Mind in the Gutter

If it's been raining, Jasmine's mind is in the gutter. I'm lucky if I can do any clothing preparation before she's out the door. Stomp, splash, jump, run, stop, skip, step, splash.

Airport Security

Somehow these three made it through the security checkpoint.

We went to Indiana for the wedding of the kids' cousin Ashley. We stayed in a hotel by Aunt Julie and Uncle Jeff who know how to entertain kids. Books, balloons and silly string were among the many entertainments. Needless to say, the kids didn't want to go back to boring ol' Colorado.

My Kai

Kai saw the paragraph I wrote about Jasmine for her Anchor Center School graduation. He wondered, in a carefully casual way, how I would describe him. I was a caught off-guard and said that I had had a few minutes to think about it before I'd written that all down. I have some quiet time, so I can organize a paragraph's worth of thoughts. It's impossible of course to write down even a small bit of all the amazing things I think of any of my children, but here's a little bit.



When Kai entered my life, the entire world changed for me. I became acutely aware of the fragility of life and the amazing size and strength of love that I possessed in my heart. These feelings were, sometimes still are, overwhelming and frightening and magnificent. Theo and I found a deep resonance in a quote from Elizabeth Stone, “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” I don't know that my epiphanies since his birth are appropriately grouped with a description of him, but he heralded a more vivid and meaningful life.



Kai can immerse himself into stories and worlds of imagination, traditional romantic sensibilities, humorous and fantastic realities. He has an appreciation of the asthetic elements of pose and figure beyond his age. He's not afraid to pour into these worlds his heart and intelligence without reservation. Kai has an amazing memory and a strong will that, when directed to a task, is truly amazing.

He engages his imagination and intuition toward projects with wonderful results. Writing comic scripts within the Alice environment, he shows off both his great comedic timing as well as the behind-the-scenes technical programming talent. His power of concentration is remarkable. Kai also shows off a natural talent for mathematical and scientific concepts. The ability to both abstract the natural world and predict its workings is a rare quality.

When he engages his enthusiasm it is irresistably contagious. Anyone who has watched him, knows that he is a people person, especially with the ladies. He turns on the charisma, opens his heart and shamelessly flirts, eshews aloofness for earnestness and engenders genuine affection.

Go Ask Your Mother

Kids: Whoa! What's THAT?!

Me: It's a fish head.

Kids: Cool... Wait, woah! AAAAGH!

It's a FISH HEAD! A REAL FISH HEAD! EEEEeew, I touched it! You touched it! That's it's eye! Eeeeeewww! Mom!! You didn't tell me it was real! That's a FISH HEAD! Mom! A real fish head come look! Touch it! It's so gross! Yuck, it's all slimy! Mom! You touch the eye, it's a FISH HEAD!

Amazing how many of our conversations go this way.

Jasmine's Flintstone-Model Automobile

I missed the weirdest part where twenty identical Jasmine's came out of the car doing somersaults.

Interest Fair -- Rowan and the Toads

Kinda like a Science Fair, but not so many measurements. Rowan studied our fire-bellied toads with a happy emphasis on toad mating (more on the toads at Macro). We made recordings!

Jasmine listens to the mating call of the fire-bellied male toad.

Rowan whistles while he waits for student and parental passersby to come and listen to horny toads.

Next Teen Heart Throb?

He's trying.

I love that shade of green on him (looks good on Jae too). That ear though -- it is begging to be photoshopped.

Elf, gelfling, vulcan, imp, fairy prince .... so many possibilities. Mwahahahaha.

Single Critique from the Master

Beautiful pose. You are too cute to be moved, lest you waken. But you significantly dilute the effect by not blocking the whole of the stairway.

Jasmine's Science Experiments

Hypothesis: Kai cannot be distracted from a DVD.
Materials and Methods: 40 lb hyperactive, 5 year-old, Durabrand DVB620 DVD Player, randomly chosen rated-G DVD.
Experimental Method: See documentary photography below.
Results:No signs of consciousness from test subject.
Conclusion: Hypothesis not disproved. More experiments should be conducted. Preferably with a motion camera.

The Princess Bat

The Princess Bat, featuring the images of Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty on its lavendar and pink surface, is actually much more dangerous than you would think.

Dog Day

About once a month guide dogs come to visit the kids at the Anchor Center. Jasmine isn't always keen on dogs, primarily because of the chance that they might bark. She feels a little better with leash in hand.

