Life of the self-employed

Last week was my first full week of being self-employed. My first day started off a little rough as I had two day cares to find in the middle of a snow storm. I ended up running the van off the road and dislodging the headlight casing with the post I hit. When you have a 10 year old van with 224,000 miles on it, this is not a big deal. Then, after dragging my enormous bag of toys around to a couple of stops, I found out that I might not get paid for one of my sessions due to a paperwork glitch. It all worked out in the end and I have come to the conclusion that I still like working for myself. For the most part, I find myself less exhausted and yelling at my kids less often. I also have had time for some mad cleaning/organizing of closets and bedrooms. I'm convinced that some bachelor must have designed our house because it has hardly any storage space. I had taken the closet doors off the girls room to open up more space. That leaves two closets for a soon-to-be family of 5. And we are super efficient...meaning that I absolutely do not hold onto stuff that does not fit or we don't wear/use. You might say I am an anti-hoarder...which gets me into trouble sometimes (like recently when I threw away the case that some software came in. Am I the only one who didn't know that you need the silly product code in order to load the software onto another computer? An $80 oops) Still, we have to be super creative with space. So, Alina and Ethan will share the one bedroom closet, while Meagan shares the master closet with us. Chris says he's the only man in Fishers who has to share a closet with a 9 year old girl. He's probably right.

Alina is really writing letters now. Can write her name and then strings together "sentences" like the one below. She's also drawing real people. The picture below is of "mommy at school." That's me hanging on the monkey bars. The number 100 is written above my head because that's how old I am. That's gum coming out of my mouth because I'm chewing way too much.



Alina sometimes tires of my endless store of nicknames for her. I have recently taken to calling her "punky-doo". The other day she said, "Mom, don't call me punky-doo. I don't like that nick name. Please just call me cow." (apparently a much less offensive term of endearment)

We were playing memory the other night and Alina was getting a lot of matches. Each time she got a match she would say, "I am smart at this game...Chinese people are smart" (Not sure where she heard that...we definitely don't throw around stereotypes...luckily this one is pretty benign:)

I love the way that 4-year-olds misunderstand names for things and end up creating novel names for them. For years Meagan referred to Parmesan cheese as "Papa John's cheese". NiNi calls American cheese "miracle cheese." (we really like cheese) NiNi also remembered that we sometimes get big boxes of treats at Sam's club, in particular we recently got some ice cream sandwiches. When I told her they were all gone she asked if we could go to "Santa Club" to get some more. I guess going there is a little like Christmas, except nothing is free and it doesn't get delivered down your chimney. Now that would be nice. During a pretend tea party, Alina kept offering me a cup of "apple-tite." I thought she meant applesauce or apple cider, but she insisted it was a cup of apple-tite. When I asked her what apple-tite was she said, "You know, if you eat too many snacks you'll lose your apple-tite."

B-day girl and misc.

Alot has happened since Christmas...For starters, NiNi turned 4. We took a handful of kids to see "Tooth Fairy" at the Cinema Grill. Everyone loved the movie except the birthday girl who kept saying, "This is a loooooong movie." She also got a big-girl hair cut...said she wanted her hair like her cousin Mallory's. On another note, I am quitting my job at the nursing home. My last day is Feb 12th. One of my goals for 2010 was to be more "gutsy" so I guess this counts. I will doing First Steps as an independent provider in my own business. Translation: if I have no clients I don't get paid. It's really not as risky as it sounds since there is a huge shortage of SLP's in this area. I've been getting several emails a week since I opened up my availability. Plus, it will afford me alot more flexibility once we bring home our son. Speaking of our adoption, we had our first homestudy visit last week and they are offering to "rush" it since we went though this agency with the last adoption. We are most of the way finished compiling documents for our dossier...just waiting on our health physical appointments to roll around by middle of March. If all goes as planned we will have our dossier to China by late spring/early summer!

The girls have been saying some cute things lately. It's been so long that I've probably forgotten alot, but here are some funny quotes:

Meagan was talking about so-and-so being the most popular kid in school. Trying to make a point about the value of character I said, "You know, it's not always a good thing to be popular. Do you know who was one of the most un-popular people in history?" Meagan said, "You, mom?" "No," I said, "JESUS". Meagan said, "Oh, Jesus AND you?"

