Out of Touch

I have been very lost in the day to day goings on of our life and have not been keeping up on the blog.
This year has flown by and now it is December it is just crazy!.
Our life has changed with preschoolers. Now we have to get up at a set time and get out the door and to school on time. That can be challenging with any children, but you throw SPD into the mix and it becomes a little harder.
Both Haven and Alec love, love, love their preschool. And we had our first of many parent-teacher conferences. Haven is doing really well in class. I am so proud of her! She hasn't had a melt down yet in school. Her teacher says she is easily distracted and has to be re-directed alot, but that is to be expected for a toddler with SPD.
But on the home front life has not been so rosy. Haven was able to keep it together in school but would loose control the minute she came home. We would have hour long meltdowns. It got to the point I was ready to pull her out of school and try again next year. Her teacher has been a great help, because she has a child with ADHD and understands some of the challenges we face. Giving Haven time to adjust to this new schedule and challenges wasn't easy but I'm glad we did it. She is really blossoming and maturing.

It has also helped that we have a new OT that I feel is a better fit for Haven's needs. Unfortunately our appointments are pretty sporadic until after the first of the year. With Ms. Shannon's direction we got a pretty good sized indoor trampoline. Both kids love jumping on it and Haven will now go jump on her own when she is loosing control. I made her a weighted vest for meal time (one of our other big challenges).  The simple vest with bean bags sewn on to it has made a HUGE difference in keeping her more focused and making meal time more pleasant for the whole family.

Haven is now writing letters! She is such a smart girl and always amazes me even when she is frustrating me:).
Alec is about to turn 3 years old! No way!! My baby is so big now. He is now taller than Haven by a smidgen. He is a puzzle master. The boy can put together a 45 piece puzzle so fast and he will then go help Haven with hers. He is my funny, kind, happy boy, but I can't believe how fast he has grown up. It has been good for him to go to school for a morning without Haven and make friends on his own. He needs to a chance to be Alec, not just Haven's brother. He still feels responsible for Haven's safety...we are working on that daily. Someone so young shouldn't have to worry about that, just play. But it just shows what a truly amazing child he is.

They both are super excited about Christmas and Santa. It has been fun to decorate the house and introduce them to Christmas carols. Of course their favorite is Santa Claus is coming to town.

Recently somethings have happened to people close to me that have helped me realize how blessed I am and start to look at my life differently.

 Haven's weighted vest. I'm no Martha Stewart, but it turned out pretty cute.

 The puzzle master at work.

Writing her name.

Where did the summer go?

Wow I can't believe it is almost the end of August? How did that happen? We have had a pretty mild summer, mind you I'm not complaining...just wishing the garden wasn't so far behind this year. We may not get many tomatoes the way the nights are cooling off already.

Our life has been busy. Both the kiddos are taking swim lessons 5 days a week. With swim lessons has come weekly hair braids/twists. Or whatever I can come up with to keep her hair from knotting up completely. Swimming keeps us busy and on a pretty tight schedule to get out of the house in the morning. I have even had to start setting my alarm. Something I haven't had to do for a long time. Good practice for preschool which starts in about 1 month. More about that later.

We had a fun quick visit to Seattle to see The Wiggles. The kids had so much fun and we both enjoyed watching them, watch the show. They are still talking about Anthony getting cake in his face by Captain Feathersword. They re-enact it many times throughout the day.  The drive to Seattle was no picnic. Somehow we seem to have the only two children that will not sleep on road trips. We even left at nap time so they would be tired after swimming....wrong. They stayed awake and bugged each other the whole trip.

We broke up the drive by stopping to visit friends in Washington. The Gracia's who we traveled with to Ethiopia to pick up our children were our stop on the drive up. We are forever connected to Anne-Marie and Eli sharing this life changing event of international adoption. On the way home we stopped at the Thies' house to see another Toukoul adoptive family. It was great to see them. Wish we could have visited longer. The kids had fun playing with each other and ran off some energy before they had to get back in the car for the rest of the trip in car seats.

Alec's cast is off, YES! No more blowing the cast dry after swimming and  baths. This waterproof cast was amazing. He never once complained that it itched, was hot, or bothered him at all. When his cast came off as our pediatrician put it, his arm looked like an arm and didn't smell like a foot :).

