Rainbows and Color Theory Fun

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, the last two weeks, we've spent some time doing things with colors and rainbows. (Because you all know that my 2 1/2 year old understands exactly what St. Patrick's Day is all about and totally embraces the holiday. More like, we like to do fun stuff and we need to work on saying the names of the colors. But I digress...)

Anyway, the first activity I found at Family Fun. Red and blue and yellow jello overlap and then mix for great color theory experiements. Like an ever changing stained glass window. (Click on the link for the complete instructions.) Not only is it a color activity, but it does help with sensory issues. (You can feel the squishy gelatin without actually touching the squishy gelatin.) And it's really fun to smash it up into little bits and then watch them run together as you hold the bag upside down.

The second thing we did was to make rainbows. I used a mirrored candle plate as a prism to refract sunlight onto the floor and walls. Kenson loved it. The rainbows moved over the floor, onto the wall, onto his hand...very interesting if you're two. Then we made a musical inspired rainbow toy, to wave when we listened to music. (Kenson loved shaking it and waving it when he watched Barney in Concert in the afternoon.) We tied lengths of rainbow colored ribbon onto a canning jar lid. I think I stole that idea from someplace online but I can't find the orginal site. (The idea behind this would also make great ponytail holders if you've got a girl. Just tie the ribbon onto a plain elastic ponytail holder.)

The Tale of a Two Year Old's Cracker

3:00 p.m. in cup

3:01 in boy's mouth

3:15 p.m. outside with boy and mother

3:20 on dirty table on deck

3:30 in snow shovel

3:40 in toy shovel

3:45 on deck

3:50 in dog's water bowl (no water, phew!)

3:55 in dog's water bowl, sliding down the slide

4:00 in boy's mouth

4:05 back inside

4:06 on kitchen floor, next to dust bunnies and small pieces of who knows what

4:10 in boy's mouth

4:11 out of crackers

Menu Planning Monday

Baked Bean Sloppy Joes (Brown hamburger. Add to 1 or 2 cans of canned baked beans. Add ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, Worchestershire, and dried onion to taste. Serve on buns. Easiest sloppy joes ever!)
Fresh fruit
Mixed veggies

Easy cheesy hashbrowns (Mix 30 oz. frozen hashbrowns with 1 cup shredded cheese and a few dried chopped onions. Put 1/2 in a greased 9 x 13 pan. Add a layer of shredded cheese. Add the remaining potatoes. Top with 1 cup of sour cream mixed with 1 can cream of chicken soup and more cheese. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or so.)
Tuna Patties (1 can of tuna, drained, 1 egg, chopped celery and onion, and breadcumbs. Form into patties and cook in a large skillet.)
Green beans

Chilli (Just a dump recipe using tomato juice, kidney beans, chilli beans, chopped steak, onion, celery, water, beef boullion, and chilli poweder, all in the slow cooker for the day.)
Garlic bread
Fruit

BBQ chicken sandwiches
Glazed cooked carrots
Green beans

Cabbage patch soup
Garlic bread

Corned beef and cabbage with potatoes

Corned beef hash (Haven't ever made this before. I'm going to combine my leftover corned beef with thawed frozen potatoes, onion, carrots, and maybe some leftover cabbage. Then I'll brown it in a skillet with some butter.)
Fresh fruit

God and Me-The Needed Thing

I'm reading Blue Like Jazz right now which is a book I've been wanting to read for quite awhile. I'm also reading through Colossians as that's what Gregg is preaching on. I'd rather read Blue Like Jazz. I hate that I look at reading through Colossians as a have to, not a want to. Blue Like Jazz and the book I just finished, Martha to Max, have both pointed out how performance based life usually is. I so often do things because I should do it or because I need to do it, with all the shoulds and needs coming from somewhere deep in my brain that wants to keep from disappointing or doing the wrong thing. And half the time I don't think I even know who or what I'm worried about disappointing. I am a "driven" person and I think that's part of that personality trait. Anyway, Blue Like Jazz and Martha to the Max have both cut to the point of what is needed in life and that needed thing is often not even closely related to the thoughts that swirl around in my mind. (And gasp! Reading Colossians so I can proudly say I'm in step with our minister or so I can check it off my to do list for God is not what is needed!)

The truth is we live in a fallen world where people when left to their own devices are selfish, where people choose to do things that serve their own needs be it overt and obvious like being closefisted with our money or simply subconscious desires like not wanting to disappoint. And at the same time, our hearts are intertwined with God's. Somehow, because we are His creation, He chooses to love us and wants us to be close to Him. And that's the needed thing: to recognize our brokenness and be close to God.

As Christians we complicate it. To be honest, more than other groups at times, Christians can be really good at missing the needed thing and focusing on everything else. Our humanness gets obsessed with the details both in our own individual relationships with God and in the relationships we see that others have with God. In our own relationships, we over analyze and try to figure God out. Why does bad stuff happen? Can you really prove God exists? What will happen if Jesus comes back right now? And when we look at others, we think and say things like "I'm not sure they really mean it when they say they want to be a Christian." or "I'm sure they must have done something very sinful to be in that situation. (To be homeless, to have AIDS, to have 3 kids and be unmarried, etc.)

