Some days are a breeze

there was a HUGE luxury in once being able to do as i pleased.  hungry? then eat.  tired? then rest.  bored? then take a walk.  no such frivolity here anymore!  the kids truly do take all our energy, but in a very good way too.  we have books and magazines, and a DVD player with movies.  and none of that is nearly as interesting as just watching the kids.  they eat it up so much when they know they have our full, undivided, complete adoring attention.  and we're all too happy to oblige.

David has been having a few spells at night where he wakes up crying.  one of us goes into their room, consoles him a bit and 10 seconds later he's out again.  they both sleep thru any noise at all, so Emma never wakes up even though Chieu is crying inches from her ear.  this morning they both woke up around 6am and Jeff brought them into our room.  we were both still really tired so we laid in bed and the kids entertained themselves staring out the floor to ceiling windows.  we kinda felt guilty so we got up from bed and they were all smiles!  PLAY TIME!  I gave the kids these fruit yogurt drinks which they love so much  I think the real fun is sucking out all the drink with their straws and then tipping the boxes over to get the last drop.  it's all fun and games.  we tried giving them some of my mueslix cereal with cut up pears.  Emma ate a little but David was not going for it.  i showed him an orange and he lit up.  they are so funny these kids.  they like what they like and that's it.  they have a way of eating the inside of the wedges and leaving the icky skin in tact.  Emma hates to have dirty hands so she'll take a few bites then it's ME ME ME, and i have to wipe her face and hands.  this morning she was doing the cutest thing, she'd eat her orange and then grin at me in an odd way.  i realized she had put the orange seed between her teeth and wanted me to pluck it out for her.  after that it became a game of find Emma's orange seeds.  they like dumping all their ickies on momma's hand.  after breakfast they played for a short while and then David ran into their room and got a pair of shoes for him and Emma,  Simultaneously Emma grabbed their backpack and started stuffing toys in it.  Jeff and i looked at each other and said, hmm i guess we're going out.  

We took the kids to the playground which is much nicer then the pee smelling play room of yesterday.  the pool, tennis courts and play ground are all on the 4th floor terrace.  it's really cool too cause it's gated in.. just like our playground is.  the kids had a laugh riot running around.  they have these Flintstone type cars and it only took David seconds to realize it required pedal power.  they were trying to climb in and out of them until i showed them the doors open.  Oh!  that's much easier, thank you very much!  Emma had David working hard today.  she would sit in her car and open the door.  David would see this, sigh, get out of his car, walk over and close her door and then return to his.  Then she'd open her door again!  he kept sighing but repeating the ritual.  he'd push the door close as hard as he could...trying to lock her in I'm sure!  she's such a scamp that one!  they played for several hours and then we took them to the pool.  

i finally remembered their water wings and boy what huge fun that was.  once they discovered they could jump into the (kiddy) pool and pop back up. well it was all they could do for hours.   David had become quite the beginning swimmer.  he'd kick and stroke as best he could with these giant floaties.  he'd make his way across the little pool in no time.  Emma was loving her daddy this morning big time.  he'd toss her high into the air and catch her in the water.  omg!  this kid squealed with pleasure.  she kept pointing up, so he'd repeat it.  we made our way over to the big pool where Emma would take running leaps into daddy's arms.  she'd jump right in, go under the water for a second or two, until the floaties caused her to pop up, and then daddy would catch her.  she could do this all day long.  my "responsibility" was to help her up out of the water.  not allowed to catch her or hold her.  she'd get to the pool edge and demand Me, Me!!! and I'd have to go over and push her up on the deck.  then, just in case i tried to catch her, she'd go over a foot or two so only daddy could catch her.  trouble that girl.  David meanwhile was asserting his own independence today.  he would "swim" around a bit and did not want any help.  he'd get up on the deck. sit down and climb into the water, waddle around a bit and rinse repeat!

once their lips became a dangerous shade of blue i told Jeff it was time to take them out of the pool.  luckily (and i will not pretend i had the smarts for this) i suggested this when they were coming out of the potty.  so we did not have to pluck them from the water.  we braced for a meltdown but they were happy enough to follow us over to the deck chairs and played with their gazillion toys.  I've been really working double time to win Emma back over to my side, so at one point i was able to walk away with her holding my hands as she admired all the plants.  she'd giggle her incredibly cute giggle and try to pluck the flowers.  i showed her how to touch them nice and smell but she liked the idea of plucking with the future possibility of eating them.  when she mimed putting them in her mouth and i said Khomg, she was okay with that.  i heard David wailing his wail song and we walked back over.  apparently he did NOT approve my little adventure with Emma.  he was quite mad at us all.  so i took Emma for a short walk around his area and even though you can tell it was the total fake wah wah wah, i walked her back over to him.  i hated giving her up but he needed his Me back and in his possession only. the rest of the morning went well and the kids were introduced to fish and chips.  they look at things funny and shake their heads but then try it and they love it!

wow it sounds like this was a 14 hour day but when i realized it was only 9:30 by this point i was blown over!  we managed a beautiful pool side lunch,  David and Emma sat next to each other (and not on our laps) even after lunch they scampered for their shoes and knew it was time to do.  again no fuss at all.  even nap time was a snap today!  (man i better not jinx myself) but we let the kids play in the living room for about 1/2 an hour.  i was in their room already putting away their clothes.  i told Jeff to come in and we both sat on their beds.  the kids came in out of curiosity and started putting on their shoes.  they figured it was go out time again.  but we just laid there and they sat on the floor, refusing to come up on the bed.  so i shut the bedroom door and they were not happy with this.  we brought both kids into the bed and this time we just laid back and did nothing.  within minutes Emma was out like a light.  David did his quasi , half hearted wah wah wah.  scooting himself off the edge of the bed.  he laid their with his head on the floor and his butt up on the bed.  we have all the pillows and comforters on the floor so we figured he thought it was comfortable enough.  he was out within minutes too.   Jeff and i looked at each other in shock!  wow it's really this easy????

the last thing i want to add here for all the families adopting older kids, for as many times as the kids try to push our buttons, it's all small potatoes.  we just sit here and say Gawd can you believe they're ours???   We're secretly thrilled their referral pictures were not the greatest.  if anyone had a clue how adorable they really are we would have had a real fist fight on our hands!  Especially Emma, we had braced ourselves for real tantrums from her.  we heard she was the pouty one and David was the sweet, happy boy.  okay slight misinterpretation!  but we love them both.  they are sweet beyond words and worth every second of frustration getting here!