Our Unexpected Addition

For those of you who know me, you know that all I've ever wanted to be was a mother, so when Vinnie and I had so much difficulty with miscarriages, we started to believe we wouldn't ever have kids. When Lucas finally came along, we were the happiest people on earth. We were happy to just have our one sweet boy. 

So now let's fast forward to March 2014, when I got a very unexpected e-mail from Vinnie's little sister. In short she had given birth to a beautiful baby boy in November(just 10 short months after I had given birth to Lucas) and was unable to care for him. In her e-mail she asked Vinnie and I if we would be willing to take on her baby as our own. Could we be that crazy??? I mean we had our own 14 month old at home, we were first time parents... we were still learning the ropes. Well after a lot of discussion and prayer Vinnie and I knew there was only one answer, yes! So we started the process to adopt. On July 1st, 2014, I flew to Coeur d'Alene to a hearing to find out if the judge felt we were a good fit. After a very short court hearing, I walked out with a 7 month old baby in my arms. A little overwhelmed he and I went and checked into our hotel for the night and flew back to Boise the next day.

Since that day we have been an unofficial family of 4. But as of August 20th, 2015 we are an official family of 4. That was the day we adopted Coby William Hankla. We are the very proud parents of two amazingly crazy boys and wouldn't have it any other way. 

The year leading up to Coby's Adoption

9 months

Little Coby is growing up so fast. He is fun to watch, and to see all the new things he is learning. He is almost always happy and willing to play! He is quite possibly one of the happiest little boys we have ever met. His smiles can melt your heart in seconds. He is pretty tiny as you will see from his stats, but the doctor said as long as he continues to get bigger there is nothing to worry about. He is having us come in for a 10 month appointment to make sure this little guy is growing!

Stats:

Height – 2’3” - 4th percentile

Weight – 17lbs 5oz - 10th percentile

Head – 16.5 inches - 0 percentile

Likes:

Food – When he sees his bottle is getting made, he starts to shake with excitement.

Singing – Let’s be honest, we love music at our house and it has rubbed off on Coby. He loves to sing along with the songs in the house, and also he loves to join in when Lucas is making up a song.

Free from brother time – He loves Lucas to death, but when he wakes up before him, he eats up the free “quiet” time.

Bath time – He really loves to just sit in the water and splash around.

The dogs – Any time one of the dogs gets near, Coby starts to giggle and giggle. They have both been so good with him that they just kind of lie there so he can grab their ear or hair a little bit.

Dislikes:

Waiting for his food – Doesn’t matter if he sees you making it, when he has decided it is time for food he wants it RIGHT then.

Diaper changes – he doesn’t like to stay still, so trying to get a clean diaper on him is almost impossible.

Accomplishments:

Crawling – He can get around just about anywhere just as fast as we can walk there. He seems to be on the move all the time.

Teeth – He has finally pushed through 1 tooth with the 2^nd very quickly behind it. You can’t see number 2 yet, but you can feel it.

Talking – You may not be able to tell what he is saying, but he has figured out a few fun sounds that are definitely words.

Standing/Walking with support – He has learned to pull himself up using things like the couch or us… and he then loves to walk around the house with one of us holding his hands.

Using a spoon – He really hated a spoon when we first started solid foods, but he has finally figured it out and seems to be enjoying feeding time much more now.

First hair cut – This boy has a ton a ton of hair, so we have been trying to get him in for a hair cut for the last month. Finally we were able to get him in!

10 months

Coby is one amazing little guy. It seems like every day he is becoming more and more of his own little person and learning all kinds of new things to do. He has been such a blessing to our lives. His little smile can make a really bad day perk right up. As you will notice though, he still is a pretty small little guy. He has gotten bigger and taller, but his head just doesn’t want to do much of anything. So the doctor is keeping a pretty close eye on that one, in hopes that there isn’t an issue with his teeny tiny head!

Stats:

Height – 2’4” - 11th percentile

Weight – 18lbs 6oz - 16th percentile

Head – 16.75 inches - 0 percentile

Likes:

Bath time – It has gotten to the point that if anyone even opens the bathroom door Coby thinks it’s time for bath and heads straight over.

