Happy Halloween

What a fun Halloween! Carter is finally old enough to really get it and he had a blast! He choose his costume, Elmo, of course and, insisted that Coen needed to be Cookie Monster. I LOVED these costumes. We had no problem keeping the boys warm and people were continually passing by telling them how cute they were. They loved their costumes too! We had no problem getting them to put them on.

Last minute, we were joined by the Woodruff's and our little buddy "Baby Henry". They boys were so cute together. Carter held on to Henry in the wagon and Henry even crawled to the door of a few of the houses.








Some highlights:

The Famous Child: After saying "Trick or treat" and getting his candy, the lady says to me as she points to Carter "he looks so familiar! Is he on a blog?". I told her that we have a family blog, but no, that wasn't it... Then I suggested A Cottage Industry, my mom's blog and the light bulb turned on. "Yes! That's him! Honey, I know this child from a blog!"

Welcome!: The very first home we went to, the lady opens the door and warmly says "Hello Sweetheart!" and Coen took that as an invitation to head in and watch TV. Chris had to go all the way in and get him from sitting on the ground in front of it. He got better with each house, but we still had to pull him back from going in to some houses a few times.

My brother's coming: Carter was moving faster than Coen so he ran ahead to the door. After getting his candy, he informed the man, "My brother is coming" as the guys was closing the door. What a sweetheart to look after his brother!

Prince Coen: Chris and Coen called it quits before Carter and I. When we got home, Chris called me over "Look at Prince Coen!" He was laying down with his head on Chris' lap as Chris put the sucker to his tongue for him to like. What a rough life!

A new favorite

Coen loves the mittens that Auntie Jeannette got him. He wants to ware them all the time!

So sweet

As he scooted closer to Coen-
Carter: I sit my own brother mom. He's cute.

Cute moment

Carter sneezed. Coen said, "bless you."

His verbal skills blow me away!

My GROWING boy!

Coen had his first well-baby appointment today and he did pretty well. The last time we were there to take a look at his cough, we ending up running all sorts of tests and X-rays so, he was pretty clingy with me with Dr. V. came in. The doctor was fine with it, of course, and pointed out that it was very good to see him attached to me so quickly.

Overall, he is doing great. On our last visit he was 31.5 inches and weighed 22 lbs. Yesterday, just 6 weeks later - 33 inches and 24.3 lbs. That's an inch and a half in 6 weeks! I had heard that international adoptees experienced such growth, but I didn't think we would see it with Coen as he seemed to be so healthy and "well fed" (as far as the amount of food goes), but Dr. V. pointed that out and added that the boost in emotional support also has an impact on their growth. He also said that he has never seen a growth spurt so drastic in a child Coen's age. I think his words were "that is impressive." He jumped from the 20% for height up to the 40%. We thought he was small, but it turns out, he really is small (relatively speaking). The lowest percentile that Carter EVER was for height was 75% and he usually was like 90%. At some point he should level out and then follow the curve for height and weight.

He also received 3 vaccinations and we'll be going back almost monthly to get him caught up on everything else. We also had blood drawn to be tested for a few things that are concerns for children coming from Ghana. We'll have the results in the next few days and can address anything that needs to be addressed.

The Buxtons' Visit

The Roberts are officially burnt out. We have partied hard for over a week, first with GG and then with the Buxtons. We had sooo much fun that I'm not sure how we are going to go back to normal tomorrow. Here are some highlights:

This is about as quiet as it got at our house while Isabelle and Bronson were here with our boys. They LOVED playing hide-n-seek with Daddy. Notice their adorable PJs that Auntie Lindsey got them!


The professional photographer that I am - I have NO idea how I captured this, but this is pretty much how it felt around here. One sitting still, everyone one else running or running after a child.


A couple of nights we had 8 adults for dinner so that meant 2 in highchairs (one borrowed from a friend) and 2 in time out - I mean, 2 sitting at a table using the time-out chair.

Bronson (16 months ), Isabelle (33 months ), Coen (21 months), Carter (34 months )

Yep, this pretty much captures it. Miss Isabelle always the lady and my crazy little man. These two were hilarious together! They held hands CONSTANTLY, even walking from the dining room to the playroom, and Isabelle was full of sweet little hugs and kisses for her favorite cousin.



Can you get enough of this little man? Me neither! Now if only he would sit still long enough to let me hug on him, I'd be one happy Auntie!


More to come...

1:1 with mommy

It gets so much calmer around here when only one is awake. Carter and I took advantage of Coen going to bed an hour before Carter tonight.

Icky finger

Carter did NOT care for the icky finger that GG gave him as a Halloween joke. Notice that he blames "Kiki" for taking daddy's finger...

GG is back!

GG is here to meet Coen! After about an hour she asked, "is it always like this?" yes, Grandma. Our house is a wild chaos-filled home to two boys under three :) thank goodness she is here to play with them and give mommy a slight break!

The random goings-on

Thing 1 & Thing 2. See, Coen will do whatever Carter does. Even something as random as this..

The minivan...

