Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
One Year Can Make A Big Difference....
You gotta love the fro!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Oh Joy! We Have New Friends!
This week we made a new friend...make that, new friends. This new friendship came about after my world started shrinking and shrinking and shrinking! Here's how it went...
I'm looking forward to lots of fun dates with this crew!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Well here it is..."hey, I think that I might be able to potty train Desi. I mean, sure, she's only just turned 2 (so we think) and according to adoption professionals she really more like a 6 month old to us...and she can't speak English, and I don't actually know how much English she understands, and there are those other issues [the ones that haven't made it to the blog yet...]. But she's smart and I think that if she would just go on the potty a couple of times she'd really get it! Yes, I think I can and should attempt to potty train Desi..."
Go ahead and say it...."what are you thinking, Shannon?!" Ryan has already tried to convince me that it is a bad idea. I don't actually need convincing that the idea itself is bad. I know this. I need convincing to STOP TRYING TO POTTY TRAIN HER!
So, if you know me, then you know that I am not a potty trainer. I tried to train Jake and it was a disaster. I gave up and waited. He figured it out on his own and he wasn't 5 or anything. [39 months in case you were wondering and I can count on 1 hand how many poop-in-the-underpants moments I've had to endure.] So I'm not really much for the try-it-before-they're-ready method. In fact, I follow more in the school of "I'd rather just change a diaper a few times a day than have to worry about my furniture, carpet, clothes, etc. getting pooped and pee'd on."
I didn't potty train Emily either. She learned it on her own, or maybe big brother inspired her. She was barely more than 2 when she figured it out! So, I've had it pretty good. Maybe that is why I'm being such a fool about this...I don't really know how bad potty trainging can be! Maybe I'm in denial.
I have myself convinced that if I can just get her to poop on the potty a couple of times then she'll just figure it out and start doing it on her own. But in order for her to poop on the potty, I have to get her on there at just the right time. And how on earth do I know when she's about to poop? The best clue I have is that after she poops she grabs her diaper and says, "stinky". But it's too late by then. So what do I do??? I stalk her. For the last 2 days I've been following her around hounding her about not pooping in her diaper and asking her if she needs to "make a stinky??" I've also tried sitting her on the potty in the morning and after nap to hopefully catch her at just the right moment...which really means that the poor kid has to sit on the potty when she doesn't have to go...
Here's the other problem...she's super stealthy about pooping. She makes no faces, no "going off by herself" no grunting, NOTHING. She's just playing and carrying on as usual and then BAM, your nose lets you know that she's done it. This is something I am not used to. Jake and Em made epic drama every time they pooped! Case-In-Point...
We did a couple of small victories. When I got her up from her nap and her diaper was dry I put her on the potty and after a while [by the way, she doesn't seem to mind being on the potty....I think I could leave her there for hours and she wouldn't fuss...don't worry, that's not the plan.] she pee'd! I clapped and cheered. And a couple of days ago she was on there long enough to get a little poopoo out! [claps and cheers again]....although about an hour or so later she finished that one in the diaper...sigh.
So here I am. I feel like on one shoulder is a little mini-shan saying, "just stop. It's too early. it's not going to work! You are going to get yourself in trouble! NOT WORTH IT!" But on the other shoulder is another mini-me saying "she's smart. she'll get it. just try for a little longer. It will be SO worth it!"
What to do? WHAT. TO. DO?
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Hair! Not sure I'm ready for this!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
First Steps...
But this post isn't about that kind of first steps. It's about Indiana First Steps. Our state's early childhood intervention program to get little one with developmental delays help. Our pediatrician recommended we have little D evaluated right away, which would have been a huge mistake, but within my adoption community I was encouraged to wait and give her a little time to adjust and get more comfy with her new environment. Since I am a fantastical procrastinator, I chose the latter advice and put off the eval until after the holidays.
On Monday morning a couple of really nice and helpful ladies stopped by the house to do the evaluation. They played and interacted with Des to see how she was doing developmentally. I was kind of worried about how D would do...she tends to go stone cold around strangers. But to my surprise she seemed very at ease with these ladies and did really well! Yay Des!
Really, my only concern about her development has been her language delay. I know I'm not suppose to be comparing her to other kids, but I was starting to get pretty worried that she wasn't picking up more English...I'm still not sure that she's where she could or should be. But my real motivation to have her evaluated was to see if we could get her some low cost speech therapy. After the evaluation I had this gut feeling that they weren't going to qualify her....they seemed a little befuddled by her.
The outcome of the evaluation was that she is really doing very well! They had no major concerns at all! Even though I really wasn't worried, it was very nice to hear them say it! Puts my mind at ease.
Oh! and by Wednesday I got the call that she qualified!!! [hands clapping!] So we are going to get to take advantage fo some sessions with a professional! I think it will be excellent to have a 3rd and impartial party work with her. Takes a lot of pressure off of Ryan and I, I think.
...to completely bring you up-to-date, [since I'm struggling to get 2 blog posts out in 1 month...sorry!] I also filed the paperwork to finalize our adoption here in the states and legally change Desi's name. I'm waiting for the official documents to come back so I can get her a SSN and be DONE DONE DONE with paperwork!
Also, since I'm on a roll with the up-to-date stuff...check this out....
I actually sold her a few weeks ago. It felt good to see her go to a good home! I'm on to a couple of new projects....one is a sweet little Craigs List treasure that I'm very excited about! Maybe I'll show you sometime soon.
Okay! That's it. You are pretty much caught up! Maybe I will try harder to not wait until I have a pile of random thoughts to post...maybe. Let me treat you to a few pics from January 2011. I can't believe that it's almost February! What??? And we are almost to the 6 month anniversary of being home with Desi! This blows my mind. Crazy! Where is the time going?