Raising Lucy

Love her

2012-02-05T22:12:00.000-06:00

after seeing some show, or learning something about scuba diving and undersea adventures Lucy asked her ever faithful and obliging grandpa for some scuba gear (she actually asked for two sets, one for her and one for Morgan). Grandpa came half way through with a lovely wet suit for Lucy (along with a snorkel and mask). Wet suit appreciated during swimming lessons in January!

and seriously, aside from a huge lottery win, what more could a mother ever ask or hope for? I hope you can all read this section of her report card. I am sure the academic stuff will come in its own time but the empathy? the honesty? let's all give a round of applause for my straight A(wesome) Lucille!!!!

bragging done.
will probably whine tomorrow.

RIP Kris Allison

2012-02-04T21:55:00.000-06:00

Tonight we mourned the loss of our beloved blue fish Kris Allison. She/he lived for a long long time. Longer then I ever imagined a fish would ever live. The death was super traumatic for both Lucy and I as we were present to witness the fish's dying swim. Ugh. Lucy took it really hard. She was devestated and cried harder then I've ever heard her cry, her whole body fighting the sadness.

Never check on pets right before bedtime. Never.

on Friday nights

2012-02-03T21:02:00.000-06:00

On Friday nights I am burnt out beyond belief. Toasty crispy done.
Short but sweet blog post.
Our new nutrition makeover needs a bit of tweaking (ie, we are in a rut and need to add some more variety and nutrition) BUT it is still working its wonderful magic.

1. Lucy has many many days at school with no time outs.
2. when Lucy does get a time out she gets really upset because she's worked so hard to avoid it
3. Lucy is SO proud of herself.
4. She is finally grasping reading and it's so amazing to see her brain clicking.

I am on a crusade now to cut dairy out of most kid's lives.
With that being said, I really really could go for some cheese and a malt right now.

adios amigos.

The Power of Facebook (or the amazing village I am a part of)

2012-02-02T21:15:00.000-06:00

So earlier this week this mama bear got all riled up. Lucy has been having some issues on the school bus. She is on the bus for one hour every morning from daycare to school. I've always felt bad about her having such a long ride before a long day of school. A couple weeks ago Lucy got into trouble for spitting on the bus. The details from Lucy are fuzzy, although normally Lucy will tell the truth even if the truth doesn't exactly 'set her free'. All I know is that both Lucy and the staff at her school reported that the driver was really mean about the incident and unnecessarily rough with Lucy.

So my radar went off when Lucy asked me rather randomly if I drooled when I slept. "Why do you ask Lucy?" Her eyes dropped and tears welled up in her eyes "I fell asleep on the bus today and I drooled and I think the driver is mad at me that I spit". During this conversation she also let it out that some of the kids (k-8th grade) on the bus are mean to her. The next morning during drop off some kid makes a remark about Lucy being there, my strong sassy girl immediately shrunk back against a wall and those tears started welling up again. UGH.

at 7:26 that morning I posted this: "Does anyone know anyone in s.Minneapolis that can provide before school childcare.from 7:45 till around 930ish? Lucy is struggling with an hour long bus ride and i'm struggling with her sadness" on my facebook page.

and at 9:57 the same morning I got this reply "Where do you live Stacy? Believe it or not my kiddos don't start until 9:40 so it might work..." um. thanks Heather! Lucy now will spend her two before school hours at a home with a family I know and respect.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

and because I've been a photo taking slacker lately, here is an oldie but goodie. Lucy and her future husband Wendim.

OK OK

2012-02-01T22:54:00.000-06:00

I was thinking it, but Mama Papaya did it and if she can do it so can I. Blogging starts again now. Thoughtful blogging starts tomorrow. It's almost 11pm and I am rip roaring tired. I will leave you with a photo.

or two

She is prepping for a career with the roller derby.

See you tomorrow.

It's a brand new year ..

2012-01-07T08:54:00.000-06:00

2012 promises to be a year of transformations. New job for me (hopefully), new acheivements for Lucy (for sure). I am excited for this tangible shift of time/date because it shifts my mind and attitude giving me the kick I need to make some changes. We ushed out 2011 with a small gathering of friends. It was a fun night, the kids played hard!

We didn't do our traditional sled ride to Jakeenos because there was no snow. Honestly I am happy about the no snow thing. It's been a load off my mind to not have shoveling and the yard is clean of dog waste. Every day that goes by is one less mess in our spring poop soup. Nice

We started 2010 by taking a vacation to Madison to visit Blueberry and his family.

LOVED our time there. Lucy just got done looking at these photos, exclaiming how cute Blueberry is and how she woudl really like to go back to Madison and sleep there for three nights next time. She doesnt' have to twist my arm.

We got the kids outside and moving while in Madison. Important.

Went to an open gym and Lucy jumped jumped jumped on the trampoline.

she figured out all sorts of ways to move her body.

Lucy has been doing great on our new diet regime. It's really not a regime. As time progressed with her in public school it was getting more and more evident that Lucy might need a little (lot) of help in order to suceed in traditional education. Her pediatrician started talking about adhd. I was thinking it before the pediatrician stated it. Lucy's moods were all over the place and learning was hard.

I hope she doesn't hate me one day for putting this out in cyberspace.

I decided to try shifting her diet a little before doing anything more chemical.

Took her off of dairy.

Added more protein into her day.

Added Omega 3's at night.

Added vitamin/mineral supplement.

with the dairy exclusion came a forced foray into more whole foods, less packaged foods.

About 2 (give or take) months into this now and big big changes have happened.

She is learning faster.

She is more focused.

She can sit through a meal.

She is getting into less trouble at school.

see??? 2012, big changes.

She prefers HER world thank you...

2011-12-06T20:31:00.000-06:00

In Lucy's world she spends her evenings shopping a sensory catalog for classroom supplies for her own class (you know, the one SHE teaches). In her world she makes appointments for sick dogs and is able to provide some diagnostic services over the telephone. In Lucy's world she has (and she has stuck by this claim for 2 years now) flown on Christmas Eve, just a little bit, just floating above the carpet a little as she was laying there (no one saw her but she did it). In her beautiful world, Jack Frost is Frosty the Snowman and she KNOWS him and at times helps him with his handiwork. She has checklists of kids who need time-outs, she has intake forms for new toddlers for my room (not REAL intake forms with any identifying client information mind you). No wonder it sucks so bad for her sometimes when all her grown-ups expect her to live in OUR world. I'd fight it too little girl (maybe not quite as fiercely)

Hi!! We are still here ...

2011-12-04T20:21:00.000-06:00

So much has happened and at the same time so much is the same. Lucy was batman for Halloween.

Lucy's 1st grade year is less dramatic then kindergarten but it's not without its challenges and heartbreaks. Live is challenging. We live it the best we can but it's challenging, exhausting and stressful to live in a world created for more traditional personalities.

Lucy's auntie Jen, the love of her life and our housemate for the past 6 years up and moved to St. Louis. Her job transferred her there. Oh the sad sad sobbing that took place when we broke the news to Lucy. It was heartbreaking. Lucy crying, auntie Jen crying ... I wen't with Jen when she moved to make sure she unpacked and left Lucy with grandma. Lucy and her mama were separated by states for the first time in six years. I was pretty anxious. Lucy handled it pretty well.

FINALLY Lucy was picked as a volunteer at the zoo. She was so proud. She held the food dish and these birds flew over to her and landed there. Lucy held so still.

About a week after I returned from St Louis Lucy had a breakdown. She missed Jen so much. Zeppelin bolted over to the sofa and proceeded to curl up next to Lucy as I rubbed her back. Zeppy stayed with her until I brought her to bed over an hour later. He's a devoted dog for sure.

Lucy has managed to hang on to her keen sense of style.

We started an elimination diet. Taking out dairy and adding in lots of protein plus supplements to see if we can help Lucy's brain help her body to settle down a little bit. We're only a week into the plan. We will definately let you know how it goes.

Lucy helped to make Lefse

In her excitement of actually seeing Santa Lucy totally forgot to ask the two questions she had planned:

1. Can she ever visit the North Pole and

2. How big are elf's

Oh well she says, we'll just write him a letter and ask.

See you soon!

outdoors

2011-10-30T18:58:00.000-06:00

if Lucy hasn't spent adequate amounts of time outside

in fresh air

getting lots of sun

and exercise.

she become quite unpleasant.

and obnoxious.

and these days if we stick to our back yard.

she just claims she's too cold and wants to go

back inside after a few short minutes.

so when we have an unscheduled stretch of time.

and i am not too tired.

we like to take mini road trips out to the country.

enjoy county parks.

and be in a place where she can gets

loads of good exercise

and oodles of fresh air.

i get energized

and she settles down.

it's a win win.

I fear winter.

Six Years

2011-10-23T15:09:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's been six years since that life changing day when I walked into the baby room at the care center and picked my baby up out of that crib.

seems like every year, every day my heart grows a little to accommodate the intensity of my love for this daughter of mine.

Today as I was telling her about our famiversary (which is actually tomorrow), I said tomorrow is October 24th and on October 24th six years ago it was the day I walked into your room in the orphanage and picked you up for the very first time" ... Lucy says "ohhhh momma, you are so lucky" yup.

It's always fun to recount what adoption was like in Ethiopia in 2005 (for me anyways). In 2005, my daughter was a waiting child. Yes, it's true for reasons that may not lead to her being 'special needs' today, she was waiting then ... a 2 month old girl. The staff at my agency was just waiting for me to finish my dossier because Lucy was waiting for someone who checked that magic box "I would be willing to parent a child with..." and that one magical 'yes' was what matched me with Lucy.

I arrived on the 23rd of October late at night, the next morning I walked down the steps of the 'guest house' into the orphanage and my child was placed in my arms, 30 minutes later I carried her back up the steps and from that moment I was responsible for her care.

