"Neraggrer" Falls

We recently returned from one of the most perfect little get-a-ways that we've ever taken. David's vacation year is centered around his date-of-hire at his company, so it rolls over in mid-October. There is a "use it or lose it" policy, and due to our adoption, we had been hoarding vacation days all year until we knew for certain that we wouldn't need them for Ethiopia. We started using them up at the end of July, but as we moved into the fall, we still had 2 days left. David came up with the brilliant idea of heading to the Niagara Falls/Buffalo area for a long weekend. We were able to use credit card points for our hotel and for restaurants, so we were also able to do this little trip on the cheap!

We left on a Friday morning and stopped for several hours at a great outlet mall in Grove City, PA, where we managed to put a big dent in our Christmas shopping. Yikealo was less than thrilled about this part, but he did pick out a keen racoon-head hat at The Children's Place, which he then refused to take off for most of the weekend. All kinds of people gravitate toward this kid already...you should have seen what the addition of the raccoon hat did! This child has some serious magnetism.

 The drive was beautiful. We were blessed to be travelling during peak leaf season, and everything was bright, colorful and gorgeous - even in the rain!

On Saturday, we headed up to see Niagara Falls...or "Neraggrer Falls" as Yikealo called it. It's always so jarring, somehow, to be at an American landmark (read: tourist area) and to realize that almost NO ONE around speaks English! We are pretty certain that most of the continent of Asia had relocated to up-state New York for the weekend. After all, it makes perfect sense that travelers to the US would be visiting one of the beautiful natural landmarks that our country features. We walked around for awhile down by the American Falls

and then took a ride on the Maid of the Mist. That was pretty incredible! We got soaked, of course, but it was well worth it to see that pounding water so close. David remarked at one point, as we looked up at Horseshoe Falls, "I wonder if this is a tiny taste of what it looked like when God opened up the "fountains of the deep" during the Great Flood?"

 

 

Following  Maid of the Mist, we caught an Imax film about some of the people who have gone over the Falls, and then headed back toward our hotel for dinner and some swimming before bedtime.

On Sunday, we headed back up to the Falls for some more sightseeing. We checked out an aquarium and walked up to the "Cave of the Winds." The actual Cave of the Winds was buried in landslides a number of years ago, but the current attraction is a series of wooden walkways that take you up to within 10 feet of the Bridal Veil Falls. When you are standing at the top on the "Hurricane Deck" it really does feel like you are caught in a crazy tropical storm of sorts...albeit a very COLD one! The following picture is not zoomed in at all:

 

 

 

Yikealo absolutely LOVED the Cave of the Winds walk. He splashed and stomped and shouted and got completely drenched. I loved it too...it is always so exhilarating to see a tiny example of God's majestic power so close! I couldn't help but sing "How Great Thou Art" as we waited in the tunnel to go back up to ground level.

That evening, we went to see the musical of Lion King. We had really hoped to keep this activity a complete surprise from Mr. Y. He adores the music from this production, and has most of the soundtrack memorized, including the African words. We had no idea how we would be able to keep it a surprise until the famous opening notes began, but things worked out perfectly! We got stuck in traffic trying to find parking, had to race through the rain to try to find the theater, and by the time we picked up our tickets and found our seats, we really only had 5 minutes to spare. In our rush through the lobby, Y completely missed all of the posters with the huge Lion's head on them. He sat there looking around expectantly, while David teased him with helpful comments like, "Did you notice that there aren't any other kids here, Yikealo? That probably means that this won't be any fun for little people." Yikealo looked around and gave a little snort, "Dad, there are LOTS of kids here!"

I wish that I could have taken a picture of his face when Rafiki sang the opening note from behind the stage curtain. He recognized it immediately, and sat riveted through the next 2 and a half hours. We couldn't have planned the whole thing any more perfectly! Needless to say, we've been hearing Y's renditions of the songs ever since!

