Catching Up

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

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

Fall 2010

Moths, Spiders, Grandma's and Football

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

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

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

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

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