ALL DONE part II

Yesterday Reb picked up Jed's US certificate of foreign birth. So that's all for his official paperwork (except for periodic updates which get sent to China).

Therefore, this blog has completed its function for now and will be put on hold if and until there is another future O'Donnell upon whom to report.

In the meantime, we'll be blogging at odonnellolio.blogspot.com. (Olio, derived from the Spanish olla, means a miscellaneous collection or hodgepodge.)

See you there!

The O'Donnells do Disney

Almost all of them; well, almost all that don't live in St. Louis at least. Our crew met Grandma and Granddad and Aunt Erin and Uncle Kyle at Disneyworld. Here's the review.

We flew down on Tuesday. The flight was over naptime so I hoped the kids would sleep. Nope. Jed's in this phase where he has to get really mad before he falls over asleep at naptime. A helpful parent asked me if his ears were hurting. No, he's just mad. And then he didn't sleep anyhow, so we gave up and watched a movie until landing. Saw those same parents at baggage claim, who were coming home from visiting Boston, so they know my kid isn't always howling.

We may have discovered a new home remedy for ear pluggage. My chronic cold (thanks, kids!) means that my right eardrum tends to swell shut and take a painful while to reopen. This flight I spritzed a little olive oil into my ear before takeoff and things went significantly better. We'll have to test the lubrication hypothesis further on later flights, but if it means less Motrin for me I'll be happy.

We landed in Orlando and there's a fountain INSIDE the airport. Gus was wet before he even left the building. Picked up our rental car and headed for the outlet mall (it was on the way!). The kids played and snacked while I went to the Disney outlet for some tshirts and coloring books. Then we went to our hotel near Downtown Disney. They saw Jim's Expedia reservation and upgraded us to a suite. :) Made the repacking a lot easier.

We pulled out the strollers, ready to walk for dinner. Two raindrops fell before we had the strollers set up, and then the sky opened. Took the car.

Ate at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney (really good). Jed was so hungry it took him three times his usual scarf time. He ate half a sandwich and almost all of a bowl of soup. The kids did a little playing at the Lego store, decided they didn't like the dark chocolate at Ghirardellis (more for me), and helped pick out silly Mr. Potato Head accessories (Storm Trooper Potato Head) at the toy store. I also gave them permission to choose one new toy: they both chose noisy light-up battery-powered stuff. Silly me. But they love them. Then we finished off the day with some playing in the splash pad and headed back for bed.

Jim made a quick run to the grocery store for snack/breakfastage, and I repacked from airplane mode to Disney mode. Crash.

On Wednesday we headed over early to the Pop Century. At about 6:30 a.m. our room was ready. Note to self: always arrive on a Wednesday. The Pop is basically a motel, but it's really well done. Clean, very soundproofed, and with a great pool/kids pool area. We met the rest of the crew and caught the bus to Epcot.

First ride the kids have ever ridden was the Seas. Jed enjoyed it so much he started running back to the opening, but we had to talk with Crush instead. I have no idea how they had an animated turtle holding a conversation with a roomful of children, but it's the closest thing to magic I've ever seen. Then Jim took Gus and company to the hang-gliding simulator (Gus loved it) and I took Jed to the splash pad on the way to World Showcase. Jed now has a real love for splash pads. He would chase the fountains and search for the tiny dribbles and sit on the big ones.

After a change into dry clothes, we met Figment and rode Maelstrom. Gus LOVED Maelstrom, and kept talking about how the troll said "Get out of my lake!" "and then we went BACKWARDS, Mommy!" He appreciated Norway even more when we saw that they had contributed Billy Goats Gruff to the world. Lunch at Biergarten (good).

We were hoping to put the kids down for a nap in American Adventure (which I did not entirely enjoy), but they only slept for the last 5 minutes. Oh well. We toured a bit of the World Showcase and enjoyed a performance of Off Kilter (which Jim has loved for ever). The last ride was Spaceship Earth, which has been retooled for the better since we were there last. The final part was a simulation of Gus and Jim being astronauts, which was the best thing EVER.

