Where's Goldbug?

Watching the microwave do it's worst to a bag of popcorn that Seamus got as a party favor from a birthday party.  They asked if they could have it for breakfast one day and were shocked when I said "yes".  They all thought they were getting away with murder.

I kept Seamus home from school today because he has a hacking cough that is getting way too loud and obnoxious for sharing at school.  So, it's a sick day.  Sort of.  And we're all having fun with it too.  I took a long shower this morning while the kids sat in front of the tv and watched about an hour of Pink Panther cartoons (which are awful and inappropriate as most 'classic' cartoons are but most of it is over their heads so I justify it as I don't want to waste perfectly good DVD's that Dad brought home from Costco one night).  It was great.  The three of them were lined up on the floor in front of the sofa chuckling at all the anvils being dropped on the Inspector's head.  Tallis giggles too, only she stares at the boys and tries to join in when they start up.  She waits for her cue. 

After we were ALL ready and all 60 or so teeth were finally brushed, we headed off to the grocery.  The reason for this trip was to allow Rowan to pick out whatever kind of ice cream he wanted.  We are having a "No Potty In Your Pants Party" for him.  He's been "leaking" and going through several pairs of undies every day even though he has been fully potty trained for well over a year now.  He says, "it's just a drip, Mom".  I say it's stinky pee.  The poor kid just doesn't want to stop playing in time to make it to the bathroom.  We've tried EVERYTHING to get him to stop "dripping".  Finally, this week I told him that if he keeps his undies 100% dry for an entire day that I will buy him whatever kind of ice cream he wants.  Yesterday he finally managed and today is the day.  He chose "wainbow" sherbet.  That was my favorite when I was a kid.  The kids were angels in the store.  They're always pretty well-behaved (relative) in stores, but I made it clear in advance that any naughty behaviour would leave someone out of the "No Potty In Your Pants Party".  It was a very peaceful shopping trip.  Except for the occasional bark from Seamus.  On the way out, we stopped in front of the Redbox and I rented a cartoon for them.

I let the kids have sherbet for lunch.  They were all shivering.  Then, because our family is weirder than weird, I passed out sheets of teriyaki flavored nori and frozen blueberries, respectively.  I think the blueberry feast is finishing up so now it's naptime.  

I love sick days.  Especially when the sicky is really not too sick.     

Now, enough rambling about our morning....I want to say a few things about Tallis.  This is an "adoption" blog and I should stick to that, but now we're just a normal family (relative again) and maybe I just want to go on about nori now and then.  Or Alan Thicke.  Anyway...

I need to answer a few common questions about Tallis and/or adoption.  Every time we see someone they ask the same questions.  So, I figure it's time for bullets:

• Yes, Tallis is learning to speak more and more English.  People want examples of how much she speaks, but I always find it difficult to recall because whether she's actually talking or not we seem to be able to communicate problem-free.  We've been making up our own sign language ever since we were in China, so when the words are failing us we throw out some hand gestures.  Some words we hear regularly are:
• "Mom! Mom!" (no more "Mama", just "Mom" now)
• "Mom! Rowan..." (the dot dot dot is usually followed by some muttering and gestures reenacting a fight)
• "No no" (with a finger pointing at her brothers)
• "Anana" (she loves bananas!)
• "I have one oweenge peese?" (oranges too)
• "I want one!"
• "Wawa peese"
• "I want pood" (then she mimics chewing)
• "Hot, owie, hot" (mom's coffee cup)
• "Ya ya" (her "yes" and it's heard about a thousand times a day when I've figured out what she was trying to tell me)
• "Yeh peese"
• "No, thank you" (especially when we say it's bedtime)
• "Boom!" (when we ask her about any owies, old or new)
• "Bess you!" (Rowan sneezed this morning and she was quick to tell him.  That's a first and it was very cute)
• "I love you Tallis" (it was a fluke when she said "I lut choo, Mama"...now she just repeats after me verbatum)

And a whole bunch of other stuff.  Really, she speaks a lot and we can usually put the syllables together with the context and understand what she's trying to tell us.  She's very good at making us understand her, even if she has to take our hand and go show us what she's talking about.  If we're wrong with our guess, she shakes her head and says "no no".  So that tells me that she understands us even more than we understand her.  She no longer speaks like the Chinese (more from the back of the throat).  It's all up front now.  In summary, she's doing well.  We're not going to do speech therapy.  At least not unless we see a real problem.  What she needs is time that's all.  

Other questions?  Let me think...

• Nope.  Tallis is not entirely attached yet.
• No, we don't know how long it will take.  She still likes new people way too much and quickly forgets about Mom and Dad when someone new (especially men) is giving her attention.  It is getting a little bit better.  Lately, she has wanted Damon or I to hold her when we're around other people rather than running to the new person with her arms up (not cool!) like she was doing not too long ago. 
• Now she seems to like Damon and I equally.  But I still think she likes him just a bit more.
• Her large gassy gut has gone down significantly even though we still haven't treated her for parasites because the stool samples keep showing up negative.  I'm going to see if our dr. will just give us a prescription for giardia so that we won't have to worry about it anymore.  Too many other parents have had to do many many stool samples until they finally got a positive for parasites.  I'd love to let Rowan and Tallis take a bath together but not if I'm worried Rowan might get sick.  Tallis always sees the boys having fun in the tub and she wants to join in.  Not yet!
• Damon and I are still making sure that we are the ONLY ones to hold Tallis.  We want her to get all the attention she needs from us first so that she won't even think to get it from other adults.  Everyone has respected us in this really well and we're grateful for that.  We actually don't even really want people engaging her much either, but people want to look at her, touch her, and talk to her.  Can't blame 'em.  But, it's hard when we see her put on a "charming" face and start to act differently when this happens.  So, we do a lot of distracting.
• Depending on the week, we're still kinda keeping social things limited.  When she's been acting funny, we try not to hang out with friends much because that's when she'll try to get other people's attention even more.  But, no one around here feels deprived for social activity because we all have Multiple Personality Disorder so there are plenty of new friends to go around!
• Sometimes Tallis still gets "funny" and doesn't want me to rock her before bedtime.  She'll fight me holding her which means I just have to stand my ground.  It's infrequent now and I've learned that if I have her sing with me right away she forgets that she was gonna fight me and she goes to bed with a smile on her face.  We sing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children".  She loves it.  
• Wow!  This is the longest post EVER!!! 

Boy I'm long-winded!  Sorry, folks.  Maybe I'm making up for slacking before.  

The End.