In the garden

Eva helped me plant the garden over Memorial Day weekend. This morning she helped me put together the tomato cages. The unexpected part to me is that she actually is help. Plus, she loves every minute of it. Eva is just a delight to spend time with...instead of invading my peace outside, she enhances it.

Play time

Eva and I have been playing with the little people in their little house. Eva is delightful in what she makes them do. Every one of them knocks on the front door and says, "Hello." Every one of them goes and sits on the potty chair and then washes their hands. Then she pretends to wash her hands in the little sink. Then, they either go and sit at the computer and watch movies from China or they go to the kitchen to cook dinner or they go and take a nap. I was told that watching a child play gives insight to how they see their world. I find it amusing that she loves to play with her dolls and always does the same things with them... feed them, put them down for a nap and put them on time out. This is her world and the things that she finds important.

Spring

At daycare, Eva loves to go outside and play on the swingset. She especially loves the slide. And since she isn't going to daycare for a while since I'm off work for the summer we wanted to help her with her outside play. While we have a swing, we thought it would be good to get her a little metal swingset for her to play on that has a slide and a glider and some better swings than we have. In a couple of years we intend to build her a wood play center, but right now she's too young for that. She's only two years old and a metal swingset will work well for her. However, we want the world to know that it is impossible to find a metal swingset in the entire Northern Minnesota and Eastern North Dakota region. On Saturday, in the pouring rain, we took our sick child on a trip to the big city of Grand Forks to find her a swingset. She's got a cold... I think her two year molars are coming in (lots of drooling and chewing on everything) and her immune system is weakened, thus the cold. In any case, we didn't want her to get wet, which meant we had to use the umbrella, which kept blowing away, of course. I held Eva and she held the umbrella, which was an adventure in itself. So, dealing with the rain and a sick baby, we went to every store in Grand Forks... they do not carry metal swingsets. We found lots of the wood play centers, but not metal framed swingsets. We drove the hour back home very disapointed. I went online and there were some I could find online, but the price for shipping them was about $150...that's just a little too much money for shipping. I called all the stores in Fargo even, and the ones that carried them were sold out. Not to expect more until time unknown. It was a frustrating experience. Eventually, I did decide to order a small swingset online that only had a $50 shipping charge. I feel bad inside, because I really wanted to get her a bigger one. Oh well... at least we know that when we build her wood play center, there are lots of those to be found.

I have too many roosters... We've got about 30 chickens, and four of them are roosters. I had only intended to keep two, but when it came to butchering time a couple of years ago, I just had too soft a heart and kept a couple more than I intended. They're very pretty. Goldie is the name of our Buff Orpington rooster. You can see him in one of the pictures of Eva riding her hot rod. He's a beautiful rooster, who was one of the top players in the chicken house for the last couple of years. Rocky is the name of our Barred Rock rooster. Barred rock roosters take longer to mature and so all last summer, he was small and got picked on horribly. This year, Rocky has growed to full size and has decided it was enough. He and Goldie got into a fight about a week ago. Goldie lost. Goldie has been ostricized. In fact, I thought he had lost his right eye in the fight, but now the swelling has gone down, he is using it again. Eventually, I will bring him back into the chicken house, but for now, he is sleeping in the fenced in area in the wood shed. Every morning when I get up, Goldie is already up and about. I find it very amusing, because when I walk outside I see Goldie, the dog (Scarlet) and the outside cat (Pooky) all hanging out together, eating out of the same dish, talking to each other, each in their own language. Every morning it makes me smile to see that strange trio of buddies.

We planted our garden this weekend. Eva helped me. I really think she has an innate gardening ability. Can that possibly be genetic? She totally gets the concept. She helped me plant the peas, the green beans, the corn and the pumpkins. She put the seeds exactly where they were suppose to go and helped me cover them up and pat them down. It was perfect. She treated it as such a matter-of-fact thing and knew she was important because mommy needed help and she was helping. She got covered with dirt and loved it. I can't wait until the seeds come up and I can teach her about the plants growing. When her swing set gets here, I am going to put it near the garden, so she can play in it while I work in the garden. Eva wants to be outside all the time. Since I would also much rather be outside than inside, I am encouraging it in her.

