Crazy Week

I know I have been bad blogging this week. It was one of those crazy weeks for the Steiger Clan. The boys are enjoying science camp so I am driving back and forth twice a day. Jo is completely off her schedule because of it and she is not handling it very well (she wasn't a happy girl when daddy came home from work last night). My sewing machine is not cooperating with me this week. A three hour project turned into 4 days and I finished it up last night by hand. On the other hand the boys are having a great time and I am looking forward to seeing their inventions tonight. It was fun to hang out only with the girls but we miss having the boys around as well. Here are some pictures from the other night.

I love this one with Nate and Jo. the girls



I have no idea why by Jo drinks her bottle with her feet up.

Jo being silly
my girls

Sunday Reflections

This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.

Martin Luther, "Defense and Explanation of All the Articles"

Uncle Vit

We enjoyed having uncle Vit here with us last week. The time goes by so quickly. Here are the boys with hats uncle and grandma got in Egypt last month. And here is Vit with his nieces. Jo warmed up to Vit quickly and they all had a good time.
I laughed when I saw this picture. It looks like Jo is pointing to Fil and saying 'it wasn't me, it was him!'
We will miss Vit.

Ben & Jerry's

Today we headed to the Vermont for some Ben & Jerry's ice cream at the factory. I have to admit that I am no expert on ice cream. I love ice cream and that is about it. I do not buy any specific brand but look for the best deal. Here in New England Ben & Jerry's ice cream is a big deal. It is good and very rich and I have to say that after getting a small sample at the factory I was full. Here is uncle Vit and Emma enjoying their sample.

If you are into Ben & Jerry's ice cream you know all about all these silly names.




And here is some more ice cream tasting thanks to uncle Vit. even Jo got to taste some thanks to daddy (mommy wasn't around). Yes she loves ice cream and got mad at Fil that he did not give her any more.

We had a great time in Vermont.

Enjoying uncle Vit

The kids are enjoying their uncle who came for a visit from Rocky Mountains. They are having a blast. Yesterday he got the boys some model airplanes and they were busy for a few hours building them. As you can see Emma had to be part of it in some way even thought she wasn't building anything. I guess she had a better view on Vit's shoulders.
Here is Emma after making mud pies. She was fine the whole time until she got clean and then she complained her dress was wet. But she had a great time getting dirty.

3 months

It is hard to believe it has been 3 months since we picked up Jordan from the TH. The time flies by. Looking back I can see a big change in Jordan and in a way in us as well. Tonight we also had our first post placement visit with our social worker. For those who are not familiar with adoption process our paperwork is not done yet. We still have two more visits after this one and yearly reports.

We were happy to learn that we have the same social worker who did our home study a year ago. We could tell she was excited as well to meet Jordan and she came by this evening to say hi (and ask "few" questions). She also talked to all the kids and she got to meet Fil's brother who is in town.

We got a list of questions our agency sent us a few months back that needed to be answered. Fil sat down and answered them all last night and printed them out for our SW (social worker). She was very happy to have this so our appointment went quickly and then we just talked about our trip and how Jordan and rest of the family is doing. Jordan was a sweet girl. I was a little worried since it was during our normal dinner time but she did great.

That brings me to 'how Jordan adjusted to our family? Overall I have to say that the transition went much better then we thought it would. She attached to us very quickly and you can tell she loves her siblings. The only hard part was that Jordan wanted to be held all the time. We ran into this problem when I was busy cooking or working on something around the house. However, she learned to crawl last month and now she is little Miss Everywhere. She is happy exploring the house and once in while she will come to me tug on my skirt and smiles at me. Just saying hi mom and off she crawls again. She is also doing great with sign language and I would highly recommend it to anyone. We used signing with all of our kids and even with only a few signs it takes a lot of frustration away. For those who do not know babies can learn to sign much earlier then talking.

She is also very shy around strangers. She holds onto me tight in church and she doesn't do good in the nursery. So for now I am now just enjoying time with her. She usually falls asleep during the sermon anyway so she doesn't distract anybody. Jordan wasn't sure about Fil's brother when he came but by the second day she was smiling at him.

We feel very blessed

Happy Father's Day

Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name;

make known among the nations what He has done.

Psalm 105:1

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

If anybody is interested in reading the Sunday newspaper in the Steiger household you will have to ask Jordan what was in it. We were too late. I believe only Sam got a hold of the sport section before Jo got to it and he will inform you of any games that were played. Nate on the other hand spent Sunday evening playing with a grasshopper.
He is our little scientist.
And that is how we spent our lazy Sunday afternoon!

