We have been without a camera for a week now, as ours broke and is no longer useable :( We are researching different brands and I think have it narrowed down to a canon. We better go purchase it soon as I am going through withdrawals not being able to take pics. We have lots of photo ops and firsts that we are missing out on. Tomorrow Will has his first day of early intervention services. I hope he does well with the organized activities. I will stay in the background as he takes part in his 2 and a half hours of structured play. Im a little nervous about how he will do with the other students. I really hope he participates and has fun. We continue to be amazed at how he has blended into our family. He surely was meant to be part of our family. On Sunday eve. we took him to the Ethiopian Restaurant in downtown Milwaukee. He was so thrilled to see his ingerra bread. Watching him eat it and pick up the food with his little piece of bread was so cute. Jeffrey was in a dreamland too as they both just have an appetite and love to just shovel in the food. We took some of the ingerra home and he had some the next day too. We plan on stopping by the restaurant and picking up the bread once every 2 weeks or so. Lately Will's favorite sentence is "Will is a good boy". He really is a good boy and we all love having this good boy as a part of our family.

Tonight we spent the evening at the club at another tennis tourney for Jacklyn. She won her bracket pretty easily, so we think she should have been in a harder bracket, but oh well, at least she got some hitting practice. During one of her matches we took Will to the interactive pool with water fountains and such and he stood in awe. At first he was not quite sure what to do... We got his adorable little swim trunks on and he was not too sure about taking off his shirt. Then, we got to the pool area and I convinced him to take off his shirt. He wanted to continue with the stripping and take off his swim trunks too. It took a little bit of coaxing to get him to keep them on in the water. But once Jaymie showed him what to do, he was brave and went on all the slides and ran through the fountains. He should sleep well tonight. Sweet dreams little Will.

Medical reports from Ethiopia mentioned Erythrocytic parasites on his blood smear, although in the records there was no mention of treatment for malaria in his med reports....so a new blood smear was ordered by the Childrens Specialty group and is red blood cellls did come up .2% positive. This is a relatively low parasitic rate, and our little man has remained asymptomatic most likely because he has had the infection most of his life and therefore he is partially immune to it... So treatment will begin as soon as we get the meds....We are on the radar for the CDC so we will proceed with treatment. Will is not infectious with this infection. I had to take him to childrens hospital again last night for another blood draw.....this one testing to see if he can take one of the meds to treat the organism which was identified as P. vivax.

Will is adjusting well to his new life:) He loves the attention and love he gets from his sisters and all their friends. He is a little lover with me and loves to be carried around. My right arm is getting buff again now that I have another little one to carry around. Every morning he wakes up and yells for "mama" He has a strong bond with Jeffrey and I am mostly chopped liver when Daddy gets home. It is quite the sight to see. We went to Toys R Us to use some gift cards today and bought some sand and set up the sandbox temporarily in the garage as the weather is not looking lovely for the next few days. ... We had fun with it in the garage. Teaching him how to play is something I have been working on with him . His fascinations are the switches and buttons and he especially likes the control panel in my van. His vocabulary is coming along. Once a word is taught, he masters it. So we work on a few new words a day. He does call himself Will and sings to himself "Will is beautiful".... very cute. We have to agree he is beautiful too. I had a lady come up to me a few days ago when we were at preschool open gym at the gymnastics center in town and asked me if I had Will in modeling classes.

Yesterday we went to the Monkey Joes playplace where there are bouncy/jump blowups and he was very coordinated on all of them. He had a good workout for about an hour and a half. He is a pretty strong little guy and we have no worries in his gross motor skills:)

We had nice weather for a few days here, now we are back to rain.:( Here is Jaymie at my sisters on her mini horse sugarbaby! She has so much winter coat she looks like a wooly mammoth. Jeffrey left for Boston today, so I am a single mom for a few days. It would help if the weather were nicer! We'll try to make the best of it. On Sunday Will has been with us here in WI. for 1 month. Hard to believe. He has adapted to so much change in his life. It amazes me. His little nightmares are not as often, he has become a dog lover, he had 5 viles of blood drawn from him yesterday. He has to eat my cooking :) poor guy! He doesn't complain though. He does have some meltdowns that show he is grieving, but it is healthy and they will/should become less frequent as he settles in and feels secure. Happy 1 month and 1 day home(as of today) I meant to post yesterday, but ran out of time!

