Gentle Years

Hello to all of you in blog/adoption land.

Sorry I have been AWOL for so long.  It's all the School Board work, not the kids.

I had a sleep study to see if my migraines were coming from that and they determined that I don't get enough sleep.  Duh.

Went to Seattle for a week for a conference.  Wonderful time.  Missed my 21 year old since I have not lived in a hotel without her-she came with me to China both times-but the city was great.  Met my nephew and his girlfriend and stepbrother for dinner while I was there and watched the debut of the final Twilight film in Seattle where they knew every landmark on the screen and cheered-that was cool!

As you can see, my nephew is short like me.  The other two aren't exceptionally tall, they just look it.

Eva had surgery on November 1.  Throughout the summer she had several castings to try to get as much correction done as possible before/without surgery.  When that was no longer making any changes, the surgery was scheduled.  It went fine but they diagnosed pain meds based on her weight without taking into account her fast metabolism (she has preschool weight but almost 9 year old metabolism) so the meds were wearing off after 20 minutes.  She cried for the first 24 hours.  Now she just cries a few times a night--every single night.  At first it was pain, then it was the itching-her hard casts were replaced this week, so we don't know if it's the itching or habit waking her up now.   

Her English is really coming along.  A couple of weeks ago I was putting eye makeup on (that doesn't  happen often-just don't have time) and she asked if she could wear some.  I made her day by saying yes, put a little powder on her lids, and then she told me that she knew how to get a boyfriend.  I said, oh yeah?  She said yes, you find a boy that is like you, that you like, and then he is your boyfriend.  I said, oh, the typical non-committal reply, and she went on to say that it helps if you are pretty.  I said what about people who aren't pretty?  They have boyfriends, too.  She said, yeah, like you, I mean, you used to be pretty when you had long hair.  I asked her if that meant I no longer was and she said no, not really, but if I grew my hair long again I would be.  The kid is always honest!