A life so big, so abundant and so full. That is the deepest desire of my heart. I am certain this is a universal desire...
I had a tremendous time shopping for Jacie today. On the rare occasions that she is not with me I seize the opportunity with great gusto (it appears...)
I tell you what, she is extremely hard to stop shopping for. There is so very much that she hasn't done, seen and experienced. With that in mind and the fact that she will be nine in the Spring, I tried to vary her gifts by age-appropriateness and what she will grow out of. I don't want her to look back on her life and think that she missed out on a lot of childhood. Though I am not the kind of parent who has to give my child everything (at least I wasn't until her,) I don't want her lacking. It is quite a conundrum actually.
This is what I settled on:
A sun catcher making kit, play dough kit (to make funny hair and combinations,) a felt finger puppet kit and a really cool pair of pants w/ a matching shirt. The pants and shirt are dual purpose because they are quite bright and glittery. They match those sequin, light-up shoes that she so badly wanted for church...
I happen to know that she is getting those shoes for Christmas, so I bought this outfit to match. Fun, fun. The dual purpose is that not only is it a Christmas present, it is also a going to the hospital for surgery outfit. Hopefully the bright, happy outfit will make her feel better...?
She started working on Bart, trying to talk him out of making her go for surgery. Little Stinker!
I would say that is a smart move though because I am the toughy, he is the softy. She can melt me though. Faster than the boys could. I am not certain why. Maybe as Ima agin', Ima changin'. I couldn't resist dropping a little Mario lingo in. Her language has progressed to such a degree that we rarely hear it anymore.
Last night at supper we struggled though. As I stated earlier, Jacie has begun to stuff four or five bites into her mouth and then cannot eat properly. I was sitting next her and she began to pick-up corn and stuff it into her mouth. I said, "Jacie, please don't use your fingers."
She looked at me, picked up another kernal and popped it into her mouth. I said, "No fingers..."
This happened about seven times. Finally she picked up a piece of corn and said, "Ma, look."
Then she popped it into her mouth. Of course, she got into trouble. She is absolutely devastating to watch when she is in trouble. She goes shock still, her eyes dilate, get blood shot and huge tears start to fall. She doesn't move a muscle the whole time. She says nothing...It is really pathetic. The whole family hates when she is corrected. Yet, we know that it is a must.
It is hard to explain how often she does not listen to what I say, often turning and doing the exact thing I have said not to. We used to give her a pass because of language...it is pretty obvious now that she wants to do whatever it is she is pursuing and no one can stop her. This is one of the hardest parts of parenting on the whole and parenting the older child fresh from adoption particularly. How much of a leash can you give and still firmly root safe practices...?
This might be a stretch but I am hoping that from this incident at the kitchen table, we can avoid a bigger incident in public. She is notorious for running in parking lots and not paying attention to her surroundings, then 'not hearing' my safety reminders...again, all kid stuff. We just have a later start on it.
She is currently sitting behind me directing her big brother on how to dress the princess in her Princess and the Frog game. He is really quite thrilled...what a good sport he is. I'll bet you know which big brother she is playing with and which wouldn't touch the game with a ten foot pole...
~Angie
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