Sunday, April 20, 2008

5 Month Update

Can you believe it has been five months already? It is absolutely amazing how much the children have grown in the last five months, even in the last three months they have changed drastically. I was looking back at some Christmas photos of S. this past week, I didn’t realize until I saw the photos how much he has actually changed. This week marked K’s fifth month, and S. will be 19 months old very soon.

Everyone is good. I know Thomas and I are both tired. He’s in the last week of school for the semester; which translates into exam week. And I’m in the last two weeks of session – THANK GOD! I can not wait for it to be over. I feel like I miss so much of what the children are doing each and every day. Either because I’m at work and not at home, or I’m too tired to really notice anything, or because I get home so late each night that I barely have time for a hug and kiss before it is time for bed. On top of that, I’m sick, of course. As soon as my work ends, Thomas will be heading back to teach 1st semester of summer school. So, I’m not sure he is going to get much of a break. But based on what I know of my job, I will be pulling my hair out due to boredom very soon.

The children are doing excellent. S is starting to try to repeat words we say, which is a very good thing. He also now points to the dogs and says “daw” or basically dog without the “g” on the end. Sometimes we notice he repeats the words we say, but you can only tell because of the inflection. It basically sounds nothing like the word, except maybe the same tone and number of syllables. He had a doctor’s appointment for his 18-month-old shots this last week. And finally he placed on the height chart – at the 3rd percentile. It was quite an accomplishment. We bought him some summer clothes and new shoes over the last few weeks. His is quite independent these days. He largely goes into the house and to the truck on his own with a little assistance. He is absolutely hilarious these days. Quite the comedian, he has us in laughter most of the time we are together. He is also at that age where he likes to run away from you instead of toward you – laughing the whole time of course. Everyone who meets him is absolutely amazed at how well he moves for his age and how strong he is. He is running, pulling, climbing, and eating crayons and play dough, and doing just about anything else you can think of. This includes pointing and speaking jibberish; and feeding himself with a spoon.




He loves live music – and was out dancing recently at our local Brewster’s (ice cream) in front of a nice size crowd. This is really during the middle of a head bob, so it didn't look quite so funny in the motion.

Did I ever mention that S loves shoes. The first pair I put on him I think may have been his first. At just 13 months old he looked at those things like they were sent from heaven. He still loves to look at his shoes in delight, especially right after you put them on and he starts walking in them. And the first time for any pair is the best -- which may be why I keep buying them for him.



One of S's favorite past times when we go outside is to pick all the blooms off the flowers. Here is a great series of him picking one, handing it to me, and then laughing in glee as he takes off with half of it.

Well, let me talk a little bit about K. She is by far the most adorable baby in the world. This of course, is not a biased opinion. Since she is a foster child, I am removed enough from the situation to make sure this is an accurate judgment, plus since she is not my own flesh and blood, I am allowed to make these remarks. She is far too cute to be related to me. She is doing everything a 5-month old should – laughing, screaming, grabbing, holding onto toys, and more. She can even hold her bottle some now on her own. Yesterday, she literally pulled the bottle out of my hands and into her mouth and held it for several minutes. She coos and oohs and aahs. She puckers her lips out so far when she says “ooo” – it is hilarious. Whenever she sees Thomas she literally lites up; this goes for Silas also. In fact the past two days he nearly has fallen out of his seat in laughter and pure exhileration at the site of "dad." Tonight I kissed on her feet and had her laughing out loud for minutes. Luckily we got it on video, but I also got this great photo.


Neither one of the children understand to make pretty and happy faces when the camera is out. K looks at it like a creature from outer space, and S completely ignores it usually by looking down and putting his thumb in his mouth. So to get a good picture of either of them is very difficult. For some reason, we never really notice that K makes funny faces, but more than half the photos we take of her turn out a little funny looking.

She looks like Shrek, don't you think?



And here are a couple more shots of us holding K. For those of you who may not know, we work on about a month to month knowledge of what is happening with the children and their families. Both the children have had regular visitations with their moms. S's mom just started visiting with him twice a week. K's mom was up to 2 hours a week also until about a month ago. Both of the children have court dates now in May. These are very big court dates where decisions should be made about their futures ... and we have some idea of what we think will happen. We think, that there is a very good possibility S will go to live with his grandmother. We met her and she is very nice ... and young. We expect this to take place early June possibly. Or we could be wrong. And with K, we expect that she will be staying with us a little longer, possibly permanently. It's too early to tell for sure, but her mom hasn't been seen or heard from for more than a month now. And we were told from the beginning it would be her mom or adoption.












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