Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Kiss me I'm Irish...

There's not a drop of Irish blood in my family. We did follow the tradition of the "wearing 'o' the green" on St. Patrick's day and our Mom's club met in the park with all the kids wearing various shades of green. Lucky for my daughters, green is a fantastic color on them! Here's some snaps of them at the park yesterday:









Challenges: Laina is still struggling with the idea that there's an intruder in the house and she's trying to keep her "place". I'm somewhat dismayed that Laina can be as mean spirited as I've seen her be. She can be downright mean. Min is on to Laina's behavior and when Laina is being timed out or is in the middle of a screaming fit, Min will just shake her head, smile and say (in Chinese), "Laina is a naughty little child".

Sleeping is getting better. Min is comfortable in her bed and each day is getting more and more easy for her. I think she's learning that she actually can sleep better when she doesn't have someone always in her sleeping space. She is still nervous when she wakes up, so I try to be to her room as soon as she wakes. She gets up 2-3 times a night to go pee and will always cry out for me to take her in the middle of the night.

Eating hasn't been a big problem. The main problem is that Min is a major carnivore and loves to eat a LOT of meat. Our family tends to be vegetarian, more by habit than by anything else and I don't really know how to cook meat. I've discovered that I can buy pre-cooked turkey breast at costco and I can also get rotisserie chicken there that is really very yummy.

Today I bought her some shoes. I thought I had sizes that would fit her, but as it turns out, the largest size of shoe I had on hand was 7.5 and she really needs to wear size 8. So today I went to Mervyns and bought her 2 pairs of shoes. One pair is a very cute black sneaker type maryjane and the other is an adorable pair of canvas polka dot shoes with elastic straps. I showed her the black sneakers first and asked her if she liked them. She said that she did and seemed very happy to have new shoes. Then I showed her the canvas ones and she squealed and jumped up and down. She loved them! She handed me back the black sneakers and said that she didn't want them, but she wanted the canvas ones. I asked her if she liked the black ones and she said that she did, but that she didn't want them. She wanted the canvas ones. I told her that she could have both of them. She looked puzzled and said "All of them are mine?". I told her that yes, the black ones are hers and the canvas ones are hers. They were all hers. She smiled very big and took them back into her room and put them under her bed. Then, over the course of the evening, she would take one pair off and put the other pair on...off and on, switching between the two.

She still doesn't get that all of the clothes in the dresser are hers. I took her into the room and opened the sock drawer and said, "All the socks are yours". She proceeded to touch every sock and ask, "who's are these?". I would answer, "they're yours". Then we did that for all of the shirts, all the pants and all the dresses. I still don't think she believes me. She'll get it in time.

About this blog, before too long I'm going to start a new blog that is a merging of Laina's Blog and Min's Blog. I have to come up with some name and just do it, but it'll happen before too long.

Tomorrow we're going to park again!! Yeah, parks!

2 comments:

GGAdventures said...

I've enjoyed following your journey. We also have VTs. Our 1st daughter was terribly agressive that it really scared me. We've been home now about 2 months and things are just starting to really turn around for us. We still have some really bad days, but for the most part it's pretty good. I also read Siblings W/out Rivalry and do what you do - stay out of it. That has really helped. Your children are beautiful. Congratulations!

Cupcakes and Hairbows said...

That is so sweet about the shoes. How innocent. Your girls are beautiful!