mr. putin

Having Lydia, from birth, makes me think a lot about the time we missed with Oliver.  Well not really the time WE missed but rather the care and love HE missed out on.  Was someone there to snuggle him, nurse him, and respond to his every whimper?  Probably not.

Yesterday evening Oliver, Lydia. and I were playing monster trucks on the couch...

Oliver - "I'm happy baby Lydia came to live in our house."
Me- "She is fun to have.  We didn't have you when you were a tiny baby.  Do you remember where you lived?"

get ready for heartbreak...

Oliver- "In a crib"
No one can know what he remembers from 20 months old, but I'm sure that he did spend a large portion of those months in a crib, in an orphanage with 149 other kids and 6 caregivers. 

Me-"You still lived in Russia, but then mommy and daddy came to get you. so we could be a family together."
Oliver- "That makes sense."
Me- "It does make sense!"

You see, Mr. Putin, even my 3 year old knows a family is better than a crib in an orphanage.

However, Mr. Putin, I do agree with you.  Russian children should be raised in Russia.  Not in orphanages, but in loving Russian families.  That just doesn't seem to be working for all your kids.  See Russians just seem too fussy about children (in my opinion).  They don't want to adopt boys, or kids with brown eyes, or tan skin, or Asian features, or red hair, or crossed eyes, or a cleft lip, or down syndrome, or.... See Mr. Putin we aren't taking Russian children away from Russians, we are taking Russian orphans, that were overlooked by Russians, and giving them a loving family. 

You're mad that some Americans were abusive toward Russian adopted children.  That makes me mad too.  I despise that I'm grouped in with them, and that all Americans and a bunch of little Russians will be punished because of their actions.  Let's not even discuss the statics regarding orphans who age out of your system.  Let's just say the number of orphans that die 1-2 years after leaving the system is much much larger than the number of orphans killed by the misdoings of Americans....not that there is ever an excuse to the abusive of or killing of a child, I'm just saying.

When we were in the process to adopt Oliver Russian adoptions were put on hold since some bozo in TN sent her kid back to Russian on a plane alone.  But it was just a hold, Russia came around, things were worked out, and we were able to finish the process.  Mr. Putin, I pray that you let the families that are currently in-process, finish the process...especially families who have been to Russia and met THEIR babies, that heartbreak is just too much, for both parties.  I also pray that if  this shut down is indeed long term or forever you fix the culture of children in your country so the number of total yearly adoptions doesn't drop even with the loss of US adoptions. 

I went to pick Oliver up by myself and I'll never forget what the orphanage director told me on my way out.  "Thank you for adopting him, now we have room for the next child on the list."  Can you imagine, as a child, being on a waiting list to get INTO an orphanage? blah

Lydia & Oliver

On Saturday, two days after Lydia was born, we asked the people taking care of Oliver to please bring him in to meet her and visit with Jim and I.  Our friends were kind enough to not tell him that we had the baby, so we could do it ourselves. 

I'm lay/sitting in bed and Jim is holding Lydia while sitting on the couch.  Oliver comes bounding in and running about, asking for drinks of water, or a snack or to watch TV....then he stops in his tracks "that's a baby." he says while pointing at Lydia. 

Jim brings her over to me and Oliver climbs up on the bed.  We tell him Lydia is his sister, she came out of the belly, and he is a brother now.  His mind was pretty much blown.

exchanging gifts

he gave her a stuffed animal he made at that
dreaded sibling class

Now we are home and Oliver continues to be interested and protective of Lydia. The other day Jim was changing her diaper and she was crying, Oliver ran in yelling "no no no stop stop."  We do lots of explaining that even if she is crying it doesn't mean we are hurting her, just that she isn't happy to be bothered or she wants food or whatever reasons babies cry for. 

Oliver's favorite ways to help....

1. Turning the music on when we put her in the bouncy seat while we eat dinner.
2. Helping feed her bottles.  (I nurse, but I pump too)
3. Using the boppy pillow to hold her. (he calls it the U pillow)

4. Teaching her how to play.

5. And teaching her how to snuggle.

csection recovery

High blood pressure and high protein levels mean after a csection you get to be put on a nice drip of magnesium sulfate through your IV and it SUCKS!  I suppose it is less horrid than having the seizures it prevents, but still it isn't a good time.

