Defiance ...

Lucy can be a real challenge. Some days I am so tired that I am begging the minutes to go by for bedtime to come. There are days when she is defiant about every single thing. She hits, she spits, she threatens, she calls me "bad momma". NOTHING seems to sway her from this behavior once she starts rolling down that naughty track. I BEG someone to give me some easy advice on what I can do that is transferable to being out and about and that work especially work the nights when I have three other kids to watch.

I am tired tonight. I need this stage over with ... I need to quit worrying that this is going to carry over into a monsterous teenagehood.

Monday

Little queen swinging on Sunday

Makenna comes to visit on Sunday

A bike parade

Picnic: The Montage

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too tired

some of the crowd and the jumpers

a happy moment

running like the wind with the glove

3 beautiful girls

rolling down the hill

to blog much. the picnic was great but we're totally toast. here are a few photos until such a time as I recover

'twas the night before the picnic

Ready to go to the pool!

The cutest girl in the world

Leading Morgan to his room

All ready for swimming

a duet of smiles ...

and the party was just getting started .... Lucy and I crashed the dorm room pool party. We didn't have a room, decided to save money and drive the 8 miles but Mel and Morgan had a room (they live like 13 miles away) and we felt that we could join the pool party. We had a lot of fun even though the pool was about 30 degrees below zero. Lucy was the one asking to be done swimming (that's is a huge huge indicator of how cold that pool was). We swam, we snacked, we socialized and most cool of all ... we met Cathy and her family! We are totally ready to rejoin the group tomorrow morning and meet even more people.

And now it's Friday ...

swimming races

babysitting rules: controlled chaos

ok not always so controlled

I'd say Jacob is growing ... he's almost 1!

I think the week went by fast because I missed two days of work. Whatever the reason, I welcome Friday with big open arms and can't wait until "the bell rings" and I can zip outta work, grab my girl and start partying! We've babysat the boys for the past two nights. Last night was a night-night time challenge. 4 kids one adult two flights of stairs. Boys upstairs, Lucy downstairs and baby in arms. Everyone needed attention. Poor Jacob, having a hard time settling down would become roused every time I had to pop up to answer Lucy's cries or the boys random loud noises from upstairs. First Isaac, then Jacob then it's a debate over who fell asleep next. Come 9:30pm I was ready to put my feet up and have a couple brewskies. I settled for a caffeine free diet coke.

Lucy has started repeating what I say. It's pretty funny for now. I'll say "Lucy why are you so mad?" and she'll say "why are you so mad?" and I'll say "I am not mad, you seem mad" and she'll say "I am not mad, you seem mad" at which point I'll catch on that she's copying me (I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree) and she'll have stopped being mad and we'll play for awhile and move on.

Tonight for off for the pre-picnic swimming party and tomorrow is the picnic!!

The picnic!!!!

The summer Ethiopian community picnic is coming up! I am so excited to mix and mingle with folks I know, folks I kinda know and new folks. I'll be meeting Cathy and family in real life for the first time (if I didn't scare her with my semi-stalking phone call tonight). It's something to look forward to. Now I must get fever-girl to quit stoking the fever fires every few hours. Momma gets a sick day tomorrow (after having a vacation day Monday), whew what a LONG work-week!! Here's to hoping Lucy makes it through the night with no big fevers.

Camping with the boys 2008

For the third year in a row we camped with the boys and their mom. This year we ended up in the tent (last year we bypassed the state park due to storms and went to a cabin). We went to southeastern MN. This year we had a new addition to our fabulous fun moms and kids camping ... baby Jacob! What a blessing to have him in our lives. Jacob was a rock star, totally laid back about everything (except when we left him in the car while Deb and I manually held our rain fly over our tent during a surprise rain ... we eventually hooked that rainfly on permanently, lesson learned!). Isaac and Nathan were fun as always, totally getting into every aspect of camping (especially the parts involving ice cream, smores, hiking candy ...). Lucy was fiesty all day on Sunday but really became tranquil come Sunday night. Turns out she was running a fever. After shivering herself to sleep (poor thing) she woke up a little less hot but still really down and out. Lucy spent the day in the stroller or in my arms. After adding tylenol to the fever reducing mix she napped and woke up a little better. Tonight she regained some energy and the fever stayed down to a manageable level. Enjoy the ontage.

