Off to School They Go...

Summer officially ended in our family last Wednesday, as all the kids headed off to school. I love that Meggie has finally stopped fighting me and happily agreed to the traditional picture-on-the-front-porch.
Wow. I can't believe how "grown up" she is and that this is the second-to-last time I'll get this traditional picture of my firstborn...yep, she's a Junior this year!

By the time Carson and Molly headed to school, thankfully the sun had risen. (Did you notice the porch light was still on in Meggie's picture? Yes, it's still dark when she leaves for school.) The Littles have to provide me a front and a side pose, so I can see their backpacks.
I loved how Molly copied Carson's side pose...although it didn't really improve my view of her backpack.

When we pulled into the parking lot of the Preschool (where Carson will be attending morning Kindergarten, then heading to the public school for afternoon Kindergarten), Molly started crying. Carson and I tried to keep the mood upbeat and decided to head to his classroom first.
Isn't that a great picture of Carson with Ms. Connie? Love it! While in Carson's classroom, Molly calmed down and stopped crying. Then she and I headed to HER classroom...
...and it just got downright ugly. Poor baby...her crying turned to screaming in seconds.

Ms. Linda (the Preschool Director) heard the uproar and headed to the classroom. She closed the door behind herself and reached out to pick up Molly. Oh, no, you don't! Molly's screaming got even worse and she sat down hard on the floor. I could see things weren't improving, so I picked up my camera and car keys and went to the door. Molly grabbed her Kai-Lan doll and ran after me. When I shook my head "no" and pointed to her and then the classroom -- to let her know she was staying -- we had "Gotcha Day Revisited." I choked back tears as she frantically clawed at the door and screamed in terror.

I went down the hall to Ms. Linda's office and could STILL hear Molly's screams. A minute or two later, the screams stopped. I figured either Molly decided to be happy or Ms. Linda sedated her...either way, I needed to go to work. Ms. Linda came into the office and told me that Molly threw herself down on the floor and bumped her head after I left. Miss Rachel (the aide in the room) helped her up and rubbed her head. Molly immediately stopped crying and trotted off to play.

And now you know why we call her our "firecracker."

At the end of Wednesday, her Daily Report had this note on it:

"Molly is adjusting very well! She plays well and is listening. Molly is repeating new words "banana" and "thank you." She is also being verbal in Chinese. Molly also has a very helpful spirit and a great attitude! We are proud of her!"

Can't ask for more than that, now can we?!

Thankfully, she only got slightly weepy for drop-off on Thursday. Friday morning, Carson took her by the hand, escorted her to the play area, and announced to the kids, "This is my sister, Molly. She's scared. Be nice to her." There were no tears after that.

Way to go, Carson!!

A "Family-Napping" Has Occurred!

After watching Carson and Molly play in the yard Sunday evening, I was becoming convinced they were bonding and getting along. I was apparently too excited too soon.

Earlier this week, the kids and I were lounging in the family room, watching a movie. Suddenly, Carson and Molly went into the bathroom together. (NEVER a good idea.) I heard the toilet lid bang open but didn't hear the familiar rustle-of-clothing and stomping-of-feet that always accompanies a bathroom break with the Littles. (Disrobing is apparently hard work when you're a kid.) I yelled in to them, "Who's going to potty?" The response? Silence. Uh-oh.

Meggie got up and ran into the bathroom in time to see Carson dipping one of Molly's play teacups into the toilet and handing it to her to take a drink. Are you KIDDING me?!?!??!! Needless to say, Meggie intercepted that teacup and sent Carson out to have a come-to-Jesus meeting with Mommy.

As I yelled at him -- I mean, as I sternly and calmly discussed the situation with him, he just stood there with his arms crossed, looking at me with a faint smile on his lips. I said, "Carson, WHY would you ever try to give Molly a drink from the TOILET?!" His answer? "I don't know. She looked first-y (aka thirsty) to me."

