Transitioning

The garbage truck arrived early this morning, so we got to see it - an exciting surprise!

Are you noticing that unicorn-like stub protruding from his forehead?  Another fall.  The boy does seem to land on his head a lot.

Today was MAJOR day care.. 7 1/2 hours.  And again, he did well.  Praise God!!!  They were playing outside when I arrived, and while G wanted to hug me, he also wanted to stay & keep playing.  I know he likes being around friends.  Apparently he also had no potty accidents AND ate vegetables (undisguised, I'm assuming).  Wondering if I should look into boarding school.

G's roughest time of day is after nap & before dinner.  I try to be prepared emotionally to cook one-handed while carrying him around.  These last few days of day care, G has really increased the unpleasantness of that hour.  He's been extra disobedient & demanding & unhappy.  I'm assuming that while he likes day care, it's still stressful for him.

Sorry I didn't update on the IEP meeting.  My dad came & sat with me so I'd have another set of ears there... which was a waste of two people's time!  Here's the "special services" timeline so far:

     November '09: I call to see about getting G screened (was expecting him home any day).  I'm scheduled for their next screening...

     March '10: The screening.  I'm told that to expect someone to call me to schedule a "full screening."  ?

     April: I call & call & call to inquire.

     April: I call to ask what my rights are.  Voila!  The next day an IEP meeting has been scheduled.

     April: You pray.  I prepare.  The big meeting where I'm told... "We need to schedule a full screening."  The district now has 60 school days from the meeting date to accomplish that screening.

Do I need to spell out the lessons I learned?

My impression of the special ed team, though, is that they seem caring & competent.  Whenever we can start working with them, I expect good things.

All Good

When I get G ready for bed, putting him in his pjs, he always stretches up his neck & chin and points to the base of his neck.  This is apparently Kreyol for "zip up my sleeper all the way to the top."  The boy likes his sleepers.  It is deliciously cute.


When G wakes up in the morning, he catches my eye, crinkles his eyes to smile, and says "Muh ma ee" ("Good morning").


G didn't want to come home from day care today!  When I arrived, the children were on the playground.  I saw G assume control of a little trike, and then successfully gesture/command another little boy to go get on the other trike.  Bossy!  The teacher confirmed all was smooth: No tears today!  And she asked: "He's very funny, isn't he?"  Why, yes; he is.

Just News

All is well.

Thursday we spent the morning at preschool and the evening at college. 

Friday - back to college.  Wheaton put on a GOOD show.  Seriously, there is something special about that school... energy, vibrancy, polish & friendliness.  G only had one meltdown.  Fortunately it was during chapel, and I'd gotten him downstairs, so it was largely unnoticed - except for the ?Filipino? cleaning woman who tsk'ed loudly and informed us several times that G shouldn't be doing that.  Thanks for the tip.

Weekend - nonstop running around.

I had to wash THREE batches of dishes before all were again clean.  Yeah, it was bad.

And the big news....  G started day care today.  It seemed to go well!  Just one hour, but I didn't see any tears (and didn't ask if there were any while I was gone).  I still love his fab teacher.  G has been very demanding / clingy / disobedient tonight - maybe reminding me that his adjustment is still "in progress."  We'll see.

He has a longer stint at day care tomorrow.. plus another vaccination.  Our first IEP meeting is Wednesday (prayer request).  In general, this will be a busy week.

Worth a smile: my favorite new G word is "weh-we" ("ready").  It's spoken as a question, and usually means that he's about to hurtle something for me to catch.  It's helping my reflexes.

The bottoms of all my t-shirts are stretched out from being pulled on all day long.  Annoying.  And my face keeps breaking out, which I'm sure is from G's hair cream rubbing on it all day long.  Also annoying.  How long did I wait & dream of the day when I'd be pulled & loved on?  And now I get annoyed?

The recipe book from Diane is working!  G downed a full serving of carrots today.. disguised in his mac n cheese.  ah ha ha ha!

Three bits of Joseph news...

1. I got a mid-term report this weekend, showing that he's FAILING History (his possible college major) (provided that he gets accepted to college).

2.  He got his ACT score today.  It's good!

3.  The History teacher sent an apology for the incorrect report of failure.  Good thing I took the original news so calmly.  ahem

Balancing Yesterday's Busyness

Just a chill morning at the park.

Overheard at the park...
One little girl, speaking under her breath to another little girl:

"Next Christmas, I think you're just gonna get coal."

G also got to enjoy a coffee date with Ms. Merrily & Ms. Diane (Hi Di!).  He thought they were pretty cool.  Ms. Diane gave us a recipe book for picky eaters... halleluiah!

