Friday, April 30, 2010

Birthday Boy!





Daniel's birthday is tomorrow. I took cupcakes to Daniel's school on Thursday to celebrate. He was pretty excited!! His teacher said when moms come in for a birthday, she usually has them tell the class about the day the child was born so did I want to tell them about when Daniel joined our family? Well sure! I was happy to tell them that Daniel was born in Ukraine and I didn't get to be there that day, but 4 years later we came to Ukraine and met Daniel and were thrilled when he said he would like to come to America and join our family. I told them what it meant to be adopted - that we got to pick Daniel and he picked us. And by the time it was done, I was crying. 20 years from now, that story will probably still bring me tears of happiness. Oh the bliss of the miracle that is adoption!



This also happens to be Derby time here in Louisville, KY. That's a little horse race we have here - ya'll may have heard of it. Well - this is the most exciting time of year to be in Louisville. The whole town goes Derby crazy with 2 weeks of fun events! Following our big cupcake affair, we headed downtown for the Pegasus Parade. The weather was beautiful and we really enjoyed the parade as you can see.........




And now look at this big boy..... I can't believe he's going to be 6 tomorrow. He has grown 10 years in one. He's had so many life experiences, packed so much change and learning and growing into one year and through it all - that big smile and big personality is the one constant. That and our love for him, our absolute, whole hearted confidence that God picked out the perfect little boy for our family. What if we had never taken that step of faith? What if we had never gone to Ukraine? I can't imagine missing out on knowing and loving him.......



Monday, April 26, 2010

Spring Break pics

This is the last of our Spring Break pictures. We had a great time! If you ask Daniel now - what was your favorite thing in Florida? He'll say, 'Mickey Mouse'. We didn't get our pictures taken with any of the characters. He didn't want to waste time standing in line for that. He wanted to ride the rides!! We rode every single ride in Magic Kingdom with the exception of Space Mountain, The Haunted House and Snow White's Scary Adventures. We saw the night time parade, but he was too tired to stay for the fireworks. Oh well, we have to save something for next time.

One day at Disney was plenty for this first visit. The other days we went to the pool (as you can see), went to Sea World (you can go there the 2nd day for free!), went to the beach, more time at the pool, and just had a great time. The drive down there was really long but Daniel did great in car. (thank goodness for my DVD player!) We left Florida at 8:30pm on Friday, drove all through the night and got home at noon on Saturday.

Since we've been back, we're just trying to get back in to our routine. I had a reeeeeally busy week at work last week. Daniel is having trouble getting back into the swing of things at school and we've been on a frown face streak. Throwing crayons, playing on the carpet, hitting a teacher, scratching a kid - he's done it all! We're kind of at a loss as to what to do. Academically he is doing great. He just got his report card and it was 7 A's and 2 B's. He is so smart - already reading! But we are really working to get this behavior under control. He knows the rules - we talk about them, we write them out - but in the heat of the moment, he doesn't make a good choice. My Dad told me, the pain of the punishment has to be worse than the enjoyment of the crime. We're trying to figure out what's going to get through. Friday we were at our wits end - another frown. So, we came home, packed up a bunch of his toys and put them away (not all of them). He can earn them back one at a time when he gets a smile. If he gets another frown - another toy goes away. We'll see if that makes an impression......

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Beach pictures

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Hello from Florida!



We were standing in line to ride 'Peter Pan's Flight' and Daniel was jumping up and down. He turns to me and shouts out, 'Mom, I'm SO HAPPY!' That about sums it up. We're having a great time!!