#2 Day of Thankgiving

11. Little girl grins and giggles
12. heart murmurs that turn out to be benign
13. a day at home
14. automatic washers (if you didn't know there is anything else, you should be doubly thankful)
15. child safety seats
16. sewing machines that live to be 25 years old
17. rural postal delivery
18. crunch leaves for little girls to walk in
19. fingerprints on windows
20. wet wipes


This is actually a bit harder than I thought....I'm trying not to generalize...I need to concentrate on this a bit harder during the day.

the heart murmur was Shekinah's, we were a little surprised when her pediatrician noted it. Normally a SN child has a very thorough exam when their paperwork is filed...we are glad that she was 'clear'.

No good pics tonite...I need to get some good ones of Shekinah and daddy for the post-placement report and do you think the little think will hold still...each of the pics is a blur!

For This Week

In the spirit of Thanksgiving....we will be instituting austerity measures in this house.

One night a week will be meatless

 Don't they look yummy? ( no Demetrius, I'm not asking you)

BTW austerity  night will be a Wed. night, so don't worry.

Actually this bean soup is very good especially if you use salsa instead of the tomatoes. So one meal will cost about $4 to feed a family of 8.

In the spirit of remembering the difficulties of our forefathers we might also go ice cream-less one night a week.  Not sure if I can handle the wailing that will go with that announcement. There are some children in this house that think their meal is not complete unless accompanied by ice cream.

I might also be singing the praises of melatonin...we will see how tonite goes...but last night was definitely better...she woke around 1AM, but when I appeared with my pillow, she crawled back into her bed.  I bedded down on her floor and didn't even fall asleep before I could hear that she was asleep again. That is a marked improvement over the past few nights.  She had been waking very anxious and looking around the room as if searching. She was also refusing to go up to her room with the girls, before this she loved her bed and always wanted to go to bed when they did.

Tonite she asked to go up to bed after relaxing on my lap for awhile.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I will also list 10 things a day

1  A husband that gets up on a Friday night for the crying baby.
2. A son who gives up his Saturday to clean up soggy houses.
3. Crisp fall days
4. Blue sky behind rust brown leaves
5. Snapping dark eyes
6. Ramen noodles
7. wood stove warmed bathroom floors
8. cell phones
9. I can still kick a soccer ball (far enough to make my 12 y.o. marvel)
10. Apologies before bed

With a 2 Year Old Around!

This morning during the breakfast and school prep rush, a sheepish youngster came into the kitchen.
"I stapled my finger" he said...mournfully.

I really could not fathom how that could have happened since the finger he was showing me was on his dominant hand.

"How on earth did that happen and where?" I tried not to sound too exasperated.

"I was looking for my bibliography cards on daddy's desk. I leaned down and the stapler stapled my finger."  (note: this is a regular every day stapler...not a high-powered nail gun)

This statement raised a number of questions in my mind.

#1 Daddy's desk is sacred, NO ONE is supposed to mess with things on daddy's desk. NO ONE is to add papers to daddy's desk.

#2 Given those rules - how on earth could a pile of bibliography cards have appeared on daddy's desk, next to the stapler?

I may have quietly and unemotionally asked those questions.

The answer was, "Well with a two year old in the house, you never know!"


The cards were found in some other innocuous locale after the staple wound was suitably cleansed so as to avoid gangrene.

The End

So How Do You Talk to Her?

Who? Me? How do they talk to Me?  I just tell them what to do and they do it!

       Look at them!  They all wait on me hand and foot!

 There are some questions we get (actually my mom and my children get most of them) Some of them are decidedly immature, so I won't get into that, but...

