Our first day with MJ

started off rather badly. I was exhausted before the little even got here, and I had to meet her by myself. Then, she kept using words and phrases that didn't make sense so I had to keep asking what things meant. Like, 'ratchet' means 'looks bad', apparently.
So after I picked her up, we realized we were both hungry, and chose to eat at Denny's (because Hubby doesn't like Dennys, so it was a treat for us). It took a surprisingly long amount of time to order, eat, and pay. During that time, Cin called, and I had to pretend it was someone else. Since then, I've asked Kris if I can pretend that Cin is Kris so that the conversation isn't strange, and she said yes, so it'll be easier next time. I couldn't say 'i love you,' or 'i miss you,' because she was 'just a friend' when MJ asked.
That's another thing. Hubby asked what name she wanted us to use, and she said 'MJ'...... It's so strange and difficult for me. She doesn't really seem to care that I'm not calling her that, and it doesn't seem like Hubby calling her 'MJ' like she asked makes her warm up to him any quicker, but it is what she wants to be called. Ever since I realized that she wanted that because MJ can stand for Michael Jackson (who she's a fangirl for), it's even harder to use.
I think part of it is her own body image. She wants to be cute and girly and pretty, but thinks she's ugly, so she'd rather be boyish and 'cool'. I think it's sad for her to give up on the cutie honey side of her, so I'm even less tempted to call her MJ than I was before I realized the whole fangirl thing. I want her to understand that she is not overweight, she is not ugly, and she can be adorable and cute if she wants to. It's a huge, difficult issue, but I'm game to try.
So anyway, back to our day. By the time we finished at Denny's, it was nearly time for Hubby to get off work, so we picked him up before heading to the medicaid office. The medicaid office took....an hour and a half, easy. All for ten minutes worth of meeting and talking about requirements/documents they need.
Hubby just uploaded all the documents they need, so we should be getting a call on Monday, then getting an appointment and going in on Monday or Tuesday.
After the medicaid office, we went home, helped her unpack, and decided we were hungry, so we went to eat before going to Walmart to pick up the stuff she needed. While we had dinner, we explained the rules of the house and her chores to her. After dinner, we went to Walmart, and she and I went to pick out new bras for her budding womanhoods. She calls my breasts peaches.... It's a little weird. They're more like melons, after all. Hers are like....grapes. If we're continuing the fruit metaphor. *shrug* Ah, it was funny! In the pool, my breasts float, right? So she discreetly tried to signal that my breasts were coming out (and utterly failed) so she had to tell me, and I was like 'Oh, no, honey. I have a looooot more contained. They're secure.' and she was like '......oh.' Reb was laughing at us, because we were in the hot tub (Which is small) so he couldn't help overhearing.
So yeah, we picked up the stuff she needed at Walmart (expeeeeensive child!), came home, and skyped my family. They were weird. Like, just staring at us with creepy happy expressions and not talking. So MJ got to eat her cheesecake while she talked to them, then she got in the shower, and went to bed. I kissed her forehead, tucked her in, and turned on this ocean night light that is a picture of the ocean with a wave coming in (it also has sound, but I turned it off and didn't tell her it did). She really liked it.
Yesterday I felt frustrated the whole day, trying to keep up with her chatter, and her slang, and her fly-by insults, but today was a lot better. I think it started with me getting enough sleep, and continued with me going to work (thereby getting some time away from her, in a good way), so when we met up after work, she'd gotten a lot of her exuberance out, and was easier to talk to. Hubby said she was easy as pie to take care of once he got her to the bookstore. He said she picked out a book and just read the whole time.
We had dinner today, and talked about our days, then went home, and she showed me her swim suit (she has three, but I'm not sure one is appropriate, so she's not wearing it, and she doesn't like the one-piece, so....Pink and blue it is!) and we talked about puberty and boys and periods before going swimming. She had a few misconceptions about it, and has a very vehement opinion that boys and men are different. It feels like 'boys are safe' and 'men are dangerous' so I'm not really discouraging that idea just yet. I feel a little sorry for Hubby, since she tries to keep a distance from him, but she also really seems to respect him, and glances at him a lot when he's not looking. I think she's a little fascinated. I've told her a few times that because he's mine, he's safe. I think it's sinking in, because (though it was awkward) she hugged him goodnight tonight.
She also thought that women that wore bras just had breasts that were naturally sticking out like Ps. I had a good laugh at that, and told her it isn't true. I had to explain that all breasts sag over time, and we talked about her mom's, her grandma's, mine, and hers, to illustrate the difference, because she's seen all of us without bras on. She said Nana's breasts sagged to her belly button (yes, I laughed).
After we got out of the pool (we stayed in a LOT longer than I expected us to), we gave her ten minutes to shower if she wanted to eat (she got hungry) and she not only managed to shower, she managed to shave her armpits for the first time!! I taught her how last night, because she's getting brown hair down there, and getting body odor, so it's time for her to. She wants to shave her legs, but I haven't taught her yet. Knees and ankles are tricky, so I'm not sure how to go about it. Yeah, the hair on her knees are brown, but it isn't that noticeable yet. I'll still probably go ahead and teach her.
I'm having a lot of trouble keeping all of her medicines straight. She has five different ones, with multiple 'dosage' times. If I just write it all out, I'm sure I can get it all down. We forgot her medicine.....twice today. *sigh* But we managed to fix it. We're essentially carrying her inhaler everywhere, and applying the ear drops whenever she complains about it (which isn't often).
She eats whatever we get her, so that isn't an issue. We still need to ask her about what comforter she'd like. Annoyingly, Mom sent her a whole bedspread set the day AFTER we told her our friends would get MJ a pretty comforter to celebrate her coming to us.
Today, my back has been hurting a lot since I did three thais, and after we went swimming, I bent down to touch my toes and just let my torso hang for a few minutes. It was uncomfortable, but I felt like it should help. Lo and behold, I felt a vertebrae pop (it was strange) and the aching pain in my back disappeared when I stood upright again. I can't really believe I had a vertebrae twist like that on me (or whatever it did), and even more, that I fixed it myself.
Interestingly, one of the first things I did when she went to bed that first night, was put a password on my computer so it can't be accessed easily. .....And hubby just asked for the password. Lol. I really hope MJ isn't awake to hear that....
Now I've just made our snacks for tomorrow. I feel like having her here is really putting me into a 'must have healthy snacks, and decently healthy meals' mode, because she so obviously watches what I eat. For example, our snacks tomorrow (her and mine, since we're going to work/daycare) are one container of apples with peanut butter (mine) or salted caramel (hers), and one container of carrots, tomatoes, and crackers with ranch dip. Those should get us through to dinner, when we'll have chicken and dumplings, using chicken drumsticks, LOOOOTS of veggies (green beans, carrots, corn, peas), and rice cake slices. Her dessert is probably going to be the rest of the cheesecake, and maaaaaybe some peanut butter cookies if she helps make them/we have the time/we feel like it.
Alrighty then. I think I've brought you more or less up to date, so we're gonna get in bed before it gets much later (it's already 1 a.m. so....). Love you, and thanks so much for the support! Goodnight!


I like this song, and think it's a good (the clean version on the radio) song for MJ to hear.
http://youtu.be/7PCkvCPvDXk