Showertime

Just 4 days before we got our referral Jeffrey and I bought slate to remodel our upstairs master bath as we thought it would give us something to do to pass the time while we waited for our referral. Well, it turns out we had to get moving on our remodel because we got our referral so much quicker than we had thought we would. Jeffrey wanted 2 shower heads in the shower and I being the money saver wanted just one. Well, I'm glad I gave in to the sliding second shower head as showering in the morning is something Will just loves to do. Jack and Jaymie like it too! You can lower the shower head to his level and he thinks it is just the best thing ever. Sometimes in the morning I will plug the drain to the shower and he will sit on the slate shower floor and play in the wading pool while I am getting ready...Sometimes even Oscar walks into the shower while we are showering for a drink. He gets a kick out of that.
Our little man was a little under the weather today. Im guessing he caught a bit of what Jaymie had as his nose was running non stop and he was rather clingy. I hope he feels better tomorrow. On April first I have Will getting a trial session of 3 classes of observation in the early childhood in our district. They have to assess him to see if he qualifies. I mostly want Will in the program for behavior so he can learn how to appropriatly act in social settings and stimulation. He needs sharing reinforcement:) and needs to learn that biting is not appropriate when we are not happy. He has been pretty sharp on picking up words and remembers them later on, but I believe they may provide ESL services also.

our dog whisperer

Oscar is adjusting to having a toddler in the house. Will likes to lead him around the house on his leash and let him in and out of the house. Oscar continues to be tolerant of the whole new situation. Thank you Oscar for making Will feel at home!

Will finally got his taste of Spring in WI. With that came the purchase of his first set of "wheels" which he calls his "makeena". We put some miles on the makeena today with Oscar and our neighbor Christy. I am loving the handle in the back that allows me to steer and push, something I did not have for Jacklyn and Jaymie. We are hoping for more weather like this for the rest of the week. He took a nice nap today and told Jeffrey tonight that is was time for "night night" and Jeffrey layed down with him and he was out. Nothing like some good ol Wisconsin fresh air to tire the kiddos out. Will is putting words into sentences already. Today he said "see you later Oscar!" It is quite amazing what he is picking up on as his vocabulary grows...This weekend we took my van through the car wash and he thought it was pretty funny that my "makeena" was gettting a shower so he walks around now laughing to himself saying "makeena shower". Jacklyn and Jaymie continue to be great big sisters and get a kick out of his little personality. On Wednesday this week we have our first home visit since he came home. We have to submit 4 reports this year to our agency and then one once a year on the progress Will is making. This info is sent to the Ethiopian government as they like to keep track of how the children are doing and it keeps the programs/agencies of adoption open and running in Ethiopia.

our sweet jacklyn won the tennis tourney she was in on Sat. Her dad put her in the 14 and unders and I was hesitant that she would pull it off being that she is only 11. But, she has her daddys talent and she won! Her biggest trophy yet. We are so very proud of her and what she does with her tennis game. I still can't handle watching her play in tourney's, but Will seemed to enjoy watching her smack that tennis ball back and forth.

Last night we were walking down the stairs and Will wanted to stop and take a look at the photos on the table in the front hall. We have a family photo of just the girls and us and he was pointing to it and saying names "Jacklyn, JC, mama, dada........" then he finishes up the sentence with ...Where's Will?

guess who dressed up Will?

