DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES

A quick post on some milestones...

First, Keenan. Last Friday, in front of a dozen watchful parents, he walked down three steps, face forward, no hand rails. We were at Vanessa's school, waiting for class to be let out. Keenan did it a few times, enjoying the applause perhaps. I wish I had videoed. Then on Monday, after seeing the big (5 year old) boys jumping of he steps, he "jumped" off the bottom step. He stuck the landing. A few times. He was very pleased with himself.

Also this week, I caught him animating his toys - rolling a truck along an imaginary road and later, making a dinosaur walk along and growl.

He runs.

Of course his Big Thing is dance. I say, "Wanna dance?" and Bam! he's bustin' some moves.

He's starting to sing a little. We think he's on pitch, too. Music comes from both sides of his family tree, so we shouldn't be surprized.

Keenan's speech is, well, let's just say Hemingway would be impressed. Here's the list:

Mama = Mama, feed me, I'm tired (so hold me already)

Ball = ball

Bath = Bath, ocean, all standing or running water, really

Duck = duck, all creatures that fly

Dog = dog, all creatures with four legs

Dad = Daddio, all men

Max = Max

I did it = I did it

Mind you, save or pronouncing both m's in Mama, no ending consonants are actually uttered.

I guess the other notable thing is that Keenan understands everything we are saying now. He's got comprehension. I can say, go over there and sit on the box and off he goes. Love this!

Now, on to Vanessa. Daddio noted that she is oddly aware of other people's perspectives. After some investigation, we both believe she is into concrete operations.

Both she and Keenan love books. Crazy for books. Van is now reading them out loud to herself - ok, she cannot read, she's doing more of a play-by-play commentary as she flips through each page - and is nearly willing to entertain her brother this way. I've been reading Anne of Green Gables a chapter at a time before bed. Vanessa read the title of one chapter, Marilla is Surprised or something like that, and I about dropped over. Of course she wasn't really reading it, she just remembered. That memory! I wish I had a 3 year old's memory.

She's working on rhyming words right now.

At school they wanted to know if she could recognize her printed name, since they have it on her cubby. She can, which kind of surprized us. We tried to trick her, but she picked her name out from these:

Vanessa Holland Hoyt

Vanessa Hallager Hob

Vanessa Hattio Huyerman

Her teacher of a year and half commented recently that Vanessa'a art work has "taken off." I'm not exactly sure what Miss Carmen meant by that, but we sure are seeing some changes at home. One night after dinner, she drew these, in order:

Daddio, Mama,

Vanessers, Keen-wah.

I admit, it helps to have the artist handy to interpret... concentric circles for eyes, straight line for the mouth, circles for cheeks, parents have circles for noses and ears and, well, a few other things.

The next day, to build upon the face drawing, I asked Vanessa to draw a self portrait. She drew this, which is typical of her age and is called a "tadpole" person:

Then I asked her, "Can you draw a picture of yourself with your whole body?"

She said, "Yes, but I can only draw skinny arms and legs and a skinny neck."

I said, "OK."



She and I sat across the kitchen table and she drew this. Now, it's not so easy to see what she drew, I know, but it was fascinating to watch her draw. She drew a circle at the bottom of her paper, then gave it hair, eyes, mouth, etc. upside down so I could see it right-side up from my perch across the table. Then she gave it a very thick, dark neck. Not sure why. She said, "This is you." Then she drew another circle and said, "This is your belly, and... this is me inside your belly."

That's when she gave attention to drawing herself in utero for the self portrait. She gave herself arms and fingers and legs and monkey toes, then did the same for my body. Then, at the end, she drew the thick line at the bottom of her paper, saying, "This is the roof."

I took a video of the second half of the drawing. I couldn't believe she could draw upside down. My gosh, I didn't know she could draw anything but scribbles. I know lots of kids at this age do, but we just hadn't seen Vanessa draw.

Then she drew one more of both of us. My head is in the upper left corner and I am lying on the floor, holding her as a tiny baby on my legs. She is covered in a blanket (black). She gave me a round body, no neck, and stick arms and legs, which are cradling her. She drew a red floor, then gave me aqua pyjammas, since aqua is my favorite color. I love this picture!

Aside from these opi, she is bettering her skills at coloring inside the lines in coloring books. Some of the crayons melt and bend from the heat of her grip and the pressure of her strokes. You don't have to color so hard, I suggest. "I like strong colors," she counters. Indeed.

One day she said to me, "When I was a tiny baby in your belly I couldn't wait to draw. I was waiting to come out to draw. For practice, I would draw on my hand." Okay.

ONE LOVE, SUMMER 2010

Well the months just tick by, with this exciting new family and all, don't they? Where did July, August, and September go? Things happen rapidly around here! Vanessa worded it so well last night when she added this to our nightly prayer: Thank you God for my whole family, even me!

Here are a few princess shots of Nanners and Zo-Zo:

At the end of June we celebrated Father's Day and Jack's birthday. Nicole came to visit and we drove Zoey and Nicole home together as a family. Zoey was so excited to go home, but we did feel a big gap with her absence. As chaotic and exhausting as three preschoolers can be, it was also great fun to have three. In some ways, it is harder to have two than three, since three are loads of entertainment for each other. We built some wonderful memories with our time with Zoey.

