Sonel Update

My cousin, Mia and her daughter, Whitney, came for a visit. Mia is also my hairstylist (the best ever!). Sonel has visited her several times at the Salon, but he never would talk much. She got to see him act like the jabber box that he is.

We had a wonderful Christmas. It's always so much fun to watch kids squeal with excitement as they open their gifts. Of course, for Hope, it was her best Christmas ever!!! (She says that every year.) Poor Sonel, he woke up on Christmas eve and came into the living room saying "It's Christmas, it's Christmas". I told him not until tomorrow, and he cried for probably an hour about it. We have a little snowman that we move each day, on a calendar and Hope moved it for the next day, before she went to bed. He kept telling me to come look at the "snow". I had bought everything really early this year, so the poor child had to look at presents for a month without opening any. He was so excited and had a good time and played all day. His favorite toy is a wooden train set. Here are a couple pictures from our day.

Setting up the train set.

Sonel "playing" the Glockenspiel.

We will be leaving for Florida this Tuesday. Sonel is equally excited about that. He keeps saying "We're going on vacation to Florida". We're driving, so it will be a couple days before we get there, since we're from Indiana. I can't wait to get out of the cold! Sonel will finally get to wear his Spiderman sandals that I bought, when he first came here, on the beach.

Brenda

TOO CUTE

Every time we head to town, Sonel asks about going to Chuckie Cheese's. The thing that makes it so cute is...he calls it Chucker Chesus!

Sonel was SPEECHLESS!!!

Last Friday we went to Dr. DeHeer's son's school to talk to the third grade class. First, I showed a few pictures of where Sonel came from and pictures of his surgery. When I finished talking, the children wanted to ask Sonel some questions. Mind you that I prepared Sonel for this 'event' in his life, a few days ahead. On the way to the school I even bribed him with a Happy Meal. But I told him he couldn't have the toy until we were done talking to the kids...and that he HAD to talk to them or I wouldn't let him have the toy. Well, the first question came and all eyes were on Sonel (they wanted to hear him talk so bad), he sat there rolling his tongue around in his mouth! I had to answer every single question for him, because all he did was tricks with his tongue! When we were done I told him he could at least tell them "bye". The room was totally silent and Sonel managed to say "bye" to the kids and when he did, there was a BOOM of applause and cheering! Well I had to give him his toy because he did speak to them. As soon as we went out the front door...he starts yapping up a storm! WHAT A STINKER. I promised the kids in the class that I would make a video of Sonel talking and put it on the blog so they could hear him. I will make the video, I've just had a really busy schedule the last few days. Tomorrow I'm taking Sonel to "StoryTime" at the local school and then I have to do some work for my web site, so I WILL get the video done, but it will be in a few days.

Brenda

NEW THINGS

A lot has happened in Sonel's life since my last post. He experienced his first Thanksgiving, which included him trying to help me make a pumpkin pie. He was making the little zig zags on the pie crust, but as he was going around, he would put his arm on the ones he's made and smash them. I had to end up doing most of it myself.



Sonel is styling in his Veggie Tale apron that I made for Hope, when she was about his age. Last week he just started watching Veggie Tale videos. Now he "gets" all the stuff he's been seeing around here with "vegetables" on it, including some bath toys he plays with.

Another new thing Sonel experienced...PLAYING IN THE SNOW! He loved it.
Hope and Sonel were outside for about 2 hours today. It was a nice 32 degrees. They had a blast!

Dad and Hope built the snowman while Sonel came in for a "food refill". He thought it was pretty cool. He doesn't seem to mind the cold at all. Licia, I think you and your boys are sissy pants...how can you be cold in Haiti????

I forgot to add that we also put up our Christmas tree yesterday. I'll take a picture of the kids in front of it later. The only thing we tell Sonel about Christmas is, it's Jesus' birthday. I hope he doesn't get freaked out if he sees Santa in a store. I have a hard time sharing the wonder of Jesus' birth with Santa. That's just me.

Brenda

LOST ANOTHER TOOTH!

Sonel was brushing his teeth before going to church this morning and when he spit, he spit out a TOOTH! Notice how his first tooth he lost is coming in already. My, how he is growing!

A FANTASTIC BOOK!!!!!

I recently read a book called "The Shack" written by William Paul Young. It is a fiction book, even though you wonder if parts could be true. I haven't read any fiction since, well I can't remember when. I like to read things that are real, but I HIGHLY recommend this book to everyone! It gives you a whole new perspective about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The last line on the back cover says "You'll want everyone you know to read this book"...how true! I bought 3 copies so I can pass them around to everyone. Please read this if you get a chance. It had a really spiritual impact on my life.
Brenda

SWIMIN' WITH THE FISH!

Sonel gave me a scare on Thursday. He was outside with dad and I was indoors. I heard a weird sound that sounded like one of our chickens dying! It was Sonel screaming (like a girl)! He fell into my pond! It's a little pond, about 14' x 10', and about 2 feet deep. I guess he was bending over and looking at the fish when he plopped right in. He went totally under! He was fine, freezing, but fine. It scared him to death though. After he was in a warm tub, we talked about it and I told him that he had fish poop in his hair. He laughed and told me that he went swimming with the fish. I don't expect him to be checking out the fish again, anytime soon. He was actually proud of his accomplishment and has bragged to every family member that he has seen so far.
The day before all of this drama...we went to the park for some photos and fun. Here are a few of Sonel, he always does such a good job of smiling for me. I haven't cut his hair since he has been here. I love his hair, but I don't know what to do with it. I don't want to cut it. I would love to make him some dreadlocks...cute ones like Will Smith's son's hair. I've looked on the Internet on how to deal with longer black hair, but I guess I'm going to have to break down and take him my hair salon. Does anybody have any suggestions?