Happy 7th Birthday Kyle!!

Hi All, Dad Checking in...

Kyle turns SEVEN (7) years old today.

Happy Birthday!!
 
He is celebrating by putting together a pretty complicated LEGO set that he got as a gift.

Grandma and Poppa are visiting from Grand Rapids and we're enjoying a full "birthday weekend."  We had a small ice cream cake last night after dinner and we sang "Happy Birthday".

Kyle is doing really well and is enjoying 1st Grade - he would go 7 days a week if he could!  He like almost all of his school subjects and seems to excel at Math.

It's hard to believe how the time has melted away - Lisa and I were joking the other day that it was a few weeks after he came home with us until he could even scoot along the floor on his little bottom.  Now he's got tons of strength and confidence, is a great swimmer, has already outgrown his bike, and loves to visit any playground we see.

Here are a few more recent photos...

Walking with Ashley at the Fishing Pier at Seal Beach, CA, during our recent trip to California...

Riding a giant tortoise at the San Diego Zoo...

And Kyle, Mom & Dylan riding the Matterhorn (Very unexpected development, since Kyle is NOT a rollercoaster kid - the Matterhorn is somewhat mild, though and Kyle really loved it.  The most important thing at Disneyland was to "ride the Matterhorn at night".)

Here's to Birthday #7 - We hope you have a great day.

For any visitors,
Please bounce over to our Facebook page for more stories & pictures.

Happy Birthday, Kyle.
We Love You.
Mom & Dad

Just a quick note...

If you've arrived here through a CHOP Adoption Newsletter link, this happens to be Kyle's Story...

Here is Dylan's Story...

Here is Ashley's Story...

Remember - they read from the bottom.

Enjoy and thanks for visiting.

Charlie

Kyle's First Day in FIRST GRADE!!

Hi again, just another drive-by posting to note another small milestone...

Today was Kyle'e FIRST DAY in 1st Grade.

He's been anticipating this day for over a year, when he realized that he missed the cut-off to start last year.

Early in the Summer, he graduated from his Goddard School (this time for good...) Kindergarten class. That was quite a day - we were so proud of his progress and happy that he had made so many friends - and had such an impact on his teachers. It was a very emotional day for all of us...

Since then, excitement had been building toward today.  Kyle, Dylan and Ashley all attended the "Y" camp again for the summer and had a blast.  They really enjoyed all of the activities and the field trips (for the boys), too.

Last week, we were fortunate enough to take the California vacation that we had to postpone due to Ashley's medical issues upon her return from China.  We can't believe that was (2) years ago!  The upside is that we really think they all appreciated the trip even more, since they were two years older and were not completely jet-lagged from a 12 hour flight from Hong Kong.

We had a wonderful week <Check here for Pictures after we get a chance to load them up>.  We spent time in San Diego, saw the Zoo, did Legoland, and visited LaJolla, then we went to Los Angeles to Disneyland & D.'s California Adventure, and had a fun time everywhere (excepting a small number of mini-meltdowns).

We flew home on Saturday and had Sunday to recover (and to let the excitement build even more for Kyle).

Back to First Grade...
Mom took today off from work, to make sure he got to school and settled in.
He was all chattering as they left the house for the 2.5 minute drive to school, but Mom noticed a strange decline in the level of chatter as they got closer to school - until she shut the car off - that when I think it hit him (and there was an awkward silence).  They walked together up to the sign in desk, and Kyle began to well up - it was very overwhelming -- new place ("I don't know where to go...") - new kids ("I don't know who'll be my friend - I don't even know any of them.") - new teachers (this isn't Goddard School) - and no Dylan and Ashley...

Once she signed him in and looked down to his little face the dam broke for him...and soon for her as well.  He didn't want her to go and she didn't want to leave him like that - so they were immediately assisted by a very nice teacher who, along with Mom's help, was able to help him pull it together.  He was able to say good-bye to Mom, and he walked away to his first first grade activity: coloring.

Mom picked him up a little early and he seemed very content and pleased with himself that he was able to redirect his day to be a very good (and memorable) one.  By the end of the afternoon, when we reunited at dinner-time (over Mom's Mac & Cheese), we was confidently chattering again, telling us about all of the great stuff he did, about all of the new parts of his school, about his new friends and classmates, about his new teacher...and paying special attention to explaining 1st Grade to Dylan and Ashley.

