New

New haircut.

New smile (one less tooth on top - the first that didn't have to be pulled by the dentist! After months of dangling it just dropped out, thank God. I was tired of watching it dangle.)

New pace. (Liam has always had a funny kind of run for baseball. At home playing with siblings he can run fast, but running the bases he would seem to be running under a wet blanket. Recently he has been running hard. Woo-hoo, run Liam run!)

New attitude...well, maybe a little bit. I think my boy is getting older. boo No, his attitude isn't terrible, but I have heard a little snarkiness here and there. And then I have to fix him with the evil eye and say "I know you aren't giving me attitude." and he will sigh and try unsuccessfully to hold onto the attitude. It must be hard being the "sweet one" who can't shake that image. But no way am I going to let him stop being sweet. Some days that is all that keeps me going.

Random Things

Oh, what a sweet face that is!
In the second photo Owen is playing hide and seek with his shirt. I think that game has a special place in his heart. It was something they played at the orphanage, and instead of saying Peek A Boo like we would, they would say Coo-Coo. He stills says Coo-Coo, and it still can make him laugh so hard. I remember right after he came home I took him to the lab to get soooooo many vials of blood drawn to check his vaccinations and everything else under the sun. There were so many tests that the lab lady couldn't believe the orders were all for him. He cried a bit, but since it was so early on he didn't cry much (still in the "no reason to cry when something hurts because I don't realize I might be comforted stage). Still, he wasn't happy. But Liam and Natalie were with me and they hid around the exam room door and would pop their heads around the side of the door frame with their hands over their eyes and then say Coo-Coo and open their hands. Every single time it made him laugh. For like, 20 minutes of blood being drawn. He laughed every single time. He could not help himself. It was almost a hysterical laughter at that point in time. Cry, cry, cry, COO-COO, HA HA HA, cry, cry, cry. He still thinks it's funny, even when I'm sitting right across from him at the table. He'll cover his own eyes and yell "Where's Owen? Coo-coo!! Here he is!" like it is grand humor. Love it.

On another note, preschool seems to be going well. I've only talked to his teacher once, but I'll try to follow up with her again this week just for a check-in. No notes in the folder is a good thing though. I am praying that any lack of impulse control around other kids can be managed. And maybe, just maybe, that adorable little face will soften the teacher's heart and she can see the sweet boy that I see. He really isn't all that aggressive. But he doesn't shy away from getting into a tussle over toys or anything he considers to be his property, which can be anything he's touched. :-) Typical 2 yr old stuff, yes, probably.

In other ways, maybe not entirely typical. We've been having issues with hitting at home, especially Owen hitting me when I try to pick him up to take him to nap or get him to stop something he's doing. I think sudden transitions are hard. And sometimes I don't have the patience for long transitions... Also, I know I need to work on my "patient, calm and happy" demeanor, because if he senses anger or impatience I think it stirs in him a fear that can manifest itself in aggression. Looking back over his time with us, I think I can say pretty definitely that his first reaction to fear is fight mode (you know how they talk about the flight or fight instinct- well he is mostly a fighter). One example being the fact that he hunted the cat down with anything hard or club-like for about 3 months after coming home. If I'm afraid of you, I will beat you before you hurt me, cat...

Still, we have been having our share of sweet moments, especially as he is talking more and more, and in something more akin to sentences. He loves to pretend to be things right now (today alone, he told me at various times that he was Spiderman, a monkey, and a puppy), and acts them out quite well. No matter what he is, he will call it a "baby" and me the Mommy. Like tonight he told me he was a Puppy Baby and I am the Puppy Mommy. I always play along, and the Puppy Mommy or Monkey Mommy or yes, even the Spidey Mommy is always taking care of the baby. He does love that. And I love hearing him call out as I close his bedroom door, "Goodnight Monkey Mommy!"

