OOPS !!!!

I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted. My sister and her children are here visiting right now. We moved from Massachusetts to Texas 3 years ago, so we only get to see each other during the summer. She'll usually fly out here the last week of June, for 2-3 weeks and then the boys and I will drive back to Mass. for about a month. We've been pretty busy with the kiddos :). Ashlyn is loving her cousins and is doing AWESOME! She just all of a sudden started eating everything thing that we give her. She's put on about 2 pounds since being with us and she's now pointing to things/people when you ask her where they are. She's still not talking, but we have Early Interventions coming out here next week to observe her and come up with a plan. She's still a VERY easy going toddler and so lovable. She gives us hugs and kisses all the time. She's still sleeping well too ( usually about 13 hours a night ). Here are a few pictures of all the kids together over the past week.

Here's the miracle girl!

We had a surprize visitor this evening. The little girl who Sean and William found in the pool unconcious and her mom came by to thank the boys and to let them see that she was alright. It's truley a miracle that this little girl is alive. It took about 10 minutes just to revive her. She wasn't breathing and she didn't have a pulse. She only spent 2 days in the hospital and she's doing incredible. The boys were very happy to see her tonight :).

Update on the little girl.

She's going to be just FINE :) ! Thank god!!! She's leaving the hospital today and is expected to make a full recovery.

My little water bug :) !

I'm not sure if i've mentioned this yet or not, but Ashlyn LOVES the water. She swims like the big kids and can hold her breath under water for up to 5 seconds. Here are a few pictures and a short video from this morning. Alex is whining in the video because I " wouldn't listen to him ". He wanted to go over in the big pool by himself and I told him that he needed to wait for me. As I was just uploading these photos, we had a HUGE neighborhood scare. My 14 year old and his friend pulled a little girl out of the pool :(. She was unconcious and not breathing. Medflight just took her. I'm so sick to my stomach . My son and his friend are pretty shaken up over this.

Pictures of my little chickity from today.

We're still keeping busy, now that schools out. Nick and Alex are two weeks into their swimming lessons and they're doing well. Ashlyn continues to amaze us. She's eating a TON ( well, maybe about a dozen :) ) new foods now. She's definitely doing well with that, and hopefully gaining weight. Her gross and fine motor skills are steadily showing improvement. She's much more coordinated. Her speech is the one area that I probably worry about the most. She is only saying eye, kitty, uh oh, dada and maybe one or two other random words. We're waiting so very patiently for the speech therapist to call. My sister and her kiddos ( 1 boy and 3 girls ) are coming here for a two week visit on the 21st WOOHOO!!! I can't wait to see them. We moved from Mass to Texas 3 years ago and every summer my sister will visit us for 2 to 3 weeks and then the boys and I will go back home ( cape cod ) for about a month. We have such a great time and the kids love each other :). Are any of my Mass friends/family still reading my blog??? If so, please say hi.

certificate of citizenship, early interventions and ears pierced

We recieved Ashlyn's certificate of citizenship in the mail a few days ago, so to celebrate, we had cake. Ashlyn tried her first taste of cake today and she LOVED it :). On Wednesday, the boys and I took Ashlyn to get her ears pierced. She wasn't too happy about having her ears cleaned, but she did well with the actual piercing. The best news yet, early interventions evaluated Ashlyn yesterday and they were very impressed with her progress so far. She observed Ashlyn playing with her toys and interacting with me and she felt that she was doing well with attachment and her gross motor skills. She did suggest that we have Ashlyn evaluated by a speech therapist, but felt that Ashlyn would catch up in no time :). I'm amazed at how well she's doing. She's such a resilant little girl and she's always willing to try new things. Now that the boys are out of school, it's really tough to get on here as often. I'll try and update every couple of days though.

Photos from the orphanage!

As some of you may remember, we left a disposable camera at the orphanage during our first visit. I finally got the film developed and here are a few of the photos taken. I'm so happy to have these for Ashlyn. For those of you waiting for trip 1, I highly recommend you do the same :). We weren't able to see where Ashlyn spent most of her time, so it's nice to have these.

Video from trip 1

Here's a video of Ashlyn and Ron on trip one. I'll post an update later today or tomorrow :).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y55JBEzI_JQ