at least once a day, the long awaited, much anticipated event of the season finally arrived at our house - snow! We got about 8 inches between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. It was beautiful! The boys went out to play at home Wednesday after it stopped falling, but we had to wait until Thursday to go sledding due to some behavioral issues that resulted in a moratorium on sledding until school could be completed with the proper attitude and speed. We had a wonderful time. Maicol got to try out his new snowboard and the rest of us enjoyed sledding. I don't know how many times we went down and then back up the hill, but it was enough that everyone went to bed very well Thursday night. :) We stayed almost two hours and by that time although they would never admit it, they were tired. Andrew is big enough this year to take himself back up the hill, so that means more trips down the hill for Mom or Dad since we don't have to carry/drag him back up each time. We have had a problem with him taking his gloves off and then crying because his hands get cold. No amount of talking to him has resulted in him not doing this. So I saw an idea (in a magazine I think) that seemed the perfect solution to this problem. Buy waterproof mittens and then sew them to the end of the sleeves of a long-sleeved shirt, put the shirt on him and then his coat on and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot take his gloves off! He wasn't too sure what we were doing, but he went along with it, and we had no cold wet hands that resulted in crying fits. Wish I could say I thought of it, but it is a fantastic idea as far as I am concerned. Now I just need to figure out how to keep his feet dry. Hopefully we'll get at least one more good snow before spring.

Dan and I have been out twice by ourselves in the last four days. Bethany came over to do haircuts on Thursday night and stayed for a couple of hours so we could go out and eat. Jonathan and Kristin came over today and took the boys to eat lunch and go sledding so we had the afternoon free.

Enjoy your week and the pictures.

Karen

"Come on Papi, hurry back up the hill with my sled so I can go again!

Andrew - dressed to do battle with the hill.

Andrew, Maicol, Mami and Juan Pablo.

Juan Pablo

Maicol - looking very cool on his snowboard.

A Little Break

2009-01-21T01:27:00.008-05:00

In an effort to maintain our sanity we spent the last couple of days at one of our state parks. The good thing about this park is that it has an indoor pool! All the boys love to swim and Juan must ask almost everyday if he can go - somehow he doesn't get the connection that it's too cold at -3 to go swimming outside! So we took a little trip so that they could go swimming and we could get away from the daily routine. It went reasonably well all things considered. We were off looking for Andrew a couple of times because he slipped out of our sight inside the Inn. He is a quick little thing when he has an idea about checking out other parts of the building on his own! They of course didn't sleep very well the first night, but were out quickly the second night. We got to eat a breakfast buffet and I could have all the crispy bacon I wanted. Dan got to work on one of those 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles for hours. So everyone got to enjoy something a little special. The boys got to help put out seed for the birds to eat. They have a great viewing area to watch the birds and squirrels come to eat. We walked outside a little, but at barely 20 degrees it's just not that much fun. And the best part is it's 2 nights for the price of 1! Now it's back to reality - work for the Mom and Dad and school for the ninos.
Here are a few pictures of the trip and a couple of other things.
Karen

Andrew is not much of a vegetable eater, so we have been encouraging him in that department. He will put about anything in his mouth, but if he doesn't like it it will come right back out. Yuck! Anyway, we had stirfry tonight and he actually ate a few pieces of broccoli. If you look very closely you can see a small piece in his hand. I of course had to bribe him with cookies and he washed it down with chocolate milk, but I still think that's progress.

Putting out seed for the birds and squirrels.

The boys in their new robes. Maicol had been requesting a robe for Christmas, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay $20 for a robe for a 9 year old. We were at Target last week and they were marked down to about $4, so they all got one. They think they are quite handsome in them. Maicol wants to wear his all day and Juan wants to sleep in his. We're still working on robe etiquette.

Proud Parents

2009-01-16T16:49:00.002-05:00

I'm just so proud I had to share with you a special event from today's adventures. I usually let Karen do most of the blogging, but she's busy putting batteries in new toys. We all went out to eat lunch today and found some great clearance buys at Kroger (as usual). We then went to Target to check out some kids clothes that were being clearanced. It was a leap of faith, but I put underwear on Andrew this morning instead of a diaper. He agreed to let me know if he needed to go to the restroom because he wanted to be a "big boy" and only babies wear diapers. Half way through our visit to Target, Andrew said he needed to go to the restroom. We just barely made it in time, but he was proud that he didn't get his underwear wet. We went on to find some great buys on some toys so it was almost as good as Christmas but for half the price. As we were getting ready to leave the store Juan Pablo and Andrew ran out ahead of us. We were about to go out the door when I looked up and saw Andrew with his own little toy out and watering the sidewalk just outside the door where everyone has to walk! He just looked up and smiled as if to say, "Look, I didn't wet my pants!" I pointed out the event to Karen who promptly turned away as if to say "Whose child is that?" She couldn't stop laughing when we got back to the car. I seem to be the only one who can put on a stern face during those humorous yet embarassing times when one of the kids needs to be straightened out. I never thought I would say this, but I would much rather have had wet pants on Andrew. Fortunately, Karen and I have babysitting co-op tonight so Karen and I will have a few hours to ourselves to contemplate how fortunate we are that Andrew is almost potty trained.
Sorry, but no pictures available for this post.
Have a good day!
Dan

PS: If only we had been assigned girls! :)
Karen

Our Life in Pictures

2009-01-10T20:50:00.015-05:00

Since pictures are the most interesting part of the blog - here's a post with lots of them.

A drawing by Juan Pablo. I know the upper part is Santa and a reindeer. I think the bottom part is a bus, but I'm not sure.

These next three are in reverse order, but I'm too lazy to change it. :)

I read something recently about having a "Candy Cane Hunt" for Christmas. With my boys and my sisters boys going to Grandma's for Christmas in January an outside activity seemed like a good idea. Fortunately it wasn't too cold and it turned out very well. They actually hunted for them twice. The first time I had them give me the candy canes and we hid them again. At the end of the second round I gave each of them a dollar for their efforts. So the first picture is Andrew with his treasure, the second is a "hidden" candy cane and the third is the boys racing to find them.

Do you see it?

This is my Mom and the boys making reindeer's out of Nutter Butter cookies. They turned out very cute. Then we got a little more creative and made other animals and Juan even figured out how to make a car with a seat. He is the most creative of the three.

Andrew

Maicol

Juan Pablo

All of the boys in a big sycamore tree at Grandma's. My brother, sister and I had a picture taken in this tree when we were kids. A few years ago we recreated that, but it was alot more work to get all of us up there (and we don't quite fit like we used to)! :) So now we take pictures of our kids in the tree.

The week after Christmas we tried to go to the Children's Museum, but it was very crowded so we looked for something else to do. Jonathan's fiance suggested this park and it was wonderful! They had great playground/climbing equipment and a nature center. We can't wait to go back when it's a little warmer and not so muddy. We passed a tree that looked climbable, so of course they had to give it a try.

We're still looking for a decent snowfall. This is still a daily topic of conversation and watching the weather report on the news at least twice a day. I sure hope this isn't the first winter I can remember where we didn't get at least one decent snow.

We still see glimpses of what's going on inside their minds and that they are still trying to figure out this whole adoption/forever family thing. On the way to Grandma's last weekend for Christmas Juan asked if his foster mother was still his Mami. I told him that I was his Mami now. It's been over a year now and it seems he's still processing what it means to be adopted and having us as his Mom and Dad forever. Maicol had a dream this week in which he was taken away and placed in a different home. They were told by their foster family that if they weren't good they would be sent back, so to him I think this is still a very real possibility. He has had that on his mind alot the last couple of days. I guess the good part is that the possibility of that made him very unhappy, so he is happy to be here with us. But, I hate that he thinks that it could even be possible that he is not here forever. He has also recently been asking/stating he is our son forever and will be here forever. We've reiterated that message with all of them alot the last few days. While to us their permanence with us is so obvious to them it isn't. I think for them all the talking in the world doesn't mean much - it's the day-to-day living with us and seeing that nothing changes that is very slowly beginning to seal it in their heads and hearts.

Time for a little shut-eye. Enjoy your weekend and for those of you with snow - know that we are very jealous!

Karen

Christmas #2

2008-12-25T22:48:00.005-05:00

Wow! After all the weeks of dreading Christmas (because of the boys behavior in the past surrounding any type of celebration) it was a wonderful day! I don't know who put what in their hot chocolate last night, but it sure did the trick! They woke up happy, were calm but excited to open their gifts, shared with each other without being required to and were happy until at least 3pm when I left for work. We went to Chinese buffet for lunch with all of our children and they were well behaved there too. They ate the food they put on their plates, didn't make a huge mess, sat still, didn't complain about anything and were able to converse with each other and us. Amazing! Now I want it to be Christmas everyday! :)
Jonathan and Bethany came over last night and slept on the couches so they could be here early for the opening of gifts. We had a good time watching the boys open their gifts and a good breakfast of french toast and bacon. Plenty of playing with new toys and cleaning up the wrapping paper mess. All in all, the best holiday we have ever had with them. Hope your day was special too.
Karen

When will the Holidays be over?!

