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My Beauties

Makai'o Turns 2

We celebrated Makai'o and his birthday on Thursday by spending the day at Gramps & Grams house and then we ACTUALLY celebrated with a party on Saturday afternoon with just family. The little guy can't have a huge overload of people just quite yet, so we will probably celebrate with friends later on! Mum and Dad played it safe (and boring) with getting some clothes. Aunt Megs & Uncle Alex got him a killer tricycle and a Thomas the Tank Engine. Uncle Rey Rey got him his first soccer ball and Gramps & Grams spoiled him rotten with some fun summer outside play & beach stuff! We had a 'Construction' themed party with hats and everything!

Makai'o now realizes he isn't going anywhere and he's here for good. And in realizing that he has been struggling with his transition a little bit. For a toddler, loss of control is confusing. He isn't sure what is going on, and he is stuck in a completely different house with different people and a different life and different food. It is really a cross-cultural experience.... But he's here forever. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we journey through this difficult time with Makai'o. Today we are heading to Ikea to get him his bedroom furniture. It is going to be a beach & ocean theme with surfboards and all!

Amaris is doing splendidly! Happy girl in her cloth diapers. Flip diapers during the day and Bum Genius 3.0 during the night. She rolled over for the first time this week. Three times in one day.... Just waiting to see some more of her moves!

8 Months Old!

Amaris is 8 months old today! YAY! You've been alive for 8 months Amaris - can you believe it?! We've had a great first week with our daughter including barfing and teething... Hasn't adjusted back to sleeping through the night. But we've tried Camilla teething stuff and Motrin and it is helping! But she wakes up when it starts wearing off.... About 4 hours after she goes to bed. Which is generally after we have gone to bed. Grrr. Today she was totally awake by 6:30 - I like when the time starts with a 7. Luckily Jon was taking the morning 'shift' so I could sleep a bit longer. She's still soaking in her morning nap.

Makai'o has had some great visits this week. He has been much more calm and has found amusing himself very easy in our home. We also haven't had to turn the TV on once - which I love. It will make movie time with daddy very special. He has been doing so well with his naps. Biting is his number one issue that we are trying to curve. So far time outs aren't really working so well for him. We are working on it!

Placement is tomorrow and he will be home permanently. Tomorrow will be the first night the 4 of us will all be sleeping in our beds all together under one roof. We decided to separate the kids into separate rooms. Makai'o will now be in the yellow room, the former guest room. Since he is a light sleeper and Amaris is currently teething and they go to bed and wake up at different times it all makes more sense for them to have their own rooms. So Amaris will stay in the green jungle room since she has already adjusted to that room. It is also darker, which she is used to for sleeping.

Meghan bought the kids a Ball Pit. Their personal own ball pit. It's like a tent with balls in the bottom (like the ball room at McDonalds). Makai'o loves to sit in there - take all the balls out... Then pick them all up in his shopping cart then put them back in the ball pit. It kept him busy for a LONG time yesterday.

No time for pics today - but they are coming!

Day 5

We are going into Day 5 of official parenting. It has really been an interesting 5 days too! Filled with both kiddies being sick. We picked up Amaris on Friday morning and her barfing continued during the day along with diarrhea and her cold... So Jon went for a visit with Makai'o without Amaris and I to keep the sicknesses apart. Makai'o was here for Saturday from 1230-7pm and then Sunday 1-7pm. Amaris had to go to the ER on Sunday afternoon as she wasn't even able to keep down Pedialite at that point. No good. She got some meds to help her keep things in so we can keep her hydrated! She slept through the night Sunday and had a pretty normal day yesterday until bedtime where she threw up at some point during the night... And there was a very full diaper along with that. I'm getting used to diapers. Still gross but - so far so good for this morning.

It's been a whirlwind! Makai'o stayed at his home yesterday as he has an ear infection and a cold which has included a fever and vomiting. So we will see how he is doing today to see if he will be coming for a visit today or staying at his foster home. Makai'o still plans to be home for good on Monday. He has full day visits here on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with placement on Monday morning.

We've been working on our registries as there are 2.5 showers being thrown for us. The first is a family shower and Makai'o's birthday and meet-and-greet on May 8, then a shower at my parent's house thrown by my sister on Saturday, May 15 and then a shower at my friend Heidi's house on Sunday, May 16th here in Hamilton. We originally registered at Springy's in Hamilton (my favorite baby store in the world www.springys.ca) but because they don't have the convenience of online ordering we've also registered at the Super Safety Store (www.babyproofingplus.com) which has a few locations across the GTA and does online ordering.

We are having an air conditioner installed today... A necessity for kids and British relatives. With the hot summer coming up it may be necessary!

Here are some pics of the kids meeting the family between Friday and Sunday.

AMARIS COMES HOME

Amaris comes home today - We get to go pick her up at 9:30!

WUHOO!

Amaris is Sick...

Amaris is sick my poor girl... She has some kind of stomach bug - double ending it is no good. She was super cuddly and needed lots of love today which I really enjoyed but knowing that she's not feeling so well was not nice. I'm glad I know what she is like when she is sick - still pretty happy and hardly whiney! Love her to bits! Missing Makai'o tonnes already and can't wait to see him on Friday - and then EVERY DAY until he comes home forever on May 3!

Visit #2 with Makai'o

So Mr. Makai'o is a whole lot of fun. This kid can play and play and play. He only stopped to drink some water and then played more. For a total of 2.5 hours before we made him sit down for dinner. But when it was done - he wanted to play more! After discussing with our worker, Makai'o will be coming home on Monday, May 3 instead of the end of that week. Our visits have been great and we need to keep to Amaris' schedule and it will be difficult to do that with a whole extra week of visiting.

He's just so darn cute. I can't help it. He is!

We visited with Amaris as well today, but she was needing some extra love and attention as she was a bit pukey today - so no camera!

I did notice that I always have the camera and so there aren't many pics of me and him - at least from today!

Walk with Amaris

Tonight we gave our little one her dinner then we went on a walk. Amaris is happy about 99% of the time including in the snugli! She fell asleep half way home. We then played for a while, got her ready for bed, fed her her nighttime bottle, put her to bed then came home. Luckily we only have to wait until 10am tomorrow to see her again!

Check out these pics!

Meeting Makai'o

Wowzers is this kid FILLED with energy and joy. He is constant giggles. And so pudgy - He hasn't had tonnes of opportunity to "run free" so we will be going to the park a lot! Though he is spoiled rotten his isn't whiney which is super! He loves being swung in the air and reading stories... We're going to have to wean him off his huge love of TV. My amazing son is so much like me - goes to bed at a good old 830 or so and gets up at 8-9. I LOVE when my kids already sleep in! Amaris wakes up for a bottle at 7am but likes to go back to sleep after. This is going to be awesome. ANYWAYS. Here's some pictures of our first afternoon with Makai'o!