Prayer for China & Callen's in school

Today Elodie picked China off the VOM Persecuted Countries map to pray for. I told her about China's one child policy, heavy taxes that people can't afford for a second child, forced abortions (baby killing), and abandoning babies. This was her prayer: Dear Lord, Let the people who have two babies not kill the babies. Let them know you are real Lord. I love you Lord one hundred times more than I love my mommy. Amen.

Elodie did a perfect letter N in HWT.

Callen can say "mo" (more), "pee" (please), and "sssinky" (stinky).  He can breath through apple straws.  He wants to draw when Elodie is drawing for Kindergarten and he dances along with the school songs like "Frog Jump Letters," jumping at the jumping parts and putting both hands in the air when demonstrating the letters in the air.

He wanted to color like his sissy.

Elodie on day 4 of creation.






"cheese!"


Jello time (part of sensory exercises assigned by his OT)




cute girl


Doing school :)


SO excited to be at the dentist!






Prize she picked.


Naptime!

3/5/12: Video of kids dancing

Here's a video of the kids dancing today. (Click on photo to play video)

6/14/10...videos of L from the past month...

I got some pics & videos off my cell phone today and I thought I'd share some of the cute videos of L dancing in her car seat. :)


5/8/10 waiting for daddy...about 30 seconds in, she finally smiles and then starts to dance. there's even a surprise at the end :P


5/27/10 You can't hear her singing along but you can see her mouth moving :)


5/28/10


6/12/10 dancing in the car while waiting for daddy (the wierd sound every once in a while is the windshield wipers)


6/12/10 dancing in the car while waiting for daddy

Monday, 4/12/10...preschool & sayings

This morning I took L to the Christian preschool that I was thinking about putting her in for the fall. It still had one opening left in the 3 year old class and was $65 cheaper per month (& 2-3 hrs less per week) than the other Christian school that our friends have their kids in. It's also closer to our house than the one in Boulder. Anyhow, even though it was the Pre-K class this morning, we took a tour of the classroom and L joined right in our their free time play. She played with the trains and then I saw her on a teacher's lap...I think they were reading. Then she colored cutouts of a caterpillar and a butterfly and stamped letters on strips ofpaper. Needless to say, she didn't want to leave. She seemed to fit right in with the 5 year olds. Since L seemed to really like it, I signed her up for the last spot in the preschool class (the 3 year olds) for next year (Sept. 2010- May 2011). The Director of the preschool said that L seemed quite advanced for how "young" she was (since she's on the young end of her class and not yet 3). She also told me on the way out that she liked how I talked to L. :D It's always nice to get compliments about how you parent. Made me feel good!

Then we came home and I signed L up for dance, swim, and preschool for the summer. She'll be two classes up next time in swim because her last teacher for her pre-pollywog class said that she should be ready for the tadpoles class. She said the pollywog class is really the same as the pre-pollywogs but the age is a little older. She said L would be the youngest in her class but that she was a good listener and followed direction so she should be ready. I just wanted L to continue to move up so she'll actually learn how to swim. I couldn't believe how fast the summer preschool at the rec filled up. It's the first day of registration and I took the last spot in one session and, after we registered, there was only one spot left in the rest of the sessions.

L really didn't want to take her nap today and one of the things she said from the top of the stairs was "no! that doesn't sound like a good idea!" I'm not exactly sure what she was referring to because we finished our conversation on the stairs and then she climbed to the top and shouted that. It gave me a nice chuckle. :)

3/10/12: L update

Some things about Elodie:

