A Day to Remember

Well, it finally happened.

After 38 long months of paper chasing, fingerprinting, and home study visits, it's official.   Theo is officially Theo and we are officially named as his parents.

It was a day to remember:

OT session and school first thing in the morning for Mr Theo.

A big big big lunch (I knew we'd have a hard time getting him to eat with everyone here, so we "front-loaded" everyone with Theo's favourite:  spaghetti)

A quick nap

Then a costume change and buckling into the car.

Unloaded at the courthouse, where we were met with many friends who took time out of their busy day to witness this event with us.

And then, this:

And some goofing off:

(he's actually signing "cow" here and mooing, because he's crazy goofy like that)

Celebrating the moment with friends that we love:

And then continuing to party at home with a few (*cough cough* thirty-something) of our closest friends.

I'm exhausted and emotional and so very very grateful for this day.   Thanks to all of you, there's a little boy sleeping a few feet away from me who calls me Mom and now shares my name.   I am so very grateful for the chance to love him and parent him, even as a part of me mourns the loss of his bio family.   His story is not mine to tell, but I know that they fought hard for him and tried so very hard to give him what he needed, and it just wasn't able to happen.  I'm humbled by their faith and their sacrificial love and determined to do everything I can to give this little boy all the love and care that I know they wish that they could.

There were times over the past three years when I doubted that God would ever bring this to a close - that we would ever hold Theo in our arms and rock him to sleep and hear his laugh and kiss his tears away.   Now he's here, and he's our son, and I am humbled by my lack of faith and God's generosity.

God is so good to us.   He is faithful, even when we struggle to be.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

*******

A few pictures that we couldn't share with you until now:

7QT: Mr. Theo

Linking up with Kelly today!  

I thought it'd be fun to do a Theo-Rio update as a quick takes.   Wanna know what our little guy is doing now?   Let's find out!

1.

When Theo first came home, he was babbling and had a few signs ("more" and "eat" are the two that I clearly remember).   He's now signing up a storm and starting to string signs together into sentences.   Last night, after serving the boys a bit of ice cream for dessert, he came up to me and very clearly signed "I want more ice cream."   All four signs of it!

2.

He's been going to speech therapy about 3 times a week for the past couple of months, and we're seeing definite progress there, too.   He's starting to babble more and has some very clear words, especially "MOM!!"  haha

3.

When Theo first came home, he really struggled with the stairs in our house...and we have a lot of stairs.    He can now go up and down them all by himself (and don't even think about helping him, haha).  He holds onto the railing and does each stair with only one foot at a time, so not the step-feet-together movement that he was first doing.

4.

He's been in school now for approximately 3 months and is doing wonderfully.   He comes home exhausted from playing hard, and tells me all about his friends at school.   He gets so excited when we pull up to the building to drop him off.  I'm very happy that it is such a good atmosphere for him.

5.

To give you an example about how his food likes have changed, the other day I told the boys to go get ready because I was going to treat them to Chipotle for lunch.  All of a sudden, I heard a "YAYY!!!" and the thump-thump-thump of little feet running down the hallway.   He'd made a beeline for his room to get socks and shoes because he was so excited about getting burritos for lunch.  Considering this little boy wouldn't eat ANY Mexican spices when he first came home, he's definitely found a new favourite food. 

6.

He's definitely growing.  We've moved from 2T in clothing up to 3T on a regular basis, and even those are seeming a bit short on him.   His little pudge of a belly is slowly disappearing, too, as he gets taller.  He's looking more and more like a little boy and less like a pudgy toddler every day!

7.

He's running now.   Full-throttle running.   It's a little off-balanced still (we're working on that), but he's running.   A lot.   And keeping up with the older kiddos.  :)

*******

And an extra, for good measure!   He's turning into an awesome BIG brother to Baby Girl.  When he first came home, he wouldn't even go near her - it was almost like he was scared of her.   Now, though?   He wants to hold her, he plays with her  (when I can finally post pictures and video, I will totally share him playing peek-a-boo with her, because it's adorable!), and he's the first to go running to her in her crib when she starts to wake up after a nap.  He loves his baby sister!

*******

Have a great weekend!

We haven't fallen off of the face of the earth...

I promise!

