High Anxiety

CNN and The Weather Channel have been getting a lot of my business since Friday. As Hurricane Gustav approaches Louisiana I am in full hurricane-obsession mode: staying up until the wee hours of the morning hoping for some new news on the storm and watching the news as often as I can throughout the day.

Mom evacuated to McComb in Southwest Mississippi to my sister Kim's house, which is no more than an hour and a half north of New Orleans. When Katrina hit three years ago, McComb was without electricity for two weeks. If that happens again, Kim says they'll all drive up to north Mississippi and stay with Dad.

When we were in New Orleans on our trip down to Mississippi and Louisiana last summer, we drove through some of the Lakeshore neighborhoods. There remained so much damage even then. It's hard to imagine another big hit just three years later. Here is one of the photos we took last year. It's one I'd posted back in June 2007. You can see just how high the water got in this home.

Anna's Birthday Interview

Birthday Girl

Anna turned 4 today, and we held her little family party during Mikel's lunch break so that the birthday girl could play with her gifts during the rest of the day. Last year we did the party after Mikel got home from work.

Of course, the children were allowed to skip their naps today (which didn't seem like such a big deal since Alexander hadn't fallen asleep the past two days of naps anyway, which brings me to another point: I can tell Anna's naps are definitely getting shorter. I'm lucky if she sleeps 1.5 hours, though it's usually more like 1 hour these days, which all seems pretty natural to me. Alexander, however, has been very spotty with his nap-taking. Seems like half the days he just won't fall asleep.)

Obviously, Anna's big present was this American Girl doll, which she had been asking for since visiting the American Girl Place store in Chicago this summer. Of the many dolls from which to chose, we settled on this one over the historical character Kit doll (I took her to see the movie this summer) basically because she has longer hair you can do more stuff with. We also picked out matching pink PJs.

She also received a fairy wand, jewelry, clothes, book and some princess stuff like a tiara.

After the party, we spent a lot of time playing outside in what felt like a crisp, early fall day. The kids got dirtier than they ever have, so then a bath was in order before dinner time. Before the party, the children were nice enough to help me make some very rich vanilla ice cream, of which probably half is already gone!

Anyway, here are the images. I hope you can indulge me in the many photos I'm posting. There were just too many showing different hairdos or poses from which to chose. Doesn't Anna look so pretty with her earrings on and hair up? I looked at these photos and thought, "Wow. She's stunning." I'm such a proud mommy.

And Speaking Of The Doctor...Here's Mr. Piggy

I had to take Shreve to his doctor last week to get a lesion checked out on his back. I was worried it was an engorged tick or something worse. But it just turned out to be a great big pimple. Ewww! The doc said it's always a good idea to get these things checked out to ensure they're not tumors.

I was shocked to find out that somehow Shreve has gained 3 pounds since I took him for his annual check-up in late May! How did that happen? I was really taken aback when I saw 51.4 pounds pop up on the scale. He needed to lose 5 pounds or so back in May. So, we have laid down the law for him this time. No more licking up the remnants from the morning cereal bowl or letting him lick clean the scrambled egg pan. He'd gotten so spoiled that we were actually giving him human food as a reward/bribe/incentive for eating his dry dog food.

The vet said that if we want to give him human food, then fresh mini carrots or apple slices would be much better than prepared human food. And they have even fewer calories than dog milkbones. We've been doing this (withholding the too-constant stream of "bad" bites), and Shreve has since been eating his dry dog food more eagerly. And he's loving his after-meal reward of yummy raw carrots!

It's not like we were giving Shreve big plate fulls of my home cooking, but between bites here and there and the children letting him get to the food they either drop or carelessly hold too close to the edge of the table, he's been really porking up. After sticking to our new diet plan, I want to get him weighed to make sure he's losing. I'm trying to take him on more walks, but Shreve's never been much of a good exercise companion. (He's more an explorer. A few steps then a stop to sniff. A few more steps, then a few more sniffs.)

Visiting The Real Doctor

Last week, the children had their annual well-visit check-ups with their doctor.

They're growing! Anna, who turns 4 on Wednesday, measured 40.5 inches tall (55th percentile) and 37.5 pounds in weight (75th percentile). Alexander, who turned 3 in July, measured 37.5 inches tall (50th percentile) and 32 pounds in weight (50th percentile). They got weighed with all their clothes (but no shoes) on, so I don't know how accurate the stats are compared to the percentile charts.

Alexander has also really progressed in other ways. He didn't shed a tear. I remember when we first were taking him he would start to cry his eyes out as soon as we turned the corner to walk down the hall.

Overall, they checked out great! One frustrating thing, though: Alexander seems to have some continued "out-toeing" when he walks (more noticeable when he stands, actually), though his movements don't seem to be impaired in any way. Every time we've visited his doctor we ask her about it and she doesn't seem to think it's a big deal at all and has said to wait until he's been walking a while because the ortho specialists wouldn't do anything with it now. On his translated Russian medical reports Alexander was diagnosed with Talipes valgus, which is inward toeing (though not a club foot). But after our first meeting with Alexander in Russia, we corresponded via e-mail and photos and video with our international adoption doctor who then called it an out-toeing because his toes/feet face more outward. She talked about various options once we got him home and to our doctors here in the states.