• "Leave me alone.  I need to go poops."
• "I'm going to close the door.  I don't want the neighbors to see me." (wonder who she heard that from! ha!)
• All of a sudden, some colors started to click.  She knows orange, yellow, pink, and black really well.  She doesn't know the others yet.
• For a week or two, Elodie says, "I miss daddy" all day long.  She'll say "I miss daddy.  You miss daddy too?" to which I'll reply, "Yes," and she'll say, "I miss daddy too."
• She likes to dance to music.  
• She has a whole list of things she'll list off that she'll do "when I'm older."
• She can sign songs "ABC," "Twinkle Twinkle," "I love you no doubt about it," Barney's "I Love You, You Love Me," "You Are My Sunshine," "You are my baby," "You are my toddler," "You are my Elodie," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," sing along to the letter magnet thing (She just listed off a bunch of those songs when I told her I was writing the songs she could sing.).
• "through" = "hole" (For example, there's a through in my pants.)
• "Uno dos tres quatro cinco seis.  That's what mommy says."

Updates...lots about L...

So I haven't updated the blog with all the little things I write down in my notebook about L on a fairly regular basis. So here goes:

9/22/09: L can open the fridge by herself. As D says, "ahhhh!"

9/23/09: L's back right bottom two year old molar pokes through.

9/25/09: L measures 34.5".

9/27/09: L's stomach growled (hunger) and she said, "tummy farted."

9/30/09: L peed in the car seat after she refused to go at BSF before we left.

10/1/09: L peed in her panties & pants upstairs.

10/8/09: We didn't put L to bed in her sleep sac b/c she had a fever and then the next morning she climbed out of her packnplay and ran into grammie's room.

10/15/09: L climbed out of her crib while I watched both in the morning and evening.

10/16/09: L says "B-I-N-G-O" and has been singing "twinkle twinkle little star" for about a month. She says "oh no!" to things she deems a big tragedy. She also peed in grammie's toilet with a stepstool the entire 11 day trip.

10/17/09: I sang to L "do you know what time it is?" and L replied, "clean up!" She'll tell you it's getting dark outside and it's past her bed time.

10/18/09: L climbed out of her crib in the morning and came into our room and said, "Hi daddy. Climb out crib. See daddy." (D forgot to put her sleep sac on backwards so she got it off & climbed out of her crib.)

10/21/09: see post.

10/22/09: L said that she'd sit down away from were I was going to open the oven door. Then she covered her ears with her hands. I asked her why and she said "steam come out of there." ;)

10/23/09: L said, "go to the park or something."

10/25/09: L said, "see zoo after nap." D said "No, we already went to the zoo." Then L said, "See zoo all day."

10/29/09: I realized she can do the 1-9 number puzzle and the shapes puzzle by herself. She said "School bus. Get older. Excited school bus get older." When she sees a baby picture of herself, she says, "L-dee was born." Later she said, "born a baby."

10/30/09: B/c of the aforementioned climbing out of the crib (it was hard to her to fall asleep b/c she'd always climb out of the crib; we'd find her all over the place; we'd find my paperback books in her crib, etc.), we borrowed a crib tent from our friends. Tonight was the first night in the crib tent and she thinks it's special b/c Wyatt is sharing it with her.

10/31/09: L does the hand motions and says "tapa" to this aborigine song on the Wiggles tape.

11/14/09: L says things like "one more book, that's it daddy."

11/20/09: L can rehearse her dance routine in bits like tip toe with harnds and arms above her head, sashay, gallop, "sledding," etc. She can also dance along with the Wiggles' videos. It's really cute! She's having real conversations now. She talks a lot more in the last week or so. She wants to "help you." She's been very stubborn & defiant and cries easily. She hugs the Little People baby Jesus and says "love you." I ask her if she can help mommy and she'll say "No!" She likes to help cook/bake. Last night she got the egg carton out, pulled out the eggs, and helped crack the eggs into the bowl and then wisked the eggs with a fork. Then she moved her stool over to the stove, said it was hot, and helped me poor the bowl into the frying pan. She'll also lay out all the muffin liners in to the muffin tin and help stir the batter. She'll pretend to cook too with her little plastic frying pan and wooden spoon. [We've since had to limit the cooking of eggs b/c she always wanted to make eggs and then she wouldn't eat them.]

