Adoption Profile Video

"Mom, I Hate Your Magic Eyes."

Those words you heard your mom say 800 times that made you crazy.  One of the ones I hated was "Eyes in the back of my head."  Ugg, I felt like I was being watched and spied on and when I thought I had gotten away with something, I was caught because of the eyes in the back of my moms head.

Now that I have a 5 year old, by some miracle I too have grown eyes in the back of my head.  It is not enough that I know this and keep this little secret to myself.  Oh no.  I had to tell Charlee I had eyes in the back of my head and that is how I always knew when she was breaking a rule.

I think it started 6 months ago, in a desperate moment I told her I had eyes in the back of my head and would know if she broke a rule, then of course she wanted to see them and had all sorts of questions about them.  I told her only other moms could see my magic eyes.  I told her sometimes they were asleep and not looking so they were not seeing anything right now.  I had to tell her they were perfect eyes and did not need glasses like my front eyes.  Why did I have to keep adding to the story? Because she just kept asking and asking.

A few weeks ago, I was feeling brave and took her with me for my eye dr appointment.  I grabbed the electronic ritalin (iPad) and headed out the door.  Of course she was so curious about all the screenings and tests,  and watched everything.  I am assuming you have been to an eye doctor and had the thing in front of your face as you try to decipher the letters that are 800 feet away.  The office actually had a mirror you looked at, a screen behind you that reflected the letters for you to read.  Charlee was sitting under the mirror, and did not know it was there.

I sat down, went through the drill answered the questions, at one point the optometrist left the room, and Charlee said.  "Mom, how come your magic eyes don't know the letters." I was confused and she pointed to the screen behind my head and said you keep saying C and it is a O.  I told her they are just testing it all out. And then she told the doctor that my magic eyes in the back of my head usually see things really good. 

The other day Karsten came home at the same time she was walking down the stairs. She looked at me and asked. "Did your magic eyes see that."  I told her yes and she needed to go back and fix it.  Karsten looked confused and said, "What did she do?"  I said I have no idea.  She came back down and told me she flushed the toilet and used soap to wash her hands.

Sometimes at night when I can't sleep, I think I really should tell her its not the eyes that are magic but the ears that pick up the rattling of the candy wrapper, the shutting of a door, the scary silence from naughty deeds.  But then I re-think telling her about the clues she gives me, because she is always 2 steps ahead of me anyway.

Today it happened, she had had it with the magic eyes.  She was not going to play the game.  She was not going to be out smarted.  I was cooking in the kitchen, her back was to my back.  She was coloring.  I heard it the the tearing of the crayon paper and the chewing on the crayon.  Without turning around I said.  Charlee stop eating your crayons, put that in the garbage and if it happens again you will be coloring with a pencil.  Of course she asked how I knew what she was doing and I just pointed to the back of my head.  She got so mad and  said,  "Well my magic 5 1/2 year old eyes saw you cooking, and you can not see my 5 1/2 year eyes because they are magic and only 5 1/2 year olds can see them."

Well . . . Well . . . Well . . . I think I am in trouble. 

Five and a Half

Charlee's favorite statement to announce to strangers, friends or anyone is.

"I am five and a half."

A fact she learned from her cousin Luke and now it is her mission to announce it to the world.

And oh, did you notice her orange cheek?  On picture day she snuck a carrot with her into the car and ate it like corn on the way to Pre-K and has the mark to show it.  Never boring, or predictable!

Sewing with 5 Year Old

In the middle of the selling, and moving chaos we stopped to do a little sewing.  Charlee was so excited she got to use Grace (the name of my sewing machine). 

I love teaching her new things and watching her learn.  She is slow but percise.  She is more patient then me.

We measured and cut out the fabric for our project

Then we did the pinning. Because you have to learn the basics right.

Look at those big 5 year old girl hands practicing sewing straight. And that foot pushing in the pedal

We took it slow and steady she kept it on the right seem allowance.  It took a little over an hour.  Time well spent.

