Hair cut Massacre

I'm pretty sure I need to turn my haircutting scissors in. I've always cut the boys hair, not so much because I like to but because I thought I could do a fairly decent job and I wanted to save money. For years I've cut Michael's hair and recently I've told him I'm done with that...too many heads for me to be responsible for. So he's started buzzing his own hair.

After last night, we'll be taking the boys to get haircuts professionally.

I turned Nathan into Jim Carey from

Dumb and Dumber...

He wouldn't stop legoing long enough

to let me get a good shot.

Aweful Mom Moment:

I chopped Caleb's ear!

I took a chunk off of the top of his ear.

He's okay now. But it bled for a good hour.

I made a makeshift bandage.

He was a good sport about it. Every time I apologized he would say "It's ok mom. Really it's ok." The bathroom looked like a crime scene when it was all said and done.

ADOPTION

I was moved by this video (when I say "moved" it means the ugly-cry face in full effect):

Visit the Loved Already blog to find out more about the family who made this amazing video.

Hair Do Day

I tried doing Melia's hair again today and it looked much better this time. My camera (or my picture taking skill) didn't quite capture the cuteness that it was....

I need lots of practice on parting her hair.

But considering my model moves her head every

3 seconds parts are hard to get straight.

Here's Addie's do and her cry face....

and cuddling with Daddy.

So the girls' hair looked cute today but tonight

when I took it out, it was wild!

Addie's actually came out during nap so hers was

wild all evening.

Again, the photo doesn't capture the extent of Melia's crazy do.

Hair wasn't all we did today.

I also had many random conversations with Caleb:

"Mom, eggs are baby chickens right? I'm not eating eggs ever again."

I asked about chicken that we eat at dinner, if he'd still eat that.

He said, "Yeah, they're adult chickens right?"

I guess he figured that they'd lived a full life.

Then there was the c-section talk. I had a c-section with Caleb and another one with Addie. We haven't talked much about it so I'm not sure where this was coming from. I think when I came home from the hospital with Addie 2 and 1/2 years ago we said they had to be careful around my belly. Anyway...

He says: "Mom, why didn't you die when they cut your stomach open."

Yikes...this kids a thinker. He makes mental notes of everything and I never know when they're going to surface.

Mama needs a lot of practice

First of all I just want it known that I like calling myself mama. For some reason it makes me giggle...maybe it's the Seinfeld flashback that I get when I do it, maybe I'm just super crazy.

So, my friend Charlotte informed me yesterday that Melia's hair is long enough for me to start twisting and putting in rubber bands. She says it will help encourage the hair to grow. So last night I soaked the rubber bands in olive oil (info I read on one of the many blogs I've been researching). Apparently, I had high hopes. I soaked 12 rubber bands, after much fighting I used 3! Here's what it looked like......

Yeah, not a super pretty sight. I had more confidence in myself, after all I've been reading great blogs about how to do it. It should just come natural now right?

The sucker seemed like a good idea but she kept getting sucker goo in her hair when she was trying to swat me away. So I gave up shortly after starting because it was getting pretty sticky.

Caleb singing to her was her favorite part of this joke of hair session. I loved his song too. It went something like this: "Melia, you're so beautiful..."

So, I will go back to my blogs and read up on some basic beginner hints. Speaking of those blogs here they are in case you're interested:

Happy Girl Hair
Beads, Braids, & Beyond

Curly Nikki

Oh, and maybe I'll bring my rubber bands and ask Charlotte to help next Tuesday:)

Classical Conversations, otherwise known as CC

I've mentioned that we are homeschooling this year. Caleb started out going to a Montessori school that our district runs in the beginning of the year and after the first few months I decided I'd rather have him at home with me. You can read more about that decision here.

We've been doing a program called Classical Conversations since January and we'll continue with it next year. Angel did a great job explaining what CC is and so I'm directing you to her blog (click on blog) if you want to learn more about it!

I've been amazed at how much my kids have learned in a few short months. With the new babe and my tiredness, schooling hasn't been high on my priority list but the boys are learning a ton. One thing they're learning is "skip counting". Numbers 1 -12 put to music 2,4,6,8.... you get the point. Well, in the past few weeks there have been times when they put this to use and are essentially multiplying at ages 4 and 6. Last week Caleb asked when we are going on vacation. I said "in a month, about 4 weeks." He thought for a minute then whispered "7, 14, 21, 28" then loudly exclaimed "28 days!"

