New Kid on the Block

Well, it's official. Princess Keira has been dethroned. A new princess arrived in the family last Friday. When I told Quinn last Friday that it was the day the baby was coming, he asked if the baby would be born or adopted. How sweeeet, I thought. The baby will be born to Aunt D, I said; Remember it was in her tummy? He replies: Yea, that's good....but I'm glad we adopted Keira, Mommy. Oh yeah, buddy, me too!

So, anyway - back to the baby....And yes, I'm a bit late in posting this, but dethroned princesses are high maintenance! Although in the pic to the right, she looks at peace with it, eh?? heh, heh!
Nonetheless, Congrats to my baby sis and her hubby!! :-) And what the heck, while I'm doling out family greetings and such, Happy Belated Birthday to my other sis (meant in the kindest possible way) and nephew #2 on my hubby's side. They both share a b-day with the new princess, so the 21st will be a partying day, now more than ever. Also, happy b-day today to Chris' bro #1.

Now, with the family niceties out of the way, here's the scoop on the new little one. She's cute. And she still sleeps alot (says me, who does not live with her!).
For the last 9 months, we've been referring to this baby, fondly, as the tie-breaker. On my side of the family, my sisters and I each had a son and a daughter, in that order. So, this baby would be baby #3 for sister #3. This baby would also break the tie. This was especially important to my 4 year old son, who mistakenly thinks boys rule and can do "way more than girls". So, along she came last week. And for those of you keeping score at home, that's 4 girls and 3 boys, as far as the new generation goes. This was a bit of a blow to Q, who somehow tried to come up with another male cousin to even the score, but to no avail. (When I informed him that the "score" on daddy's side of the family is 7-2 in favor of boys, he thought that was much better!)
Anyway, below is a pic of new Princess A along with her adoring cousin.

Keira could not get enough of this baby! She was initially irritated with me when I kept moving her away. She wanted to touch the baby, hold the baby, kiss the baby. The older cousins were getting a turn to hold A and Keira was getting pulled away by me. When you are older, I said. Hmmmph, she said (crossing arms).

So, she did what any self-respecting dethroned princess does - she took it up with Grandma. And sure enough, I was only out of the room for 2 minutes and then returned to find the above. Keira, as you can see, gives a victorious smile. She was pleased as punch. And looked cute doing so, if I do say so myself.

Now, I say all this proves that Keira really wants to be a big sister.
Chris, rolling his eyes at me, says it proves she'll be a great babysitter.

What do you think? The comment box is open......

[By the way, I would post a pic of Q with the baby, except I don't have one. He was so anxious to meet the baby and see her face, but when we got there, he didn't want to hold her. Later I found out his concern: Does she scratch? he asked. Ahhhh, a little bit of K goes a long way. I assured him that this baby wouldn't scratch, but he still kept his distance, just to play it safe.]

A Rose By Any Other Name....

I spent the better part of my childhood (and large portions of my adult life as well) correcting people when they first pronounce my name. It was the rare person that was able to properly pronounce my first name from the get-go. Not that I have one of those made-up names. Nope. Just an uncommon one. I didn't really appreciate my name until, oh, I think, sometime in college. I spent a lot of time wishing I was a Debbie or Jennifer or Michelle or one of the other more pronouncable names of my youth. Well, OK, maybe not those specific names, but you get the idea. At least a name where people didn't always expect to see a boy attached to it. I think my mom felt bad for me at times, and she said - more than once - that if she had to do it all over again....she'd still pick the same name. She loved it then. She loves it now. And now so do I.

So, fast-forward from my youth to my motherhood. Today, I'm dropping my daughter off for my "parent's day out". One of her care-takers asked me to again pronounce Keira's name for her. They don't think they've been saying it right, she says. I had noticed this from Day One and so at every pick-up and drop-off, I tried to say her name as much as possible, to save them from this very thing. Anyway, apparently my efforts will for naught. So today, per her request, I say clearly KEIRA. ("KEER-uh".) This isn't the first occasion where I've had to do this either.

