Tot School...as Sophie sees it...

Hi! Sophie here.
I don't think Mom is going to get this post done...she keeps saying I wear her out. Whatever that means.

I like to color. I really like to use the "big colors", Mom calls them "markas". Clearly they are just "big colors", I don't see any reason to use flowery language.
Mom is also big on saying "only on paper". I think she means the big colors. But where is the fun in that? I like to experiment with different mediums. I love the way the colors are so vivid on my skin. See?




















But then I discovered how effortlessly the big colors glide across the floor. OOOOooweeeeee!! See?















But then! Oh my! I discovered I can draw fruit! I call these Banana and Banana & Pear.  Notice, I chose 2 different mediums.  Freedom of Expression, I call it.  Disobedience, Mom calls it.  The way I see it, she should be glad I randomly picked a washable marker.  





















Here's my sister. She's so clean it scares me. She never colors herself, even when I encourage her to. Party pooper.

 

I ended Tot School with a bloody nose. Sometimes I just want to get out of bed, and I can hear Mom telling Sarah not to get out of bed unless she's bleeding.  So, I'm just trying to stay ahead of the game.
I look real unhappy, don't I?

h

Naptime Part Deux

Ok, so I was pretty defeated yesterday. So I stepped up my game today.
Originally I was going to strap the drawers closed. But, that looked too challenging. So then I did what I swore I would never do... totally inconvenience myself for a strong-willed child.
See exhibit A.
It's a dresser. Or a chest of drawers, maybe? Or, as we found out yesterday...bunk beds.
It's a sturdy thing. But I've learned not to believe everything that goes on between my two ears.
What to do, what to do.
Turn it around.  Yep. Terribly inconvenient. A complete waste of money. But a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.
So I pulled out the most used items. Jammies, shirts, and pants/shorts.  I learned two things. 1) Poor kid doesn't have much in the way of clothes (See exhibit B). and 2) Those glider thingies you can put under furniture to move it...man, they are awesome!!!
Now her pretty cute baby's room is looking more and more like...well, that padded room I mentioned before.  I moved her bed a little further in the other direction because it looked too tempting as a step to the top of the dresser.  Well, that necessitated me moving the rocking chair... because it looked. Rocky.  I don't think I'll be able to stick with that move though. My Sophie loves her "rock-a-baby"...and mommy loooooves to rock her baby.  Yeah, the chair will go back.
Sophie noticed a problem right off the bat. "ugh oh. not right mommy. pull out." I sat there smiling at her.  "mommy, pull out, not right."  To which mommy said "Oh dear, the ladder is broken."  Poor thing. I'm not sure she even knows that she is keeping me on my toes.
Of course today she dropped off into la la land
before the 1st song ended so I'm not sure what will transpire. But, at least I can rest easy, as the next move is hers.
Exhibit A.                                                             
 

Exhibit B. (the colored buckets are all her clothes.

  Hard to believe I bought a dresser for that, huh?)

I sure would love for her to have this to play with at nap time. (hint hint Granma or Papa ;) )
And I happen to know it's on sale at Wal-Mart right now. :)

Meet my teachers

I've decided to spread the insanity of caring for Sophie around a bit. :)
Sarah is BRILLIANT and all, but even she needs some quiet time to learn. So we've signed Sophie up for MMO for this year. She'll go 2 days a week. I'm thrilled on the one hand, because, well, you know. And I'm nervous too. She's a handful. And she eats anything. But...

Today was "Meet the Teachers" day. Sophie isn't much on change. Um, at all. So it's only fitting that she has the same teachers that she had for MMO this summer and for VBS before that. She was supposed to have a different teacher this summer but she, um, refused to go in any room but Ms Jue's and Ms Jeans. And by "refused" I mean...she would only go to their room. The director finally relented and just moved her. Have I mentioned she is a bit strong-willed? Anyway... now she's with them because she actually belongs there. :)

And here they are:



They are special to us. Sarah had them too. Sophie will have a great time. She is already sooooo proud of the stuff she makes in Sunday School, so she is going to thrive with this class.

Long silence??? Must be Hurricane season...

