A guest photographer

The following photos were taken by a guest photographer. I'm sure it'll be really tough to guess who it is.

I rarely like pictures of me, but this one was somewhat decent.  Much better than, oh say...

 

...this one.  I am probably telling someone "no" to something



 

I am partial to this one.



Dad 

Not sure whose head got caught in the lower left corner...this is Bob in his "ge ge"(big brother in Chinese) shirt

 

Ah, here is where the true identity of the guest photographer becomes more apparent.  This is the female WT in the corner, having gotten in trouble.  (Also notice the finger to the left).

Here is female WT not looking at all happy about being photographed in the midst of her dire troubles.

This unfortunate photo was taken when poor LB was just waking up.  Really, you are not fair game for pictures at that time.  Perhaps the photographer was honing his craft by documenting the nitty gritty parts of life.  So have you guessed who the photographer is?   Did you guess it was.....

 

THIS guy????? I don't know why he has such a sad face in the princess get-up.  He wanted it on.  Perhaps he was thinking ahead when pictures like this would be shown at his wedding...

 

 

So, we frequently get asked how LB is adjusting to life in our crazy household.  We are still in "dressing training" and having success...most of the time.  Lots and lots of complaining accompanies this barbaric ritual of "dressing one's self"

 

Victory is sweet!

 

He still tends to favor the "mermaid" look with his pants.  He puts both legs in one hole.  You can see on the left (his right) that there should be a leg in that space that flaps around like a tail.

 

 

We decided that he needed a haircut after this photo.  Doesn't he look like "Mr. Heat Miser" from the old Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie?

 

Well, the shearing began, and I gasped when I came out and saw what looked like a little old man, very thin on top and thicker on the sides.  Of course his dad wasn't done with him yet, but I didn't realize his hair would be so short.  Neither did his dad.  Oops.

 

Here is the finished product complete with cheesy grin.  And if you're wondering why little hands seem to be holding the clippers in the background, it's because the WTs were giving their dad a haircut.  I'm afraid those pictures will have to wait until I can upload them on a faster computer.  It has taken me sooooo much time to put these up, and time is a hot commodity around here.  I think mine keeps getting stolen, or I keep losing it.  All I know is, I don't have much of it.

 

Not bad for a parting shot, eh?

 

 

 

Back in the proverbial saddle

School is back in session, so I thought I'd show pictures of my students.

The "P" stands for "preschool," not "problematic pipsqueaks"

 

 I asked him to "hold it higher," and this is his interpretation

 

 Now for the big kiddos... first, the littlest big kid...

 

Not sure what inspired this thuggish expression on Bob

 

I am slightly frightened looking at this "8." This means high school begins next year!!!

 

 

Okay, so how many people does it take to swing a toddler?  Apparently three to help him on the swing, one to document the process.

 

As you can see, it starts off well, LB is all smiles, until....

 

We realize he does not know how to keep himself seated on the swing.  Look at Kimi's reaction, it's priceless.

 

 He clearly could not keep his seat on the seat.  We were able to get him back on, but after a few swings, he fell off when he flipped forward. 

 

  After that traumatic event, he needed comforting from his favorite person.

 

 Others fared better on the swings...

 

"Swing" by and visit us again for more pictures!

 

I got pics, lots of pics.  But that's all people want anyway...

Before I start, I thought I'd address my use of the kids' initials instead of their names.  I was told that it is best to not give the kids' real names.  So I'm going to act like one of those cool mom bloggers who has hundreds of followers and give my kids nicknames.  I'll list them by age, oldest to youngest: Big D., Bob, Sissy, Kimi, Monkey Boy, and LB.

 Here's Kimi teaching LB how to abscond with their older sister's footwear.

 

I was surprised at this one...Kimi wanted LB on her lap while we were reading books.

 

 I think she is starting to enjoy being a big sister.  Technically she's been a big sister since she got here, but now she has a little brother who acts like one.

So do things like this happen in your house?  I heard someone rather urgently calling my name.  After a brief search, this is what I found.  Any guesses who might be in the box?

Were you right? Kind of predictable, huh?

I had to call for reinforcements on this one.  The same child managed to get his head stuck in the banister.  The only way to get him out was to slide him through.

That was, of course, after I snapped some pictures.

This next series of pictures if of my youngest learning how to put on a shirt.  Yes, usually kids his age have been putting on and taking off their clothes for years, okay, months...usually when you don't want them to (oh, like say, dropping their drawers in front of a group and insisting it was okay saying,  "But the girls laughed").  Self-reliance is not one of our son's goals in life.  The other day there was a cord laying across a doorway (it was on the ground, not stretched taut across the doorway).  When LB wanted to go through the doorway, he looked at the cord, pointed to it and loudly and with urgency called, "MAMA!"  The response he received was, "Step over it."  He did.

He starts off enjoying the process...

He realizes that his shirt was not on quite right and tries to correct it.
 

 Now, about those pesky arms...what am I supposed to do with them?

 

 There are no arm holes, this is a trick!!!!!

 

 Not so much fun now, Mom...

 Success, kind of... should we tell him that it's on backward???

 

The next series of pictures we'll call "head shots."

 

Here's one muppity moppity monkey boy

 

 He decided to hide those tresses "under" a special head covering (get it?)

 

We found this great wig when we were at Grandma and Grandpa's.  Not sure if they were trying to look like Grandma... I know I'm totally biased here, but does this kid have a great grin or what?

Bob decided to enhance his look with the addition of a lovely chapeau and handpuppet sidekick.

 

I've got a lot more pictures, but I thought I'd give an update on our present adoption process.  Those of you "in the know" might remember that we were hoping to adopt a little girl at the same time we were in process with LB.  We started a new set of paperwork (dossier) for her, but she was matched with another family.  We still wanted to proceed with another adoption and expected to have our dossier into China this past spring, but were told it would be more like this month.

 

Flashback to a few weeks ago.  It's a long story, but our agency told us they could no longer provide the services we needed in submitting a new dossier.  We would be getting back all the dossier documents we provided, but would have to start over on a brand new homestudy with a new agency.  (A homestudy is basically a report a social worker writes up based on interviews, questionnaires, visits, medical reports, letters of reference, etc.  There's a lot of time and paperwork that goes into a homestudy).  We are now working with two new agencies, each needing its own set of paperwork from us.  Just to give you a sample of what the paperwork looks like, I took a picture of our first sets for both agencies...notice I said first set...

 

Oh well, it'll keep me busy since my life is so dull and uneventful.....