porch, done for now

the before

 Reasons for mini porch makeover
1. It's basically in our living room, but looked too much like outside
2. The rug was gross
3. Our neighbor is always outside smoking cigars, curtains were a must

everything removed, a vast improvement

original plan, white walls and curtains

ooo sweet morning light

painted walls made the ceiling look bad, so I painted that too

stained the deck, put the furniture back in (already owned), added an indoor/outdoor rug

hamper on the left stores Jim's unsightly bag of charcoal, chairs for the table are still waiting to be painted 

Supplies
2 gallons of outdoor paint, satin, panda white, Olympic brand ($44)
1 gallon of primer (used on the ceiling) ($22)
1 small jug of deck cleaner, so I didn't need to power wash it ($8)
1 gallon of deck stain in chocolate ($26)
indoor/outdoor rug ($45) -scored on craigslist
hamper ($20)
curtain rod ($15)
shower curtains ($22) -I picked shower curtains because they are wider than standard curtains and could easily close to fit over the whole window, they are use to dealing with wet situations, and these particular shower curtains are really cute. 
rings to hang the shower curtains (free, already owned them!)

Still needed to be done
-wash the windows, yuck
-wash the rest of the screens, yuck
-caulk around the sliding doors
-enjoy the porch, it's been hot hot and another heatwave is on the way, come October I'll be out there...hopefully 

more proof

Oliver's new most favorite and most used words "no" and "I do it"  Quite sure that this is also proof he is developing  properly, as most two year olds seem to be preaching some version of the same.

Here's how it goes down at out place...

Me: Good morning Oliver, I love you
Him: No

Me: Time to sit on the potty
Him: No

Me: Oatmeal or eggs for breakfast?
Him: No (with an added foot stomp for extra emphasis)
-foot stomping is strictly forbidden and results in an immediate  time out and a mandatory apology...just seem so disrespectful to me and I've seen what behaviors like the morph into once the child is in kindergarten, not good.  

Me: Oliver, when I tell you to do something you say "yes, mama"
Him: Yes, mama

Me: Time to sit down and eat some lunch
Him: No

The rules Jim and I now follow
1. Limit the number of no's that comes from our mouths.  Instead of "no trowing food"  we say "Oliver please stop throwing your food"
2. Everything should be stated and not asked

Me: Trying to vacuum the floor
Him: I do it
Me: Gladly

Me: Trying to scoop out cooking batter
Him: I do it
Me: Sorry buddy people don't want toddler funk in their cookies
Him:  I DO IT!

How do you combat the NO and I DO IT at your place?  Or, if you are so lucky, how did you bypass it?

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On a more cheery note, I have managed to get Oliver to say "thanks mama" after I give him something.  "Thanks mama" is what gets me though all the NO and foot stomping.

speech part two

The folks from infant & toddler services came out to check Oliver's development.  Turns out he is awesome or a "rock star" as the caseworker said.  Both women were impressed with his ability to say "airplane" and a bunch of other vehicle names, his walking style, and his skills at putting train tracks together.  I didn't even take them out to see his trapeze skills, it would just be bragging at that point. 

When compared to biological kids his age he is about 3-4 months behind with language skills, when compared to internationally adopted kids his age he is above average, and does not qualify for services.  However, if we don't start hearing him say sounds at the ends of his words in the next few months we need to call them back for possible articulation services.    

When we first got home from Russia our agency contacted me and asked if I would write a success story for their website.  Of course.  I would write for anyone who asked me to.  Oliver's changes started so quickly after leaving the orphanage that I compared it to waking from hibernation.  Those sleeping bears are alive, just not doing much.  It was all brought back to the forefront today when the caseworker was questioning me about Oliver's changes over the past six months.  It really is amazing, and there are still hundreds of thousands of children in "hibernation" waiting for their turn to amaze you.  If you're considering, just do it.  

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As a reward for being such a rock star Oliver was treated to cheesy polenta with spinach and carrots for lunch.  We found it at our new Trader Joe's store and it's pretty much awesome, and a great way to get Oliver to eat his spinach. 

  

speech

Figured I had better call the folks over at infant & toddler services to get Oliver evaluated for speech.  Personally I think Oliver is awesome and gaining both receptive and expressive language at a steady pace, but I'm usually wearing rosy colored mommy glasses and I don't really even know what a two year old should be chatting about.  I know even less about what a 26 month old who was adopted 6 months ago from a foreign country should be chatting about.  So I'll leave it to some experts.  Currently in the midst of an intense game of phone tag with the scheduling coordinator.


