It's all about the Sleep

Ethan is most definitely a child that lived in an orphanage for 2+ years. Man oh man, that child can sleep through anything and I mean anything. He and Katie share a room and as I type this I am listening to her over the monitor talk and sing quite loudly and E is sleeping quite soundly; this has been going on over an hour. He even stays asleep if she cries out in the night. He often wakes up after her even though she yells for us to get her in the morning. Katie is a VERY light sleeper on the other hand. Somebody who may close a door five houses down the street can wake our sweet girl - just kidding! Seriously though, she is just like her mama ~ a horrible sleeper. Ethan takes after Daddy who falls asleep in mere seconds each evening while I am typing away and watching TV with the light on. Justin is also in the great sleep category. He began sleeping though the night at 6 weeks old and we had to wake him each morning at 10 am. I am sure dorm and apartment life in a college town only served to help him to block out noise as now that he is home and going to law school he still has no sleep issues; even if the gruesome twosome are banging their new drums right next to his room (see photo)

I would give anything to be like Marc, Justin and Ethan in the sleep category. I think it may be an estrogen vs testosterone thing. At least it seems that way in our house.

Here is a couple of photos of Katie and Ethan in his crib. She and he are always trying to get into each others crib and when they do they scream with happiness as you can see. They also hug and kiss goodnight - every night :)

The Dynamic Duo Rockin the House with their Chanukah Present

Your honor ~ Here is the evidence; our son is just a picky eater!

Chanukah has been filled with tradition and festivities this year. We are so thankful to have our two children home in time to celebrate the holidays with our adult son, Justin, as well as the rest of our family and friends. We have been invited to two Chanukah parties and went to one of them last evening and had a wonderful time. At the party Ethan showed his true colors with regard to his eating issues. His problem may have started out as a sensory issue but it has turned into a behavior issue (Translation ~ He is a VERY PICKY eater ~ )

Above is exhibit A - After one of the party goers doled out these packages of cookies to all of the children and Ethan sampled his ( he totally loved them and begged for more!) he then decided to wait until everyone was otherwise occupied and took every last box of cookies that he could find around the house and stashed them in the bottom of my diaper bag. We came home and discovered his loot while cleaning out the bag. We totally laughed our A**s off :)

Anyway, on the eating front we are making progress. The therapist had already guessed that was once a sensory issue has become a behavioral issue and we are letting him know that he cannot have the food of choice until he eats the others. We are making baby steps with this method and as of his pediatrician appointment on Thursday he had gained just under one pound since we came home.
Here are a few more pics from the last couple of days.

Happy Chanukah!

Here is Katie Starr, Ethan and their friend Mia at the Chanukah Party


Katie Starr and Ethan playing with their pretend food that they received for Chanukah and having a pizza party. `It seems that Ketchup and Mayo are a must have when you eat your pizza...who knew??

Our Cutie Patooties

Sitting among the stuffies

Just Chilling together before bed while they watched the "Goodnight Show"

Some new photos and a quick update

Things are pretty busy in our household these days. I have a feeling that I will be saying that for a that for a long time to come ;-)

Justin is winding up his first semester in law school and he is beginning finals. He is working his rear end off and I will be so happy when this first semester is history and he can see the fruits of his labor.

We had our first session with the one of the therapists that will be helping Ethan with his muscle tone and eating issues. We are also going to be seeing someone who will address his speech and overall development. We are excited about taking these steps to help him and are very optimistic about the future.

On Wednesday we took Ethan to Katie's Music Together Class and he had a blast. He joined in right away and amazed all of the mothers and Miss Sue, Katie's teacher!

Ethan also went to his first FCC Dinner and again had lots of fun running around with all of the children. The next evening we met our good friends Alan and Shannon for dinner with their daughter Mia who is Katie's best friend. More fun for the kiddos.

