Mom, we're out of Kleenex!

As I was getting dinner ready tonight Gabriel shouted from the bathroom that we were out of Kleenex.  I said, Thanks Gabriel for letting me know.  I went on about the evening preparing dinner, then bathed the kids, walked the dog, read to each of the boys, brushed their teeth and put them to bed.  I closed the door and as as I walked back to the kitchen, I unknowingly walked right into a disaster.

All of a sudden I found myself slipping on the tile floor in a huge pool of water.  Thankfully the sofa table was there as it helped me to catch myself and when I regained my balance, I wondered, how in the world did all of this water get on the floor, under the sofa table and even under the couch.  Then I noticed the Kleenex box on the table and as I picked it up, the answer to my question was in my hand.

What does a 5-year-old do with an empty Kleenex box?

Why nothing less than fill it to the top with water, carry it out of the bathroom, leave it on a wooden table and wait for the results...


Oh and in other news... Michael and his little girlfriend Raven decided it would be a good idea today to see how many wood chips could fit in Michael's ear.  Just as I walked outside to the playground to pick him up, I see Raven taking a sand shovel full of tiny wood chips and pouring it in Michael's ear.  So, if anyone has any advice for how to get wood shavings out of a tiny ear, I'm all ears (no pun indended).
Until next time,
Angie

How did you know?

Gabriel is getting to be very good at getting himself up, making his bed, getting himself dressed and ready for school. It is WONDERFUL! This morning as he came into the kitchen all dressed and ready to head out the door, he was asking me questions about something (honestly there are so many questions I’m asked each day, I can’t remember even a tenth of them) and doing what I call the potty dance. Usually performed by his younger brother Michael, the potty dance is a series of side steps back and forth and sometimes even includes a forward and a back step depending on the degree of how bad they have to go potty. The potty dance starts spontaneously, often without the boys even realizing they are doing it and usually I’m the first one to notice. So, I ask them if they have to go potty, to which I always receive the same response, “No mom” My next step in confirming it is indeed the potty dance is having them stop dancing and stand as still as they can while asking me their barrage of questions. Usually after about 10-15 seconds of trying to stand still, they realize the potty dance is calling them and they respond, “Mom, I have to go potty now.” It is amazing. It really works!

So getting back to this morning and Gabriel, he was in the kitchen asking me a series of questions and all of a sudden he started doing the potty dance. As he finished one question, I interrupted and asked, “Gabriel, do you have to go to the bathroom?” Immediately he said, “No!” and went back into asking questions. I waited until he had finished asking his next question and then said, “Gabriel please stand still while you ask me your questions.” He complied. He continued, “Mom, why do we have to d….. Mom, I have to go potty now!” and ran off to the bathroom. Thinking my morning interrogation had been put on pause for a few minutes, I set Gabriel’s cereal on the table to only hear, “MOM” being shouted from the bathroom. “Yes Gabriel?” “Mom, how did you know I had to go potty?” I responded, “Gabriel, sometimes mom just knows.” I guess my answer wasn’t good enough because the next thing I heard in the bathroom was Michael say, “Gabriel, how did mom know you had to go potty?” Gabriel responded, “Mom learned that in college.”

Until next time,

Angie

My eyes are broken…

Yesterday when I woke Michael up for school, he wasn’t too interested in getting up. He said, Mommy, I’m too tired to get up.” Usually I just give him a few more minutes to lay in bed while I get other stuff organized. It usually does the trick because before I know it, he’s up taking off his pj’s and putting on his clothes. Yesterday though, he continued to lay in bed and when I asked him if he was going to get up he said, “Mommy, I can’t get up. My eyes are broken.” I looked at him and said, “Honey, your eyes are not broken, they are just tired. Mine are too, we’ll go to bed earlier tonight okay?” “No Mommy, they are broken, see there are pieces coming out of them.” I looked to see that he had sleepy (or matter, or whatever the medical term is for it) in the corners of his eyes. I smiled and said, Oh honey, I can fix that and wiped the corners of his eyes. Thinking we had ended that conversation and could move forward with the day, Michael responded “Mommy, how do you know how to fix eyes”

The questions… they’re never ending.

Until next time,
Angie

Be good…

Every morning I drop the boys off at school my parting words are “I love you honey, be good at school today okay?” This morning after I had dropped Gabriel off, I walked Michael to his room, bent down and kissed his forehead and said, “Michael, I love you. Be good at school today okay?” He responded, Okay Mommy, you be good at work too okay?”

Until next time,
Angie

A birthday party!... An Adult birthday party!

This weekend we are invited to a birthday party for one of our friends who is celebrating a big milestone as far as birthdays go.  We met this couple D and T when we started taking our adoption classes and have got to know them pretty well as we traveled on the road to adoption together.  We look forward to celebrating this big birthday with D!  For the first time since the boys came to us, we have been invited to an adult birthday party.  Infact, the birthday party is just for adults.  When Jarrett and I received the invitation, I think we both were excited at the idea of having an adults night out.  To be honest, there has only been one time since we’ve gotten the boys that Jarrett and I have gone out and done something fun, just as a couple.  Now we’ve had sitters for the boys on several occasions as Jarrett and I have had commitments we had to attend to, but I don’t think work requirements, volunteer commitments and other schedule conflicts can count as a “date night”.  So, when we got the invitation to go the birthday party, we’ve been looking forward to it.  Jarrett and I made the mistake about talking about the party and who we would ask to watch the boys over dinner last weekend.  Upon the boys hearing our discussion and the word baby sitter, immediately Michael piped in and said, “Mom, I want to go with you.”  And then Gabriel asked, “Mom, why can’t we go with you to the party?  I like parties.”  I explained, “Gabriel the invitation says the party is just for adults.”  Then he responded, “Mom, I know how to fix it.  We can just write on the invitation that kids can come too!”

