Ni hao! (Knee How)

Les already mentioned this on facebook but it is so cute I couldn't resist telling the whole story. 
  Our girls have watched this show called, "Ni Hao Kai-lan" that teaches kids chinese similar to how "Dora the Explorer" teaches Spanish.  Les really wants the girls to learn Chinese so he has been pushing them to watch the show.  Not that he really needs to push it because they like it already.  Emma has been the only one really trying to say the Chinese words and learn what they mean.  So it really surprised me when (while driving to SLC) we hear Sammi say, "Ni Hao, Tai-an."  She said it over and over and I got this shiver of pride that shot through me.  I thought that I would see if I could get her to use it in another way.  So I started by saying, "Ni Hao Sammi!  Ni Hao Emma! Ni Hao Khloe!"  Then I focused on her.  Everytime she said, "Ni Hao Tai-an!" I would say, "Ni Hao Sammi!"  After a few more attempts she started to say, "Ni Hao Mommy!"  Ahhhh success!  So having mastered saying hello to an actual person I had Les say, "Ni Hao Sammi!"  She automatically replied, "Ni Hao Momm . . . (this is where she realized I wasn't the one speaking to her) Ni Hao Daddy!"  How cute is that!?!
   Other cute related stories . . . Emma has developed a little sense of humor.  We have this rule in our house that after a cup of "pink milk" they must drink a cup of water before they can have more.  Sometimes Emma tries to trick us into letting her have another cup of her "pink milk" rather than water.  She will ask over and over even though we keep telling her no.  One day Les said, "Well if you want a drink but you aren't willing to drink this nice cold and clean water then I'll just go fill your cup up with toilet water.  Then you can't have any pink milk until you finish it."  Emma told him, "Ewww toilet water is gross."  Les- "Which would you rather have then . . . the toilet water or the water right here out of the fridge?"  She went for the water out of the fridge (she calls it Mommy's special water).  We went through this only a few times before it rearlly sank in for her.  Now she will even ask for a few cups of water in between cups of "pink milk."
  Now on to where her personality came shining through.   A week or two later after Les had come home for the day she told him she had made him dinner in the toy room.  So he went back and "ate" the meal she had made (not very filling since it was plastic food).  A little while later I hear an rucus coming from the room they were in.  Les came out a few minutes later and calls for me.  Here is what he said, "Emma gave me the food to eat so I pretented to eat it.  I told her it was all so good.  Then she handed me a cup to drink from.  I again pretended to drink it.  I told her that is was good orange juice.  She looked at me and said, 'That wasn't orange juice!   It was toilet water!'  Then she laughed and laughed.  How funny is that?"  I had to agree that is was rather funny.
  Oh another funny story.  Emma asked me for a baby wipe one day.  A little while later I hear her singing, "I'm a map! I'm a map! I'm a map! I'm a maaaaaaap!  I'm a map!"  (For those confused it comes from "Dora the Explorer)  She had taken that baby wipe and rolled it up.  It is now her "Dora map."  She makes me laugh.
  I was begining to feel bad cause I couldn't come up with a cute story about Khloe.  It just came to me.  She will take Sammi into their room and have her crawl into her bed.  Then Khloe will tuck her in and "read' a story to her.  Then she will kiss Sammi on the cheek and say, "Night, night."  Sammi will close her eyes and pretend to go to sleep.  It is so cute to watch.  It makes me feel good to see them get along after fighting for so long.

The Adoption

So now that we are private it is time to tell about the adoption.  We traveled out to Duchesne for it.  We went a few days early so we could spend some time with our families out there and make sure we missed any freak storms that would arise. 
I want to spin a tell about how we got up at the break of dawn and packed our drowsy children into the car for the long journey.  Since that wasn't the case I can't.  What did happen was that we got up fed and clothed the children.  We packed our stuff into the Yukon and there started our travels.  We drove almost all the way to Duchesne and stopped to visit with a long time friend.  Her name is Kim.  The kids were a little shy about going in but once they spied all the toys they forgot all about their nervousness.  Kim's daughter Ruby was excited to have visitors until they took her toys to play with.  Then she wasn't so sure this was a good thing.  Les and I sat with Kim and caught up on life.  One thing about Kim is that Les and I both became friends with her but we did know each other until right before we started to date.  I have known Kim since high school.  She first became friends with my sister Carolyn.   When I started hanging out with them I quickly came to like Kim.  She graduated and headed off to College.  A few years later she moved back and I moved off to College.  We kept in touch.  It was while I was away that she met Les.  So while we sat there we not only talked about what was going on in our lives but also reminised a little.  Then she fed us lunch.  It was super good. 
Then the time came where we had to go.  We made it to the courthouse with plenty of time to spare.  We chatted with our lawyer, Les' sister and her family, Les' dad, and Les' Aunt and Uncle.  The had all come to help us celebrate.  We had been told that there was going to be a review of Khole's case before the actual adoption.  Turns out the Judge was excited to get on with the adoption.  So we did.  Khloe came and sat up front with us.  She was all smiles and even giggled a little.  In that small span of time I saw our family at peace.  No one was fighting, pouting, or crying (well kind of).  Emma and Sammi were a little concerned that they were seperated from us.   In less than 20 minutes it was over and Khole went from our niece to our daughter.  We also had tthe spelling of her name changed.  It is now spelled Khloe.  Now people will stop calling her K Hole or Cole or even Cole with an e (held out) sound at the end.
So as of January 5th she is legally our daughter.  Some have asked us how it feels to have her offically ours.  Honestly, nothing has changed.  The only difference that I have felt is the weight on my shoulders from knowing that DCFS isn't constantly looking over my shoulder.  Have you ever noticed that when someone is constantly watching you to make sure you don't mess up that you end up being your worst?  That is how I have felt.  I should save those kind of changes in our family for another post.
After the adoption we planned to make the long trip home.  At the last minute Les' sister asked if we could help get a fish tank from Les' parents into the back of the truck.  So we put off the start of our journey to head in the opposite direction.  Turns out it we should have left from the courthouse.  Les' dad didn't know they were planning on taking right then so it was still full of water.  So that had to wait until later when it can be taken apart.  Also so the fish and coral could be transported safely.
That is when we turned around and headed home.  It has been nice to put it all behind us and to be home together. 
I know this post didn't have a whole lot about the actual adoption.  That is because we were asked questions and then the guardian ad lidum (sp?) was asked if he had any questions which he didn't.   Then the AG representing DCFS was asked if he had any questions (he didn't) and it was done.  We signed some documents and walked out of the room with a new (but not so new) family member.