...Of carts that is. They Love the new carts at Walmart. It is too fun for them to sit together and watch mommy try to drive the thing!

Talking up a storm

Coen's new favorite word: mine

More from Carter

Carter drank all of his juice which was about 15% water. Coen went to bed, so daddy offered Coen's juice to Carter which was about 50% water.

Carter: Ewwww! What IS this?
Chris: It's a mixture
Carter: I don't like it. I want juice.
Chris: That is juice. It's a mixture.
Carter: I want all juice (motioning with his finger to fill the cup). I don't want a micta.

**So much funnier in person.

His new favorite thing to say: Very seriously "Mommy, what you talking 'bout?" (even if no one is talking)

We're late for a very important date

Auntie pointed out that we may have been late in part to me video-taping my child making this call, but you know, sometimes it is worth it to be late to catch these moments!

A day with Grandma J

Grandma J came to play the other day and after a few hours, offered to run to the store to grab a couple of items for us. She took Carter along with her for some one-on-one Grandma time! After what seemed like a LONG while, I started to wonder what could be taking them so long. After quite awhile later, they arrived.. with a new toy! So nice of Grandma to get the boys a new toy, but I was still thinking that it seemed like they were gone a really long time for lemons, eggs and one toy....

As Grandma packed up to say goodbye, we somehow ended up going through photos on her phone. I couldn't help laughing out loud when I saw this one:

Umm hmmm... caught white-mustached! Thank you Grandma for spoiling Carter every chance you get. I'm sure it made him feel so special to have you all to himself and get such a nice treat!

One month home

I can't believe that today marks one month that Coen has been home. It seems like he has always been here and yet, I still occasionally have that feeling of anxiety about paperwork being due or embassy appointments coming up and have to remind myself - that is OVER. I was at that level of stress for so long, that it is surreal to be able to just be here with my boys.

It all feels so normal already, but multiple times a day I catch myself doing the normal day-to-day stuff, juggling a 1 and 2 year old, and think "I can't believe this little boy, my son, is the one that I waited for, for so long." It is hard to put into words how it can feel so normal and right to look at him and only see my son, but at the same time to realize that just a month ago I barely knew this child.

How weird it is to still be introducing him to people, to run into people who are so excited to meet him. It is the same feeling I imagine I would get introducing Carter to people that we see on a regular basis and having them get excited. And yet, he still hasn't been able to meet most of my out-of-town family yet. Does that make any sense?

He is doing amazing. He goes down for nap and nighttime so easily (oops! Did I just jinx it?). All I have to do is tell him it is time to sleep, rock him for about a minute and put him in the crib. He sleeps a good 12 hours for us every night and doesn't mind that Carter stays up after him (Coen goes to bed by 7:30). He is doing better every day with realizing that there is plenty of food so he doesn't have to eat EVERY time he sees someone else eating - it's not a contest. And my favorite thing about Coen, he is a cuddle-bunny!

We thank God for how well he has adjusted and thank all of you for the prayers.

Carter, with the sewing bag, in Carson City!

You may remember this post. Then again, you may not. I had forgotten about it until I got this email today from my grandmother:

"Are any of you missing a RCA remote control? I found this in my traveling sewing machine case pocket today. I don't own any thing that is RCA produced. I have NO CLUE where it came from."

Now, I'm not one to point fingers, but we DID just "lose" another remote the other day and found it an hour after replacing it. Carter had placed it in a small compartment behind Coen's highchair (he forgot this the entire day we searched for it).

Thank you!

Auntie Brigid sent up some very cute gifts for the boys! They also got a warm coat and lunchbox. Thank you Auntie Brigid!

Mama has your back

Carter,
You adore your pillow and blanket that match the crib bedding. You adore them so much that you took them with you to your big boy room and sleep with both every nap and every night. I couldn't bare taking them away to leave with the crib for Coen so, I came up with something else for him to use and he is perfectly happy.

Needless to say, your pillow has been washed quite a few times now. The problem is, it doesn't have a pillowcase, it is a handmade pillow with stuffing in it. Over time, it has started to smell.... nasty. You don't care, you'd sleep with it if it were covered in mud. But, it DOES stink regardless of how many times I wash it.

Daddy wanted to throw it away when you weren't looking. He wasn't being mean. He is concerned about the smell and just thought it would make it easier for you to accept it being gone, but Mama has your back, Little Man. I too was a special pillow owner. I loved that thing until there was almost nothing left. As they do, it needed repair from time to time and my mama had my back.

So today, we "operated" on your pillow. You and Mommy. We opened the stitching, washed the fabric, inserted new stuffing, and stitched it back up. Seeing how happy you were when you said "I love it! It's good!" made all the time worth it.

Huge deal

This morning for breakfast, Coen left about 3 bites of banana on his plate and said "all done." This is HUGE! We have gone from stuffing his mouth and trying to scream for more in-between bites to calmly eating 3 times what Carter eats to this! He had 2 baby pumpkin muffins and almost 1/2 of a banana. We normally just START with a whole banana :)