Crafting Lately

LB and I have been having so much fun with crafts lately. The website, No Time for Flashcards, has been my big inspiration. I want to do everything on her site. Seriously. And I love that she has lots of crafts that are really minimal in the mess department. This babysitting gig is definitely a little more exhausting than I predicted so the less the mess the better. Crafts have been a good way to fill the time after LB wakes up from his nap and we're waiting on Baby B to wake up. One thing that NTFF has inspired me to do is to try crafts that tie in to favorite books we've been reading. I think it makes the craft more fun and meaningful and it's always a good thing to help your child make associations. I also let favorite movies be an inspiration for crafts too.

Several weeks ago we went to the conservatory because the butterflies are now in bloom. When we were there they were selling caterpillars that you could take home and watch them form their chrysalis and then turn into a butterfly. LB was beyond stoked about it! At first, he wanted the caterpillar to turn into a butterfly RIGHT NOW. It took explaining several times that we had to wait and we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to help emphasize that it would take some time. He showed my mom the caterpillar one day over Facetime and he said to her in a stern voice, "But we have to wait." Ha! Thankfully, it eventually sunk in. It was cool to watch it crawl around in it's little plastic cup and then slowly make it's chrysalis. There was something about hearing LB say the word "chrysalis" that made me really happy. He just sounded so grown up and studious. And it made me feel like I was actually teaching him something worthwhile.

I wasn't sure if LB would be sad about letting the butterfly go but he was excited and had a good outlook. His friend had a caterpillar too so LB decided that his butterfly was flying off to find his friend's butterfly. I like the way his mind works. He still talks about how his butterfly flew up into the sky. We had also checked out the book, Ten Little Caterpillars, from the library so that was a fun one to read while we had a caterpillar in our house. Of course, NTFF has some great craft ideas for caterpillars and butterflies. We did 2 butterfly crafts and I only took pictures of one of the butterfly crafts we did.  I took pictures of the caterpillar one but since we used LB's actual name for that craft I don't want to show it. But here are the links. They were all fun!

Handprint Butterfly

Coffee Filter Butterfly - *We didn't do this with glitter. I feared the mess. So LB just used pastel markers.

Custom Caterpillar  - *This was great for us because LB is starting to get really good at recognizing his name and knowing the letters in his name. So I loved testing him on this to choose the letters in his name and to put them in the right order. Thankfully, he has a short name.

Here is LB's handprint butterfly. He was proud of it. I wasn't a huge fan of the addition of airplane stickers but whatever it was his vision. I suppose airplanes and butterflies are both up in the sky.

Ever since Christmas, LB has been a big fan of Finding Nemo. He loves the part where Dory and Marlin come across all the jellyfish and Dory calls the jelly fish a "little squishy squishy." He laughs every time. So I found a great jellyfish craft and it was a huge hit! Here is the original link.

Cupcake Jellyfish

First, I had him color the cupcake liners or the jellyfish bodies and then he colored the ocean where they live. As a side note, LB has me a bit confused when it comes to his handedness. He kicks exclusively with his left foot, uses scissors much better with his left hand and swings a bat left handed but when he eats and uses markers he goes back and forth between his hands. Or as you can see he does both at the same time. It's baffling.

He struggled a bit with the tape and getting the stingers on. I didn't have double sided tape so I just had to hold it for him and then it was fine.

As soon as D got home that day this was the first thing LB showed to him. I love it when he gets excited about his creations.

The last one I'll share is LB's spider. Another recent library check out favorite was The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. He was sad to "give another kid a turn" when it was time to take it back. I was looking for paper plate crafts and came across the spider one so I knew we had to do it. This one was also another reminder to me to respect LB's vision when it comes to art. As LB was putting the stickers on the paper plate I kept encouraging him to put them "all over the spider." But he wanted nothing to do with that. So I dropped it. Once he glued on the eyes he said, "It's my happy spider." Oops. He was making a happy face. Silly Mommy.

Don't you love how he's smiling at his happy spider? The photos are crummy but you get the idea. The only thing I had to do on this one was punch the holes in the plate and then he did the rest. I like to think getting the pipe cleaners through the holes was good find motor practice. He enjoyed doing that part too. He did it "all by myself!"

