Losing My Marbles (Literally)

 A couple of weeks ago, we visited our local Chinese restaurant. Of course, they all love Sidney, and the wife of the husband/wife team holding down the place, always stops by our table to converse with Sidney. Sometimes she tries to teach her to count in Chinese, but there is always some small lesson involved. We aren’t in very often, but it’s touching to see her try to help Sidney retain the Chinese culture.

She suddenly began inspecting the back of Sidney’s head. What??? “She have two points in back,” she said pointing at her head. “One point means she’s good easy, girl. Two points means….hmmm. I’m not sure how you say it here.” I finished her thought by saying “ornery?” She came to the conclusion this was the word she was looking for. We learned people in China look at this as a fun indicator of a child’s behavior. Oh boy, we are in trouble!

More camping mayhem. Waking up chipper like just like Mom. Not!!!

Perhaps, this is why Eli and I pulled up to the preschool to see Sidney, finishing the last few moments of outdoor play, climbing on the uppermost part of the equipment above the slide. Suddenly, I could see the teacher peeling across the small play area. “No Sidney! Get down,” she said as I read her lips. Sidney complied. I watched another two seconds before, doing the same thing. My dare devil had to try it out for herself. After the teacher lifted her down, she took back off across to the other side of the play area and mounted the caterpillar tunnel. No, no, she wasn’t going to go through it. She was going to go over it. 

Eli and I made our usual comment when we are out of ear shot from Sidney. It’s our way of bonding like the old days when Eli was an only. “She’s really something, isn’t she,” we say shaking our heads.

Tom and I have an inside joke. If she is doing something like climbing, jumping, hoping around like a frog, or scaling up the side of play equipment with gaps in the rungs half her height, we turn to one another and say in a factitious manner, “boy that special need is really slowing her down.”

Eli has finally started to come down a bit. I think he has learned not to mess with the wrath of mom. That and loosing marbles out of his jar is more painful than anything. I got this idea from another adoptive family. Marbles go in the jar for good behavior; marbles go out of the jar for bad behavior. Something like the summer my dad decided to give us tick marks for good table manners. Of course, this started when my parents saw me eating lettuce with my hands. I’ve come a long way, haven’t I Mom and Dad? 

OK, time to get up and move around. Our riding lawn mower is being repaired, and I was behind the push mower tonight for a long time. There’s something soothing about watching the neat, even rows plow down and knowing nobody is bugging me. Everyone is inside, and I am having my own moment behind the mower. Ahhh, I love summer!