Cousin Visit

This past weekend my sister Megan's family came to visit for the day on Saturday.  The cousins all had a lot of fun meeting Philasande and Sino and playing together!  I'll post some more pictures later this week of the visit but here are a few for now...

Philasande is right smack-dab between Meredith and Charlie in age and  Sino is almost exactly one year older then cousin Eddie.  I believe it is imposable to get this many kids to look at the camera at the same time and smile. 

One last picture to leave you with, the girls got these awesome shirts from a sweet family we know...

Dancing, Dolls and Friends

We are having so much fun getting to know each other and living daily life together.  Sino is still waking up early and looking to party with anyone that will join her...  When she turns on her charm, pretty much everyone will join her for an early morning dance party.

There has been a lot of playing with dolls...

Did I mention lots of playing with dolls...

We have been laying low around the house for the most part with the girls.  Our good friends the Busch's visited one evening last week to meet the girls.  You would have thought the girls had known this family forever.

Language wise the girls have really come a long way.  I'm shocked at some of the things Philasande is already saying, she is getting a better handle on the language everyday and stringing words together.  Sino will repeat things that I say.  She continues to regularly use the sayings; "Oh man!", "Ouch" and "Ohhh-weee!"

I will model language for Philasande when I know she isn't sure what to say.  For example, when getting her food I might ask, "Do you want a banana or an apple?" while holding them up.  To which she will repeat exactly what I said back to her with a smile on her face.   She will also add "say" into what I'm telling her to say, for example, "Say thank you" to which she will respond, "Say thank you!" Her smile is so stinking charming, it is obvious she is really proud when she talks in English even if it often doesn't make sense.  

Philasande is also talking in eyebrow raises now.  This is how Nasuuna had communicated with us for a long time. When she needs something she will do the action or point at what she needs then raise her eyebrows three times.  It works slick, is adorable, and is an effective of communicating.

Sino has a new trick where she yells loudly, "MOM" over and over.  She will yell it to anyone because it gets her attention.  The minute someone looks at her when she is yelling it she will put her finger to her mouth and say "SSSSHHHHHHHHHHH".  She knows exactly what people are going to say so she turns the tables to totally control the situation.  Her innocent look allows her to get away with this often.  

Sino is also big on sitting on the toilet to go to the bathroom.  She will go into the bathroom and take off her diaper and yell, "Mom" until someone comes to hold her on.  We still need to get a kids seat or smaller toilet as she would fall in if she tried going on her own.  When she sits on the toilet she goes to the bathroom right away then follows it up with a show of pushing, grunting, farting noises with her mouth and make funny faces to entertain the person holding her.  Sino is an entertainer.

This next weekend my parents are coming to visit and my sister Megan with her family, we can not wait!  

Everyday Fun

We are trucking right along as a family these days...

And getting to know each other more everyday.  The girls adjustment has been shockingly smooth and relatively easy (knock on wood).  I'd love for Sino to sleep past 4:30 am but it's hard to care when she wakes up enjoying life (and herself) so much.  

The kids are developing new relationships.  Philasande and Nasuuna could sit and play dolls and do their hair all day... I never in a million years thought that would ever happen in my house. 

Sino never stays in place long enough to party more then a few minutes with anyone person.  She wants to be a part of everything and be with everyone.  When the older kids are not around she will sit/standing up in the front bay window waiting for them to come home.  This allows her to lick the cold window, as well as, wave, blow kisses, knock and yell at everyone (and every vehicle) that goes by, she may be trying to recruit company.  

Cullen, Nasuuna and Geremu all love having more action around and think the girls are hilarious. Tonight when Cullen was at basketball practice the kids had a little ice cream treat...  Brought over by some sweet friends of ours.  They are taking a liking to colder foods now...

Mornings

All of the kids have been waking up early since we arrived home...  Today the wake-up call came around 5:45am which is a 2 hour improvement from earlier this week.  The kids are hap-hap-happy early in the morning which makes getting up relatively easy.  The early wake-up also allows all the kids a bit of play time before the Biggies head off to school.  

Typically when we ask Sino a questions we get this...

