handsful

With Fay FINALLY gone, we actually went outside to play this past weekend…the grass was only a wee bit damp, and it was great to enjoy the unusually cooler weather (which, has gone away and we’re back to crazy HOT as of today).  Here, big sis is sharing her snack with little sis.  It’s hard to tell, but Marley has poison ivy on her face and neck these days.  It finally got so bad, that she was put on prednisone a few days ago.  Thankfully, it’s beginning to go away. 

Someone in our household is signed up for softball for the first time, so she’s getting a few pointers on throwing from dad.  Gotta love a black and PINK glove. 

Looking good, girl. 

Payton’s looking good, too. 

Well, until Lainey takes away his ball…he doesn’t look like he minds too much. 

EJ is also practicing, with his baseball games coming up this fall, too.  I wonder how many of his games will overlap with her games?

Lainey is telling Marley to drip the water from her cup on her head.  Crazy child. 

Lots (and lots) of rain, some big gusts of wind, but nothing that would cause us damage, thankfully.  So far, it looks like Fay is sort of going around us, but we’ll see how it goes tonight.  We tied up our little palm tree (beside the swing) and so far it’s holding it’s own.  Fay is a little camera shy, this is the best windy picture I could get…everytime it got really crazy, I’d grab the camera and run outside.  Only to sit there and wait for another one that would never come…UNTIL I went back inside. 

So, what do you do on a day where it’s too rainy and yucky to go anywhere and school hasn’t started yet?  If you’re me, you ORGANIZE!  I’ve gone through a few closets and cabinets lately, and today was the pots and pans.  Looks like someone wants to help?!

No, I didn’t put her in, that was totally her idea…she did it quickly, when I had my back turned so, of course I ran for the camera ;) 

Basketball, his fav sport (just like his dad)

Payton is our “middle child”, in that he has two big sisters, a little brother and a little sister.  Never mind that one big sister and one little brother are only 1 minute apart from him :)  When I told Payton that I was going to write a post about him and his “Payton-isms”, he got very excited.  When I asked him if he knew what that meant, he said “nope”.  lol… That’s him.  He’s got the best sense of humor and always says these funny things out of the blue. 

• It’s almost school time around here, and I’ve been busy making up a new daily schedule, a new plan for handling chores, and a way to communicate little requests to the kids without having to “nag” (not that I EVER nag…).  I made up a clip-thingy to hold their chore slips and Payton found it the other day.  He looked at it with a confused look on his face, looked at me, and then smiled and said “you’re planning something aren’t you?”  Just the way he looked at me and said it, cracked me up. 
• I was walking down the hall the other day, and came upon Payton walking toward me with a pout on his face.  He said “I need a hug”.  Well, of course I hugged him for a minute and then he pulled back, sighed a big sigh, and said “ahhhhh…my mama meter is full”. 

Just a couple of examples of how Payton regularly makes us truly laugh out loud.  We think he’ll either be a comedian or pastor when he grows up (the boy can pray like nobody’s business)…maybe both?  I think I’ll go get a hug from him

SIX months!  Half a year, baby!  Here are her other Gotcha anniversary pics…

Five Months

Four Months

Three Months

Two Months

One Month

Gotcha Day

Care for a little Lainey overload?  Here are some favorite pictures taken recently:

Taken today…can you say goofy??

It got quiet (which means Lainey is getting into something…) so I went to look for her and she came walking down the hall wearing these.  A pair of my OLD glasses!  She loves eye wear of any kind, no matter how ugly. 

She loves her books, as long as you don’t spend too much time READING the pages.  See how long her hair is! 

Someone is excited to be in the rocking chair! 

I love her delicate eye lashes. 

…we must be!  Six bikes in a row, with an extra little rider on one.  We broke out of the neighborhood tonight, going down the main road for about 3 miles total.  It was great.  The kids loved the adventure of being out amongst traffic!   I’m sure we’ll be doing that a lot more, and hopefully my legs won’t be quite as sore as they were tonight!

In her co-pilot seat complete with bunny helmet.  I promise, she loves biking even though she doesn’t look so happy here!  She asks to go biking all the time, with her sign for “bike”.  Yes, that’s a boo-boo on her eyelid.  The girl is such a dare-devil, she always has some kind of bump or scratch. 

Speaking of being daring, here’s Ethan deciding to give his hands a break. 

