handsful

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.  :) 

Puppy love

This blogging thing is addictive.  It’s become more than just updating friends/family on our goings-on here in FL.  It’s become my scrapbook, journal, record book, etc.  I automatically evaluate if something that we do/say/experience is “blog worthy”.  Oh, that’s funny…I should blog that.  Lainey is doing something new…I should blog that.  Payton has a new goofy face…I should blog THAT.  lol…  It doesn’t even matter if anyone else is reading it (though I hope they are…I love comments), it’s just great fun putting our lives on paper screen. 

For instance, here are my african violets.  I’ve had these two big ones FOREVER.  I brought them from our old house, so that’s at least 4 years and I know I had them years before that.  They bloom constantly.  The little one is my attempt at rooting a cutting.  I had it in rooting hormone and vermiculite for more than a month, and little tiny roots grew.  Last week, I put it in the pot with soil, and it seems to be holding it’s own.  I thought I was going to lose the two big ones, because they had become so overgrown.  I read up on how to “fix” that online, and I ended up cutting ALL the roots off.  That was hard to do!  After weeks of having them re-planted and under bags to increase the humidity, they are thriving now.  So cool!!

Don’t these look yummy?  They are.  I’ve tried a few recipes out of Earl “Bubba” Hiers’ cookbook, and so far they’ve been so good.  Earl is Paula Deen’s brother.  Not sure of the cookbook’s name, my mom-in-law Kathy had it here when they were visiting and she made some copies from the book for me.  These are called Star’s Cookies.  Not sure why they’re named that, but…

2 sticks butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups uncooked old-fashioned oatmeal

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup chopped pecans

2 cups Rice Krispies

375 degree oven…cream butter and sugars together until fluffy.  Add the other ingredients to this mixture and mix.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet 2-3 inches apart.  Bake for 12-15 minutes…although mine browned in 10.  You MUST let them cool on the sheet about 5 minutes before taking them off to cool on wire racks. 

I usually use a mixture of all-purpose flour and whole wheat, but I only used the all-purpose this time.  I like to use Sucanat in place of regular brown sugar, too.  I’ll experiment with ingredients next time.  Oh, and I had no time to chop pecans this time around…next time, I’ll be sure to do that.  I love pecans. 

We’ve had SO much rain lately, that everytime we think of getting in the pool the sky darkens and storms for the next hour.  Tonight, they timed it right and took a dip after dinner. 

 

Nope, we didn’t show her how to hold her pencil, she’s just doing it right.  Although, now that I think of it…she is very good at copying what we do, even if she only sees it one time.  So, maybe she noticed how the kids were holding their pencils??  Regardless, I’m impressed :) 

The many faces of Lainey…

I’m not a professional, but I think those are some really advanced swirlies she’s making! 

Yes, I’m a dork and took a picture of my daughter after she got off the bus from her last day of marine science camp.  :) 

She loved it this year even more than last year!  She worked (and played) hard and earned a grade of A based on her journal entries and tests.  Way to go, girl!! 

I love sleeping baby pictures…I found her this way one morning when I was getting her up.  Notice Tiger, Puppy, and blanket are all very close by. 

This is from today…the kids had 3 friends over to play after church.  We decided this was a good reason to make funnel cake.  They agreed!  See the chef hard at work in the background, making one for Lainey and I to share. 

Also, in case anyone has gone back in the archives recently to see our China trip or before, you might have noticed that some of our pictures are very tiny and there are weird squares and/or question marks mixed in with the text.  Well, when we made the switch to this new blog, the transferred posts got a little weird.  The picture problems, we think, are because Shutterfly (where we store and order our prints from) now only allows the thumbnail pics to be copied over…which, we’re a little bummed about.  So, I’m working little by little to delete the little square guys and to try and fix the pictures.  Like I have nothing else to do.  ;)