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!