Sentiments

How sentimental are you going to be?  There are certain things of Camden's that I saved, like first outfit, first birthday outfit. But with Dasha I was curious what you have saved.  I have her Family Day outfit, but not sure what else keep.  I am purging, trying to declutter our house!  Your input would be greatly appreciated!

Finally got the Question

When we are out an about we always pass the hospital where Camden was born since it sits right next to the highway.  Yesterday we were driving by and Camden yells, "That's were I was born where I came out of mom's tummy!"  I said, "yep."  Then he was quiet for a few minutes, and if you know Camden, quiet means that he is really thinking about something, the kid is ALWAYS talking.  Then he said, "Mom, Dasha wasn't in your tummy was she?"  I said, "No."  Then waited to see where he would go.

He then thought some more, "Well, who's tummy was Dasha in?"
Me: "Her birth mom's tummy."
C: "Well why didn't her birth mom keep her?"
Me: "Well Dasha was sick when she was born and her birth mom couldn't take care of her, so she decided to let us take care of her."
C: "So that's why we went to Russia?"
Me: "yep."
C: "OK!, Can we go back to Russia?  I want to stay in our apartment!"

Not too shabby for our first adoption related conversation!  Now don't get me wrong we talk about Russia all the time, but this is the first time that Camden really understood that something was really different about how Dasha joined us.

Hope you all are enjoying your Olympics, we now have two teams to cheer for!

Bad blogger! Shame on Me!

No we did not drop off the face of the planet, though at times it feels like the earth is burning up it is SOOO hot outside right now!  We have kept busy and we are trying to survive this summer and praying for rain and fall so soon! 

So on to the updates!  Camden is in soccer and he loves it!  He enjoys going every week and has a blast.  The teachers are so good with all the kids and he just loves getting out there and playing!

Dasha started dance/gymnastics at the beginning of the month.  The class is divided into two parts 30 minutes dance, 30 minutes gymnastics.  The dance part is not so great, Dasha just stands there and stares, she is not a dancer, but she LOVES the gymnastics part.  She jumps into the foam pits, climbs, does her somersaults, jumping on the trampoline!  We were also able to escape down to the lake for 5 days and meet up with our adoption small group at the lake for a fun weekend together!

Also the biggest news is that last Saturday Randy finished his 1 year contract with the hospital and he was able to go per-diem and how he only works 4 days a week instead of 5!  Wahoo!!!  1 more day at home is going to be awesome!

Also I finished my first college class in almost 10 years, Algebra and I got an A!  Next semester it is Anatomy and then I can apply for my program next February!  Camden has been enjoying summer school and he got moved up to the older class as he is all caught up.  He loves his new class.  I also had a conference with Dasha's teacher for her in the fall and we got a plan laid out for her. 

Also we are starting our 6 month follow-ups on almost all our appts.  So we will be visiting the audiologist, the nephrologist, the oncologist, the dentist.  So the next month is going to be busy!

Below are the pictures from our retreat weekend with our small group.

Summer so far

I don't know about you all but we are in the middle of one of the worst droughts in about 30 years here.  It is so hot and dry.  We have tried to be out and about, and we did swimming lessons, played in the sprinklers, and the kids and I went to the lake.  Hope you enjoy!  The pictures of Dasha's swimming lessons were taken by Camden.  I think he did a very good job!

 Trying to eat the water!

 Camden floating

 Dasha's lessons!

 Tubing man!

 Wasn't too sure about this, but finally got a smile out of her!

 We tried skiing once..that was it.

 Birthday cake for Camden

 Really wasn't a fan!

Setting off smoke bombs for the 4th!

Camden Turns 4!

Well, Camden's birthday was on Tuesday the 26th, I can't believe that I have been a mommy for 4 years!  He is one of the best things that has ever happened to us ever!

