Recovering Noah

So many of you have asked what Noah does when he goes to Austin every other week to work with Soma and Erica at HALO. Well, last Friday CNN did a report on HALO and I'm linking to their video here. It's really fascinating stuff. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/28/Tito.autism/index.html#cnnSTCVideo Leslie

to bring you an important announcement about lice, sleeplessness, and general malaise. We hope to resume normal programming as soon as possible. ************************* Yeah, the lice is still there. Some people warned me that the Rid treatment might not be enough to get rid of it. They should rename that stuff "Might Get Rid Off" treatment... 'cause that whole plain Rid thing is so not 100% effective. So far, just Nandi seems to be having an issue with it. The treatment worked great on Eli - and, fortunately, Noah, Sim, and I have all seem to have been spared. Although it didn't stop Sim from buzzing his hair off the other day and pouring half a bottle of listerine all over it. Hee hee. Yeah, apparantely he learned of that trick - as a "natural de-licer" on the internet. Just to let all you men folk out there know... don't go buzzing your hair and nicking your scalp and then pour listerine all over it. Nicked scalp + Listerine = Massive Pain (and Symp...

Nandini has lice. There, I said it. It's out there. There's no going back. Nandini has lice. You know... lice. Nits. Cooties. My little girl has cooties. Ugh! This is so mortifying. How did she get them? How is it that she survived three years living in an orphanage with a hundred other kids without so much as a bug looking at her... but then we adopt her, bring her to Texas, and she gets lice?? How is that? Where did they come from? We homeschool. It's not like she's gallivanting all over the hallways of our nearest public school. We haven't even been anywhere this week. Well... except for one place... the place where all disease runs rampant... Walmart. I'm going to blame it on Walmart. We've been 3 times this week. Maybe this is God's way of reminding me that I need to stick to our budget. Do you think He'd use lice as a way of reeling in my Walmart expeditions? Because if so, it's working. I don't ever want to step foot in there again. Gu...

I love my kids. I really do. They are so hilarious. I honestly can't remember a time in my life when I laughed so much. They are just the funniest, quirkiest bunch of kids I've ever met. Now, don't get me wrong. If I'm completely and utterly honest, there have been a few days where the fighting and whining got to me so much that I just wanted to get in the car and drive away - without the kids. Of course, I never did - because I understand the repercussions if I did something like that... but, boy, the thought was there. And if the truth be told, at least once or twice a week for the past few years - when we're eating supper - I say to Sim, " Oh, honey, this food doesn't agree with me. I'm not feeling too great ".... and then I dash off to the bathroom, lock the door, sit down on the bathroom floor and read a book or flip through a magazine. And then about 15 or 20 minutes later, I emerge feeling " a lot better " and join the family. ...

Yesterday, I blogged about the eye-opening movie Born into Brothels - and how there's an educational curriculum online that discusses a lot of the issues brought up in the movie... and how important it is for us learn about these issues and what's going on in the world outside the 4 walls we live in. For me, personally, I get jaded - a lot. I'm not too crazy about the younger generation that is going to someday lead our world. To me, it's just a bunch of selfish, video-game playing kids who sit in front of TV's all day playing the latest PS3 or Xbox or Wii or whatever. Although, I'm a selfish 30 something who sits in front of the computer all day... so who am I to complain, right? And, honestly, I'm sure my parent's generation viewed my generation in the same way... and I think we turned out okay. It probably just has to do with me getting older and I forget that I used to be one of those punk, goth kids that I now eye warily. Oh, how we forget. And,...

Has anyone seen the movie Born into Brothels ? It is hands down one of the best movies/documentaries that I have ever seen. In fact, it even won an Oscar for Best Documentary. It is THAT good. I watched it in last January when I was laid up in bed with the most awful cold of my life. It probably didn't help that I was an utter mess to begin with, but then I watched this movie and, I mean, the floodgates opened and I'm surprised that it didn't cause a natural disaster. In fact, I really do think that the water level at Cedar Creek Lake rose solely based on all those tears I shed. Wow. I guess my description isn't going to make any of you run out and get the movie, is it? I mean, who wants a movie that's going to be a tearjerker, right? But do it. Get the movie. It will change your life. It's inspiring and uplifting and heartbreaking all at the same time. It's the movie that made us go ahead and take the mad leap of faith to adopt Nandini . Sounds strange, bu...

and left about 3 dozen broken plastic Easter eggs all over our house. Easter Bunny... I'm not sure you're welcome in our house next year. Seriously, though, we don't buy eggs each year. We reuse them and whittle them down each year. Which goes to show you that at one point in my childrens' lives I went absolutely berserk and bought a billion gazillion Easter eggs in order to make their day oh so special. That was back when I naive and didn't realize how annoying it is to find plastic bits under the bed and under the couch and stuffed here, there, and everywhere. Grrrrr... does anyone else hate those plastic eggs as much as I do? I think after yesterday's affair, we have about 6 whole ones left... and so after next year...... maybe none... and then... FREEDOM! You see, my kids could play with those things all year long. Plastic Easter eggs rank up there on my All-Time-Hate-List right along with playdoh and markers (because they always end up on the kid and not th...