Making noises/blowing bubbles – He really loves to make noise while blowing bubbles… he is insanely cute the way he puckers up… but he doesn’t love how wet he ends up when he’s done.

Laughing – He quite possibly thinks Lucas is the funniest thing he has ever seen. Lucas will do something and the two of them will just laugh and laugh forever.

Smiling – Man this boy loves to smile… and it is one of the cutest smiles you could ever see.

Dislikes:

Rice cereal – He loves food, but when it comes to rice cereal, there is nothing you can do to convince him it’s yummy.

His car seat – He just recently has started crying every time we put him in the car seat… I’m starting to wonder if he is ready for a convertible car seat instead of an infant one.

Having his toys taken – The boys are definitely still working on the concept of sharing… but with Coby’s amazing little grip it sticks up for himself!

Accomplishments:

Standing – He has figured out how to pull himself up into a standing position anywhere in the house and he loves it. He can keep himself balanced for a good minute before he sits himself back down.

Walking with support – He is really wanting to walk, but hasn’t figured out how to do it without some assistance. He loves using the couch to walk back and forth, and having us help him walk around. Lucas even tries to give him his hands and help him walk.

Talking – He has added some new sounds to his vocabulary this last month.

12 months

We can’t believe that we have ANOTHER 1 year old already. It dawned on me the other day that we currently have two boys that are 1 year old for the next month… Some days it really feels like we are raising twins. It has its ups and downs, but we feel truly blessed to have Coby in our family. He is such a sweet guy who is always good for a smile when you need one. We celebrated his birthday last night, and he had his first run in with cake… I think he liked it a little too much; the poor boy woke up with an upset tummy in the middle of the night.

Stats:

Height – 2’4.5” - 7th percentile

Weight – 18lbs 11oz - 11th percentile

Head – 16.75 inches - 0 percentile

Likes:

Milk – He’s only been drinking milk one meal a day since he turned one, but it is most definitely his favorite meal of the day. He has no problem finishing that bottle.

Dance Parties – We love to rock out to music at our house and dance. At first Coby just looked at us like we were crazy, but now he dances with us too. It’s super cute.

Tickles – He is one of the most ticklish kids I have ever met, and he just loves it.

Being upside down – he likes to bend over while standing and look around while upside down, he also likes to be held like that too.

Dislikes:

Baby cereal – He has decided he is too grown up for that stuff I guess. He will eat anything we give him, but if we try cereal he will refuse to open his mouth.

Getting his nose wiped – The whole family has shared a beautiful cold, and all got runny noses. Every time we got close to Coby’s nose he acted like it was the end of the world.

His car seat – I don’t know what it is about the carriers, but it just seems like one day babies decide they hate them. Coby is more than small enough to still sit in one… but he just hates it.

Accomplishments:

Walking – A week ago he had taken at most 9 steps on his own, by his birthday he was cruizin’ all around the house. He is pretty wobbly still, but he has definitely got it down.

Talking - He has three official words, he knows mama, dada, and uh-oh. Uh-oh is super cute because he holds on to the oh for like 5 seconds.

Mimicking – He has always liked to copy Lucas but never anyone else, in the last month or so he has started to mimic all of us. Still Lucas the most, but it’s pretty fun.

 15 months

Life has been pretty crazy at the Hankla house, with two very mobile boys we spend a lot of time running around. Coby has mastered walking, “running”, and his favorite thing climbing. So one or both boys are always up to something. We truly have given Lucas his partner in crime. Both Lucas and Coby take care of each other before anyone else. Coby is a happy playful boy who spends most of his time either smiling or giggling. He is getting bigger as you will see below, but he isn’t getting all that much taller so he has these adorably cute chunky cheeks. The doctor says his growth is staying on his growth chart, but we still wish he would get a little bigger. I get scared about his height and head, but I’m sure that is just me being silly.