They sew me up and wheel me away to an itty bitty shoe box sized recovery room to be closely watched for two hours.  I can't remember a lot of the details, but I do remember them putting in that magnesium, oh it burned in my arm so badly...just 24 hours to go.  Jim and Lydia came back, a friend from church came and said hi, I have no idea what I was doing. 

So in the hours leading up to a csection there is no eating or drinking, then once on the magnesium there is no eating or drinking for the next 24 hours.  I could care less about eating, all I wanted was WATER!  Okay, lets not get dramatic, they did let me have fluids.  I was closely monitored for those next 24 hours.  Every hour a nurse came in, checked my blood pressure, temperature, oxygen, urine output, and gave me 20cc of water...but only if I remembered to ask.  Do you know how much 20cc of water is?  It's not even an ounce!  I quickly realized that ice chips were better than water and started requesting 20cc of ice at each hourly visit.  In the morning a young delivery boy from the nutrition department delivered me a tray of fluids, I said I wasn't allowed to have fluids and he said he was told to deliver it, I told him I loved him.  Sadly, I knew he was wrong and used all my self control to not chug that sprite he brought and pushed the try over to Jim.  

Now this magnesium also makes you hot and crazy and completely unable to focus.  Two of the pastors from our church stopped by, I think I talked, I tried to focus, it took all my energy to just keep my eyes looking in the correct direction.  I requested no other visitors and also asked to keep Oliver away until I looked somewhat more human.

Like I mentioned before, I was getting visited by a nurse every hour, now if the nurse just came to do the above mentioned tasks that would be great, however they all seem to have another agenda.  Well not all the nurses, just the ones that work at night.  So it's 3am, Jim is snoring away on the couch, Lydia is laying on me mostly because I can't move to put her anywhere else, and a nurse comes in.  She checks my vitals and then gives me a folder of discharge papers.  Discharge?  I just got here, I can't even move.  She goes on about some videos we need to watch on the TV and some other information...I'm overwhelmed.

However, the very best "nurse in the night with other agenda" story is below...

Lydia is in her bassinet, Jim is snoring on the couch, and I might even be sleeping.  However, when the door opens and the nurse walks in I wake right up.  She does her checks and then delivers a breast pump and other nursing supplies and talks about how I should start trying to nurse Lydia and pump every three hours.  It's like 4am, I must have said the right things and looked like I understood because she left.  Then Lydia started crying.  Lydia is crying, I can't reach her, Jim is snoring, and I need to start pumping breast milk...now I'm really overwhelmed.  I call out to Jim, how does he not hear her crying? 

"jim" "Jim" "JIM" "JIM!!!!!" how does he not hear me?  Men.

Now Lydia and I are both crying.  Jim finally wakes up and I complain that whenever his work phone makes the slightest noise he jumps up but when the nurse comes in or when his baby and wife are crying he has this wonderful ability to completely tune it out, I tell him he needs to work on that.  I make him set his alarm so it will ring at the time the nurse comes so when she arrives with her hoards of information he can listen to it. 

Eventually the IV is removed, the epidural and catheter are removed and I'm encouraged to start moving and walking.  The pain to get out of bed is awful, but once up it's not so bad.  I push Lydia around the hospital in her bassinet at various hours of the day and I wonder where are all the other mothers?  I know they were there, 20 other patients were discharged the same day as me. 

My blood is tested daily, my hemoglobin count is low and I'm dubbed at severely anemic.  Before leaving the hospital I'm giving prescriptions for pain medications and iron pills, I'm banned from driving for 2 weeks, and I'm set up with a million doctors visits for the upcoming weeks.  I'm not sure being pregnant agrees with me.  

Jim did manage to step up his game and wake up at proper helpful times.  I managed to avoid changing any of those sticky black poop diapers....victory! Lydia, managed to figure out how to nurse.  And Oliver is figuring out what being a brother is..more on that later.  

silly baby's arrival

12-6-12, 5:30pm

The urine test yields bad news, news of protein levels much too high.  I wanted to be told to go home, rest, drink water...I was actually told; induction? or csection?

It's a little funny.  Induction and csection were the furthest from my "plan." I don't like doctors and hospitals and interventions and needles and all that.  I was planning on staying home as long as possible, then arriving at the hospital to finish laboring and have a natural, non medicated, delivery.