Charlee's first sewing project was a little pillow for her Birth Mom Elle, she was so excited to give it to her.  I messed up the finish edge, but Charlee's seams were perfect.

I am so glad I took a moment out of my craziness right now to do this.  Who knows maybe next time we'll attempt a pillow case.  Sorry we are not taking any orders right now, and will not be opening an Etsy shop . . . yet.

Am I On A Game Show?

EVERYDAY, I feel like I am on a game show called 1001 Question.  The prize for answering correctly, is more questions.  

Why is that lady not wearing a hat? Why do cars need keys?  Why can’t I have grilled cheese for breakfast? How come there are no leaves yet?  Where are those cars going? Did dinosaurs go swimming? How did Indians take baths? How come those people are not at work? How does the paper get pink? What bugs do you like? Are we lost? Why do we need gas? Have you been on this road before?  Is a$shole a bad word?  Why do you say it? To her credit I don’t think she asks the same question twice.

I thought she would like watching Americas Funnies Videos, but it ended up being a unique form of hell for her because there was not enough of the story, and she kept asking for more details.  Going to a movie theater takes some planning, she needs to be able to ask her questions.  Then I need to plan 2 more times to go back and watch the movie, or the next week the questions will double. 

At age 3 I thought it was cute. Age 4, I thought she was learning and we were connecting; inquisitor. Age 5 she knows my weak spots and is going in for the kill.

I am never going to win, and the game is never over. I have decided it’s all about the way you play the game.  Maybe,when she is 16, learning how to drive and she tells her daddy the car needs gas because its thirsty, the keys work because their magic and she can say as$hole because she is the driver, that is when I will be the winner.

Our Sochi 2014 Olympic Party

Well I think we are ready for the Opening Ceremonies for tonight.  Total prep time was maybe 2 hours and the cost as under $30!! I google imaged and went through Pinterest and I found some great ideas, (maybe for Rio 2016?)  but for now my goal was simple. 

Geography &  Olympic Awareness.

I found this map for $ 6 at Utah Idaho Supply Store.  Where I picked up some star stickers. To show the sports I printed off the Olympic Pictograms, $10 at FedexOffice.com.  

The stickers are put on each participating country.  The chain is for the # of days of the Olympics ( I have not been able to break the chain . . . yet.

Tonight, while watching the Opening Cerimonies we will be enjoying ice cream and making some Olympic Medals. I also printed off some coloring sheets, which will color while watching games.

I am still trying to figure out if we track metals by printing flags and putting stickers for each metal on the flag, or if I will print the athelete picture and put that on each event, since there is a delay I can have the winners ready to put on. . . . 

Oh yes she is excited!!

Happy New Year

This was going to be a Merry Christmas post, but as usual I am about a week behind.   We love this time of year. The good food, fun times with friends and all the crazy business.  Our Christmas was wonderful, we spent time with family, nothing exciting.

There is something about spending time with people you don't see all the time. We had an early Christmas Dinner with my family a few days before Christmas.  Watching all 5 cousins play together is enjoyable.

 We spent Christmas day in Wyoming.  Santa spoiled her, she got the polar bear family and penguin family she wanted plus some too many other toys.  She played and played with her cousins, but she played most with Uncle Brandon's dog Eddie.  After we opened presents we went to Elle's parents home to visit them.  Although Elle was not there and was missed we were able to Skype with her there.  Of course Charlee was spoiled there and she was teasing everyone.  We then went back to Grandma's and helped get dinner ready for 30.  Charlee was a great helper, she cut some veggies and did a lot of clean up.  Now that she is 5 she is a big girl who can help.

We are grateful for our supportive family and appreciate it when we get to spend time with them.

I can't believe another year has come and gone.  It has happened so fast.  No amazing changes or great vacations, just enjoying our life and trying to find ways to squeeze more into a day then we should.

