Riding and a new doll..

More horseback riding today. We had two helpers, one named Ally who led the horse, and Lynn who helped Alexa. She is learning how to say mmmo (more) when she wants Babe to go forward, and give her thank you pats. They play a game where Alexa chooses a toy from a box, and then drops it into a bucket thing a little ways away. They also have a "bridge" (a piece of plywood) that they walk over, which makes a neat clop clop clop sound from Babe's hooves, and Alexa laughs and laughs. She loves funny sounds.

I finally made a doll for Alexa. I bought a kit for making a Waldorf doll just before we left Eugene, and it has been sitting there for almost three years. A very interesting experience. Here she is with arms sewn to head, but body and legs still separate.

And here we have her current status, with hair, but no clothes yet. Alexa loves her almost as much as sock monkey, and that is saying a lot. David proposes we name her Melody (yes, after you Melody,) and I think that is a good idea since m and y sounds are among the few Alexa can say so far. Would you be honored or offended?

A few silly Christmas pictures

There weren't any really photographically excellent pictures on my camera when I downloaded them this morning, so we'll have to just go with what I got. Here is Alexa with her cousin Christopher who did not want to cooperate. Alexa, Aunt Dang and Christopher.

Alexa and Uncle Chris.

Aunt Carolyn, David and Alexa opening presents.

Alexa's favorite present.

We went to Florence Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Sunday. We ate lots of cookies and pies and other unhealthy food. I got some knitting done, and Alexa and Christopher got to play together. They get along so well. Alexa is in a hugging stage, where she hugs everyone when she sees them for the first time in the morning, and before they go anywhere outside. Christopher put up with this very well for the first few days, but by Sunday he was a little tired of being hugged all the time. The weather was cold and wet and windy, so we stayed inside and watched the ocean through the windows by the fire.

Snow and friends

We had some more snow, and this time, some friends to play in it with.. Lisa, Marissa and Brendan came up and stayed with us Friday and Saturday.

Marissa and Alexa enjoyed reading books together.

Or having David, or Lisa or me read books to them.

I made matching hats for Alexa and myself with my handspun yarn..it has a lot of "character" because I spun it on a drop spindle and I was just learning at that point. (I am still learning in fact)

Ginger Cookies

Can you believe it? Two posts in one day? Well, it is a snow day, so Alexa and I haven't left the house all day (except to go outside for 10 minutes to play in the snow.) I took this opportunity to make some ginger cookies. I have enjoyed ginger cookies from the Seattle's Best cafe in our Border's Books, and have wanted to try and make some myself. They are the chewy kind with bits of crystallized ginger in them. I used this recipe from the Allrecipes site. I used 1 stick of butter plus 1/4 cup Crisco, because I didn't have margerine. Then at the end I added 1/2 C of crystallized ginger all chopped up. They are really yummy..

Do we like this stuff?

Well, we weren't sure at first, but then we thought we'd try riding the tricyle in it..which doesn't work very easily to be sure.

Also, it seems like when it snows, we all of a sudden can't find our nice warm fleecy mittens that we had last week, and all of our hats are too small, so first we try the pair of mittens that are too big, and then a pair of mommy's wool socks, also too big, before settling on a pair of our own small cotton socks. Not as warm, but at least they stayed on. Also we are wearing mommy's Calorimetry headband because it is wool and adjustable

We didn't stay out for long because it is only 25 degrees. No school today. We are sad. We love school.

Snow?!?

While I am always reluctant to post without pictures, I am so excited about the snow that is supposed to be coming our way that I can hardly sit still. The only problem is that it might not come before it gets dark, and then I would have to wait until tomorrow to really see it. Since sunset is at 4:34 today, that is a very real possibility. Earlier in the week the predictions were for it to snow last night and today, but they keep pushing it out a little at a time. I went out last night and got apple cider in preparation..what is more fun than sitting around the (gas) fireplace, sipping cider while it is snowing? Well, knitting, while sitting around the fire, sipping cider while it snows outside..or maybe reading without getting interrupted by a persistent four-year-old who wants me to read her Curious George book to her, while sipping cider..well you get the idea.
In actual news, we had the second home study interview on Tuesday afternoon, and it went pretty well. This is the one where she talked to David and I separately. (Another fairly new requirement from the Hague convention) I can see the point of this. What if one parent really didn't want to adopt very badly, or wanted to reveal some crucial information of some sort privately, then this would be the opportunity to do so. However, this social worker is writing a report about us that will be sent to Ethiopia, and what if we come across as two people who are completely clueless about each other? The other thing about home studies is that they are full of wierd, almost unanswerable questions. What three words would you use to describe yourself? Each other? How would you describe your childhood (Yeah, in a short paragraph)? What qualities do you hope to instill in your children?
The one thing I did find reassuring was that kindness was the word of the day. That is what I love in David, what I value in myself, what I want my children to be.