And so it goes...Kyles's over the hurdle, he's on his way, he'll be fine.

As for me & Mom...we'll never be the same.
What an absolute joy it's been to watch him grow into the little person he is.

Thanks for visiting.
Dad

A Big Day - Kyle Lost his first tooth!

Hi again, Dad here, just passing through with a drive-by post noting that Kyle has lost his first tooth.

He's been watching many of his school friends losing teeth (almost every day it seems) and now he can finally join the club.

It took a while but, after not being able to sleep one night last week, due to the major distraction of this loose tooth, Kyle finally (bravely I'd say) yanked the bugger out all by himself.

Here is the proof:

We'll be back, hopefully soon.

Until then thanks for visiting.

 C

Happy FIVE Years, Kyle!!!

Hi all,

Coming to you tonight, this Christmas Eve, from Grandma & Poppa's house in East Grand Rapids, MI.

As I walked by the clock on the way to the computer, I saw that time was short in order to be able to post this note while it's still, in fact, Chritmas Eve.  A little under two hours until the magic hour of midnight and calendar turning to December 25, 2011.

We drove from Phladelphia to EGR last night and so we're all still a little car-lagged from the trip.  We've changed our long-trip logistics with Ashley's arrival, opting to drive all night instead of calling it a night in Cranberry, PA.  We had very good luck and a cooperative crew last night an we pulled in around 2:30 AM.  This was about about 11 hours and 45 minutes after rolling out of the Malvern Train Station.  I watched every one of the over 700 miles pile up on the odometer.

It was a great trip by all accounts - kids went down early, and Mom only popped up a few times with her trademark "Are you OK?".   The weather cooperated almost the entire way.  It was colder that we'd seen in Philly (in the high 20's when we crossed into Michigan from Ohio). And there was only a slight hint of snow flurries with little impact (we dialed our speed back to 70 from 80).  We did see two cars that were not as luck.  One went down an embankment off to the right shoulder, while the other spun out halfway across the median to our left.  Both stayed upright on all 4 wheels, so were hopeful everyone was OK.

Five years ago at about this time, Kyle was spending his first night with us - his forever family- as the our first son. Here is a photo of him just shortly before we fell asleep:

What a wonderous Christmas present...

Five years has since melted off the calendar, and that day is still vibrant in my memory - you can read about it all as it happened earlier in this story- just scroll back to the post from Christmas Eve 2006.  I can still feel the warmth of his little sweaty body as we peeled off the layers of clothes to get to him so we could give him a bath...

I still have flashbacks to Kyle's first few days with us in Nanchang whenever I hear the Vince Guaraldi Chistmas album ("da da-da da-da-da da-da, da da-da...") - what a time in our lives it was!

We frequently flip through our adoption photo albums with all three of the kids - it's really fun to hear the stories they tell and see how they react to seeing their pre-Lockhead days captured forever in photographs.

Kyle turned (6) years old a few months ago - my last post before this one - and his personality is really unfolding.  He loves his Brother Dylan and Sister Ashley - and has taken on the mantle of "big brother" proudly and well.  He enjoys school and enjoys all of the friends he's made.  And he's anticipaing the excitement of FIRST GRADE this coming fall.

I just wanted to stop by briefly to mark the occasion of Kyle's first 5 years.  The pace of our family's life is accelerating and we're doing the best we can to mark the special days, like this one.  The times like we experienced on our Christmas Eve in 2006 are momentous, but fleeting.  We hope to never let these memories fade, or to let their anniversaries slip away without marking them...we don't want to have to carry around the regret of missing one.

To any of the families of our China travel group who shared our journey in 2006, and may be reading this, we offer a special wish for a Merry Chrsitmas and a Happy New Year.

I better turn in soon, I just overheard that the weather channel forecaster is picking up Santa's sleigh on radar over Newfoundland.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
C

PS We've migrated a lot of our online activity to Facebook - so please look us up under "Charlie Lockhead" for more news and photos.

Happy 6th Birthday, KYLE!!!

