Halloween

Here are the three kids dressed up for Halloween.  Megan was the pink power ranger.  Kora was a giraffe, and Jason was a wasteland warrior. They had a fun time getting dressed up. 

1 Year Anniversary

Today is Kora's one year anniversary of her Gotcha Day.  It's hard to believe a year has gone by already since we were in China.  But yet it feels like Kora has always been apart of the family.  Here is a picture from a year ago in Guangzhou.

   

We all have come a long way in the past year.  When we first got Kora, Jesse and I felt like we were babysitting somebody else's child without any information on what to do with her.  But now when we look at Kora, all we see is our daughter who we love the same as our other children.  Megan and Jason have learned what it's like to have a younger sibling to play with and also to fight with at times. 

Kora has gone from a baby who could only sit and crawl on her belly a short distance to a girl who runs and climbs up and down on furniture.  She also went from making a few sounds to saying probably a hundred words.   Kora started out hating anything to do with water, and now she loves every kind of water.  She would never get out of the water if it was her choice.  She went from being scared of everyone but us, not wanting anyone else to touch her to shaking other people's hands at church and saying hello to everyone in the grocery store.    I can't wait to see what happens in the next year. 

Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch

We went to a corn maze/pumpkin patch this afternoon.  They had fun going through the corn maze as well as digging for coins in the corn, climbing the hay bales, going on a hay ride, swinging on the barrel swings, and riding in the barrel cars.

 

2 Years Old Today!

It's hard to believe that Kora is 2 years old already.  She's come along way in the last year, but she still seems so little.  She really has blossomed these last couple of months with talking more and  understanding so much more.  I can have little conversations with her now. 

Kora is still stubborn at times, but you can ask her to do things and a lot of the time she will do it.  She has gotten much better with keeping her glasses on, wearing them for several hours at a time.  We still have to watch her closely when wearing them, because she has used them as a chew toy and throws them when she gets mad. 

Kora loves to throw things into the garbage.  Any little piece of paper or crumb she finds on the floor has to go into the garbage.  I have to be careful she doesn't throw anything away that we want to save.  Kora still enjoys going to bed at night.  She loves to wave and say bye to everybody in the room before she picks up her blanket and goes to her bed.

Kora is more comfortable around other people now.  She's still pretty reserved when in new places and around a lot of people.  But she's turned into a little show off when she's at home and we have company over.  She can be very silly at times dancing around.  Kora also has started singing parts of songs, such as Jesus loves me, Wheels on the bus, and Head, shoulders, knees, and toes.  She also will jump right in with Megan and Jason when they are wrestling with Dad with no fear of getting hurt.  Kora continues to enjoy being outside.

Baptism

Since most of our family were here to celebrate Kora's birthday, we decided to have her baptism on the same weekend.  We didn't have her baptized earlier, because she had such a strong fear of strangers and didn't tolerate new things very well.  Once we decided to have the baptism this weekend, we practiced having our Pastor hold her so she wouldn't get scared when we handed her off to him.  Kora did wonderful during the baptism.  No crying or anything.  Didn't even have to suck her thumb.  Here are pictures of Kora with her Godparents and with our Pastor.       

Birthday Party

 We celebrated Kora's 2nd birthday this past weekend.  She had fun eating cake, opening presents, and playing with a bunch of balloons.  We had blown up the balloons while she was taking a nap, so when she woke up and came out into the living room, it was the first thing that she saw.  Kora was pretty excited to see all those balloons laying on the floor.   

 

Glasses

Kora had a recheck with her ophthalmologist last week, and she was so good for the doctor.  She sat in the chair by herself and let her look into her eyes without fussing.  It was such a difference from the first time we started seeing eye doctors.  Kora still tends to turn her left eye inward when looking at things up close.  The doctor thought it was mostly likely from the astigmatism that she has in her left eye, so she is going to have us try glasses with Kora.  I'm glad we don't have to do another surgery and that we can take a break from patching the right eye for a while, but so far it has been a challenge to keep the glasses on.  Hopefully it won't take her too long to get used to them.  I've never seen such little glasses before.  They are pretty cute.

Color Run

 

 

We participated in the 5K Pioneer Color Run this past Saturday. 

Although we did mostly walking, we had a good time.  We did keep

Kora out of the color stations.  We didn't think she would enjoy being 

dusted that much. 

End of Summer

Where did the summer go?  It's hard to believe we're already starting the 2nd week of school.  Summer was fun, but as always it went by too fast.  Here are some fun times from summer.