More on preschool now. Yes we made the decision to start preschool this year instead of waiting one more year. Haven is going to go two days a week. I look at this as a good practice run to see what type of issues with her SPD being in school will bring out. Hoping this will help us have a game plan for when it is time for kindergarten. Alec is going to go one day a week. His class is more a play class. I think it will be good for him to get away from Haven for a little bit and play with other children. He is so social and makes friends easily. They are both going on different days so they can then have special alone time with Mom.  I'm excited and sadden at the same time at this next big step of their life. Excited for all they will learn and do. Sadden that they are not babies any more. They are growing up so fast. They have been home two years in September. Seems like yesterday and forever all rolled together

Enjoy a few pictures of Seattle.

Eating at the cafe where they filmed part of "Sleepless in Seattle"

posing in front of all the lovely flowers

Chillaxin at Starbucks

Discussing the meaning of life at Starbucks

The reason we came to town.

Toot Toot Chug a Chug a

Enjoying it BIG TIME

Entranced by The Wiggles

Glow-in-the dark water proof cast

Modeled by Alec. His new glow-in-the-dark, water-proof cast. The swim lessons continue. Thanks
to our amazing pediatrician for helping us by getting the water-proof casting material.

Bad Medical JuJu happening in our house

We having been dealing with sickness for almost a month now at our house. It can stop any time. Right after we got back from our visiting Naing's family in Canada, Alec came down with bronchitis. He went to the Dr. a few days after his coughing started because he wasn't getting better. So on antibiotics he went for 10 days.

Two days later, Haven starts coughing and having difficulty catching her breathe and then the "barking" cough started. Yep the croup had arrived at our house. So off to emergency with her I went. She got a dose of steroids and charmed all the nurses. She was so tired the next day that she actually took a 3 hour nap. But she recovered fast.

I thought things were back to normal. Kids back in gymnastics. Alec started swim lessons and then BAM.
Last night Alec broke his arm. He fell out of the "play and pack" as we call it, climbing out or he got his arm caught and broke it and then fell out. We weren't in the room so I don't what happened first. Poor little man when he wasn't settling down and wouldn't move his arm off to the emergency I went with him. He was such a trouper. Did so well with the wait (It was a full moon weekend) and his x-ray. He even did really well with the splint being put on. Today was the hard day. He was hurting today and the Motrin wears off too fast. He can't suck his fingers because of the way the splint was put on. So he can't self soothe himself. That was the worst thing about the day. He kept getting so mad and demanding I take it off. Poor little guy. He will have to have a cast put on in a few days. Our pediatrician is so wonderful! I emailed him the digital x-ray and he is going to do the casting for us, so we don't have to go to the specialist and wait to get in there. Also he thinks he can get his hands on waterproof casting, so Alec can continue his swim lessons next week.

I think we have had enough sickness and injuries now...the bad juju can move on elsewhere now.

Here are a few pictures of our trip and Alec's swim lessons.

At the Bocock's family friends. Naing worked for them in college. Kids not wanting to sit still.

John & Daddy trying to hold them in place (look at the grins on their faces).

Got a good one.

Alec excited to be included in the big boy's party. His cousin had a soccer party while we were visiting.

Reading their books while I pack.

Naing's sister's family. Haven showing off the necklace her Auntie gave her.

Auntie YiYi and Haven.

Naing and his parents. They have been married 60 years.

Naing and Peter.

On our way home. Haven looking like a seasoned traveler.

My little guy saying cheeseeeee for me.

Rocking the sunglasses.

Life

Sorry I haven't posted in a few months. Life has gotten busier with me working two nights a week. I have lost some of my after the kids go to bed me time.
Things have been busy. The kids are taking gymnastics once a week still. The class is to help with Haven's sensory issues and they both love it. The teacher let Alec join the class too, even though he doesn't meet the age requirements, since he is capable of doing the physical activity. The bad thing about having class is getting out the house to get to class on time. There are times it would be just easier not to go then deal with the drama and constant reminding needed to get Haven out the door. I'm dreading the start of preschool next Sept, if this is the way it will be on school days.
We just got home from visiting Naing's family in Canada for 8 days. It rained every day we were there. So we were stuck in doors, in his sister's house with no DVD player and kids bouncing off the walls they had cabin fever so bad. Not my idea of a vacation. Naing had fun with old friends from high school and seeing family friends. But I never got to get out of Mom mode. The kids had fun with their 2 older cousins. Alec came up with a new word, "cousinfriend". He really like his cousin's friend who came over every day after school. Yes the school year hasn't ended yet in Canada.
We went to Calgary to visit his other sister and the kids had a great time with their 16 year old cousin. He played Hide and Go, Seek with them and here is the really big thing.....He had a party for his soccer friends and they let the kids be downstairs with them during their party. The kids were so excited to be part of the big kid group. Thanks Christopher for being a good cousin! Oh yeah he is now driving! How can that be he is old enough to drive now???? I still think of him as 10 years old.