So here I sit again...a full year later...another blink of an eye.

Kyle turned SIX (6) today, and by all accounts he had a GREAT Day.

We had a family Birthday Party last weekend, with Uncle Sean, Aunt Laura, Alyx, Sean Andrew, Aunt Mary, Aunt Rita, Pop-Pop and Grandmom ("who live next to us", as they're known).
It was a lot of fun and Kyle loved being the center of attention.

Kyle had a great week this week building up to a countdown to Friday - his BIRTHDAY!

Kyle, Dylan and Ashley all helped Mom make Cupcakes for his school friends - and he was very attentive to make sure that everyone who wanted one got a cupcake (and a birthday goodie bag!).

Here are some pictures for this week...

It would be impossible to describe the last year and all that's happened...but...
Kyle has grown into a wonderful, generous, handsome, caring little boy.  It's been magical to watch how he has really embraced his important job as big brother.  He looks after both Dylan and Ashley and he really enjoys his role.

He continues to do well in school and makes lot of friends wherever he goes. He and Dylan took a break from Goddard School this year and went to "Y" Camp over the summer.  They both had a GREAT time - they were very sad that the summer ended - they were in the same group and still miss it, even as school has started up for the fall.

It really does seem like yesterday when we were getting ready to leave for Beijing to meet Kyle for the first time and welcome him to our family - wondering what it would be like.

Sometimes, looking back, I wish I knew then what I know now.

But that would have taken away all of the wonder and pure joy of watching how it all has unfolded.

Happy Birthday Kyle. We can imagine our family without you.
Love Mom & Dad

Happy Birthday!!! Kyle Turns 5 Years Old Today

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY!!!!!! 

Today is Kyle's 5th Birthday!  It's been very long time since we last posted here, but thought we'd revisit...

Since then, Dylan's joined our family and we're a few days away from leaving for China to bring home our daughter Ashley home.

Kyle had a GREAT DAY today. It's truly unbelievable to look back at the first few posts from this story and then look at today.  I'm sure every parent goes through this, but it's almost indescribable to explain if you're not one.

He's really thriving at home with Dylan and at Goddard School.  His personality is really taking shape and he's growing up.

Kyle shared gift bags and cupcakes (Thanks Mom!) with his classmates at lunch today.  I had the opportunity to visit him on my lunch break today and saw how he interacted with everyone.  It was a unique window that I had a chance to peek through.  He made absolutely sure that we went to get Dylan from his classroom before anything got started so that Dylan could participate.

It was an exceptionally good day - one I'll never forget.  We cannot believe he's 5.

And it all happened in the blink of an eye.

I'll leave it at that.

C

Saturday at Christmas in Grand Rapids

Hi again,

We just got back from a great afternoon of bowling with Uncle Mark, Paityn, Logan, Luke, Mom, Grandma and Poppa (Grandma & Poppa were mostly cheering, not bowling!).

Kyle was the winner of both kids' games.

The "ramp" was a big key to all of the fun - although Luke was string enough to launch his ball down the lane unassisted! We clocked his ball's average travel time from when it left his hand until it made contact (sometimes nudging, but not knocking over) the pins, at 1 Min. 15 Secs.

We all had a lot of good fun.

Here are some pictures...














More to come soon...

Catching Up - Kyle In School

Kyle continues to make excellent progress in his Goddard school.

He's progressed from the "Leaping Lizards" to the "Thunderbolts". His teachers say that he really enjoys school and he's really developing into a great little student.

We had the chance to share some school events with him this year. Kyle's Grandmom and Pop-Pop Lockhead visited his class for a Grandparents event.

He also had a lot of fun during the annual Halloween Parade.

Thanks to Grandmom, Pop-Pop and Aunt Rita for driving all the way out to school to see us. Here he is holding hands with Miss Jody, one of his favorite teachers:




Kyle parading with his classmates and scanning the crowd for Grandmom, Pop-Pop & Aunt Rita




And in the fall, Mom & Dad enjoyed a family night of music and fun. Goddard School had a PotLuck after school and there was a live music group playing kid's songs - we had a lot of fun.

More to come soon...

Now, For Some Catching up...

