Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Other summer activities
Wow! Summer has ended. I can't believe how quickly it went by and how I just plain ran out of time each evening and didn't get around to updating the blog. Of-course, going to China during the summer and all the adjustments afterwards pretty much shrunk up our "summer". So what did we do this summer?
Victoria - week long orchestra camp, rookie tennis lessons June through July, two weeks in China, cheer and tumbling classes, and swimming at the pool every day.
Carter - two weeks in China, rookie soccer lessons, and swimming every day. Summer soccer has turned in to fall and spring soccer league! Hockey sign up was last week. Sold old equipment and have a list for replacement items!
Addie - summer of change!! Discipline introduced that seems to finally be working. 1, 2, 3 Magic - highly recommend it!! We went from 45 minute temper tantrums to occassional 5 minute tantrums, and bed time is going smoothly. I can't even begin to express my gratitude to the writers of this book! After several weeks of tantrums, I threw out the notion that I need to give her a break because she's adopted. I realized she was working us and just wanted us to watch her fit. Pulled out the book and put it in place along w/ a tantrum notebook to document her behavior! We used this program on the oldest two when they were younger (and some now - much to their dismay), and it's working great on Addie too. 2 weeks of shorter fits and counting!
Victoria - week long orchestra camp, rookie tennis lessons June through July, two weeks in China, cheer and tumbling classes, and swimming at the pool every day.
Carter - two weeks in China, rookie soccer lessons, and swimming every day. Summer soccer has turned in to fall and spring soccer league! Hockey sign up was last week. Sold old equipment and have a list for replacement items!
Addie - summer of change!! Discipline introduced that seems to finally be working. 1, 2, 3 Magic - highly recommend it!! We went from 45 minute temper tantrums to occassional 5 minute tantrums, and bed time is going smoothly. I can't even begin to express my gratitude to the writers of this book! After several weeks of tantrums, I threw out the notion that I need to give her a break because she's adopted. I realized she was working us and just wanted us to watch her fit. Pulled out the book and put it in place along w/ a tantrum notebook to document her behavior! We used this program on the oldest two when they were younger (and some now - much to their dismay), and it's working great on Addie too. 2 weeks of shorter fits and counting!
Addie's birthday
Just realized that I don't have any pictures or comments from Addie's birthday back on July 13th! We had a fairly small party. Invited neighbors and John's parents over for cake and watermelon. Everyone gathered on the back porch for a nice evening visit. Addie's figured out the purpose of gifts - at least the ones she gets to open!!
First day at school
Everyone went to school on Monday, August 23rd. Carter and Victoria had 1/2 days, and Addie just went for an hour. Mom and dad went with Addie. We met her teacher, finished unloading her supplies, read a story, had snack, and looked at the class pets. Carter and Victoria reported good news about their teachers and schools. Carter is in 3rd grade and has Mr. Scott. Victoria is off to the big bad world of Junior High and sixth grade classes.
The 2nd day of school was a full day for everyone. Victoria reported that everything went well for her except lunch because they had issues with the pizza. Caused their lunch room group to make it to their next class late. Bus riding seems to be going okay, but she said they're going to have to add another bus to her route because they were sitting a minimum of 3 to a seat and some had 4 to a seat. Crazy!!
Carter likes Mr. Scott and complained that Mr. Scott doesn't have any hockey stuff in his room (he's a Packers and White Sox fan). But, he said Mr. Scott has a hockey stick somewhere in his room so it's Carter's task to find it. He knows several of the kids in his class and is sitting next to his friend Ira.
Addie apparently survived the day. Sam (our sitter) and I dropped her off in her class line in the North gym. All of the K, 1st and 2nd graders were in there - about 300 kids. I wasn't sure how she'd do when I walked off, but I'm not sure she even noticed. She was sitting with Peyton and seemed to be either overwhelmed or in awe. When we got to school to pick them up, Carter had already got her from her class and said the only thing the teacher said was that she had marker all over her. And she did!! At least it's washable!!!
I was expecting Addie to crash when we got home, but she was wound up instead. Everyone was! I had to tell everyone to STOP!! One at a time with papers to sign, checks to write, homework to discuss!!!!
The 2nd day of school was a full day for everyone. Victoria reported that everything went well for her except lunch because they had issues with the pizza. Caused their lunch room group to make it to their next class late. Bus riding seems to be going okay, but she said they're going to have to add another bus to her route because they were sitting a minimum of 3 to a seat and some had 4 to a seat. Crazy!!
