Snow!

We had a big snow last week!
Henry & Lydia have been showing some creativity in the art department. Lydia has been drawing some pretty amazing things for a little 4-year-old, and they're both into building castles with blocks, cars & castles with Legos®, and some big general messes around the house!
And beginning about 10 days ago, Henry has been successfully saying his "r" sound. HenRy. TReat. GRetel. Red. CuRious GeoRge. He's made good progress on this front!

Diapers & Wipes for the Princesses

This past weekend was the fourth annual Life Answers ABF Men's Retreat at Leesville Lake.  It has become an event to which a number of guys really look forward year in and year out.  This year's theme was FOUND, and through a series of lessons and converations we explored facets of how we've been found by God.  Adoption has played an instrumental role in my understanding of how we've been found by God, and I shared a bit of what I've learned over the past year and a half.

The weather was beautiful, and during the lunch downtime, I got out on one of the trails and moseyed down by the lake.
Jenn and the kids spent Saturday driving down to Cincinnati to visit a bunch of the Mullen family.  This was the first non-holiday long drive for them, and by and large they did very well.  I saw them fast asleep in the car upon their return, and they all looked darn cute in the outfits Jenn had picked for them, and she reported that cousins Kelly & Patrick were really cool with occupying them during the day, and that given their lack of nap, they were all-stars.
Just the other day, Henry was building with the Mega Blocks, and Lydia came over to his tower and pushed it over.  Between the day prior to this and last June 2, Henry's response would have been screaming +/- crying.  But something very interesting happened.  He looked at her, worked very deliberately to form the words with his mouth that he was thinking in his head, and he said, "You knock my tower over.  Make me sad."  Wow.  Our little boy is growing up, and what a big step to witness.

Also the other day, Jenn found Lydia packing up her Disney^® Princess^TM suitcase with diapers and wet wipes.  When Jenn asked her what she was doing, her reply was, "I'm packing for Disney World.  The princesses are going to wipe my bum."

Cookies in the Orphanage?

Lincoln headed south yesterday with Jenn to meet Grandma Laura and Grandpa Dave and spend the next couple of days with them.  After hearing what was on the agenda for him, he ought to come back home completely exhausted.  Just in time for our trip to Cedar Point!  He can sleep all day Thursday.It's just a different dynamic with 2 kids in the house.  Lydia and Henry have been hilarious with each other, playing all sorts of funny games and having conversations that crack Jenn and me up.

Lydia's transition to a big girl bed continues to be an adventure.  It's like pulling teeth to get her to use the potty in a timely manner and avoid having the bed-time routine take an hour.  She also has no qualms about getting out of bed and rearranging things in her room.  When she's supposed to be sleeping.  {sigh}
Over the past two weeks I hosted a University of Minnesota veterinary student at the clinic for an externship.  It's times like that that I really wish I were closer to Ohio State because I really enjoy having students around and giving them some real-world experience.  The goal is to be encouraging while exposing them to things that they'll see when they leave the teaching hospital, and we were able to do that over the two weeks.  It was an interesting week when Other-Dr. Gates was in Canada and I had my busiest solo week of my career.  The first Monday I saw 29 appointments, and the student said she went back to her parents' home that night (she related this to me a week later after she had time to process it... and her parents live in Hudson), and said, "Holy... smokes..."  It was a fast-paced week, but one that we got through in a very rewarding way.
Lincoln went bowling with his preschool class last Thursday and had a lunch of hotdogs, french fries and some kind of pop.  What's not for a preschooler to love?!

Jenn continues to crank out the amazing cakes, this time for Grandma Paulette's Birthday.  A Lemon Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Icing and a Chocolate Cake with Caramelized Banana Filling and Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing made for some good post-dinner sweet consumption.
Sometimes during dinner when the food is particuarly good (which is most evenings... which is why this story is funny for our family), Lincoln will turn to Henry (they sit next to each other at dinner) and say, "Henry, did you eat __{insert food here}__ when you were in the orphanage?"

And Henry often responds with a short, not-really-understanding-the-question, "Ya," or, "No."

The other evening we were eating a pasta dish with really good chicken meatballs and Lincoln asked his usual question, but this time Henry responded, "No.  We had cookies and dessert."  Ha!  Clearly he doesn't have an accurate memory, and that's okay with us.

His speech is developing unbelievably. He's cranking out complete sentences and thoughts with some degree of regularity, and while there's still catch-up space between him and Lydia, he's narrowing the gap.