Right now that baby is waiting for me to come help her brush the Pretty Ponies hair out. I must go.

The Wedding of the Decade!!!

2011-10-16T09:38:00.000-06:00

My cousin Scott (ironically not really pictured in this post) got married yesterday to the nicest, smiliest woman in all of Minnesota. His mom calls it a miracle. I call it smart, he might have waited over 40 years for this moment but he waited for the RIGHT woman and that is no miracle, that is some real Anderson smarts right there.

Lucy was the flower girl extraordinary. She alleviated all of my fears and anxieties by NOT trying to overshadow the show with her wonderful, strong, overwhelming self. Oh I fell deeper in love with her yesterday.

She was exhausted from a sucky nights sleep the night before but she held her stuff together all the live long day, even in those moments when it was just her and I and I expected her to "release her demons" she did not.

look at these handsome boys. I love photo oh so very much. See Sam in front? Handsome little mini-Mike, or is it a mini-manly-Terri? Hard to tell. He's sure cute though.

There's my darling again. Glad the photos were outside in her element. I think this saved the day.

Look at those fall shadows. This photo is pretty funny if you look carefully at each of the kids.

and look at the beautiful ladies.

Lucy gazing at the first dance.

and pooped out before she could get her groove totally on.

Wonderful wonderful wedding.

Love you Scott and Karin.

Yo

2011-09-28T20:50:00.000-06:00

How are you?

We are fine. It seems like when things get exhausting the blog is the first thing neglected. Far better to neglect the blog then the kid, dog, cat, house etc but still I hate neglecting the blog. With fall upon us and
school hitting us hard we find ourselves sticking close to home Monday - Friday. It gets a little lonely for both of us but cramming in errands, playdates or out of the neighborhood activities gets overwhelming really fast.

Lucy is still sporting much better behaviors in first grade, working hard and having some fun too.
Currently she is all about space aliens. Are they real? Could they be real? Are they in our attic? What would happen if ... She is also into ghosts. Seeing them, hearing them, getting woke up at night because of them, telling me that they like to hang out by my bed (spooky stuff).

Yesterday I amazed her when I confirmed that yes, real cops wear panties under their uniforms. I love being able to amaze her with my wealth of unproven information.

Hope to see you all again very soon.

First Week of First Grade (fwfg)

2011-09-02T15:03:00.000-06:00

Well I haven't picked her up yet today (Friday) but I can report that Monday - Thursday went good for Lucy at school. I have hope. I swear to whoever that if the blog-effect ruins this in any way, you will NOT be hearing from me regarding any positive school news any more.

At home things are a little more, shall we say, fireworky. Yeah. I get all the stuff that she so diligently holds inside of her during the school day and AIN'T THAT WHAT MOM'S ARE FOR??!! I can handle it.

I can't however handle her 6am wake up calls very well, so I could use a little magic morning sleeping dust please. 6:40 is fine.

First Day of First Grade (FDFG)

2011-08-29T07:14:00.000-06:00

First Grader

2011-08-28T06:43:00.000-06:00

We've been kicking back and enjoying these last lazy (sort of) days of summer.

Ahhh summer. Never really appreciated it much until Lucy started school.

Even though my days dont change much (a girl's gotta work), knowing that Lucy

is happy and having a mental break from the hard work that is school relaxes me and

lets me have a mini-mental vacation. Lucy is double happy, spending her days at art camp or with grandma and her weekends/vacations rocking out doing things that she loves like camping.

Learing to ride a two-wheeler. She still needs work on that one.

cracking me up on the bus to the state fair

having her very very own stick of cotton candy

the butterfly house! lucy loves it, i hate it

going on spinning dropping rides

and visiting with President Obama

yup today is our last day of summer vacation and

we are both feeling the stress of what 1st grade will bring.

I'm hoping she finds her joy in school and learning.

Wish us luck please.

Curly Hair Care

2011-08-07T07:14:00.000-06:00

oh curly hair care. i've learned so much. I can keep her hair (mostly) healthy even when

she spends time almost every day in a chlorinated pool.

I can do styles that last (and look decent) for a week or two.

I can spend lots of money on product, but when I am out

of product and money I know how to use coconut oil and olive oil

scented with a few drops of essential oils.

when i do her hair, we can get by with a few tears and screams.

when i try to bring her in it's drama city and more tears then

the hair people are comfortable with.

I sure wish I could help her tenderheadedness ease up a bit.

I hid her broken crocs one night

2011-08-03T13:51:00.000-06:00

the next morning I got this voice mail from her (and her babysitter). She had her sneakers on already FYI ...

"momma, I don't know where they are. Like, where are they? I put them somewhere like they're just lost liek bye! great! it's like there it is, right? but where my croc's are, I don't even see them like I think Zeppelin at them. Yeah, it's like any time my shoes are here now wehre could they be. If i didn't do anything. I tidn't throw them around the house so um I don't know wehre they are. but you can tell me where my crocs are ok? this is a text message. love you mom, bye.

Hello there

2011-08-02T20:26:00.000-06:00

it's been so long since I've posted. It's sad really. This blog is mostly intended to be a record of sorts of Lucy's childhood. I haven't even broke out the camera since mid July. I blame this on our horribly hot summer. All we do is swim and swimming + the camera do not equal success!

here's a photo from vacation in July. Doesn't Lucy look like a 20 year old? Dang.

Despite the fact that summer vacation hasn't really been a vacation at all (aside from that week in July) we've had lots of summer fun. Swimming in the backyard or at the Y almost every day. Her hair is wrecked but she's getting so strong and staying happy (which means I am mostly sane).

Seeing the complete difference in Lucy's mood/affect/aura since she finished Kindergarten makes me sad. It was a hard year for her but during the year, I didn't really notice how it was impacting her whole core. It was when she stepped out of there, the very next day, her whole self was more relaxed and more happy. Ugh. It's heartbreaking really. I just want school to be fun for her, I want her to love learning. Everything about it is so hard. The social part, the academic part. I do hope that 1st grade is better for her.

We still have the month of August to look forward to. One week of staycation coming our way plus several weeks of daycamps and grandma care while I work.

stay tuned. i hope to be more consistent from now on.

Vacation 2011 part 1

2011-07-21T21:12:00.000-06:00

ahhhh summer. we love it. we spent our vacation

with the boys again this year. perfect way to spend a vacation.

all of the kids very active. Lucy took her scooter to the sk8 park.

I should have taken my pineapple rum to the park. I had several gasps but the girl

stayed upright.

we got the boys hooked on pippi longstocking. a random grocery

store DVD grab. great now i have that dang song stuck in my

head again.

Nathan and Lucy are prepping her bike for our

5 mile ride from Nevis to Dorset.

did you hear that? 5 miles! Lucy rode with hardly

a single complaint. I was so proud of her. She was so

proud of herself. The boys actually rode the 5 miles back

to Nevis. They did 10 miles!

a mid-point break

the spoils at the end of the ride. virgin margaritas and chips and salsa

just a beautiful girl sitting on a fence

cake flavored ice cream on a hot summer's night.

in the lake every afternoon

Jacob liked to have accessories for his lake swims

every morning Lucy and I had our cups of coffee

sifting for treasures

Lucy doing a jumpy thingy

she was a terrible driver

more to come.

Sefera 2011 - the year I "let go" (a little)

2011-06-28T19:50:00.001-06:00

Even though Sefera 2011 was about 500 hours away from home it was

the best state park yet and the best year of the gathering.

The theme of this year's gathering (for me) was "leash lengthening" with the help of Diane I was able to let Lucy have some much coveted freedom and space (from me).

Look above, I let L push Lucy soooooo freakn' high.

I didn't even gasp. Nope. I was all chill. Granted I was thinking of

all the dang flying squirrels positioning themselves in the tree

over our tent, waiting for my middle of the night moment of weakness when I

had to exit the tent to "use it". Ugh.

The kids had a little show. Surprisingly Lucy wasn't into performing.

Which is why, despite her beautiful looks and her obvious talent for singing,

dancing and being a spit fire, I have not got her into anything like

acting or modeling. She moves when her spirit moves her, which is

most definitely not when I would like her spirit to move her.

I suppose it didn't help that she "accidentally" poked Og's eye out

with a large stick and was pretty ashamed and embarrassed

about hurting him. So she spent a lot of time curled up in my lap

crying.

She got over it and found the adorable A and W, who were all over

learning about the hysterical (and annoying) 'old grandma in a rocking chair' joke.

don't ask.

we had a nice visit from the lovely G/B/W. we love him.

Lucy discovered that she can scooter like nobodies business.

she scootered all over the park.

uh. um. these two will make a lovely couple some day.

went for several bike rides. Lucy is doing so great on her bike.

beach time

we always paint rocks when we camp and leave them

as treasures for another camper to find.

a little quiet lunch break.

her own private lake

dancing to mc hammer at the campsite

scootering

ginormous marshmallow roast

arrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhh wood tick!

or just another campground tattoo

cuties

a hug good-bye

discovered as we neared the dells (after hours of driving) that Mel and Morgan were

about 20 miles ahead of us (they were at the dells while we were camping). did some creative

road antics and ended up eating lunch together.

Here's last year's Sefera post http://raisinglucy.blogspot.com/2010/06/sefara-2010.html

Juneteenth

2011-06-20T13:51:00.000-06:00

On Saturday we headed to our city's Juneteenth event.

On our way there I did an age appropriate (in my opinion) 3 minute explanation

about the history of slavery in our country. Hard.

"Mama what if someone stole me and you didn't even get to say goodbye?"

"You mean they never got to see their families again??"

"I mean, that is just soooo mean, that is so mean, they should have gone to jail"

Speaking of jail. There were about 2 cops at the event for every one attendee.

