I wanted to add a quick post on Reindeer Dust, since I forgot to mention it in my last post.  On Christmas Eve Eve, December 23^rd, we had a gathering at our home for our “Air Force Family”.  Being in the military and living the transient, nomadic lifestyle that we do, we tend to form closer, quicker bonds with the people we’re assigned with.  Not everyone can go home to be with family at Christmas, but that’s not an excuse not to celebrate.  So, on December 23^rd, we had 18 of our nearest and dearest over for dinner.  Naturally, I did not cook for everyone.  Yes, I have an amazing kitchen and mad, mad cooking skills, but I did not cook for 21 people.  It was sort of a potluck…with a lot of alcohol.  But anyway, as us ladies were going back and forth on which family would bring what, my dear friend Becky said that she would bring “stuff to make Reindeer Dust”.  My thought was “what the heck is that”, but I let it go.  A few weeks earlier, we had gathered at Becky’s house to have “Junkyard Cake”, which was what I’d always known as “Dump Cake”.  Yeah, Junkyard does sound more appetizing…weird as that is.  So, I thought Reindeer Dust was just her different name for something.  I did not put a lot of thought in to it, but I remember imagining this as Muddy Buddies or Puppy Chow.  We all have our different traditions growing up, and this was just not one of them for us – but it is now.  You make up a baggie of dry oatmeal and different colors of glitter.  You sprinkle it on the lawn or in your driveway so that Santa can see where to land his sleigh…since the glitter is…well, glittery.  I guess the Reindeer eat the oats as a treat for finding the house.  Apartment dwellers…sorry…not sure what your alternative is.  I’m sure there is one.  We left out the traditional milk and cookies (although interestingly enough, around here, Santa is rumoured to get fruitcake and whisky) and we did the reindeer dust.  With Laura, I sometimes left a “thanks for the cookies, your mom rocks” kind of note or made a bootprint, but I didn’t with Zack…he would not have understood that this year.  So…I thought that was a really cool thing to do and wanted to share our new Christmas tradition. 

Zack after putting Reindeer Dust on our front step.  We put some in the back garden just in case. 

The grownups...after dinner and before the Reindeer Dust making.  Becky and I are wearing the purple crowns. 

 

4 Months

It is December 27^th.  Exactly four months ago, we met a scared little two year old boy in the Taiyuan Social Welfare Institute.  Today, there is a two and a half year old wild man running around our house in England who is happy, well adjusted, secure with both parents, and babbling in English.  Keep in mind no one spoke English to this child until we showed up 4 months ago.  He’s held on to a couple of Chinese words, but he’s got a good library of nouns and is starting to speak in simple sentences.  He’s a little difficult to understand for an outsider, but I think most two year olds are. 

 

Zack has gained 3-4 pounds since we’ve brought him home (this has been going up and down since he’s been sick) and has grown about an inch.  He’s outgrown some of his clothes and shoes already.  He’s survived his first visit to the barber shop, his first ear infection, and has celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with his new family.  He loves Turkey, pie and butter cookies, and he’s really digging all of the candy we have around the house.  He was pretty impressed by the spoils on Christmas morning although I don’t think he really understood the whole Santa thing.  He was willing enough to sit on Santa’s lap for some pictures, although he seemed a little bit suspicious, but the whole “better watch out” concept and Santa bringing presents are things that he’ll probably have a better grasp of next year.  He enjoyed a month of “Sam”, our elf on the shelf.  I don’t think he really understood the whole “flying back to the North Pole every night to report back to Santa” but he did have fun looking for his elf every morning.  I did a few creative things with Sam, but Zack was pretty easily amused by any spot he found Sam in every morning. 

