Foto Finish Friday

Father's Day Breakfast 2009

Daddy and Kai

Mr. Friendly

The past few nights we've enjoyed softball games at the park across the street from our house. On Monday night, we found a place on the bleachers which happened to be just a few feet from a group of about 3-4 girls, probably 8 years old or so, and one 3-4 year old boy. Kai decided he wanted to make friends with them and walked right up to them and introduced himself. He couldn't keep himself away! He'd come back to us about every 60 seconds and hug one of our arms or legs, then go back to his new group of friends. It was so adorable. Last night he saw a teenage boy on the bleacher and kept saying "hi" to him, trying to get his attention. Guess my lessons of how to appropriately talk to people are working; this is a long way from yelling "STOP!!" to people in the grocery store that we were experiencing a few months ago.

His outgoing behavior brings two immediate thoughts to my mind. First, I'm sure he is way more outgoing than any biological child of ours would be. Joe and I are both pretty quiet and reserved, as evidenced by my first response the other night which was for Kai not to bother the other kids. Whenever K is put in a social situation, he is immediately right in the middle of it all; a far cry from my school days spent as a wall flower. Second, I hope his outgoing nature means that we're raising him with a high level of self confidence, and that he is bonding and attaching to us in a manner which allows him this confidence.

bad blood

Yes, mine. 

My blood contains two things that normal blood doesn't; lupus anticoagulant (which does the opposite of what it sounds like it should and does not mean I have lupus), and a MTHFR (methylene-tetra-hydro-folate-reductase-blah-blah-blah) mutated gene. These things are what God gave me in order to ensure that adoption was how we grew our family. 

You see, many years ago... about 7, I believe... after my second miscarriage, my doctor decided to take about a gallon of my blood and test it for everything under the sun. (See findings above) Although, at the time only the first was noted and told to us. Not good, but with heparin injections twice daily to my abdomen, I should be able to carry a baby. After months of feeling like a human pin cushion (infertility treatments + anticoagulation therapy = one holey lady), and several more miscarriages, we got it; God did not intend for us to have a biological child. We made our peace and embraced our adoption adventure. 

Last December, through an unexpected medical situation, we found out that all along I also had the second blood disorder (MTHFR). This one would have been treated with a whole slew of extra vitamins to keep my blood from clotting. We were asked if, given this new information, we would want to give biological parenting another go. The answer was an astounding...NO! Not gonna go there... But, we also found out that there could be more implications to my health (where as previously we were told that it would only affect my ability to bear children). So now I diligently take my vitamins on a semi-regular basis and hope my blood stays good and thin.

So, why am I sharing all this now?? Well, a few reasons. One, I'm feeling in a better place to share our experience; two, I hope through our experience I can help others who have the same issues; and third, June is Antiphospholipid Syndrome (to which the lupus anticoagulant belongs) Awareness month. 

So there you go, now you're aware.

No Hands

A few days ago Kai made a huge mess with his trains and I was helping him clean them up. For whatever reason, I suggested that Willie (our 4 legged child) help pick up the trains. Kai very matter-of-factly told me "No Hands". Like, duh Mom, Willie doesn't have any hands... what was I thinking??

hoarding

We are definitely in the full blown stage of toddler hoarding.  The proof:

 A few days ago he loaded up this chair with all his living room toys, and when the chair was full he put more stuff on the table next to it. He proceeded to sit in the chair (for probably a total of an hour over the course of the day) and play with the toys/ pretend the chair was his car and he was driving to Grandpa Dave's house. These days he can't go anywhere (even to the next room of the house) without having the arms completely full. It doesn't even seem to matter what he's carrying, just as long as those arms are filled. This morning when I called him to his room for a diaper change, he came bearing Kim Chee (his dog), a toy golf club and a small garbage can. Let's just say...we're never short on entertainment around here!

maybe next time

We're backing off on potty training for now. He's been back in diapers for a few weeks, and our stress level has decreased ten-fold! I did not want to do it, but it became clear to us that he just wasn't emotionally ready. Physically, he totally knows what's happening and what to do, but he's just not quite there yet. I'm sad to see all our hard work reverting, but we will try again in a few months with hopefully better results. The good news is he's still notifying us for #2's, so no poopy diapers...hope he doesn't forget that, too! 

Ocean!!

Last weekend we ventured to the coast for an afternoon. Despite the very warm temperatures inland, of course it was cold and windy at the coast. We found a nice dune park and nestled ourselves a dune away from the ocean, hoping the dune would break some of the wind. We ended up not even seeing the ocean on our adventure, but Kai didn't seem to mind...he thought that lake behind him was the ocean! 

Tunneling under Daddy's legs was a popular activity, 

even though it resulted in sand all over his face each and every

time.

Kai and I tried to run up the dune...it was so huge! We made it about 3/4 of the way up before we exhausted ourselves. Of course, falling down on "accident" was a big hit as we made our way up. We also watched the sand surfers, it looked so fun, something I would definitely like to try in the future!

And what trip to the coast would be complete without the obligatory burying of the feet??

I was the first victim and when only my toes remained, Kai thought it was too much work to cover each one, so he just put his bucket over my exposed foot.

He's one smart cookie!!