Potty Training

Well, I had this post all planned out in my mind, and it was going to go something like this: I have two words for you when it comes to potty training: Gummy Lifesavers. About a week and a half ago I was tickled pink (and every other color of a gummy lifesaver) because we had an incredible week of bribery, I mean potty training, using Natalie's favorite snack. As usual, whenever I would ask Natalie if she had to go potty, she would say "No thanks" (she is very polite that way). Then I would say something like "If you stay dry and go pee on the potty, you can have a gummy lifesaver," to which she would respond "Let's go!!" She did really well, even though I felt like I lost some bargaining power when Jim decided that Liam should also be included in the fruits of her labor. Like Pavlov's dog, whenever Natalie went into the bathroom, Liam would hear her and come running, saying "Lifesavers for the family!!"
I resisted using food as a bribe when Liam was potty training. I guess in the back of my mind was always the worry that I would be setting him up for some strange psychological issues later in life, like feeling hungry after every visit to the loo. Time has a way of softening my parental stances, however. Heaven help us with baby#3 - I'll be promising her a trip to Disneyland every week, letting her eat nothing but pizza and ice cream, and forking over cold hard cash in order to entice potty use.
So the bribery worked wonderfully....until we worked through the first box (don't tell our dentist, please). Apparently it is possible to OD on gummy lifesavers. Now into Week 2, we've hardly touched the second box, because Natalie is back to saying "No thanks" or just ignoring the whole process entirely. Gummy lifesavers - been there, done that. I may have to move onto something for a more sophisticated palate now...like purple jelly beans. I'll report more on that later....

Liam's Musings

Fair is fair - since I reported on Natalie's cute way with words, I thought I should also report on some of Liam's funny comments recently. He has better pronunciation than Natalie, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't say hilarious things.

Waking Liam up one morning with the wonderful natural light pouring in from the window...he looks up at me with a loving smile and asks, "What are all those things on your head? The lines right there," pointing to my nearing-40 forehead wrinkles. sigh...

Liam explaining how wishes come true: "Well. First. It goes around and around in your head (with hand motions to show a circular motion). Then it goes down into your belly....and it mixes with...dirt...and the roots go down...and then it grows bigger and it comes true."

I'm sure I am reading too much into this description, but I find it unbelievably poetic.

Liam crying before bed about how he misses Ohio: "I only like SMALL states! I don't like BIG states! Big states are too....big! There's too much stuff in big states, and I don't know what to do!!"

Hmmm...I think that is probably just a bedtime delay technique, but I found the big state/small state thing interesting. I think he might actually have a point that too many options can be overwhelming. Maybe we need to cut back on the extra-curricular activities? Then again...he has also told us that he misses Ohio most of all because he loved our basement.

Natalie-isms

I love Natalie's current stage of speech development. She repeats everything she hears (especially if Liam says it), and makes up a few things on her own. I think she has a good vocabulary, and speaks pretty clearly most of the time. Here are a few of the things that may not be quite "right" but never fail to make me smile.

"Faffles" - as in, the frozen toaster waffle variety, sometimes preferred with "dip" (syrup), sometimes just with butter. Her favorite breakfast.

"Gwand" = as in, where is my princess Gwand? I want to make Daddy stop talking. (When Natalie waves her princess wand at him, Jim does a hilarious act where he stops or starts talking in mid-sentence whenever she waves it. She could turn him "on and off" for hours if he let her.)

"Snail" = this is what she calls any sort of hangnail or fingernail that needs to be clipped. She will examine her toes while in her car seat (she always must take off her shoes in the car for some reason) and yell "Mommy! I have a snail!!"

"Skee-jee" - she had a cold for about 2 weeks and she had a love/hate relationship with the little nose syringe thing that can suck mucus out of a baby's nose. We called the process squeegeeing her nose. Before bed if she was too runny Natalie would ask for the "Skee-jee", but after being suctioned about 2 times she couldn't take it anymore and would say NO MORE skeejee!

"Fee-fies" - This is her word for butterfly. Not sure why it comes out fee-fie (almost like fee-fi-fo-fum), but it is very cute.