Stats:

Height – 2’5.5” – 2nd percentile

Weight – 20lbs 11oz - 16th percentile

Head – 17.43 inches - 0 percentile

Likes:

Fruit – Doesn’t matter what we put on his plate, if there is any fruit on the plate it is what he eats first. I think if we would just let him eat fruit all day long he would.

His bottle – He has a happy little dance that he does as soon as he sees a bottle.

Climbing – He is quite the little monkey, he really enjoys to climb up on top of us and sit down on our chest and just chill for awhile.

Being held – He will reach up and start opening and closing his hands and waiting for us to pick him up, and as soon as we reach down he grabs our fingers and starts to pull himself up into our arms.

Dislikes:

His nose – This part hasn’t changed, he really struggles with runny noses, which now the doctor “thinks” is allergies. But because of this we have to wipe his nose far too often and he HATES HATES HATES it!

His car seat – It hasn’t gotten any better since our last update. He screams as soon as he sees the car seat in sight.  

Accomplishments:

Clapping – He really likes to clap and it’s insanely cute to watch.

Shaking his head no – Not sure where he learned this one (haha) but any time we say no to anything he starts shaking his head back and forth as fast as possible.

Being more vocal – Coby has always been pretty quiet but he is learning new sounds and using them. He especially likes to play the screaming game with Lucas… Not sure we love it, but they both think it’s pretty hilarious. 

Hair growing – Is that an accomplishment???? Well if it is, he has it. This kid’s hair grows so stinkin’ fast. He has already had 2 hair cuts since July.

18 months

A year and a half has just kind’ve crept up on us! We can’t believe this little guy has grown so much in the last few months. He is no longer a baby, he is a little person who knows what he does and does note like. He is very opinionated and vocal… however, he hasn’t quite figured out words yet. So he will tell you how he feels and stories about his life, but you won’t know a single thing he is saying. We have to really watch his mannerisms and his expressions to find out how he is feeling. Lucas, however, seems to understand his babbling, so hopefully they are having good conversations without us. I have talked with the doctor about his vocabulary, and he is still okay. He should have 20 words by the time he is two… so we are hopeful we will get there by the end of these next 6 months! Other than that he is quite possibly one of the sweetest people we have ever had in our life. We are so incredibly blessed to have this amazing little boy as part of our family!

Stats:

Height – 2’7” – 7th percentile

Weight – 22lbs 1oz - 18th percentile

Head – 17.44 cm - 0 percentile

Likes:

Daddy play time – There is no question that Coby is a daddy’s boy, and the best way to see that is when they play. The laughter you hear from him during daddy time is the happiest noise you will ever hear.

Laughing – Coby LOVES to laugh! He is ticklish, playful, and just loves to be happy as much as possible. Honestly I think his laugh is the most wonderful noise in the world.

Running – He has his own little cute run, but oh man does it make him happy to get going!

Climbing – This is probably his favorite thing to do… and it’s the one thing I’d wish he’d forget, it scares me to death!

Dislikes:

His nose –  STILL! Don’t touch it, even if it’s covered in yuck!

Being Bullied – The boys love playing together, but Lucas does sometimes think “I’m bigger, I want this, it’s mine” and Coby will not not stand for it. He throws quite the fit until the wrong is corrected! In fact one of his few words he has mastered is “mine”!  

People – This boy is quite the shy guy, he is very vocal and loud at home, but as soon as someone else enters the picture he turns into a different kid.

Accomplishments:

Somersaults– Don’t ask how he has learned this, because we don’t know. But holy cow this kid is good at them. Lucas can’t even do them, but Coby has them mastered!

Eating Alone – He is working on mastering eating all of his food alone, and he is doing an awesome job.

Dancing – He’s got the moves! Lol!! Really we just love our dance parties at the Hankla house.

2 years

Has it really already been 2 years since we welcomed Lucas into this world? It feels like just yesterday I was holding our little guy for the first time. He has definitely made life interesting for us! In the last two years he has really become his own person. Every day, we see his personality a little more. He is most definitely wild and crazy(all the time!!) and full of energy that we have no idea where it comes from. He is adventurous and too brave for mommy and inquisitive all at the same time. He is most definitely the perfect first child for this family!

