Accomplishments

Ethan loves to ride the school bus. If you look close enough in this picture, you can see the pleasure radiating from his face despite his best efforts to hide from the camera. In these first few weeks of school, I have certainly seen Ethan exhibiting newly independent behavior. Sometimes, it is difficult to balance encouraging autonomy and expecting respect for my parental authority. As we keep at it, though, I think Ethan is feeling more comfortable finding appropriate ways to express his growth in confidence and skill.






Andrew is very eager to start school as well. He is scheduled to start half days next week, and he is literally counting down the days. He seems to have a pretty good attention span and loves to throw himself into whatever projects I can come up with to keep him busy. Though he is certainly less verbally expressive than his little brother, he is starting to try out more English words. At this point, he responds very well to both direction and correction. Mostly, he spends his time laughing at the rest of us.


Abby continues to take all these adjustments in stride, cool as a cucumber. She continues to tear through coloring books at a torrid pace, to request that others "play babies" at least 100x a day, and to regale us with the wild imaginary adventures of Sara and Mary. Some of the things I especially notice and appreciate about Abby lately are her quiet confidence, her unique ways of expressing things, and her attention to small details.



Jadon has been repeatedly quizzed lately with the question, "Who's the boss?" He has learned to respond, "Mommy's the boss. Daddy's the boss." It's a great little tool to divert him from his overzealous supervision of all other family members. Really, I believe that his bossiness is just a misappropriated expression of his overflowing love for those around him. He continues to be a random dispenser of kisses, invitations for squeezes, "I lub you's," and--oh, yeah--"Hallelujah's!"

Mom and Dad continue to work hard to facilitate adjustment for the kids, settle into work and school, and complete necessary paperwork associated with the move/adoption. (Yes, there continues to be enormous piles of paperwork even after the adoption!) While much of this process is draining, we wouldn't trade our family for anything! Yeah, even these crazy characters!