We've been quite busy here at home, now that Theo is in his various therapies and preschool on a regular basis.  We increased both his time in the classroom and his number of therapy sessions per week in December, and that's kept me and the other rascals pretty busy.    Even though his school is only 9 minutes from the house (according to Mr Google), and all of his therapists are housed in the same building, our life often revolves around his schedule.    The older boys have gotten pretty good at packing up their schoolwork and hitting the road with me, and it's actually made for some fun schooling sessions in places like Starbucks.     Homeschooling-on-the-road leads to great discussions with random strangers for the kids, which is fun to see.

How about I try to get you guys all caught up on Theo and what's happened since the last post, eons ago?

He's still doing well, settling in, here at home.   He's definitely bonded with his siblings, especially Rascal #2.   The two of them have a pretty tight relationship, and it's fun to see.    I can tell that Theo's gotten more comfortable with us and feels more "at home" purely by his behaviour:  he's started testing limits and asserting his independence.    I'll admit, as trying as it can be to have a child hit the "I want to do everything by myself and my way and I want to tell you what to do, too" stage, it makes me smile to see Theo move into that behaviour.   There's definitely a new level of confidence in his surroundings, and his place in our family, appearing.

Therapy and school are going really well.  He's already made amazing strides, which I think also has to do with his newfound independence and opinions.   He's physically able to do more, and he's very aware of his new abilities and is pretty proud of himself, I think.     The biggest hurdle is going to be getting him to talk, verbally.   He's communicating really well using ASL (he's picked up SO much sign language!), but we're struggling with getting him to vocalize his wants.    We're making progress, but it's slow going.

We've now officially gotten through all of the doctor and specialists appointments for evaluations.  Basically, we wanted to make sure that everyone had a baseline relationship established with our little guy, and we also wanted to check that there were no long-term side effects from medical treatments he'd received in his home country.   He's managed to pass all of those with flying colours, so we're now just going to move into an annual visit treatment plan with most of those doctors.  

All of his finalization paperwork was finally (haha) turned into the local probate office this week, after a couple of false starts.  I'd gotten the paperwork way back at the 6 month home mark, but it'd taken me a month to fill it out.    It ended up being a pretty big file of homestudies and official documentation from his country and our country, as well as a lot of forms specific to our state and county.    We were sick for pretty much the entire month of January, which prevented me from dropping it off.  Silly little boy and a weak immune system and all new bugs from this side of the globe meant that Theo was most often lounging in my arms on the couch, or sleeping off viruses.  January was a tough month for his immune system, but I'm hoping that we're in the clear now - at least for a little while!    While we were dropping off the paperwork, the secretary mentioned that she was currently scheduling adoption court sessions for April.  While I don't think our processing will move that quickly for us (it hasn't yet, why start hoping now!!), I'm hopeful that we will be able to finalize the adoption in May or June of this year.   I'd love to show you guys our little guy's face and truly introduce him to you!

On that note, here's a glimpse that I caught back at the beginning of January.   This little guy is so loved!

Thank you...

.....for helping this to happen.

I love post-nap naps.

....so this happened today.

Yep.  More paperwork.   

But......it's exciting paperwork.   A new checklist, a new stack of forms to fill out....all to petition the court to finalize our adoption of Mr. Theo.

Here we go!

First day of school

All of the paperwork was in....

The backpack was packed....

A very excited little boy went to bed signing "School!  School!" and woke up Friday morning signing it over and over again....

Breakfast was eaten (reluctantly, haha), and we loaded up the car after a quick photo op:

Soon, soon, I hope to be able to show you his beautiful face!!

He had a blast and did really well, according to his teachers.  We stuck around for awhile after getting him settled in the classroom (there are observation windows, so we were able to see him without him seeing us and getting distracted), and he seemed to be loving it.   Right now, he's only going to be going two days a week while we fill the other days in with therapy sessions, but I think he's going to love every second of those two days!!!   Eventually, the goal will be to increase him to every day of the week.

I'm so proud of this little guy for being so fearless and rocking his first day of school here in the US!

4 months home!

I can't believe it's been four months already!   It seems like just yesterday that this little guy was walking through the airport to meet us for the first time....but at the same time, it feels like he's always been here.  The transition has been so much better than I could have ever anticipated.   I'm so grateful for the quality of care and huge amounts of love he got in his home country - what that has done for him cannot adequately be described.  So very grateful!