Oh. My. Word.
Let me preface this by saying, Sophie is the most fun, precious, expressive, inquisitive, bundle of love I could ever lay my hands on. (O.k., 1 of 2) She is either all the way up or all the way down. Find the grain of rice that tips the scale and carry it with you at all times. She forgives and forgets immediately (just ask Sarah). And she is not afraid to express her opinion. She also is not afraid to run from Mommy, or eat anything that might resemble food...except the food in front of her. She's determined, never shying away from a challenge...like a baby gate, child-proofing gadgets, or being told "no" when she's sure we meant "yes".

So, where have I been??

A week ago yesterday I'm working in the kitchen and suddenly hear footsteps behind me. Really little ones. Sophie had figured out that if she got a running start towards the older baby gate (you know the one that Sarah just dutifully just stood behind until someone picked her up?) it would fall right down. At which point she used her aquired knowledge (that when doing something totally against the rules, one must be very quiet about it) to pull out very nearly every school manipulative she could reach in the school room. (Need I say that she did not put them back??)
*Note to self* move those science experiment thingies up a smidge higher. I know I don't want to be the one explaining to the radiologist how the iron filings got there.
So anywho...
I admit defeat and reason that we'll probably need a gate for a good bit longer so I'll invest another $40 in my hurricane containment system.
Clearly, she wasn't looking for victory...she needed a challenge.
At nap time that day... yeah, you guessed it. She's popping out of the crib like a bird learning to fly.
She's not ready for freedom, I mean, a toddler bed. So I look on-line for one of those crib tent do-dads. $80??????!!!!!! Ugh, no. We'll just have to take the side off the crib and go to battle.
*Editor's note* I'm not sure we made the right choice. :)
Sophie is rising to the occasion. She called all her friends and planned par-tays for every morning at 2am. The girl would literally be up dancing. Seemingly fresh and recharged.
I had to buy more child-proof doorknob covers. What a joke. Took her 2 seconds to figure those out.
O.k. We'll put a gate in front of her door...raise it a bit (you know, because that challenge had already been met.).
Yeah, that worked for about 3 nights.
Next, it was time to play dirty. We taped her light in the off position. No more late night parties. I turned the doorknobs around so they lock from the outside. No more having to sleep with 1 eye open.
Then, suddenly, it seemed all was well.
(My fellow coastal residents know this is called "the eye of the storm")
Naps had been so nice. Today... oh, today.
When I lay her down, she tells me "tummy hurt". So, I know, I pretty much have to wait until, um, it doesn't hurt anymore, if you know what I mean...before I can leave.
Finally, 45 mins later, I thought I was safe to assume her tummy was all better. But she didn't seem the least bit tired. I had a raging headache, I couldn't lay on that floor any longer.
As I laid on my bed trying to relax, I could hear that she wasn't sleeping. A knock here and a knock there. I convinced myself it was the magna doodle. I mean, surely, given a choice, she'd play with her toys right?
After an hour of ignoring the fear building up inside of me...I decide it's time to check in.
Oh wait...grab the camera because this might be good. (See? I can find the humor in it.)
As I round the corner I gasp. Oh no. Her tummy must have still been hurting...if you know what I mean? Then I suddenly remember my prediction from early on "this will be the one who paints with poop." I take a deep breath (and gag)... and, well, turn on the camera because, well, did I mention she's pretty funny?
I opened the door and saw this.



Oh how cute!!!!
As I get closer I realize she's got something in her hand... oh. my. word.
It's Vaseline!!!
And she's scooping it out by the handful and saying "rub 'otion mommy".
And it's all over her legs, arms, hands.
But, do I lie? Is she cute or what?



So there I am trying to figure out how to get her to the bathtub and I notice she has a swim diaper on. Hmmmmm. Oh Lord, please please don't tell me.....
"Where is your diaper honey?"
She points over there. (I'm still surprised to actually get an answer to my questions half the time.)

Well, Sophie, God bless you for trying to change yourself. Here is her dirty diaper rolled up just like mommy does (pretty much)...and she put a diaper back on. How resourceful is she???


Once I pulled her out of the drawer I discovered all the wipes she used to clean herself up. So what if she sort of rubbed it in all over her tummy...and missed part of her bu**. She tried.
We cleaned up in the tub, then reloaded the tub for a good soak while I investigated further.

