Four!

Guess who turned 4 yesterday? (insert Mama's *sigh* here)

This will be quick post of some shots from Ned's annual birthday photo shoot yesterday. Our usual warehouse lot photo shoot didn't mesh well with a rainy, windy, 40 degree day, so this year's photos were taken at the Milwaukee Art Museum; convenient, since that's where Ned wanted to spend her birthday anyway. More later on the rest of her big day. :)

(If I do say so myself, subjects don't get any easier than my baby girl.)

Halloween!

Okay, okay, at least it's still October, right? I mean, haven't missed a month entirely yet...doesn't that count for something? (Juli, you can't say anything. Your blog is rather...how shall we say...silent these days. Renee doesn't even have a blog for me to follow along on the adventures of Bob-Bob and NeNe. And Elisabeth, is this when I comment that you are waaaaaaay too crazy organized, on-top-of-everything, and flat out calm to mother a crew of 4? And that you make me somewhat reluctant to complain how 2 kiddos are kickin' my rear? Don't worry, I said it makes me reluctant, not that it would actually stop me.)

They're kickin' my rear, people. I stand by my theory. 1 + 1 = 3. Our neighbors just had their second child and I have for months now been feeding my theory to Rob in preparation. He confirmed a week after the child's birth that indeed, 1 + 1 = 3. (Unless you're cut from Elisabeth's over-achieving cloth. She'd be... hmmmm... Gortex? Or perhaps just a good ol' hardworking hemp. Organic hemp that is, dyed with organic root vegetables grown in her own garden...you get the point. Elisabeth is my hero.)

Back to my point. I promise I will get back to regular blogging. I will. Really.

In the meantime, can I tide you over with some Halloween photos? Good.

Yes, I realize Nedy is carving pumpkins in her Kai-Lan underpants. What? Kam thinks it's funny.
Kam is pretty amazing on the language front. His vocabulary grows by the day it seems. Hot, cold, warm, cup, water, milk, cracker, cookie, up, down, car, dog, eat, break, rip, sock, shoe, ball, bottle, bag, box, toy, cow, cat, gate, sit, etc. His receptive language is awesome, too. He can follow most simple instructions. I love it. Language development is one of my greatest parenting joys. I laughed when Kam saw the goop that comes out of pumpkins. "MESH!" (mess), he announced.
Mesh, indeed. :)
Artsy mesh. :)
Just look at her face. Ohmygosh, they may be kickin' my rear these days, but I adore these little beings to the moon a million times over.
Nedy's pumpkin design. She drew it on with marker and Baba carved it out.
And the moment you've been waiting for. Darth Vader Nedy. Thanks to cousin John-John for the costume. While most of the other gals were bland in their (lame) princess get-ups, the Nedster rocked Vader somethin' fierce. That's my girl!
Neighbor buds.
I take a photo of Ned and Maddy every year on Halloween. They are starting to look...old. Sigh.
And my Yoda guy up from his nap!
He was initially weirded out by the gobs of people running around in costumes in the rain but quickly decided this is his idea of a good time.
Classic. What else needs to be said?
Cute baby. Cute, cute, cute.
Nana and Papa came over to hang out and eat dinner after trick-or-treating.
Little did Papa know that Nedy had planned an hour-long physical for him. He got checked out and even got shots. Lots of 'em. But she bandaged his arm and told him he'd be fine in a couple weeks. Papa was such a good sport. She's serious about her doctor play and still says her plan is to be a "doctor, scientist and race car driver" when she grows up.

So that was Halloween Sunday! And I have an October blog post up! Yay for me. ;)

Door County 2011

And I'm back! :)

I can't believe it has taken me two weeks to get the Door County post up. Goodness. Thanks to Juli for the gentle prodding resulting in this 2am post; I am so behind on blogging it's ridiculous. (In my defense, our geriatric laptop's many "senior moments" of late haven't correlated well to my patience level. Not wanting to hurt the machine--i.e. "Dang! How did my coffee spill all over this thing?!"--I've mostly stayed away. Dan assures me he has purchased whatever we need to make this dinosaur function reasonably. Now all he needs is the time to install it. BUT ANYWAY.)