Things are plugging along here, just like before.   School takes up the majority of our days, now that all of the three big boys are being homeschooled.   What little "free" time I have goes mostly toward playing with the rascals...or driving.  I do a lot of driving, it seems.   We've added to our "extras" curriculum this year and now are doing gymnastics, music lessons, co-op, and French class.   My driving time has drastically increased.   Theo seems to love it.  I've been working on preschool projects with him (mostly arts and crafts based), and he LOVES being with the other kids at all of these other activities/classes.   I have to admit, watching him with other kids is one of the highlights that I wasn't anticipating when we started this adoption process.   Other kids just gravitate toward him and he brings out such a soft, compassionate, "teacher" side to them that I haven't seen before in some of the kids, especially the young boys.  They adore him, and it shows!

He has one therapy evaluation left to go, and it's scheduled for Thursday morning.   After that, we should be able to put his plan together and move forward, and the goal for a start date for school is the first week of November.  Assuming we can get all of the therapists together before then, we should be able to start him at school a couple of days a week.   Our goal for right now is to do the classroom 2 days per week, and then some extra therapy sessions on the other three days.  Eventually, we will work up to 5 days a week in the classroom, with the therapy sessions being integrated into his daily schedule.   I'm not quite ready to take him to school that many days of the week yet (I think it's going to be harder on me to drop him off at school - even harder than it was with my other kids!!), so this is a good solution, we think.   I can't wait to see how he does, but I'm already dreading dropping him off and walking away!!   

I need to get back to daily life - Rascal #1 was "teaching" an art class to his brothers and it sounds like they're wrapping it up, but here are some recent snapshots!  

Theo LOVES taking pictures, and Baby Girl is a very willing model!

He also loves to help me in the kitchen - here he is, washing the lettuce for dinner one night

It's football season, and he learned VERY quickly that when there's a touchdown for our team, we celebrate!

We visit a local library weekly, and this series has quickly become his favourite

That's it for now, folks!  Hope everyone has a great day!  

It's been awhile!

I'm sorry, y'all.  I'm a bad blogger, apparently.  There was a time in my life where I was able to blog on a very regular basis......but that time has come and gone, I guess!  

Things have gotten pretty crazy here, when it comes to filling our days.  Add that to the fact that I downgraded my cell phone back to a "dumb" phone, and I'm finding myself online less and less recently.   That's not necessarily a bad thing, I've discovered!  I've been having a LOT more fun with the kids - fun that I didn't even realize that I was missing by wasting it staring at a tiny glowing screen.   

...but it does mean that getting online to blog is a bit harder.  It takes a more concerted effort, I guess you could say!   Right now, the house is quiet, other than the sound of the bread machine getting tomorow's picnic lunch started, and the dryer and the washing machine helping me get caught up on chores.   I've got a hot cup of peppermint tea next to the computer, and I'm determined to give you all an update.   

It has been a busy month.   I mentioned in my last post that we had started schooling again.  We're a homeschooling family, and I basically just doubled my students.  Instead of just schooling Rascals 1 and 2....Rascal 3 joined the ranks as a kindergartener, and Theo is joining in with some preschool work and activities.   My days are pretty full with moving from one kid to another, while caring for Baby Girl.   Just schooling and trying to keep on top of the daily chores of feeding, clothing, and caring for a young, larger family takes up the majority of our days.  

That being said, life is settling into our "new normal" much more quickly than we had anticipated.   A lot of that has to do with Baby Girl's temperament (she's a FANTASTIC baby - sleeps, eats, laughs.  She just loves attention and eats it up.   Considering that her big brothers are totally and completely in love with her....attention is never something that she's starving for) and Theo's adjustment into our family.   He seems to have been VERY well prepared by his foster family for the transition into our family.  I keep waiting for the "honeymoon" period to be over (as everyone has warned us would happen), but we're going on three months now, and......nothing.   He just seems to have fit seamlessly into our family, like he has always been here.   He and his siblings love each other (especially Baby Girl. She adores him), the three "big" things that I was worried about (language, bonding, and food) have all seemingly taken care of themselves.   He's picking up ASL incredibly quickly and his screaming (it's very common for kids with Down Syndrome to shout a lot - it's a very common way for them to express themselves.  Theo was/is no different) has drastically decreased.  He's starting to mimic our sounds, including very clearly saying "car" the other day, while signing it in ASL.   There are very few foods now that he turns his nose up at - he definitely has some favourites, but I'm not at all worried about his nutritional intake and diet variety.   He's less picky than some of his brothers!   Bonding is going extremely well - I (Heidi) am definitely his main source of comfort.   (I have to say, he's pretty much turning into a Mama's Boy.  I love our little man so much!).