6:30pm

I picked induction.  However, I knew that would only happen if the doctors could flip the baby.  Baby flipping ain't fun.  My doctor and another got an ultrasound machine and got to work trying to push baby's head out of my ribs and baby's butt out of my pelvis.  Wow, that was painful and it didn't at all work, baby wanted nothing to do with being in a different position.

7:00pm

Baby picked csection.  I'm not thrilled, but I'm keeping it together.  I ask if she will be the one preforming the operation and she says she isn't the one on tonight, but she will stay for me, well there is some good news.  Jim asks about the time frame.  "We just have to call the anesthesiologist and get an operating room ready, we should be ready to take you back in 20-30 minutes."  Oh this is getting real, fast!  Jim sends a few text messages and I get wheeled away.

getting wheeled away

I can't remember all that happened.  My head was spinning and I was suddenly surrounded by a lot of people and the operating room was cold and refreshing.  I remember keeping my eyes shut while they prepped the epidural, I didn't want any part of seeing any of that.  Tears welled up in my eyes, I focused on the button of the nurses jacket in front of me, I tried so hard not to shake or move, this part wasn't fun and I found myself apologizing over and over for crying.  Eventually my legs started numbing and the nurses tipped me over and centered me on the operating table.  Who painted clouds on the operating room ceiling?  Not even fluffy white clouds are going to calm me. 

7:50pm

I ask what time it is, I'm happy to hear it's 7:50.  8 is my favorite number, so I'm happy baby will be born in the 8:00 hour.

That epidural and spinal are no joke, all feeling lost and no ability to move as much as I thought about wiggling my toe, I just couldn't...so strange. What was moving were my teeth and hands, the shaking was so hard to control, not cold shaking or nervous shaking, just a side effect of some medicine shaking.  Jim arrives in his new attire and sits down on a stool next to my head.  I try to coax him into looking at what's going on, but he won't do it, he stays to the right of my head and asks 100x if I'm okay, while the anesthesiologist stands to the left asks 100x if I feel anything.  I'm good, well as good as can be expected.  Maybe I'm even getting a little excited. 

"Okay, you're going to feel some pressure."  This "pressure" they speak of has NOTHING on the pressure needed to attempt to flip a baby.

I hear my doctor say "No one say the gender, it's a surprise, dad will announce.  Okay dad, here is your baby"

It felt like it took Jim a century to determine that it was a GIRL!!! Finally, he managed to get the news out.

8:05 is called out as the time of birth.  I can see Jim and Baby Lydia off to my right.  Lydia is getting cleaned and measured and poked and prodded.  She is born almost 3 weeks early, but she is in great shape.  I felt awful for having to deliver early.  It wasn't Lydia's fault, it was my body was saying it was all done.  Luckily she was ready enough.  Lydia, Jim, and our favorite baby nurse, Jamie all leave for the nursery to continue harassing Lydia.

so far, this is my favorite picture of her

I'm left to be put back together.  As I'm being sewn back up the doctors carry on the conversation they were holding before the arrival of our child side tracked them....back to talks of Kate Middleton.  Chatter about DJs with bad accents and tough cases of morning sickness, I even join in the conversation.

Before long my doctor says goodbye and some nurses wheel me off to a recovery room.  I get hooked up to some IV meds and wait for Jim and Lydia to return.

meeting Lydia 

More on recovery at a later time...
 

silly baby, continued

Last post I mentioned that the doctor found some elevated levels of protein in my urine and I was instructed to go home and drink a ton of water, then return to the doctor the next day to be checked again.

12-5-12

Went home, drank loads of water, returned to the doctor, "you're protein levels are even higher today, we are going to admit you to the hospital."

Like now?

"Yeah, now.  Is there someone that can take care of your son?"

Umm I'll call my husband, and run home to get some stuff then come back

"okay.  oh, let's check your blood pressure"

I love when doctors give you crazy news then ask to take your blood pressure.  I managed to almost pass.

So, Oliver and I leave.  I make a few calls, and go home to pack up a few things.  Jim meets us at home then we all head back to the hospital together.  Blood pressure tested every 15 minutes, urine collected, baby monitoring, blood drawing.  Blood test, pass.  Pressure, borderline.  Urine, high levels of protein.  Baby, doing great.  Those results equal "you're going to be here for 24 hours of monitoring, and we'll decide what to do with you tomorrow."