I Want Your Privileges

Me:  Lydia, if you won't listen to Daddy and come when I call you, you will lose some privileges.

Lydia:  No, I want your privileges.

Lunchtime

Lydia is back in her big girl bed, and she's not doing too bad.  The big reason for the switch now is so that she can go to the potty by herself in the morning.  I'm still having to wake up when Henry calls me at the crack of dawn to go potty, but he's really not yet ready for the change from a crib to a toddler bed, and he can't pull his pants and underpants down reliably yet, so the benfits to moving him to a toddler bed don't yet outweigh the drawbacks.
Jenn continues to pound out the miles, and lately she's been finishing some of her long runs with several miles on the bike.  If she ever gets over her fear of swimming in open water, I'll be married to a triathlete.
While reviewing some blog history a while back, I recalled my post claiming that I'd turned in my Indians fan card.  My problem at the time was the ownership's unwillingness to invest in the team.  That has changed over the last several months, with clear improvements/investments made to the team, and it's showing in the results.  The Tribe isn't setting the world on fire, but they've been fun to follow, and if they could get their act together when they're actually playing Detroit, they could be burying the Tigers in this mid-season.  But as it stands, we ought to have a fun August and September.

Oh, Nuts!

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Henry Gets Ready For A Change

I've been meaning to get some video of Henry talking for a while now. This is what I took yesterday. It makes it a bit tougher to understand him with his fingers in his mouth, but when he's got his dog, he's sucking his fingers. Oh, well. He also sort of played along with me as I prompted him to do some of the things he likes to do and say and have close at hand during diaper changes. Anyway, this is a good look into his verbal development, which has exploded since late January.

Early March

We are now eagerly anticipating our trip to the Outer Banks with Auntie Em & Uncle Jeremy and crew along with Grandma Paulette and Grandpa Doug. Jenn's been looking for swimsuits and SPF shirts for the kids, and I've been telling Lincoln about climbing up the Currituck Lighthouse and other fun beach stories.

Henry is starting to put sentences together, and watching his mind work is really, really neat. While he still does a fair bit of crying and some screaming for Jenn during the day, he is much more responsive to her telling him why, for instance, he needs his hands wiped after lunch. Just last night Jenn and I were talking about how his receptive language picked up very quickly last summer, but while he may have heard the words and known a bit what we were talking about, it's clear that he's know understanding concepts much better and emotionally responding better in many situations.

He continues to be a champ at Sunday School, and when Jenn takes the kids out. This past Wednesday she took the kids to the Stow Library for story time and to meet with a new friend from church. This new friend said, "Whenever I see Henry he's always happy!" And he usually is. She also said, after they'd been there about 30 minutes, "Is there something up with his hand?" Henry just does life.

Lydia is staying in her crib during the night and after naps. It helps that I give her an almond as her "special treat" as a reward. She's so darn cute about it, too. And her cuteness is saving her lately because she simply doesn't listen or obey. Lincoln and Henry are a lot alike in that they're obedient and responsive. Lydia is just different, and she's going to try our patience as we go along.

Just the other evening, in the midst of a crying fit, she ran to her playhouse and sat inside. I crawled in after her and sat beside her, not saying anything. Mid-cry, she belted out, "I want some money!" Yeah. That's my daughter.

On another occasion, she was crying very dramatically in the middle of the night, and when Jenn asked what she wanted, she said, as the sobs continued to flow, "Where's my....... where's my....... where's my crown?" Well, isn't that the truth?! Jenn thought.

Lincoln is tearing it up in preschool. One of their worksheets dealt with money and he had to write how many cents were represented by various combinations of coins. He got them all correct, and when he told Jenn about it, he said, "Lots of the kids had to try a couple of times, but I just got it right the first time." Similarly, they had a very simple graphing exercise, and he worked out the graph correctly the first time. He then described to me how he did it, in a very matter-of-fact way, as though he'd been doing those exercises for some time now. Preschool has been a very good thing.

He started up his swimming lessons again this Wednesday. No crying this time, even after being away from the routine for a while, and I'm sure we can chalk his comfort and confidence up to preschool and general maturing. It remains to be seen how good of a swimmer he'll be by the time we're at the pool on vacation, but he'll be comfortable playing with us, at least.

Lincoln went to Leesville Lake again last Wednesday, and Grandpa had pirate ships for him to paint, pancakes for him to mix and eat, and a sundae for him to cover with chocolate syrup. It was a good day!

Henry's Talking!