I had shut myself in the bathroom to temporarily escape the chaos of whining, screaming kids. NiNi popped her head in the door to make some kind of demand. I rudely cut her off and said, "NiNi, I need a moment." She said, "Ok, mom, but when you're done with your moment, can you come out?"

NiNi was playing with a stuffed animal and I heard her saying, "Rapido, rapido...puppy says rapido" Beginning to feel a little less guilty about the hours she spends watching PBS I said, "Oh, is your puppy speaking Spanish? What does rapido mean?" She said, "It means welcome to the dentist!"

I was reading a book to NiNi and she suddenly had to go to the bathroom. Not wanting to miss anything she asked, "Mom, can you pause that?"

This was a conversation my mom had with NiNi about time-outs:
NiNi: "Grandma, why are you sitting in the time-out chair?" (a big brown chair in the family room)
Grandma: "Oh, I didn't know this was the time-out chair. What do you do in time-out? Do you get to read a book or something?"
NiNi: "We don't do anything...you just have to sit there one more minute"
Grandma: "Is that it?"
NiNi: "No, and then you have to say sorry...I hate that part."

We got an idea from some friends of ours to have a "sabbath" each week....a day to "unplug" from the world and just be together as a family. I was trying to explain to Meagan the concept of a Biblical sabbath and how all the people rested and worshipped God and spent time together on that day. I said, Meagan, just think... if mommy and daddy weren't at work and you guys weren't at school and we didn't do any projects around the house, what would we have more time for?" She replied, "More time to watch TV!"

Now that NiNi is 4, she talks about all the things she can do (i.e. 4-year-olds don't wear pull-ups, 4-year-olds can take swimming lessons, etc.) She is also looking forward to other major milestones. According to NiNi...
When I am 9 I can snap
When I am 8 I can pour the shampoo
When I am 36 I can drive
When I am 19 I can have a boyfriend
(and she's absolutely right on that last one!)

Merry Christmas

Another Christmas come and gone...and I am thoroughly enjoying the week off to recover from the holiday hubbub. I have surprisingly few photos of our Christmas due to the fact that my camera was on the fritz...well, I should say I THOUGHT it was on the fritz. Really, I had accidentally got it onto some crazy setting. The man at the camera repair shop said if I have any further "trouble" with it, I should read the manual.

NiNi is on another round of antibiotics for a sinus infection. I think this time it was due to the surgery...having packing and (sorry) old dried blood up her nose for so long. In spite of the infection, everything is healing up quite nicely and the right side of her nose has a much rounder shape to it now.

Meagan got a sewing machine for Christmas and has already made a pair of pajama pants with it. I think she really has a knack with it. It was fun for me too as I sewed quite a bit in high school....even tried to design and make my own prom dress. It never actually turned into a final wearable product but I remember having a lot of fun with it. Meagan comes from a long line of seamstresses. My mom made many of my sister and I's clothes (of course many people did then out of necessity) and my grandmother was an excellent seamstress. We still have some very exquisitely crafted doll clothes that she made. She also made baby blankets for my "future children" as she passed away before we married. I used to keep them pristinely boxed up in the closet. Then I decided that she would probably want them to get a little more use. Now they have been lovingly "broken in" with pee and slobber...and I think she would like it that way.

NiNi's favorite present is a cheap plastic toy that Meagan gave her from the prize counter at Chuck-E-Cheese. She is really into Barbies so I tried getting her a few ethnically diverse dolls. Did you know that they don't make Asian looking Barbies? African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian. That's it. Chris says it's because all the Barbies are made in China and Chinese people like round eyes. I think that's sad.

Speaking of China, we are officially on the paperchase for another Reuter! We are using a new agency this time...CCAI. The agency we used with Alina has since closed its doors. We are trying for a boy this time. The lady we spoke to said we could get matched relatively quickly since most people want girls from China. When it comes to China, I try to take any timeline estimations with a grain of salt, knowing that they can change the rules at any moment. Anyway, the girls are becoming more excited about the idea of a little brother. Initially, when I asked Meagan how she felt about having another sibling she said, "Mom, isn't two (children) enough?" I asked NiNi if she wanted a little brother and she simply said, "No." The baby climate has since changed a little, especially since Meagan realized that she may get her own room out of the deal, and NiNi will have someone else to boss around.

She also said a couple of funny things this week. I kept hearing the sound of toys being dumped out in the other room so I yelled,
"NiNi, what are you doing?"
NiNi: "I can't tell you, it's a surprise"
Me: "Is it a sup rise that I will like?"
NiNi: "I don't know...do you like making a mess surprises?"