Thursday was the Animal Kingdom, bright and early. It's a good zoo, but we know other good zoos so maybe we'll skip this next time. Kids were underwhelmed by Lion King (the rest of us enjoyed it), but loved Triceratop Spin. The Boneyard playground is really really hot.

That evening we went to Fort Wilderness for the Hoop-de-doo Revue, which is a silly dinner show. Gus unexpectedly loved loved loved it. And he got to be center stage: during a "my side versus your side" holler competition, the sound system played a loud Tarzan yell and the spotlight searched for the hollerer. It ended up on Gus, who was shocked and denied everything, then smiled and enjoyed the attention. He talked about the show all week.

Friday was Hollywood Studios. We rode Toy Story Mania first thing, which was fun but is also a good Wii game without the long wait. Then Grandma and I took the little ones to the Playhouse Disney show. My kids have never seen Playhouse Disney but enjoyed it anyway. And this time Jed was the star; every time the human actress made her rounds through the audience, she stopped to hang out with Jed. My kids are chick magnets.

Then we hoped to see Muppets 3D but they were having technical difficulties so we just went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. Jed spent almost the entire time on one big slide. He would sit at the top and wave and yell "Hi, Mommy! I coming!" then slide down, give me a hug, and climb the stairs again. Gus raced around the whole place like his usual grasshopper self, once bumped into Jed and rode the slide with him, then took off again. I must say that this playground got nasty reviews in the guidebook and that's the only part we disagreed with. Yes, you can't keep track of your child the whole time in this playground, but they come back into sight often enough that you can just stake out the place where they were last seen, and find them easily enough.

Lunch at Hollywood and Vine. Food was decent, characters were fun. More Playhouse Disney that my kids don't know. So Gus was reduced to calling "Girl! Hey, Girl!" for June's attention. Mini mac-daddy. Pomegranate lemonade is good stuff.

Back to the Pop for nap and then finally got to try out the pool. Jed loves to climb out and jump back in. Gus is learning to float and practiced some swimming. I love rashguards; so much less burnable skin area to worry about!

Then out to dinner at Chevy's Fresh Mex, which is across from Downtown Disney. Good food and the most amazing balloon man we've ever seen. He made the boys a Spiderman and a dragon. It was like watching performance art.

Disneyquest was a bit disappointing. They had a new bumper cars ride in which you also get to shoot balls (okay, asteroids) at the other cars. Seems like the perfect answer, but the execution was lacking and so you left sad for how much fun it could have been. The whole place was fun, but not as much fun as you felt you ought to be having.

On Saturday morning Gus tried to decide which park was his favorite. I told him that today's would probably win... we were going to Magic Kingdom. We rode Dumbo, but thankfully only once. Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan were other winners. Peter Pan had minor technical difficulties so I told Gus more of the story and Erin and Kyle showed Jed how many things glow under those lights (teeth are especially fun). We saw Philharmagic, when Jed blew off but Gus loved and seriously interacted with. Quick trip through Small World (which is still not my favorite place for a number of reasons, but the kids are too young to know them yet). Climbed the treehouse with Gus humming the song. Then Crystal Palace for lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends. The kids loved it. Gus declared that Magic Kingdom was in fact his favorite park.

More nap, more pool, dinner was pizza by the pool. Then Jim and I went to Cirque de Soleil and the grandparents wrangled the boys to bed. I think I'm done with animal circuses, because human tricks are much more fun! But after the really neat things they did with jump ropes and bicycles and diabolos and trampolines, I feel that my play abilities are subpar. It was amazing.

On Sunday the rest of the crew went to Universal to meet Harry Potter. We went back to MK and rode Space Ranger Spin and the Astro Orbiters ("Mommy, these are FASTER than Dumbo." Sure are; we rode them twice in a row and then I felt sick). Rode Peter Pan again and Gus had to be dragged away ("Mommy, that's MY flying boat!") Rode Aladdin (Dumbo with camels), had a very dry Jungle Cruise guide, and made pirate hats for the boys to ride Pirates. We'd forgotten about the drop in the dark, but both boys were thankfully unfazed. Bought two spyglasses to be used with great frequency.

