Playplace pictures

What do you do with 3 active kids when it's cold, windy, and dreary outside for days on end?  Take them to one of the many indoor kid's play areas!  Our kids love to go and bounce, roll, slide, throw, and generally have a grand time going crazy in a relatively safe environment.  Here are some pictures of them enjoying themselves!

Tell me you aren't in love with this boy and his smile!!

Givin' some luv to the merry-go-round cow

1...2...3...yep this is probably a stupid thing to do but I'm going to do it anyway!

I prefer the fun but safe way to play

What kid doesn't love balls

The Time-Out Chair

David has continued to do a wonderful job adjusting to our family.  He is getting even more affectionate with us (I probably get 30 kisses a day) and more friendly and out-going with others as he feels more safe and secure here.  I can tell I have another natural extrovert on my hands!  He does have a tendency to put on a show for attention or to get out of doing what he doesn't want.  If I ask him to come to me, he'll shake his head no, then give me a huge squishy-face smile as if that is going to get him off the hook.  Adorable, but not usually effective.  He is also I think planning a career as a soccer player because he can take a fake fall like no one I have ever seen.  Elijah will raise his hand as if to push David over, and David will immediately throw himself on the ground and start wailing as if Elijah had just decked him.  We are working on this.  We are also working on helping David to use words to communicate what he wants instead of "UH UH UH".  He can use words because he will repeat them when we ask, but he is used to just grunting urgently and someone will come run and fetch whatever he is pointing at.  Or if another child is doing something he doesn't like, he shrieks instead of talks.  Now when he wants something we require him to use his words and ask for it.  And if he shrieks unless he's actually in pain he gets a time out and has to go back and talk to whoever he shrieked at.  We're starting to see some results.

I'd say though, that 70% of our energy has gone to helping Elijah in his adjustment.  He has an unfortunate combination of being 2 and having a new brother.  The result is his feeling the need to test every boundary known to man and push every button that his brother has.  It didn't help that in the middle of it all he had a cold and a sore in his mouth that made it so he couldn't suck his pacifier at night.  Prior to David's arrival, we had never used time-out as a discipline method.  But Elijah was so constantly getting into trouble that our traditional methods were no longer appropriate for every instance.  So we created the time-out chair, and I don't even want to add up the number of days of his life that Elijah has spent in that chair over the last 2 weeks (all in 2 minute increments).  And of course, even with the chair, he has to test all of the boundaries of what he can get away with while being in the chair.  Can he sit sideways? Dangle his butt off the edge?  Stick his head through the hole in the back?  Stand up?  Stand on his head?  Slide his legs down so his toes dangle a mere centimeter from the floor but don't actually touch it?  Lay on his back?  His stomach?  You name it, that kid has tried it.  I eventually became so entertained by his creativity that I tried to take pictures of the different poses.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get some of my favorites because as soon as he sees that I'm looking at him he immediately goes back to sitting the way he knows he's supposed to.  But for your entertainment, here are a few of his many different time-out chair poses. :)

Look, I'm sitting so nicely and even smiling!

Ha!  Mom thought she had caught me standing up, but I sat down just in time!

It was really all David's fault and I have to be on my knees because my bottom is too sore from sitting

 Just trying to see how the world would look if I were Sidney in time-out

I can see my toes!

Christmas at the car wash

A couple weekends ago we went back to visit our friends at the car wash to have a Christmas party.  I'm pretty sure it was the first Christmas party any of the kids had ever had.  We had no idea how many kids to expect since the times we had gone in the past there were at most 3-4 kids that really interacted with us.  Well much to our delight, there were 11 or 12 kids crammed into one small room to celebrate with us!

We brought a small Christmas tree and some ornaments, and it was a great hit!  Everyone wanted to help decorate, and the tree kept toppling from all the enthusiasm.  We sang some Christmas songs in Chinese and talked about the tradition of giving gifts.  Then we let each kid choose one of the small gifts we had brought and they were so excited!  Afterwards we used some of our nativity figurines to tell them the story of Jesus' birth and had an impromptu English lesson including such very useful words as "angel", "camel", and "wise men".

It was so fun to have a small opportunity to bring joy to these families!  It was encouraging that so many came, and it made us feel like the community is beginning to realize that we really do care and are committed to helping as we can.  More English lessons are in the future!

