Update Time

Is anyone still out there? I can't believe I haven't posted since October 14th. It wasn't intentional. Life got busy. And a certain three year old decided he no longer needs naps. Yes, we are going through the dreaded transition of not napping. My typical time to sit down and read other blogs and update my own was beloved nap time. That only happens a few days a week and it seems I have twenty things to get accomplished during that precious free time. Here is a quick update of the past 6 weeks and hopefully I'll find new motivation to blog at night because I do miss this space.

*I got a job!!! Oh yeah, another big reason life got busy. Well, it's a super part time job. I work for a non-profit, Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS), and am part of their after school tutoring program. ETSS started out as serving the Ethiopian immigrant community in Columbus but have expanded their services across the city and serve a wide variety of immigrants and refugees. I know the director of the non-profit because of some volunteering I did for ETSS a few years ago. I emailed him to let him know I was interested in applying for any positions pertaining to teaching English as a second language. He let me know those positions had been filled for the school year but he would keep my resume on file. That was ideal because I wasn't really looking for this school year but wanted him to know I was still interested for next year. About a week later, I got an email from the manager of the after school tutoring program and he said he needed to fill some positions and asked me if I was interested. I decided it didn't hurt to interview and see what they were looking for. I wasn't sure we would be able to make it work in terms of child care but wanted to get my foot in the door. I interviewed and it couldn't have worked out more perfectly. The position is only 9 hours a week and 6 of those hours are spent on site twice a week. The other 3 hours are for prep time that I can do at home. I work at their East side location which serves the children of Ethiopian immigrants! The other great part is that the site is about 5 minutes from D's office. So twice a week I drop off LB with D at his office and then I head to work and they head home. I started a few weeks and so far I love it. I did get puked on by a kindergartener on my third day and also caught a cold from one of them but I guess that is what you expect when you work with little kids. But I love being surrounded by kids who look like mine and share his culture. I will probably learn a lot from them as well. I'm enjoying meeting their parents and hopefully I can be of some help in terms of communicating with schools and providing tutors with extra resources. It's a good outlet for me and I feel really lucky. I also feel like LB is in part responsible for this job. I love how his adoption has had ripple effects on our life.

*LB is going to be 4 years old in two months! I can't believe it. He continues to go to school twice a week and it's been going well so far. There have been a few mornings when he's said he doesn't want to go but he eventually comes around and drop offs have been tear free! I had my first parent teacher conference about a month ago. I was nervous! But it was fine. They have him nailed to a tee! His teachers described him as joyful, social, smart, easily distracted and a bit wild. He also struggles with "walking feet" in the classroom. No shock there. But I love that he has some favorite friends and that they get excited when they see each other. It's especially great when we run into these friends outside of school and they go nuts with excitement. I worry a bit (a lot) about how small he is compared to the kids in his class and most of these friends are actually several months younger than him. But for the moment he seems to hold his own and doesn't let it hold him back. I've been happy with his school. I wish there were more diversity but his teachers have been working with preschoolers for a long time and seem to do a great job with the kids. He comes home with cool crafts and stories of looking at bugs on the playground or pretending to be rabbits with his best buddy. The teachers send me a photo about once a week of LB doing one of the scheduled activities and they post their lesson plans online as well so we can see what they are learning. I'll say it again. I wish there were more diversity. I suppose no school is perfect. Here's his school picture.

*My mom came to visit Halloween week and we had a lot of fun. I hope to do a separate post on Halloween. The timing of her trip was great because D was in California for work and it also ended up being the week I had my interview so her help was a huge gift! We went to the zoo, the OSU airport and she bought LB a new bike. A few weeks before her visit, I was backing out of the garage and clipped the side of his bike. It was officially broken. I felt like the worst mom EVER! LB handled it pretty well. Thank goodness Meemaw came to the rescue.

