And this morning

D: School Tomorrow
Me: Yes Dennis, School tomorrow, Doctor today
D: ICE CREAM ICE CREAM ICE CREAM

Ok... at this point I couldn't help but smile and chuckle.  I had actually been concerned about his short term memory... you know past a few hours.  No question now... hehe.

He ended up just sleeping in his skivvies last night as his PJs.  He fought his PJs (I forced the skivvies) and I figured he'd have good natural consequences.  I checked in a few times to make sure he was covered but he obviously wasn't comfortable and squirmed a lot.

Dennis has gotten really good at recognizing his name and the individual letters in it.  He spends a good portion of his time in church flipping through a Bible finding the letters in his name.  He's also figured out his brother Samuel's name is in it so I think he's looking for his.  I had a sticky note on my monitor about his surgery on Friday with his name in the middle of a bunch of other stuff... he found that and has probably shown me his name and spelled it out a dozen times now.  I'm proud of him... remember he had no reading, writing, or alphabet skills in Russian so this is all new to him... he's 6yrs behind from American born kids.

He's doing very well given he has no foundation of language like most kids who are adopted.

I'm not sure that word means what you think it means

No brocolli, ICE CREAM... no ice cream -- I mean come on, have we ever allowed desert without eating dinner?

No brush teeth... teethed brushed

No shower... showered

No close door... door closed

Oh little "my will" attempting boy.  The other kids are being very understanding even through the recent nightly ranting -- tonight around ice cream mostly.  Sam, who shares a room with Dennis, came out asking if he could get toilet paper and stick it in his ears.  Now D's shouting I love you mama, I love you papa... spooky night, etc... basically just trying to be defiant.

We'll see how "no doctor" works out for him tomorrow as we head to Baltimore.

He did have some fun today out walking our smaller dog out on his own in our yard.  Think it made him happy he got to do something without direct supervision.

My best friend

and I don't know it...

Dennis has been continuing to have a bad attitude, even through this morning.  Got an "America bad" which it has been a while for that.  He couldn't even get out a "money please" for his weekly ice cream money -- so of course he didn't get any.  Ashley is really good to help coax him along trying to help him do the right thing and keep him out of trouble.  She's pretty good at not overstepping her authority and responding to me when she is crossing the line.  I'm certain he doesn't appreciate how much she helps him.

Dennis did actually make it to the bus this morning... much to Ashley's "let's go" encouragement... as D was saying "no" as he's getting down out of the car.

We'll see what the afternoon brings :)

Prayer time

So I'll admit that we've never really done prayer time at bed with the kids.  Bed time has historically been chaotic and when I was working at an office, rather than my home office, I was rarely home before the kids were in bed.

Since the beginning of the year I started putting the boys to bed with prayer time.  Ashley and Amanda soon asked to join in as they were hearing what was going on.  So now, nearly every night, we all gather in the boy's room for bedtime prayers.

The kids' prayers have quickly become a lot more grown up and they are getting good at praying in an orderly fashion without being given an order.

Productive... kind of

We got nearly all the wood chopped and split that was fallen on the property.  Dennis and Sam helped a little in the morning and then I conscripted Ashley to finish it off this afternoon.

Honestly, Ashley was the only one who took advantage of the day.  Well, the dogs "enjoyed" being tied up outside.  Ashley spent the entire day outside with her neighborhood girl friends.  They even hung out with her while she was helping me with the wood and were entertained for a while with the log splutter that Ashley was running.

Sam decided to play StarCraft II... and frankly I let him for much of the morning since he hasn't gotten to play in ages.  I made him stop at noon and am not sure what he did the rest of the day.  I think Sam, Dennis, and Amanda watched movies all afternoon.  This is where the trouble ensued...

The chickens are in my workshop which the kids are not allowed to be in... except for the chicks.  You can't lock the workshop [yet] though.  Well, Dennis decided to go look around and he found the portable DVD players... so he's addicted to that.  Mom and I are hiding the DVD players and his bad attitude at dinner and bed time lost him his DSi -- I think both will be gone all week.  Can you believe he turned down pepperoni pizza followed by cake & ice cream so he could whine about wanting to watch another movie?  Really, we made getting dessert REALLY easy tonight.  The rest of us happily indulged.

Ironically after getting himself in trouble for hours yesterday over his bicycle, today he declined to ride it.  I think in the morning it was because he didn't feel he deserved it but the afternoon was the movie distraction.  Ironically after he was done whining about wanting to watch another move, then he moved on the to bicycle... it was all I could do not to laugh as it was getting close to 7p.  I had to put his PJs on him and brush his teeth... his bedtime antics were rather short lived and mild though, still DSi bye bye.