Decorating the tree chaos

The boys liked to pick up Elijah :)  I promise the tree did look better in the end

Santa Jeff leading Christmas carols

Whenever not being hauled around, Elijah just sat there and stared at a comic book of his current obsession, a Chinese cartoon character called Happy Sheep

But he was hauled around a lot :)

Christmas Eve

I've figured out part of my problem.  I actually think about sitting down and writing on my blog, but all of the pictures are on the camera or my phone, and I can't write without pictures.  Because honestly, no one really wants to read what I write.  They just want to see pictures of the kids.  So I need to suck it up and figure out how to download pictures myself so I'm not waiting for the once-a-month download from Jeff.  If I'm lucky.

So anyhow, you will probably get a bunch of posts in a row that are all old.  Deal with it.  The first installment in this series is our Christmas Eve.  We had 2 other families join us for a potluck dinner, nativity play put on by the children, and a time of singing and prayer.  Considering that David had been in the hospital the previous weekend and Elijah had been sick and CRANKY all week, we weren't sure it would be a very merry Christmas weekend.  But everyone was feeling better and we actually had a great time!

When I told Miriam that we were going to do a nativity play, she could hardly stand the wait until the big day.  She obsessed over who might play what part (she would be Mary of course).  She worried about whether everyone would have costumes.  She fretted that there wouldn't be enough kids to play all the parts.  And when I suggested that the adults could play some parts if need be, she replied, "Well, but if the adults play some of the parts they will have to wear costumes too!  They're not allowed to say just because they are grown up they don't have to wear costumes!"  When the big night arrived, she was relieved to discover that she had the uncontested role of Mary, since the other two girls were much more interested in being angels.

Here's my play-by-play of the production:

Mary is standing meekly in the room.
Sydney Angel with great animation and vigor: YOU WILL HAVE A BABY AND NAME HIM JESUS!!!!!  Now what else am I supposed to say?
Enter Joseph (aka Jesh): Time to go to Bethlehem.  Over here.
Mary: No, over here!
Joseph:  No here!
Joseph's mommy:  You all go over there!
Mary and Joseph get settled and the baby is born.
Mary in a very distressed voice:  Help, I can't get this swallowing to work! (swaddling in case you couldn't guess).
Mary's mom comes to the rescue and then tries to herd shepherd Elijah onto the carpet.
Shepherd Elijah:  No thank you! No thank you!
Mom:  Elijah, you get over there right now and make a sheep sound!
Shepherd Elijah (none too happy):  Baaaa
Angel Bree:  Behold, I bring you good tidings _______
Angel Sydney:  No!!  I'm the angel!!
Sydney mom:  Sydney, there were lots of angels in the story.  You are one angel, and Bree can be one too.
Angel Sydney:  Oh!  I didn't know there was more than one!
Angel Bree (with a warning look to angel sydney):  Behold! I bring you good news of great joy!  Today in Bethlehem the savior is born!
Shepherd Elijah is trying to climb into the manger and being hauled out by mama while Mary shrieks at him.
Wise man Stephen enters carrying a gift for baby Jesus.  Shepherd Elijah promptly snatches it away and wise man starts crying.  Wise man's daddy tries to offer a substitute gift, but no doing.  So the original precious gift is retrieved from the now sullen shepherd and it is handed to Mary by the wise man.  The shepherd then tosses baby Jesus out of the manger and climbs in again in time for the closing photo of the production.  All in all a pretty successful play I think! :)

The few seconds when Elijah actually wore his costume

Mary and Joseph - what a cute couple!

Mary and the baby.  She was so very happy for this moment!

And all were there to celebrate the birth of our Saviour!

Singing carols with Jason on the guitar

Abba and his little man

We are so blessed to have such a great community of friends!

I guess it was a long night. :)  Mostly this picture is on here just to embarrass Angie :)

Miriam's first ballet lesson

For her birthday this year, Grandpa Mike and Grandma Lee Anne bought her a ballet tutu and a pair of ballet shoes since she has recently decided that she wants to be a ballet dancer when she grows up.  And very fortunately for us, we found a place nearby that offers lessons for a little over $5 per lesson!

At the moment, the ballet class she is in is mostly girls between 6-9 years of age who have all been taking ballet classes for at least a couple of years.  Supposedly they are soon going to be starting a class for 3-4 year olds who are just beginning that Miriam can switch to.  But this class she attended is also the only one with other English-speaking kids, so we'll see how well she likes her new class.

I was actually quite impressed by how well she did all considering.  The teacher didn't really explain what the exercises were or how to do them since all the other kids were obviously very familiar with them.  So Miriam just sort of joined in as best as she could.  I was proud of her for having a good attitude and trying to hard!

She will now proudly tell anyone who will listen that she is now a real ballet dancer.  Yes you are my sweet little girl!

First week home!