"Russia-baby" - this one actually comes out pretty clearly. It makes me smile because she will, more and more, identify all of the "baby" toys and will bring them to me and say "Russia baby's toy?" I tried telling her that her pacifiers were also Russia baby's, but quickly realized the error of my ways when I saw the look on her face. I don't need to plant that kind of hostility before the baby even arrives.

Horton Hears a....Natalie

We recently went to see Horton Hears A Who - one of the only movies that Liam would agree to see because we read the book and he liked it. He seems to be able to deal with scary "bad guys" in book form much better than in a theater, so reading the book first helped. He still covered his ears a number of times (including during all of the Previews - he really doesn't like the loud Previews), but overall I would say he enjoyed the movie more than anything else we've seen in a theater.

This was also Natalie's first movie. I wasn't sure how she would do, since 2 1/2 is still pretty young for a full movie. I would say that she did very well. She loved the Previews, and was not worried much at all by scary characters. She was also periodically vocal. Her 2 1/2 yr old patience wore thin about 3/4 of the way through, and she stood up (we were on the end of the aisle), walked to the steps and declared very loudly "Let's get going!!" Funny the first time....slightly embarrassing about the 10th time, as she pulled on my arm, tugging me toward the aisle. Then there was the scene where the angry mob is marching noisily toward Horton, and that captured her interest once again. "What's that NOISE mommy?" she kept asking excitedly.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit myself. There were definitely some messages from Dr. Seuss that apply just as much today as they did when the book was written. Updated, of course, with a few modern references, like the kangaroo who was "pouch schooled" to keep him away from people with crazy ideas. My only disappointment was that the "bad guy" (a vulture named Vlad Vladikoff) had to be Russian. I know Russians have made excellent villains in many movies over the years, and when the book was written it probably made perfect sense. I am just a little more sensitive to it now. I suppose poor Vlad Vladikoff's accent eliminated him from being cast as a WhoVille hero. It's a shame...

Who is Your Candidate?

Here is an interesting site that is supposed to help you figure out which candidate matches your interests and opinions. I won't tell you how my quiz turned out, but I will say that it confirmed my choice of candidate.

www.glassbooth.org

Fingerprinting...Fiasco?

One of our final steps for our Russian Dossier was to get re-fingerprinted by the Citizenship & Immigration Service. We did this once, but the fingerprints are only good for 15 months (how time flies). We really do not have a babysitter these days (daycare really was good for getting daytime errands done), so we optimistically decided to bring the kids along. Going to a CIS office is a bit like going to the DMV. It could go quickly, or you could sit in a room full of irritable people with questionable English skills (very similar to the DMV, I imagine.)

This time the wait was short. It didn't make much difference though, because Princess Natalie was in a MOOD. I'm not sure why I'm always optimistic when I drag her somewhere like this. She seems to have a keen radar for detecting the times I am desperately hoping she will behave. Desperation is the worst cologne (to quote my friend Steph M), and she can smell it.

So Jim took Liam and went to one fingerprint station, while I took Natalie and went to one far away (lucky Jim...). Natalie sat on a chair to wait...but the chair had wheels and that is against the CIS rules, because of the danger of a child falling on their head. I understood that. Natalie did not. I bet before we left, the CIS people were wishing they had let her fall on her head.

So...the CIS lady (originally from Thailand, with a heavy accent, and large purple flowers in her ears...perhaps they were earrings, but they certainly appeared to be IN her ears) had to get prints from all 10...all 10...of my fingers, while a certain 2 yr old wailed and flailed "I want to siiiiiiiit!"

CIS Lady (to me): "You too tense! Must relax! T-E-N-S-I-O-N (apparently worried I didn't understand her accent, she actually spelled it). Prints don't work if too tense!!"

Me: "Oh. Sorry. I'll relax" (maybe in 18 yrs)

CIS Lady: "Where you husband??"

Me: "Up there getting his prints taken, with my son."

CIS Lady: "Hmmm. You got two? And getting another?"

Me: "Yes. Maybe I'm crazy."

CIS Lady: "You stay home? If you stay home, it's OK Give you something to do."

Me: "Yes. I need something to do."

CIS Lady: "My son born same year as you. He has 3 sons. He has a nanny from Thailand on visa for a year. His wife work."

