Inspiration... maybe

Adisu has trouble thinking of things to do. Very frequently I find him just standing in the room, letting life pass him by. It is not for a lack of toys or activities but I suspect has a lot to do with developmental delays (emotional), orphanage life and orneriness combined. Daily I find myself reminding him that he is just standing there and asking him to be actively involved in life. Then he usually just chooses the same activity ad nauseum.

Not wanting to turn this into a confrontation or control issue has made it frustrating for me. But last night I came up with an idea. I found pictures of various activities he can do at home- painting, kicking a ball, playing with blocks, etc. I think I covered just about everything. I printed them up. Next step is to cut and laminate (just for durability). When I find him passively standing, I can tell him to pick a card out of the box and do the activity. Will it work? I hope so! We'll see...

birthday cake and beads

On Monday our friend Jane and her kids hung out with us while her husband attended a conference here. They have a girl (6) and two boys, (4 yrs and 8 months) and the kids play really well together.

The communal birthday cake

Eskil and Brogal took turns teething on the string of beads
before heading out the front door to see what the big siblings were up to

"you're not my mother!"

"please let me eat the mud cupcake!"

Eirena's mind

what she asked for: to listen to the song about the Grufflo Solja
what she really meant: Buffalo Soldier

But we can only imagine the mental image that she has of a Gruffalo, stolen from Africa, fighting on arrival, fighting for survival

Spider

The crazy huge spider climbed up its sticky web
Down came the rain, but that didn't make it dead
When the sun came out it dried up all the rain


And the enormously big spider climbed up its web again

Silly Dog

We spent the last three weeks in Tucson, living in a hotel room while Dr. Daddy did some lab work at the U of A. The kids and I tagged along because Tucson is cool, we got to see friends there and 3 weeks is a long time to have Dr. Daddy away. Uc tagged along too. She loves going for walks and runs along the river. But I think she was missing some of the familiarity of home.

snuggled down in my bag to sleep

when I moved my bag up off the floor, she cuddled with a bear

Now that we're back home Uc is happily curled up in her chair again.

afternoon in the park

"portraits"

Adisu does pull-ups- he did several of these

Eirena goes climbing- she reached the place where the cage slants

Eirena and Uc chased ducks- Uc fell in

Somersaults down the hill

"Its all fun and games until a bird poops on you"

dispensable

Eirena: Mommy, when are you going to die?

Me: why? do you want me to die?

Eirena: yeah, because then Daddy can get me a new mommy!

Hmm... apparently I'm rather disposable and Dr. Daddy has been telling his version of Cinderella too many times.