You know your blogging frequency has fallen off the map when you get an e-mail from your sister asking if everything is okay. Things are okay with the Gates Family. There has been a perfect storm of busy-ness and a good bit of stressors that have combined to make finding the will to blog more of a challenge lately. Managing two 2-year-olds and a nearly 5-year-old is proving to be difficult in this particular stage of life. I don't suppose it's any different than anyone else in our situation, but as we have to live in our situation, there have been some difficult times for us.

(Some of the photos on this page are from a visit the kids paid to the Clinic with me yesterday to check on a kitty.)That's not to say the kids aren't growing up and doing well. Henry is on is own little verbal explosion. Over the past three weeks, the words have flowed from his mouth at an amazing pace. Clearly he was mentally banking words until his mouth could figure out how to make the sounds. He and I can't read a book without him pointing to something saying, "Look! Look!" and then repeating the word several times after I tell him. "Horse! Cow! Meow! Geese! Tractor! Etc."

I've been getting some photos printed to update our frames around the house. I also posted some of the photos in Henry's room and each night we say goodnight to those in the photos. Part of the photo collage is the photo of Jenn and I along with Henry and one of his nannies. What a different experience, going from Lincoln and Lydia to Henry, but as all of that is part of his past, we're going to include it right up front for him. And he loves the photos. Ever since I put them up, he loves to stare at them and call out the names of everyone. "Pictures! Pictures!" he says. I think his favorite one is with his birthday cake.Lydia is getting sassy. Just last evening, while Jenn was washing dishes Lydia kept turning off the kitchen light. Jenn said, "No, no, Lydia." Lydia's response? "You're not the boss." She's just the cutest thing, though, with her mannerisms and the stuff she comes out with, but today Jenn said something at lunch about having to crack the whip with her. As hard as it is to get tough, it'll never be easier to start than now, I imagine.

Jenn made more cake pops for Lincoln's preschool.

Lincoln is learning to sound out words and is on the cusp of genuinely reading. He's reading some very basic things with practice, but it's looking like things are going to click with him real soon. Jenn and I completed his initial paperwork to enroll him in Summit Christian School in the fall. We're also going to enroll him in some of the summer actities at his preschool. They've got some really neat activities going that he'll love to be a part of, and it'll keep in somewhat of a routine so that all day Kindergarten won't be too much of a step for him.

He's also impressing Jenn during the day with his abilities with some of his building toys. What once used to be a budding imagination is now an ability to think three dimentionally and come up with some pretty creative designs.This time next week we'll be getting ready to head down to Columbus. Jenn and I will be attending the Midwest Veterinary Conference while the kids get some grandparent time with the Parkinsons.

6 Mos. Home ~or~ Christmas Season Starts

Today marks six months since we arrived home with Henry. Six months on American soil for our little Asian son. It's hard to say if the time has passed quickly or not, but when we look back at how things have changed for him and our family alike, we've come a long way.December has arrived, and the Christmas season is gearing up at the Gates home. We bit the bullet and bought an artificial tree this year. Jenn was tired of cleaning up needles, and we were tired of paying for the size tree that our room needs. This will prove to be a good move after just a few short years. And it's really pretty, too.Lincoln was way into decorating the tree this year. Lydia was into it for a brief period, but was less than helpful. Henry likes to look at it, but he doesn't quite grasp what it means to hang an ornament.
Oodles, our Elf On The Shelf, has come back for another time of pre-Christmas Observation, and he's less interested in hiding this time around. One never knows what one may find Oodles doing when one comes down the stairs in the morning.And with Christmas and with pre-schoolers comes Christmas crafts. Today Lincoln made some reindeer to hang on the windows in the kitchen. He's getting awfully good with scissors from his practicing at preschool, and he's not too bad with a glue stick, either. Also with Christmas comes eggnog.Lydia's latest "thing," in addition to climbing out of bed in the middle of the night and either coming into our room or calling to us asking for stories, or Lady Bug, or lunch, is "washing the dishes."Some of the things coming from their mouths lately have been funny, too. Henry is actually starting to expand his vocabulary. Most wouldn't recognize his words, but we are starting to understand him, and he's showing initiative to repeat words more willingly lately. My goodness, he has a long way to go with his sounds and verbal skills, but progress is being made. Lydia has been cracking us up.

Me: "Lydia, come to the bathroom so I can brush your teeth."
Lydia: "No. Me brushed teeth last week."

And Lydia has officially entered the "Why Phase" of life. It happened just two or three days ago. Everything now is, "Why?" It's fantastic!

And Lincoln has been funny, too.