We've started the long, busy process of doctor's appointments and therapy evaluations.   He's seen our family physician for a physical.   He's going to see a pediatric ophthalmologist this week.   He had his physical therapy evaluation last week.   Speech therapy, audiology, occupational therapy evaluations and a development evaluation are all within the next couple of weeks.  Once all of those happen and the reports are written up, we'll officially sit down and put together his education plan with the school that we have been working with.  It's a school specifically geared toward children with Down Syndrome, and we're really excited to get him started.   As hard as it will be for me to leave him at school (I think it's honestly going to be harder for me than it was for ANY of the other kids, I'm so attached to him, haha), he gets so happy and excited when we're there for appointments now that I really think he will thrive at this school.  

He seems to be growing in leaps and bounds recently.   He blows me away daily with the things he can do, or has learned to do even in the three short months that he's been home (his ASL use has really blown my mind, as well as his gross motor skills).  He's a comedian and everyone who meets him walks away with a smile on their face.    He has brought pure joy to our family in the past three months.   Watching other people interact with him (and fall in love with him) has been one of the highlights of our life recently - he brings so much laughter and love into a room.

I have to get going - the bread machine is waiting for me to finish the work (it was just doing the dough part for me....).    Here are a few snapshots from recent days:

He came home with a bunch of photo albums and picture books from various places/people in his home country.  He LOVES to get them out and look through them with us

Definitely a Mama's Boy.   Who loves to cuddle

He's definitely a comedian....and loves to play, dance, and sing.   This was a "concert" he put on in our living room the other morning

We've had to spend a bit of time at our old house over the past two weeks, meeting various contractors to complete projects before we close on the sale this coming week.  One nice thing about homeschooling - schoolwork can come with us!

Thank you all for helping to make this possible and for praying for him and us through the process.   Please keep us in your prayers as we continue transitioning into our "new normal", if you don't mind.  

It's the first week of school...

....and all through the house....

Okay, I was going to try and do a whole post in the rhythm of the Night Before Christmas, but, well....it's late and I used up all my creative energy planning and prepping for school this week!   Maybe next post.....

We did start full days of school here at the Circus this last week - we'd been doing half days (math and reading, really) for the past two weeks as a bit of a trial.  We are a homeschooling family, and with all of the changes in our home over the past few months, I wanted to kind of experiment with our schedule and routine to try and find the best fit for schooling with the new additions in the family!   By this past week, I felt confident enough to add in the rest of the subjects (to give you an idea, Rascal #1 studies 9 subjects, so there was quite a bit to work in!!) and start the school year.    It went well - even Theo had a blast with his little school routine.   I'm working with him on just preschool basics and motor skills, really.   We've got an appointment for evaluations at a local preschool that specializes in Down Syndrome, but that's not for another month, so until then, I'm doing what I can at home with him.   Our ultimate goal is to bring him home completely eventually, but for now, he needs the therapy options they can offer him integrated with his academics.  

Theo's settling in really well.  We had our first virus since he's come home (due to his medical history, illnesses will probably be a regular occurrence, although we're hoping his immune system will eventually re-build itself), so that kind of knocked us down for a few days.   He was a trooper, though, and didn't get as sick as I was expecting him to get.  Very grateful for that!  

This little boy has made our home so much happier - he's so much fun to have around.   He's picking up ASL like crazy, and communicating is really going well.  His receptive language is really good, so it's really just when he's trying to tell us something that we run into stumbling blocks.   Even then, though, as he's picking up the signs things are getting much easier.  

Bonding is still seeming to be going really well.  He's totally turning into a complete Mama's boy.  I think he knows that he melts my heart completely and is using it to his advantage, haha.  

Alright, tomorrow is a big day here with lots of things to do, so I need to sign off and get to work on preparing/packing our things!   One of these days, I'll write up all of the things I have swirling around in my brain about this experience and Theo himself, but for now.......will pictures suffice?  

Enjoy!

