If International Adoption is part of your world ... heck, any adoption, or if there are kids involved just about anywhere you are ... here's a site you should check out: The Center for Adoption Medicine.

From pre-adoption consultation, to a Glossary of Russian Medical Terms, how to take FAS photos and more, more, more, The Center for Adoption Medicine is rich with material and generous in sharing knowledge.

For those adopting toddlers and concerned about Autism,... more

Sam has a good ear. He picks up subtle differences in tone, learns tunes, does about a zillion different animals sounds and can tell exactly who's on the other end of the phone after just a word or two. He knows that some of the cartoons he sees are in French and a lot of the people around us speak Creole.

He understands quite a bit of Creole, but communicates mainly in English. He's manufactured a few words of his own, building them from bits of other languages and incorporating them into our family-speak. For example, he's taken the French/Creole word 'sorti' and combined... more

It's just not a beach Saturday today. Still about eighty degrees, but cloudy, raining and a bit windy, it's a stay-home-and-do-chores kind of day instead. And isn't Sam just thrilled!

Mark's taken it upon himself to face a job I hate ... defrosting the freezer. I'm a big believer in frost-free technology myself and resisted the purchase of a deep freeze that couldn't deal with its own ice. Mark chose economy over efficiency, however, so the build-up became his problem ... and Sam's joy.

It's snowing in our garden.

This kid was born in hot, humid, tropical Cambodia and has... more

Through some miracle of thought on the part of the Seychelles Marketing Board, jars of prepared baby food have appeared in the shops lately. With a nod toward occasional convenience and the knowledge that the supply won't be around for long, I bought a few.

Normally, Cj eats what we eat, with some things overcooked and mashed. I started her off on bananas and papaya, eventually introducing avocado, eggs, rice, oatmeal, and so on, gradually building up to her own version of regular food. The imported stuff is exotic by Seychelles standards. Her first mouthful of strained... more

Victoria, the capitol of Seychelles, is always and forever referred to only as "Town", En Ville. There's no need for more elucidation, as no place else in the country could be thought to be anything town-like. We have a couple of fairly large villages ... Anse Royale is one; having its own hospital, post office and bank ... but they're still barely a blip on anyone's radar.

I try to stay away from town. It's always just that much hotter there, due to the expanse of six or seven streets (okay, maybe ten) collecting heat to release in steamy waves throughout any real... more

Bratz? What the heck are Bratz? Bratz buzz is happening all over parenting sites and once again I'm out of the loop, in the cold, behind the curve, insert the new cool way to say old and uncool > here. What I'm picking up third, fourth and eleventh hand is that these are dolls of some sort, and although an ethnic diversity has been attempted, the marketing uses sex to sell toys to tots. Am I close here?

I could look these up on the Internet and learn more, but frankly I don't care. I don't have to care. I live beyond marketing.

Does that sound like a little slice... more

Mo on the Korea Adoption blog brings up a sore point with adoptive parents: the terrible "You're not my real mother" power play that simply has to happen sometime.

She has some good thoughts about arming in advance; preparation being about the only course a mom can take in this case. Knowing the confrontation is out there in the future somewhere allows us to gird our loins, so to speak, and practice deflecting the pain, all the better to deal with the real issue at hand.

The issue at... more

With the whole Indian Ocean to swim in, where does Sam choose to cool off on this Sunday morning? Yep. In a barrel. He spent hours tucking himself down into constantly refreshed water as Mark worked outside, and enjoyed every minute of barrel filling, barrel dumping, barrel refilling, barrel scrubbing, barrel dumping all over again, and … well, you get the picture. He was busy with the barrel.

So, what is with boys? Just three and he’s already so okay with greasy and grimy that a trip to the garage to work on Dad’s old pickup sounds like more fun to him than making... more

Cj took her first step today. Just the one, thank you, but it’s been duly noted in the life book and the camera is poised and ready to capture any repeat performance.

She's my fourth child, and the only one to wait this long to walk; the others were up and going by nine months, and she’s nearly eleven. (Still talking months here, not years, just in case anyone new is reading today.) I am so pleased she’s taken her time. Early walkers are a pain. I’ve written about my thoughts on teeth in walking babies … I’m... more

As I mentioned in a previous post, and may drop into future conversations from time to time, my kids are adorable. All four of them, but the two in their 30s have less tolerance for me wafting on about it in a public place like this than the little ones, so I’ll save heaping praise on them for a future entry.

So, Sam and Cj: cute. And they get a lot of attention, partly because they solicit it and partly because, well … because they’re so darned cute.

Given the racial mix of... more