More fun with kids

Went today and had fun visiting the two kids. The doctor at the smallest girl's house said she will probably return tomorrow. Friday is the day that WE ACTUALLY GET A SAY in these kiddos' lives, so if we don't see her pretty soon, we're going to have something to say about it!

Our boy was okay with being left with me, but he didn't want me to hold him. He was more than happy for Daddy to chase him, and pick him up and wrestle him around. Lots of giggles. Then we brought out this little set of power rangers. He kept staring at their faces, for some reason, so I looked at the faces. They have unusual faces, I'll give him that.

"I'm so glad you came back to wrestle with me, Dad!"

Charming!

"Rrrr!  My guys will beat up your guys!"

Their expressions are hard to read.

When he got bored with that, he didn't want to sit with us, and wanted to go through every door. David made him sit, and boy, did he yell! That brought all the ladies running, and since he was not going to put up with us telling him what to do, and kept making lots of noise, we decided that was a good time to say bye-bye. Wonder how he'll be on the long flight home?

After that we went to see our girl, and she pointed to me and said, "Mama!"  Maybe she was just repeating what everybody else was saying, but hey-- that's good enough for me!

My newest strategy is to keep my distance from her in order to avoid getting my hair pulled, since I don't like the pattern we've been setting.  We'll deal with that hair-pulling when she's our kid, and WE GET SOME SAY in her life.  Can you tell it's starting to get to us that we have to let other people tell us what to do?  It's not like we're control freaks or anything, right?

So, she stayed with Daddy for the whole visit, and I talked to her from a distance.  At one point, she started to get wound up like she does, and reached for his shirt and grabbed hold of it, and got right in his face, and then she froze.  His eyebrows were up, and he was staring at her.  Her eyebrows were up, too, but after a moment, her eyebrows came down, she dropped her gaze, and let go of his shirt.  Funny to watch her moment of decision.

We brought out the power rangers for her, also, and she also studied them intently and stared into their faces.  I don't know what it is about their faces!  First she didn't want to play with them, and would grab them in a bundle and throw them back at David, but he started putting their arms up, and handing them back to her one at a time.  She felt the need to put their arms down, and then she tucked them under her leg.  As he gave her the last one, he reached around, took one out from under her leg, put its arms up, passed it to her, grabbed another one.  It was so funny to see her face when she realized that there were way too many coming her way, and--"wait a minute!  He's grabbing them out from under my leg!  That's why there's so many of them!"  It sounded like she said, "Hey!" and then she giggled.  It was fun to watch her go from grabbing them awkwardly to carefully handling each one, and gently putting each arm down, using her thumb and forefinger, and turning her wrist, rather than just swinging her whole arm.  That game lasted for quite a while (good attention span) and then Daddy gave her a ride on his shoulders.  She seemed a lot more comfortable this time, and although she didn't really hold onto his head, she delicately held a bit of hair in each hand, and rubbed it between her fingers, obviously feeling its texture.  Then, he started to spin her, so she had to hold on!

After that, we brought out some markers, and the coloring book.  She was very intrigued by the markers, and started off trying to grab them all from me, but after we got her to settle down, she was very interested to learn how to take the cap on and off, and I held her hands to show her how, and how to use them to color.  (Yes, I was able to get close, as she was very absorbed in that project and had forgotten about pulling my hair.)  She spent quite a bit of time perfecting that.  Okay, she's not perfect, but I'm not kidding when I say that it appeared she had no idea how to handle them, and now she can manipulate them well enough to put the lids on, and understands how to ask for help from another person to get the lid off.  She'll hold the marker, and then want someone else to pull on the lid.  She thinks she's not strong enough, but she'll figure it out soon, I think.  It's so amazing to watch the wheels turning!

"I'm so happy to see you guys again!"

It's like calling me Mama;  I think, but I'm not sure, that she posed for this picture for me.



"These faces are just creepy, man!"

Ridin' high!

Gotta love the spinnin'!