Think we have it!

G & I made a second visit to a day care today, and I was again impressed. We talked about G's situation; how we could handle his transition, and how they would cope with the special challenges he'll bring. I liked all of their answers & their attitude!

The teacher is dreamy-perfect. The class size is small. The mood is peaceful but busy. The staff & teachers have degrees in Early Childhood Ed. They have lovely acreage outside.

The biggest drawbacks are cost (so so so expensive!) and that the teacher is pregnant and leaving in August. Regarding the teacher, I've decided it's still our best option. This lovely teacher will help G transition into day care. Based on every teacher I met there, the next teacher is sure to also be good. Regarding the cost, I've decided that God would not bring me this far and then let me down. He is going to provide.

If this really is IT, it is a HUGE relief to have settled.

In between today's day care visit and a doctor visit, we also found time for a visit to the park. Loving this weather!!!

IMEA

Joseph and his friend Scott found a piece of music they really liked, so they decided to play in an IMEA festival. I didn't understand the point. They practiced, got dressed up, went to the competition, navigated swarms of other student musicians, played in a classroom in front of a judge, and were back outside again in 30 minutes. huh?

I asked him what the point was. Was it an audition for a bigger festival? Were the best players going to get together and put on a performance? Would he get remarks from the judge to help him improve his playing? Anything?

Being Joseph, he didn't know. He really didn't know if there was a next step or a tangible "payback" for participating. He just felt like playing. This is a slightly different perspective than I might have. All he knew was that he & Scott had made some mistakes; they should have practiced together more than they did, and he wanted to play video games.


Friday he brought this home:



... inspiring him & Scott to decide: "Even when we're really bad, we're still the best."

Mercy.

Papier Mache

Watching G work reminded me of how Joseph is - very deliberate & purposeful with his artistic endeavors. G spent at least 1/2 hour painstakingly gluing newspaper strips onto the balloon (and smearing glue all over us both). Today it took him about an hour to paint the creation (and paint us both). He probably would still be painting, but Mama was done. He's very proud of the finished project. I wish I had a photo of that for you, but this is all I took...

Now I Get It

I've spent the last 7 weeks feeling overwhelmed and guilty over all the things I haven't been doing. But a "new normal" seems to be emerging. It's putting those last 7 weeks into perspective.

In my new normal, G's poop does not coming in overflowing waterfalls every 1/2 hour. It can be contained by a diaper and only comes a couple of times a day. I've just realized that G is not constipated. This is normal.

In my new normal, G does not demand to be held every single second. In fact, he is content - occasionally - for brief periods - to play by himself.

In my new normal, I am not exhausted & coughing nonstop. I can't believe what a difference it makes now that I feel better.

I like my new normal.

Firsts

Today we experienced G's first successful HOP! There have been many attempts at hopping since we read about kangaroos. Mostly those have involved G's knees bending while his arms swung wildly upwards. But today there was actually air between the floor & his feet. A real hop.

(Shoot. Now I'm wondering if a hop only involves one foot at take-off & landing. So this may have been his first jump. Whatever.)

An even better first happened after his nap. Since he got home, whenever he wakes up & I'm not there, he CRIES & SCREAMS - that crazy siren scream I've written about before. Each time I've reminded him (in Kreyol) that he doesn't have to scream; if he calls "Mama," then I will come. That's our little routine from the past 6 weeks. Yet, after today's nap, I heard a precious call of "Mama!" coming from the room... without tears. Sweet progress.

The Boy is Odd

Proof in two parts.

Part One:
This morning we were sitting in the rocker, watching the SNOW, when I noticed a spider climbing down the window. In a minute, G noticed it too. He slid off my lap, used his hand to smash the spider, gave the carcass a look of disgust, and crawled back up on my lap.

