Who's The Boss?

We have started working on compromising the control that Charlie has bestowed upon himself. Someone with our agency counseled me that since it is our job to teach Charlie that we are in charge and will keep him safe, when we give him too much control, that may not be the message we are sending.  There are some battles that are not worth fighting, but when it is a matter of safety, or a situation where Mom and Dad clearly need to be in charge, we are taking the reigns.  In the last few days, I've said many times, "Charlie. Who is the boss? Mommy and Daddy are the boss."  And then later in the day, out of the blue, several times I have heard him say (partly to himself), "Mama's the bossy."



We have several candy dishes around our house.  I tell my kids that they have to ask before they help themselves to the candy.  Sam and Kate don't really eat much candy and they may ask for it every few days.  Charlie usually asks several times a day.  I try to say yes a lot, but not always.  When I say Yes, he says, "Ohhhh.  Mama so nice.  So sweet. Charlie be nice to Mama 'cause Mama be so nice." And then he'll give me a big hug and kiss.  Around Halloween, I am going to be the sweetest mama EVAH!



I bought two large pumpkins this week to put on the front porch.  He thought I bought them to cook and when I said they were for decoration, he must have thought that meant entertainment.  He made up games with them; jumping over them, rolling them, carrying them and sleeping with them for several days. One day he rolled one down our hill and it went all the way into our creek.  It is a miracle that neither of them busted.  Once the novelty wore off, he let me put them on the porch and left them there.



He has become obsessed with vending machines.  He thinks they are the coolest things ever.  He now loves to go with Stephen to Sam's soccer practices because there is a vending machine there and he just watches people put their money in and get the drink out-- over and over and over.  One night he was lucky enough to get to watch the worker LOAD the vending machine.  We met my parents at the Mall of Georgia for lunch last weekend.  There was a carousel, a train, and a vending machine.  He loved them all, but was the most fascinated with the vending machine.  One night he was playing with Play-Doh and made a vending machine.



His English continues to astonish and amaze us.  He seems to understand almost everything we say, and is getting much better at clearly articulating his needs. Occasionally, he'll mess up a word and when we don't understand he will make himself clear.  One day last week, he was worried about a thunderstorm.  He said, "When it unthers, who keep me safe?"  Unther?  Huh?  "You know-- BOOM! BOOM!"  Ahhh, THUNDER!  "Yeah, thunder."  (Instead of Nevermind, he says Neverfind. I don't correct that one, it's too cute.)

We have started using less bribery and gradually moved over to Kate and Sam's discipline system which is a color clip chart.  (It's more like rewarding, but some may still call it bribery.) Many schools use this and it works great for my kids.  We've been using it since they were in kindergarten. They start on green at the beginning of the week, and depending on their behavior can move up to blue or purple, or down to yellow or red.  On Friday, Red means no screen time for the weekend and Purple means a Friday prize.  Charlie became very interested in the system a couple of weeks ago and it's working great! When I tell him I am going to move his clip down he'll say, "No! Can I try again?" And he will usually self correct.

We have received his Certificate of Citizenship and applied for his Social Security number. He has learned to play Checkers and is pretty sweet about playing dolls with Kate.  He still enjoys riding his bike and will be ready for us to take off the training wheels soon.  We are using babysitters fairly regularly now.  He still has a hard time going to sleep and lately has been going to sleep in our bed and then we move him to his room when we go to bed.  It isn't ideal, but he gets a lot more sleep that way and it's easier for now.  Kate and Sam of course are jealous about that.  The other day, I said "Kate, you slept with us for while when you first came home too."  And Sam said, "I NEVER got to sleep with y'all! I came home from the hospital and BAM, went straight to my own room!  So not fair."  This is true.  I confess.  What can I say?



We had our 3 month post adoption visit with our social worker.  Kate was worried that she would find out that they fight a lot, and what would happen then?  So she drew a beautiful chalk picture to greet her on our front walk.  It worked in her favor, and everything went well.  Charlie did the Whip Nae Nae at the beginning of the visit, and escorted her to her car in nothing but a Pull-Up and shin guards at the end.  Little does Kate know, our social worker reads this blog, knows everything about us, and approves of us anyway.  God bless her!

Yesterday I took Charlie to the Pediatrician because I was worried that he hasn't gained any weight since we got him.  He will be 8 next week and weighs 44 lbs.  He eats pretty good, but burns tons of calories since he is so busy and active all day long.  The doctor was not too concerned and said he doesn't have a parasite, so we just need to push proteins and calories and good fats.  Tonight when Charlie was trying to scoop his own ice cream and having difficulty he said, "Give me more milk! I need to get strong for scoop ice cream!"