Sigel

I'm not sure what happened - I wrote this blog a while ago and then the next time I went on my blog it was gone. so here I am rewriting it - I'm sure it'll be a little different :)

During Sigel's Spring Break we went to a Sports Fishing place because he had never been fishing and was starting to drop a lot of hints about how badly he wanted to go fishing. lol so we went - Nana and Grandpa were here with us and we went over lunch time in hopes that we'd catch our lunch. The boys fished and the girls watched. Sigel was super antsy - every minute or so moving to another part of the pond, putting on more bait, or asking where the fish where. Thankfully he caught one! It was a huge catfish and he was so excited! He was the only one of us that caught fish so the rest of us had to buy our fish lunch :). After some pleading, the restaurant fried up Sigel's fish for him (I didn't know what I'd do if we'd a had to talk it home and do it!) and it was a good fish! He was so happy! (I love his stance in this picture below :) )

Also during spring break we visited with Sigel's family. Every 4 months or so we try to meet up with them and take them out to lunch. We feel that it's important to keep the relationship open - one because we need their cooperation and trust as we continue with Sigel's adoption, and secondly because he is and will always be there son - even if they are dysfunctional and are unable to care for him. The meetings are always a bit awkward because our lives are so different - Sigel doesn't know what to say (mostly in part because he's a 13 year old boy that doesn't talk much) and they don't know what to say to him...so it usually falls on Tristan and I to keep the conversation going.

I asked Sofia about Sigel as a baby and she told me that he was walking at 9months , was a pretty happy baby, had thick black hair that stood on end all the time, and that he drank goats milk for most of his first year because she (the mom) was bitten by a snake and in the hospital so she was unable to nurse. I wish I had pictures and memories of Sigel as a baby like I will of my other kids -=- but it's nice to be able to at least picture him toddling around at 9mo with a fro of black hair! :)
Above: mom-Sofia, Dad - Julio, Sigel, Sister- Belin and niece Sofita, Maddy, Tristan, Beth, sister-Llani.

In other Sigel news, he's doing very well. We feel like this move has been good for him - we've been trying very hard to build our relationship as a family and it's paying off. He's a little more open and is having more good days than bad... although when the bad days come...look out! :(. He's doing great in school! Due to switching schools and going into a new curriculum he was a bit behind but now he's caught up and even ahead of some of the kids in his class which is so exciting. This curriculum is work at your own pace and has the potential to do more than one year of school in a year - so we're hoping that this will catch him up to his grade level - he's still about 2 year behind.

Sigel and Maddy have finally bonded! It's taken a year - but the day Maddy was born he asked us to leave her at the hospital - now he seeks her out to play with him and he'll lay on the floor for a long time to play. She loves to go in his room and play - and amazingly he doesn't mind. The other day I peeked around the corned to watch them play and saw maddy giving Sigel a big 'kiss' - really a slobber all over his face - he insisted it wasn't a kiss but it was :). Nothing is better for me than to see my kids love each other and have a connection! Sigel is a great big brother! (But he told us we shouldn't have any more kids lol :)>