Hijacking the blog

This post is for Sara and Mom O...

Here are the girls' dresses (ignore the socks--those are their regular socks). Let me know if something doesn't look right! :)

The dentist

Yesterday all four kids went to the dentist which they love. They did a great job obeying me and then also did well for the dentist. Lots of clean teeth, no plaque on any teeth(!), and healthy gums, so that was definitely good news!

Alex got to share that he had lost another tooth (last week) which is his fifth tooth to lose. Tim is still patiently waiting for any of his teeth to fall out. :) Tim's teeth still show some of the black iron staining when they grow out. You can see it right at the base of his teeth (close to the gum) although it's much less noticeable than it used to be. Supposedly his permanent teeth won't have it at all which would be really nice for his sake as he gets older.

Fun weekend

This weekend Mark's parents were in town and it was great to have them here. We packed as much as we could into one weekend. :)

Friday Mark had the day off so he kept the kids home so they could spend more time with their Grandma and Grandpa. They did lots of yardwork and spent lots of time snuggled on the couch reading stories. :) Friday night all of the adults went to the Muny for Cats. I had never seen it before, and while it was good it's not one of my favorites. I'm glad to have finally seen it, though.

Saturday was...wait for it ;)...base ball! Mark's dad played and then...in the last inning of the last game...I played.

Yes, you read that right.

They were short players and I told them as long as I didn't have to catch, hit, or throw I would be happy to play. I played second base. And...

I actually made an out.

We celebrated by going to Cici's Pizza. I ate an extra cinnamon roll. I figured I deserve it. It will be at least another decade before I play base ball again so I better celebrate while I can!

Sunday was church and then we went peach-picking at Eckert's. We brought home about 20 lbs of peaches, which will be canned shortly (whatever we don't eat first). Then Hometown Buffet to show Grandma and Grandpa how much the kids can eat (trust me, looking at them you would be amazed!).

Mom and Dad O are heading out tomorrow for Denver. We will all miss them and look forward to seeing them again soon!

What HAVE we been up to?

I go back and forth with not posting because we're too busy or it seems too boring. ;)

In the past week...for the fourth of July we didn't do anything really special. We took the kids to watch the downtown fireworks from a parking garage again this year but we're thinking next year they may be ready to handle actually being downtown in the crowds and the noise. We'll see. ;)

Mark had to work on the 5th but the kids and I were off so we hung out around the house. The weeks stay busy with the kids in summer camp and preschool, plus speech once a week for Emily. So far we've been able to work things out so that the boys are not going to watch the movies that we don't feel are appropriate for them. Since Mark worked last Monday he had a day off to use so he used it to keep the boys on their movie day. They had a good time hanging out with him and still got to watch part of a movie at home, then went back to camp at lunchtime.

Mark and I have seen two shows at the Muny--Beauty and the Beast and Titanic. Beauty and the Beast was--I'm sad to say--very disappointing for me. I love the music from the Broadway version but this did not live up to it at all. There seemed to be whole parts missing from the score and it made things very weird. Usually the Muny puts on top-notch shows but this was a definite disappointment. That was somewhat made up for with Titanic. Mark and I first saw this musical in Michigan and I loved it! Here at the Muny I enjoyed it so much again. For those not familiar with the broadway version of Titanic, it is nothing like the movie...which is a good thing. :) It is such a romantic musical and knowing that it is based on history makes it a very powerful story.

This past weekend we did lots of running around. An old friend from TCU was in town for a wedding so we caught up with her and her family for a couple of hours at a local playground. It was great to get to see them again and to meet their adorable daughter.

This weekend was also Tim's birthday! He is now 7 and was very happy about his birthday. He somehow seemed to believe that everyone he met should tell him happy birthday. ;) For his birthday dinner we went to Hometown Buffet and the kids LOVED it. All they could eat and so many choices! We had some close calls, but no one got sick from overeating. LOL

I made Tim his choice of cake--a church cake that looked like our church...are my kids weird or what?--and it was dry but the icing was fantastic. I haven't liked either of the two cake recipes I've used for the boys' birthdays but this icing was a keeper. I've been eating the leftover icing by the spoonful (makes up for not eating dessert at the buffet! ;)).