Hi again, just had a great visit from Uncle Mark's family and Kyle had a roarin' good time with his cousins...
He's just hit the sack and will likely be sleeping very shortly...

In February of 2007, Kyle, Mom, Dad, and Poppa & Grandma Wedder visited Walt Disney World in Florida. The plane trip was fun and we stayed at the Pp Century Resort at Disney. It was a very full week for us and we visited a lot of Parks. We had a lot of laughs with all of the Parks that we went to. The weather wasn't the best, but we had a great time.

We even got a chance to meet up with Kyle's Pop-Pop and Grandmom Lockhead and Aunt Meg, Uncle Curt, and Kyle's cousins Justin and Malissa! That was a LOT of fun, and we really had a good day.

We got to see the night-time Parade, went on rides, went to Brunch with Chef Mickey, went to a Character Dinner, visited Epcot, went shopping and saw the Finding Nemo Show. (We did a bunch of other stuff too, but too may things to mention...)

Here are some highlight photos:

Mom, Kyle and Prince Charming (Kyle's the One in the Bib!!)
(Mom's the one with the wandering eye!!!)





Kyle & Mom mugging in a Viking hat at Epcot - Norway




Kyle at Epcot - The Living Seas




Cousin Justin, Kyle & Grandmom Lockhead in 3-D!



Kyle enjoying some time just playing...




The Gang at the Magic Kingdom




Kyle, Mom & Tigger at Animal Kingdom




Kyle & Uncle Curt in line at Animal Kingdom



K-man enkoying Popcorn while waiting for the Animal Kingdom Parade



Hola, amigos - from Epcot - Mexico





Kyle, Dad & Mickey




Kyle just relaxing while waiting for Dinner at the Boardwalk




Kyle stealing a kiss from MInnie (at Chef Mickey's)





Kyle looking forward to a big day at the Magic Kingdom





Kyle and Mom share a relaxing moment on the Riverboat




Our family with the One & Only Lightning McQueen





Kyle & Mom gatting ready to head to the airport after our GREAT week




I hope this is a good start - more to come soon!

Be sure to tune back in...

Christmas Day 2008 - Merry Christmas

Good afternoon and Merry Christmas.

We had a most excellent Christmas morning - Kyle saw that Santa really was listening when he made up his Christmas list. He didn't quite have the desire to sit on Santa's lap and deliver the list personally, but we waved many times to Santa from a comfortable distance.

We had a nice evening last night at Uncle Mar and Aunt Avery's home. Dinner was delicious and we exchanged and opened some of our gifts. It was a bit treacherous getting home last night - lots of ice on the roads. But we made it safely. Kyle's been enjoying his new Firetruck, his Log Truck (Thanks Great-Grandma), his new Thomas the Tank Engine trains and accessories, and we can't wait to tear into his new DVD player and headphones. (Now Dad won't have to reload DVDs in mid meltdown because the snackbag is empty while cruising down the highway at 65 on the way home from school!)

He is coming off a very good nap so he should be good to go for his cousins' visit, an dinner and more gifts...

More catch up and pictures soon...

Happy Gotcha Day and Merry Christmas to All

Hello again!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Gotcha Day. Thanks to everyone who has been following along...welcome back.

It looks like we fell a little short on that "recommit to posting" thing from a few months ago. However, New Years usually means resolutions, and this will be one of ours.

Here we are again: Gotcha Day + 2 Years = UNBELIEVABLY WONDERFUL!

It's Christmas Eve 2008 (can it really be 2008?) and we are enjoying an afternoon of preparations before we go to visit Kyle's Uncle Mark for Christmas Eve Dinner and fun.

Looking back, we've left a few gaps in Kyle's 2nd year. It's only because we've done so much that it's been difficult to post. There is lots to tell, and we have a few days between now and the weekend (when we drive back to Philadelphia) to try to catch up - with stories and photos... Speaking of "photos", we got a new camera over the summer, and we love it. We're really psyched to have it. The good new is that the camera takes excellent pictures and is easy to use, the bad new is that the camera is easy to use and takes great pictures. We have taken literally thousands of pictures of all of Kyle's experiences - and we have only gone through a few hundred of them.

