Shoes

"I can't decide what shoes I should wear to church." says Beignet as she walks down the hall. "I mean, I really want to look like a teenager today."

"Hm, what choices are you thinking about?" I ask. In my head, I am filing through the collection: tennies, watershoes, sandals, flip flops....

"I don't know. I just have to have a minute to figure it out."

Scrambling to get Bug out the door on time, I forget all about this exchange until we are sitting in church and Beignet has her feet carefully crossed at the ankles. She is wearing white patent leather mary janes with little flowers around them. Teenager indeed!

You want me to do WHAT?

Both girls have had the opportunity in the past month. Beignet was first at her well-child check. Ladybug was next at her trip to the urgent care and ER this weekend. It starts with the nurse handing us that tiny wrapped square and the plastic cup in a wrapper.
Beignet could not believe the request.
"You want me to do WHAT?"
Then I told her.
"In THAT little cup?"
Yup.
So off we went to the bathroom. Beignet thought this was the most exciting thing since Sea World. She did her thing and walked out of the bathroom into the dr. waiting room and announced: I PEED IN A CUP!

Ladybug was not quite as cooperative. The girl has the bladder the size of a watermelon, so no amount of drinking water, running water, or having Baby B pee in the stall next to her could offer us success. Each of our four tries (2 in urgent care and 2 in the ER) was met with the standard: No, no, no. So we gave up.

All week though, Bug has recapped her weekend's adventure. "I no pee cup. I say nonono. Maybe tomorrow. I go dr. tomorrow. I pee cup, K?"

A Day of Celebrations

I was lucky enough to go to the courthouse yesterday. Lucky and Courthouse are not often used in the same sentence, but this was for a good reason. My foster friends were adopting their 23 month old. They have had her since she was 8 months old. It was so fun to see them so excited to get a daughter. Their 12 year old son stood up and told the judge that he was "so happy to have a little sister. She is a great sister." It was priceless. Yaay for this little one for finding a forever home!

Celebration #2 comes in the form of a surprise. I was walking up the stairs in the courthouse and noticed two boys who looked familiar. Yet again, I have crossed paths with the two gentlemen. I am not sure how I get so lucky as to see them from time to time, or what the purpose of these viewings is in my life or theirs, but I love seeing them. Taller gentleman has his big boy teeth now. Smaller can say "good" instead of "dood". Their exciting news for me was that they are moving home in July. Wishing them the best!

Crocodile Tears

Ladybug and I were in the living room tonight when Baby B was getting out of the tub. I heard laughing and talking and then what sort of sounded like crying. Crying? What's going on in there? I quietly walked down the hall to peek in the bathroom. Baby B was standing on the stool, looking in the mirror, PRETENDING TO CRY and making different faces while doing so. Watching her for a minute, I saw her get a bit of water on her hands to make tears, while moving from a little cry to a full-on sobfest. Eventually, she saw me in the hallway and started laughing. "What are you doing?" I asked. "I just wanted to see what I look like when I cry."

Is this her practice for her dramatic tween years?

Loving Peni

Beignet has a gramma substitute in the form of Auntie Shannon's mother, Peni, who comes to town from time to time. The drippy sweet relationship began when Peni handed Baby B a balloon at Chik Fil A. The bond strengthened when B decided to see Peni's reaction to a bedtime fit. Word is she screamed for a good long while...long enough for Peni to decide to climb up to the top bunk to help Beignet fall asleep.

When Peni comes to town, the world stops. Today, Baby B was so excited to see Peni and show her her new lunchbox. On the way to go see Peni and friends, Beignet and Ladybug were discussing whose lap they would sit in. "I'm getting Peni's lap. Remember she is so nice to me?" says B. (Ladybug, by the way, is content with any lap.)

And so that was our evening, pizza on the floor of Susan's new condo and girls in various laps. I think Peni's was full more often than not. As we left the condo, hugs and kisses being thrown left, right and center, B made her announcement that she has only said to one other person in 4 months: LOVE YA, PENI!! And oh, how she does!

Table Manners

Ladybug came to my house with what was reported to be little experience eating table food. She was in the "exploratory stage"....mashing food with her hands, putting her fist in her mouth to eat, and no idea how to use a fork or spoon. The first week she was here, we ate outside every night so that the mess would be in the grass or I could just hose it off the sidewalk. As things progressed, we moved indoors. At the end of each meal, Ladybug would patiently wait as I cleaned her face and hands and stripped her down of the food-laden clothes. Lately, she has been able to eat without being stripped down. On Wednesday, after meatloaf, baked potatoes, peas/corn and watermelon, I grabbed the washcloth and the broom for our end of meal ritual. Bug helped wipe her hands and face, and, getting ready to jump out of the chair, looked down at the floor. She gasped: "Look Tammy! No food down there!" Sure enough, more food went into her belly than onto the floor. Not a single piece of corn was waiting for the broom. Progress!

Dr. Doolittle

The girls and I went to the Austin Zoo on Saturday. At home, we pretend we know what the cats are saying when they meow. We tried the same thing at the zoo. We saw three different sets of "talking animals" on Saturday:
1. The peacock. Beignet walks around the house shrieking in the peacock's high voice: Mommy, mommy.
2. The pigs. The pigs didn't want to share their food with each other. They say things like "Move away from my broccoli." and "I don't want to share with you."
3. The most exciting was the ring-tailed lemur cage. Ladybug recaps this scene every day: "Don't hurt my arm. Don't eat my carrot. OK, strawberry." (translation: The lemur said "don't hurt my arm" as he grabs his arm. Then he takes a carrot back from the other lemur and says: Don't eat my carrot. The other lemur was hardly disturbed, so replied: OK, I'll eat this strawberry instead.)