2008-12-19T00:46:00.005-05:00

Dan keeps asking me if I've blogged - (as if he doesn't have fingers to type) so I'm taking advantage of the fact that everyone is in bed and I'm not sleepy to do a little update.

Christmas is coming and it certainly is obvious in the behavior of the boys. All we have in the way of decorations at our house is a tree with lights. We haven't even put ornaments on yet, but just having the tree up seems to have been enough to get them excited. Here's recap of the events of Tuesday to give you a taste of what it's like at our house lately.
1. Juan Pablo found a burning candle in my bathroom, lit a piece of paper and melted part of
the toilet seat with it.
2. Juan was mad about having to do his schoolwork, so he poked Andrew's leg with his pencil
(through his pants) and punctured his skin.
3. Maicol shot me in the face with his Nerf gun.
4. Maicol and Juan broke a lightbulb in one of the pendant lights over the kitchen counter.
5. Juan took a toy sled and put the rope from it around Andrew's neck and was trying to
make him follow him by pulling on the rope.
6. Neither one of them could sit still and do their schoolwork. It took them all day to finish
what should have been 2 hours worth of assignments.
7. And last night while I was rocking Andrew I discovered the "thump" I was hearing was
Juan throwing a 2-lb dumbell weight from his bed across the room and hitting the wall
putting little dents in the drywall.
I finally sat Juan on a stool in the kitchen so I could keep an eye on him and sent Maicol outside to play by himself. Why and how do they think of the things they do?! I know that alot of it is just the excitement of Christmas coming, but they were driving me crazy that day! And so they went to bed early, becuase I hope to keep the house and myself intact a little longer! :)

We haven't had much snow, but have had some ice. The boys have been sliding down the neighbor's driveway on their sleds. The ice is evidently faster than snow and is alot of fun. They are still anxiously awaiting enough snow to really sled. They still watch the weather daily to see if there is any chance of a big snow coming.

Wish there we something more interesting to say. The days continue to speed by. Maicol's behavior and attitude are improving. He still struggles with comprehending the permanence of being a part of our family and having a mom forever, but I think he is slowly allowing himself to relax and enjoy it. We're not always as much "fun" as he would like, but then that wouldn't be reality either would it? Juan Pablo continues to show his creativity. Today he was using garage door opener boxes to make race cars and space ships to play with Andrew. He and Andrew spend alot of time playing together and generally get along very well. Andrew is growing up! He isn't going to be the "baby" much longer. His vocabulary is growing rapidly and we are enjoying him so much.

Until next time....
Andrew and Maicol playing with K'nex.

Biggest brother and littlest brother.

Andrew with my Uncle Ted. I'm pretty sure he believes that Uncle Ted is Santa, otherwise I don't think he would have been so affectionate.

When I went in to check on them the other night this is where I found Andrew. Obviously not in his bed!

Moving right along

2008-11-29T21:52:00.015-05:00

What do you do with all those leftover boxes? If you're a 9-year old boy this is what you do...

Maicol has been saving boxes since the summer so that he and Juan Pablo could pretend to be robots and fight. Not sure where he came up with the idea, but they had a great time and they still have enough to repeat the activity again.

Guess it's not really fair to complain about other people not updating their blog if you don't update your own. :) I'm full of excuses, but none of them really very good, so here goes.

Juan Pablo is now 7 years old. We went to the fabulous Chuck E Cheese's to celebrate. We unfortunately chose a cold Saturday, so it was packed. We let them use their tokens, trade their tickets in for fabulous prizes and went to Burger King for kids meals and to open presents. The cake had to wait until the next day. As was the tradition in my family every child gets a chance to blow out the candles after the birthday child has done it. Makes for alot of relighting of candles, but then everyone gets to have a little fun even if it's not their special day. We did a very low-key small celebration and it seemed to work out pretty well. Certainly better than last year. Minimal misbehavior!

We have been seeing an improvement in Maicol and his behavior, particularly toward me. Not perfect, but certainly better - fewer highs and lows, less outbursts of anger, less complaining about what I do or don't do, etc. Juan still likes to tell me "no" about whatever it is I have asked him to do. I think he has developed a habit of immediately saying it and now I'm trying to get him to think before he speaks. Not an easy task! He threw a fit outside tonight that I know anyone within a mile could hear! When he thought I was talking to Dan on the phone he immediatly got quiet, so I know that he can stop it if he wants to. After he calmed down I told him what the consequence would be for doing that again. So, we'll see if he wants to test me or not (it's not really a matter of if, but when). He made it about 2 hours before he went to bed without getting into trouble, but I don't imagine it will take him long tomorrow to try me.

I have finally converted Andrew and Juan into pancake and waffle lovers. When we first got home we tried pancakes and they all disliked them. I tried waffles with the same results. Finally about a week ago I really wanted pancakes so I decided to make them whether anyone else wanted them or not. Imagine my surprise when both Juan and Andrew declared how much they love panckes. They have been asking for them almost everyday. Maicol is still holding out.

Life just continues to move along. School is going ok. There is the usual complaining about having to do it, but it still must be done and so while the complaining doesn't result in less work assigned (quite the opposite sometimes), they still continue to do it. I have started requiring it to be done within a certain time if they want playtime with Mom and that has helped some.

We're off to Ohio to celebrate Thanksgiving next weekend. I had to work this weekend and since my family celebrates Christmas together in January, in a way it makes sense to celebrate Thanksgiving in December. :) Really looking forward to getting away and seeing everyone.

Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy!

Andrew

Juan Pablo

Maicol

Riding the horse at Chuck E Cheese's.

Playing a firefighter game together at Chuck E Cheese's

(with Jonathan watching in the background).

Lots of tickets to trade for fabulous prizes

Checking out the birthday loot.

Blowing out the birthdday candles together.

Juan Pablo - the birthday boy.

A Nearly Perfect Day

2008-11-06T21:28:00.009-05:00

What a great day! The weather was fantastic, school was done before noon, no major tantrums or complaining and I had dinner made by 6:30pm. So today - Maicol finished painting the cat house, we jumped on the trampoline, wrestled on the trampoline, built a fire to burn up an old wooden garage door, played hide and seek, went to the lake to throw rocks and sticks, Andrew and Juan played in the bathtub, Dan read bedtime books, I rocked everyone and I think they are all asleep! Why can't they all be like this? I guess we wouldn't appreciate the good days if we didn't have some not so good ones.

The anticipation for Halloween night was almost more than any of us could stand! Next year I am going to have to lie to them or something and say it's later because the days and hours leading up to going trick or treating were just crazy. They could hardly stand to wait and I could hardly stand them! They were so excited. Jonathan and Kristen came and took them out and evidently it went very well. I guess Andrew's system was to stand at the door and wait until he got at least 2 pieces of candy before he would say thank you and move on. That explains why he seemed to have more candy than the other two. Maicol was so excited he was running from house to house. Juan Pablo wants to sleep in his costume.

We have been trying to get outside as much as possible since I know this great weather can't last. I really dread those days when they can't get out and jump on the trampoline, run and ride bikes to wear themselves out. We've also been working on projects outside - insulating under the house, raking leaves, planting grass, and building the cat house. We're still having hot dogs roasted over the fire at least once a week. Unfortunately, winter will put a halt to that.

Maicol still has his difficult days, but most days it seems his unhappiness with me is less. He so obviously desperately wants, loves and needs me, but is so afraid to just relax and let me be his mom and take care of him. We go through days were everything is fine and then the next day nothing I do is right according to him. I think it's the up and down of one day to the next that makes me crazy. Juan doesn't like doing schoolwork (and asks me every night if there will be school the next day), but really does well once he gets going. He's trying to learn the "2-vowel rule" in reading. It's going pretty well - he can identify the two vowels in a word and knows that the first one says it's name and the second is silent. Those short vowel sounds are so ingrained in his brain it's hard for him to remember to not use them when he shouldn't. Andrew has evidently learned to count to 8 by listening to Juan Pablo. He's not sure about associating numbers and objects, but he can count. He also has started teasing his brothers by calling them "baby" and "stinky underwears". He is so much fun and so much work! He's always up to something and most of the time, it's not something good.

That's it for now. Hope you enjoy the update.

Karen

Juan Pablo - his face describes our day - good all the way around!

Juan Pablo - the Power Ranger

Maicol - Batman

Andrew - the white Power Ranger - looking cute and getting lots of candy!

Andrew, Juan Pablo, Maicol

Maicol, Juan Pablo, Andrew

Painting the cat house. They wanted to help paint the house, but we thought that wasn't a good idea. :) I guess we decided the cats don't need quite the level of workmanship that the rest of the house deserves, so we let them paint it. They think they're master painters now.

And last but not least, a picture to make the Grandma's nervous!

