SPRING BREAK!!! - UPDATED

Well we have been on vacation for the last three days and it has been lots of fun. Friday, I picked up Kerwin from school, went home and packed/cleaned, went out to dinner with my family and then headed up to Northern Kentucky for the weekend. Mike's brother was moving out of his apartment and into his newly purchased home. The move went really smoothly and his new place a great. Saturday evening we had dinner at my cousin's house just over the border in Ohio. We had a great time hanging out with her and her husband and their two kids. Kerwin especially loved playing on their swing set and in the play room. Kerwin and my cousin's little boy had a blast playing with a toy that shot Nerf darts really far. Of course they were playing inside so they first tried to catch them and then tried to shoot them at a target. Yesterday we went to church in the morning with Mike's grandma and then out for lunch. During the children's sermon, I walked up with Kerwin and interpreted for him. The pastor was talking about when Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection and Thomas doubted. So translated into English it went something like this.

Pastor: "...Now the disciples were all in the upper except for one. Thomas was not with the other disciples."

Me interpreting: "All Jesus' friends were upstairs waiting but someone was missing. T-H-O-M-A-S, Thomas. Where was Thomas?"

Kerwin answering: "Maybe downstairs."

I love it. He is really starting to get more complex stories and he often tries to answer questions with book reading or in Sunday School. He is also telling longer stories. He is making sentences now that are sometimes 6 and 7 signs long.

We are getting ready to leave in a few hours for California. We are going to be doing some sight-seeing, visiting with Uncle Tyler, and going to Disneyland. I'll blog more and post some pictures while we're there. Unfortunately, I won't be able to gloat too much about the weather in LA. It's only supposed to get up to 65 all next week. So much for all those shorts I packed. I think I leave most of them here at my in-laws. Until next time...

The Final Frontier...Sort of!

This Friday we go to court to finalize Kerwin's Kentucky adoption. This will be when we officially change his name and he will receive a KY birth certificate with our name as the parents! That's it for the adoption paperwork, well almost. After that we just need to get him a social security number and change his name on all sort of things like insurance and school papers. Will it really ever end?

Brag Time

Okay, I'm new at the parenting thing so I don't really know all the rules about bragging about your kids so I'll just plead ignorance if I'm breaking them. But, I just have to say for those of you who may be new to the blog, this is a kid who weighed 9 pounds at 2 years old, lived in a special needs orphanage from 2-6 years old and only knew about a dozen words in sign language when we got to him in June. Here's a video of him reading and here are some highlights from his report card that we just got today. It might get a little long for some of you, but for those from the mission who have known Kerwin since early on I think you will be so happy for him. We are such proud parents!


Work Habits
Kerwin is delightful! He is so curious and interested in many things. He likes to run small errands - taking things to the office or to other teachers.

Pre-Reading
Kerwin confuses a few lower case letters of the alphabet - mainly b and d. He is making steady progress in reading and sight vocabulary. He understands the stories we read in class and often makes comments on things that happen in the stories.

Language
Kerwin is making such rapid progress in this area for having been signing for such a short time. He asks and answers questions and is able to tell about things he sees and experiences.

Handwriting
Kerwin's handwriting is improving. He has been working hard on making his letter correctly and leaving a space between words.

Writing
Kerwin often draws pictures of things he sees. He drew pictures to illustrate some of the vocabulary related to our earth unit. He is beginning to label pictures - mainly mom and dad and asks for spelling for some pictures.

Math
Kerwin is working on counting and constructing sets of 1-10. He is also working on writing numerals 1-10. He confuses 7 and 8 when counting.

Science and Social Studies Development
Kerwin enjoyed the winter activities and experiments with snow and ice. He understands the concepts of liquids and solids, temperatures and is able to name some landforms and types of water found on earth.

Birthday and Easter Egg Hunt Pictures

Grandma "Blue Car's" birthday was last week. Here are some pictures from that and the church Easter Egg Hunt.

Random pictures

These pictures were taken while sitting at an intersection several weeks ago. One out of the driver's side and the other out of the passenger side.