Making Progress

Just a quick little update on Chloe's adjustment to daycare. Monday was every bit as traumatic as last week with a little, "Hey, I thought that was just a one week deal thrown in" thrown in there. Then yesterday I dropped her off and while she was sobbing quite hard, I could tell she was a little excited to see her friend Vivi. Then when I picked her up, Miss Pat told me that she had turned a corner and hadn't cried when other moms picked up their kids or when she went down for a nap. She was still crying slightly when she saw me and saying, "Momma" over and over like she wasn't quite sure I was coming to get her. So, it seems like she's adjusting. She is really so resilient and happy, just an amazing little spirit she has.

Here's the 3 cuddled up watching TV.

Here's Chloe having her first tea party with Momma and the dolls.

Here are a couple pictures of Chloe with her Aunts. Auntie Missy has two boys and Aunt Shawna has one, so they are glad to now have a niece to share all that girly stuff with.

Chloe Jabbering

Make sure to pause the music at the bottom before pressing play.

Chloe was a little more upset to be dropped off on Thursday than she had been on Wednesday. Miss Pat says it will get worse before it gets better. Then throughout the day she was fine except for pick up time. It gets her all upset when other mommies come. She kept asking for Jake. Then when I got there she burst into tears and fell into my arms. Another mom had just come and gone and she was trying to not cry and seeing me just made her fall to pieces. She had only slept for 45 minutes and ate a banana and a bunch of cereal when she got home so I think she was hungry and tired. I rocked her to sleep at 7:00 and she is still sleeping.

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Wyatt's First Year

Oh, Wyatt and Jake do not like that the beautiful girl music is playing while their pictures are up. They want everyone to know they are NOT girls. He he.

My Baby Wyatt

What a little pumpkin he is. Here he is when he was born. His hair was so thick, black and curly that when Justin came back from watching his bath he said, "That baby looks like Ernie from Sesame Street." Wyatt loves that story. Wyatt was only a few weeks old when the presidential election came along. I was one of the few people who really got to experience how confused the media was about whether Bush or Gore won. Each time I got up to feed Wyatt I'd go back to bed and tell Justin who the current winner was. I'll never forget that.

Here's Wyatt when he was 3 months old on his first Christmas. He was an easy baby and really just liked to be held all the time. He did has a little reflux and I had to keep him upright for 40 minutes after nursing him. Fun, fun!

Here's Wyatt when he was 4 months old. He was just sitting there happy as a clam and just drifted off. Here's Wyatt at 4 months. I loved this smiley stage. Wyatt has the cutest little dimple and I always tell him that that dimple has gotten him out of a lot of trouble over the years.Here he is at 6 months. I love how fat his little face looks in that car seat. Here he is at 7 months. He was crawling around and such a happy little guy. He's already had a hair cut because he had the craziest hair:Here's Wyatt at 8 months. What a face!Here's Wyatt at 11 months. I had just gone back to work. That was a hard time for me, but Wyatt did great. This covered with food look is one that Wyatt still frequently sports. For a long time the sensation of something sticky on his hands made him need to rub his hand in his hair. Here's Wyatt when he turned one. At this point we had a 1 year old and a two year old. That was a very busy time. Wyatt didn't start walking until he was 14 months old because I think he had a very reasonable fear of being knocked over by his big brother. He was rapidly learning to talk and named his blanket, "Cuddly" because when I would hold him and him blanket I would say, "OH, cuddly boy." He thought I was talking about the blanket and the name stuck. Of course when he said it it came out "Cully."

Big Brothers Can Make it all Okay!

Today I had a meeting after school and instead of having Jake go to the babysitter who watches school age kids after school, I dropped him at Chloe's babysitter. He was excited to go because it's where he was from 3-6 and I think he misses it a little. When I picked then up Pat said that Chloe had a great day, slept for over two hours and was so happy to see Jake. She didn't cry when other moms picked up their kids because Jake was with her. So cute. Here's a picture of Chloe that Jake took today. She's crying because he won't give her the camera.

Here's the boys before school. Today the entire school went to Medieval Times as the final celebration of our big yearly reading event.

Jake's Post - Birth to Age 1

Here we are on the amazing day that Jacob Jewel Bucy was born. He weighed 8 pounds and ounces and had a smooth little old man head of black hair. It is only because I feel so much joy about that day that I am posting such a hideous picture of myself. I don't know what I was thinking, but in my eagerness to have a healthy pregnancy, I didn't highlight my hair. That was a huge mistake that I didn't repeat when pregnant with Wyatt. I couldn't sleep the entire night that Jake was born. I just kept staring at him and marveling at the fact that he actually came out of my body.

