Dennis did much better this morning. He "woke up" grumpy and didn't want to do anything so I dressed him. It's an interesting story I heard on the radio (Dennis Rainey from FamilyLife??) about him trying to get his kids to put their jackets on in a battle of words and wills. His mother-in-law interceded and just put the jackets on the kids. His comment was "It was that easy?". I try to keep that in mind and it worked well for Dennis.
I got a big hug this morning and he later apologized to me... so he got his DSi back. He actually didn't want it back, I think out of guilt. I think at some point in his life he was told he was a bad boy a lot. He doesn't see himself as a good kid even though he's a great kid. When a Russian speaking friend of my wife's asked him if he was a good boy he said no. When she asked why, he couldn't think of what he was being bad so he eventually decided he was a good boy. We'll have to work on that.
So on drilling... he got his cavity filled today and he did great, I am told. Unfortunately he was told he couldn't eat food for 4hrs until the Novocaine wore off... so he missed out on chicken at McD's. Mom did buy him (and me) a Shamrock shake so it wasn't a complete loss. Mom had a chipped tooth that got filled too.
Question for all of you with eastern European adopted kids or who are from eastern Europe. Is chicken a very popular food? Dennis LOVES chicken and tomato based pasta dishes though he begs for chicken all the time. He's even asked me to get in the car so we can go get chicken. In Ukraine we had a lot of food I liked... most was either fish or pork though. Honestly the chicken stuff we had was pretty nasty.
It also took Dennis quite a while to get over a fear of cheese. Frankly I totally understand that... the cheese in Ukraine was awful. It is more like plain curd in the US... which is ok on crackers sometimes but is not cheese. I'm sure in many of the living conditions in Ukraine dairy products were not a good thing. He had a problem getting over milk too but he's pretty good with it now. In the "American" restaurants you might get a Kraft single on your burger if you were lucky -- just a note for my mid-west friends, Kraft American cheese is NOT cheese, get yourself some Tillamook cheddar.
This afternoon my boss missed our 1:1 or I decided that was a sign that I should end my day early (9.5hrs). The weather is awesome. We road bikes, played ball, and spent a large amount of time chasing Gus who got out of the house twice. I'm still amazed at how well Dennis is doing on his trike.
P.S. For my employees in North America, you don't know it yet but I'm letting you go at noon tomorrow. The weather is just to nice to work tomorrow afternoon. Things are too tight to do much else but I can at least show my appreciate for all the hard work and dedication by trying to force you to take some time to enjoy the outside and an extended weekend with this fantastic weather.
Brian, I think chicken is a cheap meat so it's used a lot. I know growing up we had a lot of tomato based sauces with chicken mostly not just white meat. I'll send Melissa a recipe. It's a universal base that you can choose your meat.
ReplyDeleteThanks... I'm certainly up to try new stuff. I decided the next thing I'm doing is trying fresh baked rolls. Just something really simply... probably whole wheat. I typically do rolls for special meals but the recipes take a long time and I fail more than half the time. Found some simple recipes that look hard to screw up... cheap and good for borsht and other items.
ReplyDeleteIt's been recommended that for big families that you have a main dish and as much bread and salad as people want. Helps control the budget and give an easy way to make sure everyone gets enough.
Our girl would eat chicken every night in any form- on the bone, in pasta dishes, sauce, no sauce... she loves it.
ReplyDeleteShe'll eat just about anything though, things I wouldnt touch with a 10' pole. She wont eat chili, too spicy, but thats really the only food she'll say no to.
She loooooves cheese.
Thats great that D is so brave, hopefully soon his self esteem will soar too. Maybe he can teach Alina Grace how to be brave?
Sorry I've been out of touch. It makes me sad if Dennis was told her was a bad boy. I know that you all will work on changing that. He's such a cute (and good) boy! I can't answer about the chicken yet. He's had it and eaten it, but he hasn't been home with us long enough to know if that's a favorite.
ReplyDeleteI know if we get to adopt our girl that we will have to work hard at the "bad" image. She has told us before "me not nice" & one time she told our translator that if we adopted her, she would be trouble. When we ask her why? She did not know either. Makes me sad for these kids:(
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