Carter likes Mr. Scott and complained that Mr. Scott doesn't have any hockey stuff in his room (he's a Packers and White Sox fan). But, he said Mr. Scott has a hockey stick somewhere in his room so it's Carter's task to find it. He knows several of the kids in his class and is sitting next to his friend Ira.
Addie apparently survived the day. Sam (our sitter) and I dropped her off in her class line in the North gym. All of the K, 1st and 2nd graders were in there - about 300 kids. I wasn't sure how she'd do when I walked off, but I'm not sure she even noticed. She was sitting with Peyton and seemed to be either overwhelmed or in awe. When we got to school to pick them up, Carter had already got her from her class and said the only thing the teacher said was that she had marker all over her. And she did!! At least it's washable!!!
I was expecting Addie to crash when we got home, but she was wound up instead. Everyone was! I had to tell everyone to STOP!! One at a time with papers to sign, checks to write, homework to discuss!!!!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
4th of July
I think we're starting to get adjusted - slowly! We spent the 4th hanging out at home then went to Nana and Papa's (John's mom and dad) for a little bit before going to the park for a picnic and fireworks. I'm guessing that fireworks are so common in China that Addie doesn't really care about them. She watched for about 10 minutes before falling asleep. :)
This week I'm working on paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork. Need to request a birth certificate from the State of Illinois, apply for a social security number, pay bills, get my adoption receipts caught up, write thank you cards to all our great friends, and eventually, I can start scrapbooking all our wonderful pictures! Today is the 6th and dad went back to work. I did a bit of the paperwork this morning, played outside and pulled weeds, starting lunch soon then heading for the pool for a bit before nap time.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
First days home
Adjusting back to the new time has been VERY rough! Carter slept with Addie on the first night and that seemed to go well, but everyone got up too early. John and I were up around 2am and started watching TV. John went downstairs to check on email at some point. I must have dozed back off, and the next thing I knew, Victoria was at the side of the bed telling me Addie wanted me. It was around 5:30am. By 10am, we were completely unpacked, breakfast done, and showered. John, Addie, and I ventured to Wal-Mart. I've decided that Bloomington's Wal-Mart on a Saturday is not busy - relative to the crowds we had just experienced! I'm sure I'll change my mind in a few weeks! While at the store, we had to get two new stepstools so Addie can reach stuff in the bathrooms. We have 2 already, but she needs help reaching everything so we've set up 2 stools in 2 bathrooms. We also had to get another baby gate to put at the top of our stairs. She's entirely too wobbly when she's tired, and given that she doesn't know the layout of the house yet... We had a hard time deciding on how to secure it since it's just two decorative posts. But, we ended up w/ a gate larger than the opening, and secured it w/ a cloth belt and bandana to keep from destroying the finish on the wood. Hopefully, we'll only need it for a few months.
The afternoon resulted in naps for everyone! I had to wake John up around 5pm, and everyone seemed a bit off kilter until after dinner. Addie got more comfortable with the dogs and actually started laughing at them when they played. After dinner, we went for a walk to our 2 neighborhood parks and hung out on the drive talking to neighbors for while. I think the walk refreshed us because it ended up being after 9pm before we went in to get ready for bed. I tried to stay up for the end of the NASCAR race, but the Nyquil I took finally kicked in. I managed to pass out until Victoria got up around 3am. She turned on the hall light which woke up Addie. Kristen got her a lullaby caterpillar that she started playing with. Ugh! I took her to the potty and put her back in bed. Figured she could sleep all night since she has for the last few weeks. About 30 minutes later, she was standing at the gate at our bedroom door (we have one there to keep the dogs contained in our room). I was impressed that she figured out how to get out of bed and find my room. She ended up sleeping with me until around 8am (I think). Everyone else was up, eating breakfast, and playing. I apparently am having the roughest time making the transition. After showering, I sat on the couch and passed back out. I didn't even care what was going on. John, Victoria, and Carter took turns playing and watching Addie.
I had to get up at one point to get after Addie. Not sure where it came from, but Victoria had out a watch band with lip gloss in it. She was going to go put it away because Addie was smearing it on her legs, and Addie didn't agree with what she was wanting to do. After V took it upstairs to her room, Addie was wanting to go get it, and after being told no several times, she stood about 3 stairs up wondering if she could get away with going on up. I walked over and turned her around to go back down the stairs. Fit ensued! She cried and cried over not being able to go up and get it. I think she tried to go up the stairs at least twice. On the third try, John let her walk up them, then when she couldn't find what she wanted, he brought her back down. I believe John's comment was that he couldn't imagine someone trying to adopt an older child who either hadn't had children before or had some sort of experience with them like a teacher. It would be very easy to fall in to a trap of letting her get her way on every thing right now since we're still getting adjusted, but we've got to start setting limits. If it's something we wouldn't let the other two get away with, then she's not going to either.
