8 Years Old!

Li'l Miss Tabitha celebrated her 8th birthday today. She thought it was a pretty good time and afterwards kept telling me "I got sooooo much...." Cousin Alyssa was the only other attendee under 30, but that didn't slow down the girls. So here's the latest set of photos.

Some random thoughts....

1. I now know why my Mom used to carry a huge purse -- she had to carry all my stuff too!

2. Motherhood means making sure the little person is bathed, even if my own shower is a lofty & unobtainable goal that day.

3. People think I have rocks in my head for forgetting to have photos of the little person with me *at all times* .... never mind that I'm actually supposed to be working & seeing patients.

4. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has an opinion on what I'm doing with my child and alarmingly they are only too happy to tell me. Dear Abby would have a stroke. The exception which proves the rule, would be our respective sets of parents. They're too busy spoiling her to get a word in edge-wise.

5. It is absolutely mind-blowing at how quickly she has started to mimic words. Note to self -- filter what I say. Funny example of this was this weekend when I was teasing her about how skinny she is and I told her she had a "chickenbutt." Michael & I proceeded to hear "ChikinButt!" non-stop for the next 5 minutes. That was followed by a great deal of prayer that she would forget this by the next morning, so that the teacher wouldn't have to send a note home.... (And no, one random comment from me is not going to distort her body image -- she's convinced that she's just peachy-keen the way she is.)

6. I'm utterly amused that people will listen to her & I talk and they presume that I'm fluent in Russian. Yeah, not so much. I still would not willingly have a conversation with an adult, but I can brute-force enough language to get my point across to a child. And interestingly enough, since we got back stateside -- I've heard a lot less criticism from her about how badly I conjugate my verbs. Two weeks ago in school, she finally started to believe me that people here, really don't speak Russian. And worse, they don't understand her when she speaks in Russian.

7. Peer-pressure is a huge motivating factor even as young as 7 years old....

8. I so now appreciate why my Mom always had a glass of wine while she was cooking dinner.... Mine tends to be after you-know-whose bedtime.

9. It is completely normal and absolutely frustrating that 7 year-olds don't want to go to bed. Throw in some obstinate, headstrong, hard-headed, stubborn tendencies, for both of us, and you've got bedtime drama every night this week.

10. I'm learning which battles to fight & which ones are worthless to get involved in. Mostly means that she wears some really outlandish stuff to school and I just shrug my shoulders. It would be helpful if Michael & I could get on the same page as to which issues to ignore.

11. These people really know what they're talking about and after just 24 hours of trying this Love & Logic parenting, we've made progress. Mostly my blood pressure is normal and I have to work to not crack-up laughing when she's performing "drama".

Books & Seminar = $43. Maintaining my Sanity = Priceless!

12. I've been asked about her name. This is what she told me Monday night. "Momma, my name at school is Tabitha" "Yup, that's right." "But Momma, my name at home is Masha." "Yup, that's right too. So what do you want us to call you?" "I like the way it is now." "OK. So what's your name going to be when you're big?" "Ummm, probably Tabitha." "OK, the choice is yours. Aunt Michelle goes by two names too." "She does?" "Yup. You don't have to choose right now. You can wait and just let us know what you want." "Wow. (stretched out & with complete wonderment....)"

13. It really is true, in spite of the crummy moments, every day I find something new to fall-in-love with her.... And that is what this is all about....

So here it is. The most recent collection of photos of our girl. Most with captions of course. I think that I've finally worked out the weblink issues with the Kodak gallery so that this will work. Send me comments if you have problems.

Tabitha album


I've finally gotten the photos that I wanted uploaded to one of my Russia posts. Here's the direct link if you want to revisit the post.
http://tame-do.blogspot.com/2006/03/as-i-mentioned.html

OK.... So I've been busy lately....