Seriously. Hey people who are about to shut our state down due to a budget crisis/impasse

I have some money saving ideas .... I'm not exaggerating.

BUT the cops did provide ample opportunity for Lucy to embarrass the bejezus out of me.

"Hey police man, excuse me sir ..."

cop "yes"

"you don't really need your gun or handcuffs"

cop "what?"

"my grandpa has a great big gun and my mom gave me her handcuffs

so if you just come over to my house i can give them to you to catch the bad guys"

cop "complete stunned silence"

me .... dying

"oh i also have sleeping medicine you can give the bad guy so he doesn't fight so much"

so. no one got arrested or investigated.

the kids had a blast.

Lucy was stunning.

she got a lot of time to practice and refine her

hip hop/break dance/salsa/poetry in motion.

Lucy has a crush (another one)

2011-06-18T21:06:00.000-06:00

So Lucy has a crush on our friend Roman.

I think the crush might be mutual as he dropped everything

at his job and came down to see her as soon as he heard she

was downtown.

They had a nice little catch up chat about bad guys

and the probability of taping them to the ceiling

as a crime deterrent.

Lucy then showed Roman her slivers. If I even glance

at her slivers she runs away screaming, 'just leave them alone

they are fine"

but Roman, he's allowed to use tweezers to pull them out

and Lucy didn't even flinch. That is true love.

Dentistry and Social Work and Single incomes ...

2011-06-17T05:39:00.000-06:00

So the short story is this: being a single mom with a social worker salary and having no

dental insurance is a really really crappy mix.

The longer story: In February we went to the free cleaning/check up program Give Kids A Smile.

In February at that appointment I was told that Lucy had no cavities.

So I was surprised that a few months later, while eating some fresh pineapple Lucy started

crying in agony, saying her tooth hurt. Crap. We went to the dentist. The first dentist took some xrays and said that the two cavities were too deep for him to handle and he referred us to a children's dental clinic. He kindly charged only for the xrays he took, at a 50% discount. Which turns out to be the

only break we are getting. We go to the children's dentist. For $85 he took two minutes to look at our $20 xrays and said that one tooth has to be pulled at an oral surgeon. After the pulled tooth area heals, he will need to put in a spacer in that spot to keep her teeth straight, plus do a "kiddy root canal" on the other bad tooth, along with a cap.

So we went to the oral surgeon. Who for a mere $300 gassed her up, numbed her up,

and pulled out the offending tooth.

She had a hard time bouncing back from the laughing gas. Poor baby.

So when it's all said and done. The kid who had no cavities in February, will cost her mom a month's salary on dental care. A MONTH'S salary.

Anyone have a nice brother, brother-in-law, etc they want to introduce me too??? I could totally dig on doing grass-roots, old-school social work for a long time if say I had a 2nd income to add to the mix.

I wonder what the odds are on universal health care ever really coming to the US?

or maybe simply having the work I do valued in the same way

other work is valued?

Yeah. I thought so.

p.s. she's totally worth it

p.p.s the families i work for are totally worth it too

p.p.p.s please vote carefully in the next election friends.

The Graduate

2011-06-16T05:12:00.000-06:00

Dear Kindergarten, We are glad to see you go. You whomped us hard.

From the first two hours of the very first day of school, you got us good.

Lucy is fierce. Kindergarten was not ready for such a force.

I was not ready for the trauma that was called being the mom

forced to advocate, almost every day, for the force.

Don't get me wrong. We LOVE her school. We LOVE her kindergarten teacher.

We got to know everyone very quickly. Lucy spent time in the director's office, the assistant

director's office, the special ed office... Everyone worked hard to make the year and the classroom

successful for Lucy. Lucy, the amazing one, worked extra hard, EVERY SINGLE DAY, to make

the classroom successful for her. It was hard.

It was hard for her experienced teacher Miss Natalie.

These tags did not exist before this year.

Lucy was excited to see an old buddy from preschool in her class, and met

new friends as well.

This is Jermaine, Lucy spent time with him when she was

"too disruptive for class". One day she said to me,

"mom, Jermaine makes me like school" so sweet.

donning her cap and gown with Sherry. Sherry had access to

first aid materials. Lucy's love of doctor gloves is her longest

standing obsession.

and despite how difficult and troubling kindergarten was. I cried when

she graduated. I can't believe I have a stinkn' first grader.

damn.

Here's to a summer of fun and restoration. A few months to

mature. A few months of having a night a week with my friend Jen (who is going to

tutor her and help get her reading up to speed). A few months of not being

in trouble. A few months of me not feeling sick to my stomach every time my

phone rings between 10:15 and 4:15.

Here's to having a first grader!!!

A Year at the Bus Stop

2011-06-03T13:45:00.001-06:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Soar

2011-06-02T06:32:00.000-06:00

Nothing makes my heart soar to the point of happy sore more then observing Lucy being Lucy when she doesn't know I am watching. I just felt love increase again, how is that even possible?

She's 6!

2011-05-17T20:10:00.000-06:00

Well, my baby turned 6 last week.

SIX!

She's getting good at basketball.

The basketball was courtesy of the Easter bunny.

The bunny isn't such a huge fan of Lucy on sugar.

She's a farmer now. I have developed a little addiction to Value Village thrift store. She's getting lots of pretty dresses, and these overalls!

Lucy became a patient at Shriner's. As part of a study she gets access to three different types of assistive devices. We have to pick up device three soon. Here is Trent. Lucy loves him.

She had such a hard time resisting touching the sticky goo they used to make the mold. "I SO BAD want to touch it" but she refrained and I applauded!

You know "the boys"? The ones I babysit? Well the boys and their mom gave Lucy two rats for her birthday. Ratchet and Millie. They are sweet and Lucy loves them. I am developing a fondness for them as well.

Race Relations

2011-05-16T20:27:00.000-06:00

I've been blessed with a child who knows who she is.

All "the books" say that kids start noticing race around 3 or 4. She definitely started

at or before age three. She notices everything.

Talking about race (thus far) is easy with her because she asks,

she notices, she challenges.

I had to include a photo of Lucy's aunt Jen because Jen is about the whitest (especially at the end of winter) person we know. Hey Jen!

It's also a challenge, Lucy's ability to pay attention to and

really see the people around her. It challenges me to keep us

surrounded by more then just white people. She notices.

The other day we had just sat down at Fasika and Lucy was looking around, meeting most

people with her direct eye contact. Her eyes got bigger and bigger as she scanned the room.

Suddenly she reaches over and grabs my hand and in a low voice she says "momma, I dont' think they

allow white people in here". She notices. It was sort of funny but the message I took home in the end

was to do whatever I can, while I can, to see to it that she never feels that way about herself and black people.

Today we were driving to the grocery store to pick up dinner from the deli.

Lucy says "momma, do they have injera at this deli?" I say no. She

lets out a disgusted sigh .... "we should just go somewhere where it isn't just

boring white people" she quickly added "not you momma, you're not boring, you're not

really white you are more like ummmm you're like, well hmmmm"

It was almost like she predicted that we'd be eating tasteless boring dry turkey breast but that's another blog post for another day.

Every day I pray "let me do this job as good as i possibly can"

Thankfully I have a village here to help me out and teach me.

We're counting on your help.

Confession ...

2011-04-19T21:06:00.000-06:00

On Sunday I agreed to let her cut this doll head's hair with real scissors.

I let her do this because it bought me about 25 minutes of peace and quiet.

I was also impressed to see her play with actual toys for any amount of time.

Another confession: It's Tuesday night and the dolls hair is still on the floor of the sunroom.

I'm tired.

There are many times....

2011-04-18T19:38:00.000-06:00

when she is so precious that my heart literally hurts. There are other times when she talks so much with so little pause that my ears literally hurt. This was one of those times:

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I will be honest

2011-04-17T19:04:00.001-06:00

Lucy and I had a sort of pissy morning today. I take almost all of the blame. I did NOT want to engage. I didn't. I wanted her to play with a toy or something (ha good luck me). When lunch came and went I knew I had to follow through on our nature center plans or I would waste this Sunday away and just set Lucy up for a terrible Monday at school.

So we went and I can say that I pretty much rocked the parenting think from 1pm -5pm (a brief intermission of whiney guilt inducing parenting over the dinner hour) and again from 6pm til bedtime. Here is some photographic evidence.

get a cranky, wild, sensory-seeking girl out in the woods and the sun

stay for 2 hours

Watch her spirit soar like it was meant to.

Enjoy her like a mom should.

see her challenge herself.

still those gasps and those "be carefuls"

(as much as you can)

extend that city length leash

watch her enjoy that trust

try not to completely FREAK OUT

when she catches a snake, and holds it like

she's been catching and handling snakes

her whole life (she has not)

enjoy the solitude of just us two

watch her imagination run completely wild

and beautiful and amazing

see her turn a leaf into a treasure map. i see the treasure,

i am looking right at her.

quickly mourn that this seems to be the year

that rolling down hills turns a little "gross" to her

let her climb as high as she can

watch her turn logs into a "stairway to heaven"

and then curse as that song gets stuck in your

head the rest of the night.

Thank you Mother Nature. Once again you came to our rescue.

I am in love ...

2011-04-16T22:05:00.000-06:00

With this family and the video they made and the distance they've travelled and the writing on the wall in the video. Go here. Watch the video. Cry.

http://www.welcometomybrain.net/2011/04/three-years.html

then go ahead and read the rest of the blog. learn. do.

Looser

2011-04-16T08:04:00.000-06:00

Lucy is such a looser.

