Xander started preschool today at the Northwest Early Learning Center.  We’ve been talking about preschool a lot over the last few weeks to get him ready and it looks like it worked.  He woke up happy and ready to go this morning.  He was so excited to wear his backpack (that we got in China) and go to school today.  Xander did a fabulous job today; no tears!!!!  His teacher was so impressed and said he did wonderful.  After I picked him up we went to McDonald’s for lunch to celebrate.  It was a great morning and I am so proud of Xander.  My little boy is growing up!

The McCoy traditional 1st day of school picture with Baba and your backpack.

Side shot; Xander is so excited to get to use his backpack.

Love that smile!

Xander outside of his school after his 1st day. He kept looking down because the sun was in his eyes.

Celebration lunch at McDonald's!

We’ve been having a lot of fun around here.  Check out some of the things we’ve been up too  Also, Tuesday will be a big day for Xander… he is starting Preschool!

Getting the pretzel dough ready to shape on Valentines Day. We made Baba heart shaped pretzels

We love to watch the garbage man pick up the trash on Fridays.

Working on smiling when Mama says, "smile" to take a picture.

We celebrated Grandma's birthday!

Ariel and Cody went to winter ball and had lots of fun!

Let's go UC!!!

Baba and Xander have been going to the Build & Grow program at Lowes. It's lots of fun.

Check out what I made!

We ate green chocolate chip pancakes for St. Patrick's Day. Another wonderful smile when Mama asked him to smile

Xander loves to wear his hat backwards.

Being Baba's baby This is some good stuff!

We went to the Newport Aquarium with Grandma.

Xander loves to play guitar.

Our friends Devon and Emma came to visit and we had fun playing at the park together.

On a hot day Mama got some water out to play in. Soon Xander was dumping it all over himself.

Then he got into the water. It was so much fun!

On nice days we have a picnic lunch on the front porch. Xander loves to eat outside.

Xander eating a hot dog waiting for the Reds opening day parade to start.

Xander sleeping half way through the Reds opening day parade.

Xander being very careful as he sips water from a bottle.

Dying Easter Eggs with Baba.

This is so much fun!

This year Chinese New Year was on January 23rd (Ariel’s birthday day) and it marked the beginning of the Year of the Dragon.  We are still working our way into celebrating this holiday however I think we did pretty good for Xander’s 1st New Year with us

It’s a tradition for children in China to get a new outfit for the new year so Xander and I went out and picked it out a few days before.  Here is Xander wearing his Chinese New Year “new” outfit in front the lanterns we hung by the fireplace.

He LOVES his new motorcycle shirt!

He was also pretty excited to be standing up on the fireplace.

That night for dinner I cooked a meal full of lucky Chinese food that would bring us good luck and fortune in the new year.  We dined on dumplings, clementines, very long noodles, oolong tea, and steamed buns filled with pork.  I’m not really sure the steamed buns had any real significance as far as the new year goes but we all like them  We didn’t really get to celebrate Ariel’s birthday that night because she had a school event but we did go out for hot fudge cake after she was done, yum!  Xander got a hot fudge sunday that was as big as he was and he was thrilled to try and eat it all.

On Sunday Patrick, Xander, and I went to the Chinese New Year celebration that FCC (Families with Children from China) held.  It was a great afternoon.  Xander and Patrick both wore their Chinese silk shirts that had dragons on them.  It was an afternoon full of food, Chinese dancing, games, crafts, and it ended with all the kids taking part in a dragon parade.  Xander loved seeing the dragon dance and was very excited to go up and see the dragon after the dance.  The dragon parade at the end was so cute and Xander loved it.  At the end of the parade they rolled out a bunch of bubble wrap for the kids to walk on so it would sound like firecrackers were going off.  It was so much fun.

The dragon dance; Xander couldn't take his eyes off of it.

As soon as the dance was over Xander got up and was on his way to see the dragon. He couldn't wait to see it up close.

Xander and I made a dragon at the craft station.

Xander with his dragon mask ready for the parade.

The dragon that was at the front of the dragon parade.

Xander & Patrick walking over the bubble wrap at the end of the parade.

It was a great day!

Xander loves to pretend and one of his favorite things to be is a football player with his Baba.  Enjoy!

OK, sorry I’m late in posting but it’s been a busy month or so in the McCoy household.  Christmas was lots of fun.  My parents were here and Xander had a lot of fun playing with “uma” and “umpa.”  Xander’s main gifts this year were a train table and a kitchen.  They were such a big hit that he really wasn’t interested in opening any other gifts.  We had to force him to finish opening his gifts the next day so the grandma and grandpa would be here to see it

Grandpa & Xander

Xander checking out his train table on Christmas morning.

Xander got a school bus from Ariel that he LOVES playing with.

A little Christmas love & fun!

Trying out the train that Grandpa McCoy got him for Christmas

In January we went back to the cabin again for Martin Luther King weekend.  Now that Xander knew what the cabin was he was ready to go this time.  It was a great weekend and we had lots of fun.  We also celebrated my birthday while we were there.

Baba & Xander

Helping Grandpa get the wood for the fire.

Having fun at the water park

Mama's Birthday

Group picture outside of the cabin.

It has been a busy month in the McCoy household!  Xander went on his 1st overnight trip with us when we went to visit my brother for Thanksgiving.  We flew to Philadelphia and this was the 1st flight that Xander really remembered going on and he was very excited to fly in a plane!

Waiting at the gate and flying his plane through the air.

Ready for take off.

It was a great trip and we got to meet our niece Quinn for the 1st time.  Xander had fun playing with his cousins Miranda & Quinn and meeting all of his new relatives from the Warwick/Dunn side of his family.  Ariel had an interesting trip because we forgot her bag at home… so we had to go shopping when we got there to get her through our long weekend.  She didn’t seem to mind shopping for new clothes

Playing with Grandma

Miranda in her silk dress from China

Quinn in her silk dress.

