Merry Christmas!!!

Scenes from our house!

The Christmas Star is the last to go on!

Luke's first traditional xmas eve cheese fondue, complete with Christmas crackers and Christmas crowns!

Waiting for Santa

Our Christmas Angel

Every Christmas Eve the kids get new pajamas, looks like

Luke can wear his next year too!

New trick

Can you believe this is the weak little baby we picked up from China?
Actions speak louder than words...

There is no "O" in Feng Shui

Luke is a sweet boy, and we couldn't be happier about how fast he is developing and how his sweet and quirky personality is coming out. However, we are starting to notice that he may be a little "different." As parents, we don't like to admit this sort of thing, but our son has issues. His issue...the color orange.



Luke has a strange obsession with the color orange. We don't know if he is drawn to or repelled by it (or both), but it's there. Every toddler toy has orange pieces in it, right. Well, without fail, Luke will remove every orange piece from his toys and place them gently by his side. They will remain next to him while he plays with every other color, stacking, putting them in and out. He will go so far as to put every piece back in, start to put the orange piece in, stop and laugh and put it resolutely back by his side.

Classic Luke, all the rings go on, but the orange ring stays in his hand.

Note the lone orange piece sitting in the front, he put every other color away and put the lid on, but the orange stays out.

We have no idea what this is all about, we just file it under "strange things our kids do" and move on.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

So the economy is shaky and it's likely to be a very lean Christmas. In the Little House on The Prairie books, the Ingalls children received, for Christmas, a cup, a peppermint stick, an orange and a shiny new penny. I'm thinking our kids might have to take a page from that book this year.

So to try to lift our spirits we attempted to make this a Christmas-y weekend. On Saturday, we cut down our Christmas tree at a local tree farm. Very cute, free cider, hay rides, and Santa.

Not bad for the first meeting.

Fresh cut tree!

Ross and Gaga (he's taller than her now)!

Love the Bear coat!

Handsome fella.

I look like Hagrid from Harry Potter in this one.

Then tonight, we went to have the kids pictures taken so we could make Christmas cards. Loads of fun, and the results were splendid. Kudos to our photographer who sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider, 10,000 times to keep Luke smiling and attentive. Totally worth the mayhem of the shopping mall.

Turkeys and Pigs

Super Champagne Lovely!

Luke will turn 2 in a week, so while we had family in for Thanksgiving we decided to have a low key family celebration.

It is always wise not to get one's hopes up. A year ago, when went around the table and said what we were Thankful for, I remember saying, "I'm thankful that we will have another family member around the table." Well, no such luck. Luke had a wicked cold, and slept thought Thanksgiving dinner.

Staring down the candles

As for his birthday celebration, let's remember that he's 2. We were so excited about marking his birthday, we went early to the Atlanta Cupcake Factory and ordered a dozen of the yummiest concoctions in Atlanta (double chocolate; pumpkin spice; red velvet; carrot cake) so that he could have little bites of multiple taste sensations!

We celebrated at Gaga's house, and Luke discovered stairs. He climbed up and down carpeted stairs for the first time in his life and loved it! In fact, he loved it too much. He had no interest at all in his birthday cupcakes, he only had eyes for the stairs, and started crying every time we took him away from them.

Two is not a magic number.

It is SOOO Pink!


On the upside, we did the quintessential Atlanta Christmas activity and took our kids to ride the Pink Pig. You may well ask, "what's the Pink Pig?" Well, it's a ride that has appeared in Atlanta since forever at Rich's first, now Macy's. It's delightfully kitchy and we have never been, despite living in Atlanta for 30 years. Nothing says Merry Christmas like a giant pig on a mall parking garage! God Bless Us Everyone!


We are also thankful that Maia and Carol could visit for Thanksgiving and Luke's birthday we always miss them so much when they leave...come back soon!

