Secret Weapon!!!

A little pudding right before bedtime!

I spoke with the Cardiologist today ( I had her paged) and she said that the Medical Review board wants to continue to watch Bei before making any further decisions. She asked me to schedule another Echocardiogram at 3 months and then again at 6 months. She said one of their biggest concerns is that he has had minimal weight gain since the Chinese Medical Report in October. She said they want to see how he does on an American diet with a little TLC. Once again, I'm charged with the duty of fattening the boy up! So I decided to bring out my secret weapon tonight for dinner...my grandma Phyllis's mashed potatoes. My grandma rated people based on if they were a "good eater" or not...my brother in law Randy was her favorite "good eater", however we found out later that he was cheating! He had a condition called thunder thyroid so he could pack away the food and never gain a pound!!! It could have killed him...but my grandma didn't care just as long as he kept eating her food in abundance, she was a happy woman. Anyway, Bei loved the mashed potatoes and asked for "moe" in his Boston/Mandarin accent. Grandma is smiling from heaven, she knows that Bei is a "good eater".

I thought I was a good parent until I had a child...

I went to the bookstore and there was a book with that title, that caught my eye. If that doesn't say it all...parenting looks easy from the outside. I sure had all the answers when I had no kids. So far everything has truly gone smoothly. The most stressful part so far has been getting him to sleep, but it has definitely been minor. Bei is a pretty easy kid, we have a great understanding of one another. I give him everything that he demands and he only needs to tantrum once. Truthfully, I gave Bei a timeout yesterday. In my all-knowing former life, I thought timeouts were stupid. It was for people who couldn't communicate. I get it now, they make an impact. Bei pretty much laughs in my face when I try to be stern and tell him no. He is saying "Hey lady, I came from an orphanage and there was no nice sing songing lady telling me that it is not nice to hit". Anyway, the timeout yesterday lasted only 20 seconds, but he got my point and behaved beautifully afterward. By the way, his tantrums have pretty much ceased except for naps every now and then. He is such a good kid, even if he is upset, I can usually redirect his attention and get him focused on other things.

Picture:

I love all of Bei's different expressions. As I have mentioned he loves to laugh and giggle. This is one of his faces when he is excited. We let his Big Wheel ride down the driveway by itself towards him and he loves it. I think my Civil War camera is finally on it's last leg and we are going to be forced to by a new one. Doesn't the picture really look fuzzy?

Cardiologists:

I called the Cardiologists this morning and left a message and never heard back. It is not like the kid has a hang nail, it is his heart and it would be nice to know next steps. I'm not overly impressed at the moment with this facility and probably won't be staying with it much longer. It probably is the scenario of no news, is good news.

No news from the Cardiologist

I forgot to mention in my previous post, that we have not heard from the Cardiologist yet. She was suppose to call last Friday or today Monday. I will call her tomorrow morning and see if I can get in touch with her.

We miss Dan!

I'll start with the picture; I took this as Bei was waking up from his nap and he wanted me to pick him up. He is soooooo happy to see his mommy! He usually wakes up with a smile on his face and is a very happy boy.

Dan went back to work today and we missed him alot!!! We were able to talk about 4 or 5 times during the day, which was very nice for me. Unfortunately, we weren't home when Dan got home, but I definitely want to make a big thing about it for Bei. Greeting Daddy at the door with lots and of hugs and kisses from both of us.

Bei is talking more English every day. One of the things that he says is " Alllll Done". He takes a mouthful of food, swallows and says, "Alll Done", takes another bite, swallows, and says "Alll Done", right-o buddy, but you have about 17 more bites before you truly are "Allll Done". We pull into the driveway after an errand and we are "Allll Done". We close the door and it is "Alll Done". You get it, everything is "Allll Done".

All the parents out there know this already but I didn't get it until now. Children are truly sponges. They want to imitate their parents in everything that they do. Which is good and bad, because we all have some bad habits...yikes! I'm trying to eliminate several words from my vocabulary! Luckily they aren't the worst words in the world, so if Bei accidently said them, I shouldn't have the neighbors knocking on my door. One of the things that I automatically did with Bei is pat him when he goes to sleep. He will be laying in my arms and I'll just pat his diaper rhythmically. Now, he is doing it to himself to get himself to sleep. Everything I do, he loves to do. Even put on my lipstick...he puckers up and then is all proud of himself after I put it on. Dan is insisting that I get Bei some chapstick.

A silly thing that he is doing is putting things in odd places. He loves to place things in the cabinets and refridgerator. There is a potatoe in the pots and pans cabinet, one of his many toothbrushes in the refridgerator (he loves to brush his teeth!), a bowl, cookies and batteries are in the tupperware cabinet. Maybe he see's me take things in and out of the cabinets and he wants to do the same. I just leave them there and he then moves them around again. It keeps him busy when I'm washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen.

All is well in the Krueger household...

Cabin

Reggie's Ramp that has become a toy for Bei!

There were many beautiful yellow flowers all over the lawn at the cabin.


Bei learned to blow the snow ball off of the stem

Joe Cool at the cabin

Puckering up for the camera

On Wednesday, we headed up to our cabin in northern Wisconsin. We had not been there since the girls weekend at the beginning of April. We needed to cut the grass, put the dock in and get the boat out of storage. Dan's parents came over in the morning for a nice visit with us. Bei had a wonderful time running up and down the ramp Dan had built for Reggie (our previous four legged child). We decided to leave it up until Bei doesn't want to use it anymore.

We left on Thursday because the weather was going to be rainy.

Today, we spent the afternoon over at our friends Mary and Jeff Sullivan swimming in their in-ground pool. Bei loved it! He is a natural in the water and is not afraid at all. Very trusting. He even wanted to put his face underwater. His diaper ended up weighing more than him, and after it blew up to the size of a basketball we finally decided to take it off and put on his Dora swim pull ups...yep, his mom accidently got girlie ones.

Open Heart Surgery for Lily Mei today

Please pray for her surgery and quick recovery. She is a really precious little girl, however she has some serious health issues. She made remarkable progress in the 11 days that she was with her new mommy and daddy. Alot of love goes a long way.

Beautiful Boy

This is his cool pony backpack that he just discovered. He must have worn a back pack before because he knew to put it on. He had it on most the evening and even took a stroller ride with the pony on his back.

Beautiful Boy!!

Dan and I are still amazed at how blessed we are in getting Bei. He was truly meant to be our child. I feel like he is teaching us so much about love and being loving.

I gave Dan a break or you could say Dan gave me a break, either way, tonight Dan played with Bei outside, while I cleaned the house. After playing with his daddy for about an hour they came back in and Bei came to me and hugged me, gently pushed me away, looked in my face and smiled and pulled me back to him to hug me again. He did that about four times and each time he would look into my face really lovingly and kiss me. It was like a scene out of a romantic French movie...this kid knows how to wrap me around his finger. I believe that somebody really loved this little boy and showered him with love and affection. Don't worry, it will continue with lots lots more from both Dan and I!!!

One last quick story; tonight he didn't want to go to bed, but he needs to go because Dan and I both need some down time. So I laid with him and he was crying, initially pretty hard and then shortly thereafter it went into kind of his fake cry. So, I just let him cry and gently patted him and laid next to him. Out of the blue, he turned to me kissed me on the lips, crawled on top of me and fell fast asleep. He is the biggest love bug. We are soooooooooooooooooooooo lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!