Tuesday, February 02, 2010

13 Months Old

Our little Kokinator is 13 months old. So much fun. He is at the stage where we tell him to stop and he giggles and runs away even faster. Cute for now:) We are very smitten by him and his giggly goofiness brings us so much joy. He will often still wake up in the night (usually just between 10-11pm) and we just give him a few ounces of milk. He stopped breastfeeding a couple of weeks ago and it was a super easy transition, physically and mentally (for me!). He is the lightest sleeper and I have to make sure I don't even exhale when I go to check on him at night.
Likes:
-stairs
-garbages
-bathrooms
-ride on toys
-cars
-his brother (and Kai is now sooo good with him!)
-his mommy and daddy
-dogs
-bottles
-BLUE (his blankie)
-food; especially beans, pasta, and toast
-running away from us (especially outside)
-being swung upside down
-balls (he started saying `ba' today)
-bathtime
-playing in our bedroom with Kai
-going for walks in the stroller
Dislikes:
-diaper changes (he runs away)
-teething
-when I leave
-bananas

How you know you have a 13th month old:
-you always have food on the bottom of your sock (from them throwing food on the ground)
-you always have dried snot on your jeans, just above your knees.

He only naps once a day but sometimes I will put him in his crib for a quiet time in the afternoon and usually he'll play in there for 45 minutes or so. Very nice! We love you, Koen. You make us smile and laugh every single day. Your determination and curiosity is amazing. We are truly blessed to have such a monkey:)
Kai's picture of gramma. He drew a huge belly button and laughed while making it bigger and bigger. Her head is so interestingly shaped because he drew such a big smile/mouth.
Kai drew an elephant! I think it's awesome. We found out that he'll play `art' with me if we get to mix all the paints together.
I said, `Kai, why don't you try closing your mouth a bit so I can see your eyes?'. The picture below is what I got.
Kai calls Gary's sideburns `itchies'. He recently asked Gary when he will be growing his own itchies:)
I was talking to Kai about adoption and how the baby won't be coming from my belly, but from another mommy's belly. When talking about whether it would be a boy or girl, I said we will just have to see what God brings us. Kai said, `Well, I hope He brings us a sprinkled donut too.':)

In regards to the questions that people have had...here are some answers the best that I can give:
1. Will you adopt locally or internationally?
I first thought of adoption when I was volunteering in an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. Although I would love to adopt from Kenya, or possibly Haiti, we will likely be adopting locally. The reason is twofold. It is about half the cost to adopt locally. Secondly, we would like to have some variation of an open adoption where our child could have the option of seeing their birth parents. I think this would be a lot easier to do if they lived locally.
2. What age child are you planning to adopt?
We would like to adopt a newborn for several reasons. We would like to keep our birth order as is, and, we would like to keep about 2.5 years between each of the kids. Also, I feel like I would be able to attach more easily if the child is less than 6 months of age. That's just my thought now, I don't really know how age affects the parents attachment. I'm new at this:)
3. If you have a choice, would you like a boy or girl?
We could never decide what we would want so we will take whatever God gives to us. Either would be awesome. Maybe one of each:) Oops, better run that by Gary!
4. How long will it take?
We won't be able to finish all of the preparation process (seminars, home study, application) until this summer. After that, I'm assuming it would be about 1 year. So, maybe by fall of 2011? I want to get started on everything right now, because that's the kind of person I am, but I'm trying to be patient and take my time. There is no rush. We are so excited.

Thank you for all of your comments on my last post. I really appreciate it.

Bon nuit!

7 comments:

  1. snot on your jeans. lol. such cute kids you have! hoping the adoption process goes smoothly!

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  2. so great!! sticky socks and snot on the jeans: CHECK!

    Bonding to an adopted baby is largely not age related. The transition is easier for the CHILD if it is under about 10 months, but for the parents, bonding is variable and unrelated to age, IME. The younger the child you want, the longer you wait, generally.

    And the wait time for domestic open adoptions is anywhere from two weeks to ten years. Some prospective adoptive parents never get chosen, but that would be unlikely in your case I think! You guys have such a cool family. But who knows? The control is entirely up to birth moms to choose, and how does one direct that? There is a high demand for healthy domestic newborns. Most unwanted pregnancies these days are either aborted or moms single parent. So there is a great demand and little supply.
    There are lots of older babies on the ministry waitlist who are in relatively good health. Many adoptive parents shy away from them because of the idea that ministry kids are damaged by life circumstances or have behavioural issues, but many times this is not the case. Tons of kids are in really good foster homes and have had lotsa love and good care. Anyways, ministry adoptions are not for everyone, but I thought I'd throw that out there as someone who has gone through this decision making process!!!

    Also, it was VERY VERY awesome to us that we were able to have an open adoption with Matthew's birth mom even though he was from another country. It's pretty rare to have contact overseas with birth families, and so exciting when it can happen---research says open adoptions are healthier for the child involved. So great.

    I can't believe Koen is already 13 months. What happened?????????

    Kai is hilarious. HI larious.

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  3. You'll have to remember the sprinkles donut for the day you bring home baby... you may have to make a stop at a Tim Hortons in there...

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  4. Yipee!!! Another child! Why didn't we think of adoption earlier for our football team...you get a child but can still play football!! Win win!

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  5. Louise, I think it is amazing that you are sharing your journey into adoption with us! Also, Noah calls Daddy's facial hair "scratchies"... so funny!

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  6. oh wow that is so exciting! i think that one day my little family might adopt as well, so i'm looking forward to hearing about your experiences.

    Thomas is a light sleeper too, so i cheat; i've put a fan in his room and i put it on the second setting, which is just enough white noise that i can breathe when checking on him :)

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  7. Kai's elephant is excellent! As are his many expressions.

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