Fall is Coming

2008-10-21T21:03:00.009-04:00

The weather is certainly turning cooler. We may even have frost tonight. The boys keep looking for snow, but I don't think that's coming soon. We raked some leaves and they jumped in them and hid in them a few times. We jumped on the trampoline and made a fire in the firepit. A fun, fall day. It started off with a tantrum from Maicol, but after some talking that turned around and we ended up with a great day.
Dan's Dad was down recently. The boys had a good time with him. He played Candyland with them (several games) and that certainly is a great way to make their day. Maicol and Juan both like playing games.
We have finally managed to get the house resided and painted. It has been an ongoing job for way too long, but it looks great all painted the same color. Dan is working on finishing the "cat house". Since we put the cats outside to live we made them a little house (like a dog house, only for cats). We're building a new one for this winter. It is sided the same as the house and has a shingle roof. The boys have been wanting to help paint, so we told them they could paint the cat house. They are dying for him to finish it so they can paint. Who knew painting was such a fabulous thing to do? :)
Not much else to report. The Maicol and Mami saga continues, tho less intense then over the summer. School is going pretty well. The boys got another round of immunizations (and the FluMist). We don't want a repeat of last year when they all had the flu at the same time (including Dan).

Playing in the leaves.

Andrew, Maicol and Juan.

He's just too cute!

Andrew is the one with the "sweet tooth". We call him the Candyman.

"Fish Face"

This picture is only to show you the vase of flowers. Juan had earned a dollar for helping Dan with putting insulation under the house and another dollar for a lost tooth. He bought these flowers for me at Kroger with one of his dollars. Dan bought a few too to make a nice bouquet.

Juan, Maicol and Andrew with Grandpa Baker.

Updates

2008-10-08T22:17:00.002-04:00

I hate to blog without pictures, but I can't seem to get my laptop back (Bethany) where most of my pictures are so words will have to do for now. What's been going on at our house? Let's see...

1. Juan has lost 2 teeth in the last few days. He got a dollar under his pillow for the first one. Last night Dan had him put the second tooth in an envelope and when he got up this morning there was a dollar in the envelope! He was very excited.

2. Juan used one of his dollars to buy me some flowers. Very pretty yellow ones.

3. Andrew can't stop talking. It used to be it was just two of them talking at the same time, now it's all three of them competing for attention. He also has started putting his fingers in his mouth, which makes the talking harder to understand.

4. I think we're seeing some improvements in Maicol and his behavior. He is getting better at either not getting upset at all or getting over it quicker when he is disappointed. It still all revolves around me and my not meeting his expectations or not paying as much attention to him as he would like. He doesn't want to share me with anyone. While that is good, it makes it very difficult when he has siblings, a father, work, etc that need attention too.

5. Mostly school is going well. Yesterday they decided that they would refuse to do any schoolwork. I sent them to sit on their beds. I went about my day doing cleaning and such - took a walk (cause I had to get outside!) and had lunch. After lunch they decided it would be wise to do their work before Dan came home (knowing they would be in trouble for their earlier behavior). I put out their work and went about doing what I had planned for after lunch. They were unhappy that I would not stay with them and help them. (Almost all of the work they had did not really require me to help, except for occasionally explaining a few things.) I reminded them that school is for the morning and if they don't do it then, they will have to wait until I have time to help them because I have other things to do in the afternoon. They aren't allowed to play or watch a video, etc. until the work is done so they want to quickly do it when it gets to be afternoon. Hopefully we won't have to repeat this lesson too many times.

6. We have enjoyed many evenings of roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in our firepit. I just love having fires in the evening - it's especially nice now that it gets dark a little earlier and is a little cooler.

7. We're still trying to convince Andrew that chi-chi is the potty all the time is the way to go. He has good days and bad. I know that eventually he will be back to being potty trained, but we really wish it was yesterday!

8. Jonathan and Kristin are coming over Friday to be entertained by the boys. We are going to go somewhere - nothing exciting, but it will be out, alone, by ourselves, without any children (do you see a theme here?). Can't wait!

9. I have been trying to do some cleaning out of areas in the house. I have been through all of the boys clothes and sorted out what they will need for the winter, what they will be able to wear next summer and what needs to go to someone else. Went through the school material and got it reorganized. Cleaned off the desk area. I love organization - now if I could just keep myself organized and convince the other people in my house to love it too!

I think that's it for today. Have a great rest of the week.

Karen

I think that's it for today.

Then and Now

2008-09-23T20:23:00.004-04:00

Wow! It's been a whole year since we became parents again. Some days it's hard to believe it's only been a year and other days it seems like it's been forever. Thinking about where we were a year ago and where we are now is almost unbelieveable sometimes. August 27, 2007 -the moment that we had waited and planned for. As they brought the boys into the room to meet us it was just indescribable. In an instant we were a family. We have spent the last year trying to figure each other out - who likes to eat what, who needs a nap, what makes each one smile, who likes to play what, etc. None of that has been made any easier by the language and culture barriers that we have all faced. We are still discovering what makes each one unique. The boys are still trying to figure out so many things that are different in the US. Their English is good, but all those phrases and slang terms we use and understand so easily are lost on them. We still spend alot of time each day explaining what words mean and why certain things are funny. Andrew doesn't seem to remember very much Spanish and while the other two claim they don't, they still like to watch movies in Spanish. Maicol is reading English, Juan can sound out words and Andrew has learned about 3 letters and their sounds. They have learned to ride bikes, swim, sit still in a restaurant, play computer games and sit and listen to their Papi read bedtime stories. We have learned to explain words and situations with simple words, be patient, plan ahead, cook 3 meals a day and love them regardless of what they do or say. Has it been easy for us - no. Has it been easy for them - no. Could we have imagined what it would be like - not completely. Would we do it again - YES.

Maicol asked me today - "Why do you love us?" What a question from a 9 year old. He's still trying so hard to believe that I do love him and that he will be my son forever. It doesn't matter what he says or does - I still love him. My answer to his question was "Because I decided to". While they are beautiful children and most of the time a joy to have in our home the bottom line is that love is a choice. We have made the choice to love them and they make that choice too. I know they don't understand that completely yet, but someday they will.

Here's a picture of us a year ago in Colombia and a picture taken Sunday. What were we thinking then? Probably the same thing we were thinking Sunday - "Is it bedtime yet?" :)

Thanks for following along on our journey to become a family.

Trip to Grandma's

2008-09-07T21:08:00.005-04:00

Hangin' with primo Christopher

Juan and Andrew with Grandma

Maicol - sliding down the pole - practicing to be a fireman

Juan, Christopher, Micah, Andrew and Maicol

Juan and Andrew

We made the trip to Grandma's last weekend. The four hour drive isn't alot of fun, but it sure is worth it once you get there! There's something for everyone. I get my "comfort food" - meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy and oatmeal cake. Dan gets to sleep alot. The boys get to eat ice cream bars and stay up late playing. Plus we all get to see Grandma! My sister and her family were able to come too, so it was even better. More people to play with, talk to and we even got to play cards! We got to make homemade ice cream - a first for my boys. Lots of catching cicadas by Juan and Andrew. We walked back to the woods and "looked" for deer. Seriously, is there any possibility that we are going to see a deer with three little boys walking through the woods and fields? Maicol took his toy bow and arrow just in case. :) We did manage to see alot of poison ivy and a few deer tracks. Thankfully none of them seemed to get a rash from the poison ivy.

Jonathan, Kristin and Bethany were all over today. Jonathan and Kristin took the boys to the skateboard park and the regular park. From what I understand all of the boys did pretty well with their skateboards. They had a great time. Bethany brought them some chocolate chip cookies to spoil their dinner. We had a fire and roasted hot dogs for dinner. The weather has been fantastic. In the 70's during the day and the 50-60's at night.

The Maicol and Mami saga continues. He is very jealous of the time I spend with the other boys and in particular the time I spend with Dan. He wants all of my time and my undivided attention - I can't even look at the newpaper while he does his schoolwork without him getting mad. We had a really long day Thursday. I ended up assigning him extra schoolwork and cleaning chores for his misbehavior. The next day he was much better. He has been drawing pictures and writing in a notebook for me - pictures of the two of us and some of the rest of the family and lots of pictures of hearts and the word love in every color. Today was a good day. Not sure why, but I have been trying to ignore some of the small stuff and trying to be more proactive in hugging and kissing him. He is also learning to tell me when he needs that and not just get mad.

We met our boys a year ago August 27. While we did tell them that day, we haven't done anything to celebrate, since in the past they haven't done well with celebrations. They haven't said anything else about it. We actually signed the papers September 10, so we're pondering doing something for that day. It's really the day they became ours. Still trying to decide what to do. I'd like to do something that either we would do each year, or give them some type of gift that we would add to each year. Any ideas?

Karen

Two Week Synopsis

2008-08-20T16:34:00.012-04:00

Maicol on the bumper cars -he has waited a long time to do this and then discovered he really doesn't know anything about driving!

Learning to be skateboard experts.

Not sure about this - it hasn't been that cold, but you can see from their jackets they have grown since last winter.

Dan riding the little roller coaster with everyone.

Andrew had a good time I think!

Holiday World - their first trip to an amusement park and riding rides.