Lucy had her first baby tooth come out. First thing I learned about teeth coming out was that it totally grosses me out (thanks mom). Uck. Lucy was all alone in the getting the tooth out endeavor because her mom was cringing in a corner and covering her eyes (yes i was). Second thing I learned about Lucy loosing her first tooth was that it sent me into momentary depression. I saw that sucker come in. I gave her frozen wash cloths to chew on and felt that sharp little tooth bite down on my finger and now it's gone. It may seem like just a tooth, but to me it's just another way of proving that I have absolutely no control over the fact that Lucy is growing up way too fast. I am sure none of you are surprised to hear that Lucy is THRILLED that she is growing up.

Soul-Mates

2011-04-10T20:27:00.000-06:00

Lucy found her new best girl friend this weekend:

It was really amazing the way these two connected after two years apart.

They don't read blogs, they aren't on FB but still ... it was like picking up where

they left off, only better.

I have never seen Lucy engage for so long, so positively in

same-age peer play as I have this weekend with Mimi

Lest I be less-than-honest, I'll let you know that it was either twice as nice or

twice as obnoxious with these two ... but nice or obnoxious, it was really

magical!!!!

Speaking for myself, the reunion of the mama's after two years was pretty sweet as well.

I blame Facebook

2011-04-05T20:15:00.001-06:00

It's a common story, face book killed the blog. I have to remember that part of why I keep my blog is to provide Lucy with a well documented narration of her young childhood (I imagine I might have to eventually stop broadcasting her life). We've been busy busy busy. Coming down off of spring break, getting ready for weekend visitors, living life! I love spring, Lucy loves spring. We love being outside and expanding the boundaries of our home once again. We love our firepit and roasting marshmallows with our friends and neighbors. Barely survived the winter but here we are celebrating spring and life!!!

We colored a few Easter eggs, basically to survive the afternoon and so Lucy could have some protein in her lunches.

Lucy and her "niece" Nellie the dog had some sunny bonding time.

we had some very difficult and honest conversation about murder. A young woman was shot and killed 1/2 a block from our house. Lucy saw the memorial. I told her what happened. Crashed a little of the childhood innocence. Terrible.

Lucy got an appointment at Shriner's. Here she is getting fitted for a partial prosthesis. The adaptive tech dude tells her she should be able to wear flip flops. She is over the moon. Adding to her excitement was the fact that I gave her a pretend doctors exam, to calm her down and pass the time and discovered a very loose bottom tooth! Lucy is sooooo excited about loosing her first tooth.

Lucy asked for a mohawk. I wouldn't shave her head or dye it red (such a lame lame mom)

so we created a fauxhawk. it actually looks way more awesome and 'hawky in real life. She was pretty excited.

Also on Lucy's list of fun exciting things:

1. her best friend Garrett (a sub at my work) who she describes are very cute is going to get her her very own composting worms. She can't wait until they have babies.

2. she has a beetle in her bug house, which is in my house

3. the snow has all melted, which means plenty of mud

4. she has figured out how to put diapers on my mom's little doxie (dog), and can't wait to see the dog again!

Hello Strangers!

2011-03-26T20:23:00.000-06:00

What can I say ... it's spring break, I turned 40 (40!) and have been too busy celebrating to blog. That's all about to change. I will post some photos and start organizing my next post which should come very very soon.

Lucy is great. She sort of left school before spring break on a bad note but I am sure sure sure that she'll go into the last 3 months with a renewed attitude and an ability to take direction from adults (like her teacher). I am sure. I am sure. Please please please!

Here is Lucy and Zep on her last day of school before spring break. Obviously it's St Patrick's Day, which leads me to think that perhaps it was the naughty leprechauns that got her in trouble that afternoon.

In the above photo both Lucy and Zep were p-o'd that I made them stand for a photo.

but as you can see they totally kissed and made up for the madness.

In a related development the kitties decided that so intense is their hatred for Zep the dog, that they actually like each other.

Our friend Ivy joined in on Lucy and Morgan's big spring break play date at a pool and an indoor playground!

You might not be able to tell from this photo but both girls were on a mini time-out for

committing mutiny on the adult-in-charge during our post swim snack.

Lucy immediately ditched Ivy and climbed up to the roof (see her up there???)

we also went to the Mn History Center for the first time. What a hoot! We love it!

Lucy is working the old-fashioned ice-cream parlour at the history center while momma watches the tv behind her rebroadcasting the attack on pearl harbor.

I've been trying new recipes. Lucy seemed to like the honey/soy noodles and the ginger/garlic flank steak combo. Could have also been the result of my lack of interest in giving her a real breakfast or lunch this day, who knows.

we painted some miniture bird houses. Lucy was in her evening gown and high heels of course.

Spring break is basically over. It was so much fun. Loved this week of busy times and down times. It did us both a lot of good.

Dance Party!

2011-03-14T20:02:00.000-06:00

Almost every night we have a dance party at our house. Last night's was extra-special because Lucy got a pair of high heel shoes! We put on our dancing shows and danced and danced and danced ....

attaching

2011-03-08T06:32:00.000-06:00

you know how they say "the dance of attachment" or "attachment is a process not necessarily a destination"?? After 5+ years I finally get it. Yup. I get it. It was really easy, the attachment dance (for me) at the beginning. I held her, I fed her, I changed her, I rocked her and she accepted it. She couldn't run away, say nasty things, wipe off my kisses or give me nasty looks. Ahhhh I thought, this is the life. As she grew, I had tinges of fear (almost every day) that something maybe was wrong. She never had much stranger anxiety, in fact she just LOVED strangers. Occasionally she would ease my fears by clinging to me or crying for me but for the most part I had an independent young woman on my hands. When she was three she entered the mom hating stage (she's advanced!). Lord I thought I might not make it through that year. At four I was just relieved that she wasn't three anymore.

At 5, duh, I realized that this whole time I have been looking to Lucy's behaviors as indicators of positive attachment signs. UH, like any relationship it takes two to tango and whammo I woke up. Here's the thing, parenting, especially parenting kids with histories of trauma (like being removed from birth family, culture, cared for in an orphanage) is not for the wussy. I was a wuss. I admit it. Here she was, a young child looking to her mom for some direction on how to proceed with the relationship at hand and her "leader" was all like 'hey you're 2 years old, show me how to relate'.

At least I didn't realize this when she was 15.

So here we are 5 years later and I finally feel like I have a grip. I love her the way I always should have, I love the whole her. I don't spend my time searching her eyes for attachment issues, I spend my time relating to her and showing her how to relate. I spend my time enjoying her. I ache for her so much more because instead of seeing this kid who is rejecting me, defying me and manipulating me I see this young person who is anxious, who is immature and who needs acceptance and gentle guidance in navigating the world.

A couple nights a week, we've been back in the rocking chair (her request) and she's been falling asleep in my arms. What a gift.

I am attached to my daughter!

Hi!

2011-03-04T19:04:00.000-06:00

sorry about the groggy-bloggy lately. I have been so exhausted at night. So exhausted. Did I mention how tired I have been? This has been the longest, coldest, darkest, snowiest, dang-awfulest winter ever, ever. I am ready for spring.

Lucy still has a love affair with animals. The way she can calm down and hold still whenever an animal (especially Azazel the cat) sits by her is amazing. Makes me want to send the cat with lucy to school.

Lucy helped ready our rally sign on a cold winter's day.

She then discovered that the rally sign makes a good wind break when it's 0 degrees and a bizzillion below zero with wind chill and we're out on the capital lawn.

One moment at the rally to support Wisconsin labor when Lucy wasn't crying from the cold.

first this ... then that

2011-02-25T15:47:00.000-06:00

I have a photo heavy post coming up soon about our 2nd annual camp-in in Oconomowoc, Wi. First tho' I leave you with two things that get me heated up:

1.

When my beautiful baby gets a high fever and wakes up in pain. That gets me riled up.

Although the sweet sleepiness is a bonus.

and 2.

When the governor of our neighboring state manages to piss me off more then Pawlenty. That isn't easy to do. Although my little radical is awful cute with her homemade solidarity shirt. She has started her Walker rants (ahhhh just when we were missing pawlenty). This morning's were especially cute. "Mama, I know you aren't mad at me, you are mad at skyWalker right??" bwaaahaaahaaaa skyWalker.

Spring fever

2011-02-13T20:34:00.000-06:00

Had a taste of spring this weekend. Went outside, felt warm in the sun, looked directly into the sun inviting its nutritious rays into the core of me. Felt good at the time. Now it just feels like Sunday night. Again. Feeling worn out. Work is tiring. Lucy is still struggling in kindergarten. I really want spring break for both of us.
Still, it was nice to have some snow melting and some sun shining today.

Lucy was very excited about the hair coloring we found at Claire's!

Nothing like a little cat cuddle to sooth a little soul.

poor cat.

The truth is ...

2011-02-06T20:27:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile since I blogged. I would like to report that I've been really busy at work or creating culinary masterpieces or volunteering or packing for a huge trip or preparing for another adoption. Nope. Honestly It's a combination of being tired, being busy with my farm on farmtown and really finding that every time I get my camera out to take a photo of Lucy she either has snot all over her face or she has hair that is in such a state that I would (rightfully so) get flamed by some of my readers. She doesn't need that following her around cyberspace her whole live, there is already plenty of stuff for people to find on her.

That being said:

We have had our share of fun. Spending time with "the boys". I find it funny that even though I try to keep an assortment of toys that would appeal to both genders, N.P (name to protect identity, of boy who was embarrassed about his desire to play with no body hair model doll) was totally into doing this dolls hair.

as was his brother Isaac who had no need to hide his interest.

Lucy has taken a shine to Beyonce. I didn't know how much of a shine until the moment we were in Kohls looking for sheets when she stopped the salesman and asked "excuse me, we are looking for some single lady tights" (he paused for the briefest of moments before directing us to the girls section). Me, I almost choked on my tic tac. Above is her single ladies outfit.

Lucy got bunkbeds. So if anyone has a way for us to add a sibling to the family, a sibling that comes with free daycare and health insurance please let us know, we totally have space for her now.

good night. hope to see you soon.

