New pictures!!!

I don't know what was going on with my camera, but I was finally able to download some photos today! YAY!! Daniel had his first baseball practice tonight. He did really great! Pop and I were both impressed. For having never worn a baseball glove or swung a bat - he did great. He wasn't scared - caught the ball, hit with the bat, ran the bases, and made a bunch of new friends!

A few weeks ago I took Daniel to see Playhouse Disney live at the Louisville Palace theater. We had a great time seeing all of our friends from TV come to life - Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and of course Mickey!!!

We had a great time at Daniel's adoption party! Thanks again to everyone who joined us and made it a special event for him. When we were in Ukraine, I found these cool balloons with the country of Ukraine on them. I have been saving them all year for this event:

Still here!

So sorry for the long silence! For some reason I can't download pictures from my camera anymore. I don't know what's going on and what fun is a post without pictures?? Well, I finally decided to update, just so you would know we're still here!

We had a great adoption party on March 10th - Daniel's adoption day. We decided we would celebrate the day he joined our family as another birthday. That way, when he thinks about being adopted he'll think it's great because he has 2 birthdays! We had a really nice party. Thanks family for joining our celebration! We had about 20 people there!!

Since then, we've just been staying busy with school and activities. We signed Daniel up for baseball through our church. He wanted to play basketball, but that's a winter sport so we're trying baseball. We thought it would be a good outlet for him to run off all of that energy!!!

He's still been getting into a bit of trouble at school. We went this whole week without getting a smile! He's been throwing cushions, sticking his tongue out, saying No, refusing to do his work, and just generally misbehaving. (and then they also write up that he was good in the classroom, it's just when he's away from his normal teacher) I don't know what the answer is. We've tried taking away the television time (no smile, no tv), taking away the computer time, taking away toys, offering candy, writing sentences, you pick our dinner spot, standing in the corner....we're just at a loss. I told Jason - I think it's a total accident if he gets a smile or a straight line. I think he acts the same way every day and it's just a matter if it gets noticed or not. That may not be the case, but it sure seems like it. He always seems surprised to see what he got.

He's just the sweetest thing. We marvel at how happy and how excited he is. It just seems like life is so great, he's happy all the time. He's so full of life. And lately he's been a chatterbox. Usually it's like pulling teeth to get him to tell us about his day, but lately he just won't stop talking. It's like all this time he didn't know how to tell us and now he's making up for it! The other night I was putting him to bed, closing the curtains to his room and he comes running over and says, 'Mom, you're my best friend!' What a sweetheart! I am going to enjoy it now while he's little - I know that won't last. He loves to sit on my lap and snuggle, loves to be tickled, he's the apple of mom's eye - that's for sure!

Hopefully I can share new pictures with you soon! We are headed to Florida for Spring Break. Mom is more excited than Daniel. He has no idea what's coming! I asked him if he wanted to go to Florida and see Mickey Mouse. He thought about it for a minute, shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Sure!' :) He has no idea! We could be going to the mall for all he knows. We are going to go to Magic Kingdom for a couple of days and also take him to the beach. If we survive that long car ride, it's gonna be great! The next time you see Daniel, he might have mouse ears!

Beautiful weekend

Finally, some nice weather!! We were getting so sick of the cold temps. They were predicting it to be in the 50's this weekend so we thought we would make the most of it. We took Daniel hiking on Saturday. We just wanted to get out of the house and enjoy nature. We actually hiked 3.5 miles, which is pretty far for a little boy. We packed a picnic and took a break half way through....





Then we came home and cheered the Cards on to a BIG victory over Syracuse! Woo Hoo - what a game! We realized that we've been home with Daniel almost a year and he's never been to White Castle. How can that be? So we decided it was time to remedy that. We celebrated the Cards victory with a few sliders.....



Another nice weekend!