Some good news - Joseph has been helping to adjust G to the concept of "Mama comes back."  Basically, I say Good-bye & drive around the block, while Joseph holds the screaming G.  Only tonight, G didn't scream.  Not even one tear!  Hoping this means good things, as I start leaving him at day care on Monday.

Packed Full

Tuesday was our first trial run with day care.  It's hard to get going so early in the morning!  G was not feeling the urgent need to get out the door.  He also wasn't ready to eat breakfast so soon after waking.  Breakfast is the meal where he most often eats, so that could be a problem.  He had fun playing at day care, with me sitting in the corner.

We stopped to watch a shovel digging a big hole, which was way cool.  Is it called a power shovel?  A steam shovel?  Hydraulic?  What???  I felt like a failure-mom exclaiming: "Wow!  Look at that big construction vehicle!"

But even more cool - we went to the train station & watched some trains.  Oh my!  WISH I had my camera for that.  G's hilarious dramatics played out as he exclaimed & pointed & did berserk dancing for each train.  There were tears when we left.

Found a sandpit playground at the Riverwalk.  Hours o' fun for G.  I'm sure that getting the sand out of his curls will provide hours o'fun for me.

Everything now is our "last."  Last full Tuesday of maternity leave.. last weekday library trip.. last wave to the garbage man.. etc.  Trying to milk it for all it's worth.

Desperation Dinner

Question: If you KNOW that your child will only eat noodles for dinner... 

and you decide to doctor the noodles with a swamp-green concoction (pureed black beans & spinach & other things I've forgotten now)...

and he does eat & eat it (while picking out the strategically left-in sacrificial asparagus pieces)...

then is the meal still as gross as it appears?

Answer: Yes.  Absolutely.  It doesn't get any more gross.  And we may be eating it again soon.

The Belly, 3 months in

G's doctor said that it'll just take time - and good food - for his belly to shrink more into proportion.

Can you tell how much more meat.. and muscle.. he has on his legs?  Love that!  I watched him powering up a ladder at the park today & was amazed.

What would you do

If your exhausted toddler was finally sleeping in the car..


and you had 3 hours of driving left ahead of you..


but you were passing somewhat near a beach..


although it would take you an extra 30 minutes to get there..


and the weather was definitely cold..


but he'd never been to the beach before?

Zoo Photos

As promised, from a week ago...

Wish you could see the wolves sunning themselves on those rocks.  Beautiful...

Hit of the day was definitely sea lions...

Arboretum

What a day.  The weather was G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!  Joseph's school had a late start = sleeping late!  Our tradition on late start days is going out for coffee before driving him to school.  Love that tradition!  I'm still refraining from coffee, but Joseph drinks fun coffees, and I enjoy the experience with my sons.

After dropping Joseph off, I was better than spontaneous.  I decided to take G to the Arboretum - but I first stopped at home to get the camera.  I'm learning!

I went through the day mindful that I might be living my most wonderful day of 2010.  Cool, eh?

Arboretum photo dump:

Spent a lot of time in the forest since that's my favorite part. 

G wasn't sure about all of those trees, and demanded me close, holding his hand.

...until the joy of playing with sticks wooed him away.

He wasn't sure about the strange noises - frogs & birds -

... but the moss was WAY cool

... and I could hardly pull him off the bridge.  Note the stick that was very purposefully holstered at his side.

I thought we'd head over to the meadow at naptime, and rest under a weeping willow by the river.

This photo shows G headed back to the car.  He was not catching my naptime vision.

Tomorrow we have scheduled an adoption home visit & another doctor appointment, plus we're off to another college visit.  Back to busyness.

Growth

Update:  I measured him myself today.  He's at 34".

We had another doctor visit this week. They said G now weighs 28# and is 37". That would mean that in the past 3 weeks, he gained only 1 pound, and grew 4 1/2 inches.

???

A New Friend!

(Photo from March.  No hats needed today!)

G likes to kick his soccer ball around the block.  Or kick the basketball.. he's not picky.

Today we had just enough time to kick it to the park & play for 10 minutes before heading home.  That was enough time to make a new friend!  Declan is a sweet 2 1/2-year-old with curly blonde hair.  The boys held hands and ran all around the park showing each other things.  Declan showed G the lawnmower guy.  G showed Declan a dog (go figure).  We were able to exchange phone numbers, so hopefully will get to play again soon.

Maternity Leave

I don't want to waste any of my precious days/hours/minutes grieving the fact that I'm returning to work soon.



It's hard.

Saturday

Today I was not spontaneous. 

We practiced singing Happy Birthday several times before calling Mallory to wish her a Happy 2nd Birthday.  Not that G actually followed through with any singing on the call.  We hope Mallory had a fabulous day anyway.

I planned to bring my camera to G's first kite-flying experience.  Which means that I snapped the following shot while G held the kite.