The thing that I think is a bit odd is that they told me Oliver has to be 25% behind other adopted children, his age, to qualify for services.  I just wonder why he can't be assessed against all other children his age.  It's not like the class he ends up in at school is going to be filled with all internationally adopted children.  Also, the woman who asked about Oliver commented on his age at adoption saying, "oh he was adopted older then most."  Maybe? But I don't think I would consider a 20 month old as old.  Then I get sad for all those "old" kids at the orphanage.  3, 5, 10, 15 year old kids need mommies just as much as 11 month old babes. 
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Below you can find a few examples of Oliver trying to talk.

Play-Doh (as already told on facebook, sorry)
I've told Oliver so many times that Play-Doh is not food.  I've told him so many times that he thinks the word for Play-Doh is "no food."  The other day I'm in the kitchen washing something or cooking something or whatever and he comes in saying "no food open"  "no food open"  "no food open please"  (in Oliver speak it sounds like "no foo opo peas") Once I figure out that he wants the play-doh open, I open it, hand it to him, put him in his chair, and he tries eating it. 

Talking to himself
While I work on painting the ceiling (read yesterday's post) Oliver hangs out on the deck splashing around in a tub of water.  It struck me this morning that he was being really chatty while splashing around.  Not talking to me, just talking to/about the stuff around him.  "wow big bug" he says about the dead cicada.  "big bug sip" he says about giving the cicada a sip of water, more like dumping a watering can of water over it but if I correct him and say big bug shower he will start going nuts and want to take a shower.  Big bug sip it is. 

During this deck water time he also mentioned a few other things
-"no wawa insi" (inside)
-"more wawa peas"
-"hot grill, no!"
-"up high mama"
-"swim"
-"eat, food, nak peas"

We have also been working on identifying letters and singing the alphabet.  Singing has gotten just about no where.  It's kind of like when I love a song on the radio, but I just don't know all the words so I sing loudly the ones I know.  Oh, don't act like you don't do it too.  Anyway, that's what Oliver is like with the alphabet song.  Starts out strong with AB, jumps back in with M, big excitement for SSSSSSSSSS, ends with W (dub-a-do), X, Y, ZZZZZZZZZZZ.  He is a little better at recognizing the letters.  About 90% of the time he is successful with; A, B, M, O, R, S, U, W, X, Y.  For whatever reason he really favors the end of the alphabet. 

avalanche

Sometimes you start a project, because you want a simple and quick fix or spruce up of a certain area of your home.  However, once you start it you realize there are 50 other things that need to be done to said area to make it look cohesive with the sprucing you did.  Or is it just me?

My simple spruce involves our screened in porch, or as Sarah over at Clover Lane calls it a SIP.  After reading Sarah's post about wanting a SIP I had a real desire to give ours a hand with three simple updates.

1. Paint the wall portions of the porch.  (Panda White)
-most of the porch is window but the walls that are there are all painted "deck orange"  Our SIP might as well be part of our living room because of all the windows and "deck orange" just wasn't meshing with our sage living space.  (DONE)

2.  Pull up yucky indoor/outdoor carpet, clean the deck, and add an 8x10 area rug (something with blue in it) (DONE, rug is in the mail)

3. Add curtains to the side facing our neighbor who loves hanging on his deck and smoking cigars. (DONE)

Okay, I painted the walls.  They look awesome, but they made the ceiling look really awful.  It's just the supports for the roof and pressed board, both in their original unfinished states.  I figured it's not really in the budget to be adding a real ceiling, so I would just prime and paint it panda white also.  I've since learned that painting a ceiling is awful. 

4.  Paint ceiling (Panda White)

5.  Well if all the other surfaces are being refinished I might as well restrain the decking before adding the area rug.

6.  While I'm at it I had better spray paint the old patio furniture to give it a second wind (oil rubbed bronze)

See it's been an avalanche.  A simple weekend project has turned to probably a two week project...mostly because I'm working alone.  Working on anything at your place?  Has it gotten out of hand?

What does Oliver do while I'm elbow deep in primer and 6 feet up a ladder?  Oh he walks around the outside part of the deck looking for bugs and asking them if they want a sip of water from his bucket that he plays in.  Or he sits on the bottom step of the ladder eating a cup of ice.  Or walks in circles under the ladder.  Or plays cars and reads book.  It's a good time. 

vacation recap

Too much time has past from the last blog post, which for me makes posting overwhelming...so much to say.  Here is a concise recap of vacation.

