again

I am trying to figure out how to work wordpress.  Sorry if you get this on reader and have to read a bunch of failed posts.  I tried to add a picture but it isn’t showing up anywhere.

Ah, there it is.  We went to Magic Mountain this winter while Heidi was here with her family.  It was a lot of fun.

Katya liked cheering for people while they were on the rides.  She really didn’t want to ride anything herself though.

Isn’t Ella so cute and getting to be a big girl now?

Anna was finally able to get Katya on a ride by signing “brave” and making it a big deal for her.  She was very happy after that and even went on the roller coaster ONCE. 

Ben drug four Christmas trees at one time about half a mile or so home.  He tied them all together and used two shopping carts but he got them here.  I think our grand total of trees was over twenty!

They used the trunks cut up with a pyropen to make really neat burnt picture things and just plain old burned up the rest of them.  Quite a sight really.

some updates

We went to Magic Mountain this winter while Heidi and her family were here.

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Chromosome Analysis and Reg**nal Center

  I had a chromosome analysis done on Katya for The Reg**nal Center. They needed me to prove she had Down Syndrome.  She does.  She has a universal translocation of the 21st Chromosome on the long arm of the 8th and 10th Chromosome alternating.  They recommend testing the parents to find out why and what affects this will have on Katya’s reproductive possibility.  Good luck with that.  The result was interesting at least.  Yes, she does have Down Syndrome just in case you couldn’t tell. 

Reg**nal Center called today too.  They kept asking me over and over again what country she was born in.  I repeatedly answered Kazakhstan.  The lady would ask me "yes, but what country is that in"  Finally I told her that is the country and spelled it for her.  She says "Pakistan?"  Um, NO.  She finally writes it down and then asks me "where is that?"  Seriously?  Does it matter?  Is that a question on the form?  Where is the country of birth?  She tells me they only do speech for Autism and mental retardation. I say "she has Down Syndrome"  The woman then says "Oh, when was she diagnosed with that?"  "Um, probably at birth but I don’t know, I wasn’t there."  I do wonder about these people.  I hope once we finally meet someone face to face these annoyances will be a thing of the past.

Spider

This was on our garage door when we got home from Costco today. 

Eat, a Poem

Eat Eat Eat  by Tracey

Eat eat eat.
All we do is eat.

Please feed us our meat!

We eat in the morning.
We eat at noon.

eat eat eat.

We eat  when the sun is up
We eat when it is down.

the thought of no food just makes us frown.

eat eat eat
all we do is eat.

We eat when we’re hungry
We eat if we’re not

eat eat eat

We eat a little here
We eat a little there

If you don’t feed us we will growl like a bear!

eat eat eat
all we do is eat!

We eat when it is hot
We eat when it is cold

eat eat eat

We like our veggies
We like our starch

We always like to eat just before we march.

eat eat eat
all we do is eat

In memory

This was taken from Meredith Cornish’s blog.  http://www.cornishadoptionjourney.blogspot.com  These two precious girls lost their lives while waiting for a family of their own.

While We were…….. In Memory

While we were eating…
… they were hungry

While we were playing…
… they were restrained

While we were tucking our kids into bed…
… they were alone

While we turned up the heat…
… they laid in the icy cold

While we wrapped our children in blanket sleepers…
… they laid in their own excrement

While we sang songs and listened to music…
… they listened to the screams and cries of those around them

While we rocked our babies…
… they silently rocked themselves

While we hugged our kids…
… they scratched at their own faces and pulled their own hair for stimulation

While we cried over scraped knees…
… they moaned in their loneliness

While we brushed our daughters’ beautiful hair…
… they had their heads shaven to stave off the lice

While we fought off the flu with love and nourishment…
… they got the flu and went Home.

No longer suffering… but so many more still are.

In
memory of those that have never felt the love of a family, but have
passed away alone. Today we learned of the passing of these two girls
in Eastern Europe.

                                                                                   Margarita

Katarina

Potty training

For the last two weeks we have been potty training full time here.  We were working on Ella wearing pull ups.  Katya was jealous so we put her in pull ups too.  I would set her on the potty every hour or so.  At first she was just happy to sit there.  Then she started to go.  Then she noticed she could control when she went.  You should have seen the joy on her face when she figured out that was a voluntary action.  You could actually see the realization spread across her face.  She now loves to potty and is dry most of the time.  She still wets at night but that is another problem all together.  Ella is more selective with what she does on the potty and when.  We told her we would be taking Katya to lunch and to buy pretty panties.  Ella said "I want lunch too".  The original deal was earrings.  That is what Anna got, but we didn’t think Katya would want earrings or that she would tolerate having us care for earrings.  She still hates having her hair done most days.  So what would make Katya happy?  LUNCH!  We decided Wendy’s would be good.  She likes nuggets and fries, ice cream and coke.  Ella wants to go too but not enough to be more diligent with the potty.  I don’t know if Katya can sense when she needs to go or not.  She has started to ask me to take her to the potty but it is usually to get out of an unpleasant situation or just because she is bored.  She goes every time though.  So who knows.  Can’t ask her.  All in all I am very proud of our girls.  We thought Katya would be eight or so before she trained due to the Down Syndrome and weakened muscles.  She surprises us every day. 

family pictures again

By the way, the two big boys are Ben and Isaiah.  The little boys are Noah and Levi.  The girl is Ella.

 

more family pictures.

Some pictures disappeared from my last post so here we go for try number two.