Eva is currently napping. She had watermelon for breakfast and there are juice stains down the front of her shirt, mixed with the dirt from the garden. (We had to finish planting this morning) She looks like a little girl who has things to do and things to discover. And, I am finding new enjoyment in doing old things. Spring is good.

New skill

Eva was very excited yesterday, I hear from the bathroom a little voice saying, "Look at E'ah mommy. E'ah do it! E'ah do it!" Yes, my daughter has learned to spit... it is an exciting day in the Hurlburt household. Actually she has learned to spit out her toothpaste when brushing her teeth, she's been trying to do that for a while now.

Right now she is at the door playing a game where she shuts the door and says, "Bye Bye, see you later." Then a second later she opens the door and says, "E'ah come back." This set of actions is then repeated ad infinitum. There are a few variations that involve me getting up to open the door for her because she accidentally latched it, or me getting up to move something for her or her coming to get a hug (that's my favorite variation).

Honkers

There's a field south of our home where there are many pairs of Canadian Geese nesting at this time of year. This morning, I drove Eva down to see them. I parked the car near the field and rolled down the window. I told her, "Eva, look at the Honkers." She replied, "E'ah look Hookers." I said, "Yes, you can see the Honkers and there are more over there." To which she said, "More Hookers mommy." I stifled my laugh and instructed her that, "They are sitting on nests of eggs, and are making baby Honkers." She nodded her head in an all knowing way and asked, "E'ah see baby Hookers too?" I decided it was time to stop the conversation about Honkers.

Eva's ride

The farmers have been busy planting the last couple of weeks up here. Eva rode her "Happy Birthday Hotrod" down to the end of our property (it was along ride) to watch the tractor go "round and round." She insisted on taking that ball for a ride with her, and raised a ruckus if I even mentioned that it might be easier to steer without it.

Conversations with Eva...

This morning I carried a notebook around with me and wrote down the topics of our conversations in the just the first hour and a half that Eva and I were up this morning.

Eva began the morning by telling me about the pillow that Granny made (actually Granny's sister made it and Eva swiped it from Granny), we counted everything in the room that was in pairs, "One, two..." She especially dwelled on the two sippy cups. She stealed my nose, informed me about her hair pretties and we discussed my watch at length. She told me how to jump on the bed, and then showed me exactly what she just told me. That was followed by a conversation about Granny riding the shoping cart at Walmat, a discussion regarding her friend at daycare, the cat (Ginger), and putting shoes on the doll. We then talked about the shoes and the image of a Bee embroidered on them, which was followed by a dance to the words "E'ah did it! E'ah did it!" All this conversation made her hungry and we had another conversation about what she wanted for breakfast, discussing at length bread and peanut butter. The merits thereof, and why she should have her bread cut. Eva told me all about how she runs, this conversation was accompanied with a demonstration of running in circles. She informed me what chop sticks were and how to use them, as well as, what a key was and how to use it to "locking the doors, mommy." We discussed colors, what Ginger was doing, and that Pooky (the outside cat) was outside with the dog. She transitioned into Pooky eating the bread, the chickens eating the bread and mommy drinking water. She discussed at lengths the merits of mommy drawing her a happy face, and mommy's mother day present. We had a conversation about Jesus loving us and that He talks to us in the bible. This was followed by a long discourse about her sippy cup (which I gave her without a lid) and how she really needed a lid. She was very upset about the lack of lid. When she spilled the water I heard "oops... That's okay." Which is of course what I tell her whenever she has an accident.... this morning I didn't need to as she did it for me. Our next conversation was about diapers and the potty chair, followed with a discourse about the puppy dog toy, her music boxes, candy, her story books, her toy balls and how Eva was "cooking mommy." Somewhere in there she sang me the "Mary had a little lamb" song and delighted over her stool.

After an hour an a half I was exhausted and quit keeping track... besides I ran out of room on my piece of paper to write any more down.

Changing the battery

When it came time to change the battery of her toy, Eva insisted "E'ah do it!"




After some trial and error, she informed me, "mommy do it!"

