A few observations about kids

In a few weeks, we will be taking a family vacation to Disneyland. Kaitlyn doesn't really understand what that means. Emily is very excited, but can't get the time or distance concepts down. Patrick is trying to act cool about the whole thing, which tends to come off as bored.

Why do teenagers (or tweenagers) have to act like things are no big deal? They think that this is acting cool. I don't get it. Granted, Patrick has been to Disneyland or Disneyworld four times, China twice, Washington DC twice, etc. Vacationing is kind of old hat to him. Still, I miss my little 5 year old son. The one that yelled "Yahoooo" as the airplane was accelerating for take-off. People burst out laughing 10 rows away.

As for Emily's time concept, Kirsten has helped with that. She worked with Emily and Kaitlyn (mostly Emily) to create a nice paper chain for everyday until we get to go to Disneyland. It is pretty cute and has stickers of Disney characters on every link. Emily has the concept that we get to go when the chain is gone, but she doesn't really understand why we can only remove link at a time.

We tried to remove one link every night before bed, but kept forgetting in the madness of trying to put the kids down. Now we remove one every morning. It works much better and it is nice to see the chain getting shorter, even for us old folks.

Kaitlyn is now 2

According to our documentation from the Orphanage, Kaitlyn's Birthday is assumed to be Sept 15th. Since the 15th was on a Friday, we had a party on the 17th with family members. Since the party was after nap, it took Kaitlyn a little while to get warmed up, but the presents really got her out of her shell. Here are a few pictures from that day.

Kaitlyn really got into opening the presents.


Of course, she got lots of help from her big sister.


Here we can see her two of her favorite presents. In the background is the doll that she absolutely must go to bed with each night. She is holding the pens from one present. She loves to draw.

Latest Camping Pictures

Here are some of the pictures from out latest camping trip.

Another camping experience

We went camping again over the last weekend. This was just a two night affair at a campground only 45 minutes from our home. It was a lot of fun and created a lot of material for the blog. I will post some pictures in couple of days. Anyway on the semi-interesting stuff.

We had to set up the tent-trailer after dark. This is because we couldn't find our two kittens before leaving the house on Friday. We thought they had gotten out somehow, but it turned out that they had figured out how to get up into our gas furnace. I am going to have to take care of that before winter.

Setting up wasn't too bad. I learned something. The electrical system doesn't work until the sink is raised into place. Which is interesting, because we needed light to get it into place. Kind of a Catch-22 situation. Anyway, we will know next time and not spend 15 minutes working on the electrical system first.

Patrick found a rather large pole in the woods. He named it 'Doom' and used it like a pretend weapon (bazooka, javelin, spear, etc.). Shortly after finding it, a bug crawled out and stung him on the thumb. Quite funny (and ironical) now, but a little worrisome at the time. 'Doom' turned out to be lot of fun. My mother created a 'Hide Doom' game. It was annoying to Patrick, but pretty entertaining to the rest of us.

We went on family walk on Saturday. We had basically gotten around to the otherside of the campground, to the hiking trail, when something stung or bit Emily. It obviously hurt, but she was mostly a trooper about it (once the bandaid was on). You can always tell when she is really hurt, she acts pretty tough. When it is fairly minor, she acts like the world is ending.

Anyway, back to the hike. After a brief return to camp for first aid, we went back out on the path. A quite a ways out there, Emily needed to go potty. I tried to help her squat down, etc, but I apparently still need work with girls, because she wet all over the back of her pants. Boys are so much easier outdoors! We basically turned around and went back to camp at that point.

On Sunday, we cleaned up and got ready to come home, which was a fiasco. It started with the trailer. One of the four corners on the popup roof got stuck. In the process of trying to get it down, Kirsten got a nasty little cut (more like a chunk taken out) on her finger. In my attempts to get it down, I eventually broke the lift for that corner. My father and I had to hold that corner up and slowly lower it while Kirsten lowered the other three.

We finally got it down and then Kaitlyn was poopy, again. The poor girl had a case of the runs. Of course, we had just used the last diaper out of the diaper bag a few minutes earlier and you know where the extra diapers were! We were able to lift the top about 12 inches and Patrick (after about 10 minutes of work) was able to crawl all the way to the back of the trailer to retrieve three diapers. Whew, crisis averted.