She just smiles and laughs, this was her face she gave us when we were looking for the orange peels she had been eating off of...  We never did find them.  We will now be peeling the orange and not just cutting it up to eat off.

Philasande has taken on the roll of "Bouncer" in the early morning.  She sits in front of the radio and controls it...

She switches the stations to find good songs for Geremu.  Geremu has always been a morning dancer and now he has a partner in crime.

Sino has recently learned how to flush the toilet.  This could keep her busy for hours if I allowed her to stay in the bathroom and continue to flush it all day long.  Every time she flushes the toilet she throws her hands into the air and yells, "WOW!"

Good times, good times!

The Adjustment and a Few More Pics from South Africa

The girls are slowly but surely adjusting to life in the United States.  By the end of the weekend it was obvious the girls were a bit overwhelmed.  The bigger kids heading back to school has been a good little break for the girls.  They have been able to explore the house and toys at their own pace, and take naps without feeling like they are missing out on anything.  Each day they seem to adjust to the time difference a little more.  I'm having a bit more trouble adjusting...  I think it has something to do with the fact that I don't have time for a nap.  

The girls language is really coming along.  We feel like Philasande understands about 30% of what we say.  Her favorite saying seems to be, "Ohhhhh, weeeee!" When she is excited or likes something, we hear this often with all the new things she is experiencing.  She will repeat a lot of what we say but doesn't understand or comprehend what we are saying.  She is getting better about communicating with actions.  Sino will say something to Phila and then Phila will say, "Hey Mom, Sino" then she will hold her hands up to her mouth and pretend to eat them so we know Sino is hungry.  

Sino is also trying to repeat what we say.  Her favorite thing to say is, "Awe, man!" or "Owie!" She heard us say these things so she now says them often.  She thinks she is soooo funny.  She could entertain herself all day which is actually really fun to watch.  She just keeps laughing and throwing her head back at everything that comes out of her mouth.  

Today Sino took a fall down the steps.  She was sitting on them going down on her butt like we showed her and I was walking right next to her.  Nick came in the back door, she heard his voice and got excited, jumped up then leaned forward... Before I knew it she was head over heels bouncing down the stairs.  I was screaming, she didn't cry and seems fine. It was like slow motion for me, my heart still beats fast thinking about it.  Ugh...  

The older kids are also adjusting really great.  They enjoy watching Sino crack herself up and Phila is really into listening to them read and playing with them.  When Nasuuna joined the family Geremu really struggled.  Thankfully we are not seeing that, the kids are all getting along really well and love to be around each other. 

I really need to get some sleep so I'm going to end with a few pictures from our favorite park in South Africa that we would walk down to whenever we had some down time...

And one quick video because this girls laugh is just so stinkin' cute...

Exhausted...

We are exhausted...  It has hit us hard today.  Tonight it was obvious the girls are really overtired and overwhelmed. Tomorrow Cullen, Geremu and Nasuuna will be back at school.  This will be good for the little sisters because they won't feel like they need to keep up with the bigger kids and can hopefully get some decent naps in and play around the house at their own pace.

If you are wondering what's going on with Cullen's hair in the above picture you are not alone...  I believe his hair was having a party and he wasn't invited.

Tomorrow I go back to work...  If I'm being honest I'm not even a little ready to leave the girls.  Nick is staying home until the beginning of May with the girls, then when he goes back to work I will be off again.  I know that the girls are in good hands with Nick and that this will get us pretty much through the end of the school year without needing child care.  I just feel like I'm missing out on too much and too many "firsts."  I'm also just really tired... Have I mentioned that?  I think I could really benefit from napping daily with the girls.  

The Trip Home and Life as a Family of 7

The entire time we were in South Africa I was waiting for some blip in the process.  We have been through the adoption process a few times and we have never had it go as smooth as this process has in country.  It was almost unbelievable how smooth it went, I couldn't bring myself to blog or write about it too much because I was worried I would jinx myself.  The original plan was for Nick to come home this weekend and for Corky and I to stay in South Africa until everything was completed.   But here we are all home via the same flights before Valentine's Day!!!

