handsful

Summer has officially begun in our backyard. Randy has been working on getting the pool ready for weeks, and today was the day! The kids were super excited…well, everyone except for Lainey who was napping. We’ll wait for a warmer day to introduce her to the pool. Here are a few pictures of the big kids enjoying the cool water…

Bonus points for excellent form!

Marley thinks it over…

Abbey, are your teeth chattering??

EJ can add sports to anything

Payton had a blast

For all of you still “enjoying” snow in your backyard…HA!!! ;)

Oh dear, Daddy did it! He finally installed those pesky drawer and cabinet latches! How am I going to get my hands on all that neat (tiny, chokable, sharp…) stuff now? Sigh…

Oh well, I love him anyway! I especially love rubbing my hands on his fuzzy head…

Daddy went to finish cleaning the pool, so it’s time to check my feet. Yep, they’re still there.

I know you’re now thinking…ducks?? The kids ran in one morning last week, excited that there was a mommy duck and ducklings in the pond. So, being the nice Mom I am, I ran and got the zoom lens. Aren’t they sweet?? I promised I’d post it just for them.

As of today, I’m developing a rather nasty cold and, unfortunately, Lainey is showing signs of it, too. If I’m right, this will be the first time she’s been sick since we’ve had her. I guess we’ll see how she’s doing tomorrow.

After several seasons of not-so-stellar baseball teams, the boys finally hit it big. They’ve played 6 games so far and they’re all in the win column.

EJ on 3rd and…

…he’s walked in for a run

Payton at the plate…he pops it up and they unfortunately catch it :(

One of their biggest fans!

Lainey continues to settle in well to her routine…up around 7:30-8am, nap 1:30-3pm, bedtime around 8pm. Randy blessed me with a whole new school / chore / discipline schedule yesterday, which is helping us tremendously. Figuring out how to handle having a toddler while teaching fractions and spelling has been challenging, but we’re getting there.

Now, if we can just get all those cabinet latches put on…this is her favorite activity. She has two cabinets that she’s allowed in, but of course she wants the other ones.

Good thing I have lots of “Lainey wranglers” around…

Here is Lainey with my cousin, Peg, who lives in NJ. Her husband Tracy and their girls, Christy and Ashley, were vacationing close by, so they stopped in for a visit on Monday. Lainey is demonstrating her new trick…waving. She waves at everyone and everything. I love it when she waves goodbye to her crib when I get her up.

Lainey is 21 months tomorrow!! She’s adding to her signs so quickly. Let’s see, she knows water, milk, more, all done, night-night, mama, light and shoes. She almost has the sign for daddy and food. Lainey and daddy were going over some signs and when he said “shoes” she signed it AND ran to her room and brought him her shoes! A matching pair, even! The girl loves shoes.

More later!

…worked!! I was hoping for just a decent picture. I was even willing to accept that they all wouldn’t be looking at the camera at the same time (gasp). But, they all did SO well! Lainey was fine, she just didn’t want to sit still too long and was quite shy with smiles. We’ll hope for smiles next time. The pic above looks a little skewed because these are the un-cropped proofs. Here are the individuals…

This is my favorite pose of Lainey. Since it was her first professional portraits, we got a few extra poses of her. Here is another…

We got this outfit for her in China. Notice the right foot, with the shadow underneath? That’s because as soon as I placed her on the floor, she tried to walk away. Kudos to the photographer for catching a good picture in motion! And, yes, her tongue is out in both of the above pictures. It’s out more than it’s in, so these pictures show the true her ;)

Quick update: Lainey can now sign more, milk, all done, water, and night-night. She understands to wave when we say bye-bye, gives kisses on command (usually), loves to wash her own hair, and tried to kiss Jack full on the face (which, Jack was more than happy to accept). She’s learned how to pray now, too. At the table, we all join hands to pray and she’s learned this quickly. She grins a big grin, grabs my hand and Abbey’s, and bows her head.

Her eating habits have changed a lot since we first “met” her. She initially ate like there might not be another meal coming later…which, I have to sadly assume was because she knew what it felt like to be hungry. She accepted anything and everything and ate EVERY crumb on her plate, on her bib, on the table, etc. Now, she’s becoming more choosy…she eats her favorite on the plate first, then moves on to the other items. She no longer eats in a frenzy, seeming afraid that it might go away before she’s done. It’s a much more normal pace. She also used to cry / throw a fit whenever the food was taken away, regardless of how much she ate (we KNEW she had to be full!). She now knows that there will be another meal coming. I sound like Scarlett O’Hara, but…she’ll never go hungry again. She also knows it’s okay to leave a crumb or two…and she doesn’t panic when food hits the floor anymore. Jack is elated when THAT happens.

That’s it for now…stay tuned for pictures from the boys baseball game today!

Lately, we’re a family on the go. Always something and somewhere to be! I guess mostly it’s been appointments preparing for Lainey’s upcoming surgery. Today, she had her speech therapy evaluation. They’ve recommended that she have sessions twice a week to help her with her language delay. The clinician estimated her expressive language to be around the 10-12 month age range. We’re not worried, though. She is learning more and more everyday, copying our actions and beginning to mimic our sounds. She’s only been home a little more than 3 weeks, and the clinician was impressed with how well she’s doing. Lainey is now using 3 signs – “more”, “water”, and “milk”. Abbey taught her “shoes” today in the car AS she was taking her shoes off.