We got the top back down and were ready to go when Kirsten said, "Eric, do you have the car keys?" Kirsten had put them in her jacket pocket. Then later we had packed all of the coats in the trailer! So here we are lifting the stupid popup roof again. We were getting pretty good at it by now, so it only took a couple of minutes to find the jackets and retrieve the car keys.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, but it sure was nice to get home.

Everything is fine here

There isn't too much going on in the Murphy-Thursam household recently. We are just enjoying the last lazy days of summer. We went to a 'Fun Center' on Sunday. It was the company picnic for Kirsten's work. It was fun. First, we played some mini-golf. Emily only lasted one hole. Kaitlyn always had a hole-in-one. She carried her ball with her always and then would drop it in the hole and take it back out. Emily and I rode the Go Karts together. She kept saying, "Go super fast, Daddy!"

Later, we had a good time playing some of the fun arcade games with the girls. We won (and were given) enough tickets to get two of everything, except suckers. This caused a little bit of a problem, until Patrick used some of his tickets to get a sucker for the other girl. Then on the way home, both girls took a couple of licks from their suckers and were done. Go Figure!

Here are a couple of cute pictures of the girls:



Emily in my working hat




Kaitlyn loves to where dress-up high heels

Kids Play Imitates Life

It is fun to watch Emily and Kaitlyn play together. Their play imitates life so often. Yesterday Emily had one of the kittens wrapped up in a small blanket and was trying to put it down for a nap. Kaitlyn watched for a few seconds then got the stuffed cat doll and wrapped it up.

Here is a picture:




They also like to play Haircut. Without the scissors, of course. Here is a shot of that:




Sometimes, they even get Patrick into the act:

Back from vacation

It has been a while since I have posted anything. Things have been hectic and we were away for our annual camping trip with Kirsten's family. The camping trip was interesting and fun. Scroll down to see several photos of the trip.

Highlights:
- Kirsten came down with "Fifth's" Disease on the day we left. She had to go into the emergency room the next morning. She had a nasty rash that lasted about 24 hours. Her hands and feet are still slightly swollen and here joints (especially wrists, hands and ankles) have ached ever since. Apparently it could take up to two months for that to go away.

- Kaitlyn was sick during most of the trip. She threw-up on me once and was very snuggly, but seemed to have a good time playing, wading in the creek, etc. Imagine our surprise when I took her to the doctor yesterday and she has Strep Throat. We are such bad parents.

- Patrick fell trying to cross the creek on a log and bruised his ribs. Not bad, but enough to be annoying (to him and everyone else too).

- The new trailer worked out very well. We generally slept pretty well, although it is amazing how much snuffling and snorting noises the kids make all night long. Including Patrick.

- The food was excellent as usual. We tend to try and out do each other with our gourmet meals made over the camp fire.

- The Tillamook Forest Interpretive Center was very nice. A nice museum. Interesting history about the Tillamook Burns. A very nice replica of an old Lookout Tower.

Pictures (there are 12):

Time for a haircut

We have been having trouble with Emily and her hair. She never wants us to comb it or do anything with it. It gets too tangled. So, we decided that she was too young for really long hair and that she could grow it out again when she got older. She was very excited. She loves to go to get a haircut. Mostly because of the balloons they give to kids.

Anyway, we had about 6 inches cut off and things are much better now. Here is a before picture:



Here is the after picture.

A.S.I.A. Reunion

Associated Services for International Adoption (ASIA) is the adoption agency that we used for both of our adoptions. I think that their name is somewhat misleading, because their adoptions are exclusively from China. Anyway, ASIA had minor reunion last weekend, which we attended.

It was an all day picnic at a very nice park. In years past, the reunions have been multiple day affairs that have drawn past adoptive families from around the nation. Since this was a one day get together, the turn out was smaller and consisted of families from Oregon and Southern Washington only. It was still a lot of fun and we got to see Jodi, Scott, Katie and Bing (adopted with Emily).

Here is a picture with the two of them.