Apparently, like my mother before me, I gave my daughter a name that seems tricky to the untrained eye. I really thought Keira was a name that people would know how to pronounce. Now I know that we could have picked the other, probably more well-known spellings (Kyra or Kira), but we opted for the Irish spelling. You know, so she'd have something in common with her brother other than wacky parents. And basically no Irish heritage. Nonetheless, I discovered yet another thing I have in common with my mom. Because if I had to do it all over again, I'd still pick the same name.

And speaking of Little Miss Keira-not-Kee-air-uh, here she is modeling her fabulous new t-shirt. Love it? Fits her to a T, literally and figuratively. I couldn't resist getting Mighty Miss K her own retro Wonder Woman tee. Check out Sandbox Threads for this and other great shirts for kids. I wanted her to model her new duds with a wonder-smile on her face. But as you can above, she was more interested in getting off the chair to come see herself on the camera. When I asked her to sit back down and cheeeeese again, she responded by striking the pose you see to the right. Yup, she's for real. When she's irritated with you, she'll put on her pouty face and cross her arms. With a hmmph. It would be maddening if it wasn't so darn cute. And even cuter in the WWt.

By the way, you really should check out this t-shirt place. Funky stuff for kids. You can pick your design and the type of tee you want it printed on. They send your order pretty quickly and in some pretty cool packaging. Watch this space for K modeling her PEACE t-shirt sometime soon. And if they'd have adult sizes, I'd be getting this shirt for myself. (Love you, mom!)

Before I sign off, because I'm an equal-opportunity mom, I gotta put a pic of Q in here, too. He has no new,

cool t-shirt (yet), and his name is almost always correctly pronounced, but he deserves a little print as well. After all, with a smile like that and a knack for saying things like "You are the best mom, ever!" what's not to love?!

And the Award For Best Performance in a Reality Series Goes To....

Well, OK - I didn't actually watch the Emmys last night, but all the talk surrounding last night's event paired with Keira's recent foray into pretend play got me to thinking about when Quinn first started to pretend.

For those of you who know Quinn to any extent at all, you probably know how much he loves pretend play. He loves becoming someone else, in his own little made-up world and made-up scenarios. He loves it even more when he can recruit others to join him.

I can still remember the very first thing he acted out.

He was 2ish. He walked over to his toys, grabbed his toy keys, headed toward the back door and said "Gotta go to work. Love you! Drive careful!" We thought it was so cute that he was pretending to go to work like mom and dad.

Then, a few days later, he pretended to leave to go pick up pizza. Ah, yes. He was really capturing the essence of this household.

Next, he started to pretend that he was the one dropping me off at daycare. And he instructed me to cry for him. And then (it gets worse), he would give me a hug and give me the pep talk I used to give him. His version: love you; play with your friends; it's fun; be back soon!

How do they know how to guilt you so well at such a young age??! Ugh.

Was this, at the time, how he saw his life? Parents off to work; daycare drop off; pizza for supper? Surely there was more.....

Now, 2 years later, his little sis is starting to pretend. Today at a play date in the park, Keira and her buddy M pretended to feed each other snacks and drinks. It was quite cute. I'm guessing the hint here was that we weren't supplying them with enough food on our own! After we came home, she grabbed one of her dolls (this in and of itself is newsworthy - she usually gravitates toward cars and Buzz Lightyear) and pretended to put the doll down for a nap. "Shhhhhh," she told me. "Nappy."

So, the jury is still out on who's the better performer. One performance is a bit less guilt-laden than the other, but they are both priceless just the same.

They both act from the heart. Make it real. Really get into their characters. They are a director's dream.

I guess it's a good thing we have a best actor AND a best actress category.

**************

By the way, aside from knowing how Q is constantly pretending something, you may know that he really, really does not like art. I can always pick out his artwork at preschool - it is the stuff done all in one color or done very minimalistically. Last year, the teachers told me that he was always the last one to come to the art table. So, imagine my surprise the other day when he told me he wanted to fingerpaint! "Who is this kid?" I thought. So naturally, I captured the moment on film. And then, true to form, he used one color, painted for 5 minutes, and was ready to move on. Ah yes, that's the boy I know!