 

My girls having fun in the kiddy pool.  Kora absolutely loves the water.  She never wants to come out of the pool, lake, sprinkler, etc.  Doesn't matter how cold it is; she could be blue and she still loves it.  Such a difference from the total hatred of baths when she first came home from China.

 

 

 

Megan and Jason got a ride on a pony at a neighbor of Grandpa and Grandma.

 

Kora just recently learned how to blow bubbles.  She always wants to hold the bubble container and do it by herself.  One day, I gave her a small one that I didn't think had much left in it.  I was sitting on the front step while she was playing with it.  She had walked behind me by the door and soon after dumped the remaining bubbles on my back.  I found out that there still was plenty left.

 

Miniature Golf

 

Kora wanted to get in on the fun too.  She did enjoy walking up and down the hills, steps, bridges, and stairs.  She also liked taking the balls out of the holes.  Only occasionally did she put the ball in the hole too soon.

 

Megan got a hole-in-one.

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Camping

We went camping at LaSalle Lake State Recreation Area.  We had a good time and the weather was nice.  Kora did wake up in the middle of the night, crying at the top of her lungs.  She wasn't even comforted when we picked her up.  It was very strange, since she rarely wakes up at night and if she does, she never cries like that.  So for once, it was us waking everybody up at the campground.

 

Jason's first big mouth bass that we caught by himself.

 

Megan holding her pumpkin seed she caught all by herself.

 

 

Jason taking his fish off his hook by himself.

 

Megan on a rock near our campsite.

 

Jason walking in the headwaters of the Mississippi.

 

 

Jesse and Kora walking in the headwaters.

 

The view from our hike.

Summer Fun

It has been a fun and busy summer so far with a lot of firsts for Kora. 

First time in an inflatable bounce house. 

 

First time swimming in a lake with Dad.  It was also Kora's first time camping.  She did pretty well, but it took her a long time to fall asleep in her pack and play in the tent.  The flies and mosquitoes were so bad, we all had to go in the tent for the night by 9:00 pm.  No concentrate of DEET would keep them from biting.  So with us all in the tent, she had a hard time settling down.  I think she was one of the last to fall asleep.

 

Jason in action playing soccer.

 

The kids are playing at a local park.  Kora has gotten more confident on the swings and slides.  Of course, she watches everything her brother and sister do and has started trying to climb up all the slides. 

 

Bubbles

 

Kora standing in front of the bubble machine. 

 

She wanted to get as close as possible to the bubbles.  I think she was covered in soap afterwards.

 

 

About a week or two ago, we started to notice Kora's left eye turning in again.  So when we had a follow-up appointment with the ophthalmologist on Friday, we had a good idea what she would say.  We'll patch her right eye again for 2-3 months and if that doesn't work, then she will have another surgery.  So we will hope for the best.

One Week after Surgery

 

Jesse was getting ready to take Kora back into surgery, and he

thought it would be funny to suck his thumb like Kora was. 

 

Kora was kicking and crying the whole time Jesse took her back and put her on the surgical table.  She didn't stop until she fell asleep with the mask over her face.  She pretty much woke up in recovery the same way as she went to sleep.  She wouldn't settle down when either of us held her or walked with her.  She stopped crying long enough to drink some apple juice, so we were free to leave.  We probably weren't in the recovery room for more than 30 minutes.  Kora cried all the way down the halls and out the door.  She finally stopped when she got strapped into the car seat.  She then fell asleep and slept for 2 hours.  The first part of the afternoon was rough since she still wasn't feeling well, but by evening she wanted to walk around and was eating normally.  By Friday morning, Kora was using both eyes at the same time and was able to track objects with both eyes together. The ophthalmologist said Kora shouldn't need another surgery anytime soon. 

 

 

 

Here she is about a week after her surgery. 

She didn't think much of the hair bow. 

 

Eye Surgery

Kora's eye surgery is tomorrow morning.  It's a pretty basic surgery, but we would still appreciate your prayers for a safe outcome.  The ophthalmologist will lengthen the muscles on the inner side of her eyes first.  If that doesn't correct Kora's eyes enough from turning inward, she will have another surgery later to shorten the outer muscles.  So we're hoping the first try does the trick, but we'll have to wait and see.

Now that the weather has been nice, Kora has enjoyed being outside.  If you say, "let's go outside,"  she starts heading for the door to get her shoes.  She hated the grass at first and didn't want to walk on it.  Now she walks all over without holding our hand.  She's still not fond of sitting down on it.