9 months

Christian turned 9 months on Saturday.  I truly cannot believe how fast time has gone.  How in the world is he 9 months old?  He's hardly been a baby...but we're so thankful for him and love him like crazy.

This child has not had it easy, nor has his parents.  I guess that's what "they" say a 2nd child will do to you.  I know things could be a lot worse, he's only had minor health issues, but they just don't stop.  The kid has had multiple ear infections, which led to getting tubes put in at the beginning of January.  A few weeks later he ended up with pink eye, has had the pukes (twice) and colds in between it all too.  He's goopy and slobbery, but full of smiles.  Amazingly, through it all, he's a pretty happy kid.  We are ready for spring & summer to get here in hopes to calming down the poor kids body.  He's also teething, which makes it all lovely.  He has 6 teeth, there are more that are visible through the gums, he's almost ready for a steak!

Christian had his 9 month appointment on Wednesday.  He weighed in at 23 lbs & 15 oz (92%).  (Which is less than what he weighed when he went in for pink eye...they would probably just say, oh, it was a different scale...)  He is 31 (2' 7") inches long (100%).  When comparing to Jacob, Jacob was 31 inches tall at 18 months and was 25 lbs 5 oz at 24 months.  Christian is a lug to carry around and no wonder!

He loves to be chased when crawling - and laughs hysterically, eats a lot (I hear boys never stop eating), waves bye-bye, really enjoys listening and looking at books, says mamamamama and dadadadada.  He goes to sleep at home super easily at nap and bed time.  He's still attached to his little snugly burp cloth with his pacifier when he goes to sleep.  I sing him his song I made up for him two times and put him in his crib and off he goes.

Christian is a blessing from God and we are so blessed to be his parents.  We have the privilege of washing his bottles, changing his diapers, singing to him, getting goobered on, comforting him when those pesky teeth are bothering him and hopefully raising him to love the Lord our God with all his heart, soul, strength & mind.  We try not to take each day for granted, although there are times when we need breaks to get rejuvenated so that we can be better parents.

Oh, and I'll give a shout out to Jacob who turned 4 1/2 today or tomorrow of somewhere between 10 pm tonight and 2 am tomorrow...the kid gets jipped of his half birthday!

Pardon the poor quality pictures...originally I was going to skip posting any pictures, but I decided to post some from my phone.

7 months old & adoption is finalized!

Christian James Breen is 7 months old as of yesterday.  As of today he has been in our home for 7 months and legally a part of our family!  We had finalization today as my previous post stated.  It was a day filled with lots of joy!

A quick look at his stats.  He is still in the 100th percentile for height and weight - 30 inches long/tall and 23 lbs and 14 oz.  He wears mainly size 18 months clothes.  He is getting a lot more mobile - rolling across the room, spinning around on his belly, reaching and pulling to get what he wants.  He has a strong grip, loves necklaces, glasses, strings on sweatshirts and ties.  He still has 2 teeth, but we can see 6 bulging in his gums.  All Christian's parents want for Christmas are his two front teeth!  He eats many veggies and fruits and cereal, I have yet to buy any pre-made baby food (other than the cereal). Christian sits up very well, as opposed to a month ago when he was quite tipsy!  Christian loves to kick his legs, or slam them down, when laying on his back, he lifts his legs and slams them down together - on the changing table, bath tub...monster splashes.  He is also now doing essentially the same thing with his upper body in the high chair or while sitting on your lap.  Christian is a strong boy.  He has had his 4th ear infection that was just diagnosed on Friday - 5th antibiotic.  He is scheduled to get tubes in his ears on January 4.  We're told we'll have a whole new baby.  I like his smiles, so I hope they don't take those away.  But the poor baby, it's hard to see him in pain.

Here are some images captured from today.  It was a very brief hearing, the boys did great!

We are so very thankful that our attorney was able to get us on the schedule for today and really that the court room & clerk of court was open today, the rest of the court house was not.  This was the only day that we could have finalized in this year.  This means that we should get most of our adoption tax credit stuff on our 2012 taxes and we get to claim a 2nd kid!  In the adoption world, this is huge to get the adoption tax credit.

We are also thankful to our families and friends for supporting us through this adoption roller coaster.  But what we know is that the roller coaster isn't over.  There are growing pains along the way, so we ask for continued prayer on our family.  We know that life is not easy and parenting is a very tough calling, but we see God's hand at work and trust in Him to give us the knowledge and wisdom to deal with what's ahead.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Finalization!

Hello trusty followers!

This morning we rejoiced in the finalization of Christian James Breen's adoption!  A beautiful gift to us from our Father above.  Of course, this means the months of posts that I haven't published can now be published. However, not so fast.  We're busy, busy, busy (as the Thomas song sings in the background) around our house as some of you know about the devastation that happened in our house earlier this week.  My trusty dad and husband are off buying a new washer and dryer for our house so that hopefully we don't have a flooded home any time again soon  ever.

So, I can't promise I'll do it today, but I'll sure try! :)  We're excited to show off our pride and joy!

Thank you for following us on our adoption journey, we know that however all paperwork is complete and the actual adoption process is complete, the journey of adoption never ends.  There are growing pains along the way, so we ask that you continue to pray for our family as we seek God's will in how to raise our boys.