The challenging part is that, since I've got a kid with me, they think I've done this before.  I find myself asking a million questions and mentioning over and over that this, indeed, it my first go at it.

We shall see what tomorrow brings....

12-6-12

Slept a bit.  Another blood draw at 5:00am, similar results as yesterday.  As of midnight I was banned from eating or drinking, just in case they decide to flip baby and induce, or have a csection.  By 10:00am I was asking for water, my doctor came in and said I could keep eating and drinking until 11:00am, how kind.

Also talked about options of what's next, but it really all depends on what is found in my urine.  I've never though or typed so much about urine in my life! 

Up next, silly baby's arrival....stay tuned.  

silly baby

For the most part pregnancy has been fairly uneventful, or maybe it's just that nothing since the great rash of August seems to be nearly as bad.  The pregnancy induced carpal tunnel causing most of the fingers on my right hand to go numb, not a problem.  Heartburn, take a tums, or three or four or...  Swollen feet and lack of ankles, just plain funny. 

However, today's weekly visit to the OB was not as fun.  I had an ultrasound to check baby's size.  Baby is measuring about 3 days ahead and about 7lbs, 4oz, organs look good, but baby is head up.  Head under my ribs then curved around my left side like the letter C, butt down, and feet wrapped up the right side.  Silly baby.  Next week I go back for an ultrasound to check the position again and make a plan.  The doctor assured me that whatever the plan ends up being they will keep checking position before doing anything drastic.  Luckily baby is still surrounded by enough fluid, but not too much, so turning still seems possible.  

Also, my urine sample (pregnancy is so glamorous) yielded news of protein.  Probably not an issue, just didn't drink enough today.  So back to the doctor tomorrow after I drink a large amount of water to make sure I don't have pre-eclampsia, which I probably don't since my blood pressure is still good.  Or it could be some kidney issue, which I also hope it's not since kidneys seem important.

So drop a little prayer that baby gets where it needs to be and the protein does the same. 

Lots more points for adoption, lots.  

christmas, oliver edition

Here is our Christmas gift list for Oliver, in case you're looking for inspiration.  I was reading, on Oliver's birth board, what people were getting their three year olds and it was a tech stuff.  I'm not ready for that yet...I still want him to interact with us!  HA! So, here's what we got him. 

 

                                                                           ukelele

cd player 

6 different books that come with CDs

sound bingo 
lego fire station 

lego base

elephant & piggy books

some new pieces for his train set

 

3 years

Thanksgiving marks the anniversary of our blog.  The anniversary of our online adoption announcement.  Wow, what a difference 3 years can make.  Let's talk top three...

Top three posts.
1. Thanks to pinterest this post featuring some glow in the dark easter eggs flew into the lead.
2. Also thanks to pinterest a post about bathroom mirrors takes second.
3. And the always sweet and ever so perfect Oliver introduction post.

Top three countries where you readers are reading
1. Right here in the US (of course)
2. Canada
3. Russia

Top three reasons I blog
1. Blogs helped me during the adoption process
2. It's like scrapbooking but without all the cutting, gluing, and clutter
3. It has helped me "meet" a ton of awesome people

Top three things we are looking forward to this year
1.Celebrating 2 years home!
2. Baby!
3. All the adventures that we don't know about

So thanks to everyone who follows along, all 91 official followers and those who stalk in secret.  Thanks for your comments and encouragement.  Cheers to another year of blogging. 

too stressful

Let's back up to last night.  I think "oh yeah I need to sign Oliver up for a sibling class, I think he would enjoy that." I go online and see when it's offered, oh it's offered on Tuesday evening, great.  Jim's going to be home late from a trip to Texas, so I'll take Oliver. 

I drive to the exact address where it says the class is held.  Oliver and I run in because it's 6:25 and class starts at 6:30, and I can't be late.  The lady at the desk has no idea what I'm talking about or where the class is.  She calls security, they give directions, doors are locked, up stairs, down stairs, huffing and puffing as I drag Oliver around.  We finally locate the class at 6:40, and I hate being late.  How did these other people find it?

The instructor is nice and informative.  However, there is a slightly obnoxious 4 year old who is winning Oliver over to the dark side.  He manages to make it through without too many issues.  We tour the hospital, we see a baby in the nursery, and I note how to leave the place so we can get out easier then we got in!

