2004-07-29 - 11:23 p.m.

my 16 month old is one funny girl. In the last few days, I've noticed that she thoroughly enjoys playing tricks or making us laugh. This morning, she was hiding behind a latter, sticking her head out between the rungs and laughing. (ok, I know, I'm a terrible parent! letting my kid play under a latter... it was funny though!)

she also loves to show the dogs food, get them to run over and then just snatch it right before they get it. She thinks this is absolutely hilarious! the crazy thing is, if I did that, they would bite my hand off to get it (not literally, but they would be pissed), when she does it, they go back to their hiding spots, but come running back every damn time she does it.

Tonight though, she really took the cake for funnies.... I was rocking her to sleep (she gets 15 minutes of rocking time, as per the sound and picture machine hanging in her crib, set at 15 mintues. that's it, that's all!) and she was blwoing strawberries on my chest and in my neck. There is no way to hold in your laughter when your tiny little dumpling blows repeated strawberries in the crook of yoru neck. First of all, it tickles as all heck and second, she knows it's funny so she starts to laugh out loud. So I start to laugh out loud, which makes her laugh even more... Not exactely the soothing bedtime routine I was going for!

Speaking of routine, since we met with the attachment specialist, she's only woken once during the night. We did try for about an hour each to put her back in her own bed but eventually sleep took over and we brought her into our bed. Since then, she's slept through every night. Still won't nap in there, but hey, one step at a time.

Finally, someone got my panties in a bunch today. A few days back, I blogged about an update on the Annie Jacobson airplane story and finished my post with the following admonition:

We have applied for a visa for our daughter to enter the US so we can go spend some money doing shopping State side but let me tell you something, if they give us any trouble, we'll be happy to spend out money on our side of the border and forgo our vacations in the US. Keep your terrorists, we'll go to Europe instead!

someone named Jess, with no links or email left me a comment calling me harsh. Just in case you don't all go back to read the comments, or if someone else was offended by my previous post, here is my reply, by way of mhy own comment box, to "Jess":

TO JESS: first off, if you're gonna leave a comment, leave a way to get in touch with you. Byt not leaving a URL or email address, it's not fair, I can't respond. Secondly, you missed the irony and sarcasm of that last paragraph. I think it's pretty crazy that the US government won't let in a 16 month old baby, leagally adopted by Canadian parents (who by the way do not need visas to enter the US), but they don't bother to check the EXPIRED visas of over a dozen middle eastern men.... Seems crazy to me! I mean, do you think my little girl, who can barely walk and can't say a word besides Mama, Dada and bye bye is any threat to your country? Candians who live near the border cross it for one reaosn: to spend money. Whetehr shopping at Target or taking mini vacations, visiting attractions or just having lunch, we cross the border to spend money. So it seems to me, they should be trying to make that easier for us, not harder. I was just pointing out the irony that 2 adults who have entered your country hundreds, heck, probably thousands of times, now have to go spend the better part of a day pleading with American authorities to let in a toddler, but those same authorities aren't too bothered about he visa status of a group of middle eastern men....

That's it for now, bedtime!

Anything to add? 5

2004-07-28 - 11:40 p.m.

my daughter has mastered M, D, J, C, but unfortunately for us, only in combination with the letter A. so we get lots of ma-ma-ma's da-da-das, aja aja aja (sounds like Ad-ja!) and of course, Ca-ca-ca, which is just a sound and is not poo related at all.

so in an attempt to introduce a new vowel to her sound repertoire, everytime she babbles, we repeat whatever she says, but substituting the A sounds for O's. Don't know why we started with O, but we did. She's not having it. If we say anything with an O, she just repeats exactely whatever babbling she just said, as if to correct us. "I said Mama dadada aja aja aja, you morons! Not Momo dododo ojo ojo ojo!"

as for our favortie topic, reality tv... TAR5 still rocks! Mirna and Charla have officially jumped the shark for me and I cannot stand Mirna any longer. Charla is still feisty and cute and still rocks, but she needs to pair off with someone else. Apparently though, while most reality shows give their contestants psychological tests, TAR5 doesn't, because not only is Mirna off her rocker, but that Colin dude is one scary psycho.... And speaking of which, that Tammy woman on Trading Spouses was as delusional as can be! I mean, there is nothing wrong with being a stuck up rich bitch, but don't go bragging about the impact you're going to have on people's live and bossing them around, then sitting on your cellulite ass and going nothing (although I'm sure she gets her cellulite worked on thanks to hubby the surgeon!). I thought it totally rocked that her switch-er gave all the money to the mother-in-law, who is basically her live-in nanny, maid and cook! yeah! And that tax bracket remark at the end, way to dig yourself into a deeper whole lady!