Part Two:
Also this morning, we saw two dogs running through our backyard. They were tiny little things, clearly newly escaped & going berserk with their freedom. I tried to get my shoes on, but they were already gone before I got to the door. Not long after, G pointed out their return - only this time, they were trailed by a frantic man. I opened my back door & called out "C'mon! C'mon puppies!" It worked! They ran straight for the door... until G caught sight of them and started SCREAMING, like only he does. It's not like one long extended noise. It's like intermittent SIREN BLASTS of terror & anger combined. Needless to say, the dogs did a U-turn and the man chased on.

Who do you know who has a calm disgust with spiders and a raging terror of quiet little fluffy dogs?

Today's Doctor Visit

While driving home from G's doctor appointment today, I wrote a funny post for you in my head. It was about... how mindful I am of the gawking & comments G & I will receive in Chicago... so how mindful I am to make sure that he looks his best before we set out... and how the gorgeous weather allowed me to drive into the city with the windows down!... and how I had to take my 3-year-old into the center of attention with him not wearing shoes because, when I arrived his shoes had disappeared. I figured out that while I was driving, he was throwing them out the window! When confronted, he laughed at me as if the whole thing was hilarious.

Only, when I got home, his shoes were just inside the door. Where I had apparently left them.

At least he had pants on.



He had his first vaccination today (plus two miserable blood draws), and seems to be doing well. He is no longer terrified to stand on a scale - and he's up to 27 pounds! The doctor gave me a growth chart from WHO, which shows the average size, worldwide, for children - not just the average size of US children. G is nowhere near the bottom of the US chart. But on the WHO chart he has a nice head size (important), he's in the bottom quarter for weight, and he's off-the-charts-low (still) for height. We learned lots at the doctor... including that it's time for me to obtain more stool samples! I'm feeling confident in my newly-developed abilities to accomplish that task. We shall see.

Comparison

G is 9 days older than Meredith.

Government Navigation

I hope I figure out how to correctly link you to this:
http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2010/03/springing-forward-and-spinning-around.html


The author just brought home a son from Haiti. She summarizes SO WELL what this post-earthquake government ridiculousness is like. If you figure in that I have not yet scored the insurance for G, and that I'm also investing time trying to find a day care, then you'll know what my "spinning around" life is like right now.

Trying to

- get healthy (I'm still coughing)
- survive Joseph's chaffeur needs
- finish G's 10,000 doctor appointments
- obtain answers for how to finish this adoption
- find phenomenal child care
- not worry

And, of course, trying to enjoy the blessings in front of me. Today was a gorgeous day. After checking out a potential day care, we went to the park. G seemed to be scared of the geese, yet determined to get up close enough that they could really hear him screaming at them. And by "screaming" I mean that he was distinctly shouting at them in Kreyol. I kind of wish I knew what he was threatening them with, and I kind of think it's better that I didn't know. I would not be surprised if profanity was involved. He was expressing some harsh instructions at those geese.

Which reminds me.. We were in the bathroom today, G sitting on his frog potty, when he started pointing at my feet & telling me something. I, helpful as ever, said: "Yes, Mama is wearing socks. Can you say socks?" He just shot me a *look*, got up off the frog potty, pointed to an ant that was crawling by my foot, picked up the ant & squashed it, calmly dropped it in the toilet, flushed, and returned to the frog. Is it just me, or was that funny?

Leaving those stories.... Because it was such a nice day, we walked to the bus stop and got to meet Joseph there today.

My Clean House

Don't know if anyone else remembers this, but Joseph's most favorite thing to do when he was 3 years old was to sweep. He spent hours at Anna's house sweeping her floors. At the end of the day she'd greet me and make sure to tell me that he wanted to be sweeping.

Would you believe that G's new favorite thing to do is mop? I gave him a long cardboard tube, thinking that swordplay was imminent, but NO - it quickly became a mop. He got out his bucket and spent today sweeping & mopping the kitchen... moving chairs, getting under the oven & everything. Just like I always do. (ahem)




He's wearing no pants because it makes the potty training easier. Speaking of which.. I'm reminding him to sit every so often and we've had no accidents. But how do you get to the point where he notices on his own that he has to go? That's only happened a couple of times. And how do you get to the point where you trust him enough to let him in the car without diapers? Is that the point of pull-ups? I don't remember this stuff!