*So back to this no napping nonsense. In a nutshell, it sucks. The silver lining is that he goes to bed at 7pm on the days he doesn't nap and it's nice to have a full evening to relax with D. One of the first nights he went to bed to 7pm, D and I looked at each other around 8:30pm and couldn't believe how early it still was. I also like not feeling rushed to get back to the house around lunchtime so he can be down for a nap by 1pm. He'll go about 2 or 3 days without a nap and then be in desperate need of one. That seems to be our current pattern. The days feel long that's for sure. I'm working on implementing some quiet time to replace the nap so that I can still get a little break mid-day and he can do something restful. I recently tried to explain quiet time to him and we were brainstorming activities he could do. One of his suggestions was "playing my drums." Clearly, the concept went a bit over his head. We're still working on it. LB has always been such a good napper and I was convinced he would be a regular napper until kindergarten. Sigh. But I should be grateful he lasted this long as I know some kids who gave up their nap at 2. I'm trying to count my blessings. Here he is asleep on the way to the grocery store on a no nap day. It's tough being 3.

*We continue to do music class weekly and we both absolutely love it. The final session for the year was the week before Thanksgiving and I am not sure how we will make it to January. Music is becoming a really big part of his life. I found out about a marching band competition going on at the high school in our neighborhood a few weeks ago and we took LB. It was cold that day but he loved it. We sat in a stadium for 2 hours watching marching bands and he still talks about it. We kept asking him if he was too cold and wanted to go home but he insisted on staying. On Thanksgiving, we were watching the parade and sadly they didn't show too many bands but when he got a glimpse of one he would get really excited and he kept asking us to "check and see" if there were any bands we could go see that day. I'm constantly scouring the internet for cheap and/or free musical events going on around town. I'm excited to take him to Tuba Christmas again in a few weeks. I also can't wait to see how this love of music continues to develop and what it means for him. Maybe nothing. Maybe something big.

That's our past six weeks with a few holes that I plan on filling in soon! I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! One more picture before I let you go.

Professional Photos 2013

LB and I made a trip to Tulsa about a month ago. Southwest had some great deals so we took advantage. While we were there I had my friend, Maggie, take photos of LB. It's become an annual tradition. This was her 4th time taking photos of LB and she never disappoints. She is so great with kids and has magical ways of getting good photos! It is definitely getting harder to keep him happy long enough so that Maggie can take several shots of him. This year he was into it initially but then was over it pretty quickly. My mom had brought a soccer ball, a bat and some baseballs and that served as a good break from posing for photos. Go Grandma! And I actually really love some of the action shots she got of him playing. Then he was running and fell and that caused a delay too. I gave him a sucker to try and bribe him to be patient for a little bit longer. In the end, she got a lot of great ones and I love looking at them. As per my usual, I am holding my absolute favorite one back to use for our holiday card. Did I mention that I could just stare at them all day long? I think I did. Here are a handful of them. Thank you, Maggie!

He's growing up so much and I think he gets more and more handsome by the day. I wasn't sure that was even possible. How did I get so lucky?

2010 Photos

2011 Photos

2012 Photos

Get Outside

Last Monday morning, I woke up in a bad mood. I was tense and stressed. I hate it when I feel that way first thing in the morning. LB has not been sleeping well lately and I'm in that frame of mind where it feels like he isn't going to sleep well for the rest of his life. I know that is ridiculous and that things will change but I'm tired. I just want him to get the sleep he needs when I want him to get it. I am apparently asking for too much. LB, like most kids, can pick up on my moods and so it was a bad combination of crabby mom and crabby three year old. That's never good. Typically, on Mondays we go to music class but it was cancelled that day. So instead our plan was to go visit the local fire department with our playgroup because it was fire prevention week and they had invited us. We got there and I immediately knew it wouldn't work out. As soon as we walked in there were a few kids crying near the door. Then they turned the lights on the fire truck and there was all this blinking and flashing. And then they decided to close the garage good with no warning and it was really loud. LB was not gonna have it. There was way too much sensory stimulation going on and he turned to me and said, "I want to go. NOW!" I decided not to fight it and we left. 

I didn't feel like going back home and entering the world of crabby. Even though it was a bit chilly, I suggested to LB that we go to a great park that is near our house. He agreed. We live in the city but are lucky to live in a city that has tons of amazing parks. And they aren't just your typical parks with a playground and sandbox but are parks with tons of open green space and trails to explore and flowers to smell. I decided we both needed the fresh air. That little decision may have been one of my finer moments. We spent two hours outside just walking and running and exploring. It didn't take long for both of us to start smiling again.

