Weekend

I'm a bit behind on the blog, so I figured a catch-up post is in order.  We had a nice weekend.  Malachi got a kayak:

 

So now he can kayak along with Nathaniel and Elijah.  The three of them had a nice paddle around a lake yesterday.  Lydia also got in some "Daddy time" on Saturday.  They went to Build-a-Bear to spend the gift card she got for her birthday.  She's now the proud owner of a Princess Luna stuffed My Little Pony.

 

Saturday was rainy and cold, but Friday and Sunday the kids got to play outside. 

 

And I've been able to get some sewing done after the littlest ones are in bed.  I made some things for the shop, including this doll outfit:

 

I'm really happy with how it came out. 

 

I'll be posting an update on Gyunay and one on the chicks soon, but that's all for now!

Big Helper

 

I decided to let Gyunay help me make granola.  It was interesting.  He needs lots of help to be a big helper, of course, but he did enjoy it.  And he loved wearing the apron.

 

 

Sofia shirt

I never posted any of our photos or info about our trips to Bulgaria, because before we had Gyunay home, we weren't supposed to post which country he was from.  Now, I can post whatever I like, so here is Lydia's shirt from Bulgaria:

 

It says "Sofia" in Bulgarian.  You can see how different the words look!  Bulgaria uses the Cyrillic alphabet. 

 

I'll post some pictures of Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) soon, once I figure out how to transfer them from the flash drive to the blog. 

First Fish!

Gyunay caught his first fish today at our friends' pond.

Chicks!

Y'all knew it was going to happen...

Today, Nathaniel took off of work, and we headed to Frankfort to apply for Gyunay's social security card.  On the way back home, we stopped for chicks.  The kids are ecstatic.  They actually had mostly pullets, so that is mostly what we got. 

Lydia wore this chicken dress in honor of the occasion.

I was thrilled with the choices of chicks. I had just researched australops, and wanted to try those, so I naturally got 3 australop pullets.  They also had buff orpingtons, which we all were excited about.  Sol, our deceased-but-fondly-remembered mama hen, was a buff orpington.  We got 3 pullets of buff orpingtons.  Then, they had these really cute silver laced Wyandotte pullets, so we got three of those, too.

 

And lastly, because we wanted the chance at a good rooster or at least some good table meat, we got 3 straight-run, unknown chicks.  So we will end up with at least 9 hens, with the possibility of up to 12.  Of course, that's not counting the 6 we already have, which are 4 Plymouth barred rocks and 2 red sex link hens.  Elijah really wanted some Americanas (to lay blue and green eggs), but they had sold out of those. 

 

I converted the broken toddler bed into a brooder with cardboard and duct tape.  Very fancy, I know.

Book Review - Together with You by Victoria Bylin

My latest book from Bethany House Publishing is Together with You by Victoria Bylin.  I really enjoyed this contemporary story, although at first I was unsure if I would because the premise involved the nanny falling for the dad of the house.  I feared that it would be a simplistic romance, but I was very happy with the depth of all of the characters. 

The main character, Carly, is working on her phD when she meets Dr. Ryan Tremaine and his children.  She is pulled to his young daughter, Penny.  Penny has Fetal Alcohol Effects, and Carly has extensive expertise in this area.  She is reluctant to take the nanny job that Ryan offers because her big heart has been broken by past mistakes, but she does agree to the job.  In the process of taking care of Penny and her teenage brothers, Carly shows Ryan how to connect with his kids.  The growing attraction between Ryan and Carly is not welcome by either one, and is compounded by the fact that Carly is a devout Christian while Ryan is agnostic.

The characters are well-developed and the Tremaine family and Carly both show character growth throughout the book.  The author does a good job of educating about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome without sounding like a textbook.  I also like how she made flawed characters who had made serious mistakes but were still likable.  It is nice to note that Ryan has made the choice to redeem himself from past mistakes and live by a moral code even before he realizes the necessity of relying on God.  Sometimes Christian authors portray Christians as "good" and agnostics/atheists as "bad", but this gives more realistic and nuanced characters. 

I enjoyed this book very much, and I would recommend it to others.  I was given this book by Bethany House for the purpose of writing a review, but all opinions are my own.

2 Months Home

Gyunay loves putting on his sister's shoes, including these rain boots.


It's hard to believe that it's been two months since we brought Gyunay home.   He has done so well that it feels like he has been here much longer.  I read tons of adoption and attachment books, and we readied ourselves for the worst, but this happy little guy has adjusted remarkably well.  We have started bringing him out in public more, like to church and Walmart, and he consistently shows that he knows he is with us, part of our group.  He "checks in" with me visually throughout the day, and he is appropriately shy when he meets someone new.  He's doing better about the shoes issue, and although baths are still hard, they are somewhat better, too.  (At least, he seems very unhappy rather than just terrified.)  He has some "orphanage" behaviors, but nothing too severe.  We have had some feeding/sleeping issues, but really, he is doing so well.  I know that he may have some rough times in the future, but I am confident that we can work through them together.  The older kids adore him, and although Lydia had a hard adjustment to not being the "tiniest and youngest," all of them now get along like your average siblings.  We still have reminders of how little Gyunay knows of the world, and how often things are "firsts" for him.  He is starting to say a few words besides Mama and Dada: Elijah, car, tickle, choo-choo, poop, diaper, hi, bye-bye, nigh-nigh (for goodnight). (And once he said "cuddle" as plain as day, but never since.)  He says "buh" for many things, including ball, bus, bird, baby.  He makes a "guh" sound with the dog, probably an attempt at either dog or good, since we often say "good dog" when we pet Katie together.  He does the sign for "eat".  He also makes the cutest sound for "squirrel."   He also has a tendency to say buh or da for anything in general, whether it starts with those sounds or not.  We have a therapist coming to do his evaluation for speech and other therapies this week, so we are hoping to help him make some progress with the help of some good people. 

As far as his physical abilities, he is really quite amazing.  He loves to tuck small objects under his little arm.  He has good dexterity with his fingers.  He has made adjustments to do whatever he wants to do with just the one arm, and some of his solutions are quite creative.  We have introduced him to stairs, and we have been working with him on going up and down.  He had no fear of stairs, so he just pitched himself rather head first down them, and if we had not been there to catch him, it would have been really scary.  Now, he does fairly well going up stairs while holding either a hand or rail.  Going down is still a little scary, even while holding on to him, but it is improving. 

His overall health has been good.  His lungs look good, which was a relief due to issues he had at birth.  We've almost got him caught up on immunizations, too.  He's a very busy and affectionate toddler, and we couldn't be more in love with him!