Time Flies When You're Havin' Fun!

Although it is officially still summer according to the calendar, it has been a bit cooler here, school's started, football is in full swing....so it must be fall!
We had a busy last few weeks of summer. On the somewhat-official-end-of-summer weekend (Labor Day), we took the kids to Conner Prairie for the last of the summer concert series there. The first half of the summer they feature ISO concerts. The second half of the schedule includes different musical acts each weekend. On Labor Day weekend, the River City Brass Band was playing. Although I typically try to avoid all things Pittsburgh, these guys were good. Even the kids enjoyed themselves. Keira danced to the music and Quinn proclaimed "Great idea, Mommy!" when it was all over. I'm pretty sure that was post-fireworks-display euphoria speaking there, but I'll take the praise anyway I can get it.
Here's a picture of Mr. Oreo Face himself:
He was working on a "sticker project". The only real way to get the kids to sit through a concert like this is to bring stickers, coloring books, a zillion snacks, bubbles, flashlights, cars, and on and on and on.
As the evening wore on, Little Miss Dancing Queen chilled out. We could hardly believe it -- she's usually go-go-go to the very end -- so we had to capture it on film. She was so snuggly with me; I wanted to freeze this moment forever.

Prior to LD weekend, there was the small matter of my birthday weekend. :-) Here's my b-day present...happy, smiling kids. No fighting, no grouching. This may be the cake talking, but I'm willing to look past that and think that my newly-learned Siblings Without Rivalry skills are kicking in. (Yeah, right. Keira bit Quinn today and hit him about 15 times, so there goes that theory!)By the way, I share my b-day with the likes of Marvin Harrison (greatest receiver in the NFL, if you don't know that already) and Sean Connery. Also, Regis Philbin and Rachel Ray. Two of us are quiet, two have big mouths, and one has a fab Scottish accent. I'm sure you can figure out who's who, riiiight??? (Be nice here, people!) :-)

And on that note, I think I'll retire for the evening. Afterall, I'm a year older and I can't stay up and blog into the wee hours of the evening anymore.

That, and Burn Notice is on soon. (Yes - I'm still a slave to the TV. Old habits die hard.....or you can't teach an old dog new tricks - take your pick.)

Off To A Good Start!

Quinn had his last first day of preschool today. (Did that sound right?) His preschool year officially started today; and next year at this time, I'll have already sent him off to Kindergarten! But, in the meantime, he's headed to preschool 3 days a week, from now til spring.

Little sis Keira is going to the same preschool, in their mini-me program. Actually, it's called "Parents' Day Out", and she'll be going every Thursday morning.

So today was a first day for both of them.

And it seems they are both off to a good start.

When I picked up Keira after lunch, I got the usual "oooh-she's-so-cute". Now, I don't mean to sound glib, but there seems to be a certain way people tell you that your Asian baby is so cute...it's in that gosh-we-hardly-ever-see-one-of-those tones. I don't think people mean any harm, and maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but sometime it'll be nice to get a compliment on how she's so smart or cute or whatever just because she is (so sayeth her mother!), and not because she's different. (I'm probably not making much sense here, but if you're an adoptive parent with kids who don't look like you, you'll know what I mean.) Nonetheless, she seemed to get along well and play nicely, so I'm happy about that.

And she must have played hard, because check this out....when we got home, she walked in the back door and promptly crashed with her blankie onto the kitchen floor.

After retrieving Miss K from her class, I headed down to Quinn's room. He had a great day too, playing with old friends and new. Even a new "girlfriend". Paige. Or maybe it's Claire, or Kayla and Emma (the twins he wanted to marry last year - both of them!), or Gabrielle. Quinn and his best buddy, Jack, like to play SuperHeroes....and their qualifications for what makes a good girlfriend is one who will play along (and let them rescue her). I'd love to be able to watch this all unfold someday. If only to be a fly on the playground!

