Double Happiness

Pumpkins!

Family FotoFun Friday Challenge #3 
Post your pictures on your blog and leave a comment here before 10/27/06.

Almost everyone who has kids has been to the pumpkin patch or will be going this week, so this FFFF challenge should be easy.  Post any picture with a pumpkin -- old or new, carved or uncarved.  Have fun!

Last weekend, we visited our local pumpkin patch.  Gwen thinks pumpkins are balls.  She ran around screaming "BALL!" and pointing in as many different directions as she could.  She has no idea that we carve bizarre faces onto these things and light them from the inside with candles or smash their insides through a sieve and add spices to make yummy pies or cookies.   For now, they're big orange things that are fun to climb on, carry, or stack into huge piles. This year, we're keeping it simple and tidy and skipping the fancy costumes and elaborate pumpkin carving.  Next year, we know won't be able to get off so easily! Maddy doesn't seem to know what the heck a pumpkin is either but everyone at the pumpkin patch seemed to be having fun so she was enthusiastic about these big orange fruits too. Each morning, we visit the local mall and run around before the stores open.  Recently, we noticed that Maddy is scared to death of the Halloween decorations and merchandise.  She's a pretty brave little girl in all other circumstances but some of those things frighten her so bad that she won't walk past any of the stores that display masks or creatures.  She insists on being carried (which, of course is fine).  She'll put her hands over her face and whimper.  Poor little sweetie!    Gwen doesn't seem to be phased by any of it but won't touch a plastic spider under any circumstances.  Where she got the notion that spiders are bad (scary), I don't know.  I'm not afraid of spiders and the few times we've seen a spider, I've introduced her to it in a friendly way and she's seemed interested.  But now, if you show her a rubber spider, she'll grit her teeth and actually shiver!  So, because of Gwen's response, Maddy is freaked out about spiders too.     We'll slowly and gently work to erase this fear since I think it's a handicap to be phobic about things you'll encounter your entire life.

Now, just in case you haven't already pegged out your "cute meter" from looking at Gwen and Maddy, here's something sure to make you smile. If there's a pumpkin on your blog, post your URL in the comments section so we can take a peek.

This week's participants:
The Chew's Website
Davis Days
Jin Xiu's Journey
Journey to Bring Katie Home
The Smith Family's Adventures
The Teague Family Adventures
Hui-Hui's World
Emma's World
Cannon Fishbowl
Jiangxi Girls
The Daily Grind
Wee Sit Baby
ZiZoo
The Escobar Family
Just Keep Swimming
Mikala Yin Born in our Heart
Baseballs and Ballerinas
The lucky ones
Now we are six
Mager Madness
Jeff's Place
Journey to Hannah Mei
Instant Mommy
Loving Lydia
Ska-Doodle

Sisters and Friends

As we approach the 2 month anniversary of Maddy's arrival in our family, I thought I'd write about how the girls are getting along.

They go everywhere together and mimic everything the other one does.  If Gwen decides to lay down on the floor at the mall and flop around like a goldfish out of water, Maddy is down on the floor in a flash and ready to experience some of that fun for herself!  If Maddy is handed a toy, Gwen's got her hand out and there better be something equally desirable getting pressed into it real soon!  Same goes for food and drink.  Even if they're not hungry or thirsty, if one is eating or drinking, the other must also be eating or drinking.  Likewise, if one throws their food on the floor, smears it in her hair or lobs it at Daddy, the other is compelled to do it too.

We started Timeouts this week and Gwen was sitting in the "No No" Chair (a decommissioned highchair with a good seat belt).  Even though she was only sentenced to two minutes in The Chair, she was wailing at the top of her lungs with big, wet, round tears dripping from her cheeks.  Maddy was standing in front of her wiping Gwen's tears away with a stubby toddler finger and when I unstrapped Gwen and lifted her from the chair, Maddy climbed in and started to cry!  I guess she wanted to have her turn too! 

Other than crying during a super rare time-out, there's not much crying in our household.  There are peals of laughter and shrieks of delight and - unfortunately - plenty of screaming!  The girls play pretty well together but their one and only response to having a toy taken away is to scream.  To say that Mommy and Daddy aren't too keen on this would be an understatement.

