Hopefully I'll blog more this year, especially since this will (Lord willing) be an adoption year. Then again, you've heard me say that before...
Speaking of the adoption(s), we are hoping to have our paperwork into China within the next few weeks. It was February when we started the paperwork on this adoption, and the year was filled with many ups and downs. Adoption is not for the fainthearted or the wimpy.
While we are on the subject of wimpy, or rather, wimping out, we have a new theme song for our family. It's to the tune of "The Adams Family" and goes like this:
Never give up (snap, snap)
Never give up (snap, snap)
Never give up, never give up, never give up (snap, snap)
No whining or complaining
No moaning or no groaning
No wimping out or quitting
Because we never give up
Never give up (snap, snap)
Never give up (snap, snap)
Never give up, never give up, never give up (snap, snap)
Why do we need such a theme song? Well, because we still get these responses when any remotely physically challenging skill (like getting into one's bed) is presented:
I have a few new parental tools I have added to my arsenal (and I do mean arsenal as this is war). Sometimes when I am met with one of the looks you see above, I get a pocket mirror out and put it in front of his face. Usually he starts laughing, but other times he is greatly not amused (now he knows how we feel). The other thing I've done is to turn my back on him when he's having one of his "I don't want to do this" fits and start flipping through a catalog. That one is very effective as he is now receiving no attention. He's usually dumbfounded and stops the complaining.
As many challenges as we have with his physical skills, we have none with his mental abilities. This kid is a sponge. We have magnetic letters on the refrigerator and he loves to ask questions like this: "Whas a this one, Mommeeee?" "It's a 'Y'" "Issa a 'Y' Mommmeeee." "Yes, it's a 'Y'" "Whas a this, Mommmeee?" "I just told you, what is it?" "Issa a 'Y'" And so on and so forth. I can only tolerate that game for so long and then I suggest that he do something far more exciting in the other room. Apparently this repetitive alphabet game was doing him more good than I realized. I decided to quiz him one day as I saw him correctly pointing out letters. To my surprise, he knew 23 out of the 26 letters of the alphabet. That put me in my place!
Wrangling three toddlers continues to be a challenge (and no, I have not gone on auto pilot with my three older ones, I just don't wrangle them anymore). I had a very "blog worthy" day last month in which I had to deal with two "accidents," one by a tod going through potty training, another who momentarily forgot she was potty trained. That amounted to two separate baths and shampooing the carpet all before breakfast. I made breakfast, started school with the kids, and cleaned up after breakfast, only to come upon this scene:
That's the Wonder Twins ("WTs" for those of you new to the blog) who have gotten into a big box of unshelled walnuts. To their credit, they cleaned up the walnuts, but all the papery "skin" had to be vacuumed, which added again to my tasks for the day. It was a long day.
Before I close this first post of 2013, I want to leave you with some Christmas card picture "outtakes." These actually made it onto the card.
Nice, huh? I took about one zillion pictures before those. Getting pictures of all six kids looking happy and sane is difficult. This is especially difficult when you get a kid like this in your mix...awfully cute and awfully rascally.
I told his father we would pay for his sins one day. We have a picture of James and his family taken long ago. The rest of the family looks nice and posed...and then there's James making a ridiculous face. I knew that would haunt us someday. This is someday.
This is our rendition of "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." How appropriate, isn't it?
More naughty Monkey boy pics
Happy New Year to you all!
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