On the Mend...

Daniel is such a trooper. As if he hasn't been subjected to enough medically already, he flew through pneumonia with flying colors. He's still currently on the nebulizer meds twice a day, but he finished his oral antibiotic Monday and he looks and feels much better. He still has a leftover cough, but I am no longer following him around with tissues to blow his nose.

Granny (Troy's mom) came up on Saturday afternoon and took over playing with Daniel and then spent the night and played with him until noon Sunday. I was so grateful to her for the much needed break. There's only so many indoor activities and we had been couped in the house, besides the doctor visits, since the past Tuesday evening. Granny even brought her Cricut and I got to sit at the table and cut things out for scrapbooking for over an hour. Thank you Granny!!

Monday morning we finally ventured out to meet a family, who lives within about half an hour of us, who had adopted a little boy from Russia about 5 months ago. We had a wonderful visit, sharing photos and talking about our experiences while the boys played. They played parrallel to each other inside the house, but once we let them outdoors with a couple of tricycles, they had a blast following each other around. Boys just love to be outside!! I had such a nice time and we are hoping to get together again soon to get the boys some more outdoor action at a nearby park. It's so wonderful to be able to meet fellow adoptive parents!

Today he went back to daycare and he immediately started hugging the other children, especially the little girls, two blonds in fact. Oh my, heartbreaker city!

Here are a couple of photos of Daniel and Will (his new Russian friend)!

Daniel - Updated

Thank you all so much for your prayers - they were answered!! Daniel was breathing much better this morning and playing and talking. We went to the doctor at noon and they listened to his lungs. The doctor said he could hear the air moving in the lungs now and they prescribed the oral antibiotics and asked that we keep him on the nebulizer three times a day through the weekend (but I don't have to do it through the night like last night!) and then morning and night only through all of next week. No fever today either - Praise God!

I was so happy to get this news and Daniel seems much better!! He's snoring in his bed right now!

Prayers Please

Daniel was diagnosed this morning with pneumonia and chest xrays confirmed it. He had been coughing recently but the pediatrician thought it was allergies and we tried allergy medications first. Since that wasn't working, we had a very long morning at the doctors office. I picked him up from day care yesterday afternoon with a 101.5 fever. We made it through the night, but this morning went staright to the pediatrician. They gave him two very large antibiotic shots that really hurt and they said his legs may be sore a while. He cried and cried and held onto me for the longest time. Normally he bounces right back after a shot and will even laugh when I tell him all done. Not this time. I felt so bad for him. They also did a nebulizer treatment while we were there and we had to pick up a nebulizer machine on the way home to help him get the medicine he needs to open his airways. We have to help him breathe with the nebulizer every 4 to 6 hours and we go back tomorrow at noon for the doctor to listen to his lungs again. If they don't sound any better it will be another round of the shots. If he does sound better they can start an oral antibiotic which would make me very happy.

At any rate, please pray he heals quickly - thank you.

My Little Winker

It seems Daniel inherited a pretty darn good sense of humor. Of course we like to think it's from us, but we do think that living with us is really bringing it out. Those who know us best have seen Troy and I be pretty silly together and do some pretty silly stuff. Even alone left to our devices have we have been known to end up in kitchen sprayer water fights, or my personal favorite, moving through the kitchen by mean of countertops and whatever else to not touch the floor or it's a free for all step on each others toes (ridiculous right?!).

I am especially known to wink a lot when I'm being silly and especially if I'm asking Daniel if he's being silly. Well, at dinner the other day we were finshing up and I asked Daniel if his belly was full. He thought a moment, the eyes crinkled and he said all silly, "Nooooooooo!" I said "What?!" and he followed with "Ice Cream" and I replied with "Are you just being silly?"

And what followed had Troy and I in stitches for the longest time.

Daniel answered with another silly "Nooooo!" followed by the silliest giggle ever and a big wink right at me!!!!! (He got the ice cream for that!)

I, of course, grabbed out the camera and asked him to do it again once down from the table to be sure we hadn't imagined it and we sure didn't...

In other news, well there isn't any. The weather has been yucky, I mean really this (see below) on March 13th? Today isn't much better, but at least it's rain. I can't wait for spring and summer!

The Joys of "Why Not?"

