We had a GREAT day celebrating Sefan's birthdday. After dropping the boys off at school we came home to get ready for a spa day at home. We set up in the bathroom for our facials and makeup. Wuby enjoyed learning about each of the different products and Sefan just liked spending time together. Next we went downstairs to watch Dora while mommy gave them manicures and pedicures. Both girls chose silver polish. Wuby said, "asked "why do my nails need two coats? They don't feel cold." Sefan said, "Silver FABOOOLUS"After our nails dried we had a little snack and headed to the mall. We had a great time looking at the new Princess dresses at the Disney store. Then we went to Bath and Body Works so that they girls could pick out their own lotion scents. We filled our bellies at the food court and enjoyed some more smelling at Yankee Candle.
Then home for a nap while I finished frosting Sefan's cake and get things ready for a cookout.
We had a great time at the party. We had invited for an outdoor cookout but it was rainy so we had over 30 people in our tiny house but really enjoyed catching up with everyone. Sefan was soooo over the moon happy! She was so excited about her cake (even though she doesn't like cake) She brought every guest to the fridge to look at her cake.
And like any 4 year old she LOVED presents. I have never seen a little girl get so excited about jeans!!

She wanted to change out of her dress for this outfit

Here is the full effect. A compilation of many presents. Jean and tshirt, Fancy nancy skirt, with Princess Bell high heels, Hello kitty necklace and bracelet. I must admit I LOVE this girl's style!

School started this week for the boys. Carter was SUPER excited about Kindergarten! He even let me drop him at the door on the first day. BUT I freaked out thinking maybe he was crying in the hallway lost and scared. So I quickly found a parking spot in a nearby neighborhood (the parking lot is full on the first day) and hurried the girls along to make sure the boys made it to class. Panicking I quickly tried to weave in and out of crowds of parents and students with the girls in tow. Noah was sitting in his seat as I passed his classroom. Carter's classroom is the furthest class from the drop off door. He was sitting in his seat happily playing. :)
(as a general rule I don't post pics of my nekked face (sans makeup) but i don't think I have many pics of just the 2 of us together, so please look passed the dark circles)

Both boys really like their teachers this year and have not fussed at all about school so far. Carter is happy because Mrs. J lets them have 2 snacks! Noah likes Mrs. N because she gives "ticket rewards" based on individual performance and behavior vs. group like last year.
It is amazing the difference a year makes in Carter's readiness to go to Kindergarten all day. He comes home happy instead of tired and cranky. Plus both teachers give little homework so we have more time to read together. I am reading Star Wars the Clone wars books to the boys.....i have never seen Star Wars so the names are hard for me to remember....the boys think it is funny that i have to ask them how to pronounce pademe (or whatever).

1) How old is Sefan (usually asked to her face....which she has no idea what they are saying)? Sefan's birthdate was estimated (very incorrectly). Her BC says she will turn 3 in a week. We have been struggling with picking an age for her. She and Wuby are about 2 inches apart in size (Wuby shot up a full inch in July) and Sefan weighs 1 pound less than Wubitu. Emotionally and socially they are equal. Large motor, Sefan is far behind but catching up...we even had to work on running because she favored her right leg alot and her leg muscles were not well develped when she came home. Fine motor, Wuby is light years ahead but always has been exceptionally corrdinated when writing. Wuby can write her full name very very neatly and Sefan has trouble tracing anything. Academically- Sefan is way far behind for obvious reasons, language included. She has her colors down and most of her shapes but we have a long way to go for letters, opposites, prepesitions, etc. So.....we are thinking that we will move Sefan's age up by 1 year and make her turning 4 in 1 week. We have not made a firm decision yet and are still waiting on our agency to follow through and ask Sefan's family in ET for a birthdate. But for now we are going with Sefan being 4ish.
Here is Sefan at the library coloring with Wubitu.

2) What is the age difference between the girls? Are they twins?
This is a FUN one to answer because I get to say "I don't know"....then the fun reaction of....oh I thoght they were yours.....to which I answer.....they are! The truth is both girls' birthdates are estimated so they could have been born on the same day and we would never know for sure. Once we finally for sure decide a birthdate for Sefan we will then give the difference between their birthdates on the birth certificates, which is likely going to be 10 months. Since they are the same size we do get asked if they are twins alot.
(I have zero good pics of the girls together....they always get jealous when the camera is pointed at the other one even if they are both in the picture ...insert eye rolling emoticon here.....right after this photo Sefan came up and I snapped a pic of her and Wubitu stormed off to the corner to pout...oy!)