Tuesday

2011-01-25T07:39:00.000-06:00

It's only Tuesday. I'm missing my girl when I am at work so I thought I'd put some photos up so I can check on her during the day.

ok so technically this is not a photo of Lucy. Had to put our little guys up too, Nathan and Jacob were rockin' out the other night ...

a little light reading.

looks comfy

getting unpacked at school.

sweet snuggles with our pup.

The Roller Derby

2011-01-22T22:14:00.000-06:00

Where have I been all these years???!!! Yes, we found a new activity together. Love the Roller Derby, Lucy does too. She ROCKED the derby, totally engaged.

It was MN Mascot show-down pre-show. Lucy loved the mascots!

She especially loved the pink pig mascot from the saints

she met tons of roller girls.

watched the mascots play a mean game of musical chairs

watched intently

snuggled auntie jen

snuggled mommy

watched a bout

talked ice cream with the leprechaun

danced her butt of at the half time show

and like a good dessert, she ran into a paramedic, and scored a pair of doctor's gloves

Time to face reality ...

2011-01-09T21:38:00.000-06:00

It's winter in Minnesota. We will not survive if we just stay inside wishing spring to come our way. Must get kid outside. You know, better yet, find some money and get the kid to a warmer climate!

Another way to get the crazies out

2011-01-09T08:13:00.000-06:00

The clean mud is a great way to get a sensory seeking kid to calm and sit for awhile! These moon shoes??? They'll get your kid bouncing, walking, balancing and falling. Great fun but not for the anxious-type caregiver!

Good Clean Mud Fun!

2011-01-08T20:33:00.000-06:00

Today we made "clean mud". Lucy thought of it because she has been helping the preschool team at my work prepare for their own clean mud making. She thought it would be fun to do at home. I agreed. Lucy had fun. Lucy had fun off and on for about three hours today, which in turn meant I had fun.

Have a sensory seeking kid? Want to feed their need? Want a little tutorial?

OK

First rip up 1-2 rolls of toilet paper into small pieces.

                                                       Next grate 3 bars of Ivory soap. According to my coworkers
                                                      you can use any bar soap. We went with Ivory because that's what
                                                      the directions said.

After you grate the soap, mix the soap and toilet paper together.

Add hot water, a little at a time, mixing by hand until you have

a mud-like consistency.

                                                              Play and squish away! Lucy loved this.
                                                       She squished and slopped her way up to her elbows.
                                                       It was splatted around a bit but was pretty easy to
                                                      clean up.

If you have friends stop by, they might not be able to resist

the squishy fun. After a couple hours we added a small amount

of color and blended some more.

After dinner we continued squishing.

Lucy had fun, I had a break ...

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T20:15:00.000-06:00

It's been a long time since I've posted. I guess we've been all mixed up with being on vacation and having all of these fun holidays. Whew. Slowly winding down and dragging our feet as our real life resumes in just 2 days. We had a fantastic Christmas!

We went to church and learned how to make krumkaka and lefse.

Lucy rolled the lefse gentle and thin.

Had some nice naps and snuggles with Zep.

Santa gave her a banjo ukelele for Christmas, exactly what she asked for.

Lucy took advantage of the time off of kindergarten to get her medical degree.

She got a real cooking set from Auntie Barb and has used it every day.

Grandma got a new puppy and Lucy is thrilled to be able to carry her around.

We went on our annual sled ride to Jakeenos. New sleds and a fine coating of slippery ice made the trip smooth.

Lucy got a tent from Auntie Deb and Uncle Dennis, she has slept in it every night! Tonight Azazel joined her.

Lucy's holiday program

2010-12-18T21:55:00.001-06:00

so much fun! Love this school!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

snow daze

2010-12-14T21:08:00.000-06:00

Lucy got her first snow days off of school. In a crazy, never heard of move, our public schools shut down for two days due to a blizzard, not knowing what to do with all the snow, and frigid temperatures. Wow, she is ready to get out of this house!

on Sunday we trudged through snow as deep as Lucy's hips to get to a bus stop. we had tickets to a concert and we were going to attempt to get there. we waited over 20 minutes for our 2nd bus, and as we waited our damp feet got increasingly cold and painful. Lucy was bawling. The drunk men at the bus stop felt bad for her, and so did I so we went across the street to Subway and had some lunch warming our bare feet in our mittens. Our friend Eric had his 4 wheel drive out and he rescued us!

Monday, school was closed and so was my work. We celebrated with a play date with Morgan, S & B

We made home made ice cream in plastic bags, made it green. Ate it.

followed it up with pizza.

"quiet time" had Zep the dog begging for them to plow the streets so school could resume a.s.a.p!

Lucy and S hung out in the ottoman.

Zep thinks it's B.S. that he ain't got no bed, insisting on curling up on our throw pillow.

a snowy day

2010-12-11T23:05:00.000-06:00

We were trapped (almost literally) in the house today. We had a blizzard. SO MUCH SNOW! It was pretty exciting for awhile, then the reality of the situation hit and it got precarious. I almost lost it when we lost cable and Internet for a few hours. Whew. Shockingly Lucy and I made it through the entire day together with very little fighting.

we used a lot of glitter. lots of glitter. so glittery.

why it pays to be a cardiac doctor in Minnesota in the winter

the car was buried under snow drifts

view from the front door.

Navigating the stairs was hard with her little legs!

Lucy drew a house and decorated the roof. The drawing was pretty but the most amazing thing is that she used crayons. My sharpie hiding is paying off!

Sweet Slumbers

2010-12-09T20:20:00.000-06:00

santa magic

2010-12-07T10:32:00.001-06:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Snow and Santa

2010-12-04T17:12:00.000-06:00

It snowed. I shovelled (a little). We had a semi-private in home visit with Santa.

right after i snapped this, Santa turned to me and asked "does she want me to answer her questions, or just listen to her questions?" as Lucy rapid fired off the questions to Santa. How many elves do you have (600), where are they (working), where are the reindeer? (north pole) Who made your gloves? (the elves), How did you get here? (plane), I like your hat (thanks), can I touch your beard? (sure).

NOPEblopomonomo

2010-11-30T21:30:00.000-06:00

Well I officially failed at NaBloPoMo this year! Life got in the way about blogging about life I guess. We have been busy. Here's a little sample of what's been going on ...

Lucy fell asleep exhausted on the way home from Thanksgiving. Since Auntie Jen was already home from her festivities, sitting on the sofa, I plopped Lucy down, it wasn't long before a couple animals joined in the snuggle fest.

My beloved Azazel cat was very interested in the camera that night.

It was so nice to have a four day weekend. Lucy of course was driving me batsh*t off and on. She's so intense. SO INTENSE. It's hard to keep her engaged in a positive way, it's exhausting.

Here's the kitty again. So Lucy has been shifting the ways in which she tests me. In a way it's getting easier (or else I am just so numb to it). She's doing alot of random/obnoxious nonsense word shouting. "BANINO!" lord this drives me crazy. She's all over the animals. She has taken once again to being disrespectful and defiant. The big difference though (thank god) is that these testing moments while more intense are much much shorter in duration. We can actually have long long moments of playing, working, being together with no issues. Most days it's pure joy being with her.

In terms of school. Lucy is still having some struggles. She can be defiant (although much less so now) with her teachers, she is very very wiggly and has a hard time keeping her body where it belongs, and she struggles with peer relationships. She's always gotten along better with kids that are older or younger then her. She particularly likes toddlers, and specifically toddlers that will follow her around like puppies. J & S-wow came over to play (we had an 8:15 am play date!) on Saturday morning. Ahhhhh was nice to have the little guy here to take some of the pressure off of me. I felt a little sad for his momma who watched Lucy bounce her way around the house and kept muttering to herself "I feel like I am seeing into my future" or "wow, so this is what it will be like 3 years from now". Yeah. I believe she fb'd about drinking beer that night. At least we didn't leave her with any false hopes about peaceful times in the near future!

we are slowly but surely bringing Christmas to our living quarters. She was actually happy in this photo.

Zep the dog is not sure about Christmas trees.

Lucy's rock show

2010-11-24T07:40:00.001-06:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Scenes from a Sunday

2010-11-21T17:55:00.000-06:00

Woke up to an icy non-wonderland. So slick could not even walk off the deck. So we stayed home most of the day. First we made some home-made wheat bread. Lucy did most of the mixing.

she also did a bit of kneading. the bread turned out delish!

at some point in the day Lucy put on a little rock and roll show.

when the ice melted, we went up the road to the Electric Fetus where we did a little

pretty woman type of shopping.

listened to some music

we ran into Fran Healy from the band Travis before he went down to prepare for his in-store performance.

he taught Lucy a little guitar

put on a beautiful performance

Lucy watched and listened very intently.

after the show he gave her his pick (much to the dismay of the woman behind us), and she had him sign it for her.

We've been busy

2010-11-19T21:16:00.000-06:00

Have most definately been not keeping up with NaBloPoMo and that is fine with me. We have been busy this wee. So busy that in the evenings we just fall dead asleep. I myself have been caught up in that dang Dragon Tatoo, Salander trilogy. Too busy reading to write!

We babysat Ivy for a little bit one evening. Acutally Lucy babysat Ivy, and I watched Lucy.

Here is Lucy letting Ivy pick out eye shadow.

took some photos tonight at Lucy's Martial Art's class. Here she is stretching.

deep cleansing breaths

I'd call her a power meditator. Intense in everything she does.

going through her forms.

Lucy has been doing much better in kindergarten. She is really coming around and settling down. The big shift, I think, has been that she has had the desire to do good. She wants it now. It's hard for her but she's really really trying.