We had an unsuccessful blood draw yesterday...... after holding him down for 2 stabs in the arm, no luck in finding a vien, so I have to go back to Childrens Hospital instead of our local hospital so we can have them use little needles and technology to find the little viens... Jeffrey will be going with me on this next trip. Not fun! But we have to see what he has been immunized for and run several other tests that the international adoption drs reccommended. Jaymie is home with me again today with a 101 fever...... poor thing is losing her voice too. Hopefully she won't pass this on to Will or Jacklyn. Overall , Will is continuing to do well. He seems to be picking up new words every day and is understanding more of the language every day too. We are looking forward to be able to spend more time outside once it warms up!!

best friends

Well, it took a little less than 2 weeks and now Oscar and Will are best buds. Jeffrey brought Will downstairs this am and he just decided he was ready to stand next to Oscar and lead him around like he was the little dog whisperer! The above pic. is priceless! I can finally have 2 arms back in the kitchen as whenever we were in Oscars "space" Will was attached to my hip. This was a great breakthrough for all involved and I can see Oscar smiling from ear to ear that he has won over the heart of his brother! Will had an appt at the international adoption Clinic at Childrens Hospital yesterday. By the time we were done, we were too tired to get lab work done and blood drawn, so we are saving this until Monday. I also have an appt. Monday with the school district to look into early intervention services for our little guy. Life is good and we are so happy this little guy has been placed in our lives. He is truly a gift for our family!

Thanks for the new outfit Christy!!!! I love the "WOOSHA" AND "KWAS" on my new shirt!

Will thought he was quite cool when he put on this outfit. We shot hoops in his mini basket for about a half hour with this outfit on. He seemed to know it was a "sport" jogging suit! He loves clothes and putting on outfits every day. Underwear is a new thing for him and he just loves his lightening McQueen underwear!

Jacklyn has risen to the occasion of being a big sister to a toddler! His bonding with his sisters is going well. He will go to them almost as easily as he goes to Mama! All 3 are jumping on the trampoline now! He has fun with the trampoline. WE were practicing somersaults on it today. If we know one thing, he is one tough cookie, he brushes off falls and scrapes like quite the tough little guy!

Our Threesome

Todays adventures included making progress in the buggy. Oscar didn't come with on the walk, so I think that is why he got in it today. We'll try Oscar with us tomorrow. We went to the preschool that we plan on putting him just to get a "feel" for it. We plan on stopping by 3 days a week just to get him used to the surroundings. I skipped the nap today to see how that makes a difference in his day. We will see how he tires this evening.

Oscar Progress

I'm happy to post the above photos showing the progress we are making with Oscar. He is actually feeding him treats right into his mouth! Oscar has joined us in the car again too. Oscar usually goes everywhere with me and he is back at his post in the passenger seat with Will behind him watching him very closely. I have almost gotten his full dosage of meds down him today, so I have perfected crushing the pill to a powder and then mixing it in cough syrup. He has a runny nose anyhow, so i don't feel like i am drugging him for nothing. He is a two fisted eater always liking to have something in each hand. I attempted to put him in the stroller today since it was like a balmy 38degrees, but he wasnt too thrilled about it. I will have to have Jaymie show him how it works and he should be good to go. He was afraid of his footie jammies until Jaymie showed him how she got in hers and then he was fine. So far so good with his little life here. The girls are really good with him and it is fun seeing them interact. It is hard to believe he was halfway across the world less than 2 weeks ago. I can't wait to get a photo of him sleeping next to Oscar!!!

Sunday News

Nothing like bringing a new kid home and having them sleep through the night. He has usually been sleeping 830-630 with a 2 hour nap during the day. Our biggest challenge now is getting the nasty giardia medication down him. We started with liquid form and that did not go over too well. It pretty much tastes like acid and that is with flavoring, so we switched to pill form. I tried hiding it in several foods, but he always would find it and spit it out . I have had success hiding it in flavored cough med. for now and am hoping to hide some in some frozen custard tonight. He needs 8 small tablets a day, so I am constantly trying to hide the nasty tasting pills in his food. I was planning on making a slide show as he slept today, but I can't find my camera at the moment. I must have a toddler in the house who has hid it because he is sick of having his photo taken! Yesterday we worked on transitions from the car by making a few stops on some errands. He does not like to have people leave the car without him and he absolutely hates the car seat! We're working on that! I better go find that camera! He got a cute outfit in the mail from his Aunt that he just looks to0 cute in! We need to get a photo of him in it!