A Quarterly Report

Tootle turned 5 three months ago today. It has been a pretty eventful quarter, with five firsts. Tootle learned to:

1. Ride a bike without training wheels

2. Front stroke, back stroke, and fancy diving too (a line from a catchy preschool ditty)

3. Do cartwheels

4. Do addition and subtraction problems (her sister has also taught her how to multiply by 0s and 1s)

5. And this week's accomplishment: tie shoelaces

Recipes for a Good Life

Tonight for practically the first time in her life, my 87 year old Aunt Ruth, my mom's oldest sister, is sleeping in a home without a family member present. The oldest of 10 children, she graduated from high school and promptly went to work in a shoe factory to help support the family. She worked at the factory and played a big role in her small town church until she retired, remaining in the family home to help care for my aging grandparents as each of her siblings left to get married. Once both my grandparents were gone, she moved in with another sister, who had become a widow the year before. While they sometimes appeared to be an odd couple (the bickering could be unbearable), the sisters lived together in relative peace for 21 years, until today when Aunt Ruth moved to a nursing home because her 82 year old sister was no longer strong enough to care for her.

Aunt Ruth recently fell a few times and has convinced herself that she can no longer walk, and her sister simply can't get her up and moving. While Aunt Ruth's body is failing her, her mind is still sharp. When we visited her over the weekend to help prepare for the move to the nursing home, she accurately told us where things were. A nursing home doctor tested her mental abilities by asking her who the president of the United States is. Her reply, "That jackass!" shows that she's still lovably feisty. As I hugged her goodbye, Aunt Ruth told me that she's going to have to learn to like living in the nursing home. I hope that her attitude stays positive and that the nursing homes doctors are able to get her on her feet again. While Aunt Ruth wears a hearing aid and talks loudly, often scaring young children, Tootle has always loved being with her. She wants to make and send her cards, and so we will. Doodle appears to be more worried about the 82 year old sister, who will be living along for the first time in 21 years, so she too will get special cards. (I too am a bit worried about my 82 year old aunt: she looks so tired and stressed out.)

The weekend visit has always resulted in a project for me. I borrowed a book filled with my grandma's recipes that I'm going to make into a book for family members. I had a grand time perusing it last night. Next spring I just may have to make some dandelion wine (I know my grandpa made this, but I never got to try it), and I'm thrilled to have the recipe for Faye's sugar cookies and other goodies.

P.S.

My spam filter may be set a bit too high. This morning I got an e-mail from a friend who has a daughter in Doodle's class. The message started "P.S" and then asked me not to discuss the contents of her earlier message with Doodle. I didn't have an earlier message so I went to my spam and found the original message. I'm glad I did because this family is having more than its share of troubles, and I want to be supportive. The title of the original message mentions Back to School Night so the only thing that I can figure is that the e-mail was labeled spam because back to school in a message usually refers to sales.

Chinese American AG Doll: Ivy

On September 10, American Girl is unveiling a historical Chinese American doll, Ivy. Ivy is the best friend of the first new historical doll to be released in five years, Julie, who is of course blond. Julie and Ivy's stories are set in the 1970s in San Francisco, and Julie's books are written by Megan McDonald, author of the Judy Moody books that Doodle loved back in second grade. I remember hearing that Megan McDonald has a niece adopted from China, so perhaps we have her to thank for introducing the Chinese American character and for AG's decision to create a doll. Ivy appears to be a main character in at least several of Julie's books, and there is one Ivy book, written by Lisa Yee.

The China adoption community has been asking AG for a Chinese American historical doll for years. I'm not sure that a sidekick is what the beseachers had in mind, but it is better than nothing. I called the New York store and ordered a Ivy doll for each girl as Christmas presents. Wouldn't it be interesting if Ivy's sales surpassed Julie's? To learn more about the new dolls, go here and there.

Family FotoFun Friday Challenge: BFFs

Both Doodle and Tootle make friends easily and have a lot of friends. Tonight at the back-to-school picnic, Tootle had the chance to play with both of her best friends: her preschool best friend (top photo) and her neighborhood best friend (bottom photo). Over the first few days of school, she has even convinced them that they can all play together at recess so tonight they climbed and ran and jumped as a threesome.

The neighborhood best friend spent six weeks in Turkey (her mom's homeland) this summer. Tootle kept asking when we were going to Turkey so she could have a playdate with her friend, whom she missed a lot. I explained over and over again that if we were going to endure such a long flight, our destination would be China.

I should have included a photo of photo of Tootle and Doodle together in this collage because they often proclaim themselves to be best friends, and I hope that they continue to feel that way as they grow up. To see more BFFs, go here .

Fifty Five Pounds

Until her mom and her sister, Doodle struggles to put on weight. Being elbowed by her or having her chin rest on you is a painful experience because she has so little fat. Tonight I looked at her and noticed that her face looked fuller, so I asked her to step on the scale. Drum roll please: Doodle now weighs 55 pounds, 3 more pounds than she weighed just a month ago and 7 more pounds than Tootle. While the girls are four years apart, Tootle only weighed 4 pounds less than Doodle when she came home two years ago. The gap is now the largest that it has ever been. My girl is still skinny but at least she now has a bit more meat on her bones.

Another First

Before traveling to bring Tootle home, one of my biggest concerns about adopting an almost three year old was that I would miss out on a lot of the firsts: first tooth, first steps, first words, etc. But I quickly realized that there were still firsts to celebrate; they were just different. Today we marked one of the traditional milestones: Tootle's first day of kindergarten. Tootle's first words when she woke up this morning were: "Today's the first day of school." And she leaped right into it, without a tear and with her usual tenacity. She sang one of the songs she learned for us tonight and reported that her big problem of the day was that a preschool friend and a neighborhood friend, neither of whom is in her class, both wanted to play with her at recess, and they didn't want to play as a threesome because they didn't know each other. I gave her advice, but I'm sure she will smooth out this problem, and before long, she will be playing with new friends from her class as well.

Doodle had a terrific first day of fourth grade as well. Doodle begged for several weeks to see the movie "Hairspray," and over the weekend, we all went to see it. The girls loved the music so much that we bought the soundtrack. Last night, the girls were bopping to "Mama, I'm a Big Girl Now." I quickly grabbed the camcorder and recorded Tootle's interpretive dance to symbolize that she's a big girl now. So she is.