Seven

1. In the past seven years, he has managed to: spray paint one of our cars red, stick florescent pink "floam" to the ceiling of our kitchen, flour the entire first floor of our house, get lost at a triathlon, leave our house before any one was awake on a Sunday morning and knock on a neighbor's front door (who we don't even know), spill dish soap all over both family room couches, and get hit square in the face with a lacrosse ball.

2. He has many knick names: P, Mr. P, Peanut, Peanut Butter, Preshy P, Presto

3. He has a heart of gold and adores his family, especially his older brother.

4. He would like to dress like a gangster, but we don't allow it.

5. His favorite food is anything that is a dessert. He would never eat a fruit or vegetable if he had his way.

6. He is brilliant in school, and is an amazing reader. So far he has read over 40 AR books just since September.

7. There is no one else in the world like Mr. P. and there are no words to describe how much we love this boy.

Happy Birthday, Peanut!

Back to the Blog

Some of our NY friends!

Fun afternoon with our NY cousins

Enjoying one of the last days of summer
Ave's first day of preschool

Boys start the first and fifth grades

Beautiful Hunting Island State Park, SC
Boys love their skim boards

Sneak preview to Dolphin Tale for turning 10!

P starts tumbling and Ave tries out dance

So I fell off the edge of the blogging world for the entire summer. Mike asked yesterday, "What happened to the blog?" Oops, I honestly had been so busy I completely forgot about it for the past couple months. Of course, he could keep up the blog too...but dont' hold your breath on that one.

We did have a great summer, and like always, it flew by much too fast. Spent a lot of time at the pool, as it's really to hot to do anything else. However, I am so thankful my job gives me the summer off so we can spend time together. We visited NY like we always do, kids love going to Granny's. We tried to new beach location this year and went to Harbor Island, SC which was gorgeous but beyond infested with mosquitoes. Did a short trip over Labor Day to Ocean Isle, which still holds the top place on our favorite beaches list. If I could move to the beach, I would...so playing the lottery weekly. Again, not holding my breath on that one either. I contemplated homeschooling, moving to the beach and having boogie boarding class everyday at 9am but not sure that would be the best education for the kids. Of course, they thought it sounded awesome. I am still undecided.

Boys started the first and fifth grades and are loving it. Avery is now in preschool just two mornings a week and seems to be doing well (or let's say I haven't heard otherwise!) What you don't know, can't hurt you, right? :)

Caden turned the big double digits and Avery turned four, which she was thrilled about! She is already got her list of what she wants for her NEXT birthday! Mike made an adorable video, and I'll upload that soon!

Missed the Month of May

Oops, didn't manage to make a single post during the month of May. We were busy and with school winding down didn't even give it much thought. Anyway, to summarize May:

-Caden's been playing in weekend lax tournaments, mostly in town. This weekend he is in Greensboro. Sitting at lax tournaments in 95 degree heat is not my idea of fun, but he loves it. Preston has been tagging along with Cade and Mike at lax practices. He loves to hang out with is big brother (if only the feeling was mutual.)

-Preston now officially a first grader and is Mr. Smarty-Pants. Or, at least that's my evaluation of him! :) He is now reading chapter books and scored in the 98th percentile for the stardardized testing at the end of the year. He told me that he didn't get any questions wrong, and he was darn close. He missed 2 questions on the entire test over four days of testing. This is the same kid who spray painted our car red, dumped two bags of flour over the entire first floor of the house and got lost at a triathlon. He has come a long way! :)

-Avery is growing taller by the second and soon will be towering over all of us I am afraid. She is lanky, thin, and muscular. Her language is coming along, little by little. We did get her signed up for preschool two days a week for the fall.

We have been doing lots of boating. Papa bought a pontoon boat and all the kids LOVE it. So we go out at least one day over a weekend if not both. The lake water is already like bath water though, so that's a bummer. Not refreshing at all.

Up for June:

More lax, Preston's starts gymnamstics, and spending our days at the pool. Might make a zoo trip this week since it's supposed to drop below 90 for the first time in weeks. Might squeeze in a trip to the Atlanta aquarium as well...and maybe visit our friends in Asheville.

That's the May update...a month late! :)

Happy Easter

A beautiful 85 degree day today! We all managed to make it to Mass at 7:15am, then a boat outing and hopefully planting a small garden in a bit. Lake water was a chilly 67 degrees, so no one really made it in for a swim. But it was great to be out on the water, courtesy of Papa's Pontoon! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter!

Government = One Big Mind Boggling Mess

Set out today to get Avery's Social Security number. Our USCIS agent said once her greencard arrived to just take it to SS office and she'll get a SS number. Now, I am not naive enough to believe it would be THAT easy, but now that she has a greencard what else can they need? Right? WRONG.

So I set out with:
-Adoption decree, birth certificate, greencard, medical records, etc.
Basically, I packed up the filing cabinet and brought it with me. We get called relatively quickly which thrilled all three kids because we were heading to the Nature Museum next to see the butterfly release after we finished. NOT.