11/28/09: Instead of "ut oh spagettio," L says "ut of mageteos" or "ut oh bettygoes." When we were leaving Mario's house, L said, "Bye Mario. See ya later." Then she turns to me and asks, "We going home?" And I said, "yes." Then L said, "But I want my Mario."

11/29/09: I caught L after she had turned on the toaster oven and put the magnets in it. Thank God I saw something suspicious and caught it before they melted or caught on fire! Especially since it was our brand new toaster oven!

12/2/09: L said, "I have a throat in my mouth again." Translation: "I have a tickle in my throat."

12/3/09: L said, "I'm thirsty. I want some milk too." "I'm hungraaaayyyy...open this for me." "Have to eat my chicken first. Then it be all gone."

12/4/09: L said, "Mommy so excited see sister."

12/18/09: L said, "Ut oh. I made a mess."

12/23/09: L's got a long list of things she now says after the phrase, "Get older..." Here's some of them:
"Get older go on school bus."
"Get older have butter." (peanut butter)
"Get older go football game."
Also in the last week or so, she's finally doing spontaneous "love you" without us asking, prompting, or saying it first. It feels so good to get a big hug and "love you" (or "Love you too" or "love you lots and lots") out of nowhere. She's also for at least the last three months said, "love you. no doubt about it. you my best friend." and she'll say it really fast in this sing-song way. It's really cute.

Monday, 11/30/09...L's Dance Recital

Tonight L had a little dance recital to end this fall's dance class. I read a book about snowmen and the girls danced to it. L was a super cute snowman.

The all wore white outfits with scarves and hats but this picture was after another classes number and Bailey had put a dress on over her outfit and Area was also in the princess number. The large red scab under L's nose was from Saturday's face plant on the concrete sidewalk. :(


Video of the last part of the recital dance.


Video of the freeze dance.


Video2 of the freeze dance.


Video of L supposed to be lining up with her class for a photo.


Video of L supposed to be lining up with her class for a photo. But all she did was lie on the ground. I have a picture of her classmates and all you can see of L is a blurry foot and the bottom of the pic.

Videos...

I upgraded my S*mugMug account to a Pro account this week and now I can upload videos there. I'll try to be uploading some older ones and recent ones over the coming days. Here's some cute ones of L in MO dancing to bluegrass.













You can check here to see if there's anymore videos.

11/20/09...things L can do...

• L can rehearse her dance routine in bits like, tip toe with hands & arms above her head, chassé, gallop, and "sledding"
• L can also dance along with her Wiggle*s videos -so cute!
• L has more real conversations -talks a lot more in the last week or so.
• L wants to "help you"
• She's also very stubborn, defiant, and cries easily
• L hugs the L*ittle People baby Jesus and says "love you"
• If I ask her if she can help mommy, she says, "no!"
• L likes to help cook and/or bake. Last night, she got the egg carton out, pulled out the eggs, and helped crack the eggs into the bowl and then whisked the eggs with a fork. Then she moved her stool over to the stove, said it was hot, and helped me poor the bowl into the frying pan. She'll also lay out all the muffin liners into the muffin tin and help stir the batter. She also likes to pretend to cook with her little frying pan and wooden spoon.
  

11/15/09...Dancing to S*per J*nior

A gal on my yahoo group from our adoption agency sent out a link to this Y*uT*be video of the Korean boy band S*perJ*nior. Well I played it for L and she loved it. She started dancing and then ran into the other room to get her microphone and then ran back into the kitchen and starting dancing again with her microphone. It was SO cute! Well she's continued to dance to it and tonight I caught her on video with D. She actually ran all the way upstairs to get her microphone and then came back downstairs. (make sure the volume is on for the video in the lower right hand corner)

10/31/09...hand motions to Wiggle*s song

L does the hand motions and says "tapa" to this aborigine song on the Wiggle*s video. It's really cute!

9/14-9/21/2009 week update

Click on the dates below for pictures of each day.