– oops, I’ve been caught –

Backtracking a little…we had a nice day last Saturday that included a baseball game for the boys, playing outside, and a great Mexican dinner. A few pics…

Here is one way she entertains herself during the boy’s games. I, for one, am glad this isn’t acceptable behavior for anyone other than babies! No pics of the boys this time, I only had the “wimpy” camera. We’ll take some at this coming Saturday’s game. By the way, they are 4-0, the ONLY undefeated team left in their division. Woo hoo!!

The big kids love to pull Lainey around in our wagon. Here…the tables are turned! Does Marley look happy about it??

There is a new, very authentic Mexican restaurant in our area and we’ve been there twice so far…once, a few days before leaving for China and then last Saturday. Lainey (no surprise here) LOVED it. Her favorite was swiping tastes of the sour cream on my plate. Here she is clapping along to the live mariachi band that was playing.

And, seeing a big fan, they decided to serenade her personally…

Wish I could have seen her face!

For those of you wondering, guess who Lainey now likes? Yep, Jack! Our dog is officially out of the doghouse. She still would prefer that he keep his lickity tongue off of her face, but he gets quite a bit of attention from her. I was worried she’d take a huge step backwards when he literally plowed her down in the yard yesterday. He didn’t mean to, he was just excited about running around. She cried a bit, but then was fine. Just another sign that the girl is meant to be here!

Happy Easter…no bunnies or baby chicks around here. Jesus has risen, that’s the point :)

We started the day with church, and before we left we attempted to take pictures of the kids. Lainey did not agree with that plan, so here is a pic of the big kids…

Never fear, here is a shot of happy Lainey walking to the church building…

Once we got home from church, we attempted the outside 5-kid shot again. No go. Here is a keeper with just us girls in the kitchen. Yes, the sink is full of dishes, Sunday mornings are crazy around here!

Lunch! Yes, we had more than just bread…

Because I wished more punishment and wouldn’t give up the dream of all the kids in a picture, we tried again after lunch. Maybe a picture on the steps with all the kids would work? Nope. Lainey was past her naptime and showing it. Maybe after nap. The shot that Randy got BEFORE she fell asleep wasn’t nearly this peaceful…

After her nap, I managed to get several shots of just Lainey that turned out rather well. Maybe my luck is changing??

Our sweet Abbey planned an egg hunt to “train” Lainey for the annual hunt at Gram’s house coming up in a few weeks. She was slow to get it at first, but then caught on and loved it!

After the hunt…you guessed it, we tried again. Success, a picture with all the kids looking and nobody crying. Okay, Ethan only has one eye open and most everyone’s Easter clothes were long ago changed. But, I’ll take it.

This is one of Lainey’s favorite things…her dad’s NC State pillow. She hugs it and cuddles with it and even drools on it. I know this picture will make most of her NC family very happy!

Lainey had her first cleft palate clinic appt today. We left the house at 7:20am, arrived at 8:20 and left at 12:15. Long day! They ushered us into an exam room and then the specialists started arriving, one by one. She was seen by the nurse coordinator, medical photographer, pediatrician, psychologist, speech pathologist, audiologist, 2 ENTs, 2 plastic surgeons, social worker, family resource rep, and a medical resident.

According to the two plastic surgeons we saw today, she has a moderately sized cleft…on a scale of 1-10, it’s a 6 or 7. The first priority is correcting the cleft and other surgeries such as nose and lip revision will be done sometime in the future. They think her lip correction done in China was “okay”…they say they would have done it differently, but also say that they can “tweak” it (and her nose) to make it look great.

Someone LOVES her little sister…

As far as her palate, it will take 1-2 surgeries to close it, they’ll know better once they get in there. She should have surgery within the next 2-3 months. It’ll be overnight and she’ll have to wear arm guards called “no-nos” that keep her arms from bending at the elbow (and, therefore keep her fingers out of her mouth) for 3 weeks. Yikes.

They also found fluid in both ears, which they say could have been there for some time. It’s not infected, but it needs to be drained so there is no damage to her hearing. So, they want her to have tubes put in her ears. They should be able to do this the same day as the palate surgery.

They want us to wean her from the bottle, because she won’t be able to use one after her surgery. We’ll do that slowly, because we know that bottle feeding promotes attachment and that is most important right now. We’re also going to be contacting a speech therapist that specializes in cleft kids, to help her with her lip strength as well as begin work on her communication. We’ve already taught her two signs “more” and “water” and she catches on really quickly.

Lainey also had her appt. with the infectious disease specialist yesterday to discuss her positive TB test. Her chest x-ray was clear, so her TB is completely dormant and not contagious. She began her isoniazid treatment tonight, and once she completes the 9 months of this, the doctors said that she’ll be fine. No need for any followup. She will always test positive for TB, but the treatment will ensure that it never becomes active.

We feel very good about our appointment today, and though we’re a little anxious about all that is to come, we know that it’ll all be fine in the end. We feel more and more blessed everyday that this little one is ours…I’ll quote Chris Rice: Life gave me lemonade and I can’t imagine why. God is good.