It's blueberry season in Maine, so we took a field trip and picked just a few (10!!) pounds in a bout 20 minutes, haha

finger painting and enjoying the beautiful weather

He insisted that this was where his legs belonged today while we were enjoying the sunshine

Matching colours and practicing his fine motor skills (two-finger pinching/picking up)

He's decided the little dog (a puggle) is his new best friend.  The big dog (an Old English sheepdog) is still not allowed to get near him, although I caught him petting her earlier today, so we're making progress!

another school time project - he threads the pipe cleaners through the colander (and he also has large pony beads to thread on the pipe cleaner, they're just not in this picture)

A whirlwind of a week...

I mentioned in our last post that Mike had some vacation time last week - it wasn't a whole week of vacation, but two four-day weekends.   We didn't really have enough time to go do anything extravagant (and honestly, I don't think we'd want to, anyway - we're still adjusting to two new kiddos!), but summertime in Maine is an amazing time.   Every weekend, there are 2 or 3 different festivals or fairs or events going on that you can choose from.   There's a reason why it is known as "Vacationland."  ;)

Before I throw pictures of our adventures at you, I should give you a quick update of things here at home.   In a nutshell, they're great.  Busy busy busy.  But great.   Adding a toddler and a baby into the mix means that I'm pretty much on the go all day, every day, but it's a really good busy.   I'm really behind on emails and phone calls and blogging (sorry!), but I'll settle into a routine with those things soon enough.    Baby Girl is settling into a napping schedule, which will really help the way the household runs.   Theo, I've discovered, LOVES routine.   We do the same things in the same order every day, and he gets such a kick out of knowing exactly what is coming next and telling us that it needs to be done.  Little Man definitely likes being in charge!

Let's see, what other updates are there?   Theo has started mimicking my speech, so I think that as soon as we get can him into speech therapy, he's going to take off.  Last week, he pretty clearly told me "up" and "more" while signing the appropriate signs at the same time.   I was pretty happy to hear that!   Today, we had another big breakthrough when he finally used the correct ASL sign for "dog."  It doesn't sound like much, but he's not a fan of dogs and his main method of communicating with our dogs was to yell.   A lot.   Coming to me and signing "dog" was a huge step in communication!!

Alright, I need to get back to doing as many chores as possible while everyone is sleeping (ahh, the life of a mom.  Isn't it glamorous?? haha), so without any further delay.....here is a Theo photo dump!

One of our stops over vacation - a hot air balloon festival.  The kids could go inside one of the balloons and play with beach balls.  Theo, our ball fanatic, LOVED it

One of the other festivals that we went to - the Maine Highland Games.   Theo seemed a bit confused, but had fun, just the same!

Another family fun night on vacation - tickets courtesy of the public library summer reading program and little boys who were VERY motivated to earn them by reading lots and lots this summer!

I caught the silly boy using the oven as a mirror and styling his hair with a comb while making dinner last night

I was putting stuff away in the bathroom cupboards while Rascal #1 took a bath.  Next thing I knew, Theo had climbed into the bathtub, fully clothed.  Little sneaky boy!  haha

Enjoying the sunshine with a little water painting

Theo meets the ocean....

...the Atlantic Ocean, that is.

Mike is on vacation for part of this week, so we decided to take a quick little trip to our favourite beach for a family picnic dinner tonight after the biggest rascals finished gymnastics practice.    It was a beautiful night - cool and sunny - and an amazing sunset.

I'd taken Theo to the beach twice before this, and he'd gradually warmed up to the idea of swimming in a lake or playing on the sand over the past two trips.   Tonight, however, he was ALLLLLLL over the idea of playing in the water or digging in the sand.   Little Man had a blast!  Here's the picture proof:

Finishing up his snack and surveying the scene

Venturing out to the water with his big brother

I'd LOVE to know what he's thinking at this moment.  Such a sweetie.

I gave Rascal #1 the camera and told him to have fun....this is what he came back with.  I love it!

Things are still going really well here - it feels like Theo has always been here!    It happened twice today where he echoed the English words I was speaking to him - I was shocked.   The words ("more" and "up") aren't sounds that I've heard him babble before.  He's signed the words to me in the past couple of weeks, but today was the first time he attempted to say the word along with the sign.   This little guy is brilliant, I'm telling you!

Love this little guy so much!

Our little boy....

.....loves to help his big brothers...

We started school this week, at the request of the rascals.  Here's Theo helping his big brother with his math worksheet

... loves to be goofy....