Well, I better wrap this up. It's the 4th of July, and we're heading to John's mom and dad's after nap time. Hopefully fireworks will still be a go later - a nice rain shower just came through.
Tomorrow starts my last full week off from work. Lawn work, bills, and doctor's appointments to start. I don't miss work at all. Not really looking forward to going back even if my first two weeks back will be half days from home. I've rather enjoyed "vacation". Been too busy to care about much else. Coming back to reality sucks!
Travel Home
What time should you go to the airport for an int'l trip home? The question of the day! Mary from our group said she had read 3 hrs which sounded good, but then the hotel said 7am (2hrs before our flight) would be early enough. Since we couldn't check in and get our boarding passes the night before (internet and printing was VERY expensive at the hotel), we decided to go down to the lobby around 6:15am and catch the shuttle. Good thing we got down there because we had to get in line for the shuttle. Ron and Mary were there before us, and the shuttle they were waiting for filled up. We all managed to get on the next shuttle around 6:40am. The Delta line was PACKED when we got there. Couldn't use the self check in counters because it was putting our seats all over the plane. Got to spend alot of time at the counter because they overbooked the flight and already had most seats reserved. Ended up split in to 2 areas of the plane. Carter and I ended up in Row 41 - the last row in the middle section on the left side of the plane, and I got an aisle seat which I was happy about. John and Addie ended up in row 56 - second to last row on the opposite side of the plane. Victoria was in row 57 right behind Addie. Took us awhile to get through security, get to the gate, and find some breakfast. But here's something I do not understand about international travel. While in China, we never had to take off our shoes, and they had us pitch the water at security just like we did here. When we went to China, we obviously had the shoe check, but we were able to buy water in the airport after security and board with it. Thought we could do that going home to. NOPE! We dumped water at security AND at the plane entrance. So, it was okay to not check our shoes, but not okay to to buy water after we passed through security. That SUCKED! Especially since Carter and I were both sick and needing fluid! Our first shoe check was when we got to Detroit - had to go back through security when leaving customs.
The plane itself was awesome! Only 3 months old, and had a wonderful tv system on the backs of each seat. Tons of movie, game, and tv options with pause and rewind available. We all got to watch whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Since I was cruising w/ Carter, we hung out, talked to the nice lady beside us, and watched alot of movies. I also found the water that the flight attendants had so the lavatory behind me was very convenient! Apparently during one of my movies, Addie decided to throw a fit. But, since I was a cabin away and had on my headset, I missed the whole thing! John said she didn't want to put her seat belt back on after the light came back on. She did the full body stiff, fighting, and screaming. Good thing dad's had experience with this before and knew he couldn't give in once the fuss started! One thing I've observed on our two international flights - the flight attendants tend to get grumpy about 1/2 way in to it. It's like they wish they could pass out Tylenol PM to all the passengers. They tend to perk back up right before landing. Our flight took us north across China, Russia, and the arctic circle. It was pretty neat to watch it on the moving map and look out the window when we were over all the ice. Daylight for the entire trip.
Detroit went fairly smoothly. We weren't really sure what to expect while going through customs, immigration for Addie, etc... but the security people were very helpful and moved us to short lines where possible. Had about 1 1/2 hr wait time once we got to our gate. We were all pretty wiped out. Found out that Addie really likes Fudrucker's fries. All of us were ready to pass out when we got on the last flight, but it was only 52 minutes long.
We got home around 4pm. The dogs went crazy - so excited to see us. Addie was terrified. Very interesting panic screams. But, we are at least being able to start differentiating between her cries now that we're starting to hear them. She clung to me as I was trying to introduce her to the dogs. By evening, she was starting to tolerate them being in the same room with her. John started to unpack, and I just looked at him like he was insane. Normally, I'm the one all gung ho about wanting to get stuff put away, but I told him I wasn't helping and it could wait until morning. He ended up just checking on the stuff we bought to make sure it survived the flights. We got everyone tucked in to bed by 8:30ish. Up for over 27 hours!