Until next time,

Angie

I didn't know they gave awards for this...

On Monday, I went to the boys' school and had a parent teacher conference to see how each of them were doing.  Unfortunately Michael's teacher had to cancel so that gave Gabriel's teacher, Ms. Stacey, more time to chat with me about Gabriel's progress.

We discussed a lot of things and she shared how lucky she thinks she is that she has Gabriel in her class.  She said he is smart, funny, compassionate, and well above his age in wisdom.  We talked about how much he has learned in 6 months and how she believes he's more than prepared for Kindergarten.  What a great report! I'm very proud of him.

Just as any parent teacher conference, she also gave me a couple of suggestions of things he can work on.  Thinking it was going to be something academic based, she surprised me when she asked, "How does Gabriel eat at home?"  Catching me off guard I said, "Well, he eats a lot and he always cleans his plate."  She then said, "Have you noticed how fast he eats?"  and I replied "Yes, I guess I have."  She said, "I'd like for Gabriel to work on slowing down when he eats."  She continued, "Here at school Gabriel is always, and I mean always the first one done eating, even when we purposely serve him last. Then he asks if he can have more."  It was then that it hit me.  He does the same thing at home.  I guess it is usually because we are racing out the door in the morning or oblivious to what is going on at night after a full day of work, but it is true.

Gabriel is always the first one to scarf down his food and he can eat two heaping bowls of cereal before I can get half way through mine, and I'm a pretty fast eater too.  Ms. Stacey and I then talked about how his fast eating may be a something he doesn't realize he's doing, but is a behavior he learned from when he was still with his birth mom and having a meal wasn't always a guarantee. 

I know Gabriel doesn't worry about having food with us, because, well, we have food all the time and I don't think the boys have ever felt hungry since being with us.  But Ms. Stacey brought up a good point, if from the time you were born and for the first several years of your life, food wasn't always a sure thing, I too would probably respond in a similar way. 

I told Ms. Stacey I would talk with him about it and together at home and at school we'd try to create a new habit for him.  When I talked with Gabriel about eating slower and how Ms. Stacey and I were going to help him together, he was all for it.  He said, "Mom maybe I can even beat Michael on being a slower eater."  I laughed because with Michael we have the exact opposite problem... the minimum amount of time it takes Michael to eat a meal is 45 minutes (no joke). 

So on Monday with every meal I'd set a timer and ask Gabriel to spread out his meal over the timer (that was Ms. Stacey's suggestion and it worked!).  Gabriel celebrated as it took him an entire 7 minutes to eat his lunch.  Then for dinner we set the timer to 10 minutes and again he was successful.  On Tuesday morning when I dropped him off at school, I whispered in his ear, "honey remember to eat slowly okay?" and off he went.

Everyday this week I picked him up he said, "Mom, I ate slowly" and then for dinner he'd ask, "Mom, can you set the timer for me?" 

And then today when he came home, he came running in the house screaming, "Mom!!!! MOM!!!! MMMMOOOOMMMM!!!! where are you?" I responded and in he came running with a piece of paper. He yelled, "Mom, look what I got!"  I turned around to see him proudly hand me this ...

Can you tell how proud he is?

In case it is hard to read it says, "This award is presented to Gabriel for "eating slow" on 1/21/2011 signed Ms. Stacey." All Meals-- Great job!

Although I don't ever remember my pre-school, elementary, middle, high school or even college teachers ever giving out an award like this, I'm so very proud of Gabriel for getting it.  It shows me he's an eager learner and willing to try very hard to improve himself. 

What a wonderful little boy and I'm so lucky to have him and Michael as my sons.

Until next time,
Angie

Please wash your face...

I don't know how they do it but it seems the boys do their best to get as dirty as possible everyday they are at school.  Seriously, I dress them in clean clothes and make sure they look nice every morning before school and it seems everyday I pick them up, I find myself asking, "What in the world did you do today to get that dirty?"  I have a friend who use to refer to her kids as daycare dirty and before Gabriel and Michael I had no idea what she was talking about.  Now I do.

From food remnants, paint blotches, milk stains, glitter, dried glue glops to sand, wood chips and plain old dirt, from fingernail to toenail the boys are covered in it everyday.  Today, when they arrived home, it appeared as though they were learning to dive head first into a pool of dirt or had spent the better part of 10 hours in a mine.  They emerged from day care with dirt covering their nose and forehead.  From the moment I saw them I said, "What were you doing?  Were you sticking your head in dirt?"

"Yes Mom, we were digging a hole"  at which point I looked up at Jarrett and gave him a look of "WHAT?"
Since he picked them up today, I was hoping he had an explanation for their appearance. In a calm, no-big-deal of a response he said, "Yea Ms. Kate said they were sticking their faces in the dirt." 

I guess I must be the only one who thinks there may be better activities to do instead of sticking one's face in a pile of sand, dirt and wood chips.  In trying to be conscious of picking my battles, I decided to let it slide and just said, please go wash your face.

As I went back to preparing dinner, I heard Gabriel finish up in the bathroom while Michael was obviously still "getting cleaned up"  A couple of minutes later it hit me that I heard the water still running and hadn't seen Michael come out of the bathroom.  Like a good investigative mother, I went into the bathroom and this is what I found...

Did you know wash your face means wash your entire head, neck and your shirt?

Guess he didn't have enough water yet on him, I waited until he noticed me.

Caught ya!  Then he said, "What Mom?.. it's just a little water.  Do I look pretty?"

Notice the water wasn't just on him... it was all over the mirror, the counter and the floor!

I've learned to take my camera with me when I suspect something is out of sorts... maybe it is the detective inside of me but at least this way I always have evidence.

Until next time,
Angie