My little "tree hugger".

Dan has been "reminding" me that I need to blog, but I just don't know what to write about. Nothing new and exciting to report. We have had school nearly everyday. They still aren't wild about it, but since it's become more and more of a routine they complain less. Maicol is continuing to get better at working by himself, which helps alot. My challenge is trying to work with one, answer questions from the other and try to keep Andrew from getting into too much trouble. I have been trying various things to keep him entertained - watching a DVD, getting out a seldom-used toy, blocks of various kinds and he will lately sometimes look at a book. He is quite the mischevious one. I have started locking the front door during school so at least I know he hasn't slipped out the front door without me knowing. I can see the other door from the table where we do school. I came out from taking a quick shower the other day to find Andrew drawing on himself with a dry erase marker. I think he was quite pleased with himself, but I was not. Especially considering I saw his two brothers run from the room as I came out. They strongly denied they had any knowledge of the incident, but we all know better than that. Bethany finally got them to admit it and then I had punished them for lying to me.

We made it to Holiday World. This is an amusement park/water park. As we started to go the first day, we ended up unpacking the suitcases and staying home because of misbehavior. We did manage to get up very early the next morning and just made it a one day instead of a two day trip. They had not been to anything like this before. Maicol rode a pretty big roller coaster and was very proud of himself - even tho he was scared. The other boys weren't big enough to ride some things, but got to do enough that they had a good time. They weren't all that thrilled with the water park aspect, but did really enjoy the wave pools. Hopefully a trip to the beach will be possible next summer.

Bethany is now in her apartment. She is living there, but much of her "stuff" is still living at our house. :) She has a nice place to stay and is happy to be out on her own. We went over last week for dinner and I got to check things out since I hadn't been over there yet.

Maicol and I continue to struggle. He loves me one minute and hates me the next. Always over something that seems trivial to me, but I guess not so trivial to him. He made quite a big fuss yesterday because I didn't play with him before I went to work. Then he was mad because I didn't come quickly enough (in his opinion) to check on Andrew after he had bumped him with a truck they were playing with. He was able to stop himself several other times from complaining about other little things, so in some ways I think we are making progress. He so easily draws me into an argument. Because in many ways he is a very smart little boy, I feel like I should be able to talk and reason with him, but that usually doesn't work. You would think by now I would know that, but I still give in and try to reason with him too often. I'm getting better at putting a quick end to his complaints, but I still have a ways to go. It's still the daily barage of statements that I don't love him, don't care about him, talk mean to him, he isn't important, etc. We continue to reassure him that isn't true, but it really does get old repeating the same things over and over multiple times a day. Then I come home from work and find notes on the front door that he loves me and has drawn a picture of he and I. He's still following me around (when he's not mad) and won't go anywhere if I don't go. We're in a babysitting co-op starting in September. It's 2 friday nights a month for 4 hours. He had a terrible fit when he found out that I would be leaving him to play with other kids, watch a movie and have a snack for 4 hours twice a month. What a mean mother I am! I know that if he will let himself he will have a good time. He has such a great fear that I will either leave him or send him back because I have changed my mind about him. He just can't let himself believe that either scenario is not possible and that everything we tell him is true. He wears me out!

Dan has started reading books to them before bed. He reads and then I rock each of them. So it's "rock and read" or more accurately "read and rock" at night. He had tried reading books before, but without much success. They evidently understand enough that it's much more interesting now. They would sit and listen for hours if he would keep reading to them. Andrew and Juan really like the books. Maicol thinks he's too big, but if there's nothing else to do, he'll listen intently and have a wonderful time. Dan is really good at reading to them with lots of expression, so they are very interested.

We had our last post placement visit Thursday. Yeah, we're done! We still need to do the Ireadoption thing tho. They were a little rambunctious, I think she cut our visit a little short. It was only about 30 minutes. Maicol gets upset when we go and talk about him, so I'm glad we won't have to do it anymore. Now I just need to get all the pictures ready to send in with the report.

We're trying to enjoy the last few days of summer. Our neighborhood pool will be open this weekend and next, so we're hoping to get there as much as possible. Dan bought a slip-n-slide, so they have been enjoying that in the front yard. Bethany bought them a spray toy, so we're going to hook that up to a hose to play with too. It has been very warm the last few days. Hard to believe fall is just around the corner.

Here are a few pictures also.

Karen

The Pretty and the Not So Pretty

2008-08-06T16:06:00.002-04:00

I'm back to work (at my part-time job) today, so I finally have a little peace and quiet! I don't return to my other job til the end of next week. I love my boys, but I really, really needed a break from them (and they are probably glad to have a break from me too)!

Since I am home on medical leave I have been busy cleaning closets and cabinets, pulling weeds in the garden and Dan and I have been painting the outside of the house. Nothing like surgery and a forced 4 week leave to get some things done. :) We have also been having school daily. While they aren't crazy about it, it has been good for them. They haven't forgotten what they had learned and it helps to have a regular schedule for the day. Juan is doing well - he has only 5 letters and sounds left to learn. He is able to sound out words. When we started I wasn't too sure how well he was going to do, but he has surprised us. He is also now able to swim well enough to jump off the diving board without a life jacket. Maicol is reading pretty well and catches on to the math easily. He is finally starting to work better by himself. My struggle with him has been that he wants me to sit beside him as he works and watch his every move. No talking to anyone else, no reading the paper, etc. If I can't also help Juan or get something else done too it makes school take way to long and we miss out on doing so many other things. Andrew now knows 2 letters - A & E ("A" is for Andrew - according to him) and the basic colors. He is still mischievous - he can find a pair of scissors, pens, markers, etc. when no one else can and use them in totally inappropriate ways. He talks all the time. Skittles are proving to be a reasonably good incentive for potty training.

It was a very long week last week. Maicol has been struggling and it is of course all directed at me. Many unkind things said about me by him and lots of anger. I finally called Jonathan and begged him to come stay with them because I really needed a little time away with Dan. He was happy to oblige and we all enjoyed the break. He finally looked at me Sunday while playing his video game and said - "So you will love me even if I'm bad?" - and I repeated what we have been saying for a long time (of course we will, but it's much more enjoyable if you're good). Since then he has been better. Did that finally sink in? Even just a little bit? I sure hope so, but I know that we will be revisiting this again and again. Now that he's happier emotionally he's become my shadow again. Following me around all day, won't go anywhere if I don't go, touching me all the time, asking me questions constantly, etc. He wants me all to himself - doesn't even want Dan to play a game with us. He's driving me crazy! And to think back almost a year ago they were so in love with Dan and could have cared less about me. Now I have the opposite problem. :)

That's pretty much the news from the last 2 weeks. Some of it pretty and some of it not so pretty. We are approaching our 1 year anniversary - August 27. Hard to believe a year has gone by. Not sure if/what we'll celebrate - the day we met them, the day we signed the adoption decree, the day we got home. They don't always do well with celebrations, so we're still deciding what to do (if anything).

Thanks for following our journey thus far.

Karen

Getting Back to "Normal"

2008-07-23T22:21:00.007-04:00

Juan - not sure what you call this dive.

Spiderman - aka Andrew. He has been wearing this mask to the pool the last couple of days.

Maicol learning to use his skateboard.

We are slowly getting back to "normal". I have been back home for almost a week now and am doing good. Slowly getting back into the flow of things - laundry, schoolwork, rocking, etc. I think the boys believe I am back to stay. Maicol in particular has had a very hard time with my going to the hospital. I don't think we had really convinced him that I would return and everything would be fine. He has spent the last several days being very vigilant - following me around, touching me, asking me what I'm doing, not going anywhere without me - you get the idea. He's driving me crazy!! He has settled down some today tho. Still always near me, but more relaxed I think. Juan and Andrew spent the first couple of days looking at me alot, but now seem to be back to their old selves - stubborn and adorable.

We have been doing alot of swimming. They all love it. We've gotten into the habit of going later in the afternoon so that by the time we are done it's time to eat dinner and start putting people to bed. The sun and swimming seem to wear them out and they go to sleep quickly and easily. I guess it will be back to riding bikes and playing on the trampoline once swimming season is over.

Hard to believe it's been almost a year since they became a part of our family. We got the call about our assignment July 27 - four days from today. I was talking to Maicol about it tonight - what happened, the excitement of getting their pictures, etc. We had talked about it some before, but he was very interested in talking tonight while I rocked him. I hope he was able to understand the excitement we felt and how much we love them.

Here are a few swimming pictures - since that seems to be the primary thing we do lately. I have a few hospital pictures, but I'm not going to embarass myself by posting those. Suffice it to say I have certainly looked better. :)

Karen

Still Here

2008-07-18T19:02:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post to let you know that we're still here. I had some surgery this week and after 3 days in the hospital am home to recover for a few weeks. It has been difficult on the boys - especially Maicol. He has had great fear that I would not come back. The other two I am told missed having me around. Jonathan's fiance has helped us tremendously by staying with them so Dan could be with me some. I don't know what we would have done without her. Bethany will be home next week to help some and I really hope to progress rapidly back to my old self. Dan says it may take awhile since I'm "old", so I guess I have to prove him wrong. ! :) Dan has been wonderful trying to let me have a little peace and quiet. Not an easy task in our house!
Hope to get a more exciting post up in the next few days.