Tim liked his cake but told me at church that I left off the statue (our church used to be a Catholic church and there is a statue of a saint in the front towards the top of the building). He was still happy though, because he got to eat the steeple. Weird, I tell you...just weird.

And we've been over to the dirty house a couple of times cleaning out drywall. The kids love to help carry the drywall to the dumpster. Danielle was actually begging to get to go again so she could carry more drywall to the dumpster. Silly girl. They like being able to point out how strong they are, and they try to see how many pieces they can carry at a time.

In dirty house news...all of the drywall is done! Taping and mudding starts this week and the electrician will be out next week. We should have AC in the next couple of weeks which will be great!

Switching things up

This past weekend I decided to make some changes. Specifically, I decided to put the girls in the boys' room and the boys in the girls' room.

The girls' room is right in the middle of the hallway and has a pocket door. I don't like closing their door as I'm worried they will have trouble opening it in the middle of the night if they need to go to the bathroom. The hallway outside their door happens to be the squeakiest part of the hall so every time we walk by it is really loud and often wakes one or both girls up.

The boys' room is at the end of the hall, right across from our room, and has a regular door on it. By putting the girls in there I can hear them better at night and I can pull their door to and not have them hear as much noise. Plus, the floor in the boys' room is quieter so when I go in to one of the girls I don't wake the other one up.

We started the switch on Sunday night. Of course it decided to thunderstorm that night. But it worked out great because I stayed in our bedroom folding laundry and listened for the girls. I could peek in on them without waking them up. When Danielle got scared I was able to go in and comfort her without waking Emily up (Danielle was the only one who ever woke up).

Right now we're on trial for a week, so we haven't actually swapped any of their clothes or toys yet. I want to see how this works. But so far I am LOVING it and think it may be a permanent change.

And even more base ball...

We had another busy day of base ball. We drove a couple of hours into Illinois for the game. Early on, Mark was in left field and the kids and I were at the playground behind him. I yelled at him to check out Emily and me.

Emily was swinging, by herself, pumping and giving Danielle a run for her money as to who could swing higher.

I was sitting on a bench, in the shade. :) :)

The helicopters from Alex's birthday were a huge hit and the kids spent a lot of time flying them. Emily is not quite able to make them go (she pulls the string too slow) but the bigger kids were all able to get them into the air.

The kids also took turns playing left field with Mark. That was highly entertaining for me, especially since none of them run after the ball. They all just stand there and watch Mark run and then tell him he did a good job when he gets back to where they are!

Carnival

Very rarely do I wish that I had brought the camera somewhere, but that was definitely the case Friday night. The kids' school had a carnival--complete with rides!--as a fundraiser. The kids have been talking about it for weeks and were over-the-moon with excitement when they started putting the rides up in the parking lot on Wednesday.

Since Mark has base ball today and I have an out-of-town baby shower, we knew the only option was to go on Friday night. So after homemade pizza for dinner (thankfully they don't yet realize the yumminess of carnival food) we walked to the carnival. The tickets were $1 each and each ride was 2-3 tickets so we had to set a limit so we didn't go broke. :) We perused the rides and after a little discussion Mark and I decided they could each ride one ride (there weren't very many that they could ride because they are still so little). These are the first carnival rides any of them have been on. Emily and Tim chose a car ride that went around in a circle and Danielle and Alex chose a dragon mini-roller coaster. We bought extra tickets for me to go on the roller coaster with Alex and Danielle (we were a little afraid of someone having a panic attack) but as it turned out I was too tall to ride (first time that's ever happened!) so we sent Tim on instead.

Alex and Danielle were sitting in the very front seat with Tim right behind them. As soon as the ride started, you could see absolute terror on Danielle's face. One time around...I can see her trying to tell someone, anyone, to stop the ride. Second time around...boys are laughing and having a ball, Danielle is slightly less terrifed but still very unsure. Third time around...Danielle is smiling. :)

They had a great time and I now think we could go to an amusement park and all of them would enjoy it!

Swimming

The boys went swimming today for summer camp. They LOVE swimming but neither of them can swim independently yet. We're planning on swim lessons starting in July (for all four of them) but in the meantime we've been a little stressed about the idea of them going swimming every Monday without us.