When we got back from our trip we brought out all the Christmas decorations.  Xander wasn’t really sure what to think of it all.  He really liked all the football & airplane Christmas ornaments on our tree.

Ariel shows Xander how to hang an ornament.

Baba puts the star on the top of our tree

We also took a trip down the Cincinnati Museum Center to see the Holiday Train exhibit.  Xander LOVES trains and we were excited to show him all the trains at the museum.

Xander and Baba check out the trains.

Xander gets up on Baba's shoulders for a better view.

They also had trains out for the kids to play with. Xander loved playing with the trains.

Last weekend we went on our annual trip to Brown County IN for the weekend with Patrick’s family.  This year we rented a new cabin that wasn’t in the state park and was bigger.  It was amazing and it was a fun weekend.  Xander did well on the trip and it was fun to see him and his cousin Kal-el play together.

Kal-el, Xander, and Patrick

Ariel is ready to go into town and shop!

The family and our cabin for the weekend.

Finally, here are some random pictures from the month.  Xander is doing really well.  He looks awesome and we can’t believe how well he’s healing.  It’s been a fun month around here and we’re looking forward to celebrating Christmas as a family of 4!

Making airplanes

Xander had a great time making a gingerbread house.

Mama wasn't paying attention and all of a sudden realized the truck got decorated too.

Xander really likes Ariel's boyfriend Cody.

Loves making cookies!

Clementines are one of Xander’s new favorite foods.  He is always asking to eat one and has been know to eat 2 for a snack on some days.  The last bag we got seems to have a few that are on the sour side.  Check out Xander’s reaction to the sour slices

Today Xander has been with his forever family for 3 months.  I have to admit it feels like it’s been so much longer.  A lot has happened in the last 3 months, wow!  I guess my main thought right now at this milestone is just that I really can’t believe he hasn’t always been with us and that (this may sound weird) I didn’t actually give birth to him.  I love him so much and he fits into our family so well.  I look at him and all I see is my son.  I am so proud of him for so many reasons and it’s now strange to think that there is another woman out there who is also his mother.  I wish she could know how well he’s doing and see his new beautiful face and smile.

Tomorrow we will be 4 weeks post surgery.  Yesterday we went back to Children’s to see Dr. Gordon, Xander’s plastic surgeon.   Xander wasn’t happy to be back at the hospital and really lost it when he saw the translator again.  However between Patrick & I and the translator we were able to convince Xander we were just there for the doctor to take a look and then we would go home.   Dr. Gordon thought everything was looking good and gave us a huge surprise when he said we could take the nostril retainers out.  Yay!  We’ll go back again in January and at that point they’ll take a good look at the palate and see if there are any holes.  But for now we are looking good and Xander is now allowed to feed himself with a spoon and use a sippy cup again.  Last night he ate a ton of food and enjoyed drinking from his cars sippy cup again.

I haven’t gotten any really good pictures of him yet but here is a glance at his “new” face/smile.

The before surgery shot.

After surgery, looking good

Eating lunch, fried rice yum!

Our sweet boy!

Today Santa arrived at Northgate mall via helicopter.  Ariel and the Colerain marching band were there to greet Santa along with a few hundred kids.   Last year was the 1st year Patrick and I had been to this event and we thought it was great.  I remember thinking last year how much fun it would be to come to this once our new son or daughter was home.   It was so much fun this morning to see Ariel march and have Xander with us.

As we were eating breakfast I told Xander we were going to go and see a helicopter this morning when we were done.  He LOVES planes and helicopters right now and as soon as he heard we were going to see one he was done with breakfast.  He grabbed his toy plane and helicopter and wanted to head into the backyard to see the helicopter.  I tried to explain we needed to get dressed and then go in the car to see the helicopter.  Xander was so impatient… once dressed he was at the front door (still with his plane & helicopter in his hand) wanting to leave even though Ariel wasn’t ready yet.

Xander LOVED seeing the helicopter fly up to the mall and land.  He could have cared less about the old guy in the red suit.  All he said over and over again was “helicopter.”  In fact we got right up next to the railing and Santa walked right by us and Xander just leaned over so he could see the helicopter

The band sounded awesome and it was so much fun to see them march through the mall again leading Santa.  After everything was done we got a few pictures of Ariel and Xander in front of the Christmas tree at the mall.  It was a great morning and I’ll never forget Xander’s face when he saw that helicopter come in to land.

Xander in the car ready to see a helicopter.

Waiting for the helicopter (and Santa) to arrive.

Xander and the helicopter

Xander wasn’t really happy to have to look at us to take this picture.  He really wanted to be staring at his beloved helicopter

Brother & Sister

Our beautiful band girl!

Ariel and her boyfriend Cody

When we got home Xander decided to try on all the Santa hats that Ariel had gotten out for the parade.  He loved the Santa hats and thought they were so funny.  His favorite was the Bengal hat and he wore it for the next several hours

I've got a Santa hat on!!!

Playing with his Santa hat on.

Lifting the hat up so he could check out the neighbor mowing the grass.

Riding his bike and yes his eyes are covered but he didn't want the hat lifted up at all!

Today marks 3 weeks post surgery.  Xander is doing really well.  The last 2 nights he and I slept all night long with no wake ups!  Yay!  His face is also beginning to look really good.  The surgeon has done a great job and so far it’s looking great.  We’ve also master getting the nostril retainers to stay in so they are not too much of a pain right now.  Here are a few pictures I took yesterday.  Enjoy!

Looking good and the smile is slowly coming back