Are You My Mother?

Almost every week LB and I go to Toddler Story Time at the library. He loves it. The librarian that usually leads it is a celebrity at our house. LB and I were in the kids area at the library the other day and that particular librarian started walking towards us and LB pointed and gasped. It was pretty hilarious. There was a time frame when LB was 15 months - 22 months in age and story time was often a bit of a struggle. I wondered why I brought him when all he wanted to do was play with the door handles (perhaps he wanted to escape) and grab stuff off the librarian's table. There was the time he started the music before I could catch him and then I couldn't figure out how to turn it off. That was embarrassing. But now that he is a bit older he really gets into it and will listen to the books and loves the interactive singing. He will almost always behave if he knows he will get a stamp and a sticker at the end. The librarian is popular with the kids for good reason. He does a great job of mixing up songs, books and storytelling with the felt board.

The librarian usually has a theme for each week. Last week it was cats and the week before that it was the alphabet. Several weeks ago it was the "Are You My Mother" theme. Are you familiar with the book? I used to think it was really cute. Basically, there is a little bird that can't find his mother. He goes up to all sorts of other animals like a dog and a cow, who clearly don't look like him, and asks, "Are you my mother?" Finally, the little bird finds the mama bird and all is well. For most of the story time the librarian talked about different animals and read books about animals, which is understandably a crowd favorite. However, at one point the librarian put a little baby alligator up on the felt board and told the kids that the baby alligator was looking for his mother. Then he put an elephant on the board and asked if that was his mother and then a lion and so on and so on. Finally, he put a bigger alligator on the felt board and asked the kids if the baby found his mother. To make his point that the baby alligator had achieved success he said, "This must be his mother because they are both green." That was when I really cringed and honestly felt very sad. Perhaps I was being oversensitive. LB wasn't really paying attention at that point and if he were I am not sure he would have understood. But he does know that he is brown and I am white. He has gotten quite good at identifying his colors. I suppose the whole theme just felt a little outdated. I started to think about friends that are in interracial relationships and have biological children that aren't the exact same color as them or families with two dads. I do know that we are different and our story is not always going to fit the mold and I am okay with that. But I couldn't help feeling sad for LB that even in the places you don't expect it your differences will be pointed out to you. As the story time went on, I worked up the courage to say something. My plan was to be polite, appreciative and just try to suggest that it was outdated. But by the time the librarian was done passing out stickers, LB had bolted out of the room and was running loose through the computer lab. I have since lost my courage. What do you think? Should I say something or let it go?

What I Say

Now that LB is starting to string more words together some pretty funny things are coming out of his mouth. My current favorite is what he says to you when you have just figured out what he was trying to communicate after multiple attempts. He has a pretty large vocabulary but he struggles with the "r" sound and the "l" sound and several of his words just aren't crystal clear. He also has made up a few words to replace the actual word. However, there is nothing wrong with his inflection or tone. He's got that down pat. I am pretty fluent in his language but obviously not everyone is. The first time he said this particular phrase was a few weeks ago after his bath. D had taken him out of the bath and was drying him off in his room. I couldn't hear their conversation because I was in the bathroom cleaning up all the water off the floor. I could tell that LB was getting frustrated and then D called me in to translate. LB said to me, "ippy ippy." I knew right away that was code for the "itsy bitsy spider." I said to D, "He wants the itsy bitsy spider." LB turned to D and with a little head roll and attitude in his voice he said, "What I say!" We laughed so hard. LB basically called D a fool. He has caught on that most people think this is pretty funny and since he is always looking for a laugh he says it any chance he gets. The other day I thought he was telling me he wanted to "play books" but actually he wanted to "play blocks." Needless to say he got the chance to tell me, "What I say!"

When we were in Tulsa over the weekend my mom was getting his shoes and coat on so we could head out to the zoo. LB was commenting about "Poppy's hat" but my mom thought he was saying, "Poppy's hot." Once she figured out he was saying "hat" LB got the "you fool" look on his face and said, "What I say!" My mom laughed so hard she cried. It's the best.

My funny boy. Photo courtesy of Grandma Kathy.

