School Days

This is our first year with TWO kids in school!

Elizabeth started second grade about two weeks ago.  She went into this year with excitement and confidence!  She has a male teacher for the first time, as well as a class pet!  (Lucky the hamster just spent the three-day weekend with us.)  There are two girls from the neighborhood in her class, so she was very happy about that.

Ready for School!

Coming off the bus at the end of the day

Josiah had his first day of Pre-K today!  Last week when I asked him about starting school, he said he didn't want to go.  He'd rather stay home.  However, by the open house, he was happy to show David his school and his new classroom.  Today, he was excited to get to school.  When I picked him up, he said, "It was the best day of school ever!"  Hopefully, there will be many more of those :-)

Ready for School!

Heading out to the car!

Showing off the cubbies before going into his classroom.

 Isaac had a pretty good day today, too.  We stopped by Target and a fun Amish spice store on the way home.  Then after lunch, it was about time to go back to get Josiah.  He did ask about the kids a few times, but he'll get the hang of it.

I think both kids are going to have a great school year! Elizabeth loves school.  She loves the learning and the time with friends.  It will be good for Josiah to have something of his own, and to be able to learn with peers and other adults.  It will be interesting to figure out the schedules with the new baby.  I'm thankful my mom came out to help with Josiah starting school today.  I am much more at ease knowing she will be here with the kids when things start.

Re-entry can be rough

Our three little travellers just had a two-week visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house...without Mommy and Daddy.  They had so much fun going to VBS, visiting playgrounds, staying overnight at a water park, flying with Grandpa, and so much more!  There were a few special girl things at a Sleeping Beauty dinner theater and a tea house.  The boys visited the Air Force museum and toured a former Air Force One.

Then our young journeyers return home.  After so much fun and adventure packed into two weeks, it's no wonder there are a few bumps as they re-acclimate.  They are tired from all the excitement and travelling.  Though they are not without boundaries at Grandma and Grandpa's, things are different.  David and I jokingly call the time of re-entry "de-tox."  We know emotions are going to run higher.  We know there will, once again, be testing of boundaries.  This time has just been a little harder than we expected.

Our oldest traveler started a high fever the day before they were driving home.  But other than that, she has done amazingly.  There have not been more than a couple instances of testing or such.  She has done this enough times now to know how things go.

Our second, has had the most difficult time.  Today is only the fifth day since their return, but there has been significantly more turbulence than we anticipated.  We have seen A LOT of attitude for every little thing, along with many other bumps.  As I said, we expected some of this.  It happened last year.  But something else seems to be going on.  I've tried to work through the reasons.  This is a time of big changes for this one, historically and presently.  We are nearing the anniversary of our son going through the biggest changes of his young life.  He's starting to think about starting school and having a new sibling all in the next few weeks.  I know there is so much going on in his heart and in his head.  But it's hard not to take his actions and rejection personally.  And I'm not doing a very good job controlling my reactions.  Tonight I've been thinking through so many ways for both David and me to consciously give him more time and attention.

This was the first of such trips for our youngest, so we were not quite sure what to expect.  I was a little bit worried about how he would do for such a long time.  While away, it seemed like he barely noticed that we weren't there.  He did seem to return home with an ever-present whine in his little voice.  He's been quicker to tantrum and to cling.  But I think he is slowly starting to work out of those.

We are glad to have the kids home again.  Though it was nice to relax and rest for a time, the house and my days felt pretty empty.  We missed the hugs and snuggles and giggles.  We missed the kids. 

I am grateful they are able to go and enjoy special time with family.  I am grateful we have several weeks together before school and more craziness starts.  I am especially grateful for the example I have of my Heavenly Father who loves me as I am...even with my testing, whining, rejection, tantrums, and attitude.  Praying He'll help me love the same way.

It's Isaac!!!

Next week, Isaac will be 21 months old!!!  He's definitely not so much of a baby anymore.  He's becoming quite the little man.  He even answers "No" with a shake of his head when I ask him if he's a baby.  When I ask him if he's a big boy, he nods and answers "Boy!"  :-)

Isaac also just had a check-up.  He's currently about 33 inches tall and around 28 pounds.  (I forgot to write down exact numbers.)  Both of these measurements put him just about 50% on the growth charts.  We're blessed that he has been very healthy.  Other than a high fever after his last shots and "Nanny's Elbow", he's only really been to the doctor for well-visits.

Isaac's slowed down a bit in his eating, but he's still a pretty good eater.  He will usually at least try everything.  He has started picking one or two of his favorite things on his plate, but leaving the rest.  We're working on helping him understand that he can have more of his favorites once he at least eats a little bit of everything else.  He does have a bit of a stubborn streak, though :-)  He enjoys chocolates and other sweets, but fruit remains his absolute favorite.  He would live on fruit alone if we let him.

Isaac loves to do whatever the big kids are doing.  Even if he's playing on his own, he enjoys being where they are.  He doesn't let them push him around much, though.  He knows what he wants and stands his ground.  He does love balls, cars, airplanes, and the like.  But he also has been playing with baby dolls, kitchen toys, and phones.  It's so fun to listen to him play, especially since his language has just exploded in the last month or so! 

Naps are hit or miss these days.  If he's doing pretty well, I'll often let him stay up because it means he'll probably go to bed a little bit sooner.  But there are days when he needs the extra rest...even just crawling under the bench for a little snooze on the floor.

We're so blessed to have this happy cuddlebug as our third child.  I thought he would be our last, but he's never really had the "baby" personality.  Now we know he's going to be a great big brother!

Update on Josiah!!!