Ok now I'm going to rant a little bit. So those of you that do not want to read the rant can stop here.
I'm so frustrated with Sensory Processing Disorder and all the chaos it brings into our daily life. The clothes, food, attention and tactile issues. I am reading, "The Out of Sync Child", while it explains why Haven does what she does, it still doesn't help me be more patient with her. Every day I get up and say ok, I'm going to handle all the bumps today without raising my voice...doesn't happen. I get so frustrated, I loose my temper. Naing had to live with it non-stop for 8 days and he was loosing it too. He doesn't get the full on dose I get on a daily basis. I love Haven dearly, just wish life was a little bit more smooth with her. She tries hard, I know she does, but the outcome is not always good.
I get so frustrated with people not understanding why Haven does what she does. Not understanding what SPD is. Family members and their not asked for advice when they haven't done any research or reading and know NOTHING about it. My biggest frustration is my husband. Yep I wrote that! He hasn't read anything I have asked him to read, doesn't help me try to figure out solutions or do research on what will work for our daughter. Everything is left to me to do and then he gripes about what I implement. He gripes about the cost of having our kids gluten free...get over it!!!! Their health is more important than the grocery bill and there is improvement with Haven on gluten free. If he had read the information I have given him he would see that is one of the first steps you can take. I was so angry with him griping to his family about it that I lost it at his sister's and told him off in front of family. Not mature I know.
The one thing that has helped me is the Ethiopian Mama's group on facebook. I posted a question about the clothes issues and got great responses and found out about more resources I can go to. I am also going to go back and see our therapist. I need that release and need someone to help me look at new ways of dealing with the SPD, not really dealing with Haven but her SPD. I have stopped thinking about it as Haven being difficult, but instead it is the SPD that is difficult.

Is it Spring Yet?

Yes I know it is almost May, but the Spring weather has not come to Oregon. We had the 5th wettest March in the history books and April hasn't been much better. There have been 3 glorious sunny filled days and the rest have been wet or a tease of sun and then WET.
But being a TRUE Oregonian means you do not let the weather keep you from doing things outside. So the kids and I went off to see the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. We had a wonderful time until the HAIL started and the torrential downpour came. But there was a time for a few pictures.

Easter came and went last weekend. Seems like time is flying by. The kids went with Daddy to an Easter Egg Hunt at Church on Sat. The weather was nice that day so they actually got to hunt outside.

Life has been a little challenging for me lately. Haven has had a little bit of a regression and she is getting very angry at something I wouldn't think would be important and we are having HUGE meltdowns. I was actually embarrassed to be with her yesterday at the store. She was sitting in the grocery cart screaming no at the top of her lungs and swinging to hit me. I still don't know what set her off.  Talk about being stared at!! Not that I'm not used to that already with the family we have. But usually we are noticed for my children's cuteness not appalling behavior. I pulled the cart through the store to get the few things I needed to make dinner, instead of pushing. She screamed the whole time to the point that strangers were telling her to be nice to her Mommy. The check out lady is the one that calmed her down and she actually apologized to me. Her sensory issues with clothes are getting more pronounced, makes getting dressed in the morning very stressful. I'm just cleaning out her clothes and selling them at the big second hand sale this weekend. Everything she won't wear is going away to stop the morning meltdown when she says she wants to wear it, but then freaks out because the pants are capris (she has a thing about having her ankles covered). Time to get the book about sensory issues that was recommended to me by our therapist.
What is so sad is she never acts this way with anyone else, not even her Dad. She does have some meltdowns with him, but not the huge blow ups she has with me. Makes me question my ability to parent her all over again. I know children act differently with their Mothers than Fathers, but still makes me sad. When she is doing well, she is such a joy to be with.