We sent their arm floaties but we also talked to the teachers about only letting them stay in the wading pool. One of the teachers said "well, we can start in the wading pool and then work on helping them get comfortable with the water..." to which we said oh, no, they are already very comfortable with the water but they can't swim, which is a bad combination! They were not the only kids who stayed in the wading pool (from what we understand, this is a wading pool that's pretty big and a couple of feet deep, so plenty big for them to have lots of fun playing in) and they had a great time.

The girls start water play at the preschool this next week, one of them on Tuesdays and one on Thursdays. This means I get wet clothes and towels almost every day of the week. ;) Good thing I don't mind doing laundry!

Easter morning (I'm only a month late ;))

Playing at the playground over the weekend

A little bit tired on the drive home...

Mother's Day weekend

I had a post to write last week (about Alex specifically) but after some thought on my part I've decided I'm not ready to put it out there yet, which is why you haven't seen anything from me. :)

This weekend we split the kids and had a girls' weekend and a boys' weekend! I had a family baby shower to go to for a cousin and Mark had base ball so couldn't watch all of the kids, so we thought this would be a fun way to do the weekend. The girls and I drove down to my mom's house for the baby shower--which never happened. As it turned out, the mom-to-be had a car accident the morning of the shower. She and the baby are both fine, but they were in the hospital for the day for monitoring. So instead of a baby shower we had something more like a family reunion--with lots of girls. LOL

I did some special things with the girls this weekend that they hadn't yet experienced--their first blow-dry, their first happy meals, and their second nail-paintings. They loved getting to spend lots of time with me without having to compete with their brothers. In addition, they LOVED spending time with my youngest sister Brianna who is 13.

Mark and the boys...well, let's see if I can list it. Over to a base ball park to repair some holes--involved dirt, digging, and jumping on the newly placed dirt. To a second base ball park for the actual game--lots of playing with trucks, reading to friends, and all-around hanging out. To Cici's Pizza for dinner--chosen (by the boys) over White Castle because "it has more food and dessert." To Lowes and Home Depot for all kinds of building supplies for both houses. Sams--grocery shopping for the family. Church--where I didn't hear any reports of bad behavior, but they might have all been sleeping in the balcony. ;) I think they also added in some trips to the dirty house as well as doing some things around our house. Saturday night the boys were so excited because they got to stay up until 8pm. "Mama, it was past 8 o'clock!"

And Sunday we put everyone to bed at 6:30 and Mark had to wake them up at 7 the next morning. :) :)

Some highlights from my weekend: Sharing a morning snack with my girls at McDs--yogurt parfait for them and a Mocha Frappe for me. Emily headbanging to AM country-western music on the drive. Danielle falling in love with a little mirror she got in her Happy Meal, and trying to show it to every person in the restaurant before we left because she was so proud (we really did only stop at McDs twice). Talking to my mom for hours without interruption while Brianna and the girls played. Coming home to all of my boys (big and little) and the beautiful roses they got me for Mother's Day...

...realizing I've only been a mom for not even two and a half years. How incredibly blessed I am to celebrate this third Mother's Day when for many years I doubted I would celebrate one. I don't always feel like I'm meeting everyone's needs, but I'm trying and trusting God that He will keep molding me into the wife and mother He wants me to be! :)

Easter egg hunts

Yes, that was plural.


As it turns out, we did THREE Easter egg hunts on Saturday. That was so not planned.


There was an Easter egg hunt at the kids' school/church Saturday morning right before our church Easter egg hunt. We thought we would stop by since the kids had been hearing about it at school and I thought they might like to see some of their teachers there. As it turned out, we missed the egg hunt for the little kids (Emily and Danielle) but were able to jump onto the edge of the big kids hunt and all of the kids found a few eggs. They were just scattered on the ground but the girls are not the fastest at picking up eggs and are also pretty easily distracted (especially Danielle!). Most of the time other kids got to the eggs before they did. We didn't stick around for the games and crafts they had because we wanted to get to our church Easter egg hunt.