Class ends, we leave, we stop at the bathroom, and suddenly everyone is gone.  I walk to the door to get us out of the basement and up to the main entrance, it's locked.  Try the elevator, it's not going anywhere.  We walk on and finally make it to the outside world sadly, this part of the outside is NO where near where we parked.  We wander for about 20 minutes trying to locate the car.  I keep Jim on the phone with me while we walk because I've seen too many episodes of Criminal Minds. 

Made it to the car, hang up, buckle Oliver in, and go.

Down the street a bit (6ish miles) and at a red light.  I reach to my purse to get my phone to call my friend Audrey and complain about the insanity of hospitals, why are they so maze like?  Can't feel my phone, light turns green, starting to feel nervous, pull over into a parking lot, no phone in my purse, no phone in my car, no phone at all. 

Drive back to the hospital, because if it's not in my car maybe it's around where I parked, I mean I was on the phone while standing at my car.  I'm crying, Oliver says "I'm looking mama, I'm looking." We make it back to the parking lot, drive all over very slowly like super creepy folks, no phone.  This can not be happening!  I drive slowly with my high beams on from the hospital back to the place I pulled over, then I give up and drive home praying that I find my phone hiding somewhere in my car. 

Meanwhile, back at home...

Jim's on the phone, a runner called to say he found my phone.  Jim asks where's my wife?  The guy doesn't know where I am, he just knows he found my phone in a ditch and wonders what to do with it.  Jim asks him what intersection he is near.  The runner tells him and that specific intersection is NOT on my way home and not a place I would need to drive to get home.  Jim asks if he can leave the phone at the hospital, and the runner agrees.  However, Jim's in disbelief that the runner found my phone and not me, and wonders why my phone was found about two miles from anywhere I should be, and so he calls the police.  The police haven't seen me.  He calls hospital security and they haven't seen me.

I make it home a sobbing mess, but the news is good for both of us...my phone was found and Oliver and I will not be written into the next episode of Criminal Minds.  Jim drives back to the ER and picks my phone up.







I'll never go to sibling class again, it's too stressful. 

Orphan Sunday

On Orphan Sunday, Christians stand for the orphan. We are a people called to defend the fatherless…to care for the child that has no family…to visit orphans in their distress.

The numbers are staggering, especially when they are counting human lives...even more so when used to describe the lives of babies, children, and teens.  Sometimes you just have to step back from the numbers and focus on the small little thing that you can do...even if your little thing seems so insignificant, they are actually huge!  pray, offer support, or go adopt.

Oliver was one of those millions of orphans.  He was one of hundreds of thousands in Russia.  At his orphanage he was one of 150, with only six caretakers.     

Now, now he is just our special one.

I don't know what the future holds for us.  Will we adopt again?  Will we foster?  I'm not privy to that information yet.  However, what I know right now is that once you've been educated about adoption, or read a ton of adoption blogs, or been to an orphanage, or you've seen a kid's life path completely redirected because of adoption, you can't just keep it to yourself. 

We've been blessed to be able lead a 7 week DVD series called "If you were mine" at our church starting mid November.  It's a comprehensive course going though many aspects of adoption starting with deciding if it's right for your family all the way to welcoming home your child.  

If you live in the KC area and are interested in joining us, let me know and I'll get you all the details!

-----

A little about our "call" to adopt.  

Some people think about adopting when they are kids.  Some couples talk about adopting when they go through pre marital counseling.  Some struggle with fertility and turn to adoption.  Some have 17 sons and just want a daughter.  Some are faced with an empty nest, and aren't ready for that. Many do a lot of research, some research for a year or more.  It doesn't really matter what your reason is but we were none of those people.

We attended a Tenth Avenue North concert in September of 2010, they had a set change and during the change they were encouraging people to support a compassion kid...you know, $1 sends Jose to school, gets him new cloths, food, medication.  We didn't support Jose or any of this friends, but we heard the message, just as we did a million times over at Christian concerts and on TV commercials.  

But somehow something was different, somehow that little and very familiar pitch settled into our hearts.  That night or the next day or something like that Jim mentions "what about adopting a kid?"

"Okay"  "Yeah" "Let's do it"   That's me.  I'm a fast decision maker.  Once I heard adoption I was all over it.  That's what we were going to do. 

