Ordinary Time

(With apologies to Walt Whitman and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) O ducklings! my ducklings! your water do you fling. The shavings in your pen are damp, there's poop           on everything. Your food is wet, I had just set, your box           all neat and clean. Alas, before my very eyes, in seconds its           untidy.                     But O ducks! ducks! ducks!                     O the light brown fluff you wear                     And the little bills and webby feet                                  seem to make it fair! Beneath the warm and heated plate Twenty chickens peep. They're small and cute and stay up late, Not often do they sleep. ...

I'm working very hard at not catching whatever bug laid TM and K. out last week. Plus, I got to drive into the city through two near blizzards, making for very slow travel times. The crazy thing was it was sunny for most of the day at my house. Needless to say, I don't have a lot of energy left for original content. What I want to do instead, is to create a master list of many of my past adoption posts. I tend to write the same things over and over, mainly because I see the same issues arise over and over with each set of new adoptive parents. This will save me time in writing things out. So, if you are a potential adoptive parent and want to learn about this life you are considering, or if you are a new adoptive parent and feel as though the floor has completely fallen out beneath you, take a look at some of these past posts. First, all of my posts from my Adoption 101 ongoing series: Indiscriminate Affection Free Time Prepare to be Humbled Glitches The Process File...

Well, another reader, actually. L. spent the weekend reading her first Boxcar Children book, finishing it before dinner on Sunday. I love seeing new readers sitting with their nose in a chapter book. She has announced that she will read the second one tomorrow, but then started to fret about what she would read after that. (There must be some genetic component to that specific worry.) I happily announced that we had dozens of Boxcar Children books. She shouldn't run out for weeks and weeks. All the children in the room then started disagreeing with me. "No, we don't have those books." "I think we used to." "A. said you gave them all away." "I haven't seen those books." And then I begin to have vague recollections of the massive purging that was happening this time last year. You remember... when I was trying to downsize our belongings by half? Well, since this time last year all three girls were far, far away from reading indepen...

I think one of the most difficult aspects to being a new adoptive parent is that you have no perspective. I actually think this is what makes raising your first or second toddler difficult as well. When you have limited experience with some aspect of parenting, it's difficult to see beyond the current issue right in front of you, whether it is the toddler wanting to do every single thing themselves... at an excruciatingly slow pace, or a newly home adoptive child whose table manners are non-existent. It is all too easy to begin to believe that this phase is your new reality forever, and that you have some sort of control over it. If you watch an older parent who has children well past the toddler stage parent a younger child, their ability to tolerate slow or fretful toddlers can be significantly greater. They have learned exactly how fast it all goes by, and even when the toddler is being annoying can step back inside their heads and remember this is not forever. Experienced ado...

And it's Friday again. Funny how that happens. The chicks and ducklings are all still alive. The first few days are always the most critical, so we're happy to see everyone alive and well each morning. Last Friday, J. and I had a little vacation. We went downtown to see a show that M. had worked on, and then used our credit card points to stay overnight at a hotel. The highlight of our little vacation was closing our old checking account at our old bank, since we were in the area. We have left Japan, and will be heading to China on Monday. We have learned the hard way that we have to be careful in how we speak about this. R. now has it in her head that we are actually going to get on an airplane and fly to China. No amount of words to the contrary can convince her otherwise. Someone is going to have a disappointing week next week. It has not been a good week in terms of meals over here... at least from my perspective. I'm always trying new recipes, because I can't...

Here's the answer to Monday's mystery photo. 20 chicks in their cardboard box on the drive home. I think this is how the vast majority of children will spend their day. Olive is enjoying this new entertainment. She likes to press her nose against the wire. Kenzie couldn't care less, it seems. He sniffed once and moved on. The cats have yet to discover them. They are soooooo cuuuuuuute! The ducklings are particularly amusing, and who knew how cute little webbed feet are? Can I say cute one more time? Squeeeeee!

We celebrated A.'s birthday last night. It was nice because everyone was there. We had pasta with onion, bacon, and goat cheese, and she chose strawberries and cream for her birthday dessert. Pretty much, when everyone is together, it is loud, vaguely inappropriate (at least concerning dinner conversation topics), and hilarious. I love these people. Happy 20th Birthday, A.!