Karen

And Life Goes On

2008-07-07T20:00:00.015-04:00

Maicol - not too excited about sparklers.

Pajamas are supposed to be flame retardent, aren't they?

Juan Pablo didn't want to stop playing with the sparklers!

Maicol and his birthday skateboard

Showoffs

Anna flying high at Chuck E Cheese's

Andrew getting driving lessons

Maicol earning prize tickets

Juan Pablo tags along

More guns and ammo to add to his armory

A future pinball wizard?

He had a really happy birthday!

Karen's working so I guess Papa is about due to do a little blogging. As the man of the house I should be the one to anounce that Andrew has reached a major stage on the way to manhood. He is now tall enough to pee standing up! We are beginning to notice his pants are getting too short. All the boys are really growing fast.

We made it through the 4th of July. We went to the Noblesville fireworks and were very disappointed. People were beginning to leave long before they were even over. But the boys still enjoyed it. They also had glowsticks to play with.

Maicol's birthday was on the 5th. We did the Chuck E Cheese thing with family and Maicol's friend Anna. The boys have been wanting to go to Chuck E Cheese every time they see a commercial. They all had a blast! Chuck E made an appearance and Juan Pablo followed him around the whole time. Juan's bubble was popped though when he saw Chuck E duck out of the room and reemerge as a short, shy, female employee. Juan then had to proclaim to all that Chuck E Cheese wasn't real!

And life goes on. Bethany's working alot. I've had plenty of work, and Karen is making good progress with the boys and their attitudes. One of the boy's friends who couldn't make it to the party spent part of Sunday with us. They just love to have her over. Oh, and a outgoing little girl just moved in down the street. She came over and Maicol and Juan went riding off with her down the street. I was happy. The boys haven't made many friends in the neighborhood yet.

And life goes on! I'm sure there were alot of other things I had to say, but I can't think of them now. Whoever said little children keep you young must not have had little children! But they do give me a chance to spend more time at the pool.

Tickle, Tickle

2008-06-27T21:06:00.008-04:00

What a week! We had a great time at Grandma's. Could do without the drive, but that's the way we get there. The boys really did pretty good riding down and back. We attempted to go fishing. Only caught a few weeds and chased a few ducks. Better luck next time. I'm not sure fishing is all they thought it would be, but at least we can say we tried. There were various games and such played by all and a little rest for some too. Below is a picture of a rainbow we were fortunate enough to see over my mom's house. There was actually a double close to the bottom on both sides for awhile. It didn't last long, but was beautiful.

We've been able to get a little swimming in this week. None today, because Dan was gone and Juan lost the privilege of going today, so I had to stay home with all of them. We did some cleaning up and some playing. Maicol has invented a new game - "Tickle, Tickle". It involves them running and screaming through the house while I chase them. When I finally corner them I am supposed to tickle them. The newer version today involves kissing. After they hide and I find and chase them for awhile I kiss them after I catch them. We did this for a good hour and a half today. Then it was on to sword fighting. I finally had to call it quits and fix dinner. The other reason was that I was tired!

Our big news is that our older son is engaged! I'm going to be a mother-in-law. How could I possibly be that old? So there will be a wedding in the works for next summer. We are very excited and happy for them.

Not much else to report. We continue to work on respect for Mami from all of them, but Maicol in particular. He has been struggling lately, but I do think that we see some progress. I know there is just no way we can understand the depth of the changes they have been through in the past 10 months and the difficulty of their lives before they became our sons. They obviously want to belong and be loved, but it is such a risk for them. While we know that this is the last stop for them, I know that they must still be wondering and perhaps will for years to come. So much more than little boys should have to deal with.

Time to get to bed. I get to go to work tomorrow! I need the rest! Have a great weekend.

Karen

Swimming

2008-06-21T21:44:00.009-04:00

This is where we spend at least part of almost everyday - the pool. I told Maicol today I thought maybe they gave me fish in Colombia instead of boys! For children who said they had never been swimming, they have been fearless and learned very quickly. Maicol can swim the width of the pool and back. Juan jumped in and made it across once before getting tired. Andrew doesn't make it very far, but has no qualms about putting his head in the water and swimming. He loves to jump off the side - over and over and over again. They also like to go to the beach and play in the sand. It's not great sand - a manmade beach, but they really enjoy it.

We are off to Grandma's for a couple of days tomorrow. The boy cousins are coming too, so it should be a good time. We are hoping to go fishing. They have talked about this for many months. They have never been fishing before, but evidently it is a much desired activity. Not sure how they'll feel about squishing a worm on the hook and taking a fish off the hook, but we at least have to go once and give it a try. We'll go where there is a playground also, so if the fishing doesn't go well, at least we have the park to play in.

The days continue to fly. We are coming up on our 10 month anniversary with the boys. Hard to believe it has almost been a year already. This time last year we had no idea they existed. We had sent in our dossier a month before and were anxiously awaiting our assignment. What a difference a year makes!

Have a great rest of the weekend.
Karen

Juan and Andrew
Maicol
Maicol
Andrew
Juan
Juan
Juan - taken by Maicol I think.

Our Life

2008-06-13T14:26:00.004-04:00

Ah, what to write about? Seems like we live such a boring life - no exotic vacations, winning the lottery, etc. Let's just give you the update on everyone.

Maicol - He has almost finished his first grade math book. He has also almost finished his first reading book. He is a smart little boy, but doesn't really care for doing schoolwork. He can swim the width of the pool and back, so now he is about ready to jump off the diving board without a life jacket. He's also about to break the 50 lbs. mark. I don't know how, cause he doesn't eat much - must be muscle from all the playing. Got his second round of immunizations without a tear - not thrilled with the 4 shots, but managed to get through it.

Juan - He now knows over half of the alphabet, the sounds the letters make and can write them. Schoolwork does not always come easy for him, so this is an accomplishment. His speech also continues to improve. He can make all the letter sounds, he was just too lazy to do it before. He loves going swimming and playing outside. Juan is a great strawberry picker. He likes to do it and is very good and discerning which ones should be picked and which should wait another day. Got his next 2 immunizations, but since he knew what was coming I had to drag him out of the corner and hold him on my lap.

Andrew - What can I say about him? He is as adorable as can be - and then drives you crazy the next minute. This morning he started out great - ate breakfast, played and then it went downhill. Juan injured him and he was crying, so I sat him on my lap and rocked him. Of course, he had no diaper on and in the midst of crying he peed on both of us. I changed both of us and in about an hour he's back in the kitchen with no clothes on. I sent him to get some and he came back with a shirt on backwards and wrong side out, but nothing on the bottom half. So after one more trip to his bedroom he now has pants on too. Didn't want to eat lunch or drink from the sippy cup. I've clean up enough messes of his to know I want him to still have the sippy cup.. He has great difficulty leaving the other boys alone while they do their schoolwork. I have tried giving him something to do with limited success. He is speaking in full sentences (and we understand most of it). He's just always into something - pouring out the laundry detergent on the floor, smearing antibiotic ointment all over himself after a bath, pouring out the shampoo into the tub, etc.

Dan - Took the toilet up and cleaned out the things Andrew had put down it - Bethany's razor, ping pong ball, cardboard, bobby pins and who knows what else. A very unpleasant job, but he did it and didn't complain too much. He is a great support - he always backs me up with the boys. They are still working on respecting me and listening and he has been great in reinforcing that. Splitting wood for the winter and working on the days I'm off.

Me - Still going to bed tired with aching feet every night. Well, I think on the days I work I don't go to bed as tired. Always wishing I could get more done in a day, but I know the reality of what is most important to accomplish and clean floors isn't it. :) Bethany has been a great help to us since she's been home. She cooks and cleans up and does some babysitting. I know the noise drives her crazy, but she has been wonderful.

But as they say on Jon and Kate Plus Eight - it's our life and we love it!

Karen

Starwberries, Pools and Progress?

2008-06-04T14:41:00.003-04:00

No pictures since the charger for the camera battery seems to have disappeared. If it doesn't turn up soon I'm going to have to break down and buy another charger.

It seems that maybe summer is here. We have been to the pool twice so far and everyone has had a wonderful time. The strawberries are ripening and it is quite an adventure to take all of them out to pick strawberries. I usually end up giving Andrew a couple to eat so he will let the rest of us get the work done. He will pick anything, as he is not very discerning about what is ripe and what is not. Juan and Maicol are very good helpers tho. They have been very excited to see the strawberries grow and finally get to eat some.

We have had rain and more rain the last couple of days. Over the weekend we made a simple sandbox. We put a tarp over it to keep the cats out and with the rain we now have a little "pool" consisting of the tarp filled with water in the sandbox. Juan and Andrew had a lot of fun yesterday playing in it. They would stand on the corner seat and jump all of about 4 inches into the water. They put their hands up as if they are diving. They even insisted on goggles. They came in soaking wet, but at least they kept their clothes on. Evidently Andrew didn't the other day and Juan wanted to take his pants off to get in the "pool" yesterday, but I quickly nixed that idea.