Easter Kidnapping

Well, the bunnies are at it again. They wanted a significant ransom, directions regarding which way to turn once you get to Albuquerque and baskets that had wheels (like the suitcases). The SWAT team was able to take this one out (why would you kidnap someone when you have such an absurdly large head?), but were worried about the inevitable bad press. Jasmine ended up giving him a good twack in the head with her cane and escaping while the SWAT team was discussing options with the PR team.

Actually, this was part of an Egg Hunt put on by the Mariott for Anchor Center School for Blind Children. You can see some pictures at the Denver Post photo gallery (though you'll have to click on "next screen" to get to the set of pictures).

The Science Fair

When it came time to decide upon a science fair project, Kai happened to be "in a mood". Nothing was fun, nothing was interesting, everything was dumb and why couldn't he just go play a video game, etc. I asked him to write a list of his favorite 10 things so we could get a science project he'd like. To demonstrate he was not going to have any of it, he listed things like TV, Nintendo, reading, ... and then "blowing things up." Now that last item, I could work with.

The project ended up being about pressure (with some sneaky education on the Ideal Gas Law). We blew up plastic bottles with the bike pump. Didja know an exploding bottle Aquafina water bottle with 110 lbs of pressure can blow through a cardboard box? Cool, huh?

Kai learned valuable lessons: explosions can be passed off as educational, mom will show you how to use the power tools if it is part of your homework, blast shields can be repaired with duct tape, and repetition is actually required for scientific experimentation, and you can still ham around for the camera.

Origami Bit My Son

I made Rowan a "Venus Fly Trap" from one of my favorite origami books: Origami to Astonish and Amuse, by Jeremy Shafer. It's a great moving model and fun way to wait for our real Venus Fly Traps to finish stratifying.

School Front Dancing

Jasmine and our friend Renee were waiting for their siblings to get out of class. They spent their time dancing and strutting. I cranked up Dr. Noize (see previous post) and opened the trunk to get the full blast of the speakers. I'm trying to help advance the "juvenile delinquent" reputation of our children.

Dr Noize!

Way back, New Year's Eve, I took the kids to their first live concert. Before the event, Jasmine played with intense sunlight on her T-shirt's sequins. They loved it, so their teenage rock phase should be fun.

Doctor Noize (aka Cory Culligan) is an absolute blast. He is a local kids' musician with a CD (samples)and book out along with a T-shirt. We now own them all as well as learning all the lyrics to the Banana song. :) To the delight of all the kids, he has parents come up and embarrass themselves in front of their children.

Valentine Roses

I'd actually intended to post a couple other things next. I'll get caught up, really I will. Theo titled the right photo Stem Smell Research. Puns force themselves to the front of the line.

By the bye, a rabbit, definitely a rabbit.

Rabbit or Walrus?

I say rabbit, Kai thinks walrus. This is a picture from NOAH back in July/August of 2008. One of those pictures you find while trying to find something else. :)

Caption James

If I study them carefully, I will know all their plans.

What do you think about having another?

I have studied too much.

The Ghost of Stan Laurel ...

... has possessed my dad.

This first picture at Christmas showed a notable resemblance, but it didn't seem uncanny. When I pulled an old Laurel and Hardy picture into Photoshop, I thought I'd have to do a lot of dinking to fit Dad's face over Laurel's.

Nope. The only difference I needed to compensate for was that Laurel's ears extend higher than Dad's, maybe by half an inch at most. The rest was pretty much an overlay.

So now we know, Dad's TRUE calling is to become a Stan Laurel impersonator.

Finger Pampering

Jasmine also got a wonderful surprise, her first professional manicure. Priscilla was definitely the one to introduce her to that particular indulgence. The dresses, shoes, nail polish, hair fashion, love of jewlery and most importantly left-handedness all point to Jasmine definitely taking after her grandmother.

The Big Mirror

Jasmine loved the mirror wall in Granddad and Grandmom's room. She could play in there for hours. At her school, Anchor Center, they also have a large mirror for tap dance class.

Very Scary

I'm not sure what to say about this one other than it scares me in a future-high-school-bail-sort-of-way. I was also scared in a present-sort-of-way that he was going to do something very unfortunate to Priscilla's crystal and we'd have to chop off a hand or something.

Stop and Smell the Roses

My sister and I share a certain sensibility. She had all the sensibility when I bought the vase; she gave some back to me when I gave her the vase, seeing that I could obviously use so.

I appreciate having someone who likes to share oddities as much as I do. I guess that means we'll soon be taking turns babysitting for each other.

