Scotty The Hottie

On the way to a party fundraiser for Vision Slovakia, I was teaching Buttercup that when people say hello, you say hello back and say your name. She did really well with this at the party and soon picked up that the next question is usually "How old are you". She smartly just threw that in saying "I'm Buttercup, and I'm 5"



On the way home we stopped at Wendy's to grab some dinner, she was talking at me while I was ordering. She was telling me that I didn't have good manners because I didn't say my name to the walkie-talkie. I pulled up to the window and explained that Buttercup called me out on my manners and that my name was Emily, and thank you very much for taking our order.



 This guy was one of those guys that LOVES his job and has a great time working at Wendy's. He responded with "Nice to meet you, I'm Scottie the Hottie! and I'm here to serve!" He and Buttercup are BFFS now.

3 Day Birthday Celebration!!

DAY ONE: 

Birthday Breakfast! 



I tend to limit the amount of pink happening at one time- and distribute it throughout the week and talk about how its possible to choose a different favorite color every day- NOT TODAY! I got out all the pink dishes, a new pink dress, a unicorn crown, a giant pink 5 balloon, pink milk, and made breakfast into a smiley face. She was SO HAPPY! 

Meeting Mom, SHARKS!

I've been looking forward to meeting mom for some time now, we talk on the phone and text daily, but we have never been face to face. Since Buttercups visits are supervised, the supervisor keeps us separated for Buttercup's sake- it is confusing when we are both in the same place. 

I supervised the birthday visit- Mom chose to go to the aquarium at MOA so off we went. There were some odd moments with the three of us together but Buttercup had a great time- which is the only important thing. For lack of better words, the power dynamic was very confusing. Her Mom and I were looking for approval from each other in general, and with a variety of small decisions- which kind of ticket to buy, if she could have gum or not, if/who was going to buy the toys buttercup asked for, etc. 



We walked in, Buttercup was so excited to see Mom! she was showing off her birthday dress and telling her all about her day. I'm don't know exactly why, but Mom brought a giant sheet cake for Buttercup- which needed to be carried around with us for 2 hrs through the aquarium and the MOA- So that's something we did. 

We all had a great time at the aquarium, Her mom got talked into buying the behind the scenes tour which was just the three of us and the tour guide. I think they thought Buttercup was much older than reality since she's so tall- she was very bored on the tour. But we had a great time watching the stingrays, trying to touch the sea anemones, and watching the jellyfish. 



Buttercup has a shark toy she loves, and several shark shirts. So it was surprising to me that she was VERY scared and cried the whole time we were in the tunnel aquarium! there were a few sharks, but there were also other way cool things like turtles etc. She cried the entire time and was so clingy to both me and her mom. 




After the visit, we found Roman and went to Lego Land- she made her own lego people and we had some delicious burgers! It was a great day! 


DAY TWO: PARTY TIME!


My family came for a party! Today there was the giant pink 5 balloon and five smiley face balloons that I hid throughout the yard. We had all the supplies for a squirt gun fight, and a delicious picnic- I don't know if you have ever had these things called chips, but someone brought them and they were delicious!!


one of the funniest things that happened at the party was the appearance of strange children. Now, my family knows that there are random children from the neighborhood that hang out at our house a lot. But these kids I'd not seen before. But my family was very welcoming, and invited them for a hot dog, and some cake! 

Since we had an extra cake from mom, there were sugar comas all around! 




DAY THREE:  Birds and Butterflies

Today was an Emily -  Buttercup date at the zoo! We went to the Bird show, which was her favorite part. It was a beautiful day for the zoo! We came nose to nose with a swimming grizzly, found our favorite animal- the flamingos, and visited the butterfly garden! 

We had so much fun she passed out on the way home- wearing her unicorn horn just like Jellybean did! 

Brave Face

We have been working a lot on building confidence, bravery, persistence, and independence. It's a painful process a lot of the time, but we had a great breakthrough this weekend.

When things get frustrating for Buttercup, her reaction is to completely shut down. She can't be talked through something, she won't walk away, she just is completely unreachable- crying without being to self-soothe, or calm herself down.

When she's in a better mood, we practice "brave face"


"strong face"


"smart face"


"I can do it" face


and of course "silly face" which I'm sure you can imagine.

I've been talking to her about doing hard things- sometimes instead of crying, you can just put on your brave face and do the hard thing anyway. Hard things include writing lower case 'e', riding a bike with training wheels, blowing bubbles in the bathtub, swimming, walking back to the car etc.

Biking has been a really touch and go thing so I decided we should go all the way around the block, so she did her helmet by herself, I grabbed Fred and we headed off. She soon got stuck on a very small hill with her pedals and poor leverage points. I continued walking giving her the choice to stand up on her pedals or get off and push for a few steps and try again. The total Shutdown began. It was an extremely painful 35-minute walk around the block- there are two hills en route and you can only say "KEEP PEDALING, NEVER STOP PEDALING, you're on a hill" so many times before insanity begins.



When we got back to the house, I traded dogs and we went around again- I was determined to break through getting her to persist to success. This time Buttercup didn't get stuck at all, but she did fall twice. I was a bit behind her and was wincing at how she would react to an actual injury. Surprisingly she cried for a minute, got up herself, and got back on her bike. I was shocked! Could it be??? Things I say are actually getting in her head and laying eggs in there????



She later fell again, didn't cry at all, turned and told me " Crying isn't a good choice". I was Speechless!



We ended up doing three laps, and she ended up being VERY proud of herself and her accomplishments. We even called Mama Lisa right away to tell her how well she did on the bike.

Now, to translate this into other aspects of life :D

Procrastination Station

There is nothing Buttercup is better at than procrastinating. She uses her charm, innocence, and curiosity to derail countless tasks during the day.



Almost nightly, Buttercup goes to bed, is content in her room for about 15 minutes before saying with a weak little pathetic voice "I have to go potty". Roman usually shout from our room simultaneously- "then go!" even though we know she went RIGHT before we tucked her in. Whatever, it's not a risk we are going to take if she wants to waste 5 min on the toilet then fine, right?

One night she went, and roman and I continued eating our snacks and watching Parks and Rec, when 45 minutes later we hear the toilet flush-we look at each other and laugh hysterically. She had gone to the bathroom, and we totally forgot. she must have fallen asleep or something because 45 minutes of sitting on the toilet far past anyone's attention span.

Camp Kristy! (respite)

Romans Brother is getting married! We planned a trip to the homeland before Buttercup came into our lives. So we are going to be gone for about Two weeks and she will be going to a respite house through the county. We decided to call it camp since through her experiences, Buttercup has not left a place- and then returned. We want her to feel safe, and happy and know she is coming back to our house when we get back- so we have been talking about our trip a lot.

In kid terms- Roman and I are going really far away, we have to take 3 planes to get there- But we are coming back to get you. We are also going to send so many postcards, but they won't get to our house until we are all back. We visited the respite house so she could know where she would be - there are other kids there and Kristy is really nice, I think she will have a lot of fun!

When she came to us, all her things were in a reusable bag. We already have a suitcase for her for when she returns home- but she gets to help pack to go to camp!