Grace at Two and Three

I saw another adoption blog where the mom had put up pictures of her daughter from one year ago and thought, with Grace's birthday here, this would be a good time for us to do the same. Not only did we have a birthday one year ago, but Dec. 5th is also the one-year anniversary of Grace's cleft palate surgery. Although it's not necessarily an event that we remember fondly, it is remarkable to recognize how much progress she (we all!) have made since then. Prior to surgery Grace couldn't drink through a straw. When she ate, food came out of her nose. She couldn't blow bubbles. And, of course, she did not speak at all. Today she can do all of those things. At speech this week we started a list of all the words that Grace uses spontaneously (with no prompting) and although we haven't gotten them all, we're already up to 63. Although she hasn't grown a whole lot physically, I think she looks much older in her face and is definitely acting like a much bigger girl. So here are a few reminders of how far we've come in the last 12 months.

11/06 This coat and hat don't fit any more

12/2/07 sporting her new 3T sweater

11/06 still in the high chair

11/07 More 3T duds

11/06 Head just barely above the piano

10/07

2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday

Gotcha Day 7/31/06

One year later

12/5/06 coming out of surgery

One year later!

Thanksgiving

If you've never experienced Thanksgiving in South Bend, IN with 37 people, two turkeys, some polish sausage, noodles, green beans, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, about 50 rolls, various salads, jello, and lots and lots of beverages...I highly recommend it! The kids had a blast. It was the first time in a while that all of the Hojnacki's and all of the Klein's kids were together for a holiday. That made 13 kids in all: three boys and ten girls. Several of the older girls did a great job of entertaining the younger ones (something that I less-than-subtly tried to encourage.) One of the coolest parts was that in the evening it started to snow and all the kids ran outside (some in their p.j.s) to experience the first snow of the year.

We got a lovely package from Grace's foster family in China this week. They sent the dress that she is wearing in the Thanksgiving Day pictures in addition to lots of other clothes and some wool scarves for us. It was an early birthday present as she's turning three this Saturday. We're going to have a little party here at home for her with some kids from the neighborhood. In some ways, she seems so much younger than Sophie and Lily did at this age. Probably because she's still not talking much, but in other ways she is much more capable than they were when they turned three. She can dress herself, put her own shoes and coat on, cut with scissors and do puzzles. Some of those things Lily is still working on!

The other plus is that she is officially potty trained outside of nights and nap time. When we first started she was going every fifteen minutes or so, but as the novelty has worn off, she's spacing that out a little. I suppose that means it's about time to move her out of the crib and into the big girl bed, which of course both of the other girls were long into at this age, but I just can't bring myself to enter into the land of getting up whenever she wants and not staying contained at nap time.

I had my first JV basketball game tonight and was very pleased with their performance. While we didn't play the strongest opponent we'll see this year by any means, we won 50-28. They really picked up their intensity on defense and ran the fast break well. Dave says he'd hate to play for me because I've been coming home from every practice complaining about how much work we have to do and then he came to the game and watched them really blow out the other team. I guess all those bad practices just convinced them to finally step it up and get to work (either that or all the yelling I've done lately.) Sophie came to the game and sat on the bench tonight. She said I did "a lot of yelling and stomping my foot" but she has the final score memorized and is finally paying enough attention to report who won the game when she gets home.

Off to bed now. The Christmas Tree is up!

Halloween

According to Sophie, this wasn't the "best Halloween ever!" (her usual proclamation) But it was still pretty good. Trick-or-treating started officially at 6:00, which meant that at 6:05, after being clear and dry all day, it started to rain. Once all the kids and out-posted parents were nice and wet, it stopped, but it didn't make for a good start on the evening. As you can see from the photo, Sophie and Lily were Brides this year, while Grace got to be the third inhabitant of our Black Cat costume. Everybody else in the neighborhood was an Island Princess...or maybe it just seemed that way. The girls lasted a proportionate time to their age and straggled back one by one to help hand out candy.

Both girls had a party at school where they got to wear their costumes. Luckily, my parents were able to come up and help out, or I don't think I would have ben able to be everywhere all at once. My mom accompanied Lily with her class to go trick-or-treating at the retirement center; a place so nice, she said she and my dad might just move in someday. My Dad and I went to Sophie's school where I was in charge of her party. Her school has a huge parade of all the students in their costumes and then each class has their own little party. I wowed the under-7 set with my extensive guitar prowess (I think it's up to about 5 chords now) and then we had a healthy snack and a crossword puzzle (boo! hiss! where are the fun games and candy?)

Then Dad and I were off to my last 8th grade basketbal game. We were 9-2 going into the game, and really hoping to get that tenth win, which we did. It was actually one of the best games they played all season, so it was a great way to finish things off. I have to say, it was one of the most enjoyable coaching experiences I've had. This group of girls was just about everything you could ask for in a team: they were hard-working, respectful, coachable, they got along with each other, they actually listened to what I had to say, and they had talent! I'm really looking forward to working with them over the next few years at the high school. I'm sure several of them will move up to the JV level next year as Freshmen, and the rest will be along the following year. Of course there's always the possibility that they skip right over me and go straight to Varsity, but that's probably only a possibility for one of them. Here's a picture of them after one game when Lily came along and sat on the bench

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I don't know who was more interested in whom when Sophie and Lily came to the games. The players always made a big fuss about the girls, and the girls were, of course, star-struck by the players. Both Sophie and Lily go back and forth between calling them teen-agers and baby-sitters (in their minds it's one and the same.) We had team shirts made up and each of my girls got one with "Ass't Coach" on the back. They were always a big hit.

Now it's high school basketball season and the JV practices have started. Because of a scarcity of gym space at the high school, we end up practicing most nights from 7:30-9:30. It works out o.k for us, because the kids are almost in bed by the time I leave, but it's pretty late for the players. Anyway, this group may not be quite the joy to work with that the 8th graders were, nor will we have the same record, but they're still a good group, even if they are all jaded at the advanced age of 15. We did move up two Freshmen, so they will help us retain that youthful edge!

Gotta go, we have out first scrimmage tonight. It will tell me a lot about where we stand and what we need to work on. I'll keep you posted

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