going bananas

My sister got Brecken a "Grow Your Own Banana Tree" kit for Christmas this past year. It grows in a little plastic greenhouse indoors and then you can transplant it outside. Beings how we get snow a good 8-9 months out of the year, if this tree grows, we will be keeping the plant inside. :) We finally planted it yesterday. I've been putting it off because I was so afraid the draft from our big kitchen window, where it sits on the sill, would kill it this winter.

Brecken is beyond excited to see it grow. I sure hope it will sprout something so he's not disappointed! (hmm... I have an almost identical post HERE... complete with the same looking greenhouse!)

headphones

He must like them - we went to dinner last night with my parents. We went to a new restaurant, one we haven't been to before. He wanted carried in once we got to the door. (That's an SPD thing.) Then we got seated and he pulled the headphones out of my purse and put them on. It wasn't that noisy inside, but I quickly figured out that helped him focus for a few minutes so that he could feel safe. After about 5 minutes of wearing them, he took them off and was fine for the rest of the meal. (ate like a horse, even!)

Hooray!

so much noise

I've noticed an increasing irritation to noise in Brecken lately. Shortly after his concert night was Prom night. We went up to see the Grand March, where everyone shows off their fancy clothes. We had to leave before it even started because 100 different people, 100 different conversations at the same time made Brecken tell me it was way to noisy and he needed to leave. And yesterday at Wal-mart. Two different times his hands flew up to his ears and he started wimpering about the noise level. One time was from a populated area of the store where there were a lot of people talking. The other time was when a squeaky cart came behind us. We had to stop and let it pass so Brecken's eyes could not be so wide and his hands could come off his ears. I feel bad for my boy. And I'm not sure why the increase in noise-related irritations all of a sudden. I'll have to talk to his OT about it after Spring Break. I'm on the lookout for some cord-free headphones for him to wear in instances like this. And especially for when we go to Disney World, where there is a LOT of noise to overrun his senses. Hopefully we can find some that will work for him. I'm in the process of doing some research on different SPD sites! If anyone here has some suggestions, I'll be glad to entertain them! edited to add: I have no idea why this won't put proper paragraphs in when I hit "publish". Sorry it's so annoying to read.

SPD at it's finest

Brecken had his very first school concert tonight. He has been so excited about it for weeks. He's been practicing his songs at home. We have been talking about what to wear for a long time now (since clothes are a big deal to him) and had an outfit all picked out. They practiced on the stage with the lights today during school so they all knew what to expect and he was glad for that.

Tonight we get ready. We brushed him first. Then he puts on the pants and that's OK. (they're "dressy" pants lined with cotton like sweat pants.) He gets on his new shoes. Has a freak out. The tongue was touching his ankle and wouldn't stay away. So he ended up wearing Crocs.

We get out his polo shirt he was going to wear. Couldn't even get it near him. Nope, not going to happen. We finally get him in a long sleeved T-shirt even though he doesn't want to wear it.

We get there and he freaks. Clung to me hard. Wouldn't let me put him down. I had to hand him off to his teacher bawling. Broke my heart, but sometimes after I'm out of sight, he calms down.

Nope. Teacher came to get me to come get him. He refused to go out on stage. So he sat with Josh and I and watched his classmates. After every song, I asked if he wanted to go up there and I'd stay right in front so he could see me at all times. Nope, he couldn't do it.

So we just got home and he changed clothes immediately and then crawled up on my lap. He said, "Mommy, I really wanted to sing, I just couldn't do it. It made my brain hurt." Totally breaks my heart and I'm trying not to let him see me cry. I feel soooo bad that he was so excited and then his little brain just couldn't get over all the sensory stuff surrounding him. He was the only kid that couldn't do it.


At least he wore the pants, right?

:(

wonderfully lazy

What a wonderfully lazy day we've had today. We slept in (well, Josh and I did... Brecken woke up at his normal weekday time but was content snuggling in with us and watching cartoons...), ate a late breakfast, got to play outside for a while before we got too cold (but heck- we had to take advantage of the fact that there was no snow today!), watched more cartoons, wrestled downstairs, watched more cartoons, decided to finally get dressed mid-afternoon, made a cherry pie, and that's about it. I'm sure there will be more cartoons to finish out the day.

Ahhh... I love lazy days. Especially when we are all together as a family. Love that!

trip to australia

I found this today, and it totally hit home.


Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You’ve heard it’s a wonderful place; you’ve read many guidebooks and feel certain that you’re ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip. So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there’s no seat for you; you’ll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait---and wait---and wait. Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, “Relax. You’ll get on a flight soon.” Other people actually get on the plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, “It’s not fair!” After a long time, the ticket agent tells you, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat.” “By BOAT!” you say. “Going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money. I really had my heart set on going by plane.” So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than by air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat. It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three more times, marveling about each trip. Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than by air. People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, “Oh, be glad you didn’t fly. My flight was horrible; traveling by sea is so easy.” You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not the way you get there, but in the place itself.

