Our days have been busy lately!  Let me give you a quick glimpse into our life and the current happenings:

·        Our adoption was finalized 3 weeks ago, so Noah (19 months) is officially Noah, and he is also officially ours!  This has been a long time coming and something we have prayed about ever since our little guy was 2 weeks old.  Praise God!

·        Noah, who just yesterday tested at a 12 month level for speech, started calling me “Mama” just one week after the adoption was finalized!  I think his language is only slow because he’s just been with us since 15 months, and he’s been adjusting to yet another new home.  We think he’s feeling comfortable now, because he’s humming, babbling little sounds, and saying a few more words.  The speech pathologist was not worried about him at all.  And Noah was ahead of his age level in fine motor skills, and right at his age level in gross motor skills.  Go Noah!

·        We have been potty training Isaac (3 ½) and Kaleb (2 ½).  I never thought I would feel so much joy in my heart to hear my little boys proudly proclaiming “Mommy, I went pee!”  J

·        We are preparing for a month-long road-trip!!  In the month of July (the whole month!) we will be driving from Oregon to Maryland, and then back again.  We will be stopping at many different places along the way, camping, going to two weddings, and seeing this beautiful country.  What an adventure we have ahead of us!  We are currently in the market for a used tent trailer and are hoping to purchase one soon (maybe tomorrow?).

·        Today, in preparation for our road trip and all of the different cities we will explore, we began teaching the boys about strangers, and what to say (or yell!) if a stranger is trying to take them.  We taught them to say “HELP!  You’re not my Mommy!” or “HELP!  You’re not my Daddy!”  After saying this over and over, we asked Kaleb (2 ½) what to say if a stranger picks him up, and he said “umm…I have to go potty!”  J  (You can tell what is on his mind these days!)  When Isaac (3 ½) was asked what he should say, he recalled yet another situation we were practicing for the other day and said “HELP!  I’m falling in the water!”  Those two phrases aren’t going to do them very good if they are getting taken away, but hey, it’s a start, and they’re pretty cute!  J  We’ll keep working on this one!

·        Kaleb has started picking up stuffed animals, cuddling them, and saying “sweetie, sweetie!”  He’s such a loving little boy.

·        When I brought Noah to his developmental assessment, all of the doctors and therapists commented on how cute he was.  He is so cute!  He just started waving this week, too, and he’s getting way more social with people.  He used to just sort of glare at people like he was uninterested.  But now he’s warming up.  A lady smiled at him and said “hi” when we were waiting for an elevator, and I said “wave ‘hi’ Noah,” and he did, and smiled! 

·        Isaac’s been saying some of the cutest things.  He will put his toys away, for example, and say “I’m doing such a great job, I’m such a big boy, I’m doing so nice.”  J 

·        If Isaac wants to do something and we say “maybe later,” for some reason he came up with this phrase “maybe after Saturday.”  J

·        Kaleb has the awful habit of picking his nose and then sticking his little finger into his mouth…How gross!!  He had an ultrasound done on his heart the other day (he has one yearly, because of a “Bicuspid Aortic Valve”..basically a heart murmur that isn’t a big deal!), and he was laying there on the ultrasound table picking his little nose!  I kept trying to get him to stop, but each time I did he got a little fussy and moved, and the ultrasound technician wanted him to sit still.  Oh silly Kaleb!!

I’m sure there’s been more going on, I just can’t remember anything else because I am too tired!  Have a great day!