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Summer Saturday

We had such a sunny Saturday. Morgan and Mel came over and we spent the morning swimming. After a cat nap and some more swimming we all dried off and headed to the county fair out in the country. Lucy was in heaven with her cotton candy, the merry-go-round and pony ride. Tomorrow we leave to go camping with the boys.

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Friday night!!!

It's Friday night folks. Lucy's sleeping and I have Monday off so a long weekend in store!!!!! We had some friends over for pizza, swimming and ice cream tonight. We had a blast. Lucy played hard and went to bed late and I pray pray pray that for once this means she'll sleep past 6:15. I have to learn to roll with these early mornings and not resent them so much. Remind me of this at 6:15 tomorrow morning! Here's a short montage of our fun Friday night.

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A girl, her doll and a glove

she's still attached to the latex glove ...

The Story ...

Lucy goes to daycare Wednesday - Friday (she has other child-care Mon and Tues). When I dropped her off today they had me sign a permission slip for a field trip on Thursday. I signed it and asked her teacher if they would also need me to leave Lucy's carseat, she said no ... I left feeling confused so I called the director and he said the whole center is going to a park/picnic and they are taking a big yellow school bus. He told me how safe it was. I do know statistically that buses are involved in far fewer deaths then car accidents, and that most accidents happen with kids entering and exiting buses. I just think the stats were gathered from normal usage kids ages 5 and up. I couldn't couldn't couldn't send her to daycare tomorrow knowing she'd be all untethered riding down a freeway in a yellow bus, I mean one quick stop ... shoot. I am like the queen of following installation manuals for carseats, took a certification course and everything.

So grandma gets her tonight-tomorrow. Logically I know, just by driving her up there tonight and having her driven back tomorrow I've probably increased the possibility she'll get in a crash ... but she'll be in a carseat!

boring post, but someone had to write it.

A poll ...

Let's see if this works!

PollPub.com Vote

Would you let your 28 pound three year old ride on a school bus with no seatbelts or car seats?

yes
hell no



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The Dance

My girl is a free spirit and a dancer. She has to stop and dance whenever she hears music. It's the sweetest thing. Sometimes it makes getting from point A to point B a long long process. She barely notices the world around her as she moves to the music. Adorable. She's adorable. I love her. I think her favorite things in life right now are: dancing, swimming, people and her glove. Here's a little video of some spontaneous mall dancing. Walking by a restaurant that had music, Lucy felt compelled to grove.

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A Monday ...

Dancing with "the glove"

Big eyes at the farmer's market

Art with "the glove"

more art with "the glove"

Monday.



First I have to get it out there ... a good "blogosphere" friend lost her baby daughter on Saturday. Even here, in Minnesota the devastation of that loss is so intense I can barely even think straight. I can't imagine what baby Z's family is going through right now.



Having a child die just brings the other stuff in perspective. Like whining about Monday's, and having your 3-year-old daughter totally sass off every 5 seconds from morning til night ... I mean, it's hard to complain about that stuff when we are sitting here with the gift of life and health.



Also it reminds me to remember that infant mortality in Ethiopia is high and it's real and we in the Ethiopian adoption community have each been touched in some way by the statistics that we hear about every day.



We had a pretty good Monday, spent some time hanging in the pool after work, then headed to the Mall of America to get grandma her back massage, get auntie Jen her birthday gift and meet Uniqua the back-yard-again (plus ride the merry-go-round, eat dipping dots ice cream and run away from mom).



So about some of the photos. Lucy received one glove from her auntie Linda on Saturday, I mentioned it before ... a latex glove ... she has probably played with that glove more then any other toy in the history of her world.

Saturday

A little mobile lunch in the garage

Some driveway dancing

Some shadow dancing

Getting settled down for a little nap

Today Lucy and I spent the day at Mel's running the garage sale. Lucy was spicy in the morning, not wanting to listen, really wanting to run the show, she tempered after lunch and was pretty darn good the rest of the day.



After closing down the garage sale we drove like bats-out-of-heck to get to my cousin's graduation party.



