The Sandbox

Colds.  We're all passing it back and forth.  My voice is back but still really sore when I talk or swallow.

Lili thought she was on her way to larengitis the night before her speech at school.  She was ok for school on Monday but she stayed home with me today.  We both tried laying low.  Jia was in school and Eric took Luk with him to run errands.  Not much rest here though, even with the littles gone!  Eric had a friend visit, three phone messages and Scott left then came back and mowed the front yard.  All things that got our little Lacie alarm going.   Certainly not a peaceful nap but at least I wasn't up and down caring for the littles.

The littles finally got their sand in the new sand table.  Major hit with both of them.  Luk couldn't stop to smile for a picture.  Serious digging to be done.  Finally some more typical boy play ;)  He's also been getting on his knees and pushing his cars around.  So sweet.  He makes vroom sounds too.

Eric made us Chinese lettuce wraps for dinner tonight.  They were awesome.   Fei loved them too.  Afraid the other three kids weren't too thrilled.   They'll be looking for giant bedtime snacks tonight.

The littles are wearing their blankies again as superhero capes tonight.  Well according  to them Jia is a superhero and Luk is a sidekick.   ;)  So much to be thankful for.

Larengitis

Oh my.  Tough days here.   Dealing with Jia with no voice is pretty impossible.  Eric doesn't stick around me when I'm home, he takes every minute he can to catch up outside.  Which left Lili and Fei.  Who have been good sports about reading my words to Jia but they don't stay with me every minute either.  Sigh.  Jia however is right beside me talking non stop and demanding answers.   Turns out she is almost as hopeless as Lili at charades.  Luk hasn't noticed that anything is amiss.  As long as the snacks keep coming he's all good.

Jia is an emerging reader but her list isn't helping me communicate with her in writing.  Cat hat bat mat sat pat house mouse tree love mom dad Lili Fei Jia Luk Nelson dog and pig.  Those words don't help with leave your brother alone,  get down from there, take that out of you mouth and I already said no 12 times!

I'm home on a flex day today.  Hoping for healing miracles today so life can go back to normal tomorrow.

When we asked our agency to lock in a file for a little boy on the shared list, they dropped the ball were too slow and we missed his file.  I was thrilled to see a picture of him this morning.   He came home in Oct.  He is #4 and he looks great and he looks happy.  Love our on - line adoption community.

I bought a used sand table for Luk and Jia, we picked it up yesterday along with some sand box sand.  We're waiting for Eric to give it a scrub.  Can't wait for the kids to get to put their sand in.  Jia knows it's here but it will be a huge surprise for Luk.

Easter

Easter was fun.  Low key.  We're usually camping or doing group events.  This year we made plans to meet one family at the local museum for a train ride.  Jia and Luk played all morning with some light sticks from the E. Bunny.  Then we bribed Lili to come to the train with us by offering up Subway (her fave).  Gramma came with us.  The weather held.  Luk was thrilled to see the hip hammock again.  It's been lost (misplaced) for a few months.

The lost items are mounting.   Now we're looking for the binder with all of the kids dvds.   Sigh.  We know who it is that misplaces everything.  Now if only we could get him to clean but never tidy.  His version of put away will only work if he can remember to tell us where his new spots for everything are!  Shocking how much time l spend trying to find things.

Jia was pretty excited about the Easter Bunny coming to our house.  Later in the day she thanked me for the presents so I'm not so sure she was convinced that there was a bunny involved. Luk was just thrilled there were pretty foiled chocolate eggs.

Family Photos

Luk has been with us for five months now and we finally managed to gather for some family photos.  We didn't get that one amazing shot.  We had some fun though and the pictures of the kids are fabulous.  There were 91 pics. taken.  Here are 15 of the better ones.  Well the funny ones aren't here.  Luk and Jia can get pretty silly sometimes :)

Jia's desk.

The big kids and Eric want Jia off of their computer so I've been looking for a desk to move her too.  Going to set up another old work computer for her.  We went last night to pick up an old computer desk for $20.  I can't even begin to relay the excitement and joy she got last night from setting it up with her crafting supplies.  I'm not even exaggerating when I tell you there was glue and sparkles all over the top before Eric had finished screwing the top piece back on!