Alec on the other had has seem to come out of his brief period of really bad 2 year old behavior. He was embracing the terrible twos with arms wide open and I was missing my sweet boy, big time. But he has calmed down the last couple of weeks and is a joy to be with again. I am always amazed at his outgoing, friendly behavior. We we first came home he was so tiny, but would say hi to everyone. People thought it was Haven, because he was so small they didn't expect him to talk. He runs into church and shakes everyone's hand saying GOOD MORNING. He also is so outgoing and determined to make new friends. When he sees a new child, he goes over to meet them. He introduces the whole family; Alec, Haven, Mommy, Daddy. He doesn't take no for an answer when a child doesn't want to say hi, he just keeps talking and saying hi to them, until they finally talk back to him. I watch him in awe, as a child, if someone wasn't open to talking to me, it would have hurt my feelings and I would have stopped. Not Alec, he wants to be your friend, you will be his friend. I hope he never looses this trait and I can protect him somehow from having his feelings hurt.

This and That

I have been bad about blogging lately. No excuses just not getting it done. So much has happen since my last post. Haven's party, family pictures, some house projects getting finished, Alec's emergency visit to the Dentist, Haven's late night weekend emergency room visit for her ear, gymnastics classes for the kiddos, preschool acceptance and Dove Adoptions get together this weekend.
At the Dove potluck, I had someone come up to me and said they recognized our family from this blog. This is the second time that has happened to me. Kinda strange and flattering all in one. Originally we started this blog so our families in Canada and Texas could keep up on our adoption journey. Never happened, none of them that I know of read our blog. Oh well, but friends I have made through this journey do and when I look at our traffic we have a follower in Alaska. Kinda cool.
OK I'm done bragging about that, now back to the kids and life.

We had Haven's birthday party at a Gymnastics place in Hillsboro called the Gym-Nest. It was GREAT! She had so much fun and loved the challenging things they did so much that we started gymnastics at the local rec center last week. Alec got to join the class too, thanks to the instructor Jenny. They are loving it. They have to get this whole waiting in line for your turn thing down...but that will come with time (I hope). Since we had a few days of no rain (YES, AMEN, YEAH...it rained almost every day in March) we have been walking to the park to run and play. Haven has been practicing her sloth hanging that she learned in class.

We had family photos taken. I am always impressed how a professional photographer can get great pictures out of kids that won't hold still, don't always look at the camera and some time just won't cooperate. But Amanda did a great job and it was hard to choose what pictures to buy. So many wonderful pictures of our beaut,y Haven and our handsome Alec.

 
We bought some new appliances, ours are 20+ years old and on their last legs. Our new fridge arrived and we had friends and family over to help get it in the door. Our hallway is incredibly narrow, makes moving any furniture a nightmare. My brother-in-law, niece, co-worker and some families friends came over to help. It was so much fun to watch my kids interact on a new level with their 7 year old cousin and our friend's 6 year old sons. They were able to keep up with them and play at their level. They had a great time and keep asking to do it again. Haven called it a party our fridge party.

During spring-break, Alec's face and teeth lost a battle with the kid's cart at Trader Joe's. Still don't know exactly what happened, he was sharing a cart with his sister and I think she tried to turn and he tried to go straight. The cart tipped and tripped him and he hit his mouth hard on the cart. Blood everywhere and luckily no major damage. A chip to his front tooth and on of his teeth was pushed more into the gum. But after an emergency visit to the Dentist, his teeth will be OK. He has such beautiful teeth, I can' bear to see it chipped, but better than loosing a tooth at his age.

A few days later, Haven wakes up with her good ear bleeding. Freaked me out cuz that is the ear with the tube. Our ENT is on vacation for 2 months, so it was off to the ER. Well she charmed everyone on staff and had them eating out of her hand and fawning all over her. She walked out the ER with her hands full of stickers after getting to pick them out herself from the sticker draw. The girl can turn on the charm. She had another infection. Poor thing. But all is well for now.

So excited that Haven and Alec got into the preschool I wanted for them. Alec will be going one day a week and then Haven goes 2 days a week on different days. So they will each get one on one time with me and get time away from their sibling. I am hopeful Haven can handle this without sensory issues, because there is only 10 in the class. But I am also looking at this as an opportunity to see what type of challenges we maybe facing in kindergarten with her sensory issues and figuring out how to deal with them.

Naing and I are taking bets on when Alec will get his first stitches. The boy is a dare devil and is trying bigger and better things in his eyes. Haven and Alec like to hold hands and spin really fast then let go of each other and fall down. Well he took a big face plant and hit hard last week. He was all swollen and sporting a blackened eye. I caught him jumping off of their play kitchen. As I am telling him NOOOO he is so proud of himself that he is yelling " I did it " I did it". I just keep telling myself what my sister told me, active children get hurt, non-active children don't get hurt. And boy is my boy ACTIVE.