Me: "Your son sounds wise." (Why do I have the feeling everything she says is going to make me feel bad at this point...)

Natalie: "I want to siiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy Mo-o-o-o-ommy!"

CIS Lady, shaking my entire arm back and forth, "You too tense!! Look at tension in your hand! Must relax!"


And so it went....Jim did finish first and rescued me so that CIS Lady could re-do several of my tense prints. I am really hoping that they all work so I don't have to go back. And with any luck, we won't be getting these re-done in another 15 months!

It's Not Over Till It's Over

Once again, I am reminded that when it comes to adding babies to a family, you just never know how it is going to go. Whether biological or adoptive, there is always uncertainty and fear that the process you thought you understood could derail. I have been waiting for the "other shoe to drop" with Russia, after the 180 degree change with the previously stable China adoption process. Week after week, our Russian Coordinator has sent out positive messages, continuing to predict 1-5 month referral times.
Then today...the shoe dropped. Our Coordinator let us know that the primary region in which our agency has been working has suspended adoptions. It was nothing planned - apparently it is in reaction to a case in Utah where an adoptive family is accused of killing a child adopted from Russia. Very sad, to be sure. There have been several stories like this recently, including the guy who killed his whole family, including 4 children adopted from Korea. I won't even go into my thoughts on all of that. I don't understand any of the stories, whether involving bio or adopted kids, with parents as murderers. I don't necessarily think that these cases will ever be prevented by more stringent adoption processes, however. If only it were that easy...
Our agency is still staying positive, and is hopeful to re-open work in a region in which they have some prior experience. They also are hoping to finish their re-accreditation process which will open a few more regions. Meanwhile, I can only guess what this will do to the wait time.
Certainly if I get extra time, I will be super-organized by the time it happens, right? Maybe now I'll have time to finish getting the kids rooms painted and get Natalie's baby scrapbook started (!). That is what I'm telling myself to stay positive, anyway.

Easter

I hope everyone had a happy Easter! Ours was very nice. We didn't do much, which was perfect. I sensed a little disappointment about the Easter Bunny's hiding abilities, but hey, our Easter Bunny does not DO outside hunts. Who knew that it would cause so much suspicion by using our own plastic eggs (no doubt all memorized far in advance) to hide candy? Liam asked a few too many questions about why the Bunny used eggs we already had in the house. Now he knows. Easter Bunny is a cheapo.

We tried our hand at a few other Easter festivities (aside from the religious one where I read a "real" Easter story to Liam and then had to answer a million questions about what exactly is a cross, how does one get nailed to it, and WHY would this happen...maybe I should have stuck with the bunny story this year).

For those who do not realize, I am the World's Worst Baker/Cook (although I can make a few dinners - making anything for fun has always been a huge downfall). Not kidding. I have burnt microwave popcorn, ruined a cake made from a box, created a torch out of a fondue pot, made Christmas cookies that were so bad no one even pretended like they wanted to take them home... You get the idea. Yet I still persist in trying. So I got one of those kits at Target to make a chocolate cookie Bunny House. The directions, of course, said to wait 15 minutes after constructing the walls/roof before decorating. The directions didn't account for a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old who thought we were ready to decorate immediately. The walls seemed firm, so we started. It looked great for about 5 minutes. Then Natalie screamed "I did it!" and threw her hands up in the air, bumping the house. To be fair, I think things were already sliding...but after the bump...both pieces of roof slid quickly. I tried to grab them and hold them on. That resulted in one of the pieces breaking in two, and me getting covered in icing. The kids were screaming - ooohhh noooooooo. So we made the house a "convertible" and Aunt Amy wisely suggested making a tiny little eviction notice for the door. I think it was still fun pushing candy into the drippy icing (too drippy for house making, darn you, Target!!).

We then made a sunflower cake out of Peeps and chocolate chips. Hallelujah, this is the first thing I've ever baked that looks pretty much like it should. Enough said. I won't jinx myself by talking about it any more. Unfortunately, Jim must have enough bad experiences with my baking under his belt (no pun intended) that he is too frightened to eat. Chocolate cake is supposedly his favorite dessert EVER, and yet the Peeps cake was hardly eaten...hmmm...