Lucy was in heaven with two older (but still young enough to be fun) girls to play with. They tried to teach her how to do a cart wheel which she later called a "side ways wheel". Lucy had fun rolling around on the grass doing gymnastics with the girls. At the party she received the mother-of-all-gifts (not sure why I am using all the dashes today), a latex glove (you know, for food preparation - doctoring - diaper changing etc). Lucy wore that glove from about 6pm until I made her take it off at bedtime. She put the glove in a special place and I am 100% sure it will be the first thing she asks for in the morning. She is a doctor with that glove on, and gathered a lot of babies to "poke" with her doctor needle.



Please send sleepy thoughts, I would love for the first number on the clock tomorrow morning to start with a "7".

The past couple days

Have been exhausting! Lucy had an emergency sleepover at my mom and dads on Wednesday because Mel and I were having a combined garage sale and at about 5pm we realized we were so screwed. HOLY SCHMOLY that was a lot of work. Friday morning, I had no little Lucy rooster waking me up but still had the alarm going off at 5:55 am to finish the set up. After a long day Mel and I closed down the sale and Lucy and I headed home.

We went swimming with Diane, her husband and her boys. Finally got to meet the husband who seems very sweet and nice. Lucy got to swim with Wendim who she has been talking about fairly consistantly "Wendim come and we play with dirt poops" "Wendim come play at park?" "Go swimming with Wendim???" Swimming didn't last very long as it was cold and I was way way way beyond tired. Lucy barely complained when we got out of the pool. Surprised.

Bright and early today we headed to G Children's Hospital for another fitting for another spacer for Lucy's shoe. The spacer keeps Lucy's shoe from spinning around on her small foot. The staff at G's LOVE to see Lucy. She has always been bright, friendly and cooperative. Lucy usually finds a baby or two to play with in the waiting room. Today Lucy noticed a spanish speaking family while we were checking in. Later, the same family emerged from the assistive technology fitting room and Lucy says 'hi' the mom said "hi" and Lucy says "como estas?". Amazing, she totally remembered they were speaking Spanish and she used her Spanish words!

After day care (Lucy) and garage sale running we headed home for a quiet evening together. I hope that the lazy afternoon/evening doesn't translate into an uber early morning tomorrow.

The Hopper

So Lucy may have officially banished her resident ghost "do do" from our house only to replace it with "the hopper". "Do do" has followed Lucy since the early days, like when she first learned to talk which is why I think it was called "do do". "Do do" was pretty scary, the stuff of bad dreams and she'd see him almost everywhere around the house. I actually got a little freaked a couple times when she'd gasp and say (in a whisper) "momma, do do is right there" pointing to the ceiling or her dresser or a spot in the garage.

This morning the first words out of her mouth were "momma, the hopper bit me on the tummy", "the hopper have teeth" and on and on she went, even telling both of the cats about the incident.

She was very serious about "the hopper" but was unable to provide a description except that "it have teeth and it goes growl".

The morning after ...

Morgan was the only one who slept last night ... Lucy woke up at 5:15, and again at 6:15. I was up at 5:15 (and basically the rest of the night). Morgan woke up at 7, which I guess is early for him. He did great, gave Lucy a big hug first thing. Had a good breakfast, did a little dancing, had a little fight with Lucy and now it's time for me to go to work. Grandma K is on child-care this morning ... good luck! I hope grandpa gets here soon!

Tonight I have two ...

Kids. Mel took the huge gigantic leap of leaving her son for his first night away from mom, kissed him goodbye and went home for a giant sleep fest (and I imagine resting her arms and back, the boy is heavy). After and hour long rocking to sleep festival (which at least I know is normal for him) we have acheived peace in the casa de toddlers. I'll report tomorrow how the entire night went. I dont' think Morgan will appreciate me being the one to respond should he have any middle of the night needs, lets hope he just sleeps until morning and wakes with the refreshing light of day. I did get an opportunity to stare at his beautiful face for an hour as we rocked tonight. I think he has the most perfect lips on earth, the beautiful little bow on the upper lip and that perfect dimple under his nose. He handled the going to bed well ... at least he's at his home away from home on his first night away from his mom.

Summery Sunday

We wrapped up the weekend in a watery way. Lucy's last Sunday swim-class was our first order-of-business. After swim class we came home and quickly Jacob proofed our house. Soon Jacob arrived and after that Lucy, Jacob and I picked up Nathan from a birthday party and headed home to play in the sun. The kids had a great time in the swimming pool. We were all tired by the end of this wonderful day!

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