See that "Sitemeter" icon to the left? I signed up for it (it's free!) a few weeks ago and it gives me all sorts of statistics on how many people read this blog and how they found it. (Thanks to the 5 people out there who think I have something to say. I appreciate it!)It's a pretty cool site - it doesn't tell me who you are or give your email or anything, but it lets me know how many people pull up this blog a day. And it also tells me if someone found this site by googling certain things. For example, someone found my site by googling "I ruined Amy's childhood". What??? No clue how that came about. And then someone found my site by googling, "What happens when you don't clean your bathroom for three weeks". Yeah... that one I can kind of understand. And don't you know, I cleaned my bathroom immediately after discovering that was what was leading some people to my blog. I'm happy to say it's now spic-and-span. You could eat...

Yo! Wassup?? This is Lil' T-Rex and DJ Nan.D.NeE. Grand Funkmaster Noah Funky Monkey is directing this piece of classic His-Stor-EE for ya'll. See. You've been fooled. Those kids today... they don't know what real music is all about. Rap this. Rap that. We're talking Old Skool here. US3 sampling some Herbie Hancock. Yeah. That's where it's at. Don't know what we're talking about? We're about to break it down for ya. Here we go! Ladies and Gentlemen, as you know we have something special for you at Birdland this evening. A recording for Blue Note Records What's that? yeah yeah yeah funky funky, how bout a big hand now? wait, wait a minute Groovy groovy jazzy funky pounce bounce dance as we Dip in the melodic sea, the rhythm keeps flowin, it drips to MC Sweet sugar pop sugar pop rocks it pops ya dont stop Till the sweet beat drops I show and prove as a stick in move Hear the poems recited on top of the groove Smooth, mind, floating like a butt...

Finally! Here are the pictures of Nandi's new leg brace.... First the old brace..... Now, the new and stylish leg brace.... You can't tell, but there are actually butterflies all over the brace. Very cool! And, surprisingly , she loves it! She doesn't get to wear it much, though, because the bottom is very slick and we don't have shoes yet that fit it. I'm holding out until Stride Rite's upcoming sale. But we are headed to Austin today for Noah's session as HALO, so I'm going to stop off at the Target in Roundrock and see if it'll fit into a fake croc - just to tide her over. Hope everyone has a good day. Sorry for the boring blogging - we've been pretty busy the past few days. Leslie

I know I'm supposed to post pictures of Nandi's new leg brace, but we just got a new camera and I haven't installed the software yet for my computer. I'll try to get to that today. In the meantime, if you want a feel-good morning, head on over to Amy's blog and look at the pictures of her new little boy. He is so adorable!! Leslie

I have officially turned into a softie. Sure, I've always been a little on the sentimental side. Play an old Chicago or Journey song and I start swaying back and forth in the car. Hallmark commercials.... destined to bring tears. Elderly couples holding hands... yeah, I start to dab the eyes a bit. But for the most part... I've always been pretty cool (or so I think). That is until we adopted Nandini. And now I'm the mom of a little girl.... and there's no turning back. I will say right now that my pet peeve has always been those sentimental, gushy, tug-on-the-heartstring-on-purpose songs about dads and little girls. Puh-leeze! Butterfly Kisses ? That's for pansies. And that stupid song about the kid who wants to buy his mom a pair of red shoes for Christmas because she's gonna die that very night .... it's for wusses. I mean, seriously, do you really think that kid didn't have money to buy his mom a present? You know darn well he went around to the cor...

Not much of a post this morning. It's 6:30 and we have to be out of the house in 45 minutes. The kids are still asleep and I'm still in my sweats. What am I doing blogging????? I need to get ready! We get Nandini's leg brace today. Thankfully, she only needs one. It's got butterflies and purple straps. I'll take a picture of it when we get home. The only downside is that she WILL need to get two different sized shoes. One XW and one regular width. I know Stride Rite does the XW shoes because Eli needs them and they do have a Buy One get One 1/2 Half sale 2x a year... I think the next one is due any week now. I may call and start bugging them... "Hey, save all the cute clearanced shoes for me, please!" So after that, we're off to Noah and Nandi's cranial sacral appointment and then off to Whole Foods to blow... uhm... I mean spend.... our weekly grocery allowance. I have made myself a list this time and I plan on sticking to it. Rice milk, rice s...

I think I'd better give a bit of fair warning on this post. If the words "boobs" and "breasts" cause your face to turn bright red, then you may want to skip over this post and check back tomorrow. But, if you have kids, then you've probably already been where I am... so read along. Here's the deal... Eli has become obsessed with breastfeeding. He saw some people doing it in the church nursery, so now he's really into it. No, not literally. My four and a half year old is safely on the cup, but it's just something that really started interesting him. I guess maybe it's because he was never breastfed. Do you think kids internally/ subconsciously mourn that - especially maybe children who were adopted? I don't know... but what I do know is that now I've had to go through every single animal in the book and discuss how they do or don't get milk from their mommas. "Mommy, do cows breastfeed? Do kangaroos? Do alligators? What abo...