Here is the picture we used to announce the birth of our number one son. What a beautiful baby boy.

This is one of my favorites. Jake's Auntie Missy took this picture of him and I added the little loin cloth before scanning it in.

Here's Jake at 4 months. Here's the little pumpkin's first Christmas. He was 7 months old and was crawling like crazy.

Here's Jake at 10 months showing us his "Sooooo big!" He was walking already at this age and said his first word, "Hi." This was his only word for some time but he used it well. He loved to say, "Hi" to everyone. One night sleeping at Grandma's he was heard saying it in his sleep. His eyes are still blue in this picture but turned green right around his first birthday.
Here's my boy at 1 year old. He was a walking, running, climbing little crazy man and so much fun. I was 4 months pregnant when Jake turned 1. Wow, that seems crazy now!

The Big Bad Day Came and Went

Well, I'm glad it's over!

Chloe cried when I dropped her off and my day went slowly and painfully. My good friend and fellow teacher is mom to one of the 3 other kids at daycare and she picked him up at noon and said Chloe was playing and happy. I found out later that she cried when another mom came and picked up her son right before me but other than that she did great. She ate very little and only slept 45 minutes, but played and was happy most of the day. She spent the afternoon walking hand in hand with another little girl. How cute is that!

When I picked her up she was so happy and ran over to me and kept looking back at Pat and saying, Mo-ee. She was so happy to see me. When we left she started naming everybody in the family and was so happy to see the boys. She was her usual happy self but didn't want to me to lay her down at bedtime. Justin really wanted to put her to bed, but she would not let me put her down. But, with only a 45 minute nap she was wiped out and couldn't fight sleep for very long.

Justin got home at 6:00 and had to leave at 6:15 to take Wyatt to basketball. Chloe started saying "co" and tried to reach her coat to go with them. Then she said, "No go." She was fine when they left, but Justin had to go to basketball with a broken heart.

On another front, I asked my boss if I can work part-time next year and she said yes. It will most likely be part-time kindergarten in the afternoons. I asked for afternoons because that is when Chloe will be sleeping.

Tomorrow and Thursday I'll post the Jake and Wyatt posts that I did awhile back. It's mostly pictures and mostly family that will be interested. Then on Friday I have a fun little Chloe post. You'll need to go to the bottom of the blog and pause the Beautiful Girl song before you click "play" on the new post.

Sorry, no picture today. It was a very busy day!

3 Months and 2 days Home - Back to Work Tomorrow

We had these taken today. I like the candid I get of her at home better. She has so much personality.

We arrived home 3 months ago today. Here is a picture from the first morning that Chloe woke up in her new home:

And here's one from today. Chloe had just gotten up from her nap and was coloring. In the process of my picture taking she worked her way up onto the table and in this picture is telling me with surprise that the light is "hot." Don't worry, it was just warm. No babies were harmed in the taking of this picture.
I can't believe I go back to work tomorrow. I will be counting the days until spring break (see the bottom of the blog) and then summer.

She's a Beautiful Girl

Her face is a map of the world
Is a map of the world
You can see she's a beautiful girl
She's a beautiful girl
Everything around her is a silver pool of light
People who surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm
She holds you captivated in her palm

This song plays non-stop on the radio and totally makes me think of Chloe

Also, thank you to Aunt Kris and Krysta for the adorable outfit Chloe's wearing. It fits but is big enough that it will fit for a while. We all love it!

Here's the men hanging out:

Winter

I hate winter. This makes living in the Midwest so much fun! But, the snow actually makes the cold so much more fun for the boys. Between the snow and cold that has been so unrelenting it looks like Narnia around here. Here's a few pictures. The boys love the snow and will play outside for hours. They particularly like the cool things the ice does. These are things I would never even notice if it weren't for them. Chloe is still an indoor baby. I'll let her out next winter.

Happy Valentine's Day

How cute is this little strawberry outfit. She was the hit at school. Below are all three kids. I know Chloe and Wyatt have their eyes closed, but I thought it was good to see how she compares to them in height. I'm sure she's grown but she is still a little peanut. The boys were happy with the red t-shirts I found them. Wyatt was slightly appalled when I told him I used to make him where a red shirt that says, "My Mommy Loves Me."
We went out to eat at Max and Ermas. At one point the boys walked over to look at something and Chloe did not want them to leave so she started calling for Wyatt and worked up to the loudest yell we have ever heard from her. It was a screechy little, "Wyyyyyaaaaat." She wants them with her at all times. If we're all sitting on the couch and one of them goes to play o the floor she'll call them back over and then pat the couch for them to sit back down next to her. It is very cute.
Chloe was afraid of this statue that the boys insisted on being photographed with. Jake's exact request was, "Mommy, take our picture with the naked indian."