And tonight I caught Amish in the city and I just want to say: city kids are making asses of themselves. Amish kids are fabulous. I watched their amazement at everything new and felt a little twinge of what Dumpling might have felt like when she first got here.

Anything to add? 6

2004-07-25 - 12:27 p.m.

I try so hard to be hip and cool. I buy funky jewelry made by up and coming artists. I wear retro clothes and mix and match different styles. I love Camper shoes. But I have now officially crossed the line into uncoolness.

No, it wasn't the crockpot or the Shark Steam-vac. It was the pressure-washer.... I borrowed it from my dad to try to ease the paint removal off the front step of our house. But while hooking it up to test it, I accidently clean off a spot on the deck. And then proceede to spend the rest of the afternoon and part of this morning to pressure-wash the rest of the deck, and the posts, and the steps, and anything else in sight! Water conservation be damned! Pressure washing is soooo cool! The deck looks brand spanking new! Not only did the greasy BBQ stains come off, but the boards lost their greyish tint and look like new wood! Now I have to go buy some Thompson's Water Seal to keep my work looking nice.

IT's sooooo sad. I'm just another suburban mom... All coolness and hipness lost.....

Anything to add? 9

2004-07-23 - 11:15 p.m.

so I had given up on updates regarding Annie Jacobsen's Terror in the Sky, figured they were indeed musicians, and then, tonight, my hubby points me in the direction of a mind-boggling update via MSNBC's Scarborogh Country. Their Visas were all expired. They are in the US illegally. Hello?!?!? My 16 month old daughter from China cannot enter the US because she is not yet a Canadian citizen and people with Chinese passports need visas, regardless of age, but 14 Syrians, supposed musicians, create a ruckus on a flight and several law enforcement agents *don't notice* that their visas are expired.

I don't know how to wake people up and see: screw civil liberties and screw political correctness! There will be another, more severe attack, because of this overwhelming need Americans have to not ruffle feathers, not hurt people's feelings.

We have applied for a visa for our daughter to enter the US so we can go spend some money doing shopping State side but let me tell you something, if they give us any trouble, we'll be happy to spend out money on our side of the border and forgo our vacations in the US. Keep your terrorists, we'll go to Europe instead!

Anything to add? 4

2004-07-23 - 3:28 p.m.

My entry on the doctor's assesment of the Dumpling got a lot of comments, so I feel I will continue with it a bit more. First of all, the Doctor is Jean-Fran�ois Chicoine, highly regarded in the Quebec Adoption community. And no, I don't think he knows her better than me. But he knows adopted babies WAAAAY better! And with that one little experiment, he was able to show me that I was looking at her with rose-colored glasses. There is nothing wrong with what I'm doing. it's just that she's not actually coming as far along as I had imagined.

In his book, he mentions that he is not opposed to co-sleeping, but he's not a fan of it, especially in international toddler adoption. Frankly, I don't want her in my bed. We only bring her in when she wakes up in the middle of the night crying, because we don't want to spend an hour trying to get her back to sleep. But it's really not the best solution, because the only person who gets any sleep after is her, and she doesn't wake up in her own bed. So last night, I was fully prepared for a camping session in her room when she woke up and you know what? She slept til 8 this morning!

His general observation were just to ponit out that behaviour we thought was great: she doens't cry when I leave her with my mother, she loves the dogs, she says bye bye to everyone and everything... he feels those are all behaviours that show that she doens't trust us to always be there for her. She'd be perfectly happy with my parents instead of us, she sees the dogs as her pals on the same level as us, she says bye bye all the time 'cause she always think there will be more big changes... Of course, lots of you will think he's full of it. But I admired him before I got her, and a lot of what he said makes sense to me. it's been 8 weeks since I got her, 6 weeks since I brought her home. The reality is, it takes a lot longer than that to bond and settle in. We just have to keep that in mind and keep paying extra attention to the little things.

Keep on commenting! Even disagreeing points are welcomed! I can only learn from everyone.

Anything to add? 5

2004-07-23 - 9:15 a.m.

