GENIUS SETBACK!

Since DD became curious about addition, we 've been asking her questions that required her to add like, “If you had two apples and I gave you three more, how many would you have?”

Sometimes she just guesses, but most of the time she thinks about it and answers correctly. So yesterday I thought I would try a little subtraction with her.

I said to DD, “If I gave you 3 cookies and you ate 2 of them, then what? She thought for a minute and replied, “Then,...... I would have had too much sugar!” Too funny!
OK, maybe we’re not quite ready for subtraction and maybe she’s not a genius, but she sure is CUTE!

Castle Cuties!

Our play group met today at Castle Park. (That’s just what we call it.) It is a huge wooden playground where our little princesses love to go. They are on the move the entire time that they are there. Sometimes, it's hard to keep up with all of them because there are so many different sections for them to go. The weather was great and the girls enjoyed a picnic lunch. Ahhh… it's the simple things in life that make you smile.

We missed you PandaGirl. See you next week!

DD's Weekend Words

Earlier this week, DD received a belated birthday present from Uncle Mark. She loved the card and really enjoyed spending the money at Target.

Here’s what she bought. It’s called a Laughtop Computer!

While in Target DD walked up to a little girl and bluntly said, “You are taller than I am. How old are you?” The little girl smiled and said, “I’m ten.” DD said, “I will be ten. It may take me awhile, but I’ll get there.” Too Funny!!

At the park, DD got out of our car and started running toward the big slide yelling, “I’m coming. I’m coming. Here I come!” I think she was talking to a little girl who was already on the slide whom she DID NOT know. I guess she thinks everybody, everywhere, is just waiting to be her friend. Next, she ran over to another section of the park and slid down another slide. When she got to the bottom, she told an older boy (about 6 yrs. old) that she was “Superfast!” Of course, he told her that she wasn’t, so with her hands on her hips, she told him again how fast she was. He said, “Prove it.” And the race was on! Well, he beat her, but it sure was fun!

DD really wanted to play basketball at the park. Guess she will to wait until she’s ten (ha!) She had a great day until she got splinters in her finger. Brother Darling and Daddy Darling worked to get them out. Poor thing.

Does This Add Up?

Just found this interesting….A few days ago, DD came up to me and said, “If I have two and get two more, I will have four.” I thought this was pretty good considering that she turned 4 less than a month ago and we haven’t worked on adding at all. I began to ask her a few questions like, “If you had 3 and I gave you 1 more, how many would you have?” She answered correctly, so I made the problems a little harder like 3+2, 5+3, and 6+4. Amazingly (to me), she answered them correctly. Of course, I kept most of the addends and sums under 10, but she got the answers right at least 80% of the time and she was working these in her head, so I know she understands the concept. This may be totally average or she could've been just having a good day, but I thought it was pretty impressive! (Of course, I realize that I'm just a little prejudiced.)

(This was DD's idea for a pose.)

DD's Hour

Oops! I meant Story Hour. Actually, Desheng Darling has had practically all of the attention for the last two weeks at the library. I don’t know what has happened to all of the other children who previously attended. Part of the reason we go to Story Hour is so that DD will learn to sit quietly and be a part of a GROUP. As you can tell in the pictures, she IS the group. Oh well, I know she is enjoying herself. I guess we will have to find another GROUP to be a part of. Our church program is not very structured for 3 & 4 year olds. There’s no room in our Mother’s Day Out program until next fall. She didn’t like dance classes. Hmmm…maybe we will try T-ball; however, I’m not sure that giving a bat to DD is really a good idea.

Today, they read books about cows and...made a cow puppet. Mooo...

SMACK!!!

We postponed our valentine exchange last week because most of our little girls were sick, so today our play group celebrated Valentine’s Day at Spicy Girl’s house. As usual, the girls had a great time! They played....They ate...And acted silly! Isn't that just like little girls? Thanks, Mommy Spice for having the party at your house. We had a great time.

Go Home Fat Boy!

Gung Hay Fat Choy means "Best wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year." It is commonly heard during the days celebrating Chinese New Year. Since today officially marks the beginning of Chinese New Year 2007, we let DD wear her Chinese dress to church. She needs to get as much wear out of it as possible, because it will probably be too small next year. She looked really cute and received several compliments. After church we went to a local restaurant for lunch. One that served Chinese food would have seemed the most appropriate for the occasion, but DD’s taste buds weren’t craving soy sauce. They were craving queso… and lots of it, so we ate Mexican food instead. She had the waiter wrapped around her little finger in a matter of minutes. We got great service and enjoyed the food immensely (probably too much!) By the time we finished, Gung Hay Fat Choy felt more like Go Home Fat Boy! I think we gave the Year of the Pig a new meaning. (Ha!)

Cheers for Chinese New Year

We had a great time tonight celebrating Chinese New Year with our play group and friends. We had dinner at the Bamboo Palace, a great Chinese food buffet. The food was good, but the company was even better. We always have fun when we get together with our play group. For some reason, the girls seemed to know that it was a special night and they all looked so pretty in their Chinese outfits. I don’t think I saw one runny nose or heard a sneeze. Yippeee! Maybe everyone is healthy now. DD told me today how much she missed seeing her friends this week since play group was cancelled.

Yum! Yum! Egg Drop Soup Desheng Darling and PandaGirl-so sweet!

