Summertime fun

We've initiated the pool this weekend and the kids are having so much fun, I have two water babies! Within a matter of days they have gone from looking like the "Michelin Man" with so many floaties on, and clinging to Mama; to wearing only the arm floaties and floating around by themselves. It is just a matter of time before they will be swimming on their own! The best part is, they are so tired at the end of the day, they actually ask to go to bed! Yesterday after swimming all day, we met their Aunt Mary and Uncle Skip for dinner at the Gaylord Texan; which is this great hotel/convention center near DFW airport. They were having a model train show and Chase just went crazy for the trains, guess this will be on his wish list for his next birthday! After we left, both kids were sound asleep in their car seats within 5 minutes; I knew this pool was a good investment when I had it built! Here are some pics of the weekend:


Water Baby 1

Water baby 2

Throwing pennies in the fountain and then trying to get them back!!

Waiting for dinner

Half asleep waiting for dinner!

Finally, someone is listening!

We met with the child psychiatrist last week and it took him all of 30 minutes to listen to me and watch Chase and tell me: "Your son could probably benefit from some low dose medication"! Dear Lord, I have been saying this for 8.5 months and finally someone heard me and saw what I see every day! The doctor put him on a low dose of Focalin and gave me pretty liberal dosing instructions. I can go up or down depending on his reaction to it. So far we are on the recommended dose of 2.5mg and it seems to be working. His teachers have indicated that he is listening, paying attention and following directions. His distractibility has decreased significantly and he will actually sit and watch sesame street for longer than 30 seconds! I haven't really seen any of the side effects which include a decreased appetite and sleeping issues, he still eats like a horse (two helpings of spaghetti last night) and sleeps just fine. We still have lots to work on, but this hopefully will only help.

Sick. Again.

I think my kids are carriers of every kindergarten and preschool germ possible. They, thank goodness very rarely get sick and if they do, it is for a very short time. Me on the other hand has come down with every single cold, flu, stomach virus and now strep throat out there! I never used to get sick before I had kids; I've had medical catastrophes happen to me, but never this constant icky, yucky sickness that I seem to have every few weeks. And I'm sick and tired of being sick!! I think the pharmacy must love me when they see me walk in, I think I am what you would call a "frequent flyer"! Oh well, thank God for antibiotics!

Chase finally got his psychiatrist appointment, yeah! It is scheduled for May 15th. Now I can only hope and pray they see what I and all the teachers at his school see. I never thought I would be so happy and excited for my kid to see a shrink!

Just a whole lotta frustration

Why is it so hard to get what you think is best for your child? I had the big follow up meeting on all the evaluations on Chase and basically they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. They would not come to the conclusion that he is ADHD. I don't understand why they couldn't see it. The kid moves constantly, has an attention span of a flea and cannot focus on anything for longer than 1 minute and yet they want to blame everything on where he has been. They recommended family therapy and parenting classes. Now come on, he is doing great with attachment, he has come such a long way with that, even they could not find anything "abnormal" with his attachment to me. But yet when it comes to his horrific behavior (and it has been horrible lately) they wouldn't/couldn't say that it is because he is constantly unfocused. How is he supposed to focus on being a "good boy" when he is physically unable to do so?? Needless to say I was really disheartened at the outcome of this and so was anybody and everybody that interacts with Chase on a continual basis. After I settled down from all this I called them back and had to basically beg for a different opinion; they finally relented and agreed after much discussion to refer him to their child psychiatrist for possible ADHD, but get this, we can't even get in until June, possible late May if they have a cancellation. In the meantime, while we wait to hear back when our appointment is, he is acting out terribly at school. He is back to using Russian swear words, calling his teachers the Russian word for B*%^ch! Even singing it at the top of his lungs! He is throwing things, not listening, running off, you name it, he has done it. And everyday, he comes out of school and tells me "I do better tomorrow mommy" and the next day it's worst than the day before. I don't want to seem like I am a huge advocate for drugging my kid, but where there is definitely a need, I would like to at least see it tried on him to see if it even works.