For Halloween he and his brother were Batman and Robin!

Stats:

Height - 2'11.5" - 85th percentile

Weight - 34 lbs - 96th percentile

We miss summer!

In the last few months Lucas has learned so many new things. I think the biggest thing is he finally is getting to the point where he verbally can hold a conversation. Most people still don't understand him, but Vinnie and I can pretty much tell what is being talked about 90% of the time. 

He has also figured out just about anything and everything you want kids to take a long time to figure out. He knows how to open and close doors, along with locking them... we knew those dang safety covers were in our future....On top of that he knows how to climb into, under, on top of anything in the house... so nothing is safe around here.

Other than that we really just have a happy boy that loves to play and run around as much as possible. He has really become an amazing big brother to our little one, and loves having a "doder" to take care of and play with. 

Just like his daddy!

Lorax Party

18 months

18 months

Holy cow, it feels like I haven’t written in a million years. I guess that is because so much has happened with Lucas in the last 3 months. Since our last blog, many things have changed. I guess the first thing to change was Lucas was blessed to have another cousin join his group of friends. My sister Nicole had a beautiful baby girl named Neko on May 1^st. We were so excited when we were able to finally go and meet her. The next thing that happened was Lucas took his first plane ride, he did amazing!! He also got to swim in a real pool for the first time on that trip. Then, I started summer break, so Lucas and mommy stay home together all day. Which is amazing and wonderful, and a whole lot of work!!! The last HUGE thing that has happened in Lucas’ life is he became a big brother!!! We won’t talk too much about that one in this blog, but we are so excited to have little brother around to hug and kiss and steal his pacifier. Our little man is getting so big and so grown up, it’s hard to believe all he has accomplished in 18 months of life.

17 months

Stats:

Height - 2'11" - 99th percentile

Weight - 31lbs 2oz - 98th percentile

Head - 19.5 inches - 94th percentile

16 months

Likes:

Getting into trouble – I feel like he has a 6^th sense about what he is absolutely NOT supposed to touch or play with, and that becomes his mission, to figure out how he can get to that thing without getting caught.

Running – His uncle makes fun of him for his running stance, but he sure can move fast when he decides to get moving.

Outside – If anyone even mentions the outside, or someone opens a door, he thinks that he is going to get to go out and play.

His doggies – I’m not so sure they feel the same way about him, but he loves to pet them and hug them and play “chase” with them all day long… eventually they wander as far away from him as they can.

Water – this last month Lucas and I did mommy and me swim lessons that he just loved to go to. I can’t say the same for myself, but it was worth it to see the smile on his face every time we got into the water.

Helping with the dishes – he thinks it’s the greatest when mommy is unloading the dishwasher, because he will come over and grab things and hand them to me, he will even go put things where they go if they are in his reach.

Opening/Shutting/Locking doors – sadly because Lucas is so dang tall he is able to do all of those things, the other day I was out of town, and Vinnie informed me Lucas not only locked daddy out of the bedroom but also the master bathroom, so Vinnie had to pick two locks just to get to Lucas.

His brother – every morning he tells his little brother hi and then gives him a hug and a kiss. Then throughout the day he will stop playing and run over and go love on him again. He also really likes to make him giggle.

First time in the pool!

Water fun!

Dislikes:

Meat – the kid has never been a picky eater in his life, but now that we serve him the same thing we eat every night, we have found out that he wants nothing to do with meat. Please keep telling me he will eventually grow out of it, I sure hope he does!

Being told no – he is definitely a little bit spoiled, and so he “thinks” he can get away with anything… so he does not respond well to being told he can’t

His car seat – he hates hates hates being confined in the car seat, he has figured out how to squeeze his arms out… it drives me absolutely NUTS!

Diaper change – I don’t know if this is a sign that he is ready to move forward with potty training, or if he just hates to hold still(I’m going with the second idea).

His brother – as much as he loves his new little brother… he also hates sharing the attention. If something is wrong with brother, something automatically becomes wrong with Lucas. Luckily for us, both mommy and daddy are here to help each boy!