Anyway, back at home, when I picked up Tired Girl off the floor, we headed upstairs for her nap. Of course, as she sits in my lap in the rocking chair (we rock for one song on her Lullaby CD after reading a book, before she goes into the crib), she's chatty and restless. I "shush" her a few times and try to remind her that it is naptime. She continues being chatty. I finally realize that she is talking to herself, saying something like "love you" and trying to get her sweet little hands to do the "I Love You" sign. (We do that a lot around here, especially when daddy leaves for work or when we are going to bed. Quinn demos his skills to the right.)

I just couldn't believe what she was doing. It was so sweet! So cute!

So, I join in. Yes, yes, I say. Love you! Love you! (I try to help her do the sign.) Then, she stops. Looks back at me. And - you guessed it - she shushes me!

What a peach.

So there you have it. The start of something good. The start of many good things.

And, wait....wait.....yes, you knew it, didn't you? I couldn't end a post entitled "Off To A Good Start" without a picture of this fabulous start - the first 6 of the 41 points put up by the Good Guys.

Oh, what a night!

Cage Match

In our house, there is a place we affectionately call "The Cage".
Now, now. It isn't as bad as it sounds. To effectively segregate the youngest child from our old dog, we put up a gate that spans the entire width of our family room, thereby giving the room a cage-like effect. The kids play in there a lot, sometimes with a parent and sometimes not. Like when I'm trying to make lunch or something. The two little suburban angels are in there all alone (but not out of my sight), left to their own devices.
And that's when Cage Match '07 is likely to break out.
I know they are just kids being kids, typical ol' brother-and-sister stuff, blah, blah, blah.
But. It. Was. Driving. Me. Crazy. (See previous post on vacuuming for one way I tried to cope!)
Here is where it is confession time for me.
You see, when we were waiting for Quinn to be born, I read What to Expect When You're Expecting, Your Pregnancy: Week by Week, etc. After he was born, I was diligently perusing What to Expect the First Year (at least for the first 7 months or so). We started getting Parents magazine.
Then, as we prepared for Keira, I read all sorts of stuff about adoption, international adoption, attachment and bonding. I also read books about China and I took some Mandarin classes. We subscribed to Adoptive Families Magazine. We even got books to prepare Quinn for a new sibling.
All this, yet I had never read anything about parenting siblings. And that was rapidly becoming more and more apparent to me.
And then, a friend mentioned this book to me: Siblings Without Rivalry. Good stuff, she said. Very helpful for them (they have 2 kids, about the age of our 2). A few days later, I read this review of it on Rumor Queen. (Here's another confession: I still read RQ...but only b/c we have friends still waiting. Really!)

So, thanks to the old internet, I had a copy of this baby on my doorstep in about a week. Without even dragging the kids to Borders!
I'm still working through the book, bit by bit, but it has helped already.

Of course, it's not all peaches and cream here all the time, but it is getting lots better. Quinn still issues a warning when people first meet Keira ("That's my sister, Keira - she hits and scratches!"), although I'm hoping it'll go back to the enthusiastic greeting he once gave, those many months ago ("That's my sister, Keira - she's from China!").

Only time will tell.

And if not, well, I always have a fall-back plan.

No one's been irreparably harmed by repeatedly being told "Go to you room!", right??

Boiler-up, Rocket Man!

It's official. It's fall. And even better, it's football season.

The college season is now underway, with - even more importantly - the boys in Blue kicking off this Thursday. But, until then, I get my fix from the Boilermakers.

And in honor of this glorious time of year, I am dedicating this post to my almost-favorite-brother-in-law, the Commish in charge of the family FB pool, the Rocket Man himself.

52. 24.

Oh how I wish we had some fabulous wager riding on this game. I guess bragging rights will have to do for now.

[And before you start thinking about posting some comment here about last night's preseason game, between your NFL team and mine, I'll save you the time by reminding you that I have editorial (and therefore deletional) powers over all matter printed here.

Not that I would restrict free speech or anything.....]