Horseback riding

For some reason Blogger has changed things so that the pictures are in reverse order, but you'll get the idea. I took Alexa to a local stable today to ride a horse. The horse's name is Babe and she is a very gentle creature. Alexa loved it so much. We have set up a time to go weekly.

She didn't seem at all worried or scared, even at first.

I took some antihistamine because I am allergic to horses, but I don't know if it worked or not because there are a bunch of very aggressively friendly barn cats. I am most allergic to cats, so I did have some allergy symptoms, but they were fairly minor, and could have been caused by the cat who jumped in my lap and rubbed all over my clothes!

Alexa's new sweater,

I made Alexa a sweater. It is really cute on her. We are trying to set up a way for Alexa to get some horseback riding as a physical therapy type activity. I think she will love it.

We took her swimming yesterday at TAC where I go. They have a warm pool and family swim time on Saturday. She loved it. My mom got her a flotation thing that keeps her head pretty well out of the water, and after a while she was willing to let go of us and splash around by herself. The other times we've taken her swimming she clung to us like a little monkey and wouldn't let go, so this is progress.

I haven't posted any bathtub pictures lately, but taking a bath continues to be one of Alexa's favorite things to do.

We have our first of two home study interviews today, and I am trying not to freak out too much. Honestly though, how can I not? Someone (albeit a very nice lady who did our home study for Alexa's adoption) is coming to our house to judge whether our home and family are good enough to place another child in. Although the reasonable part of me says, "All homes where people live with young children get cluttered," the emotional, panicky voice chimes in with "what if she decides that if you can't even manage to keep the house clean with one kid, what are you going to do with two?" Or, "you already have a child who demands lots of extra time, you should just focus on her." And on, and on, and on..

Here is something I learned. Kids like Alexa who have sensory issues sometimes require a lot of extra stimulation. As most of you know, Alexa grinds her teeth and chews on her clothes to get this, and I have been trying to make her stop. We have tried giving her rubber things on a bit of elastic around her neck, but she won't chew on those, she prefers cloth, so yesterday I got her a cloth bib. She chewed on that thing for the rest of the day, and she was happy. Apparently, some part of her really needs that, and once she has it, she can focus on other things.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It has been a little extra busy around here since we have had Lee and Dellas since Monday, but we came through. David's sister Carolyn, our friend Conrad, and Adam, Lisa Marissa and Brendan came yesterday for dinner. Lisa and I decided to split the cooking about a month ago. I brined the turkey and cooked it in an oven bag, and it came out just right. (What a relief!) I also had to make Lime Jello Salad, a long-standing family tradition. Lisa made wilted spinach salad, dinner rolls, and a cranberry relish that was delicious. We skipped the stuffing this year, but also had mashed potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole (from beans I grew in my little garden!).
So here we are eating. Brendan helped himself to Alexa's mashed potatoes.

Then we tried to take a group photograph. This was so funny, I wish I had time to show you the whole slide show, but you know what happens when you try to get 6 adults and 3 kids in one photo.

And just to keep life interesting, Alexa tripped and fell off the curb on the way into Bible Study Wednesday, and hurt her foot. She has been limping or crawling since then. And yesterday afternoon she fell and broke her glasses by hitting her face. The temple piece broke off again, and she was bleeding a little bit above her eye.

Another cool BBC thing

This is called A Day in Pictures.