New blog!

So since we made the decision to make this blog private we decided to start a new blog for my hobbies.  For anyone interested in what I am doing or wants to give me ideas to please check it out.  It is melanieshobbies.blogspot.com.  I am planning to include pictures from my photography class (and beyond) and the educational stuff I made for my kids.

We have offically gone private!

By now the invites I sent out should have been accepted.  We will see if I can come up with any good posts for the future.
The most resent news on our family . . . we have gotten even busier.  I think the only days that I don't have to drag the kids out of the house to go somewhere are Friday and Saturday.  Even then I still have people coming to see me on Fridays.  Monday and Wednesday Khloe is going to a "transition preschool" to help her learn to follow directions and learn to postively interact with her peers.  The bad part is that she can only be in it until she turns 3 at which time the early intervention program she is in will terminate services.  Hopefully she will get into the school district's preschool (we find out on the 24th).  Wednesdays are also the days that I take Khloe to Articulation Class (it is also through the Up to 3 program) but she won't be going to it after the end of this month.  Tuesdays the kids go to Respite Care to give me 2 hours of alone time.  That is if they aren't sick.  I haven't had that alone time to myself since before Christmas.  I can't wait to get it back.  Thursdays are usually the days that reserve for Doctor Appointments and food shopping.  I also have our Educator for Bear River Early Head Start who comes on Thursdays.  I would kick back and relax on Fridays but usually the Language Specialist or the Coordinator for the Up to 3 program comes to visit with us on those days.  That leaves Saturday and Sunday.  What can I say.  It is nice to have Les home but usually he wants to either sit around and play video games all day, go shopping, or go visit his relatives in Kaysville and/or Salt Lake.  Sound relaxing to anyone one else.  The last time we went down to SLC there was a bad snow storm.  Les had a VA appointment so we were up on the benches on the East side of the valley.  On our way out of there the roads were so slick that even out 4 wheel drive couldn't keep us going straight down the road.  We were lucky no one was near us cause we were all over the road.  What saved us?  It was the curb.  We eventually slid into it which caused us to straighten out and slowed us down.  The news that is worse than that is that hitting the curb took a chunk off our rim.  Turns out we were lucky we made it home without our tire blowing.  Les wouldn't let me drive the Yukon for several days while he tried to figure out what to do about it.  Eventually he had to put our spare tire on so we could get the kids where they needed to go.  He is still looking for a new rim. 
Les and I have been taking the Love and Logic class.  I am trying it out with the kids.  One of the things the class talks about is who the problem belongs to.  That kids should take responsiblity for their problems rather than the parents making the problem ours and then solving it for the kid.  So Les and I have been looking for ways to help our kids see that when they have a problem that it doeesn't do anything to us.  The problem only affects them.  One thing we found was that since early January Khloe stopped sitting on the potty.  She has gone back to doing everything in her diaper.  So instead of going over everything with Khloe (since we know she already knows it) we have decided to let her do that.  If she doesn't want to sit on the potty she doesn't have to.  The catch (yes there is one) is that since she learned how to take her diaper on and off when she was pottying regularly she gets to change her own diaper (unless she has #2 in the diaper) and we walk away and kind of ignore her.  That way she doesn't get the attention for it.  So now on the few times since we began this that she has used the potty we praise her endlessly.  We think she is starting to realize that if she wants us to pay attention to her she is going to have to do her business in the potty again.  We will see what happens in the next few weeks.
It has also worked a little bit with Emma.  Every night before bed we have the kids go get in their pajamas.  As soon as I tell them to go she gets this angry look on her face and she starts saying, "I don't want to get my pajamas on cause I'm NOT tired."  I always think, "Oh yeah!"  So because of things talked about in the class we are now telling her that she doesn't have to go to sleep but she does have to be on her bed.  The first few times she stayed up quite a while.  Then 7 in the morning I went in and got her up.  Oh she didn't want to get up.  I told her it wasn't my fault she didn't go to sleep at bedtime and that she still had to get up.  It hasn't quite worked the way I hoped it would.  She still tells me she isn't tired and sulks a whole lot but within 10 minutes of getting in bed she is sound asleep.  It is nice to have a little time to myself in the evenings before I head to bed.
I have run out of news and energy.  Good night all.