A Happy Valentine’s Day for DD

Desheng Darling started the day by telling her daddy how much she loved panda bears. He thought the conversation was a little odd, but he wasn’t aware that she already knew what she was getting for Valentine’s Day. (Since Daddy Darling works long hours and has no time to shop, I picked up DD’s gift from him a few days ago. I put the gift away so that he could give it to her today after work. )At Children’s Story Hour (library), DD listened to several stories and made a Valentine card. Since there were only 2 children there, she received a lot of one-on-one attention. Of course, she loved it! Next, she had a light lunch….just kidding. It was just a snack.
Later, we made cookies….
Built a city…. And ended the day in her Daddy’s lap with her new Valentine’s Day panda bear-a great day for DD!

Ready or Not, Here We Come!

When our first daughter started kindergarten many years ago, we felt that she was adequately prepared. By the end of her kindergarten year she had read at least 50 books by herself. Some were very short, but they counted. At that time I worked over 40 hours a week and really didn’t spend much time on her reading readiness skills. I just thought she would learn what she needed to know in kindergarten, and I guess she did.

I am sure things have changed since Sister Darling started to school, but I just don’t know how much. What do I need to teach DD BEFORE kindergarten? She is very eager to learn, and I want to take advantage of all the teachable moments. For example, a few days ago she wanted to work with rhyming words in one of her little books. The instructions said to circle the pictures that sounded alike. There were pictures of a ring, a king, a lady singing, and a clock. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Follow our conversation:

MD “Does king sound like ring?”
DD “Yes Ma’am.”
MD “That good! Circle them. Does ring sound like sing?”
DD “Yes Ma’am.”
MD “Very Good, DD. You’re right. Ring does sound like sing.” (Woohoo! I thought she was getting it.) “How about clock? Does clock sound like ring or sing?”
DD “No Ma’am. A clock sounds like this: tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.”

On another page, there were pictures of a clock, a sock, a lock and a banana. Again, she was supposed to circle the words that rhymed.

MD “Does clock sound like sock?”
DD “Yes Ma’am.”"
MD “That’s right. Now, does clock sound like lock?”
DD “ Yes, Ma’am.”
MD “Very good. Now, does banana sound like clock or lock?”
DD “ No Ma’am. A banana is very quiet.”

Too funny!

I am afraid that home schooling may be out of the question for us!

There’s No Place Like Home…

Desheng Darling has always surprised us with her good sense of direction. Earlier this week when we exited off of the interstate, she got really excited and said, “We’re almost at my home. This is where I live. I love my home. When I was in China, I didn’t have a home. Now I do. I love my home.”

(This is where DD lived in China.)

I couldn’t believe she said this. This is not something that we have said to her. It reminded me of what she said a few weeks ago about being alone when she was born. It really touched my heart and made me wonder how much she knows about her adoption.

Another odd thing happened today as we were driving home from a friend’s house. Daddy D and I were casually discussing how early Desheng Darling got up this morning. I said something about her being tired and going to bed early tonight. DD joined in our conversation by saying, “When I was in China, before you got there, I slept in the bed with Hope and she took care of me.” What’s interesting is the fact that many of these little girls slept two-to-a- crib. We have no idea whether DD had a crib buddy or not. She lived in China until she was almost two years old. Could she possibly remember something similar to this?

(This was DD's bed in China. It took her awhile to get adjusted to her new soft mattress.)

Maybe we read too much into what she says, but it’s hard not to see things in a different light when you don’t know exactly what her life was like as an infant and early toddler. Regardless, we are glad that she loves her home and can’t imagine her being anywhere else!

DD’s New Do

When I took Desheng Darling to have a group picture made on Monday, she had some individual pictures made, as well. After looking at the proofs, I was convinced that it was time to make a few changes. We have always been a little over-protective of DD’s hair because it was so unhealthy when we got her. Those of you who have seen pictures of our Gotcha experience will have to agree. Her hair definitely lacked luster and was extremely damaged. (This picture was taken the second day we had her.)

With a little good nutrition and L’OREAL for Kids we began to see improvements in just a few months.

After giving it a lot of thought, I decided DD needed to have her hair “trimmed” or at least, that’s the impression Daddy Darling had when I discussed it with him. Boy! Was he surprised????? Actually were both quite shocked, but after the first cut was made there was no backing out.
I really think it’s cute and after Daddy D gets over the shock, I am sure he will love it too. (What’s this thing with men and long hair, anyway?) It’s only hair and I think she looks precious!

Desheng Darling's reaction to her new do!

Picture Perfect?

Whoever came up with that phrase must not have ever tried to get 5 precious Chinese girls to all look at the camera at the same time and smile (ha!)

Our group picture today was made in honor of the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration. The girls looked so cute all dressed up in their Chinese outfits, and it really was a lot of fun. The professional photographer actually took some good pictures (that we ordered), but the ones I made (below) just didn’t really capture their beauty. I hope some of the other blogger moms were more successful and will post a few pix.

(Sorry, Snow Bunny)

(See what I mean? Good of everyone, but DD)

As soon as the photo session was over, the girls put on their play clothes and headed to Chic-Fil-A for lunch. This was their favorite part of the day!

Puzzled!

Desheng Darling has spent the past couple of cold rainy days inside where it is warm. It’s been great weather for working puzzles and reading good books.

We even took time to French braid her hair.

But one can only work so many puzzles and read so many books without becoming bored when you are 4 yrs old, so DD decided to get creative with her new chairs and began to live life dangerously. After falling a few times, she ended this game too.

Yesterday morning DD woke up with a bad cold and feeling pretty lousy. She definitely was not her bouncy cheerful self, so I gave her a dose of Tylenol Cold and Allergy medicine.

Never under estimate the power of a good antihistamine. 20 minutes after I gave it to her she sat down on the floor, leaned up against the wall and fell asleep! This was before lunch. Two hours later she was up and going strong.