Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays! We've recently had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends. So much love. So many presents. So much has happened.

I'll write more later about what's happened over the past week and a half, but before I forget to mention it, we did NOT get that house we put an offer on. There were multiple offers and another offer was accepted. So we're still house hunting. Blah.

Things My Kids Say

* Lately Henry is fond of yelling, "MA!" when he's calling me. There's something really funny about it. Ma. I never imagined myself a "Ma."

* When Clark drops something he says, "Oh, man!" Adorable.

* For some reason whenever Elise says thank you to me lately, she pronounces it "skank you." Am I to take it as an insult? Is she that clever? Yes, I believe she is. At least, it's within the realm of possibility. But I know how I can see if she knows what she's saying. I will say, "No, no. Skank YOU!" and see how she reacts. That'll get her.

Offer!

We're going to put an offer on a house. Fingers crossed! It needs some work, but it's much bigger than our house now. It's a foreclosure in a nice, safe neighborhood that's zoned for good schools. I hope I hope I hope we get it.

As an aside, and with regard to the word "offer"...

She offered her honor, I honored her offer. All night long I was on her and off her.

I read that in a dirty magazine once. For some reason I never forgot it.

Today's Notes

* Elise is sick and feverish today. I hope everyone in the house is healthy by Christmastime. Probably won't happen, but I hope it will.

* I ordered some new glasses today. Seeing glasses, not cool sunglasses or trendy hipster glasses with flat lenses. I need glasses to see far away. I've had my current glasses for I don't even know how many years. The thing is that my current glasses fall off my head whenever I lean forward. This was pretty much a non-issue before I had a pack of children, but now I spend half of my day bending down to wipe a nose, tie a shoe, zip a jacket, retrieve a toy, etc, etc, etc. My glasses literally fall off my face about 20 times a day. Hopefully my new glasses will fit my head better.

* We might have found a house to put an offer on. Husband and I will make a decision tomorrow if we want to go for it.

More House Hunting

Spent this past weekend house hunting again. I think we're getting warmer. I hope.

My Baby Teenager

Elise calls the blue teddy bear that she got on Adoption Day by the name Blueberry. This morning as we were getting ready to take Henry to school, Elise stomps up to me.

"Mommy. Can I take Blueberry with me?"

"Yes."

"Mooooooooommy! WHY?! Why can't I take Blueberry?"

"You can."

Blank stare.

"Yes, Elise. You can take Blueberry with you. Yes."

Blank stare.

Finally she huffs and then turns and stomps off.

If this is how she acts when she's two, I can't even imagine what she'll be like when she's 14. Hopefully by that point she'll have continued to mature and she'll act more like a 40 year old. Fingers crossed.

A Few Notes

* Every time Henry sees a picture of Tinkerbell he exclaimes, "It's Elise!"

* Clark refuses to eat lately unless he's feeding himself. You can take the fork or spoon from him and put the food onto the utensil, but he must put the utensil into his own mouth. Yay for being independent. Boo for every meal now taking twice as long.

* Elise often makes up her own songs. She was free-style rapping in the back of the van the other day. It went like this: "Bugs are hurting me/ bugs are burning me/ punching and running and running so much/ punching and running and running to lunch..." Not bad for a two year old.

* Poor Georgia is all congested from catching a cold. First time she's snored since she's had her tonsils removed.

Yuck Day

It was cold and rainy today. Georgia got sent home from school with a fever of 101 degrees. I feel like crap. I think Elise feels like crap, too, because she whined ALL DAY.

I'm ready for tomorrow. Next.

Three Blind Mice

Clark's new favorite song is "Three Blind Mice." Of course, his little 14 month old baby mouth can't perfectly enunciate all of the sounds to properly sing the song, but he has the tune just right and it's pretty obvious what he's singing. Even though he says "eee bine my" your brain immediately recognizes it as "three blind mice."

He likes morbid songs, I've noticed. "Ring Around the Rosy" and "Three Blind Mice." Weirdo.

Busy Weekend

Whew! What a weekend. We were house hunting. We've decided to put the house we own now up for rent and look for another home to buy that is closer to our family. We've been preapproved for a second mortgage. Now we just have to find a house that we like. No luck this weekend.

