Why My Floors are Always Sticky

Insider Trading Tip- Buy stock in...

Band-Aids cause they are THE fashion accessory for the under 5 crowd (at least here). No outfit is complete without several. No matter who needs a band aid, D has to have one too. This is her latest handiwork. I had our big box of Band Aids out to put one on K and while I was doing that apparently D took advantage of my lapse of attention to the Band Aid box to "acquire" a few of her own. She was caught when I followed the trail of Band Aid wrappers and found this...



We now have a new rule-No Blood, No Band Aid

It's Not Poison- Honest

As many of you know, K has had some feeding issues since she came home- the "strangest" of which is the refusing to take a bottle. If you think you get weird looks at the mall when you are breast feeding try whipping out a cup and see how people stare! Especially since K looks about 4 months younger than she is. I can only imagine what people are thinking. (and to explain for those of you who also might be thinking, "huh??"- In Ethiopia, children are breastfed so bottles and formula are not readily available, or are expensive. In the orphanage they cup feed the babies with these little tiny cups. Not only is it easier in terms of obtaining supplies but it is also faster and healthier since cups are much easier to clean than nipples are)

However- she also has this complete and total aversion to fruit (and juice and anything sweet) Many times kids from other countries have to get used to "American sweet" because it is so much sweeter than what they are used to but K is taking it to a whole new level. While she will eat baby food with mangos (try to find that easily...) bananas caused her to gag to the point she almost threw up on me. So just because I have a sadistic side-here is me feeding her apples just to take a photo of her reaction. (okay, not really, we are trying to gradually get her used to eating fruit- and we are at the point now where she will make faces for the first bite and then willingly eat the rest-except for those darn bananas)

Why D won't be babysitting any time soon

So since we have been home D has taken an interest in her baby dolls. However, her parenting skills need a little work still...




She didn't buckle her baby in the swing and baby almost fell out, she is carrying the baby upside down... We are having to watch her close as she also wants to be "mommy" to K. The other day I left KW sitting in her Bumbo chair on the floor so I could dare to go to the bathroom alone (gasp!) Within a minute, coming around the corner is D, with a diaper (luckily clean) that she had decided to take off K. Somehow (and I don't really want to know how) she got K out of the Bumbo, took off her pants and "changed" her. Unfortunately, she forgets that an important piece of changing involves putting the diaper back ON the baby!
Oh well, I can wait till they start Kindergarten before I go to the bathroom again, right?

Who We Are (more or less)

A is our oldest boy. He is currently 8 years old and about to enter third grade
X is next. He is 4 years old and will be in preschool this year (in my class, no less)
D is our oldest girl. She is not quite 2 and a half, but thinks she is 16. She spends her free time hanging out at day care, chasing the cat around the house or bothering her sister. She was born in China and came home in May of 2007
K is currently the baby and she is almost 9 months old. She was born in Ethiopia and came home in July of 2008.

So in 14 months we went from 2 to 4 and often people look at us and wonder "what were they thinking?"

That's okay- sometimes we wonder that too.

Responsibility- Or Lack Thereof

So A got a Ninentendo DS last year in anticipation of our trip to China. However, 2 weeks before we left for Ethiopia he couldn't find it. He didn't know how long it had been gone for, couldn't remember when he had it last and had no idea what happened to it. We searched his room (no small feat, believe me) and the car but no Nintendo. Initially my reaction was "you lost it- too bad. You can get a new one after you save up the money" However, I realized that with the prospect of 24 hours of flight time (each way) plus countless hours of "down time" my punishment was really only going to punish, well, ME! So off we went to Target and I shelled out the money for a new DS. I did include a lengthy lecture about responsibility and taking care of your things just so I didn't feel like I had totally caved in by buying the new one.

Fast forward to last week. I was up on a chair in the kitchen putting candlesticks on the top shelf of the cupboard. I turned toward the refrigerator and there on top was, you guessed it, the original Nintendo DS. Apparently at some point in the past, we had taken it away from A due to some inappropriate behavior and we all (including A) forgot about it. So now X has a Nintendo DS too.

But before we go

A couple of recent photos