Honestly, I don't think God really cares all that much about any of that stuff. He wants us to choose what is needed: to be living in an intimate way with Him. I'm not saying God doesn't care about the second coming or that it's bad to work through why life is sometimes really rotten. And I'm not saying that people shouldn't have changed lives once they encounter God. But so much of that peripheral stuff is just that: it's stuff that is on the outlying edges of life. It is not what is needed and not where our focus should lie. So I think God has been at work in me reminding me about what is needed. Less real time commentary and deep thinking on God's involvement in the things of this world and more abiding, being at rest in His presence. Less worrying about what so and so is doing and how they are living, less wanting to change that person and their actions, and more praying for them (and myself) to continually know God's presence in their hearts.

Laughs from the week

From Kenson's lips...We've been trying to get Kenson to not push the buttons on our electonics. (I know, it's probably a loosing battle but we've got so much stuff with buttons that can't be toddler proofed so I'm going to try.) Anyway, I was in another room when I heard the tv being turned off. Then I heard Kenson saying "no, no, no" and watched as he sat himself down on the stairs for a time out.

From my lips..."Next time kiss me without food in your mouth." (That was said to Kenson, not D, just in case you're wondering.)

From D's lips...Regarding the medicated spray we've been using to treat ringoworm, "I get to grafitti my child every night! This is great!" We used up the first can so I quickly grabbed some at Walmart and grabbed the powdered spray rather than the regular spray. Powdered spray on a black child? Um, well, it's white when it comes out and it stays white for quite a while when you spray it on. I think you see what D meant. If only Kenson were a bit bigger, then we could really do some impressive work! Maybe spell out names or special dates or something.

Sleep deprivation and other sleep related unpleasantries

After over a month of sleeping through the night, Kenson has been waking up in the middle of the night. He usually comes into our bedroom. No tears, no noise except the sound of little footprints. I just picked him up and put him in bed next to us when this first started. But then it started happening every night. And it would get earlier every night with Kenson spending less and less time in his own bed and more and more time in our bed. (And Mama and Papa got less and less sleep as they tried to share their bed with a toddler.)

Situations like that bring to the forefront what I think is one of the biggest issues adoptive parents deal with: why is my child doing this? Is it related to emotions related to adoption? Or is just a kid being a kid? It's important to know the difference because it may make a difference in how you parent at that moment in time.

I tried a couple of different things once it got noticeably worse. I tried rocking him back to sleep. I tried laying on the air mattress in his room with him in his crib. I tried just putting him back in his crib and walking away. None of it worked. He would wake up as soon as I put him down and then refuse to go back to sleep. He would sleep but then crawl onto the air mattress with me if I fell asleep. He would cry for a few minutes and then lie awake for an hour of more once I was back in my room.

So onto plan h. My friend, Heather, has always had a wake up spot in her room for any one of her kids who happen to wake up during the night. So that's my new plan. I took our two oversized floor cushions and put our crib mattress pad and a sheet over them and laid them on the floor, at the foot of our bed. So when he came in last night, I put him on the floor and all three of us were back to sleep in no time. I'm hoping this solves the problem. I can live with him needing to be near us if he wakes up. I can't live with him needing to be on me if he wakes up!

The other unpleasantries? Stupid, stupid time change! Okay, I love that it's not dark by suppertime but trying to convince your two year old to fall asleep an hour earlier is just plain stinky. (Not to mention that it makes me have to get up a whole hour earlier.) Kenson laid in bed for almost an hour tonight before he fell asleep. He wasn't being naughty; he just couldn't fall asleep because his body still thinks it's too early. Poor little guy!

So Much to Learn

Kenson has learned so much in the last 4-5 weeks.

He enjoys taking baths and loves the water. (No more crying and refusing to take his clothes off. We have to tell him to keep them on until we're ready for him.)

Kenson has a love-hate relationship with our dogs rather than just a hate filled one. (More like, it was a fear filled one.) He often holds out his hand and says "Veni Tutu!" which means "Come, puppy!" Then when they get close, he giggles and runs to one of us. It's like a constant game of "come here, come here", "get away, get away."

He is willing to try just about any kind of food and has eaten cookies, all sorts of soups, lasagna, and pizza. He tried a cheeseburger too. And he even ate an apple wedge the other day. (But of course wouldn't let me cut off the peel so he was constantly spitting out the red stuff onto his plate.)

He says at least 15-20 English words like no more, upstairs, shoes, outside, books, more, bath, eat, drink, brush teeth, cat, squirrel, puppy, baby, diaper, garbage, and downstairs. He understands a lot more English phrases like pick your toys up, wait, go in the car, put on your pajamas, watch tv, that's mama's, throw the ball, etc..

He's also started testing the waters when someone tells him no. (Usually Mama since D's at work.) He doesn't always stop when you tell him no. (Surprise, surprise!) When he first came home, the word no was enough. Now he's starting to wonder if we mean it and what the consequences will be for not listening. (Our time out spot, the stairs, have been well used this week.)