3) Are they going to be in the same grade?
We are still working on figuring this out. We are thinking that we will likely send Wubitu to Kindergarten next year and Sefan the year after. Sefan has a lot to learn before school and I don't think she will be able to catch up to Wubitu in a years time. The girls are ULTRA competitive and to put them in the same grade could spell disaster. We are still feeling it out right now though. Both girls are enrolled in preschool for the fall. After touching base with the preschool director several times this summer we have decided to put Wubitu in the 4-5 class and Sefan in the 3-4 class based on what each class covers of the year. Wubitu will be learning the sounds of all of the letters and how to spell some words. Sefan will be learning the letters in her name, shapes, and concepts like over, under, beside. We think that giving Sefan another year will help in the long run because she can take her time to learn these concepts and build her confidence since she gets frustrated easily when she can't do things on the first try.

4) How is the transistion going?
My favorite response is "FANTASTIC". The follow up comment from the person is usually "so the girls are getting along well together then!" to which I say...."well, sometimes...usually not so much....but sometimes". The girls are having trouble with sharing everything....including people's affections. They are constantly whining and fussy at me and each other. BUT it gets better everyday. I say that the transistion is going so well though because truely compared to the first time around this has been a breeze! Sefan is so low key, sweet, and loving that she fits very well into our family. Wubitu is very "spirited' which took a long time for me to adapt to because the boys were both more low key like Sefan. So I didn't have to stretch and grow as a parent as much this time around, things have just clicked into place it seems.

5) How are the boys doing with a new sister? They are fine. I am usually caught off guard with this question because I haven't thought about it much. The boys generally play together while the girls play together. BUT Sefan likes to join in when Wuby & Carter play baby or puppy together. Noah tries to snuggle Sefan and she is okay if she initiates the affection but if she didn't initiate then Noah gets rebuffed. (Luckily Noah's feeling have not been hurt by this yet). Sefan likes Noah to carry her around but freaks out and changes her mind quickly and gets down. Sefan thinks Carter is hilarious and Carter enjoys the extra attention to his antics.
I have pics of these two looking at the camera but this one left me a bit teary eyed as Sefan looks up with love at her big brother as they get ready to hold hands for this picture and Carter is so honored to have such a fun, sweet sister.

6) How has it been going from 3-4 kids? I remember discussions about the transistion from 3-4 in playgroups of old. There seemed to be a split in opinion as some say once you go from 2-3 then 3-4 is easy. Others really felt the stress with adding a 4th. We are middle of the road with this. We can definately feel the difference.....some days it feels like we added 4 more kids to the pack, and I am completely overwhelmed and wondering whose crazy idea was it for us to have such a big family? Other days I am completely happy with having such a big family that you can't wipe the smile off my face. However, even when it is hard I am glad we decided to bring Sefan into our home because she really does complete the family. Wubitu & Sefan are great for each other even when they are not getting along. Wubitu & Sefan are both learning to share, and that they do not have to be the center of attention all the time...good character lessons to learn early on. We are now a "big family" officially...going from 3-4....you feel it and see it. You make BIG meals, BIG messes, trips anywhere are a BIG deal, and mom sometimes get a BIG headache from the added noise. But we are adapting and enjoying our time together and wouldn't change a thing!

On last Friday Torrey and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. With Sefan just being home we had to stay close to home for financial and attachment reasons. Thankfully Sefan loves Grandma Joanne and was comfortable staying there. A HUGE thank you to Torrey's mom and dad for taking the kids over night for us on Friday night! Torrey took half a day off of work and we went for a long bike ride on the trails. It was so nice to go as fast as we want and as long as we wanted without the kids. Then we had dinner at Olive Garden :) Finally we went to Fox Island for a hike~~~. We should have realized it was a bad idea when the sign going into the park said "mosquito alert HIGH no refunds"! I had to go to the bathroom in their permanent outside open potties. I waved my hand over the toilet and 100+ mosquitoes flew out!!! I did it again and more flew out!!! There seemed to be a never ending supply of mosquitoes threatening those that wish to use the toilet.... Fortunately there was a urinal in the boys side and Torrey laughed as I straddled that thing :). On our hike we had BIG hopes because the kids don't like hiking at all.....they think it is boring. Well.....the entire time we were doing the mosquito swat dance....it goes step swing your left arm toward the center step flail your arm ound you head in a circle, step windshield wipe the bugs off your face, step swat the bug biting your leg.....fun stuff I tell you! So our hike was short lived. We headed home to grab a sweater for the movies but decided to stay home and enjoy the quiet. It was FABULOUS to sleep in!
Our anniversary was PERFECT! We had so much fun just being together...ALONE. After 10 years I am even more in love with him than when we were first married and I couldn't imagine my life without him. These last 10 years have been stessful but getting through it all TOGETHER has made it managable, and fun! Looking back we are so happy about how we have lived our lives. Looking forward we are excited to see where we are going....TOGETHER!