Sorry for the slow blogging lately, I know everyone has been calling and wanting to know the outcome of his evals, but I am just so frustrated/depressed about all this I just needed a little break.

This little boy is so beautiful and so special and has so much potential if we could just get beyond all this other stuff. I know there is an answer out there, they just make it so darned hard to find it!

Living in the real world

I had thought that maybe, just maybe since Chase has been doing so well for the past couple of months that maybe he might be able to go to a "normal" preschool next year. But if the past few days are any indication that we were out of the woods, I am sadly mistaken. Chase has been such a little "pill" this past week and not only at home, but at school as well. The days of the teachers telling me that he had a really good day, he was so helpful, he listened, sat and paid attention are gone for now. Hopefully they will come back. My goal for him is for him to attend a preschool with children who don't have significant issues and not get kicked out. The PPCD program he is in is fine, although Chase is probably one of if not the highest functioning kids in the class. They cater more to the more fragile kids and I think that academically he should and could be learning more. At 4.5 yo, he should know a lot more than he does and I don't foresee that he will get that if he stays in this program.

Chase had his big assessment with the Salesmanship Club on Tuesday. It was a long morning for both of us. After filling out a lot of paperwork, he had a brief physical by the nurse, he is so big, he is in the 90th percentile for height and weight! He passed the hearing exam, but was not cooperative for the vision exam. We then met with the director and found out what the rest of the morning would consist of. After that, he went into a room with the education specialist and she worked/played with him for about an hour. I got to sit in a separate room and watch thru a one way mirror. He was his usual self, constantly moving from activity to activity; the one thing that surprised me is that he wanted to know where I was, so the therapist had to bring him to me several times during his session, attachment is working! While I sat and watched him, the psychologist came and talked with me. She wanted to know what his life was like in the orphanage, what I felt his problems were, what my goals were with him; she even went so far as to ask me how I came to adopt, what my motivation was, and so on and so on. Why do the waterworks start every time I have to tell my "story"? I hate that. After time with the Ed. specialist, I was asked to go into another room and play with him and then the phone would ring and I was given instructions to do something else with him, this went on for about another hour, the whole time, we were being watched thru the one way mirror and videotaped. After we were done with that we met with the director again and I was asked how I thought it went. I told her they got a pretty good idea of what Chase was like, although not totally correct as he does pretty well when he is one on one with someone, it's when he is in a group setting like school or if I am not totally focused on him that he acts out. They plan on speaking with his teachers at the school and get their impressions of him. I have a follow up meeting with them next week Friday to find out what their findings are. The psychologist told me as we were leaving that she felt she could solve this "puzzle" of a boy. I hope so!

More news from our courtyard, she just keeps laying eggs and she is just a little bird; we are up to five today!

We are up to Quadruplets!

This is so much fun to watch everyday, how many can one little bird lay????

And growing some more!

Today there are three!

The little family is growing!

I love spring,
look what I found this morning:

This and That

This is probably going to be just a random post about not much! It's been busy around here since spring has sprung! Working in the yard which is fun with two kids to help. Caroline and Chase are dying to get in the pool, but the water temp is only in the 50's. I know they are from Eastern Siberia, so this is probably bath water to them, but way too cold for me to go in!

Here is what Chase and I have been watching for the last week:

It's been so much fun to watch these two birds going back and forth, building this nest in a miniature rose bush on our courtyard, we went out this morning and this is what we found in it.