Working on the Eeee-vil Smile

I pointed the camera at Rowan and he smiled ... and smiled ... and smiled. I'm used to the plasticizing of my kids' smiles when they realize the focus is on them, but this was slightly creepy. I took the picture just to get him to stop. When he got the chance to see the photo, he was thrilled. "I'm practicing my evil smile, Mom!" I think he has a little way to go.
Rowan teaches Jazz the finer points of a swift uppercut.
A slinky always has a bit of magic, especially when the weilder has an expression like this one.

A Traditional Xmas

Nothing like a traditional xmas with Cleo-medival-princess (Jazz) and Ralph-Bakshi's Fritz (me).

Faces of Kai

Goofy Kai and Kai who is bored, thinking, sleepy, sad? I think he was sleepy given some of the other shots in the group. But, he does spend quite a bit of time fretful, anxious, pensive. I worry that some of my less desirable mental traits have been passed on to him through genes or environment. I guess every parent worries about that. I suppose my best plan is to try and guide him through any similar problems (and do I have the experience with that), while avoiding exacerbating them with my own symptoms.

Since it was a long car trip he could have also been about to ask "Are we there yet?" See, I'm doing it again.

Photographically, I like the color tone on each. In the pic on the left, like the comfort at home (though I suppose the setting only comes across as inside). On the right his mood is not so vibrant outside. I like the in-your-face whimsy and eyes shut trust of the first; the second is distant (illustrated by the seatbelt in the foreground) and the tilt of his head to the side isn't actively engaging the viewer.

I'm so artsy-fartsy.

Model Shot

This is one of the few recent shots I've gotten of Jasmine where she's not laughing her head off. If she hadn't been talking a moment later, I would have thought she was sleeping. Wow, those glasses are going to be really useful when she hits high school.

Two years ago, when we started her in preschool, like Theo, I could hardly have imagined that she would be ready for the 2009-2010 kindergarten year. She could barely walk in 2006 (http://kai-rowan-jasmine.blogspot.com/2006/08/theos-gotcha-day-0802-letter-home.html), was in diapers, wasn't eating solid food and had a nearly non-existent speaking vocabulary. Now she runs around like a maniac, recently figured out the potty in two week's time (even wiping and hand washing -- those of you parents will understand what a huge and remarkable thing that is), can eat raw carrots (she'll spew them if she starts laughing, but then who doesn't?), and won't stop talking. She's also now in independence the stage of "mine", "I saw it first", "Jasmine do it", "I said 'No, Mama,", etc.

She's zooming through each stage of development Kai and Rowan did, but in slightly different orders and a massively different pace. I've noticed most recently is her enjoyment of books. She's enjoying dialog and plot, understanding (and even telling and making up jokes), as well as remembering books the we haven't read for months. Before books were really about shapes and sounds, identifying objects and people and their relationship to one another. Now she's venturing deeper. Interestingly, and very amusing to me, is listening to her make-believe play with her Barbies. (Barbies make me shudder, but she seems to really enjoy them and concentrate on their "relationships" to each other in a way I never did.) When there is a dialog between Melissa Barbie and Nikki Barbie, Jasmine will throw in bookisms just like Kai and Rowan used to. Here's a typical example:

"Then Melissa says, 'Hi, Nikki. It's nice to meet you.'" Nikki says, "I'm wearing a pink beautiful dress.' Melissa says, 'Knock knock'. 'Who's there?' 'Boo' 'Boo who?' 'Don't cry, it's only a knock knock joke.' Then Jasmine giggles for them both.

Jasmine is really a three through five year-old, but I think kindergarten will be great.

Snow!

They are utterly nuts about snow. This was back at the beginning of December.

I think I used to be this excited about all those frozen flakes. Now that I'm old though, snow seems awfully ... cold.

I did go and buy some snow pants for myself in case of any sledding or skiing that may happen this season that might involve me. On this particular day, however, I was quite content to take the photos from inside the house.

Kai and Rowan tried surfing/snowboarding when I wouldn't let them sled off that five foot wall behind them. Jazz was content to examine the snow close up and eat it.

Playing with Water Prism

We have a glass water prism hanging from our south facing kitchen window. It was made by a stained glass artist selling at the Ren Fair a few years back. Since it's in the south facing window, we only get rainbows in the winter. Jasmine discovered this winter's first rainbows. She calls them "Beautiful Princess Rainbows." She tried to hold it, look into it, color her body with it and see if it would cancel out the wacky colored stripes she was wearing. This was a batch of pictures where I actually had too many to choose from rather than the typical one-in-one-hundred problem.