When we got to the park, we quickly found a place to park and found the schedule. We've only been going to this church since August so we've never done their egg hunt before. As it turns out, it's HUGE! They have three separate areas set up for toddler, preschool, and elementary age kids and then they do THREE egg hunts for each age group. And there were literally hundreds of eggs out for each group. We had some time before the egg hunts started so the kids got their faces painted, did some sticker art, and decorated plastic eggs. Then we did one egg hunt for Emily (preschool) and then one egg hunt for the other three. They all ended up with plastic bags FULL of eggs. We dumped the candy out into their bags and returned the eggs. The volunteers were stuffing eggs as fast as empty ones came in to prep for the next egg hunts. :)


After the egg hunt we headed to our old neighborhood to drop Mark off for a meeting with a contractor at the dirty house. On the way, he noticed some people walking with Easter baskets and realized that it was most likely the day of the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. So we dropped in on that. Since I had the kids by myself, I took all of them to the big kid side. The girls did not find a single egg (actually, they found some but couldn't get to them in time) but the boys had better luck and managed to get 2 or 3 each. It was irrelevant as we were really just there to see some old friends and hang out while Mark was busy. :) We had lunch there and even managed to win a couple of prizes.

All told, we ended up with more candy from the egg hunts than we did from Halloween!

And yes, I have pictures. :) :) I finally downloaded the pictures off of the camera from February, so I'm a bit behind!

Vacation

We have returned. :)

We spent a nice week in Colorado on spring break hanging out with Mark's family. We got to experience 65 degree weather playing outside and then sledding on Friday as the winter storm hit. The kids loved it! I had a very relaxing week with my in-laws, and while it's always good to get home, I was not ready to be done vacationing.

The kids did great with all of the family. The girls had met their grandparents and one uncle but had not met Mark's sisters or their cousin yet. We did lots of playing and reading and...more playing... :) And no one got sick. Of course, we didn't go up in the mountains either.

I only took four sets of clothes for any of us and planned on doing laundry there. That worked out fantastic and meant that I didn't come home with several loads of laundry to do.

Everyone's getting back into the swing of things but the kids have several days off coming up. They don't have a full school week until mid-April!

The innocence of children

Today was a gorgeous day here...it was cloudy and all of 40 degrees, but compared to what we've had it was definitely gorgeous!

Mark was over working at the other house so I took advantage of the nice weather and took the kids to the playground. They were thrilled to get out of the house as was I. We walked to the park and started out on the "little" playground designed for the small kids. My kids like to play there but they can't swing (the swings are baby swings) so after about 30 minutes we moved to the "big" playground. The kids spent about 30 minutes on the swings and I was really impressed with Danielle's swinging! She can swing as high or higher than the boys without even a push to start from me. :)

After the swings they had a small snowball fight with some snow in a shady area on the playground. They didn't really get to play in the snow much this winter because every time we've had snow it's been really cold and I haven't let them go out.

I had noticed a photographer wandering around earlier and now saw that she was photographing a couple. They were a slightly older couple, so it could have been an anniversary shoot or an engagement shoot (or any number of other things...). Tim asked me what they were doing and I told him she was taking pictures of them.

Tim: "Are they married?--Oh, yes they're married."
Me: "How can you tell?"
Tim: "They're kissing!"

Please, God, let him hang on to that idea until he's about 30, okay?? :)

Another day home

I really think I'm getting a taste of homeschooling other than actually doing curriculum prep. The kids seem to have had so many days off of school, and today was yet another one!

Usually I make the boys sit down and do their work first thing--it seems to work better or has in the past. But today I decided to let them play in the morning and do their work right after lunch. We had a great morning of playing. Playing with my kids really allows me to work on some character issues with them that I know don't get addressed at school or preschool. Tim and I spent a couple of hours working on a Lego creation from a book he has. He's really getting into Legos but he still needs some help to see exactly where the pieces need to go. In other year or so I think he's going to be one of those guys building national monuments out of Legos. :)

After lunch, the girls laid down on the couch and listened to an audio book while the boys settled in to do work. Both of the boys did a good job on their work although it's clear that Tim is doing a lot more playing than listening at school. I know...he's a boy and it's only kindergarten. And we recognize that but he's still got to be able to do the work if he wants to go into first grade next year. He's smart enough to do all of it, he'd just rather be playing. :) :) Alex is getting much better with writing sentences. I haven't started working with him on verb tenses so if anyone has any suggestions for teaching ELLs verb tenses I would love to hear them. And for the record...I love that "read" (present tense) and "read" (past tense) are spelled the same way. He gets his sentences correct and he doesn't even know it (it would actually be wrong the way he's trying to say it).

