Four Months as a Family

Four months ago, Tut came to stay with us for good. The first few weeks were very hard, but now we feel like we are past the "survival stage" and moving into the "normal family" stage. :) We still have setbacks and regression, usually after a change of some kind, but I think we are moving forward. The main issue is still sleep, but that seem to be the last thing that gets resolved so I'm not surprised. We just started restricting the bottles (of only water) to bedtimes. There hasn't been as much fussing over it as I thought, so I guess we waited long enough. :) Eventually we will get rid of them altogether, but for now they are still a significant source of comfort at night along with his trucks. You'd think it would be uncomfortable sleeping while holding on to a little dump truck, but I guess not for him. :)

We've been enjoying the fall weather. One weekend we went to a botanical garden for a plant sale and open house. Tut had fun playing in the kids' sandbox.

That same weekend we went to an outdoor concert at our church. Our Sunday school class turned it into a potluck/social as well. Tut had fun learning how to play tag with the other kids. He also liked duck, duck, goose even if he didn't really understand it. He just kept walking around the circle touching heads. The other kids let him do that while they played. :) We also rediscovered how much he loves chicken! He was in heaven chewing on a big drumstick.

We had some friends from college visit for a week and we had some fun hiking and going to a corn maze and pumpkin patch while they were here. :)

We hiked up to an old tin mine. Tut didn't do much walking, but he seemed to enjoy it.

Haku also only walked part of the way, but Tut enjoyed having him there.

This rock niche was a perfect seat for Tut. He sat there to have a snack and a little break.

It was a beautiful day for a hike and wasn't too hot. It was also nice to be able to take turns carrying Tut and the backpack. :)

We saw several neat lizards on the hike. This one was nice enough to stay still for a picture.

The corn maze was a lot of fun. There was a lot of stuff to do and Tut had a blast.

He loved seeing the goats and the donkeys. The chickens were also fun to look at. He was pretty brave sticking his hand in there.

Tut had a lot of fun going down the slides. He even went down one by himself. :)

They had a cow train for the kids and Robby managed to squeeze both of them in the seat for the ride. :)

We did the shorter corn maze since we spent so much time on the other activities. Tut wasn't all that impressed by the unchanging scenery or my directional skills. We only got turned around once. :)

Tut loved the "hay ride" and wanted to choose the first pumpkin he saw. He didn't seem to be interested in looking for the "perfect" one, they all looked fine to him. He was also not interested in sitting nicely with the pumpkins and smiling. I don't get many posed pictures from him.

We had a little fire one evening, it didn't last long but it was fun to sit outside in the fall evening.

We have our four month post placement visit soon and then there is only one more to go! Hopefully we will be able to finalize sometime early next spring. :) Happy Fall!