What are Dave, Robin, Joshua and Sarah doing in the second year since they got back from Bolivia????

As I write this it is now October. In August and September we passed the first anniversary of several important dates, the day we first saw the kids, court dates, the day we got them home. The kids are now so used to us, our home and their routines and we are so used to them that you almost have to force yourself to think how different it was only a little over a year before.

Before we left for Bolivia we did a number of safety things around the house. After we got back we added additional baby gates and moved more stuff out of their reach, etc. At some point we padded the worst corners in the house. Both the kids have been walking for quite a while but lately the both want to walk fast or to run a little. Sarah doesn't have the balance for it and much of the time neither one of them bothers to look where they are walking. So, lately we have been going around padding other surfaces in the house. They are both wanting to try to climb up on things (mostly chairs at this point) so we are also looking around to see what else needs to be moved, secured etc.

Sarah is saying several words, even putting a couple together in a couple cases. Joshua is saying words and sometimes strings several together. He talks a lot but most of it you can't understand. I have the feeling that much of the time he is actually saying something but I can't understand his pronunciation.

We are still doing physical and speech therapy for Joshua. We were doing physical therapy for Sarah but we are going to do a final evaluation and then stop because the problems associated with the displasia are gone. She will see the orthopedic specialist in January but that is really just to make sure that no unseen problems have cropped up.

We did a bunch of fence repairs in September and while we were doing them the kids had a chance to get out in the pasture and play in the dirt. We were able to get to parks several times this summer and fall and the kids are getting to the point that they are enjoying some of the playground equipment. We took them down to the cabin one weekend in early October. The weather has been so nice this fall that we have had them out around here in the sport stroller quite a bit too.


11/30/03

We went to the beach for Thanksgiving Week. Since Robin gets Thursday and Friday off she can get a whole week off and only use 3 vacation days.

The flight down wasn't that great. We were all getting over a cold. Then, Friday Night before we left Sarah threw up several times. So, on the plane the next day she was tired and cranky. She didn't feel her best for a couple days and we had to be careful what we were giving her to eat and drink for a while. Over the next few days Robin, Joshua and I got sick. It seems that we all got the flu that is going around. It seemed to effect us all a little differently.

Even though the kids weren't feeling their best we were able to get them out on the beach to play quite a bit. They really seem to enjoy that although Joshua can get kind of timid about new things. On Friday Robin and I went into Mobile to see the Battleship Alabama. That isn't really something you can do with small children so my mom watched the kids.

On the trip back neither of the kids was feeling well and someone had a problem with the landing gear of a small plane. It landed gear up on our runway. We spent two hours sitting on the plane waiting for them to decide what to do. Finally, they lightened the plane and were able to take off from a shorter runway. By the time they finally got around to lightening the plane they had about cleared the runway we needed. We landed in Houston with about 15 minutes to make our connecting flight which was on a different concourse. We made it in time but it turned out they were holding the flight for us because there were about 9 passengers for Denver on our flight out of Pensacola and all other flights from Houston to Denver were booked solid. The kids were totally cranky on the flight from Houston and at DIA and were pretty cranky on the drive home.

At home, we have padded even more of our house and are currently doing what we can to make the house safer as the kids get to the point that they might try to climb up on something. We are also in the process of moving things that are nice and breakable well out of reach.

Sarah is finished with her physical therapy. We did a final evaluation last month and this month she had her 18 month check-up. She is right on track for both size and development for a child her age. She will see the orthopedic surgeon one more time in Januaury and that will probably be the end of it. Sarah is talking quite a bit. Right now she really likes the word "duck" and she labels just about any bird a "duck".

Joshua is still in physical and speech therapy. He is saying more words and doing more too. He is very unsure about trying new things. This trip he walked on to an escalator and saw the beach for the first time. He had a screaming fit for both events, although neither was anywhere near as bad as his first time in a swimming pool. He really likes to try to be helpful with anything he can. Both he and Sarah clean up their toys better than many children who are much older than they are. Robin and I are really hoping that lasts! Both of them can have very long attention spans too.


12/20/03

Joshua and Sarah are both talking more. Joshua is becoming quite talkative and you can actually understand what he is saying a lot of the time. Sarah is learning more and more words. Because Joshua is so unsure about new things we have been trying to get him out to experience more stuff. One evening a couple weeks back we took him to the mall so he could be out in a crowd and ride elevators and escalators. We have always taken them shopping but until recently they were almost always in the stroller or a shopping cart.

We took kids to the local annual Christmas event that the town sponsors. There were carolers, hay rides, free treats and balloons and story telling. The kids seemed to have a good time but they thought Santa was terrifying. They were willing to take the little bag of treats he was giving out but only if we carried them over to him. There was no way they were going to sit on his lap or even walk over to him!

On Monday the 15th the children's Certificates of Citizenship came. According to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 our children were citizens as soon as they cleared Immigration when we came back from Bolivia. The law went into effect February 27 of 2001 but there are still some agencies of the Federal government that haven't gotten around to recognizing the law! So, we decided to go ahead and get Certificates of Citizenship for the kids so we could prove it. After everything we have already done we sent the government more money and more forms (which referenced forms they already have) and after a few months the Certificates came along with a form letter from President Bush. All this probably seem confusing to anyone who hasn't been through an international adoption. The next thing we will probably do is get U.S. Passports for the kids. That is supposed to be easier to do once you have the Certificate of Citizenship.