Lincoln: "Why can't we take Henry back to the orphanage even after we paid for him." That prompted a short, informative discussion.

Jenn booked a vacation for us in the beginning of January (Grandma Laura is going to take one for the team and stay with the kids), and just yesterday she (Jenn) found out that she's been summoned for jury duty the week before. Hopefully the first question they ask the pool is, "Who here has travel plans in the coming weeks?" We're praying that this particular week is uneventful both in Summit County and within our home.

Grandpa Dave Visits

As Grandpa Dave has navigated his myriad of interviews, we've really enjoyed having him use our home as his eastern base. Lydia especially enjoys seeing Grandpa Dave... it's just the cutest thing to hear her walk around the house and say, "Go see Grampa Dave," over and over again. We're also very, very happy that Grandma Laura and Grandpa Dave will be moving to Ohio soon! We'll miss visiting Scottsdale, but we'll enjoy even more having both Grandparents much closer.Lincoln has enjoyed having the bigger version of Henry's jammies. Today, as I was putting Lydia to bed, Henry was knocking himself out pulling *all* of his clothes off of their hangers.

Another Birthday Party, and Shaking the Sick Bug

Last Saturday we went to the birthday party of a son of friends from church. It was a low-key gathering and a fun time for the parents to chat and the kids to eat sugary things.On the kid front, there have been some funny things happen lately that I just need to write down here so I don't forget.

Several days ago, during a period of insanity when Jenn was considering whether or not we'll adopt again any time soon, she said to Lincoln, "What would you think if we went back to China in a couple of years and adopted a little girl?"

Lincoln thought for a moment, then said, "No. We'd need to get a bigger wagon."

On Tuesday evening we were out in the driveway while Henry was meanering around, Lincoln was riding his tricycle some and generally keeping busy and Lydia was sitting on her tricycle. All of a sudden, her tricycle got rolling and was heading toward the muddy mess that sits beside our driveway. Henry was in my arms at this point and I was too far away to stop her, but Lincoln was on that side of the driveway, and without thinking, he ran in front of her tricycle and grabbed the handle bars and stopped it from jumping over the little curb, which no doubt would have spilled Lydia into the mud and prompted a dramatic display of crying. Jenn and I couldn't believe it. A decisive, unselfish, gut reaction from our Lincoln. We're proud of him. And in the same cyber-breath, I'll share this photo...Today was "Share And Tell" at preschool, and you may or may not be surprised to know that Lincoln took his inflatable globe, and told the class some facts about the countries which have been featured in his Highlights mystery packs: Japan, Brazil and India. He pointed them out on the globe, and then shared a fact about each of these: he told the boys and girls that Japan is a country made up of many islands, Brazil is the largest country in South America, and India has Asian elephants that help people work with heavy objects. I asked him over lunch what some of the other kids shared, and he said, "One boy brought Spongebob!" And ours gave a geography lesson. Yes. We're very proud of Lincoln.

Henry's trying to talk, and he's getting a few new sounds out. Lydia is speaking in paragraphs and sharing conversations with us that she's retained from who knows when. She's hilarious to watch. She's got her alphabet down, and she's starting to fill in the blanks on some of our sing-along songs. Lately, we've been happy that Henry is reliably shaking his head "yes" and "no." He's started saying, "Yah!" to our questions... the problem is that he'll say, "Yah!" to, "Henry, do you want to get dressed now?" and, "Henry, you look tired, are you ready for bed?" and, "Henry, is the sky green?" It's kind of funny, and we'll take any verbal communication out of him. Just knowing that he's understanding that verbal interaction is a good thing and something that we expect of him is nice to see.

The runny nose bug has run through our house again, and I think it may finally be gone. Lincoln, as usual, is the one to bring it home. He's usually bothered by less than 24 hours. Lydia then gets it next and is an absolute train wreck. Jenn and I can usually count on no meaningful sleep during her first night of sickness. I was curious to see how Henry would respond, and he, too, had a tough time at night. At the front end of this week Jenn was thoroughly exhausted. I fared a bit better. Last night, with the exception of Henry getting fussy for a few minutes at 11:00pm, the kids slept all night, which was a first in the last 10 days.

