Abigail Update

In December, Abigail came home one day and asked if she could get a violin and have violin lessons.  Lar and I decided that if she could learn to read notes enough to play a little on the piano and stick with it, that we would get her a violin and lessons if she is still interested. This music trial period is also good because Lar can give her lessons on the piano.  (If she ends up sticking with the piano, I would eventually like to find her another teacher so that she can learn to play jazz and casual style music, not stilted classical music, which is what Larry plays.)

She is reading fingerings now, which I didn't know was a thing.  But, she did give her first concert, a duet of "Merrily We Roll Along" while sitting on a stack of books so that she could reach.  Too cute!

In other Abigail's Growing Up news, this happened:

It was loose for 2 weeks before she just "yanked it out" (her words" during school one day.
The Tooth Fairy left her $1 and a new electric toothbrush.
Someone told me that was low and that the national average was actually around $12 per tooth.  Foolishly, even though I know better when it comes to other people and numbers, I repeated that statistic a few times before looking it up and learned that the mode of the payout is a reasonable $1 per tooth, while the mean is $3.70. Parents aged 18-24 and/or earning less than $25,000 year are the demographic paying over a dollar.  [This data is from Time, August 30, 2013]


Not fully understanding the term, Abigail asked me to take "selfies" of her and she posed a dozen different expressions for me.  Who could resist this face?  Larry said that he read somewhere the kids stop being cute to other people (not their own parents) in the age range of 5 to 7.  I can't imagine this face not being cute to any sighted person.  (But then again, I am super biased.)

Sleep Terrorist Update

Most of my readers are familiar with the daily, exhaustive struggles of living with our little Sleep Terrorist.  For those of you who aren't, he falls asleep between 7:30 and 8 pm.  He often wakes several times throughout the night before popping up, wide awake in the 4 o'clock hour.  I mean Up For The Day at 4:something.  It can be 4:10 or 4:23 or, when he is feeling generous, 4:54. Even on the night of the DST time change, we thought we were guaranteed one "sleep in" as his body slept to Old 4:something, it would be New 5:something and it would be like sleeping in, except on that day he awoke at Old 3:50.   
(And sure, several people think they have the solution.  "Longer naps!"  "Shorter naps!"   "Earlier bedtime!"   "Later bedtime!"    "Weighted blanket!"   "Essential oils"    "Melatonin drops!"   It is amazing how many people feel the need to tell us what the Magical Sleep Bullet is just because something worked for the non-adopted child of a cousin of a neighbor of an imaginary friend.  Sometimes, when a person is going through something, they just need someone to listen, nod emphatically, not preach and say "Damn!  That sucks!"    Know what I'm sayin'?)  

A week ago, Lar was sick/congested so he slept in the guest room and somehow (a finely tuned toddler telepathy I guess) Joseph discovered that (A) there was a vacancy in our bed, and (B) he can climb into bed with me while I am sleeping in the middle of the night and I wouldn't even know until I get accidentally toddler-kicked.  

And while he is cuddly, that wasn't sustainable.  Since then, we have been working with him at bedtime.  We practice "waking up" and checking the Bunny Clock.  We practice "going back to sleep" when Bunny is still sleeping and we talk about waking up Mama and Baba if the Bunny is awake.  (The Bunny is set to wake up at 5 am.)  I said to him "Do not wake up in the middle of the night and climb into bed with Mama.  Okay?"  When I said that, he got very sullen and just hugged me and buried his face in my neck and wouldn't let go.  The next morning he woke up at 4:something but laid in his bed crying quietly, staring at his Bunny like I told him to do!

Eureka!  We had suspected that he understands everything, even though he isn't able to speak much yet.  And sometimes he even wants to please us!

But today, this little bed-headed Sleep Terrorist gave us a delightful surprise.  

He not only slept straight through the night, but he didn't wake up until 5:20!  The little guy received so much positive reinforcement for this miraculous feat.  Maybe it was the new Elmo pjs.  Maybe it was all the fresh air and sunshine after a long winter.  Maybe it was an isolated incident.  (No!  Say it ain't so!)  We are being cautiously optimistic that maybe 5:something could be our new normal.  But I won't get my hopes up either!

Look for this series of events on the next bad-parent lame sit-com!

Joseph really outdid himself today during his first speech therapy session with his therapist.

This little guy looks stinkin' cute, right?

Looks can be deceiving.

Joseph qualified for Early Intervention Speech Therapy, so that means that the speech therapist comes to our house twice per month and works with us as parents to work with Joseph and gives us "assignments" to work on with him until next session.  

Yesterday's session started with a bowl of water, a pile of cotton balls and straws so that Joseph could learn to blow air out properly through play and games.  It ended with a kind therapist gathering her things as quickly as possible and dashing for her car as a broken-hearted 2 year old sobbed alligator tears while 90% naked.