Snow Day - 3 Months since Adoption Day

Most years we don't have any snow days or maybe just one. Today is our second snow day of the year. These are added back on to the end of the year. This is annoying to me because now two days of my leave have been days off and I'll have two more days to leave Chloe in daycare at the end of the year. I'm completely stressing about going back to work a week from today.

Here's Chloe in her, "My Dad Rocks" shirt. Thanks Dave and Kristen!

What do you do when you live in the midwest and have restless kids in the winter? Hang swings and monkey bars in the basement! Here's Chloe in the newest addition to the crazy basement.

Welcome Home Daddy

We were all so happy to have Justin home. The kids were just excited to see him but I was falling on the floor thankful to have my partner in this whole parenting thing return. I could never do this alone. Not working doesn't even help that much because the really hard part starts when the boys get home and the homework, dinner, bath and bedtime is here. Even when Justin's working a lot he comes home to help with bath and bed and then goes back to work. I know lots of women who have 3 or more kids and their husbands travel a lot. I have a whole knew respect for them. They are heroes and I'm a big baby because I was soooooo glad he was back.

Yesterday marked 12 weeks since Chloe came home. This week she will go to the baby sitters for an hour on Tuesday, 2 hours on Wednesday and 3 hours on Thursday so I can get my hair done for the first time since before we left to get Chloe. I'm not sure if I put this in my last post, but she went for one hour this past week and id great. She has changed so much and is really talking like crazy. She's has at least 30 - 35 words and I'm losing track. I thought I'd keep track until she was at 100 words, but I don't know how I'll do that when I'm back at work. She's putting 2 words together quite a bot now, "No, doggie, hi baby, that's Daddy."

Oh Mo-eeee

When you read about my last 24 hours you'll know why Daddy didn't get more pictures. The boys both had friends over after school and it was just like you'd imagine it would be with four 6-7 year old boys in the house. After they left we scrambled around finishing homework and getting everyone to bed. I collapsed and went to sleep. Chloe woke up at 12:30 yelling, "Mo-eee." She leaves out the middle /m/ sound. So I patted her back to sleep and then she woke again at 2:30 yelling, "oh, oh, oh." This is how she says no and was shaking her head to go along with it. I rocked her back to sleep even though she was very annoyed that I said the milk was gone when she started pointing to the place I set it. Then Wyatt woke up at 3:30 and was scared so I layed with him unti he fell back asleep. The boys woke me up at 6:30 when my alarm didn't go off.

So, I thought I was all readty for the day. I was very proud that I remembered that today was pajama day and I have the boys jammies all ready for them. I was still in my own jammies when I woke Chloe up and we went to take the boys into school. As they walked in I noticed no one else was wearing pajamas. So, I called the office and found out that pajama day is next Thursday. Ahhhhh! They were in school in Superman Jammies! I quickly called Jake's teacher and asked her to send him back out to the car. I couldn't go in and get them because I also had may pajamas on. She said he was crounched in the hall covering his pajamas with his coat and she would send him out. I didn't even have to call Wyatt's teacher as he was back at the door in second with a scowl on his face and yelled to the car, "Mommy, it's not pajama day." So they both got back in the car and we raced home and they quickly changed. Jake asked, "Could this day get any worse." I (still in my pajamas) drove back to school and dropped Jake off at the back door and he got in fine. I took Wyatt to his classroom door to find out the class was gone. Now, I had to drive to the front to get Wyatt into school. I sneak up with him while looking out to see whose going to see me bringing him late in my pajamas. I saw a PTO mom and asked if she could walk him down to find his class. She says she's there taking pictures of the teachers with clown hair and noses for the family dance (it'a a circus theme) and she'll take Wyatt down but first I have to pose with the hair and the nose for a picture. I'm thinking I look ridiculous enough and who needs the clown nose, but whatever. I throw it on and pose quickly and she walks him down. Did I mention that my pajamas consist of Justin's t-shirt and some capri jogging pants with open heeled gym shoes and no socks.

Let's hope the day gets less interesting.