The morning routine should be interesting... I would wager I will end up driving him to school after a timeout.

"Free" day

I only have one meeting -- I'm on vacation -- , weather is supposed to be fantastic, and I think mom is working from home,  No requirements on anyone for the most part so we are going to "work" hard on having fun.  Hopefully it'll be good for D to have a nice relaxing day... I know it will be for me... get some wood hauled and split, garden fertilized and tilled, etc.

Chicken

Dennis seems to like the same kinds of foods I like to cook -- and eat.  Earlier this week was Brisket and rolls.  Tonight was BBQ chicken thighs and mom grilled potatoes.  I didn't make D go out and chase down the chicken, though I think he forgot there is a BBQ outside as he did think it was funny I was going outside to cook it.  The local Giant grocery store had chicken thighs onsale for $0.99/lb... I think we need to go get a LOT more tomorrow.  I'm pretty sure all the kids would have eaten twice as much... next time we'll need to add rolls and salad.

Afterward Dennis, Ashley, and I decided to make a cake.  We totally cheated with a cake mix but I'll survive.  The most entertaining part was when I let D turn the mixer on.  As I was speaking the words "just a little" he pushed it into a high speed and we all got dusted with cake mix.

The cake was a big hit... Dennis downed his bowl of cake and ice cream before I could finish serving up the other 4 of us.  He was very pleased.

Tomorrow he goes to the Doctor to get his MMR immunization.  Our Doctor had blood tests run to see what shots he had really had.  Apparently one of the "M's" is missing so that will get taken care of.  Fortunately D doesn't care at all about shots... does way better than me.

This week he's going to miss most of school.  Monday is a day off -- and awesome 78degF weather --, Weds is the trip to Baltimore to see the specialists, and Friday is some minor surgery he needs... he'll get knocked out for that so it'll be interesting to see how he does.

Note to son

Not sure what you were used to but, as a rule, constantly yelling you want you bicycle while in timeout is not wise. It neither satisfies the timeout or gets the bicycle.

I think we are into age 3... good that Melissa gets to enjoy this one first hand :)

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Progress

Apparently I already had a blog entry called Progress... oh well.  Work with Dennis on patience.  Today after school he wanted to go bike riding but knows he can't go in the rain even though he says he doesn't care.  As soon as the sun came out he was in my office asking.  Ashley had a few things to do so he couldn't go outside until she was done.  Instead of having a tantrum, as usual, he went and helped her so they could go outside.

Later in the day he came back in and I needed him to wait just a couple of minutes for me to finish with the work I was doing on a door in the house... then go find out where Ashley was to watch him.  This time he decided on a tantrum... didn't turn out so well with him.  A bit of a battle so he got some discipline and racked up 20minutes on the timeout bench.  After he served that I asked him to come over so I could talk to him about apologizing and he refused.... 3 times.  When I went to put 10minutes on the clock for his next timeout he suddenly came over... but when I told him to go sit on the bench he said no and refused... 15min... NO... 20min... bottom in seat.  We had an uneventful 20minute timeout and when he was done he happily have me a hug and said he was sorry.

Out he went on his bike with Sam for 30minutes before deciding it was too cold.

Right now he's figured out how to use one of the nerf guns in my office.  I'm glad he's getting the dexterity to do so... it will be useful in this family, especially when water and hoses are involved :)

Another thing that snuck up on us this week... Dennis has started speaking in actual "sentences".  They aren't sentences exactly but it isn't just "mine", "water please", or the one "May I have..." sentence.  He's expressing things like "Ashley, Dennis room, Ashley room" to tell us that Ashley is in his room and he wants her out :)  Today he had some even more complicated examples but I was too shocked to remember :)

Tomorrow we try to call Ukraine gma and Snezhana... please pray for that to go well.

April Fools

I don't think Dennis gets it though I'm certain the other kids don't.  I think the funniest part of the morning was I didn't have to force Ashley out of bed... apparently the thought of mischief got her going.  I caught her putting peanut butter in my sandals, then she and Sam tried to sneak an extra soda while they were getting me one from the basement -- they knew I'd catch on --, and then Sam locked everyone out of the van to taunt them.  Dennis tried to pull locking himself out of the boy's bathroom so he didn't have to brush his teeth... that didn't work.

My contribution was with Sam as he came into our bedroom this morning to say hi...
Sam: I didn't see you there (to me under covers)
Me: So today everything we eat is going to be orange
Sam: No, really dad? <pause>
Sam: OH, I know what you are doing.  April Fools