I have been trying to figure some things out lately about Alexa and her various developmental issues. We have been going to physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy for over a year now, and while we are making progress in Speech and OT, it seems like we are kind of stuck on the physical therapy front. We have been working on the same skills for most of the year, and not seeing a lot of progress. I have asked her early intervention teacher and therapists for a meeting to see what we can figure out, and I asked for sources of information about kids like Alexa. The speech therapist sent me some links to sites that were helpful, but I started running into the problem of not having a name for Alexa's condition. At one point we were told that Alexa has global development delay. However, the closest thing I can find on is something called Pervasive Developmental Delay-Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD-NOS, which is within the Autism Spectrum Disorders. The problem with this diagnosis is that it Alexa lacks key symptoms of Autistic disorders, and she has other symptoms not covered within this grouping, physical developmental delays for one. I did find another thing called Sensory Processing Disorder, which seems to fit Alexa better. I also took her to the chiropractor in Eugene this morning, and he told me some other things which support this. Unfortunately, it seems that we aren't going to get the perfect label, and there isn't going to be a book to tell me exactly what Alexa needs and how to provide it. Fortunately there are a lot of treatment possibilities for the symptoms Alexa does have. The chiropractor said there have been a lot of new articles in the journals about the cerebellum and its importance in coordination of not only the musculoskeletal system, but emotions and other things as well. He suggested that Alexa's sensory nervous system is not accurately relaying information, so she doesn't always have a good sense of where her limbs are for one thing..we are supposed to provide extra stimulation, to help her turn somersaults and do cross body skills like crawling. The SPD is when you can't process sensory information correctly, noise, pain, heat, cold can feel five times weaker or 5 times stronger than normal.
I apologize for the disjointed post. I have been getting a lot of information in the past few days, and I may not be relaying it in a coherent fashion, but I guess you can google for more info..

Italian Soup

Since I am running out of interesting things to say, I thought I would post a recipe. I sort of made this up the other day and it turned out really well, Alexa loved it, she even ate the meat, and as most of you know, she is mostly vegetarian.

1 lb mild Italian sausage (or I suppose you could use spicy)
1 can white beans (14.5 oz?)
1 can tomato sauce (14.5 oz)
1 can diced tomatos (14.5 oz)
1 small zuccini diced
2 cups sliced mushrooms (I used those ones that look like button mushrooms but with dark brown tops)
a bunch of fresh spinach
basil, thyme, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper, crushed red pepper if you like (I do)

I took the sausage out of the skins and fried it like ground beef, then add the mushrooms and cook until much of the water is released. Then I added the zuccini and sauteed a bit. Then the tomatos and beans and a little extra water or chicken broth. Then I tore up bits of the spinach and put it in. Then add the spices to taste. I recommend being generous with the spices. Most of you know that dried spices do not go bad really, but they do get weaker. In fact you are supposed to buy only the amount of any given spice that will be used within a year. I have to admit I have spices in my cupboard that have been there for years.
I also added a little Parmesan to top this, and served with Parmesan toast, but that was very non-low-carb of me!

What's going on at our house.

Alexa got bangs. I am not a big advocate of bangs, but Alexa's hair grows straight forward from the crown of her head, and is very thin. She chewed on it, and got food in it, and couldn't see because it was always in her face. I got tired of trying to comb her hair several times a day, especially since she isn't so good at holding still. (as those of you who go to meeting with us will attest to) This works fairly well, all I have to do is wash it and comb it out. We are still working on paperwork for our adoption. Our current plan is to adopt from Ethiopia. Some of you will know that we were originally planning on Nepal, but Holt felt that because of our health issues (my Charcot-Marie-Tooth) that we shouldn't be one of the first families to adopt from Nepal. So they suggested Korea or Ethiopia, and due to the waiting period for Korea and the limited number of states Holt can place Korean children in, we went with Ethiopia. We are currently waiting for David's birth certificates to arrive, and a letter from my doctor saying that my CMT won't hinder me from parenting acceptably. Anyway-I feel a little unsure about sharing all of this because there is still a chance we could not get approved, but I am optimistic.

I have started swimming again for exercise at Timberhill. They have childcare which makes it possible for me to swim during the day, and Alexa loves to go play with the other kids, the slide and the bazillion toys they have there. I am a little frustrated by the fact that I haven't really lost any weight yet despite the fact that I am swimming every day, and am now swimming about 65% of a mile. Fortunately the boost to my mental health that I get from the exercise is sufficient reason to continue. I have been going for exactly a month now, anyone know when I will start getting some positive feedback from my bathroom scale?

Alexa and Sophia together

Holly and I took some pictures of the girls together. They were fun, but not great. We finally called in Dana for some better family pictures, but these were pretty cute-so I thought I would post them.

Halloween with the cousins.

We had a visit from Jamie, Sophia, Holly and Nana. (Known to some of you as Sue :) The pumpkin carving was carried out mostly by David and Holly. It is hard work to carve a pumpkin.

We also had a little kids Halloween party, which was a lot of fun. Reese, Carsten, Zooey and Kaia came over with their moms!

Our "fairy" eating mashed potatoes, how prosaic. (I think that's the word I want)

The group shots were very entertaining. Kaia didn't like it much, so all the kids were watching her cry most of the time.

Trick or treating..

A group shot, out of order..not sure why.