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No photos again! I'm sorry. I'm having issues with my camera and figuring out a new phone. 

I’m an absentee blogger this week! We are busy. Three mornings of preschool a week for Sidney, doing homework, finishing Eli’s football season, Boy Scout popcorn sales, and time in between for Tom and me somewhere. Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sheryl (Tom’s dad and Mom) took Eli and Sidney last night, so we could escape for a night camping with friends. We are extremely lucky Sidney is close with both sets of grandparents, and she does amazingly away for a night. If we say, you have one sleep with grandpa and grandma; she believes us and understands we are coming back. I also say it’s because I stay home. They are ready to be away from mom for awhile.

One of our appointments this week was to the dentist. All 35 inches of Sidney’s frame fit over the back to the exam chair. “I feel a catch,” said our kind dentist. I knew what that meant. I groveled, “we brush religiously.” I discussed her rough nutritional start.  She had no appetite coming home. We were guaranteed apple juice was a few extra calories. There are also a couple more cavities forming on the other side. I am only thankful we have a chance to reverse things before her permanent teeth come in. 

She needs to be numbed up for the fillings. We are being careful not to lose her level of comfort in a medical setting. It’s important she feels safe. Our dentist agreed a sedative is probably best, given her past and future hand surgeries. We don’t know how many. It depends on how things shift as she grows bigger.  I don’t like to give unnecessary medication, but our situation is unique. When she’s older we can rationalize a bit better.

After her visit last week, we dealt with night terrors during the middle of the night and during a nap. They are typically triggered by going to the doctor or if her schedule is thrown off. It goes with the territory. We can go months with none, sleeping through the night without her waking up. If she starts having them, they usually go for a few nights before stopping. Typically, the day after having one, we can expect she will be grouchy. This time, we are experiencing something different. There’s a song she sang in China and continued doing so after she came home. It’s kind of a haunting melody with theatrical movements. We have no clue what she’s singing. We haven’t heard it for awhile, or we heard the melody with English words. She started singing it in Chinese the other day. It was bizarre, but if she’s going to retain something, thank goodness it was something she enjoyed in the orphanage. One of the first things I remember loving on her referral was the comment that she loved music. 

Eli is finishing up the last couple of weeks in football. He continues to play center in the games. He is motivated listening to his coach, and he loves working with a team. Tom was more athletic than myself, but you don’t have to go far to have more athletic ability than me. Let’s hope the biological differences between Sidney and her parents are a positive factor in her athletic prowess. I will be interested to see if he goes out again next year for football. He looks disinterested during his games, but I could be completely wrong.  

Sidney brought a pumpkin home from school today. She was so proud of it. It’s those adorable moments that I love the most as a parent. Kids have such an appreciation for things we miss in our hurried lives as adults. Sidney also has an appreciation for being given things that I haven’t ever seen in a child. If she gets a new shirt, she typically tells me “oh, thank you mommy!” It’s awesome.

OK, off to get something productive done before another busy week begins.