Author Unknown

he's gonna be awesome

I talked to B's speech teacher while she was at my school today. She said, "I hear congratulations are in order!" I asked why, and she said that Brecken had told her we were getting a new baby. She asked him (knowing my history of infertility) if his mommy was pregnant or if we were adopting, and he proudly told her we were adopting. And that he hoped he got a little brother.

I love that boy.

I didn't even know he was telling people - ha! I don't mind at all - I just didn't realize just HOW excited he was, that he was telling his teachers! I'm now wondering how many people around town are hearing a rumor about me having a baby... :)

She said he's going to be an awesome big brother because he's so gentle and kind. Josh and I knew that already, but it's always nice to hear it from someone else. :) She thanked me for having such a wonderful child.

My heart burst with pride. :)

the imagination

My son has the best imagination. He came up with the best stories this afternoon.

It all started with him telling me that the girls' game was done, (the girls lost, apparently... 21-7) so he had to go now because it was his turn. He got his basketball and went all over the house dribbling it and playing a game. They were playing "mommy's school's team". B's team (the Pan.thers, of course) kicked the snot out of them, 91-10. :)

Then he had to play another team. They played a team we watched this weekend at State Basketball. A very, very good team. This team has one particular player that may or may not have scored 51 points by himself when they played Josh's team this year. Brecken found a medal that Josh had, and awarded it to himself after the "game" was over because he did so well at blocking this player's 3-point shots. He even named him by name (but I'm not going to post it here so it can't be found in a google search!).

He did this all afternoon. I love the imagination he has!

the check's in the mail

Finally, finally, after a very long time and a few emails to our social worker who is helping to nudge things along since they seem to be taking so long at the office, we got our invoice for our home study in the mail today. This is big, because apparently (and they failed to tell us this before hand so it could be a "surprise") they will not show your profile to anyone (and that includes online) until you pay for your home study. Which is fine, but they wouldn't send us the bill!!

Now we have it, Josh can call on Monday and (hopefully) pay over the phone, and we'll expect our profile book to be on the coffee table (or whatever they do with it) that afternoon. :)

bilingual

Brecken: I know what "dinner" is in Spanish.
Josh: Oh yeah? What?
Brecken: SUPPER!

Brecken: My knees are shivering.
Kara: They are?
Brecken: Yeah, that's Spanish for "they are cold".

my valentine

a smell

Brecken: Do you smell something funny in here?
Me: No... what does it smell like?
Brecken: Something in the microwave, maybe. Like deer poop or something.

(Don't ask me why he thinks we've ever had deer poop in our microwave!!!)

officially waiting

Our home study process is DONE! So excited. And it's a bit surreal!

We went to our SW's house in Laramie last night after Josh's game. We were supposed to meet with her at 7:00, but it took an hour longer to get there than we had thought, because of weather. Even though we left at 5:00, the 90 minute trip took so long we didn't get there until almost 7:30!

Last night's interviews were the one-on-one interviews where Donna asked us about our family growing up, what we liked to do, all those "personal" things. While one of us with her, the other one was in her downstairs living room with B playing with the toys she keeps on hand for her grandkids- Brecken thought that was great fun and wanted to stay the night there. :)

We stayed overnight at a hotel, then this morning got up and went to Kinkos to get our profile book printed and bound (holy expensive!!!) so we could drop them off with Donna. We signed our names on our "Dear Birthparents" letter, and we had Brecken sign his name on them all, too. Who can't resist a 4-year old's signature? ;)

This morning's interview was together as a family, about our parenting style, religion, stuff like that. It was only an hour long.

Brecken loves Donna- he keeps caling her "that grandma". I'm totally impressed with her too- love her. She gave us hugs before we left today and I thanked her so much for letting us invade her house on a weekend to get this done.

So. Now we wait. Hopefully not too long, but I'll try to get my head prepared for the long haul so I'm not disappointed.

too cold for comfort

Woke up to a temperature of 22 degrees below zero, with a 36 below zero wind chill. It was still 18 below zero when I came home from work. My poor car didn't like being outside all day- it sounded terrible when I started it to come home! I'm glad it started! It's supposed to be even colder tonight- it's going to make getting up tomorrow morning super hard!

I did the math, and at 5:00 tonight Honolulu was 20 degrees warmer outside in Honolulu than it is inside my house currently. And if you compare actual air temps, Honolulu was 98 degrees warmer. Where do I sign up for my plane tickets? (It has gotten colder- 25 degrees below zero right now!)

mission: accomplished

I love our social worker! She's fantastic. She's about my mom's age, she said she's a grandma, so when Brecken was being a total show off, she just laughed at him. He was the one to give her the grand tour of the house. He was quite proud. :)

She asked us all the standard questions, said she loved the story of how we met, asked what we did around town, what we liked about where we lived, stuff like that. She asked about the fire extinguisher and the locks and the outlet plugs.