The kids helped me plant seeds for our veggies starters. They had a great time doing it and checking "their" seeds daily to see how much they have grown. I might have a gardener yet to help me:) I can always hope!

Today was the Dove Adoptions pot luck. It was a little bittersweet. Our social worker Ryan and his wonderful wife Krista are leaving Dove and moving to Roseburg. Krista is the reason we chose Dove and why we decided to adopt two at once. When we trying to decide what to do and who to go with, she gave me her home number and we talked a long time about the challenges she faced bringing home two non-related children at once. She was so honest and open that I felt like we could trust Dove and chose them.
I will so miss seeing them at the get together. Thank God for Facebook!!

One more thing in closing. I have talked a lot about the difficulty I have had with Haven. But I so love this girl. Now that we have gotten some tools to use with Haven and things have improved so much, I so enjoy her. Her new thing is to come up to me and say, "Mommy lets talk." and then she gives me a subject she wants to talk about. Usually it is about something we just did, like going to the zoo and what we saw while we were there. I am amazed at her intelligence, compassion and beauty daily. I just hope that by sharing our problems, more people that are having difficulty will seek help and talk about it. Rhonda Andrews our bonding therapist is a GOD SEND. She has helped our family so much. Life is good.

3 Years Old

How can it be? Yesterday out little girl turned 3. I am amazed at her beauty and her compassion. She brings a great joy and spirit to our family. Seems like just yesterday we got the email with her picture introducing our daughter to us.                                                                                                                                      

Life with Haven is never dull that is for sure! After being home a year and half life is settling in. We have learned tools to help Haven deal with her sensory issues and life is good! Saturday we are having a party for her and some friends at a gymnastics place. I think I'm more excited about the party than she is and she is very excited! She loves to jump, tumble and hang off things. This should be right up her alley. I also ordered her this adorable gluten, dairy free cake from The Sweetest Thing Cupcakes. I can't wait to see what it looks like. I know it will taste great, they are an amazing bakery in our little town!                                                 

Yesterday we went downtown to have a birthday lunch with Daddy. Then she got to open her big girl present, a comforter and sham for her bed. No more baby blankets she is too tall for them now. She loved her new comforter and kept commenting on how pretty her bed looks now. Daddy brought home flowers for her and we made her favorite thing for dinner, spaghetti! Good day had by all.

Doing her silly face for the camera.



Cheese



Blowing out her candle



Love you baby girl! Here is to many more birthdays!

A little guilty

I don't know how many other people that have spent time in Ethiopia feel, but I feel guilty about buying new things for myself. I fine with buying clothes, books, toys for the kids and even for my husband. (Also, getting my hair done).

But being in Ethiopia changed me. Changed how I look at the world. Changed how I think about the world and the USA. I find myself at times feeling guilty for what I have in my life. My husband and I are not materialistic people. We don't have alot of "things" and we gave up the ability to have "things" to adopt two children internationally. Our house is an average ranch house from the 80s that has multiple unfinished remodeling projects going on. But compared to what so many in the world have, we are RICH.
We have a roof over our head, not made of  tin, it doesn't leak. We have enough food to eat. We have clean water to drink.
There is so much need in the world that it overwhelms me to think of it. We give money to our church for humanitarian needs. We support, Habitat for Humanity, Mercy Corp, Ethiopian Orphan Relief and what they do by donating money. Then someone else introduces a new organization to me and I feel torn. Where will our money be best used and help the most? How can we not help?
A lady at our church, since we adopted from Ethiopia wants us to get involved with a group that raises money for a school for orphans in Liberia. As much as I know there is need, I just feel like I can not handle getting involved in the needs in Liberia. I believe we need to give back to Ethiopia. The country that gave us two amazing children. Help the country where our family was completed.
So I find myself as we are choosing a new fridge to buy, (ours in on its last legs) feeling guilty for spending money on a fridge. Even though we need a new fridge. I haven't been able to shake this feeling since we came home in Sept of 09.
I guess it will help me be a better person and think of others before myself. It will help me teach our children that there is more to life than big screen TVs and video games. It will help me teach them to care for others that are less fortunate and give of themselves.
But I have to admit sometimes I wish I had a little of my old view of the world back. Just some days.