Finally, Marc had to go out of town for business. His family had some special events over the weekend including and engagement party for Marc's cousin and then a birthday Party for his great Aunt. Family and friends came in from all over the country and the kids and I had an awesome time. I was just sad that Marc could not be there to see his family welcome his children with so much love and happiness.
Katie also got to spend more fun time with my folks but I did not get any pictures of that.

Each day he gets more comfortable and is really doing quite well. He is very mischievous and he and Katie are becoming co conspirators.

Oh and BTW, Two 2 year olds is very labor intensive; I have never been this tired in my whole life (smirk)

Joining in at Music Together with Miss Sue

Ahhhhhhh...this is fun!!

Parachute Time

Drummer Girl

more photos

We love our bath

and a few more....

Heading out to our FCC Dinner to intruce my didi (little brother) Ethan
Hanging out after dinner with my best friend Mimi and brother Ethan
Mmmmmm...nothing like sucking on a baby bottle lollypop after dinner
We are off to see our daddy's family
This is going to be fun

We are still here....

Sorry for the long time between posts but you will have to excuse me as we have 2 year old virtual twins in our home and they are exhausting us to say the least ;-)

Here is an update:

Ethan is settling in quite nicely to life in our crazy household. He is getting stronger every day and happier as well. He is a real love bug. He just eats up our attention and is such a loving little boy. He is quite challenging as well. He still is not eating anything much other than receiving his three bottles daily supplemented with cereal and Pediasure in the mixture. We have tried just about everything to entice him to eat and no go. We will be seeing a Sensory Integration Therapist this week for this problem and he has also qualified for the Early Steps program in our area. Due to his difficult start in life and his feeding issues and failure to thrive he is eligible for in home services with an infant and toddler development specialist as well as a speech therapist. They are rushing us through the system due the urgent nature of his feeding issues. I am proud to report that even with his poor eating that we have been able to put a half of pound on weight on his little body. The people that assessed Ethan felt that his issues were due to under stimulation and neglect and that he would improve very quickly with this type of assistance.

He also is quite sensitive, crying when he cannot continue to do something that he wants to do or something is removed from his grasp. I would guess that since he had virtually nothing before coming to us and has lost so much that he cannot bear to lose anything else. We try our best to be ease his pain. This has been a very challenging aspect to his personality as he cries much more than any child I have ever dealt with. You really have to have a sense of humor sometimes or you would cry as well. Thankfully we do have a sense of humor!! Upon experiencing Ethan’s constant crying in action for days on end Marc relayed the story of a girl that he knew when he was growing up by the name of Cindy Fishman. It seems that Cindy cried over everything and once when they were leaving elementary school at the end of the school day she started crying because she lost her mittens. The teacher made everyone stay after school until the mittens were found and all of his friends thought she was a huge crybaby. Of course now our pet name for Ethan is Fishman. Hey, like I said, you have to do what you need to in order to keep it light. Hopefully Fishman’s …oops I mean Ethan’s crying will ease up soon. Hey, don't flame me; I am just keeping it real ;0)

Ethan loves our Chihuahua, Gabby and just as Katie was, is always in hot pursuit of her. Hopefully he will not kill her with kindness. That brings us to the next subject with is the relationship between the dynamic duo also known as the gruesome twosome depending on the minute of the day that we are parenting them. The already love each other a great deal and at the same time are in fierce competition for everything and anything from one of us to any material item that the other one is even looking at. The green eyes monster has Katie acting in ways that she did not before Ethan. This is Very understandable as her world was rocked and she is sharing time and attention that was all hers before.