Corky had prepped the girls for the trip home.  When he came over he had brought pictures and videos of the airplanes to show the girls.  They were so excited (yelling, waving and licking the glass) when they realized that we were going on a plane like he had showed them.  

Sino really thought she was the in-flight entertainment.  She did very little sleeping (maybe 3 hours out of a 16 hour flight) and a lot of waving and blowing kisses to any and everyone who would look at her or walk by.  We were right by the bathrooms so she was busy.  She was so overtired and such a good comedian that she cracked herself up and would kill herself laughing at every move she made...

Philasande on the other hand was a great sleeper.  She fell asleep shortly after take off and slept a good 8-9 hours.

The ride didn't seem that long or maybe I've just already blocked it out of my mind.  We arrived in Atlanta excited and ready to dance...

We made it through customs and Nick switched his flight so he would be traveling with us the rest of the way.  We had a little time to introduce the girls to frozen yogurt, this seemed like the most natural way to prepare them for the cold they would soon be experiencing.

Then we headed to find our connection flight...

We arrived in Wisconsin and my Uncle Tom and Cousin Johnny met us at the airport.  These two came prepared with cameras, warm clothing for the girls, car seats, and some chocolate treats.  I know I've said it before, we are a part of the BEST family in the World.

Johnny drove my Uncle Corky home.  While Uncle Tom drove Nick, the girls, and I home.  During the drive Uncle Tom said, "I just need to make a quick stop, this will only take a minute."  He pulls off onto an exit ramp and my Aunt Maureen was waiting for us on the side of the road...

Aunt Maureen literally ran up to the car, said a greeting, gave us a gift and we were off again.  It all happened so fast.  After we got home and I slept a little I wondered if I had just imagined this all happening because I was so exhausted.  When I looked into my bag later I found the envelope Aunt Maureen had given us in the minute we saw her so I knew I wasn't hallucinating.

When we got home we cleaned up quickly before my good friend Michelle brought the older 3 kids home.  I wish I had some great stories for this meeting but the whole experience is a bit of a blur. I had fallen into a really deep (5 minute) sleep right before the kids came in.  When I woke up everyone was already in the house yelling together.  Michelle took some pictures thankfully so we have a something to remember the events by...

Michelle brought a "Welcome Home" box of all of our favorites.  She might be shocked to learn that the entire box of fruit is almost all gone...  Mmmmmmmm.

That evening my Aunt Kathy, Mom and Dad all came to help us out.  Some how the kids all got fed, cleaned and put into bed.  Philasande, Sino and Nick were in bed before 6pm for the night, I went shortly after them.

All the kids were awake by 5am on Valentine's Day!  I believe they wanted to fight with and over balloons share their love with each other.

It was really cold out yesterday but that did not stop the kids from going and playing outside.  Sino doesn't have cold weather breathing down yet so her time outside is short.  She pants like a dog making a noise on the quick inhales so she sounds totally out of breath.  Philasande and Nasuuna won the cold weather award staying outside the longest play in the snow.

The kids are all getting along great, they have just been busy playing with each other all weekend so far.

Granny Bird and Pop left early this morning.  My Dad hung up some of our new South African purchases and my mother helped me organize the kids rooms yesterday.  When we left for South Africa we really did not know how big the girls would be, so we had not started to get things together for them beyond what we were bringing with us.  Thankfully while we were away a few friends and family members dropped/sent some clothing once we had sizes.  We went through it yesterday and organized it all, then ran out to buy a few odds and ends that were needed.

Last night the kids wanted to sing a (totally made up) welcome home song to the girls.  So candles were added to the Valentine's Day Cookie and we celebrated the first day as a family of seven.  I just put whatever candles I could find into the cookie and we must have had some trick candles.  There was much laughter and confusion when Philasande was trying to blow out the candles.

Everyone was exhausted last night and went to bed early.  Since most of the kids wanted to sleep together this happened...

Cullen and I slept in a different room because we aren't that cRaZy.  Everyone manage to wake up extra early again today because nobody wants to miss out on FUN!

Thanks for all the calls, texts, e-mails, gifts, etc.  We appreciate all the love and support you have been sending our way.  You will be hearing back from us...  I promise!