Ice Cream Sundaes, a meltdown, and Chinese New Year

This weekend was a busy one! On Friday night we had our first annual Ice Cream Sundae Night. I challenged the kids to go without (major) sweets during the week and we would have an all out ice cream sundae night on the weekend. They did great, choosing p&b crackers, fruit, etc. so we had a great assortment of things to put on our ice cream Friday night. And there was no guilt for me because I did well during the week! (Of course, after looking at pictures, I feel some guilt.)

On Saturday, Uncle Phillip, Aunt Raegan, Nathan, Jacob and Isabelle came over to celebrate Chinese New Year a day early. We had so much fun seeing them in their traditional outfits! We also did the traditional red envelopes and tea with them. We had waited to give them their gifts from China so it was almost like a real Chinese New Year. Almost..

After they left, Jenna, our adoption social worker came over to do our one month post adoption placement. It was great to see her again. She will be traveling to China soon to bring her daughter home so we enjoyed sharing our stories. After she left, we hung around the house because it was so dreary outside. Peter also said his very first sentence! He told our dog Sissy to go to her house and when she obeyed, he was jumping up and down with excitement! We were just as excited! Then the meltdown..

Peter did not like something that Abi did and reacted in a way that was not good. At all. Eric had to really get on to him and for the first time, we saw tears. Tears are ok. We were able to reassure him that despite what he did, we all still loved him very much. And despite that we did not like his action, we are all still a family and nothing will change that. While this was not fun to deal with, it was good for us.

Sunday was the big Chinese New Year celebration! Here are some of the foods that we had. There was SO much food and it was SO good!

Here are some of the decorations:

We were able to give my nephew Lewis and niece Penny their traditional outfits. We were so excited that my sisters family drove from Temple to celebrate with us!

We had shirts made for my older nephews that said cousin in Chinese

 We did the traditional red envelopes with all the kids and then chowed down! Here are a few of my other favorite shots from the day. Thank you Chels for all the wonderful pictures!

 And then on to Monday...whew..Peter woke up well but once we sat down for breakfast and it was over. The bad mood started as did the anger toward Abi. He was fit to be tied. We are trying a new approach and we let Abi have an extra privilege when he was ugly. He was UPSET! He thought telling me that he was sorry would help the situation. Nope. I was thrilled he said he was sorry but I was not caving. I told him he could try to earn this privilege later in the day. Total meltdown. Again, I am ok with the meltdowns. I scooped him up in my arms, held him while he cried and once he calmed down, we "talked" about family, obeying, sisters, etc. He seemed to get it and was fine after that. We took a very long morning break, 2 hours, and then we did a bit of school. Not much, but long enough that Abi and Andrew could concentrate on their schoolwork with some quiet. Then one of his biggest accomplishments: He built a Lego car by himself!! He was so excited. We are so proud of him! So again, when it's bad, it's bad. But when it's good, it's very, very good! And yes, we would still adopt him all over again. This is part of it and I even like this part. We are making progress. Small progress, but progress. Tonight he did earn the privilege of playing Halo and since Andrew had Boy Scouts, he played on Abi's team against Daddy. This worked out great and they played very nicely together. See? Progress!