Our New Camping Abode

After the last trip to the coast, where we slept in a rustic cabin, we decided that the purchase of a tent trailer was starting look very promising. We have been tent campers for most of our lives and really enjoy the cooking and living out doors. After sleeping in the rustic cabin, however, we discovered that sleeping on a raised sleeping pad is quite nice.

Also, we get tired of packing for the camping trips. Trying to get everything to fit in the back of the car and/or our little utility trailer. It would be nice to have all of the camping supplies (except food and clothes) already to go in a little trailer.

So, we have purchased the following. It is a 95 Coachmen. It is 17 Ft long for traveling and 23 feet long when set up. We are very thrilled with it and can't wait to go camping again.

Camping on the Coast

This week, we took a couple of days to go camping on the coast. I had a business meeting in Astoria on Tuesday morning, so we decided to take the whole family, rent a "Rustic Cabin" at the local KOA and spend that afternoon all day Wednesday on the coast.

It was a lot of fun and the girls loved the beach, especially Kaitlyn. She loved to stand there and let the waves roll over her feet. She would giggle like crazy. Scroll down to the next post to see a few pictures of us on the beach.

Tuesday (when we were on the beach) was great. It was overcast, but there was no wind and the temp was a nice 65, unusual for the coast. We went back to the cabin and met my parents (who had the neighboring cabin). We built a nice fire and Kirsten made an excellent dinner in our new Dutch Oven. Just as we were getting the girls down for bed, however, it started to rain. It rained all night, but we were comfy and cozy in out little cabin.

Wednesday was a normal day on the coast. The wind was blowing fairly hard, it rained off and on all day. We had planned on making another meal with the Dutch Oven over a campfire, but we decided that it wasn't worth it in the rain and wind. So we went out to breakfast instead. Then we went down the coast to tour the Tillamook Cheese Factory. The kids really enjoyed that, especially the ice cream we bought there!!

All in all, it was a good trip. We were glad that we weren't sleeping in a tent, like we usually do. We have also decided that we are getting a little old for the tent camping and are now looking into the possibility of a Tent Trailer.

Pictures from the Beach

This isn't really a picture of Patrick from the beach. All of his pictures didn't turn out so well. He was mostly head down, working on a fantasy landscape made with sand. This is a picture from the previous week that I liked.

New Download Site

I have found a new download site that I like. Please use the following two links to download the slide show/movies that I put together about Emily and Kaitlyn's Adoptions.

Emily's Adoption
Kaitlyn's Adoption

Again, if you are having trouble downloading these files, leave me a comment and I will see what I can do.

Some new additions and a couple of pictures

I haven't put up any pictures for a few weeks. So I thought that I would add couple of the girls. Also, we have two new additions to the family.


Here is a picture of the new kittens. Kirsten brought home two four week old kittens from work last week. We have named them "Pain" and "Panic" (yes, from the Disney movie "Hercules"). Pain is more adventurous and curious. Panic is more skittish and tends to hide and sleep a lot.

Pain has the white feet.




Here is a picture of Kaitlyn. She is looking at a book about Feng Shui. She likes to flip through books. She is pretty gentle with them and doesn't tear the pages. She also likes to draw, but you have to watch her, because she will draw in the books if she gets a chance.



Here is a picture of Emily. She is playing in a Castle at a local children's museum/play area. Emily loves to dress up as a princess. At daycare, her caregiver has recently started to label some her artwork as "Emily AKA Cinderella".

Movie Upload is Broken

I have learned that the website I have used to store the movies of Kaitlyn and Emily's adoptions has failed me. If you try and download them, you get a zero byte file. I am trying to find a more reputable site to store them for me. Please be patient with me.

Learning to Push Buttons

Kaitlyn (our youngest) has figured out a new and exciting game. She has determined that Emily won't defend herself very much. Oh, every once in a while, Emily will get in a tussle with Kaitlyn, but most of the time she will just sit and cry/scream/whine. Kaitlyn has figured out that she can take one of the toys that Emily is playing with, move about 10 feet away and Emily will just throw a fit. Kaitlyn won't even play with the toy, she just stands there and watches Emily. Sometimes, it even looks like she has a slight smile on her face.

