Easter Eggs and Oreos

Since being home we have been trying to keep our home as quiet as possible for Tovin's transition, but at the same time we want to keep Addison's life and schedule as normal as we can.  So when she asked to have a friend over on Saturday we told she could.  Hannah came over to spend the afternoon, and the two of them had a great time playing, pretending, singing and hiking through the mud! (sorry Jenni!)  All of us dyed Easter eggs, hid Easter eggs in the family room, hunted for Easter eggs, and found Easter eggs; and of course we did that again and again and again.  It was so nice to have Hannah over for the afternoon!

We came in from our hike for a quick snack, which was Oreos and a couple of unlucky Easter eggs.  When Tovin saw the girls eating their cookies he looked at me with those big brown eyes...I just gave him one, I promise!   It was so much fun watching Tovin experience Oreos for the first time. 

He watched the girls eat their cookies, and followed right along.  It seemed very natural for him to twist the top off...and lick the cream out of the middle.

This is what was left of his Oreo...how quickly he learned how to eat Oreos the right way!

A couple days with Dad home!

Jason had Thursday and Friday off from school, it was so nice to have him around!  I know that the kids like him home too!  Tovin has really started to bond with Jason, they do guy things together, you know giggle at burps, talk man talk and make messes!

Today was so beautiful outside, we went on our first of many wagon rides for the season.  When Jason pulled the wagon out of the garage it was full of cobwebs and junk from the winter months.  I hate to admit it, but it's a great place to stash stuff that doesn't really have a home in the garage.  It was good to get it out and semi cleaned! 

We didn't go far, just down the road.   It turned out to be a little windy, not too bad for Southern Minnestoa, but a little windy for Tovin.  We don't want him to catch a cold!

Addison thought it was so much fun to have another person in the wagon with her.  She felt so very "cozy-rosey" with all the blankets and Tovin. 

 

 

Tovin's face doesn't show how much fun he was having...at this point he was making sure that dad knew how many bumps he was going over.  It was fun to hear Addison and him hum as the wagon went over bumps.  He loves to mimic her noises and some of her favorite words!  

 

Dad was the hero and pulled the two for the whole ride!  I thought we could go down the hill to check out if water was flowing under the bridge, but I guess I wasn't pulling the wagon!  We went to check out the dock instead. 

 

Addison was getting sort of nervous about seeing wild animals, cause we have so many wild animals here!  She wanted me to find a stick to fight off the wild animals, and to protect Tovin if they attacked us.  I'm not sure that little stick would have scared away any animals, but with her imagination I'm sure it would have!

From the looks of it, there will be no more ice skating for the winter!  There are many puddles out on the pond already.  It will be fun to have Tovin see how the pond changes in the spring. 

This walk turned into a nature walk for Addison.  She found some fabulous feathers that she wanted for her nature shelf.  She used to collect rocks on our walks...so feathers are good! 

Computer Issue and Dr. Visits!

Update on Tovin's health...

We rode to the Cities in an ambulance on last week at 1:30 am on Wednesday morning.  They diagnosed Tovin's extended belly with being constipated, not an issue from the procedure that was done.  Great news!  They decided to keep Tovin overnight as they did a few tests on him and also had two other specialist look at him.  We were able to leave on Thursday...the problem...I didn't have a car to go home in.  My mom drove up to rescue us!

When Dr. Rios discharged Tovin he told us he wanted Tovin back on Monday to check his pressures.  At this point what's another trip to the Cities?  Mom said she was willing to drive us up and back.  Thanks mom!  At our appointment on Monday, Dr. Rios came in and said that Tovin looked so good,  he was very impressed with his coloring!  He did put Tovin on a blood pressure medicine to help lower it, and also prescribed oxygen for him at night.  Dr. Rios mentioned that the surgeon was off for the week so he wasn't able to get Tovin on the surgery schedule until next week.  He was thinking that Tovin would have surgery in 10 days.  That would mean next Wednesday, April 3rd I think.

