hair day!

On Friday I took Iona to an AA salon for the first time to get her hair done. The appointment was during her naptime, so I was nervous about how it would go.

She did so well! She was almost falling asleep at times. The stylist showed me how to detangle her hair without her screaming. I was shocked that Iona only said once that it hurt.

I was so impressed! And I loved the atmosphere in the salon. The ladies were even sharing scripture with each other! I wish I got a picture of her hair all detangled and out, because it was amazing, but I'm sure I will see it again like that sometime. The stylist detangled and braided all in an hour and a half!

Iona fell asleep on the way home, and then as soon as we walked inside she woke up. I set her up with a video and got these photos. She was so tired.

A funny: She went to the bathroom while we were there, and while we were in the bathroom, Iona points to the garbage at the hair extensions and says, "Mom, someone left their hair in there."

waiting

I feel like I'm in phone-stalking mode again. We are waiting for "THE CALL" from our agency telling us they have received our RA (referral acceptance). Technically, we will probably not hear back until around 5/18, but now that it's May I'm getting antsy. We have our I800 and DS230 documents complete and waiting, so we should be ready to submit as soon as it comes.

Meanwhile, we're trying to finish the school year, going on field trips, and prepping the house.

You know you are adopting when things break and craziness happens. All in the same week. I'll just leave it at that.

We're beginning to think about Brendan's care package and working on the video we'll release of him when the RA arrives. We've been applying for more adoption grants.

Next week is Iona's 3rd birthday, so maybe I'll post photos. :) She will tell everyone who will listen that she is SO excited to be 3 because she gets to go to AWANA and ballet.

The week after is our adoption fundraiser garage sale. Our garage is half-full, and we're getting leftovers from other sales soon. Let me know if you have anything to donate to our sale!

the realization

I remember the moment like it was yesterday. When Aidan realized he was going to share us with a sibling. He was four.

We had driven to the library and parked across the street in our little two-door coupe. Aidan was chatting with us about his sister coming home. He got all sad and weepy and said, "But you're MY mommy and daddy!" At this point we were all crying. We got into the back seat with him (no small feat) and held him and told him how much we loved him, but that we loved his sister too.

That moment happened tonight with Iona.

She was sitting up in bed, well after lights out. I walk upstairs to find out why she is calling me. She looks really sad.

Iona: Mommy, why is Brendan living in our house?

Me: What do you mean, Iona? He's not here yet, but he's coming soon to live with us.

Iona: But you're not HIS mommy. You're MY mommy!

Me (hugging her): I am Aidan's mommy and Iona's mommy AND Brendan's mommy.

We went round and round about this for a little while and then she got all goofy and got herself into trouble.

I'm so blessed by my kiddos, and I'm so honored that Iona sees me as her mommy, no questions asked. I know the questions will come one day, but I'm thrilled at her attachment to me and her starting to think through having a new member of the family.

Meanwhile, Pete and I are reading through Ann Voscamp's One Thousand Gifts, and we've both just started our "gift lists." I'm excited to see what God will do in our hearts and in our family as a result.

First quarter update

Hi friends! It's been a while since I've posted...this is one of a few I have planned.

We are just finishing week 8 of school. We are enjoying the time spent together and much of the content. It's been hard to keep Iona happy, as I have not had the time to spend coming up with ideas for her from Before Five in a Row. I'm hoping to sit down with the material soon. So we've played around with spending schoolwork time at different times of the day.

Here's a rundown of how his subjects are going:

Bible--Aidan really likes his Old Testament Overview, although we are on course to finish this after only half a year instead of a full year. He loves drawing the Bible stories, so much that he prefers doing at least two pages a day instead of the one page planned in the schedule. We decided not to go ahead and get the New Testament version for spring, but just to work through another devotional once we finish. Aidan is also going to AWANA and memorizing verses there.

Writing--Writing with Ease is SUPER easy and we both really like it. The excerpts from literature have drawn us both to want to read the longer works, and we are keeping a list. :)

Spelling--Aidan likes Spelling Workout A a lot, and he can do large parts of the lessons on his own. While this is nice, I'm not yet sure how much he retains. This may be an area where we switch curriculum next year.

Reading--The Ordinary Parent's Guide is going much better this year than last. And Aidan is doing awesome at the readers we are working through. It's been fun to watch him pick up a random book and just start reading.

Grammar--First Language Lessons is also super easy. We are enjoying the topics in the book and Aidan is retaining it well.

Handwriting--Aidan is almost done with HWT already! Since he writes in most other subjects, we will wait on cursive until second grade.

Math--Saxon Math 2 is going much better than math last year. We are a little behind my original schedule, but we are making great headway. This year we are doing one minute math drills, and that is the hardest part for my little budding perfectionist.