Snow

2010-11-14T21:35:00.000-06:00

school picture day

2010-11-12T22:11:00.000-06:00

Know what's weird about kindergarten? Knowing that you kid is getting her school photo taken, you know with backdrops and lights and everything and you are not there. I will have clue what was going on on her face, her nose area, her hair, her smile until the package arrives. Even worse? She missed the first photo shoot due to her illness, so she only has one shot to shine. OH and Lucy really really wanted her hair down for her school pictures. I love that she has opinions about stuff like that, and she really LOVES all the attention she gets when her hair is down. Wanna know the killer??? She had school photos this morning, and this afternoon????? A swimming field trip. So, we'll definately be having a fight come Sunday morning, when we finally will have time to tackle the taming of free hair.

Sunday mornings

2010-11-10T21:35:00.000-06:00

for the past several weeks, we've taken advantage of our sunny Sundays and headed out to the suburbs/country to an awesome park.

out in the far eastern side of Minnetonka, I consider this park a kids "off leash" park. there is a lot of green space, with a natural barrier.

lots of space for kids to explore their independance, get exercise, fresh air

grass in the hair

connect with friends

and just enjoy a Sunday morning. the mom's mostly get to relax. you can see most of the park from one or two spots. has a nice non sandy surface (no sand in shoes, or imbedded in scalps), and up until last weekend had a flush toilet/running water bathroom.

oh baby lucy

2010-11-09T21:54:00.000-06:00

so stinkin' little and so cute.

still having a fever after one week home.

giving her momma gray hairs right away

had that big ol' "hungry baby" belly still.

still had those sparkling full of life eyes

Haymoflauge

2010-11-08T22:50:00.000-06:00

Just a little warning, and hopefully a reminder for the 2011

apple orchard season.

A soft fleecy sweater +

a very dry hay stack +

a very active girl =

a prickly impossible mess!

almost lost her a few times in the hay pile.

two washings, some fine tuned hand de-haying and the shirt still aint right.

Lucy sure had fun though!

If Lucy was on Facebook ...

2010-11-07T22:10:00.000-06:00

she would have totally unfriended me and about a billion other people today. Must suck to be so dependant on the mom you just unfriended. It's cool tho' she totally put in a friend request right before bedtime. I rocked my lil' friend to the sweet sounds of Cowboy Junkies. Perfect ending to an almost perfect day (aside from the unfriending).

quotes from a bus ride

2010-11-06T19:40:00.000-06:00

Today we decided on adventuring on the #21 bus from Chicago Avenue until the end of 21A. In frantic anticipation Lucy thoughtfully applied quite a bit of eye make up (thank you Risa :)). We waited patiently at the bus stop by our house.

Ironically our end point was quite similar to where we accidentally ended up last night (thank you for real Risa for getting us out of that one). So we decided to head to where was partied last night for a little snack/drink/bathroom break. Of course no break is complete with out some posing and dancing.

Anyways ... although these photos are not actually of us on the bus I thought I would bless you with some fun tidbits of conversation that Lucy had with EVERY LIVING (and almost living) SOUL on the bus. Oh it was fun. Y'all probably don't know how shy I really am. Ha ha, I have the most anti-shy child in the world, good one.

We started out singing the name game song about every single person we know. Moma, moma bo bama banana fana fo fama fi... yup that loudly sung song came to a grinding halt when Lucy decided to sing about our pal Lucky. Yup. But frankly, at that point we were still on the #5, and anyone that knows 'bout the #5 knows that the #5 folks have likely just finished saying something similar.

So here are a few more treasures:
"Hey, hey! Um sir, your pants are falling off" (and her mommy was putting her hood up and sinking slowly down)

‎"Mom is that a cop or a lifeguard?" (it was a cop)

"Mom, tyler (my cousin) hates cops right? They put him in jail" (cue loud snorts from Phil behind us, and yeah, I knew almost everyones name on the bus)

A big shout out to our new friends Charlie and Lisa. Glad that Lucy could help Lisa learn Charlie's name. Hope you two enjoy that 12 pack. Thanks a lot new friend Charlie for forever cementing in lucy's head that the back of the bus is far more cool then the front.

and Will (our other new friend). Lucy didn't accept your explaination for the tear drop tattoo and the shaved eyebrow, but I appreciate your ability to censor.

and to Senora Eva, thanks for the herbalife protein bar and the invitation to come practice spanish, and your phone number.

we'll be driving to lowertown next time!

Soooooo what's been going good?

2010-11-05T20:21:00.000-06:00

Y'all know about our kindergarten woes. Oh woe is me right? Hoping we start having more and more good news on that front very soon.

That aside. Let me tell you all about all the super positive things happening in our little family:

1. My New Year's resolution to quit catering to miss picky eater has paid off in a big way. Dinners are much healthier, much more home made and much more tranquil these days (unless grandpa is at the table ...). We have been enjoying tons of healthy, cheap, and easy to prepare in advance soups. Soup has saved our budget and our sanity. Turkey has also helped. Turkey for a few days. Then a break, then several days of turkey soup. Split peas are another. We love us some split pea soup, especially some injera to dip in it.

2. Mornings. We have a general game plan. Aside from some needed nagging from me so Lucy eats breakfast, mornings go well.

3. Kuk Sool - Lucy's martial arts class. Seriously hands down, the BEST best thing I could have done for Lucy was getting her enrolled and sticking to our Friday night classes. She had a very difficult first 9 months in this class. I cringed a lot. Her instructors stuck with her, with firm, consistent expectations. Her friendly, cute personality was not going to get her through this class. Lucy is currently a model student. She is amazingly focused, disciplined and driven in this class. She rarely needs any sort of redirection. I smile for 45 minutes straight. She works hard. It's a challenge for her but she accomplishes it. LOVE THIS CLASS. Leave a comment if you want the low down, have a kid 4 or older and live in the Twin Cities.

4. Grocery shopping- i try to avoid doing it with Lucy in tow but when it must be done it no longer needs to be followed up with beer for mom and therapy for Lucy.

5. Getting in and out of the car - this used to send me into major mom meltdown. The putzing, the foot dragging, the hopping to the other seat, the scavenging for anything on the floor ... it's all stopped (mostly). Some mornings I drive off to work with Lucy in the back and I think ... holy crap. We just got through this morning with no issues at all. Talk about improvement!!!

so yup. Life is good. It's so much easier to parent Lucy now. We can do things like hang out at art crawls, and listen to bands in a coffee shop until 8:30 at night and I feel pretty assured I wont suffer for it in the morning. Loving mommyhood.

make up

2010-11-03T19:43:00.000-06:00

Spent $3.00 on some cheap eye make up and lipstick. So far have bought myself 1 1/2 hours of 'quiet' time. I think it was a good deal.

obviously she gets her divine make-up application skills from me. that's totally nurture right there.

Lucita bonita

2010-11-02T19:08:00.000-06:00

This girl takes my breath away every single day. Serious beauty and it's not just the beauty

that you all see here in these photos. She has it inside too. She has a way of seeing people and the world that is beautiful. She has a power about her that's overwhelming.

She should really be running some sort of office or business or maybe the world.

I really hope that she channels all of this power for good.

If she channels it for evil. Watch out.

Cuz it's STRONG!

NaBloPoMo Day 1

2010-11-01T19:43:00.000-06:00

Seriously almost petered out before I even started. I am tired. Real tired. Feel like life is in full full force these days. The mornings are so rushed, getting out the door. Lucy comes to work with me for about 1 1/2 hours every morning. I think having her with me, in an environment where she feels in control for a bit helps her relax a little more the rest of the day in kindergarten. Every morning when it's time for us to catch the bus we take two toddlers from my class with us. Lucy loves this and the toddlers do too.

Post school is about unwinding, homework, getting dinner together, running unavoidable errands and playing. Evenings go way too fast in someways but at times that wait for bedtime can be painfully slow.

Once Lucy goes down, it's so easy for me to just completely get absorbed in the computer, or reading and relaxing. I resent all the "other work" that needs done. Cleaning, dishes, laundry, bills, cooking future meals ... hate it. Resent that each time the dishes get cleaned there are more just waiting to get dirty, resent the same about laundry, and animal fur, and animal waste, and dust .... so there, first day of NaBloPoMo=RANT! I feel better now, and aint that what it's all about?

In other news:

Lucy still loves worms. A lot. Here's a worm that she pushed on the swing, gave a wagon ride, and eventually returned, relatively unscathed to his family.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T19:27:00.000-06:00

yaaaaawwwwnnnnn

2010-10-28T19:55:00.000-06:00

since I've decided to participate in NaBloPoMo in November, which means a blog post a day the whole month (lucky you!), I don't feel too bad about my lack of words here.

I was lazy, didn't want to carve pumpkins, but still wanted the seeds to roast so we painted them. Now the squirrels are busy enjoying the fruits of our labors.

of course, my sensory seeking, dirt loving daughter LOVES scooping the goop out of pumpkins. Kept her busy a long time.

This week we celebrated Zep, the perfect dog's 2nd birthday!

he got a peanut butter coated ice cream cake and a big ol'bone for his birthday.

and of course Lucy sang Happy Birthday with great gusto.

5 years

2010-10-24T10:34:00.000-06:00

Five years later ... and still loving every single ounce of this girl.

Sweet Sunny Saturday

2010-10-16T21:20:00.000-06:00

We recently discovered Gale Woods Farm. Fantastic fun. This morning we went to Saturday Morning at the Farm. A great hands on but not overly overled family farming event.

the kids were able to get up close and personal with many farm animals. This was no petting zoo, this is a farm. The kids LOVED having the freedom to hang with the animals.

Jacob was the sheep whisperer. He is a real friend to the animals.

