Hurricane-force winds? Sure, why not!

Well, mother nature wasn't done with Omaha yet. Today, on the way home, we got caught in the weather as a huge wall of thunderstorms moved through Omaha, with wind gusts up to 80-90 mph. Most of the damage was in the northwest part of town, and Amanda & I were heading home, southwest of downtown, so we didn't get the brunt of it. I tried to find a car wash or somewhere to take cover from the hail that I heard was coming, but couldn't find anything and ducked into a neighborhood to wait it out. I parked just as the wind hit us (the storm was moving at approx. 60 mph). As the hail started to hit the car, it was so incredibly loud. I looked back at Amanda in her carseat and she looked terrified, as she released her seatbelt and scrambled into my arms in the front seat. I hugged her and tried to sound cheerful, "Wow, that's loud isn't it! Look at the hail bouncing in the street! Look at all the water" and she loosened up a bit. I tried not to think of the hail damage as I listened to the radio reports on the storm. After it blew through, I made my way home around the downed tree limbs and through the rushing water in the streets. I had to turn around at one point as a large tree had fallen and blocked the street completely. It blew through Omaha at 5pm, when a lot of people were heading home.

It's just beautiful out, now. The temperature dropped dramatically with the storm, and now it's cool and peaceful. I didn't have any trouble getting home once I got out of that neighborhood, and I don't think my car had any hail damage, but will check for sure tomorrow. We spent some time outside, me collecting my garbage containers, as it was trash day (they hadn't gone far) and Amanda splashing in the rain by the curb in her bare feet. We played for awhile and then headed inside for supper. I let her play until 8pm (downstairs mostly, barking orders to "my class!" as she pretended to be her teacher) while I watched the news reports of the damage in northwest and midtown Omaha. Trees are down everywhere, some over one hundred years old, and about 120,000 people are without power. Later in the evening, I heard that two people died just across the river in Council Bluffs, IA, when a tree fell on their car. I think this storm caught us all by surprise. They were predicting possible severe weather, but this was an incredible storm, with actual hurricane-force winds. They don't think it had any tornadic activity with it, but aren't sure. We've really had a rough spring (although it's officially summer now).

Since it was late, I skipped her bath and gave her a quick shower to wash off the street dirt, etc., before reading books and going to bed. When I put her to bed, she asked me to "please pet" her for a little bit. I remember her asking for that once after one of her surgeries, but I've forgotten all about it since then. I should "pet" her every night - just rub her back and her head awhile. She started chatting about her dolly (her dolly is always naughty, so she has plenty of tales to tell me) and was so cute, just smiling and laughing as she told me some silly story. It was really sweet - at one point, she pointed to my eyes and said I had pretty eyes (I tell her that often, as she has long lashes and her eyes just sparkle), and that she likes my eyes, and then she made a circle gesture around my face and said, "I like all this. I like my mommy." Cute!

I started something new tonight - a progress chart for good bedtime behavior. I decorated a picture and put numbers 1-10 on different things, and each time she has a "good" bedtime (no talking, staying in bed, not scratching her owies), the marker (a Russian nesting doll magnet) will move forward a number and when she gets to 10 she gets a prize. She was very excited about the prize. I may give her something special when she gets to 5 - 10 might be too much for the first time and since she's so young. We'll see. I hope it works - bedtime isn't exactly a struggle as it used to be, but I get tired of going in, telling her to be quiet, threatening her with loss of privileges, etc. I've been meaning to get a chart going, but have procrastinated.

Scratching her owies: She had an owie on her forehead before her surgery on May 9th, and it is STILL healing because she will not leave it alone. I can't even remember what caused it originally. I keep her nails trimmed, and I put band-aids on but they either sweat off or they're pulled off. I'll think it's almost healed and she'll scratch it and make it bleed. It's very frustrating. She's going to have scars on her face and when she's 16 she's going to blame me! Hopefully her young skin will bounce back, but I can still see a faint mark from her cheek owie that she didn't let heal for so long. Last night, after I thought she'd maybe fallen asleep, I heard her little voice say, "Mommy, I scratched my owie." Jeepers, kid! Quit already! That really motivated me to get the chart going, to maybe stop the behavior. And I just have to keep a band-aid on as much as possible (can't do much about daycare) until it's TOTALLY HEALED.

By the way...
List of my sicknesses since bringing Amanda home:
February 26 - strep throat
March 17 - got a cold and lost my voice for about a month
June (early) - 24-hr flu of some kind (but wiped me out for about 3 days)
June (mid) - a bit of a cold, lost my voice for part of a week
June (late) - pink eye!

List of Amanda's sicknesses since coming home:
none (surgeries are not applicable)

Interesting, no? All I can say is, I'm very thankful I didn't get sick while in Russia! I've read adoption stories where a parent gets sick and it really makes a tough trip tougher.

I'm glad that she didn't get sick any of these times (she did get a bit of a cough when I had the cold in March, and a little congestion, but not much), but I find it interesting that she's stayed so healthy. Someone at work said Amanda must have brought the pink eye home from daycare. I said she must just be a 'carrier' as she hasn't shown any sign of it. I'm really hoping she doesn't get pink eye as it's so contagious. I went down to our health services at work after lunch Thursday and they diagnosed it and asked me to go home - pronto! The eye drop prescription was only $4, so that was a nice surprise, and my eye is much better today already. They said I could go back to work today, but I should bring in my prescription so they know I'm being treated. On Thursday, the nurse in health services gave me sani-wipes and told me to wipe down my work station and everything I could, and when I got home, to put my pillowcases, washcloths, towels, etc. in the wash. I told her I'd touched the pen when I signed in at their front desk, and she told me to take it and throw it away. I felt like a leper!

Amanda had a potty accident at school Tuesday during her nap. She had one the week prior, too, but before that, not very often. I talked to Ms. Nancy on Wednesday and she thinks that when Amanda leaves the room to go potty, she maybe is visiting a lot, instead of staying on task and actually going potty. I had tried for a week or so to see if I could work her toward being dry overnight, but it just didn't seem to have a chance of success - sometimes she was wet by 10:30 already, when I'd go in to have her take one last potty trip before I went to bed. I decided to give us both a break and stick with pull-ups at least until after her 5th birthday. Maybe she'll be more ready by then.

Tonight we had caesar salad with chicken for supper. Man, it takes a 4-yr-old a long time to eat a salad! That's one of the pluses of eating a salad for adults - it takes longer to eat so you don't eat as much - but it's a drag trying to get a child to finish supper. And tough to figure out if she had enough to keep her full. We had some carrots, too, and after supper, some strawberries. Fairly healthy.

One thing I've been meaning to mention is her repeating what I've told her: "I'll always come back, because I love you so much!" I don't remember when I first said it. In the early days, she wouldn't stay in a room if I left it. I'd say, "I'll be right back" to run and get something from the kitchen, or go to the bathroom, or whatever, and she'd gasp in panic (fake panic, after awhile) and run to follow me, but that didn't have the 'always' emphasis. It was probably leaving her at preschool at first, or the times I've left her at home with Aunt Cindy or Grandma and Grandpa. In the last month or so, every so often, out of the blue, she'll just state, "Mommy always come back." I tell her that's right, I'll always come back. I could never leave her because I love her too much. When I left her at Kim's house on Saturday, I said I'd see her in a little bit, and as I was going out the door, she said, "Mommy always come back." Hopefully, it's God's will that I always do "come back". (Otherwise, it will be up to my family - mostly Aunt Patty, to explain about how God works - no pressure, Aunt Patty!) =)