Staying cool

The warm weather made it to the North country. Warm and humid I should say. Temperatures are in the nineties and it is so humid that when you are outside for a few minutes you start sweating like crazy. It is that kind of weather that not even a trip to the beach is appealing. So we purchased a kiddie pool for $6.99 and enjoyed the warm temperatures by our house. Each time it got too hot for us all we had to do was to run inside where the AC is getting a workout. Jo wasn't so sure about the pool at first but she had a blast at the end. Here is Emma in a bucket that was to keep feet clean before you enter the pool.



After I pulled out our new slip and slide for $2.50 (end of the season sale) and here you can see that each child has their own slip & slide style.


Emma looks more like on a runway:
For Nate it is always so dramatic.
And Sam is Sam.
There were a few collisions. Mostly between Sam and Emma.



Our miss Sunshine.

At the end of the day I pulled out the sprinkler. I think between the pool, the slip&slide and the sprinkler we got the backyard watered very well. I have no idea how Sam came up with this one but he was in his own world. When I asked him what he was up to he told me that he was fighting alien pirates and I did not investigate any further. I love his imagination.
I guess we will continue tomorrow since the temperatures are going up as well as humidity.

Sunday Reflections

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

John 1:12-13

Cooking with Mom

My sweet little girl is everywhere! She is exploring our house all the time. But at the end of the day it is fun to hang out with mom and since I was busy cooking dinner Jo got her own equipment to cook up something good as well. Yep she is a girl. She had fun with that bowl and a spatula for a long time.

Skin care

Since I sat down and wrote about my experience with Jo's hair so far I though I may as well write about skin care. I had no idea black skin requires extra care as well. Few day after we got Jordan I noticed her skin was getting very dry. I asked the nurse at the TH home about it and she said they lotion kids at least once a day. Ooops. I didn't bring anything with me but we got by until we came home. I started using Aquaphor at first but after reading a few articles, and since we do use it everyday, I wanted to go the most natural way as possible. Since then I switched to coconut oil and believe it or not I do use olive oil as well. I do make my own lotion and it is all natural so I use it once in awhile. We made it our routine that after bath time that I put lotion on Jo. Since I already 'buttered' her up I do all the kids as well. Their skin looks great by the way. I do Jo's face more often usually in the morning and before she goes to bed.

If any of you are using any good natural skin products I would love to hear from you.

Hair Stuff

We have been home for over two months now and I had some good and bad experiences with Jordan's hair. I did a lot of research before we went to get Jo so I though that maybe some of you would be interested what I learned along the way.

First of all when we were in Ethiopia I asked the nannies what they used for Jo's hair. They told me all they use is Johnson's baby shampoo and oil. Yes they oil babies hair. I use baby oil sometimes as moisturizer and it works great. I have also used olive oil and I use that on her skin as well.
I did order the Blended Beauty sample packet before we left and that is what I used the most so far. I love this company. Their products are all natural and Jordan's hair looks great. I got many compliments on her hair. I will have to say that the sample jars are small and I ran out of most of the items already. I will probably order the bigger size since I like it so much. The only problem was that I had to read and research what each product was used for. I have never dealt with black hair before so I had to go to the company web site and read the "instructions" on what and when to do.

This week I got a sample packet from Andrea by Curls. Their sizes are much bigger. It includes shampoo, conditioner and moisturizer. I only used them once and I love the smell. However, I don't think I used enough of the conditioner since I had a hard time brushing Jo's hair that night. This is the baby line from Curls and it is all natural as well.
I also tried conditioner and moisturizer by Just for Me! I got it at Target and it was cheap. I like the conditioner but I did not like the moisturizer at all. I do not think these are all natural products so I will keep looking for a good detangler.
I also tried a detangler by Johnson and Johnson and it doesn't work on Jo's hair. It smells nice.
I still like dr. Bronners shampoo I got for our hair problems (lice). It is all natural and I use is on all the kids.

Now when it comes to styling. I use this hair brush I got in Ethiopia and Ouchless hair bands. You can get a pack at Target for one dollar.
I am not experienced with the styling thing yet. I believe there are three types of hair styles I am comfortable with at this point.
The first one would be all natural. Just let it shine. Well it looks great however it is the biggest pain ever at the end of the day.

The next one is the most work in the morning but it pays off at the end of the day. To my surprise Jo will sit on her changing table busily playing with some toy while I struggle to make it look good. I do get a lot of compliments with this hair do. I even got stopped by an African American mom with her daughter and she asked me how I did that. She also complimented me on Jo's hair. Yes this girl is all first class when it comes to hair products.
Finally this is the easiest hair do for me. It does the job and even though some hair will get loose at the end of the day this is a style you will see most. She looks cute.

I love this video of a short history when it comes to black hair. I saw it first on Penelope's blog and I learned how important it is to take care of Jo's hair. I still have a lot to learn about styling but I do want to learn and teach her as well. Oh the joy of parenthood.