Saving money on cooling

Our curse is back - I complained about them last year, and I'll complain about them again. We have west facing picture windows in our living room. It can be all fine and good in our house around noon - hot but not unbearable. But come around 1-2 PM, and you think you're going to melt like the wicked witch of the west.

So yesterday we got some of this - Heat Control Window Film. It was $45 for 90 sq feet at Home Depot. I can tell that it's working already - it was definitely darker after we put it up. But then it cooled off outside so we won't really know how well it works until it heats up again.

On installation - it's hard. It's a two person job, and then it's still hard. Don't install it when the sun is shining in at the hottest part of the day. It's incredibly difficult to get the wrinkles out and our windows look kind of crappy now. But I'm trying to ignore it.

Another bonus is that you can get a tax credit under the Energy Policy Act. Just save your receipt and fill out IRS form 5695 when you do your taxes next year. Here's more information about the Energy Policy Act

Practice a foriegn language by watching a movie in that language

It was Friday afternoon at work when I decided that Brent and I needed to get out of the house that evening. So I went to my favorite indie theatre website to check out what was playing, and what did I find, but a Russian foreign film.

It's called Daywatch, and it's a sequel to Nightwatch (currently at the top of our Netflix queue). It reminded me of a book by F. Paul Wilson - one of my favorite authors. Pretty violent - it definitely deserved it's R rating - but an awesome movie. I would recommend it, if violence doesn't bother you, and you're not epileptic....

Anyway, obviously it was subtitled - I'm not near good enough in Russian to understand a movie. But there were some spoken words I recognized, and it was helpful because normal spoken language is not going to sound like the slowly enunciated words on the "Learn Russian in a Day" CD. I also tried to read every sign, some of which I understood. I think the best practice for me was the credits. Since Russian uses the Crylic alphabet, I tried to sound out the names and recognize letters. It was really hard. Most of the names I couldn't make out until they had almost scrolled off the top of the screen. It was pretty cool, and I was proud of myself for even understanding 5 words in the whole movie.

Buy a Frosty this weekend

Go to Wendy's this weekend and buy a Frosty - 50 cents will be donated to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption

Hey, I'll take any excuse for a Frosty!

We're super-parents!

We are officially awesome parents because we have now taken 16 hours of parenting classes as mandated by Wisconsin law. Plus we did an extra two hours, just for fun. And now we're going to be the best parents ever!

Last night we had a speaker from WIC to talk about childhood nutrition, and an attourney to talk about the process of readoption in Wisconsin.

All in all the classes were interesting, but I'm glad we're finished with them. I'd like my Wednesday evenings back, please.

Games and toys for little boys

I'm working on a packing list right now, and brainstorming what in the world will keep A (and us) occupied in the hotel room for a week, and on the plane for 12+ hours.

So far I've come up with this:
Cards and dice (no idea what games we'll play, but at least they're versatile)
Jacks
Hopscotch (bring roll of masking tape)
Finger puppets
Coin toss (masking tape square on the floor)
Ipod with Russian fairy tales or music
Couple of videos loaded on to my laptop
Memory game
Puzzle or two
Crayons
Activity books that don't require reading
Beach ball
Stickers
Russian/English picture book
Sewing card or some other craft that doesn't require glue

Obviously most of these will only work in the hotel room and maybe the Airport Terminal, but I'm hoping that a good dose of Melatonin will help him sleep most of the plane ride. I'm saving the fairy tales and movies for then.

Searching online for this kind of stuff is hard because we're really not able to communicate anything, and I don't think he can read Russian either.

Help me out with some awesome ideas. The smaller and lighter to pack, the better.

The seed that planted Russia

A long time ago, before Brent and I even knew that we couldn't have children naturally - possibly even before we started trying to have a baby - we had cable. And HBO. I was channel surfing and came across a documentary called The Children of Leningradsky.
It was about street children living in Moscow. They sniff glue and sell themselves for money. They live under the streets on the heating pipes to keep warm. They run wild through the city and even the police abuse and terrorize them.
At the time, it was a sad story, and I didn't really think much of it after a few days. Years later, I was driving on Erie Ave, past Fountain Park, wondering what we were going to do about our infertility, and I thought again of that video. Russia. That's where we would go. Where our baby was.

I want so much to see the video again, but I'm afraid it would affect me too much. The thought that it could be or could have been A or his sister or brother is too heartbreaking.

Parenting classes 3 and 4

I forgot to update after our last two classes.

Class three we had two guest speakers - one talked about loss and grief in all parties involved in the adoption. However, she didn't tell us how to help A get over his sorrow. That was disappointing. The second speaker talked about development from birth to three. She talked about play and how electronic toys are stupid and you should only need balls and legos. She also said not to worry about teaching them to recite their alphabet or numbers before they even know what they mean. She basically told us, as parents, to relax and encourage your child but don't push them.

Class four had a speaker representing the Oneida Indian tribe and talked about the Indian Child Welfare Act. ICWA says that Indian children should be kept with Indian families, but if they are placed with nonIndian families, they should still try to preserve the child's culture by keeping them involved with the tribe. The other speaker couldn't make it so we just had a question period and we learned some about Wisconsin laws and the other details that you don't think of. We got out a little early, so that was nice.

Next week is our last class.

Tonight Brent and I watched a Dateline show about Russian adoption. I cried. I miss my son. :(