I am still having problems getting pics from my camera onto my computer  because of all the space, I am trying to move pictures to cloud storage system, but it is not going as smooth as I hopped.  HELP!  Any suggestions?  Tell me how you manage.

Happy New Year!!

Love Watching this Open Adoption Work

 4 and a half years later, and it still happens.   Just for everyone who asks, so do you still talk to the birth mom.  Of course.  While she no longer lives as close, the visits are farther between, they still happen.

 We have tried to skype a few times, sometimes Charlee is into it and other times she wants to run and play, but when she can see Elle, she is eating up all the attention, and why not?
We look forward to the time we do get to spend with Elle, Charlee's understanding of who she is grows.  She loves her, admire's her and for the next week she talks about visiting with her birth mom.  We love spending time with Elle, catching up and having fun together.

After the the previous visit, Charlee and I were looking at pictures and she asked me "How come we just call her Elle and not birth mom?"

  I replied, "Sometimes we call her mommy Elle or tummy mommy."  Charlee then got very mad at me, and  told me 

"you can not tell me I am going to call Elle, it is my birth mom and you are not the boss of that."

I agreed and told her she would need to ask Elle what she wanted to be called.

During the visit when Elle and Charlee were alone, I asked Charlee to ask Elle her question.  Charlee was shy and wouldn't not bring up the subject, I asked Charlee if she was alright if I brought it up and she nodded.  I told Elle that "Charlee wants to know what she can call you?"

And because of how loving and kind Elle is, she said, "You can call me what ever you want." Charlee replied" I want to call you birth mom Elle."  So for the rest of the visit she said it about 80 times and every time she would smile.  In the car or in public Elle always responded to her and was great about it.  I was grateful Elle was so accommodating to Charlee, and that Charlee expressed a need.  I know in the future they will continue to work out their relationship, with or without me.

 There is something there that is more than a friend, or an Aunt or another family member.  For Charlee you can see her connect on a different level.  I love watching their bond grow.  I want her to know where she came from, I want her to embrace that.  I want to be sure these moments happen.

Adoption is a gift of love that is given to the child, the child has a chance to be in a stable, loving home and an open adoption allows for the child to share more love with the birth family and adoptive family.

This relationship is as easy and comfortable, because we have made it so from the beginning.  It feels normal, to us.

When a 4-year-old Finds a Feather

A few weeks ago, Charlee figured out, if you press really hard into a feather pillow you could pull the feathers out.  She was obsessed with this.  Of course we explained this was not a good thing, there was some time out done.  We hoped she would get over it.  

Daily, her and I laid down for some quiet time.  Books are read, the timer is set, no one gets out of the bed until the timer goes off.  Sometimes she falls asleep, sometimes I fall asleep.  The timer goes off I wake up, she wakes up, and we go on with our day. It had worked well for about 6 months.

About a month ago, the timer goes off, she is very quiet, I think she is probably asleep so I lay there for a few moments, I can tell she is moving around.  I look over and this is what I see.

It isn't even the whole pillow, maybe just half.  It is one of my older pillows so I figure she pulled a feather through and the seam tore.

 Charlee is loves it; she is feeling all the feathers, talking to me about how soft they are.

I cannot wrap my head around this mess.  I don't even know where to start, so I grab the camera, because really who is going to believe this story?  I need proof.

 Holy Shit was said a hundred times, under my breath.

 She stood up and it went everywhere.  I am on the phone with Karsten, I sent him pictures and he did not understand what was going on.  He came home.  I started cleaning up.  Half the problem was they were so light, that when you tried to grab a handful the feathers would move.  I filled up 1 garbage bag, 2 vacuum bags we did laundry at the house and I took the large bedding to the laundry mat.

Even though it has been a month I am still finding stray feathers under things.  Just walking around you would look down and feathers were stuck to your legs.  UGGH.  

Of course I shared this on facebook and instagram, because this story is made for social media.  

