The Dying Rooms

I recently received an email from a friend in Doodlebug’s travel group. It was just a “Hi. How are you doing?” message, but near the end she shared the URL for a documentary of which some of you may have heard, "The Dying Rooms". I had heard of it but I had never actually seen it until a few nights ago. Please take a few minutes out of your busy day and watch this. Then, say a special prayer for the precious children in China who still need families. I promise you, the images won’t soon be forgotten. I just pray that God will remind me of this documentary the next time I get frustrated or want to complain about the “kids being kids.”

Words can’t even describe how thankful I am that Desheng Darling and Doodlebug are with our family and not being raised where they spent the early years of their lives. I know that there may be some controversy about the accuracy of this documentary, but the pictures are proof enough for me.
Now, get a tissue and go to this site. Then, say a special prayer and go hug your kids.

http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/archive/the_dying_room_player.html

Desheng Darling
Doodlebug

DD's 5th Birthday

IT'S OFFICIAL...

The princess is 5 years old today!
She had a wonderful Princess Presto party. Just in case you don’t know, Princess Presto is a Super Reader from the Super Why children's show who has the “power to spell.” DD loves to read and spell, so this was the perfect party for her. I tend to be quite wordy, so I am going to try to be brief on my wording and just let you enjoy the pictures.

My attempt at a Princess Presto cake...I found the design on ebay, along with these personalized Super Why placemats. DD and DB in their Princess Presto Dresses

Desheng Darling invited all of her play group friends. We missed you PandaGirl! The girls made beaded bracelets spelling their names. Then they played a few games like...
EleFun and
Stick the Crown on the Princess Followed by the traditional blowing out of the candles which I had to re-light because DB blew them out first! Then, the opening of gifts…always a FAVORITE part!

Today was Desheng Darling’s official birthday, but she’s been celebrating for quite awhile. Not only did she receive gifts last week from Santa Sandra and Ms. Billie, she also received a card/money from Nanny, a card from our church, several phone calls and gifts from the Desert Rats (below),

and a birthday package from DD’s very special friend from ...

Spain who lived with her in China before being adopted. She sent a great picture and a very special medal. She even sent one to DB.

I think I need to explain DD's hair: We did a Princess Presto hairstyle practice run and her hair REALLY curled. It wasn’t her favorite hairstyle, so we just pretended that Princess Presto used a straight iron today. No curls for her!



Of course, no party would be complete without a bag of party favors. Can you guess one of the things that DB had in hers? Hmmmmm…..
Thank you all for making DD's 5th birthday so special!

Doodlebug’s Days

The week’s only half over and already DB has had a “delightful” week. On Monday, she enjoyed playing with her play group at Chic-Fil-A.

This was followed by what was supposed to be a “quick” trip to HEB, a local grocery store. Well, within minutes HEB took on a whole new meaning “Highly Elevated Blood pressure” seemed to fit the picture quite well. Doodlebug began to cry inconsolably by the time we got to the 2nd aisle while DD was “helping” me shop...(definitely not a good thing.)
As I took DB out of the buggy hoping to pacify her, I smelled a very unpleasant odor. I'm sure that everyone else around us was also blessed with the aroma. She hasn’t had a poo-poo accident in at least 3 weeks, but wouldn’t you know it…this would be the time! Oh my, what a mess. I held her hand as we tried to make our way to the restroom. Every time I stopped to put an item in the basket, she dozed off (standing up). She was soooo tired! I didn’t want to pick her up, because I wasn’t sure…well, you get the picture.
We eventually made our way to the check-out where the lady asked me repeatedly if I needed any help getting things to the car. Did I really look that desperate? By the time I got to the car, both kids were crying and a lady looked at me sympathetically and said, “I’ve had days like that myself.” I was desperate!I think I saved about $20 on my bill, but I would have gladly paid twice that amount for a babysitter. Lol
Tuesday was a really bad day for Doodlebug. She was lethargic and whiney all day. She didn’t want to eat or play. She just wanted to be rocked. She was a sick little girl. (Perhaps, she was getting sick Monday.) After lunch she broke out in whelps. I gave her a dose of Benadryl, and she slept quite awhile.
By Wednesday morning she was as good as new! Kids are really weird like that. I knew she was fine when she brought a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies to me for breakfast.
It was a good try, but she had to eat oatmeal, instead. Lol

She spent the rest of the day goofing off with DD.

Although Doodlebug is at least 4 months behind on her language development, her ability to recognize letters is quite impressive. We noticed this Wed. night as we watched her play a game on her little “laptop.” While I realize that letter recognition may not be unusual for most 2 yr. olds, we celebrate every sign of progress with our little ones because we just don't know how the past will affect their development. Heck, at this rate, she will be reading before she is able to carry on a basic conversation.

DB decided to reward herself with a sticker (on her forehead!) This may just support the belief that there’s a fine line between a genius and an imbecile. Lol

Not Quite 5, but Already Celebrating

Saturday was an exciting day for Desheng Darling and Doodlebug. Our special friend who we have nicknamed “Santa Sandra” (for obvious reasons) invited DD over and surprised her with a birthday celebration complete with a cake, gifts, and a nice dinner.