Interesting how, when Carson gets "first-y," he gets a drink of water from the dispenser on the outside of the refrigerator door...yet, toilet water is good enough for his new sister.

Ugghhhh!!!!!!

Tuesday evening -- the night before EVERYBODY headed back to school -- as we were having dinner and bickering about this-and-that (yes, sadly, the whole family seemed to be in foul spirits), I decided I had had enough.

So I kidnapped my entire family. (Guess I technically "family-napped" my entire family.) I promised them I would only take an hour of their time. (We are, after all, very busy people...)

Meggie is NOT a fan of surprises and was quite displeased to have no idea where we were headed...
...but Molly and Carson...
...were excited about a surprise adventure! (Daddy had no comment and just let me drive the minivan.)

So where did we go? To a local park that has a great playground! As Meggie and I took off on the walking trail...
...Daddy took Carson and Molly to the awesome playground -- and even took a few pics for me! (Great job, Daddy!!)

After Meggie and I finished walking on the trail, we came back to play with the Littles. When we got to the playground, they were running to the swings...
...which might just be Carson's favorite place in the world!
Molly, however, wasn't so sure...
...but tears turned to smiles when Meggie was near. Since Molly seemed a bit freaked out by the swings, Meggie and I took her back to the sandbox...
...and she had a great time making a huge sandy mess in her new gym shoes! (Let it go, Mommy...she's having fun...)

Daddy was pushing Carson kind of high on the swing...
...and it started to look like he might flip him over the top bar! Yikes...Carson, hold on tight!!
Uh, Meggie...you might be a BIT too big for that baby swing! Even though Meggie yelled at me for sitting in the large swing (something about me being "too old")...
...at least I got a quick snuggle from my Baby Girl!! The promised hour was drawing to a close...
...and Meggie was demanding that we organize the Littles and get 'em back in the minivan.
They weren't so sure they agreed with Meggie. As we finally headed to the minivan, Meggie got a "second wind"...
...and grabbed a few seconds of fun on the monkey bars.

The result of my family-napping adventure? We blew off some steam as a family and wore the Littles out...which helped tremendously at bedtime since they were both too tired to fight us! SUCCESS!!

NEXT: School's in for all of us!!

A Day of Firsts for Molly...

Before leaving for China in July, our Church had begun updating the pictorial directory of all members. Since I had connections with the photography crew (a wonderful group of volunteers who are all friends of mine), I asked for our family picture to be taken after we got home with Molly so she would be included. They were glad to accommodate us.

Sunday we took Molly to Church for the first time and, in an effort not to overwhelm her with meeting a bunch of people right away, we headed right to the room where the picture was going to be taken. I left Daddy and the kids there and headed out to find one of the photographers. By the time my friend (and photographer) Jennifer and I came back to the room, Molly was in a puddle of tears. Oh, lovely. We tried to convince her it was OK...it wasn't working and the crying just got worse. So we took the picture anyway. As soon as we get the online link, I'll be posting our new family picture...Molly's first. (Don't get your hopes up too high, folks.)

Molly's first day at Church was rocky, to say the least. She ended up crying and hanging out with Meggie while Meggie performed her Preschool Choir Director duties, but never did go into her Sunday School classroom. (I'm not saying I blame her since I'm sure she was overwhelmed with all the new sights and people.) By the time the service was over, she actually was starting to warm up to people and even smiled a few times. Progress, people...

After Church, we headed to lunch with our friends Erin, Jeremy, Wendy and three of Wendy's four kids. (What can we say? We love chaos!) At lunch, dear Erin taught my Molly girl a disgusting habit...
...dunking Oreos in milk!! (You thought I was gonna say "picking her nose," didn't you? No, as far as I know, Erin is not a nose picker. LOL!) I happen to think dunking a perfectly good cookie in a glass of milk -- thus creating a mushy and messy snack -- is gross...
...but clearly Molly disagrees with me and appreciated the cookie-dunking lesson!

