2 year old Talking...hmmm

Yesterday Isaac spoke several sentences at various times that blew us away. He speaks very clearly all the time, with very few mispronunciations. His sentences are become more and more complex, and yesterday was a day filled with the use of big words.
"I am having a CONVERSATION with Dillan."
"I REALIZED when I was at the park that some tree needles stick to my shoe."
and on Friday night sitting by the campfire he recalled a conversation from the week before that he overheard when we had some guests over.
"So do you remember when the Fullers told us the story about Mr. Curt's brother falling in the fire."

Its a lot of fun listening to him talk and carrying on conversations with him. He talks constantly and nothing is filtered so we know everything that is going on in his head. Some of his ideas are right on track and others are a bit amusing.

A New Phase in RAD

We are entering a new phase in this journey with Reactive Attachment Disorder. We have come to know another family with an adoptive child who is deaf and also has reactive attachment disorder. An important piece of the healing process and home therapy is that the parents are able to take care of themselves first and get relief when they need it. Since we sign and the other family also signs we have decided to help one another. We will be watching the other child whenever they just want to get away on a date or if she becomes violent and extremely disobedient at home. They will be watching Prema under the same circumstances. This can become a very tricky endeavor as we may take on another child for a short time at a moments notice. We are excited to be able to help another family and have options for more relief ourselves. In the past we have interviewed several people for this particular need and have come up without any options due to lack of signing or lack of understanding or willingness to follow through with RAD techniques (some can seem harsh to others). So keep us in your prayers.

Father Isaac

Along with Bob the Builder and Football, Isaac is very interested in anything to do with Jesus, Fr. Mike and church. It has been an interest consistently for a long time, ever since he sang "Alleluia Bob the Builder" while jumping on the trampoline. He has become extremely observant in church, even repeating things at home that we didn't think he even heard because he didn't appear to be listening or watching. Its very sweet to watch him carry candles and crosses high above his head around the house singing "Alleluia", "Gloria in excelsis Deo", or "This Little Light of Mine". Sometimes he will come around to all in the house and give us a blessing on our foreheads. One time he was sleeping with a book because he thought that is the way Fr. Mike sleeps. Another day he insisted he could not take a nap on his bed because it was the altar and Fr. Mike does not sleep on the altar...I argued his statement recalling Good Friday when Fr. Mike prostrates before the cross on the altar. Isaac bought it and took his nap. From Thanksgiving to New Years we listened to Josh Groban's rendition of "The Little Drummer Boy" sometimes more than 3 times in a row while Isaac played his drums. He loves to dress up as Mary and stuff a baby in his shirt and act out the birth of Jesus. Prema is usually Joseph and I am the Inn keeper. However, when Isaac is Mary he insists that there is room in the inn because there is an empty bed behind me. He will sit at the piano to play and sing his church songs. This week we read the story about Jonah and the whale and drew pictures of the story. Isaac loved talking about the story and looking at his pictures over and over again. Recently he has really enjoyed listening to the Kids' Kingdom on our local Catholic radio station. Throughout the week he will be singing his favorite songs "BAA BAA we're lambs" and "One the Day that______(name) was born". Today it was precious to watch Isaac walk down the isle in church toward Fr. Mike for his blessing. he had made a cross in kids church. All the other kids held them in their hands down at the their sides, but Isaac at the end of the line held his proudly and reverently above his head with both hands. Fr. Mike often says..."one day he may be Fr. Isaac, wouldn't that be cool."
Isaac dressed as Mary...the blue head scarf makes the outfit for him.

Eli 9 mo. old

Eli is 9 months old. He is crawling all over the place and getting into his brother and sister's way. He is pulling up on furniture tearing down many things and he is also letting go and standing by himself. At his 9 mo. check up yesterday we got good news that the ear infections are gone and one ear is completely drained. The other still has a little bit of fluid but hopefully it will pass soon.

This video was taken while Kyle and I were doing yard work. We have a ball hanging from a tree so that Isaac can practice hitting the ball without having to go and retrieve it all the time. Eli had a blast.

Hold Up Your Cell Phones?

