Merry Christmas

Well, our first Christmas as a new family is coming to a close. I know I will post much more information about it at a later date. But for now, I thought I would just pause to reflect on my overall feelings.

To be honest, going into Christmas this year was terrifying. Things are a bit tenuous in our family at the current time... which is an understatement, but to put it in perspective... it's perfectly normal at this stage of a family forming with an older child. I didn't know what to expect, didn't know how the kids would react, and didn't really know how I would feel on Christmas as a parent for my first time.

But it couldn't really have gone better. We had a great Christmas Eve, and a wonderful Christmas. We started some new traditions and brought the kids into some of our old ones. We made sure that Santa knew what Lynnae's favorite candy was. The kids got to meet their cousins, except for the three in Belgium, and it is going beautifully... thus far. Lynnae absolutely loves her new cousin Evin... and Charlie has two cousins his age to play with.

I didn't do everything for them that I had wanted, but I am at peace with it. Because I know this is only the first of many Christmases, and next year we'll get to add to the memories. Tonight, I am happy and looking forward to another year with my kids.

From our family to yours, we hope you enjoyed a Merry Christmas and wish you the best of years in 2009!

Charlie's 3rd Birthday

Our little boy turned 3 years old last Tuesday! He was very excited to be 3, although it is true that he keeps telling us he is “actually 8.” We spread his birthday throughout the day. We came in and sang Happy Birthday to him in the morning to wake him up, handing him his first present to unwrap – a pack of Cars stickers. Then we brought him downstairs where he saw his brand new art easel. That thing has been very popular with him, and has already seen a ton of mileage!

I let him open a new present at morning snack, one at lunch, one at afternoon snack, one before dinner... We had a lot of smaller gifts for him to open so that he could enjoy the thrill of tearing paper. To our surprise, he is not much of a paper tearer. He is very gentle when he unwraps gifts, and has to be really encouraged to rip at it. Makes me laugh that he is even methodical about opening his gifts!

Charlie and I went out to Michael’s and Borders in the afternoon. When we walked back to the car from Borders he was screaming to everyone he saw, “I am just so happy! I’m happy!” It was making everyone smile. It was really cute.

Charlie requested hot dogs for his birthday dinner, and then we went in to open the rest of his presents. He got a ton of stuff. Lynnae really wanted to be able to get him a lot to open, and she succeeded. I told her she could spend up to $20, and imagined that she might be able to get him 2 things with that. But, no. It all started when I found a Buzz Lightyear doll at the Disney Store for only $8... Then she still had $12 to go. She ended up also getting him Candyland and 4 Hot Wheels cars. Those presents were among his favorites! In addition he got wooden trains and a book from Grandpa Kovar, a Percy lego set and a book from Grandma Boyce, and a set of books from Great Grandma Hayman. We also gave him stuff to go with the easel and a Little Einsteins drum set... Which he also loves.

Then we had cake. I would love to say that Lynnae decorated it, because the handwriting looks so bad... But unfortunately, that is not true! I bought canned decorating frosting because I was out of time, and found that it is nearly impossible to hold one of those cans while squeezing the tip and trying to write nicely. Poor Charlie. At least he got a bakery cake with better writing for his party several days later!

We had so much fun with him on his birthday, and we are really enjoying the personality that is jumping out of our not-so-little boy. I am pretty sure that this was an excellent birthday for him as well!

Progressive Dinner - 2008

We have a Christmas season tradition with two of our family friends – the Stutzmans and the Zaniewskis. We get together for the majority of one day to do a progressive dinner. It is proving to be a great tradition, and we can’t believe how quickly our families are growing. Last year there were the four Stutzmans, two Kovars and two Zaniewskis. This year we added two more with Charlie and Lynnae. And next year there will be two additional – Caleb Stutzman and Tanna Zaniewski. If we keep going at this rate, we may need to find a new venue for the event. :)

This year’s progressive dinner was on the same day as Lynnae’s dance recital. We started at the Zaniewski’s for the appetizer, moved to our house for the main course, and then the Stutzmans treated everyone to Cold Stone for dessert. For some reason I got it in my head that I really wanted to have prime rib, and that I could make it. Everything was fine until the day before, when I realized that I was slightly crazy. Not only have I never made a prime rib before, but I’ve also never seen it prepared! I was really nervous about it. I read way too many reviews of my chosen recipe on allrecipes.com. Andy had to help so that my nerves wouldn’t take me down... But the prime rib turned out beautifully. (And we had several fantastic prime rib and provolone sandwiches over the course of the next week!) Cold Stone was also very tasty. I think that Charlie was the luckiest there. He ate from Matt, Candice, Lynnae and my bowls!

All in all we had a great time, even more fun this year than last... And we can’t wait for next year!

Candice and Matt at Cold Stone... I think they are near food coma. :)

Joe and Jacob at Cold Stone

Candice, Jacob and Carleigh after dinner

Joe after dinner

Jacob was happily playing all night. Here he is torn between taking the handle off of Charlie's plane or drinking from his sippy cup!

Carleigh after dinner - showing Candice how to smile (really smile) for a picture.

Matt showing Jacob how to bounce.