A Day with the Cousins

On Sunday we made the quick one hour drive to D's hometown to spend the day with his side of the family. We celebrated Easter a week late or on the exact day if you are using the Ethiopian calendar. We'll pretend that was the plan all along. It was a beautiful day and we spent the bulk of it outdoors, except when we were eating the ham, potatoes and greens that D's dad kindly prepared. Delish! His parents live on about 1.5 acres so there is plenty of space for the kids and dogs to run around. D's Aunt got the three little kids bubble makers and they were a big hit.

Here is a photo of LB on our way to see the cousins. I'll share the after effects of the day at the end.

LB has played with his bubble maker every day this week. It's hard to go wrong with bubbles.

LB got a kick out of these puppets that his Nana made for the kids to play with. I might steal her idea! Here he his excitedly showing me his Aunt.

Admiring himself.

Biggest Daddy worshiper ever!

Big thanks to Nana and Poppy for a great day and to Aunt Carole for the bubble maker! After a day filled with food, fun and no nap we headed home. And this happened within three minutes of being in the car.

Tomorrow we are headed to T-town to spend a long weekend with my parents. If you are so inclined, I would love any positive thoughts you could send my way. The last time I was on an airplane my ear went berserk and needless to say I am a little fearful of that happening again. Oh yeah, and there is the whole traveling with a two year old boy all by myself thing. Wish me luck!

Bubble Wrap

This morning after breakfast LB found some bubble wrap in of our closets that we had leftover from our move. He has played with bubble wrap before but it's probably been around 6-8 months since we last pulled some out for him. I would have never thought of getting bubble wrap for him but my mom, the former pre-school teacher, suggested it and LB played with it at OT as well. You would think that a kid who doesn't like to be startled would not be happy to play with bubble wrap but LB loves it. I think when he is in control of the noise then it doesn't bother him. Previously, the only way he could get it to really pop was to jump on it, which is definitely fun. However, today he was determined to pop it with his hands. It was great to see him try and problem solve. Depending on his mood, LB can get frustrated pretty quickly if a toy doesn't do what he wants it to. But not today. He spent about 10 minutes trying different combinations of fingers and thumbs to get it to pop. He was pretty serious about it and so determined. He finally figured out that if he used either both thumbs or both pointer fingers and really put his weight into it then it would pop. He was thrilled. He then spent about 20 minutes alternating between between popping it with his fingers and jumping on it. You gotta love unexpected fun.

Here he is ready to get to work.

In this one he is telling me, "doesn't work," which is one of his favorite things to say.

His ideal stance for hand popping.

Eventually, I had to coax him away from it so I could get him dressed and leave to meet up with a friend. When we got home from the play date he went straight to the back room and started popping again. It was literally the first thing he did.

Some days I just cannot get over his cuteness. Go get some bubble wrap. You won't regret it.

Wordless Wednesday

LB

I've decided to make a big change on this blog. I will no longer be using our actual first names. This is something I have been toying with for a while and have decided to take the plunge. I know that most people who read this blog know us in "real life" so it feels a little silly to use fake names. But I googled his name recently and this little blog of mine popped up on the first page and that weirded me out. I would hate for a future girlfriend, employer or journalist (for when he becomes famous) to google our son's name and read about his GI issues, feeding delays or any part of his adoption story that he doesn't want people to know. I am also hoping it will allow me to write a little more freely and honestly if I feel like I have some anonymity.

When we started the adoption process we didn't know if we would be welcoming a boy or girl in to our family so we started calling our future child, "Little Buster." Hence, the name of the blog. So without further ado, the youngest member of our clan will now be referred to as "LB." It was my mom's idea to shorten the Little Buster into "LB" and I like it. This is going to take some getting used to and it feels weird to refer to LB as anything but his real name but I'm sure I will adjust. I also will be going back and changing all of my older posts. UGH! But it will be worth the peace of mind. I apologize if you read this blog in a reader format because I think when I go back and make changes it will publish all of my old posts into your reader. I'm so sorry to be a pain! If anyone knows of a way to edit an old post and not have it show up in someone's reader then please let me know! Oh and the guy who I have been married to for almost 10 years will be "D." And hopefully I will never refer to myself in the third person so no need for a fake name for me. Whew.

And so you don't feel like you just lost two minutes of your life you can never get back, here is a cute photo of LB to make up for it.