Bringing Home Avi: Hi, We're all insane here

A two year old stole my brain. Has anyone seen it lately?

I'm watching you.

Day 60: My captor continues to torment me with daily screaming and incomprehensible babble. She moved in and quickly took control as imperial ruler. She is a kind and generous ruler when she feels. Other times, when the whim hits her, she demands food specially prepared for her. She then refuses it in lieu of eating what's on my plate, leaving me hungry. She seems to understand the concept of potty, but finds it much more convenient to have me handle those duties for her. If not for her inexplicable cuteness, I know her reign of terror would have ended long ago. I feel I may be going insane.

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What a wonderful little girl we have. Time has gone so fast. Did a month just pass by? Where did it go? We were just taking that picture for month one in front of the piano and the next thing I know, it's October. Overall, I'd say things have gone really well. What have we learned this month? Well, 1) 2 year olds are insane. 2) Spend enough time around them and you get a little nutty too. I've found myself saying things like "Oooh, good job!", "Wow! Way to go, you did so good!", every day. That would be fine if it weren't to the staff at work. They've taken it well and seem to appreciate the compliments almost as as much as Avi does.

I'm still reading other people's blogs. Nobody I know personally, just ones that I've happened across regarding adoptions from Korea. I do this for no other reason but to compare our progress to the "norm." It's incredible the problems I've read about that we've managed to be spared. Extreme separation anxiety, angry outbursts and uncontrollable temper abound on the internet. I don't know if it's only people who are having problems that post blogs, or if we're just incredibly lucky. Actually, we're lucky regardless, but perhaps the first point is true as well. I'm no expert on parenting by any stretch of the imagination. But I think our best key to success was something I heard about 2 years ago. If you treat a kid like damaged goods, they'll act like damaged goods. Treat them like a kid and they act like a kid. I think we've stuck to that as much as we can. Whether it's that philosophy or just good luck I can't say, but we're doing incredibly well compared to many of the stories I've read.

Avi's true personality is coming out. She's still sweet and friendly, but has a bit of a bossy streak. I know that's pretty normal for a two year old. She must have gotten comfortable because that took a while to show up. She's getting in trouble at preschool for being a bit too rough with her classmates. We're working on not hitting or throwing things. I think as language comes along, she'll get better with that. And language is coming along. She is using a few more words now and seems to understand what we're saying. I know this because when we ask her to do something, she slyly smiles and moonwalks backwards out of the room as if saying, "No, I'm not doing whatever it is you're asking. Matter of fact, I'm going to see how much I can get away with not doing. So whatever it is you're saying, uuummm, no." That's good progress, no?

Avi knows Gali, Sophie and Farley and likes to call them by name every time she sees them. She has no idea what our names are, however. So we've been working on mommy and daddy with her.

Sleeping is getting better some nights. Other nights it's like an hourly alarm clock you can't shut off. So we've decided next weekend the big move happens. We're moving her to her room. We've started with story time over there. This weeks naps in her room. And next weekend, the big change. Sleeping over there. We're pretty sure that will be tough, but we'll make it through. She's handled all these other changes so well. We'll see how this one goes.

I've decided to get myself back to the gym. With Avi's sleeping pattern, I've been out of sorts and run down with all the changes. Ann's been encouraging me to get back there and reestablish a routine. So this morning I finally went back. It wasn't a tough workout or even very long. But the simple act of getting back there really helped me out. I felt better after doing cardio for a while. I think that simple hour to myself was a real treat. It made me a better dad when I got home. Ann says all I missed was a poopy diaper. Even with our busy schedule, I'm going to make time to keep it up.

Here's the rest of our month in review.