New Pics & Video of John Paul

on our adoption blog. I posted it on our adoption blog because it was Rick's birthday, and more of a family thing. I might should have posted it here since the video is of John Paul. Anyway, you can check out our adoption blog if you want to see it. :)

Please Pray for Zoey

Please pray for this beautiful little girl. I have placed a button to the right of this post. Clicking on it will take you to her blog. Zoey was recently diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and has just started chemo. Please pray for her parents and family as well. If you have a blog, her parents have asked and will appreciate if you put her button on your blog. Let's reach as far as we can and get as many prayers for this little girl and her family as possible. Put her on your prayer request lists at church even. Just lift them up. Thank you.

My Little Bee

John Paul had a fun first Halloween! He remembered from the day he got his pictures made what to do with a Dum Dum lollipop. It still had the wrapper on it though. lol! I took the wrapper off and he touched his tooth with it and then threw it on the floor. We just went around the block because he hasn't learned how to chew yet anyway. It would have just been more candy for mommy and daddy to eat. lol!

His costume had a little stinger on the back of it and it looked so funny! It was adorable on him! I couldn't get a clear picture of it though because he was moving around so fast. He looked like a streak in those pictures. I'm so glad glad that he is moving fast though! My little streak!

He had fun walking around. He got upset because he wanted to go in everyone's house. When he couldn't he cried. :( We only went to about 5 houses because he didn't understand why we couldn't go in everywhere we went. There was one house with a little girl about his age that he REALLY wanted to go inside. He already had a leg in her door! lol! She was playing in the floor with what looked like her grandpa and when we rang the doorbell she ran to the door and gave John Paul his candy. She said, "here baby". It's kind of comical because she looked to be 3 to 4 years old and he is four. He's a little guy. He has grown some though. He can wear 2T shirts now and some 24 months pants. Mostly he wears 18 months pants though. His foot has grown a half size. His hair is getting so shiny too. Nothing like some good home cooking and PediaSure. :) He has ONLY wanted to drink PediaSure since I got him home. In Ukraine he would drink juice and milk, but after I got him home I gave him PediaSure or PediaPals all the time because he was so severely underweight. Well, he got used to the taste and did not want ANYTHING else. I could get away with 1/4 milk and 3/4 PediaSure, but any more than that and he could taste the difference. I mean protesting and refusing any imposter, such as half PediaSure and half milk or water, and also vanilla and strawberry flavored milk. A friend of mine, Mandy, gave me an idea of something else to try. She gave her son (who also was becoming a PediaSure addict lol!) Silk vanilla flavored soy milk. So I bought some, and lo and behold thanks to Mandy I have successfully tricked him...finally! lol! He will drink it if I pour it out of a PediaSure bottle, but he saw me pour it out of the carton one day at lunch and he fussed and refused it! He's one smart cookie. But not too smart to be fooled by mommy. :) Now I put it in PediaSure bottles and he drinks it. The first time I tried pouring it out of the PediaSure bottle after he caught on to my trickery, I held my breath. You see he was on to me and then the drink had to pass a thorough inspection of sight, smell, and taste. If he suspects foul play he will first look down into his cup suspiciously, then lift it up and smell down in it, and then he will take a small sip. If it meets the high standards of John Paul PediaSure connoisseur, then he will turn it up and drink it. lol! If not, he will sit it back down, give you the stink eye, fuss, and slide it away from him on the highchair top. This is a far cry from the shoving it back in your face while it splashes everywhere, and at the same time having him scream and cry hysterically while kicking you that he used to do. Total meltdown! Thank goodness he has learned to tame that temper some! He's not a big fan of "time out" when he is hungry and thirsty. A few minutes of "time out" each offense cured the tantrums. It only took about 3 or four "time outs" and he figured it out and started pushing his cup softly away. He still fusses, but I'm not dodging drink splatters and kicks to my knee caps. And he doesn't have complete emotional meltdown over it. But he does express his dislike. And that's okay! :) We want him to have a voice and to express his opinion, but in a calm, my entire world isn't ending kind of way. I guess he learned to be that way in the orphanage. I saw him act like that, the only day, I observed him eating with one of the caretakers until she added porridge to his bottle of broth. I guess that was the only control the poor little guy could get over his environment, that and he is PICKY over his drink! It was obvious it was a regular thing for him because she knew adding the porridge would calm him down. So I came to the conclusion that his feeding times were the parts of the day that he would definitely get one on one attention, even if briefly, and so that must be why he was throwing so many tantrums during feeding. They allowed him to throw them and if he did, he would get more attention, and get what he wanted. When the caretakers are busy trying to get everyone fed quickly on a schedule, I guess it took a major tantrum to get attention to get his drink the way he wanted it. It worked for him though! He was working that environment! lol! But it didn't work for him here. It took me a little while to figure out why he turned into this totally different child when it was time to eat. He's fine with his meal times now, unless he realizes his drink has been tampered with. lol! Smart boy! :) But thank goodness a loving home environment with structure has helped with the tantrums. He's such a joy to have here! I'm not trying to be negative about his past behaviors, just honest. It is nice to be able to think back to how he was when he came here and how great he is doing now! I am so glad that Silk vanilla soy milk is "in"! That will sure help out our pocket books! Thanks Mandy, great idea!

Back to Halloween...He was ready for a play date with that little girl! He protested having to leave that house the most. I wish he could have gone in and played, but we don't know them. Maybe he will run into her on the playground some time and make a new friend. But, all in all he had fun and so did we.

He has been signing mama and daddy for a couple of weeks. But tonight at supper I showed him the sign for daddy and he signed it back at me and SAID, "dada". It was awesome to hear and see! I just love his sweet little voice!