Fav Foto Fri

This is my favorite photo from our trip!
Looks like a real meeting of the minds :)

It has been a very busy week since we got home!
Danny has done great in school all week.
We got his MRI and psych test results too. His MRI was normal (ptl) and his psych test results were not unexpected. It gave us some great insights into some of his behaviors though. She really feels that his impulsiveness and inattention is a result of him not understanding something or not wanting to be wrong. She discovered that when he does not understand something or something is too hard he will avoid dealing with it by acting out. It is actually an incredible survival defense for him. This way he does not fail. He tested very high on anything related to taking care of himself, also a HUGE orphanage behavior. His processing speed is VERY slow, combined with his avoidance technique and it is absolutely no surprise he is so far behind academically. The Psychologist had some really good recommendations for helping him. We gave a copy to the school system and his teacher was very impressed at the results.
We meet with his IEP group on Monday to go over the results, what they are going to do for him now and where we go for Kindegarten.
We are pretty sure we will have another ESE Kindegarten group or private school recommended to us, there is no way he can be mainstreamed yet.
On the opposite extreme Victoria is so far ahead it is amazing! She is saying more words every day, eating table food all the time, hugging and kissing like crazy. She seems to understand us so much all of a sudden. She also said "no" for the first time and uses it frequently :)
It is so painful to compare where she is at 16 months to where Danny was at 20 months when we got him home. We just had no idea :(
Thankfully he has NO idea he is behind at all :) He is such a fun-loving, happy-go-lucky kid!
We are truly blessed in so many ways :) :)
Our house was also shown TWICE while we were away and there is someone else interested in seeing it. Let's hope we get an offer soon :)

wordless wednesday

Trip Catch up! LONG :)

Sorry I did not keep up the blog while away - we were too busy enjoying ourselves!


On Monday we went out on this!! For an awesome sail and snorkel trip with a stop at Margaritaville. The ladies on board also got wonderful foot massages :) :)


Danny hanging out on the bow of the cataran after our snorkeling trip! Danny was brave enough to get into the water with a life jacket on but wouldn't snorkel. I could hear Victoria crying on the deck of the boat so one fo the deckhands found an infant life jacket and she came in too!! The water was so beautiful and I understand the coral and fish were beutiful!!


Grampy coming out of the big slide!


The chef cooking in front of us at the Japanese specialty restaurant at the resort. The kids were fascinated!


Victoria shoving the veggie tempura in her mouth as fast as she can! She loved it!


Danny loved his food! and even tried the chopsticks!


Danny dancing on the stage!


Grampy giving me rasberries!


I am a little tired and need a little nap :)


We took this boat to the bioluminescent lagoon on Tuesday night. It was a really cool place in the dark. The wake from the boat glowed from all the "bugs" in the water. We stopped and several went in the water to swim. Danny was just fascinated with the glowing water as everyone swam around. He finally went and sat on the ramp and kicked his feet.


On Wednesday - Waiting in the lobby for the vans to take us all to a daylong tour to Mayfield Falls. We get to climb the falls and then have a traditional lunch up in the mountains.


Group shot of all of us at Mayfield Falls!! Much better than doing Dunns River Falls! It took about an hour and a half to get there, 45 minutes of which were on very narrow, windy, bumpy roads!


Sitting in the falls - felt like a massage on our backs and the water was really strong.


Victoria was not too sure about this whole thing


My sisters and I :)


Family photo taken at the end of the very long walk up the falls! the best part is we had to walk back down after!! My thighs ached for DAYS!


Some craft shoppes


A view from the van of the countryside going along at a very high rate of speed :)


Kids walking home from school


Ok Grampy - you can hold me, got any food?? do you know where the kitty is??


Mommy I need some lotion on NOW


This is one of the kitty cats that live at the resort. Victoria was fascinated by them and would chase them whenever possible!