Jim's fit of brilliance of the day was to take the Monorail to the Contemporary. There's a little cafe there right near the tracks, and the boys cheered the arrival of every train through lunch.

We were all exhausted and went back to nap, but the kids refused to sleep. For two hours. Although they were completely wiped out. Naptime ended at 6:30, and we went to dinner, then back to MK for the Electrical Parade. Now I want a lit-up swirling snail. And since no one was sleeping again for a while, we enjoyed Disney by night and had a blast. Grandad's fit of brilliance was necklace glowsticks, which identified the boys in the dark. They rode Astro Orbiter again and loved it in the dark!

Monday the grandparents took the boys back to MK, and we went to Typhoon Lagoon, which was just what we needed. I think all roller coasters would be better on a tube.

And then Tuesday we flew home, had lunch, and everybody had a nap. I think sometime around Saturday we were finally caught up on sleep.

P.S. I was clearly tired when I wrote this post, b/c I forgot to put in what was for me the funniest part of the week.

Jim goes to get ice to refill the breakfast milk cooler. Instant flurry of distress. Rush to the window to await his return, because they miss him already. Brief bout of hypothetical thinking.

"If we had long arms, we could grab Daddy and bring him back." "Uh-huh." "If we had a rope, we could tie Daddy up before he gets the ice and drag him back to Mommy." "Uh-huh."

Calling the Roll

Jed likes to gather attendance. At anything. At the dinner table, for instance. "Mommy milk. Gus milk. Daddy milk. Jed milk." Followed by a nod of the head and a sigh of contentment that the dinner table is what it ought to be. In the car this morning as we are all driving out to breakfast: "Mommy coming? Gus coming? Daddy coming?" (Daddy is DRIVING the car to breakfast.) Brief pause. Daddy finishes it up: "Jed coming." Sigh of contentment.

And the cutest thing I think I ever saw happened tonight. The guys all got shaggy, so we scheduled tonight as haircut night. Jed was really excited, which surprised us because last month he cried through the whole thing. So Jim buzzed him after dinner, and although he howled through the whole thing at least he wasn't shedding salt water onto the towel. It took him most of Gus's subsequent haircut to calm down. Gus has a lot of hair, and is getting impatient by the end. "Daddy, am I done YET?" And Jed puts his arms around as much of Gus as he can reach up there in the chair, and comforts him. "It's okay, Gus. I gotcha."

They had a blast in the park this afternoon while Daddy was getting his haircut. Chasing each other around, taking turns on the big slide, and once climbing the rock wall side by side while laughing hysterically. Watching them makes my heart happy.

A Boy and His Sweatshirt -- A Love Story

When Gus was three, I bought a spring green sweatshirt from the secondhand store. It was soft and cozy, and we have lots of pictures of him wearing it (because we're always outside). Then he got too big for it, and I put it away for Jed.

When Jed arrived it was summer. In fall he was introduced to Sweatshirt in an offhand "Are you cold, honey?" sort of way. They hung out together for a few weeks. And the acquaintanceship ripened into more.

I was dressing the kiddos one morning and said to Jim, "Jed needs a sweatshirt." Jim went into their room and Jed dropped everything and ran after him, yelling, "I pick! I pick!" Stopped in his tracks once he arrived and saw Daddy was holding Sweatshirt. He didn't want to pick, just wanted his Sweatshirt.

He misses it when it's in the laundry. One day he spied it folded in the basket during breakfast and ran to welcome it back.

I finished scrapbooking last year and showed the boys their new pages. Jed loved everything about it. Looking through it another day, he pointed at a picture of him with the jack-o-lantern on the Halloween page. I was sure he was going to say, "Pumpkin!" because he was obsessed with that pumpkin. Instead he said, "Sweatshirt!"

Last Saturday we went out to see a show and left the kids with a great babysitter. Got home to find Jed in his pajamas but wearing Sweatshirt on top. If you can't have Mommy, at least you can have Sweatshirt.