Here is a bonus for you blog readers, something I did not share on face book.  2 days after the incident in my bedroom, we are driving up to Heber and she throws up all over the back of my car, she had ate chocolate milk, cereal and a granola bar.  Yes a piece of me died cleaning that up in 10 degree weather. 

2 days after getting sick in the car, I opened her door Monday morning to see this

Charlee had done it again.  My sweet little 4-year-old TORE OPEN ANOTHER PILLOW!

 She bit a hole in the seem until she could get her fingers in there and pull.

The first time I thought it was an accident, I never imagined she would try to open a pillow. I thought it was an accident.  The second time, there was no smiling and playing.  

So for a month she has not gotten any new toys or treats at the store since that money goes to new pillows.  

I thought I was over this but just looking at the pictures makes my stomach spin.  

Are We Still Friends?

Seriously you have been neglected!  Their are 2 MAJOR things that keep me from posting as I wish.  I have over 30,000 pictures on my hard drive and my poor little MacDaddy which is now 5 years old can not handle too much.  When I have time to be on the computer I am moving pictures to other drives and organizing them.

2nd is it is not easy to do updates from my phone.  I can post one picture at a time or have no edit options.  GRR.  I have been thinking of switching to another blog to make this easier.  I am sad to say my Facebook is more current then my blog, (my head is hung in shame).

If you have any suggestions on how I can resolve these issues quicker and get back to real blogging please bring it on.

A few highlights for now:

Us 

To Charlee's delight Santa brought her too much for Christmas

Charlee is a Wyoming girl, she lives for the snow and finds every chance to get cold outside.

Charlee makes a great tree.  She is LOVING her pre school, and has a blast there.

Charlee turned 4 and per her request she got a cow cake.  She enjoyed every bite.

More posts to come!!

huh? blog? I have a blog? oops I forgot

Poor little neglected blog, you look so sad.  We have been doing so much lately and I have been working on our home and blah blah blah this blog is not on fire so it keeps getting moved to the bottom of the to do page.  Here are some random pictures that should have been posted months ago.

For us Summer was:
Cousins
Trips
Sunshine
Extra Sassy

Why Dance? Why Now?

Since 2010, has been to a few dance recitals, to watch friends.This is how Charlee started her persistence in being in dance.  

Along came the potty training escapade, which was not going so well.  I told her if she could keep her panties dry, she could start going to dance class.  When she would go to the recital I would point out that none of those girls were wearing diapers.  She was interested and tried a little better but the hook wasn't there yet.

So I took her to the dance studio, she watched other kids her age learning and playing.  Again I pointed out that she would have to keep her panties dry to be able to go.  I grabbed a form, put on our calendar how many days she would have to be dry before I would fill out the form and when the next class was that she could go.  10 days, she did it no accidents.  I felt we were finally there.

After her first class

Charlee went to her first class and loved it and the kids.  She knows when dance class is each week and looks forward to it.

After each class she passes out

Dance . . . Dance . . . Dance . . .

Every Tuesday she went, running in there excited to see her dance teacher and her friends. She is learning how to be in a class setting, and following directions, in a fun setting.  For a 3 year old she does pretty good, but she is easily distracted by other things and playing with the kids.  Miss Tami her dance teacher is very patient with the little kids and helps to keep her focused.

Charlee with Miss Tami her dance teacher

She does a tumbling class and then a ballet/jazz class.

Charlee showing off her almost hand stand

Time to Shine

The beginning of June she had her first recital, we were gone the week before so she missed the two dress rehearsals.  When the time came she got on stage with her friends and tried to remember what to do.  There were no tears and she did not freeze, that is success at her age. 

After her dance she got a medal from Miss Tammi

Papa brought her a rose to celebrate her success.

Don't Stop Now

As long as she is having fun and enjoying it, we will continue to let her dance.  No more classes until September.   As far as the potty training, it is better then what it was, its not 100% yet.