Let the Baseball Begin!

It's here!  Baseball season.  Actually it's been here since January, yes, January.  Our boys' teams began practice in January to ready themselves for the St. George March Madness tournament.    The March Madness tournament is held in St. George, Utah.  We look forward to playing in this tournament because it's about 4 hours south of Salt Lake and the weather is usually a lot warmer.  A wonderful change from the cold temps in Salt Lake.

E's a righty when batting, but a lefty when throwing.

Ike's a lefty when batting, but a righty when throwing.

This year we were only on the road to St. George for about 5 minutes when Selam threw up.  Oh my.  We're talking major vomit, not spit up.  Being the optimists that we are we figured she was a little car sick.  She had a double ear infection and was on meds so maybe that in conjunction with the motion made her nauseous.  Makes sense right?  Once we got her and the car seat all cleaned up, I was patting myself on the back for remembering an extra change of clothes, wipes,  a plastic bag, etc. for situations just like this.  What an organized momma of four I am!  We got back on the road with only a 20 minute delay...no problem.

Weeelllllll, it wasn't long before we realized little Selam may not be car sick, but real sick.  Stomach virus sick because we had to stop two more times to clean up, change, cover up, etc.  It wasn't pretty. :)  Poor little baby!!  I can only imagine what the people driving behind us were thinking as we would veer to the side of the road to pull over so we could make sure she would choke on her vomit.  Poor thing!! We quickly ran out of wipes, extra clothes and blankets.  So much for super mom patting herself on the back for planning for every scenario.  Serves me right for thinking I had it covered!  We have never had this happen on a trip before, it was not fun!  I wished more than one time on this trip that I could just zap us back home, we felt so bad for Selam.  I even had to beg for wipes from a sweet mom at one of our unexpected gas station stops.  This was after I literally washed Selam off in the restroom sink.  The convenient store didn't have wipes for sale.  Who would've thought?  At our third unplanned stop another sweet man at a rest stop gave us a roll of paper towels.  Note to self, when traveling with four kids plan for the absolute worst situation. :) 

Anyways, didn't mean to get off track here, but a calamity is always so fun to talk about!  Once we made it to St. George we were extremely grateful to have a friend's condo to stay in.  We washed up, did laundry and got ready for both of the boys' games the next day.  Selam still wasn't feeling great and had started to have intestinal issues, but we could handle anything now that we were out of the car! :)

The tournament was fun and the weather perfect!   Ike's team went 3-1 and E's team went 0-4. 

Baseball fan!

Baseball fan!

Disneyland

In February Daddio and I decided to surprise the kids and take them to Disneyland for a weekend.  Yes, for those of you that are die hard cocooners, we'd only been home with Selam for 2 months before we decided to expand our cocoon to include thousands of our closest friends.  Please don't judge us!! :) 

We showed up at the kids' school, checked them out and told them we were going to Subway for lunch.  On the way to eat, Mickey and Minnie Mouse called them on our cell phone and told them they were excited to see them soon.  Our kids were a little confused, but quickly asked, "Are we going to Disneyland?"  Yep we are and we are leaving in 2 hours!!!!  They thought that was pretty cool, but when we told them Grandma Nita (who had never been to DLand) was going to meet us at the airport and come along too, they were super ecstatic.  Hmmmm, I think throwing a grandma in the mix always spices things up a bit!  We're pretty sure they thought grandma was more cool than Mickey Mouse at that moment.  :)

Of course as our luck would have it, the day we  decide to let them ditch school is the day parents are supposed to "Eat lunch with your child at school day".  When we walk into Subway we not only see other parents from our school getting lunch for their kids, but we also see the principal.  Oh dear...  Little E immediately says, "Hi Mr. D!!  We are going to Disneyland today!"  Oh, yet another proud parent moment.  "Ummmm, yes I'm sorry (not really or we wouldn't be doing it) we are taking them out of school for a trip."  Thank goodness he's a nice man or this could have been a very rough start to our fun trip!  :)

We met up with Grandma Nita at the airport and we were California bound! 

 

We had a great 4 days there.  So much fun and believe it or not it was very relaxing.  Each day we took things slow, went to the park early then came back in the afternoon.  The kids swam, had room service and just vegged.  Selam did fantastic too and even slept all night two of the nights (this was a vacation!!). 