History--SOTW1 is tons of fun. We love doing the projects together, although I don't think I'll be mummifying another chicken anytime soon. I've heard mummifying an apple is much easier... Aidan really looks forward to this subject.

Science--We decided to switch last minute to Astronomy, and it is going well. We've done some fun experiments, and Pete has done a bunch with Aidan as well.

Literature--This is one of my favorite subjects, of course, and Aidan loves to color or draw while I read aloud. Pete and I have pulled a few books from the lineup because of Aidan's tender heart, and we will revisit those at a later time. In general, the list we are working through has been fun.

Art and Music--Harmony Fine Arts is amazing. Aidan has made some neat art pieces when trying to copy some of the greats. The kids both love to dance around the kitchen to the classical music each week.

PE--We have continued with swim lessons this semester for both kids since Aidan was not ready by the end of the summer to stop without losing a ton of ground by next summer. He's picking up so well that we think he'll go back to taekwondo in the spring (and Iona to gymnastics).

We've been on some fun field trips as a family to a pumpkin farm and to see a Chinese orchestra.

We also decided to join a homeschool co-op, so every other Monday we spend the morning there. I work with Iona in the 2's and 3's class, and Aidan takes classes in Ancient Rome, PE, and Crafts. It's a nice break for us and it gives me some special time with Iona.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how the year is going. I will be looking for ways to take us away from the kitchen table so much, as I feel we are spending too much time there, but otherwise things are lots of fun.

Iona is 2!

Iona turned 2 in May! You can see some pics here and here. It was hard to get very good photos because she is always on the move!! She got a tutu that day and some doll accessories, and as soon as she got the tutu on she was off, pushing her baby in her stroller...umm...I mean running through the house behind the stroller!

She is so much fun these days. She says the funniest things! She speaks very well for her age, and she really loves to play with her brother and wrestle him. She can count to 10 and sometimes higher. She loves to help me with chores as well, which can be good and bad! Iona just started swim lessons, and it's all I can do to hold her back from jumping in. She is learning how to sit with her legs crossed on the side of the pool!! It's a hard thing for her! Once she gets in the water, she tries to copy her brother. She is even practicing now in the bathtub. :)

Happy birthday, my sweet baby!! You are getting SO big! You've grown so tall recently and are such a joy to be around! It's fun to watch you take in the world around you, whether you are scared or excited or in awe. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

PS--I'm planning school for Aidan in the fall, and this week I've been thinking about how to contain Iona while Aidan and I focus on schoolwork. I admit, at times I am terrified of what will happen! I know some people recommend having a box of toys specifically for school time, but I really don't know if that will work for her. I'd love to hear from some of my homeschooling friends about how they handle schooltime with a 2-year-old!

handwriting

Handwriting has been really hard for Aidan. He got glasses when he was 4, and it was amazing to see how well he could draw shapes after that!

This year for homeschool we decided to use Handwriting Without Tears for his handwriting curriculum. Can you believe we finished the kindergarten curriculum last week? Aidan has consistently wanted to move faster through the workbook than the "schedule," so I've let him. He loves to do the workbook page and then color the pictures.

Now that we're done, I have him writing his uppercase and lowercase alphabet on separate days as practice. For the other 2-3 days, we're working through book 1 of Draw Write Now. LOVE IT!! We're using HWT's Draw and Write Notebook to do the lessons.

I bought book 1 at the beginning of the school year because I thought it would be a fun activity book for Aidan since he LOVES art. I wasn't sure if writing the 4 short sentences for each lesson would be too much for him, but he is doing so awesome with the drawing and the writing. Today I let him color his drawings with colored pencils, and you would have thought I had given him the moon!

Yeah, my boy LOVES art. Any kind. We bought him a STACK of $.10 notebooks at the beginning of the school year and it was the best purchase! He has filled about 10 of them with his drawings...they started out as just ninja turtle after ninja turtle, and now he draws creatures he makes up, draws his toys while they model for him, and lots of picures of the family.

I think I'm going to buy the complete set of Draw Write Now books this summer and then sell this copy of book 1. We can work through them slowly over the summer and then when we finish our first grade HWT cirriculum early...

It's so amazing to see his progress in handwriting after all the specialists we've seen for his motor skills. God is so good, and Aidan is so determined! He is such a huge blessing.

Meanwhile, Iona has taken to drawing because she sees her beloved big brother doing it. She scribbles all over a paper and then says, "Ta-Da! Mommy, see!"

house hunting

Our house has officially been on the market for 8 days. We've had 9 showings, and we hear 5 people are VERY interested. We have an open house planned for Saturday morning.

We totally feel like we're back waiting for a referral!! Every time the phone rings my heart leaps, hoping it's our realtor saying she has 1 or more offers for us. She and I even chatted multiple times today. But we still wait.