Birthday present

I finally got the pictures up of Eva's "Happy Birthday Hotrod." These pictures are all taken from her birthday, when she first got her new ride. Since then she has gotten over her intimidation of it, and she sways and smiles the entire time she is on it. She also, has finally learned to steer and doesn't have to get off and push it in the direction she wants it anymore.

Mother's Day

Happy belated mother's day to everyone to whom it applies...

Last year on Mother's day I had Eva's picture, but not Eva. And even though, I was a mother at that time, I felt like an imposter. This year I do not. This year, I understand a lot more about what being a mother is. The biggest thing I have noticed about being a mom are the things unexpected. For example, I did not expect that I would be able to exist for months at a time without sleep. I did not expect that I would enjoy holding a sick baby all night. I did not expect conversations that would center around bowel movements. On the other hand, I also did not expect that there would be days that I have had enough and need a break. A year ago, I imagined everything about being a mother would be great and perfect. In reality, it is not. There are times that I simply can not do or take any more. There are times that I cry from complete exhaustion. I have learned that the success of being a mother depends an awful lot on the support we have around us. I have also learned, that everything is bearable, as long as there is that hug from little arms and that cheesy, beautiful smile at the beginning and end of each day.

David took Eva to town to buy a mother's day present for me on Saturday. He wanted to buy me something to hold onto for rememberance of this day. So, he took her to look at jewelry. She picked out a piece she liked... David told her it was too expensive. Then, he selected one, to which Eva replied, "No. Don't want it." He then told her which cabinet she could pick from, and she chose the piece in the picture below. Although the picture isn't great, it is beautiful. I love the fact that she chose something with flowers on it. Eva and I have been walking around the yard and smelling all of the flowers coming into bloom the last few days... the apple trees, the cherry trees, the plum trees, the lilacs. She is learning all about flowers. In daycare, she decorated the flowerpot in the picture for me. It was cute that when David and Eva got home from their shopping expedition, Eva marched into the house with her gift bag and insisted I take it. I resisted looking and put it up. Three times more on Saturday, she hunted me down to give me that bag...she really wanted me to have it.

Mother's day was a good day & I am a very lucky woman.

Pretties

Outside

For some reason, the chickens really like Eva. They haven't been aggressive towards her once, but they and the dog, and the cats all think she's an easy mark... for food that is. She doesn't keep food long once she goes outside with it.

Article (Link)

Play time

Picklebugs

There is a common theme in the Chinese adoption community about ladybugs. It has something to do with an old Chinese belief that a red thread connects all people who are destined to meet and that the ladybug carries that thread. Ladybugs are considered to be positive and lucky. And yes, Eva has her share of things that are ladybug... most of which were obtained during the long wait for referral. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I discovered that my daughter is terrified of ladybugs, or picklebugs as she calls them. She hates them.

Ladybugs have caused her to squeal in terror, tear off clothing, refuse to sit in a specific location and to leave her time out spot. On Monday night, this week, Eva woke up in the middle of the night, obviously having had a nightmare. After we got her calmed down, and we told her that everything was all right and nothing would hurt her, she looked at us and said, "Picklebugs are gone now?" We assured her they were and then sighed that our daughter's nightmare was apparently about ladybugs. Granny thought it would help for her to learn a poem, something about "Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home. Your house is on fire and your children are alone." Personally, this poem makes me kind of sad, thinking about the little scared ladybug babies... but Granny thought it would empower Eva. So, Tuesday night, as I am getting Eva to sleep, I notice that she has squeezed her entire body onto the pillow. I wouldn't have cared except every time she moved, she bumped her head onto the head post and I was worried she was going to wake up with a black and blue head. So, I tried to pull her down so she was laying on the bed with only her head on the pillow. This act elicited tremendous, frightful screams. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "Picklebugs on bed." I didn't see any ladybugs and so I told her that they had left and were gone. She then recited the poem Granny taught her, well sort of, she did say "Picklebugs, fly home." I assured her that they did and she calmed down and finally managed to fall asleep without incessantly bumping her head.

I share this story because I think it is really funny. Every time I read something in our adoption community there is much about ladybug art, items, sightings, stories etc... And every time I see it, I smile to myself and think about my little Chinese girl who hates the innocuous ladybug.

Fancy Dress