Kites and Chatter

Been kite-makin' season here... John has tried several kite patterns/designs and has finally come up with the "perfect" kite... and he's made several. Evidently tagboard and dowel rods are the best combination. He's tried garbage bags, tissue paper, wrapping paper, plastic bags, etc. But, tagboard is the winner. We've had lots of kids in the yard watching us with the kites, and asking to take turns. It's been really fun!

Yesterday John had one of the kites flying and a bird actually landed on his kitestring! We couldn't believe it! It didn't stay there long, since the string was too mobile for its liking, but we were all pretty amused.

Liana has been sucking her lips lately and has clown-red lips. A friend recommended Udder Balm, and though we've slathered it on her, it still hasn't deterred her from sucking them anyway. The more irritated they get, the more they drive her nuts and she has to suck them. Any suggestions how to get her to stop? Or how to heal them quickly? The spring winds haven't helped her in the slightest, plus if she's remotely stressed out, she really goes at 'em. The last photo I posted of the kids shows her sore lips, but it wasn't as obvious that day. (Come to think of it, they were also sore on Easter). She also sucks/nibbles her fingertips. Any ideas???

Adam has been enjoying his new stature, and has been on a "lets shake hands as hard as I can" kick. The elderly folks at church are not impressed with this new trick, and one has even asked me to ask him to stop. We have. But he has the memory of a gold fish, and his impulsiveness takes over when he thinks of something "fun." So, I guess we just keep reminding. He's also gotten to the point where he doesn't want to hang out with just other little kids any more. He's been preferring talking to adults lately. Fine with us, though he is a chatterbox and has a tendency to uh, wear on peoples' patience with his non-stop chatter.

Speaking of chatter, there has been a lot of talk recently on my "older kids adoption support group" about how chattery our kids are. I hadn't really connected it to being adoption-related, and perhaps it isn't in our kids' case. All three of our kids are extroverted people-persons, which are chatty anyway, but Adam is our nonstop chatterer about anything and everything.

Someone in our group mentioned how many questions their kids ask. Adam isn't really our question-asker, just our chatterer. Liana is the Question Queen. She will ask questions about EVERYTHING. The example on the Older Kids group was that their kids will ask who is driving in the car in the other lane, and then be frustrated when their parents didn't know. That's Liana. She has asked us countless times who "those people" are in those other cars. She seems completely floored when we don't know.

Part of her constant questioning I'm sure has to do with her love of attention; if she's asking us questions, then we have to be talking to her. Doesn't matter what the thing is she's asking about... She just needs to be in control of the conversation. She's had very few things in her life happen to her that have been within her control, and I suppose this is one way of taking some of that control back. Someone else in our group said that their psychologist told them that as the kids are adjusting to their new life/reality, they are getting bombarded with gazillions of "error" messages in their brains, and need constant clarification and reinforcement of their new reality. Maybe that's it too. Probably it's a combination of all of the above. Who knows.

Whatever it is with the older two, Aleksa seems to be spared the brunt of any chatter/question problems, even though she too is an extrovert. (How did two mega INtroverts like me and John wind up with such EXtroverted kiddos?!)

Anyway, that's what's been going through my head lately!

Pic

Thought you'd like to see this one. Well, at least Grandma will! ;O)

Enjoy!

Icky

Well, she might have been driving me nuts today, but I have to admit, she's a riot. Here's our most recent conversation:

Liana: "Mama, look, I gave myself an icky!"

Me: "You did what?"

Liana: "I sucked on my arm and I gave myself an icky!"

Me: "That's icky alright..."

Number 2 Problems

Oops.

So, school hasn't run all that smoothly today, and after lunch I had to vent to John on IM that I've been having a rough time with one of the kiddos...

But, instead of asking him if he was there first, I just launched into my troubles: "Fisher, I've been having problems with Number 2 today." And then wrote a bunch of lines about what our Number 2 has been doing around here...

Well, John was actually having a meeting at his computer. He said all they saw was my first line.... Which they may have taken as me having diarrhea.

Great.

Keeps me humble.

Happy Easter!

Fun day! We've got a little sugar high from our Easter candy, but we're happy! ;O)

John's mom made the girls some Easter dresses, and saved the hemming for me, since she couldn't make the "hem" decision without the girls in front of her. She mailed the dresses this last week, and as I've been extra tired with all the goings-on around here, I put it off... Until 5:00 a.m. this morning! (I'm extra tired now today too! Wonder why!) ;O)

It was worth it though... The girls looked great, and Grandma came through with a new shirt and a "real" tie for Adam too. This is his first tie-it-yourself tie. Very proud boy over here. Had to grab the video camera as John gave the first "here's-how-you-tie-a-tie" tutorial.

There was a scrumptuous breakfast served at church this morning... Absolute gourmet delight. De-Lish smorgesborg of yummies. Praline french toast, two egg casseroles, cinnamon rolls, caramel rolls, fresh fruit. Num. (Yes, even the eggies were yummy. Since I'm a mommy now, I've had to learn to like 'em. At least the kinds that aren't "straight" eggs!)

It was nice to have extra visitors today at church too. Interestingly, one of our visitors was Jewish! We had a communion service too, so on top of hearing a Resurrection message, she really got to see a lot. Hope she returns... I'd love to pick her brain on a lot of things. I love talking to different "types" of people... (You've probaby picked that up about me by now!) We midwesterners tend to be rather, uh, plain. (You know, crock-pot cooker types who only use salt and pepper for seasoning!) (*yawns*)

We spent Easter dinner with a few other families from church. Those of us without family in town all got together. There were probably 15 of us, and was it ever nice. It was a bummer for us to be away from our families "back home" today, but it was really nice to still have a big shin-dig to go to today. I think today was a record-breaking day for the number of recipes I wanted to and/or did ask for! Everything was delicious all day long. (Speaking of good ones, I found a yummy banana pudding dessert recipe that I brought to dinner: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Pudding-IV/Detail.aspx (Don't you just love the All Recipes website?)

Ok, I've totally rambled and wandered off topic, but that's the day, and I don't want it lost! If I don't write it down, it's Poofed in three days flat; right out of my memory banks!

Oh bummer. That totally reminds me of something else I don't want to forget, but don't want to mortify my daughter about some day... Big stuff though, nonetheless... *debates with herself whether or not to post this, but remembers that Liana said, "Oh, Mama, ya gotta put this on your blog!"*

*debates some more knowing that Liana really has no clue what my blog is all about, but just that I write stuff in it that I don't want to forget, and that Grandma can read it...*

Well, here we go.

This weekend I bought Liana her first um, You Know What for under her shirts. She was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited. We came home and she marched right in her room and tried it on. I found out later that she had it on backwards. It wasn't doing her Any Good At All where it needed to, but her shoulder blades were completely discreet, lemme tellya. *wink* I won't tell you how long and hard I laughed at her when she showed me that. (Don't worry, once she realized it, she was laughing hysterically too!)

And then this morning, I found out she even slept in the thing. I'm sure that affinity will wear off Fast! Such sweet mother-daughter memories made over that! But alas, she's growing up way too fast... :O(

April Showers

Liana and Leksa were talking about the rain the other day. Liana was pretty convinced there'd be flowers poking up from the soil any second... She told her sister, "April showers may bring flowers."