First of all, I really want to thank everyone who left such great comments over the last few days. I am absolutely horrendous at responding to comments.. not because I don't like them (I love them!) but because I am one lazy cow. But I really appreciate all the comments that have been left and all the people who came out of lurkdom to leave them (Hi, Lee!). Christine, your comment about my neighbor was hilarious. I wish I'd thought of that. Paddy, I am so sorry you have to endure the ignorance of so many people. It makes me embarrassed. I really do think every student should be required to make at least one trip to another country before they are allowed to graduate from high school. It should be a requirement. To all my church friends and CMS buddies, thank you for your wisdom. Yeah, I know I could be a great witness to my neighbor, but in all honestly, I really want to flip him the bird most of the time. How Christian is that?? The more I think of him, the angrier I...

Can you believe it's been 4 months already??? It seems like yesterday that Mom and I walked into BSSK (the orphanage) and saw Nandini for the first time. Oh, how she hated me! Those first few weeks were so hard... she grieved so much. But it shows how much she was loved at BSSK and how much they loved her in return. Four months have made such a difference. We have finally begun to understand each other. Her little personality (or should I say BIG personality) shines through more and more each day. She is joyful and playful and full of life. She's full of giggles and tickles and and hugs and kisses. It WAS hard... it was so hard... but I am SO thankful that we put this in God's hands and listened to Him. I know with all my heart and soul that He led us to Nandini. There is no doubt in my mind. So here are some pictures from that first day that we met Nandini. It took her several weeks before she would fully smile and start to trust us...... but now... well, now.... let th...

Did you know that my kids are "brown"? Gasp!!! Quelle horror!! Yep, and apparently it's causing some speculation on our block. I've noticed that one of our neighbors hasn't been very friendly to us since we brought Nandini home. He no longer acknowledges our waves as he drives past or smiles at us if we happen to be outside at the same time. We noticed it, but didn't get too upset over it. We just figured that maybe he was going through something funky in his own life. But the other day we happened to be at our mailboxes at the same time. I was holding Nandini and it was impossible for us to avoid each other. So I walked over and said hi and introduced Nandini (because he hadn't met her yet). He eyed me with suspicion and do you know what he said? "Are you Muslim or something?" What??? Where on earth did that come from? I was in total shock. Not because I was offended - I have friends who are Muslim - but because I was completely caught off...

I have no idea what's going on with Noah..but something is. And I'm really getting excited about it. You know that tingling feeling of anticipation that you sometimes get? I don't know.. maybe it's the same feeling that little kids get the night before Christmas. I can't really explain it. But I feel very excited - like something is about to happen but I don't know what. I can't put my finger on it, but I just know that something is going on with Noah. Last night, he threw a big fit at church. Now, most people wouldn't be doing high-5's with their husband over that, but I couldn't wait to get home and tell Simeon all about it. Because Noah doesn't throw fits. He doesn't. He's always good as gold - which is really abnormal for a 6 year old. Throwing fits is normal. And Noah threw one. He threw a big one. So. He was in his Pioneer Club class and I was sitting on the floor with him while the other kids were around the table. No big de...

So many of you made comments (mostly in person) about Eli's tantrum photos that I posted the other day that I thought I'd make you feel better about your own children by posting even more. Because really, there's nothing better than seeing another child act up to make you realize that your own little dumpling isn't so bad after all. Mind you, we have a lot of pictures of our precious Elias in various stages of tantruming, but we didn't get this particular camera until he was about 15 months old, so they're all of that age or later. And although we don't have a picture of it, probably one of the most telling indications that we would have a tantrumer on our hand would be the words of one of the caregivers in the orphanage when Eli was only 9 months old: "You have to make sure his bottle is exactly at 8 ounces. If it is under 8 ounces or over 8 ounces he will scream and cry. It has to be exactly 8 ounces or he will throw it down and not take it." Oh...

Yesterday was Day 10 of the Green Smoothie Challenge.. and on Day 10 something miraculous happened. I ate a salad for supper. A salad! Me! Eating a salad! And actually choosing it for my dinner! Wowzers . I have such a bad habit of making my kids eat things that I would never eat. Like cucumbers and tomatoes. Or carrot sticks. Or fresh fruit. And then I'd feel smug knowing that I was a good mom because my kids (with the exception of Noah) were eating fruits and veggies... and then I'd scamper off to the pantry and sneak in bites of corn chips. Oh, the shame!! Even when I was vegan, I subsisted off of spaghetti and chips and salsa. Not exactly the poster child for healthy eating. But, yesterday, on Day 10, for some unknown reason, I actually craved a salad for supper. That's all I wanted. Just some mixed greens, some spinach, a chopped cucumber (!), some raw sunflower seeds, cracked pepper, sea salt, and Braggs Vinaigrette. That's it. And you know what... it was the ...