themolens.com

My little Jack is at it again.  Good golly, if that kid was any nicer or harder working at school, I’d swear he couldn’t have come from this crabby mommy.  But here he is, for the 3rd time in 3 years, Jack won the “9 – Weeks – Award” for his class for the 2nd grading period.  

Jack is doing so well at school.  In second grade, the kids get actual letter grades on their report cards.  You know, A’s, B’s, and C’s in stead of check marks or slashes or whatever else they get in younger grades.  Jack got straight A’s, made the honor roll, and got the 9-weeks-award.  What do you think of that?  Pretty awesome Jack, way to go!

You can’t tell in the picture, because it came out blurry, but he was so happy and so surprised to get the award.  He hopped up and nearly ran to get to the front.  I like picture, though, even though it is blurry. 

Oh, and just to speak a bit to Jack’s ability to make good choices — he didn’t get the award last term because his best friend Andrew got it.   He even picks good friends

Share on Facebook

Today was Will’s first visit to the dentist.  He did so well, and thank heavens, he has no cavities!  The dentist mentioned that the enamel on Will’s teeth is in great shape — probably the result of good prenatal care.  (More on that later.)  Will did a fair job of tolerating a few x-rays and even let Dr. K hold him and tickle his belly a bit so she could see his top teeth.  Good golly, she is amazing – and quick!  She let him hold his new toothbrush and a plastic mirror, so he had fun examining the dinosaur’s teeth while Dr. K gave him a little while to become more comfortable with her.

In general, Will’s teeth are in decent shape.  His top front 2 teeth are fused together, the rest on the top are as crooked as can be, and the bottom teeth are a bit crowded, but nothing some orthodontic work can’t help.  One potential problem is that, above the fused front teeth, Will is missing a permanent tooth.  I’m not sure what we’ll do about it in the future, but it’s most likely a case where we’ll move some other teeth around to fill in the gap.  Oh, and he’s working on getting in those 2 year molars, so that explains why he’s suddenly having trouble sleeping at night & drooling enough to fill a bath tub. 

I have been dreading this visit for weeks, praying for this day to go smoothly and Will not to have too much trouble with his appointment.  Let me say, we have the most excellent pediatric dentist in the world.  When I explained our family to the receptionist, she scheduled our appointment for before their office opened.  When we arrived, Dr. K came out to the waiting room to get to know Will a little bit and talk to me about his history & our concerns.  She talked to him directly, but in a very non-threatening way.  Oh, she is good.  When she was ready to examine Will, she said, “Come on Will, let’s go play.” We followed her back & Dr. K began the exam in the play area of the exam room.  Dr. K was with us for the entire time, and spent a LOT of time with us.  Wow, how wonderful and accommodating the entire staff was!  I am so thankful.

Later, in the car, I was thinking back to Dr. K’s comment about Will’s prenatal care.  It got me thinking about his birthmom and her role in Will’s life.  I am so thankful that she took such good care of him in the 9 months that she carried him.  I had been struggling with hard feelings for her ever since Will came home, but was overcome with sadness and gratitude for her — having to give up her beautiful little boy only hours after his birth.  It’s a hard concept for me to process.  Will and I pray for her every night, and will continue to do so. 

Share on Facebook

I’m laying in my bed, listening to Will practice his English. It’s naptime, and he’s supposed to be asleep, but he just can’t stop moving, talking, or processing long enough to take a rest.  Thankfully he’s staying in his toddler bed, but it appears there’s no sleeping today.  It makes me smile to hear him say, “mamamamamama”, “a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a”, “alalalalalalalalalalala” over and over.  Just like the other kids when they were learning English.  He also just now figured out that he can sign differently for each member of our family, so he’s tapping his chin with his thumb along to the mamamamama’s, which of course REALLY makes me smile!

Now he’s itchy & needs medicine on a new eczema flare up.

Now he’s standing in his bed practicing for his American Idol audition.  Will has learned to sing, and it is music to our ears.  Jack and Margaret run into the living room to turn on the Chinese CD after school just to hear Will sing & laugh as he dances to Cantonese Jingle Bells or the “Bababababa yippa ya wai” song (or whatever it says).  He also cracks us up with his own version of “Daaaayyyyooooo, day-o!” whenever “the Banana Boat Song” (what’s it really called?) comes on our Raffi CD in the car. 

Ok, now he’s doing his old China trick — keeping himself awake by twisting back and forth, back and forth, as quickly as possible, flopping his arms every which way. 

Brad has nicknamed Will “Tornado” and the moniker seems just right.  Sometimes (especially when it’s time to make dinner) Will just tears through a room, upturning or dumping every toy, tissue box, pot, pan, pillow, or paper in sight.  It’s amazing the work this kid can do in the span of time it takes for me to go through Margaret’s sight words with her!

We’re also starting to re-potty train this week.  Today we went went from 8am until 1pm with only one pee-pee accident – yay!  I’ve said for years that pull ups are awful & just reinforce the idea of peeing in your pants.  So I stopped using the pull ups & got out the Elmo underpants.  So far, so good.  Pray for us in this, if you would.  Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”  I have prayed this verse through Jack & Margaret’s potty training, and will continue to pray this for Will. 