And I have to share a conversation we had this morning. He always asks BIG questions when I am totally unprepared to answer them. We were running late to school, rushing to get there and singing along with a CD and then Daniel asks, 'Mom, what's awesome God?' (we had just been singing 'Our God is an awesome God') So I was telling him about how awesome God is - He made the world, He made the sun and the trees and the clouds and the animals and Mama and Daniel. He is so big and awesome and yet He loves and cares about us - and the choices we make each day.
'Mom - and God made Jesus.'
'Well - God and Jesus are the same person.' (how do you explain that in a way he can understand?)
'Mom - Jesus is 2 years old.'
'No sweetie. We celebrate Jesus' birthday and read books about when He was born as a baby, but He is all grown up now. He is Big.'
'Mom - how old is Jesus?' (what do you say to that?)
'Well, Jesus is forever.' (what was the right answer here? I finally had to agree that Jesus is 100 - because that's a number he understands. How do you explain no beginning and no end?)
'Mom - what is Heaven.' (there is a little girl in his class named Heaven - how confusing is that!)
'Heaven is God's home. It is a truly amazing place. The streets are gold and God lives there. And we will go live there someday. God made a mansion for us to live in.'
'Mom - what's a mansion?'
'It's like a castle. It's a special, big home and God made it for us to live in. We will go live with Him there someday.'
'When Mom?'
'When we die, we will go to be with Jesus in Heaven.'
(eyes as big as saucers) 'Mom, Daniel doesn't want to die!'


This conversation was really fast. We jumped from one topic to the next so quickly, before I could really explain and expound on one topic he was asking another question. And then, all of a sudden we were at school. I felt so inadequate. Some of those concepts I can't even wrap my mind around. How do I explain them to my 5 year old in 10 minutes? I guess I just need to be happy that he is asking the questions and wants to know about this great God of ours. He has seen that we talk to God, we talk about God, and he wants to know more.

Lord - help me to do it right. Give me the right words. Help me to jump on those opportunities with both feet, and point this child to you!

Mom - look what I can do!

I hear that, look over and boom - he's standing on his head. Whoa! Am I a bad mom for letting him do this? It can't be good for his neck, right? What do I know? It was so cute!



Maybe we have a future U of L Cardinal on our hands? He's totally stuck on basketball lately. I think Jason and I are both exhausted with it. He gets stuck on something and that's all he wants to do. He's totally OCD, just like his mom:

Slip sliding around before school....

We like our strawberries for breakfast:

Tonight after his bath he tells me, 'Mom - how about this, brush teeth, and then you and Pop can come to my room and tickle me? Isn't that a great idea?' Sure, it's a great idea. Then we get in there and he goes, 'Pop - tickle Mom!'

15 minutes of tickling then we say our prayers, and off to sleep..........

What a doll! For all of the standing in the corner, reviewing the rules and attitude (including a frowny face today from school) - he's such a sweetie!

Report Cards!!

We had our Parent/Teacher conference yesterday at Daniel's school and got his report card. I am proud to report to you that he got 7 A's, 1 B and 1 C (in math). We couldn't be more pleased. Out of necessity, we have focused more on English than on math so we weren't surprised that he got A's in reading and writing and a C in math.

We are so impressed with his progress. He is actually reading! He started out in the reading group for kids that are behind and he has moved up to the group of readers 'at grade level'. His teacher said he would be in the advanced group, but he has trouble staying on task when they are in groups and that's one of the requirements to be in the advanced group. He is also writing in full sentences. WOW! His teacher told us that she goes over their learning objective for the day (capitalization or spacing or whatever) and then she models it for the class and then tells them they can write about whatever they want. She said they think it's so cute that Daniel ALWAYS writes about how happy he is with Mom and Pop. She sends home his writing work. I have the cutest papers that say 'I Luv Mom and Pop' or 'I wuz hapy wen I frst saw Mom and Pop' or 'I wuz hpy to go Prk with Mom and Pop' (insert beaming smile here!)