05/18/04

I haven't updated this thing in quite a while and a lot has happened over the last few months.

We had a pretty nice Christmas. The kids got a lot more out of it than they did last year. My mom was here for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Two of Robin's relatives came down for the day a few days later. Our friends Sue and Roger came down for New Years Eve and Day. We also had a little Twelfth Night celebration.

In January some of Robin's cousins were in the state so we went up to the Boulder area to see Robin's aunt, uncle and grandmother, cousins, cousin's childen etc. Not long after that Robin's Aunt got very ill and a few weeks later Robin's Grandmother died so over the course of less than two months we made many trips to the Bolder area.

Joshua is still in physical and speech therapy. He has improved a lot in both areas. The physical therapist thinks it won't be too much longer before he doesn't need physical therapy anymore.

Sarah saw the orthopedic surgeon in early March. The doctor did not think that anything would be wrong but she wanted to see Sarah one final time after she was walking well. There were no signs of dysplasia or torticollis and the doctor said she will not need to see Sarah again.

We celebrated Joshua's third birthday in March. We also took him to the doctor for a check-up and the pediatrician thinks he has come a long way both in terms of size and of development.

We took a long weekend and stayed up at Snow Mountain Ranch and went cross country skiing in late March. They have a pretty nice facility, the food is ok and they are less expensive than other hotels etc in the Winter Park area.

We applied for U.S passports for the children in late March. It takes a while for the paperwork to be processed and we ended up having to clear up one snag but they finally got their U.S. passports a couple weeks ago.

We celebrated Sarah's second birthday earlier this month. Sarah also had a check-up and she is doing well in both size and development.

Joshua and Sarah are both talking a lot more. At Christmas Sarah could say reindeer. For a long time she called any bird a duck and she still will do that occasionally. She also referred to any insect as a bee and still does that quite a bit. One of her current favorite words is abigador (alligator). Joshua and Sarah are both saying a number of short sentences.

The kids are getting old enough to show more interest in the llamas. Sarah calls them yamens. We took the kids to the Jelly Bean Classic in May. The Jelly Bean Classic is an informal llama event where llama owners get together without having to worry about the pressures of a formal show.


7/22/04

This has been a fairly busy summer. As I write this we are at the cabin.

Robin took a couple of extra days off over Memorial Day Weekend and we went to the Western Slope. We stayed with or friends Dennis and Cala and their son Samuel in Grand Junction. While we were there we also got to see our friends Sid and Amy and their son Christopher. They just happened to be there visiting family. We got to see Sid's parents too and that was nice because we hadn't seen them since the year we got married. Next we went down to Montrose and saw our friend Elizabeth. Then we drove on down to Durango to see Grandma.

We have been doing a bunch of projects. In late June I took the kids and went down to Durango for several days and worked on some projects at my mom's house. While we were there we went down to the station to see the train every evening (for anyone who doesn't know those are the old steam trains that run from Durango to Silverton). Joshua likes trains but he doesn't like loud noises. The first night the train scared him a lot but we kept going back each evening and he got to where it didn't scare him and now he talks about the train quite a bit. He has a similar problem at home. He really likes the trains and he mentions them when he sees them or hears them but one of the parks by us is really close to the tracks and it upsets him when one of the trains goes by while we are at the park. While we were in Durango we also went swimming.

Robin took some extra time off over the Fourth of July and we painted the barn by the road. We also took the kids to the parade our town has. There were a bunch of fire engines in it and they were all sounding their sirens but that didn't bother Joshua. Sarah cut her finger on the 4th and we had to go to the emergency room and she got two stitches. We think she must have found a sharp edge on the inside of a toy she was playing with because the blood was on that toy but neither one of us actually saw her do it nor did we actually find a part that was sharp enough to cut. We saw our fireworks while driving home from the emergency room. We finished the barn on Thursday of that week and on Friday we took the kids up to the Denver Zoo. If you are going to push kids around in a stroller the Denver Zoo is much preferable to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo which is on the side of Cheyenne Mountain. We also did a bunch of fence repairs that week.

On several Sunday afternoons this summer we have taken the kids up to Washington Park in Denver. I pushed them around in the sport stroller while I rollerbladed and they they played on the playground equipment. Last summer they were just starting to like parks and playground equipment but this spring and summer they have gotten old enough that they really enjoy going to the park.

Both the kids are talking a lot more. Joshua is using more full sentences. Joshua is in the middle of potty training. He's doing pretty well but he still has a ways to go. Sarah has some understanding of what's going on but she still hasn't managed to use the potty. We have a couple children's book about potty training. Robin says it is funny when she reads them because they get quiet and very serious like "this is important, we better pay attention" and they aren't like that about other books.

The kids regularly ask to go look at the chickens and the llamas and they usually comment when I go out to feed them.

Joshua is still in physical therapy and speech therapy. Physically he is doing very well but he still is quite a bit behind on his speech.

Joshua has reached the "I need to go potty. I need a drink of water." at bedtime phase. We don't give in when it is an obvious ploy to avoid going to bed and he has had some major tantrums over that. We are hoping that it won't take him too long to realize that we don't give in to his bedtime tantrums and give them up.


At some point this summer we are going to have or shake roof replaced with a metal one and we are going to get the bathroom in the main house redone. In theory it should only take them about a week to do the bathroom but I am going to do the prep. work myself so we may be down to one bath for a couple weeks.

I'll try to get some new photos out there soon.

There are quite a few large photos on this page so it loads pretty slowly.