Chase is going for his big 4 hour assessment at the Salesmanship Club on Tuesday. This is a funny name for an organization that works with children with various different issues, his being behavior and possible ADHD. I called them back in January when I was just losing it with his everyday drama. When things finally seemed to turn the corner, it was time for his in home assessment. I thought about cancelling, but I know that we are not out of the woods yet and felt it certainly couldn't hurt. A social worker came out to the house to observe him in his home environment and then he goes to their center for this 4 hour thing. They have SW, psychologists, psychiatrists, behavioral specialists and others on their team that will work with him to see what the best plan of action is for him. Even though he is not doing anything really awful these days, he still is in constant motion and has the attention span of about 30 seconds on anything. He is also having a really difficult time with listening and following directions, I don't know if this is just typical 4.5 yo behavior or is it something else? Another thing that he is doing that is driving me nuts is that he is so destructive. He doesn't seem to destroy things on purpose, but will push and pull and do just about anything to break something, it is getting really annoying and I have told him he gets absolutely nothing new until he learns how to respect things. Yesterday, he broke a small table outside, spilled an entire large bucket of blowing bubbles (this was a pretty indestructible and spill proof container) and tore the covers off several books. On a good note, his OT retested him this past week and he has gone from testing at about a 22 month old to a 45 month old in about 5 months, not too bad! We hopefully will be discharged from OT in the next month or so.

Caroline is doing okay, the latest issue we are having is that she has become a horrible "tattle tailer". I have just about had it with her. She tells on her brother with everything and seems to take this perverse pleasure in seeing him get in trouble. She loves to repeat over and over how Chase can't do this or that because he is in time out or whatever. She finally got sent to time out herself for tattle tailing. I told her she will have no friends in school if she keeps this up. Is this typical for a 6 year old?

I've decided to hold her back in Kindergarten for next year. She has really done amazingly well for just being here for 7 months, but the expectations they place on these kids in Kindergarten are unreal. They are doing story math problems which has been a real challenge for her; she is expected to read, comprehend and solve a problem. She is expected to read and comprehend early reader and level one books, and she simply is not there yet and I don't think she will be anytime soon. Language is still an issue. I don't want her to be in a constant catch up mode throughout school and since she is so petite and also kind of immature as opposed to the other kids, her teacher and I both think it would be the best thing to do. I haven't told her yet and hope they don't make a big production at school about going on to first grade.

Lots of things seem to be falling into place now that we are home for 7 months, it has taken awhile and we still have a ways to go, but these kids are just amazing to me! They are so beautiful and their little personalities are so much fun, I have to pinch myself most days just to believe they are actually mine. I lucked out in so many areas with them and know as difficult as some things have been, the good outweigh the bad by a huge amount. Here is a slide show of pictures over the past few months.

Happy Easter!

I've got the Easter Bunny on speed dial

If it wasn't for all the characters associated with holidays, my kids would probably be in a permanent time out. It is pouring down rain, we've already gotten over 6 inches today, so we are stranded at home, we had planed to go bowling, but with street flooding and high water rescues happening all around us, that is out of the question. It is spring break and we are staying local. I think I have already played 6 hours of Sesame Street for them, played games, colored and now we are waiting for the eggs to be done, so we can color them in anticipation of the Big Bunny coming this Sunday. I have threatened calling the Easter Bunny at least 10 times today alone, he is programed on my cell and home phone, as well as a direct link to him via e-mail! Rain, Rain go away!

Another good week

Chase had another record breaking week with no time outs in school! I am almost afraid to write about it and jinx this streak. He just seems to have turned a corner and I'm trying to figure it out. I should probably just accept it and be grateful (which I am) but I just wish I knew what the magic answer was to this. He is so excited to tell me and any one else who will listen that he had no time outs, he is just so proud of himself and so am I. I know it's too early to breathe a sigh of relief as it could turn back around tomorrow; but for now I will take it. Here's a picture of my little man, he is really into pretend play right now and loves to pretend that he is Jose, our yard guy:

Great, Terrific, Awesome, Fantabulous Week!

Both my kids had a great week at school. Caroline came home with a "Bravo" which is I guess equivalent to having a good and productive week at school. There are not many weeks that she doesn't get them, but it's just recently that she appreciates the specialness of it. Before, she could of cared less, probably because she really didn't understand it, but now, she comes running up to me on Fridays and is screaming "I got a bravo, I got a bravo"! Her teacher allows them to do something special on Mondays if they got a bravo, they can either bring a stuffed animal to school, take their shoes off and wear just socks in the classroom or bring something for show and tell. Caroline got a new stuffed animal for her birthday, so she already has that in her backpack ready to go for Monday.