Although, I look at his baby pictures and get sad sometimes this preschool stuff is so much more fun. Sure babies are cute and sweet and don't talk back and you don't have to play chase with them but there is nothing like hearing him say, "My going to tell my daddy about this." That's validation at its best.

Inspired

On Saturday I had the day all to myself. Let me repeat. All to myself. LB and I had returned from Tulsa a few days prior and I think D recognized how nice it was to have a few days to himself. So he suggested (all by himself with no prodding) that he take LB to see his parents for the day and I stay back and do whatever. Yes. Please. I got my first pedicure of the season, I strolled through the aisles of Whole Foods and I went to my favorite cafe and ordered my favorite dark chocolate truffle cookie and I read my new favorite book. I felt spoiled. So this book. Let's talk about it. I loved it. I loved it in the way I've loved anything written by Anne Lamott. And that's saying a lot. I finished the book in 2 days. I kind of want to read it again already. I recently discovered the author's blog, Momastery. I think it's wonderful. It's not for everyone but it's for me. She speaks to me. I think what makes her great is that even though our lives have followed a very different path, she's a recovering alcoholic and bulimic and has 3 biological children, her writing is still very relatable. Of course, she is also relatable because we are both middle class white women who were raised by two amazing people. I forget sometimes the role that can play. But, we've all struggled in our lives, right? We've had moments when we couldn't bear to get out of bed. Literally.

Her book has inspired me to write more. I am not sure what I have to say or what I feel comfortable putting out there on the internet but I want to write more. Some days maybe it will just be about fun crafts I did with LB or silly things he has said. Or maybe I'll share about some of my struggles with anxiety or my ongoing healing process from infertility or other things I feel passionate about. Like Glennon, I know I always feel better when I open up to someone and pave the way for them to open up as well. I've read some articles and chatted with friends too about how social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram make it seem like we all live these perfect lives. And if we start comparing our lives to what others share on Facebook or Instagram then our lives always seem less fun or harder or lonelier than everyone else's. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing photos of my friends' kids or reading articles that others have shared but if we want others to be real then we have to take that leap of faith and be real too. No one's life is perfect but so often we feel the need to portray that it is. Some of the best conversations I've had with friends have been when we've let go of all that crap and just talked about the struggles. Sometimes that's hard for me. But I like to listen and I like to share. I believe in the power of extending grace to another person and remembering to extend it to myself as well. Maybe this space can be a place for me to do that. Listen and Share. Live and Learn. Maybe no one is out there, except my mom and my sister. (Hi Mom and Abs.) But that's okay. I need to write for me. Anne Lamott said, "Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are."

I hope I can work towards finding the dark chocolate truffle cookie moments amidst the struggles and hopefully be there for someone else as they search for their own beauty and truth. Or at least offer to share my cookie with them. And as Glennon says, "Love wins." I believe that to be true.
Namaste.

Current Reads

I've picked out some good books at the library recently so I thought I would share. I know this is very common but LB definitely gets hooked on certain books and then only wants to read those for weeks on end. It can get a little old but luckily I really enjoy the books he is currently obsessed with. We'll see if the obsession ends before these books are due. If not, I may have to actually pay for them.

It will come as no surprise that his two favorites are airplane books. They are both all about going to the airport, checking in, getting on the plane and taking off. LB reenacts these airport scenes with his fleet of airplanes all day long so getting to see pictures of planes that are "sleeping" at the gates and "going up in the sky" is very satisfying for him.

If we can convince him to stray from the airplane books then he is usually more than happy to read "Shades of People" by Shelley Rotner or "Please, Baby, Please" by Spike Lee. I really think "Shades of People" should be a must read for all little kids because it explains that we are all a little different on the outside but that doesn't mean anything. LB's favorite part is when the pictures show "that even the same family there can be many shades." It's especially cute when the three of us are reading this book before bed and he'll make a point to say that we are a family. Heart = melt. "Please, Baby, Please" is a cute book about a baby that does everything she isn't supposed to do and LB likes shaking his head at the baby, even though he, of course, does a lot of the same things. I like that the baby has brown skin. I find that I have to make an effort to find books with more of a multi-racial cast of characters.

