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.