Spring Is Here!

I'm so glad to have the warm weather! These kids are ready to get out and burn off some of that energy!

Jianna has decided that she likes American food and wants to eat everything that comes across her path. Ron mentioned the other day that she is getting a spare tire around her middle. He’s right and maybe it’s time to reign the girl in a bit. Truthfully, I’m glad she is finding so many things to enjoy. My concern with adopting an older child was mostly that she just wouldn’t like it here because it would be so strange and different than her home country. She seems to genuinely enjoy all the new places we go and the things we do. She still gets excited over Chinese food – even the nasty stuff from mall food courts.
We have found her a new bed for her room but it is still on backorder. It was a frustrating experiencing trying to get her to pick a new bed because she said she like every one of them on one visit and then didn’t like any on the other. With the help of my Chinese neighbor we finally got it worked out. I am excited to get to put the new Pottery Barn quilt in her room and get it set up. We have had a queen sized bed in there and she loves playing on it but it is taking up all of her space. I want to get her a little table and chair set and there is no room for it now. She loves having little tea parties with her dolls. We are all getting tired of Nathan sneaking into her room to bounce on the bed.
It is time to redecorate Nathan’s room and do away with all the precious lambs and bunnies from his nursery decor. He has been saying for a month that he wants a purple bedroom because that is his favorite color. I’ve been at a loss to find a motif to fit that color. I wanted to go Dr Suess but he said he didn’t like that. Then I thought a solar system would work but that was also nixed. The jungle is out. I can’t talk him into an underwater theme either. This week he decided he wants an “airport” bedroom. That might be doable. The trick is finding something that he can enjoy for five years before we have to paint again.
Jianna has decided that she likes all of the dogs except for Liberty. Poor Liberty loves children and is always trying to greet her and kiss her. Jianna scolds her in Chinese and pushes her away which hurts her little doggy feelings. Then Ji-Ji chases around our old dog who wants nothing to do with her and tries to give him hugs so he growls and fusses and Liberty tries to come to the rescue. I am forever breaking up these little altercations. I end up telling Jianna to go play with the cats and get the sarcastic “Thanks Mom” look from them.
Nathan and Jianna are playing more together now and are getting into more squabbles. His latest thing is to pester her while she is in the bathtub. He brings her toys to play with and then chucks them at her like she is an arcade game. She still follows him around making sure he is not getting any treats or privileges that she might want and it annoys him to no end. She has learned a new phrase, “Nathan bother me!” It sounds like “Nathan bahboh me” when she says it but we know what she means. She got it from Nathan coming down the stairs every day to make the complaint on her on her. More and more these days I am talking to the ceiling, “Don’t make me come up there!”
I let the kids help me cook lately which means a lot of extra dishes but still it is fun. Jianna can make a mean jello salad let me tell you. We made muffins last week and they waited all day for Daddy to come home and taste them so they could see which one he like the best. I’ve been teaching Nathan to help me chop vegetables to make salads. Ron makes the funniest faces watching him handle a knife but Nathan does well. I was hoping he might like vegetables if he helped to prepare them. He was really proud of all his nicely chopped veggies but he pronounced them “too horrible”when it came time to eat them.

Spring reminds me that no matter how hard the winter is, there are brighter days to follow. Life is full of seasons.