2009 09 14 Elodie was sick but we did manage to get my allergy shot and make a return at Verizon. She missed her first night of swim class.

2009 09 15 Elodie still had a slight fever so we missed the opening brunch of my church's women's Bible Study. I was really disappointed but tried to enjoy my time with Elodie instead.

2009 09 16 I came down with Elodie's cold so I had to cancel my allergist appointment and my BSF class. We sat on the couch and watched PBS all day while I felt horrible. No photos today...way too sick! Dave took her to swim class b/c I obviously couldn't. I'm hoping to get him to write about it.

2009 09 17 I had a rough day, but for the most part was feeling a little better. We had Toyoko Joes for dinner and Elodie got sauce all over her face. There's a video below of her giggling at dinner...so funny! Dave took her to her first dance class at the rec center. Here's his scoop on the whole dance class:

One of the things that L likes to do is dance so we put her in a dance class. However, she was very shy today. In the class there are two 4 year olds, one 3 year old, Elodie, and the teacher. When the teacher told the kids what to do, everyone would do it, except L would just stare at the teacher. If the teacher said her name, she would smile and then turn to hug my leg. It was cute but counter productive. :) One thing that L was great at was sitting on her "piece of candy". The teacher set out these mouse pads with pictures of candy on them, had each kid pick one and then told them they had to sit on it when she said. Every time the teacher said to sit back on their pieces of candy, L was very quick to do it. Each time the teacher put on a song for them to dance to, she would have them take out some props from her baskets (like a ball, pompoms, and handkerchiefs). L was the first one off her pad to get the props when she told the kids they could go get something but she would then run back to me and just stare at the kids and teacher as they danced. After the song ended, the teacher asked the kids to put the stuff back and she would very happily run over to the basket, put the stuff in and then run back and say "I help" with a big smile. Towards the end of the class she started to warm up a bit and actually jumped over the imaginary river that the teacher set up to teach them leaps (thats the picture). She was also good at the "popping the balloon" thing. The teacher had them put their arms together to make an "O" which the teacher said was a balloon. Then she had them raise their hands up, up, up until their hands were over their heads and then the "balloon" popped and the teacher would have them move their hands to their sides (sorry for the explanation, its hard to describe in words). A day or so after the class she was asking when she gets to go back and she talks about it a lot; she also keeps doing the balloon thing around the house. Hopefully the next class she will be a little less shy. She was really cute though and did a good job with listening to the teacher.


leaping over the river (cellphone pic by Dave)









2009 09 18 I felt much better today, but still stuffy. Elodie got her first ever hair cut...well really, I just trimmed her bangs b/c they were covering her eyes.

2009 09 19 Much welcomed help from Dave on this Saturday.


Love this outfit of hers. She's such a ham!

2009 09 20 See post from this day.

2009 09 21 I was very sad to see Dave go back to work (and so was he!). It was a very cold end to summer as you can see below. I did my normal Monday laundry but also took the opportunity to go through the remaining long sleeves, jeans, & winter pjs to sort out what still fit and what didn't and get out all her new clothes (bought last winter on clearance) and wash them. Unfortunately, I was out of vinegar so the new dark stuff hasn't gotten washed yet.

Elodie sang the ABC song all the way through, only leaving out "t-u-v." Apparently Dave had been trying to get her to sing it yesterday but she would only say "a-b-c." It's amazing what kids pick up. She's got at least two toys that sing the song too but we've never heard her try before and then poof, she just sings (yes, to the tune) the whole thing. We keep telling her she's so smart! :) She has also started telling us after she's already peed in the toilet again. She did it all the time when she was first potty trained. Then something happened (maybe a couple accidents??) and she started wanting us there before she went. Now she'll go and then tell us, which is nice.

Another first...tonight she ate her first taco, with a taco shell, pulled beef, tomato, and cheese. :)






trying on snow gear to make sure it fits :)