I'm feeling pretty good that she was so diligent about the diaper. Wow. Almost makes the destruction ok. See?



Did you see it? Look again. If you watch Criminal Intent like I do and you've learned anything from it...you saw the problem. I did to.
Hmmmm... isn't it interesting that she turned the mattress up? Why would she do that?
I draw closer.
Is it? Yep. Poo-poo prints. Possibly made by, say, a small hand. Hmmmm.....
As the music intensifies, and the camera draws in... I pull the mattress down to discover the crime.



oh dear.
Now, I have to say, at least it wasn't a wall mural. I'm trying not to imagine how exactly it got to this point. Although there was some cleaning under the fingernails going on.

What did I learn? Tape the light off again (I untaped it thinking nothing would happen). Do not leave until she's asleep. Always, ALWAYS assume the worst when silence is involved. And finally...clean out the drawers of anything messy, toxic, or breakable. They are not safe. When possible, pad room.

Early on I would say "If I get to the end of any given day and haven't arrived at the emergency room or had to call poison control....it's been a good day." I'm officially picking that back up as my motto.

Now...if I could just get rid of this headache.

We are in session...

Oh my. School is in session. Um, mostly.
We didn't have any fancy "1st day of school" pictures this year. I love fancy first days. But in all honesty, nothing has gone as planned. It has gone as expected. :)

Sarah is starting 1st grade. Lots of new curriculums, some old favorites, some fun extras. So far, I'm just trying to get the 3 r's done. Because, well... have you ever tried to concentrate outside during a Hurricane? Yeah, Sophie strikes again. :)

God bless this sweet Hurricane. She is only 27 months old and absolutely acting her age. But sitting for any length of time for anything is not her priority right now. (the picture at the top is of the only 5 mins Sophie sat in one place!) She wants to do what ever Sarah is doing, so even sitting with a highchair tray of Cool-Whip isn't good enough. But she also doesn't want to sit still and do whatever Sarah is doing. So coloring is a full-on contact sport. For me. Because she won't sit and color...she prefers to wander and color. If she spots a book, or 20, that she likes she'll pull them out. Not to look at mind you (that I could deal with), she seems to be more testing the theory of gravity than anything else.
I pull out all the great toddler activities that I thought would be a lot of trouble changing out every 15 minutes. No such luck...she was done with ALL of them in about 8 minutes. *sigh*

But we are plugging away. Sarah is a hard worker most of the time. But she doesn't like if things get too independent for her. Some of it is just wanting to be with me, some of it is her jealousy that I'm with Sophie. Both of which we'll hopefully make progress on this year. She is so smart. It's almost freaky. But it is so fun to watch her make the connection with something. What a blessing to get to do this.

I haven't taken many new pictures. Today, when I was trying to get this post done initially, I needed a few quiet minutes. What to do? What to do? "Here Sarah take this bag of flour and pitcher of water (and Sophie) and go mix it on the patio." heehee... they had a blast, but would not touch it no matter how much I encouraged them to. Boy, did they miss out! But, it bought me a few minutes. Strangely, Sophie had it all over her face and on the back of her head. They did not appear to be self-inflicted splatters either. Sarah was pristine. Go figure. ;)
I wish I had not been downloading pics at the time... they were pretty cute.
But here's a little of what I do have right now...

Below is our VERY popular "why am *I* the one always in trouble??!!" looks. Just melts your heart doesn't it?? :)



I had soooo many great ideas for educational fun stuff (thanks to other mommy bloggers), but, well.... the Hurricane.
One thing I did manage to do is this growing sting ray. We measured it pre-water and everyday for a week. The thing really did triple it's size, just like the packaging said! I usually don't believe the hype on that stuff, especially from the Dollar Tree. But I figured we'd either learn about false advertising or measuring. :) Now I'm thinking those Sea Monkeys might be worth the investment!! ha! And the Obama Chia Pet. That would be fun too.
Anyway, here we are with Squishy the sting ray.









And then there is the end-of-day unwind.

A little bug takes down the house....

Whew.
It's Thursday. The last thing I said to Sarah today is "you're in charge." The last thing I said to Glen was "Sophie sure is quiet."
I get up to peek in the living room (because I live in fear of Nancy Grace making me a subject of her show) and my two darling children have made pallets on the floor and are laying peacefully beside each other. Watching Dora.