2nd hair cut! His hair grows so fast!

Accomplishments:

Singing – Lucas has officially mastered singing songs. He can sing the tune of “Let it Go”, “ABC song”, and “Twinkle Twinkle” and many many other tunes that we have no idea what are.

Real words – it seems like every day his is gaining more and more words in his vocabulary. He is pretty cute with his mixed baby/real word conversations.

Climbing – he is capable of getting pretty much anywhere he wants… even if you don’t want him there. The other day I put him down for a nap and then I heard screaming coming from his room. He had climbed over the crib and was hanging for dear life on the edge hoping to not fall off.

Moved into a big boy chair at the table – I don’t know if this is really an accomplishment, but we are pretty excited about the change!

Movement – this kid loves to run, and walk backwards, and crawl backwards, and do just about anything you can think of to be mobile. The only time of day when we can get him to stop is nap/bed time… which in reality he doesn’t stop then either. We will lay him down at one end of his crib and he always ends up somewhere completely different when we go get him.

I’m sure there is much much more that I should be writing for him, but he growing so fast I feel like I can’t keep up with him. 

Meeting cousin Neko, and of course Dylan is there too!

Somebody loves Batman(it's daddy)

15 months

15 month & seeing Whitney!

Now that Lucas is 1, I have decided to only blog every 3 months. In the last 3 months , Lucas has literally transformed from our little baby to a little boy. He is the absolute joy of our life. We can’t even imagine what life was like before him… and honestly we probably don’t want to. He makes every minute of our life fun!

13 months old

Stats:

Height - 2'8" - 78th percentile

Weight - 28lbs 15oz - 98th percentile

Head - 18.7 inches - 69th percentile

His very first hair cut! 

Likes:

The couch – He has recently decided that the couch is super cool…. But it is not super cool to have mom and dad lift him up. So he figured out how to lift his leg and roll himself right up onto the couch.

Playing – He has figured out a lot of things about his toys, mainly which ones are big enough to put something else in.

His bikes – He got 2 little bikes for his birthday and has HATED them and unwilling to even try to ride them. Recently he has figured out how to climb on and ride around all on his own and now he plays on them whenever he gets a chance.

Food – This kid has never struggled with food, but we absolutely love that he is willing to try anything we put in front of him. And most of all we LOVE how much he loves fruit!

Dancing – It is adorable, any time a song comes on he stops whatever he is doing and either gets up and dances or bobs his head to the song.

14 months

Dislikes:

Getting in trouble – Lucas is most definitely one of those kids that pushes the boundaries as far as he can… and his father will tell you, I let it go too far most of the time. When he does finally push too far he gets told no and gets time outs and such… and he has learned to throw quite a fit about it all.

Not getting his way – He is a lot like his mommy in this sense, if it doesn't go his way he throws a pretty great fit.

Love his eyes!

Accomplishments:

Walking – One day Lucas decided he wanted to walk, so he stood up and he did. After that day he took about 2 days to have it down, now he runs around the house everywhere.

Talking – He still is pretty hard to understand, but he has added quite a few words into his vocabulary. The cutest one is when something bad happens, I always respond “uh oh” to him and now he will respond back “UHT OH” and when he says the oh part he makes a full circle with his mouth.

Closing doors – This one drives me crazy, because he will run to his room and close the door all the time. He also likes to close daddy out of the bedroom when we are trying to get ready. It however, is really cute when he will close the door we are walking out of.

Feeding himself – He doesn’t normally like “help” from mom or dad to eat, he wants to feed it to himself, and for the most part unless it needs to be eaten with a fork or spoon, we try to let him feed himself.  

Hugs and Kisses – He gives the most amazing hugs ever… and will just run up with a huge smile on his face and wrap his arms around your legs. He also loves to kiss, he hasn’t quite figured out how it really works but he opens his mouth as wide as he can and presses his lips up against your cheek, it’s pretty dang cute!

Spring Break Lunch Date with Daddy!

I’m sure there is much much more that I should be writing for him, but he growing so fast I feel like I can’t keep up with him.