Chase had a fantastic, record making week; he only had one time out on Monday!!!!! We are so used to measuring his days by how many time outs he gets per day, that this is incredible news! No one can figure out what is going on with him, he is just doing so much better. His doctor, his therapist, his teachers and myself are just confused as just a couple weeks ago it seemed like his behavior was just getting worse, but now he is listening, obeying, being incredibly helpful and is just a joy to be around. I don't know if I'm feeding him something different, if its the Omega 3 fatty acids or being home for 6 months is a magic mark for him, but I'll take it and be thankful for every moment of it. It may start up again and this coming week could be a disaster, but for now I'm totally enjoying it! Yeah for Chase!

My little girl is six years old!

"Mama, I'm not five years old anymore" is the first thing she said when I woke her up this morning. She is having a great birthday celebration. Yesterday was the party that almost wasn't. Caroline was sick on Saturday and I really wasn't sure if she would be well enough for the party on Sunday, but after pumping her full of emetrol and pedialyte, she made a good enough recovery for Sunday. The party was a great success and best of all, Caroline had a blast! It was so much fun for me and all the other mom's to watch. Everyone is just amazed at the progress she has made in the past six months. We had a good turnout, about 10 kids came, even her Kindergarten teacher came, which was the perfect amount and she received such wonderful gifts, she kept saying "thank you, spasiba" (trying to keep a little of the Russian language alive!) Here's some pics of the day:





That's Chase in the red striped shirt who is doing amazingly well this past week and did fantastic at the party! Yeah, we may have turned a corner!

Tonight I am taking them out to dinner and then more presents and cake at home. Wednesday is my birthday, so we have a lot of celebrating to do this week.

Jane

"You're not my friend"

We have been battling the Kindergarten "mean girls"! Lately, Caroline has been saying "You're not my friend" when she gets angry with me. She also says, "I don't love you today, but I'll love you tomorrow"! I knew this was coming from school as this is not something I have ever taught her to say. I've tried to explain to her that everyone is her friend and sometimes people make you angry, but it is usually just a mistake and that they are still your friend. Well come to find out she has been saying this to just about all the kids in her class as well as at home. I finally got so sick of it, I told her she would get a time out if she said it again. They other day, she almost said it, but caught herself at the last second and instead said "I don't like... your sweater"! She also had to apologize to everyone in her class that she has said this to. Her teachers say this is so common, especially with the girls in the second semester of school. I knew this was something that she would encounter probably in the 3rd and 4th grade, but dear Lord, it now starts in Kindergarten?! She is so excited about her birthday party this weekend, but with what's been going on at school, I'll be surprised if any of her friends show up!

6 months!

Six months ago, my sister Gail and I were sweating it out in the hitherlands of far east Russia counting the days, hours and minutes until we could leave that God forsaken place. Birobidzhan had two great things going for it: My children and a local beer called "T". Not too much else. The people who were involved in the adoption process there are all wonderful, but if I never see it again, that would be just fine. It amazes me sometimes how people who speak of the wonderful care their children received while in the orphanages in Russia; my children were well cared for physically, but when I see the difficulty my son has with his behavior, I know that is a direct result of being in the orphanage system. He is on the extreme end of "attention seeking behavior". His behavior is stemmed in the fact that he never received any positive attention, the only way he knows to get someone to notice him is to behave badly. He figures any attention, even if it is negative is better than none. Could it have been so difficult for those caregivers to say "good boy" once in a while? To praise him for achievements rather than shower him with attention when he misbehaved? I realize that the system works on a shoestring budget, but it does not cost money to encourage a kid and build up his self esteem; and it does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out either! Yes the orphanages are spotless, we saw them ironing the draperies when we were there! but I think their time would be much better spent interacting with these children and giving them some positive emotional reinforcements. Granted an orphanage is not an ideal situation for any child to be in, but when they say they do the best they can with what they have, I don't buy it! I know I'm getting off on a tangent here because of my frustration with Chase, but really, if you are a person involved with adoptions in Russia and reading this; please take this to heart and work on the emotional well being of these kids as well.