Sunday evening, we had unseasonably cool temps -- 70 degrees in August?! -- and decided to make the most of it by eating dinner outside. (Carson LOVES eating outside.) This was a first for Molly...
...and she also seems to be a fan of dining alfresco. As the sun started to set, the temps dropped even more. No problem for our family! We simply grabbed jackets and asked Daddy to start a fire in the fire pit.
Whoa, my divas have decided they are thugs now. They're still cuties though, huh?! Of course, we can't have a fire without making S'mores!
Looks like Carson was enjoying his dessert. When the sun went down completely, out came the flashlights for some "adventures" in the dark. (Carson loves to explore the yard with a flashlight after dark...he calls it having an "adventure.") Once the adventures were over...
...the Littles had a bit of flashlight silliness, then it was off to get ready for bed.

Nights like this are a great reminder that leaving the chores undone and spending some time goofing off is often just what our family needs. We've gotta do this more often...

A Video Two-Fer...

Meggie really wanted to show off how quickly Molly is learning English in her short time with our family. So on Sunday we made a quick video for our loyal blog followers.

How impressed are you that we're teaching her all the most important English words and phrases?! Isn't that a HOOT?!

After making that first video, Molly got up on her knees on her chair and just started singing. Since the video camera was handy, I thought I'd use it...

...and now you see why our house and yard are NEVER quiet anymore. (And we LOVE IT!!)

Two Down, Two To Go...

Today, Carson, Daddy and I went to Carson's first day of Kindergarten. Well, actually, it was Kindergarten Phase-In Day -- basically a quick run-through to get the kids ready for the real thing next week. Hard to believe this Little Man of ours is already going to Kindergarten!

Our first stop at Phase-In Day -- after the Principal made her opening remarks in the cafeteria to the whole group -- was to get some one-on-one time with Carson's teacher, Mrs. Kuhn. (We have been practicing her name for weeks and he STILL struggles to remember it!) She started off by taking his picture for the classroom door and then, for some reason...
...took a picture of him with Mommy and Daddy. Dork that I am, I had my camera with me and asked her to take the same pic with my camera. (Hey, people, we're making memories here!) She happily obliged, then also happily allowed me to take a pic of her...
...with Carson. She was a bit shocked when she sat down for the picture and Carson climbed right onto her lap. Sorry, Mrs. Kuhn, but he IS a ladies' man!

We talked with Mrs. Kuhn about Carson's physical issues and also about the reasons he is behind on reading and writing, etc. (You know...the whole only-been-in-America-for-22-months thing.) She asked him to write his name as a quick "test." He seemed to struggle a bit at first, but when I showed him that Mrs. Kuhn had already written his name at the top of the paper and he could copy it, he did great. Not only did he write his name fairly legibly, but he named every letter before he wrote it. (I didn't know he could do that.) Mrs. Kuhn was shocked at how well he did -- both with writing and with letter recognition -- and said he has NOTHING to worry about. Our Little Man is Kindergarten ready!

The next stop on Phase-In Day was Bus Safety...Carson's favorite part! They had two buses in front of the school and the kids had to practice watching for the bus driver's hand signals and then crossing a street safely. To Carson...
...that part was BORING! Blah-blah-blah...he wanted on that bus!
Finally! We all got on the bus -- kids and parents -- and got some more safety tips from the bus driver. Honestly, I was thinking, "Do you think these kids are going to remember ALL of this information?!" Carson was getting very itchy in his seat near the front -- they made the parents sit in the back so the kids would be up front and could pay attention -- and when we got off the bus after the presentation, we found out why. His first words to me when we got off the bus were, "I thought we were gonna RIDE the bus!" Poor little guy...they could have at least driven the kids around the parking lot!

After the building tour, Carson was aggravated again. Can you believe a Kindergarten tour didn't include a tour of the playground?! Well, we asked our guide helper where they would have recess and made sure to find it...and he was not disappointed! They have very nice playground equipment and he was duly impressed.

One down, three to go.

