Reflections

Reflections

Just over 2 years ago, we brought home our sweet daughter from Ethiopia. I wish I could say it was bliss from the moment we stepped back into Canada, but in reality, they were tough times! It was a big adjustment for all of us, and especially for her of course. Not an easy thing for a toddler to leave all she knows and coming to another country to live with strangers! She did amazingly well though, and has blossomed into a bright and happy child.

Watching baby J grow through infancy has been a continual reminder of so many precious moments I've missed with E. I wish I could know what she weighed at birth, how old she was when she first smiled, and crawled. I wish I could have seen her first steps. It's made me treasure what I've gotten to experience of her childhood all the more.

I did have the painful joy of watching some of her early days through pictures as she grew up in the orphanage. She was brought there at about 7 months of age. This is the first picture I saw of my darling daughter. My first thought when my husband surprised me with the photo was that it was an advertisement for Ethiopian adoption - she was just too adorable!

As the months passed, we received several more pictures (I think if you click on them, you can see them bigger). Here she is wearing a little outfit we sent for her. A couple months later, a friend who went to pick up her son from the same orphanage told me she had started walking! At least I know that she started walking when she was about 12 months old! These occasional photos and tidbits of news were like finding tiny pieces of gold in a murky stream. The eight months we waited to pick her up were brutal!

Another friend who went to pick up her child did something just amazing for us. Along with taking several new pics of E, she also took a video of her walking! What a treasure!

Of course it didn't compare to seeing the real thing, which didn't happen for a couple months after. We finally met our daughter on December 25, 2007. At the orphanage when we met her, it wasn't too difficult to make her smile. She loved to play peekaboo - or as they say in Ethiopia - 'aieeeeee!'

While we were in Ethiopia, we had the amazing privilege of meeting with some of E's birth family, and even seeing her grandma's home where she was born.

So while I grieve the moments I missed with my daughter, we treasure the amazing journey that brought her to us, and celebrate each moment that we have with her now (well, except for those whiny and otherwise unmentionable ones that come with the toddler years that in times of reminscing we tend to blissfully ignore!).

The photo on the right about 2 weeks after she came home, and the one below from about a year ago.

Isn't she sweet!!!

A couple steps caught on video!

A short video catching some of those first steps. Sorry for the nasty quality. The lighting wasn't good, and I taped it using my camera as figuring out how to get movie from the video camera onto the computer is far beyond me. You'll just have to believe me that he's able to take several steps consecutively than I got on tape! Maybe it's something to do with the ear to ear grin on my face when I see him walk, but he always laughs and falls down especially when I've got the camera!

D's been quite the helper with his little brother lately. He gave me a bit of a surprise today, telling me he knows how babies are made. News to me, as we've not gone there yet! When I asked him how, I was relieved by his answer. "You take some bones and glue them together, put some skin on, and drop eyeballs in!"

Whew :)

Baby J walked for mommy :) The next morning after I missed his initial show, he did a few steps. He finds it quite funny that he's walking, and starts to laugh after he takes a couple steps, which of course makes him fall! Making progress though - he took a good 5 steps this evening!

My first post on this blog was about us waging a war on his night waking. I wish I could claim victory, but alas, we all got sick and I just can't let a sick baby cry very much. Once he's cleared up, which always takes a while as he struggles with fluid in his ears, we'll be trying again. I can't really complain too much as he only usually wakes up once a night, but it needs to end because he's not the only one who's waking me. E sometimes has bad dreams and needs me, and she also has this strange habit of needing to come and inform me when she wakes up to use the potty.

And then there is the stupid cat. If I put him outside, at some point in the night he scratches at my window to come in. If I leave him inside, he scratches at the carpet under my door to go out. Of course I jump to do his majesty's bidding, because I don't want the house wrecked. I think I need to start locking the cat in the shed outside at night.

On another topic, while our family still remains in the ranks of the unemployed, we're tending towards taking a lesser paying job in town and looking at other ways of making ends meet in order to avoid moving. Even though I'd love to be closer to my family, the cons of moving seem to outweigh the pros. Current options are:
-rent out our basement
-take in a couple international students
-do some after-school daycare
-I could start working evenings/weekends

Of course nothing is decided until there is some sort of job offer on the table, so we're still in wait-and-see mode here.

My baby took his first steps....

WITHOUT ME!!!!

While I was off taking D to his gymnastics class this evening, baby J took 3 steps.

So maybe it's the recent lack of sleep combined with all the stress of the uncertain future from our unemployment situation causing me some emotional dysfunction, but bursting into tears probably wasn't the normal reaction to hearing your baby boy turned into a toddler in the rare hour you weren't around him.

I shouldn't be jealous I guess. I did have the joy of changing his first poopy diaper, being the first to be puked on, peed on, wipe his first snotty nose, giving him his first bite of food and being the first to have it spit back at me, and so many other such firsts. So missing one little tiny milestone like first steps shouldn't be a big deal.

I do think though, the hubby should have forgotten to tell me it happened (seeing as he didn't get it on video, how would I ever know?). Or maybe he could have told me tomorrow after a good night's sleep! A little bit of omission would have been forgivable here.

Or maybe not, because if I ever found out, then I'd be mad. Poor guy had no options.

Despite missing it, of course I'm immensely proud of my little man. At 10 months, 3 weeks and 3 days old, (which is 2 months and 1 week and 1 day since after he began crawling. Not that I was really keeping track or anything....) my baby boy took his first few steps!