Here is a post from last year's anniversary with all the old goofy pics: http://ehrmanadoptionjourney.blogspot.com/2008/08/9-years-of-fun-love-laughter.html

Sefan's Teeth Part 2
Sefan went in for her 2nd dental surgery on July 29th. This was the more extensive of the 2 appointments. Sefan was excited all week for "Dr. Jim fix it Sefan's teeth" but I don't think she realized that she would have to go back to the dentist again to do it. When we saw the building she started to cry and said "NOOO!" But she still said she wanted her teeth fixed. But she refused to drink the sedation medication so I had to leave the room and the hygenist got her to drink it. We watched Barney while the medication took effect. With the laughing gas she slept through the entire procedure thankfully. She did wet herself half way through but didn't wake up so they came to tell me and we decided together to finish the job while she slept and if she woke up we would change her clothes.
In the end she had 1 more crown, 5 cavities filled and her front tooth removed that day. She was not happy about the missing tooth. She wanted me to hold her then she would push me away, then she would lay on the floor in a heap whinning. This continued for at least 5 hours. It took a good week before she was okay with the tooth being gone. But it had to be done because of the infection in her tooth and gums. I am glad we did the crowns on the other teeth in the front because the lose of one was traumatic but the loss of 4 would have been too much for her I am sure.
Her little top lip is still swollen here :( Please feel free to email me if you are facing similar dental issues and want to know an estimated cost to help prepare you.

That same day I scheduled the other 3 children for their 6 month check ups (a bit mistake btw!) I thought it would be a quick in and out see you in 6 months type of visit like in the past. Well.....Carter develped 3 cavities in 6 months, Noah needs sealants, and Wubitu needs her appliance adjusted. OY! I am just very very very thankful we have dental insurance this year!!! So 5 more appointments made for the month of August!
On the note of teeth....Carter lost his first one while I was in Ethiopia! The second week I was there he was with grandma and grandpa at the state park and noticed that it was gone!!! I was a bit sad to not be there for the momentus occassion but G & G were great substitute tooth fairies! 2 weeks later Carter lost his second one.....we think he swallowed it too!Here they are almost all the way grown in on the bottom. The dentist told me I need to make sure I supervise the boys' teeth brushing because kids this age often don't do a good job, especially boys. The girls' dental hygiene was FANTASTIC though because they LOVE to brush each others teeth when they are bored.

Graffiti
We were visited by some very untalented artists. On the side of our garage someone painted a big "GMC $$$$". We are not sure if it is gang related or a protest of our Yaris and our city having layoffs from General Motors. We haven't gotten to taking it down yet. T was disappointed that it wasn't "cool" graffiti :)

Noah's birthday!
Noah turned 9 on July 31st! We had a cookout with several other families here at the house. No real planned activities, we just let all of the kids play together and had a water balloon fight at the end. I made a spongebob cake and stuffed balloons with candy in lieu of a pinata.
(unfortunately we lost all of the pictures from after July 29th to the Middle of August :(...including Noah's birthday pics :(

Noah Camp
speaking of Noah the second week we were home from ET Noah got to go to Church camp for a week! He said he had a great time. They lost his suitcase on the church van ride over and he didn't have a swim suit or change of clothes until they found it on Wednesday night. The camp called us on Monday to tell us that they couldn't find his suitcase....we assumed that they had found it that night since we didn't get a return call....grrr. They didn't find it until Wednesday night, so he missed the swim test because he didn't have a swim suit and couldn't go out on the fun stuff passed the safety rope. But he had fun and enjoyed eating as much as he wanted (as evidenced by the 10lbs he put on)! Needless to say he will not be returning unless we go or a trusted friend is in charge of his group.
Noah all packed up and ready to go!

Company Picnic:
Torrey's company was at a local minor league baseball game to watch the Fort Wayen Tincaps. The stadium is brand new and very nice. Sefan was upset that she didn't get to play though ;). After the game the girls got to watch fireworks for the first time. Sefan says, "Fireworks...I like it!" (lost these pics too :(. )

It has been awhile since I posted....I am not really sorry about that....at least i am working on not being sorry about it. Now that the journey to bring our daughters home has ended I have been working on starting the lifelong journey to raising them. My guess is that my blog posts will be less frequent from here on out as i try to unchain myself from the computer that has held me hostage it seems for almost 3 years. I am trying to take up hobbies that do not involve perusing adoption blogs, waiting child lists, agency websites, and adoption forums. It is an addiction that is hard to break but as i let go little by little I feel that I am gaining something in return...more time to explore new things....things i have been putting off. For instance, i took the brand new sewing machine out of the box that I received 2 Christmas's ago. I sewed a few purses and am looking at learning to sew dresses for the girls. I am getting back into fitness and working to renew my personal training certification. And most importantly I am working on enjoying my kids...taking the time to walk away from computer and sit down for a game of Uno.
While I am unapologetic, I hope you will tune in even when the posts become sparse.