After coming back home from Kindergarten Phase-In and grabbing a quick (and very late) lunch, I headed off to MY first day of school.

Nobody took my picture or anything.

I left extra early, found a parking space, and eventually found the correct building. Even though I just finished my Bachelor's Degree last summer, I still feel super rusty and not ready to take classes again. (Could be the whole only-been-home-from-China-for-10-days thing.) Anyway, this class doesn't seem all that horrible and I think I'll survive.

Two down, two to go.

The day after tomorrow, Meggie starts 11th grade (yikes...is she REALLY that old already?!) and Molly -- whether she likes it or not -- will be heading to her first official day of preschool. (Pray for her preschool teacher, folks...it's gonna be a ROUGH day!) Then we'll all be officially back in school and, hopefully, on the road to a routine again!

I think I need a nap...

Trying to Get My Groove Back...

I hate the way I'm feeling today...overwhelmed, nonproductive, unsuccessful at all things motherhood. I decided to take the situation under control and accomplish some goals. The first order of business: logging onto my University e-mail to see if there were any announcements regarding the class I start taking Monday...and found out the class got moved to a different room (good thing I checked) and that I have homework to do -- on top of everything else I need to do this weekend!! Are you KIDDING me?!?!?!?!

Before falling into a puddle of tears, I called Daddy (who was on his way home from the funeral of an elderly relative on his Mom's side) and asked him to HELP ME!!! While the Littles napped, so did I. (Gotta get rid of this headache!) Now that they're up and at 'em, Daddy took all three kids shopping for back-to-school supplies and I'm making a list of things that need to be done...might as well put my fires out in order!

So, while I'm working on that list, I thought I'd upload this adorable video we made in Guangzhou. Let me set the stage:

Molly and I were eating lunch and she was making a tremendous mess with her potato chips. (Hey, don't judge...comfort food is nutritious if it makes you feel better!) In a falsetto high-pitched voice I repeated, "Look at this mess. Look at this mess!" and she started mocking me. You gotta watch this...it is hilarious!


I was so impressed that Daddy grabbed the camera and started videotaping that!! While that video might seem like an odd choice to help me get my groove back, to me it is a reminder that this beautiful firecracker was truly placed into the right family. She has a sense of humor and the comedic timing of a genius...and we love it!

So, folks, even though I'm struggling a bit, I am quite aware that we are blessed to have each other. I'm also confident that God knew what He was doing when He hand-picked my husband and I for each other (through Aunt Edna and cousin David, who set us up on that blind date many years ago) and the three awesome kids we now have the privilege to parent.

Time to be productive!!

Doing My Best...Which Doesn't Seem to be Enough...

Who was I kidding? Why did I think I could travel to China and come back with only 10 days to prepare the kids (and myself) to get back into the swing of school?! Oh, man, do I need a maternity leave!!! Unfortunately, since I've been teaching at the College less than a year, if I take a leave it will be unpaid. Who can afford THAT in this economy? So, we press on...

At least my job at the hospital allows for a leave, so I've not resumed working two jobs yet.

Thursday, I decided it would be a good idea to take Molly to her preschool just to see the surroundings and meet her teacher, Miss Jenny. When I called to arrange it, I was asked to come around 3PM. OK, we can handle that.

3PM was truly a BAD idea.

In Molly's Pre-4 classroom, 1-3PM is nap time. So, when we arrived at 3PM, the lights were off and the kids (or most of them, anyway) were asleep on cots. When we walked in with Miss Jenny and the lights were flipped on, Molly PANICKED. Then she cried. And then she cried some more. Meggie, Carson, and I walked her over to the Pretend Play area...and she cried some more. What's wrong, Baby Girl? Don't you want to play and meet new friends?!

Then it hit me: seeing all the kids asleep on cots in the same room was probably quite reminiscent of life in the orphanage. Maybe she thought this was to be her new home and we were dropping her off and leaving her there forever. Oh, Baby Girl...

