Where did the month of September go?

It's hard to believe the month is almost over and Lukas has been home for 2 months now. He seems to be enjoying pre-school and is interacting more and more with the other kids each week.

No major changes to report regarding Lukas' progress. However, he did acheive a first this week-he actually wrote the letter A by himself and recognizes the letter when he sees it or you show it to him in sign language (they taught him that at school). They were so excited they put it in his journal. It is the first and only letter he has written. They showed it to me and it was quite good considering his writing/drawing skills. He is slowly adding more and more English words to his vocabulary but not speaking much in English yet. He does verbalize alot, we just don't know what he is saying most of the time because it is not in English. He is gradually putting on weight and getting a little taller.

Another first for the week is that after school on Friday while riding his trike he gave our neighbors 9th grader a ride. Wayne said Lukas road up the slight hill in our court with Dillon standing on the back. I wish I had gotten a picture. Granted, Dillon is on the small side for a 14 year old but he out weighs Lukas by quite a bit.

Last Sunday, some friends from church gave us their old children's piano. Lukas couldn't wait to play it and has "serenaded" us frequently. He also received some hot wheels and a lovely handmade sweater from our Pastor and his wife. Ever heard a piano played with hot wheels? We have.

We have now officially entered the realm of those annoying parents who ask everyone to support their childs school. Tuesday the school sent home the PTA's first official fundraising project for the year. They are selling those entertainment coupon books. You know, the kind that have all the coupons for food, retail items, services, movies and other entertainment places around the state? You too can order a book for $25.00 (50% goes to the school)with coupons accepted in Baltimore, Montgomery, PG, AA, Howard, Carroll, Harford and Frederick counties in Maryland, Most of Penn, The Cleveland area of Ohio, Long Island NY and several counties in New Jersey. So just let us know by Oct 19th if you would like to order one ;)

We are currently dogsitting for our regular dogsitter. Lukas' can't get enough of Gunnar. See, Gunnar will actually play ball with him and chace him. Wednesday morning Lukas' woke up as I was leaving and I though he was calling for me, ends up he was calling Gunnar!

Here are some pics from the week:
Playing his piano-Thanks Alice and Bob!


Making great progress with riding his bike- our court has an incline to it.


Noticed the neighbors paper when biking and decided to deliver it to them. Maybe there is a newspaper route in his future if people still get the newspaper when he is old enough!

First week back to the normal routine

As promised here is the weekly update. This was the first week in which all three of us were into what will be the regular routine for our household. Lukas has been adjusting very well to pre-school so I headed back to work full time this week.

Since Wayne drops Lukas off at school we did a trial run last week to get a feel for how it was going to work out. I helped get him ready and then saw them both off. So this week they were flying solo and everything seems to have gone well. Lukas threw a little curve into things the last two morning by getting up early. Usually Wayne has to get him up. Since he was up before I left I helped out so Wayne had a chance to get ready.

To help things flow smoothly we pack lunch and set out clothes the night before so all Wayne has to focus on is getting Lukas dressed and fed in the morning. This seems to be working out well.

Lukas is learning more and more English words, starting to combine words into phrases and chatting more in general, however, most of the time it is not in English. He is grasping on to concepts and associations more and more as well. We have established a bedtime routine and he goes to bed most nights without much of a fuss.

His eating is getting much better now that he is going to school. He generally eats all of his lunch (unless he is putting it in the trash when the teachers aren't looking ) and will eat most of his dinner if we can avoid his snacking too much when he gets home from school. He has a way of sneaking into the pantry or fridge and grabbing things before you know it. We keep fruit out and he will snatch that as well if you aren't looking. They're healthy snacks but just the same I would prefer he eat his dinner. The challenge this week has been getting him to not play during dinner time or get distracted. When he does items tend to get knocked over, spilt or end up on the floor or in the dogs' mouth. I guess that's just life with a 3 year old. He can still be picky about what he eats but I guess we should be happy because that supposedly implies he is confident food will be available and he is not hording or eating everything in sight. We were having some issues with getting him to take is Multivitamin but appear to have resolved that now. We gave him the choice of the chewable or the liquid (which he HATES). He would grudginly take the chewable for the last week or so and just yesterday is back to taking the chewable without a fight.

Thursday evening at choir rehearsal I was surprised with a "Welcome Lukas" celebration during our break. Natalie didn't miss a thing and even served toddler snacks of cheerios, goldfish and animal cookies. Lukas would have loved it! They were way to generous. He has some great new books, a neat Zebra toy and a special pillow and wall hanging for his room. We plan to set aside some of the cash for future music lessons. We are truely blessed to have such wonderful friends and caring people in our lives. The choir has been like family to me ever since I began singing with them back in 1995.

He has really progressed with his tricycle and loves to ride it. Saturday we had a play date with the next door neighbors son Ryan who is actually 6 months younger than Lukas. After we returned from submitting Lukas' US passport application and setting up his savings account he decided to help Papa clean the cars. Eventually all three kids decided they were going to help wash cars. Needless to say they all ended up soaked. I was watching Lukas with the sprayer nozzle on the hose and anticipated what was to come. Sure enough, he sprayed himself in the face. He dropped the sprayer and it landed on the ground so that it was still spraying and that is when they all got wet so we decided to give them one last time to play with the sprinkler ball before it gets too cold.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to figure out how something works!


What kid can resist spraying water when it's hot out?