Yesterday marked one week home with David.  Actually, it seems hard to believe that it has only been one week.  It is starting to just feel normal to have him with us, and that makes it feel like he's been here for a long time.

When we arrived home last Thursday, it was a rough homecoming.  David was great through the travel, but got really tired and sleepy in the taxi on the way home from the airport.  By the time we got to our neighborhood and stopped by to pick up the two other kids, I think he was overly tired.  And Elijah was happy to see us, but I think overwhelmed by us being home and a new person in his house.  He cried the whole walk back to our place.

When we walked in the door, our dog Sidney enthusiastically greeted us, and David started screaming and threw himself on the floor.  He likes dogs from a distance, but if she so much as looked at him he would start shrieking in terror.  We tried to put the kids down for overdue naps, and Miriam and Elijah went down fine, but David started sobbing and screaming when we tried to lay him down.  I held him on my lap on our bed for about 20 minutes while he cried until he feel asleep.  We then sent the dog to a neighbor's house for a few days, figuring we didn't need that added trauma right away.

After naps everyone was more stable and we had a fun afternoon and evening.  David has been quick to get comfortable enough in our home to explore and I think start to feel some ownership and sense of home here.  He is definitely much more relaxed and "himself" when he is home.  He is continuing to warm up to his siblings more every day, and they are starting to get used to him as well.  The transition has definitely been the hardest on Elijah.  He has been more cranky and more prone to bouts of disobedience and frustration than usual.  The poor guy has also had diarrhea since we came home, though the medicine we took him to the doctor for does seem to help.  Miriam has done really well and has been a sweet big sister.

Here are some of the highlights from our first week:

Places we have gone:

1.  Church!  David enjoyed the music and was happy and content until he saw the bread at communion.  He wasn't happy he couldn't have any, and Jeff took him down to the nursery for a distraction.  Jeff stayed and David and Elijah happily played together.  Jeff even took all 3 to lunch by himself afterwards since I was speaking at a women's brunch and they did great!

2.  An indoor kid's playplace.  They had a ball pit, trampoline, play kitchen, mini merry-go-round, etc.  At first David just wanted to be held and watch, but after a while he was right there in the thick of it with the others climbing and running around.  Miriam was sweet helping him figure out how to climb through the play structure.

3.  A kid's climbing wall/ropes course at a local mall to celebrate a friend's birthday.  Miriam and Elijah got harnessed up and did a lot of climbing.  Elijah insisted on wearing a pink climbing helmet as that is his current favorite color. :)  David was again content to watch for a while, but eventually wanted his turn trying to go through the ropes course.  They all had a blast!

4.  Doctors office visit mostly because Elijah kept having diarrhea, but also to get a general physical for David.  Everything looks great and everything they checked came out normal!

Things I am learning about David:

1.  He is a neat freak.  He doesn't like his hands dirty and is meticulous in keeping his fingers wiped while eating and the table free of any crumbs.  He LOVES to help tidy up and put things away.  Jeff is in heaven :)

2.  He is super smiley and playful.  He almost always has a smile on his face, and loves to make silly faces at you to get you to laugh.  He likes to be held and a little rough housing/tickling, but not nearly as much as Elijah does.

3.  He is not nearly so daring as his little brother.  He doesn't jump off of things move so quickly.  I think maybe part personality and part lack of muscle mass to do it all.  He is a full 6 centimeters shorter than Elijah and ways much less than he does.  Elijah is just way more solid than he is.  But, he did finally make it onto the growth chart at his physical!  He is now up to the 3rd precentile for height and weight!

4.  Whenever he gets upset at all, he immediately throws himself backward onto the floor and starts either wailing or moaning, depending on the severity of his distress.  He did it a lot the first few days, but we started sitting near him and playing with something without paying direct attention to him.  The first few times he'd stay upset for a little while, but now he rarely actually falls to the floor, and if he does it doesn't usually last longer than a minute.  I think he's learned that it doesn't get him what he wants and isn't nearly as fun as just moving on and doing something else.

5.  He is potty-trained, but has recently started telling us every 5 minutes that he has to go.  I'm guessing it's a ploy to control our attention.  We've learned to distinguish a little between when he says he has to go but it doesn't seem truly urgent and when he acts more like it's a real need.  But still an area to try and figure out more of what to do.

6.  He eats pretty much anything except broccoli and spinach.  He, however, is the slowest eater I have ever seen.  I thought Miriam was slow, but nope, she is practically a speed eater in comparison.  I think it is because he has to pause so often to clean his hands and the table.  And he is never really "done".  If I kept giving him food, he would just keep eating it.