Yesterday showed us a very good example. Emily is playing with the Brio Train Set, trying to build a really long train with all of the cars. Kaitlyn picks one up and walks away. Emily sits there screaming and crying. After a few minutes, I intervene and make Kaitlyn give it back and attempt to distract her with something else. A few minutes after that, I notice Kaitlyn sneaking up behind Emily. Quick as a rattler, she bends down, grabs one car and then heads for the hills. It is so cute to watch her run, Kirsten and I burst out laughing. Which was probably the wrong choice.

Finally, Kirsten calms Emily down and gets her to try and trade something to Kaitlyn for the train car. Kaitlyn obviously hasn't learned the value of things, because she gave up a nice train car that moves for wooden block with a picture of the Cookie Monster glued to it.

Random Thoughts

I noticed that 18 people have downloaded (or at least tried to download) the little slide show of Emily's Adoption Trip, but that only 6 people have downloaded Kaitlyn's. I figure that people either view the first and decide that Kaitlyn's isn't worth it or can't get Emily's to download correctly and don't try to get Kaitlyn's because of that. If you are having trouble, leave me a comment with your email and I can send it to you that way.

Also, I am surprised at the number of downloads, because I can only think of four or five people that would really care. Interesting.

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Kaitlyn is getting more and more teeth. They are starting to come at a rapid clip now. She has the front 8 (4 on top and bottom) and two molars further back and another 4 to 6 getting ready to break through. Needless to say, she is not as happy as she could be.

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Never buy only one scooter for the girls. This will lead to fights, whining, crying and several minor accidents. This is followed by a trip back to the store to buy a second scooter, which is followed closely by the complete lack of interest in either scooter by both girls.

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If the toy requires some assembly, it is much easier to assemble when the kids are not there. Our kids try and be very helpful, but this conversation was repeated several times. During the assembly of the two scooters.

"[place child's name here], where is the [place part name here, the smaller the better]."

"I don't know."

"Were you playing with it?"

"Yes" (for variety the child may say "I think so").

"Well, where did you put it?"

"I don't know" (for more variety the child may say "I don't remember")

Children at play

As Kaitlyn gets older, she and Emily are playing together more and more. Even Patrick is getting into the act. Here are a couple of pictures of them playing.


They love to play doggies. It is getting to the point that we are starting to hide the dogs leashes.



They also love to play babies. The stroller is not really designed for their size, but it works much better than a real stroller in the house.

Adoption Stories

First, at the request of my wife, I moved the story of Emily's Adoption and Kaitlyn's Adoption to the bottom of this page. She felt it was annoying for them to be at the top all the time, since most people will only want to view them once.

Also, I have recently created a couple of video slide shows that show the story of the adoptions. I have placed them on a web site that provides free image and file hosting called TheUpload. They are in WMV format, so they should work on any MS Windows Computer.

Also, I want to make sure that I acknowledge the musical background, which I downloaded for free from the following site Liu Fang Music. It is a piece entitled "The dance of the Yi People", composed by Wang Huiran and performed as a Pipa Solo by Liu Fang. I hope that covers me legally.

If you click on the links below you will be taken to a web page where you can download the files. Look for the "Download" Button on the right side of the screen a little over half-way down.

Emily's Adoption Show

Kaitlyn's Adoption Show

Where is China?

My oldest daughter is starting to figure out that she is a little different. We have done a pretty good job with trying to explain things and it helps to have an adopted sister. She sees all that has happened since Kaitlyn has come into our lives. Also, we have tried to instill in her a since that being Chinese makes her just like us only with a little extra special something. Being Chinese is a special add-on and takes nothing away from her.

Anyway, I have been making some movies about our adoption trips. Basically just slide shows set to music with a few actual movie clips thrown in. They are turning out pretty good. (I will try and put them somewhere for download). So, Emily thinks the movies are pretty cool and she now wants to go to China.

I have tried to explain that China is far away. She asked, "How far, can we go there tomorrow?" I explained, "China is very far, it is across the ocean." She give me a blank stare for about 10 seconds and then laughs, "You're teasing me!"

I guess that I have told too many whoppers to her. I never could convince her where China really was. She wouldn't believe about the ocean until other members of our FCC (Families with Children from China) explained that China really was across the ocean.