I mean, while G let the kite fly away.

I also got this shot of the ensuing fury.

Not our best experience.

Also today, we practiced "Playing Alone Without Toys."  I have another post half-written about G's inability to leave my side & devise fun for himself.  Today he did pretty well.  There was his favorite game: "Screaming at Innocent Passing Dogs."  He also played "Throwing Mulch" and "Dumping Rocks in a Puddle."  I was especially pleased with that last game.  Seems like progress to me.  He's also getting so much stronger.  It's shocking.  I couldn't believe how he powered up some steep inclines today (yes, Gentry, those do exist in Illinois).

In Joseph news, today was the ACT.  He thinks he did well - hooray!

I am rich

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about finding "a new normal" where I wasn't overwhelmed all the time any more.  The following days I was totally overwhelmed and wondering what I had been thinking.

But this week we seemed to have turned another corner towards normal - and I have proof!  Twice this week I stayed up late accomplishing things, got 4 hours of sleep, and was fine the next day.  And today we did something spontaneous.  I've missed being able to do both of those things.

This morning we were up & out early to drop off G's day care registration.  It's official & settled.  Ah-yah-yee-ah!  And guess what God did?  Remember one of the only things I didn't like about this school was that the teacher was leaving in August?  She's decided to stay!

And, our spontaneous adventure?  We went to the ZOO!  After stopping at the day care, I was enjoying the gorgeous morning, and decided to just keep driving to the zoo.  What joy.  I wonder - of the world's population - how many people today had access to a zoo; and could afford it; and actually got to go?  Not only did I get to go, but I got to go with my beautiful son, who God rescued & gifted to me.  This boy really likes watching our backyard squirrels, and I got to experience him seeing GIRAFFES for the first time.  I don't know if I'm capturing it well enough.  It was awesome.

Actually, there are awesome moments every day (even when I'm overwhelmed).  I'm so richly blessed.

G did enjoy the zoo.  It took him a while to get into it.  At our first stop, he thought the elephants were ok and the Canadian geese were great.  ugh.  He gave the wolves a "Wooooow" (this from the boy who is terrified of dogs).  The camels - ? - were another favorite.  But the all-time favorite, even better than the geese, were the sea lions.  Those earned screams of delight.

And when I pushed naptime back too far, and G tipped over towards meltdown, I was able to scoop him up & talk with him, and help him get back control before he spiraled down.  That might have been my favorite part of the whole day.  We're both learning.

Unfortunately, spontaneity means not having your camera ready.  I bought a disposable one at the zoo, so I'll post photos once I get them.

Happy Friday!

Genius

So, if your child will not eat any meat/eggs/nuts (unless it's meat cooked by Bapi & covered in gravy) - then you could puree a hard-boiled egg AND puree in some cheese... and use that to make grilled cheese, which the child WILL eat.  Ha!  Score one for Mom.

Rainy Day Fun

I turned to the Art book for inspiration and found Soapsuds Pictures. There was a slight problem with the recipe. It called for 2 main ingredients: I didn't have liquid starch and I didn't want G playing with detergent... so I modified. Yes, I substituted for both main ingredients. But it worked out fine. That's my kind of cooking.

G liked preparing the Soapsuds.

He started painting with q-tips...

then moved to spoons...

and then just gobbed it out with his fingers.

Painting was ok, but messing around with the Suds was great.

And - one final photo. I tried to take a photo of G's eyelashes. It seems to me like they're growing longer & curlier. Is that possible?

Visiting

Finally G got to visit Grammy's work today. All of her co-workers have been praying & waiting for G to come home. He had fun meeting them!



While Grammy was letting G use her new camera, Raymond was snapping these great photos of G. Thanks Raymond!!

More Firsts

Every day we have more firsts.

First Easter!

First egg dying. Grammy & Bapi came over to help.















First time trying to sit through church. A complete failure. Somehow the child who spent his first 3 years just sitting around, now has no ability to sit. He can make any activity - like coloring with crayons - a loud activity.





First egg hunt. Overall, it was a fine experience. He did what he was supposed to do. There were a few moments when joy broke through.
























First seed planting. That was pretty interesting. I'm sure that G has never planted before, yet he totally understood what to do. He was his most focused, deliberate self - getting the dirt, poking in the seeds, watering. I wondered if his first family did some farming. It was so natural to him. Can you inherit a gardening gene?
































We did not experience the first random vomit today. That would be the third vomit. But who's counting?

Memories

Some of the flights I ended up not taking on January 29th.

Gift

Today we got a card from World Vision, letting us know that a gift for Haiti Earthquake Relief was received in our name. What a wonderful surprise! I don't know who sent the gift, but I wanted to say THANK YOU! I really appreciate it.