Okay, enough about my frustrations. Six months is milestone and sometimes it feels like we have been together for 6 years and other times it feels like about 6 minutes! Our SW was amazed at the progress my kids have made in the time they have been home. She was here about a month after we got home and then again for our 6 month post placement visit. It's nice to hear someone notices the positive changes that have taken place, albeit small, sometimes we don't notice when we are around them all the time.

Caroline is doing very well. She is learning to read! I don't remember learning to read that early in Kindergarten, but that was a loooooooong time ago. I was surprised though that she is farther behind then her peers than I thought. I sometimes feel like I am pushing her through two years of preschool and 6 months of Kindergarten all in the past 6 months just to get her to catch up. What I did find out after speaking with her teachers (both K and ESL) is that it takes an ESL student 2 years to speak "social" language and 7 years to speak "educational" language. Caroline is having a hard time deciphering between letters, words and numbers. She can count to 100, but if you ask her to find "the number 76" on a board, she doesn't have a clue what you are taking about and would not be able to find it. She also doesn't understand words are made up of letters, when you ask her to read a word aloud, if it is not one of her "sight" words, she spells it for you rather than reading, or sounding it out. We've got some work to do but now that I have identified what the problems are, it's much easier to work on it. The good thing is, is that Chase is picking up on this and learning right along with Caroline and what a great preparation for Kindergarten for him in another year.

We have a big birthday celebration coming up next weekend; Caroline is going to be six years old! She is so excited and so am I. We are having a "Hip Hop Dancing Party" Caroline loves to dance and I really wanted a party that would include the boys she is close to in her class, so Hip Hop is what I came up with.
She is having her party at the dance training center for the Dallas Maverick (Pro Basketball Team) Cheerleaders and one of the dancers is teaching the class to them! I think it's gonna be so much fun! We're having pizza and Caroline wants a cupcake birthday cake so I've ordered one from Sprinkles. I've made up little favor bags for the girls with these cute, cute, cute hats that I got at a store called Justice - just for girls, and for the boys, I got visors with the emblem of their school on it, they will also both get sunglasses and friendship bracelets; all very "Hip Hoppy". I hope they like them! I think they turned out just adorable. It amazes me how these kids parties have gotten so big, I remember just coming over to someones house and playing musical chairs and pin the tail on the donkey! It shows you how old I am! And getting older, my birthday is two days after Carolines!

I'm sure there is a lot more that has been going on around here, I just can't think of all of it. I'm nursing a sore hip right now, I've had significant pain in my left upper leg for 6 months now and have been diagnosed with bursitis - isn't that an old person's issue? (can you tell I'm sensitive about my upcoming birthday?) Well the celebrex didn't work, so the ortho gave me a shot of cortisone in my hip today and ordered 6 weeks of physical therapy, I think the soreness of the shot hurts more than my leg now!

Jane

I know, I know, I know... Long time no blog!

Just because I have been such a slacker, I have gone ahead and given the site a new look, do you like it? I think it's still a work in progress, so I may make some changes to it. The pictures on my header are of Caroline and Chase shortly after we got home and I used them for their adoption announcements; I think they are such beautiful pictures, I thought I would share them with everyone. By the way, I got the idea from another blogger friend who is way more creative than me, Rachael.