DD won’t actually be 5 until next week, but a little practice never hurts.

The cake was YUMMY!

The cards and gifts were GREAT!
A special CARS blanket and pillow…Why am I anticipating some sharing issues??

The perfect ending to a sugar-filled day! Love ya Sandra!

CanYou See the Crowns?

Evidently, they must be obvious to other people. Not only do these girls get treated like royalty at home as mentioned in my first post of 2008, but this royal treatment seems to follow them wherever we go! With a little better lighting, you could probably see the sparkle of their imaginary crowns in this picture. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
Today we took the play group to see the new Veggie Tale movie, “Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.”

We looked up “showing times” on the Internet and found a theater that advertised a 10:00 a.m. viewing. It was about 35 miles away. When we arrived we were told that the movie listing was incorrect and that the movie wasn’t scheduled to show until 1:00 p.m. Mommy Spice explained our situation to the employee and the manager agreed to open the theater JUST FOR OUR GIRLS!
Just like that…These four girls had the ENTIRE theater to themselves!!! He even let DB and DD in for free, because he didn’t have the correct change in his register! Talk about Royal Treatment. Wow…

Needless to say, we all had a great time!

The Princess behavior didn’t end when we got home, but the girls approached it from a totally different perspective. When I asked what they were playing, Desheng Darling carefully explained ...
that they were playing like they were Cinderella scrubbing the floors,

cleaning the windows,

organizing their dishes and serving me tea. All the while, they were referring to me as “Stepmother” and asking me if they could PLEASE go to the Royal Ball. Lol

(Their continual reference to Daddy Darling as the Fairy Godfather was a little disturbing, though...Just kidding!)

I only regret that I didn’t replace their imaginary products with real cleaning supplies so that I could have enjoyed a little “royal treatment” myself.

The Day the Cowboys Met Goliath...Didn't Anyone Have a Slingshot?

I don’t even know where to begin with this post. As you can tell by looking at the pix, the girls were ready for a Cowboy victory over the NY Giants! Weren’t we all? What a bummer. I guess you won’t be seeing these sweatshirts again this season…Even David beat the Giants and he was only a young boy. Ok, maybe he had a little Divine intervention, but hey, we all thought the Cowboys were God’s team, too. Right?

Well, at least DD and DB were smart enough to go outside and enjoy a little football of their own instead of wasting 3 hrs sitting inside watching Daddy Darling’s emotions swing from happy to sad. BTW…The girls won their game!

They also enjoyed blowing bubbles. DD obviously caught more bubbles than TO or Crayton caught footballs.

And the only swinging that took place was on the swing set, not the score board. It was a lot more fun and much better for the blood pressure.

And to think...David worked for much less than Romo. Perhaps Jerry Jones should be talking to someone else. Hmmmmm....

Amazing Fait Accompli!

Ok, I’m sure that many of you reading this post will not think that this topic is blog-worthy. You, obviously, have not recently tried to potty-train a 2 yr-old. Lol. Doodlebug is our 4th child, so you’d think we would know all of the PT tricks. Well, we don’t! Duh…Potty-training hasn’t been an experience that I cared to repeat with any of them. Amazingly, I haven’t had to be creative at all with DB! (No stickers, no candy, no drawing smiley faces on the back of the toilet seat, etc.) We decided to get serious about potty training with cloth panties, and I can honestly say that within 2 days, DB had it all figured out! She now lets me know when she needs to go. Amazing! It’s the little things in life that just make my day!!!!!
Ok, I agree...I need to “get a life.” lol

Barbie...Transcends Many Generations

Desheng Darling received a Barbie for Christmas from Nanny Darling along with a gazillion new outfits!!! Barbie really came to DD’s rescue last night when she was having one of her “wild” spells. Sometimes she just gets so silly that it’s next to impossible to get her to settle down. You know it had to be pretty bad for me to suggest that she get her Barbie doll with ALL of the clothes and spread them out all over the floor to play!!
It did the trick. Desheng Darling settled down and really enjoyed playing with Barbie.

Doodlebug also enjoyed playing with her Barbie. DB even took Barbie to the potty with her! Barbie is just so versatile. She can adapt to ANY environment! I’ve seen a lot of different kinds of Barbies, but I don’t think that I have ever seen a “Potty-Training Barbie.” You just never know what might be on the shelves next year. lol

Let me take this opportunity to say that Doodlebug is doing great with potty-training. We finally decided to get serious about it after Christmas and I haven’t changed a poo-poo diaper in at least a week!!!! Yippee!!!

Barbie’s job didn’t end with potty-training. She even took on the role of “Snuggle Buddy.” What a gal!!!

Some toys, like the Barbie doll, have entertained children for several generations, but we’ve entered a new era and things are rapidly changing.

DD used her Christmas money to buy a new computer. (Reg.$60 on sale for $15) Doodlebug took control of her old one. Now everyone in our house has their own laptop computer. Here they are spending time with Daddy Darling… three laptops on the bar. I’m not so sure that this qualifies as “family time,” but they all seemed to be enjoying themselves! I wonder what they are posting on their blogs?