(I don't know why there is a big gap between the writing and the pictures. Weird.)

Birthday Girl

Jasmine turned 5 this November 19th. Amazing. Here she is reading her new (sigh) Barbie book. Her interest in Barbie has skyrocketted since receiving one from her babysitter as a birthday present. Every night she asks where her Barbie doll is so she can sleep with it. In the picture below, she's testing out the fairy wings and tutu she received. She is such a girlie-girl. Oh well. If that's what she wants for her birthday, who am I to argue? At least she likes to do all the same sword and gun fights, wrestling with her brothers, playing cars and playing with bugs.



It's strange to think that she's been with us almost as long as she'd been in the orphanage. This is about the time for Jasmine when adoption experts say that kids adopted from orphanages will be caught up to their peers. That is, one year at home for every one year in the institution. That's not quite been our experience, but then Jasmine had many extra obstacles to overcome. She's sort of a three-thru-five year old.

I've been pondering how many delays were due to lack of care, food and resources and how many were compounded due to her lack of vision. For instance, when we were teaching her how to chew I needed to get about an inch from her eyes, chew open-mouthed, and allow her to put her fingers in my mouth. This is when she actually figured out what to do with all this solid food. How much did this compound her malnutrition?

When we're working on sounds, the same thing applies, I get very close and make a sound (lately the "th" sound) and I point out key features like the fact that my tongue is sticking out from between my teeth. She feels and looks carefully and only then does she really get what she needs to do to make the sound. Basically, we need to do a few extra things to get her to the same skill and knowledge point as a normally sighted child.

It doesn't take much effort to get her up to speed, but it is a different method than what usually goes on. I don't think enough effort and acceptance is given to difference. Many people demonize the homogeneous culture of China for the rejection of people who aren't the norm. But, here in America we have similar attitudes. It isn't as severe, but sometimes (speaking as a weird, atheist geek) it seems the only reason is that there is an American reputation and Constitution preventing people from acting on their instincts.

Way Back Machine

This seems like it was a long time ago. Late July or August?

Right now snow is falling for the second day in a row. The kids are begging to go sledding, but Theo and I are trying to get those weekend chores done and eat up the rest of the Thanksgiving turkey. I feel guilty, but the day's not over. Maybe if one of us needs a nap, the other will go sledding.

I have a feeling that we're going to have snow for at least a few days.

Plaster-Claustro-Fidgety

Here's Rowan making his mask. He wanted to keep his nose and mouth clear so that he could mumble through the process. Unlike Kai, Rowan was very anxious to get the mask off. I don't think he found the experience as relaxing and centering as Kai did. He also wanted to get a look at his face in the mask. I think the Fanta helped in calming creature -- always keep bendy straws handy.

The Young Man in the Plaster Mask

The bestest thing about being a parent is being able to do all the fun projects, arts and crafts, experiments and model kits.

Here we have Kai sitting for a nearly full face plaster cast. He was very patient and lay completely still for 30 minutes. He was utterly silent. I think I'm going to be doing a few more of these masks. Maybe three or four a night. ;)

Jumping Girl

It's been a long while since I posted. It's hard to find the time since I got my job in Boulder. My off time I spend with the kids, so that leaves time to sleep. Theo and I did manage to use our new income to have a babysitter and date night. I'm not sure how we survived before date night. I think the kids feel the same way. They love having a hang out and movie night with Chansa. Kai has already reached the age where he "hangs out with Chansa" rather than "is babysat by Chansa." Jasmine loves her because she paints Jazz's nails different colors.



Jasmine insists on wearing a dress at every opportunity. Most of her dresses are spring dresses, so she can only wear them inside since the weather has gotten colder. She doesn't like dressing in pants and long sleeve shirts, but will tolerate it for the sake of going outside, which she loves. Hats and sunglasses are fine though, she puts these on by herself without prompting.



So, anyway, here she is. She heard me taking pictures and ran into the room saying, "Cheese! Cheese!" Well, it's hard to resist taking pictures when invited so cutely. Personally, I think her motivation is that she wants to see the little screen on the camera after I take the picture. One of her favorite things is looking at pictures of her friends, teachers and family. I make photo books for her and she'll spend hours staring at them and identifying the people in the photos. I think its a good exercise in using her vision.