She got a package of Barbie clothes for Christmas and couldn't get it open. She came running into the room, gave me the box and said, "Here mom, you open this and I'll go find me a Barbie that is naked"

Nip and Tuck

On Thursday, Alina had surgery on her nose. It was a secondary repair of her cleft lip. The cartilage on the cleft side of her nose was collapsed. They went in and tried to pull up and reshape it in an effort to make the nose appear more symmetrical and to open up her airway a little more on that side. I can't tell how successful it was since everything is still covered with packing and bandages. I had a fleeting thought of posting a picture, but quickly reconsidered. Last night she looked at herself in the mirror and said, "Mommy, I can't go to school like this." My daughter is beautiful inside and out, but her poor little nose is not a pretty sight at the moment. Neither is her disposition. She is ticked off that her nose hurts and she has to breath through her mouth all the time...and we are all suffering as a result. Cause if NiNi ain't happy, then nobody's happy. We pretty much have been giving her whatever she wants for the past 48 hours...chocolate pudding for breakfast, movies non-stop, etc. In fact, she has been firmly planted in front of Nick Jr. since 6:00 this morning. I'm sure we'll have to do some major behavior deprogramming once all of this is over.

In other news, I started a new job. I am still working at the nursing home, but am also now doing First Steps (in home therapy for kids 0-3). It is a new adventure since I am out of my element a little bit. Also, as with any government run program, the paperwork is a major headache...and I have to buy my own materials. I haven't acutally MADE any money yet with all the cash I've been shelling out for cool toys. All things considered, it's a pretty sweet gig to play with toys for an hour and get paid for it.

Here are a few funnies from the girls..

Alina: "Ms. Brenda says if we don't be good she's gonna nix the Christmas party...that means she's gonna hansel it" (she had no idea what "nix" or "hansel" means, only that it sounded very ominous)

Chris and I were in the bedroom with the door closed trying to have a romantic moment when we heard a knock on the door.
Meagan: "Mom, I really want to come in there. It's like you're having a party and I'm not invited."

Alina has become obsessed with obeying stoplights. Here was our conversation the other day:
NiNi: "Mommy, why did you go on the red?"
Me: "It was almost yellow."
NiNi: "That's crazy. You have to obey 'cause if you go on the red you will get stuck in the polar bear tunnel"
(Hmmmm...could 'polar bear tunnel' be a euphemism for jail?)

NiNi: "If I play in the play in the playroom, will I get a piece of candy?" (I sometimes bribe my children to either clean the playroom or play quietly in there...now it's coming back to bite me)

Meagan has a severe phobia of shots. In order to avoid serious drama, I usually delay the bad news until right before we head into the doctor's office. The other day I needed to take her to CVS to get a flu shot
Me: "Come on Meagan, we're going to CVS"
Meagan: "Why?"
Me: "We just need to run an errand"
Meagan: "What kind of errand?"
Me: "Just get in the car"
Meagan: "But what for?"
Finally, NiNi could tolerate the nonsense no longer and shouted, "YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOUR FLU SHOT"

NiNi is continually trying to come up with effective yet original ways to insult us when we fall out of favor with her. First it was, "You are mean" or "You are not my friend." Then it evolved to "You're not coming to my birthday party." (To which I would secretly wonder who would actually PLAN the party if I did not attend) Her latest dig is "You are not getting any Christmas presents"

Nashville get-away

Chris and I took a 4 day trip (sans kiddos) to Nashville, TN to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Hard to believe that we have been married 10 years...and that we have been friends for almost 20! It was a superbly relaxing vacation...cabin in the Smokies, hot tub, fireplace, tacky tourist shops, and lots of deep-fried food. Met all of my love languages. I say all because according to Chris, I don't have just one love language...I actually have an entire matrix of love languages. Poor guy.

Halloween

The expression on Meagan's face is called "I hate my life because I have an annoying little sister"

Squishy eyeballs

Meagan blew her entire allowance on a bag of 20 squishy eyeballs. Because I was in a hurry, I decided to forego the "why don't you SAVE your money and buy something you really like" lecture. Besides, these eyeball are what she really likes and I have to admit they've been worth at least $3.99 in entertainment value






We took our annual trip to Brown County over the weekend....winter coats and all. It warmed up decently enough in the afternoon to torture the kids the taking family pictures in the park.