Lynnae's First Dance Recital

Lynnae was so excited to start ballet this year. Her studio does winter performances for some of the junior classes, and this year her class was one of those scheduled to perform in the community. So last Saturday we got her dressed and ready to be at a local community church by 11:45 for their “Snow Day” performance.

Lynnae’s class was toward the end. I had a feeling that this would be interesting, because they had just learned the rest of their dance two days earlier. It was very... Interesting... And cute. Lynnae spent most of the time watching the other girls, who were also watching each other, to see what move they were supposed to do. All in all, I did think it was better than several other of the class performances. Perhaps I am biased? Andy took a video on his cell phone, so if I ever get that, I will send it out!

Lynnae was so nervous before the performance. I have never seen her have nerves quite so strong. She was going from being really, really hyper to being white as a ghost and very timid. She sat still, without moving an inch, for a good 15 minutes when the performances first started. Then, when her class was just two away and they moved “on deck”, she was bouncing all over the place. Andy and I, of course, told her how proud we were of her. And Candice was able to make the performance too. Lynnae had sent her a video message a few days earlier begging her to come. I think that the big step for Lynnae was that she was able to get up in front of a lot of people and perform something she worked on. (I also think she might now understand how important it is to pay attention and practice a little more!) This was just a mini-performance... The big recital will be in June!

Oh Christmas Tree

One night before Thanksgiving I was waiting in the McDonald’s drive thru line with Lynnae in the car. Charlie was at home with Andy. While we sat in the car we were talking about random things - school, and her favorite topic of late... Ryan, the boy that she sometimes really likes and sometimes really hates. (Yes, in 3rd grade everything is already about girlfriends, boyfriends and crushes.) At a pause in the conversation I looked around the parking lot and noticed that they were starting to set-up a Christmas tree stand. So I said to Lynnae, “Look! They’re getting ready to put Christmas trees up soon!”

With the smallest sliver of hope in her voice she asked, “Will we have a Christmas tree this year?”
“Of course we’ll have a tree this year – we always have a tree! We’ll probably put up a fake tree this year, but we will definitely have a tree.”
“Okay.”

I was a little surprised at her response, until she broke the next pause in conversation with, “You know I’ve never had a tree before.”
Well, I knew this wasn’t totally true because I’d seen pictures of last year. “Yes you have! What about the tree last year?”
“Well... Yeah, there was a tree.,” she admitted. And then added in her fast 3rd grade exasperation, “But they didn’t set it up until Christmas Eve and only the parents got to decorate it. It was so unfair. I was so bored!”

Then it was time to order our food, finally. So I did and as I pulled forward I said, “Wow. Well I really need your help this year. I love Christmas so our family does a lot of decorating! I need you and Charlie to put on the first ornament and then help me get the rest on too. AND I have a special decorating job that I was going to put you in charge of.”

“Really?” She was so hyper at this point that I thought she might bounce free of the seatbelt and launch into the front seat to be closer to me. We got our food and started the drive home. Sometimes, in these moments where I can feel that she wants to be closer, I get these little stories out of her. If I sit back and am quiet enough, she will usually follow up the moment with a glimpse into her past. This night was no different. As we drove home, I heard a quiet voice in the back seat...

“You know, once when Charlie was a baby we were at the store. Daniel was trying to get into everything, it was really annoying! Mom was buying food. And do you know what she told us? She said that there wasn’t even a Santa Clause!”
“What?!?!? Why would she say that?”
“I don’t know. She looked mad. She said that parents just made it up.” I saw her shrug her shoulders in my mirror.
“And you believed her?”
“Hey!” With her most indignant voice she said, “I was just a kid!”

I smiled. We made it home and ate our McDonald’s. I didn’t say another word, I didn’t want to press my luck. But later that night, I relayed the whole story to Andy... Who thought it was as funny as I did!

A few days after Thanksgiving we erected our Christmas tree. The kids were so excited when they came around the corner and saw all the lights. Charlie and Lynnae did put the first ornament on together, although Charlie was way more interested in touching the lights and the branches of the tree. I let them put on all of the ornaments that were not breakable. They had a lot of fun! Ziggy has knocked quite a few down, but every day there are fewer on the ground. It makes me sad to know that they haven’t had the normal childhood Christmases before now... But, secretly I am really happy to be able to share these firsts with my new 8 and 3-year old kids.

Charlie and His Scissors

About a month ago I began handing Charlie a pair of scissors to see what would happen. (Kid scissors of course!) At first he was using two hands to open and shut them, and of course, nothing was cutting because nothing was holding the paper. Finally, he accepted my idea to use one hand to hold the scissors. But holding them perpendicular to the paper still proved to be an issue... So I found myself guiding the paper and righting his hand a lot. For our preschool activities I was even putting my hand in the scissors over his to keep him from veering too far off course... (I still let him do the guiding, opening and shutting unless he was about to cut something in half!)