The plane itself was awesome! Only 3 months old, and had a wonderful tv system on the backs of each seat. Tons of movie, game, and tv options with pause and rewind available. We all got to watch whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Since I was cruising w/ Carter, we hung out, talked to the nice lady beside us, and watched alot of movies. I also found the water that the flight attendants had so the lavatory behind me was very convenient! Apparently during one of my movies, Addie decided to throw a fit. But, since I was a cabin away and had on my headset, I missed the whole thing! John said she didn't want to put her seat belt back on after the light came back on. She did the full body stiff, fighting, and screaming. Good thing dad's had experience with this before and knew he couldn't give in once the fuss started! One thing I've observed on our two international flights - the flight attendants tend to get grumpy about 1/2 way in to it. It's like they wish they could pass out Tylenol PM to all the passengers. They tend to perk back up right before landing. Our flight took us north across China, Russia, and the arctic circle. It was pretty neat to watch it on the moving map and look out the window when we were over all the ice. Daylight for the entire trip.
Detroit went fairly smoothly. We weren't really sure what to expect while going through customs, immigration for Addie, etc... but the security people were very helpful and moved us to short lines where possible. Had about 1 1/2 hr wait time once we got to our gate. We were all pretty wiped out. Found out that Addie really likes Fudrucker's fries. All of us were ready to pass out when we got on the last flight, but it was only 52 minutes long.
We got home around 4pm. The dogs went crazy - so excited to see us. Addie was terrified. Very interesting panic screams. But, we are at least being able to start differentiating between her cries now that we're starting to hear them. She clung to me as I was trying to introduce her to the dogs. By evening, she was starting to tolerate them being in the same room with her. John started to unpack, and I just looked at him like he was insane. Normally, I'm the one all gung ho about wanting to get stuff put away, but I told him I wasn't helping and it could wait until morning. He ended up just checking on the stuff we bought to make sure it survived the flights. We got everyone tucked in to bed by 8:30ish. Up for over 27 hours!
Hong Kong and Disney Land
I really can't tell you how Hong Kong is because we just weren't there very long. We took a train on Thursday morning for a 2 hour trip from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Once in Hong Kong we hailed a taxi and drove to our hotel which was situated directly across from the airport. Our experience with the British influence in Hong Kong was seen in the driving - steering wheels on the right and they drove on the "wrong" side of the road. :) Once we got to the hotel, we literally dumped our bags and headed for Disney Land. We got to the park around 1pm - just in time for the first parade and some lunch. For those of you who have been to Disney World, just imagine a smaller version of the Magic Kingdom. Frontier Land doesn't exist and where Adventure Land is at, they have Festival of the Lion King, the jungle boat ride, Tarzan's Island (combo of Swiss Family Robinson house and Tom Sawyer Island). Fantasy Land had the carosel, Mickey's Philharmagic, Tea Cups, Winnie the Pooh, it's a Small World, and The Golden Mickey's. Tomorrow Land had Space Mountain, the race cars, the orbitor, and Buzz Light Year's Astro blaster. It also had a Stitch Encounter area that we heard was suppose to be like the Crush exhibit in Epcot where Crush talks to the audience, but we didn't have a chance to view it. Festival of the Lion King and the Golden Mickey's were my favorites. The Lion King show was very diffent from the show in Animal Kingdom. It retold Simba's entire adventure w/ different acrobatics, and of-course, some interpretters. BUT, most of the show was in English. The Golden Mickey's was a live "awards" show that ran through many of Disney's wonderful classics, and had a combination of video and characters on stage. We took Addie on Space Mountain. She was tall enough so we figured we give it a try. I couldn't tell if she was happy or sad, but she let go of the bar on the first drop. I quickly grabbed her hands to make sure she didn't try to reach outside the car. It was nice that it was built as a coaster w/ side by side seating. Otherwise, we wouldn't have taken her.
Overall, Disney was fun. It was HOT, and we actually saw BLUE skies and the sun - not just "overcast". The other "British" influence that we noted, besides the clear skies, was that the bathrooms on the train were locked once we left China. Wonder where the they dumped it before??? Apparently they don't have holding tanks on their trains. ICK!!
Carter's allergies really acted up while we were in Guangzhou. The high humidity resulted in a high amount of mildew and mold which set him off. By the time we got to Hong Kong, he had a full on sinus head cold that was moved to his chest. The cab driver was VERY concerned and kept looking at him every time he coughed! We teased him that he might get quarantined when we got to the States. I've been following suit on the head cold. But mine didn't start until we were traveling to Hong Kong. Woke up that morning w/ the throat drainage, etc...
Friday, July 2, 2010
Home
We made it home. I'm beat and so is everyone else. We've successfully been up for over 24 hours. The room is spinning slightly as I sit. My sinus/head cold might be part of it. I'm really just writing this to let you know we made it. I need to feed people, bathe them, and put them in bed. I'll blog more tomorrow on our Disney Land and trip home adventures!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
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