It's hard to believe, but Josiah is FIVE!!! 

I missed doing a post for his birthday, but he turned five on May 8. 

AND in less than two months, we'll celebrate Josiah being home with us for three years!!! 

   Josiah just had his five-year-old check-up. Yeah, I was behind on that, too.  He's now almost 34 1/2  pounds and 40 1/2 inches tall. On growth charts he's progressed to about 5% for both height and weight. 

At this visit, the doctor heard a heart murmur for the first time.  We actually got into the pediatric cardiologist's office two days later.  Josiah was a rock star during the EKG and very involved sonogram of his heart.  They found that he has a "very impressive innocent murmur".  They did find an abnormality in his aortic valve, but that is not causing any problems now.  It's something we'll keep checking as he grows.

Josiah has boundless energy, it seems.  He is constantly running, jumping, climbing.  He's really enjoyed taking gymnastics classes the past few months.  He's started asking about ice skating again, so we'll be looking into that once the local rink puts down ice again.

We are going to wait to have Josiah start Kindergarten.  He is doing well learning numbers, letters, and all of those types of things.  But, especially since he has not attended any kind of school yet, we want to give him another year to grown and mature before sending him to full day Kindergarten.  He will be attending a transitional kindergarten class half-days at a local pre-school. 

Josiah's personality shines though more and more.  One of the children's helpers at church always tells me that he is so full of joy.  Much of the time he is.  However, I think maybe "full of life" is a better way to express it.  He very often has a huge smile across his face, but he has very passionate emotions on all sides.  He's a full-speed-ahead kind of guy.  He's a chatterbox and so curious about everything!  He still stays very close to Elizabeth when she is home and does not like to play on his own.  But he is becoming more and more of a leader and helper with Isaac.  He's affectionate and wants to be close.  He has a much better understanding this time about a new baby joining our family.  He's surprised me by rubbing my belly and talking to the baby frequently.

We've heard a lot of new questions and thoughts the past several months.  Josiah has started asking why he's the only one in our family who has brown skin.  He's said he wants to match the rest of the family.  Even though there wasn't really any information we haven't discussed, watching a DVD of his Ethiopian family brought dying and heaven to the forefront of his thoughts.   Prayerfully, we do our best to answer his questions and acknowledge his feelings.  We are so blessed to have him, just the way God made him, as part of our family.

We are looking forward to see how God is going to use Josiah to impact this world!

Elizabeth is 7!!!

Our Beautiful Girl turned SEVEN on March 24th!  We're so proud of the young lady she is becoming.  She is a great big sister and a thoughtful friend.  She is trustworthy and hard-working.  Sometimes it's hard to remember she is only seven.  She knows how to have fun, though, too :-)

We tried to keep her birthday celebration pretty low key.  She chose a family trip to a local indoor water park instead of big presents and a party with friends.  Saturday, we drove over and spent over six hours playing in the slides and pools.  She surprised me by going down the big tube slides over and over.  (Unfortunately, trying to keep up with everyone, Mommy didn't get any pictures :-( )  Even though we were only about an hour away, we decided to make it a mini-vacation.  We spent the night at a hotel.  We had a late check-out, so after breakfast we spent some time in the pool.  We went to our favorite Ethiopian restaurant for lunch, stopped for ice cream, and headed home.

This weekend, we added another part to the celebration.  After two years of waiting and set-backs, Elizabeth had her hair cut to donate.  Of course, she had to have it done by our friend Gareth.  Knowing he wanted to start shaping her hair right away, Gareth used a razor to cut off the braids.  It took a little bit of time, but her smile was priceless when she held the first braid.  It was funny to hear her gasp of surprise when she was turned around and saw the length for the first time, too.  She loved her sassy new do, and was happy to be a diva for the afternoon. :-) 

We love you, Baby Girl!  We are so excited to see God working in your life already, and can't wait to see the adventures you will have following Him!

Holy Moly...

...it's already the middle of February!!!

I figure the best way to get back into blogging is to start with pictures.  These are from mid-December during my attempts to take a  Christmas card picture :-)

We ended up using crops of these three individual pictures:

Steak and Potato Soup

Today is Ethiopian Christmas!!! 

I had a couple pounds of stew beef to use, so I thought it would be great to make Siga Wat  or another Ethiopian dish.  However, I didn't plan ahead, so I didn't have all the ingredients I needed.  So...I made steak and potato soup.  I couldn't find a recipe online that I liked, so I threw together what I could remember from our regular baked potato soup--well, based on what we had in the house.  We all thought it came out pretty well.  So I'm posting it so I remember what went into it.

2.3 lbs. Stew beef.  (It was a lot of meat for the recipe.  1.5 or even just 1 lb. would probably be plenty.)
2.5 lbs. cubed potatoes.  We had red-skinned yellow potatoes
4 cups (one carton) broth
dehydrated minced onions --yeah, it's what I had on hand
2 Tbsp. McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning*
8 oz. cream cheese

Pan-sear the outside of the beef, just to seal in the flavor.  To the crock-pot add beef, potatoes, broth, seasonings, and sprinkle onions across the top of the broth.  (Sorry, I didn't measure how much I used.)  Stir together.  Cover.  I cooked on high for about 4 hours then reduced to low for about two.  About half an hour before ready to eat, smash some of the potatoes in the crock-pot.  Add cream cheese and stir occasionally until melted.

Yum!

*Contains: COARSE SALT, SPICES (INCLUDING BLACK PEPPER, AND RED PEPPER), GARLIC, SUNFLOWER OIL, NATURAL FLAVOR, AND EXTRACTIVES OF PAPRIKA