handsful

It’s what I do. I’m constantly making changes, cleaning out closets, drawers, re-arranging something to try and make more room in this house. I’m a self-confessed PURGER…if I don’t love it, or it hasn’t been used in awhile, it’ll end up in the charity pile.

All that to say, I love breathing room. Clutter is my enemy (I think it’s Satan’s cousin?), and I’m in constant battle. With 8 people in a house, it’s hard fought!

Recently, we decided it was time to make a little extra space in Lainey and Dylan’s room. There aren’t enough bedrooms in our house, so they have to share. Hoping we can find a larger rental before they get TOO old for that. Dylan had been sleeping in what used to be a bottom bunk, so we brought the top bunk in from the storage room and set it all up. I love it! And, so do they…

Here are before shots:

Lainey’s side of the room. Can you say cluttered? That desk, the box that her radio sits on, etc. Blech.

And, Dylan’s side. Nothing much to it, his bed, bins underneath, and his Cars decals (oh, the boy loves Cars…)

And, here it is after we just got the bunks up so they could go to sleep. We were able to have rails on both the top and bottom (Dylan flails all over the place, so that was a must).

Next day, after we finished the whole thing. Love it. Ignore the unmade beds…it’s never been my strength to either do those or teach my kids. One of my many flaws.

Look at all that ROOM!? They can pull out those bins and have room to play.

Night night :)

As Dylan would say “10 Months, baby”

Everything these days is followed up with “baby”…he’s a cool cat.

I had a little mommy / son date with the little man today. Took him to get frozen yogurt on the way to the grocery. His was chocolate with mini m&ms and chocolate sprinkles. He finished every bite without getting even a drop on his shirt. That’s my neat boy.

I’ve gotta share a little conversation we had. Background: Dylan had a green spoon, and I had a pink one.

Dylan: Mommy, why do you have…what’s that?
Me: pink
Dylan: Mommy, why do I have…what’s this?
Me: green
Dylan: Mommy, why do you have…uh…what’s that?
Me: pink
Dylan: Oh, Mommy, why do I have…um…what’s this?

And, on and on, until he finally got the WHOLE sentence out. Remind me next time to get us both the same color spoon. Oh, and to work on his colors.

On the bright side, he can usually count up to 5, knows his name begins with “D”, and can draw a person. The one below, he tells me, is Lainey. I took one picture, and then he stopped me to add in her “really lot” hair.

Dylan is eating more these days, thankfully. I made fried rice with chicken the other night, and he had THREE bowls. Unheard of!

I weighed him today… 28.4 lbs. He’s busting out of his pants! lol…

Dylan (and Lainey) are enjoying talking about China lately, and we’ve borrowed a few videos from the library on Mandarin, Chinese stories, and biographies of children in China. Dylan decides on occasion that he wants to be called Yu Hai. Lainey wants nothing to do with Qing Qin, she doesn’t like it.

We’re getting so close to ONE year!

Dylan, along with some of his buds from the 3’s and 4’s class at church, made their singing debut by singing Jesus Loves Me at our church’s Family Baptism.

We weren’t sure how he’d do. Lainey has always been shy about these things…I was pleasantly surprised that she actually went up on stage during VBS and did her thing this summer. Dylan wasn’t nervous at all, and didn’t hesitate when it was time to perform.

He did great during the rehearsal.

However, they turned on the overhead screens during the actual performance and Dylan spent most of the time staring behind him, trying to find himself. Sigh.

Managed to catch him actually facing forward.

Grand finish!

He was so happy afterwards, running around with his friend, Brianna.

Always the gentleman.

We’re looking forward to watching Dylan on stage again…and, we’ll be sure and remind him to look out at the crowd this time :)

Remember this picture? Somehow, Dylan managed to always get in the middle of everyone else’s birthday pictures! The lucky girl getting “iced” here is named Hope. She was adopted a couple of months before Dylan, and her mom Amy is a cyber friend of mine. They live in Orlando, FL.

As only God could ordain, one of Amy’s travel mates lives in our small town, her son also being from Luoyang. Amy and her family drove down to spend a few days with them. Hearing that we lived here too, Nickie was gracious and invited us to their home for dinner, so we could all meet. Dylan and Hope would see each other again! This time, with their forever families!

I printed the above picture for Dylan, and told him about our upcoming visit. He was very excited, telling me over and over that he liked Hope and wanted to see her.

All the kids spent time playing while the adults talked and finished cooking. Hope has 2 older brothers, one of which became an instant friend of our boys. Nickie and her husband have 4 kids, including Alex from Luoyang (he’s younger and was in a different room from Hope and Dylan).

Hope and Dylan were obviously happy to be around each other, but they were kinda coy about it.

Hope has the biggest smile, and most adorable laugh ever.

After dinner, they played upstairs while Amy and I snapped pictures and talked about our Luoyang buddies.

Hope wasn’t too smiley, but every time Dylan would hug her, she’d blush and look away. It was too cute.

Speaking of smiley…gracious, we look happy huh? I promise no alcohol was consumed that night!

We ended the night with a take on the Red Couch pictures in Guangzhou…this time, it was the Striped Couch picture :) Alex, Hope, Dylan, and Lainey. Our China blessings.

Last shot of the night. Dylan decides to plant one right on Hope’s cheek. Lainey is laughing, thinking “yep, that’s my brother!” Alex is thinking “hmmm…why didn’t I think of that?!”

We LOVED meeting Hope’s family! We feel very blessed to be able to connect with an orphanage mate of Dylan’s. Can’t wait till we can get together again!

The UPS guy at the door, that is. I was so excited to be able to ask him “do you KNOW what’s in that package you’re holding?!?!”