Here is what happened in-between:

• Joseph thought that throwing the cotton balls at the therapist and screaming was more fun than her game
• Joseph spilled most of the water all over himself and wanted dry clothes
• Joseph did not like the clothes I brought downstairs for him (even though they were his favorites 3 days ago) and would only cooperate with any requests if he was naked except for his diaper
• While the therapist was trying to give Larry and I some instruction, Joseph was insistent that he had to "oop" so I excused myself for a 2nd time and took him to the bathroom where he peed a few drops and demanded M&Ms for the huge effort of it all
• Joseph raced back to the therapist (yes, a literal race which began with a "reddy, et, ooooo!!") and then he wanted to hug her and sit on her (while only diaper clad).  
• He then began tugging at my arm (while I was trying to talk to the therapist) insisting "um on."  I excused myself a 3rd time and I followed him up the stairs where his "come on" lead me to discover that he wanted to wear "unts" or "underpants."  I told him "not right now" and raced back downstairs.
• While trying to talk to the therapist again, we heard Joseph in the hallway and tried to call him back to us.  He wouldn't come, so I excused myself a 4th time to find him in the hallway completely naked and very proud of himself.  (The DC area broke several century-old low-temperature records today and yesterday, but apparently naked was the way to go with balmy single digit temps.)  So, I put him on the potty where he peed a decent amount and put this "unts" on him.
• An underoo-clad toddler re-entered the scene as the therapist was trying to explain the usual progression of sound development and then he quickly left again.
• The underoo-clad tot reappeared in the 2nd floor office loft above the living room and then peed all over the carpet.  
• The rest is a blur of the therapist trying to assure me that this is all normal boy behavior Larry rushing for a pile of towels, and her rushing for the door!

*sigh*

Gong Xi Ga Cai

I learned how to say Gong Hey Fat Choy first, so that is what Abigail first learned to say, even though that is Cantonese, and she would have spoken Mandarin if she grew up in central China.

Never-the-less, I took a "photo shoot" of my Henan cuties and it was difficult to pick from the 74 pics that I didn't delete.  We took these pics last night after their baths when they were all clean and fluffy.

In whatever language, may your next year be wonderful, prosperous, full of family, and most importantly, healthy!

I see some belly!

They did their own expressions.

Jos said "Lap lap" and patted Abigail's
lap and then took a seat!

Abs wanted to show off her Chinese
pants too.  Joseph wanted to show off
Abigail's new karate belt.

Shot #74: Someone is ready for bed!

Pictures from a Snow Day

Yesterday afternoon, while it was snowing and we were in our first few inches, I took the kids around the neighborhood.  We sledded on unplowed streets and gathered sticks (part of an elaborate game the kids made up, mostly consisting of dragging sticks and making patterns, but also some sword play).  Thirty-five minutes later they were chilly and we went inside.

This morning, Joseph was saying "snow" (which really sounded like "noo?") for a few hours (you know, in the pre-breakfast hours, before the sun is up) and pointing outside.  He was excited about the snow that fell yesterday and wanted to go out and play more.  He couldn't wait!

However, once he was out in the thigh-deep (on him) snow, he was a bit freaked out by it.  It was like when we first brought him home from China and he was afraid of grass.  Larry pulled him around on a sled for awhile, but we couldn't get him to do any snow angels.  He did however, have a little reunion with Chase, from the Halloween entry, and Chase's owner who said "I know this guy from trick or treating; your wife was trying to tire him out for the time change!"

Abigail had a great time making snow angels, sledding, snow tubing, and general playing.  She is an old pro at snow days!  

*sigh*  Mama, what TAKES so long to get everyone ready?

Jos was a little unsure, even though is #1 role model was ready to go!

Our Little Snow Angel

Trying to tube in the deep snow

A bit tentative....

.... but super cute

Super Cute rosy cheeks when we came inside!

After a long time apart

My mother was sick with respiratory gunk for a long time after Christmas.  As a result, we didn't get to see them, and they didn't get to see the kids, for almost 2 months.  But this weekend, there was a happy reunion.  Joseph was so happy to see them that the second my mom walked in the door on Saturday he clung to her like a baby chimp, arms and legs all wrapped around her.  Abigail hugged her Yinski and the dog joined in the happy, yappy chaos at the front door.  The grandparents couldn't even get their coats off before the kids were showing them new things and wanting to play.

Battling for control of the living room with Yinski

They slayed Grandma!

For Those Who Couldn't Care Less About The Super Bowl Tonight

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since my last post. 
Days are long, but months and weeks are short. 

This month we have continued to experience horrendous wake up times from Joseph.  Lots of 4:25, 4:10, 4:50, 4:45, 4:51, and even one 3:51.  There were 2 blessed sleep in-days this past month: one at 5:06 and the other at 5:21.  It was like we died and went to heaven.  Larry still bears the brunt of these mornings taking Joseph to the basement to endure through Curious George, Daniel Tiger, bowls of dry Cheerios, and sippy cups of warm milk.  He is Super Dad.

Abigail is still an amazing big sister.  She has a lot of empathy for her little brother.  Today he smashed his face against a window edge and a welt and bruise appeared instantly in a creepy-scary fashion.  She was so soothing and calming and loving and attentive to him.  She still doesn't like that he gets the Lion's share of attention, but we are trying to do "special" things with her.  It is difficult with her having karate lessons and homework and needing to go to bed every night earlier than her brother, however.  But we are trying.  I love playing a few rounds of Instructures or teaching her to get a "check mate" on Connect Four.  (Instructures has her building or instructing someone to build with blocks according to the blueprint on a card.  I just love when she says something like "get the short cylinder and place the round end in the center of the long rectangular prism and put the semi circle on top of that".)

When did Abigail start looking so old?
(She has taken an interest in dresses.  It is unexpected.)

Joseph was impatient for dinner and didn't want to
wait for the lasagna to cool so he pushed a chair next to the
stove and started blowing on the pan!!

Happy Match Day, Joseph!!
(Eye scratch from a kid when Joseph cut
him in line at the hand washing sink)

Abigail helping Joseph celebrate his match day.
If she does something, he will do it too.  She is his hero.

First snow day.
Joseph had to wear an old pair of Abigail's shoes
because the boots we bought him in the fall already don't fit!

What a lucky boy to have a big sister pull you around in a sled!