Quirks

I assume that most kids have some goofy quirks. If this is not the case then please just lie to me. LB has a few that are quite amusing. I noticed around the time he turned one that he was obsessed with little pieces of lint or string he would find on the floor. He would always pick them up and either hand them to me or carry them around for a while. This progressed to LB purposefully asking for tissue paper and then wadding it up into a little ball and carrying it around. About a month ago, I thought that I discovered that he had come up with a little name for his paper treasures. I asked him if he wanted one and went and got him the piece of tissue. He nodded and smiled and said the word. He calls them his "badees." I have no idea where this word came from but little pieces of lint or tissue are "badees" to LB. Even writing about it makes me crack up laughing. I actually mentioned it to LB's Occupational Therapist and she said it is possible that he is seeking touch so having the "badee" to carry around satisfies that sensory need. Or he is doing it to keep that hand safe so he doesn't have to touch something he doesn't want to. Or it means nothing and he is just goofy. I can even tempt LB to do something he doesn't want to do with the offering of a "badee." It comes in pretty handy.

My other favorite quirk of his has to do with certain books that we read. LB gets stuck on a few books and only wants those few books read to him again and again. Then after a few weeks he will usually switch to other books and occasionally come back to his favorites. Currently, he loves a book that my sister got him. It is written by Vera Williams and is called, Lucky Song. It's a great book and we have a few other books by the same author. I highly recommend them. There is even one that has a brown baby and a white grandma as characters. When I read Lucky Song to LB I always have to make sure that I have his hat and blanket close by. The character in the book, Evie, wears a hat so when that part comes LB must have his. She also has a blanket so LB must have his. If I am reading the book downstairs and those items are upstairs he will point relentlessly until you go get them. There is no escaping. He is like this with a book his Aunt Carole got for him too. It is a book about Cookie Monster and at one point he kicks a soccer ball. Well, LB must get up and go kick his soccer ball like Cookie Monster. Trust me when I say he is very insistent. I have to think it is a good thing though that he is making these connections between himself and the characters in his books. It is easiest to play along and embrace his quirks. We all have them, right?

(Thanks to my friend, Nancy, for capturing LB's goofy grin.)

Wordless Wednesday

African Music

Around the time we brought LB home my mom gave LB two CDs. One of African music designed for kids and one of familiar toddler tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb." For the most part LB seemed to enjoy the toddler tunes more and has learned a lot of the hand motions to "itsy bitsy spider" and "skinamarinky dinky dink." I can also usually distract him if he is upset by singing him those songs. However, I am happy to report that over the past couple of weeks LB has really started to enjoy the African Playground CD. Here is the LINK to the CD if you are interested. I highly recommend it! There are two songs on the CD that no matter what he is doing he will stop and dance. It's like everything else goes away and it is just LB and the music. Even if he is in another room and the volume is low he still recognizes his two favorite songs. It's one of the pros of LB's supersonic hearing. The best part about all of this is that one of his favorite songs happens to be the only Ethiopian song on the CD. He LOVES it. I had actually heard the song, Hoya Hoye, before on another blog and recognized it because we heard kids singing it once when we were in Ethiopia. There is something about the song that puts me in a good mood. We have enjoyed the CD so much that just a few weeks ago we purchased the Dreamland CD that is part of the same series. We have started playing it at night while we are trying to get LB to wind down before bed. Something about the music just allows you to exhale more deeply. It is that peaceful. There is also an African Reggae CD that is on my wish list. I should be their spokesperson.

Here is a video of Hoya Hoye that I found online. Listening to these kids sing makes me want to go back to Ethiopia so badly. Enjoy!

New Toy

I have been wanting to get LB a water table for a while now. He seems to find the water very soothing and I thought it would be a fun sensory activity for the summer. Last week I found one on sale and it was definitely worth every penny. D put it together on Saturday and LB played with it happily for an hour! At times he was very serious about his play and other times he would just splash his hands in the water with glee.

I have always been someone that thrives on positive reinforcement. I think because of that I find myself giving others positive feedback for seemingly silly things. My mom always chuckles at me when I praise her for finding a good parking space. I do this often and I have no idea why. Seeing LB play with a huge grin on his face was the ultimate positive feedback for me last week. It had overall been a rough couple of days so the joy on his face was that much sweeter. The water table will get a lot of use this summer!

First Haircut

On Saturday LB got his first haircut. D and I had been saying for a while it needed to be done but we hadn't really made any firm plans to do something about it. He has these great, tight curls and he would get a lot of compliments on his hair. I was not eager to cut those sweet curls but it is getting hot around here and I knew he would feel better with more of a summer cut. When we woke up Saturday morning it was definitely not on our list of things to do that day. That afternoon we went to a birthday party for D's boss. It was super hot and even though I used leave-in conditioner on LB's hair to keep his curls tight his hair was a mess by the end of the day. It didn't help that he had been wearing a hat for part of the day as well. Also, we had some chats about his hair with D's co-worker, who is Ethiopian. He and D have been working together for about 10 years! He was so supportive of our adoption and even told D that they are "family now" since our son is Ethiopian. Well, he felt like D and I really needed to cut LB's hair. He was pretty insistent. As we were leaving the last thing he said was, "cut his hair!" We got home and I still didn't think we were cutting his hair that day until D came walking down the stairs with scissors. I am a little embarrassed to admit this but I did shed a few tears. I knew LB would look so much more grown up with shorter hair. We opted to use scissors instead of shears because we were worried the noise of the shears would cause a meltdown. I think that was the right call because LB kept his composure for most of the ordeal except for the very end when D was trying to cut around his ears. Using scissors did mean that D missed several spots so on Sunday and then again on Monday he had to do a little touching up. The next day I was still really sad and not really loving his new look but it has grown on me. Through my tears I did manage to take a few photos of the process.

Before

Damon picked Ezra's hair out a bit to make it easier to cut.

LB was still feeling good at this point and was just very curious.

Goodbye Curls

Most of the hair was gone at this point and LB was ready to be done.

After

This was taken at the Memorial Day Parade on Monday.

What do you think? I am glad we did it and I think he is too!