We are thankful that they are feeling so content today...the house has been turned upside down since Monday.

Monday evening I came down with one violent stomach bug. As far as I know I hadn't been around anyone with one. Could have been food poisoning I guess. We'll never know. But it was bad. If I could have figured out how to logistically get to the hospital I would have gone. I think.

The last time this happened, we (Glen and I) boarded a plane bound for China less than 24 hours after the onset. I remember it like it was yesterday. Dr Phil started, I got sick....next day as Dr Phil started we were walking into the airport bound for China. As I've been recovering this week I've been able to see even more how God walked with me that week. I remember nearly passing out going from the domestic terminal to the international terminal in San Francisco. I still see that looooong corridor stretched out before me. I remember Glen asking the night before when I was sick "should we call the agency? Postpone the trip a day or 2?". And as weak as I was, even though I couldn't walk from the toilet to the bed....Satan would not have this. It was that Mama Bear in me rising up as I said "I'm going to get my baby...on time. No one will tell her I couldn't come." They were big words for a girl who could barely move, but it was that mustard seed of faith that God needed to get me through.
Most of the overseas part of the flight is a blur to me. Considering it's a 14 hour flight, wow. Nice.
But at some point I remember trying to eat the roll. I was too weak to pick it up. Glen fed it to me. And I remember praying "Lord, I'll take all of this if it will just be ok when I hold Sarah."
My next memory is walking into our hotel room in Hong Kong and realizing "I'm ok".
The next day was my recovery day...I had to fill my empty tummy in Hong Kong. This is hilarious to those that know me and how picky of a picky eater I am. Seeing the "fish and something" Pringles wasn't the answer I was looking for.
Still weak and tired and jet lagged and about to become a mommy...I don't remember anything else much about that part of the trip.
But every moment after landing in Changsha is etched in my memory. In my heart of hearts. I will never forget my labor and delivery of Sarah.

It's interesting when I look back on the "labors" of Sarah and Sophie. Those moments seem perfect in describing my relationships with each of them. Sarah, she happens "to" me. And I'm not sure I can even accurately describe what I mean. My entire being feels everything that happens between us. Good and bad. We butt heads and then move on. We love with everything in us. When we have really difficult times, it kills me, reduces me to nothing, but I'll use my last ounce to get back on track.
Then there is Sophie. You know I call her Hurricane. We landed in Changsha the very day of the onset of the worst natural disaster the province had seen in 80+ years. The entire trip was surreal. An ice storm the entire time. My "labor" with Sophie was a storm. She happens in the "midst" of me. And even though we heard they were deicing the planes with, ummm, boiling water....I was going to board and I was going to get my daughter. Going from day to day never knowing when we would have to pack up and run out the door to the airport...was just part of it. At 5pm we're all talking about what a strange trip it is and which hotel restaurant to eat in tonight; at 510pm we are told "pack your essentials!! get downstairs in 10 mins you leave tonight!!!" No fancy goodbyes, no packing carefully for the flight. Just grab what you have to have and go!!! We eventually got out on a flight that was never on the books. It never happened.
Yes, every day that's how I feel with Sophie. She's a whirlwind of activity. Joyful, wonderful, activity. Her temper flares up without notice and freezes everything around her. Her giggle picks you right up. But when she goes down for a nap or bedtime...I collapse. It's all this hurried activity and then stillness. And you long to see her again but wish she'd be a bit slower.

It's funny how God can help you in situations long before you knew they were situations. And He does. He longs to.

And He's helped us this week. Glen has been able to be home, while I lay non-functioning in bed. He's at work now. Which must feel like a vacation.

I'm behind on everything now. Cleaning, errands, school.... I had planned for this to be such a fun week before school started. Hmmmmm.....

"We plan. God laughs." (sorry..don't know who to credit for that and I'm too tired to Google it. :) )

Our crazy summer

I'm sure it was just yesterday that we watched Sarah graduate from Kindergarten and cut all her hair off.... that was the start of our crazy summer.
We are not busy people. But somehow this summer got out of control.
We went to Missouri, had a dance recital, had vbs, had company and ballet camp, Sarah and Mommy went to Denver, had a last visit with friends moving to China, mommy went away for 4 days, daddy went away for 3....
And now we should be starting school next week!!!
Hmmmmm....