The day did not start off as planned and it continued to stay off track the rest of the day.  It started at 5 am with Camden coming in at 5 and crying that his tummy hurt.  So I broke our no bed rule and let him climb in with us.  At 7 he got up and seemed fine so we went downstairs to get breakfast, I gave him some milk which he downed as usual, and then started crying, not putting two and two together, since he is hardly ever sick, hence, Camden always cries before he pukes, I went about getting his breakfast surprise.  I turn around and see him return all the milk that he just drank!  Oh joy!!!  On to bath #1 that day.  I went and put him in the bathtub as Randy was running out the door to his class, went back down to clean the chair, as they are cloth chairs that I HATE for that very reason!  After his bath he was ready for breakfast, I tried to get him to eat some toast and he refused, he demanded French Toast Sticks, so who am I to say no on his birthday! 

For the next hour I monitored him, he seemed fine, and so we went about our day, I went to get a few items for his birthday dinner that night, went to the library all was good!  We got home and settled down to watch the movie of his choice, about 10 minutes in he started crying again, so I grabbed him and ran for the bathroom, didn't make it...He got the carpet, me, him, and the kitchen floor.  On to bath #2 of that day.  I threw him in, changed my clothes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the carpet, and then went and cleaned him up.  Then I got a shower. 

About 30 minutes later, I started getting the feeling that I was not feeling so hot and by nap time, I knew I was in trouble!  I slept all during nap time, Randy came home from class for about 2 hours, which I crawled upstairs to bed, and then he had to go to the firestation, so I had 1 sick kid, 1 hyper kid, and a puppy to take care of, when I could barely lift my head.  So needless to say, the birthday dinner didn't happen, dinner was soup out of a can and crackers.  He did get his birthday song, and his birthday swats, but it was not the best birthday. :-(  Luckly it was just a 24 hour bug for both of us and Dasha didn't get it! 

Today we made up for it though, we started off going for his 4 year old well check, he has grown 3 inches, and he finally broke the 30 lb. barrier, and now officially weighs 31.2 lbs!  He is a tall and skinny boy!  We then went to Schlitterbahn to beat this 105 degree day we had today!  It is insane how hot it is!  We need some rain horribly.  But he had a blast! 

Hopefully next year will be a better birthday experience!  I am almost glad we didn't have a huge party planned because it would of been an epic fail!

Injuries

Well, we have had a few interesting days here at the Denson household.  On Wednesday the kids and I were outside taking Aspen to the bathroom before we went to the vet's office and Dasha, running as usual, tripped over our horrible driveway.  Well she went face first into the driveway and we ended up with this.

Doesn't look too bad, but I knew that she was going to scab a little.  The next picture is after I cleaned her up, put a band-aid on her nose to stop the bleeding, and we headed up to the vet's office.  She didn't leave the band-aid on long!

Again doesn't look too horrible.  Though it kept getting redder and redder as the evening went on.
But then we woke up Thursday morning and this is what we got.  Pretty yucky.  She left it alone on Thursday, but today after I got her up from nap I saw that she was picking at the scabs, so she went to bed with socks on her hands tonight to keep her from picking and scaring her nose.  Good thing she doesn't suck her thumb anymore!

And not to let his sister out do him, yesterday, Camden took a spill on our neighbors driveway and skinned his knee, but you would of thought it was the end of the world!  Dasha cried for maybe 2 minutes, Camden, 20 minutes!



Happy 6 Months home!

6 months ago we touched down on U.S. soil and Dasha became a U.S. Citizen!  It has been a crazy and at times rough 6 months but we are enjoying our lives very much.  Since Randy worked today we celebrated Father's Day yesterday.  We went to Schlitterbahn and spent the morning taking the kids on all the rides.  Dasha is a fan of the water, and the kids slides, not so much on the big slides though!  She literally is a fish though, she does not care if her face is in the water at all.  She is just happy to be in the water!  We then went to Chick-fil-A for dinner and the kids just had a blast with Randy being home.  We have 4 more weeks of Randy working 2 full time jobs and after July 22nd he gets to go part time at the hospital so we will get him home 1-2 more days per week!  I am so excited about that!  The kids will also!