Month #1 In

We have been together as a family of 7 for one month now.  

We are still figuring things out and loving every minute of it!

We spent a little time at my parents cabin this past weekend.  The weather was beautiful so the kids played outside and had a lot of fun exploring and getting dirty.

At one point I looked through my camera lens and saw this...

 Cullen stepped on some prickers and they went into his foot.  

Geremu preformed a little surgery...

Then helped Cullen...

Find a seat...  

 Here are a few pictures from the beautiful sunny day of all the kids.

Philasande has been complaining that her hair hurts.  So we took the hairstyle out this weekend.  It was my first time seeing her free hair.  It is pretty darn similar to Nasuuna's hair.  Tight, soft, tiny, ringlet curls about the size of a pencil or smaller in diameter.

Philasande does want braids put back in like Nasuuna but we are going to give her head a little bit of a rest before we braid it again.

Everyday after Philasande gets dressed she grabs her earlobes, shakes them and says, "Mom?" She has been doing this since we met.  Once we arrived home Nasuuna figured out that she was trying to tell us that she wants earrings... But she didn't have her ears pierced. Today I took her to get her ears pierced and she is so proud. She wanted to call everyone she knows to tell them, her list of people to call was pretty short so we made the calls. She now has ears that sparkle like her smile.

Getting back on the horse...

This past weekend I got back on a horse.  This was my first time since my unscheduled dismount that resulted in an injury.  I didn't just get on a horse, I did yoga on a horse. Yeah, we pretty much became one, me and the horse...

I added the above picture because look at how big my freakin' ring looks.  I don't actually have a big ring, which is just my style.  But the light must have caught my chip just right to make it appear HUGE in the picture.

Back to the horse and me becoming one...

 Can you feel the love?

It ended as all yoga sessions should end, with a sun soaking shavasana...

The thought "tuck and roll" may have gone through my head a few times when I got on the horse.  But he was such a gamer when it came to yoga that there was no need to tuck and roll at any point.  I believe when I slipped off of him he was in a bit of a hypnotic sleep from our relaxing session.  

In weather related news, a week ago we had lots of snow... 

Today there is hardly any...

One last story, Nick pulled me aside last week to say, "What exactly where you thinking when you ran into the house (from work) and handed Sino a small cup of tomatoes and sauce before leaving again?  She didn't even have a bib on?  I had to take her shirt off so fast to treat those stains."  

The tables have turned, Nick is worried about stains and I am not. 

The kids went through a few outfits a piece today because who am I to stop them from going down a slide with a muddy puddle at the bottom?  They were wet, muddy and happy when I brought them in for dinner...  They were wet, muddy and happy when I brought them in for bed too.  

I hope Mr. Mom has his stain stick ready for laundry tomorrow.  I'm soaking it tonight as a gift of love.

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...