But, I was at the Dr. getting a cortisone shot in my elbow….which, by the way, didn’t hurt at all. Dr. Licause rocks.

Anyway! Randy called me on the way home with the news…Dylan’s prosthetic leg came!! I was surprised, the techs at Shriner’s said it would be a long shot for us to receive it by his birthday. This is 4 days earlier than that. They must have really pushed to get it done. Have I mentioned how much I love the Greenville, SC Shriner’s??

Lainey and Dylan had just come in from swimming with Abbey, and we showed him the box. When we asked him what he thought it was, he broke out in a big smile and said “two leg walk”.

He looks pleased. The camo/lizard print came out wonderfully…it’s definitely a big boy leg!

Time to saddle up. Sock, liner, leg, pants.

Feeling a little weird!

Hey, I can do this.

He’s not in pain.

He’s got a case of the goofies.

Walking to mama…

and back to daddy.

A close up. The cord attaches to the bottom of the leg and then to another velcro strip at the top. He can pull it, which unlocks the joint in his leg so he can sit in chairs and his car seat. He loves that part.

He’s worn it for about 15min at a time, 3 times today. Every time, he does a little better. Tonight, he got himself up onto the fireplace hearth, and could stand up and sit down on his own. We were laughing at his wild arms, trying to balance himself. Randy taught him “wax on – wax off”. Ha!

Oh, and today marks 7 MONTHS since our adoption was finalized for Dylan. I usually post on the Gotcha Day (yesterday), but as you can tell it slipped my mind. What a great early birthday present/adoption day present!

After I put Dylan to bed, I went to a drawer in his room and pulled out all the left shoes that have been waiting to be used. They’re now with their matching right shoes, all ready to be worn. Two shoes. :)

Being short 3 kids certainly makes for a quieter house. And, a cheaper grocery bill. Just an observation.

Abbey, Payton, and Ethan were gone last week, with their Testify Youth Choir. They arrived home late Sunday night.

Marley, Payton, and Ethan left early Monday morning for our church’s youth camp for a week. Yes, the boys are crazy. They’ll most likely sleep away all of next week.

With less food to cook and laundry to do, my days have been lighter. That leaves more time to do summer things like yard work, projects (I will go through all the toys and school materials…), and just hanging out on the dock.

Everyone already knows that Lainey is part girl / part fish. She’s fearless.

Dylan, on the other hand, is more cautious and takes to things more slowly. We’ve had him in the water, but only in short bits and we’ve always had to hold him – a regular life jacket made him bob straight onto his face. The boy hates water on his face! I found a combo waist / arm float at the store and this one seems to work better. Plus, he’s finally understanding that he has to kick his legs to keep them under him.

This week, he’s made huge progress.

He’ll now go in the water “no help”, he says. He’ll let me count 1-2-3 and dunk him under. Randy has even tossed him in without him fussing. We’re not sure what changed his mind about water, but we’re glad he’s embracing the “fish” lifestyle of the other kids.

Blowing bubbles! Forgive the pics, I only had my little camera.

Today, he showed me he could swim on his belly without his face smacking the water.

Swimming is what they both want to do these days. Everyday.

Lainey learned to swim last summer, and this year she’s doing so well! We let her go without the life jacket in short spurts to practice. It’s harder in the lake, since there aren’t as many places to swim to.

We’re enjoying these slower days, but I’m beginning to miss having all my kids under one roof. Four more “night-nights” and we’ll be back to a louder house. And, bigger grocery bills.

Better go cut those coupons.

Happy Summer :)

How many times have we heard that phrase? At least once a day, for the last…oh…5 months maybe? “I want two leg walk”

The day finally came.

His first look. Apprehensive? He was worried it might hurt. The prosthetic tech, Crissy, is fantastic. She looks a little creepy here, but she was working hard to ease his worry.

A smile…she was joking about his smelly foot. The boy does have a stinky foot.

Explaining about the insert that goes on before the leg. The little brown part helps the socket of the leg to slide on easily. And the insert gives the leg socket some cushion.

And, it’s on. He looks a little unsure!

Time to bear weight and see how it feels. She asked him a lot “does anything feel funny, etc.” to make sure the socket wasn’t hurting him anywhere.

After this shot, she decided that the socket came up too high on his leg (and could potentially wear roughly on his skin, so she trimmed it)

Being silly while waiting for the socket trimming!

Lainey shows Dylan some love!

This shot shows how the leg is attached. The sock is pulled up and goes around his waist. Then, he’ll slide the leg on, kinda like a pair of pants. And then velcro the belt around his waist. Should make going to the potty interesting…pants, leg, sock, unders – unders, sock, leg, pants!

First step!

He had to be shown how to take steps (duh, he’s never done it before!)

This shot totally makes me tear up.

As the tech was watching, she realized that the socket was a bit loose. She took it back to the shop and added some extra padding inside to make it more snug.

Adjustments made, time for another spin in the hallways.

He was doing so well by this time, his walking looked more like walking. Initially, he just wasn’t sure what to do with that thing attached to his short leg!

Great job, little man!

A close up. The pattern (camo with lizards!) that we took with us will cover the whole socket. The white part here will be taken off, it’s kind of like a temporary cast material. It was just to give support until they could laminate the whole socket with the pattern. The cord will be attached to the front of the socket. When we pull the cord, the locked knee will unlock, allowing his leg to bend when he sits down. It clicks back into a straight position. The rod will remain exposed…no covering. I love that it’s a cool red and purple!

Now, we wait for it to arrive in the mail. They said they’d try hard to get it to him by his birthday on July 4th, but they stay busy and are short a tech right now. We’ll just be happy to get it when it gets here!

And, what did Dylan ask tonight as I dressed him for bed?

“Mama, I want two leg walk”