I was sad to have to tell the kids they couldn't play in the snow yesterday. We had about 4" but with the windchill it was only 12 degrees outside and that's just too cold for them.

Recent pictures

Exploiting my children after Christmas:

(In the background you can see the other three sitting on the steps waiting for more turns with the vacuum!)

Getting help from big brother

The little shadow who manages to pop up everywhere I go :)

More mama-school

Today the kids were off for MLK, Jr., Day so we had mama-school again. Amazingly enough...after brushing teeth I announced we were going downstairs for school and I actually got cheers of "Yay, school!!" I'm not kidding. I nearly fell down the stairs. :)

At breakfast Alex lost another tooth--his first top tooth! He looks like a first grader now. ;) It makes me a little sad and proud all at the same time to see him growing up. Unfortunately, he appears to have swallowed his tooth at breakfast which he was very disappointed about.

Everyone did all of their school work with NO complaining, and two of them asked for more work! Emily was quite put out that I didn't have more work for her and we'd already done several worksheets. I did make sure to point out that getting their work done cheerfully allowed them a lot more time to play than when they complained about it!

Then...the girls asked if they could strip their beds and change their sheets. Well...sure! :)

All in all it was a great day. Don't get me wrong; we had our fair share of disciplining going on, and the few sibling squabbles, but it was still great. I think we're all a little sad that they have to go back to school tomorrow.

A weekend with family

Mark had to work on Friday so we drove down to my mom's house Friday night. The kids slept a bit in the car and then we put them straight to bed when we got there. They settled back in nicely and were soon asleep. They've been excited all week about going to Babushka's house. It's been part of Tim's prayers every day--"Thank you I'm so excited we're going to Babushka's house!"

Saturday was a blast. We had lots of people at my mom's house for lunch: 1 from the top generation (my granddad), 4 from my mom's generation, 10 from my generation, and 9 from our kids' generation. Total: 16 adults, 8 kids, and 7 dogs. I was so thankful it was nice outside. ;)

The kids did wonderful and played with their extended family all day. I did put Emily down for a nap in the early afternoon and she was asleep within minutes. I'm sure the other three could have slept as well but they were really doing well. I was watching for some of their typical signs of overload or exhaustion but everyone was doing great so I let them continue playing. The biggest highlight of the weekend for me was with Emily. She did not fling herself on anyone (in part because we didn't let her get to that state of exhaustion) but she did have appropriate contact with people. She was looking at pictures on my cousin's camera and Wendy was sitting down and Emily just leaned against her gently with her hand on Wendy's knee. She didn't wrap her arms around her leg or ask to sit in her lap or any of the other behaviors we have seen in the past with people she doesn't know. At the end of the day when my sister and her husband were leaving, I was holding Emily. I intentionally passed Emily to Jon for a hug, took her back, then passed her to my sister for a hug. In the past, whenever she has had physical contact with people outside of our immediate family she would wake up screaming at night.

She didn't wake up. :) She slept all night long without a problem.

I'm so excited to see Emily's emotional growth as she learns what a family and specifically what a mama and a papa are and do. I was very intentional about the way I passed her to people for hugs. I wanted her to understand that I decide who is acceptable for her to hug and that she is not allowed to just go hug whomever she wants. That was the reason behind passing her to my brother-in-law then taking her back before passing her to my sister. I don't know if it really makes a difference. But it seems to me that even if it's not a conscious difference to her that it may stick subconsciously that "mama is in control and mama lets me hug people who are safe." I'm hoping we can continue to build on her understanding of our role in her world so that she will look to us for guidance as she expands her social network.

All of the kids slept so well Saturday night. :) Sunday they played a little bit but we headed home pretty early to make sure we were home in time to get ready for the week. I really dislike getting home late after a long weekend. We end up having a miserable time at bedtime and it just feels like a bad start to the week. It was great to get home and have the afternoon to unpack and relax at home. Baths and bedtime went really smoothly and they were all asleep within 15 minutes. :)

We bled it out of him

No nosebleeds or puking today and...

