No Words Necessary

OK, I have a hard time with no words. Just one question - what is that TAIL doing in this nice picture??

Best tea party picture EVER.

Christmas Miracles

Our Christmas miracles (above).

It was a fabulous year for miracles, all around. But maybe I'll save that for my 2009 Recap post. For now, here are some of the Christmas-specific miracles.

1. Christmas snow! The first actual Christmas snow since weather has been recorded around here. It must have been magic. The day before, it was 70 degrees.

2. Christmas dinner was still served. Had we known about the weather forecast, perhaps we wouldn't have planned for Jim to grill steak and lobster tails outside....then again, it was kind of fun to watch him out there (with a flashlight in the dark, no less) with snow swirling around his head and ice forming on his steak plate. He was quite a trooper, and dinner was excellent!

3. I finished my Christmas drink. It was a Bloody Mary, and tasted really good. Jim always gives me a hard time because he mixes or pours me drinks and I never finish them. Not that I don't want to...but I get so sidetracked by...three other things. I don't think I finished the wine with dinner, but the Bloody Mary I managed to suck down pretty quickly. It helps that Grandma and Grandpa are here to run interference with the "three other things".

4. Christmas morning was not too early. We got to sleep in until a decent time. Liam was up watching tv quietly until others woke up. Really, what kid does this?? He saw the presents, and then went off to be quiet until we woke. He didn't seem to understand why I thought it was unusual.

5. Owen was not too crazy. I feared we'd have off the wall craziness, with all the people, excitement, gift opening and schedule changing. But he was no crazier than usual. So thankful for this! And to run off energy, the Jumpolene (in the picture) worked so well.

6. And of course, our big miracle was having Owen here this year. We weren't wondering where he was and how he was being treated, or what he was doing. He was here, and loving Christmas with his family. Truly our Christmas miracle.

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas Break

Should I be worried that Liam keeps telling me how sad he is that school is out for Christmas break? All week, whenever I announced how many more days until Break he would mutter something like, "Oh no! Not yet! I don't want school to end." I get that. Really, I do. I was like that myself most times. But it's a break for Christmas - surely there is some excitement about that?! I hope his holiday ends up exceeding his apparently low expectations. And don't get me wrong - I am a little worried about it myself. I hope I don't find myself counting the days until school starts up again and we get back to a familiar routine. The Little Man seems to be a perfect mirror for any emotions or stress in the family, and I'm thinking that there must be more holiday stress around here than I realized. He's a little edgy lately. (Example: incessantly barking like a dog recently...hope that goes away soon.)

But back to Liam. I have been feeling bad that I don't get as many pictures of him (he's in school, after all) or blog about him these days. He is our glue around here though. He told me out of the blue the other day, when I was right in the middle of getting myself worked into a snit about something, that he had a plan for the family. The plan involved each one of us going to sit in the family room every day to look at the star on top of the tree and think about baby Jesus and Christmas. sigh...he knew just how to let all the air out of my snit.

For his teacher's Christmas present, Liam painted a Cardinals picture. She is a St. Louis Cardinals fan, and Liam's baseball team is the Cardinals. I pulled up a picture of the Cardinals logo for him to look at, and he painted from that. Later, Jim looked at it and told me the logo I showed him was actually the Arizona Cardinals football logo and not the St. Louis Cardinals baseball logo. Ooops- I never claimed to be a sports fan. But Liam did such a great job with it, all by himself. I was so impressed. And his teacher said it almost made her cry when she saw it. awwww I took a photo of his painting and used it to make a little logo on a customized notepad that says "From The Desk of" and his teacher's name. I did the same for Natalie's teachers with her art last year (and this year), and it seemed to be a big hit. I am truly the make-a-memento-with-a-photo Queen these days. Someday it will get old and no one will want my photo gifts anymore - then what will I do?

For the notepad I did crop the picture so the Go Carbinals misspelling wasn't showing, although that did add a quirky kind of charm. We still have lingering "b" and "d" issues, even though his reading has been improving by leaps and bounds.

Right now, his favorite subject is Math. He regularly comes home and wants to write out his own math problems. Sometimes word problems, sometimes just a sheet of addition, subtraction, and multiplication equations. Again, should I worry? The multiplication is very basic stuff, but he learned it from Jim one day, and he (Liam) just loves the concept of it. Jim thinks Math is the best thing ever, and I think his enthusiasm has rubbed off on Liam. I gave Liam a calculator the other day and you would have thought I'd given him the keys to the Forbidden Kingdom. He couldn't get over it. He just sat and punched in equations to see what the answer was.

OK, so that is my Liam fix for the day. It wasn't the greatest post, and there are a lot of other cute Liam stories that I can't remember right at the moment, so this will have to do. And fingers crossed that his Break isn't all that bad!

New Decorations

We have some new additions to our tree this year. The first I found on an adoption-related website. The two matryoshka doll ornaments I found at World Market - made in China (true). No, we didn't buy nearly enough authentic Russian stuff while we were there. Even so, Jim thinks we have way too many matryoshka dolls. We have the Novokuznetsk version, with scenes from the city painted on it. Then there is the standard one that looks similar to the ornaments above, that we bought in Moscow (though to be honest I would not be surprised if it was also made in China...). Then we have a Nutcracker version, and a Santa version, and a cat version that Grandma Helen gave us years before we even knew we were going to Russia. Matryoshka dolls everywhere.

