Rolling Down the Hill

Can you see G?

He's standing up at the very top of the hill.

All of the other children are busy rolling down the hill or walking up it.

Not G.  He's studying them.
     They look like they're having fun.
          What exactly are they doing?
               How are they doing it?

He watched them for 5 minutes from the bottom of the hill, never saying a word. 
Then he asked if he could walk to the top of the hill and he watched some more.

Then - with no warning - he was ROLLING!

Crazily

At an angle

Losing his glasses

Laughing with abandon

Rolling.

Love it.

So Many Firsts!

Making a paper chain..

Discovering snow..

Bundling up to play in the snow (for the 5 minutes Mom lasted).. 

Making Christmas cookies..

 

 

...and eating them!



Last night I put dinner on the table.  G looked at it pensively.  Then he got up, walked over to the fridge, and stood there - pondering.  After a minute he decided, grabbed what he wanted, and stated matter-of-fact: "No Mama.  I gonna eata cookie."  This is my boy.

Counting!

So, G is not actually counting yet.  But the CONCEPT of counting, he seems to have grasped!

It needs to be recorded that I have read the Hungry Caterpillar book 4 quabillion times.  And I've read the (stinkin') Poky Puppy Counting Book 18 ultramillion times.  Every.single.time I have moved his finger or mine over the pictures one by one as I've modeled counting.

"One orange pumpkin sitting by the fence.  One.  Two fuzzy caterpillars resting on a leaf.  Two."  Again & again & again.

There should be some kind of prize for repetitive reading moms, don't you think?

So, last night we're doing "Seven honeybees flying fast" and

HALLELUIA!

G started moving his finger from bee to shining bee!

Way to go, G. 

Laundry

Today G came home with grass stains on the knees of his new jeans.


Do you know that I loved scrubbing those stains?  I have waited YEARS for grass-stained knees.


How cool is that?

Confident Expectation

When G wakes up, I rock him in our rocking chair.  The other day we were rocking, when he wiggled down and trotted off across the room.  I figured he was going to get The Comfort Object.  But instead he grabbed this:

(picture of a train on tracks, made at day care)

He turned around with it, and caught my eye - BEAMING with pride.  Everything about G indicated his confident expectation that I was going to love what he had made.


That blows me away.


Some day I'll write about my perspective on adoption.  You might be surprised to know that I don't think it's the greatest thing in the world.  But I will say this...


Every child deserves to know that someone will absolutely revel in their artistry.  Every child deserves to have that confident expectation... the knowledge that, for their parent(s), they are positively amazing.

G is realizing that he has that now.  Ah-yah-yee-ah!

Fourth of July

Every year we get a photo of Bapi & Joseph by the flag.  Only, Joseph is gone, and G is here!

Clarification: No people were harmed during the taking of that photo.
Thought I'd better make sure you knew that since the total lack of smiles might cause one to think otherwise.

G's new tradition of "Depressing Flag Photo" was followed up by the new tradition of "ohmygoodness-whatisgoingoninthesky and whyaminotinbed?" (aka fireworks)

Although there's no photographic evidence, G really did enjoy his first Fourth.

Driving Home

Me: (spacing out)

G: Tuck!  Tuck!

Me: (spacing out)

G: Tuuuuuuuuck!  Tuck Mama Tuck!

Me: Hm.  Yes, that's a truck.

G: Lah-lo.  Lah-lo.

Me: Hm.  ...  Oh - Yellow!  Yes!  Yellow!  That truck is yellow!  Good job G!  Wow!  Give me 5!  You saw a yellow truck!  (and on & on)


Today G either had his first-ever color identification OR he learned that the word "Lah-lo" makes Mama go berserk.

We did it.

G's first trip to the barber.  I did tear up when the curls started falling. 

I really wanted to grow his hair this summer and loc it this fall, but that dream had to go.  Too much time & tears were being spent on hair in the morning.  This style will be much more our speed.

G thinks he looks pretty good.  He's been rubbing his head & admiring himself in mirrors.

Who could blame him?

Another First!

I know you're thinking that I just baked chicken for the first time.  But no - not yet for that.  See the wristband?...

Today was G's first trip to the Emergency Room!  Didn't take long for that.  Although, at the rate he has accidents, I'm sure it's not too surprising.

The 3 of us were outside.  G was mostly standing around because he still doesn't really "get" independent imaginative play.  Joseph was cutting branches and I was bagging them.  Suddenly G started SCREAMING & rubbing at his eye, which he would not open. 

(Skipping the boring middle of the story)

We end up in the ER, G with his eye numbed.  The doc has the eyelid flipped, and he finds the "foreign body therein!"  It was a speck.  Seriously, a speck.  The size of a period.  Crazy to see how much trouble a speck can cause.

Soon we'll see how crazy the cost of speck-removal is.

Being in that hospital in our cozy suburb is weird to me.  It's so much like (I imagine) a luxury spa would be.  Tranquil environment, plenty of staff there to serve you, polite capability everywhere.  Today, being there with G, made the experience even more weird.  Do you know that when someone goes to a hospital in Haiti they'd better have a friend there to take care of them?  Assuming that they are seen, the friend will be responsible for providing any food & water.  They need to bring their own medical supplies for any treatment that's done.  I've heard this information from multiple sources and believe it to be true.. before the earthquake.  I don't know what it's like now.  I know that the people of Haiti still desperately need help. 

And I know I'm very glad that G is home, safe.

Reasons to Adopt

Some day I'll compose a serious list.  But for today, let me just highlight a few fun Reasons:

1.  The Food.  Ok, this may not be an adoption-agency-approved Reason, but I assure you that it is a real benefit!  Today we had another friend make a meal for us.  Homemade eggplant parmesan.. with a salad... and bread.  And would you believe that yet another friend stopped by to offer a meal.  No joke.  Joseph has never eaten this well in his life.  And me - I'm just in heaven.  It has been truly amazing.

2.  Brothers.  Every time I see my sons together, my heart melts.  Their bedtime ritual especially kills me.

3.  Joy.  Today when I picked G up from day care, he saw me & ran to me smiling, arms outstretched.  That was a first.  So sweet.  Earlier today, I couldn't find his brown pants.  I looked all over, and then told G that I was going to the car to check the diaper bag.  That's where they were, so I returned to the house with them.  G greeted me with a thrilled: "YAY Mama!"  Too funny.  There's always something with him.






(G has the weird expression in the food photo because a DOG had just barked outside.)

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.