My Happy Little Guy

Graham is doing great! We went to a pediatric dermatologist at the end of December. She had us try soy formula and Alimentum- a hypoallergenic formula to see if any of Graham's skin issues were caused by a milk protein allergy. We're back on regular formula now because the others didn't help, but she helped us feel better about using mild steroid creams to treat his eczema. She said as long as we are using it only on the rough patches of skin and not the smooth, healthy skin that we are in the clear. So his skin is actually doing much better.

We had his last post adoption visit by our caseworker at the agency today. We will be eligible to finalize his adoption in the courts next month, but the actual court date will probably be sometime in March. It will feel really good for it to be 100% a done deal!

Graham is also doing great with making strides developmentally. He is starting to roll over form his tummy to his back, starting to eat baby cereal and a couple of baby foods, and he's finally started doing a lot better with reaching and grabbing! He is such a happy baby- and so friendly and social. He loves to smile and talk to everyone he meets. Josh and Lillie are still totally smitten with him. Lillie especially loves being his little second mommy. She did get in trouble this week because she tried sneaking him her chocolate milk when I wasn't looking. That day she got a stern warning. Then two days later she fed him some of her cereal, so she lost a lot of privileges that day- no dessert, no TV, no books or stories at bedtime. That girl is sneaky! We need to keep a close eye on her!

My Budding Competitor

This big kid is way into sports and competition right now. My parents kept the kids for us last month while we did a retreat with our new marrieds group that we lead. Josh got to watch two back to back NFL play off games with his Poppy and he has not come back down from the football high. He will get out his little nerf football and act out games in the house- recently the Cowboys, Frogs, and Seahawks played Oklahoma and the "Coats" (Colts) and "Peetriots" (Patriots). Of course Frogs/Cowboys/Seahawks won.

In this picture Josh is holding a lemon slice. Every so often I like to scrub my kitchen floors with lemons. This day after we cleaned we made fresh squeezed lemonade at Josh's request.

Tomorrow Josh gets to take snacks to his preschool class. It's a pretty big deal to bring snack because you get to be the line leader and you get to sit at a special snack table and choose a friend to sit at the special table with you. Josh is bringing veggie straws and marshmallows for his snack. He is beyond excited. While we were counting out marshmallows and putting them into ziplock baggies I started asking Josh how he felt about turning five and getting to go to kindergarten next year. He told me he is sad and scared because you have to go to kindergarten everyday and so he won't have as much time to spend with his family. Awwww. That just broke my heart a little bit. But I think he is really going to love school, so that makes me feel better.

Foot Stamps

Today while some friends were over to play, Lillie disappeared for a few minutes. When I went to find her I found my bathroom covered in baby powder! Lillie was making "foot stamps".