Lucy got them a little wound up.

but she bossed them back into their places

if it clucks like a chicken and walks like a chicken it must be a ...

again with the animal whisperer

Lucy loves LOVES LOVES the danger of running on top of the hay bale maze.

these two have a lot of fun together

Kindergarten, Bullies, Fever and Fun

2010-10-09T08:41:00.000-06:00

Why is it that the more time I spend parenting the less I actually feel like I know how to parent? Let me present a dilemma: tattling. Lucy spends a lot of time defending her actions in kindergarten (she's having loads of troubles staying out of trouble at kindergarten) by telling me and everyone else how mean the other kids are to her. "Mom, he is always being so mean to me, Mooooommmmm she keeps giving me mean looks all the time. Mooooooooommmmmmmm he bumped me first, on PURPOSE" I have spent enough time in her class room to note that this tattling is also directed at her poor teacher, and it's not just Lucy it's quite a few of the kids, girls in particular.

Soooo the dilemma is this: With all the talk about bullying going around lately, and the advice about listening to your kids and having an open line of communication etc it feels like I should be open and empathic when Lucy starts ~~bitching~~ tattling on her peers BUT I also feel like wanting to encourage her to not spend so much time tattling, telling, worrying about the actions of others and spend more worrying about her own self.

What do I do?

In other news, Lucy has been down with a fever and some pretty nasty mouth sores for 3 days now. Poor little baby. She's a real trooper though, drinking when I ask her to and taking necessary medicine. Sadly the fevers do not seem to impact her energy level much. I know I'd be worried sicker if she was lethargic but I'd just like to see that once ...

In other other news. Seems as if the woes in kindergarten have caused us to shift things at home a bit. We are doing lots of "attachment style" work, just to help with some regulation and it's amazing how much more fun and enjoyable our evenings and weekends have become. Seriously, LOVE her so much ... gaaawwwwhhh.

Fire and Knifes

2010-09-30T22:32:00.000-06:00

yes I had lots of young kids over at my house for a cook out.

and of course we needed some kindling

so obviously I gave all 5 of them knives so they could chop the wood

because we needed more fuel for desert.

Love weekends

2010-09-26T21:18:00.000-06:00

The Ragnar Affair

2010-09-25T20:28:00.000-06:00

Well my daughter's heart has been stolen. So sorry Wendim but Lucy has a new man and his name is Ragnar. Lucy was immediately drawn to this man and I believe she also captured his heart. He patiently made a helmet for her, and signed a magnet for her and then let her take her time signing a magnet for him and making a helmet for mom. He was totally sweet to her and for a bit these two seemed like they were in their own world. I was sweet on him too as we waited for him to get his photo taken with a group of special needs young adults, he was so amazing with them, chatting and engaging. I was hooked!

morning singing

2010-09-23T20:26:00.000-06:00

same photos different story

2010-09-15T21:06:00.000-06:00

promise a permanent post on kindertroubles after a few weeks have gone by. Just let it be known that Lucy is working her little butt off trying to navigate kindergarten and all it's rules, regulations, expectations and boundaries.

lets talk about hair. lucy has spent a lot of time these past few weeks thinking about her hair.

on about the first day of kindergarten Lucy noticed a little curly haired girl with very short hair. As soon as we were in the car Lucy asked if she could get her hair cut like that.

she then asked to have her hair down and loose for a few days, i agreed, providing that she understood we'd be doing some conditioning and finger combing every day as long as it was loose.

so it was a good time to start teaching her a little self hair care. She conditioned and worked through the front sections and I did the back.

she did pretty good. and in the middle of the process decided that she wanted a hair cute still, but not too short because she likes her long hair!

"even if it hurts a little mom, I still like my hair to be long" ...

I am dragging my feet a little on getting her hair back into a style. I am sure it's going to be a mini-trauma when we set down and really comb it out. Meanwhile, we marvel at how dang cute she is with that big ole head of long curly hair!!!

Little Lady on the Prairie

2010-09-11T19:28:00.000-06:00

We went to Walnut Grove to see some Little House on the Prairie in real life. Seriously cute photos follow. I have tons TONS I need to write about Lucy's first couple weeks of kindergarten but am biding my time and thinking about what to put out there in the blogosphere and what I should just cry in my beer over.

It was quite a beautiful day for us pioneer girls.

the wind blowing the prairie grasses

Lucy all relaxed and easy on this Saturday.

Exploring prairie trails, breathing fresh air and feeling the warm sunshine.

deciding that we enjoy our mudfree, bug free, flushing bathroom house

moving the prairie grasses off the path so our friends can pass more easily

taking mama's breath away with her beauty and her spirit

cooking up some grub on the banks of plum creek

and a glimpse of what happns in kindergarten!

what a beautiful day

i want more

Labor Day Week-end

2010-09-06T18:52:00.000-06:00

We had a terrific Labor Day weekend. I picked Lucy up from kindergarten and we headed directly to Frontenac State Park for a weekend of camping with our friends Sara, Mel and Morgan. Lots of photos to follow:

Lucy was in charge of the first aid kit

eating the smores away from the smokey camp fire.

My little burrito. It was a 45 degree, very windy night.

brrrrrrrrrrr

acting goofy on a morning hike to the bathroom

"scrambling" eggs with Sara

lots of friendship on the trail to Teopia Rock

she's happy in the woods

i love this photo for some reason

found an awesome park in Red Wing

the calm before Lucy's 2nd night firestorm.

transitions are so hard

2010-09-02T19:24:00.000-06:00

Lucy is one of those kids where it's really hard to tell whether it's helpful or hurtful to talk about/process upcoming transitions a lot. Of course we've been talking about kindergarten all summer long. She's been psyched. Ready. Diving in headfirst. Seems totally secure.

Lucy has a lot of false bravado. She holds her head up high and jumps out the airplane even though she's scared to death of heights and falling. Poor baby.

Wednesday was really hard for her. She was acting up all morning. I dropped her off at school and she walked in all raring to go, barely said goodbye to me. I had the day off, and I was stressed but feeling pretty relaxed. It took all of 2 hours for her to get sent to the principal's office. 2 hours. She wasn't following the rules and she hit another child. Apparently she also did a bit of spitting. She learned a hard lesson right away, as she missed the first ever recess of her life.

Lucy was SO CRABBY when I picked her up from school. She did a lot of snapping at me. I was uber forgiving. Lucy didn't want to tell her grandpa and grandma what she had done. We went for a walk with the dog to clear our heads, took a nice warm bath.

Thursday was better. Another day of new transitions. Thursday she went to her new before school child care center and rode the bus from there to her new school for the first time. She was really excited about the bus. I had no bad reports about Lucy today. I didn't talk to the teacher at all but I had spoken to the director Wednesday and asked her to please let me know of any problems so we can all be on board. I heard nothing today. Lucy seemed a lot more relaxed when I picked her up from school. She said she did good and was a good friend. She was so tired, she barely slept at all the night before, having dreams, waking all night and awake by 6:15 this morning. It was a long day but she held her self together pretty well until the very end of the night.

Oh Lucy. I hope that things continue to get easier for you and that soon everyone at your school sees you for the shining star you are!

KINDERGARTEN

2010-09-01T10:34:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it??? It goes so fast (it really does). I mean, one day you are thinking, will this teething EVER end??? or maybe you just can't believe how freakn' slow that hour before lunch time goes some mornings then suddenly suddenly you look at that little baby and she's 5 years old and she's blowing you a kiss and looking up at her new kindergarten teacher with those big brown eyes and you think crap, I gotta get on that college savings fund.

all ready to get in the car

Lucy and Buzz Lightyear

walking to the school

she found her locker all by herself

good bye Lucy, be good, I love you!

I stood out in the hall for a few minutes.

And our girl is off to the independance that is kindergarten.

1/2 day ...

2010-08-31T19:11:00.000-06:00

Well the first day of school outfit is carefully laid out. The first day of school hair do is complete, and should last the whole first week. The first day of school back pack is packed. Mama needs a beer. In 14 hours her new life as a elementary student begins.

Here is Lucy the night before kindergarten.

New hairdo and pretty smile.

In other news. Originally I had planned a boring stay at home day for Sunday. Lucy's behavior had other plans. I knew I was going to be in trouble if I stayed home with her much longer. The girl needed to be out and running with other folks to talk to. Enter Lucky:

At the same time on the other side of town a facebook plea went out to the masses. The mother of a certain 4 year old and newborn was left single parenting it for awhile and after a night of a fussy baby and similar bored child antics there was a cry in the daytime ...

So I thought, hey I'll take them both to the zoo. They'll run, they'll be best friends forever (I've read about his love of the ladies), they'll exhaust themselves with giddiness and both of the moms could celebrate.

Poor Lucky. Lucy was most definitely not in any friendly sort of mood and all of his attempts at engaging with her ended up with her screaming at him. He looked so crushed. He tried tickling (and got pushed), he tried singing in her face (got yelled at), he tried holding her hand (she holds no hand). In Lucy's defense she did try to make amends. She tried showing Lucky where the sink was (he already KNEW that), she tried pointing out a prairie dog (he already SAW that). Ahh well, at least 3 daytime hours were killed in the attempt which shortened the day a bit. Maybe they'll meet up again and Lucy will be more receptive to his friendly advances.

5 days

2010-08-27T20:06:00.000-06:00

It's our last weekend before school starts. Crazy. Last night we went to the open house at Lucy's new school. What fun!!!! Lots of cool teachers, great diverse group of families. All at the school because they choose it, they researched it and they got a spot. It's pretty cool. We met Lucy's new teacher, Natalie. She seems really really nice, energetic, a kind encouraging presence. I didn't get to spend a lot of time talking to her but I have a feeling Lucy is going to do well with her guidance.

posted schedule of Lucy's first day. I'll be sitting her on Wednesday

clicking on this photo and imagining what Lucy is up to.

Here she is with a couple of her classmates. Look at how

cute her kindergarten room is!

Lucy and the girl sitting next to her have already

asked for playdates.

she sat down and started reading a book.

she doesn't do this at home.