Soccer Girl

So we decided to add a sport to the mix, since we didn't feel quite busy enough in the evenings. I'm really looking forward to when Owen is begging to play 3 sports at a time (not). We're thinking soccer may be good for Natalie, because of the whole "team sport" thing. Gymnastics is fine, but she is off in her own little world there half the time, and it's not really a team thing or a goal-scoring thing. So this is a little different for her. The thing with Natalie is - she has a competitive streak, and she can run fast (I planted the idea in her head at one point that she could someday run faster than Liam, and this really seems to motivate her), and she doesn't mind getting in the mix of a group of chaotic, shin-kicking kids. When.She.Wants.To. Then, wa-la, she will Not.Want.To. And it's over. So maybe this will be good for her, and we can try to get her to Want to help her team out for the entire game. We'll see. I can't complain because the first game went far better than Jim and I had predicted. (And yes, some amount of bribery was used...) We also somehow managed to get over the huge hump of "I want to wear a pink jersey. I do not want to wear a blue jersey. I only like pink. Pink is for girls. Blue is for boys." Thus, the pink shoes and pink ball. A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.

Included above is a picture of her cheerleaders on the sidelines. Oh wait, one of them is playing Nintendo instead of watching. Oh well. At least he wasn't complaining. The other one was actually cheering Go Go GO NATALIE!! If nothing else, he can have a future career as one of the announcers at soccer games who yell GOOOOAAAAAALLLLL!!!! The boy's got a set of lungs.

School, school, school!!!

One would think I'd have more time to blog now that school has begun. I'm not sure why it doesn't work that way. Maybe because Week One, when only Liam was in school, I had to deal with two other very cranky kids trying to adjust to the new sleep schedule (yes, I had grand ideas of phasing it in slowly, but you know how that works). Then Week Two, when the other two started preschool and I had a total of 5 hours (count them - 5!! - or maybe closer to 4 after drive time...) a week of time without children I spent most of that time sitting, staring a wall and letting the world pass me by. I got seriously nothing done in my "free" time. But I know that is the way it works that first week. I think the first day Owen was at school I spent about an hour and a half of my two hours fretting, feeling lonely and emotional, wondering what he was doing, and having to stop myself from circling the building and looking for him darting out the door. He's so fast...I do worry that he'll slip from the classroom when a back is turned and be out the door before anyone realizes. That could happen at home too, I suppose, but that's why we have an alarm that makes a beep-beep everytime a door is opened. It's to keep little people in more than to keep bad people out.

So the good news is that every child loves school so far. Liam is very happy with his teacher. Perhaps a little worried that if they don't get their school work done on time this year then they must go to Study Hall instead of Recess to finish it. Thinking back to last year's "pile of unfinished work" that we saw when we visited during the Open House... Hopefully the thought of Study Hall will give him a boost of speed.

Natalie has an old friend in her class, and has made a new friend already. She also surprised me at dinner this week when she colored blue over the word "blue," red over the word "red," and pink over the word "pink" on a menu. When I asked her how she knew what the words said she told me "I whispered it to myself." So she is starting to sound words out already. How is that for a week of preschool? I knew she would start fast once she was doing that at school. At home, she has resisted sounding things out with me because it seems like I'm trying to get her to do work of all things.

And Owen. Oh, I was worried about him. But he did wonderfully. He really seemed to understand the whole process. The picking up, and the dropping off, and the playground and the snack. He did spend a year watching me drop off and pick up Natalie, and we have talked a lot about what would happen at preschool. He was SOOOO excited about going, and carrying his backpack, and playing with the cars in his class. So far, so good. He has been talking so much lately, and after school he spent quite a while trying to tell me about everything he did. Imagine that - a boy who might tell me what he does at school! Be still my heart. I have to admit, there was probably a small part of my heart that ached, wanting him to miss me a little bit more. But he was very excited to see me and hugged me so tightly when I picked him up, that I think I couldn't ask for anything more. I know he loves being a big kid just like his siblings. And I'm sure that I will start to use my 5...or 4.5...hours more wisely after the initial shock has worn off. School, school, yay for school!