This morning she is back to work and has done the best coloring of her life on an easter egg picture.  I asked her if the desk was magic and she said "no, I think I'm magic".

Carpeted stairs

We finally picked out some carpeting for the upper stairs and landing.  I feel so much better about Luk on the stairs now.  It turned out great and it's so nice and soft.

Kid's all love it.  Jia and I are excited to have our books back.  I'm hoping Fei will help me load them back onto the shelves.  Eric sat down in the landing and read a bedtime story to Luk.  Sigh.   Just like I used to do with Lili and Fei when they were little.  I think we're going to enjoy our wee bit of carpet. 

Jia wanted to sleep in the landing, it took her a while to settle but she did go to sleep.  Eric and I got to crawl into bed together.  A rare, rare moment. 

Smores

Jia watched a Max and Ruby last week where the bunny scouts went camping and they made smores.  She has been asking ever since.  We finally got outside and had a camp fire tonight.  Luk's first.  First time wearing rubber boots and sitting in a lawn chair too.  He took it all in stride.  He was happy to sit on my lap for most of it.  He's totally delighted to be back in the house getting ready for a bath. 

Smidge of bittersweet giving Jia's little camping coat to Luk and Little Guys bigger size to Jia.  Sigh.  We've still never heard another word about him.

 

We're all good.

We're all ok.  Just nothing too blog worthy going on.

Finally got Luk to the pediatrician.   He's a healthy little boy.  She didn't think he'd qualify for the disability tax credit because he has no special needs.  Interesting.  He is anemic and he needs vitamin d, so he's on drops for both.  She is sending him for an mri so we can monitor his shunt.  He isn't spina bifida enough to bother going to a clinic so he will start with just seeing ortho here on the island.  

The big girls are doing big girl things.  Walking home from school occasionally,  riding their bikes around the neighborhood.   Taking care of a friends cat unsupervised.  Babysitting Jia.  All of it is great,  sometimes helpful.  I'm not liking that they're growing up so fast.

Eric has made me a garden widow.  He has a truly impressive dirt pile.  He finally got to some planting today.  Jia helped and put in her own wee patch,  a kids mixture of flowers and veggies. Tomorrow he has to put a fence around his garden to keep kids, cats, dogs and chickens out ;)

Jia and I decorated for Easter last weekend and she has been nattering about costumes and trick or treating ever since.  Sigh.  She just won't believe that we’re just going to put grass in a basket and wait for the bunny to visit through the night.  Apparently that is too simple.  Now I'm anxious for it to come and be over so I can quit talking about it.  Can you imagine trying to tell Jia about crosses, missing from caves and dying for us?!  Way too much for her.

Jia has been fiercely missing her little yellow chick Goldie, who is now a fine big white leg horn chicken.  So she has been packing around a tiny baby pretend chick.  Today while rooting around for their easter baskets I found a little yellow wind up chick and a little blue bunny.  Jia and Luk packed them around all day.  Jia thanked me over and over again all day.   Also found some pink bunny ears.  Bought some blue ones for Luk while shopping tonight so the littles were pretty thrilled with those.  Sharing the one set of pink ears clearly wasn't going to work.

I've been doing some culling.  Getting into cupboards, cubbies and closets.  Feels good to get it done.  Hard to do with Jia and Luk underfoot.  They aren't always so helpful ;)  I have to stop for a lot for snacks, diaper changes, basic dispute resolutions and to clean up the extra messes they make while my back is turned.  Not sure how long I'll keep it up as my focus.  Perhaps just until we get back to camping.

One of the pictures is of the pile of clothes Lili dumped on Fei's floor.  I had asked her to cull out the stuff that is too small for her.  Hilarious.   Poor Fei, took her a while to fit it all in.  Fei went through her stuff too, she only brought me an arm full and it all went straight to Jia.  Luk has not outgrown a single thing yet. He has grown 2" and gained four pounds.  He's 24 lbs now.  He is still wearing 18 -24 month stuff.