There is one song called "Shadowlands" where Nala sings about the pain of leaving the only home that she's ever known, while promising to always remember her people. I've heard the song many times, but this time, it brought me to tears, as I thought of my two little nephews waiting for their new family in Ethiopia. They can really have no idea what is going to happening to them within the next few weeks. "The river's dry/The ground has broken/So I must go/Now I must go/And where the journey may lead me/Let your prayers be my guide/I cannot stay here, my family/But I'll remember my pride..."


On Monday morning, we packed up and then left for one more day at the Falls. Although it was windy, it was also our first sunny day there. We walked over the bridge to the Canadian side, so Mr. Y had the chance to use his passport and visit another country. It was really the perfect complement to our History lessons of late.

We spent several hours walking around and taking photos of the glorious falls. We saw several beautiful rainbows, and enjoyed our time in Canada very much.

 

 

 

Getting back through to the American side was another matter, however. We had to pay 50 cents apiece to move through some turnstyles, and let's just say that they were not very cooperative with me! The first time, the machine ate my money without opening, and the second time, the turnstyle slammed shut and refused to turn again with one of my legs through and one of them not...yeah...awkward! I have some fairly massive bruises from the wretched thing, but I'm sure that the French guys standing behind us were highly amused!

After going back to the American side (finally!) we spent some time walking around Goat Island and the Three Sisters Islands by the Canadian rapids. It was a lovely way to end our time there, and it was a wonderful place to just spend a few extra moments in worship of the One who created it all.

 

 

 

Within about 10 minutes of leaving for home, I turned around to see this in the backseat:

Yeah, I think that a certain someone was just a little exhausted after all the fun! Farewell, vacation, for another year. We HOPE that David's recently refilled vacation time will be used for a couple of trips to Ethiopia before next October!

Humbled

Wednesday was a bad day. Yikealo has been a bit sick with croup again, and the breathing treatments required to loosen his horrid cough have the unfortunate effect of making him crazy, out-of-control hyper. He completely loses any ability to focus or listen to anything that I say, and let's just say that I don't deal well with that. Add in the fact that we took a great little family getaway to Niagara Falls last weekend (another story for another post) that left us a few lessons behind in our school plans, and along with my control-freak, we-must-catch-up personality, we had a bit of a mess on our hands.

I held things together rather well, I must say, through the first half of the day, in the midst of some truly horrendous, uncharacteristic behavior from the boy. We had done all of our lessons but one, and by late afternoon, the majority of the hyperactivity had worn off. Okay...time to tackle the history lesson. We've been studying the various continents, with the last month or so being centered around Europe, and this was the final review. Yikealo has virtually no interest in the subject, and after 8 lessons on Europe, still cannot consistently name which continent we've been discussing. Now, I do feel that it's a bit lofty to think that a Kindergarten student should be able to place 8 different European countries on a map, along with naming them, recognizing several major landmarks in each one, and knowing what the flag for each country looks like. Seriously? Before starting this unit with him, I couldn't have done that...certainly not the flag recognition...and I'm 36! Why is this necessary for a 5 year old?  On the other hand, considering that we've talked about it on at least 12 different days, shouldn't he be able to say the word "Spain?" Keep in mind that we're talking about an extremely bright child who is considerably ahead of his age group in both reading and math skills. He has memorized a couple of chapters in the Bible, and he can quote verbatim almost the entire soundtrack from the Broadway production of Lion King. This is what Wednesday's lesson sounded like, however:

Me: "Yikealo, this is the map of the continent of Europe. Can you show me where Spain is on the map of Europe?"  (He points to the correct place.) "Great job! Now, what is the name of this country?" (I point to Spain again.)
Y: (blank stare) "Uhhhhh....I don't know."
Me: "It's called Spain. I want you to point to it and say, 'This is Spain.'"
Y: "This is Spain."
Me: "Good job! Now, what is it called again?"
Y: "Ummm....France?"