Door County! So my side of our family makes an annual trek to Door County for a Labor Day weekend getaway. This is our...hmmmm...5th year? Maybe more? It's always a good time of goofing around and enjoying the kids enjoying a giant sleepover with their cousins. This year was a bit disappointing in terms of weather; we usually spend hours and hours at the beach but this year found it just too chilly for more than a single afternoon of play. Sadly, when everyone else was at the beach playing, Ned and Kam were napping. We did manage to make it out there afterward for an hour until a storm blew in.

Otherwise we spent the weekend hanging out, eating, playing, hanging out, eating, playing, eating...you get the picture. Speaking of pictures, I'll let them do the rest of the talking. I'm tired. Juli, I blame you for this. ;)

Early morning tie-dying--can you believe I didn't get a pic of the kiddos in the finished product?!
Mini golf! Nedy loooooves mini golf. I think she thinks you can only mini golf in Door County because it's an automatic association for her; as in "Door County is next month! That means miniature golfing!!!"
This little guy looooooves vacation. He slept great (a big worry I had) and really enjoyed interacting with everyone.
Ice cream for lunch! (Don't they look like they know they're getting away with something?)
Kam's sideways glance. I love this face.
Bingo time! Nedy was excited that she didn't need help this year and actually won a game. Papa gives gold dollar prizes. (As an aside, a gold dollar may as well be a $50 bill to kids. Funny. Maybe they think they're actually gold?)
Bingo time came with stern sisterly warnings about choking hazards. Eagles Eyes Ned.
The next morning worked out decently for our annual photos; chilly, but decent lighting. Now is when I say that adding 2 babies to the mix made getting the perfect shot a huge challenge...but I guess now that I think about it, this shot is pretty much perfect, isn't it? Dang, we have cute kids.
My brother John's family:
My sister Jackie's family:
My sister Lisa's family:
And us. I should note that I haven't edited or cropped any of these pics yet, so stop looking at Dan's shoes. They'll be gone soon. ;)
Dad and us kids:
Kam taking a break from photo hell to stick his head in the sand. Smart boy.
Everyone. (Wow, there are a lot of us.)
Cute, right? I love this shot.
Cute, right? ;) I can't believe how big my first baby is getting.
Kam does this thing where he winks when the light is bright. It's hilariously adorable. Look at those sandy feet.
Our bit of beach time.
How cute are they? Be still my beating heart.
Board games! Nedy is totally into board games. And playing with her older cousins? Icing on the cake.
Kam and his new cousin, Yubin. Yubin is 4 months older. I can't wait to see their friendship develop over the years. (They don't have a choice in the matter in case you're wondering.)
Kam loooooooves Papa. He says, "Puh-puh" and bows when he sees him. It's so cute.
Some sort of robotic bugs racing on a pizza pan. I'm telling you, we know how to have a good time. ;)
Kam feeding Nana soggy Fruit Loops. Yep, that's love.
Uncle Johnny and Kam discussing their hairlines.

And there you have it. Door County 2011 documented. (Most importantly, a post with recent pictures.)

I'm going to bed now. In case you're wondering. ;)

Baby cuteness.

I have a ton of updates to do, but wanted to post this pic my friend Holly took of Kam--how cute is this?! (For the record, we did promptly remove the dirty hose from his mouth after the photo was snapped...just sayin'.) (More to come! I just need a couple more hours in the day, that's all.)

Finally an update.

Look at me! I'm up for the Bad Blogger of the Year Award! ;)

Sorry for my lack of updates. Truly, we've settled into our new normal fairly well and I'd like to say I have an excuse for my blogging hiatus. But I don't. (Well, besides just being busy in our new "1+1=3" scenario.)

The last few weeks have been so interesting. Up until then, Kamron's mode of operation was consistently stoic. He'd mill about and explore, but overall seemed to be keeping his new life at arm's length. I kind of felt like if he could talk he might say, "Yeah, y'all (yes, he'd have a southern twang...) are real nice and all and I've had some fun times, but I'm ready to go back home now. 'kay?"

Having walked this adoption road before--and in the not-so-distant past at that--I knew this sort of "operating at the periphery" was normal for many kids, Nedy included, and that this too shall pass. On a related note, I am amazed at how much I am able to draw from our experience with Nedy as we navigate these early days with Kamron. With Ned, I was constantly worried about her emotional state of being. (Actually, worried is probably an understatement. Obsessed is more accurate.) I would read and read and then read some more and get progressively more entrenched in all that "could be wrong" with our attachment. If you've ever read anything on attachment, you know how quickly you can assign issues. In doing so, I was hyper-alert at all times, looking for symptoms and signs and generally driving. myself. insane. What did I learn from it? Not to do it again! Really. What I failed to fully understand the first time around is that "instant attachment" is a lie. Many parents claim it on blogs (example: "Day 3. She is attaching perfectly.") but then when you get to know them and talk it out in real life, you find that, more often than not, they were afraid to voice the "real deal" because undoubtedly someone would respond by telling them, "But this is what you wanted." As if the fact that it is HARD makes you want the child less. Goodness. But I digress.