Best Buddies

As for the older ones

I think it's easy when one starts blogging to focus on the exploits of the youngest child and his impact on the family. We have a great deal of respect for those bloggers who always remember to share focus of the blog with all of their kids (Barrel of Bakers, A Family is Forever). Our two oldest have been incredibly supportive, pulling baby sitting duties, increasing their chores, all while trying to maintain their grades and their extra curricular activities. It probably hasn't been easy, but they rarely complain (about Luke, at least)

Lest the world forget, we have 2 older biological children who are pretty spectacular, and here's a blog about one of them.

Casey was recently in the play "Almost, Maine" at her school. It's an adorable play that is a compilation of scenes about love and relationships that take place in a fictional Maine town in mid-winter. It had a great deal of firsts for her. She had her first stage kiss...and her second...and her third...and her fourth...okay, lets just say she spent much of her stage time locking lips with her costars. If you've never been the parent of a 16 year old girl, imagine watching her kiss a dude in front of you for the first time on stage in front of a live audience, who are applauding. It's a bit surreal.

On her Facebook page, she entitled this, Casey Smash!!!

Doesn't she look great on stage!?!

Here's a picture of the kissing scene. This is one of the few scenes where she is not locking lips

We're so proud of her!!! She's in a very competitive school, and had to fight for this part. All the while maintaining a great GPA and taking AP courses.

Then, of course, there is her personality. Here's a picture of her attending a party where you dress like your favorite movie character. The party was for a church youth group that Casey was visiting for the first time. Casey elected to dress as the character GoGo from Kill Bill Volume 2. That's our girl...

Nine Month Progress Report

Luke Cudmore-Class of 2025

Our two oldest got their progress reports recently and we felt it was only fair to give Luke his:

Physical Education-A

Those of you who met him when we did in China will appreciate the miracle that is Luke. We look back at the limp little sweetie we got and see him moving like this and gaining so fast every day and it truly brings tears to our eyes. It's strange when your kids become your heroes.

Speech - Needs Improvement

He will say "more" and genuinely mean "more," but as for Mama, Daddy, and everything else...we wait. Above is the one of two guarenteed vocalizations he will do. Ask him "What does Kitty say?" and you get the above response. He will also make a fake burp if you burp at him...that's my boy!

Bonding/Attachment. A Plus!!!

The recent changes have been huge and wonderful. Eye contact, cuddling, kissing, have all made massive improvements in the last few weeks. A week ago, we could not leave him alone long enough to go the bathroom, without his flopping himself backwards on the floor. This week, flush away!


Feeding. A Plus!!!

The boy who couldn't suck out of a regular bottle the day we got him and who made us stand up and cheer when he ate six Cheerios (not a joke), just polished off his first Happy Meal yesterday. Nuff said.

Happy Anniversary

17 Years and counting!!! We are certainly now of the age where we look at our wedding photos and say "Oh my God, we were SO young!" and have just started creeping into the turf where we say "Oh my God, I forgot he/she was alive!" We celebrated our anniversary in what has become a traditional style. Child care.
Our first anniversary we shared sleeping on a Futon in our living room with our newborn daugher, Casey.
Our 15th anniversary was spent filling out our application to get Luke.
Now, our 17th we spent once again filling out paperwork to get #4 (whom we currently call Jie-Jie).
Maybe someday we'll be like normal couples and just go out for dinner.

We can't keep it quiet anymore!

I, Anne, thought that when we came home with Luke, I would stop my obsessive studying of information and blogs about Chinese adoption. Strangely, it just continued, and pretty soon I realized that I really wanted to adopt one more child from China. There were lots of reasons not to, money, Luke's disabilities, etc. As the months pass, it has become obvious that Luke is catching up to his peers at such a quick pace, OT and PT say that they think he will graduate from the program sometime when he is two. At about this time Mike got on board with me, and wanting to adopt again became more serious, not just a joke about mom. Of course the money concern never went away! Three months ago we had our 6 month post placement meeting with Luke's social worker Susan, and we told her about our wish. She told us about WACAP, an agency which is funded by many different charitable foundations (including our new best friend Bill Gates) which will subsidize most all of the adoption costs of a baby with a special need. Adopting another child with an orthopedic special need is what we wanted to do, especially after the experience of adopting Luke, our little treasure, who had club feet. This disabiliy was insurmountable in China, but was so easily fixed here in the US. I mean really, all we had to do was pay the co payment, let Dr. Martin do her magic, and now it is a non issue. We are thrilled to say that this has happened again! We found a precious baby girl with orthopedic issues. After much talk with Luke's orthopedist, pediatrician, and therapists, we have received PA (pre approval) from China for a little sister for Luke! She is 8 months younger than Luke and waiting for us in the same province Luke is from. She, unlike Luke, is in an excellent orphanage run by the American charity, "Half the Sky", and from everything we have heard, is being well taken care of.