For Father's Day, our adoption agency asked Jack to be the guest speaker for the monthly nation-wide teleconference they put on for their contracted families. He was a big hit! We watched the original Home Alone movie while he was on his conference call. Home Alone was the movie we saw on Maui in October 1991 on our honeymoon.

After Jack's birthday we packed up and headed east for 4th of July. First we were in Connecticut, overpopulating Auntie Cyndi and Uncle Dave's house. They took us blueberry picking - Van was so focused and serious for this event she didn't eat as she picked and used both hands to grab, making her the top picker for the group - frog catching, puppy petting, swimming, boating and fishing. Much poker was played with the nephews. We also went to an indoor bounce house park type place. Keenan was a big hit. Grandma came. Vanessa followed the big boy cousins with great intent - only deterred by the bite of a turtle Daddio caught - and loved every minute of action. People commented that Vanessa and her big cousin Daniel looked like siblings.

Then we headed to Vermont in a 100 percent humidity heat wave. Grandma rented a big log cabin up there. Almost everyone was there - even Cousin Andy and his girlfriend Michelle. We swam in the river, caught a toad, bbq'd, ate raspberry pie, saw a wicked awesome fireworks display at the high school ball field, set off sparklers and fire crackers, ate s'mores, attended the longest running parade in the state of Vermont (very down home, I might add), and generally had a blast. We barely saw Vanessa because she and Auntie Anne were busy catching up over tea. Keenan navigated the stairs over and over again so we could keep an eye on him. I'd post pictures, but I didn't have a camera, so I took lots of shots with other people's cameras and now I have none for the blog! (So, Jennings family, if I get any pics on email I'll post them here.)

After our idyllic New England summer adventure, we returned home to exotic California. The first thing we did was go to court for the final step in our adoption of baby Keenan! It was just Mama, Daddio and Keen-wah, we decided to have Vanessa go to school that day. The judge and the other official people all rose with us, we held our hands up, and the judge pronounced us a family. Daddio got choked up and said, "I had no idea this would be just like a wedding!" Yes, as Aunt Mary used to say to her two adopted children, just like mommy and daddy chose each other to make a family, so did we choose each other through adoption. We are family!

Then on July 29th Keenan turned one! We decided to have a low key celebration with just Nicole and Zoey for the weekend. It was nice. Nicole is a blessing to us and has made us feel we are his parents from the beginning, with great encouragement and no doubts.

So many people asked us carefully, "How is it going, this open adoption?" Nicole gives us great confidence, says, "you are his parents," does not question our ways, is sweet about making us feel like experts, and she's not jealous. She makes this work. I say it sometimes feels weird, simply because we didn't grow up seeing open adoptions around us as models, and there aren't Hallmark cards for some of our new, extended family. Other than it being brand new territory, it's pretty natural. Keenan is very, very loved.

At the 12 month mark, our wee man child is sleeping through the night. At his well baby check up they measured him at the 90th percentile in height (surely due to mismeasurement of a wiggly guy with a couple extra centimeters of hair on his head). His favorite song is "You're a Grand Ole Flag" because Zoey (and the whole family) had to learn it for her preschool graduation. He has cut new teeth. His favorite games are This Little Piggy, Chase/Be-Chased-By the Monster, and Fetch. He has a wicked throwing arm and he'll dance to anything even remotely resembling a tune. Keenie is a fancy guy - loves putting on shoes - his, Vanessa's, or mine - and the shinier the better. He still looks at Vanessa like she's a rock star and he loves his Daddio to pieces. At one point we must have shown Keenan how lions greet each other - they touch their foreheads together and say Mmmmm - because that's Keenan's favorite greeting.

Just after his birthday, we took Keenan to Mount Hermon for a week with the Hoyts. Auntie Susan and Uncle Jimmy rented a giant cabin and Vanessa and Keenan were the only little kiddies in the family this trip. Vanessa was thrilled to go to "camp" half days, but Keenan cried the minute we set foot in the daycare center and he sensed a parting of parents and babies. That didn't go over so big.

We also went to Santa Cruz boardwalk and introduced Vanessa to kiddie rides, kiddie roller coasters, log ride and haunted house. Whoopee! Our first ride was on the dragon. I rode with her in a dragon built for two. When the ride stopped, she jumped off, headed out, then turned and wrapped both arms around the dragon's long green neck. She stood there, hugging, for a full 60 seconds. She really liked the ride. Some of the nearby adults chuckled.

While at Mount Hermon, I received two compliments which will sustain me for a year, I swear. Two different people, on different days, said, "you have so much patience." Now that was an answer to prayer.

The rest of August was spent enjoying something we rarely ever do... staying home, not traveling and not hosting visitors. It was quite necessary. I soaked up Jack's presence around the house, as did the kids, and everyone's game elevated a little bit.

Keenan's getting a lot of attention out in public these days. Between his walking, dancing and running and his blondie curls and carmel skin, he's become quite the looker. He's fawned over where ever we go, kind of like Vanessa was in Beijing.

Here is Keenan in action. Hope this video loaded correctly!

Well, I was going to edit this and add more photos, but I dropped the laptop that is working and bent the connector to the external hard drive with all the photos. So, this is it for awhile. Hope that's okay.