Helping Papa rinse the car off

Our little devilish boy

Lukas, Ryan and Chloe playing with the sprinkler

Riding Ryan's three wheeler



Feeding Miss T's new dog Critter

Visit to Dr. Davoli at JHU Kennedy Krieger International Adoption Clinic

Yesterday we took Lukas for is initial developmental evaluation at the Kennedy Krieger International Adoption Clinic. The staff there were all wonderful and Lukas hit it off very well with Dr. Davoli. She assures us that he seems to have attached to us nicely and is in excellent condition. Her official assessment is that he appears to be at 21 months for language skills and 30 months for cognitive skills which she felt was perfectly normal for his background. So basically, she has him at about a 2 1/2 year old which is about where I thought he was at. She feels very confident that he will catch up within about a year to year and half. As for his stature she said we should know by 6-9 months if he is small from being in the babyhouse or if he is genetically small.

We were allowed to stay in the room for the assessment. She started out with some simple tasks with pegs and blocks and he started doing them before she even told him what she wanted him to do. So he sailed through the cognitive tests for toddlers. They did some drawing tasks and he was a first for her. She drew a striaght line and asked him to do the same. He drew his perpendicular to hers instead of parallel. She tried several times and he always did the same thing. He was better at circles.

She told us we were doing a good job and to keep doing the things we were doing. Reading, talking, music and interacting with him to help his language skills. She did recommend that we consider signing him up with Child Find in Carroll County to work on catching him up on his language skills. It is Federally mandated that children with disabilities or at risk for learning disabilities get free Early Childhood Intervention services. I believe it is part of the "No Child Left Behind" program. She felt the 3 yr old class was appropriate for him but that we might want to supplement with resources from Child Find to help get him up to his actual age level in language and development.

We go back in January for a follow-up visit and to see how he is progressing.

Lukas made another milestone over the weekend by being able to ride his trike in the court area by himself. He struggles a little getting it moving going up the slight inclines but insists on doing it himself. For now we have removed the push stick but will still need it if we go for a ride through the neighborhood due to the big hills.

Thanks for following along,
The Robeys

Parties, Orioles, Pre-school and the State Fair

Hi everyone, sorry for the long lag between posts. It was and is my intent to try and post something on a weekly update. Life with a pre-schooler is never dull and sometimes leaves little time to do the things Wayne and I obviously took for granted pre Lukas.

The last week of August Papa headed back to work half-days. Mama and Lukas went over to "grandma" Mason's house Sunday for a pool party. Needless to say, Lukas had a blast playing with his "cousins" and getting to know his extended "family". Mama forgot the bubble pack but fortunately the Mason's had some water wings that worked out. Everyone was amazed at how well Lukas did in the water. He probably spent about 5 hours in the pool. I had to make him get out a couple of times just to warm up some. While we were there Lukas spied a bouncy horse in the basement and "grandma" and "aunt" Ro insisted he take Skyrocket home with him. It belonged to Rosina Beth when she was his age. He LOVES riding it! We will take good care of him until the next Mason grandchild comes along.

Monday we ran some errands and stopped in to visit Papa at work. Miss Margie's office was exceptionally clean by the time we left since Lukas discovered the vacuum cleaner and how to plug it in and start it. He vacuumed most of the time we were there. We headed back to "grandma" Mason's on Tuesday to have a picinic and pool time with "Aunt" Becca, Ben, Kira and Sean. The rest of the week was spent hanging out at home and getting to know the neighbors kids.

Saturday was a party just for Lukas. Aunt Debbie and Aunt Rebecca planned a Lukas Shower to welcome him to the family. Needless to say everything was beautiful, the food was delicious and the company enjoyable. Lukas was showered with books, toys and lots of other fun things. Everyone was asked to bring a book for his library which was much appreciated by his Mama and Papa. Lukas assisted in opening his gifts and entertained everyone while doing so. I think everyone was assured that he was thrilled with his gifts. After the party the men (Papa, Lukas, Uncle David, Chris and Erik) headed to the Orioles game for Lukas' firt professional baseball game. They had a 1 1/2 hour rain delay and didn't get home until 12:30am! I'll post some photos from the shower once I get them from Aunt Rebecca. In the mean time, here is Lukas with his new train set that Papa and Mama put together on Sunday while he napped.

Playing with my new train set (Aunt Debbie, Uncle David, Cousins Chris and Erik and Oma and Opa Johannsen, you're awesome!)



August 31st was the first day of pre-school for Lukas and the day his Citizenship Certificate arrived. We started with just a few hours in the morning on Monday and gradually added time to the day until he spent a full day on Thursday and Friday. It turned out to be quite fortunate for Mama that pre-school started this week since I came down with some sort of lower GI flu on Tuesday. While Lukas was at school Mama pretty much slept and Papa thankfully stepped in and took over when he got home from work. By Friday I was starting to feel somewhat close to normal again. So much for all the things I had intended to accomplish while the little one was at school. He seems to be adjusting to school quite well. He is gradually interacting more with the other children and participating a little more each day with the daily activities.

First day of Pre-school at the Marriotsville Goddard School...
I love my new backpack and lunchbox; I'm all ready for school now. (apologies from the photographer on the fuzzy photos)



Saturday we headed to the Maryland State Fair. Lukas was really good and ate like a champ. We got him a lamb Gyro (no sauce) and he ate all the meat and tomatoe along with some of the bread. He also ate half the cup of fries and half of Mama's Peach sundae. It is the most I have seen him eat in one sitting since we have been home! He seemed to enjoy himself and was sound asleep with in minutes of heading home. Later that evening Uncle Steve and Ashley came over to visit. It was quite the full day for Lukas.

Visit to the State Fair







Petting a piglet


Making Slime with Mama




Sunday we headed to grandma and grandpa Robey's church. Again, he was really well behaved during the service. After church we went to a wedding reception and left Lukas home for the first time with a sitter. My niece Ashley did a stand up job and Lukas seemed to have a great time without us.

I guess that catches things up for now. I will try and do better about weekly updates in the future.