So, without further ado,

We Indroduce with Great Joy.....

Hong Dai Jie

name means, "clean, pure mountain"

born August 2, 2007

We HOPE to travel to get her in the late spring, or early summer.

Thanks to you all for sharing in our JOY!!

Love,

Anne, Mike, Casey, Ross and Luke

Scooter

We have video capability again!!! Check out how Luke likes to get around. We're told that this is a common crawl technique for "low-tone" babies. Although this weird scoot/crawl is fun to watch, he is now learning how to crawl the "normal" way because he needs this to build up his upper arm strength. Notice at the beginning how he turns around several times. He still wants someone touching him at all times, and if he turns and you're not there, he will fling himself backwards...hard. We're having to teach him to turn himself over rather than lie there and cry until we pick him up. Suffice to say, some attachment issues take longer to work out.

A Week in the Life

Firstly, an apology. We have been trying to rush our posts, and have not been spell-checking. I re-read the last few posts and wanted to take a red pencil to them. Abominable english. Secondly, this was written 3 weeks ago, so the comments about Atlanta having no gas are passe, but I left them for historical interest.

Things have been and continue to be hectic. Couple this with Atlanta's current difficulties with gasoline (if you're not from here you would not believe what it is like; most gas stations have no gas. None. So we end up having to look online for places that have it and then driving like idiots to wait in line for expensive, and often inappropriately octaned gas) and things are frenetic.

Thank Heaven for Team Luke. Our band of Doctors and Child Care suppliers who have made life so much easier. Initially we thought it would be wierd having all these people in our house, we were once kind of private people, but now it's like our doors our open to the giant merry band that is Team Luke! This is a typical week.

Monday

Grandma spends the night Sunday and babysits Monday. This is Luke's off day for therapy. Not only does she provide childcare, she frequently brings us dinners. We have heartedly say, "please don't bother Grandma" but we secretly hope she ignores us and brings us the yummies.

Tuesday

Gaga arrives in the morning, and takes Luke to Occupational Therapy every week. When Anne gets home after school, she gives us copius notes on what our OT, Shanoor tells her.

Wednesday

Aunt Ann arrives (Tuesday night), not only does she provide childcare...she likes to iron. No, I'm not kidding. Last week she brought us diapers and a fruit plate!!! PT comes to our house after school, so Anne can be there.



Thursday

Gaga's back. Since she doesn't have to take Luke to therapies today, she tends to take on other tasks like organizing closets and bedrooms (again, I'm not kidding). See below what she did to Ross' room.

Before

After

A Place For Everything!

Friday


Daddy Day Care. I do my business on the computer before Luke wakes up. Speech therapist comes in the afternoon and we try to do pediatrician visits, eye doctor and I'm still working on court docs to get Luke his Social Security Number.



Throw in Homework, Chores, and rehearsals every afternoon and you've got kind of an idea what our lives are like at present.

Easy Rider

These pictures are best looked at while singing "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf in you loudest voice. It never ceases to amaze how one day you're cheering the fact he can eat 6 Cheerios, then, 6 months later, he's "Headin down the Highway, Lookin for Adventure" on his little plastic Hog. Babies are resilient, and Luke is shifitng into overdrive (okay, I'll stop the motocycle references) and learning all kinds of mad skills.