Meanwhile, we have 3 houses we are very interested in. We could see ourselves happy in any of the three. And 2 others, just in case. We've listed all the pros and cons for each and have gone round and round about an order for them. But we can't move forward until we get an offer, and we are trying to wait until we make an offer to do our taxes (because of the $6500 tax credit we can get).

Did I mention 9 showings in 8 days? Our vacuum died at the beginning of the week. We do have a backup, but it's just a canister vacuum, the kind with the long hose. We need a new one. We've priced the one we want out, but we are trying to wait to see what kind of floors we'll have in the new place. Oh, and the area rugs we bought? They have black borders. That show all the dirt. No matter how long it's been since you've vacuumed.

So tonight, as we are preparing to leave the house for another showing, I hit the button on the garage door and then promptly backed into it. CRUNCH. After we finally left the house, we called our realtor so she could let the realtor coming tonight know we planned to fix it in case his client asked. We got home from our errands and I called our insurance agent and a local garage repair person, who just "happened" to be coming near our house tomorrow anyway. It makes me sick to think we might have to replace the whole door before we move, but we'll see.

We're trying to move a little faster in homeschooling so we can prepare to take 2-3 weeks off for the move. Aidan's having no problem with the change in pace...he's actually doing better in math and seems to enjoy learning to read a bit more. I've been putting off the science experiments having to do with bread rising because of the mess while we are trying to sell, but since we need to stick around tomorrow for the garage repairman, we just might attempt it. And he can zip his coat by himself now!! All that occupational therapy is paying off!!

I finally bought winter running gear tonight so I can start training for the half marathon. I think this means I actually need to get outside and run now. I plan to start next week. Pete is already running 4 miles. Makes me sick.

We had a little issue a few weeks ago of Iona taking off her clothes in bed and throwing everything, diaper and contents included, out of the crib. Thanks to suggestions made, the onesies are working! Iona is looking more and more like a little girl and is really trying to converse with us. Aidan and Iona seem to be getting along even better. He just loves to make her laugh and comfort her and hug her. She has been trying to delay bedtime by continuing to ask for another hug from Aidan. Tonight she asked, "Ina give Aida a hug?" So cute!!

I'll let you know what happens with the house!!

taekwondo and hair

Today Aidan earned his orange striped belt in taekwondo!! You can see pictures posted in the flickr album. He performed his kibon, broke a board, sparred, and then got his belt. It was super fun to watch him, although Iona got bored after a while.

This morning I "did" Iona's hair for the first time! Pictures are up on flickr. I didn't think it was long enough, but the ladies I talked with at Aldi last week assured me it was. So today I gave her a bath, put product in her hair, and then started with coils. So cute!! She loved getting to eat gummies while I was doing it. Her hair is still pretty short in the back and it's not staying in the best right there, but the rest is really fun. I don't know why I waited so long!!

Before I did the coils, I watched the videos on Shuruba to see what I was doing, and I was encouraged that the age of one of the "models" was close to Iona, with the same length of hair. After I did her hair, I ordered my first beads and snaps and beader and rubber bands. :) I'm looking forward to trying flat twists and some of the other styles with the beads and snaps.

I also wanted to point out the flickr photos of my new nephew, Gavin! I am leaving soon to take the train up to my sister's house for a couple of days to help her sleep with a newborn in the house. Her hubbie RJ just went back to work, so I'm going to come and help with cooking and cleaning and cuddling with little Gavin while she rests. I'm excited to get a "break" from here, but I know I'll be busy there too.

the many words of Iona

Iona has a ton of words now, and I just wanted to document what she can say at 15.5 months old. I may be adding to this as I think of more.

mama
dada
all done (signs and says)
more (signs)
please (signs)
up
open
Aidan (sounds like ada)
yuck (sounds like uck)
shakes her head yes and no
yes
no
cup
poop
night-night
bear
ducky
cracker
hot dog (this is what she calls most foods)
off
shoes
socks
eyes
ears
nose
mouth
hair
be-bo (belly button)
wet
hug
muah (kiss)
book
elmo
ball
bath
hi
bye
have that?

referralversary and cloth diapers

One year ago today we got "the call." We had waited 9 months and 5 days for our referral. It was such a happy day here! Iona was almost 3 months old in these photos.

Iona's getting so big!! Almost 15 months old now.

She is outgrowing some of her cloth diapers (just the ones that are sized S-M-L; most of them are one-size), so today I took the kids to my favorite local diaper store to make a purchase. Fun!

We got two more one-size diapers and three size large diapers. One for nighttime and four for day. And we got a really fun wet-and-dry bag in pink swirl. Now I don't have to carry the big diaper bag everywhere! And maybe I can go more than two days between washes...we'll see.

In Iona's diaper wardrobe are: Swaddlebees, Blueberry (including a couple minkys), Knicker Nappies, and Tiny Tush. Tee Hee!