My friend Karamin invited me to join her to one of her Christmas presents, the Taylor Swift concert. Having no clue as to who she was (as I limit my station listening to classical and Kid's Kingdom on the Christian stations) I agreed for the mere sake of a girls night out with a good friend. It was a lot of fun. Taylor Swift is very talented. No matter how song or voice may sound I admire the ones in the music industry that actually write their own songs and play an instrument...Taylor Swift doing both. Although she is only 17 and most of her songs bring to life her adolescent life she has good lyrics and tunes. Most of the crowd was about the same age, so there was a lot of high pitched screaming at times, and some kids who just don't pick up on the clue to sit when the artist and 90% of the crowd is sitting too. The most shocking thing, as I have not been to a concert in at least 6 + years was the request to hold up your cell phones. In replace of the traditional lighter the audiences are encouraged to hold up their cell phones and move them back and forth. As you look through the crowd it is evident that at least 95% of the people have cell phone...weird especially when you consider the population attending. The sight was quite amusing and surreal...I felt old.

Ear Infection Again

Poor little Eli has his 4th ear infection since November. He woke up from a nap yesterday evening with a fever and struggled through the night. No cold signs, just the ear ache. He had his last one 2 weeks ago that it seems cleared up but still had fluid in his ears that became re-infected. We went to the doctor this morning and he was given a high dose shot of antibiotic in his leg. Then he begins another round of oral antibiotics tomorrow. If this ear infection doesn't clear up, including the fluid draining completely or he gets another infection he will have to have tubes put in his ears. We are definitely not wanting to go through the surgery and hassle many others have had with tubes. I had to hold Eli practically all day as he is feeling really bad. Hopefully we can all get some rest tonight and have a better day tomorrow.

Family Memories

I find myself more and more wanting to create family memories for our kids to take with them and possibly pass on and Kyle and I to sit back and remember years from now. I remember always thinking it was a bit silly when my dad seemed to often comment how nice it was to sit together at the dinner table, especially once we had all started to disperse into our own lives. Now I am beginning to understand what it was to him and seem to have developed that same desire for family connectedness. Its interesting how fun to me at this stage of life is almost always a family outing or activity...these days simple and easy to bail out of if it becomes to stressful. More extensive and adventurous trips/ activities wait in my plans until the kids are older. I think it is somewhat natural to want to share memories with your children, but has been more pressing to me since researching developing attachment with children that have attachment issues. It is said that the more happy memories you can form with your adopted child the more likely the bad memories of the past will no longer consume the
child's generalizations about life.

This weekend I noticed the pure joy in Isaac and Prema as we sat around an outdoor fire, worked together as a family to make orange juice, and bundled up to weather the cold for ice cream at the Candy Kitchen. Friday night we ate dinner with Kyle's parents and then had a fire outside on the porch. We made smores, sang and played music together, and the kids danced with some sparklers. Isaac was eager to accompany Kyle with his ukelele. Prema was excited to sign "Silent Night" and dance to music. When the night was over and Isaac was not fully cooperating to get ready for bed I reminded him that his behavior is a direct indicator of whether or not we will have a campfire again...he immediately cooperated and wanted to make sure we would sing again too.

Other parts of the world have snow in winter, we have citrus trees ripe for picking...DELICIOUS. We are lucky enough to 2 grapefruit and 1 tangerine tree in our yard and 2 orange trees in our neighbors yard (that we take care of while they are gone). Isaac, Prema and I are the gatherers and Kyle is the juicer. (Eli just plays on the floor or on the ground outside.) Both Isaac and Prema are thrilled to be the fruit deliverers. I pick from the trees and drop them on the ground and Isaac and Prema race to pick the up and bring them inside. Today Isaac wanted to carry some in his underwear, pockets and shirt...we let him. What a hoot.

Then this evening we ventured out in our Florida cold (45 or so degrees) in hats, sweaters, coats, and pants and tennis shoes for some ice cream It has become a weekly ritual to visit the Candy Kitchen. Kyle's parents used to go on dates there before kids. Kyle and I started going on dates there this past year and slowly it has developed into a weekly family outing with the kids rain, shine, or cold. Isaac became so cold eating his ice cream that we had to sit in the car. Then as we were driving home and he was still eating his ice cream he began announcing with distress "I need to pee, I need to pee." So as any parent of a 2 year old potty trained child, we made a quick judgment call to turn on the next street, pulled Isaac out of the car and had him pee on the street. Better there than in the car seat, but tough to explain to an Indian child who used to only use the street as her toilet that she is not allowed to do the same in America.