Alex did ALL of his work at school today!!!

I was so proud of him and gave him lots and lots of praise! I hope he can see the benefits of doing his work at school. He still had work to do at home (from work he didn't get done last week), but not much and it was done quickly and without complaining. I don't know how long this will last, but if he can keep this up we'll be doing some serious celebrating.

In other news, this weekend we moved our bedroom. When we first got set up in this house, we put our bedroom next to the girls' room. I wanted it that way so we'd be able to hear them and get up with them at night right after they came home. Unfortunately, our room is only separated from the girls' room by a set of pocket doors. When we go to bed at night, the light from our room shines into the girls' room and wakes them up and we can't talk at all without waking them.

Yesterday we swapped our bedroom and the kids' playroom. They now have a slightly smaller room but still a good space for play and we now have a bedroom that doesn't border anyone else's bedroom. I am loving it! We've only had one night there and I'm already so glad that we switched. We can still hear all of the kids, but this way we're also not walking by the girls' room as much at night and in the morning on our squeaky hardwood floors. I think this is going to be a much better arrangement for all of us!

No puking

Hooray! Our pediatrician was able to find a one-dose treatment for the giardia and the girls had no side effects from it. They took mebendazole, which is normally used to treat pinworms. I could not find good info online that it can also be used to treat giardia in one-dose, but I know our pediatrician did a lot of research as well and I trust her research options better than mine. No puking this time around and I am so glad I spoke up and asked for a different medicine!

No one has been waking up at night since we took out the nightlights (or at least not waking up upset!). The girls are sleeping soundly enough that I can go in their room at night. When all of the kids first came home, they did not sleep soundly at all. Dima and Danielle would both startle awake at the slightest noise or touch. Now everyone sleeps soundly, telling me they are comfortable and feel secure in their beds and that we are there with and for them (that, and they're exhausted from playing all day! :)).

It has been so much fun to watch Dima's progress this summer. He is really started to gain some maturity. He is not "over" all of the survival behaviors that he learned in the orphanage, but he is making tremendous progress. I think it has helped him to have the girls at home, as he gets to be the big brother now. He always was before, but since he and Zhenya are so close in age I think they always felt more like twins than big brother-little brother.

The boys have decided that they want to be called Alex and Tim for school this year. We have been spending time with all of their names this summer, and they have requested to be called Alex and Tim (or sometimes Timmy). I'm trying to get in the habit of using their first names by calling them Alex Dima and Timmy Zhenya, but it's hard! LOL Every time I remember and say "Alex Dima" he always turns around and says "Thank you Mama for calling me Alex Dima" so I think it's something I need to work on more diligently. Please forgive me if I mix up names in the blog--this is going to be a harder transition for me than the boys! :)

Girls' day out

Yesterday Mark had another base ball game a couple of hours away. Since his brother was in town, I requested to stay at home with the girls so we could go shopping for school supplies and all of the boys could go play base ball. Mark was hesitant, but he finally agreed (he wasn't sure how well he could watch the boys while playing base ball, which is a valid concern).

The girls and I hit OfficeMax, Office Depot, Target, and Walgreens, with a McDonalds run for lunch. We had a great time and got a bunch of stuff on the kids' school supply lists. With three of them in school I need to hit all of the deals I can!

Danielle is super excited about school and when she got up today and put her dress on for church she asked if she was going to school. Then tonight when she was going to bed she asked me how many days until school. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't know the number "16" so she still doesn't know how long until school starts. LOL

It was especially good for me to get to spend some time with Danielle shopping on Saturday. I feel like I am not bonding as well to her as she kind of gets lost in the chaos. Emily has needed so much more attention simply because she is younger, so I'm really trying hard to develop my relationship with Danielle. It took several months for me to really feel bonded to the boys, and I've seen that bonding (on my end and theirs) continue to grow and deepen the longer they've been home. I see the same thing happening with Danielle, but it's hard to be patient and give our relationship time. This is nothing Danielle is doing or not doing; it is simply a matter of trying to develop a relationship with a person you've only known for a couple of months and that you have a hard time communicating with. :) It takes time and effort and a willingness to make connections and build the relationship.