We've managed to keep it together again for several days. Yesterday Ashley wasn't in trouble and had all her homework done so Dennis got to spend a lot of time riding his trike. I work from home and typically at least 10hrs a day so I'm working when they get home... mom usually gets home around 4:30p so they have about 1.5hrs under "loose" supervision to get homework done and go play.
The freedom brought out another conflict... I've known Dennis was a little tattle tale and there had been hints of him having problems with others having different restrictions than he does... the latter came out big time yesterday. Ashley is 10yrs old and is allowed a lot more freedom to roam the neighborhood than the other kids. Neighborhood in our case is a community with no fences, lots of families with kids, and houses on 2-3 acre lots. The younger kids are limited to playing in our cul de sac which has only one other driveway in it besides ours and 3 houses including ours.
Ashley was spending time with a friend which of course took her out of the cul de sac. You'd think someone stole is stuffed bear he named after his sister in Ukraine (Snezhana) -- it was the first gift he got when arriving in America as our son. Explaining to him that Ashley is big and he is little wasn't enough for him. We managed to prevent a major blow up but I did catch him following Ashley down the road once. Legally Dennis is 10 and only 8mo younger than Ashley but maturity wise he's very close to Amanda our 7yr old... certainly not up to Sam our 8yr old.
Last night I finally got around to making brisket. It is baked in the oven and makes a nice sauce... it isn't sweet and seemed exactly like the type of food Dennis would like. The rest of the family loves it too (especially me). That turned out to be very true though his face when eating the cooked carrots was priceless. I tried making rolls a second time and that worked out well this time. I wonder how obvious it was during my staff meeting that I was cutting up the last few onions for the first few minutes when I wasn't talking -- if you guys are out in NoVA I'll have to make it for you :) Ashley invited a friend over that she's been inviting to church and AWANAs... I'm so proud of her.
Brisket recipe: http://www.howcast.com/videos/341946-How-To-OvenCook-Beef-Brisket
I love the sauce so definitely boil that down. Takes about 20minutes to prepare, 4hrs to cook, and then 20minutes to boil the sauce down. Next time I'm going to try halving the salt... I love salt but it's a bit much for me.
Dinner rolls: http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-dinner-rolls-40633
My mom gave me her old Kitchen Aid and got me a new mixer blade that scrapes the sides. I'm probably abusing the blade to make bread dough with it but it works great. Takes <10min to prep this, 5min later on to put it into balls to rise, and then 17min to cook -- practically no mess, just 1 counter wipe -- ... I can find that much time between meetings in the day to make fresh rolls for dinner. I may try putting butter on the outside of the dough balls to keep them from sticking together.
This morning Dennis was fine. Pushing little buttons to see if he could get a reaction but didn't actually do anything he wasn't supposed to. e.g. Insisting we go out the front door to the van so he unlocked the door but he went out the garage door like he was supposed to. Ashley was having a rough morning and I think he was pleased to see that big sister gets the same exact consequences he does when her attitude is bad. She ended up getting some correction in the house to help get her on track and then ended up walking to the bus stop while the rest of us were in the warm van -- she refused to get in the van on time. I tried to make it clear to him that Ashley isn't bad but she is having a bad attitude... trying to show with a grumpy face -- no picture, sorry. Dennis was in the car with his seat belt on without being told :) He didn't want to associate himself with Ashley getting on the bus though... refused to hold her hand or let her put her arm around him.
So over all... progress. We'll have some more blow ups but it's ok. We are getting the Family Rules book that was recommended on our adoption facebook group. The school uses a similar system with cards, points, rewards, etc ... so I think it will help reinforce that. Plus the kids are starting to like earning money and this is a good way to get the house cleaner while letting them earn more money... I'm just not sure I can afford it if they actually comply :) Sam said he's saving money for a Nintendo 3DS, even the $0.60/wk ice cream money... he's even figured that once he gets enough he can sell his old DSi to get across the finish line.
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