I am a bit of a packrat and so I'm not as comfortable as I should be with throwing things away. This extends to digital things as well. Since digital storage is so cheap and easy, I find it really hard to delete even marginally bad photos of Kyle. I am getting professional help but progress is slow - in the meantime, I'm still snapping - sometimes more than before. We've captured a number of "perfect" shots that capture moments. I will try to post as many of these as I'm able to. Hopefully, we won't exceed our Google Blogger limit! Anyway, our catch-up may extend over a number of postings, so let's get on with it. (I will need to take a look back and see where I can make a convenient re-start. It seems like the start of 2008 is as good a place as any...) But, before we go back, here is one of the very recent photos of Kyle that we used on our Christmas Card:



In Comparison, here is a shot from Last Year's New Year's Eve Party:


We'll be leaving for Uncle Mark's shortly, so here is a quick hit lit of just some of the things that you need to know about:

Winter 2008 Disney Vacation
Kyle in School
Mileposts
(Graduation from the Crib, mastering PT)
Easter
Dutch Wonderland
Cape May
The Careys' Going Away Parties
July 4th in Michigan
Summer Stuff
Fall and Halloween
Much, much more......

See you soon.
C

Happy Birthday, Kyle!!

Hello all...

It's been a very long time since our last update, but today is the day we recommit to posting.

Why today? It is Kyle's 3rd Birthday.

I won't be able to cath up today, but hopefully this will be the re-start of some normal postings.

Kyle is doing spectacularly well.
We truly can't believe that he is already 3.

We have dozens (ok, hundreds, or maybe thousands) of photos of him just enjoying life as he knows it. He's done so much and gone so many places, that it'll be hard to catch up with all of the happenings.

But tonight is for establishing a reconnection...






Thanks for stopping by...look for more soon.
Have a good night.

Happy Gotcha Day - 1 YEAR!!!!

Happy Gotcha Day!!

Kyle has been lighting up rooms with us for an entire year!
Our memories of China and last Christmas are still so vivid that it hardly seems that it's been that long.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I would try to post more frequently...little did I know how difficult that would be. Life happens so fast. We've captured a huge library of photos and memories since our last post, but have had trouble finding the time to post and share them.

Anyway, here I sit on Christmas Eve, 2007. One year ago tonight we were watching little Kyle sleep and wondering what incredible memories we would be making as a family. No matter what we imagined, Kyle has brought us so much more.

Since our last postings, so many things have happened. Some important and momentous - and some just fun. Lisa and I were wondering how the other families in our travel group were making out with their new additions...we hope as well as we have? Thanks for the Christmas Cards and photos - we really appreciate it. To have shared such an experience with such a great group of folks just made it that much more special. It is almost unreal that we were sharing our Christmas LAST YEAR with all of you in China.

Right now, Lisa Kyle and I and Murphy (our dog), Mocha & Misty our cats are in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, visiting Poppa and Grandma Wedder, Great Grandma Woodruff, Aunt Avery, Uncle Mark and Kyle cousins Paityn, Logan & Luke. We arrived on Saturday afternoon just before the storm hit and since we arrived we've gotten about 5" of fresh new snow. (We left on Friday evening and made it to near the Ohio border.)

Lisa and I have made this trip quite a number of times but never with another real (though little) person. Kyle was a champ the entire trip. No tantrums, no meltdowns, and no real traumas! He enjoyed videos, toys and the scenery for most of the 12 hour trip. He (and his mom) napped a good part of Saturday afternoon, which made the drive really easy - we have XM radio, so dad could listen to whatever he wanted!

Lisa's family has always made me feel like family, even before I was officially was. We usually spend Thanksgiving at the Lockheads (in Philadelphia) and Christmas with the Wedders (in MIchigan). I'll post more details shortly with photos as well.

We just got home from a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner at Uncle Mark & Aunt Avery's. I actually just wanted to get on record and to record a post to recognize (before the day slipped by again...) this day.

I'll hopefully have a little more time over the next couple of days to post all of the photos that we want to, but for tonight...

I can't leave without a photo...

Here is Kyle enjoying the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia with his cousins Justin and Alyx.





Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

End of Summer Update...

Hi again everyone...lots to tell...