After about 15 minutes of this, I decided that we both needed a break. We'd come back to it after supper, and surely things would be better, right? An hour later, after supper, we tackled it again. It didn't go any more smoothly than it had earlier, and after about 45 minutes, I completely lost my temper. "WHY AREN'T YOU GETTING THIS? I'VE JUST TOLD YOU THE ANSWER! THIS IS NOT DIFFICULT, AND YOU ARE A SMART KID!" That didn't help at all, of course. Yikealo dissolved into tears, and I stomped away from the kitchen for a few seconds. Immediately, verses like "Love is patient, love is kind...love never fails" started running through my head, and I went back to grudgingly apologize for yelling. Yikealo snuggled up against me, wiped his tears away, and asked in a small voice, "Mama, is it your turn to lay down with me tonight?" My voice still hardened in slowly subsiding anger, I asked, "Why? Do you want it to be?"  I was positive that he'd say, "No...I want it to be Daddy's turn." Instead, he wrapped his arms tighter around me, and replied, "Yeah, because I just need some time with you." 

 I started sobbing, and he just held on tightly and whispered, "I love you, Mama." Oh my...I had just behaved so badly, screaming like a banshee , taking out my frustration in a harsh, completely inappropriate way, and Yikealo just wanted to be with me. I can't possibly live up to or deserve that kind of unconditional, surrendered love. But then, that's the thing about love, isn't it? We don't ever deserve it, do we? Certainly not the love that God gives...it is always a freely given, completely undeserved gift. It reaches inside of our cold, angry, dead hearts and changes us, transforming not only our lives, but the lives of the people around us. I stammered out another apology (a real one this time) and asked for forgiveness. Y leaned back, looked at my red, swollen eyes, and replied, "Of course I forgive you."

Later that night, as he snuggled up against me in bed, he whispered, "Mama, you're just the prettiest girl in the whole world. I just love you so much." I said that I loved him too. He smiled, closed his eyes, and said, "Now sleep tight, my Hunkin-Pun," as he patted my back. (I have sometimes called him my "Punkin-Hon", and now he often refers to us as his "Hunkin-Puns.") When I carried him over to his own bed and tucked him in, he whispered again, "I sure do love you." I spent some extra time just praying over him, thanking God for the enormous blessing that He gave us when He placed this child in our lives. We have learned so many life-lessons just through watching the way that Y loves and forgives, and I need those lessons so badly. Learning patience doesn't come easy for me, but I know that it is worth it!

Not Sure About These Teaching Methods...

A few moments ago, I discovered Y conducting "school" in the living room with his rescue hero guys. The "teacher" was dressed as Superman, and was reading Calvin and Hobbes to his students, as well as singing various bits from Lion King. He had written out a class list, which included such interesting monikers as Wvur, Poiloldad, Iol, Blov and Voo. He did inform all of them that they needed to "stop goofing around and pay attention"...hmmm....sounds familiar, somehow!

In all seriousness, we are loving the whole homeschooling thing thus far. I have enjoyed the time with my little guy, and it has been so much fun to watch him explore new things. I know that it's cliche', but I love the freedom that having "the world as our classroom" brings! A few weeks ago, we were at Mom's for the weekend, and Y's cousin Zavier enjoyed doing a couple of lessons with us.

Yesterday, our daily lessons included a trip to the Cleveland Zoo with Susan and Quinn.

 
We've been studying the various continents in Y's history course, so it was really fun for him to see things like an example of the Great Barrier Reef, and the South American Rain Forest.

As well as the lions, tigers and bears, of course!

A few Sundays ago, Y spent most of one service writing various letters on several small sheets of paper. When he was finished, he handed it to me, and told me that he'd been "blogging" and he had a "new post" that I needed to read. See if you can get more out of it than I managed to...

And finally, we heard the best news earlier this morning: my sister's family has passed court in Ethiopia!! Now their file will be forwarded to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, and they will wait for a visa appointment to be scheduled. Please pray that everything will move quickly...we all really want these two little guys to come home soon!



Mr. Contrary

I blame it all on my mother. Nearly 2 years ago while visiting them for a weekend, Mr. Y developed a very bad case of Croup and needed to be taken to the emergency room. After a couple of treatments of Albuterol, his breathing became very loose and rattled, but we could not get him to cough for us...until my Mom started to say, "Don't you DARE cough! I do NOT want to hear any coughing from you! Only Grammy is allowed to cough!" It worked like a charm, and before long, Y was coughing away and giggling.

