Who needs Barbie Dolls?

We aren't the type of parents that would purposely give our sons Barbie Dolls. If we had, they probably would have made them into a guitar (we have children who made everything into guitars instead of guns). Side note: we have not taught Amanda the skill of making everything into a guitar. Instead she has picked this up on her own. Yesterday, it was a bath brush guitar playing little girl. There must be something in the home atmosphere because it has gone beyond the gene pool...Anyhow - back to the Barbies. The boys have never been interested in dressing up the stuffed animals or dolls that they do have. But then came Amanda. She has become their little Barbie doll. She's game too which makes it all the more fun for them.

Here she is as Mary. No baby Jesus yet...



Look, baby Jesus has entered the picture along with a couple of bears.



Here's a standing picture which apparently wouldn't be complete without the bears.



Now, we just don't do Mary and baby Jesus around here. We also have the pink hat which according to Nathan is "cute on her". But we have to add a little cute meets Star Wars. And Amanda willingly goes for all of these costume changes. Who needs Barbies?

Where Amanda came from

I just recently saw this picture on a yahoo group for people who have adopted from Xuchang orphanage. This is the type of room where Amanda was first brought. A lot of little cribs - very institutional - not at all like a home. This picture was taken in September 2007 when a family from the Netherlands went to pick up their new daughter. Amanda was four months old. She may have been in one of those little cribs. I thought about this picture as I was changing her diaper. She has scars on her bottom from what I'm assuming to be a very bad case of continual diaper rash. Not enough workers to go around and change all those little bottoms as much as they needed it. As I thought about it, I told her she would never have that type of rash that made her bottom so sore that it caused scaring. I gave her a kiss. She doesn't know what all that means, but for now, I know that she is in a family and not getting the attention she needs will never happen again.

Who taught her this?

Before Amanda came home we had this picture of her:



People would comment saying how cute it was that she was sticking out her tongue. They would tell me that I had a "live one" coming to our family. I shrugged it off because she just looked like this cute little girl. Now I know better.

To the average person, Amanda seems like a sweet, gentle type of child. Her adoption paperwork said as much. Very social almost to a fault, but still a cute little girl. When she is at home, she has these faces that she comes up with.


I know what you're thinking...she has three older brothers and is just copying them. Somehow, I think she was hanging around 5 year old boys at the orphanage because she came up with this one all on her own:



She has your "what are you talking about face" or the "oooo" face:




But, my all time favorite is this one:



She uses anything to her advantage and yesterday figured out how to smash her face up against her see through bib so that she would get a laugh out of the smashed face look. Once again, she has this in her gene pool or something because no one would think to teach her that one. Yes, we have a "live wire". The predictions were right.

She's officially a Benson according to the state of Minnesota

Today, we went to the county courthouse and re-adopted Amanda. Since I (Beth) did not go to China, we needed to legally re-adopt her in Minnesota. Minnesota also requires that we wait three months, we just got it done today. So, officially today Xue Ru Dang became Amanda Grace Benson and has all the legal rights as a natural born child. Next, becoming an American citizen - then I have a personal party and shred adoption paperwork.



Also, a little cuteness. Her words are coming slowly but surely. Yesterday, I figured out what she was saying when the boys are arguing. She yells "guys!". Guess what I yell when they argue? So, she's in the tub and hears a fight outside the bathroom. She leans over the tub and yells "guys!". Like mother like daughter.

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

One thing about Minnesota this year (like much of the country) is that we have had a lot of snow. And when we get a lot of snow, it basically means there's a lot of building materials for the Benson kids.



Now, a good fort has to have the ability to stand up in a snowball fight. Caleb made sure about this one by reinforcing the entry with wood and pouring water on it for stability.



Nathan also likes the fort because he can stand up on the inside and still see over the edge unlike the fort of last year where the mail carrier told us to not let the kids play in because they couldn't be seen until they popped out. We have moved the fort building fun up the driveway a bit.



Now, Brett decided that Amanda needed to experience the outdoors, so he bundled her up and brought her outside.



Since this was a little girl who had never really been outdoors much, the snow was somewhat exciting for her to look at and taste. But, like her mother, she has decided that the outdoors during the wintertime is really overrated and the boys can have it. Besides, her parents can't even find a hat that fits her head well!



So, happy winter everyone! I need to go out and shovel AGAIN!

Christmas with the Bensons

Amanda had a nice Christmas - as much as a two year old can understand about Christmas. She got things like stickers,



little light up toys and a fun box that included a little car to ride on.




Judah opened up a bag of Christmas Cheetos (he gets them every year and loves them)



while Caleb and Nathan had some good times also




Overall, the Benson kids had a very merry Christmas (how did we get so many kids?!?!).