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

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

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

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

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

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?!

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!