We will be going to the Cities again Easter Monday.  Jason is able to go with because there is no school!  It will be nice to have him there, I sometimes wonder if I hear everything that the doctor tells me.  We will have an exact date for surgery at this appointment.

Computer Update:

Last Wednesday I was heartbroken after my computer was accidentally drenched with apple juice.  I was more upset with myself for never backing up everything we had on the computer.  To be honest I didn't know how, so it wasn't something that ever got done.  We had four years of pictures of Addison, our trip to get Tovin and multiple other important files.  When Tovin was discharged from the hospital on Friday, mom and I went to the Uptown Apple store.  The "genus" behind the desk opened up the back of my computer, my heart was beating so hard, and I think I was about to cry because there was apple juice still in the battery compartment.  He wanted me to be prepared that the hard drive could have been affected as well.  He carefully unscrewed the plate that held in the hard drive (he could of done this a little faster!!!) and slowly pulled it out and at this point I wanted to just yank it out!  He had a huge smile on his face and said that it was dry!  I would have cried but he then said that he needed to bring it to the back to see if all of our information was still there.  He came out in about 2 minutes and said that everything looked good, and that they would be able salvage everything! 

Now, the question was do I fix the computer or do I purchase a new one?  I asked how much it would be to fix the "apple juice" Apple product that lie before him - ha!  The "genus" said around $700.00, but he wasn't able to give an exact amount because he didn't know the extent of the spill.  I decided to bite the bullet and get a new one.

I had to leave everything at the store with him to update and install on the new computer.  We didn't want to stick around for another 4 hours so I said that I would just pick it up on Monday after our appointment.  Before I left the Apple store I made sure all my pictures were on the new computer!  I was so relieved!  I now know how to back-up a computer!

Today Jason and I joined the 21st Century and hooked up the internet here at the house, apparently this is a pretty big deal! ;-)  The last time we had internet we lived at the lake and it was dial-up.  We haven't had access here at the house since we moved to the pond.  We haven't really missed it, but thought it was time!  It will make blogging so much easier to do it at home not having to go into the store or school!

Birthday Photos with a 3 and 5 Year Old!

Addison and Tovin's birthdays are only one day apart.  Tovin celebrated his 3rd birthday on Saturday, and Addison celebrated her 5th birthday on Sunday.  She was so excited that her birthday was on Sunday, and was even more excited when Pastor Gene had the congregation sing to her!

Each year I try to take a nice photo of Addison on her birthday.  I decided to take a picture of the two of them together for this years birthday photos.  This is what their birthday photos ended up looking like.  

As you can see Tovin totally adores his big sister, and can't keep his hands off of her.  He loves to tickle her in her sweet spot...right under her chin.  How does he already know this?

We took a quick break to regroup, and this is the photo I was able to get.  Then...

...this is what happened, again!

Addison and Tovin bring so much joy to our lives!  Happy Birthday to our beautiful children!

Dump Truck, Red Barn and Fashion Beauty!

I would have to say Tovin and I love Fischer Price Little People toys!  They have been pure joy for Tovin!  He loves to load up his little truck and dump!  His cargo can consist of anything that fits in the back...legos, crayons, objects from other toys, Mr. Potato Head's accessories,... this list could go on and on.  It has provided many hours of fun!  Thanks Fischer Price for your little dump truck!

Tovin will say, "Momma" as loud as he can, point to his cargo that he's just picked up, smile at me, dump the truck, and then giggle with delight.  I could watch him play forever!

Tovin also enjoys his little red barn.  He has more fun opening and closing the barn's doors to hear the animal sounds.  He is very particular where he places the animals.  If I put the animals in the wrong spot (according to him) he will move them to where he wants them to be.  

Also, he loves to show his cute little tummy.  His tummy is so much better - thanks for all the prayers on that one!  We have figured out the trick to his happiness...it's called 2.5 ML of Sennoside in the morning!

