Happy New Years!

Quiet night at Ed's house.....lasagna, cookies, sparkling cider, and wine, and no doubt we'll all be in bed by 10.

Rahsjay has been relaxed and pleasant all day, Aaron obsessed by his new ambulance, and Luke happily playing his new games on his Leapster. It's going to be hard to sit in the car all day tomorrow.

Traveling to NJ and NY

Traveling with three kids hasn’t been hell – the 3 DVD players definitely help, especially since the trip to Rich’s sis Linda’s house in NJ took 15 hours. The first day we were there Raha forgot his morning medication and threw a small tantrum when I caught him in a lie, but fortunately he followed most of the agreement we’d made following the last big blow out. Maybe he’s starting to have an awareness of the impression these tantrums leave on other people?

We made a trip into NYC yesterday to go to the Natural History Museum and Rockefeller Center. It was by far the most crowded that Rich remembers so all of the kids were pretty overwhelmed. We saw Rich’s childhood friend Don & we both love just walking around the city, but I was sorry that we didn’t walk through Central Park on such a pretty day and that the museum was crowded enough that it wasn’t much fun.

On the way to Rich’s brother Ed’s house in Moorestown, NJ, today we went to the Freedom Science Center in Jersey City. It was amazing – even with the crowds. There were great interactive exhibits that all of the kids enjoyed even though we have such a wide age range. The favorite was an exhibit on skyscrapers that included a demonstration on hurricane force wind & water that Raha had me sit through (fortunately wearing waterproof gear) and Luke had a ball building demo building in scale sizes and with computer models. The highlight for Aaron was a rice filled sandbox in the kid area and he played in it for over an hour.

Luke's present

Rich gave Luke a globe for Christmas. Luke opened it and said, "Look, it's what you've always wanted to get me!"

Happy painting

Aaron had a fine time with paint!

Christmas morning, 7 a.m.

I told the kids that they couldn't wake us up before 7. Luke apparently stood in our doorway and watched the clock because he woke me up at exactly 7:00. Rich is sleeping in a bit longer.....he played the midnight service at church (then watched a movie - yikes).

Luke said, "Look Mom! Santa ate his cookies!" Then a couple minutes later, "Why didn't Santa put his plate away and put his milk in the refrigerator?"

Mixed meaning? and opening presents

Sitting at breakfast Aaron just told me, "Apple Juice! I eat it! I bite it!"

Here are my mom's notes from opening presents on Sunday:

Luke and Papa: “I’m going to open this present.” “How do you know its yours?” “It has my name on it!” “Does Aaron have a present?” “Yes.” “How does Aaron spell his name?” “He can’t spell yet.”

Aaron opening presents: “Open it! Help me! I did it! Mine guck (truck). Beep beep beep. Hey-a guys, mine guck. A-guck-a-again (make the truck go again!).”

Aaron going around the room placing a box on each person’s head: “A momma’s hat…a papa’s hat…a mommy’s hat….a-gain (again) a-gain. Oh Oh again.”

Luke's goose egg

During Sunday school Katie brought me a very teary little boy. Luke tripped in the gym while they were playing dodge ball and hit his forehead. The goose egg was terrifying - I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but it seemed like it covered the left half of his forehead. He didn't like the ice, but the swelling did eventually go down and he hasn't complained about a headache until the evening. The bruise is pretty impressive, though.

Binkie Fairy

Emily & Austin, Aaron's speech therapists, sat us down at the dining room table and told us to get rid of the binkies -- now. We set a date (yesterday) and made a plan....Aaron and I walked around the house and put all of his binkies in a gift bag, and we talked about the "New Baby" who needs his binkies since he's a big boy. No, there isn't a new Levinson on the way - it was all just a 2 year old friendly story. Then we went outside and hung the bag on a tree and we all made a big fuss over telling the binkies goodbye and how much we'll miss them. After an hour my dad took him back outside to discover the special toy the Binkie Fairy left for him when she took his binkies. He was thoroughly unimpressed. He just kept looking around and under his bag for his binkies.

Last night was actually better than I thought it might be. We had about 10 minutes of serious crying and plaintive calls for "Mah binkie!!!" It took about 45 minutes for him to go to sleep and we had one extended waking at night. At naptime today he woke up and couldn't get back to sleep even though he was desperate for more sleep. I'm hoping that by Friday when we leave for New York the binkies will just be a memory.

Tantrums

Terrible tantrum from R tonight - exhausted and upset. This is so hard right now.

Holiday cooking, gymnastics kid

Mom, Luke, and I spent this afternoon baking quick breads......cherry & cardamom, lime/coconut/white chocolate, and cranberry/dark chocolate/pecan. Luke is rapidly becoming a proficient baker. He's also figured out that some fun tasks aren't worth the bother, telling us, "I don't want to crack the eggs because I don't want to wash my hands.

Luke has a ball goofing off at All About Kids rather than just taking his serious gymnastics lessons. Meghan takes the boys most Fridays. Maybe it helps that he only weighs 34 pounds?

A miracle!

Luke is sleeping in his OWN BED, two nights in a row! I told him at the begining of the week that it was time to stop sleeping on the floor of the multi-purpose room downstairs. He was sleeping on an exercise matt with a couple of quilts, and it was getting filthy because it was on the floor and Charlie liked to sleep with him. We talked about it a couple of times, and he told Meghan that he was ready to move back to his own bed. Last night he took the plunge, and actually made it through the night! Such a happy surprise, and he voluntarily went to sleep there again tonight.

Aaron's new thing to say is "ME DAT" for "Give me that!" I kind of like it. He also started his therapeutic play group on Wednesday and it sounds like it was a huge success - led by the developmental interventionist who he's had one-on-one sessions with prior to this time.

Raha is working his way gradually back to the nice list. We had a productive talk about negative, repetitive thoughts he's having after bad dreams, and his teacher sent an very insightful email about possible reasons for his social isolation at school. I'll attach or summarize it when I'm not falling asleep sitting upright!

Tough week

Raha is having a terrible week and dragging me along with him. I'm exhausted. He's having bad dreams about his biological dad and lots of memories around the holiday season. His foster worker says her entire caseload has Christmas-itis right now, so we're not alone, but I'm frustrated with the blow-ups and defiance. I can't figure out how much of it is genuine emotional baggage and how much is testing and manipulation.

Luke is doing his own 5 year old testing and Aaron is being a toddler.

Luke did crack us up on Sunday in children's church. Larry asked, "What is peace?" and Luke answered, "We eat them."