We're looking foward to continuing our family tradition of fall time apple picking this Saturday. Then in the afternoon Jenn's parents and grandparents are arriving in town for us to go over to see Haley play at Bowling Green on Sunday. This will be a first for all of us to see our D-1 athlete daughter/sister/grand-daughter play at the collegiate level. Bowling Green is having a rough start to their season, but they weren't very good last year, and looking at the team stats, the freshmen are getting some playing time. Looks like a good year to rebuild, get some experience, and work toward some good stuff in seasons to come. In any event, it'll be nice to see Haley and spend some time as a Parkinson-side-of-the-family out there. Lydia and Henry will not be making the trip, but instead will be hanging out with Grandma Paulette and Grandpa Doug.

Jenn is doing a really good job planning a party to catch Lydia's and Henry's birthdays and to incoporate a costume party for our friends/family. The decor and favors are in the works. The kids all have costumes ready to go, and today Jenn and I ordered ours. Photos definitely to come after this fun event.

I haven't had much to say about the dogs lately. They've been really good with the kids, and relatively little trouble. I guess the dogs are like a good offensive line in football... if you're not hearing about them, they're probably doing their job.

Tonight Jenn's at Ladies Night with our ABF at church. She's taken on the role of planning the evenings, choosing the speakers and directing the content. Could you imagine anyone better for that job?

Before & After

Our adoption agency, Chinese Children Adoption International, recentely asked for us to send a newer photo of Henry to be part of their Before & After collection. It's all part of CCAI's attempt to show the difference that a loving home can make in the face of a child. I often go back to the photos from Henry's Gotcha-Day to remind myself how far he's come. It makes me sad to look at his face and know that he was experiencing real fear and uncertainty.I feel as though it has just been in the past week that he's been behaving like the little Gates brother with regard to his relationship with the other kids and with us in the home and not like the adopted kid still trying to figure out his role. There have been a couple of times when I've arrived home from work and he hasn't rushed to me with a whining grunt. There have been a number of times where he's initiated play on his own with Lincoln and Lydia. He's quite comfortable in the big bath tub now as well as walking in the grass in his bare feet. He's not taking "no" very well at all, just like another boy and girl in our home. As far as his communication, he's nodding his head "yes" much more reliably, and he's repeating consonant sounds after me and adding a couple of new sounds every couple of days (today he said "fa fa fa" and "ssssss sssssss," which I was very happy about because in the past few days when I made those sounds, he'd try but just get frustrated and start crying).

Lydia is stringing lots of words together very well now. Tonight she told Jenn, "Read pirate story again. No read other stories. Just pirate story." Then after Jenn read to her a second time and then laid her in the crib, Lydia said, "Read pirate story three times." Understanding what Lydia wants will make things much easier with her.

Lincoln starts preschool in less than a week. Holy. Cow.

Raiding the Pantry

Lydia and Henry are already teaming up. Henry loves to eat all the time. Lydia would love to eat all the time. Henry doesn't yet know how to get into the boxes of food. Lydia does. Need I say more?Yesterday Jenn took Henry for his first doctor's visit and it went pretty well. He had to ride in his car seat (induced screaming/crying), to donate lots of blood (induced screaming/crying), and then he had to ride home in his car seat (induced screaming/crying), but this is how Henry will learn what it means to live in the Gates Family. We learned that after 6 months of age they pretty much stopped preventive medicine with him, but what was most valuable was Jenn's conversation with the doctor. Much of what we've been experiencing over the past couple of weeks is entirely normal, and that under the circumstances, Henry is making pretty good progress.

This was confirmed later in the day with our first visit with our social worker since the adoption. She, too, was very, very helpful in sharing information that she'd gathered from other adoptive families over the years. Last evening he began initiating some play and some tickling, which is welcome to see.Lydia is now putting two words together: "more please," "my turn," "mommy's turn."

Lincoln missed the whole day because he was at Leesville Lake with Grandpa Doug. They left on Tuesday evening after 8:00pm, later than Lincoln's bedtime, and he didn't actually get to bed until after 10:00pm. Then he woke up with the sun on Wednesday morning and had a *full* day of fishing, splashing, working, shooting, blueberry pancake-eating fun. Guess who came home tired?Friends have been bringing dinners over for the past two weeks and they've been fabulous. Not only have the dinners tasted wonderful, but the time that this frees up for Jenn is truly valuable. Thanks to the McGlones, Kiels, Ducharmes and Fetters!Last evening also started the official Vacation 2013 Planning Season! That's right, we just keep bouncing from one thing to another, and 2013 will likely bring the Gates-Gates-Hopwood family back to the Outer Banks! We were last there in '09, and things have changed a bit in the meantime. Ella will be similar in age and life stage to where Lincoln was on that trip, and we'll have a pair of 2.5 year olds running around the sand, too.