Sigh

Back in August, for Lil's first birthday with us, we got her a tiny little MP3 player.

She loooves it.

Brian filled it with songs she knows, and she listened to it almost every day (unless we couldn't find it, which happened a lot, since it is so small).  It was ideal, because it has a speaker, and doesn't need headphones.



Ruby just flushed it.



.

Lilya Joy Zoromski: Wisconsinite!

Today Lily officially became a Wisconsinite!  We had Lilya's official court date for U.S. re-adoption today, and it all went extremely well.

It was quite a difference from our courtroom experience in Ukraine... no translators, a nice judge, and it was all done in about 15 minutes!  Plus, all the kids got to come with to be part of the proceedings, and everyone seemed to enjoy it (not that you can tell by Braden's expression in the below pictures...).

Afterwards we headed to one of the kids' favorite restaurants, Tom's Drive-In, where they had a snack.

Lily enjoyed both popcorn...

...and cotton candy-flavored ice cream.

RE-Adoption Day

This Friday, we're going to the local courthouse to re-adopt Lilya.

We don't have to do this step, but we want to get her a state-issued birth certificate. Right now, we only have her Ukrainian issued birth certificate, and just the one copy. If something should happen to it, we would have such a hard time replacing it, so we're completing this additional step.

We started the paperwork in the fall, and the put it aside over the holidays. It's funny how less urgent the paperwork process is now that we have Lilya home!

The other nice thing about this step is we can bring the whole family -- the kids were obviously not able to be any part of the adoption proceedings while we were in Ukraine, so this is something they can attend.


Can you believe Lil's been home for over SIX MONTHS?! Where did that time go?


My dochka (daughter) Lil, listening to her little mp3 player ... and she's kneeling because I knelt down to take her picture.

Stuff: a bullet point post

• Braden's home sick from school again - yesterday & today
  
• I finally have my voice mostly back - Braden & I seem to be sharing the same cold for the past few weeks
  
• Karly started her 3rd quarter at school yesterday, and really seems to like her new class schedule.  I hope that continues!
  
• Ruby woke up dry yesterday (for the first time EVER!) and then was dry all day.
  
• Lil's not doing as great with the potty-training, but I think that may be some adoption regression.  Not sure, but we keep working on it.
  
• Lil's started giving the sweetest little kisses on people's cheeks.  It's so adorable, it should be accompanied with little cartoon hearts & birds floating around her when she does it.
  
• I can't believe we adopted Lil; it still seems surreal at times, yet it seems like she's always been ours.  I look at her sometimes and wonder if her birth family has the slightest idea what they gave up?  She's bright and funny and stubborn and beautiful.

Today's post has been brought to you in part by two silly sisters, signing 'silly'

Ruby's Style

You know how the girls can put their coats on over their heads?

Ruby put Braden's coat on ... upside down!


She was quite pleased with herself.

Side view of how the hood made it look like she had a tail - so silly!


The other day, I ordered some new long-sleeved shirts for Lil.  Now that she's going to school, she needed some shirts that fit better.  The shirts came when Lil was at school, and Ru & I had fun opening the box.

Ruby immediately stripped down, and put on one of the new shirts.  Then, she put on another new shirt ... as a skirt.

She was dressed like this until dinner time.
Endless entertainment & adorableness around here!

Lilya goes to school!

After the holiday break, Lilya started school.  I started this post days ago, but didn't have anything to say.  I mean, I have a lot to say, but none of it was organized and none of it was profound.

So, let's go rambling, shall we?

Lil, getting ready on her first day of school ...

Lil rides the bus to & from school.  It's a special bus, and only a few students are on it.  It's ideal for her, because there are car seats, so it's safer for tiny children.

The night before school started, I realized that I didn't want to lose her glasses, and she throws them when she's tired or bored in her car seat in the van.  So, we put the glasses in their case into her backpack for the bus ride.  Her teachers put them on her, and pack them up again for the ride home.  Not ideal, but until I have a backup pair for her, this is what we do.

That's why she isn't wearing her glasses in these pictures.

Now, from what we've heard from the school -- Lil is loving school, and school is loving Lil.  She's in a 4K class - a 4-year-old kindergarten class, and spends part of her time in the Early childhood classroom, too, for smaller group stuff.

She gets off the bus happy & giggly.  She seems glad to be home, but by no means upset that she was gone.

On the short walk from the bus to the house after school, I say things like, "Lil, do you like your teachers?"  And she signs "I like" and giggles.  "Do you like the bus?"  More "I like" and giggles ... same answer to "Do you like the friends at school?"

I am so glad we kept her home until January ... and I'm so glad she seems ready for this new experience.

Ruby goes outside with us, too, to put Lil on the bus.  On really cold days, we load up into the van and drive to the corner, where the bus stops.  If you've been to our house, you know how ridiculous that is -- we have a corner lot!  But it has been bitterly cold and windy.

Yeah

When we brought Lilya home, she began saying, "da" for yes. It's the Russian/Ukrainian "yes" and it was adorable in her little voice. She never really said it while we were in Ukraine, but once we got her home & she started communicating more, she broke out her "da".

About a month ago, Brian said he wished she would keep her "da" - it was just so Lilya.

We figured she'd lose it when she started school ... and boy, were we right. After her first week of school, she began answering us with the sweetest little "yeah".

What is Braden doing?

Reading, of course!

He's wild about the Magic Treehouse books.

Tiny Trouble

She may be tiny....


but she doesn't let that stop her.

Check this out ...

My friend, Ruthann, has a little boy named Micah, with Down syndrome.  That's how we met!

This year, Micah will get a brother - a little guy who will be named Lucas.   Lucas also has Down syndrome, and is currently living in Lil's birth country.   Their first son was adopted locally, so this is an entirely different experience for them!

Ruthann has a unique fundraiser going on for her adoption -- she's etching glassware.  Please check out this link, because it's much cooler than I could describe.

If you don't need any glassware, please consider making a tax-deductible donation directly to their adoption fund to help bring Lucas home.

Winter Coats

A few weeks ago, Lil's OT asked if I had the girls putting on their own winter coats ... never even occurred to me to try.  She suggested the 'over the head' method, which is actually how Braden put his on until this winter.

So, we introduced it to the girls & they BOTH picked it up right away!  Here they are, after a couple weeks of practice (and you may want to turn down your volume so you don't have to hear me cheering them on quite so loudly).

153

153 kids came home through Reece's Rainbow in 2010 ... over doubling the amount that came home in 2009 (76).

153 kids came home ... and one of them lives in my home! How amazing is THAT?!


You can see all the children who have found families since Reece's Rainbow began in 2006 on this "Already Home" page.

Jun 16, 2010 - after court

Boo!

If you've seen Braden in person within the past 6 months, you may have noticed he likes to jump out & yell "BOO!"

He does this often. Pick him up from school? "Boo!" Get the girls out of the van, he hides & yells "BOO!" He often 'scares' me half a dozen times a day.

So, it's no wonder that his little sisters have noticed this. And Lil, particularly, will cover her face and then say, "BOO!" when I get her out of her car seat.

The funny thing is, she now calls Braden, "Boo." She signs "B" by her head like Ruby does for Braden, and says "Boo."

This video also illustrates Braden's ... er, Boo's "Pied Piper" effect ... the girls love to copy him & follow him around.

2010 Lil Calendars

If you have a magnet calendar from 2010, you can cut the calendar off & keep Lil on your fridge, if you'd like.


Happy 2011!

I'm excited to see what this year has in store for us ...