Here is her very own locker!

She got trained in on how to open it.

she passed her first test!

6 days

2010-08-26T06:23:00.000-06:00

T-6 days until kindergarten. What the? We are getting organized, finding space for order and routine and we are both excited about school starting. Tonight it's open house night at her new (awesome) school. We will meet her kindergarten teacher! Very exciting. Meanwhile we try to focus on the present as much as we can, enjoying our free vitamin D before the sun short bitter cold days begin again.

9 Days ...

2010-08-23T20:00:00.000-06:00

Holy Schmoly. 9 days until kindergarten!!! We are winding down summer in a fast and furious way. Swimming in the back yard while we can, hoping that we are on the last couple days of needing the air conditioning. We have been working our butts off scraping and painting the window trims outside, putting up homemade soffits and facia around the house and fixing bare spots in our yard all in prep for our brand new, free windows that will be installed on Wednesday. We live in a neighborhood that has fix-it funds for lead elimination. I am so excited and while I have small tings of sadness for loosing our beautiful historic windows I am also just happy to have easy to clean, energy efficient and lead free windows all over my house! Hopefully the install goes as planned on Wednesday so that I can get our house put back together and we can kick it and enjoy the rest of summer. Thursday is the open house at Lucy's new school. I am very excited to meet her new teacher. Last night I got an email from her kindergarten teacher explaining the daily schedule, how and what she teaches and the units of study. SO FREAKN' EXCITING!!! Plus the teacher gave the parents her home phone number so that we can connect should we need to. How amazing.

Sorry no photos. Too tired.

Helping a friend look for her daughter's sister

2010-08-22T15:02:00.000-06:00

If you think you can help please leave a comment, I don't have all my ducks in a row interms of contact info for Kerri (Medina's mom) ...

Looking for Eliham/Buscando Eliham

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Kerri

We are looking for Medina’s sister Eliham. We know she was adopted by a family in Spain using the agency IPI. She was relinquished sometime after November, 2007. Eliham would be 5 years old now. She was born in Dessie and their mother is named Workinesh. Their grandfather is Arage and their grandmother is Bayoush.

If you have any information about Eliham, please let me know. I would love to contact her family. Medina misses her sister very much and would love to know where she is.

————–

Estamos buscando Eliham, la hermana biologica de Medina. Sabemos que fue adoptada por una familia en Espana usando el IPI. Fue llevado al orfanto en Noviembre del 2007 o despues. Eliham tendria 5 anos ahora. Nacio en Dessie. Su mama se llama Workinesh. Su abuelo es Arage y su abuela es Bayoush.

Si tienes alguna informacion sobre Eliham, por favor contactame. Me gustaria much tener contacto con su familia. A Medina, le hace mucha pena no saber donde esta su hermana.

14 days

2010-08-18T20:20:00.000-06:00

it's going to be really hard to break her outta the sleeping on the floor of mom's room habit! I think I'll wait until she's in her 2nd week of kindergarten ... which by the way starts in 14 days.

15 days

2010-08-17T18:43:00.000-06:00

15 days until kindergarten. I am really excited. Monday afternoon Lucy and I stopped in to see her new school and met some employees, saw her classroom (they already had Lucille's little areas marked with her cute cute name!), saw the school... got SUPER EXCITED!!! I have lost a lot of my nervousness now that I know she's in a class of wait for it ... 13 ... instead of say 29. 13! Yes 13!

the kids used up most of Lucy's first aid supplies on a poor helpless worm.

We celebrated by going on a quicky one night camping trip with "the boys" and their mom. It's an annual tradition that we almost didn't get to this year so I was glad to be able to do a midworkweek trip. I am completely exhausted, but well stocked up on vitamin D and hopefully last nights insomnia combined with middle of the freezing (in the 40's) night bathroom trips, racoon invasions (not our site), and shivering cold coldness will make for a really good nights sleep tonight.

Nathan stepped up to the plate to help Lucy zip her jacket

seriously. YOU try to get these 4 to look at the camera and smile, all at the same time

                                           a good activity that doesn't take up much packing space?
                                                         rock painting. we leave the painted rocks
                                                            scattered around the site for the next camper
                                                       to discover, or for the rain to wash, whichever comes first

17 days

2010-08-15T20:14:00.000-06:00

17 days until kindergarten. Decided hey why not make it a doozy. We partied hard all day, first at our family reunion and then at Betsy and Eric's wedding. Tomorrow after I get off work we go for a night of camping.

Lucy and our newest family member, Axel

ready to go to the wedding

Lucy and Morgan decided to get married

18 days

2010-08-14T21:01:00.000-06:00

this afternoon Lucy started taking a sour turn, started reminding me of the horrible 3's ... an example of one interaction: I was lounged on the sofa (mistake 1), pretending to not be listening to anything or anyone with Lucy's rock and roll ear protectors (mistake 2) when out of nowhere my 5 yr old barrels down on my stomach full force. I yelped, I sternly told her that she is not to jump on people without warning (like I've sternly told her before) and she says "FINE, FINE, you are STUPID, you are NOT MY FAMILY, I HATE this family" .... and i was left on the sofa with a sore stomach all stupid and apparently childless wondering "what the heck?".

decided that after dinner we were going to have to go somewhere or bad bad things could happen to our sweet sweet relationship.

we dropped in on the Pizza Luce block party, but since Zep was prohibitied (and being naughty) we just walked around the neighborhood.

18 days til kindergarten ...

19 days

2010-08-13T20:50:00.000-06:00

19 days until the big first day of kindergarten. Hard to believe that 5 short years ago I was writing things like this:

No news is just no news Aug 2005

This is not the most exciting time of the adoption process ... It's making me quite mental I must say. The next thing I am waiting for is the letter from US-CIS saying that I can take a baby home ... I expect that in the next couple of weeks. So, basically I am just waiting and doing little projects in preparation. I hung up a couple more things including a lion rug that my aunt gave me, she got it in Ethiopia a long time ago and it looks great hanging in my room. People are also starting to arrange baby showers. This at least gives me a focus. I just want to go and get her! Hopefully very soon I will be able to write some real news here. Stacy

and that 4 short years ago I thought this was blogworthy:

that really bites! Aug 2006

My child is a biter! I know it's nothing to be proud of or excited about, but she uses those teeth so appropriately. Let me clarify ... I am glad she gets mad and feels like she can express herself, and I let her know that biting momma is NOT OK, but deep inside, I feel relief that she'll fight for her right, fight for her right to stay in the pool, fight for her right to eat sand etc. We went to the doctor today to get her ears/nose/throat checked out, and she weighs 19#6oz. Not quite enough to face forward in the carseat. I wish I had something deeply profound to say, but when I am "blogging" it's either after 9pm and I have no brain or I am at work and trying to be quick about things.

three years ago

No more fofee thank you momma August 2007

Isn't that just the most polite way to turn down a sip of foffee? It's true, Lucy gets a couple sips of the morning brew ... I call it bonding time. Daycare might not like to hear this! The other day she turned it down. I have a sneaky suspision that she's been ruined for home brew ever since the picnic weekend where she had a tast of heaven in a paper cup. The Caribou Campfire Mocha.

two years ago

Summers ... August 2008

Even though I work and for the most part summers are status quo regarding our M-F daytime schedule it still feels really wild and crazy this summer in our casa. We are less boxed in and our world is so much bigger. Some times it feels almost out of control. Maybe this is in part what is happening with Lucy at times. There are days when she is calm and peaceful and falls in the normal range of good/bad behaviors but then there are days when she seems "un boxed" in her emotions and behaviors. Like there's a glitch and whoooaaa baby stand back when the glitch kicks in.

Part of me (and I know I'll eat these words soon) longs for winter and the physical boundaries that winter puts in place in Minnesota. I feel like it'll give us a chance to catch our breaths and review all that has happened over the warmer months. Lucy has turned into a kid this summer. Today it occured to me that we just have incredibly easy conversations, its' no effort to understand what she wants and needs. Lucy can understand and accept delayed gratification. She can participate in our daily routine in a way that makes her a partner. It's a lot of fun

and just last year

things and stuff August 2009

It's been a long long week (anyone see a pattern?). Lucy had her last week of summer preschool arts camps. We now piece child-care together until after labor day when we resume our regularly scheduled program. Can you believe that next year at this time I'll be blogging about kindergarden?????? Holy Crap!

Sunday!!!

2010-08-08T19:50:00.000-06:00

What you say??? Stacy is excited about a Sunday evening? Has she had a horrible, awful weekend and does she want time away from Lucy? NO readers NO. I am excited about it being Sunday night because I am on vacation (staycation). Lucy and I are just going to hang and be together Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday - Friday I am going to get some grandma care for Lucy so that I can scrape and paint the outside window trim in preparation for our new free windows (thank you city of minneapolis, hud, Healthy Homes Lead Project!!).

So instead of pouting, cleaning and prepping on this Sunday, Lucy and I headed to the airconditioned chaos of Mall of America. We walked around. We saw a friend. We tried hard to find the giant shark giving out free ride tickets.

In the end I had to buy a pass so Lucy could go on some rides. I couldn't resist. She was disappointed when we didn't run into "free-ride shark man" in the mall but understood that our funds were limited and that we might not go on any rides. I mean, if she would have thrown a fit, or whined and cried, I might have saved our budget.

but really, to deny her this joy? for $9.00 (unlimited rides). I couldn't. Of course, I will be denying us that trip to the movie theater on Tuesday because of today's lack of denial. Oh well. We'll do something free and fun instead. I really wanted to support her good nature.

and i knew she loves the thrill of a good spinny ride!

I really loved that I could be a spectator while she loved the spinny rides.

and the hoppy/droppy rides

and they danced ...

2010-08-05T08:46:00.000-06:00

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