Big Brother (rascal #1) was making us peanut butter cookies, and Theo was positive that the mixing bowl was a helmet in disguise

......loves doing projects and crafts....

Rainy day crafts:  making "stained glass windows"  (we've been stuck in this rainy pattern recently, so we've been doing LOTS of crafts the past week or so!)

The finished products.  Theo's are the heart and the "T"

.....and last but not least....is fitting in just fine.  

Another rainy day activity:  camping in the living room and settling in with popcorn and a movie

*******

Question for parents of little ones who need glasses - Theo snapped the nose piece off of his current pair of glasses.  I've glued it back together temporarily, until we can get in to see the eye doctor (the prescription he came home with is expired, so I'm not sure I can get another pair in without a visit).   I'm leaning toward ordering a pair of Tomato glasses for him, since he has a super flat bridge to his nose, but I haven't found anyone out there yet who has used them and can offer me a review.  Any of you readers out there have experience with this brand?   I'd love to hear about it!  Thanks!

One month post-homecoming update

It's been exactly one month since Theo came home.   So much has happened in that month!!  We're supposed to have our one month post-placement visit tonight, but weather might dictate otherwise.  It's crazy hot and humid here in Maine, and there are some severe storms heading our way.   Our social worker has to drive over an hour to get to us and she's hesitant about being out on the road with those storms hitting.  I don't blame her - flash flooding is nothing to laugh at!   

I was going to update after our visit, but with that being up in the air, I thought I would take this minute to go ahead and update now.   Theo is doing fantastically well.  He seems to know that Mike and I are Mommy and Daddy - coming to us for comfort and any thing else he might need.   We still have a lot of work to do when it comes to bonding, of course (we have years to make up!!), but I'm incredibly grateful for the amount of ground we've been able to cover with our relationships already so far!  He LOVES his big brothers and no longer seems hesitant around his baby sister (picture proof below).  

He came home almost fully potty trained, and I'm happy to report that he has not really regressed on that front (yay!).   He's eating and sleeping wonderfully, except for food that isn't prepared at home (we only have eaten out once so far, but he wouldn't eat at the restaurant.  I've ordered take out a couple of times, but he hasn't really liked anything that I didn't prepare myself).  That's fine with me - we probably could use an excuse to shave going out to eat out of our budget!  

Mike has gone back to work, and Theo seems to have adjusted to that change well, too.  He's VERY happy to see Mike when he gets home, but he's totally comfortable with me during those work hours, too.   We'd worked out a back up plan for an extended stay at home for Mike if Theo needed it, but he really is adjusting so very well to our family.  He's a total gem, this little man of ours!!

We're all getting better at communicating, which is great.   Theo is quickly picking up ASL signs, to the point of being able to specify just what he wants to eat and drink (as opposed to just saying he was hungry or thirsty).   He really is an amazingly smart little boy!

We toured a local school last week for Theo.  They definitely have room for him, so now we're just trying to figure out the best way to go about arranging the different therapies that he'll need at that school (OT, PT, speech, for example).   There are two different options (through the school district or through our insurance), and we're trying to figure out the definite pros/cons of each.   We'd had a general idea before Theo came home (as we'd researched all of this during our preparation for him coming home), but now that we know his exact needs and abilities, we're able to get a better sense of what a typical day would look like for him.  (his evaluations and medical charts weren't able to be shared with us until he actually came home, so we just had a general idea of his abilities before that).   He LOVED the school, and we were really impressed with it, too.   The director herself met with us and walked through the different options and services available to Theo and he just loved her.   He had so much fun that he was asleep in his car seat before we even left the parking lot!!

The baby is stirring from her nap, so I need to wrap this up, but here is another round of pictures to enjoy!   Thank you for continuing to pray for us!!

He LOVES playing with water.  We go through about 4 clothing changes a day because he's constantly getting wet! 

Exploring the ocean with Papa and big brother

Playing with plastic cups while I make dinner

Giving baby sister a kiss

dueling cameras

Exploring the ocean with cousins and brothers

Family photo from last weekend at Church

"Theo-angelo?"

We tried painting with water colours today while the baby was napping and the big boys were at gymnastics practice.  

To say he enjoyed it would be a bit of an understatement.  He LOVED it.   I had a whole other project prepped in case this one didn't work, and we never got to it.   That'll be tomorrow's fun!

Love this little guy so much!