So, we thanked Miss Jenny for her time and quickly whisked Molly out of the classroom. Miss Jenny kept assuring me everything would be fine next week when Molly comes back, that she and the classroom aides will give Molly lots of love and attention and help her adjust. Ugghhhh...it's still another reminder that I need more time with my Baby Girl to help her feel secure with us before we ship her off to yet ANOTHER set of caregivers.

I know everything will work out in its own time, but I'm feeling more and more like I'm failing ALL of my kids...and myself. (I've had a horrible headache pretty much nonstop since we got home...) As if I wasn't overwhelmed enough, Carson starts Kindergarten Monday morning and I start my first class of my Master's program Monday afternoon.

At least this...
...helps tremendously. That picture was taken Sunday at Aunt Michelle's pool party (thanks for letting me snag it off your blog, Aunt Debbie!) and was the first time Molly sought ME out for hugs! Now it happens multiple times a day -- she comes toward me, arms outstretched, saying "Ahhhhh, Mama!" -- so at least she finally gets the fact that her Mommy loves her!

I just wish Mommy could get her act together and make everything else run smoothly!!

Making Progress...Finally...

After our fun Saturday evening at our neighborhood pool, we figured Molly would have a great time at Aunt Michelle's pool party on Sunday. Well, she did...eventually. But she started off...
...pouting, then headed directly into screaming and freaking out. Eventually, with some time and space (where we all got in the pool and left her sitting on the side with some toys, until she was ready), she ended up warming to the idea of having fun. Carson, on the other hand...
...immediately made the most of a day of fun in the sun! (Doesn't he just look like a kid who NEEDS a pool in his own backyard?!) Eventually, when some of the party moved into Aunt Michelle's hot tub (well, actually her "tepid tub" since the heat was turned off)...
...Molly really warmed up to everyone and ended up having a great time!

Monday, Meggie's friend Abby met us at McDonald's for lunch, then came over to spend the afternoon helping Meggie amuse the little ones while I accomplished some goals for work. When Molly seemed hesitant to play with her fancy jewelry at first...
...Abby and Meggie gave her a jewelry fashion show...
...and she was hooked! (Don't you just see her little mind working..."Does THIS one look good?!) Later Monday evening, Grandma and Grandpa B. brought some more cousins over to meet Molly (since they weren't able to make it to the airport Friday evening)...
...and Molly had fun playing with the kids. It's good to see that Molly is adjusting better to new situations...bodes well for starting Preschool part-time next week!

Tuesday evening, I realized why Meggie is so happy to have siblings...
...as I busted her having them brush her hair!! When Carson realized he was being "had" -- well, actually, after I told him...
...they both paid her back, big time!! LOL!

After dinner, the girls and I headed out to the mall to return some things Meggie impulsively bought while we were in China...
...and I was shocked to see that Meggie has already turned my Baby Girl into a diva!! Can you believe that?! While we were shopping, the boys had a "guys' night"......which started out with cleaning up the dinner dishes. Do I have great guys in my house or WHAT?! (Don't worry...they went to the pool after the dishes, so they did have some fun.)

For those who were wondering...no, Carson does not remember ANY Chinese. In fact, when Molly talks to him, he gets frustrated. He even asked me on Monday, "Why doesn't Molly talk right?!" Isn't that hysterical?!

While the Little Man and the Baby Girl typically play separately and ignore each other, I was able to capture this moment of playing together that I found very sweet...
...as they walked their "dragon puppies" together. They were even willing...
...to get closer for a posed shot! Carson is slowly moving from feeling threatened by Molly's presence to having some sweet "big brother moments." Tuesday night, when our friend Jeri from Church brought us dinner and started talking to Molly, Molly started backing up and sucking on her fingers. Carson put his arms around Molly and told Jeri, "She's shy." It was SO sweet how he was protecting her!!

But, hands down, THIS is my favorite "big brother moment"...
...as Carson allowed Molly to snuggle up next to him in Mommy and Daddy's bed while he watched a movie. LOVE THAT!!