My sister got him a really great book called, "Sheep in a Jeep." LB thinks it is hilarious and it's rhyming so he can "help" me read it. Before the airplane book obsession he really liked two books by the same author, Todd Parr. The librarian at my mom's library recommended them and LB enjoyed "The Peace Book" and "The Family Book," which also explores the fact that all families are different and that's okay. Some people have large families or families with two mommies or some families adopt kids. Todd Parr also has a book all about adoption and I checked it out from the library but wasn't a big fan. I just didn't like some of his wording. I am sure I was being picky but I can't help it. I was a little worried when we had to return the two Todd Parr books but he handled it gracefully. One of my favorite bloggers, Rage Against the Minivan, recently did a post about a situation her adopted son faced on the playground. Another child basically was questioning her son about his "real mom" and that his mom couldn't possibly be since they didn't match. She had it published on The Huffington Post and actually got some negative feedback. The premise of her post was to ask other parents to talk to their kids about how families are different and that not all families will look like their's. It seems like a pretty simple and necessary thing to talk about and I think children's books are a great way to start. Reading a book like "Shades of People" or "The Family Book" is an easy way to bring this topic up for discussion, even with a two year old. I am so incredibly nervous about those playground moments. But I'm doing my best to worry about today and not several years from now. Let me rephrase that, I am doing my best not to worry. Ha! Okay, the first sentence was more accurate.

There you have it. That's what we're reading. Any suggestions?

Summer Reading Program

Did you participate in the summer reading program as a kid? Well, my mom is a librarian so if we hadn’t done it I think my mom would have been shunned from library world. I have really fond memories of having my little booklet and going to the library and getting stickers and then at the end of the summer getting a medal of some sort for completing it. What a sense of accomplishment! I seriously would probably read more if I got a medal after completing a certain number of a books. There is nothing like a little positive reinforcement to motivate me. So even though I am not a teacher or a student anymore and don’t get the traditional summer break I always tend to think of the start of a summer as a time to do some serious reading. Obviously my choice in books these days is influenced by our adoption. I just finished a book by Melissa Fay Green called There Is No Me Without You. I learned a remarkable amount of information about Ethiopian culture, the AIDS crisis, adoption from Ethiopia and most importantly the power of one person to make a difference. That’s a lot to digest, right? But the author tells it all from the perspective of this amazing woman, Haregewoin Teffara. The author finds a way to mix all the facts and statistics with the stories of Mrs. Teffera, who opens her home to orphans. So it reads more like a novel. Even if you aren’t knee deep in the process of adopting from Ethiopia, I think you would enjoy this book. I found a brief review from Booklist that I really think summarizes the book well.

“The horrific numbers behind the AIDS pandemic in Africa, "the most terrible epidemic in human history," have little resonance for most people in the West: "the ridiculous numbers wash over most of us." But this searing account humanizes the statistics through heartbreaking, intimate stories of what it is like for young orphans left alone in Ethiopia. Greene's story focuses on one rescuer, Haregewoin Teferra, who has opened her home and compound in a rickety hillside neighborhood of Addis Ababa and taken in hundreds of the untouchables thrown in the streets and left at her door. She cannot turn them away. Greene tells the stories in unforgettable vignettes of loss, secrecy, panic, stigma, and, sometimes, hope, even as she documents the big picture of "the human landslide," the history and science of epidemiology and transmission, and expresses her fury at the "crimes against humanity" of the multinational drug companies whose expensive patents have denied millions access to the life-saving medicines. Just as moving are the personal stories of international adoptions in the U. S., including two Ethiopian children taken into Greene's own Atlanta family. The detail of one lost child at a time, who finds love, laughter, comfort, and connection, opens up the universal meaning of family.” Hazel Rochman

I think I will make a little booklet and give myself a sticker for my first summer reading book checked off the list. Gold Medal here I come!

In personal adoption news, we had our final home study appointment on Friday and it went well. Our social worker is now typing our report that will eventually get sent to Citizen and Immigration Services as part of the approval process. In order for the home study to be finalized, D and I will have to watch 10 hours of training videos and take quizzes about them. We hope to have that finished by next week. We also have to read some articles and write short reports about them. The last bit of training we will have to do will be our infant CPR class on June 20^th. The goal is that D and I will be done with our part by then and it will just be a matter of waiting for things like FBI fingerprinting and CIS approval. There is going to be a lot of waiting in this whole process so I might as well get used to it.

Let me know if you have read any good books that I should add to my summer reading list!