Six-Month Report

Our social worker came by last week to do Jed's six-month progress report. Jim was worried he'd miss his 10 a.m. meeting, but we were done in 20 minutes. Guess it's hard to hide when a child is healthy, happy, and smart as a whip! He's gained 3 inches and 7 pounds in the last 6 months. Our social worker was impressed with his attachment and his language skills. Now with this report in hand we get to fill out more paperwork to do his readoption in Massachusetts (need that to get a US birth certificate).

New Year's

Sorry I'm so behind. My eyes are much better, thanks for all the concern. At my last visit the doctor pronounced them "good" (which is an adjective that hasn't been used for them in a long time), took out the Band-aid, and cut my meds in half. Woot! Back there in a month.

We went to Austin over New Year's and had a second orgy of presents with Jim's family. The kids met the new puppy, who is 50 pounds. It took Jed most of the week to touch her at all. Gus was willing to play with her in the backyard until she started nipping at his heels (she is a puppy, after all). But he did enjoy telling her to sit from the safety of the other side of the gate, and would pet her as long as she was being held tightly by someone else. Jed invented a game called "throw the stick to the doggie from the safety of the top of the picnic table", and that was not bad progress, I think. Next time will be better when they're all older, but happily they could all coexist without terrible anxiety by the end of the week, and I'm sure the puppy was happy to have her house back!

We spent some quality time at Zilker Park and took the obligatory trip to Chuy's. Jed dug into the salsa. That kid will try anything. Jim warned him it was spicy, and he nodded, and then continued to tuck it in. I guess if you can put it on a tortilla chip it has to be good. We also took the boys on their first mini-golf outing to the charmingly sketchy local spot. No one was brained, and the boys spent about ten minutes dropping their balls into one of the more interesting holes.

As a reward for breaking a bad habit, Gus got to watch Jungle Book for the first time. I watched it with him in case he was scared of the big mean frightening tiger. But he was fine. The new scary movie was actually Curious George. I know, right? But there's a part where the man in the yellow hat sends George back to Africa and he's all by himself on a big boat in a cage in the dark, and Gus was petrified. We talked about it a bunch and he worked through it.

The boys had a blast being loved on all week, and by the end were lifting anyone's iPhone in the hope it was Granddad's (his has games; Mommy's does not. Put It Down). They were pretty spectacular on the flights home (two layovers so quick we couldn't even get off the plane). Jed and I toured the aisles a lot, and Gus plugged into his videos. The boys were wearing matching sweatshirts from their aunt and uncle and were much adored by the ladies in the flying public.

And then it was good to be home.

Wars of Rosacea

I haven't blogged since Christmas, and that's because I've had a recurring problem with using screens. The glare is awful. Apparently my ocular rosacea flares up when it's very cold, and so as soon as we got back from Texas and the temperature plunged, my rosacea went nuts. What happens to me is that the oils in my tear glands are blocked in from the inflammation, and so the oil parts never get into the tears (I can now testify that they are very important). As a result, I wake up crying projectively and have to force drops into my eyes to hydrate them properly. Repeat every hour or so, all night. It takes about 2 days for my eyesight to recover in that eye, and a few more for screens to be comfortable.

The first week this happened, I had three flare-ups in a week and then one of my corneas got over-wet and exploded (it's like a waterbed; too much water in between the cornea and the basement membrane and boom!). Since that has happened once before, I had a pretty good idea what had happened and hauled into the opthamologist's office and he cleaned it up for me. (First time he took dead tissue of of my eye with tweezers, horror movie. Second time, eh. I guess it all depends what you're used to. Personally, I am tired of the receptionists knowing my name.) So now I'm on drugs but still had a couple flare-ups this week. Jim got me a pirate patch just in case. Saw the uber-specialist again today and he put a contact lens bandaid in my eye (preemptively? he doesn't say much, but the last flareup might have caused a bit of a fissure, too). In three weeks we'll see how much better I am.

Humph. Now you know why there's precious little news coming out of this house. But the drugs are helping and the weather is warming, so soon I'll update on New Year's and etc.