One day I noticed he had figured out a grip that worked for him to open and shut more carefully. And then, he started cutting in straight lines all by himself... With only about half of the jagged edges as normal. On Thanksgiving morning, he was very hyper, so I distracted him with a pair of scissors and a blue piece of paper. He went at that paper for about an hour, cutting it into ever smaller pieces. At one point he cut out a circle and then held it up to show me... So, it wasn’t a perfect circle, but who cares? Eventually that, too, got snipped into smaller bits. At the end we had one HUGE mess of blue scraps and a giggling little boy that had enjoyed one of the best hours in his memory. Paint brushes and scissors are two of his new best friends!

Some November Crafts

We kept busy in November again with a lot of crafts! I realized at the end of the month that I hadn’t taken pictures of several of our projects... But these are some of the biggest ones we did.

• Acorn Doughnuts – We took doughnut holes and frosted the top half with chocolate, rolled them in toffee bits and then stuck a pretzel piece in the top. And I thought doughnut holes were good by themselves...
• Thanksgiving Wreaths – I got this project from dltk.com. We cut out pictures of foods, turkeys, and other Thanksgiving items and then pasted them onto a paper plate. Charlie did all of the positioning himself... He is getting really good at gluing! Lynnae had a lot of fun with it too. I then mounted a picture of each of them in the middle and hung them on our back french doors for the month.
• Give Thanks Sign – I got this idea from makeandtakes.com. We traced letters with glue and then put different food items onto the glue to form each letter. I think Lynnae had the most fun with this one... Probably because I saw her sneak quite a few mini marshmallows into her mouth! It turned out really cute!

Finally, Lynnae made a cornucopia at school which we hung up for Thanksgiving Day. We are all really enjoying doing our crafts together! (I think even Andy likes it.)

Thanksgiving Day 2008

This Thanksgiving Day we ate at our house and our friends, the Boschees, came to share dinner with us. This is an old tradition for us that started 10 years ago, we’ve skipped a few years but have spent more Thanksgivings together then apart. We were really excited to have them up and to also share our first Thanksgiving with the kids. We decided to eat nice and late, at 5pm, so that there would be plenty of time for relaxing cooking and for the Boschees to drive up. In terms of cooking it turned out to be the most relaxing Thanksgiving I have had.

I searched high and low for low sodium recipes prior to Thanksgiving so that I could enjoy all the food I wanted. I found a really good turkey recipe that was made with rosemary, basil and garlic... And no liquids. I cooked it in an oven bag so that it would still come out moist... It is definitely one of the best turkeys I have ever had. Our leftovers are almost gone! I also did make ahead mashed potatoes, pies, and cranberry salad the night before... So on the day of Thanksgiving, there was very little to do.

I may not have had Thanksgiving with kids in the past, but I have learned enough in the past eight months to know that kids + waiting for food = catastrophe. So I set out some crafts for them to do when they first came. I set out stickers (thank you Mom,) tracers for turkeys and leaves, thankful notes, scissors, crayons, glue sticks – everything I could think of. They made their own placemats and I had a table runner for them to make too... But they never got to it. It was successful at occupying their time. Madison’s placemat turned out the best!
I was really happy with how the turkey turned out and Andy did a great job at carving. The meal was really good, although we had a surprising amount of leftovers. While Angie and I cleaned up and packed away bags for each of us, the kids started playing. Charlie managed to cut his nose while he and Natalie were bouncing... Of course. That kid has to always have some type of bruise or cut on his face! So we put a bandaid on it, and Natalie wanted one to match. Lynnae and Madison played in her room, Andy and Jeff did their video-game thing, and Angie and I sat downstairs talking while we watched Natalie and Charlie play. They were really cute. We ate dessert and the Boschees headed back home to make sure they had plenty of sleep before Black Friday.


After they left we gathered the kids to talk one more time about the purpose of Thanksgiving and how important it is to be grateful. Prior to this year, Lynnae had no concept of why we even celebrate the holiday. She definitely does now! She read a book to the family, “Thanks for Thanksgiving,” and we headed to bed. All in all, this Thanksgiving is one to remember!

Self Portraits - A New Realization

About a week ago I was in the kitchen with the kids... and, can you guess what I was doing? Taking pictures of them. I'm not sure if it was a diversion or a genuine tactic, but Lynnae stopped and asked me if people can take pictures of themselves. So I turned my camera around, and discovered that it is actually very easy to do this with my digital SLR because you can see your reflection in the lens. So I smiled and pressed the shutter button. Lynnae asked if we could look at it, so I turned the camera back around to preview the picture, and voila...


This is not the first time I have taken a picture of myself with a camera. Although it is the first time I have taken a picture of myself since I got my Rebel... which I've had for 2 years. Why don't I take more pictures of myself? Because I hate looking at myself. But when I looked at this picture I had a realization that has been hitting me in small waves over the last 3 months. I don't hate the way I look anymore. Am I still self conscious? Of course. But, I don't feel like a fat blob when I look at my picture. So I kept snapping photos when Lynnae and Charlie started yelling out things like, "Make a funny face mom! Make a happy face mom! Make an angry face mom!" They were laughing so hard and having so much fun, and I was so happy for them to be so engaged. Plus, as parents of adoptive children we are always working on our feelings - so this was a great way for me to engage in that play too.

So here are some of my faces... and, this is what I look like 58 pounds lighter then my starting point... hoping to get to 60 before Christmas.