So much to say...

Eleven months and counting.....

Well, Dr. Ethiopia had it correct in his comment on a previous post of mine. I have so much more to say than I actually do. Unfortunately, at this point, I have so little time to say it. I used to try to keep the posts relevant to my audience - fellow Ethiopian adoptive families and my own family. Over the past month or two I have realized that I don't even know exactly who is in my audience! I have had such positive feedback from so many pockets of my life - acquaintances in town, John's colleagues, my old high school/college/work friends and friends and family of these people. It really amazes me how far this blog has reached. Once things settle down I hope that I have more to share than our daily family experiences, but for now, I barely have time to even share those. By nature, I am not very confrontational, however, for issues and topics that are close to my heart, I tend to get pretty fired up. I have no doubt that those will start to surface as my children get older and are inevitably hurt by other people's comments. Let's hope for now I can focus on the joy they bring to our lives and each other. In the meantime, I want to thank all of you lurkers out there for your silent support - I really appreciate it!

On that note, I also want to tell my fellow Ethiopian bloggers that my recent lack of commenting in no way indicates how often I check your blogs or how touched I am by each and every one of them! I won't actually admit how often I check some of them, but I will say that I have finally cut myself off from new ones. I have a definite line on the Gladney list of blogs that I will no longer allow myself to cross. I would like to read them all, since each story is so familiar yet so unique, but I do have four children that need my time!! So I will continue to read my old favorites (especially to watch how Sophie's foster house mates and the kids that we met are growing and thriving with their new families), but I just may not comment on every cute picture and informative post!

But the real reason for this post is to say Happy New Year! We have had a very full month since my last post. Despite a double ear infection for Sophie and a bout of pneumonia for William beforehand, we had a great Christmas this year. The kids had a great time, although I'm not sure Sophie had ANY idea what was going on. Since Santa had to bring something for everyone, we ended up getting Sophie every children's book we could find either about or related to Ethiopia. We found some great folk tales by Jane Kurtz that I'm sure many of you have seen.

My best present by far was a POTTY TRAINED LITTLE BOY! For some reason, 2 years 10 months had been the magic age for the boys. A few naked days and we're done. He's very proud and I am relieved. We've had some accidents, but he is definitely a big boy now. Onward and upward!

Here are the new scooters and Sophie watching it all from the queen's throne (I did find a TEENY lego in her diaper one day, so I thought it was best to keep her somewhat away from the chaos until we were able to remove all the little pieces that Santa might have brought). Ooops!

We were able to escape the Connecticut cold for a while and headed to Florida right after Christmas. We went to the Panhandle, which isn't balmy, but it was absolutely gorgeous and great to get out on the bikes and get a little swimming in to tide us over until the warm weather returns here.

Daddy's little man

"Pirate Girl"

I tricked Matt to look at me in this one - despite his handsome face, he is not a fan of pictures these days!

Mommy and her surfer girls. Sophie LOVED the water.

Sisters and their beach hair.

One of the few days (in her life) that Katie actually allowed me to experiment with her hair, only because her older cousin told her how cool braids are!

Swimming alone with his big muscles.

Sophie was entertained for hours (or at least through meals) with pineapple, orange, lemon and lime drink garnishes. Thank goodness for small miracles.

This proves how bad I am at doing hair. I promise, this was a never-to-be-repeated experiment. Sophie and I have similar hair. It's very curly/frizzy in the humidity, but pretty straight in the dry weather. She has all of these parts that are really long, while other parts are short. One part on the top is particularly short thanks to William!! Luckily for us, they were the kid scissors and no one could notice except me. I guess I can't even go to the bathroom anymore around here!

And our new year was made even happier with the arrival of my brother's first son, Jasper (who obviously looks nothing like us and looks exactly like his mom). He is the 16th cousin for our kids, but the first nephew (or niece) on my side of the family. Welcome to the family Jasper!

OK, well I think that's all for now. I'll have lots of pictures to come since Sophie turns one on Saturday (AAGGHH!! I can't believe it!). I have a feeling she is going to like cake :)