This is where my bil was named Mr. Macho for his awesome dancing skills!!
And to think my niece thought he would lose when she found out it was a dancing contest :)

We had such a great time! On non-tour days we spent the mornings at the beach and the afternoon at the pool! Victoria was back to napping twice a day from all the activity, none of which took place in the room. She absolutely loved the water! She also loved that everyone wanted to play with her and chase her! Danny loves being with everyone too and swam even when his teeth were chattering! There was one little girl at the beach that he played with almost everyday. She was there with her grandparents who spoke little english, but she spoke fluent english. She was really bossy but Danny did everything she told him to :)
Our flight left Jamaica almost an hour late so we had to run in Miami to catch our flight home. Danny slept the whole last leg but not little missy! She did not fall asleep till we got in our truck at 10:00!
We all slept till 7 on Sunday and it was really nice to be home :)
Even with all the laundry :(
Danny is very ready to go back to school :)
Where is my pina colada???

Be Happy Mon!

Hey Mon!! This is us from sunny Jamaica!!! Please ignore the white pasty woman waving hello :) you would think I would have a tan living in FL!! This was taken today at the swim up bar at our hotel. We are here all week, along with my dad and his wife and my sisters and their families!! This is the first year for miss victoria and everyone is spoiling her rotten!!


the view from our room :)


Seeing Grampy again :) they are swimming buddies :)


Dan, Victoria and Nicole. She LOVED the water, both the ocean and the pool.


Victoria napping on me at the beach while all the kids played and the music was booming behind us for the sand aerobics :)


Grammy helping Danny get a chair next to Nicole, they played together forever!


a scuba training class at the hotel - looks like fun! The kids were just fascinated.


My dad and hubby walking with missy to the pool after lunch today :)

Fav Foto Fri!

You can't tell, but her mouth if full of pretzel rods and she is trying to get the last piece out of the bag to shove it in her mouth :)

He did great!

They told us to bring him in for his MRI a little tired! So luckily he had a field trip that morning to pump it up - he had a BALL!









Here he is on the way home after the MRI!
He was still a bit dopey from the medication:)
But everyone said he was the best patient of the day!
The nurses gave him this teddy bear for being so good.
He was so good!
They told us to be there at 12:30 for a 2:00 procedure and didn't even take us from the waiting room till 2:30!! Poor kid had nothing to eat since breakfast and they had cookies in the waiting room! He was pretty nervous but the paramedic was great, spending a lot of time with us. Within 10 minutes of drinking the medicine he was sound asleep! When they strapped him into the machine he didn't even move once! They let me stay in the room with him in case he woke up but he didn't even flinch! Even with all the banging going on around him :) Waking him up was SO funny :) He just could not understand why he couldn't walk straight, he kept trying though :)
I SO wanted to tape him with the camera, but I was trying to get him to eat and drink some juice so we could go home.

Happy Day to us!!

Today is the anniversary of the day Dan & I met!!
It has been 21 years!!!!!!!!
boy does that make me feel old!
We met at a party at my mom's house for her Army reserve unit, she and Dan were in the same unit. I was supposed to meet someone else that night, but fate stepped in and he could not make it.
Within 2 months of meeting we were living together and we got engaged two years later and married 2 1/2 years after meeting!!
We like to joke that we had early retirement, did lots of traveling and moving around first, now we are stuck pretty close to home with two little ones :) :)
and we would not have it any other way!
Love you babe!!!

Fav Foto Friday!

You want me to do WHAT????


Hey mom - what is this thing for???? How can I sit on it when there is a hole in it??

We emptied the POD out and found Danny's two potties, so we set them up in the bathrooms so missy can get used to seeing them. Danny was upset that she didn't immediately rip her diaper off and go :)

Wordless Wednesday

These two pics are from the superbowl. Nothing warms a moms heart than a room full of adopted children meeting for the first time and having so much fun!! The Pats did not deserve to win - they played crappy :( I think it was the girlfriend factor, Gisele should not have been there! Did they not learn anything from Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson :) :) :)

There's only one thing to say......

GO PATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to our regular blogging tomorrow :)
We will be celebrating till late tonight :) :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hard to believe little missy is 16 months old today!!!

Fav Foto Friday & sickness :(

Strep - check!
Croup - check!
Danny last week with strep and now Victoria with croup this week! oy vay!
She was not happy when the ped gave her a BIG shot to help her :)
She has a cough that sounds like it is coming from her toes :( :( Unfortunately the cough makes her gag, which makes her throw up :( :(
Her sleep has been so bad this week between teething and now croup:(
Mommy is a wee bit tired ;O


This is her somewhat happy face today :)


This is the face I have been seeing all week, between the teething and the croup :(