A Thanksgiving Coda

Yesterday, after the glorious finish to a punished season, we all went down to the Riverfront to see the lighting of the Christmas Tree and the fireworks show. This was the twins first experience with fireworks. Henry loved them, Lydia... let's just say that she's reminded us at least a dozen dozen times that, "Fireworks too loud!"The Hopwoods were there, along with Grandpa Dave and Auntie Haley... it's just been a fun family long-weekend these past few days. Haley went back to school and Dave went back to Columbus this morning, and while they probably won't miss the madness here, we'll miss them. It was great to play catch-up after the past few years with them being so far away. It is our understanding that Grandma Laura is chomping at the bit to get some grandkid time.And here's a flashback to Thanksgiving the other day...At the end of a fun long weekend, Lydia and Henry are put to bed, and Jenn is reading to Lincoln, and it's not yet 7:00pm. Life has caught up to the little ones, and an early bedtime proved to be necessary. Just in time for the Christmas Season.

The Gates Family Way

Time for Post #500...

The weekend has passed, I'm back to work, and Jenn is as busy as ever keeping up with now three kids. Henry is definitely in the process of getting used to the Gates Family way of doing things. In some aspects he's regressed from the progress that seemed to be occurring in our second week with him, but that's what happens when you move from hotel living to a house with other kids and lots of space. It makes sense when one thinks about the fact that he spent months in a room of an orphanage and then when things did get mixed up, he moved to another small room with two people that gave him constant attention (and food!). Things are different now.
Henry's making progress in the food/eating department, and he's sleeping quite well. He's irrationally fearful of the dogs, and that is something that we'll have to keep working on. This afternoon is the first time we've seen him start to come out of his shell since we've been home. This evening, when I was wrestling with Lincoln and Lydia, he came over to us and did his version of playing with us. I was encouraged to see him plug himself into the action a bit.

That didn't take long.

Jenn and I feel like our expectations for this stage of the adoption weren't unrealistic, but rather we didn't have much expectations for this stage. There's certainly not much said that we've heard from others in the adoption community about these initial days and weeks following the adoption other than, "Life is great, things are wonderful." It may be because most families are so busy with getting things back on track to even have time to comment and share their feelings and experiences. As Jenn and I have come to learn about most stages of life, no matter the stage or the surrounding events, reality is often different than that which many like to project. So we're working through what needs to be worked through, and we're keeping a big-picture attitude about all of it.

Today while Jenn was out pulling the kids in the wagon, she and Lincoln noticed a lot of chirping. It was Lincoln that spotted this robin's nest very quickly in the tree beside our driveway, and it's the mother that causes a big to-do when we get too close to the nest.
Yesterday we enjoyed a fun dinner with the entire Hopwood crew. We got to see Ella for the first time, and the Hopwoods got to catch Henry for the first time.

Grandma Gates' 90th

Things have been ticking along at the Gates home. I've been busy with work: big surgeries last week, some big surgeries lined up this week, and lots of business things swirling around in my head.
Lincoln and Lydia have been on and off with sickness this week. Lydia especially has had a runny nose and hasn't been napping. Jenn's been off her game, too, and that makes for a worn-out house.

The Hopwoods came to stay with us for the weekend as the entire Gates family celebrated Grandma Gates' 90th Birthday! We had a great dinner, good catch-up time with out-of-town family, and a special time of honoring my Grandma Gates. (I say, "my Grandma," because she's also a fantastic mom and Great Grandma, too, for so many!) Here's a sampling of photos from our lovely evening at Papa Joe's:

No Air Conditioning

We'll lead off this post with a photo from our evening at Pirates @ Blossom. We'll be submitting this photo to the Chinese government to prove that we are real and that we socialize in public with friends and family. The photos have to be relatively recent, so our photos from vet school and early marriage won't suffice. This is one of several photos that we'll be submitting, as there is a specific number that we must compile. I say all of this quite roboticly and half-jokingly because it's an example of all of the details that we (mostly Jenn) have been keeping track of over the past number of weeks as we compile our documentation.Our air conditioning needs replaced. That's right, on the hottest stretch of days northeast Ohio has seen in several years, we have no air conditioning. Thankfully, my parents have opened their home to the four of us to stay, and it's much more comfortable there than here. The first two nights weren't too bad, but the house doesn't have enough time to cool at night before it gets up into the 90's outside again. In fact, it's in the 90's upstairs during the day. Yikes! All of this will be fixed today.