And since this is my blog and I can say what I want…what is up with people “not doing” Santa?  When I was a little girl, all of the kids believed until a certain age when they figured it out on their own or an older sibling let the cat out of the bag.  Folks who didn’t include some sort of Santa Claus tradition in their Christmas celebration were really in the minority…now it seems about an even split with a great many parents not introducing their kids to Santa stuff at all.  So sad.  I saw a lot of people doing a lot of fun and crazy things with their elves on their shelves all over Facebook and Pintrest.  There are some really creative (and twisted) people out there.  Lots of people trying to “out-elf” their friends and neighbors, but all in fun.  But of course then we get the naysayers who slam the elfish fun by tsk-tsk-ing how terrible it is that we tell our children that the elves are watching and reporting their naughty and nice behavior to Santa.  Are we trying to give them a complex?  Make them paranoid?  Scare them with the creepy little elf watching them while they sleep (OK, I will admit, there is some truth to the creepy factor of the little guy).  I grew up being threatened with switches and coal in my stocking if I wasn’t a good girl.  What happened to taking the words “you better not pout, you better not cry because Santa Claus is coming to town” just a little bit seriously?  I turned out all right.  When did this pseudo political correctness invade Christmas…er…I mean the Winter Holidays. Ugh.  OK, I am leaping off the soapbox for now.  Honest. 

So, back to Zack.  He is great.  He and the cat have some sort of uneasy truce.  The cat isn’t crazy about Zack and appears to be majorly annoyed when Zack “pets” him but Henry tolerates quite a bit and is willing to put himself in the path of Zack much more than I ever thought.  And Zack has really come a long way toward petting the cat gently…at least he starts out gentle.  It usually escalates to tail-pulling and attempting to pick Henry up.  But, Henry has never bit or swatted at him (cat has no claws).  He’s done quite a bit of hissing, which Zack thinks is very funny. 

He is an outgoing and generally good humored child.  He’s got his stubborn “terrible two” moments, but overall, he’s exceptionally well-behaved and well-adjusted, all things considered.  We’ve got some different rules in our house than he was used to during his first two years and transitioning to that has been a little bit difficult.  The lesson that throwing toys across the room (or at your mother) for fun or in anger is not tolerated is still being learned.  He’s learned a couple of neat tricks at nursery that don’t necessarily go over well at home – throwing himself down on the floor face-first when something doesn’t go as he wishes – is one.  But really, we can’t complain.  And we don’t.  His sleep still isn’t great and I think that is just Zack.  We have a pretty tight bedtime routine and he’s pretty easy to put to sleep…but he seldom sleeps through the night.  If he gets up only once during a night, I call that a success.  He’s normally pretty easy to put back to bed once he’s up, but the hard part for us is that sometimes, the up and down dance can occur multiple times.  About once a week, he will randomly get up about every hour between say…one AM and when it’s time to get up.  That is rough.  It would be rough on younger parents who don’t have to get up at 5:30…it is really hard on us.  Good thing we are in good shape – that has helped me a lot with the sleep deprivation. 

Zack continues to do well at full-time nursery school.  He likes to play with toys that are relatively simple – wooden blocks, large Leggos, his wooden train set, stacking cups/blocks, etc.  He enjoys being read to and will occasionally quietly look at books on his own.  He likes to run and play outside and does really well on the playground equipment.  We recently took him to an indoor play place and he did really well with that.  Lee made him a video library of Disney movies, Thomas the Tank Engine, Nie How Kai Lan and Barney.  The Barney was a throwback from when Laura was little – I remember how an episode of Barney would allow me to wash the dishes, paint my nails or just read a book without being climbed on.  He’s still just as annoying and 2 year olds still love him just as much. 

We’re having moderate success with potty training.  Thomas the Tank Engine underpants seemed to have caused things to turn a corner.  He’s very concerned about having an accident on Thomas.  Hey, it works.  So do Skittles and stickers as potty rewards. 

I think he’s pretty well attached to both Lee and I.  He plays favorites throughout the day either randomly or because the other parent has done something he dislikes.  He is on the outgoing side and will sit with/climb on most people that we introduce him to.  We keep him pretty close to us/contained when we’re out and about and we have a fairly tight circle of people he interacts with.  He seems to prefer the women to the men but he does not seem afraid of men.  He’s only reacted negatively to one person we’ve introduced him to – an Asian man in his late 40’s that works with my husband.  Zack was very clear with his body language that he did not want this wonderful and friendly man anywhere near him – must have sparked some kind of negative memory.  Zack gives spontaneous hugs and kisses to both Lee and I and we feel very fortunate the bonding process seems to have gone so well for us so far. 

This post has been a little longer and more rambly than I’d intended, but as we go in to 2013 and as I look toward an overhaul of my blog – you should see it looking much more slick within the coming months – I wanted to put a little something up about this branch of our family tree.  Happy New Year to everyone.  2012 has definitely been a great year in this house and we have many, many blessings to be thankful for.