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| I love this guy more and more every day, even if he did have to wear an orange bow tie for his brother's wedding |
Now. We gotta slow down. WAY down. These past 3 weeks have just been too much for everyone. Please hear me, ALL of it has been good. Good people, good memories, good meetings, good times, good places, good everything. Just all munched into a short period of time. I'm grateful for this week that we have almost an entire week until our next social event. It'll be perfect!
The kids soldiered on very well over the past week. We realized how taxing the craziness was on them, though, when they began to digress in areas we covered weeks ago with them: spitting out food, more diaper wetting, fussiness, fighting, etc. We've taken it easy for the last few days and those issues seem to evaporate.
A few highlights from the past weeks:
Two friends came to visit, Matu was born in Liberia and came to the States when she was about 6.
Later in the week, Anastasia came up. She spends weekends with us during the school year, but hadn't met the kids yet. The kiddos had their first county fair with Anastasia and my mom. They enjoyed the chickens and bunnies, but Anya was terrified by the cows. Jayce took it all in stride. Oh, look. Another cow.
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| Baby Girl petting a chicken |
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| Baby Girl NOT happy about cows |
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| Very possessive of her Auntie Stasia |
Philip's brother and sis-in-law came up from Costa Rica with their 3 children. Jonathan got married this past weekend, so it was a good time for all the family to be together. It was also a time for Jayce and Anya to meet their cousins. One of my favorite moments was from Coslon, the oldest cousin. He met Jayce and asked "is this my new cousin?" So sweet and accepting, and it was fun watching the 5 kids interact.
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| Cousins: 6 weeks apart. #blackandwhite |
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| My beautiful sis-in-law with Anya and Addie |
Anya and Addie, her cousin, were flower girls in the wedding. (They are only 6 weeks apart in age-- so adorable!) Philip was to walk both girls down the aisle, but Addie saw her dad at the front and made a bee-line for him, ignoring her flower-distributing duty. Jayce was not in the wedding, but he was dressed to the nines. It was a good thing, since he attached himself to his Grand-dad and refused to be held by anyone else the entire day. He even walked down the aisle with Grand-dad and sat contentedly with him during the entire ceremony.
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| My little heart-breaker |
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| Anya walking down the aisle with Daddy after Addie deserted them |
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| 5 Cousins |
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| LOVE this Little Man |
The next day I had a shower I helped plan for another friend. One of the games involved making wedding dresses out of toilet paper.
This morning some dear friends came over to meet the kids. They knew my parents when my mom was pregnant with me, and have been a part of my life for 30 years. It was precious to see them interacting with my kids.
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Yesterday (^) Jayce expanded his vocabulary some more. He added "horse" (Zhorsh) and his own name, Jayce (Jzaysh)! He will also say "push",
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Oh, good grief. This is another week-to-write blog post. LOL. We took the kids to the State fair and Anya was less afraid of the cows, which was great. She even said "oooooo oooooo oooooo" ("moo") for the sound a cow makes. They both love chocolate milk, and Jayce was chill as can be in the petting zoo. Nothing phased him. Anya whimpered the entire time, but did pet a goat, sheep, pig, and llama when requested. Brave girl! Animals aren't her "thing".
Jayce has said shoe, ear and head in the last few days. I think he's trying to say "good job!" and "got it!" but it's not coming out quite right. Those are phrases we say often, so I think he's trying to incorporate them. He'll also say "oh!" and "wow" when something surprises or impresses him.
Anya will happily say "turtle" now as well.
Jayce is still adamantly opposed to bugs and snakes. Especially bugs. The world stops spinning when she sees a bug, and the screams continue until the bug is no longer in his view.
Both kids are beginning to tell us stories about what happened. Jayce will point to Anya, say her name, and make hand motions to indicate she needs to pick up the mess she made on the table. He'll say her name and then make a kissing noise to tell me that she kissed him, or point to Daddy and the couch to tell me that Daddy threw him on the couch.
On a different note, we had our first post-placement visit today! I didn't really have time to be nervous or panic about it. We got to meet Brenda, the Dove staff member that helped us through the last 6 or so months before the kids were home. We had communicated with her by e-mail but had never met her in person. We also met our new social worker, Elise, who is actually really great. I hope she sticks around for a while, since there have been so many staff changes in the last year or two. They came and asked us a few questions, but it was mercifully low key: what kinds of foods do they like? What are their favorite activities? Do they like any extended family members? How well do they sleep at night? Brenda and Elise brought the kids fleece blankets and the kids enjoyed the "Where's Anya? There she is!" game, with many giggles and squirms. It felt like it went really well, the kids behaved well, and we might have fooled them into thinking that we weren't terrible parents. ;) Bahaha!
Ok, well, if I don't post this now, I may never. Thanks for checking in!
Oh, and all the craziness of this week, yeah, we're ok. Surviving fine. I still forget to eat (breakfast for me yesterday was at 5pm) but the kids are adapting well, and Anya is getting SO CHUBBY! I was looking at her in the bathtub yesterday and she resembles a gumdrop. Jayce is still a bean pole. But, he's like his daddy and won't be able to be chubby even if he wanted to. :)
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