My point is, Kamron's early months of cautious stoicism are normal and--dare I say it--good. He's not seeking to flirt for fear that without it his needs would go unmet. I believe, because of the excellent care he received from his loving foster family, that he expects we will take care of him. I am so thankful for that. He's smartly approaching us with cautiousness because, while I think he knows we will meet his every need, I am pretty sure he's wondering who will pop into his life next to take over that caretaking. Given his early experiences, I'd say cautiousness is a completely fair and appropriate approach.

And now to what makes the past couple weeks interesting. Basically, he's coming out of his shell. He started smiling...a lot. (Oh my gosh, his dimples are just adorable. And he has this way of smiling where the very corners of his mouth turn down to form the cutest smirk.) And he's laughing out loud. (His foster family told us he did this, and now we finally get to hear it!) And he comes over to greet me when I get in from work. And he's hugging back. And occasionally planting an open-mouth, wet-as-heck kiss on my lips. He remains resistant to close eye contact when he's being held, but his eye contact otherwise is steadily improving, so I expect this will come with time, too. Day by day, he's allowing us in more and more. I learned through experience with Nedy that true attachment is a months and years long process, not an event. Having "walked the road" before is allowing me to experience our process with Kamron differently; more patiently...more sanely. ;)

In other news, Kamron began cruising a lot and taking steps a couple weeks ago. He is taking his time, practicing here and there, and as you saw in my video post a couple days ago, recently began wobbly walking distances of 10 steps or more, to which Nedy and I squeal a harmonious chorus of "YAAAAYYYYYY, KAMRON!"

The development of his communication is so fun to watch. He can say Mama, but never on command. I think he's got a bit of a stubborn streak. :) He can say Mao Mao (our cat Hank has been "Mao Mao" since Nedy was little), can "meeeoooow" to the cat, can say dog (gog), cup (guk), coo coo like our clock (goo goo) and a few other one-time mimicries. When I sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" he moves his hands in the spider motion and even puts his hands over his head for the "out comes the sun" part. He loves singing and songs, especially the ABC song. The letters S ("ssssss") and V ("vvv-vvv-veeee" with a tickle) always make him laugh. When he is done with eating he motions "all done" in sign language and knows the word ("mow") and sign for "more", too.

Last Thursday he had his 12-month well baby check. He is in the 99th percentile for height and weight. He is almost 28 pounds now! He is healthy and on-track developmentally. (Of course, as always happens three days following a trip to the pediatrician's office, he now has a horrible chest cold complete with wheezing and terrible coughing. Our Sunday morning trip to urgent care revealed that dreaded "it's viral, nothing to do but wait it out" diagnosis. Poor baby.)

Nedy is a Rockstar of a big sister. She has so seamlessly adjusted to sharing her world with her brother. And the funny stuff that comes out of her mouth is just icing on the cake. For instance:

Nedy: "Mama, how do babies get out of ladies' tummies?"

Me: "Through their girl parts. They push the baby out."

Nedy: "I'm confused."

Me: "Well, it's kind of like when you need to make a poop. Your body tells you that it's time and you go to the toilet and push it out. When a lady's body tells her that it's time for the baby to come out, she gets some help from a doctor or some other baby helper and they tell her when to push. And then the baby comes out."

Nedy: "From her girl parts?"

Me: "Yes."

Nedy: (long pause...thinking...) "I'm definitely adopting my kids because sometimes when I push a poop out my butt hurts and babies are bigger than poopers."

Does it get any funnier? You should have seen Dan's face behind Nedy as this conversation is happening. It was priceless.

So that's it for now. I will try to get some pictures up sometime soon. I need to get back to my weekly blogging. I am hoping by saying that out loud I will actually do it...

Life is good. :)

someone has something to show you... :)

Yay Kamron! He is so proud of himself. Trust me when I say the feeling is mutual. :)

(And I am still working on a real post with actual words, but my free time these days is...limited. Stay tuned.)