Jillian's 11th birthday

Jillian found a great idea for a haunted hotel birthday this year in one of her magazines and I tried my best to deliver. We decorated the great room in spider webs, Halloween lights, creepy fabric and other Halloween decor. For food we served mummies in a blanket, apples with caramel dip, jackolantern veggies, a haunted house cake, and ghastly punch with an icy hand. We had more fun actually planning than anything. It made for some fun girl time. We had the guests dress in Halloween costumes as well. Everyone had a great time and the kids spent most of their time jumping on the trampoline. I have learned not to plan to many organized games with this crew since they prefer making their own fun. I wonder how many more cute little theme parties I will get to plan for her.It seems like I just turned around and ten years have passed! She is already wanting grown up gifts. This year was an iPod. She even paid for part with her saved money and had us give her cash to pay for the rest.  I think I prefer buying little toys and games! Glad she had a great day! She deserves it!

Fall Break 2012

Recap of our fun family time over fall break.
Monday- Rob and I took the kids to Owensboro and had lunch at Subway. After lunch Rob took L and K to Swim at the Hines Center while J and I went shopping for her 11 th birthday. She used her money she has saved plus her birthday money from us and bought an Apple iPod. We also found costumes and Halloween decor for her costume birthday party on Saturday. I just love shopping with my big girl! It reminds me of my marathon mall trips with my Aunt Sy when I was little! When we got home, I had the sweetest time watching Laikyn dress up in her new Minnie costume and play with her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Tuesday- Thanks to my friend Donelle we have lots of pumpkins this year. the kids spent the morning pumpkin painting. Korbin did a clown, Jilli did a UK spider and Laikyn did a big blob after her meltdown of not wanting me to teach her how to paint. After a timeout with mommy for an attitude adjustment, she came back and had a blast.
Wednesday- this morning the kids carved a pumpkin with Daddy. After lunch, we went to The Hines for some racquetball ( L and I played in the playroom) and to Orange Leaf for some Fro-yo. Jilli and I also ran over to the mall and found her a couple of Sunday dresses as well as a few more cool weather items for Laikyn. Tonight I finished decorating the family room for Jillibugs birthday party. Always having the week off before her birthday maybe means her party always looks a little more elaborate? Not that anyone is complaining. Love having an October child!

Thursday- Today we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to try out the new Smothers park on the river. It is amazing, but so spread out and huge that I was a little frightened of losing the kids. A great place to go as long as you are prepared to stay glued to your kids. The kids loved it.

Laikyn Update- Four months

Sometimes when she looks up at me, I flash back to the first time I saw her serious little face staring at me from the computer screen. She still has that same expression and the picture pops into my mind every time she gives me that look. Loving her up close is very different than loving her from a computer screen. I now know what all those little expressions represent and usually can predict exactly what she is going to do after making a certain face. The four months since adoption have sped by at warp speed! I just noticed in my blog that I haven't updated her progress in a while. We went back to the doctor about three weeks ago. Her development is right on target in every area except for language, so she wanted her to come back after 3 months home to check on the speech progress. Two year olds should be able to say 50 words, and begin to put 2 words together. Laikyn says about 25 words and is adding words rapidly. She also says " jie jie go" so is beginning to put two together. Some of her words are light(lie), bye, hi, Halli (she is really good with l's), cookie(kiecoo), peepee, mama, dada,bubba, love you(laooo), bottle(babo), baby, Gdad. SHe is better with the beginning than word endings. The doctor felt she is progressing very well and said she likes for them to be caught up by one year, but feels Laikyn is progressing more rapidly than that. I asked about how she yells my name and then yaps away in her own little language. Rob says she and I will have very long conversations in the futture!! The doctor feels she is trying to speak and is approximating English by just putting together sounds she knows. She said to just keep talking, naming things, singing songs (She tries to sing Jesus Loves Me with sign language) and reading books. She obviously wants to talk, so the motivation will help. Her receptive language is awesome. She says "yeah" when we asks her questions and will correctly obey instructions for tasks like pick up your toy, throw it in the trash, bring me a diaper.We are going to check back again when she turns three in February, but at this time she doesn't recommend any intervention since she is doing so well. I wasn't planning on
Working on potty training until Christmas but little Ms Jillbug jumped the gun and took her to potty a few weeks ago. She went the first time and has now pooped on the potty about six or seven times over the past 2 weeks. She isn't telling us yet, but is very comfortable with the whole thing, and loves the praise, so we are going with that and asking her often. I don't think it's going to be as hard as I thought. She's so stubborn that it all depends on what she likes. Her comfort is growing in new places like the nursery at church. She now goes in to play without clinging and crying. She loves to help with chores like helping load and unload the dishwasher and throwing clothes in the dryer. She doesn't like to have help doing things. When we are in a hurry and put her shoes on for her, she takes them right off as soon as she gets in the car and puts them right back on. She also
doesn't like for me to turn her book pages for her when we are reading. I would describe her as fun loving with a serious stubborn streak, curious, and very smart. Problems? Well, she is two!! The biggest problem is tantrums with hitting and throwing things when she doesn't get her way. We notice it happens more often at Grandads where she like to get in his things. Not exactly baby proofed! Also she sleeps great, but I have now allowed her to sleep in our room. Ive not been feeling great and it gets me a better night sleep. I know I'm setting myself up! Hoping to get her in with Jillian by Christmas. Probably wishful thinking. I am attaching a couple of our latest family pictures we had made in August before Big Bro left for WKU. I just love them and think the photographer captured my kids perfectly.

Life With Crohns

I'm not usually a complainer,but lately it's hard... I am beyond grateful that I wasn't sick in China, but having had a couple years with nothing more than a few minor flares just spoiled me a little. I was amazed that we made it through the adoption stress without a flare since thats the kind of stress that usually causes this. Starting in July, the flareups began again. I was able to get a treatment in August, since I can only get one every eight weeks. August was good. Early September, another flare started. This one was definitely worse and has been ongoing for three or four weeks now. Besides all the intestinal junk, my mouth keeps breaking into sores, and various joints are flaring as well. My tailbone hurts so bad that it actually feels broken, which makes hoisting a two year old up and down excruciating at times, but I'm not about to tell her no, because that's the main thing she needs right now. I haven't slowed down my schedule much, because I do better if I just keep going. As bad as it is, I think back to the days before I started treatment and remember how I felt like I was going to die. There are days though when I dont think I can manage... Today I am at the hospital getting my Remicade infusion and praying for a some good weeks ahead. I used to hate doing this every other month, but when you're hurting, you can't wait to get here. Really hoping this will get me back into remission. I know that this is all for a purpose and our struggles are meant to refine us, so I'm writing all this with optimism, but I'm really, really missing life without Crohns!