That was mid September, late October we traveled home to Massachusetts and told our family and friends we were strongly considering adopting a child from Kazakhstan, by the start of December we were signed on with our agency and things were moving...we were going to adopt a kid.

However, we are teaching this "If you were mine" adoption course because we realize most humans actually like to know what they are getting themselves into and feel educated about the process.
So join us!

halloween

It's not just trick or treating on Halloween night.  It's boo at the zoo, fun at church, a parade at school, a sugar coma, followed by an evening of trick or treating.

fun at the zoo

parade at preschool

pumpkin carving drilling

getting ready to go trick or treating

last year...we were both smaller!

 

tipping point

When you have a biological child that child has been yours since their existence.  They were yours before you even knew you were pregnant.  It's a little different when you adopt.

When you adopt you're child comes with a history that you don't know about.  They come with months, or years of a life that you weren't apart of.  A different family, a different culture, different routines, a different country (sometimes), that's just how it is. 

However, eventually, there is a tipping point...or maybe it's just something in my mind.  See today marks the day that Oliver has officially been with us longer then he had lived in Russia.  Longer then he lived with him bio mom and longer then he lived at the orphanage.  I became his legal mother when the Russian court said so, I felt like his mama a few days after picking him up, but now, I don't know, I guess stake my claim in terms of time...finally.  But isn't it a little bittersweet?  Doesn't it feel like he's been living here forever?  All that time he was here is just a day more then he was getting by in Russia.  It is what it is, it's our special story.  We are thankful for the time we've had together, and we look forward to so many many more adventures.

nursery

Does a baby need a nursery before they show up or even 6 months into their life?  Probably not.  However, we've got the space, and I'm not busy chasing a preschooler and nursing an infant, so now seems like a good time to get it together.  More importantly I despised the paint color in our guest room and was really exciting to have a good reason to change it.  Jim had different thoughts...but we paid to have it painted, can't the baby use it the color it is.  Umm no, that color is going.  I was forced into it by our painter and I hated it!! 

When we first moved in, not bad.

After it was painted, blah

The other side with the cheap Ikea dresser
I destroyed that dresser while pumped full of steroids
during the rash portion of this pregnancy

         

 We are not finding out the gender of our baby, I can't resist an awesome surprise.  I also like that not knowing the gender means I don't have to be forced into a pink princess room or some sports themed boy room. 

Here is a picture of Oliver's room, which I also
think is fairly gender neutral.

Baby's nursery, painted the same color as
Oliver's room

 It's not totally finished.  Maybe I'll make a mobile, hang a mirror over the dresser, and add a few more book ledges...but it's getting closer.

Shopping list
-Crib, overstock.com (http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/London-Euro-style-Matte-White-Stationary-Crib/5997989/product.html)  I spray painted all the black screws white, so they wouldn't stand out
-Chair, grandmother
-Dresser, craigslist
-Curtains, Ikea
-Shelf, book ledges, picture frames, Ikea
-Changing pad & cover, bed sheet, Amazon
-Embroidery hoops, yard sale
-Fabric, Urban Crafts
-Crib Skirt, fabric from Joanne's
-Paint Color, Atmosphere from Restoration Hardware...color matched in Olympic paint at Lowe's 
-Books, donated by Oliver...learning how to share

P.S. Is baby Tylick going to be a boy or a girl?  Vote on the top right of the page! 

getting educated

Here we are at three-ish months to go until baby #2 makes his or her entrance.  It's time to figure this thing out, or at least figure how to get it out.  Yes, I realize that humans have been doing this since there were humans and we are designed to do this, and blah blah blah, but a little education can't hurt...right?  Plus, why isn't some sort of education required before having a kid?

To adopt a Russian Jim and I had to log 10 hours of education each.  Book reports, online lectures, etc.  That requirement is way more intense these days.  These days, ha, that makes it sound like we adopted ages ago...things just change so fast. 

Anyway, Jim and I signed up for a course through our hospital.  It's a five week course that goes through pre-labor, labor, delivery, natural measures, medication, a tour of the hospital, newborn care basics, and Jim even gets to wear "the belly."  Fantastic.  I'll keep you on the edge of your chair waiting for that photo. 

We had our first meeting on Monday.  I didn't think it was too intense.  Jim said "oh my, there is so much to know."  Oh, let me clear things up for you Jim.  When I say lets go to the hospital, you drive me there.  Once at the hospital you continue to follow my instructions.  At least that's what I gleaned from the class.