There is one front that we have made huge strides in and that is the sleep front. When we first got home Ethan would not go to sleep lying down. He would stand up until he fell asleep and then we could lay him down after. He woke up almost hourly with night terrors and Katie was waking up frequently as well due to the jet lag. We had them in with us for the first few days but that was not working as every time we comforted Ethan then Katie became very jealous and would need the same comforting. Marc put an air mattress in their room for a week or so and little by little they started to improve. Now 2.5 weeks later they go to sleep in their own cribs with no problem and stay asleep until the morning. Ethan now is quite happy to lay down immediately and get ready to go to sleep. They seem very comforted to have each other in the room and Marc is back in our room ;-)

The day before Thanksgiving we received very good news from Ethan's Pediatric Cardiologist He gave him a clean bill of heart health today. It seems that Ethan had an additional heart ailment to the one disclosed but the Doctors in China repaired all of his issues perfectly. The doctor said that the one of the holes in his heart had been enormous and was positioned right by the aorta which is very dangerous. He told me that he must be quite a fighter to have made it through all that he has been up against. This Dr. was absolutely amazing with us and took over an hour to examine, run tests and speak to us in detail about the issues involved. We go back in a year for a follow up but the Doctor felt confident that his heart issues are now non issues :)

We are very gratified to get this news from the Doctor and now we can focus our energies on Ethan’s eating issues and of course working on bringing him up to his chronological age developmentally.

Here are a few cute pics of our kiddos. I will post a few more in a couple of days. I also plan on redesigning the blog in a few days to reflect the changes in our family.

Katie with her friends Mia and Ryan performing for us

Ethan pushing Katie in her doll stroller; too cute :)

Aunt Shirleywith our Dynamic Duo; It was great to see her and Uncle Paul :)

Going for a ride with daddy

We are home!!

I have posted our final post on the travel journal on www.ethansjourneyhome.com so please visit and leave a comment for Ethan. After about a month I will be shutting that site down. I will continue to post on this blog.

See you on the Flip Side!

Well, the time has finally come to go to China and bring home our son. We leave VERY early tomorrow morning and forever day will be Monday, October 29th. We welcome you to follow our journey to Ethan, through China and then home again at:
www.ethansjourneyhome.com

Please send all of your positive energy and hope that Ethan's transition into our family is an easy one for him to make and that Katie Starr accepts him with a loving heart.

A Cautionary Tale

I have heard several stories of our children that have come home from China and have had eyesight issues; enough stories that I decided to make an appointment with a Pediatric Opthamologist appointment for Katie Starr. I was going to make the appointment after our journey to Bring Ethan home but at my Mother's urging I made it before. My Mom had worked for several years for a great one in our area so it really was a no brainer. There were some small signs that made me a bit concerned such as minor squinting, sitting too close to the TV, etc., but I really thought that there were no real issues. I thought that this would be a routine appointment with a clean bill of eye health given at the end. Well, I was very wrong I am quite sorry to say. The good news is that Katie has healthy eyes with no underlying disease. The bad news is that she is nearsighted in both eyes with her left eye being twice as bad as her right as well as having astigmatism in both eyes. She will have to wear glasses all of the time and the Dr. told me that if I had not caught it this early her left eye would have started drifting and become virtually useless thus putting additional strain on the right eye.

The reason that I am sharing this so quickly even though I am in the midst of a packing frenzy and winding up my business is that it is so important to remember that we have virtually no history on our children and that it is up to us to build one where and when we can. The basis in that is a good pediatrician who covers as many bases as possible when you arrive home and then if you see ANY signs at all of a particular health issue please go get your child checked out by a specialist; no matter how small the signs may seem at the time. It may make all the difference in the world in your child's outcome.

Trick or Treat!!

Today was our FCC - South Florida Annual Halloween Bash. We had a full house and great fun was had by all. We had the kiddos trick or treating from table to table and they were soooo adorable. We coached Katie Starr beforehand on the art of trick or treating but somehow it was lost on her as we approached the first table. When the guests at that table gave her a few pieces of candy she gave a couple back..What!!??!! You cannot give candy back on Halloween Katie!! There is a Mommy and Daddy finders fee that must be paid out of your take. That was when I made sure that she did not make that mistake again... ROFL!!! The rest of the afternoon she had at least one lollipop in her mouth at all times; that's my girl :)


Here are a few photos from the day....