Merry Christmas!

6 months

Christian turned 6 months old the day after Thanksgiving.  He's been really into playing on his tummy and sitting up better with some support.  He has shown some signs up moving his legs up into the "crawling" position...it's only a matter of time!  Christian's 6 month appointment isn't for another week and half but last week he had a double ear infection and he weight 22 lbs and 10 oz.  We moved him out of his infant carrier the beginning of November.  That has proved to be challenging at times - as he can't sit completely on his own!  My first experience grocery shopping was less than desirable with him out of the carrier with two kids "free"!  I don't think I've done it since!

Christian had his first taste of beans.  Let's just say he did not like them on his first feeding, but he kept on eating them.  Finally, as he was gagging, I said enough!  :)  But tonight, at his 2nd feeding of them he tolerated them much better!  He also had his first taste of bananas at breakfast.  He did okay with them, not great - tomorrow we'll try again!

I'm giving a shot at making our own baby food.  It's been easy so far - a little time consuming, but not bad.  and WAY cheaper.  I had no background knowledge at all - so through pinterest, goodle, facebook and asking around I'm figuring it out.  I wish we had a deep freeze however.  I like to make meals and freeze them, but with my garden harvest, meals, regular freezer food and baby food in the freezer we're getting tight in there.

Most people describe Christian as a happy baby.  The past 3 days have not been that.  He's been fussy, unpredictable and needy.  Is he over his ear infection, is he teething....we can't keep him happy.  Hoping he's back to his normal self soon!

So, you remember the whole 180 days thing that a child in Iowa has to be in the adoptive families home before the child is legally theirs?  Well, that ended on Monday, the 19th...the day I celebrated by getting a root canal.  ICK.  We've had our 6 month post placement visit with our social worker, submitted our post placement information and are awaiting a court date and all necessary paperwork to get passed between our attorney's office and the adoption agency.  Once again, it's a waiting game, it's out of our control.  We are hoping & praying that we can finalize in December.  There is adoption tax credit money that we would like to secure this year.  If we don't finalize in 2012, then who knows what the government will decide about the tax credit in 2013.  We'd also just like to be done with this aspect of adoption.

5 months old

October 23, Christian is 5 months old.  I think he has now gone a month where we won't put him in a larger clothing or diaper size!  He's hit his plateau.  I don't think he's grown too much, but he has changed.  Christian had his first taste of cereal and seems to like it!  He cut two teeth the day after he turned 4 months. He hasn't shown signs of any more teeth yet.

Christian loves his bath!  He is a huge leg stomper when laying in his crib, on the changing table or in the bath.  He creates large splashes and just laughs!

4 months old

Sunday, September 23, Christian is 4 months old.

At his 4 month appointment Christian had an ear infection.  We had no clue!  He had a low grade temp at the dr. office and sure enough.  So immunizations didn't happen that day.  He weighed in at 21 lbs and 5 oz. and was 27.5 inches long.  100th percentile across the board.  He's a big boy, that's what everyone says.  Pretty much everyone says that he's going to be a football player...how come that's what everyone says and not "he's going to be an account or preacher or plumber or teacher...whatever his talents are we hope that we can develop his gifts and encourage him and support him in all he does.

Whatever the case may be, he's wearing 12 month clothes (some 9 months, maybe an occasional 6 month if it's "big"), wearing size 3 diapers.  He eats a lot and sleeps well at night, but not good naps.

Christian likes to go for stroller rides, watching Jacob, reading books and smiling.

crisp, fall air at the apple orchard

We have not fallen off the face of the earth, even though at times it has totally felt like it the past 3 months being away from the blog!

I had been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with secret posts that I would publish after finalization, but that hasn't happened either.  Hope I can catch that up.

Last Saturday the family ventured to an orchard near Sioux Falls for some apple picking fun.  Last year we missed out on the picking as the trees has been picked out.  We didn't want to miss out this year, so we headed up earlier.  It was a fabulous fall day, crisp air in the morning that turned warm in the afternoon.  We picked 2 bags - the Haralred variety and the Cortland (my favorite apart from the Honey Crisp which wasn't ready yet).  We've enjoyed lots of apples during snacks and meal times this week as well as an apple pie.

It was a great day other than the fact that "Stompy" is lost in the orchard.  "Stompy" is a dinosaur that Jacob wanted to take along.  I agreed reluctantly, knowing his "drop things and have no clue where they are" history...well..."Stompy" is there.  He's quite sad about it, so DO NOT bring it up to Jacob.  He was super sad about it at breakfast this morning - over a week later.  SIGH.  Poor Stompy.

Stompy enjoying his ride out to the orchard... 

 Stompy's territory.  If you can find this location back at the Orchard, it's got to be where he's at!!!  The 2nd to last row of Haralred's at the edge of that part of the orchard, near a tree that had a very low branch...see picture below - low enough for Jacob to pick at his height!  

So, so precious!

I want to draw your attention to a picture that was taken back in October 2009...Jacob was 14 months old. He wearing the same overalls that Christian is wearing in the photo above...at 3 months!  Yes yes, my baby is wearing 9-12 month clothes at 3 months old! sniff, sniff.

Hopefully it will not be another 3 months before the next post.  But, no promises!