Besides this five week basics class, we are going to take a nursing class and Oliver is going to take a sibling class.  Sure, he had like 149 "siblings" back at the orphanage, but that was awhile ago, he needs a refresher.  

shower time

Ah the preschool/elementary school "walk of shame."  You know it.  It's when your kid comes home in that extra pair of clothes that you sent in for accidents.  In my history as a kindergarten teacher the most popular accidents include...

-peeing or pooping in your pants
-drama at the water fountain or sink
-inability to open your milk at lunch thus resulting in a milk explosion
-other lunch related issues
-mud or water found outside at recess or on a nature walk
-sudden rain storm while navigating the streets of Boston
-snack issues
-paint problems
-puke
-bloody nose


There may be more, but at the current time I can't think of them.

Anyway, I went to pick Oliver up from preschool today and he was wearing "those clothes."  I ask, "Oh man did you forget to pee in the potty?"  Nope.  "Did you have a hard time eating your yogurt snack?" Nope.  "Did you get messy outside, did you do messy art, did you have a problem at the sink?" Nope. Nope. Nope.  I turn to his teacher.  Then she tells me a reason I've actually not come across.

HE PUT HIS HEAD IN THE URINAL WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY FLUSHING IT!!!!!! 

That's right, my kid took a shower in the urinal.  His teachers says "He really likes water." 

Yeah I know.  Maybe I went a little overboard with the whole "tub is not torture" series back in 2011.

good mom?

really?

I keep seeing these signs popping up on Pinterest and Facebook and they annoy me every time.  I want to have a clean house AND a happy kid and I kinda think that kids actually like living in a clean semi organized space.  When Oliver gets too many toys out in his toy room, he will stop going in there until we put everything away and "reboot."

I think the sign is implying that happy kids have mommies that play with them and aren't all consumed with housework. True.  I spend a lot of time with Oliver.  We read stories, we build stuff, when it's under 90 million degrees (rare) we play outside, and we also clean together.  After all, doesn't your daughter want a husband that knows how to separate laundry and work a vacuum?  Shouldn't a three year old be able to play on their own for 20 minutes while I clean out some science experiment growing in my fridge?  I actually really love listening to him play alone, being all chatty with his trains.    

Is the sign trying to make me feel guilty for having a clean house? Or is it trying to give others validation for having a messy one?  In either case I'm quite sure being a "good mom" is way more complicated.  Like way complicated.  


P.S. I put up a little poll on the top right side of the page.  Get your vote in.  Is baby #2 going to be a girl or a boy? 

the drop off

08.27.09  - Oliver, age 2 months & 27 days was dropped off at his orphanage.

08.27.12 - Oliver, age 3 years, 2 months & 27 days was dropped off at his preschool

God's got such a sense of humor or timing or both.  Today is just one of those days where you see the full circle and it's simply amazing.

We prepped for preschool, we talked about it all month, we visited, and he could recite the routine... "Mama is going to take me to preschool, I say "bye bye mama," then I go and play with my friends, I listen to Miss. Davis, and then mama comes back."  And amazingly it actually happened all just like that.  Snapped some photos, walked him in, put his stuff in his cubbie, smooch face, bye bye...no tears, because what's sad about preschool?

shiny & gold, no more

Continuing on with the theme of getting baby's room ready, let's talk about ceiling fans.  Ceiling fans are not stylish, they are functional, especially when it's hot.  As much as I'd really love to rip them all out, and replace them with something so much prettier, I know it would be foolish.

However, something really had to be done with this hot gold mess...

the before

 First thing we did was remove the lights and shades, then unscrew all the blades.  We gave everything a good cleaning and then took the removable parts outside to spray paint away their goldness.

Oliver putting all the screws into a
play-doh pancake, so they can be easily painted

 

two thin coats of primer
two thin coats of semi gloss white

Now I was unable to remove the whole thing from the ceiling, I'm just not that skilled.  Instead I made a newspaper tent around it and spray painted it right there on the ceiling...with the windows open, a fan in the window, and a mask over my face.  I'd run in, give it a quick spay, and run back out X3

put it all back together
add new shades

 
Amazing? No, not really. 
Better?  Yes, white is better then gold.