I know I've mentioned before that Daniel's speech is just exploding. Not only is he piecing together 2-5 word sentences (yes, 5 words! as in "Look at the cranes Mama" which we see on the way to daycare in the morning), but he also asking questions. In fact I finally got to say something I heard many times as a child and always wanted to say myself. Read on...

We were in the kitchen and I was pulling plates. Daniel says to me, "Go downstairs Mama." I asked him "Why?" and he answers with "Papa's tools downstairs Mama." Troy has a stash of kid friendly tools that Daniel plays with while he works with his tools. I turn around and say "We're not going downstairs to play tools right now, but maybe later." I turn back around and I hear Daniel innocently ask "Why not?" I was so surprised that I turned back around and said ever so sweetly "Because I said so!!"

Most mornings we have the funniest rides to daycare. Daniel babbles non-stop in the backseat. Our trips are basically all about spotting "yellow school buses", "motorcylces", "big trucks", "work trucks", and "jeeps", among various other toddler talks. Well this morning in the middle of counting three "yellow school buses" at a stoplight, I hear "Jeep, jeep, where are you?" in a sing songy voice and Daniel is holding his hands out in a where jesture. It was quite amusing!

He also let on that he knew his ABCs, something I have been trying to get him to sing since forever! A week or so ago I was singing them and I stopped at "l, m, n, o" and he yelled out "p", so I had an idea that it was sticking with him, but whenever I tried to get him to sing, he just sang something else. Well, this morning, I heard almost the entire alphabet coming out of his mouth and it was so sweet!

I've also heard him sing the clean up song, the dragon tales (one of my personal favorites) song and he sings the made up "School day" song I sing on the mornings he has school.

In other news Daniel is growing way too fast for me. I am more often than not finding myself packing away clothes that don't fit him anymore. Just this morning I dressed him in 2T pants (that don't fall off his waist anymore) and a 3T shirt!! A 3T shirt - I can't believe it. We put some summer clothes on him this weekend because we had gorgeous weather and the 24 month shirt was too short for him!! Part of me is thrilled that he is growing so tall and getting so big and the other part wants him to stay little!!

This is a picture of Daniel taken just this morning wearing his 3T shirt! (Ignore my mess in the background!)

Also the daycare asked me to bring in several photos of Daniel because he is the Twos Shooting Star for a few weeks. He even has his own bulletin board, which of course I had to take a photo of!!

Lastly, it was one year ago today that we met Daniel for the first time!!! I will never forget the moment he walked around the corner into the office holding the caregiver's hand, who I have no recollection of even looking at because I was so intent on my son!!

Snow Day, Birthday, Date day...

This past weekend was a wonderful weekend! On Saturday Troy and I took Daniel to his Granny's and Grandpa's for the day. Actually we met Granny at a Burger King that's in the middle of where we live (about and hour and a half a way). There I met up with an old, really good friend from high school, completely by accident. It was great as Daniel played with her children and we caught up for about an hour. Then Granny took Daniel to her house for the day and Troy and I had our first date since we've been home, almost a year ago!!

I have to admit I was a little nervous about sending Daniel off for the day. I can't imagine anyone better to take care of him than his own family, but it was hard watching him drive away. He's been watched by Granny before and my mother also, but it's usually so I can work or go to a doctor's appointment or something that has to done, not just so Troy and I can goof off and it's normally at our own house. Well, Granny had brought the "big truck" and Daniel didn't give us a backwards glance!!

Troy then took me to a movie (we saw Twilight, very good) and to dinner at the Olive Garden – yummy!! He also took me shopping and let me buy a new sweater and a new shirt for my birthday (which was the next day – Sunday). Last year I was so sick on my birthday and we were trying to plan our trip to Russia that my birthday was the last thing I cared about. This year was a nice change!!

When we picked Daniel up around 8:30 that night he jumped into my arms and then to Papa's but you could tell he had had a fantastic time with Granny and Grandpa. Plus, he managed to come home with three new shirts, a package of socks, a new hat and a new motorcycle toy! Can we say spoiled by Granny?!?!?!

It started to snow on Sunday and by Monday morning we had about 8 to 9 inches of snow! I was excited because we had yet to have a good enough snow to really play in. I bundled Daniel up like we were in Russia and we had a great time. We tried a snow angel but Daniel was more thrilled with riding the 4-wheeler and spinning circles with Papa. I was a little worried, but Troy held tight and my fearless son held on and loved every minute of it!!

So, pictures to follow of our great weekend.