Dragons and Elephants: July 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Blessed Beyond Measure

Ash and his extrodinarily healthy lunch - instant mac and cheese

One of the few smiles I've captured on film

Ash and his Baba

3 happy kids

My beautiful Piper

Brother-Sister Love

Kai with his TCBY

Ash with his battle scar

So Ash has been home for 2 weeks and things are honestly going better than expected. We have had some really bad days (i.e. my last blog post), but overall, Ash is an angel and I'm counting my blessings. My moods lately have fluctuated between overjoyed and overwhelmed from one minute to the next. Friday was an awful day. The kids drove me stark raving mad, David was out of town, and I wanted to sit down and cry several times. However, today (Saturday) has been wonderful. We took the kids canoeing this morning and then went to see David's band play tonight. Everyone had fun and I feel like a new woman. Is there something wrong with me? I'm not bipolar (or at least I wasn't last month) but this whole "new mom" thing has me on an emotional roller coaster.

I took the kids to the botanical gardens a few days ago (and accidently left the camera in the car!) We were having the coolest summer temperatures we've had in 50 years so I decided we had to get out and enjoy the breeze. Ash is quite delayed with his walking/running (gross motor skills?) and he fell while we were at the gardens. He busted his head pretty badly and I had nothing to clean his cut with (or to be grammatically correct, I had nothing with which to clean his cut.) I bribed him with TCBY afterwards and got a shot of the poor boy's noggin. Can you see the look he's giving me in the picture above? It's priceless.

This week also marked David's 40th birthday. I can't believe that he's really 40 and I can't belive that we've been dating, engaged or married for half of his life. He's a caring son, an amazing dad and an (almost) perfect husband. How I was wise enough at 21 years old to find and hold on to him is a complete mystery.

Yes, I am blessed beyong measure.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Blogger Mommy Support Group

Playing around after the reception

3 of my 4 gorgeous kids

David got home last night. I almost cried (with joy) when he walked in the door. In perfect kid fashion, Kai has been a sweetheart since the moment he saw his daddy. I have conflicting emotions about Kai's turn in behavior because:
1) I'm thrilled he's not acting like the spawn of Satan anymore, but,
2) I'm sure David thinks I'm either mentally unstable or a complete liar.

Of course, I called David on Friday and went on and on about Kai's horrendous behavior. I explained to him that he had never seen any of our kids this bent out of shape and how we were going to have to work hard on helping Kai through this adjustment in his life. And then David comes home and Kai is back to normal. Doesn't that just figure? I mean, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth but I wish David could have at least seen ~~the snothead~~ Kai at his worst. And in case you're wondering, no, I don't expect "Sweet Kai' to stay for long, but it sure is nice that he was back for today.

On a different note, I took the kids to a party tonight. David's band was playing at a wedding reception and the whole family was invited. Piper, Kai, Ash and I went and we survived a whopping 45 minutes before I took them home. The reception was beautiful - too beautiful to be destroyed by my wrecking ball boys. I was nervous the whole time and I honestly did not have enough hands to go around. I'm learning what I can and can not handle right now and I bit off a little more than I could chew tonight! (P.S. I just noticed that in my rush to get everyone ready tonight, I wore 2 earrings in my left ear. Maybe I'll start a new fashion trend.)

Thanks for all the encouragement after my last post. I truly love my blogger mommy support group.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Calgon Take Me Away

Calgon take me away...Please...Pretty please with cherries on top?

Kai has gone off the deep end. I knew that there would be difficult days with 2 preschoolers (who are only 7 months apart.) What I didn't know is that today would be one of those days. David has been out of town and I have truly tried to stay upbeat and "in-control" during his absence. Unfortunately, Kai is not impressed with my efforts. He is hell on wheels today. He woke up cranky and has done nothing but bother (ie. grab, steal, kick, cling onto, and whine at) everyone else in the house. Today was the only day this week that I didn't have something planned for the kids. I was excited about staying home and playing in our pajamas. How stupid of me to think we could enjoy a morning where we aren't rushing to get somewhere on time.

I know, I'm blessed. And I'm crazy about my kiddos. But boy, some days are challenging.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Check the Trash

I grabbed some clothes this morning and set them out on my bed before I jumped into the shower. When I got out, my clothes were gone. I looked everywhere but they'd vanished. About an hour later, I went to throw something away in the kitchen trash can. Guess what? My clean clothes were stashed nicely in the garbage. My little Ash is a thief. Tonight my cell phone (which I stupidly had sitting on my nightstand) is missing. I bet I can guess who took it and where it is.

Note to self: Check all garbage before taking to the street (I just love the glamorous part mommyhood!)

Monday, July 13, 2009

Jet Lag Stinks

Jet lag stinks, my friends. It's 9am and I'm really ready for a nap. I've already been up for 8 hours, mostly thanks to my #2 son, Kai. JD, Piper and Ash are sleeping like babies. Kai, on the other hand, is killing me. He goes to sleep around 8:30pm (as usual) but is raring to go between 1 and 4am. And it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Last night he woke up crying at 1am and there was nothing I could do to get him back to sleep. He finally dozed off around 3:30, just in time for Ash to wake up twice within the next hour. By 4:30am everyone was sleeping soundly again, except for me. After wrestling my preschoolers for the entire night, I was wide awake. I never went back to sleep and I'm definitely paying for it right now.

Ash is adorable. He and Kai have been playing amazing well together. Of course, there is the occasional hissy fit which usually stems from one of the boys taking the other's toy. Ash cries when I give a toy back to Kai but thank goodness, his tantrums are short lived. He actually falls to the ground sometimes and acts dead (no movement, face flat on the ground.) When I walk over to him and pat his back, he rolls over and starts belly laughing. Go figure?

Both the boys are in love with 3 toys - a CAT ride-on tractor, a harmonica, and a Barbie suitcase. If I had 2 of each of these toys, 90% of our problems would be gone. Well, I take that statement back. There are a few more issues we're dealing with now that I think about it. One problem is that Ash likes getting things out of the trash. I found him carrying around a day old Sprite bottle that he fished out of the kitchen garbage this morning. I'm not a germaphobe but that truly grossed me out. We also found a Thomas the Train car in the diaper pail last night. David said he'd rather buy a whole train set than dig that train car out of the poopy diapers (and do you really blame him?) Overall, I think that fact that I'm blogging about trash and toy issues is a testament to how well we are doing. Life is good and today I'm just along for the ride.

Friday, July 10, 2009

A Recap in Pictures

We don't know exactly why, but we've heard that some of you could not get to our travel journal. Unfortunately, blogger was blocked from China so I had to use an alternate site. I posted my thoughts and feelings and several pictures every day to www.youbelong.net/olivetfamily. Below is just a short recap of our time in China (starting with the day we met Ash.) We hope you enjoy!

Our family waiting to meet Ash (he was late)