Blessings,
DJ and Danielle

Our First Weeks Together as a Family of Six

Ahhhhh, where has the time gone?  Selam has been home for 3 months now and she has grown and changed in so many ways. 

First Week  (December 20-24)

• Prefers Mom.
• Claps, waves, crawls, pulls self up and cruises around furniture.
• Doesn't cry very much at all.
• Wake every 2 hours or so
• Slobbers all the time
• Runny nose all the time
• Has two bottom teeth that look like they just poked through.
• Co-slept with mom and dad.
• It was obvious Selam didn't understand a word we were saying.
• Fascinated by everything.  Loved to hold and look at whatever we handed her.
  
• Didn't put anything in her mouth.  Would look at things and touch things, but was not oral at all.
• Tried to play "Peek a Boo" and Selam looked at us like we were crazy.
• Loves music and loves to dance.
• Ate rice cereal and Soy formula (only 4 oz)
• Says "Da da".
• We taught her to do "touchdown", it was something fun we could do in the hotel that would make her smile.
• Didn't care for her first ride in the car seat. Didn't cry, but whined a little bit.

Second Week (First Week Home! Dec. 24 - 31, 2011)

• Dad was home all week
• We could tell Selam was starting to understand what we were saying a little more
• Grandma and Grandpa O were still here for a couple of days.
• First doctor appointment.
• Was first very nervous at home and wanted to be near mom most of the time.
• Began liking dad a little more.
• Co-slept
• Smiled and laughed a lot more
• Started to crawl around the house more without mom or dad being right there
• Didn't like car seat, at all.
• Wakes every 3 hours.
•  Raspy breathing, runny nose and slobbery!
• Aunt Angie, Uncle Lonny and cousin Rachael came to visit.
• Still only drinks 4 oz of formula at a time.
• Tried finger food.  Didn't know how to pick it up from the tray and put it in her mouth.  It didn't take long to learn though.

Third Week (January 1 - 7, 2012)

• Happy New Year!
• Dad still home part day
• So happy!  Smiles and laughs a lot.  Really seeing a lot of personality. So cute!
• Cries very softly.  Doesn't cry very often.  Crazily good natured.
• Very smart.
• Likes dad a lot more.
• Very nosy.  Likes to look at everything.
• Still not very oral, doesn't pick things up off of floor to put into her mouth.
• Nose less runny.  Chest still rattly and slobbers all the time!
• Beginning to try more big people food.  Doesn't gag as easily. 

Fourth Week (January 8-14, 2012)

• Happy, happy, happy.  Such a happy disposition.
• First week without dad's help!
• Belly laughs when big Sis plays "Peek a Boo" with her.
• Eating more table food and feeds herself better.
• Started splashing in her bath water.  (crazy...we have been working on this since day one)
• Slept 7 hours in a row...one night only.
• Everyone is adjusting beautifully...no issues...yet!
• Celebrated Ian's 7th birthday.
• Doesn't cry while riding in the car seat as much.
• Grunts to let us know she wants something.
• Talks all the time!
• Ear infection.
• Loves it when we all cheer for her when she dances.
• Likes to play with our phones.  She puts it to her ear and talks...crazy how early kids figure this out!
• Loves bath time.
• Still slobbers.  Her runny nose is getting a little better.

January 15 - Now

• Selam took her first steps on January 22, 2012!!!  By March 1st she was walking more than she was crawling.
• Winks at us with two eyes.
• Seems to be attaching and bonding well.
• Points at things and jabbers
• Gives kisses with tongue sticking out.  (We've been working on kisses since day one, she couldn't quite get the hang of it)
• While taking a bath she puts her face in the water and blows bubbles.
• She is saying a few words, "Sissy", "Gigi" (our dog), "Yeah", "Daaaaad" and "Hi"
• Three more ear infections.  She has to have tubes.
• First Birthday Party!!!
• Still not a good sleeper.
• Sleeps in a play pen in mom and dad's room.
• Met lots of aunts, uncles, grandparents and other relatives in Vale!
• Loves when the older kids come home from school.
• Uses a color crayon to scribble on paper.
• Folds her hands to say prayers.
• Understands simple requests.  "Come here." "Let's go." "Where's the dog?" "Do you want to take a bath?"
• Waves at everyone.

Blessings,
DJ and Danielle

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Little E!!!

January 12, 2012!!!!