We talked about race and gender and all that sort of stuff. Brecken said he wanted a baby brother. :) She was here for two hours and we had a lot of laughs. She's great. She asked if we'd be ready for a baby as soon as the home study was completed (the three interviews- not just today) and we said yes, and she said she has seen that happen. We're not getting our hopes up, but wouldn't that be wild if it happened like that?!?

AND... here is the best part. We still have to have two interviews. She said we are more than welcome to go to where she lives (1.5 hours away) on a night, have the one-on-one interviews, and then stay the night at a hotel and then the next morning get the 3rd interview done and we'd be certified! AND, she'd totally do a weekend. YES! So Saturday Feb. 5th, after Josh's game that afternoon, we'll head over, do the one-on-ones, and then the next morning be finished! Hooray!

She disclosed to us that she knows one of our references. I thought it was cool- one of Josh's good friends from growing up is a minister, and he actually was the one that married us. She goes to his church! She loves him and thinks he's great. One point for us. :)

I'm soooo glad it went well today. Huge lift off my shoulders. Not that I ever thought it would go badly, but you know how it goes.

eeek!!!

Tomorrow: BIG DAY!!! Social worker sounds nice, but you know how it is- someone important coming over to your house and your house will never seem clean enough. All the books say "they won't do a white glove test", and "they aren't expecting your house to be ready for a photoshoot for Better Homes and Gardens"... but let's face it. You don't want to look like a slob, either.

I had asked for a half day off tomorrow, since she is scheduled to arrive at 2:00 p.m. My secretary thought I said a WHOLE day. Turns out, it's a blessing in disguise. I can drop my boy off at preschool AND pick him up, which is something I never get to do. Plus, I get 3 uninterrupted hours to do all the last minute picking up, sweeping, vacuuming, hiding the crap (!), and all that grand old stuff, before she gets here. Maybe I won't feel so rushed. Or maybe I'll just have that extra time to get scared.

Either way. I'm nervous.

home study: scheduled

Wednesday is the big day.

I'm so nervous.

Must get my house cleaner than ever!

I've spent the past two days doing nothing but hanging out with my boy while Josh was away for basketball. Have to get it all in now, as tomorrow will be my turn to leave. It's time for our annual All-State Music Conference, and it's a long trip this time- all the way up to Cody! Then I ahve to stay because I have a meeting in Jackson on Thursday- so I won't get to see either of my boys until Thursday night. :(

So yesterday and today, B and I did laundry, vacuumed, (he helped with both!), went to the lake to see the ice fishing derby all set up, he had a couple baths, blew bubbles, we watched PLENTY of cartoons, and we pigged out on junk. It was a good two days. :)

scooters in the snow

It's tough to be a kid in Wyoming, where you have so much snow all the time. Especially when your birthday falls right when it's getting ready to start being winter, and anything you get for your birthday and Christmas that might be an outside toy can't be played with! The past two Christmases, Brecken has gotten some great riding toys- a big boy bike (last year) and a scooter (this year). The poor kid tried riding it in the snow the other day and realized how hard it is. :(

Enter: DADDY'S SCHOOL! We're very fortunate to be able to load up B's stuff and take him to Josh's school so he can ride around the hallways and the multi-purpose room. We did that today so that he could run around a big area and use his scooter too. It is a great option for the winter and it makes me very glad we have that building available to us. :)

amazing progress

Brecken showed amazing progress with his sensory disorder over Christmas vacation. I'm so dang proud of him.

*He tried 3 new foods, and loved 2 of them. (Potato Oles from Taco Johns and garlic bread were the fantastic discoveries- he SCARFED them down after trying both of them on two different days! Stuffing, on the other hand, he was not a fan of. But heck- he tried them!!!)

*He wore "dress" pants to Christmas Eve service. They were not sweat pants, but had sweat material inside. But they were new, different, and he wore them.

*My sister gave him some brown cords that were too small for my nephew, and he wore them ALL DAY!!!

*Then, my mom got him two new t-shirts that she found, and he wore one of them! I was so proud of him.

*He went sledding! He was extremely timid at the beginning, but by the time we left my parents' house, he was going to the top of the "mountain" and taking a running start!

*AND, he let us finally give him a hair cut.

Small steps, but they are HUGE steps to us.

Interesting, however, that he won't wear the new clothes to school. He doesn't want anyone to see them. Baby steps.

He was still quite clingy to us when we got to each of our parents' houses- enough that our families noticed. He warmed up quickly though, which was a relief. He didn't have a ton of issues with the noise this time around, which was good since it was PLENTY noisy this Christmas. :)

So proud of my little guy!

See? New pants and a new sweatshirt, too!