SchoolNewsMyrtleBeachGrandmaPoppaWedderIndependence...
BoosterGrandmomPop-PopLockheadAuntMaryLittleSister

let's get to it...

We hope everyone had a great summer and we're winding down as we head into Labor Day Weekend.

We were very proud to learn that Kyle was promoted in his Goddard School. He's now moving into the Chugging Choo-Choo Class - no more Bouncing Barnyard for us! He's already started his transition, spending a few hours a day to get acclimated. The school is great about taking photographs and posting them on the classroom walls. Kyle has gotten some very good exposure especially in demonstrating his Yoga prowess, and his ability to master all sorts of arts & crafts. We hope to get copies of some of these from the school.

After Labor Day, he'll be a full time Choo-Choo. I think he's already learned the secret Choo-Choo handshake - that's our Kyle, always one step ahead!

A few weeks ago we took a long car trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. This was the K-man's fist road trip of any length. He did GREAT! On Friday evening we drove from Philly to Richmond. It took much longer than we'd hoped, but Kyle was a real trooper. Mom tried to keep him occupied with activities and Videos (Charlotte's Web, the Tigger movie, Elmocize, The Winnie the Pooh Heffalump Movie, The Little Mermaid, Monsters, Inc.).

When we got to the Hotel we went to have a dip in the Pool, but we ended up in the Hot Tub. Kyle's a big bubble fan, so that suited him just fine. It was a nice wind-down for all of us. Then we went back to the room, where we set Kyle up on a section of the floor (we could not get a crib...) where we put his school nap sleeping bag on top of a big fluffy blanket. It was perfect for him. He plopped right on it after Dad read him his 3 books - just like school at nap time. He was out in 15 minutes!

The next day we plowed onto MB, where we met up with Grandma & Poppa Wedder, who had flown down a few days before. Kyle remembered them from his first weeks back and he warmed up very quickly. We all had a great week. The weather was hot, but good for the beach most days. So during the days we spend a lot of time at the pool and beach, and at night we went out to eat most every night. We visited Barefoot Landing and Broadway at the Beach. Kyle had a lot of fun riding some of the rides with Dad.

In general he had fun, but it took him some time to get used to the sand and only wanted to go in the water with Mom or Dad. He preferred to hand out on our laps in the and chairs at the water's edge.

Here are some photos...



We seriously thought that we could get him to wear his life vest...what were we thinking!!
(You'll notice that this is the only photo of him wearing it...)





He did however, really like his surf shirt.

Here are some other MB photos...

Kyle with Grandma & Poppa Wedder


Riding some of the rides at Broadway at the Beach... Seems to like the train, but DID NOT Like the Car Whip (this photo was snapped just before the ride started. It did not end nearly as well!). He liked the Ferris Wheel as long as he could look down & see Mom.



We took a walk on the beach after dinner one night - it was the first time Kyle really seemed to enjoy walking on the hard wet sand.



Some great shots of Kyle & Mom...






Onto other topics...

Kyle has become more independent, walking ahead of us by himself (unusual until recently) - he's really enjoying his independence and testing his confidence. It's so great to see. We were at the mall just yesterday and he was out of the stroller more than he was in. He did not want to go back in once he was out. He's getting to be tall enough where we can hold his hand without bending over. Good for him - but better for us!

Today we went to the playground and he even went down the slide by himself. That includes walking up the stairs to get to the top. (It doesn't sound like much, but for him, it was huge.)

It's difficult to believe that it has been 8 months. He'll also be 23 months old on Thursday!

He's even pretty much out of his high chair and into a really cool "cooshie booster" seat that Mom found. He loves it and it is helping him to build his core strength.

We went to visit Grandmom & Pop-Pop Lockhead and Aunt Mary last weekend. Even though it's been a few months since he's seen them, The K-man warmed up quickly and fell right back in with them, as comfortable as ever. He even let them read to him...






All-in-all a Great visit and a a nice welcome home present for Grandmom, Pop-Pop and Aunt Mary.

So, as I check back to the first few lines of this message, I'll close here since I've covered everything...

Well, most everything...
If all goes well, and we're able to re-navigate the process, we may be needing another Weblog.
Details at 11.

Good night all.
C