Outside Fun

One of the nice secrets about Colorado is that even in the depths of winter we will get beautiful days!  I have learned over the years that if it is nice even for an hour - kids need to go outside!

One of the true blessings of our life was falling into this house.  It is even more of a blessing now that we have a 3 preschoolers at home!!  The front yard is atleast an acre and was completely enclosed by a fence before the sellers had to sell due to divorce.

We have a long driveway for the kiddos to ride bikes.  I jsut close off the gate and let them ride to their hearts content.  I was even thrilled that I hadn't given away the little green 4-wheeler.  It's electric so Cav can ride too!  

(Now if I can figure out where the cord is we will be golden!)

This child amazes me and I know that it truly is due in large part to HalftheSky.org  

When we got her picture book we saw her riding a trike.  This is a huge accomplishment especially with someone with dwarfism but man is she awesome!

Love these squeaky shoes (minus the squeakers) with bows from Hobby lobby

We got this darling little playhouse from Costco this summer on clearance and they all LOVE it - momma needs to buy them some pretend food and plates!

The swingset was left here by the sellers!

All day FeiFei asked if she had school.  Not sure how to explain she is only going M-W-F, but apparently she loves it.  Oh and she asks me in ENGLISH!!  

Cav woke up with a smile and has been great all day, after two days of grouchy, and mean spirited behavior it has been a welcome relief!

Little Stars & Preschool

We had the app Fun Mandarin by innokidz when we went to China an in those first hours we played the sing along to try an distract the kids.  Boy did we have a surprise when they began singing along!  It was so fun.  Now they will run around the house and sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in Mandarin and even little man has begun to learn some of it.  I jsut had to video them before they forgot it!

On the home front.  I knew I was in a bad place last week with Cav.  So I downloaded the book (I knew I didn't have time for mailing from Amazon) THe Connected Child.  It has been a lifesend and I would recommend it for everyone.  

The kids had their child find eval this morning and despite the fact that FeiFei doesn't speak the language or has issues with self care due to her dwarfism she was determined to be up to par and will not qualify for preschool.  I would have to say that this is due to a fabulous foster mom and Half the Sky program.  

Cav will have another evaluation on the 20th but we are pretty sure he will qualify for special ed.  I think that there is a smart little guy in there, he just is so lacking in his experiences that with a little intervention he will be caught up by kindergarten.  In addition, I am at a total loss over his hands.  This was NOT something that was disclosed on any of his reports.  We would have made a different decision on our medical coverage in November if we had known.  We are fortunate to have great coverage EXCEPT for therapy which is only 20 visits (combined specialties) a year.  His hands look like 5 fingers instead of 4 and a thumb.  He appears not to have a pincer grasp.  In his own resiliant way he has figured out how to use them for most things, but I can see where he will have issues in school with writing, cutting etc.  

Lastly, our new social worker came for the 1 month visit report.  She was awesome, and actually said things looked much better than she expected LOL!  THankfully, the kids were pretty good, and she was able to give me some pointers on working with Cav and his fighting and hitting of the other kids.  I DO have to say though that looking back even a week ago, this little man has come a long way!

We also learned today that he HAS to have a nap!

YEAH we have his file!!

Ok our agency has found and received our littlest angels file.  I am so excited I could have just screamed from the mountain tops .  .  . but just worked out and a hike was out of the question LOL!!  Anyhow,  our LOI will wait upon whether or not anyone else can possibly get ahold of his file.  If they can we will submit the LOI on Monday.  If not then we will wait for the update we requested.  Our file was done when he was 16 mos old and he will be 3 this month.  Just like when we were pregnant we decided against the risk of an amniocentesis simply because it would never have made a difference whether we carried the pregnancy to term.

And our picture for the post -

Our sweet little FeiFei - she is such a darling little thing and watch out world cuz Felicity is on the way to being the queen!  Don't you love her red shoes!! Her referral picture also showed her wearing the same shoes and the first thing our big girl noticed.  He smile, her demeanor is so fabulous.  She is part of the Half the Sky program which helps us as we patiently go through the process until we can bring her home!