One of them is "so does she know English? Well then how do you communicate?"
Well she speaks "2 year old" and I speak very little Chinese
I can say hello
               goodbye
               sleep good
               very good
              just a minute
              milk
              water
               big
              little
               car
               airplane
               most of the colors, but I might get green and blue mixed up quite often
You get the idea, I speak 2 year old Chinese
She can tell me off in Chinese. How do I know that? Just take a look at those eyes and mouth and you will know that you have been soundly scolded.
She will tell me that a spaghetti noodle is escaping the dish
The other day we were on 222 and I was telling her "car" (in Chinese)  "big car" ( tractor trailers)  and she was merrily repeating me. Suddenly the traffic in front of us slowed and there were at least 3 tractor trailers in front of us. I said (in English) " I don't know what these big trucks think they are doing."
She answered something in Chinese. Joseph started laughing. He translated "Why are those big trucks are in our way?!"              


                                 
Here she and Faith are busy writing.

 Here is the 'not so fun' part of adopting a 2 year old...the grieving...It is hard to watch and hard on the ears and heart...sometimes you just lay her down and try to do something else. Sometimes you post on FB and people pray for you because they are BTDT.

Then the sunny little girl comes back again...wearing mama's nylons and heels. She managed the nylons on her own and was very pleased with herself.

Ode to Vista

The time came....

I really didn't want to replace my computer yet...not now

But when computers are 7 years old and they start doing odd things AND the DVD drives haven't worked properly in  some time AND ..AND

The Newsletter that I edit for adoptive families depends on a working computer....

So the computer expert that I feed every Tuesday night said he will get me a new one..

I told him I don't want any bells or whistles...just lots of RAM

He informed me that with new computers comes a new Operating System...now in the old days (back in the days of DOS prompts) I looked forward to Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. My young heart got a bit excited to see what new and exciting thing the computer gurus would come up with...after all...my first computer had TWO colors!  256 colors was AMAZING!

But now?  All I wanted was a  new computer that did not make funny noises when it started...but no- my young computer expert informed me "you might as well learn it now rather than a few years from now- when you're 50"

OK

It's colorful...it starts in 30 seconds!  It is so quiet I have to feel it to see if it is 'awake'!

It doesn't have x's in the corners for me to use to close my screens- unless of course I access Explorer from my desktop instead of - what is that screen called with all the pretty pictures?

Now I use the "Start" button on the keyboard --all these years it just sat there taking up room.

Now when I don't remember where to find the "control panel" I just start typing it and viola the "control panel" button shows up...but what if I can't remember what it is called?

Now I have little "clickables" that appear and disappear Cheshire cat-like as I move my mouse around the edges of the screen. Even a cute little hand that I can use to 'throw away' my screen when I'm finished with it.

It is sort of fun

BUT

I have a problem with OUTLOOK (the email program)

I got a new e-mail address before I left for that foreign country with the big firewall. I liked the Hotmail account...all the buttons were sitting there for me to see, they were in logical order "send" "delete"  The bestest thing about it was the "attach photos"  when I wanted to send a whole bunch of pictures to grandma-who-still-uses-dial-up  (not the other one, she doesn't have a computer) I could choose to send original, large, or small photo files all with the click of a button.

NOW
I am faced with this almost blank screen  "To" looks familiar...then post card style I go to the right and type in my 'subject'   But where do I put the message?  Start typing? Oh OK
But try as I might, I could NOT find a way to attach a picture....I scooted my mouse all around the screen and no little paperclip
OK
Do I slide the picture straight from my camera card to my e-mail?
AH-Ha  That brought the paperclip out of the wood work!  But I still did not find a way to easily downsize the pics, so I sent them anyway, hoping grandma's computer doesn't choke.

Next morning grandma sends an e-mail "sure would be nice to see the pictures"
Checked the sent file...it's not there...Hmm 2 messages in the draft folder?  Yup!
Try to send it again...it still goes to the draft folder

Well there are more than one way to skin a cat (figuratively of course)  I went online
typed in Hotmail   .   com   and guess what Explorer brings up

OUTLOOK!  I will figure this out!