Our little Raggedy Ann

With her best friend Mia (Dora the Explorer)

The Beautiful bride Lily from Eggrolls and Chopsticks

Group Shot ~ Some had wandered away by this point

It was a very good day

A taste of Lil Miss Bossy

We affectionately call our Starr "The Boss" as she just loves telling us all what to do. Of course, I could go into the many psychological reasons why this may be the case or maybe it is just in her genes. Never the less, we love "The Boss" and know that soon there will be another little person in our family who she will try to tell what to do. Now that should be VERY interesting ;-)

Here is Katie at her Music Together Class which Marc takes her to weekly. She has been going for well over a year and she is well known for her take charge attitude. All the mommies love Katie and Marc. Katie is totally into her teacher Miss Sue as you can see in the video. At one point you will see that she has to see herself in the viewfinder of the video camera before resuming her duties as class director. Enjoy!!

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Family

Marc's brother Barry, wife Robin and nephew Joshua were in town this weekend. We do not get to see them nearly as much as we would like but the most recent visit was especially fun as we were able to get our children together. Josh is 5 years old and that age difference from 2 year old Katie was a good one for sharing :)

They had fun playing and swimming and we adults had fun catching up.

We hope that we see you guys again VERY soon!!

Cousins Josh and Katie

Brothers (Still boys at heart)

A Plea for Help from My Best Friend Kira

Please read the following story and please find it in your heart to contibute any amount of money that you can (no amount is too small) Kira is a wonderful woman and her family is in desperate need for this young cousin.

Thank you in advance for your consideration,
Lori

Please help Darwin gets his much needed operation.About 3 weeks ago, my cousin's 7 year old son, Darwin Fuentes, was hit by a car on his way to school. The driver was driving under the influence of drugs. Thankfully, he survived the impact, but both his legs suffered many fractures. A cast was placed on both his legs and the family was told that he would recuperate within 8 to 10 weeks. A follow up visit was made to the doctor about 2 weeks later and it turns out that his bones are not healing properly and he would need to be operated on by an orthopedic surgeon in order for his legs to heal properly. They live in Guatemala and unfortunately there is no recourse against the driver nor is there any insurance or public service hospital that would take care of this child. The family has 3 other children to care for and has very low financial resources. The surgery will cost Q.20,000, which is about $3,000 dollars. It was very sad to get a call from my cousin, pleading for me to help them. Please, can you give $5, $10, $20, $50 to Darwin??? THIS CHILD needs this surgery as soon as possible. We thank you in advance for your generosity.

Your Next American Idol?

Here is Katie's rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. You have to listen for the line ~ Up above the world so high ~ She sings up a bubble in the sky ;0) ~ What a Starr!!

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Getting Ready for Little Brother

Making Room for Her Little Brother in the Double Stroller

Hmmmmm; maybe not quite yet :)

We are all getting ready for Ethan and our living room and dining room have turned into the staging area for travel related paraphernalia. We are starting to talk to our Starr daily about her little brother so that hopefully the shock of an instant sibling her own age is not too great. Right now she tells us that she will share with her brother and that she loves him. We cannot wait to see how it all plays out.

We received our itinerary and we will be receiving our sweet boy on 10/29 at 11:30 am. Ten months and one day from the day that we accepted his referral but who's counting..LOL.

I have to admit that I am a bit melancholy as we spend these last few weeks alone with our sweet girl. I know that having Ethan join and complete our family is going to be a wonderful thing for all of us but change can be tough and I know that the first few weeks and months home lots of adjustments will need to be made.

Soon we will be a family of five and as my friend Tammie pointed out I will need to change the name of my blog from Three and a High Chair to something else. How do you all like Diapers and Depends? ;-)

I love this photo of our children

We have TA and CA!!

Thankfully our acronyms are finally complete which means that it is almost time to travel ;0)


We received both earlier this week and have already booked our international travel. Marc, Katie, Nana and I will be departing on 10/25 and arriving back with baby brother in tow on 11/7. Whooooooohooooooooooo!! Here we come baby boy!!!