Lincoln's swimming lesson on Wednesday was a bit of progress and a bit of a setback. He was doing great, not crying, following Miss Hannah from the start, and then half-way into the lesson he got water up in his nose and he cried the rest of the way. Kudos to Miss Hannah for keeping him engaged in the lesson even when he was upset. Afterward, Lincoln and I talked about how all swimmers get water in their nose at least once, and that it happens to Daddy lots during water skiing.

In the Stage of Life department, Lincoln is definitely showing more of a 3 year old attitude. We're working on talking in a pleasant tone of voice and remembering our manners. Also, we've been stressing the importance of always at least trying and not giving up without a try. This has been especially relevant to swimming lessons and learning to dress himself. Lydia has been laughing more and is rolling all over the place. She desperately wants to pull herself up on tables and chairs, but has not yet been able to do so. She's also crawling backward, which suggests that crawling forward is not far off.Our second visit with the social worker went well. It was very routine, though quite hot being the third day without air conditioning. Our house checked out well from a safety standpoint. I suppose moving the paint-thinner and rusty nails from the middle of the family room floor was a good thing to do at some point in time. Our next visit is in two weeks and at that time we'll talk about our childhood years, our parenting philosophy and influences, and our history as a family.

I'm off to work... Stay cool out there!

Pirates of the Caribbean w/ Live Score!

A couple of things I left out of the last post due to the busy-ness of the week were:
A photo from Lincoln's swimming lesson......and our first visit with our social worker on Wednesday. We found out that we (because of Jenn) are over-prepared in a big way. Most of the first hour, we've come to know, consists of the social worker reviewing all of the documents that need to be collected and the copies that need to be made. When we arrived, Jenn set a big folder down on the table that contained about 85% of what we'll ultimately need by the end, and the rest of the visit was just a formality. We have three more visits, all at our home, over the next month. I also recently came to realize that I do not, in fact, need to submit an autobiography. This knowledge came after I'd finished my 23^rd page. But most of the interviews over the next three visits will touch on things that showed up in my manuscript, so I ought to be prepared!

Jenn and I began using Rosetta Stone to learn Mandarin. Our foreign language skills are pretty horrible, but Rosetta Stone's method of teaching is pretty fantastic. I've made it through Lesson 1 of the first Level, Jenn's into Lesson 2, and we're both picking it up better than I thought we would. I stunk really bad at Spanish in high school, and avoided foreign languages like the plague in college. We'll see as time goes by how well we can speak and understand Mandarin. In the end, we want to be able to get by in China with at least learning how to ask for the appropriate restroom.Lydia is getting closer and closer to crawling. She's also showing interest in pulling herself up on things, and she recently started clapping on command/encouragment!Last evening Emily and Jeremy joined us at Blossom for a screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. I never cease to be amazed at the orchestral performances by the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom. The timing was perfect! There was even a choir to do the vocal portions of the score. I must say, I now prefer to watch a movie with a live score. It was incredible.

Memorial Day Weekend @ Leesville Lake

Memorial Day Weekend was a Gates Family Reunion. The Hopwoods joined us at Leesville Lake for a whole lot of nothing. Sure we shot, swam, bubbled, hiked, cooked, gamed and relaxed, but it was low-key and no pressure. Here's a photo-sampling of the weekend...

On a separate subject, I was sad to learn of Jim Tressel's resignation. Nobody is bigger than Ohio State football, and I expect the product on the field to remain good. Call me crazy, but I just don't have a problem with a college kid selling a trophy and making a buck. This is certainly not an offense that ought to lead to the firing of a coach. I'm not surprised, but I'm saddened. I'll remember Jim Tressel's tenure as one where he was competitive nearly every game, where he kicked the crap out of Michigan, where he ran a more conservative brand of football than I would have liked but where he won... a ton, and where he eventually was brought down by some kids who broke rules that the NCAA say are important. There are worse offenses he could have committed, and ESPN's holier-than-thou approach to reporting (notably Pat Forde) has been added to the list of reasons I'm not a big ESPN news fan. I'm officially a Luke Fickell fan now. Go Buckeyes!