The business man

I took a few photos of Ren today in his little suit. I think Ren looks like a serious little business man in this photo, like the photo belongs on the announcements page in the business section of the newspaper.

More cuteness:

Two months with my forever family

Hi! This is Ren. I'm not very good at typing yet so my big sister Claire is helping me. She's the best! And beautiful! And sweet! And a great singer! (Hey Claire, what are you typing? I haven't said anything for a while ...)

Yesterday was a big day for me. It was two months since I left the orphanage and joined my forever family. I miss my jie-jies at the orphanage very much [editor's note from Claire: Ren called his caregivers "Jie-Jie"] and I also miss my friends Yao Yao and Yin Yin. I have lots of pictures of me with them so I look at their pictures a lot and laugh about all the good times we had.

Things here at this place have been pretty good. The lady with the curly hair is pretty nice, when she's not cranky, and the tall man is very funny. Jie-Jie is an absolute joy!!! She's so hilarious! She makes me laugh all the time and shares absolutely everything with me! (Hey Claire, what are you typing again? I haven't said a word since I mentioned the tall man!) Anyway, as I was saying, the people here are pretty nice. I think the tall man's name is Daddy but I'm not sure what the lady with the curly hair is called. Sometimes we play this strange game where she says "Mama" and pats her chest. I then say "Mama" and pat my chest. She then says, "No, I'm Mama", so I try to show her I understand by patting my chest again and saying, "No, I'm Mama". I don't know why she doesn't understand that I get it, I really get: I'm Mama!

There are lots of things to do around here. I have a lot of books that I love to read. I like the shape-sorter a lot - I'm very good with shapes! I love Play-doh and puzzles and playing "mail" with my big sister. We go outside whenever we can but it's kinda cold out there. The lady with the curly hair bundles me up and makes me wear funny things on my hands sometimes. I've never seen such awful things like those before! I like to take them off whenever I can but the crazy lady usually puts them right back on. We go to the park a lot. We always take the wagon there and back. At the park, I love to swing, climb the climbing wall, go down slides, play in sand and run up and down the hill while the crazy lady warbles some wierd tune about Jack and Jill. (I don't know what she's talking about because my name is Ren and my Jie-Jie's name is Claire.) We also play in our yard a lot where we have a little climbing thingy with a slide, a playhouse, trikes, cars and lots of balls. I love my soccer ball. I am very good at kicking and throwing.

When I first came here, I thought this house was very hazardous: there are cliffs everywhere! At first I didn't really notice them and would walk right off them. Luckily, someone was always there to catch me. After that, the big people started putting up these little fences so that I wouldn't step off the cliffs. Once I figured out what the little cliffs were all about, I started to go down them on my bum or on my knees backwards. Sometimes a big person would hold my hand while I tried to go down them on my feet but that was awkward in the beginning. I thought we should go down really fast, head-first but the big people would keep holding my arm back in a funny way. Anyway, with a lot of practice, I now brave these cliffs all by myself. A big person always hovers over me but I don't need any help at all.

One of my favourite things to do in the house is close doors. Whenever there is a door open, you can count on me to close it! It doesn't matter whether it's a big room door, a sliding door at the bottom of that cooking thing, the wagon door or a little fence blocking a cliff - no door's too big, no door's too small, I close them all! It's just one of those little things I do to make life better for people wherever I go.

Maybe someone has told you about how I like to mimic people? Well, I do! I really like to study people and see how they do things. For instance, at the dinner table, the curly-haired lady will often sit in a funny way with her hand under her chin. One day, she took this picture of me trying to strike the same pose:

I also like the create things. These little lifts (made with something called "yogurt containers") are my latest creation:

Oh my gosh, did I mention how strangely the people talk here?! I swear they do not know a single real word. They talk a lot of weird gibberish. In an effort to communicate with them, I have picked up quite a bit of their language. Favourite words and phrases of mine are:

• "Wa wa ga?" (Claire's translation: "where did __ go?");


• "There a is!" (Claire's translation: "There it is!")
  
• "hewwo" ("hello")
  
• "bye bye"


• "sa er" ("soccer")


• "uppy" (either "puppy" or "hockey", depending on the context)


• "mo pees" ("more please") and


• "no mo" ("no more"). Sadly, I hear this one a lot.

Well, I better sign off. But before I do, let me tell you a little more about my stunningly beautiful and kind big sister. She is glorious! Never have I met a more talented girl! All day, every day, she is kind and loving to me. She is (Hey Claire, what are you typing? I haven't said a thing since "I better sign off!").

