Christmas Card Outtakes

When we visited relatives in Pennsylvania this weekend, we went to the Harrisburg Mall to see the impressive sandcastle that is constructed every year as Santa's home in the mall. Tootle visited with Santa, but Doodle decided that she is too old. Tootle assured me that most mall Santas are simply Santa's helpers, but the one that she saw was the real deal. I attempted to use the sandcastle as the backdrop for our holiday card with some success as well as some failures. Here are the failures.

Thankful

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for many things:

The Thanksgiving letter that Doodle wrote as a school assignment. It was touching and very written. I hope she gets an A.

The fact that both girls helped prepare the turkey dinner and that both said they were most thankful for family. Tootle is also thankful for Santa Claus.

My mom. Life would be much more difficult without her help.

My job. I have a lot of flexibility in work hours and like my work most of the time. It could be a lot worse.

Living in this country. Things are going to be a bit bumpy for awhile as we recover from the economic mess, but I'm so hopeful for the future.

We made these pilgrims and Native Americans this morning. One of Tootle's friends spent the morning playing at our house because her mom is recovering from surgery. These so called "village people" make me smile, and the girls giggled a lot as they made them and played with them. After stuffing ourselves, we went to see the movie Bolt. This evening Tootle and I finished a difficult puzzle she was working on, and Doodle and I put some new music on her ipod.

Weekend Update

Our schedule on Saturday wasn't quite packed enough, so we decided to make dumplings in the afternoon. Tootle enjoyed perfecting her dumpling making craft, and we recruited Doodle's friend S to help. We also helped pack and decorate Thanksgiving boxes for the food drive at Tootle's school, went ice skating, and took Doodle to an evening birthday party at a bowling alley. (Tootle got invited to bowl a game too.) Sunday was much more low key. We ran errands after church, raked leaves, and then froze at Doodle's soccer practice.

Tootle's bully appears to have been successfully neutralized so she is happier at school. Doodle's problem doesn't have a quick fix but she is doing OK most of the time. I'm looking forward to a relaxing Thanksgiving break.

Scattergories

I saw this on Beverly's blog and decided to play along. Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things…nothing made up! You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Donna
BOY NAME: Donald
4 LETTER WORD: door
GIRL NAME: Delia
OCCUPATION: dermatologist
A COLOR: dark blue
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: dungarees
BEVERAGE: daiquiri
FOOD: dumplings
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: dental floss
A PLACE: Denver, CO
REASON FOR BEING LATE: dream
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: Darn!

Seeking Counsel

I've been on the phone with the guidance counselors at both girls' schools today. Tootle is being teased by a few kids in her class about the small size of her left nostril, the result of being born with a cleft lip/palate. This one has taken me by surprise because the Hangzhou surgeon did such a good job that many adults don't even notice Tootle's deformity. I'm a bit biased, but she really is a beautiful girl. Last week one night she told me that several kids were asking her about her nostril and faint surgery scar and that she didn't like school and didn't want to go the next day. I asked her how she responded and she told me that she ignored them. I suggested that she could just matter of factly tell the curious kids that that's simply how she was born. That technique worked for the curious kids but it didn't work on a mean girl in the class who has continued to tease Tootle about it every day. While Tootle is going to school willingly, this is bothering her. An e-mail to the teacher went unanswered, so today I called the guidance counselor, who was very responsive. He pulled Tootle out of class to talk to her and she was unable to answer him except by nodding her head yes or no, so she clearly is upset. She asked him not to talk to the girl about this specific situation; I think Tootle fears retribution. But he does meet with this girl on a regular basis so he is going to discuss it with her in a general sense. I'm choosing to view this as an opportunity to arm Tootle with tools to deal with mean people, but I'd rather that she didn't have to deal with this at the age of six.

Doodle is having a rough time coping with the stress/pressure of school this year. It's a bit of a mystery because her report card showed no struggles, and her teachers report that she is doing very well, but I have to recognize the validity of her feelings and equip her with tools to cope with stress. It's a bit unnerving to try to calm down your 10 year old who is hyperventilating over a science test that you know she is prepared for. Doodle started seeing a licensed clinical social worker this week who specializes in anxiety disorders and often works with adopted children. The first session went well, and I'm hopeful that Doodle will be able to handle stress much better soon. I chose a LCSW who works with adopted kids in case Doodle has any underlying adoption concerns that she has been unable to talk to me about. Doodle's school guidance counselor is keeping Doodle's various teachers informed and is having occasional lunch sessions with her and a group of friends. I hope that we can nip this in the bud before middle school.

Writer's Block?

Has Tootle lost her muse already? This morning I came across three incomplete books, two of which only had a cover and a first page. The life of a busy author, who also has to fit in Chinese, Daisies, and skating, isn't an easy one.

Prolific

Tootle is a budding author. She writes at least one book a day now, sometimes 3 pages in length and other times as many as 16. She reports that she plans to write 100 books before Christmas. Thus far, the books have centered on the fictional adventures of bunnies and cats. The exception is a nonfiction book about the care and feeding of cats. My favorite recent addition is that she includes a description on the back cover and indicates whether the book is "fiction" or "information." A few of the books have been wrapped up to be given as Christmas presents. I suggested that she do the illustrations for these special books in color rather than pencil. She rejected this idea, saying that chapter books don't have color pictures. I should have known better than to mess with her creative process.