Alec attitude

Wow today was not a stellar day by any means. Started bad at 5:30 AM with Alec up and standing on the railing of his crib and falling backwards onto the mattress (I caught him in the middle of the act) and his sister laughing and saying AGAIN.  Nooooo Not again. He was put in the play in pack in our room and told to go back to sleep. Haven was left in their room and also told to go back to bed it was too early to be up.

Next bad step...Haven flipping off the baby monitor by turning off the power strip. Then she is telling me she didn't do it. "Alec did it". I guess she forgot he got moved into the play in pack.....grrr..

So today we broke down Alec's crib. I'm so not ready for my just turned 2 year old to have that freedom. He is sleeping on his mattress on the floor as I type this.

We have had a really long  week. Naing's car has been in the shop all week. To save the cost of a car rental, I have been getting up early (so have the kids) to take him to the bus stop at 6 in the morning. It has so messed with their schedule and mine. So by Friday we were wiped out. The kids went to be early last night so I thought they would be OK today.  WRONG! Whine, cry, fight, whine, cry, fight...all day long.
By 10 o'clock this morning I had put Haven back to bed for a nap and things got better.

We had an uneventful afternoon. Walked over to the park to play before the rain set it. But the one thing that had not happened all day long was a video. I had taken away their Wiggles video because of their behavior. Alec's in particular. He is in a hitting phase. When he gets mad at Haven or me now he hits. He used to just bite her, guess he has moved out of that phase into a new one now. Ugh!!!!! Nothing like getting slapped in the face by a 2 year old.  Oh but I digress. So we were walking home from the park and he is trying to convince me that we should watch the Wiggles when we get home. Since we just ran them tired in the park, I agreed thinking the whining/fighting had stopped. Shortly into the DVD they wanted a glass of milk.
Haven started to run around with milk still in her mouth (she finds this very amusing). After multiple times of telling her to sit down and swallow her milk before she got up, she got put into time out for not listening.

Well I turned off the TV during time out since we have a time in set up in the living room/dining area. Alec said "Mommy, TV on." I said (as I am holding Haven in time out while she throws a huge fit), "No TV while Haven is in time out and the way she is acting, this time out may go on for awhile.  Alec's 2 year old response, "Oh No we are NEVER going to see the Wiggles." Both Naing and I were laughing so hard. That boy is a Hoot.  Life moved forward, Haven got out of time out and the TV was turned back on to finish the Wiggles DVD.

Dinner was another round of Alec getting mad and throwing his fork on the floor and trying to hit. Bed time was fast approaching with his BAD ATTITUDE.

But now that I look at him sleeping on his new bed on the floor set up, I think Wow you are growing up way too fast for me. Where did my snugly baby boy go? Oh yeah I fed him well and now he wears a size 9 shoe!
As amusing as he is as a 2 year old, I miss my sweet baby boy and having a quieter Saturday.

Here is hoping that tomorrow morning starts better. Not expecting it too, since he will be free to get up and do who knows what.

Do they like.....love each other?

There are days like today that I wonder if my two children even like each other. Some days they are battling from sunup to sundown. Adoption of two non-related children at once is not for the faint of heart. Yes I know biological siblings fight too, I was one of 6. But when I watch them fight, I can't help but wonder, do you not like having a sibling? Are you not happy to have someone else in the family that looks like you, comes from your heritage, has experienced life in an orphanage?

Haven and Alec are in constant competition all day long. Competition for my lap, my attention, toys, the blankets, brushing their teeth, singing a song, reading a book, picking a video....on and on all day long, until they are fighting over who gets to say their prayers first. Lord knows, I have tried to be fair with taking turns, each having their own special time with me, but it never seems like it is enough for them.

Is it because they are too alike in their personal experience? Or is it because they are too different? When I try to talk to people about this, I get told, "oh they are just siblings".  I wonder when or if I will stop analyzing everything as being an adoption/orphanage thing.

Just when I think they will never get along they show support for each other. Alec is potty training and gets M&Ms when he is successful. He always asks if Haven is going to get one too. She always does, just like he always got one when she was potty training.

Haven and I were having a very bad day today. And I was yelling at her, Alec told me "NO yell at Haven". Sunday Alec wanted to watch The Wiggles and I told him not until Haven finishes her breakfast. He went over and started helping her eat. Of course he had an ulterior motive...but it was so sweet. So maybe there is hope that they will work through this competition phase and move one to being each other's best friend and ally.

Here is some proof that they do like each other's company every now and then.




Reading books together.



Alec helping Haven eat, so he can watch  The Wiggles.