Little Friends

Jasmine's favorite thing when hanging around outside is to hold little living creatures. Cicadas seem to be the best, next earthworms -- they both move slowly and have some real tactile characteristics. Sometimes we find a mellow grasshopper that doesn't mind close inspection.

Miss Jasmine

First off, apologies, I'm massively behind on my blogging and reading everyone's blogs. I'm more than two weeks behind. We definitely need to resupply on hours in the day.

These two pictures clearly indicate what children will do to your furniture and the focus of your living room decor.

Anyhow, Jasmine got a new steel string guitar and wouldn't let go of it the first few days. Yes, she even slept with it. Thus far we've only broken two strings and I can actually restring the thing unlike the nylon stringed ukulele-sized one I got before. I couldn't find replacement strings for the old guitar, but Toys R Us carries the strings for our current model.

Jasmine also wanted a "bra". While her attempts at wearing mine were quite amusing, I thought we should get something more her size. The scary thing: THEY CARRY BRAS FOR HER SIZE! I opted for something that looked more like a summer halter or swim top. She was happy. I was darned if I was going to buy her a padded one. THEY SELL PADDED BRAS INTENDED FOUR YEAR-OLDS!

In this second picture she's completed her ensemble with my old black flats. Note that she does not detract from the beauty of her bra by anything as gauche as a blouse, but nicely accessorizes with a green hat.

A side note, this is Jasmine's favorite way to watch a DVD. She can get very close comfortably, see the whole screen without having to move her eyes around (her peripheral vision doesn't work up-to-down, though seems to be okay right-to-left), and no one tells her to get out of the way. I think she's watching the Sesame Street Alphabet Show that features Stephen Colbert in the role of humble and eager-to-please "Z". It's a heartwarming tale of gaining a smidgen of self-worth in the presence of letters that are more important or interesting.

The Birthday Crew

Here's the full laser battle group about to embark on their black lighted massacre. Birthday boy there, four from the right holding Jasmine back. There were no casualties to speak of and all were eager to back into the fight. (Jasmine liked the dance music and disco lights inside.)

Dancing with Daddy

It's more modern than the traditional standing on your father's feet while he shows you how to waltz, but on the other hand, it fits Jasmine's more active style.

And the second image shows how you have to remove her from the dance floor.

These pictures were taken at the Brunswick Zone while we were celebrating Kai's birthday with video games and laser tag. Fun time for all.

Goofy

I just bought new earbuds. Thank the gods for these instructions. I might have hurt myself without them. Theo suggested I also include the toothpick instructions:
http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/HitchHikers-Guide-To-The-Galaxy-6594.html

South Dakota Kids

For the recent holiday weekend, I took the kids on our furthest trip ever for camping, South Dakota. It was about six hours actual driving with breaks every two hours to get the antsies out. They are excellent car travellers. I took them out of school on Friday so we would have an extra full day to see things. I figured it was educational and luckily enough, I think their teachers agree.

Jasmine did have a bout of homesickness, which is turning out to be a typical, but low intensity reaction to camping. She definitely wanted to see her Baba ("Dad" in Mandarin). A funnier reaction happened on the last day when she put down her cheerios spoon looked around and asked, "Where IS GrandBaba?" We camped with my Dad a few weeks ago and she thought it was high time he showed up this trip.

In our two full days we toured, Wind Cave, Mammoth Site and Jewel Cave as well as see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. No big hikes, which was a shame, but I fully intend to bring the kids back with Theo ... even if we have to stay in a cabin.

Goofy Glasses

Jasmine will wear any glasses except the ones that have been prescribed for her. Here she works on her "smart chick" look or audition for the next J.K. Rowling movie.

Cap'n Kai, Pirate of the High Plains

Kai posed on every tent spike wearing his new eye patch.

Fraternal Battles

This is again at the "Fight A Scot" booth. The boys both have a Scottish middle name ("Drummond") so I guess this worked out. I heard the tapping of wooden swords and loud battle cries, "CRASH", "BANG", "WOOSH", "I HIT YOU!", "NUH UH! MY SWORD MAGICALLY BLOCKS YOURS!", "UUUGH! I'M DEAD AGAIN!"

Warrior Princess

Jasmine's taken to calling herself a "princess". If it weren't for her sword fighting prowess, I'd be worried. Here she is at the "Fight A Scot" booth with an accomodating young man.

Though the sword is bamboo, it doesn't hide the blood lust in her eyes.

My Monsters

We went to the Highland Games to experience authentic Scottish culture.