Funny Andrew stories - 1)we were out walking and saw a police car chasing someone. Maicol was very interested in what was going on. I explained that it was probably someone who had done something wrong and didn't want to be caught by the police (because they are bad they will go to jail - according to Maicol). Anyway, as Andrew is listening to this in his own version of things he tells me that it is a bad guy and the police will stop him and say "go to bed". Can you tell what happens to Andrew many times when he misbehaves? Don't criminals wish all they were told was "go to bed"! 2) I came out of the shower yesterday and he was sitting on the kitchen floor with a container of parmesan cheese. Actually the container was pretty much emptied - all over him and the floor. Not that funny at the time, but in retrospect it is. Honestly, we feed the boy - he just seems to be at the stage where he wants to "get into" things.

On the other hand Juan has spent very little time on his bed lately. He has been doing his schoolwork without hardly any complaining. He has been listening much better to Mami. He has changed in that if he is corrected it seems to hurt his feelings. Before he just got mad, now it really seems to matter to him that he does the right thing. He was very proud that he shared part of his dinner with Andrew last night without being prompted. Maicol has had a hard time lately. He had been becoming increasingly rude and mean to me and to Bethany also. It finally was enough to really punish him about 3 days ago. After he got done crying I sat with him in the rocking chair (he was very reluctant) and talked to him. Since some of this seemed to start around Mother's Day I asked him some questions about his "other" mother. Initially he refused to say much, but finally did talk a little. He has said very little about his biological family and his life before they came to us. His only real question for me was "Where is she?". I answered as honestly as I could since we don't know for sure. Dan and I repeated again how much we love he and his brothers, we are so glad to have them in our family, they are here forever, etc. In the end he seemed to be reassured and went off to bed happy. He has been much happier since then. Wish I knew for sure what was going on in that little head of his. He's a smart little boy and I know there have to be alot of things going on up there.

Not much else to tell. Life flies by for us just as it does for everyone else.

Karen

Two Steps Forward, One Step Backward

2008-05-26T21:06:00.005-04:00

Soccer is over and the swimming season has begun. That is if it would get warm enough for the swimming season to start. Maicol insisted that it was warm enough to go to (and we couldn't tell him any different of course), so we took them swimming. It was about 73 here today I think and pretty breezy. They were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. Juan even insisted on starting his schoolwork early so he could get done and go swimming. (No, we didn't let them have the holiday off). They didn't swim long once they got there. Maicol complained that he was cold and was not happy that I was right about the temperature. He really, really likes to be right, win, be first, etc. Juan and Andrew lasted a little longer, but gave it up in less than 30 minutes I would guess.

We did some work around the house and in the garage. I ended up playing hide and seek in the house with them before bedtime since it was rainy out. Andrew hid in our closet and it probably took me 10 minutes to find him. He was quiet as a mouse and hidden very well. He was quite proud of himself. Of course, he continued to hide in the same place each time, so it got pretty easy to figure out where he was.

We met with our small group last night. The house we went to has a swim spa so the kids were very excited about that. They talked about it all day. Only problem is they had a terrible time listening and obeying. We finally told Maicol and Juan they could not go swimming after they were very rude and disobedient to me. It almost killed them. I got "you're not my mother" and "you don't love us" from Maicol. That took a little talking and holding, but I think we got through it ok. He apologized to me before he went to bed and admitted he didn't really mean what he said. We did talk to him about thinking before he says things like that, how much it hurts us, and in particular telling Juan that I don't love him. Juan asked me if I loved him, and seemed satisfied with my answers and explanation for why Maicol would say that. Andrew got to swim, so that probably made it even worse. They took awhile to get over it, but ended up having a very good time in the end. They got to play tag, pull each other in a wagon and ride a horse. A very good ending to the day, but it seems that it is always a few steps forward and then one back again.

We ended dinner today with watermelon. I put them outside to eat it. Nothing is quite as good as sitting on the porch, eating watermelon and spitting the seeds. :) Andrew couldn't figure out the seed thing, so he just spit pieces of watermelon. They are just hilarious sometimes!

I have one more day off and then it's back to the grind. These 4 days off have been great, but I think I need the rest I get by going to work!

Karen

After he scored a goal!

Juan

Juan and his "castle".

Big sisters are good for teaching pillow fighting.

Life goes on

2008-05-21T18:22:00.003-04:00

Nothing new and exciting to report, but I feel like I should write something at least once a week. We have had two really good days of school this week. Maicol and Juan both did their work without complaining, whining, goofing off, etc. I finally asked them if they were sick since they were being so good! Andrew is interested in "school" too, so I have been working on colors and a letter or number with him. He thinks he is very important. Part of the improvement is that I actually worked with only one at a time. It takes twice as long, but they don't fuss nearly as much. I guess they really, really want my undivided attention. I can't even look at the computer or paper while I sit with Maicol. Even if he's doing something that does not require my help in any way he really just wants me to sit there and do nothing else. I'm a multi-tasker, so I really hate to sit there doing nothing.

The weather has been decent enough to get outside some. We jumped on the trampoline, had sword fights, played soccer and rode bikes yesterday afternoon while Dan was off working. Bethany was home and made dinner for us, which is really, really nice. It is so nice having her here and since she likes to cook, that makes it even better. She has even learned to clean up the mess afterwards. Yeah!

The days just continue to fly by. Maicol has been "better" lately. I have been on him a great deal lately it seems for being disrespectful to me. I have spent some time talking to him about it, correcting him every time he speaks rudely to me, trying to spend more time with him after the other boys are in bed and trying to spend more time playing with him. Maybe that has helped, maybe time has helped - I don't know. But he has been telling me frequently in the past few days that he loves me. He has been more cooperative. I think in some ways he just seems happier. Or maybe he's just being nice because he knows his birthday is in about 6 weeks. :)

Andrew is having his terrible two's I think. He really likes to say "NO" very loudly and frequently. He has decided to just fall to the floor if he doesn't get what he wants. I generally just go on about my business and let him decide he's tired of lying on the floor. Juan is having a little of that too. He threw a fit when we were on the trampoline yesterday. Laid down and just screamed. We just kept on jumping and ignored him. He finally got tired of it. Maicol was concerned because Juan told him his stomach was bothering him. I told him all that screaming is the problem and sure enough in a few minutes he felt well enough to play soccer with us. I sure hope they get tired of this temper tantrum stuff soon. At least it's warm and I can either go outside or inside to get away from the noise, although I can usually just ignore it and go on.

Even with those things they are just wonderful kids. They still insist on being rocked before bed. They wants hugs and kisses. What a change from a few months ago when they loved Dan and tolerated me. Now sometimes they even prefer me! Yeah!

I've been lazy about taking pictures lately, so none today. I should have taken a picture yesterday of Andrew riding his "bike". His legs are finally long enough to pedal the little plastic tricycle he has. He was very proud of himself.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Karen

Happenings

2008-05-13T22:03:00.005-04:00

What has happened in the last week or so? Well, Bethany is home from school. She has moved a few things into her room, but I think most of it is still in her car. The boys are trying to get used to having her around and she's trying to get used to them. All in all it has gone pretty well. She and Maicol worked together today preparing several packages of strawberries to eat and freeze. Andrew is still a little leary of her, but hopefully he will come around. When I'm home he doesn't want to have much to do with her, but when I'm gone he likes her. I haven't figured that one out yet. They were very interested in her guitar and we impressed with her ability to play.

The weather has been good and bad. Beautiful one day, then cold, windy and rainy the next. We really wish spring would come to stay! There has been a good amount of trampoline jumping and playing hide and seek. We were out on our bikes a little today too.

We having been having fires in the firepit when possible. Hot dogs are so easy to do for dinner. And of course you have to have a few marshmallows too. They are getting better at not "lighting them up". And it's a good way to get kids to pick up sticks in the yard (they are still falling for that one).

I for one am glad Mother's day is over. Not sure what the deal is, but none of the boys were happy yesterday. I'm beginning to think that we need to not celebrate anything for awhile. This day wasn't really about them (like birthday's are), but they were still grouchy, fussy, obstinate. Is it the celebrating or does it have to do with the fact that it's Mother's day? Wish I knew. We really aren't big on celebrations. Just had all the kids here for a home cooked lunch and dinner, so it isn't like we made a huge deal of things. We took naps, played a little and I made Batman type capes for them. They painted the pictures at the end of the blog too. Father's day is coming, so now we need to figure out what to do about it. Do we celebrate it, or try to skip it? Will a day to celebrate Father's be different than Mother's? Any words of wisdom?

Other than that it's the usual. Today was a good day - the boys were so much different (happy, cooperative). We ran a few errands and had Chinese for lunch before coming home to play outside until time to fix dinner. Of course the rain is coming back, but we got in a couple of good days. :)

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Karen

Bethany trying to teach the boys a little guitar.