Don't you love fall clothes? There is something about corduroys and down vests that make me happy. 

As we were sitting on this bench, LB observed that a lot of the leaves were falling from the trees. It was a little windy so we talked about how soon it would be winter time and that most of the leaves would eventually fall. He decided he wanted to find lots of red leaves (Red is one of his many favorite colors. We are still working on the meaning of favorite.) so we started looking. He also got excited about finding "super tiny" leaves so we did that too and he put them all in my bag.

LB found a hill and immediately started running down it. The sensation of running down a hill has become a recent favorite. I joined him and he liked taking turns so that we would pass each other on the way up or down. We'd make a funny face at each other or say something goofy as we passed.

He walked around this ledge more times than I could count. He eventually got brave enough to try jumping off at a few spots.

He found a really big stick and was pleased that he could pick it up and whack it around. Boys and sticks. Sigh. There is no point fighting it.

He found a big rock and decided he needed to turn it over to look for worms. He's Mr. Curious, which can be a blessing and a curse. He didn't find a worm but he found something he'd never seen before and that's always a thrill. Perhaps it's an inch worm or a millipede? I'm not very skilled at bug identification.

We had a great morning. I'm nervous that soon it will start to get really cold but as long as we can we'll be outside exploring, digging in dirt and running down hills.

"I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes." - e.e. cummings

International Day of the Girl - October 11th

As most of you know, I am on the board for the Studio Samuel Foundation. It was founded by my friend and fellow adoptive mom, Tamara Horton. Our mission is to provide sustainable skills to young women so they can break the cycle of poverty with dignity. We'll be launching an occupational training sponsorship program soon, Training for Tomorrow, and I will act as the the liaison between the young women chosen to be in the program and the sponsors. I am really excited about it and will post about it as soon as everything is finalized.

In the meantime, Studio Samuel is continuing with our 1 Hundred Girls program and we are looking for your help. You may remember back in January we launched a bra campaign and we were able to collect well over 500 bras for young women and girls at an orphanage in Addis Ababa. We've recently teamed up with the organization, Days for Girls, to provide sustainable sanitary supplies for young women who don't usually have them. Did you know in places like Ethiopia girls will miss school and work due to the lack of menstrual supplies? That can mean DAYS without income. Girls will use leaves, mattress stuffing, newspapers, anything they can find but still miss up to 2 months of school every year when they have their period. Studio Samuel now has dedicated sewers that are making the Days for Girls reusable supply kits! Here are the first 50 assembled kits ready for distribution! So amazing!

October 11th is International Day of the Girl and in honor of this day Studio Samuel is collecting panties to be used as part of the kits and we're asking for an $11 donation to help fund our programs.

Will you join me in supporting these women? CLICK HERE to donate. I would be so appreciative if you would share this with your friends. Thank you so much! 

*Email me at ekbuster@gmail.com if you'd like to mail some underwear.

First Day of Preschool

LB started preschool the week after Labor Day. He is going to the same school where he did the Parent's Day Out program last year. This year he will be going two mornings a week as part of their 3s program. Parent's Day Out ended up being a great experience for him and I think it served it's purpose. My hope when I signed up him up last year was that it would help with the transition to preschool. Well, when we walked in the building this August, a few weeks before school started to drop off some forms, LB declared, "This is my school!" I took that as a good sign. I started telling him towards the end of August that school was starting again soon and that he would be in the "big kid three year old room" and that he would have new teachers. When we visited before school started the director showed LB his new room and let him play in there for a while. His new teachers sent a letter to the kids with their pictures so we were able to start learning their names before school started. I also pulled out one of our old Music Together CDs with the song about how Mommies and Daddies come back. We listened to it over and over in the car and I loved hearing him belt out, "Whoever takes care of you comes back because they do love you."

The school does a good job of really easing the kids into it. The first day the parents stay for a bit and then just go down the hall for 30 minutes for a parent meeting and then that's it. Super short. The second day school is only an hour and a half. Finally, on the third day they stay the whole morning. On the first day I made sure to take pictures of LB with his new teachers so that I could update his Safety Book. He learned their names really fast this year so I'm glad I knew all these tricks already and wasn't starting from scratch like I was last year.