I must have had a sixth sense... remember a few days back, when I blogged about Glass Tiger....

well there was this story in the paper this morning:

Toronto - Remember th song Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone? How about Someday? Glass Tiger hopes so. the popluar 80's band is trying for a comeback with a 20th anniversary CD and DVD called No Turning Back. The quintet - original members Alan Frew on vocals, Sam Reid, keyboards, Al Connelly, guitar, Wayne Parker, bass, and newcomer Chirs McNeill, drums - will embark on a national tour in September.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, CANADIAN PRESS

Wow! Should I try to raise my bangs to highs un-seen in 20 years, wear mist-matches socks, my dad's shirt down to my knees and pants with too many zippers and head down to the show? Or should I shell out big bucks for the DVD and watch it in the privacy of my own home... Maybe I'll just give it a few weeks and wait til it pops up in the discount bin at Walmart....

Speaking of Walmart, we had an interesting experience the other day... We live in a hoity-toity part of town. There is a Walmart a few blocks away from our house, in one of those big-box outlet type shopping centers. It serves not only our fancy-pants neighbours, but also a gret part of our city, all be it, the metropolitain part, so mostely office workers in apartments and young people in college. Whenever I go there, I'm struck by the parking lot. Mostley minivans, but you could film a fancy car commercial there, there are always at least a dozen of each model of expensive SUVs you can think of: Mercedes, BMW, Acura, you name it, my neighbours got em!

So this weekend, their digital picture machine was broken and we went to a different Walmart to print up out pictures. While there, we went in and picked up a few things. And came to a big realisation: each Walmart caters to a very different clientele. The clients at this particular suburban WalMart were of the "white trash" variety. Large, very large people in tiny, tiny halter tops and short, short, very short shorts were screaming at their kids everywhere. It wasn't just the people though, it was the stuff too. Our Walmart never has discount bins, except in the CD/DVD sections. It's full of Kosher food and lots of craft materials. This walmart had discount bins in every row, more candy and pop than I've ever seen, and no craft section to speak of. I guess even Walmart caters to it's specific clientele. And I thought they were all cookie cutter stores....

Anything to add? 3

2004-07-22 - 2:32 p.m.

this morning, hubby and I got up extra early and packed up the dumpling to go see a pediatrician that specialises in international adoption, especailly from Asia. In the French Canadian adoption world, he is very highly regarded. I read his books. I give this man a lot of credance.

Turns out, we needed a big, huge reality check. Our beutiful smiling dumpling, who laughs out loud, smiles all day and seems to like us a lot is, in fact, on the verge of a major blowup. The biting, the knocking her head on the floor, the fact that she never cries when we leave her with my mother, he noted those were all signs that she is in fact quite angry inside and is not bonding well.

We pointed out how she hugs us all the time, she snuggles in our necks, but he was quick to explain that she needs us, so she gives us enough to get our attention. He did an interesting test, in which he examined her on the table but didn't let us some to her when she started crying. When he was done, he let her loose to see if she would come to either of us for comfort. She didn't budge. She looked right at me, but stayed by his side.... I was tunned. At home, when she's unhappy, she seems to come right to me for comfort. But the truth is, I probably encourage her. I call out to her, I move in her direction. But if she bangs her head and I'm not right there, she wouldn't try to get my attention.....

He gave us lots of tips on attachment, bonding and general handling of the fits she has now, but he warned us that the months to come will be rough. he doesn't want us to bring her in our room in the middle of the night anymore, no matter how much she screams. We have to comfort her in her own room and leave her in her crib. I know there are experts who will say the exact opposite, but I respect so much of what this man has to say, I'm going to have to try it his way for a while.

Funny though, I was all excited about going to this meeting, I was feeling to strong in our bond with our child...

tv talk

i didn't blog yesterday, so you didn't get my promised take on TAR5.... How much did I love seing the little person chocolotier interact with little person/rocking Charla?>!?!?!?! That was great! I still have a totally love/hate relationship with Charla and Mirna, and there was not nearly neough Desperanto spoken by Charla this episode, but all in all, I still think they rock. Poor man's Peter Krause scares me. He's so intense, it's not good. And the twins, swimming to the island. Oh Phil! how I loved your comments ("most people just walked across the shallow end....") Sorry to see Major Dad go, especially since the Asshat brothers are still in it...

I also watched Trading Spouses. That blond woman lives on another planet! I mean the whole coffee thing is just beyond belief! and the *I'm hungry now, feed me*, holy crap!!!! On the other hand, I think Mila is a great mom who actually relates to children. I can't wait to see how the force each other to spend the money....

I'll add one note on my previous post about Annie Jacobson's article. Seems now people have been able to identify the band and confirmed the gig. Great. That's all I wanted done. But I still think the next attack is going to be arranged in flight, and if her article gets people paying more attention, good. We all need to be more vigilant.

Anything to add? 11

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