Happy Birthday, Jie-Jie!

In the week leading up to Claire's birthday, we sang "Happy Birthday" a lot around here. Paul, in particular, sang it a lot with Ren. When the big day finally came, we could see and hear Ren singing along, and when we asked him to sing it all by himself, he obliged us with an earnest rendition of the happy song, looking up at us so seriously with those big brown eyes of his.

We didn't catch his singing on the actual day but here's a re-enactment from the other day. He's a little more goofy here, but you'll get the picture:

Saskatoon trip, part three: Ren meets more of his mommy's family

On the Saturday of the long weekend, we spent the afternoon and evening at my mom's house. Of the seven siblings, four of us were there with our families. Everyone was so excited to meet Ren that they all had their cameras flashing as we entered Mom's house. I felt like we were celebrities being chased by paparazzi!

Claire always has a blast at Mom's house - especially in the backyard with all the kids' toys. It was great to see Ren enjoy it all too.

We had a lot of fun indoors too with all the neat things my mom has. Ren especially loved the tiny baseball hats one of my older brothers collected years ago. He kept passing them out to his aunts, uncles and cousins and motioning for us to put them on our heads.

At dinner time, I was surprised to see Claire and Ren quickly claim the little table their slightly older cousins usually dine at. The older ones were probably happy to graduate to the adults' table and leave my kiddos to enjoy the baby table.

It was Claire's third birthday that day and we were already on our second party (the first one having taken place in the morning with Paul's side of the family). Here's Ren, Mia and Claire enjoying the cake, with Grandma looking on:

And finally, Grandma K. with all the grandkids who were home for Easter:

From left: Sonia, Mia, Claire, Grandma, Ren, Liam and Matthew. Only Nikki, Brandon and Thomas were missing.

Saskatoon trip, part two: Ren meets more of his daddy's family

Ren met his Baba and Dido a week after coming to Canada but didn't get a chance to meet his Uncle Dorian (Paul's brother), Auntie Sylvie and Great-Baba Pauline until this past weekend. Everyone was totally charmed by his beautiful smile and funny ways, and I could tell he adored everyone in return.

Here's Ren leading his willing Great-Baba around:

The entire group (without me - I'm the photographer):
And just the grandparents with the kids:

Saskatoon trip, part one: Ren's first Easter

We travelled to Saskatoon this past weekend to celebrate Easter, as well as Claire's third birthday, with family.

Ren wasn't sure what this Easter business was all about. It was cute to see him take things in and then finally decide that yep, Easter is all right! He especially liked the Ukrainian food: nachynka (spelling?!), cabbage rolls, and perogies.

The Easter Bunny made several visits: to hide eggs on Friday night, to drop off baskets on Saturday night while the kids were sleeping and again on Easter day for a basket hunt. (The Easter Bunny had a little help from Paul's parents on the latter event.) With all those opportunities for a bunny sighting, it's amazing that the kids didn't get a glimpse.

Ren was a great sport about wearing these crazy bunny ears during the Easter egg hunt!

Checking out their loot:

On Easter morning, Claire immediately opened up her basket and began pouring through the contents. Ren was more hesitant!

But he liked what he found. Here, he's having fun with a barrel of bunnies:

The first of several notes for the basket hunt on Easter morning:

After a series of notes (Claire's on pink paper, Ren's on green), the kids finally found their baskets full of toys, stickers, stamps and other goodies.

A big thanks to Paul's parents for hosting us at Easter and helping to make it a wonderful occasion for Ren and Claire!

Spring has sprung!

The puddles have been great the last couple of days so I made sure to have the camera with me on one trip outside:

In the following picture, you can sort of see how Ren pumps his left arm as he walks or runs. What you don't see is that his right arm stays still!Just when I was putting the camera back inside, I saw one last photo op. How cute are those faces looking up at me?!

March wrap-up

Hooray - it's April! Big sister Claire is thrilled because her birthday is now less than one week away. It's hard to believe our first baby will be three and that our newest addition isn't that far behind.

I'm short on time (as usual) so I'll just post photos for now.

Ren (with Claire close on his heels) enjoying our little climbing structure in the backyard.

Dr. Ren W. performing a house call during a tea party with big sis:

With the weather being warmer these days, we have been spending a lot of time outdoors. One favourite haunt is the zoo. Claire has always loved the painted train there and now Ren does too! Check out Claire's pose in the first photo below and notice how closely Ren is observing ...

Monkey see, monkey do!

Beautiful boy.