Nov. 2012

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Flying Home


Prema's head is so small from neglect that the same size headphones that Isaac had wouldn't fit her.



The boys love to help "fly"

Congratulations Uncle Sam and Aunt Amber

Sam(Kyle's brother)and Amber were married in Lexington, Kentucky on May 3. Kyle was the best man and Isaac was the ring bearer. Prema wore the dress she received from the orphanage when she left 2 years ago.



Early Morning Flight

Everyone is always excited to fly in Grandpa Cullum's (kyle's dad) super cruiser. We started our trip to Kentucky for Uncle Sam and Amber's wedding early morning May 1.



Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Eli is One..and a bit more by now

Eli's first birthday was April 30. With our plans to travel to Kentucky for Sam and Amber's wedding on Thursday, we decided to celebrate early. On Sunday we always go out to lunch with Kyle's parents after church, so this time we invited the Heuertz family to join us. We all ate at Sonny's, our most frequented eating establishment.

Then we came back to our house for ice cream sundaes, except Eli. He got to eat bananas and strawberries. I read a study when Isaac was a baby that if you don't introduce unnatural sweets to a child before they are the age of 2, they are less likely to over indulge later in life...like they will only eat a small piece of cake instead of shoving down one huge or several pieces like many of us like to do...me included. I was successful with Isaac keeping sweets from him until he was two. But Eli is going to be a bigger challenge as he sees the other kids getting things or happens to "steal" the other's sweets if they leave them behind. For Isaac's first birthday I made an applesauce cake that tasted pretty tasteless, so this year I just went easy with the sundaes and fruit.

Then we opened presents. I say "we" because we all know that Eli was only interested a little bit. As the third child he didn't need anything but he got a few cool things to even the playing field a bit in the constant "it's mine" battle cries that happen daily between the kids.

Eli's first year of life felt a lot faster than Isaac's did. I realize how many more little things pass by you when there are other kids in the house demanding your attention too. Now as Eli gets older it is fun to watch how his personality differs from Isaac. He's a fun little guy to have around...that is for sure.




Monday, May 12, 2008

Craziness

Sorry for the long time between posts. Life just keeps getting busier. Hopefully by the end of the week I can update with some details about Eli's first birthday and our trip to Kentucky for Sam's(kyle's brother)marriage to Amber.

For now I'll just include some general updates.

Eli is very mobile and very aware of when he is not obeying. He is learning everything so fast with having Isaac as a model. He makes noises for any vehicle when he plays, sings right along with all of us, isn't afraid to start a wrestling match, and is extremely adventurous (no fear).

Isaac is still a ton of fun to pretend with. He loves to include imaginary people into his pretend play now. Today we were pretending to fly our planes and land for a lunch together. Isaac had 5 kids and one of them was sitting on his lap. He began our lunch saying "so what would you like to talk about." And he will literally sit there and hold an adult conversation with you...you don't get bored. Lately, he is big on informing anyone when they are wrong and correcting them. He has an amazing memory about places, events, etc...I'm in shock of what he remembers before he was really verbal. He can hit a baseball (no tee) better than me and throw a ball with more accuracy than me. He is also into using persuasive tactics to make anything go his way from playing with certain toys, consequences he receives, etc. The worse part is that it is hard not to negotiate with him because he is so reasonable sometimes.

Prema is busy with school, private PT, neurofeedback, and finding ways to make me mad. I'm having a hard time feeling positive about her these past few weeks, so I can't think of that much to say about her.

Kyle's busy with work. He still is riding his bike back and forth to work which I am really proud of him. Its almost been a year. He is so close to finishing our pergola . He has done a really nice job. He is enjoying playing baseball with Isaac. It was fun to see him squeal in joy when Isaac hit his first pitch. He has also been really supportive of my new commitments to church..watching the kids.

I'm busy with the kids. It has almost been a year since I started running...so this is a really big hurdle for me. I used to hate running and now I am eager to get in my 3 times a week. I just need to increase my distance and time. I am really quite busy with church the past few months. I am now in the choir and last year I started a 3 year commitment on our pastoral council. I have been nominated to be on our "facelift" committee so those extra meetings are adding to the stressful schedule until the project is complete.

I had a nice mother's day weekend. Saturday night I met a friend for coffee for several hours. Her daughter also is adopted, deaf and has RAD so we support one another very well. On Sunday we went to church and lunch. Then Sandy (Kyle's mom) nd I went to see the Vatican Splendors, but decided to sell our tickets as the museum was behind over an hour. So instead I met kyle at the park with the kids and then we ate dinner and all went to Candy Kitchen for some awesome ice cream.