I got a bit chastised last night by some very close friends. They called to check on us because they'd been watching the blog, not seen any posts and were worried we'd gotten stuck in Russia. Which I'll admit is not outside the realm of possibilities, especially considering my highly threatening penchant for taking photographs in the markets....

So, long story short, we got home at 1:30am on Thursday March 30. It was 25 hours total to get home from Moscow to Texas. Then when we did get home, while Michael & I were exhausted, Tabitha was wired on adrenaline. Seeing the house, the cats, her room (in that order) just increased the "wired" effect and she was akin to a gorilla on speed. She finally pooped out at 4am as did Michael. I gave up at 3:30. Michael was up and at work later Thursday, while the rest of us were comatose. The longer stay in Russia meant that the jet lag really knocked us for a loop this time, and then the time change on Sunday didn't help. The three of us reached some sort of normal about Monday/Tuesday, meaning we finally stopped being wide awake at 3am....

Since the arrival home, Tabitha & I have been a couple of busy gals:

• Friday, March 31 was the eye doctor
• Saturday, April 1 was ordering glasses & visiting with Grandparents Erwin
• Sunday, April 2 was visiting with Grandparents Mutzig and making friends with the neighbors
• Monday, April 3 was visiting the pedi dentist
• Tuesday, April 4 was a failed attempt at a haircut and a non-confidence inspiring trip to school to pre-register (as in she screamed at the top of her lungs for 30 minutes that she didn't want to go to school, including the walk there....)
• Wednesday, April 5 was visiting the pedi, lots of labwork, an ice cream lunch at the Purple Cow, and then shopping with Nana and dinner with the grandparents (Can you say spoiled? The kid came home with *eight* pairs of shoes!)
• Thursday, April 6 was our first stomach flu, hers - not mine. Woke up with a 101.1 temp and throwing up. Mostly just binged on Russian language movies (mental "comfort-food" as it were). Got her temp down enough for her to make a brief appearance at Dad's office for a big welcome party. Wish I had taken a picture of the crowd -- over 60 people came to the conference room! Got home and she just pooped out again. Topped out at 102.6 at which point I kept repeating to Michael "Motrin is your friend. Motrin is your friend...."
• Friday, April 7 Miss T got up at 11:45am feeling like her usual princess self. So ran a few errands and then met Uncle Matt, Aunt Christy & Cousin Alyssa for some serious Easter Egg art time.
• Saturday April 8th was hanging out at the Trophy Club Arbor Days and making a few friends
• Sunday April 9th was church for Palm Sunday. That was fun waking her up after she refused to go to sleep until about 2330pm. Ended up literally dragging her out of bed and dressing her myself (good practice for the teen years??) She was fascinated by the kids choir and decided to give childrens' church a try. I was going to stay with her, but it only took her about 5 minutes of looking around and doing the math to realize that I was the only mom there. At that point she looked at me, and with a great deal of seriousness told me "You can go now." When I picked her up after service, she'd made a couple of friends. The other neighbors, with the potential babysitting daughters, came over to meet & greet that afternoon as well.
• Monday, April 10th was the first day of school, which went remarkably well. In a complete contrast to Sunday, when I went to get her up at 7am, she was wide awake, bed made, dressed, and scurrying about her room looking for just the right hairband. She grabbed a very quick breakfast, and then she wanted to leave for school at 7:15. Which isn't a problem, except that school starts at 7:50 and the walk takes about 3 minutes.... Antsy is an understatement! I absolutely LOVE her teacher and she was all smiles & giggles today when I asked her how her day went. Apparently made a couple more friends in class. As a matter of fact, the only glitch today was a water bottle failure in her lunch bag. She & I did about 15 minutes of homework that took about 45 due to the translation requirements. But she would have kept going if there had been more that I understood.... Note to self, ask teacher about the spelling list and which handout that is?
• So when I asked her tonight did she want to go back tomorrow she said "Yes!" So I'll take that as a good sign....

Some photos in no particular order -- well at least I tried. Blogger is choking on downloads right now so maybe tomorrow