(Maicol) Where Dan and I want to be?

(Andrew) The Sun (I think)

(Juan) Mama and Papa and a rainbow.

Then and Now

2008-05-03T21:24:00.006-04:00

I've been thinking about the progress the boys have made since we met them last August. I just thought I'd give you a few "then and nows".

Then: Maicol's English was limited to "Mother" and "Father".
Now: Maicol rarely speaks any Spanish.

Then: Even Colombians had difficulty understanding Juan Pablo because of his speech problems.
Now: Juan has learned to say many of the sounds he did not say before and is progressing nicely in his English.

Then: Andrew spoke only a few words of Spanish and mostly communicated by pointing.
Now: Andrew understands most of what we say and talks up a storm (in English).

Then: Maicol was his brother's caretaker; told him what to do and not to do and how to act.
Now: Maicol has pretty much turned over the job of parenting Juan to us.

Then: Juan Pablo was extremely jealous of and often hateful to his little brother.
Now: Juan loves Andrew and is often proud of what a "good brother" he is to Andrew.

Then: Andrew was more potty trained, often more obedient and quieter.
Now: Andrew is more charming, loving, energetic, and fun to be around.

Then:

Now:

And we wouldn't have it any other way!
Good evening,
Dan

To Knoxville and Back

2008-05-02T21:31:00.004-04:00

Hard to believe another week has come and gone. It really does just fly. Our big adventure this week was going to Knoxville to bring some of Bethany's things back from her dorm room. The quantity and size of things she has accumulated in a year would not fit in her car, so we took the truck to bring the larger things back. It was the longest ride the boys have taken and overall it went pretty well. We only stopped once in 7 hours on the way down and a couple of times on the way back. There was a minimum of fussing, whining and complaining. I took a few new things for treats and we did watch a movie on the computer on the way back. Andrew and Juan slept some, but Maicol didn't. Dan and I each took turns getting a little nap in while we weren't driving too.
Bethany took us down to the riverfront in Knoxville. It was a little cool, but is a very beautiful place. Too cold to play in the fountains, but they tried to at least put their hands in the water. They got to see where Bethany has been - so hopefully it is a more concrete idea in their heads. We talk about her being far away and living at school, but I don't think they really understood. At least Maicol understands. The other two - who knows! It was good to see her and to get away for a couple of days.
We hit the schoolwork hard after we got back. Maicol of course whines, but manages to get it done and could get it done pretty quickly if he would learn to stop whining. He is a smart little boy. Juan is doing better. He know the vowels and the short sounds, 4 consonants and their sounds and can write all of them legibly. He can identify the numbers 1-10, count objects and do dot-to-dots up to 10. Some days it seems he breezes through things and other days he drives me crazy because he acts like he can't remember anything. Andrew is interested in learning colors and most of the time knows purple, and sometimes knows red, yellow, blue and orange. You just have to catch him on the right day. He does know the letter A and that it means Andrew.
Tomorrow is soccer and of course it is supposed to be cool and possibly rainy. It is raining pretty hard tonight. I think I'm glad I'll be at work tomorrow, no, I know I'm glad I'll be at work tomorrow - today they have about driven me crazy. Dan called this afternoon to ask if I needed anything from the store and I asked for "sanity". Does that tell you how my day had been going? But, at the end of the day they ate a good dinner (Juan told me I made a good dinner), they wanted to be rocked, kissed and tucked into bed. They are wonderful, but they still test the limits. You'd think they'd be tired of going to bed early, missing a movie, losing computer time, etc. but I guess not. Oh well, we just keep requiring the same things and repeating the same things over and over, because that is evidently what it takes.
Have a good weekend.
Karen

"Brotherly Love" At the Riverfront in Knoxville.

Tickets, please.

Another Week Come and Gone

2008-04-27T23:04:00.003-04:00

Nothin' better than a can of rootbeer and icecream.
Papa's earning a lot of points with Maicol by making some cool modifications to his bike!
They all help hauling wood to the back yard, but Maicol gets to give rides on the way back.
Mama and Juan Pablo taking a break from organizing the garage.

More soccer games have come and gone. It doesn't seem like it's been a week since I wrote last. Today (Sunday) was a big day for getting some work done out side! After Church and eating lunch with Jonathan we went to work cleaning out and organizing the garage. It was getting really hard to get around in there. Once I got the tiller out I figured I should go ahead and get to work on the garden. We are celebrating this year because the rasberries we planted last year are beginning to send up alot of new canes. We've been trying to grow rasberries without success for several years. The asparagus is also doing great. So anyway, we went to the store to get some manure and peat moss to mix in the soil. Of course Maicol had to ask what manure was. When I told him it was cow poop he wasn't too excited about helping to spread it. He decided he would be much better suited for spreading the peat moss. The tiller wore me out, but it was good to get the soil ready. Of course Andrew had to touch the muffler guard while it was still hot, but it didn't burn too much. He also fell at the store while we were getting plants for the garden and almost busted open his cheek. We figure he'll probably have a black eye in the morning. Later on Maicol admitted to me that he had accidentally caused Andrew to fall while they were horsing around. He felt really bad about it. Those boys really love each other. And they don't leave any doubt in my mind that they love us. Sometimes it seems like they're doing everything they can to drive me crazy; but other times, when I reflect on how far they have come in just 7 months, I am overwhelmed by how much love they have to give and how blessed we are to have them.
Time for a little shut eye. Don't forget to count your blessings too!
Dan

1st Soccer Games

2008-04-19T18:57:00.013-04:00

All right guys, I know we haven't had any practice or experience, and we don't have a clue what we're doing, so just get out there and have a blast!

Great game, guys!

Rats! How come I'm stuck on the sidelines? I'm as good as those guys, ain't I Dad?

Doin' a great job so far!

Good game, good game, good game, good game, good game, good game.....

Well, today was the first set of soccer games for Juan Pablo and Maicol. Fortunately, competition is not stressed in Upwards Soccer. The boys were only able to go to one practice before the first games. Guess that's what you call "on the job training". It was a bit cool, but they had a great time. Maicol was proud that he made a goal all by himself! Bethany was home and got to watch the games too. Grandma McCarty is going to be up from Peebles this Sunday to pick up her computer from repairman Jonathan, so all seven Bakers and Jean will be able to enjoy a nice get together.

Hope you enjoy these pictures from the games.

Have a nice weekend.

Dan

Picking up Sticks and Marshamllows

2008-04-15T22:24:00.008-04:00

What a beautiful day here! We managed to get our schoolwork done and get outside by 2pm. It would have happened much sooner except Juan was very reluctant to complete his work. We did some cleaning up in the backyard, jumped on the trampoline, and tossed a ball.

Maicol moved wood from the neighbors house to our yard. He has been wanting to get a job to earn money, so this was something that Dan told him he could do. He worked some today, but still has several more days worth of work to get it all done. I found a great way to get all of the sticks picked up in the backyard - start a fire and let them throw the sticks in it. Juan and Andrew are very good at picking up sticks with the proper motivation.

After Dan got home we cooked hamburgers over the fire. They are so much better cooked outdoors. Maicol ate 3! He barely eats three meals a day, so that is alot for him. We also roasted marshmallows. I had to put a limit on them, or they would eat the entire bag!

Hoping for an even warmer day tomorrow.
Karen

These things are great!

Finger-Lickin' good!

A little extra fiber is good for you, right?

Wish you could see how dirty his face really is! Must have been a very fun day.

This his how you do it Mami.

A lesson in marshmallow roasting from the master.

Tax Time and Keeping Them Busy

2008-04-12T22:07:00.008-04:00

We thought spring was here , but I guess we were mistaken. It's back to coats and firing up the fireplace insert. After that little taste of spring, we really, really can't wait for spring!
It is also coming down to the wire to get our taxes done. You'd think since we're getting money back we (Dan) would have done this a long time ago, but if you thought that you'd be wrong. :) That self employment stuff (and not the greatest in recording everything) makes it alot more work. I got my part done - adding up our adoption expenses. Now my job is keeping the boys busy and away from Dan so he can get it all figured out. Hence the pictures today. I started out playing cars with them. That led to getting a large piece of cardboard and making a road for the cars with various other things one might see while driving the car. Then I made a couple of long "chutes" out of cardboard to race cars in. When the fun from that had died down I resorted to the following - washable markers. I started with drawing a spider on Andrews hand and it just increased from there. They wanted to be dalmation dogs, so they spotted themselves with a black marker. Then they wanted Spiderman webs on their tummies, spiders on their hands and legs, bugs, etc. Andrew just wanted to draw on himself. They were quite a mess, but had a good time and were very occupied. A good, long bath with plenty of soap took care of most of the marker. Just a little residual is left. Maicol told me he'd need to wear a long sleeved shirt to church tomorrow so no one could see what's left of the spider webs on his arms.
Now, what will I be able to come up with tomorrow to keep them busy? :)
Karen

Dalmation spots, spider webs, spiders, bugs, and just alot of marker going on.

Spring?