And THIS is my find of the year, for Owen's stocking. Also from World Market - it was the only one in a bin full of little push toys. (Hard to tell the size in the picture, but it's only a couple inches long). Owen and I were shopping, and when I saw this, I was shocked. I knew this horse! I had looked at this horse 3 times a day from Nov 24 2008 until, oh, about June 28th, 2009. Obviously, Jim did not, because he asked "Why should I recognize that horse??" I ended up Googling "yellow bouncy horse" and discovered that it is called a Rody horse, and must be fairly popular in Europe. I thought it was just a random, odd orphanage toy. Go figure.

Not So Fearless After All

We recently had our first Post-Placement visit from our Homestudy Agency. Russia requires these "updates" to see how the child is doing in their new home, at 6 months, 1 year, 2 year, and 3 years. It is hard to believe that it has almost been 6 months now that Owen has been home. The visit went fine, and I think the caseworker was pleased with how well he has adjusted.

One thing that they ask about is attachment, of course, and they ask questions to see if there are any red flags. For example, it can be an issue if the child "indiscriminately attaches" to anyone and everyone. I told her I thought Owen was not shy, and was pretty friendly, but I didn't necessarily think he would just go off with anyone. But I have to admit, I wasn't sure about that one. Everytime we go to the mall, and he sees Santa, for instance, he waves like crazy and wants nothing more than to run after him. This is far different from my other two, who have never, NEVER wanted to get close to Santa. Even now. So, while it was cute, I was wondering a little whether it was a bad sign.

I finally decided to take Owen (when the other 2 were at school) and get his picture taken with the Big Guy. I thought it would be cute to include in Christmas cards, since we haven't taken him in for a formal photo session yet (sounds like soooo much work to take all 3 in and try to get them sitting and happy at one time). Well...let me tell you. It is one thing to wave and say Hello to Santa, and it is an entirely other thing to sit on his lap and not be safe in Mommy's arms. So...I'm not upset that he didn't smile for the picture. This was the split second before he burst into terrible sobs. It actually made me feel kind of good that he didn't want to go off with the man and wave Goodbye to me. And once he was back in my arms, he cheered right up again and waved Goodybe to Santa.

I didn't buy many of these shots, but it's good for a first Christmas home memory. And I am secretly happy to know that he is not totally fearless. I think that is a good thing.

Love Those Cupcakes

OK, so I know the birthday celebration is over, but here I am, posting a picture of the cupcakes I made for Owen. Mostly, I'm posting to just annoy Jim, because he asked me how long I was going to keep talking about those cupcakes, and that I really needed to just get over myself. But come ON - those were too darn cute.

This, my friends, is the pinnacle of my baking career, even topping the Peep sunflower cake for Easter in terms of absolute cuteness.

And this is it. I'm done. I can do no cuter. So now, I have to convince all of my children that they want Elmo cupcakes from now until they turn 18 (at which time I will let them pick out their own cake from the dessert menu of a fine dining establishment - with no chicken nuggets on the menu- in which we will undoubtedly be eating by then...right?...please tell me that this is true). OK, they can either have Elmo, or the Peep cake. I'm flexible.

Besides just annoying my husband, there is another point to posting the picture of my Elmo masterpiece. It is kind of like in that movie As Good As It Gets, where Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt "You make me want to be a better man." even though we all know he's always going to be a nasty old curmudgeon.

That is the way I feel about baking for my kids. They make me want to be a better cook. A better mom. A better person. And yes, we all know I am never going to be Martha Stewart or even a good cook. But darn it, if they don't make me want to be, whether I enjoy it or not. They make me look wistfully at sewing machines in Hobby Lobby, even though I don't have the patience (or talent) to sew on a button. They make me want to arrange playdates, even though I'm bordering on antisocial. They make me want to spend evenings cutting and sorting math problems for a class full of six year olds who will never appreciate how long it takes. They make me want to turn my life upside down and make 3 trips halfway across the world to bring them home.

I love how they can make me want to do so many things I never thought I would want to do. That is the beauty...the Elmo is just the symbol.

Christmas Ham

and Cheese...

Not So Sure-Footed

OK, so I'm not so keen on the cute, Winter, footy-pajamas right now. They do look cute, of course. And kind of Christmas-y. But let me paint a picture (or two) for you... First, there is the middle-of-the-night bathroom run for Natalie. You know the one. It starts as a whine and moves into a moaning cry, and then you realize that she must have to go but she can't wake herself up enough to walk to the bathroom. So you trudge up the steps and ask her if she has to go, and she nods yes, with her eyes closed. And so you walk her to the bathroom, then realize that in footy pjs you have to actually unzip them all the way, and pull them entirely down around her ankles in order for her to go, and it is chilly at night, and so the moaning and crying never stop because now she's freezing cold AND has to go. Then when she is finally finished, the pjs have slipped entirely off and now the feet are somehow turned inside out, and so she is on the floor, still crying, while you struggle to right the feet and then you get the wrong footy on the wrong foot and have to start over. You get the idea... I can't even begin to imagine how she could have managed this herself in the middle of the night since I could not do it.

Then, let me paint another picture. One of a smaller boy...who is quite pleased with the fact that zippers are so easy and....zippy. Picture a sunny morning, roused by the call of the young boy's giggles. A lightness in your step because the boy sounds so darn happy this morning. Opening the door to find the boy, quite happy, with a grin from ear to ear. Also urine from head to toe, and the footy pjs and the diaper in the corner of the crip...on top of dripping wet sheets and blankets.

No more footy pajamas. For anyone.