Good golly, the child just rolled over into the little face-down egg position, how he always sleeps.  It’s about time   I guess God heard me praying my “time for everything” verse and sent the message straight back to Will.  Whew, thank you.  There’s not a peep to be heard.  Honestly, little Tornado goes from an F5 to completely dissipating into sweet dreams in seconds flat!

Share on Facebook

Having a preschool teacher for a mom must be really great – or really annoying – for a 2 year old.  If you know me well enough, you know I am not afraid of letting my kids make messes.  I love to give them lots of tactile opportunities and chances to dig into fun, gooey stuff.  Will is using tongs, chopsticks, scissors, and crayons or play doh nearly every day and has surprisingly good fine motor skills, so I figured he is ready for finger painting. 

He loved the idea of painting – using his brushes to make squiggly lines and dots.  In fact, as you can see, he is a double-fisted painter, using 2 brushes at once most of the time.  Honestly, I think he is ambidextrous because he still shows only a very slight preference for using his left hand.  The idea of painting with his fingers was NOT on Will’s agenda, though.  When I finally just took his hand and stuck it in the paint he freaked out, wiping the cold, gooey paint off just as quickly as possible (see above right). 

The whole thing was a big hit, as you can see by Will’s first ever painting pictured above. I would like to frame it and hang it up in Will’s room — we’re both so proud of it!   Eventually, I just wiped some paint on his forehead and nose, just to see what he would do – and to give him permission to go ahead and get a little messy if he wanted.  He looked at me like I was a complete moron (which I probably am) and got a wipe to clean himself up right away

Will’s first playdate this morning went really well.  One of my good friends from church brought over her 13-month-old, and the boys just played in Will’s room while the mommies chatted.  It went much better than I thought it would, with Will acting pretty shy & laying with his head in my lap most of the time.  When he did play, he was pretty sweet & wasn’t too grabby.  Little M was sweet, too, and seemed to enjoy Will’s toys.  The boys are pretty much the same size, even though they’re nearly 2 years apart in age! 

One thing we didn’t expect about Will is that he definitely prefers to eat with chopsticks, when given the opportunity to choose.  Of course, we feed him most of his meals to assist with attachment and bonding, but he is also 2, and we all know about 2-year-olds and their developing independence!  So here are some pics of him using his blue chopsticks, just to show that he really can do it!  A few minutes later, he was running around the house, chopsticks in hand, as Will also seems to have an affinity for running with long,pointy things in his hands.  Again, I am reminded that he is 2!

Share on Facebook

You know the next verse of the song — Eyes and ears and mouth and nose . . . .  Well, we’ve got all of those parts covered by dr visits, at least.  First, Margaret’s eyes, because the pictures of her in her glasses are so cute I don’t want to make you wait another second to see them!

So here’s our beautiful girl looking very grown up with her funky Libby Lu hairstyle and incredibly fashionable glasses.  Her best friend’s mom took Margaret & her best friend out for a day of fashion and shopping to celebrate Miss A’s (best friend) birthday on Friday.  The girls had a lot of fun and looked absolutely precious. 

We also have updates from Will’s visit with the cleft surgeon.  At first, it was a bit of a letdown.  We met with the surgeon and his assistant for a total of about  40 minutes.  The dr. hardly touched Will, and the assistant only did a few things, like peek in Will’s mouth, measure his head, watch him chew some fruit snacks.  I guess since the surgery is such a big deal to us, we expected it to be a more extensive evaluation.  But I’ve been talking with another adoptive mom whose child also sees this dr, and she was very reassuring.  She said she felt the same way at first, but has come to realize that this surgeon really is one of the best out there.  She also said that when her son sees other specialists, they can guess who did the surgery, because the quality of the repair is so exceptional.  That’s good to hear.  Here’s what we learned about the repair process:

• All in all, the dr reports that the lip and nose repair done in China are very good.  He won’t touch them at all until between kinder & first grade, when he would like to do a cosmetic update.  Apparently, it is not worth doing one now, since Will’s face is still growing & will just grow back to its present condition. 
• He’ll need a bone graft around age 8 to fill in the gum line so the permanent teeth will grow in. 
• Then Will will have a final cosmetic update sometime in high school, when his face is nearly done growing. 
• Sometimes the cleft repair will develop holes, or fistulas, which will need to be surgically repaired.  Less than 1/2 of kids have this happen
• About 20% of kids need additional surgery(s) to help with air flow through the nose & improve speech. 

Of course, much of this is generalization, and we won’t know what is needed until we get there.  The surgeon wants to  do the surgery in March, to give Will time to get some good nutrition & get a bit stronger. Since we have birthdays &   spring break in March, Brad and I are trying for April.  We should have the date scheduled within 2 weeks. 

In the meantime, I’m just throwing everything in the blender – including steak!  Have you ever pureed steak?  It is not pretty — blech!  It must taste good, though, because Will loved it & asked for more.  Here’s a picture of our efforts to fatten little Will up to get ready for surgery.  Will you just look at that belly?  Jack laughs that Will is all skinny arms & legs with a big fat belly in the middle. 

And, last but not least, the kids have a few days off school for teacher workdays & Martin Luther King Day, so I put them to work.  Here they are all getting along (worth a picture in itself) and doing the dishes for me.  Jack asked if he would wash the dishes more often.  Um, yes son, I guess you can do that

Share on Facebook