Our fashion beauty....Addison...went on a father/daughter date this past weekend.  They went to the local production of "That's Entertainment".  This is what she put on for the special occasion.  I asked her a couple of times if she really wanted to wear this beautiful outfit...ummmm, she did!  I had to take a picture to show her significant other some day!  They really enjoyed the show, and she has been singing songs from the show all week.  It's crazy, she had never heard some of them before and she has a couple songs down word for word!

A package from Grandma and Grandpa Kainz

Addison and Tovin were excited to receive a big box all the way from Thief River Falls.  It was full of gifts from Grandpa and Grandma Kainz for their birthdays and also Easter.  Addison ran to the drawer and grabbed a pair of scissors, she had it open in no time.

Tovin's favorite gift was the Easter treats; he loves candy!  We are really trying hard to follow the doctor's orders of limiting the sugar consumption...we can start that tomorrow!

 

Addison's favorite gift was the fun gift of one dollar bills.  She thought that she was rich.  She was very generous with her birthday money.  She gave Tovin $3.00 for being 3 years old, and $3.00 to the church audio fund. (she saw the envelope on the church pew and put her offering money in it!)

Tovin thought is was really cool to have some paper to play with!

Thanks for sending the package; they both LOVED it!

Fried Laptop Anyone?

Jen's been wanting to order a new laptop for about a year now, after last night, her wish may come true!  

If you've been following our blog since we picked Tovin up in China, one of his ways to deal with frustration is to throw things.  Apparently at some point last night in the hospital room, while he had a full juice box sitting within his reach, he must have had one of his fits of frustration and tossed his apple juice box.  Needless to say, we may be getting a new computer!  Jen said it landed squarely on the keyboard and before she could get to it, had emptied over half of it's contents directly into the body of the computer.  

She called me in a panic because we have so much information on that computer (all of Addison's pictures since the day we started our journey to her all the way through present day - and I'm pretty sure we are naive enough to think that we had no need to have a back up of that stuff on a flash drive!), and was thinking that I would know what to do.  Better luck next year computer!!!

When I asked her how much actually spilled on the keyboard and if she thought it would actually ruin the computer she said she was guessing that sizzling sounds and a little bit of smoke coming through the keyboard along with the fact it wouldn't turn back on when she tried, wasn't good.  My response was, "hmmmm, you've been wanting a new computer!"

She wanted me to do something...from 3 hours away!?!  She said, "Look it up online and tell me if there's anything we could do."  I found that the best suggestions to save your laptop if and when "you",  in our case, "your upset Chinese adopted son that doesn't understand English yet, has been in and out of the hospital 4 times in the last 8 days, been poked and prodded by over a dozen doctors and nurses, is suffering from constipation and shows a bit of frustration by throwing whatever he can get his tiny little hands on" spill liquid on your laptop's keyboard are to:

1. remove the battery as soon as possible after the incident (already way past "as soon as possible" for the possibility of saving our laptop!)

2. remove the memories - whatever that means (I'm guessing that means to manually remove the hard-drive, and good luck to me trying to explain this to Jen over the phone, being that I don't even know what one looks like and or how to remove it even if I had the computer sitting right in front of me!)

3. Place the battery-less, memories-less computer in a bag of rice and wait.  Ok, so I didn't find this suggestion on the internet, but that seems to be the solution for any type of electronic gadget that gets wet, right?

I called Jen back and told her what the internet said.  All I can say is that I'm hoping the computer shop in town call pull stuff off the hard-drive!!!

Oh, Tovin is having another ultrasound this morning on his abdomen to see if there are any other obstructions in his bowels that would be causing his constipation, and or if they can see anything else of concern needing attention.  If nothing is of concern it sounds like Tovin will be allowed to leave sometime after the ultrasound has been read.  I'm sure they will keep him on some sort of stool softener or laxative for a period of time, but other than that I hoping to see them get home with Grandma Linda yet this afternoon.

If I hear anything I'll update.  Otherwise, have a wonderful day!