Life has been a little, I don't know what you would call it? Chaotic??? Funky???Difficult??? Probably a little of all that and more. This motherhood stuff is hard, hard, hard! And I have really been struggling lately

Chase has been having a difficult time of late and I'm am having a difficult time handling it. He is such a sweet and precious little boy and it breaks my heart to see him have such difficulty adjusting to different situations. He is in the school district's PPCD program Monday thru Friday from 8am to 11am; he is doing okay, although most days lately are measured by how many time outs he gets. He is incredibly smart and his language skills are just exploding weekly; he is speaking in full sentences, and for the most part you can understand him although there are a few words that I have to interpret for people. Not too bad for a 4 year old that's only been here for 6 months. It's his behavior that is such an issue. He is not violent or aggressive, he is just constantly "busy". He doesn't like to listen, and will just take off running just to see what your reaction will be, most times I try and ignore it, but if he's in a dangerous position, I have to react strongly which is exactly what he wants. I tried to put him in a daycare/preschool after his PPCD class ended at 11am and that was a total disaster; every day there was more and more drama with him, he reverted back to behaviors that had all but disappeared, hitting, biting, kicking and swearing! I finally had enough and pulled him out after 2.5 weeks, now I feel like we're working all over again to correct those habits. He is now home with me again and I am now going to resort to finding a nanny for him. His teacher at school is making a referral to a behavior specialist at my request; I also signed up for "Love and Logic" parenting classes, and I called his pediatrician and got the names of physicians that deal with behavior issues with young kids, his first appointment is not until July! Hopefully his pedi can pull some strings and get us in quicker. From what I understand with the school district and his pediatrician, it is unlikely that anyone will diagnose him with ADHD at this young age, they want to wait until he is at least 7 years old to do that, I don't know if I can hold on that long! Someone is going on meds and if not him, it's gonna be me! I did start him on Omega 3 fatty acids and "Attentive Child" mineral supplement; I have no idea if it works or not, the only change I have noticed is that his language skills have increased tremendously since I started giving it to him; whether that is from the supplements or a natural cause to his school, I don't know. Everyone that works with him says he is such a "puzzle", and underneath all of these issues everybody can see such a great kid with so much potential.

On a brighter note, Chase's favorite book is "Goodnight Moon". The Dallas Children's Theater was presenting the musical version of the story, so I took both Caroline and Chase to today's matinee. I was terrified of how Chase would do for 1.5 hours having to sit still and boy was I surprised! He sat on the edge of his seat for the entire show and loved every bit of it! He got a little antsy about the last ten minutes but so did half the theater. I was so proud of him! There is hope!!

Okay, I don't want to overwhelm you with everything all at once! So I will post again tomorrow (promise!) with the rest of the news.

Jane

I've created a monster!

Ever since Caroline has been home, I have always told her that she is pretty, beautiful, gorgeous, etc. It didn't take her long to start standing in front of her mirror saying: "Mama, I so pretty", "Mama, I gorgeous", which at first I thought was oh so cute, but now I tell her that we really don't say those things about ourselves but we say them about other people, that they are compliments and you should say "thank you" when someone says that to you. That went over like a lead balloon as she is still saying it. Yesterday was Caroline's first birthday party she has ever been invited to and it was held at Libby Lu. If you click on the link it will tell you all about it. OMG, she is now a certifiably self loving, narcissistic 5 year old! And I am going to pull my hair out! Here are some pictures from yesterday:










It really was a treat for both Caroline and myself. I got to stay and watch all the fun, and really see Caroline in an evironment other than at home and with just me. She still needs some social skills training, i.e. eating her ice cream with her hands when she couldn't find her spoon (not very princess like!) and picking her nose with wet, blue, glittery nail polish! but she is doing great!

In other news: Daisy's tumor came back benign! Yeah!! She is doing fantastic and healing up very nicely.

Daisy's doing well!

