I hope you all like the new look of the blog. I'm supposed to be working on a massive manuscript, but I had looked at the same long text for so many hours that my eyes were starting to have permanent images of the words "central auditory system plasticity" burned into the back of my retinas. If I'm going to have something burned into my retinas, I want something a little more jazzy than that! So, I decided to do something a little less brainwave-intensive for a while, and sharpened up the blog graphics.


This is a little bit of a spoiler, since I'll probably be sending this picture out with the Christmas cards I'm theoretically sending out in the next few days. But, the kids were so cute, I couldn't help it. The picture also made me realize how much Sarah and Gennie need their bangs trimmed! Oh well. Decorating for Christmas with Eleanor this year has been a lot of fun. One really nice thing about adopting an older child is how exciting each new thing is for them, and Christmas is a biggie. She is loving it all. Of course, the holidays also bring a certain element of kid-craziness; I thought it was only fair to include one of the many shots that WON'T be going into Christmas cards this year, just for a little acknowledgement of reality. (I bribed them for the good shots by letting them be completely goofy for others).





I'm also posting a picture of Eleanor's first big snow day. Sarah and Eleanor had a great snowball fight, and built forts and castles and such. Sarah likes having the opportunity to throw things at Eleanor that a) she won't get in trouble for and b) help her release some pent up frustration with the new sister who copies her every move and gets on her nerves rather often. Eleanor probably likes the opportunity to throw things at the big sister who gets to stay up later than she does and always seems to be right about what Mom will think about a particular issue. (Apparently, it's favoritism on my part to agree with Sarah that candy for dinner is a bad idea.) Anyway, all in all, snowball fights (given no hits in the face) are a win-win situation. And while Gennie was at preschool during this particular showdown, she loves throwing snowballs at anybody within range and then laughing evilly about it (she gets that from me). In her case, it's all about the snowballs. She's a snowball fight purist.

Eleanor has already had a big change in her eyeglasses prescription since coming home, and picked out a new pair of frames with a row of tiny pink sparkles on the rims. Nothing less for the princess (or is that the empress?)! Eleanor has been coming up with some interesting alternate histories for herself lately, some of which include living in the Emperor's palace at the Forbidden City. In this particular version of events, she also never had to clean up, could eat whatever she wanted to, and was never punished for anything. I can't fault her for trying, and she's really pretty good natured about it when I tell her she still has to do something ("Sorry, Eleanor, American mommies make their kids pick up their toys.") She has a momentary look of "Curses, foiled again," and gets on with things. And I'm rather glad to have one girl who doesn't mind a little sparkle and fluff every so often, although I'll never be a Barbie or a Disney princess fan. Sarah, on the other hand, wouldn't be caught dead in anything with pink sparkles. Blue sparkles, maybe, but not pink. Genevieve's tastes are, shall we say, eclectic. She likes wearing dress-up fairy wings with her snow boots, and perhaps a Darth Vader helmet or bright orange sun hat. To each their own. :)