Ordinary Time

Today was K.'s birthday and quite a day he had. We started off with a little paper mache. Having finished the Civil War, we are moving onto a unit on geography, using a resource that ties art lessons into the study of the different continents. Yesterday we talked about positive and negative space and did chalk drawings of the earth and today we started making paper mache globes. I've never thought that paper mache was rocket science, but judging from our efforts today, I guess it's trickier than I originally thought. But K. was happy because it was something he could join in on, even if it meant having to change his clothes because of the messiness of the project. I am amused that the ingredients for the paper mache paste are nearly exactly the same as for hard tack . Following lunch, because it was such a nice day and because most of our usual weekly commitments were cancelled due to Holy Week, we headed out to the zoo. It turns out I was not the only one with this ...

I've been doing a lot of sewing today...well, the last three days, actually. The first item I've finished is this skirt for A. A chose the pattern and the fabric. In case you can't tell from the picture, it's a black skirt with an embroidered design all over it. It is a faux suede, so feels very, um, suede-y. I had my doubts about it, but it was incredibly easy to work with. A. loves it and it definitely fits her personality. The second thing I finished today (short of buttons which I still have to buy) is this dress for L. It's not really clear in the picture, but the skirt is made from 6 individual petal shapes. I have a second one in pink all cut-out for G.; I just need to make it. The dress also has a petal hat that goes with it. They are both cut-out, but I'm not sure I can get the hats made in time for Sunday. I am also almost done with a new summer baby shoe, but that will have to wait to be finished until I get the babies' Easter dresses u...

"Oh no, Mommy! She's leaking!" shrieks TM as we are settling into our school work. My first thought was to wonder how on earth TM knew the baby's diaper was leaky and why it would warrant the dire yelling. It's not as though a leaky diaper is unusual around here. But then I noticed the river of liquid pouring out of the pantry where L. was sitting. My second thought was to panic that somewhere a pipe had burst and it was pouring water into the pantry. But then A. noticed that L. had grabbed the gallon of white vinegar and tipped it over. And because the lid hadn't been properly closed, it was now pouring vinegar onto the baby and all over the floor. We rescued the baby, boys ran to get supplies, and M., B., and I managed to mop up the mess while A. and P. attended to an understandably upset L. My kitchen floor is much cleaner now, though there is the definite scent of vinegar that accosts you when you enter the house. We aren't quite into the mobil-baby ro...

If you happen to have a room that isn't used very much because the lack of insulation makes it either very, very cold or very, very warm, and you put the leftover Christmas gingerbread cake in said room because there is no space in either refrigerator and the room is just as cold...make a note to yourself to go and retrieve the cake in a timely manner. Otherwise, one of your children will discover the cake (or what used to be a cake) several months later and then you will have the world's worst science experiment sitting on your kitchen table (under a cake cover, thankfully) while you decide how to dispose of it. Be very glad that my camera's memory card is filled right now.

A few days ago, a fellow adoptive mom blogged about some language issues her son was having with English . (Her son and TM are about the same age, both from Vietnam and came home within months of each other.) After reading her post, I've been thinking a lot about TM's language and wondering if things I thought were either quirkiness or a behavioral issue are more of a language issue instead. Then, today after talking with the P. family mom about something her adopted daughter does, it makes me wonder even more. The issue is crazy questions. We discovered that both of our children ask us crazy questions...often involving the obvious. Such as, "Are you wearing that sweater today?" as the sweater is being put on, or, "What are you doing, making a sandwich?" as the sandwich is most obviously being made. These are questions that just by observing, the answer should be plain, and none of my other children do this. (Well, sometimes, but not to the same exten...

I've been asked to share what things we have done to encourage good table manners in our home. This is one area where having older children makes things so much easier. For the last several children, table manners have been learned much more by observation than anything. We still train our younger children, but so much is just picked-up by watching their older brothers and sisters. So, to really answer the question, I have to think back to when I only had small children and try to remember what we did. We started out with just a few rules: 1. We eat sitting down. 2. We keep our food on our plates. 3. We do not complain about our food. If a child didn't follow one of these rules, we decided they must be done with dinner and cleared their plate. When I asked my olders if they remember anything specific about learning table manners, M. specifically mentioned having her plate removed. (Though with M., I'm pretty sure we only had to do it once.) The key is to do it...

And our lives will never be the same. At least just one baby (L.) is moving at the moment, but G. is not far behind. G. does scooch around on her bottom a bit, though, so she still needs to be watched. Here is a short video of L. doing her version of crawling. I suggest you turn the sound down because it's really loud. A. was trying to attract L.'s attention to get her to move across the floor; I'm not sure why L. didn't move quickly the other way. In other news, K. had his appointment with the plastic surgeon of his cleft team today. We had some very good news. She confirmed that there is nothing wrong with K.'s palate and is not affecting his speech in any way, plus he has all of his teeth. Because of these things and because the cleft in his tooth ridge is small, at this moment, he is a good candidate for the growth hormone injection for repairing the tooth ridge and perhaps we will avoid having to harvest bone from his hip to do the repair. We go back in a year,...