It's probably not the best way to parent, but we've used the whole "reverse psychology" thing ever since...not on big, important issues of course, but on the little things - like getting him to pick up toys neatly or getting him to smile when we're trying to take a picture. For example, if we don't say anything, all of the pictures that we take of him would look like this:

or this:

If, however, we say, "Yikealo, don't you DARE smile, or you will probably break my camera!" we get something more like this:

or this:

(Notice that it doesn't work so well if you're also trying to take a photo of a more compliant child, who will take you completely seriously if you tell her not to smile!)

I'm not sure why I had never thought to use it on food. Yikealo can be the POKIEST eater at times...usually when the meal involves some type of meat. Sometimes he'll eat everything just fine, but most of the time, he will take about two bites of chicken or beef and it can take nearly a half hour to chew each bite. AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!! I just do NOT have the patience to sit with him at the table for that long, so we have rarely finished a meal together. David and I finish eating and then get up from the table to go do something else, while Y sits there for another hour rearranging food on his plate and getting up to come tell us something about every 2 minutes. Well, my Mom just came up with the perfect solution. We were visiting them last weekend, and she had made roast beef with gravy, mashed potatoes, and corn for supper. I gave Y a miniscule piece of beef and cut it into microscopic pieces. It was very tender and easy to chew, but I knew that he'd take his typical 1/2 hour to chew a bite. It turns out that I was wrong! He was sitting beside my Mom, who started to tell him things like, "Don't you dare show me an empty mouth! I can't stand to see empty mouths at the table! Here, quick, let's get another bite in there!" Before we knew it, Y was shoveling in the food and swallowing in record time, just so he could show Grammy his empty mouth and watch her pretend to shudder in revulsion. The best part? It works at home too! On Wednesday evening we had chicken breasts and baby carrots for supper. Y was fussing about the menu until I tried Mom's little routine with him: "Yikealo, don't you dare show me your empty mouth! Do you know what I hate even more than an empty mouth? I HATE to see an empty plate! Please do NOT show me your plate when it's all empty!" I have never seen him eat chicken so fast. Yes, it's slightly annoying to have to pretend scream in terror at his empty mouth every minute or so, but it's not nearly as annoying as constantly begging him to chew and swallow for an hour! Now at the beginning of a meal he asks, "Can we please play the 'empty mouth' game?"

Now, onto our numbers for the last 2 months! This is really showing what a bad blogger I have become, since I haven't updated our waitlist numbers since July. In August we were at #40 for a girl and #29 for a boy.

In September we were at #37 for a girl and #27 for a boy.

And what's with Spiderman, you ask? Well, on our vacation to Michigan a few weeks ago, a discount store in the little town where our cottage is located had just received a large shipment of Halloween costumes. They were all under $10, so we invested in Superman and Spiderman costumes for Mr. Y.

 (In this photo, his cousin Ashton is helping him fight crime.)

He has worn a costume pretty much every day since...he just alternates between Buzz and one of the two superheros. Sometimes he wears all three within one day's time.

Don't worry though...he isn't too much of a tough guy yet. He still has to take lots of time out for Daddy worship. In Michigan, he followed David around everywhere, singing a little ditty that went something like this: "Superman is on the job! He is working with his Dad!" It's good to know that some things stay the same, no matter who he is pretending to be...

We're Still Here...

Okay, okay, I know that I'm woefully behind in keeping up with this blog, and I promise that updates of our exciting life (ha ha!) will be coming soon! After all, this is one way that I record memories for myself nowadays. However, we've been busy getting into the swing of school lately, as well as going on vacation, so maybe I can be excused from the lack of posts, right?

As a start back into posting, I thought I'd share one brief tidbit from this morning...this should prove to all of you that some things haven't changed at all. A few moments ago I heard some unearthly howling coming from Frankie in the living room. I mean, these were sounds that she only makes when she sees my mother (Frankie HATES my mom, who teases her unmercifully.) I walked out to investigate and saw this:

Yes, the boy pretending to attack the cat with dual light-saber action, complete with special sound effects. He wasn't coming all that close to her (he knows better), but she was NOT impressed with the assault on her kingdom. She was giving him her "if you come any closer I will personally bite your head off" look. (She is sometimes convinced that she is a tiger in her other life.)