Skill #1-Demolition: Gone are the days where we could leisurely read while Luke sat and played. We had an experience where Anne got busy with a chore and suddenly...things got quiet...too quiet. She found the boy wonder quietly sitting in his Bumbo (Luke can sit on his own, but if we leave the room without him for a sec, he flings himself backward and cracks his head. We are working on that one.) carefully shredding a brand new box of Kleenex and decorating the living room with the contents. Too busy laughing to get upset.

I wanted Puffs with Lotion!!!

Skill #2-Eating: Solid foods are back, baby. It took work and much ignoring of tears and screams and dodging of food loogies, but he's eating solids again. He likes Mini Quiches, pesto pasta with grilled chicken, and french fries. We're proud. His weight gain has resulted in his passing the 20 pound mark so his reward was switching him to a forward facing carseat!!! Oh joy! Oh rapture!

Casey and Luke exchange texts "OMG my diaper's leaking! LOL"

In other news... All you people in blog land need to wish Anne a Happy Birthday! We had a quiet celebrations with family, Honeybaked Ham, Cake from the German Bakery, the usual. Last time Anne blew out her candles and made a wish, we ended up with an orphan. Maybe this year, she'll wish for HD TV!

Joy In Motion

That's right, he moves. So it's not exactly crawling, but he sits on his behind reaches forward with his hands, then uses his outspread feet to pull forward. To put it undelicately, he moves rather "like a dog who is scratching his butt."

To complicate matters further, he wants us to always have a hand on him, so when he moves he expects us to hold on to him, otherwise, he will throw himself backwards to the floor and cry (on purpose). We think it's an attachment thing. Or a control thing. Either way, it's an annoying thing.

In addition to this, he now has started "walking." Granted, we have to hold his hands, but he does it all the time. We are thrilled about this because it will help heal the clubfeet issues. He's adorable. He walks rather stiff legged, so he looks kind of like he should be marching in Tianamen Square. Also due to the contrast of his height, and our height, this is murder on one's back.

All this movement is a true blessing, but will result in addiditonal work. We now must begin baby proofing in earnest. And our poor mothers/aunt have requested knee pads for all the crawling they now have to do. They have complained that Luke was such an easy job just last week, but now, not so much.

In addition, he is making all kinds of noises. Instead of just the repetitve "ma ma ma," he used to say he is a babbling machine!!!

Our one complaint would be that he has stopped eating all foods that aren't pureed. (He lives on baby food and yogurt). We were scolded by our feeding therapist for allowing this to happen, and now have to pay by shoving solids into his mouth. Four bites for every meal. On the upside, he has started to feed himself. He will pop a Cheetoh Puff into his mouth, bite it, and spit it out. Baby steps.

We went on a mini vacation to Maggie Valley, NC for an overnight stay in the mountains. Fun trip, only 2 1/2 hours away. Highlight was going to Ghosy Town in the Sky, a delightfully low key and retro amusement park, just right for our multi-aged crew. And the scenery, mmmmm.

Sound asleep after a long day of scooting!

Granny Day Care

We allow ourselves to brag on his cuteness because we have no responsibility for it whatsoever, so therefore, it's okay. The kid cannot take a bad picture, and these we found particularly adorable.

So it's back to school for the two oldest. We write this entry as we await their return from their first day. Hopefully good news will follow about their upcoming school year.

For Luke, back to school means Granny day care. His schedule runs like this.

Monday-Mike's mom

Tuesday-Anne's mom

Wednesday-Mike's aunt

Thursday-Anne's mom again

Friday-Mike

Luckily, Luke will be able to stay at home with family members. We are so lucky to have people lining up to take care of our little man.

Meanwhile, he makes little leaps every day. He's added new sounds to his babbling repertoire, he's able to maneuver toys in and out of each other. He will sit and look at a book for long periods of time. It's funny to look back to February and see that we were in tears of joy over his eating six Cheerios, or being able to lift up a plastic bag from a lying position.

Kids are home from school !!! It seems that school was "Fine" or "Boring." Teenagers, God love 'em!

Boring.

Fine.

Our cat, Kip, looking dignified.