Anyway, Alexander's pediatrician said we could see the pediatric orthopedic specialist but she predicted that he wouldn't do much and would see if Alex outgrew it. So, I called this specialist and was told that he requires our pediatrician to send over her notes and he would then review the notes and decide if he would see Alexander. I was so disappointed and upset! If we're willing to pay, then why won't he see us — at least to give us peace of mind about this? While being respectful of her, I let the scheduler on the other end of the line know my disappointment. He would refuse to see our son based on notes from our pediatrician, who is not an expert on this subject? And, if he refuses to see Alexander, then who in town will? I told the scheduler that I didn't expect the specialist would see our son based on what our pediatrician told us. She said that I could send as much info as I have (his Russian medical records and notes from our international adoption doctor). But when I reviewed the translated Russian medical records I remembered that Alexander's diagnosis was for the "inward toeing". FYI, the Russian medical reports of orphans are notoriously not completely accurate. We were told by our IA doctor that, upon reviewing the Russian medical reports, then it's a wonder the children are even born alive. They consider childbirth itself a very traumatic experience for the baby. Anyway, my point is that I'm not sure the Russian medical reports will hold much weight with this specialist.

Overall, I think Alexander's fine since he doesn't seem to be impaired in walking or running or any other sort of movement. But we should get him checked out, right?

Playing Doctor

Dude. The Hair.

Alexander has some serious morning bed hair. I promise I didn't tease it up for photo's sake!

Future Olympic Gymnast

Sorry I've not blogged lately. Between last week being extremely busy during the day and us staying up late every night to watch the Olympics, I've just been too tired.

We've woken up Anna a few nights and let her come down to watch the women's gymnastics competition. Even though she looks really tired in these photos, she has insisted she wanted to be woken up. And her eyes were glued to the big TV throughout all the flips and twists. I figured I should document the watching of the Olympics in case she makes it there some day and would like to see pictures of herself watching the competition on TV at the tender age of 3 (but 4 next week, as she's been pointing out to everyone).

I'm glad Russian-born Nastia Liukin won the all-around women's gold for the USA. She was beautiful to watch. She came to America about the same age that Anna did.

By the way, we're going to enroll Anna back in gymnastics this fall at the specialty gym center where she first started in March. We were notified that our YMCA is dropping its gymnastics program due to lack of enrollment. You may remember that I wasn't too fired up about the Y's program anyway but figured it would be fine at this point in her "training".

Parking It

Taking A Break For Some Brotherly Love At The Park



I Is So Thirsty. Me, Too. TGFMSKA. Thank Goodness For Mom's Summertime Kool-Aid.

Here, Ducky, Ducky. We Got Some Bread For You.

Dang Them Are Some Good Smarties.

I'm Digging Now. You Have To Wait You Turn, Anna.

I Can See So Much More From Up Here. Hey, What's That?

OK, I'm Ready To Give This A Try.

If You Will, I Will. Wish Me Luck.

VBS Kids

Vacation Bible School ended last Thursday, and on Sunday all the children gathered at the front of the church to show the congregation their new songs and "dance" skills.

Here they are.

A Little KISS On Date Night

Last night we hired a babysitter and went on a date. To see KISS, one of the many shows at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. We'd seen them once before in Chicago. And I have to say I enjoyed that show a lot better. Last night I waited an hour and a half before I heard a song I knew, "Rock and Roll All Night." And that was their big finale. Of course there were a few songs in the encore that I knew. We never did hear "Beth." Despite the fact that I didn't know that many songs, they do put on a good show.

This was part of their KISS Alive 35 tour, so they played all the songs off their first album of the same name which debuted 35 years ago. Man, they're older than I thought.

As you might guess, I'm not the biggest KISS fan or else I'd have known more songs. The Chicago show was so much more fun because they opened with "Detroit Rock City" and never stopped playing songs I knew.

As for the cost of the evening, let's see. Our babysitter was here for a little over 8 hours so we gave her $60. (What's your going rate for babysitters?) We spent $40 on drink and eats. The cost of driving/gas about 45 minutes one way. We got lucky on the ticket cost — only $75 for the two. (A month ago I drove to Sturgis to take advantage of some bar's one-night offer of two-for-one tickets. As I got closer that day I started to sweat it out in hopes the joint wasn't a total biker bar, as I was dressed in flowing lime green linen pants and a bright pink Polo shirt. But, whew. As it turned out it was mostly an after-work sort of crowd gathered for dinner and music.) Oh, and a $5 Little Caesar's pizza for the babysitter and children to eat for dinner. All total, not the cheapest date. But since we don't have too many nights out alone anymore I guess it's OK.

Here are a couple photos taken with my cell phone camera. I love my Venus. The little boy was only 6 years old! The family drove up from Nebraska. He hung through the long night (including opening acts of a comedian and two other bands). I was surprised that we saw several young ones there. I mean, just the physical pounding of your internal organs from the very, very, very loud music can't be good for little children. Then there is all the other stuff they're exposed to.

As for our babysitter experience, it was a success. Again, whew. Apparently the children behaved and went to bed when they were supposed to and all that. I went through a short list of girls, who were not available, before I called this particular babysitter. I was reluctant to call her first because the last time we used her at Christmas we returned home to find her almost in tears because Anna kept getting out of bed and would not go to sleep. I wasn't sure she'd come back, but she seemed eager when I asked her a few weeks ago. We talked about what happened the last time and she said she was mostly distressed because she thought we'd be upset with her babysitting skills and not being able to get Anna to sleep. So this time we had a good, firm talk with the children about proper behavior. And it seemed to work.

P.S. Alexander just sat on my lap and looked at these photos. "I like that clown!" he said of the little 6-year-old boy. Then Anna looked up and said, "Her is a mean girl." Alexander said in response: "No, her not mean. Her has silly hair. Dat's why her's a clown."