He'd better do it again tomorrow!

Home schooling ups and downs

I just got an email from the school we have D registered with - portfolios are due at the end of the month. I started homeschooling my little man in November, so this is my first go at this. I'm sort of nervous! I mean really... I don't think I can mess up Kindergarten too extensively. He wasn't enjoying the school he was in, and mostly, I wanted to keep the natural love of learning alive in him. I think I've at least accomplished that goal, as aside from his writing practice, he often asks to do school work. How could a guy be miserable when your hotwheels cars help you do your math??

So other than the fact that I've switched around our curriculum a couple times figuring out what would work best for him, I think I've been somewhat successful. Of couse there's a learning curve on my end as well for figuring out how to homeschool, with my poor son as the guinea pig. I guess the portfolio feels like a bit of a test, and I've never liked those. The teacher will be at our house Feb 3 to look over what we've done.

On a very positive note though, his school approved him for $1000 towards occupational therapy! He's been slow with his fine motor skill development, and was seeing and OT prior to starting K. Once they start school, it's no longer funded and is in the hands of the school. I was told he probably wouldn't get help if he were in public school, as he's capable enough to get by, and not in the special needs catagory. Therefore, he'd be in the slip-through-the-cracks catagory. Not good. Well, within a week of mentioning some concerns to his distance learning school teacher, funding was approved. We'll be getting bi-weekly home visits till the end of the school year with the therapist he was seeing previously! Such a blessing!

Sweet little monster

I would be remiss not to post this pic I took today. Baby J wanted the apple I was eating, and he sure had a great time with it!!

Here's the braids!

We eventually finished these up yesterday (over a hundred braids there!), and here they are! She has her hair pulled up into a half pony. I see that one photo is a little heavy on the camera flash, and the other is sideways. Did I mention that I'm still figuring out this technology business? Anyways, they look kind of ugly in the pic of the back view, but in real life, they look alright. She got quite a few compliments on them today anyways. The princess went swimming today, so we'll see how that affects things in the morning as far as frizzies. They sure took a long time to dry.

So I have yet to figure how to get them even on the bottom. I guess next time I do it I'll try making them a bunch longer, then giving her a "haircut" after. I also didn't really make them long enough that a full pony tail or maybe even pigtails will look okay. Live and learn I guess. I won't be putting beads in, as that will just emphasize how different the lengths are. Now I just need to figure what's going to be the best way to moisturize her real hair and scalp.

I've got to mention too, she was a little offended about her hair not being real, like mine is. She was so excited to have long hair like mommy, and I had to assure her several times throughout the process that as she gets older, her real hair will grow longer. She also would rather have pink next time :)

Yarn braids

My crew has come down with a nasty cold. Again. So this weekend was pretty much a bust. Although, I did try a new hair excursion with my little E. Yarn braids! Yes, it's hair extentions made out of cheap, acrylic yarn. Sound tacky? I thought so too.

I'd heard about these ages ago, but the first pic I saw of them done was, well, multi-coloured. Several colours of yarn used, with heaps of different kinds of bobbles, beads, and what-not on the end. Not my cup of tea. But recently, in my internet wanderings I saw some done that I thought really looked nice. Here.... http://imghanaadopt.blogspot.com/search/label/Hair . You've got to go a little scroll down the page.

Supposedly, once you put these braids in, they can really go the distance, making hair easy for a couple months before needing to take them out. As my first try, mine probably won't look as nice or last as long, especially as the princess is in swimming lessons at the moment. Had to give it a go.

We spent several painful hours on Sunday putting these in, and I'm still not done! I got it to a state where we could put a bandana on and send her off to preschool this morning though. Then today I was just too sick to finish it up, but will do tomorrow. I think it looks okay so far. I'll post some photos tomorrow once she's all done up!

So here we go...

I've started a blog! I considered doing this some time ago, but the whole issue of technology had me scared off. It still does, after all, I don't know how to get photos from my camera on to the computer yet, but I know I've got to start tackling these types of issues head-on so my 5yr old doesn't surpass my computer skills!

Tonight though, I've done enough expanding of my horizons with simply figuring out how to start this thing up. It's now past midnight, and sleep might be minimal as we're trying to break the baby from the habit of waking and eating, so there's been a whole lot of whining. Incidentely, I came across a funny little letter from one baby to the next who's parents are trying the same thing. I'll leave you with this...

OK, here's my situation. My mummy has had me for almost 11 months. The first few months were great - I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, day or night. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to sleep through the night. At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems like it's pretty common after mummies have had us around for a while.

Here's the thing: these mummies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep - they just don't need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:
Night 1 - cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your mummy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.
Night 2 - cry every 2 hours until you get fed.
Night 3 - every hour.

Most mummies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some mummies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These mummies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!!

If you let her sleep through the night, just once, she will expect it every night. I KNOW IT'S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep, she is just resisting the change. If you have an especially alert mummy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My mummy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.

Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it.BE CONSISTENT!I cried for any reason I could come up with. My sleep sack tickled my foot. I felt a wrinkle under the sheet. My mobile made a shadow on the wall. I burped, and it tasted like pears. I hadn't eaten pears since lunch, what's up with that? The cat said "meow". I should know. My mummy reminds me of this about 20 times a day.

Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room. Too hot, too cold, just right - doesn't matter! Keep crying!! It took a while, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your mummies' internal clocks.

P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out. Trust me.