If you're in the area and are interested our CC campus is having info meetings on March 22nd and April 12th. Let me know if you want more info.

Torture by Threading

I was voluntarily tortured tonight by the Jordanian threading lady. She was very sweet even though she was hurting me. I needed my eyebrows waxed (it's been probably years, but for some reason today it became a necessity, and I wanted to get out of the house). The place I was going to go was closed because I wanted to leave after I put Melia to bed. So me and two of the sistas headed to the mall, looked on the directory and headed to Beautiful Eyebrows.

So, at Beautiful Eyebrows they don't use wax, they use thread. I found out it's really painful. My first thought was "Oh, my! She's sawing my eyebrows off." The Jordanian Eyebrow Sawer had a great sense of humor and seemed to enjoy the sister cackling that was going on. Lots of laughing by all. And according to Aimee, who was the only one that wasn't blinded by the pain, we had people watching through the window.

The best thing that happened was when my torturer said to me "Your hair is so dark and your skin so light, it's like you're getting a haircut." I'm not exactly sure what she meant by that but I sure thought it was funny at the time.

Sleep, Sweet, Sleep

For the first six weeks that Melia Serawit was home sleep was very hard to come by. The first few weeks she fought going to sleep, and I mean fought! That little girl could really slap and pinch, anything to avoid sleep. Around week 3 she started feeling more comfortable with us and trusted us enough to snuggle and allow herself to fall asleep. It was sweet to watch her go from being angry with us to enjoying the snuggle time.

But then there was the staying asleep problem. From the first night we spent together we realized that what we had learned from AGCI about babies grieving in their sleep was very true for Melia. She slept very fitfully, moaned and cried while she was sleeping.

We had planned on co-sleeping with her. We read all about attachment parenting and wanted to invest all we could into her the first months she was home and keeping her in our bed was a great way to do that....in theory. In reality it didn't work in our situation. For some reason, as much as she loved being with me she couldn't rest peacefully with me unless I was sitting up, rocking her.

So, those first 6 weeks looked like this.....rocking her to sleep, laying her down in the crib next to our bed, then we'd go to bed hours later. She'd usually sleep for an hour or so after we went to bed then would wake up and we'd bring her into our bed where she would flip and flop and climb all over me for hours (literally). Eventually she'd fall asleep a little before 6 then she'd hear Michael's alarm and would wake up again, then I'd give her a bottle and she'd sleep until I had to get up with the other kiddos around 8:30ish.

Needless to say, after 6 weeks of this crazy sleep cycle I was going insane. My family and close friends were beginning to worry. My sister, Megan tried to make my life easier by making us meals for a week (that really helped) and my friend Marie took me out for whine and dessert and did a psych eval on me. In which she determined that I wasn't depressed or crazy just sleep deprived.

Up until this point Addie (2 and a half) was still sleeping in the crib in her room, but we had a "big girl bed" set up in her room. We ended up kicking Addie out of her crib and putting Melia in the room she would eventually share with Addie. We still rocked her until she fell asleep then put her in the crib....she slept 12 hours that night. Apparently, she just can't be around me while she's sleeping. Thank the Lord for great family and friends, who keep me sane!

Since then it's just gotten better and better. Addie has now been moved again from our bedroom and the girls are sharing a room. Melia loves to fall asleep on her own. Violet (pictured below) has helped a lot with that..

We still rock her and cuddle with her, then she points to her crib and dives for Violet. She lays in there for sometimes an hour just playing and then peacefully falls asleep. I'm amazed by the way sleep issues have changed in the last 2 and a half months. Once I started sleeping again I started feeling like having four kiddos was a little more manageable. Now that it's spring time and we can go outside again....life is good!

So, it took me a little while to feel okay with our sleeping arrangements. I really want to make sure that Melia attaches well and I wanted to follow the advice given to us, but this works best for our family and I'm learning that attachment has a lot do with flexibility, too. I need to trust my gut on what my baby needs.