August fun

We are having a good August. It's been hot, so lots of indoor activities for us. Sophie saw the doctor today and is doing well. She is 24 inches long and weighs 12.5 lbs. (61 cm and 5.7 kg)
We are impatiently waiting for Mamy and Papy to come visit us. They arrive Sept 3, and will be with us for most of September.

Alex at the dentist (no cavities!)

Dinos Unearthed

Lots of cool dinosaurs

Sophie and Walker

Walker is fun!

Look at me!

A little of this, a little of that.

The heat of August is upon us here in KC, yet we are finding ways to keep cool. We visited the Clifford exhibit at Crown Center before Jo returned to work. Alex had fun climbing on Clifford, while Sophie took a nap. Papa and the kids are settling into a routine without Mama at home. We usually try to get out of the house in the morning and go to the mall, library, store, whatever. It's nice to be out and about, but takes a little more work with two kids! After naps we usually play until Mama gets home from work. With the heat, its been hard not to be outdoors, but we are surviving.

Last week our friends Cecile, Gerald, Thomas, and Emily stopped by for a couple visits. They were into town for 2 weeks to visit family. It was great to catch up with them and to see the kids play together. Hopefully, we'll get to see them next year in France. Today, we went to the Holt picnic. We saw a lot of adoptive families there. We met up with our friends: Roger, Frederique, and Tyler Jae and met some new friends: Stacey, Corey, and Autumn. Autumn was also born in Vietnam and is just a couple weeks older than Alex.

For the next 3 weeks, Alex will not have Parent's Day Out, so I guess I'll (Papa) will have be "on" more of the time. It should go well, but I'm already looking forward to PDO starting up again!

Climbing Clifford

Eating dirt and worms

Alex and Sophie

Sophie's playmat

Thomas, Emily, and Alex

Alex and Autumn

Tyler Jae and Alex

The Jantzen's

It's hot outside

While the weather has been heating up outside, we been finding different ways to stay cool. We have been taking advantage of Joelle's last weeks at home. Ten days ago we drove up to visit Eric's mom and family in Nebraska. It was a great visit. Oma was very excited to see Sophie and Alex and Sophie spent a lot of time asleep on Oma. We also got to catch up with one of Eric's friends from high school. He has a little boy just two weeks older than Sophie.

During this time, Alex also tried roller skating for the first time. I think he discovered it was a little more work than he thought. Thank goodness for the offer of a snack, or he might have left after the first ten minutes! He did much better with the "locked" skates than the normal ones. We'll have to try again when he's a bit older.

Last week, we took at trip to Ozwakie, KS to visit the Lamb family. Alex and Avery had a great time playing together in the pool. Luke and Sophie had fun hanging out. Luke is one year older than Sophie and they share the same birthday. That's pretty neat. (Sophie also shares her birthday with her cousin Chloe.)

Today is Joelle's last day at home. Tomorrow Eric will take care of two kids, while Mama heads back to work. It's good that its only a short week to help with the transition.

Alex and Sophie are now sharing a room at night. It seems that Alex is sleeping much better since Sophie started sleeping there. Hopefully this will continue with our new routine. Yesterday as we were driving home, Alex asked where were going. I told him we were going to Timbuktu. He said, "No, we are going to Timbukone." :) It's going to be hard to keep ahead of him, I think.

Relaxing at Nebraska Furniture Mart

Are you sure?

Sophie loves Oma

This is my sister!

Driving tractor

Tractor traffic jam

Playing with Avery

Mama and Sophie

The tiger in the pool

Our happy baby

I caught the snake

Happy ...

Happy birthday, Eric! Feels good to be 29 again, doesn't it? We celebrated papa's birthday on Saturday. Alex helped mama make the birthday cake and put the candles on. Alex loves to eat the chocolate frosting and leaves the rest of the cake for papa to eat!

We went to Prairie Village's 4th of July celebration. There were tons of activities for kids there. Alex enjoyed feeding the animals and was particularly fond of the red kangaroo and its baby joey. He petted the kangaroo and the parrots. He climbed in the fire truck and even held the water hose to put off a fire. Pretty cool! Of course, he had to go inside the police car to check it out as well. While Alex had a blast at the celebration, little Sophie slept through it all!

Grilling marshmallows for smores

Getting tickled by Frederique

Sophie playing with her new friend Auxanne

Alex checking out Sophie's crib.
If they would both sleep through the night, this would be awesome!

Alex riding the train at Deanna Rose

Happy Birthday, Papa!!! Can we blow the candles now?

Look at those trains, mama!

That's one cool truck!

I like police cars!

Alex the big helper

Sophie at play

2 months old!

Today, Sophie turned two months old. Wow, hard to believe it has already been two months. She is growing, growing, growing. That's good because she likes to eat! Mama took her in to weigh her today and she is now 9 lbs. 3 oz. (4.17 kg) Papa can tell because she is getting harder to hold while walking around! So far she has been a very good baby and is pretty easy going. We plan to celebrate this evening by eating smores.

Alex is doing well. He is going to Parent's Day Out twice a week and really enjoys it. It's hard for him to entertain himself at home, but he is slowly getting better. We'll see how it goes in three weeks when Jo heads back to work. We moved Alex into a bigger bed and so far he really likes it. We are hoping Sophie will soon be sleeping through the night and that they can share the room.

Mama, I don't like your outfit from the 70'!

I like my new bed

It sleeps well

Pool time

Sophie's bed

Check out my car

My first pony ride

Lunch time

Sophie's world

Two great kids!

June Fun

We are back in KC after a week on the road. We took a short trip to Eric's brother's house in Newton, KS to see his family. Alex had a great time with his cousins and Sophie got to meet her aunt and uncle. We briefly visited our friends the Kennells, before heading up to Oma's house in Nebraska. We stayed around 5 days. Alex was excited to have his cousins come up from Kansas and to play on the farm. The first animal we had to see was the bull! After that we could go play with the kittens. Both kids did pretty well in the car and Sophie was a good traveler. Each trip was about 3 hours.

This weekend we were out and about. Friday night we listened to jazz music and Alex went down the big slide numerous times. He was a little shy about going by himself, but after some ice cream to give him courage, he did great! It rained most of the day Saturday, but cleared up just in time for us to attend the Greek festival. Alex had fun playing with his friend Theo and eating lots of Greek food. He managed to find some ice cream there too. It seems ice cream is one of his favorite foods! Sophie did great at the festival and slept most of the time. Who knew loud Greek music could soothe a baby?

A quick note about Alex and Sophie. Alex saw the doctor and now weighs 30 lbs. He's been stuck there a while, but is still eating a lot! Sophie was weighed this morning and weighs 8 lbs, 10 oz. On Thursday she'll be seven weeks old.

This kitten is very calm.

At Oma's house

Alex and John

Family of four

My hands are full!

Hello world

I love slides

Alex loves his sister

Hide and seek