1. We traveled back to our "home land," Boston.  We hadn't been back since we told all our Boston friends and family that we were adopting Oliver almost two years ago.  We left hot hot Kansas City and landed in 68 degree and rainy Boston, perfection.  The grandparents live down in Marshfield, a relaxed and semi beachy town on the South Shore of Massachusetts.  On day two we headed over to the ocean.  At first sight Oliver pointed and said "Oh Wow!"  Then he ran right in, soon discovered it was FREEZING and spent more time on the edge and in the sand. 

First romp in the water

Warming

2. Jim & I traveled up to Maine for a little overnight trip, giving us a little break and Oliver a chance to really get to know his grammy and pop pop.  They said he did an awesome job and didn't start asking for me until the second day at lunch time. 

Jim and I hanging by the ocean at sunset

3. The whole reason we went to the Northeast was to attend my college roommate's wedding.  It was great to see Lizbeth & Donald get married.  Everyone seemed very happy, the venue was beautiful, the food was great, the dancing was fun, and the company was top notch! 

Oliver, myself, and some girls from Wheelock

4.  Puddle splashing is awesome. 

Waving at an airplane

I had to take the photo before removing him

5.  First train ride!  We rode up to the children's museum and back. 

Ice cream for the ride home.

6.  Did I mention that I was in love with our airplane strap thingy?  Here is photographic proof of its wonderfulness. Moments after strapping him in I handed him a book while I properly stowed our things, I turned around and he was sleeping*.  Lovely.  He continued sleeping until moments before touchdown in Kansas City. 

*Please note sleeping was not a direct reaction from the strap thingy, we also spent about an hour running laps around the Atlanta airport.  The strap just keeps him sitting, causing him to become bored and fall asleep.  

I propped his head up with a pillow after taking the photo.

Another note about airline travel...
I'm a love not war kind of girl.  I wish people could just get along.  I wish that countries with conflict could fix it on their own.  I wish we could be all done sending folks away to become casualties of war, to become amputees, to become bearers of PTSD, to make children suddenly have only one parent even if it's temporary.   I'm not overly patriotic.  I think we could learn from other countries.  The spark to this rant has to do with our flight home.  When the plane landed we were told to stay seated out of respect.  There was a captain on our flight escorting a soldier's body home.  My baby was sitting there next to me happily snacking on ice and shoving stuff back into his backpack.  Someone else's baby was killed in someone else's war and riding alone under the plane in a box to be later rejoined with his family...that was the first time this long long war broke my heart.

7.  I have a long lost sister.  I knew of her when I was a child and I meet her a few times, she is my father's first daughter and six years older than myself.  Right before traveling to Siberia I found her on facebook.  I had looked before but was unsure of how she spelled her name, she said the same about me.  We were connected through a cousin.  Anyway, I learned that she lives in Cambridge (over the river from Boston).  Turns out we even lived in the city at the same time.  We got together for a walk around Harvard Sq, some dinner, and a drink.  She knew our dad, not much, but more than myself.  She had pictures, and some stories.  Things I was never privileged to as a child. She showed me more pictures of my father then I have ever seen in my life.  She even pried one out of her 1970s photo book for me to keep, which doubles my photo collection of pictures of my father. 

Maybe not our best photo, we were really struggling with camera batteries and cell phone space. 

8.  Oliver is obsessed with the concept of "under" or un-na as he calls it.  He says it when we drive under things, he says it when he walks under things, he says it when he demands you lift your leg, when sitting, so he can drive his trains under it, and he says it as he runs laps around the house and dives though Jim's legs.  I'm always amused by the things that "catch" kids minds.  I'm happy that un-na is what has caught his mind and not something like coloring on the walls with crayons.

can't believe it

 Today we joined some families who have adopted children from Kazakhstan.  It's always fun to hang out with people who share a similar story to yours, and eat good food, and hang by the pool.  Even if our child was a total fuss pot in desperate need of a nap.  It didn't hit me until this evening (upon reading another blog, who shares this same day with us) that it's Oliver's 6th monthaversary.  Six months, what?  

   Here is Oliver and I right before we left Moscow 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The three of us at a wedding last weekend.