Despite being totally out-of-our-element busy we have had fun.

I know I owe a picture of Sarah's new haircut...Granma has been waiting patiently. Sorry about the wait. Here she is:



I'm sure I have a better picture of it, we'll see.

Glen comes home today and after that we should settle back into our boring, slow lives.

We've actually managed a little bit of Tot School.

Beads were our big thing.
One day I set some beads out to introduce them. She immediately wanted to put them all in a bowl.



When she finished getting them in there, she was quite pleased with herself.








So I dumped them out so she could do it again. This did not please her.



We picked them up, put them away, and moved on.

Next, I gave her spoons to scoop with.

First the little spoon.



Then the big spoon.



Life was good.

Next, stringing beads.

Day one. There was no way on God's green earth she was going to put a treasured bead on the pipe cleaner.

But on day two...she was all about it.




That little activity gave us something to do every day, twice a day, for about a week! Score!!!
Sarah had her own beading activity. Fuse beads. Oh the madness!! Just look at what we got.... this is about a tenth of the beads that came in the keg-o-beads... surely someone out there gasped in horror at seeing the chaos of mixed colors!! It just about sent my organized, OCD-self into a tail spin!


So what did I do while the girls beaded??


Ahhhhh....serenity now......

Tot School also involved some new toys for the coming year. My new favorite web site is Montessori and Such. I wish my home was a Montessori class room. Such order! But alas, it's far from it. So I settle for their toys. :)
Here is Soph with her sewing toy. Big hit...for all the girls in the house. :)



We did a major overhaul of the school room. Glen was such a trooper to understand my need for a uniformed appearance. I love it. Sarah loves it. Sophie loves it. We'll give you a tour in one of the next posts. Sarah is pretty proud to say Mommy is her teacher...which sends my heart into outer space! I'm pretty proud of them too. But this time of year is always filled with anxiety that they won't like being with me, that school time will be torture, that they won't learn, that I will fail...you get the idea. My only assurance is that I know God has called us to this, for this season. He has something to teach us with this season and our only choice is to put one foot in front of the other and walk in His steps. So, I'm excited and scared. But ready to see what is in store for us this year.

More later...the Lego Engineers are calling for a snack. Now...do I have snack??

Leaving on a jet plane....

Sarah and I went and got our hair cut today. She felt mighty big getting her hair done "for real". (Mom usually cuts it.)
She and I are getting on a jet plane in the morning and heading to Denver to meet her roommates from China! They were together for 14 months, and all given their forever families on the same day. We have all stayed in touch for the last 5 years and tomorrow the girls will be together again. They've seen eachother on different occasions, but this is the first time they've all been together at once since Nov of 2004.
I will also be meeting a "cyber friend" for the first time in 5 years. About 8 or 9 of us have stayed in touch since Sarah's adoption group....confusing, I know.... but these 8 or 9 moms are some of my dearest friends on the planet and I plan to meet each one IRL eventually!!!
Anyway, Daddy is staying home with Hurricane. I miss her already. She's a little sick. Pray that my mom-dar will know what daddy-dar fails to pick up. :)
Well be home on Monday. I appreciate any and all traveling prayers!!!

Yikes....

Where did the last 16 days go??
There was VBS, a visit from Papa, and Ballet Camp. And before that, a trip to Missouri. Am I that far behind?
Let's catch up, shall we?
Most recently, Ballet Camp at Ballet Magnificat. And wow, it was soooooo great this year!! Sarah did it last year and that was what got her interested in ballet in general. Ballet Mag is such a great place. This year, after all the talking I did about it last year, our friends Ava and Claire flew in town just to go!! The 3 of them had so much fun being together for a whole week. And I was pretty excited to have my friend, Denise, the whole week too. :)
All week the girls looked forward to see "Kathy Thibedeaux" come to their class. Finally, the time was here! And in walked Keith. *sigh* Ok, as adults we still appreciated him, but the girls were less impressed. :) Sorry Keith.
After camp was over we found Kathy warming up in a studio. All three girls are poking their head in, pointing, "there she is! It's Ms Kathy!". She was so gracious, kindly waving and saying hello. Then....drum roll please...she invited them (and the mom's by extension of course!) to come and sit in on the rehearsal for the performance they would be doing the next week!!! agh!!!
So we showed up, ready to sit in the hall at the window. She invited us IN!! "Come down front." Agh!! Sit by the ballet Mistress, Ms Sol. Eeks!
For the next hour and a half we were entertained by the hard work, blood, sweat and tears of "Deliver Us". The girls "got" a lot more of it than I would have ever expected. It's the story of Moses and then Jesus.
They've seen A Christmas Dream (which, mark your calendars for Dec 18th's weekend...there will be a VERY cute Bumble Bee in this year's performance!) but have never seen them sweat! So now they'll know how very hard each show really is.
After they finished the rehearsal and Kathy gave us our cue to go :) the girls had nothing to say...but went right up and hugged Ms Kathy. It was priceless.
Here are some pics from the week.