I attempted to get a few official first day pictures of him at home in the morning but this was the best I could do.

It was a beautiful morning and LB was really in good spirits. I expected a little more nervousness from him. He insisted on carrying his bag into the school. So precious.

Thankfully, there are several kids from his Parent's Day Out class that are now in the 3s room with him. He was happy to see several familiar faces. I stayed and played with him for a while and when it was time for the meeting I told him I would be gone for a tiny bit and he gave me a kiss and off I went. It was such a relief. After school I bribed him with a sucker and begged him to stand in front of the building so I could get a good picture. He accepted my bribe.

Perhaps I was a bit more nervous than he was. That afternoon we went to Tar.get and mid way through our shopping trip I noticed something was missing.

About 10 concerned citizens of Tar.get approached me to make sure I knew my son was missing a shoe, which made me feel a little dumb. Then when I got home D pointed out that I had LB's school name tag on the back of my shirt. I had forgotten he had put that there. At that point, I was feeling super dumb and decided I must have used all my emotional energy to get through that first day and had nothing left. I don't even want to think about what dumb things I will do on LB's first day of kindergarten.

Here's to hoping he has a great school year!

Unexpected Fun

Most of the fun activities and special treats we did this summer were all planned. I had a list of places and things I wanted to do with LB so I spent the summer trying to check things off the list. However, on this occasion we happened to be in the right place at the right time. Totally unplanned fun!

One day in mid August, LB convinced me to go to the OSU airport. Again. I was reluctant but I didn't have any other ideas for activities that day so off we went. As we were walking into the building, we walked past two men in suits. For some reason, LB thinks only pilots wear a jacket and tie. D is able to dress pretty casually at his office so I guess that is why LB associates a suit with pilots. As we were walking, LB says quite loudly, "Mommy! Look! Pilots!" The two men heard him and smiled. One of them started engaging LB and asking him about the planes LB was carrying and the planes on his shirt. LB is happy to have a conversation with almost anyone, especially if they want to talk about planes. So LB showed them his planes and told them how he is going to be a "pilot of jets" when he is older, etc. They were charmed. Then one of them hands me his business card and explains that he is with the company, Net Jets. I have only heard of them because LB and I spend so much time at the OSU airport and we often see planes owned by Net Jets taking off and landing. They are like a rental car company but for planes. And clearly, the pricing is a little different. A lot of athletes use them, like professional golfers and tennis players, as well as businesses. I looked at the card and the gentleman, Mr. Brown, was the Senior VP of Sales. I started to get a feeling we were in for something good. He told me they had a plane landing in about 30 minutes and if we were still around he would love to show LB their plane. Yes! (I didn't tell him that a typical trip is about 2 hours.) So LB and I went up to the observation tower and did our normal thing. About 30 minutes later a jet landed and I saw Mr. Brown walk out onto the runway. After it landed he looked up to the observation tower and waved us down. I hadn't said anything to LB because I didn't want to promise him something in case it didn't work out. I told him we were going out on the runway and that he was going to get to see a jet and probably go inside. His eyes got huge. We got out there and were introduced to the two actual pilots. One of them picked LB up right away and started showing him around the plane. He showed LB where he checks the oil and they looked in the engines and at the wheels. I was so excited for LB that I could hardly contain myself. I was pretty much holding back tears the entire time.

Then they let us get on the plane and LB got to sit in the cockpit. It was a tight squeeze so I didn't get any photos of him sitting in the cockpit but the other pilot let him push a lot of buttons and see them light up, which was a thrill. LB impressed him with his plane lingo as he referred to the steering wheel as the yoke. I also think LB just loved sitting in the big, leather seats and looking out onto the runway at all the other planes that were close by. The plane was gorgeous. They gave us some of the fancy Dean and Deluca snacks that they have for their passengers and then we had to go as they were flying somewhere else.

Look at that smile. Pure joy. We walked back into the terminal and headed up to the stairs to the tower. As we were going up the stairs, LB turned to me, wrapped his arms around my neck and said, "I'm so happy." I was too.