2008-04-08T22:17:00.005-04:00

It seems that it may be spring here in Indiana. We are cautiously optimistic. It has been in the 60's and the boys think it is warm enough to go without a shirt! I guess when it's been winter for so long 60 seems pretty warm. They have been out playing and spending alot of time jumping and playing on the trampoline. Problem is we have to play too and they are wearing us (me) out! I thought we got the trampoline for the kids?! We did have a great time today playing with them tho.
We took all of them to start their immunizations today. It's taken us awhile to be able to have a day where both of us could go and the health department is open. They did pretty well. A little crying from the younger two, but no kicking and screaming. Andrew cried until he saw the container of candy and then he stopped crying immediately! With him candy can cure any problem and cure it really quickly. Now we have to figure out how to get them back in a month! They will know what the deal is next time.
Here are some pictures of a fire pit we made Saturday night. We had been hauling home large pieces of stone from my Mom's house for a year to do some landscaping with. We weren't getting very far with that, so decided to do this. I think it looks good and will work really well. Our neighbor Scott came over and joined us for the inaugural fire. Only problem is it stays light so late now we have to let the boys stay up in order to enjoy a far after it gets dark. Maybe we'll have to have some daylight fires.
Hoping for more warm days.

Karen

Where is Spring?

2008-04-04T19:32:00.008-04:00

The days just seem to fly by. Guess it's that way with most of us, huh? Nothing special going on. Still waiting for spring to show up here. I keep thinking it will be any day now, but we can't seem to warm up much. I did wade through the mud to play on the trampoline a little with the boys. Dan has too.

We have managed to do well with school work this week. Some days it goes so well, and other days they don't want to do anything and don't remember anything. How is that possible? I've bribed them a little this week. Maicol and Juan are both very interested in animals. I found a couple of masks of animals for them to color and cut out. That has provided incentive to get the work done. They really like pretending to be animals - sound effects and jumping and running included.

We decorated sugar cookies tonight. Fun included with a little something to eat. Andrew is really just interested in eating. The other two realized they were too full from just eating dinner to have more than one cookie - but not Andrew. He's just a little eating machine - especially when it comes to sweets.

Have a fun weekend.

Karen

Happy Birthday Jonathan and Andrew

2008-03-30T21:59:00.007-04:00

It's been two birthdays since I've managed to get a post done. Where does the time go? We celebrated Jonathan's 23rd birthday last Sunday. I don't think he was quite as excited as Andrew was today, but we enjoyed having him over and had a good excuse to have cake.
Today we celebrated Andrew's birthday. He was three a couple of days ago, but it worked out better to do it today and he's not too particular about what day you celebrate on. :) So now my first baby is 23 and my last baby is 3. We had lunch after church and then cake and ice cream. Andrew really loves sweets, so cake is right up his alley. He made a big mess, but enjoyed it. The other two aren't that crazy about cake, but anxiously awaited the opening of gifts. They are suddenly very eager to share their toys with Andrew since he now has something they want to play with too. We let him open his presents and play with them the rest of the afternoon. Jonathan hung around and played a little Hide and Seek or 1, 2,3 as Juan calls it. The adults each got a little nap in too. Maicol is counting down the days until his birthday (96). He has been lamenting how long it will be since Juan's birthday in November. His birthday was just a few weeks before he came to our family, so he has quite a wait to celebrate one with us.
We had a fun day yesterday. We went to a small indoor water park. The boys took a friend with them. We told them we had a surprise for them and Maicol immediately thought of swimming. The only part they didn't get right was that we did not stay overnight as we have done the other two times we went swimming this fall/winter. They had a great time and definitely were ready to sleep last night.
We're still waiting for spring here. We'll have a day of warmer weather and then it's back to cold again. We REALLY can't wait until they can get outside and play everyday!
Grandparents - for Andrew's birthday you bought a Spiderman Mr. Potatohead, two wooden puzzles, a bubble machine and a construction toy that makes lots of noises and moves and shakes.
Here are a few birthday pictures.
Karen

Yes, that is Christmas wrapping paper. Hey, it's what I had and Andrew doesn't care!

A noisy toy!

I love cake!

"Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday dear Andrew, Happy Birthday to You."

Helping Jonathan blow out his candles.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

2008-03-20T21:27:00.014-04:00

Hope you like pictures, because there are alot of them! Seems like every time I get ready to sit down and write something, I get sidetracked. These are all pictures of our weekend at Grandma's. We had a very good time. Everyone was well behaved. It was a little on the cool side, but we did manage to get outside a little on Sunday. Juan and Maicol wanted to go hunt deer, so we walked to the woods and looked for some. But seriously, how many deer do you think we would be able to sneak up on with 3 boys stomping through the woods - none of which can be quiet for more than a few seconds?! At least we tried. Maicol did take a suction cup bow and arrow set just in case. :) We did see some deer bones, but no live ones.
We also celebrated Bethany's birthday. She wanted an apple pie, so that's what we had, with 4 candles on it - one for each 5 years. I just couldn't see trying to put 20 candles on a pie. We're getting ready to have Jonathan's birthday on Sunday. Then Andrew's is next week.
Our big newspaper debut is tomorrow. The local paper did a story about our adoption. The kids did really well when the reporter came. They did ok with the photographer too. I didn't think we had a particularly interesting story until Bethany pointed out that "you are middle-aged and you did go to another country and come back with 3 kids". I guess that's not something most people do, but it seems so normal now. The article is @ www.noblesvilleledger.com under "Parents Adopt 3 Children". It's in the 3/21 issue. If you look later you'll have to do a little looking around, but it will be in the Hamilton county news. You can't see the photos they included, but you can read the story. It's not exactly what we would have written, but ok.
We've had a full week it seems. Good, but full. Hope yours has been too.
Karen

Why I love going to Grandma's!

Looking for trouble.....

Wishing they could take a spin on the tractor.

My boys.

My sister's boys.

My baby is 20.

All of the male primo's.

The "big" kids and the "little" kids.

A serious checker game.

Andrew and my cousin Ray racing cars.

The battle of the experts.

Bethany teaching Maicol to play Chinese checkers.

Back to "Normal"

2008-03-11T22:33:00.003-04:00

I think we are almost back to normal. Still a little bit of coughing and runny noses, but otherwise up to their old tricks. School is back in session, complaints and whining and the usual "no's" from Juan. And to think I missed normal! :)
The weather has certainly improved. We were able to get outside and work on a little clean-up. The boys rode bikes a little and jumped on the trampoline. I helped Maicol with his rollerblading some too. They are soooo much happier when they can get outside and play(and so are we). Can't wait for spring!
We're getting ready for a trip to Grandma's this weekend. They have been wanting to go, but didn't know we already had a trip planned. Dan let it slip to Maicol a couple of days ago, so now I am having to answer the obvious question multiple times a day. Bethany is meeting us there as she starts her spring break friday. Jonathan is coming and so is my sister and her boys. Hopefully a few other relatives too. Just a chance to get together and enjoy each others company. Why wait for a holiday?
Have a great Wednesday!
Karen

Just being "normal"!

Recovering

2008-03-05T09:42:00.002-05:00

It seems that everyone is on the road to recovery! Just some coughs and runny noses hanging around. Let's hope we don't do that again anytime soon.
We started back with their schoolwork yesterday. I think Juan has forgotten things in just a few days. Don't think we'll be taking the summer off with him for sure. Maicol complained as usual, but managed to stick with it and get his work done. He did tell me his throat was too sore to do reading (but not too sore to ask a thousand questions). I guess reading is different than asking questions. :)
We had a nice ice storm yesterday, so I let them go out to see what it was like. Little ice pellets coming down for most of the afternoon and into the evening. They didn't stay out too long, but it was a fun (and new) experience for them. Maicol went out and shoveled off the sidewalk. He also had to prove that you can ride a bike on ice after Dan told him he would slip and fall. I don't think he fell, but did slide around some while we were watching. They cancelled his Upwards soccer evaluation night, so Dan will be taking him tonight for that. He's very excited to play. Not so sure Juan understands what's going on, but we hope that just getting to play with other kids will be fun for him and encourage him to work on his English.
Have a good Wednesday!
Karen

FLU, FLU, FLU, FLU

2008-03-02T15:40:00.003-05:00

This is pretty much how everyone but Mama is feeling. Juan started getting sick on Tuesday night and was followed by Andrew on Wednesday and Maicol and Dan on Thursday. They have all had the flu - fever, cough, sore throat, etc. Lots of fun! I finally had to get a piece of paper out and write down who got what medicine when to keep track of it all. We're on our second bottle of Tylenol and Advil. They are all starting to feel better except the Papa. It's beautiful outside today - sunny and at least 60 degrees. Wish they felt good enough to get out and play, but I guess it will have to wait for another time. So, that's why there hasn't been a post in so long - too much sickness and I've had to work extra this week. Not a good combination.
I told Maicol I wasn't sick because I got a flu shot and he is very eager to get one now. We'll see how eager he is next fall. :)
Tkae care and wash your hands alot!

Karen