Daisy did well with her surgery yesterday and is at home resting comfortably. The vet called about 11 am yesterday and told me the tumor had doubled in size since he first found it only 10 days ago. He removed it successfully and it has been sent to pathology for examination and we will get the results back tomorrow. Please pray it is benign as the vet thinks it is. Daisy was put in "puppy icu" for the rest of the day and was heavily sedated. We went to pick her up about 5 pm and Chase and Caroline went with me. They got a tour of the vets office, got to see the sick pets along with Daisy and also the boarded ones. They took Sasha, a boarded Golden Retriever out to play with them in their back playard while I spoke with the vet about Daisy's post op care. I think Chase now wants to be a veterinarian, he was just fascinated with all of it, Chase and Caroline have come a long way since the blood curdling screams at the sight of my dogs when we first arrived home.

Daisy did well her first night home, I think I slept with one eye open on her all night. I've been dosing her with pain meds q 8 hours to keep a constant level in her system so she hopefully won't have any breakthrough pain. So far it's working. The vet could not stress enough to me how painful this recovery is and I think he said it about 10 times, I cried every time he talked about it!. My poor baby, I pray everything is smooth sailing for her now.

So much going on

Whew, it's only Wednesday and I feel like it should be Friday of next week. Chase started his preschool on Monday. This is the preschool thru the school district for kids with delayed learning issues, although there is some controversy with putting children in this, I felt like this was the best place for Chase to learn to behave in a group setting, if he doesn't grasp this concept now, he's going to be a holy terror once he reaches elementary school. He went thru a battery of tests back in November and although the school district psychologist felt like he is a "puzzle" they agreed to place him in the program and focus on not only his behavior and attention issues, but also his speech. He is going 5 days a week for 3 hours a day in the morning; the great thing about this is that he cannot get kicked out! I don't know if I blogged about it, but Chase lasted a whopping 45 minutes in the last private preschool before they called me to come and remove him! I am literally at my wits end with him; he can be so sweet and loving and then the next he is tearing something apart! We so far have been asked to leave stores, he's been asked to leave his first preschool and we got asked to leave church at the Christmas eve children's service. I do know he is better than he was 4 months ago when we first came home, but we have a long way to go. He still goes to occupational therapy twice a week for sensory issues and I honestly don't know if it's working or not, his attention span is about 30 seconds! and does not seem to be improving. He still does ridiculous things like eating dog food. Yesterday I caught him eating it twice and both times he landed in time out, then when I caught him the third time, I swatted him on his backside. I'm not an advocate of spanking, but nothing seems to get thru to him. I don't know if this is just a 4 year old being a rambunctious 4 year old, or is it related to attachment issues or what?? I do hope that a year from now we will be able to laugh about this, but dear Lord he is one rascally kid!

Thank goodness Caroline is doing great. Caroline got invited to her first birthday party for this weekend, she is so excited. The problem that Caroline is having is that she is into "everything is mine" right now. I'm sure this is related to the fact that before me, she never had anything to call her own and now she seems to think "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine"! She became very upset yesterday when I explained to her that the party this weekend is for her friend, it is not "her" party. She gets over it, but not without a LOT of drama.

We are also having dog issues. The dogs boarded at the vets office while we were on vacation and they all got their physicals and shots while they were there. The vet called me in Chicago to let me know the finding of their physicals. Daisy my golden/Shepard has a tumor on her bottom that may or may not be malignant, she is in surgery today for removal and apparently this will be a very painful recovery and she will be on a fentanyl patch, and oral pain meds as well as anti-inflammatory pills and antibiotics. I am waiting on the vets call right now to let me know how she did in surgery. The path report on the tumor will not be back until Friday, we'll know at that time if it's benign or malignant and what the best treatment plan for her will be. I am so worried about her, she is my "baby" who survived hurricane Katrina and was my first adoption. If you can spare some prayers for her, I would appreciate it. Here is one of my favorite pictures of her:


The other dogs are having issues as well, Rosie my Scottish terrier has elevated liver enzymes and will need to watched for the next few months to see if this is a fluke or if there is indeed a problem. Violet, the Boston terrier has giardia! She probably got it from the kids as they were treated for it shortly after we returned from Russia, so she is on flagyl.

Oy, I need an assistant to keep up with all this!

Jane