They seem to like dressing alike except that they have very clear preferences for their shoes.  Gwen loves her boots and Maddy prefers her sneakers with the flashing lights.  If one takes their shoes off, the other will strip her own feet nekkid immediately also. 

And, speaking of nekkid Gwen and Maddy have decided that it's great fun to strip nu*de in their crib at nap and bedtime so we have to use a diaper pin to lock the zipper of their one-piece PJ's in place.

So, all in all, they're doing better than we dared hope.  They have the run of the whole house (less the kitchen) and they choose to be together in the same room all the time.  Frequently, they'll start off chasing each other to reclaim a toy and the chase turns into a super fun game and they end up laughing and running and forget all about the toy.  They sleep well in the same bedroom and seem to get lots of comfort from having the other one there.  They really do entertain themselves and that makes parenting much easier.   It's challenging for one parent to go anywhere with two small children but everything else seems easier than just having one. 

It'll be interesting to see how their relationship evolves as their personalities develop.   I never had a sister so I have high hopes for them!

Brown Envelope

Maddy's Brown Envelope arrived in the mail over the weekend.  It was hard not to get a little bit excited when we saw it since we were so thrilled to get Gwen's last year.  But, of course, it means nothing this time since we've already had Madeline for nearly two months!  (Maddy is SN and her adoption took exactly three months from LID to Gotcha)

The Brown Envelope was just a bunch of worthless papers to us but Maddy thought it was perfect for a silly game of peekaboo!

Reinterpretation of Classic Art

Family FotoFun Friday Challenge #2 
Post your pictures on your blog and leave a comment here before 10/20/06.

Last week's FFFF challenge was so easy that nearly everyone met it within the first 48 hours so this week will be more difficult (and hopefully more fun!).   If you need inspiration, Google Magritte or any other artist.  Here's my reinterpretation of a fairly well known classic:

This, of course, is our Maddy.  Originally, she was holding a half eaten Gala apple so I replaced it with something more visually Delicious. I did this using PaintShop Pro.   First, I straightened the image, then converted it to black and white, then I added the red apple in place of the other apple then added Maddy's fingers over that.  I did the whole thing while the kids napped but I have to confess that this is the 2nd time I've done this.  The first time took much longer and that particular picture turned out really good!  I can't wait to share it but I'll save it for a future photo challenge (hint:  think orange). You don't have to do major photo modification to play this week. I hope everyone has fun with this one!  I can't wait to see what you come up with.  Please post your blog's URL in the comments here so we can take a peek.    Have Fun!

This is Gwen holding handfuls of hay and doing her best scarecrow imitation. This week's participants: The Chew's Website Cannon Fishbowl Teague Family Adventure Loving Lydia Just Keep Swimming Davis Days Hui Hui's World The Cady Chase Mikala Yin Born in our Hearts Baseballs & Ballerinas The Daily Grind Jeff's Place The Escobar Family Jin Xiu's Journey Instant Mommy Mission to Macie

Family FotoFun Friday (FFFF)

I've seen a few websites that offer photo challenges for bloggers and they've looked like great fun but I'm not comfortable sharing my URL outide the China Adoption Community.  So, I thought I'd create our own weekly photo challenge.  I hope everyone will want to play along!  Each week, I'll post a new topic and old topics will be archived in the left menu for easy access. Who can play?  You have to have a parenting theme blog or be connected to the China adoption community to play.  Waiting families are welcome!

The Rules

1.  Post a picture on your blog.  Be creative!  Dare to be artsy!

2.  Post your link. But please don't post it before you add your picture(s).  Also, please link directly to the post that contains your FFFF entry that week.  Think about it, in 6 months, it'll be impossible to find your entry if you don't link directly to it (How do I do that?).

3.  Leave a comment.  You don't need to compliment me (really, you don't!) but please do say something.  Otherwise, it feels a little bit like a 'hit and run'.

4.  Please link back to me.   I don't really need the traffic but it's nice to let your readers know where the heck you found the FFFF so they can join if they want to.

The first FFFF Challenge is "Anticipation"....