The "other" 3 Amigos.... Sarah, Claire, and Ava



Wow...Ms Kathy.

Ava, Ms Laurita the camp teacher (and Sarah's 2008-2009 teacher), Claire, and Sarah.

The presentation at the end of camp.

Bye-bye Kindergarten, hello 1st grade!

Were were so blessed to have found the best group of homeschool friends! One of the moms, Marci, put a great graduation ceremony together.
Here is our "class". We met once a week for play or a lesson. The moms are great, the kids are great. I'm overwhelmed at how God put the group together.




After the ceremony I asked Sarah what she wanted to do and she said "cut my hair!!!". "Really? How short?"
She wanted it up to her ears. So I said "OK! Off with the kindergarten hair!"
And we cut it. Right then and there.

Here she is just before we cut it.


And here is the first cut!


Here she is a couple of days ago. Man, she grew up! Ok, I know. The hair is not exactly straight. But my daughter thinks her mom did a bang up job and I don't have the heart to tell her it's not straight. :)

Dance unto the Lord!!!

I'm sorry to all of those that had children in the Ballet Magnificat recital...but my Sarah was the prettiest ballerina up there!!! See.....



The recital was incredible. All to the glory of God. To see each level reaching up and praising the Lord with dance...it was unbelievable.
Sarah was so excited to have done her very first recital. And even more excited to move towards being a bumble bee in A Christmas Dream in December. So, again, my apologies to all you other parents with children in A Christmas Dream...I have the cutest bumble bee in the hive!

What do you eat when you are two?

Mommy's Yum-O baked chicken. Sophie took over the entire serving bowl!! Mommy is just glad she picked a meal she'd eat. Sophie is not the easy-pleasy eater that Sarah was. It's luck of the draw with Sophie.


Then it's cake time!! I started the tradition of a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake with her. And, ummmm, she was all about it! She totally thought the singing to her was awesome and sang "Happy Birthday to You" for days afterward. She even "let" Sarah blow out her candles.

What do you do when you turn two??

You get a Slip-n-Slide!!! Sophie LOVES the water. Sarah likes to play in it, but hates getting it on her head (well, until now that Sophie likes it...now it's the best thing ever *sigh*).
For Sophie's birthday we just did Sophie-stuff. Pretty low key. She and Sarah had a blast in the backyard. I was surprised how much Sophie actually tried to slide. As you can imagine, it's the stuff giggles are made of. Make-Mommy-cry giggles at that.





Earlier that day she went to breakfast with Daddy. Sarah and I decorated. I honestly can't believe she's two. The days are long. Very long at times. But the year flew by and I already find that remembering that tiny little 8 month old that was placed in my arms a year and a half ago is hard.
At her well check-up she was on target. Ok, well, she doesn't know her colors yet...but I promised to work on that. :)
She is 34.5 inches tall; and 27.6 lbs. (That's 80th percentile for weight and 70th percentile for height) She's coming around to the doctor, but she still goes insane when she is laid down! We are having her hearing checked this week at a pediatric audiologist. Yeah, good luck to them! I'm 90% sure she's fine, but there is just a nagging bone in my body that wants to be sure. Not real concerned. Even if she had a problem she's practically fluent in ASL already!

She will start Mother's Morning Out next week! She's going to love it I think. And Sarah is going to love having me to herself.

Here is the precious 2 year old and her big sister.