As soon as I sit down, I can tell that not only does this lady mean business, but that she is not going to make any small talk. She asks for the application, check. Greencard, check. My driver's license, check. Adoption decree (Haiti), check. Which leads to our first roadblock. We have an emailed adoption decree both Haitian/translated to English. She wants, you guessed it, an original. I explained to her, it went down in the rubble (I don't know if it did or didn't but we'll probably never know) So, she then proceeds to tell me my "email" copy must get certified. Okay, but by WHOM do you recommend "certify" it? She said the man who signed it in Haiti. I tell her he did not survive earthquake for one, and two, how does she think I am getting anyone's John Hancock in Haiti? Seriously. So then she says get it certified by my attorney. Ummm, what attorney? UGH.

So, she gets her manager. The manager agrees, that is nonsense. So, she'll accept medical records instead. GREAT, I am so relieved I brought those. Wrong. Second road block. Although the records are all signed, and dated, she wants an original signature and a "stamp." Now I am getting pissed, I say like a postage stamp? HAHA. Anyway, she wants a stamp that has the doctors office name on it. Can anyone spell A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G. Can these people be making up any more rules as they go?

I cry and slam my papers around a bit and off we go, back up I-77N to get doc's INK signature (next to his signature that is already on there) and a "stamp." I said, stamp every page, stamp the heck out of that paperwork. Doctor asks if they also need his retina scan :)

Anyway, can our goverment make getting these adopted kids US citizens any more difficult. Honestly, it's so rediculous it's hard to put into words. And to top the afternoon off, the kids missed the butterfly release and now everyone is ANNOYED!

Caden's Letter

Dear Family and Friends,
This is Caden and I am walking again this year in the JDRF “Walk to Cure Diabetes.” I am now 9 ½ years old which means I have had diabetes for about eight years of my life. I don’t remember life without diabetes but it seems like it would be fun to not have diabetes. None of my really close friends have diabetes so sometimes I wish I was like them. My friends are really nice about it and never make fun of me, but sometimes kids that don’t know me well stare or ask a lot of questions.

My mom calculated that I have pricked my fingers close to 20,000 times since I have been diagnosed. The tips of my fingers are bruised and I don’t have feeling in some of the tips from being pricked so many times. I wear an insulin pump and we have to change the site (a needle under the skin) every other day. So, my parents have put the needle in my skin about 600 times. I ice my skin for a long time so it’s numb before we put the needle in but sometimes it still hurts.

I am hoping to be cured soon, and my doctor said there is an “artificial pancreas” that is very close to being perfected. This would be a device just like my pump, except it would do everything for me without finger pricks! It would be like having a healthy pancreas but I just would be wearing on the outside of my body. My mom would really like me to have this before I go to college and I hope to go to Duke. I would like to play soccer and lacrosse there. Go Blue Devils!

I have an online JDRF fundraising page if you would like to donate to my walk team. My mom has posted it a few times on Face Book so if you already donated, THANK YOU! I am trying to raise $5000 this year and so far I have $2000 raised. My walk is on April 9th and I will walk with my family and also my lacrosse team, since my teammate has diabetes too.

My team page online: http://www2.jdrf.org/goto/Caden

Thank you to everyone who wants to help my team raise money to find a cure!!!

Love,
Caden

Bad Blogger

I am pondering shutting down the blog....just don't have time to keep it going (or enough creative juices flowing in my mind to think of things to write about!) We have had a pretty routine couple of weeks and now that spring is here (it was 80 degrees yesterday) the boys are well-underway with sports, sports and more sports. Caden had four soccer games back to back on Saturday and he rarely gets a sub. So needless to say he got his workout for the day. Preston had lax and Mike had lax practice for the team (or one of the many teams) he coaches. Sunday was more lax for both Mike and Cade. We're always out and about on the weekends it seems but it's hard to deny kids activities they love so for now we make it work.

Off topic...any advice on where to bring a 3 year old with bad behavior? Miss Avery only listens to me. If I am around she is abnormally good. If I not around, she is abnormally bad. Whines, talks back, won't share, has a temper tantrum, puts her fingers in her mouth, squirms all over the floor, runs/jumps all over the house, etc. If I ask her why, she just responds with "I want to be good, or I don't want to be bad." She has had these behaviors since she came home over a year ago and there really hasn't been much change. Any advice on what to do or who might be able to help? Is it a child psychologist? A behavioral therapist? Both? Are they covered by insurance? Is she too young to get help with her behavior?

I have tried everything. Not making a big deal out of bad behavior, making a big deal, sitting on her bed, chair, or standing in the corner. Nothing sinks in. She fidgets, squirms, makes some strange noises (on and off), copies everything anyone says (but I think this is part of her learning the language) but needless to say these behaviors are wearing us out. So, if anyone has ANY ideas...please feel free to share! :)