What a great day January 12th is...it's Little E's Birthday!!!  He turned 7 and ohhhh how excited he is to have a day completely focused on him!  Actually, the whole weekend following his birthday was focused on him!! :) 

His birthday day started out perfect with him getting to open presents and lots of family members calling to wish him a Happy Birthday!  Of course we had the birthday family dinner and cake that night.

On Friday night Little E's celebration continued when he had one of his friends over for a "hangover"...ummmm Little E it's "late over" not "hangover"!!!  ha ha  He gets confused and calls "late overs" "hangovers" it totally cracks us up!!!   Then he had a night out at the Monster Truck show with a different buddy, as well as some of Ike's buddies.  They all had a blast!!!

His birthday weekend was filled with lots of love and lots of fun!!!  Happy 7th birthday buddy!!!

New Normal...

We've been home with our new family addition for over two months now.  What a difference a couple of months makes! 

I apologize for not blogging more often, but to put it quite frankly...we are BUSY and TIRED! :)  Although, we have finally been able to "come up for air" so to speak and we have our "new normal" routine in place.  Things are going very well.

We continue to be amazed how Selam is perfect for our family.  In the adoption world you hear "He/she is perfect for our family" often, but we always wondered if our child would be "perfect for our family"...you never know!   Luckily, Selam fits right in and it feels as though she has been with us forever.  She's a good natured, happy spirit and goes with the flow.  We truly feel so blessed and we LOVE this girl!!!

I'm not sugar coating reality when I say Selam has adjusted beautifully.  She rarely cries, instead tends to whine more than cry when she needs something.   We are TIRED, but there are a many nights now that she is only waking once a night!  This is so much better than the  multiple wakings we were experiencing the first 6 weeks.  We are getting there!!!!  Sleep could be an issue for quite some time, as adopted children often process a lot of grief in their sleep. 

We certainly anticipated a very rough transition and perhaps that's why we are so pleasantly surprised by, dare I say, how "easy" this has been????  Most adopted families DO NOT have this smooth of a transition, that is why DJ and I are pretty sure our pay back will come when Selam becomes a teenager!!! 

We all seem to be attaching to each other.  Selam is showing good signs of healthy attachment and bonding, even though we have let ourselves have a very large cocoon! 

For those of you not familiar with adoption lingo, a cocoon is when you stay home for an extended period of time to bond with your child.  Adoption experts suggest 3 months at the very least.  This is to promote bonding and prevent your child from having too much interaction with people other than the primary caregivers (parents), as well as, getting over stimulated and a variety of other things. 

Selam has great eye contact, when playing on her own she "checks in" often, loves to snuggle and loves playing "teeter totter" type games (you do something, then she does the same thing back).   These types of games are great for bonding.   So far the only thing that has been a concern is occasionally she will "rev up", this is considered a coping mechanism in the adoption world.  "Revving up" means she gets very busy, kind of like she's on overdrive.  We have noticed this when we are around a larger group of people, such as at church or the older kids' basketball games.  We think we have a handle on this now though and we haven't seen this behavior as often.

When we first returned home we stayed in for the first couple of weeks, from there we just listened to Selam's cues. We still don't let other people hold her and DJ and I are the only ones that meet her "needs" (diaper changes, feedings, comforting, etc).  Also, when we are in a group of people or a place she isn't familiar with only DJ or I hold her, the kids, much to their dislike, aren't allowed.  So far this has worked well for us and Selam is doing wonderful.  We have three active older kids and to cocoon for 3 months just wasn't an option for our family. 

Overall, the older kiddos are adjusting great too.  There have been periods of craziness, but this has been mostly because I wasn't organized or thinking ahead.   I think the kids being old enough to understand the changes we are all going through, has really helped.  We have kept an open line of communication about the things they may be feeling as we transition.  At times they definitely feel jealous of the extra attention Selam is getting, but they love her like crazy and DJ and I are trying our best to give them each their special time too. 

We are waiting for the "newness" of having Selam in our family to wear off, but the kids still argue over who gets to sit next to Selam in the car, who gets to play with her, and on and on and on!  So glad to be having them love her too much instead of the opposite!

Ahhhh, a Boise State Bronco fan already!

Of course, she has to learn how to build a fort!

Practicing walking with big bro!

In my next post I will share many of Selam's "firsts" since coming home on Christmas Eve...there are TONS!!!  Can't wait!

Hugs and love!
Danielle