Abbey and Marley enjoyed cheerleading camp last week.  Here they are on the last day, when all the girls performed for their parents.  They did great :) 

Lots to say, but not many pictures.  We’ve been busy, and most of the time haven’t had the camera with us (gasp).  I’ll add the pictures we do have, and give a quick run-down on what we’ve been up to!  As you can tell, I wasn’t sure what to call this post…

• This weekend, we took our ski boat out on the river.  This was Lainey’s second time on the boat, but first to take a dip in the river…surprisingly, she loved it.  Hee hee.  The big news is that Ethan got up on his wakeboard!!  He’s been trying to do that since last summer, and we were whooping and hollering when he did it on Saturday!  There are no pictures because I knew I couldn’t handle Lainey AND the camera.  Making sure she stays seated while the boat is in motion is a full-time job.  We’ve decided that we need to get a “point and shoot” kind of camera, one that is much more portable than our Nikon, just for times like that.  Take it from me, he looked great and the smile on his face was priceless. 

As a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, I feel it’s my duty to tell you that Lainey did NOT want to wear this.  She allowed me to put it on her, took one look, and started frantically signing “all done”.  It’s true.  But, I convinced her to keep it on for a few pictures.  This is the NC State cheerleading outfit that both Abbey and Marley wore when they were little, and I tried it on Lainey today to see how it fits.  It’s still a little big, so there is room to grow…and, maybe with time, she’ll learn to like it.  ;) 

• About a week ago, Randy and I bought ourselves an early anniversary present.  Bikes!  We decided that we wanted to be able to take bike rides, all 7 of us.  Randy’s old bike is OLD and not usable.  About a year ago, Abbey took mine (and passed hers down to Marley).  So, a trip to the sporting goods store was in order.  We also got one of those cute hook-on toddler seats and an adorable helmet with pink bunnies, so Lainey rides on Randy’s bike.  There are no pictures (yet) because we’ve been going in the early evening and it’s been too dark. 

What IS this thing mama put on me?

• Have we mentioned yet that Lainey is the next Houdini?  Honestly, she’s really good at getting out of something or into something.  For instance, she’s figured out how to unbuckle the latch on the straps of her carseat.  More than once, I’ve looked behind me to see her with both arms out, dangling out the front of her seat.  Not good.  We now have a plastic thingy holding the straps together that Randy found at Home Depot and she’s not figured it out (yet).  And, that’s not all.  She knows how to step on the pedal to open the gate between the kitchen and front room…can unlock all the doors in the house…and, can unbuckle her booster chair at the table.  NONE of our other kids did any of this.  Fun, fun. 

Guess who made dinner tonight?  Abbey decided she wanted to prepare our meal for tonight and spent this weekend looking in my Southern Living Easy Weeknight Favorites cookbook for her plans.  She made Molasses-Grilled pork tenderloin (with help from dad on the grill), Southern Fried potatoes, Sesame knots, and Polka dots for dessert.  I helped some, but Abbey did most of the work and was very proud of herself….and so were we, it was all SO good!  We sorta skipped a veggie tonight, oh well :)  Here’s a shot of dessert…

• Today was our 6 month post-adoption visit from our social worker.  China requires a 6 month and 12 month post-adoption report to make sure that everything is going well.  Our SW will write up the report and send it to our agency who will then forward a copy of it to the CCAA, along with 4 pictures that show Lainey with her new family.  He was very happy with how Lainey is doing, saying she looks very comfortable in her new home.  Our official 6 months home isn’t until next week…you know I’ll do a post about that! 

This is our last full week of summer, with our 8th year of homeschooling beginning 8/21.  A 7th grader, 3, 5th graders, and a very busy toddler trying her best to get into the middle of it.  Should be fun. 

See…anything and everything can function as a step stool.

Lainey had her in-home evaluation by our state’s Small Steps program.  She is eligible for services through them based on her cleft issues and will be in the program until she ages-out at 3 years old.  At that time, we’ll go back to private speech therapy.  We had the program coordinator, an occupational therapist, and a speech therapist come to do the evaluation.  Lainey was shy at first, but quickly warmed up to them…especially when they brought out a few toys and pictures.  Oh, and the cake sprinkles (used to test her fine motor skills) were a bit hit. 

So, this is what the play kitchen is for??

At the risk of sounding like a proud mama, she did amazingly well.  I believe the words brilliant, amazing, and precious were used…no kidding :)  They were extremely impressed with how far she’s come in 5 short months of hearing and being around the English language.  The speech therapist said her receptive language skills were wonderful, right on target if not above.  Her expressive language skills…and this one surprised me…are also on target.  How?  She only uses approximations for about 5 words?  The therapist explained that her use of sign language “counts” towards her expressive language, and she is beginning to put 2 signs together, like most 2 year olds put two spoken words together. 

Are you okay with this, mama?

After the evaluation was over, we discussed the short and long term goals for her therapy.  Basically, we’re going to work on her using a straw, increasing her vocalizations, and increasing her use of words or approximations of words.  Eventually, she’ll need therapy for certain sounds, but for now the focus is turning her language skills into speech skills.  We are so happy with where she is, so soon after joining us.  Her capacity for learning just amazes us, she’s drinking in everything she hears, sees, and experiences.  She’s definitely making up for lost time.  :)