For now I will just fire up my little netbook that provokes much hilarity among the pro's and escape the net that is M  I  C  R  O  S  O  F  T    and maybe one day they will just fix what is broken and not try to re-invent everything.

Another 4 Day Weekend!

 It should be illegal, but I guess they didn't plan the hurricane to be the week before a 2 day teacher in-service.  Quan-quan loves having everyone home, even if she has to push her sister around in the wagon(it was actually her choice.

 I also realized that I can be finished with Christmas shopping in no time...

 just buy a bunch of big cardboard boxes....

Except for the one in the jeans sitting on the sofa....think he needs a box too?

Now She Uses Chopsticks too!

The one thing I figured Shekinah- Quan-Quan would not be able to do was use chop sticks. Apparently someone forgot to inform her of this.....

Please don't be grossed out at the choice of afternoon snack...I'm trying stir fried greens and also a dose of mineral oil before I use the Mira*lax the Dr recommended.  She actually likes both items very well, thank you.

Church with a Two Year Old

Last Sunday, she was sort of in shock and congregational singing was enough to make her sit still. This Sunday...not so much. The cheerios were almost gone by the time Sunday school was over, the stickers had lost their charm. By the time we started church, she was finished...climbing over the laps of siblings, talking loudly in Chinese, and giving mom a work out. I really had forgotten!  Then daddy pulled out his clean hanky ( not many people even carry them) and we played with that for awhile and she got so bored she fell asleep. 

So next Sunday, I will bring a clean hankie and maybe some water in the sippy cup....should I bring cheerios?  We'll see.

Think my hankie folding skills will keep her amazed?  My grandmother taught me how to fold the mice, but every little girl who ever played with a hankie in church knows how to make a cradle-complete with twins. Anyone else have hankie memories?


I even forgot it was Orphan Sunday... this came by e-mail today

 Adoption
 Because of His Great Love for us before the world even began....

We were chosen by God to be adopted as His children.... 

We Love because He first loved us.... 

A pure act of faith is to care for His children just as He cared for us...

Adoption is partnering with Jesus to see lives transformed....
     Adoption is a Miracle!! 

For those of you that are not from the adoption circles...go here and here 

They explain it better than I can.

Quotes from my house: Biggest girl to middle girl: "Let's pretend she has a broken arm"

Middle girl (indignantly) "No! We came to the dentist!"

Another Quote: Zeke to Ben "I want to take that course if they are still offering it."

Ben: "You really should,  it would be interesting...Mr_____'s brain runs in a straight line and yours...runs in mazes."

Things I Almost Forgot

 Two year olds love to run around without shirts...and put their bellies against the refrigerator or the nearest metal exterior door.

 A hat can turn you into the silliest little girl in no time flat.

She also fits on my lap while I sew at the sewing machine....just like her siblings before her (well Joseph was too big, but he did spend time at my elbow). She can take pins out of the pin cushion and replace them without pricking her finger.  She also pushes the needles in the whole way so that I despair finding another needle in a long time.  I have hopes of eventually getting a whole nights sleep again...last night I slept on the floor by her bed in order to see why she gets out of bed. She sat up once and after seeing me, went back to sleep until 4:30.

Quote of the Week- "When you were gone, I found out you can cook things really fast if you get the oven up to 500 degrees"  --my dear husband

The Old Lady and the Two Year Old

First off I deleted the pics I was going to use...by mistake...camera card is EMPTY!!!

I had the cutest picture of my 2 year old eating butter out of one of those little food service containers.  go ahead, use your imagination. She loves the jello packs that are all over Ch*na and she thought the butter pack had to contain something equally yummy...Apparently she didn't change her mind, she even wiped the corners with her finger.

I had another indicator today that I will need to stay on my toes. I walked into the bathroom to use the facilities and lifted the lid to the toilet to find a plastic grocery bag floating there. Now I know what she did with that bag!

Life will be so much richer from here on out....I also may need more frequent vacations.