I think I got teary about the whole thing because it was just so generous. They are busy people and they took time out of their day to give a three year old a special experience. I think it's easy to get bogged down in all of the nastiness and meanness that exists in our world but this was a moment of true kindness. Don't you think we all need reminders of that every now and then? Net Jets is my new favorite company. If only I could afford their services....

Pool FAIL

Yes. I am still talking about summer. Can't help it. I will move on eventually.

My intention at the beginning of the summer was to spent A LOT of time at the pool, like 2-3 times a week. I bought a pool pass that gave us access to three community pools so we would be able to mix it up throughout the summer. I really wanted LB to be comfortable in the water by the end of the summer and I think it's important to start young. The pools didn't open until noon and I knew that would be a little difficult because of LB's nap schedule but I figured he would nap and then we would play at the pool until dinner time. Well, that didn't happen. It wasn't entirely my fault but it kinda was. The one pass I will give myself is all the rain that we got towards the end of June and beginning of July. I think we had something like 16 straight days of rain. The pool just wasn't an option and there was no way I could have predicted all the rain we got this summer. Once the rain subsided then we left for New Mexico for a week. I also discovered the pools are really strict about "hearing thunder" in the area. So even if it is 90 degrees and sunny they will shut down the pool if any thunder is detected. LB and I went to the pool one afternoon and it was so bloody hot but they wouldn't let people in because of supposed thunder. They would say "30 more minutes" and so we waited. Then they said "15 more minutes" and so we waited. When they said "15 more minutes" again I decided that was it. Poor LB cried and I wanted to cry too. So it wasn't entirely my fault. But here is why it was my fault:

*I am lazy.
*I am a wimp. I think growing up in Oklahoma I got used to pool water feeling like warm bath water. By the end of June the water was usually pretty warm and you didn't want to scream obscenities when your toes touched the water. Even by the end of August the pool water here in Ohio was still REALLY cold. I always had to give myself a little pep talk about it being good for LB and that I needed to suck it up and deal. Sometimes that worked.
*I am lazy. Trying to squeeze in a trip to the pool post nap was more work than I thought it would be. By the time he got up and was out of his post nap fog and was willing to put on his suit and sunscreen we would be pushing 3:30-4pm and then it didn't seem worth it to go to just stay for an hour.
*Shaving is a pain in my a*s. Even in the summer I despise it and do the bare minimum. So really it all goes back to my laziness.

We did make several trips to the pool and usually had a pretty good time but we certainly weren't there 2-3 times a week. Not even close. And for some reason whenever we got there LB would want to spend a lot of time lounging on the chairs and eating a snack. I am not against lounging. (See above laziness.) But it frustrated me because I wanted him to use up energy so that he would go to bed easily. There is something to be said for sitting in the sun but I wanted him up and moving. I would say he got a little more comfortable in the pool but nothing like I hoped. He still won't put his head under the water. Although, he got close a few times. Mostly he liked to stay towards the wall and play with various pool toys that I brought for him. I got him some diving rings and he would reach down pretty far to get those but that was usually the extent of him moving around. One of the community pools is more of a water park and LB definitely liked that one the best. They had some fountains that he liked playing in and a little slide he could do and a big slide he wanted to do but wasn't tall enough. He watched me go down it once when we met friends there and for some reason that satisfied his curiosity and he didn't beg to go down it when we went back. Sometimes he makes no sense to me. He doesn't want to move around too much in the water but a big twisty slide he is dying to do. I don't get it. The pool was a great place to go on days when D was working late or when he was traveling for work. Then I felt like we could take our time getting there and stop somewhere for dinner on the way home. It helped pass the time so LB wouldn't miss D as much.

I didn't manage to get a single shot of him playing in the water all the summer. I think because he always wanted me close to him and getting my phone near water wasn't really an option. I have about a billion photos of him lounging and snacking. Here is a sampling. If you've seen a few then you've seen them all.

So we ate a lot of snacks and got really good at pool lounging. I suppose that's something.

Next summer, the plan is to get serious and do lessons, which happen in the morning. I will not be deterred. At least, I hope not.