Scraped Knees and Mommy Milk

* Clark got his first scraped knees today. Fell down while walking in to pick up Henry from school. The scrapes weren't too bad and he didn't cry for too long. That's why Mommy carries Neosporin in her diaper bag.

* I've been trying to get Clark to quit nursing non-stop during the day. He's been nursing a lot lately and I want to get him on more of a schedule. This afternoon Clark signed and said the word "milk," but instead of nursing him I pointed to his sippy cup and told him, "You can have that milk." He yelled, "NO!" I said, "Yes. Have your milk in your sippy cup." He yelled, "NO!" So I said, "Do you want me to put juice in your sippy cup?" He looked at me, calmly said "no," and then jammed his index finger into my boob and yelled, "THAT!"

Henry's First Cleaning at the Dentist

Henry had his first cleaning at the dentist's office today. He's had lots of other visits to the dentist for check-ups and fluoride treatments and that sort of thing, but this was the first time they scraped his teeth with that metal hook and used the electric toothbrush in his mouth. He was scared at first, but he settled in quickly and he did awesome. Once again, I was told what wonderful teeth he has. He does. Very healthy and nice looking. My cutie pie.

Word Explosion

Clark is having his first language explosion. Words, words, words. I've had several strangers lately comment on how clearly he speaks and what big words he uses. I was in the waiting room of the speech therapist's office the other day, looking at a book with Clark. A lady walked in the door as he was pointing out a "ro-bit!" (robot), and I thought she might have a heart attack, she was so excited about his language capabilities. Also, many people have noticed how he answers yes and no questions accurately with his cute little "yah" and "nah" and I've had a lot of people comment on it within the past few weeks.

One thing I especially love is that lately he calls frogs "ribbits." I don't know why, but it melts my heart.

You Have No Idea How Much I Lub You

Tonight Clark waddled over to me, wrapped his chubby little baby arms around my neck and said, "I lub eww."

So that's it. My life is complete. I have heard all of my children tell me they love me. *happy mommy tears*

Scary Santa

Today we took the kids to meet up with Susannah and have pictures done with the mall Santa. The kids were terrified of Santa Claus. Which is probably good, right?

Here, sit on this fat stranger-man's lap and smile.

Um, no. Not cool, Mom.

We made it work. Eventually. After some tears and lots of reassurances. I only pushed the issue because Henry and Georgia's big sister was there and everyone wanted their picture taken together. I'm hoping that the importance of having the family photo as a keepsake outweighs the terror that occurred leading up to the photo being taken.

Strange First Impressions

I have had many unusual encounters with strangers who discover that I am a foster or adoptive parent and then tell me some REALLY personal stuff about themselves. I guess they feel that I will be somehow more sympathetic or understanding or knowledgeable about their circumstance. Perhaps they don't meet many people who they feel might be able to relate to their own life story. I have had complete and total strangers tell me:

* His older brother adopted him after his parents died.

* She lost custody of her oldest three kids because she was in and out of jail and making lots of bad decisions. She now has custody of her two youngest kids, and she gets to see the oldest three regularly.

* She lost custody of her son because she is homeless and has a drug problem. She's pregnant now.

* She became pregnant after she was raped. She put that daughter up for adoption because her rapist was threatening to hurt her and her family if she didn't do it. It was a closed adoption. It was years ago, but she still thinks about her daughter all of the time.

* Husband and wife have been waiting over four years for a match for an international adoption. They're losing hope that it will ever happen.

* His youngest two siblings were placed in foster care and later adopted. He never heard from them again.

Seriously, what do you say to those things? Those deeply personal things? I just try to be supportive. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that. It must have been terrible," or "That must have been really hard. I'm glad to hear that things are getting better for you" are becoming my standard lines. How bizarre that I even have standard lines for this kind of encounter. This I-don't-know-you-but-I'm-laying-bare-my-deepest-sadness-and-regret kind of encounter.

I do hear happy stories, too. People who smile and say, "I'M adopted! I love seeing other families like mine. Good for you guys!" Honestly, those are mostly younger women. Teenagers and 20-somethings. I like those kinds of encounters best.