I went swimming at grandma's for the first time last week!! I was terrified at first, but within a couple minutes I was laughing, splashing and playing!!

After swimming we went and saw grandma and papa's 4 new lambs. Adorable!! Since we went a 5th lamb has been born ! 

Happy 18th bday sissy  !!

Behla and Drake

Mindy, Drake, Behla and Alex

Behla and Mom

Alex, Behla, Drake and Mindy

Went to the park this week. I'm getting the hang of my bike and I love the tire swing!!

The boys got a haircut!!!

I met my Aunt Marinie this week!! 

Drake and Aunt Marinie

My sister Behla graduated High School!!! It was SOOOOO hard for me to sit still during the entire ceremony but I made it through! Congrats Behla!! 

Mom, Dad and Drake

Behla and Drake

Behla's friend Jodee, Mom and Behla

Drake and Daddy

Behla and Mindy

Mom and Mindy

We went to Gramma and Papa's farm to get some dirt for our garden beds. 

Drake and Bear

My brother (Drake's uncle) took the bobcat out and got us some dirt. We had some leftover and he put it in mom's bathtub for a flower bed. FUN!

Cameron and the Bobcat

Cameron and the Bobcat

Therapy with his Speech Pathologist this week.

A boy and his dog

Therapy today with his PT.

Drake over time:

It doesn't take much to entertain me. 

I dumped all  my toys out and played with the bucket in the kitchen. 

GONE FISHIN' !!!!!!

My first fishing trip to Busch Wildlife

my first fishing pole

family of geese, quack, quack!

a bit of untangling needed, our poles were a mess! 

pretty small, all throw backs this time

fishin' with dad

trying to figure out my new pole

Drake, Drake and more Drake!

No, he's not actually peddling on his own in the video, it's down hill. He's getting it though and will be doing it on his own soon.

oh no!! 

It's naked baby zombie in a diaper!! 

watch out!!! 

Drake got his glasses!! cute huh??

Easter 2014

We went to Gramma and Pa-Pa's and had fun on the farm. 

1st year dying eggs! 

loved saying "ba aaah" at the sheep

Collecting eggs with Pa-Pa

Ba aaaah

loved the ride on the Kuboda to visit the horses and cows

found a friend

Happy Bear-Bear!

Drake's 3rd birthday
(part 1: videos)
Been really busy; will update with pictures in next post.

We went to the eye doctor this week. He needs to wear an eye patch and glasses for about 6 months to see if his crossed eye improves. 

Drake's 3rd birthday is this week!!!!!! 

!!!! AWESOME !!!!!

This is the longest I've seen him play interactively with a toy. He was watching Elmo on Netflix and I ran and got his Elmo and showed him it was the same, he got all excited and started playing with it. Really great step for him considering he only sorted his toys when we first got him and didn't like to play with any stuffed animals at all. He would take the toys out of the bucket and then put them back, the circle stacker was the only one he really played interactively with on our pickup trip. A few days ago he finally picked up his bear and hugged it, laid down with it and talked to it. It was great because the bear was one of the first toys I bought him when we were adopting and he finally liked playing with it. So add Elmo to that and we have success !! 

We also hit another milestone today. Drake has been TERRIFIED of bath time since we got him. We are uncertain what happened but he feared the bath itself. We narrowed down the issue to some kind of trauma that must have happened from his orphanage. He did fine playing in water, from the faucet or elsewhere and playing with his hands in a buck of water but when it came to sitting or even standing in water he was TERRIFIED! We tried the bathtub, a bucket, the shower -- and it was all one terrified child!! 

BUT tonight we have success !!! Drake just got done taking a bath/shower !! This was an incredible step for him and we have been working with him from the first day. We've had to put a lot of effort, play time and gradual steps to get here. We stripped his clothes off and he walked to the bathroom(no crying!) He went in the shower, sat down on a towel. I had his plastic mixing bowl with his "bath" toys in it and his soap bottle but no water. I took the hand held shower head down, waited to make sure he was okay and warned him the water was coming on! Then I turned the water on.  He sat and played in the water, took his toys in and out of the bowl and played. I even let the water build up to about an inch and got him to splash in it!! He was still holding one hand back trying to hold onto the shower door for security but overall it was awesome to see the progress he has made. He did really well and we had very minimal fussing and no outright crying. 

~~~ One happy Mommy!

We got through the testing at Early Childhood. He was accepted and he starts when the school year does on August 13!! They have buses now and that will be exciting!! He will continue with FirstSteps through the summer. He's walking really well, he walked the High School hallway this week about 30 feet (?) on his own without ANY support!! Of course then he thought it was funny to plop down on the floor and we had a hard time keeping him focused on walking long lengths. He practiced on the stairs which was hard since they are meant for adults. He played again at the park twice this week and those stairs are much easier since they are narrow and he can use both rails to steady himself, he got comfortable enough to start playing around and started going down two feet at once on the step, that was pretty funny and he thought he was so cute doing it. LOL.... 

Before/After : from pickup to now

He is learning sign language and already knows how to sign: eat, drink, more, head/hat, and no more/done. We are going to learn MONKEY next !!!!! how fun!!