Ah yes...life with a five-year-old boy...

Imagination

Yikealo likes nothing better than playing dress-up. He is constantly forming costumes out of anything that he can find, so we've recently suggested that he spend some of his fun money on some dress-up clothing. His first purchase was a pirate costume, and he spent a couple of weeks in pirate mode. When his cousin Zavier visited for a few days, I was continually being attacked by two dastardly villains.

However, that was before he discovered the most supreme costume ever invented.

Over the last few months,  Mr. Y has become completely and totally infatuated with Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear. He spent some of his hospital money on a Buzz action figure quite some time ago, and this toy has become his favorite playmate. He talks to Buzz, and eats with Buzz, and sleeps with Buzz, and Buzz has to be present for any stories that we read together. But then...he discovered the most awesome thing of all: a Buzz costume! Oh...if I could only begin to describe the intense delight in our house when that precious box arrived in the mail. He put it on at once, and  he insists on wearing it at every given opportunity. Seriously, like every single day. We started homeschooling this week, and on at least 3 of the days, I was teaching math or language arts or phonics to a Buzz impersonator. Last week, I was awakened one morning at 6:00 by Buzz leaping onto my bed, shouting something about a space ranger coming to my rescue....ummm....yeah....at 6:00 a.m. I'd rather be rescued from Buzz than by him. I sleepily stammered out something about wanting to snuggle my little boy, not Buzz, to which he replied, "I AM your little boy! I just look like Buzz, because this is a costume!"

A few days later he wanted me to play with him:
Y: "Mom, I am going to be Buzz, and you are going to be Wendy."
Me: "Wendy? Who is Wendy?"
Y: "You know...from Bob the Builder."
Me: "Well, if I am going to be Wendy, then why don't you be Bob?"
Y: "No, I NEED to be Buzz, because I want to be the one who saves the day!"
Me: "Well, then why don't I be Jessie?"
Y: "No, you need to be Wendy, because Jessie is more cooler than Wendy, and you cannot be the one who saves the day...that has to be me."
Great...why do I always have to be the less "cooler" person, anyway?!
(and note the chin curl he insists upon....grrrrrr!)

A few other recent Yikealo-isms:

• while waving his hands in a "cease and desist" manner: "We are NOT having this 'confercation'!" (Ummm....I think maybe you mean "conversation"? Although I have to admit that now "confercation" has become part of the household vernacular!)
• while listening to a new song in the car: "Mom, George needs to know what kind of song this is." (I guess it's good to know that Buzz hasn't evicted George yet.)
• One morning he started whining that I was reading my Bible instead of playing with him. I told him that I would play with him after I was finished, but God's word is very important, and God comes first. He responded immediately: "Why does God always get to be first? He is not the youngest!" (Apparently, in Y's opinion,  board game rules should also apply to the Lord.)
• At supper, David finished his prayer with something along the lines of: "And please help us to be Your hands and feet here." Yikealo looked up with a rather horrified look on his face and questioned: "FEET HAIR? Why would we wanta be His feet hair?"
• As I was snuggling him one night, I said, "You are such a present from God," to which he answered, "For one thing, I am YOUR present, 'cause you 'dopted me on your birthday." Technically, my birthday was the day AFTER our gotcha day, but that's close enough, right?!

Oh yeah, and along the homeschooling topic, what happens when Daddy gets a new I-Phone during the same week that school starts?
An I-Phone upon which both "boys" in the household can spend a ridiculous amount of time playing "Angry Birds" together?

And Daddy also decides that he would like to take over the math lesson for the day?
Well, the shape blocks are used to replicate the "houses" from Angry Birds, of course.

 A tiny plastic figure of Buzz becomes the evil pigs hiding inside the "house."

A sling-shot is built from Tinker Toys and a rubber band, and much time is spent shooting down the "houses" with a folded up paper "bird" from every conceivable angle.

Right, because in addition to learning about shapes and sizes, "velocity" and "trajectory" are obviously very important concepts to teach your 5-year old math student.