7.  He continues to be a great sleeper.  The first couple nights home he woke up a couple of times crying and wanting to be held for a minute, but since then he hasn't woken up at night.  Which is much more than I can say for my other two kiddos who pretty much always wake up every night.  But fortunately none of them ever wake up each other.  David does have a tendency to wake up earlier than the other 2, but has done an ok job of being willing to stay in bed until at least reasonably close to the 7:30 wake up time the other kids have.

8.  David is loud.  He doesn't really talk, he yells.  This is not an endearing trait to me.  With three kids now, I often get overwhelmed at the volume of my house as all three kids are usually wanting to tell me something at the same time.  David sounds like he is from Brooklyn when he talks to me because he calls me "MA!!!" (think stereotypical New York accent to that and you've got him nailed).  One of the toughest things for me this week has been trying to not be overwhelmed by the chaos going on around me.  It is really hard to channel them all into anything resembling an organized activity, and the morning time seems to be especially chaotic.

9.  David is extremely generous for a 2 year old.  He loves to find things to give to the other kids, and if one of them asks him for something he has, he is almost always willing to hand it over with a smile.  I was really surprised by this, as I assumed that life in an orphanage would not be a good environment for learning to share.  But he genuinely seems to enjoy watching the other kids smile when he can find something to give them.

10.  He loves baths, but only if there are no bubbles.  And preferrably no siblings either.

11.  He is fascinated by things he can either stack or sort, and is impressively talented at doing both.

12.  His favorite activity is running around naked with his siblings.  Seriously, why is it that small children are 10 times happier when they are naked?  Almost all of our pictures of the 3 kids together all laughing and playing are naked pictures.  They have a game they now play every night, where they go into a room, close the door, and then throw it open and run out screaming "chu lai! (come out)".  They do this over and over again, naked of course.  I tried to convince Miriam they could play it clothed as well, but she said, "Mama, if we had clothes on it would take all the joy right out of it.  How could we be crazy with pants on?!"  So there you have it.

13.  We adopted the sweetest and most amazing little boy in all of China.  Every one who meets him comments on how happy and content he seems.  The other day I was holding him and he threw his arms around my neck, gave me a big hug, and then pressed his face into my cheek.  Being Elijah's mom, my immediate thought was "he's going to bite me!" and I tried to jerk my face away.  But he was actually giving me my first kiss. :)  I love that precious little boy of mine!

Sorry I only have pictures from the first couple of days since the rest are still on the camera.  Hopefully some more will be coming soon!

One of my favorite pictures! 

Miriam trying for a kiss when she is first meeting David.  He's not so enthused.

Chilling together watching a video after nap the first day.

We woke up our first morning home to a snow day!

Decorating the Christmas tree

Yep, Miriam is decorating in her ballet outfit, since she is now a real ballet dancer

Boys having fun playing together

Our last day

It’s our last day in Zhengzhou, and we are very ready to get home to Miriam and Elijah and real life.  David continues to astound us and show us more of his little personality each day.  The first couple of days you would have thought we have a relatively quiet and reserved little boy.  But last night after his bath, more of his true nature started to shine through!

He was laughing, mimicking our speech, and roughhousing with Baba.  He got a very mischievous gleam in his eye and started testing his boundaries right and left.  In particular, he decided to start trying to hit and pinch at us.  Not very hard, and not at all in anger, but I think just as a release of pent-up energy and as a way to get a response.  We tried to consistently and firmly tell him no while re-directing him.  It worked for the most part, but I can tell we will have a ways to go in helping him slowly give up some bad habits in that department.

We found a small kid’s playroom in our hotel with some rocking horses and a ball pit.  David entertained himself for over an hour by stacking some buckets we had brought and putting balls in and out of the buckets.  He’s such a thorough and focused little guy, with amazing problem solving skills.  I was amazed at how advanced his ability was to figure out how to put the buckets together and organize things.

I’d say overall he is developmentally at about where an average 18-20 month old would be even though he’s almost 28 months old.  His gross motor skills, physical size, and speech are all at about that level.  His fine motor skills are more advanced, as well as his reasoning ability.  I haven’t yet observed anything that causes me any long-term concern in terms of his development.

Our guide took Jeff back to the notary office this afternoon to pick up David’s passport and other translated documents.  Everything is in order and we have everything we need to fly home tomorrow morning!  We are planning to leave the hotel at 7am, and should be back home in time for lunch with our other kiddos! 

I finally got some pictures of our little man coming out of his shell.  Enjoy!

Happily and intently playing with his buckets!

We call this the "bulldog" look.  It's one of his many smiles!

Aloof

Happy!!

Mischievous

Silly

He loves his bath!