Party

Today we got to celebrate Molly Rose turning 8!

The First "I love you"

... goes to Joseph!

As part of our bedtime routine, I always take G to say goodnight (Bon Nuit) to Joseph. I remind G to say "I love you," and tonight he very clearly looked at Joseph and told him: "I love you" (I-uv-oo, but you get the point).

1,000 times a day I tell G to say something - "Please Mama" "More please" "Thank you" - and G shows no interest in saying any of it. But love for Joseph made the cut.

If you're counting, I think that brings us up to 6 English words in G's spoken vocab. We had "Mama" "Dadesh" (Joseph) and "Ah yah yee ah" (alleluia). I think we might also have "book", but am waiting to confirm. He definitely understands lots of English, so he should be speaking more soon. He's still babbling tons in Kreyol and it's so so cute. I wish he could keep his language.

In other news, potty training has begun. It's a beautiful thing.

A Dream Come True & A Bloody Lip

Today was finally nice enough that we got outside for a walk! I wasn't thinking that G would make it very far, but I figured that we'd walk towards the park.

Not long ago, a playground was built by my house. I was so excited that "G's park" would be finished soon after he came home. And then excited that it was finished before he came home. All last year I drove by that park and watched zillions of children playing, and dreamed of the day that G would play there.

Today was the day!

We don't have sidewalks in my neighborhood, so we had to walk in the street the whole way there. Every time a car approached, G would scream scream scream and cling on to my legs. The screams didn't sound fearful; it was almost like he was trying to scare the cars away. Then, as soon as the car would pass us, G would wave & say "Bye-Bye." Very weird.

He loved marching in the muddy gutter water and on the melting ice.

He wiped out 3 times. In the muddy gutter water and the melting ice. While wearing his dry-clean-only coat.

But we made it to the playground! G was pretty happy to be there. He walked up & around the little hills. He got on & off the rocker boat. He watched the other (Russian?) boys play. When the boys approached him, he pretty much ignored them. He never made a move to go on the big jungle gym thing. I didn't push him 'cause it was way past nap time. But I did put him on the swing before we left and he LOVED it. He screamed in delight as if he were cresting a roller coaster.

I've heard people say that when you adopt a toddler, you miss so many of their "firsts" - smiles, steps, etc. But there are so many other crazy firsts that I do get to enjoy. Today - the first swing experience - was one of those awesome firsts.

I was sad to have left my camera at home. So when we got up the driveway, I told G that I'd be right back and went to grab my camera. It took me under 2 seconds, but of course he freaked out, rushed the porch steps, stumbled, and banged his face down the concrete and onto the rocks. Screaming.. bloody mouth.. Looks like he scraped the outside of his lip and bit the inside of it. He's intrigued by the resulting fat lip. I'm just glad that this happened after the knot on his head has subsided.

I don't remember Joseph ever banging his head or fattening his lip. He never broke a bone or even had stiches. Somehow I think that G may provide a different experience.

Profound Thoughts

Lately I notice myself saying things that really should be recorded and shared with the world. Significant statements like:

"No. That's the toilet. We don't play with the toilet."

So much wisdom being shared around here.

If you had some clay

... wouldn't you make sure to stick it to your forehead?

My Key to Sanity

Have I mentioned that G wants me to hold him every second of the day? He's actually gotten better to where he can be down playing... as long as I'm within arms' reach AND am paying complete attention to him.

But I've come up with a secret weapon. It buys me at least 15 seconds of freedom and has never failed.

I just have to hand him an item and ask him to take it to the recycling (or to the garbage if I'm already near the recycling). The joys of having such an important job to do - - THAT pries him off of me every time!